OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  The boy also came across several people alone or in small groups who were very militant in their stances and ideas. People called them Radicals and Fanatics but Raven liked them best. They were ready to do anything and everything it took to bring down The Man and take down The System. If Ares were here the Radicals would be his kind of people too. Part of Raven felt badly that his Father wasn’t here for this, Ares would enjoy it so much. But, he’d be here soon enough, after the words stopped and war started.

  At first, the Radicals tried to dismiss the boy simply because he was a boy and they thought he could do nothing to further their cause. Raven soon proved them wrong; he was cunning and an excellent strategist just like his Father. And why not? After all, it seemed to him that life in the Mortal World wasn’t all that different from life on Olympus. It was just on a grander scale, up there they played their games and their manipulations to get each other to do what they wanted and down here was no different. Having so much experience with the Olympians, Raven found the Mortals were easily led and just as easily, if not more so, misled.

  It wasn’t long before Raven was pointing out weak points in The System and how to exploit them. The best way to begin wasn’t to protest on and occupy Wall Street but to destroy its tattered remains. His idea was to bring down their computers and their main servers thereby erasing any and all accounts, transactions, and well, just everything. It would wipe out the balances on people’s mortgages and force a redistribution of the wealth they were seeking. Most of all it would be “non-violent”, which still seemed to be in vogue but Raven felt that would soon change. The Radicals salivated over the idea of bringing down all of the digital systems of Wall Street. When Raven said he could pull it off if they gave him the shot.

  Raven was far from a computer genius although he did enjoy the Internet and found it an extremely useful tool. He was amazed by the way that the Mortals used to ‘tweet’ and organize themselves using a strange type of slang. It was nearly the equivalent of the Olympians’ ability to communicate telepathically. He didn’t have to know anything about the inner workings of the Digital Age to accomplish this task. The boy simply waited until way past dark when the Wall Street workers had gone home, he snuck past the police by materializing in the buildings using his powers of teleportation. Once inside the server rooms Raven summoned his power of ice and froze them solid until they were brittle then he lobbed energy balls at them, watching the metal shatter and the electronics inside fry to hell. By the time he left each server room there was nothing left but broken shards of once pricey computers and mainframes. The Radicals never questioned him again, instead they easily fell under his leadership and he gave them a new name; American Revolutionaries Enforcing Sovereignty.

  Publically, The United States Government called it an act of Cyber Terrorism, saying the servers had been hacked and erased. They didn’t want to frighten an already agitated public by telling them people had been able to sneak into each high security room undetected by a single witness or security camera to destroy the equipment.

  The American Revolutionaries Enforcing Sovereignty declared victory and reasserted their demands for change. When they were called Domestic Terrorists by the government and all communications were shut off between the two, Raven did the same thing to the mainframes to every single major bank on the globe.

  In a single night, all of the world’s money disappeared into the abyss of cyberspace. All bills wiped out, no more mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, or student loans for Joe Average to worry about any longer.

  Of course, there weren’t any more pensions, 401ks, IRAs, savings, checking accounts, or CD’s left either. But, who cared about a little thing like that when the big picture was now so much brighter? Money was now obsolete.

  Caught off-guard and in a hurry to react to show force and strength, the governments of the world sent in their police forces and militaries with prejudice to disperse the swelling crowds of people, shots rang out on both sides from New York City to Moscow, Tokyo, and Sydney. When tanks and heavy artillery rolled in an effort to maintain Martial Law, a rain of hellfire in the form of homemade napalm met with equal prejudice. Again, the Internet was a dream, the simple recipe for napalm zipped around the world like lightning. Accompanying it was a particularly nasty, yet oh so simple, recipe for making Chlorine Gas along with extremely effective methods of delivery.

  With the Internet a major threat to what was left of order in the world, China tried to institute its own lockdown but, like most of the other governments, it vastly underestimated its people’s strengths, intelligence, and most of all their desire for freedom from oppression. When the Internet went down in Beijing, seventy-five thousand people flooded out of their homes. With Raven at the head of the crowd the angry tsunami of people crashed into Tiananmen Square where the result was much different than it had been in 1989. In Taipei nearly every resident of the island took to the street with whatever they could find, with their rage to spur them on, and they didn’t stop until they reached, entered, and completely trashed, the Presidential Building.

  Other countries again attempted to follow China’s lead and shut down the Internet but the results were the same all across the globe. Even those who remained neutral so long stood up to proclaim their voices would be heard. Freedom of Speech would endure. Joe Average would NOT allow The Man to disconnect them from each other. With each attempt governments made to control their citizens, the more people rushed to join the American Revolutionaries Enforcing Sovereignty until there was no more middle ground—you were either one of them or you weren’t. The time for talk was over and the time for action was upon them.

  All over the world, daily, acts of civil terrorism became commonplace within a matter of weeks. Government buildings blew up in broad daylight. In the United States, targets of special interest were the Department of Motor Vehicles and all its branches in every state. Running a close second was Your Town Hall located in Your City USA with a few brave instances of State Capitols blowing to bits. The governments of the world, both big and small, never realized how powerful or determined Joe Average could be until it all fell to shit on them. Soon they understood that while they had the artillery, the tanks, the guns, the tear gas, Joe Average had sheer numbers on his side. Joe Average was a lean, mean, fighting machine that would not be stopped by something as insignificant as a tank rolling down Main Street any longer. Not now when they were suddenly armed to the teeth with rocket launchers and landmines they were no longer afraid to use.

