“…I can see why you call it Olympus.” Cyclops muttered to Cerberus as the junior Pantheon stood within viewing distance of the mansion that once belonged to Lukas Vann.

It was huge, and the most visible building within Area eleven due to being built on a higher elevation than the other buildings, they weren’t even on the property yet and Cyclops could already guess at how large that building would be up close.

“It’s pretentious, but we think Odysseus has some hidden god-complex or something.” Cerberus admitted without much fanfare, drawing a puzzled look from Cyclops.

That had to have been the first time Cyclops heard Cerberus say something that could be considered an insult about any member of the Pantheon.

Cerberus didn’t notice the confusion, instead just sighing at the sight of Olympus before pointing over to a nearby building with an Asian man standing outside.

“Let’s go, our outfits are inside.” Cerberus pointed out, the other members of the junior Pantheon walked in, with their own loud tendencies showing as they did so, what with Siren and Harpy discussing the intricacies of rock, the Chimera triplets brawling as they entered, with Cyclops and Cerberus walking in last with Cerberus chuckling and Cyclops sighing.

Manticore watched the group enter the building with a laugh before walking away; his own outfits were usually suits so he didn’t even have to change for the party in his opinion, taking to the rooftops after leaving the keys to the float bus with the guard standing outside.

Inside the building there were doors with their names on them, signifying who was to go where, each member of the junior Pantheon messing about as they got ready for the party.

Cyclops was standing wearing a very fine and well fitting suit, staring at his attempts at a tie in frustration when he heard the door open behind him.

“You know, sometimes it’s considered ‘in fashion’ to go without a tie?” Cerberus proved to be a man who led by example, his own suit notably missing a tie and having the top bottom undone.

“Ah… I just wanted to use what I was given I guess.” Cyclops said, looking at the tie before shrugging, bundling the tie and placing it within an inner pocket within his suit jacket.

“That’s a good attitude to have. So how are you feeling about the party?” Cerberus asked, walking into the room and moving the curtain, showing the mansion known as Olympus already lit up in the darkening surroundings.

“It looks a bit big.” Cyclops’ words got a deep chuckle from Cerberus, the leader of the junior Pantheon letting the curtain fall to cover the image of the mansion once more as he turned to face Cyclops.

“It’s a party in your honour, the return of the Cyclops.” Cyclops immediately narrowed his eyes, a frown coming to his face at Cerberus’ words.

“…I’m not him.” Cyclops warned, Cerberus nodding, his own face as stern as Cyclops’.

“I know. We all know. But what your head knows has little effect on what your heart feels.” Cerberus said with a frown, raising his hand in front of his chest and looking into his own palm for a moment.

“The original Cerberus was the partner of Sphinx. While Cerberus was... well, no one really knew what his sexual orientation was, Sphinx is gay.” Cyclops blinked a bit, feeling that the announcement was a bit of a non sequitur.

“Anyway, Sphinx loved Cerberus… and seeing me, Sphinx is often reminded of the man he loved, and yet while I am a reminder, I am also proof that the man he loved is definitely gone… because I wouldn’t be Cerberus if that man was still alive.” Cyclops looked down to his own hands, metallic as they were…

“Whoever you were before being tossed in here… that person influenced who you are today, but today you are Cyclops. And for you to become Cyclops, someone else had to die.” Cyclops felt a hand resting on his shoulder, looking up and into the stern expression of Cerberus.

“You are not that Cyclops, you’re right. But whether you want it or not, the burden of that name is on your shoulders. Just like my own name is a burden on me.” Cerberus said, patting Cyclops’ shoulder and walking to the door, opening it.

“We will be leaving in ten minutes, so you should get yourself ready.” Cerberus warned, closing the door behind him without looking at the melancholic expression on the face of the second Cyclops.

Ten minutes later, Cyclops still wasn’t sure what to feel about his circumstance, but he did understand this-

“Sorry, but… I think I misheard what you said Cerberus… I mean, it’s a bit too… odd.” Cyclops understood that in the Pantheon, even the seemingly serious members…

“Oh, let me say it again then, we’re breaking into Olympus.” Cerberus said with a charming smile that seemed to firmly imply that he was innocent of all wrong doings…

Yep, Cyclops understood that in the Pantheon, everyone was crazy, just in different ways.

