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Jonny closed his eyes and took in the sound of screams and burning buildings in front of him. The stench of blood was pungent in the air, but what caught his attention was the smell of burnt flesh. Jonny grinned and stalked towards the small pile of bodies in the middle of the square.
He had a deal with Ashes – with Hades – that was beneficial to both of them: Hades had people they wanted to get rid of for one reason or another, and Jonny had the pleasure of taking them out in any way he saw fit. He just had to keep the brains mostly intact, so Hades could use them for the Acheron.
The place he found himself in now? Jonny was sent there, sure, but this mess wasn’t his . Someone had beaten him to it.
But oh, well. He could still have some fun.
The piled bodies were all dismembered and burned, and the smell was… quite enticing to be honest. Jonny sat down, legs crossed, and pulled at a leg that was dangling in the air. He took a closer sniff, licked his lips, opened his mouth wide and bit down, tearing off a chunk and chewing on it happily.
He was nibbling on a near-charred upper arm, when he heard footsteps approaching. That was… odd, to say the least. Usually, people ran away from him, especially when he was covered in blood like he was at the moment, so what was going on?
Just as Jonny was about to take another carefree bite, a thick hand snuck around his neck, hoisting him up into the air. Another arm snuck around his middle in a faux-embrace, trapping Jonny’s own arms by his sides.
Jonny squirmed in the tight grip, unable to properly breathe, his legs dangling just above the ground.
“Cerberus, I presume?” a rough voice breathed into his ear.
Jonny went to curse at his captor, but the tight hold on his throat made him choke, only allowing a low growl, saliva dripping from his lips.
“I thought so.”
The hand closed tighter around his throat, closing Jonny’s airway completely. The sudden surge of adrenaline made him wriggle and squirm, the hold on him too strong to allow him any more slack. Soon, his lungs started burning at the lack of air, his fingers started tingling, the edges of his vision filling with dark spots. Jonny could feel his body giving way to unconsciousness.
“Good boy,” was the last thing he heard, before going completely limp.
Waking up was a slow process, this time around. First, his ears registered one steady set of footsteps and many more that were quickly diminishing in volume. Next came a swaying feeling, the tempo aligned with the walking pace of the footfalls he could hear. He blinked his eyes open, his gaze falling upon someone’s broad back, arse, and legs, and the ground moving beneath it all.
Jonny lifted his head and took in the fearful gazes of people watching him getting carried down the street, slung over someone’s shoulder. Speaking of…
“I’m gonna kill you,” Jonny hissed to his captor, but the sound came out somewhat muffled.
Only then did he realise that the skin over his cheeks felt pinched and that the object offending the lower half of his face was a muzzle. A fucking. Muzzle .
He growled, pulling on the rope that was holding his wrists together, and he distantly registered another piece of rope tying together his ankles.
“Settle down, boy,” his captor demanded.
“Yeah, no, I don’t think so,” Jonny laughed. “I’m going to bite something off you for that, just because.”
“No you won’t. Not with that thing on your face,” the man responded. “I wouldn’t go after Hades’ property without preparation.”
“Hades’ proper- Fuck you!” Jonny growled. “They don’t own me!”
“I personally don’t care what you have going on with them, but Don Zeus seems to think that way, and that’s the only thing that matters with this stupid job,” the man grumbled.
“ Zeus ?” Jonny cackled. “You’re taking me to Zeus? Oh, this is going to be fun . Maybe I can chew him up, too…”
“If you promise to do that, I might just untie you and sic you on ‘im,” the man chuckled, the sound hollow.
“ Still not a dog,” Jonny huffed. “And just saying, I’m going to kill you, whether you let me get to Zeus or not.”
The man stopped suddenly, and Jonny first thought he’d finally stepped on a proper nerve. But the moment stretched on too long, making Jonny start paying attention to their surroundings again.
“I’ve seen you snooping round Don Zeus’ place before,” Jonny’s kidnapper finally said, seemingly to no one. “Who are you?”
“Doctor Baron Marius von Raum,” a familiar voice chirped, and Jonny’s eyes rolled on their own. “I’d like to talk with you for a bit, dear Heracles, if you’re not too busy.”
“I’m in the middle of a job.”
“Your father mentioned that before throwing me out his window, yes,” Marius hummed, but Jonny could just hear the grin on his crewmate’s face. “By the way – hi, Jonny!”
“Fuck off, Marius,” Jonny huffed. “ I ’m having fun with this guy right now.”
“Oh, I can see how much fun you’re having, yes,” Marius teased. “Were the ropes your idea or his?”
Jonny let out a growl and was just about to tear Marius a new one, when Heracles beat him to it.
“This is very entertaining, but I do have to be going,” he said, sidestepping Marius.