  Day by day, the American Revolutionaries Enforcing Sovereignty in the United States grew closer to its Holy Grail, Washington, DC. When it fell, the Domino Theory would be proven as every other country’s capital fell after it. On the way to that ultimate goal, many special stops were made at the homes and bunkers of those who had once been rich and powerful. Those who hoarded their wealth or sent their company’s jobs overseas to let the US economy falter were systematically rooted out and executed in ways most befitting their greed, much like in the movie Seven. All of it brought to the salivating throngs of the world in full gruesome digital color and sound via the Internet. Technology provided the irate Mortals with a new Roman Coliseum in which the American Revolutionaries Enforcing Sovereignty were the Brave and Righteous Gladiators. The Slain deserving of their end having been found to be Ruling Members of an Unjust and Oppressive Empire. All of those millions of Internet hits the bloodthirsty Spectators gathered to cheer them on.

  Earlier this year, nearly four years after it all began, the American Revolutionaries Enforcing Sovereignty reached their goal; a heavily guarded and armed Washington, DC. Raven was front and center with the others behind him when President Patricia Sackheimer was shot dead in the Oval Office along with Vice President Harold Potts, the Cabinet and the White House staff. Once dead, they were beheaded, their heads, faces frozen in eternal horror, stuck on the fence posts along Pennsylvania Avenue as a warning to all those who would seek to hold down Joe Average.
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br />   So there’s be no mistaking who was responsible they left their calling card on the wall of the Oval Office in President Sackheimer’s blood.

  Mere hours later, the rest of the World’s Leader began fleeing their offices and even their countries in search of safe haven. Those rats fleeing their sinking ships found no safety, no haven, instead they were engulfed by the cold tidal wave they created and cut down by the people they were supposed to serve.

  Freed of tyranny and oppression but with no governments in place and no one to lead them, pandemonium reigned supreme as the Us and Them atmosphere became even narrower and people gathered together in factions behind thick walls. Whereas once Joe Average had their outrage and enemies to bind them together, spurring them on as they fought for a world with more equality, now Joe Average had nothing but the aftermath of his own destruction. Finding ways to put it all back together was no simple task.

  That was where Raven left them just over a month ago.

  A lot can happen in 30 days.

  Chapter Thirteen

  While You Were Sleeping

  Not wanting anyone to know what he was up to, every night since the Bacchanalia, Ares and Rose crept into bed with Alena. He’d snatched the sleeping girl from her bed, away from her toys, and her tea parties, lay her next to her Mother while he wrapped his arms around both of them. Each night, within moments that fiery tornado appeared whipping out of the fireplace to engulf Alena. This morning when he awoke with her in his arms, Ares though she looked better, younger even. He would continue doing it until one night those beautiful stormy eyes of hers would flutter open and she would look up at him and smile the way she once did every morning they awoke together. So far, that had yet to happen but Ares felt certain the time was near and Alena was getting stronger.

  However, it was not without its price. Every night he took Alena up in his arms and let the fire within him fly free his cock raged. It stood to full painful attention roaring at him to plant it to the hilt into the woman in his arms. Every night he fought it back but it was getting harder and soon, he feared, he wouldn’t be able to control himself.

  As a result, he wandered around his Fortress during the day in a darker mood than usual snapping at anyone unlucky enough to come with his line of sight or earshot.

  While the other women walked on eggshells around the grumpy God of War, Jilios, Princess of the Nymphs, those succulent sensual creatures, quietly observed and listened to the frustration in his voice. Morpheus told her that Ares was unlikely to have engaged in sex since Alena took her trip down the stairs and he was certain that, by now, Ares would be unable to resist such a young, hot, piece of ass. He wanted her to seduce Father and Son, lulling both of them into trusting her so that their lips would become loose and they might offer up juicy little secrets during pillow talk. That was fine with her because Jilios wanted Raven for her own. So, when Morpheus originally came to her with his proposal she jumped at the chance even though it pissed off her mother who was trying to reserve her luscious daughter for Apollo.

  If Raven had been anywhere near conscious when he returned from the Underworld Jilios would have had a better chance at gaining trust and information. Raven just slept, but in his long sleep he grunted and groaned, he mumbled and murmured in his sleep about his dead Sister, Trinity, and his living Sister, Rose. Something down in the Mortal World seemed to be bothering him; sometimes when he stammered about it he made little explosion sounds that frightened her. Other times his full lips would pucker as though he were trying to kiss someone. To her horror, at those times, Raven mumbled his Mother’s name in the soft tones of a lover rather than a Son. Not much of it made any sense but she sat and quietly listened as he dreamed.

  Quite literally, Jilios tried to pump more than just information out of Raven who, like any other young stud, got several hard-ons in his sleep. She’d ride him like a jockey in the Kentucky Derby racing the wind on the back of a thoroughbred bounding for the finish line. While he seemed to enjoy these encounters and his body saw them through to their natural end, Raven didn’t wake, but his lips did a get a little looser and she was able to pull tidbits of information out of him along with his spunk.

