The late night darkness was suddenly dispelled by a singular flash of brilliance. The light sizzled and expanded into a large sphere before exploding soundlessly and leaving two figures standing in the dewy grass of an endless and rolling meadow. Mega-Girl was in her red one-piece costume, wavy blonde hair falling to the middle of her back mingling with a plump duffle bag slung over her shoulder. Next to her was the imposing figure of Apollo, garbed in his gleaming armors of leather and gold. His spear was housed in a harness at his back and the bow of Minerva was secured there as well.
"Oh shit...!" Mega-Girl immediately doubled over and vomited onto the ground, the disorientation of teleporting halfway across the world disagreeing with her stomach.
Apollo glanced at her as though the reaction was not unexpected, "Thy nausea will pass quickly."
She spit out the last of her sickness and wiped a sleeve across her lips. "You could have warned me," she glared. Then, looking to her left, Mega-Girl spotted a collection of crumbling stone pillars arranged in a circle on the grassy plain.
"Wait, you teleported us to Stonehenge?" she asked, recognizing the ancient and famous British landmark.
"Aye," Apollo responded in a bland baritone voice. He began moving towards the massive stones.
Mega-Girl walked after him, "When you said you needed to take us to the conduit between planes I assumed it would be in Greece, or Rome?"
"When my father first traveled to this plane three thousand years ago he arrived here, in Britannia, at this very place. He constructed this arrangement of stones to carry him back. Their power has not faltered through the millennia and will serve us equally as well."
"You're saying Zeus is the one who created Stonehenge?"
Apollo glanced at her and nodded, "Aye."
She laughed ironically, "People have been trying to solve the puzzle of Stonehenge's origins for centuries and all this time you've known the truth?"
"There is much in the universe the mortals of this plane do not understand," Apollo moved towards the center of the stone pillars, "It is not my duty to enlighten them."
Mega-Girl ignored Apollo's elitist words, "Kind of risky coming here at night, isn't it? Given that you lose your powers when not in the sun?"
"I do not lose my powers in the darkness," Apollo countered defensively, "They are simply weakened."
"Probably for the best we came now," Mega-Girl commented as she stepped beside him, "This place must be crawling with tourists during the day. So how does this work... you speak a magic word and we suddenly teleport to the dimension of the gods? I'm not going to throw up again, am I?"
Apollo answered her by spreading his arms wide and closing his eyes. He began speaking in a language Mega-Girl didn't understand or recognize, though it sounded vaguely similar to what little Latin she had heard spoken. It wasn't but a few moments into Apollo's gesturing when filaments of white light began flowing out of Stonehenge's pillars towards the pair. Like tendrils crawling through the air they began to weave around Apollo and Mega-Girl, forming a sphere of light that eventually enveloped them completely.
There was a sudden and loud noise that began, like static, and Mega-Girl had to shout in order to hear her own voice. "What's happening?" she yelled, clutching at Apollo's muscled arm and shielding her eyes with a wrist against all-consuming light.
"Brace thyself!" he hollered back.
A crack of thunder erupted so loud that Mega-Girl feared it damaged her invulnerable ear drums. The sound came from outside the sphere of light, which was the only thing Mega-Girl could see. More intense sound followed, like a vacuum mixed with a blender. She tried yelling again but couldn't hear her own voice, so Mega-Girl simply clung to Apollo's arm and shut her eyes against the event.
A second clap of thunder sounded, heralding an end to the chaos. Mega-Girl heard other voices and opened her eyes to find herself standing on a cobblestone avenue, both of her arms curled around Apollo's broad bicep. The sun was bright in the sky and people dressed in fashions that appeared archaic were all looking and pointing at the pair. Mega-Girl didn't understand what they were saying but it was obvious that some of them recognized Apollo because she heard his name spoken amidst the gibberish.
"That was intense," she finally remarked.
"You can release thy sturdy grip," Apollo spoke quietly, "We have safely arrived within Olympus."
Mega-Girl blushed beneath her mask and released Apollo's arm, casting her gaze all around and noting the columned architecture of marble and stone buildings, wondering if she and Apollo had traveled back in time to ancient Greece. "This is unbelievable," she whispered.
Apollo looked around as well. "Little has changed in two thousand years," he noted.
"You haven't been back here in two thousand years?" Mega-Girl sounded surprised.
"My father and I had a disagreement."
"Must have been quite a disagreement," Mega-Girl commented dryly.
Apollo lifted a casual shoulder, "I prefer thy world."
