Jab, jab, right cross, weave, uppercut, sway back, lean forward with a kick aimed at the chest, chase down target, catch kick aimed at ribs, kick at knee-

“Enough, you would have broken his leg, you win.” Cerberus kept his foot from connecting with the stretched out leg, letting go while pulling his foot back, stabilizing his stance.

After breathing out a deep sigh, Cerberus held out a hand to his sparring partner, the Chained known as Dantalion, a member of the Ars Goetia.

“Damn kid, you learn quick.” Dantalion spoke as he was being helped up, wincing a bit while shaking his arms, still reeling from having blocked Cerberus’ Spartan kick.

“Thank you for the compliment sir. Fighting is all I know, so knowing I have a talent for it is important.” Dantalion looked a bit awkward at that, walking away while running a hand through his hair.

“Your protégé is a bit serious, isn’t he?” Dantalion’s electric blue eyes glanced at Sphinx, getting a scoff from the Asian member of the Pantheon.

“How he is as a person doesn’t matter. I’d train him even if he were lazy.” Sphinx said, his first line almost implying nonchalance before his second revealed the truth.

Sphinx, one of the original Pantheon members, would always train the Chained known as Cerberus, his relation to the previous Cerberus allowing him to look past faults in the successor.

Though in that sense, Cerberus felt a bit confused.

“Get some rest, the junior Pantheon members will be arriving with Manticore tomorrow. I’ll be leaving tonight to go ahead to Olympus.” Sphinx told Cerberus simply, walking out with the three taps of two dress shoe clad feet and a single cane.

Cerberus remained where he stood after the spar, still breathing heavily as he tried to calm himself down.

After a few minutes, Cerberus opened his own electric blue eyes, stretching his neck and stifling a yawn, walking out of the sparring room, which was at one point a locker room.

Before exiting the room though, Cerberus reached into one of the lockers, pulling out his phone, cigarettes and a pair of headphones, turning the phone on and sliding through his music play list while plugging in the headphones.

By the time Cerberus was standing outside of the Coliseum, Cerberus had his cigarette lit, and was bobbing his head slowly to some music.

Odysseus himself supplied Cerberus with all the music Cerberus listened to, calling them ‘feel good’ songs.

“You seem like you need these songs to brainwash yourself.”

Cerberus sighed with smoke billowing out of his nose as he realized that Odysseus was an asshole. Odysseus was right too, unfortunately, which made him a right arsehole.

“Hey Cerberus, great fight today!” Cerberus raised his cigarette as if it were a beer, accepting the wave from someone walking past, even if he couldn’t actually hear what the guy had said, and then bringing the cigarette back to his lips before he started a slow walk back to his ‘den’.

As he walked Cerberus would get nods and hand waves from people who gathered at the Coliseum to watch the fights, occasionally he’d even get a hand shake, a pat on the back, a blown kiss from the occasional woman…

Cerberus treated everyone with respect, but inside he didn’t really give a damn. Walking up the stairs to his ‘apartment’ he locked the door behind him, dropping his bag at the entrance, walking over to his bed and collapsing onto it.

Rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling, Cerberus went on to his usual past time when not training or dealing with human interaction.

Contemplating random thoughts, life, existence, society, whatever went through his mind, he’d focus on it, examine it, and then let the thought flow out of his mind freely.

Basically, Cerberus was going to meditate a bit while getting ready to sleep.

“I’m so damn tired…” Cerberus said, finishing his last cigarette for the day, and then closing his eyes.

As he slept, Cerberus dreamed. He dreamed of his childhood, his time going through school, up until that one horrible day in high school… the day that got him thrown into Tartarus.

As a child, Cerberus had a good family, lower middle-class, not poor, but not well off either, it was him, his dad, his mom, and his elder brother.

Cerberus was a good child, in his opinion, but the rest of his family wasn’t as good as they first appeared.

His brother was a bully, even if he never targeted Cerberus, the school children were all scared of Cerberus’ brother…

His mother was unfaithful, looking back, Cerberus knew that the only reason he suspected nothing was because he was a child back then, his mother leaving the house all dressed up, coming back before his dad, making herself look normal before the man of the house showed up.

And then there was Cerberus’ dad, a man who moved from job to job just barely eking out enough for his family to survive… well, enough to survive and get his latest drug fix too.

