Escape I
Soban thought for a long time. By the time he thought of anything they were already a few feet away from the ground. He watched Achilles struggle to hold his own against the seemingly invincible Hercules.
"We have to try to give Achilles the upper hand so he can win, that way he can take down Aeneas," Soban said.
They landed a few hundred feet from Hercules and Achilles. Out the corner Soban's eye, he noticed the city of Theseus. The circus there was packing up and getting ready to leave.
"Change of plans, this way, guys," Soban said.
They ran to the city as fast as they could. Diad arrived first and waited a few seconds for Tesalee and Soban to show up.
They ran through the city, avoiding people and jumping over obstacles. A loud scream was heard behind them and Aeneas landed in front of them. He was charred but unhurt. Soban noticed the Colchian dragon falling down to the ground lifelessly. He quickly teleported the scale to himself to shrink the dragon to soften his landing. Aeneas began chuckling and slowly walked forward. In a flash, Diad jumped forward.
"Hybrid, run, I'll distract him," Diad said.
Aeneas opened his mouth to talk but quickly stopped. He began looking around in a panicked manner. Soban turned and saw the same red eyes in the dark that had followed him before. This time however, the bodies attached to those eyes walked out of the shadows. They were gray skinned human-like beasts. Each had long fangs and two large black wings. They slowly crept up to Aeneas.
"What are the Empuse doing here?" Aeneas grunted.
They remained silent and suddenly took to the air. With great speed, they attacked Aeneas and allowed Soban and his friends to pass. They continued their way through the city to the sounds of Aeneas' screams. After a few seconds they finally reached the circus. Soban looked around and spotted Caretaker and bolted for him.
"Caretaker!" Soban yelled.
Caretaker quickly turned and smiled.
"High Flying Kid! What brings you here?" Caretaker said with glee.
"Long story, here's the gist of it. Help!" Soban yelled.
"Okay, with what?" Caretaker said, his smile turning sour.
"I'm being attacked. I escaped from jail after I was imprisoned, they found out I was a Hybrid," Soban said in a rush.
Every worker stopped what they were doing and walked forward.
"We'll help you get away, it's the least we can do for one of Caretaker's friends," one person said.
"Alright, Hercules is attacking over there," Soban said and turned.
Every worker went back to what they were doing and pretended nothing happened. Soban looked around and wondered what happened to his support.
"Hercules himself is chasing you?" Caretaker yelled.
"Is that a problem?" Soban asked.
"You do realize legend says that Hercules is as strong as Zeus, right?" Caretaker said.
"That doesn't matter, Achilles is holding him off over there, we just need to tip the scales a bit," Soban said.
A heavily injured Aeneas appeared behind Soban and swung down at him. Caretaker snapped his fingers and Aeneas froze. He couldn't move and Caretaker walked slowly towards him.
"We were talking," Caretaker said calmly.
"What have you done to me?" Aeneas yelled.
"Blaze, take care of this," Caretaker ordered.
Blaze smiled as he stepped forward. He prepared a fireball in his hand and gathered more and more heat. He rapidly condensed it into the tip of his finger. He poked Aeneas on the forehead and stepped back. Aeneas slowly burnt away from head to toe.
"Whoa, what kind of god are you?" Diad asked.
"One who does good, kinda, well I don't know, sometimes I guess," Blaze replied.
Soban walked over to Blaze and grabbed one of his hands.
"Blaze, will you help me?" Soban asked sincerely.
"Sorry kid, I'm no match for Hercules, I'll be killed in a second," Blaze said.
"Caretaker, what about you?" Soban asked.
"My power only worked on this ash pile because he was already hurt, it won't work on someone as strong as Hercules, not in my current state at least," Caretaker explained, with sadness in his voice.
"I…" a strange voice whispered.
Soban saw a dark figure in the tent and was slowly coming out. It was the Juggler. Every one of the circus members froze in horror.
"He spoke?" Blaze said in disbelief.
The Juggler hovered over to Soban. His mask had a demented, emotionless purple face on it.
"Juggler, will you help me?" Soban asked.
The Juggler didn't respond but his mask changed and a red smile appeared. Soban knew he would help and began walking away with the Juggler close behind. He picked up speed and they were off to where Hercules and Achilles were. Soban noticed he was being followed and saw Caretaker running after them. He caught up and ran with Soban.
"Thank you, Caretaker," Soban said.
"I can't let the High Flying Kid face danger alone, what kind of caretaker would I be!" Caretaker bellowed.
They continued running and on the way Soban scooped up the Colchian dragon.
"Juggler, can you hold him and Fenrir for me?" Soban asked while running.
The dragon and Fenrir both flew up and were held telekinetically in the air. Within a few minutes they finally arrived to see Achilles barely standing and Hercules completely uninjured.
"Achilles!" Soban yelled.
"Get…out of here!" Achilles said, his voice struggling to make words.
"Your armor may be impenetrable but that doesn't mean I can't hurt you. My punches are easily enough to hurt you with just the impact," Hercules said cockily.
"Soban, run, now!" Achilles yelled.
"I can't leave you!" Soban yelled back.
Hercules jumped towards Soban but Achilles intercepted him and grabbed his waist. Hercules effortlessly whipped him off and continued towards Soban. A massive pillar of dirt suddenly erupted. It prevented Soban and the group from seeing. Soban heard a deep growl and saw an orange glow through the dirt.
The dirt settled and Cerberus in his three headed dog form was holding Hercules to the ground. Hercules easily lifted Cerberus' foot off of him and threw a punch into his midsection. Cerberus quickly reverted back to his regular form and landed on the ground in agony.