The crowd around them began to grow, though they kept their distance from the pair. Mega-Girl noticed they looked no different from people on Earth, with equally varied tones of skin and hair color. The only difference was their clothing, which looked like something copied straight out of a period movie about gladiators.
"Come," Apollo took Mega-Girl's hand in his own, "We should find my brother, he has invited us to stay at his estate while conducting our business."
"Which one? Don't you have a bunch of brothers?"
"Aye, but Hermes is mine favorite."
A massive grin suddenly decorated Mega-Girl's face beneath her mask, "You're going to introduce me to Hermes? This is so cool."
=======
Travis knocked on the apartment door and tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for someone to answer. He was dressed in a casual pair of jeans and a charcoal hoody that was soaked from rain, as he had walked from his dorm to the off-campus building.
"Travis?" Jordan looked surprised to see him after opening the door.
She was scantily clad in a pair of shorts and a baby-doll tee, her dyed burgundy hair clasped behind her in a long pony tail. Travis couldn't help but notice her shapely tan legs but reminded himself he was there to see Penny..
"What are you doing out in the rain?" she wondered in a concerned tone, "It's pouring outside!"
Travis pulled the hood off his head, revealing a mess of brown hair, "Tell me about it."
Jordan grabbed him by the wrist and pulled Travis inside, closing the door. "Take your hoody off," she ordered, "I'll find you a towel to dry off with."
Travis unzipped the cotton garment and hung it on a coat tree while Jordan briefly disappeared towards the apartment's bedroom hallway. He pushed a hand through his tousled hair trying to straighten it out.
Jordan returned with a big bath towel in hand and saw that Travis' tee shirt and jeans were soaked through as well. "Look at you," she worried, gesturing, "Take those off too."
Travis raised a brow.
"You don't need to be modest," she reminded, "I've already seen you in your underwear."
Travis recalled the morning he found Penny's Mega-Girl costume and grinned. He pulled his tee shirt over his head before kicking his shoes off and unbuttoning his pants.
Jordan cleared her throat at the sight of Travis' leanly muscled and smooth torso. She silently cursed the fact that her roommate had made a claim to such a sexy guy before she had a chance. "Here," she held out the towel, trading it for his wet clothes and trying not to look, "I'll go put your stuff in the dryer."
"I take it Penny's not here?" Travis ran the towel over his head first.
"She left yesterday," Jordan said, grabbing his dripping hoody as well.
"Left?" he wondered.
"I'll be right back, laundry's down the hall."
Travis nodded at her and continued to dry himself off. He was unsure what to do with the towel afterwards and decided to go to the bathroom and hang it over the shower curtain. As he walked out of the bathroom Jordan was returning as well.
She closed the door and secured a chain lock, "Your stuff should be dry in about twenty. So, what made you brave the weather? Did you come looking for Penny?"
"Yeah. You said she left last night? Where did she go?"
"That's a long story," Jordan exhaled, dropping herself onto an 'L' shaped couch where a pair of textbooks lay open on a nearby coffee table.
"Mega-Girl stuff?" Travis assumed.
"Yep," Jordan replied, closing her books and setting them aside. She didn't want to alarm Travis by telling him that his ex-girlfriend had run away to another dimension with a Greek god. Or was he Roman? Jordan could never remember.
Travis joined her on the couch, "When will she be back?"
"I'm not sure," Jordan answered honestly, "But I thought you guys broke up?"
"We did," Travis sighed, "But ever since I've been trying to figure out how to date a superhero. I mean, I've got to be a complete idiot for dumping Mega-Girl, right? Every guy in the world has got a crush on her."
"I don't think you're an idiot, Travis. Don't get me wrong, I love Penny to death, but it's difficult enough being her roommate. I worry about her all the time and I'm always wondering if some revenge-crazed super villain is going to suddenly crash through the wall and kill me."
Travis wondered, "Do you think you could date a superhero?"
Jordan shook her head, "No way. Not after finding out about all the crazy shit Penny has gotten herself into over the last year. But I'm not you; I'm frustratingly single. You're the one with a costumed ex-girlfriend, so the question really should be if you can date a superhero?"
"I don't know."
"Do you love her?"
Travis glanced at Jordan's simple question, "I don't know that, either. I was definitely falling for her really hard, but we didn't date that long."
"You seem like a really great guy," Jordan told him, her tone fond, "Which is why I'm going to tell you this... Penny was crushed after you broke up with her. I know she really likes you, so I'm pretty sure she'd want to get back together if you did."
"I'm just not sure."