Cerberus was not blind, but he did want to be ignorant, and so he was. No one wished to hear bad of someone they cared about, and so whenever people would talk bad of his parents or his brother, he wouldn’t believe them…

Of course, such a fantasy didn’t go on forever. Cerberus was unlucky, or lucky enough depending on your views, to have his fantasy destroyed early into his high school year.

Everything came out at once. Cerberus’ home was truly a powder keg of shitty people that Cerberus somehow lived through…

It wasn’t a sudden thing though. slowly but surely, signs would appear to let the residents of the house know what the others were doing.

Cerberus’ elder brother knew about what both of the parents were doing, but he didn’t care, just catching on shit and doing drugs, using their parents as excuses for his behaviour.

The mother knew of the father’s drug habit, and was realizing that her eldest son was becoming a thug, a gangster, someone destined to end up either dead in a ditch or Tartarus, and the latter was worse than the former.

The father was the last person to learn anything. He hadn’t suspected his wife’s infidelity or his eldest son’s habits until he came home early due to being fired, failing a drug test himself.

So the ‘man of the house’ came back, and saw his son with a line of cocaine, and through some cosmic coincidence, the wife walked in after with a revealing dress and dishevelled hair.

When Cerberus came back from school it was to find the police surrounding his house, his eldest brother and mother dead by his father’s hands, and his father being killed by the police after resisting arrest.

That morning Cerberus had woken up thinking he lived a normal life.

By the end of the week he was a social pariah in school and he was the last member of his family, a family he was learning more and more of, learning of things Cerberus had never wanted to know.

Cerberus had felt like a boat in a storm, being tossed and turned, with no direction, and well… he committed a crime bad enough to get tossed into Area eight of Tartarus.

Those assholes in his class deserved what they got, not only treating him like shit, but bullying others too.

Cerberus slowly opened his eyes, his dream over, breathing heavily with tear stained cheeks.

“Yeah… they deserved it… but did I have to be the one to do it?” Cerberus asked himself as he looked into his bathroom mirror, looking at his hair, much shorter than he’d have it before he entered Tartarus, and thin lines around his neck showing his cybernetic nature, his once brown eyes now blue.

Cerberus had changed. He had changed a lot, especially being the first of the junior Pantheon, the ‘leader’ of the younger Chained… a position he didn’t ask for, nor want.

“Some look for greatness, some ask for it, some want it… but then you get others who have greatness thrust upon them. Whether they like it or not.”

Once more, Odysseus was a right arsehole.

Getting dressed in a long sleeved T-shirt, a jersey and slacks, Cerberus took the time to sigh once more…

“Time to put on a show again.” Cerberus repeated this mantra a few times before opening the door, walking over to the Coliseum, knowing he should just wait for the rest of the junior Pantheon while he was there.

The strangers who crossed Cerberus path treated him with respect, as usual, other than the Nemean Lion, Sphinx and Lu Bu, Cerberus was the most respected being in Area eight due to his show of force.

Area eight was where the strong ruled, and as one of the strong, Cerberus deserved respect. Initially, he gained little due to him ‘coasting off of his enhancements’ but as he trained and learnt how to fight properly, learning of his talent with it, Cerberus gained true respect from the people of Area eight.

He hated it.

Standing in front of the entrance to the Coliseum, Cerberus looked into his pocket, finding a cigarette and holding it out in front of him, a thin breath of fire lighting it.

“You will never walk, walk, walk alone… you will never walk, walk, walk alone…” Cerberus quite enjoyed this music despite his initial distaste for it, feeling it was way too ‘inspirational’ or ‘happy’ for someone like him…

But that was precisely why he needed it. Cerberus needed the little things, the things that helped him cope with his mistakes, his fears, his insecurities.

Cerberus was just a troubled person tricking as many people as possible into thinking he had shit together.

And hearing shouting, and hearing very audible metallic flapping, Cerberus took one last drag of his cigarette before holding it out, a metallic hand snatching it.

“Hello Harpy. I trust you’re doing alright?” Cerberus asked, following the metallic hand to the aforementioned Chained, the lover of rock in almost all its forms and only flight-capable Chained.

