44. Medusa

Z eus's saggy ball sack, we did it. I tried not to scream when we won. I was over two thousand years old. If Pepper Crane could have the decorum to just sit there looking pleased, I could, too. It was the last thing on the agenda today, so we had the press conference next.

Pepper rounded us up to walk us out. Saul and Hannibal were whispering like hens to the three other Gold Party members. The other three weren't as high profile as Saul. My fury sisters surrounded me.

"If you want to unleash on them in front of the cameras, we aren't going to stop you," Tisiphone said.

"They profit off exploiting the weak. This is textbook fury," Megaera said.

"No one is going to get mad if you get a little fury on the other Gold Party members, even though I don't sense they've bought women. They're still complicit in hurting our kind," Alecto said.

"I'm a fury now, but I was Athena's priestess first. We couldn't have pulled that off without her. I'm still a little mad at her, but she's still brilliant, and I remembered something. Athena is about justice, but she's also a master strategist."

"Now, a fury-Athena team up is something I can get behind," Persephone said. "You've been bugging since those two started talking. Spill."

"The Coalition, or at least Hannibal, is selling some of the younger succubae they get with some of the angel tears to keep them from fighting back. Saul has one."

"Piece of shit. Don't tell my husband. He takes that kind of thing seriously because of his brother. If he finds out before you've done whatever devious plan you've got in mind, he's going to explode and this place is going to get filled with ghosts."

"Remind your fucking husband this is our domain, love. What did you have in mind, Medusa?"

"My other halves were in Pepper's office. I asked them to do something about it. Cas has a whole network. That includes FBI agents. They are searching Saul's house, but Jezebel gave a few pointers and they are looking in Hannibal's house, too, because that's probably where he's keeping the records.

"Cas said they are going to find the women first and then they are going to try to make an example of them. Then we can do the fury thing. I want to use them first to show the people they are the real enemy."

They all laughed and hugged me.

"I do love you. You know that, right?" Persephone said.

"Right back at you."

We got to the podium. Saul and Hannibal had already crashed and were spreading nonsense about how this was a dark day for Americans. It was a lot of horse shit and my inner fury really wanted to be released. I was restraining her because now wasn't the time.

A werewolf appeared behind us and tipped an imaginary hat to Megaera.

"I'd love your number later, but I have to work. Shit heads gonna shit."

He made a hand signal and suddenly the stage was swarming with men and women. They were all supernatural, but no one but other supernaturals would know that. A bear shifter tackled Saul. Hannibal had changed his pants, but shit himself again when a Redcap tackled him. The Redcap jumped back in horror.

"Argh! Ye fucking shat on me, ye walloper! Why aren't ye wearing a diaper, we radge wee shite?"

Capitol police jumped into action and there was a full brawl on the steps. Pepper dodged a fist and came to stand with us. She was just so tiny and pocket-sized. Dionysus, Hades, and Hephaestus stepped in front of us just in case. They were bullet proof.

"What in actual hell is going on right now?" Pepper yelled.

"So, we're furies, right?"

"Yes. I took Greek Mythology freshman year of college. Why are you inciting these men?"

I had to explain that we weren't, and those men were actually the FBI here to arrest Saul and Hannibal for breaking the law. They'd just kind of done a shit job at identifying themselves because they were working out some rage on these two men.

Man, Pepper Crane was my hero. She was barely five feet tall, but she calmly walked through the FBI trying to arrest Saul and Hannibal and the Capitol Police who somehow didn't realize they were being arrested not kidnapped, and grabbed the microphone.

"Everyone, freeze!"

Ever heard ‘grandma' voice? Like when you were being a total shit and Grandma was just sick of it? It was a step above ‘mom' voice because grandma had decades more experience and had seen some shit. Some people had never pushed their grandmothers to that point, but it was straight up terrifying if you did.

Everyone literally just stopped what they were doing and froze, even the supernaturals who could have been older than Pepper by a few centuries.

"I just got some intel, so basically all of you need to show Capitol Police your badges since you aren't wearing anything to identify you and then whoever is in charge needs to get up here and tell everyone why you just made a high-profile arrest in the middle of my press conference."

My other mates were still watching from Pepper's office and I could hear them laughing through the bond.

"Lucky is in charge. He's from our village and we watched him grow up. He grew up in a matriarchal pack and his grandmother is the alpha. She's a fierce she-wolf and I'm damned sure Pepper Crane just channeled her," Cas chuckled.

"Pretty sure Lucky was channeling a hellhound when he was a teenager. He heard that voice pretty often."

The FBI finally pulled their badges out and Capitol Police stopped playing tug of war with Saul and Hannibal and dropped them at their feet. I don't think anyone wanted to touch Hannibal at this point. He was still drinking the super laxative Benji tricked him into drinking, but refused to take basic precautions in case things got explosive and they had, twice now.