“Oh this is my favourite part…” Harpy said with a smirk, her back-less dress allowing her wings to flourish behind her as she said this.

“Damn it, we always got caught though…” Dryad, Roku and Shi seemed to get a bit depressed at this line coming from Siren, leaving Cyclops to wonder if maybe all four were bad at stealth…

“Okay, so I didn’t hear wrong. Why are we breaking into Olympus? I mean, we were invited, it’s supposedly a party for me, what’s with the breaking and entering?” Cyclops was very confused as it seemed to be a predisposition for the majority of the Pantheon to want to say things and not explain anything.

“Oh right, no one told you about the tradition… see, it started with Harpy, who was the first member of the junior Pantheon, being dared into breaking into Olympus by Odysseus.” Cyclops felt his face go numb at the realization that the most powerful man in Tartarus asked one of his workers to break into his home.

“Specifically, Harpy had to break in and get as close to Odysseus as possible before being caught, at her own welcoming party, just like you.” The admittance only slightly alleviated Cyclops’ worry, knowing that he wouldn’t be alone and that this wasn’t an isolated incident.

“Harpy managed to get within twenty metres of Odysseus before Typhon attacked her, not knowing who she was until after she was knocked unconscious. She still holds the record by the way.” Cyclops was now aware that he hadn’t actually misheard.

Typhon, King of Monsters and the most dangerous being working for the Key attacked Harpy full on and knocked her out before he was called off.

Cyclops didn’t want to get punched by someone who could flip a four to six metre tall monster.

“I managed to get it down to ten metres before Medusa started getting involved… She has it out for me.” Harpy said, and Cyclops still wasn’t sure what was going on there.

Cyclops, being the new guy, was still unaware of a lot of subtle relationships going on in the Pantheon.

Cyclops knew that Odysseus was dating Medusa, he knew that Typhon and Empusa were a thing, and that Dryad and Satyr had a very open and loud relationship in the words of Manticore.

Beyond that, Cyclops wasn’t aware of Shi having a crush on Typhon, or that Harpy liked Odysseus, and he definitely wasn’t aware of the nearly completely unknown relationship between the Nemean Lion and the Minotaur.

Really, only Dryad and Odysseus knew about the last one, and that was because Dryad hacked into and read many messages between everyone, and Odysseus was an insatiable gossip who loved poking his nose into things that weren’t his business.

“Coming in second is me. I got fifteen metres in on my introduction party, which was two parties ago, before the Chimera and Siren’s.” Cerberus said with a smirk, raising his hand with a raised thumb.

Cyclops was beginning to realize that despite how serious Cerberus seemed, the man was every bit as zany as the rest of the Pantheon… after all, those good guy poses had to be rehearsed, how else would he do them so naturally?

“The next closest is Go, he’s bland so he got twenty five metres before people realized it was him. He just walked in and up to Odysseus by the way.” Cerberus said, pointing at Go, whose expression remained neutral except for a twitch in one eyebrow.

“Like I said, I didn’t even know we were supposed to break in…” Go’s statement made Cyclops feel sorry for the middle sibling of the Chimera…

“Sure, keep saying that, maybe someday we’ll believe you… be honest, you were hoping to just walk up and win, weren’t you?” Harpy said with a smirk and a glare on her face as she pointed at the goat Chimera.

To be fair, Cyclops forgot Go was there until he was pointed out, so boring was the bookworm of that group of triplets.

“Anyway, after Harpy did it, we all started to do it and at this point it’s just tradition, whenever a party is hosted at Olympus and the junior Pantheon is around, we party crash, even if we’re invited.” Cerberus shrugged, leaving Cyclops to just sigh in defeat, knowing he had to at least try.

“With that being said, everyone split up, let’s move out!” Cerberus said, turning and raising his fist in the air, the other junior Pantheon members shouting in agreement.

