Reborn As Hades In Olympus

Ch. 39: The Masked Fellow

The masked fellow just stood dressed in a black overall and hood, the face was a white mask with dark spirals around the eyes, the mask threw me off a bit. I had never seen anything like it before, the masked figure just stood there holding a small book that looked like a diary by the side.

The figure caught wind of me and jumped back away from me in fright. I tried to use my eye on the figure but it did nothing, I wondered if it was bevause of the mask. Before I could question the person Talos came up from behind and started challenging the figure, I swear I almost forgot she was here.

"Freeze there, who the hell are you?" Talos was careful enough to stand close to me, I guess she wasn't that dumb to walk head on into danger. "What are you doing here?"

The masked fellow raised his free hand and dug it into his pocket prompting me to make a stealthy approach towards him, before he could react I was already on him with a strong blow.

WHAM— And down to the floor he went, knocked out cold. Someone like me who used to avoid fights could now knock someone in one hit, talk about a brutal rebirth. "Hey you, why would you just knock him out like that?" Talos said grumpily. "Is this how you higher gods act? Do you know just how much information I could have extracted from him?"

I watched her walked over to the unconcious body of the masked fellow and crouch down next to it. I strode over to her and said, "Well, he's not dead. I'm pretty sure you can still get him to talk when he wakes up."

I could see Talos rolling her eyes and reaching for the mask, "What a brute you are." She grasped the mask and pulled it off the fellows face slowly to reveal a face I knew all too well, I don't know what gave me off but Talos seemed to suspect I already knew who the person was. "Acquaintance of yours?"

I wasn't that keen on sharing the information that the masked figure was Eris or Chaos Bride, what was she doing here anyway and dressed like that? I thought she was Ares' girlfriend or something but here she is this late at night trying to find something. I remember she was holding something earlier, a book of sorts.

I paced my eyes sharply around the huge room that happened to be an office, the book must have fallen when I punched Eris but it was nowhere to be seen now. "Looking for this?" Talos held up the book and locked her eyes with me as she crouched down on the ground over Eris' unconcious body. Just when did she take it?

As I've confirmed, she was a problem. In her eyes she still viewed me as the main suspect and I see her as an obstacle that needs to be removed from the way. Why did Mr Anonymous pair us together? I know we both want to solve the mystery of Hermes' death.

Did that mean Mr Anonymous' aim is for us to set aside our differences here, that nonsense only works out in movies.

"I don't suppose you will hand that over to me, now would you?" I asked boldly.

She climbed up to her feet and tuck the small book under her armpit. "No I don't suppose so."

"Even if I threaten to take your life?" I asked.

"Even so!" She walked up to Ares' office table and started to rummage through the items there very carefully and very slowly.

Wow, she is a case. "You know I really can kill you, its not like I can get caught or anything." I tried to sound more threatening since it kind of pissed me off that she wasn't afraid of me and that was scary. If you aren't afraid of the god of death then who the heck ate you gonna be afraid of?

"Now why would the god of war need to have an office?" She asked in a low tone making me unsure if she was referring to herself or me.

"Dunno, maybe he likes reading books." She raised an eyebrow at me in a quirky way. "Talos I am going to have you give me that book."

"Nope!!" She clicked her tongue. Well I did expect her to be defiant given her reputation as a lone detective. Times like this I had to be more persuasive, I tuck my hands in my pockets and started in a slow approach to her my steps beating against the ground lightly. "You see to mistaken dear, I wasn't asking.

I don't give a damn who you are but if you can't prove useful then I will discard you without flinching." I backed her into an wall and brought my face closer to hers, I could sense her heart thumping louder in my eardrums. I did not have to use dominator's aura because I meant bloody every word I was saying.

"Miss Detective, if you don't value your life that damn well on you. But when I say jump, I want to see you jump." I reached out my hand to the book and tugged at it but she held her grasp firmly fixed on it. "Your defiance is mediocre at best, hand over the book or face my wrath!"

THE CHARACTER "TALOS" IS FRIGHTENED BY YOU.

DOMINATION POINTS HAVE INCREASED BY +50.

"Dammit!" Talos cursed under her breath as she let go of the book. I smiled handsomely if I do say so myself, "Cattle should just remain cattle in front of wolves, that way no one gets hurt." I have a final word of warning as I retrsated slowly from her. "Whatever you find next don't hesitate to bring it to me, if you don't want to die horribly that is."

I was just about taking the very first step when she just had to push my very sensitive buttons-- the red ones at that. "I am not your obsequious lap dog who will dance to your tune just because you bark really loudly, I will do whatever I want whenever I want and there is nothing you—"

WHAM— I slapped her on the face, I almost did but stopped myself just inches from it. Still that did not stop the wind pressure from hitting her. What was I doing? Getting sidetracked won't help me now, I had to find whatever information I could here in the littles time possible. Talos was squinted her eyes shut still expecting to be hit, to think that was all it took shut her up.

"Sorry-- Ares could come back at any time. Let's continue our search."

The rest of the search went a little bit smoother, nothing new really popped up to being more light to what we already knew. Whatever signs that pointed to Ares being a culprit seemed not to exixts. And the book came as blank.

"This "Mr Anonymous" do you believe that Ares was responsible for the murder of Hermes?" Talos asked me as she searched under the bed of the god of war.

"If I say yes will you drop my name from the murder board?" She raised an eyebrow ans glared at me again. "I feel you already have most of this figured out already."

I felt Talos did not want to share her findings with a potential suspect but that did not stop her from testing my IQ at almost every single thing. Sheight have been young aj inexperienced in the field but the way her head worked on a single clue was like magic. Was this what Mr Anonymous wanted me to see?

Talos was a prodigy. "Nothing here at all, it's not like I expected to find any concrete evidence here in the first place. The only source of Intel we could have had you knocked out like a dummy toy."

Dummy toy?

"Why would Hades want to kill Hermes? Who would gain from Hermes departure from life, I asked myself that question countless times already." She stopped and stared at me. "For the first time the answers don't really add up, with Hermes gone the travel of new in Olympus will be a total chaos.

It might not sure now but given time it would appear in a significant manner and who best would gain from such chaos than the god of war himself."

"Could be the perfect cover-up is you ask me." I hinted lightly.

She nodded. "Just what I was thinking so who would gain more from having you out of the way?"

Who indeed? In all of Olympus I had no idea who it could be? "It's not a who, it's a they."

Talos nodded again. "Finally someone whose brain actually works. I suspect that we might be looking at a group or organization here meaning we have multiple suspects including you."

She just would not drop the topic. "Okay fine." But she did think like me, she already suspected the apple of discord was connected too. She could see a bigger picture just like me, could she be-- someone reborn into this world too?