Lucky was apparently the massive werewolf with enough bravado to hit on a fury. He wasn't disrespectful and Megaera seemed into it, so none of us were going to get offended on her behalf.

I was trying not to laugh when he sheepishly came forward and joined Pepper at the podium.

"Sorry, ma'am. You don't know what we found at their houses."

"I was briefed by the people who tipped you off. Don't tell me. Tell all the people who were forced to watch this mess when they wanted commentary of this frankly revolutionary law we just passed."

Humans couldn't tell the difference between us and them, but we could. Pepper wouldn't have known Lucky was a wolf, but Lucky would have known she was human. Pepper would have known Lucky was massive and gave off a dangerous air. She also knew he was a trained FBI agent, and she was about to box his ears in front of the entire country.

He was adorably chastised and when I looked over, it seemed like Megaera was having a bit of a panty-melting moment about it. Lucky was a professional, though, and quickly composed himself.

He explained the furies for the folks who weren't that familiar with us and then he went into mates a little and how one of us was able to send a warning out without a phone or leaving the chamber.

"That was when one of them called me with a tip. Some of you might think a supernatural hunch shouldn't be enough to search someone's house, but it's more than just a hunch for supernaturals. It's not a gut feeling, it's literal magic.

"The furies who were in the room with Saul and Hannibal could see their past, present, and future. They are justice personified. The furies used to be who came for you if the law never did or didn't do what it was supposed to.

"They were within their right to render judgement as soon as they got a read on Hannibal and Saul, but they opted not to because supernaturals aren't mindless creatures. They knew this is bigger than the two of them and innocents would suffer.

"Because the Coalition is selling a certain species of supernaturals to perverts and based on the records we found at Hannibal's house, the Coalition has been doing this a long time. The Coalition is using angel tears to disable their victims. They are selling this to the people they've sold victims to so they can't fight back.

"We know where you are and we're coming, but I've been told black salt will disable the angel tears. Use that to protect yourself and get out if it's not safe for you. But we are coming."

Lucky let the bad guys know they were coming, but he didn't give any spoilers about black salt. Every baby supernatural should know how to make it. There was the gold standard of black salt, but if you were in a pinch, table salt and fireplace ashes would work. Some supernaturals knew that better than others. The women mostly.

"Thank you," Pepper said. "I want to talk about this law we just passed and introduce the people that helped make it happen. They've agreed to answer all your questions. If someone commits a crime, they should absolutely face justice. That means a courtroom and a jury of their peers, not being disappeared and experimented on. Most of you were watching the televised proceedings. If you're just tuning in, this is Dionysus, Hades, Persephone, Hephaestus, and Athena, gods from the Greek Pantheon. They've brought the furies with them."

The reporters exploded, and they were all asking questions at once. I couldn't make them out, but getting the fury upgrade didn't do a damned thing for my hearing. Cas and Benji had super hearing and so did gods.

"I hear a lot of you asking what we mean for your religion," Dionysus said. "Not a damned thing. There's always been multiple pantheons. None have it totally right and there are a lot of embellishments, but none are wrong, either. It's always been about intention and belief. It's what you do with it."

"We're real, but so are the other gods," Athena said. "Our existence shouldn't negate your belief. There's an ebb and flow to this. We came forward because this is wrong, not to gather followers. As I said in the chambers, I believe the angels went rogue when they started this. They are supernatural creatures just like the ones they turned you against, but they are also believers.

"Supernaturals are also an insurance policy for gods. Supernaturals live a lot longer than humans and are a lot harder to kill. Gods waste away when people stop believing in them. The old gods are still alive because supernaturals kept them alive and eventually modern humans started paying homage.

"Supernaturals from various ages believe in different gods. Some of them go to your churches and some are religious leaders there. This almost seems like an attack on Yahweh. If a vast community thinks he's turned humans against them like this, they'd stop believing. It would prevent future generations from believing and that includes humans. It's a slow death for a god and if you completely remove supernaturals from the equation, then it's how a god could die. We don't know why the angels came down and started the Coalition, but that's an angle to consider."

Ugh. Fuck me. It was getting really hard to stay mad at Athena. Because that was an angle I hadn't considered and it gave the humans something to pawn the blame off on. They could also rally behind us. We might not need to fight the angels because Athena took care of that.

The reporters had a lot of questions for Hades about what happened after you die. He didn't ruin anyone's religion and just explained you went to the afterlife of your pantheon, which everyone seemed to get. We answered a lot of questions. Some of the human reporters were up and up on their Greek mythology and wanted to know why there were four furies, so I outed myself as Medusa.

Before we left, Pepper pulled us aside.

"I meant it. I insist you all come for dinner. I have a million questions and there's going to be a lot of fallout from this. Your polar bear has access to a network I don't and all of those people need help getting back to their loved ones. If Medusa is still alive, then there's no telling how long the Coalition has had some of those people. Some of them might be overwhelmed with the modern world. We need to make sure they have resources."

We did. Hera's tits, we were doing this.