At ‘Olympus’ Aaron stood on the highest balcony, watching as cars pulled up to the event, with the dress code, many were pulling up in pitch black cars, limo’s were common and so were Mercedes and Bentley’s… there was even a Ford, one that Aaron recognized as being driven by Baal.

“Everyone is arriving boss, the only remaining arrivals would be the junior Pantheon… we’re expecting them to make their attempts within the next half hour.” Aaron turned from the view of the world of Tartarus, swirling his champagne slightly as he looked at Manticore.

“Right, I wonder how close they’ll get this time around? Especially since it’s a masked ball, they might not even recognize me.” Aaron joked with a smile, and that left Manticore chuckling, the laughter slowly turning nervous as realization hit the ninja-like Chained.

‘We never showed Cyclops a picture of Odysseus, did we?’

The same realization was hitting Cyclops as he climbed up the back of Olympus, given that it was situated on a hill, there weren’t really any guards looking at the back of the building as there wasn’t really an entry route from that side.

With his cybernetic arms though, Cyclops found it easy to dig into the rock-wall, and yet it was only when the mansion wall was within reach did he realize he had no way of knowing who Odysseus was.

And reaching into his pocket, Cyclops looked at the mask with even more worry… because even if he knew how Odysseus looked, he’d still be hard pressed to identify the man when everyone would be wearing masks.

Walking through a backdoor after securing his mask, Cyclops carefully looked around, finding himself having entered a… worker room most likely.

Cyclops also found himself face to face with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

A pale green dress hugged her figure, which was svelte yet clearly not that of a child, with ballroom gloves covering the majority of her arms, there was a slit down one side of her dress revealing a hint of pale flesh, and her shoes had small heels.

She was shorter than Cyclops, with Cyclops being a good five foot nine or so, Cyclops was just guessing but even with the slight heel of her shoes this woman had to be about five feet one inches…

Her hair was a blinding white, not the grey of age, but a white of freshly fallen snow, and behind her mask her eyes were a piercing electric blue only possessed by Cybernetic Chained, and in accordance, she possessed a choker, the omega symbol of the Pantheon burning red in contrast to its black material and the clear, pale skin of the woman…

Cyclops was not really one to focus on appearance, with the life he had lived before Tartarus, you learned fast that beauty was to be admired from afar, for like the sun, one would get burned if one got too close.

After entering Tartarus and meeting Harpy, Dryad and Shi, Cyclops was losing that feeling bit by bit…

But this was the first time Cyclops felt himself so clearly entranced, looking as the woman swirled a glass containing an amber liquid before raising it to her full lips.

It was only when the glass was set down on the marble counter that Cyclops was shocked back into reality, not having the time to dodge out of view or anything like that, so he was left frozen as the woman turned her eyes to him.

Her eyes behind her mask widened as she looked from Cyclops and to the door he entered from, seemingly making the connection as Cyclops prepared to be caught.

“Uh, are you one of the waiters?” The woman, whoever she was, actually sounded as awkward as Cyclops felt in the moment, worried as he was that he was caught staring.

Cyclops couldn’t allow his feelings to enter his voice and a perfect excuse had just fallen into his lap, so Cyclops did what anyone else would do in this situation.

“Yes I am… though I am kind of new though…” Cyclops understandably went with the suggestion of the woman, as she looked apologetically between the open bottle of what might be rum, and her glass.

“Ah, then… Aaron might blame you for his missing… okay.” The woman seemed to have a conversation with herself, looking from the bottle then back to Cyclops for a bit before nodding.

“If anyone asks why the Barbados Private Estate seventeen-eighty bottle was opened, just say Echidna had a glass.” Cyclops realized that she was trying to keep him from being blamed, as clearly he was ‘supposed’ to be watching the storeroom.

“Understood, I’ll just get a tray ready to take to the ballroom… though miss?” the woman had smiled and walked to the door, only to pause at Cyclops’ last words, turning and looking over her shoulder in a way that had Cyclops’ heart beating harder in his chest.