“Serious as always huh Big-C? Yeah, I’m doing alright, you hear about me killing a dragon a few weeks ago?” Cerberus looked to Harpy to check if she was joking, but seeing the smile and hearing no laughter let Cerberus know she wasn’t joking, just proud.

“That’s interesting. I wonder how I would have done.” Cerberus spoke honestly, though it wasn’t really a question… he knew that he’d win.

Cerberus was strong. A middle-rank Chained even before learning how to fight properly, Cerberus possessed tough, fire proof skin, enhanced musculature, after adding in fire breathing it was actually a bit much.

The Cerberus before him, the ‘original’ was huge and could perfectly take advantage of this power, but as he was, the new Cerberus was smaller and still growing, weaker in physical power, but greater in technique, as Sphinx had never trained the previous Cerberus.

“You’d have snapped Dracone’s neck, no question. So seeing as you don’t know about my situation, I’m just going to assume you know nothing about our movements for the past few weeks.” Cerberus watched Harpy take a drag of the cigarette before pulling out another one for himself.

“True… so explain.” Cerberus said after lighting another cigarette, knowing that Harpy would let him know about the movements of the junior Pantheon.

The only information Cerberus ‘knew’ was that the next Cyclops appeared, and that a gathering would be occurring to welcome him into the fold.

Cerberus had his image as ‘aloof and serious’ to maintain, which was easy to do when you kept yourself, to yourself.

Of course, Cerberus knew more than he let on. He knew about the more public things, but he’d never admit to everything he knew, better to hear what others think and add it to what he knew.

“Well other than me killing Dracone, we had a brawl with some Hell-hounds in Area three while finding the diverse triplets.” Ah, Cerberus translated that to mean the Chimera triplets… the Hydra triplets all had the same powers, unlike the Chimera triplets who had varying powers.

So they used ‘identical triplets’ versus ‘diverse triplets’ for the two groups.

“How many?” Cerberus didn’t need to clarify as he and Harpy watched the floating bus approach, some shouts echoing from the roof of the bus.

“All of the Chimera, me, and Cyclops, we took on six Hell-hounds, we started the fight with just me, Go and Shi, Roku and Cyclops joined in afterwards.” Cerberus whistled in appreciation for the amount, everyone had a Hell-hound to themselves except-

“You fought the most, didn’t you?” Cerberus didn’t truly need to ask, Harpy was the strongest among the junior Chained if one ignored the irregularity of Siren.

Only those two were high-ranked Chained among the junior Pantheon, everyone else, including Cerberus, were middle or low-ranked.

That didn’t stop Cerberus from defeating Harpy from time to time when they sparred though.

“Of course I did, I was awesome. Doctor Lionel had the really damaged five Hell-hounds retreat, while Roku melted one down. Doctor Lionel is going to be adding more temperature resistance to the Hell-hounds.” Cerberus narrowed his eyes before sighing… fire breathing was like his one ‘unique’ feature as a physically powerful Cybernetic Chained.

Physically powerful Cybernetic Chained were rare, Cerberus, Baal, Astaroth, it was a rarity, but they usually had something that separated them from each other… now they nullified his uniqueness…

At least now Cerberus knew how Baal felt when insulation was added to those things.

“Sorry about that, but I didn’t exactly have the freedom to fight as I wanted to.” Cerberus scoffed at that, knowing that Harpy could reasonably take out many Hell-hounds by herself, little by little through the use of hit and run tactics which was her specialty.

“Fair enough. What happened after that though?” Cerberus gestured to the top of the float-bus where a little girl was waving her fists at someone Cerberus did not recognize.

Clearly that new person was Cyclops… he had quite the look; mechanic was the first word that came to Cerberus’ mind looking at the new Chained.

“Well we moved to Area seven, we got caught up in one of Siren’s concerts… it was good, as expected, but then Leviathan crashed the party.” Cerberus narrowed his eyes, looking to Harpy, the winged Chained nodding to show her seriousness.

“Well, to put it lightly, that’s bad… everyone ran for their lives, didn’t they?” Cerberus asked, just to be sure, and Harpy nodded with a dry chuckle.

“Of course we did, who the hell actually fights Leviathan when he shows up?” Harpy said rhetorically, even as Cerberus mentally answered with ‘Typhon’.

But Typhon was different, the King of Monsters was beyond all other Chained, his only competition being his sister and beings with the power of top-ranked Chained.