  During the day, Jilios watched Ares from those corners and shadows, forming her plan of attack but it was little Rose who really drew her attention. When the girl wasn’t attached to her Father whom it was clear she adored, Rose was in her room where the women said she loved to have pretend tea parties. Thinking she would join in for a few moments to gain the little girl’s trust and try to communicate with her, Jilios went up to Rose’s room. She raised her hand to knock the closed door but then heard voices inside. At first, she thought one of the women was in there but they were all downstairs. Then she thought Rose was imagining her teddy bears and dolls talking to her but the voices differed and they were very clearly spoken although the heavy wood door muffled the words. Opening the door just a crack, she saw the droopy-faced half-wit sitting at her tiny table with her fine china tea set pouring water into the cups set for each toy. She was chit-chatting away in a very soft but high-pitched voice, nearly singing, as her strawberry head bopped from side to side with a carefree smile. “Soon, soon, soon,” she said in that singsong voice. “The moon, moon, moon, will shine, under its silvery light, with just one kiss, you’ll be mine, mine, mine.”

  Across the table, Jilios heard titters of laughter from several unseen sources, a tinkling sound like a small bell pealed and then strands of glitter floated through the air from just out of her line of sight. Rose giggled with delight and sipped the make believe tea in her delicate cup. Wanting a better look, Jilios pushed on the door a bit harder than she expected and stumbled into the room. The laughter stopped and the glitter dropped to the floor. Rose looked up at her with an angry expression. “Sorry,” Jilios mumbled, “I meant to knock but it opened. Having a tea party, are you? Can I join?” She looked around the room to see Rose placed three teddy bears and three porcelain dolls in the chairs across from her. Each had a full cup sitting upon a fine matching saucer and three cookies in front of them. They seemed ordinary enough but still she had the creeping feeling someone suddenly departed the room, it made her hair stand on end and her blood run cold.

  “No,” Rose huffed, folded her little arms over her chest, and then turned her back on Jilios.

  Looking around again to see that nearly everything was in place except for a few articles of clothing and board games scattered on the floor Jilios thought it best to make a graceful exit. “Sorry if I disturbed you,” she didn’t look at Rose instead her eyes wandered upward around the ceiling. “We’ll play another time.” Careful to leave the door slightly ajar, Jilios left Rose’s room but the little girl didn’t resume talking to her toys or whomever might have been in the room.

  On the third night of Raven’s three-night slumber, Jilios planned how she was going to seduce the God of War while Raven slept. She had a very long shower, after which she smoothed honeysuckle lotion all over her sun kissed flesh and slipped into a sheer nightgown she found in the Master Bedroom. The flimsy nude colored material hugged her ample young breasts holding them up at though they were resting on a platter while it clung to her trim waist and flat stomach ending just past the hump of her ass.

  She sat in the dark and waited until she heard the door down the hall open. “Show time,” the young Nymph whispered to her reflection in the mirror. She took a deep breath and then cornered Ares just as he came out of the bedroom everyone thought he was sleeping in. With a shy smile and wide eyes, she sauntered up to him nearly naked in her skimpy nightgown. When Ares asked why she wasn’t tending Raven she told him she was bored, he was sleeping, and she was lonely. She bit down on her bottom lip before having the nerve to reach out and lay her hand on his muscular chest, right over the medallion Alena once wore. “Aren’t you lonely, Lord Ares? Aren’t you tired of being alone? Let me ease that for you tonight, no one need know. It will just be our little secret.” She raised her index finger to h
er full moist lips, “Shhhhh.”

  “I’ll know,” Ares growled and threw her hands from his brawny body, “just for the record; I don’t screw children. You must be three hundred or more to climb aboard this ride.”

  “I assure you, Lord Ares, I am no child,” Jilios cooed undeterred. Her pretty eyes sparkled at him as her young breasts heaved in his direction. “Let me ease your tensions tonight,” she rose up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, “I promise you’ll like it.” Her breath hot against his sensitive neck she dared to take a taste of the salt on his dark skin. “More than any other woman, I will please you, I’ll free the animal, the wolf, in you and let it run wild all through me.”

  Even though she was beautiful, she was sexy, young, taut, firm, and oh so willing, it pissed him off that she would be so bold when she supposedly belonged to Raven and he was so blatantly married. “I have a Wife, she frees the animal in me better than you ever could.”

  Jilios snickered. “What good has she been to you, My Lord? She sleeps and you go without satisfaction living in a self-imposed prison devoid of any pleasure.”

  A thousand years ago, Ares would have thrown her down where she stood and fucked her good. Made her sorry she offered up such a proposal. Those days were gone and instead he shoved her away so fast and hard that she flew halfway down the corridor and landed on her shapely ass. “Get away from me, harlot, I don’t want my Son’s sloppy seconds.”

  Swiping the back of her hand across her chin to remove the drool that had been forming in the corner of her mouth before he pushed her away, Jilios hissed at him, “Other Olympians would kill for what I’m offering you.”