“Yes?” Cyclops smiled at her, his mask hiding the nervous creasing of his eyes and forehead as he spoke.

“I’ll take the blame, I should have been watching after all…” and with that said, Cyclops poured out another glass of the rum, raising it to the woman who was surprised by his actions.

“And clearly I drank from it.” Cyclops said, downing the drink and savouring the heavily aged drink with a smile.

“Guess we’re sharing the blame, huh?” the woman said, her lips pulling into a smile, turning and waving over her shoulder as she walked away.

“I hope to see you in the ballroom.” Cyclops waited until the woman was out of earshot before taking a deep breath and stifling a cough due to the richness of the alcohol.

“Damn that burns…” and it was then that Cyclops realized who he had just spoken to, having recalled what she referred to herself as.

“Echidna… the sister of Typhon and one of the strongest Chained in Tartarus, that Echidna?” Cyclops was grasping his own skull between his hands in worry and awe at how he had just flirted a bit with such an important person.

“No, wait… before that, I need to find Odysseus… but I don’t know how he looks so I can’t find him… and to make it even harder, everyone is wearing masks so most wouldn’t be noticeable unless they have rare hair colours…” Cyclops sighed, realizing the difficulty of the situation…

Cyclops heard a few shouts and realized that he at least wouldn’t be the first caught, given that someone else among the junior Pantheon was likely the cause of that noise.

Plus Siren was now singing, she wouldn’t be singing if she wasn’t caught by the guards.

“I think I’ll take the high route…” Cyclops decided, knowing that surveying the area was a necessity, especially when breaking into a car.

The fastest routes in and out were an important thing to remember when one was in the business of stealing.

And the best way to see such routes was to get a view from a high place.

So, taking a tray, two bottles and some glasses and walking up the nearest flight of stairs he could, Cyclops moved to where he hoped he’d be able to survey the ballroom, walking out into a balcony overlooking the entire ballroom.

“Hey waiter, come over here!” Cyclops blinked while turning to the source of the shout and found himself looking at a man with curly hair which almost hid a pair of horns reaching up and out of his hair, his suit missing a tie and unbuttoned enough to show the centre of his chest…

A hand was also venturing into said shirt to touch bare skin, a hand belonging to Dryad… which meant-

“Hello sir, rum or wine?” Cyclops asked, Dryad so busy staring into the face of her boyfriend that she couldn’t even hint to Satyr that Cyclops was actually a junior Pantheon member, let alone the person this party was being thrown for.

“Oh, you know my favourites? Wine for now dude, until the guest of honour gets here I’m just going to chill.” Satyr said, taking the poured glass of wine while using his other hand to grab Dryad’s hip and squeeze her closer to him, the blonde giggling at the actions and making Cyclops feel very uncomfortable.

Suddenly the lights dimmed, darkening the ballroom and confusing Cyclops, a lone spotlight shining down at a place near the centre of the room, and seated there…

“Echidna…” Cyclops whispered, looking at the woman who had left him dumb with her beauty, as she sat with her hands resting on an acoustic guitar, Siren standing nearby with a microphone near her.

“Oh that’s a treat… it’s rare for Miss Echidna to play…” Satyr said, Dryad dropping out of her stupor long enough to be surprised a bit at how close Cyclops was, but like the two males her attention was forced to the spotlight…

It was at this moment that Cyclops could make a choice.

Cyclops could continue his shtick of pretending to be a waiter, eventually stumbling across the legendary Odysseus or just get caught…

Or he could deny both options and instead try to speak to Echidna once more… because Cyclops did not know what it was about the girl, but she felt so familiar…

Leaving the tray of drinks on a nearby table as he looked around, Cyclops found himself thankful for his position as he looked around the balcony, finding certain handholds… a path…

A path to Echidna.

… Cyclops’ path was decided even as the rustic, childish rhythm began to be belted out by Echidna’s guitar.

“Let’s wrap a blanket, around us, and go flying, into outer space… we could be famous, speak a different language, make our great escape…” Siren began to sing, immediately grabbing everyone’s attention, even if the song was a bit upbeat for a ‘high-class’ party like this one, no one minded, everyone enjoying the beat.