“And then you all ran this way? Or is there more to the tale?” Cerberus asked, dropping his finished cigarette to the floor and grinding it under his shoe as the float bus pulled to a stop in front of him.

“Nope, that’s it for now… to be frank, I was worried we were going to run in the Hunter or something while we were here.” Harpy pointed out while Cerberus rolled his eyes.

“No, from reports he is in Area nine, he was chasing after Erlang Shen and looking for Charon, Erlang was killed.” Cerberus said with a scowl, not liking to hear that one of their own was killed, even if Erlang was part of the Fourth Kingdom and not the Pantheon, they were all working towards freedom…

“Shit, wasn’t she that ‘body language’ specialist? Kind of like the Sphinx of the Fourth Kingdom?” Harpy asked as the doors of the bus opened, Manticore smirking as he gestured for Cerberus to get on, Harpy hesitating due to her trouble with vehicles…

She groaned as she followed Cerberus onto the bus.

“Yes she was. It’s a shame.” Cerberus said to Harpy, shaking Manticore’s hand with a nod between the two before Cerberus turned to the junior Pantheon members.

“Big-C!” Catching Dryad’s forehead, Cerberus kept her from getting closer as she tried to tackle him, Cerberus chuckling a bit as he pushed her back until she was standing, pouting at not succeeding in her tackle greeting.

“Ah, the prodigal son returns! Good on you, you ready to share a drink or four?” Shi laughed when Cerberus’ smile creaked a bit while waving his hand in a ‘so-so’ gesture, nodding to Go and giving a soft chuckle at the catatonic Roku…

Roku was still scared of the little girl coming down from the second floor of the float bus, Siren, upon seeing Cerberus, mimicked the taller blonde of the group, leaping forward to tackle Cerberus with the same cry of ‘Big-C’ while Cerberus caught her, knowing that Siren might get hurt if he didn’t.

Siren was still a Chained and so it wouldn’t be much more than the effect of walking into something slowly, but Cerberus didn’t like seeing Siren get hurt even a little.

Behind Siren was the new Cyclops, up close Cerberus looked, noticing that his arms were entirely Cybernetic, this Cyclops appeared younger than the previous obviously, and he looked to be either from the European Union like Cerberus himself, or the North American Coalition.

Putting Siren down with a pat on her head, Cerberus walked over to Cyclops, noting that yes, Cyclops only possessed one electric blue eye, the other being a normal brown colour… just as it was for the original Cyclops.

“Ah. You must be Cerberus... I’m Cyclops, and uh, it’s nice to meet you?” Cyclops looked a bit nervous due to Cerberus’ silence and Cerberus smiled, stretching out a hand, Cyclops understanding and placing his own hand in Cerberus’.

“Yes, I’m Cerberus. It’s good to meet you Cyclops.” Cerberus said shaking the hand of Cyclops firmly before letting go.

Someone started groaning about ‘formality’ in the background. It was Dryad. Dryad was that someone.

“Dryad.” Cerberus just spoke her name and Dryad stopped her complaints, shutting her mouth, Cyclops narrowing his eyes at Cerberus in protectiveness.

Cerberus approved, it was a good attitude for a member of the Pantheon.

No doubt Cerberus would need to speak with Cyclops about his own role among the junior Pantheon soon, but first, he had orders to hand out.

“Dryad, message Odysseus that I’ve joined the group and that we’re approaching Olympus. Also, make sure we stop at one of the tailor warehouses, I’ve been made aware that this party is formal.” Cerberus said, ordering Dryad as she nodded, moving over to her computers to get her job done.

Cyclops was still looking a bit defensive while Cerberus looked at the other members of the junior Pantheon.

“Chimera… or rather, Shi and Roku, I trust you two to be on your best behaviours, especially you Roku. Siren will be attending, but we’ll keep you two away from each other.” Shi rolled her eyes, but nodded nonetheless, the shivering ball in the corner raising a shaky thumb in agreement.

“Harpy, Go, you two are on lookout, make sure the damage isn’t too severe this time around, as much as you might want to join in.” The two mentioned nodded, and yeah, they were a bit more serious than the other junior Pantheon members but even they got roped in on most of their schemes.

