Champions 20

Our story starts with Zeus looking down upon Ares and our group of heroes: Black Widow, Hercules, Ant-Man, Giant Man (Bill Foster), Black Panther, Firebird, and Batroc. Hercules is holding the dead body of Diamondback in his arms. Zeus looks very angry.

"Ares! Thou hast disobeyed me for the last time! For this act of disobedience thou shalt be stripped of thy immortality and be judged by the mortals for your crimes against them."

"Father, thou art being too cruel. I was only doing that which is my duty. AIM approached me and told me that they wished to start wars in my honor. It would have been against the core of my being to turn them away. Would thou pushest away those who would worship thee?"

"Ares, this is the second time thou hast disobeyed me.* This time I shall not be so merciful."

[*See Avengers #384 --A-Van-ger]

In that instant, Ares disappears. The heroes look befuddled.

"Hercules, thou fought valiantly against a much more powerful opponent."

"I have no wish to hear of my prowess. This mortal woman did die because of my failures."

"I ask thee once again if thou wouldst like thy immortality back?"

Hercules sits down. He looks dejected.

"Father, I do not deserve to have my immortality back. I failed to save many an innocent plus I had to be saved by this heroic mortal, Diamondback. Captain America taught her well. He would be proud of her actions today."

"So, my son has finally started to think about others besides himself for once. Stripping thee of thy powers seems to have done the job of giving you some humility."

Batroc says "Zis eez madness! A woman lies dead and you show your pride in your son? I thought the Americans were mezzed up!"

"Watch thy tongue, mortal! I am proud of my son and I have already punished Ares for his poor judgement."

Black Widow steps up and says in shocked disbelief, "Digression? He murdered someone and was trying to murder your son! I would call that more than poor judgement!"

Zeus is starting to look irritated.

"You mortals try my patience with thy impertinence."

Batroc says, "Like we should give a rat's a.."

"Hold thy tongue!! I will not tolerate any more insolence!"

Firebird steps forward "You act like you think you are above us. You're not a true god. You are just one of the many to be blessed with powers. But instead of using those powers to help others, you have become corrupted and now use them to better yourself over others. Your hubris will be your downfall."

Zeus and Hercules look on in disbelief.

Black Panther moves over to Firebird, "I think you better keep those thoughts to yourself or we'll all be in big trouble."

Firebird says, "I will not allow ones such as these to pretend to be gods. There is only one true God and it is not Zeus."

Zeus smiles, "Woman, thou amuses me. If we were not Gods then why would thy own people have worshipped us?"

Zeus then starts to laugh.

Firebird responds, "Humans have made many mistakes and that was just one of our bigger ones."

Zeus laughs even harder. Hercules covers his eyes.

"Woman, thou hast made me laugh harder than I have in years. I like thee."

Hercules sighs in relief.

Giant Man and Ant-Man are standing in the background discussing their scientific experiment that is still running back at the lab.

"Do I bore ye? Ye speak amongst thyselves while I am holding court? How dare ye?"

"Sorry, but we didn't want to be involved in any religious arguments. Right Scott?"

"Um...Yeah."

"This is some collection of mortals thou art with Hercules. I can see why thou hast chosen to be near this Natasha female so often in the past."

Natasha looks angrily at Zeus while Hercules blushes.

"Thee, Thy, Thou, Thumb. I smell ze blood of an Englishman." Batroc remarks snidely.

Everyone gives Batroc strange looks. Zeus waves off the odd remark by continuing on as if Batroc had never spoken. Hercules just looks even more embarrassed.

"I will make ye a deal. Since Ares was responsible for the death of this heroic mortal, I will allow you to attempt to save her soul."

"What?" Bill foster asks.

"Ah, ye mortals really are dimwitted at times. Any mortal who is killed due to our actions has their soul captured by Hades. Diamondback's soul resides in the domain of my brother. He has promised to allow ye to enter his domain and attempt to win it back. There will be much sport to be offered by such an endeavor."

"Sport!!?? You view this as sport?"

"Ah, Natasha, once again thou forgets that ye are but playthings to us."

Hercules rises to his feet. "If we can save this damsel, then we must try. I will go alone if I must."

Scott Lang says, "While I am still finding all of this hard to believe, I think I can speak for all of us and say that we will go with you. Well everyone but Batroc that is."

"I would not miss zis for ze world."

"Then be off!!" Zeus warns. "You only have 24 hours to save her."

After the heroes have left the presence of Zeus, Hades appears next to Zeus. There is a pool of water before the two that allows them to watch the rescue attempt.

"All is set brother. They will not rescue her, and the impertinent ones shall pay for their lack of respect."

Zeus smiles at Hades' words.

"Good. Make sure that your creatures focus their attention on the one called Bonita, Natasha, and that French fellow."

"Already done my brother." Hades says with a smile.

Now we shall switch our attention to the entrance to Hades. A small cave just outside the small town that sits atop Mount Olympus (Which is what the Greek Gods call their new home even though it is not the Mount Olympus in Greece - Mythical Mark).

As our heroes enter the cave they see Cerberus. He growls as they approach remembering the scent of Hercules, the one who gave him the scar on his neck.

"He doesn't seem to like you." remarks Scott Lang.

"He doth remember the savage beating he received at my hands when last we met."

"You beat on animals?" asks T'Challa.

"He is no animal, but a beast of Hades! And a worthy opponent I might add. Let me take care of this mongrel so that we may pass."

"I don't zink zat will be necezzary. I know how to handle ze mutt."