Cyclops was enjoying the music just like everyone else was, but unlike them, he was climbing along the balcony, arriving at the corner of the room, the four sides of the room each having separate balconies due to these jutting portions at the corners…

Standing on one of said corners, Cyclops looked around, noticing that he could in fact climb upwards, and then from there… he could drop onto the large interconnected chandeliers?

It would be a bit dangerous, but, it was a possibility…

Standing near Siren and Echidna, Aaron stood, bobbing his head with the rhythm while having Cerberus and Harpy standing nearby, Typhon glaring all around the room.

“…How the heck hasn’t he been caught yet?” Cerberus whispered to Harpy, knowing that no one except Typhon would hear them talking, the rest all focused on the music.

“I don’t know, but if he takes any longer we’re going to have to search…” Harpy said, looking at Cerberus, an action which caused her to look upwards due to their height difference.

It was that same action of looking upwards which allowed her to see the exact moment that Cyclops jump from his position near the ceiling in an idiotic attempt to grab the chandeliers…

Harpy, for a moment, thought that maybe this would be the moment where Cyclops was caught. There was no way that landing on that mass of chains would be silent, even with the music Typhon would still catch the situation and react…

But against all odds, Cyclops managed to miss the massive collection of chains and lights, leaving Harpy staring with wide eyes as Cyclops fell past his intended spot, and-

“Fuck!” the overlapping voices and the loud thud of a body colliding with another resounded, Siren and Harpy not willing to continue the music when something was clearly wrong, two people rolling out into the spotlight along with the singer and guitarist.

One of the two who had rolled out into the open winced, raising a hand up to his head, shaking his head as he looked up into the eyes of Echidna, Echidna realizing that this person was that same ‘waiter’ from earlier and widening her eyes in surprise…

The surprise everyone in the room felt at the situation was increased by magnitudes when the groaning voice of the second person went out, the ‘waiter’ widening his eyes and looking down and behind him to find that his shoulders were pressing down onto the back of another person.

“O-o-oh shit, are you okay?” the ‘waiter’ shouted in worry, the lights going on at this point while he stood, turning and holding out a hand to help the other stand.

“I think that’s the first time I was hit with a person… I think… did my fight with the Toy Maker have something like that happen?” holding onto the hand of the person still on the floor, the ‘waiter’ froze, understandably in Echidna’s opinion…

Odysseus, Aaron Hassan, ruler of the Pantheon and owner of Olympus, was famous for killing Toy Maker after all…

“I-I-I… a-are you… Odysseus?” the ‘waiter’ spoke, Echidna could hear the fear in his voice… she could also see the visible anger of her brother, overprotective as he was over their leader.

“Of course I am, unless I was given the memories of a roguishly handsome master thief and lock-picker and am deluding myself into thinking I am him…” Aaron looked over to Echidna, and she shook her head, leaving the man to remove his mask, his face visible to all and causing even more shock across the room.

“Right, apparently that theory isn’t true… so I am Aaron Hassan, Odysseus, Lord of Olympus…” With his previously brown eyes shifting to the electric blue of Cybernetic Chained, and a predatory smirk coming across his face as he squeezed-

“That being said… who are you?” Aaron asked, and that sent warning bells off in Echidna’s mind, as Aaron knew everyone who worked for him in the building… and if he didn’t know this ‘waiter’, new or not…

“I…” the ‘waiter’ looked confused for a moment, looking to Echidna for a moment before looking back to Aaron, raising the hand not being held by Aaron to his mask and removing it…

When the ‘waiter’ removed his mask, it revealed a familiar mismatched pair of electric blue and hazel brown eyes into view, leaving Echidna to gasp.

“I am the new Cyclops… and I’m here to join the Pantheon.” Another shock went through the crowd, and Echidna didn’t blame them, her own shock leaving her silent as she stared at the man who had the name of a dearly departed friend of hers.