“Ooh, muzzle,” Marius chuckled at Jonny’s expense when the two locked eyes, before falling into step with the other man. “So, as a child, born out of wedlock, how did you feel when your father massacred your legitimate family?”
Heracles stopped and turned to stare at Marius.
“What is wrong with you?”
“I’m glad you asked!” Marius smiled, then pulled a folded piece of paper out of his coat pocket and held it out. “I put together a list a while back, if you’d like to take a look.”
They stayed in complete silence for a long moment, before Heracles decided to keep on walking.
“Okay then,” Marius continued, undeterred, putting the piece of paper back into the pocket, “what about these latest tasks, then? You know – quite intimately, might I add – what it’s like to lose everyone you’ve ever loved, and yet you continue to spread that pain to others, because Daddy Dearest asked you to.”
“I didn’t hear a question,” Hercules grumbled.
“Yeah, me neither,” Jonny said.
“Why?”
Hercules sighed. “Why what?”
“Why are you still doing all of it?” Marius expanded. “You’ve got nothing left to lose. Might as well sock Zeus in the face and be done with it.”
Heracles remained quiet.
“Unless…” the not-doctor began. “Unless you still have something to lose.”
Now that made Heracles stop in his tracks.
“You care about what Zeus thinks about you,” Marius stated.
“Shut up.”
“Even after what he’s done to your family, you’re his favoured son.”
“Shut. Up.”
“Wow, you can’t bear the thought of someone else becoming Daddy’s favourite boy, can you?”
“I said shut up!” Heracles yelled out, gripping Jonny with both hands and chucking him violently at Marius.
“And we’ll definitely have to address those anger issues of yours,” the violinist hummed, stepping to the side, Jonny flying right by him and landing on a pile of bin bags. “Have you thought of getting yourself a hobby?”
“Thanks for the catch, arsehole,” Jonny groaned from his spot on the ground.
“Oh, you’re very welcome,” Marius sent a grin his way, before quickly turning on his heel to avoid Heracles’ heavily projected punch.
Jonny looked around for anything that might help him out of the ropes, and found a shard of glass lying not too far from him. He started worming over.
“While we’re on the topic of catching, Heracles,” Marius went on, “did you really think Zeus would be impressed with you, if you immediately said you were guilty after getting arrested? Because let me tell you, there were a lot of jokes shared at your expense among the Olympians that night.”
Heracles grabbed a wooden cart and picked it off the ground like it weighed nothing. With a battle cry, he threw it at Marius. Narrowly missing him once more, the cart was now rolling towards Jonny at an alarming speed, but the downed pirate managed to clear its path in the last possible moment.
“I should know, I was there,” Marius giggled. “I was drinking wine with Dionysus and his two pets. Orpheus and Narcissus they called themselves, I think.”
“Narcissus?” Jonny called out, sawing at the rope over his wrists with the finally-acquired glass shard. “Why does that sound familiar…”
“Oh, I’ll let TS tell you that,” Marius said. “Don’t want to spoil too much at the moment.”
He turned back towards a raging Heracles.
“And you ,” he said to the man, “know Orpheus, right? I think Zeus mentioned sending you on a job with him…”
Heracles growled.
“Hmm,” Marius hummed. “I’m sensing some animosity between the two of you. D’you want to talk about that?”
The near-Olympian jumped at Marius, who had apparently run out of luck at that point. The ropes around Jonny’s ankles finally went slack, too, as he sawed all the way through, and he looked up, just to see Marius propped high in the air, choking on nothing as his throat was threatened to get crushed.
“You know,” Jonny said, standing up and finally pulling off that damned muzzle, “I like peace and quiet, too, sometimes, but that just seems like a bit much, don’t you think?”
He pulled out his trusty six-piece and aimed it at Heracles, turning off the safety.
“Put him down.”
Heracles stilled, eyes trained on the revolver. After a moment, he seemed to come to a decision, and let go of the violinist. Marius fell down, hard.
“ Ouch ,” he whined at the ground, like it had offended him, personally.
“Oh, get up, Marius,” Jonny said with a roll of his eyes.
Marius grumbled something about no one appreciating his free counselling sessions, but made his way over to Jonny anyway.
“Now, if I remember correctly,” Jonny mused, “I promised that I’d kill you.”
“You also promised to bite something off me,” Heracles supplied.
“Don’t worry, there’s still time for that,” Jonny laughed. “Wait, no – what exactly are you playing at, here?”
Heracles paused. Shrugged.
“Dunno, really. Didn’t think this far ahead.”
Jonny rolled his eyes once more, and pulled the trigger.
The gun clicked dry.
“What? I swear I reloaded it just earlier,” Jonny frowned, opening up the cylinder and finding five more bullets inside. “Huh, just the one missing…”
He looked up at the hunkering man standing before them, confused.