Batroc approaches Cerberus on all fours. He keeps his head lower than Cerberus' so as to appear submissive. Cerberus growls but as Batroc gets closer he seems to be more guarded than vicious. Batroc then pulls out a piece of food and holds it out for Cerberus. Cerberus takes the food cautiously and then begins to kiss Batroc's hand. Batroc then starts to pet Cerberus.

"You zee, zis dog just needed some attention and compassion."

"I don't believe it." Natasha says.

"I do, similar tricks can be used on jungle animals." Black Panther states.

"Well let's get going." Bill Foster says impatiently.

Batroc then starts to unchain Cerberus.

"What do you think you are doing unleashing that demon?" Firebird asks.

"He eezn't mean at heart and I will not allow him to be miztreated zis way."

"So you do have morals. Now I have seen everything." Black Widow remarks.

The heroes then go through the entrance to Hades with Cerberus following Batroc into the depths of the underworld. Cerberus keeps pushing up against Batroc for attention.

Back to Zeus and Hades.

"Blast them!! How could we have been so wrong about Cerberus?"

"I am sorry, Zeus, I didn't realize that Cerberus was anything but a three headed monstrosity."

Switching back to our heroes we can see that they are moving through the firepits of Hades. Firebird falls back a little.

"The taint of demons is strong here. I am having trouble pinpointing their position, but I know that there are demons nearby."

"Firebird, how would you know this?" Scott Lang asks.

"I can just tell. They will be upon us soon. There are at least ten of them."

The heroes hide themselves along the sides of the walls of the cavern. Just as they get hidden the demons fly into the cavern looking straight ahead. Before the demons can react the heroes jump from their hiding spots and take the demons down. The demons never stood a chance.

"Well, zat was easy."

"Let's keep it that way. I just want to get back to my research." Bill Foster says.

10 hours later the heroes are still searching for Diamondback. They have come across many different areas where people are being punished for their crimes during life. Firebird seems to be torn about whether or not to aid them.

"This place is not right. These people should be judged by God and not some self important fake gods."

"Listen Woman! We are gods! Whether thou likes it or not, we have always been and always will be gods! I am getting sick of your self-righteous prattle"

"How dare you!? You think yourself a god purely because you live longer than the rest of us and are more powerful than the people of your day and age. Your whole mythos is nothing but a joke in this day and age. I just hope that someday you have the ability within yourself to see that. Your own egos have allowed you to think yourselves better than you actually are."

"Firebird, thou art really starting to bug me. No woman may talk to Hercules like that. If thou werest a male I would club thee!"

"Ah yes. Violence is always the response of greater beings. You prove yourself to be nothing but an immature child. No real god would exhibit as many human failings as your so-called Greek Gods do. What kind of god has more human failings than their followers?"

Hercules storms off in an absolute rage.

"She will pay for what she has said! She will pay!! I can't believe that woman!!"

The rest begin to follow the screaming Hercules. Firebird issues another warning that demons are close. Once again the hidden heroes ambush the demons and make short work of them. This time however, they actually think to question the demons as to where Diamondback is.

Back to the big guys.

"Hades!! Your demons do pitifully against these mortals!"

"I can't explain it. It almost seems like they know when they are coming. Still they don't have that much time left."

Our heroes find Diamondback's soul with only one hour left to get it back to Zeus. Otherwise her life will be forfeit.

"We have spent 23 hours getting here. What chance do we have to get out of here in less than one hour?" asks Scott Lang.

"All of zis for nothing. Zut alors."

Black Widow steps forward and says, "I have an idea. Cerberus are you hungry? Would you like to eat your dinner?"

Cerberus' three heads perk up and he howls. He then runs off.

Black Widow yells, "Follow him! He is our way out."

They follow Cerberus back to his food dish. He is panting and jumping around waiting for his dinner. Batroc gives him some food.

"Where did you find that?" Bill Foster asks.

"I took it from a plate that zome guy couldn't reach."

'You didn't give it to the guy?" Scott Lang asks.

"No. It would be mean to feed zomeone who won't ever eat again. Zat would be worse than ze predicament he eez currently in."

"I doubt that." both Ant-Man and Giant Man respond.

The heroes and Cerberus then approach the throne of Zeus just as time runs out.

"We have brought you her soul. According to the bargain, you said you would bring her back to life." Black Widow says.

Zeus is grumbling under his breath.

"Fine. Hades put her soul back into her body. I want to rid myself of these annoying mortals. It is too bad you weren't able to add some of them to your collection in Hades. I wish to do one more thing Hercules. No son of mine deserves to stay a mere mortal, especially after I have seen such a sad sample of mortals. Whether or not you wish it, you are once again immortal. My punishment has made you as humble as you will ever become."

Diamondback's body comes back to life as her soul is returned to her body. All of her wounds heal and she seems to be in better health than she was before her death.

"Diamondback, thou hast proven thy bravery by saving the life of my son. For that I owe thee a great debt. In payment for my son's life I offer thee this belt of diamonds. It will hold an unlimited supply of diamond shaped weapons. Each diamond is empowered by magic to protect thee. Use them wisely and honor us with your courage. Now be gone! And take that damn traitorous mongrel with you!"

The heroes reappear in New York City in the exact spot they were in when they left. Cerberus seems to have attached himself to Batroc.

"What are we going to do with that dog?" Black Widow asks.

"All I know is Batroc has to potty train it." Firebird jokes.

All of the heroes laugh.

Next issue: A drinking we will go. The roster gets finalized. The heroes get a base of operations (sort of). The heroes go bar hopping and Batroc VS Gambit. All in one issue. The Marvel Age is back. Tell your friends.