“Oh? Well, that’s a good thing!” Aaron, who was seemingly taking the situation in a stride, and patting the back of the now apparent Cyclops and pulling the younger Chained to his side while gesturing to the grand ballroom around them.

“Everyone! Members of the Ars Goetia, members of the Fourth Kingdom, members of the Pantheon, collectively, members of the Key!” Aaron had a way of demanding the attention of everyone in the room when he tried.

Such was the charisma of a living legend, as the man known as Odysseus gestured to his side, at Cyclops who was now having an intense moment of nervousness at all the stares.

“Let’s welcome the guest of honour, the newest member of the Pantheon, Cyclops!” Everyone took a moment to realize the situation, still being quiet for a moment…

“Awesome entrance!” Satyr cheered from the balcony, his words triggering a chain reaction as many cheers went up from the crowd, Cyclops only now noticing that the vast majority of people in said crowd were Chained…

“It really was… though I’m going to have to pay you back for landing on me someday.” Cyclops froze in fear upon feeling the breath of Odysseus upon his neck and remembering how he made his entrance…

“Wait a moment…” Cerberus said after a moment, wondering why the situation seemed so odd.

“Cy has the record!” It was Harpy’s shout that answered all questions, the rocker girl grabbing her head and shouting in despair.

There was a bit of a record scratch, literally with Siren’s ability to control sounds being used for the hilarious moment as everyone realized that yes, Cyclops broke into Olympus and actually managed to reach Odysseus before being caught.

“Oh yeah, that’s actually pretty cool… as an award, you can have any car you want from my collection, except for my Dodge Demon, my Ford GT, the famous GT-R and finally my Koenigsegg.” After the list of cars that had Cyclops blinking, he ended up just shrugging, knowing he’d get to that eventually.

“Okay, let’s get this party started, Siren, resume party standard!” Aaron shouted, the youngest Chained of the Pantheon smiled, her voice switching up once more.

“La la la la, la la la la… Call me what you wanna, I’ll be what you wanna, I’ve been here a thousand times…” Cyclops still found Siren’s ability to create an entire band’s sound while singing to be crazy and impressive…

He didn’t have much more time to focus on that though before Cyclops found himself face to face with a smirking Odysseus… Aaron, he’d need to start calling the man Aaron.

“By the way lover boy, noticed you making goo-goo eyes at Echidna when you thought I wasn’t looking… have fun with that.” Cyclops’ eyes widened as he was shoved backwards, expecting to fall over only to find two small hands resting on his back, keeping him from falling.

Cyclops looked over his shoulder, feeling a blush come over his face as he looked into the eyes of Echidna.

“So, you’re the new waiter, right?” and just like that the blood left Cyclops’ face, leaving him pale while Echidna spun him around.

“Uh, I, um… I’m sorry?” Cyclops offered, Echidna raising a single eyebrow and leaving Cyclops sputtering once more as he realized that his words sounded more like a question than a statement.

“I accept? It was part of the junior Pantheon challenge, and it worked, lucky for you…” Echidna said, looking over Cyclops and then frowning once she reached his neck.

“Should have known by the fact that you’re not wearing a tie… don’t you have one?” Cyclops felt nervous at Echidna’s stern tone, reaching into his pocket and removing his tie.

Before he could even try to hand it over it was already in Echidna’s hands, the white haired Queen of Monsters placing the tie around Cyclops’ neck as she tied it.

It left Cyclops uncomfortably close to the woman who was smiling at the reactions she was invoking.

“Easy there Typhon, your sister is a grown woman, she knows what she’s doing.” Aaron said, patting his best friend’s shoulder as black Nano-bot based claws attempted to form on Typhon’s hands.

“But… but…” Typhon ended up dragged away by Empusa, leaving Aaron standing with Medusa, Lu Bu and Solomon walking by shortly afterwards.

“So he’s the last member… you going to be telling them the plan now at least?” Solomon asked with a warning glare, Aaron raising his hands in easy surrender.

“Of course… let them have their homecoming dance first though. We’ll talk tomorrow.” Aaron said with a soft smile…

Aaron didn’t want to ruin the night with horrible news after all.