“And finally Siren, Odysseus said you’re going to be the star of the show… he knows you don’t like soft and slow songs but you’ll need to do it for the party at least once. Do you think you could?” Cerberus asked looking to the smallest junior Pantheon members as she nodded with a frown on her face.

“Great, everyone has their things to do. Cyclops and I are going to be talking upstairs for a bit.” Cerberus said, smiling while looking at the group of Chained that he knew, but slowly dropping his smile to assume a neutral expression while looking upon Cyclops, no one else in the bus capable of seeing the blank stare Cerberus gave the newest member of their crew.

Cyclops looked a bit disgruntled by this, but just sighed, turning and walking up the stairs while Cerberus slowly followed him.

Once on the second floor, and making sure none of the junior Pantheon were listening in, Cerberus sighed, looking at the slightly defensive form of Cyclops.

“Ease up, I’m not going to be mad at you, attack you or order you around, nothing like that.” Cyclops appeared surprised by Cerberus’ words, and the leader of the junior Pantheon didn’t blame him, this whole set up looked like Cerberus was about to ‘educate’ Cyclops on his role in the group.

“I’m still sceptical on that.” Cyclops said with one of the blandest tones Cerberus had ever heard, drawing a laugh from the fire-breather.

“Fair enough, if you weren’t suspicious I’d feel the need to assign you a bodyguard. But let’s clear the air a bit before anything else.” Cerberus stated with a soft clap, it was a signal to anyone daring to listen in that they should stop what they were doing.

The slight sounds of bustling below Cerberus’ feet let him know that at least one person was listening into the conversation between the two ‘C’s’ of the group.

“Let me say it clearly, I’m the leader of the junior Pantheon. You are not yet a member of our group, so bluntly, I won’t order you around.” Cerberus started off like that, looking at Cyclops as he gained a conflicted expression on his face.

“That’s nice, but… if I join, I’m expected to follow orders like them? If we’re both being honest here, I don’t like how it looks from the outside.” Cerberus nodded, feeling glad that Cyclops could actually share as much with him.

All too often people keep quiet about their grievances and that leads to big problems further down the line.

“To be fair, no one looks at a work environment, sees a boss giving out orders, and then suddenly wants to be ordered around. Not unless you’re into such things, in which case, sorry, I like women.” Cerberus added another joke, just to try and calm down Cyclops once more…

Cerberus probably, once upon a time, could have spoken more casually with not only Cyclops but all junior Pantheon members and actually mean it. After getting taught by both Sphinx and Odysseus however, Cerberus was all too aware that a conversation had purpose, whether it was to connect to another human being, share information, or even just to pass the time.

Always knowing the purpose of a conversation before it even happened helped one guide it down the way they wanted, but it also stressed out Cerberus, viewing almost all conversations as being a tightrope act where the safety net was ‘invisible’.

Even knowing that Cerberus had the advantage in this ‘conversation’ he still worried.

Social anxiety did that to you.

“Alright, I don’t like how you suddenly stopped the jokes from happening though.” Cerberus raised an eyebrow before shrugging.

“Someone has to do it, and I am that someone. It sucks for me too you know? I want to joke around with everyone just the same, but instead I’m the one who has to come in and say ‘stop that’ ‘go do this’ or ‘Roku, stop setting things on fire’. Even though what I’d really like is to just join in, instead of stopping it.” Cerberus admitted, knowing that showing weakness here, letting Cyclops see a perceived opening, would let Cyclops speak out in manners he wouldn’t do otherwise.

In the same way that the warrior Shaka Zulu would pretend to retreat, drawing the enemy into an encirclement, so too did one make openings so that the enemy would strike where you wished them to.

Why did Odysseus have to twist Cerberus’ mind like this…

“Oh. I… I see. I guess it isn’t as simple as I thought it was… I still don’t know if I want to join the Pantheon or not, but I still have a while to decide right?” Cyclops asked, and Cerberus smiled, nodding.

“Of course, you can talk to Odysseus at the party, or after, and hash it out in private. Now let’s head down, I have a feeling that we’re either going to see Dryad chasing Roku around while carrying Siren or see Harpy getting ready to puke.” Cerberus said with a smirk, Cyclops widening his eyes before running past Cerberus to the stairs.