“I guess the Narrative has spoken,” the singer sighed, closing up the cylinder and putting the gun back into its holster. “You get to live. Today.”
Marius looked at Heracles, and his eyes glimmered.
“Dibs!” he called out, excited.
“We don’t even know what’s going to happen, Marius,” Jonny muttered.
“Whatever it is, I’m calling dibs on him,” Marius responded with a somewhat concerning grin. “Besides, I’ve gotten my hands on some footage of his meetings with Zeus, and I’m fairly certain we can at least make a backstory song.”
Jonny shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Heracles’ patience finally wore thin: “What in Olympus are you two talking about?!”
“Speaking of, would you rather your song be called Bloodied Hands or Herculean Task?” Marius asked the man, his face completely serious.
“What? I-I don’t… What?”
“Hmm, not as helpful as I’d thought,” the not-doctor hummed. “Jonny?”
“I think Bloodied Hands is a bit too forward?” he answered, deep in thought. “It seems like it would chip away at the guts of the song.”
“So you prefer Herculean Task?”
“I mean, out of the two? Yeah.”
“I’m honestly not really sold on Herculean Task, though. Doesn’t have that… spark .”
“We can still workshop this,” Jonny offered, “maybe someone’ll come up with a better title.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Heracles called out, his confusion giving way to anger once more.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Marius sing-songed.
Heracles charged towards them with a cry, and Jonny immediately pulled out his gun. Two shots rang out, slicing cleanly through Heracles’ right thigh and left ankle, making the man collapse onto the ground, howling in pain.
Jonny walked over and kicked him in the face for good measure, the man falling unconscious after the fact.
“Now,” Jonny said, “help me drag him down to Ashes. Maybe they’ll have a clue about what to do with him.”
“Erm, no thanks,” Marius saluted. “ You were the one who waited this long before breaking out of the ropes, and he looks heavy.”
“I’m your captain,” Jonny hissed, “and you’ll do as I say.”
“First mate, actually,” Marius smiled, “aaand no.”
Jonny growled.
“You know,” Marius mused, “maybe I’ll help if you admit to being the first mate…”
“Never.”
“Aww,” Marius whined, “we’ll make you say it some day.”
“Nope, I’m taking this to my non-existent grave. Now grab his legs. If whats-his-name wakes up on our way down, you can still bore him to death with another one of your ‘sessions’.”
“Well, when you put it like that~” Marius chirped, grabbing onto the man.
“Hades,” the man started, kneeling in the centre of the room, his hands and ankles bound behind his back, a mocking reflection of Jonny’s earlier state. “I guess you managed to catch me.”
He threw a glance over at Jonny, who was leaning on a wall, right beside the door. Ashes had asked him to stay there, just in case the guy chose to run away. And boy , did he hope that would happen again.
He’d tried to escape once already, and Jonny had decided to make good on the ‘biting something off’ promise. The ear he’d torn off hadn’t exactly been tasty , but Jonny had to keep the fucker alive, so an arm or a leg hadn’t really been an option. Damnit, he could've taken a finger.
“And who exactly are you?” Ashes asked, their voice echoing in the chamber. “You seem familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on where I’ve seen you before…”
“My name is Heracles,” the man – right, Heracles, Jonny had already forgotten on the long way back down – answered. “I was sent here by Zeus to fetch your dog.”
Ashes raised a dignified eyebrow, not quite catching on.
Jonny took pity on them. “Woof.”
The quartermaster looked over and huffed out a laugh. They turned back towards Heracles, smile still present on their face.
“Zeus sent you here for him, you say?”
“He’s been sending me on jobs to -”
“I’ve heard, yes.”
“Well, this was to be the last,” Heracles said, tone defeated, head bowing down after he spoke. “But I know there’ll be more. If you’re going to kill me for this trespass, I’d be grateful if you could just get it over with.”
A heavy silence stretched on, but Jonny could see something of a plan forming in Ashes’ eyes.
“I can see that you’re tired,” they started. “Tired of the jobs, tired of exploitation, but .”
Heracles looked up to meet their gaze.
“If you do one thing for me, then I think I can get you enough money to pay Zeus’ debt.”
The man’s brow scrunched down low, disbelief evident on his face.
“I have a friend who’s planning something big, and I think he might have some use of you,” they told him. “I’ll have my staff prepare a written contract. Once you sign it, you’re free to leave.”
“And if I don’t?” Heracles asked, just to be difficult, in Jonny’s humble opinion.
“If you don’t, my dog ,” at this, they motioned towards Jonny with their head, “gets a new chew toy.”
Heracles looked over, and Jonny made sure to make a show of grinning wide and licking over his sharpest teeth. The man turned a shade paler, and it made a nice contrast to the line of blood running down his chin from where an ear once sat.
“Alright. Give me the papers.”