In mere moments Harpy was flying above the bus with a vaguely green tone to her skin clearing up slightly while screams were heard within the bus, it was definitely Roku saying something like ‘keep her away from me!’ while Dryad and Siren could be heard laughing.

Soon, Cyclops’ laughter was also included in the laughter and Cerberus smiled… he at least did his part…

Odysseus would have to do the rest.

Speaking of Odysseus, the man yawned, his jaw almost cracking as he slumped over his chair, wishing he could laze around for even longer.

Of course, he couldn’t. Aaron was much too busy to laze around for as long as he wanted…

“Aaron, get out here! You’re setting up the ‘biggest party’ in Tartarus so you don’t get to sit around while others do it for you!” Aaron rolled his eyes, standing up and stretching, searching for whoever called him.

Judging from the voice it was probably Echidna.

“Be there in a minute!” Aaron called out, looking down at his clothes for any messes or anything, instead just finding his casual get up and nodding.

He was worried that he might have drooled while he was taking his nap after all…

Aaron was barely twenty one… and he was already taking naps. Clearly his life was so stressful he had aged to about fifty overnight.

“What is it Echidna? Other than general complaints about my laziness, what do you need done specifically?” Aaron felt the need to clarify that he knew there was a difference between the two.

“You said the party was going to be formal, right? Specify that, because you left Typhon and me in charge and we both have no idea what that is.” Echidna knew that ‘formal’ was usually stuff like the suits that Aaron wore, but not what a ‘formal’ party was, only able to guess that it meant most people would be wearing suits and dresses.

“…Right, forgot about that. Dress code is suits and dresses, you knew that already?” Aaron asked, Echidna nodding before he started walking, the Queen of Monsters walking with him, a notepad in hand to write down his words.

“The usual party music is out for formal occasions, formal parties have soft music, usually orchestral or just soft in general, the occasional romantic song for a couples dance. As for drinks, champagne, wine, ‘rich people’ drinks, food should be finger food with minimal messiness, decorations should be limited and be in silver, gold, black and white, tables set up can be as normal, but-” Echidna’s hand was blurring from having to take these notes, Aaron’s own personal revenge for being woken up.

“Alright… so what’s the catch?” Echidna asked after Aaron finally finished vomiting out specifications for the party, Aaron placing a plate of food into a microwave while Echidna asked her question.

“Well, obviously we can’t do normal. That’s a normal formal party. For our one, we can keep most of that, but know that by the time the party is over we will have likely devolved into one of our normal parties.” Aaron said, taking out the plate of food.

Echidna carefully did not stare at the plate of curry, her favourite food, especially when Aaron grabbed a piece of ‘vetkoek’ and made an opening to stuff it with curry.

“…So…” Echidna attempted to continue, trying, with great struggle, to hold her jealousy inside as Aaron ate her favourite combination of food in front of her.

More revenge, even if she knew it could be made again not being able to eat it while someone eats it in front of you was evil.

“I’m done with my revenge.” Aaron clarified while passing whatever was left of the food to Echidna to have after their conversation was done.

“So by the end of the party… the usual music, drugs, strobe lights, whatever?” Echidna asked with a raised eyebrow while Aaron shrugged, walking away from her.

“By that point Satyr would have probably taken over, and all the stiffs would have left anyway. Remember, moderation is important.” Aaron pointed out, grabbing an apple and closing the door behind him while Echidna laughed at the saying.

‘Moderation is important’ and yet by the end of their parties almost every member of the Pantheon was either shit-faced or fine and laughing at the others.

Obviously the former did not practice moderation while the latter did.

Aaron walked out onto the balcony of Olympus, looking into the courtyard, surveying his ‘kingdom’ in Area eleven.

“They say idiots like high places.” Aaron didn’t even show any surprise, taking a bite of his apple before tossing it over to his side where it was caught by a certain dangerous person.

“They say the same about smart people you know? Isn’t it dangerous to be here in person, Trojan?” Aaron’s conversation partner shrugged, taking a bite for himself of the apple.

“Of course it is… but this has been dangerous from day one.” Trojan responded, and Aaron nodded, all smiles gone.

“Let’s hash out the details of your role in Breakout Day.” Trojan rolled his eyes at the name, but that did not stop him from following Aaron into Olympus.

Two months until Breakout Day and Aaron was still working hard… just his luck.