To Be Continued
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"Don’t be unreasonable son," Aphrodite pleaded with her son, Cupid. "They took something from my temple. They must pay!" he argued. "All they took was some firewood because they had to get back in a hurry, they didn’t mean to offend you. And Cupid, I don’t want you getting sent to Tartarus for harming a son of Zues!" Aphrodite pleaded with Cupid, he could be so unagreeable when even the smallest thing happened and she didn’t want him getting hurt. "I’ll be leaving now, for Zeus to hurt me he’d have to catch me first. I’ll teach those cadets not to disrespect the great Cupid!" the winged god flew moodily away, as if to go to the Academy. But then he paused, "I better make sure my mom’s not up to anything." He turned around and watched Aphrodite from the sky. Aphrodite knew she couldn’t let Cupid do this, she decided to have one of her servants try to persuade him not to do this, maybe Cupid would listen to someone else, if not his own mother. "Penelope, Daphne come here," she yelled. Penelope and Daphne were two young nymphs. Penelope had been helped by Aphrodite once when she had fallen on hard times. Her debt was to be the goddess’ servant and do her bidding until she’d been given permission to leave. "Yes, mistress?" asked the nymphs in unison. "I would like you two to do something for me." "What is it this time?" Daphne mumbled under her breath. She had always been a friend of Penelope and had once tried to free her from Aphrodite’s service. Therefore, she had also been punished. "If you carry out my wishes, I will give you your freedom," Aphrodite said, raising her eyebrows. The nymphs listened carefully as Aphrodite explained what they were to do, more than anything they wanted to be free.
Cupid had been watching Aphrodite and had become very angry. "We’ll see about that, mother!" he said to himself. Then, he flew full speed toward the Academy.
Penelope and Daphne were almost to the Academy. "There’s Cupid!" exclaimed Penelope. He was resting in a field right beyond a cozy looking inn. They walked over to him. "Cupid, wake up! We have an urgent message," said Daphne, tapping him lightly. Cupid awoke with a start. "I know what you’ve come here to do and it won’t work. I will destroy those three unruly cadets. Get out of my sight, or else!" The two nymphs ran as fast as they could, not wanting Cupid to get any angrier than he already was. "Oh, what will we do, if we don’t succeed we might never have freedom!" Penelope cried. "I can’t think when I’m hungry. Do you have any Deanrs?" Asked Daphne. "Yeah, Aphrodite gave them to me so that we could eat. Let’s go into that inn, I’m sure we can get something there."
Drills were over and Lilith, Jason, Iolaus, and Herc came to Kora’s Inn to get something to eat. They were happy to not be eating Academy food. "Well, hello," Herc said as two beautiful girls walked in, "Hey, Iolaus, wanna come with me to welcome the newcomers?" "Huh?" Iolaus hadn’t been listening. "Hercules wants some one to come with him so he’ll look better when he hits on girls," said Jason, laughing, "I guess he’d figured anyone looks better next to you!" said Jason, laughing. "Hey!" said the blue eyed cadet. He turned towards Hercules, "Eh, no thanks, I’m still recovering from the last time I hit on a girl, Herc." "Yeah, well, that was an Amazon, Iolaus, you should of known she wouldn’t like you. They don’t like men, duh!" remarked Jason. "Good point, I’ll come then, they don’t have weapons do they?" asked Iolaus. Hercules and Iolaus walked over to the girls nonchalantly. "Hi, I’m Hercules and this is my friend, Iolaus," He said with a charming smile. The two nymphs looked at each other. This was their chance to tell the cadets about the trouble they were in. They didn’t know that Cupid had followed them in, carrying his magical bow and arrows. "Hi, I’m Daphne, this is Penelope." Said the nymph with a smile. "What a shame I’m on a mission," she though to herself, looking at the two cute cadets. "We have something really important to tell you, I-" Just then Herc uttered a small "Yowch," as one of the invisible arrows hit him. Daphne tried to continue talking but he obviously wasn’t listening. He just gazed lovingly at Daphne. What had gotten into him? "Uh, Herc, heh, I believe these beautiful ladies were Yow-ow-ow," yelled Iolaus. Then, like Herc he began staring into the eyes of Penelope. "Ummm, excuse me?" said Daphne, waving her hand in front of his face. Herc took the hand and kissed it, "You’re eyes are like maple leaves, shining on a spring day," ha said, as if in a trance. This startled the two nymphs, "Excuse me, miss," said Penelope, "could you bring us some cold water?" Kora walked over, "sure," she said, "Yow," a miss aimed arrow hit Kora in the back. "Iolaus," she said, "I’ve never noticed how beautiful you’re eyes are," she commented. "Huh?" the nymphs said, what was going on?
Lilith and Jason were still sitting at the table. "I hate to say it, but I think they succeeded," commented Jason. Lilith laughed, "I wish I could stay to watch but I have an assignment to hand in." "Okay, youch!" said Jason. He sat there looking at Lilith. "You’re really hot, ya know?" "Oh yeah, right," said Lilith, "gotta go." Cupid was still sitting in the corner. He was enjoying himself now. "How ‘bout we have some more fun," he thought, "Now they’ll learn their lesson."
"Ummmm, what happened, Penelope?" asked Daphne. "I have absolutely no idea," exclaimed Penelope, looking at Iolaus, who gazed at her. Kora had still not returned behind the counter, but was commenting frequently on Iolaus’ good qualities. "Well, we have to do something, I mean, Ouch?" said Daphne. She immediately returned Hercules’ gaze.
Lilith walked back towards the Academy, feeling a little woozy. As she neared the Academy, she saw Cheiron. "Cheiron, I’ve never noticed what a handsome man you are, sir," Behind her he saw Jason, "Lilith, I love you!" he yelled. "Something is defintly wrong here," he muttered, but he hadn’t the slightest idea what it was.
Penelope knew she had to do something fast."I'm the only person acting normal around here and I want to know why",she thought, looking over at Herc and Daphne, who were now dancing, and she must have heard everyone of Iolaus' pickup lines by now. She had to talk some sense into them. This was probably one of Cupid's tricks. She walked over to Herc and Daphne and stuck her foot out, tripping Hercules. She than grabbed a nearby bucket of water and splashed it over his head. She shook his shoulder forcefully. His gaze was off(becuz he's a demigod he can resist it better than a mortal) "Who's the funny lookin' guy?" he asked, Penelope looked, but she saw nothing. You're still haluscinating, aren't you?" she said, but remembering that Aphrodite had told her he was only half mortal, she asked, "What does he look like?" "He has big dorky lookin' wings and a bow and arrows with him" He commented. "Cupid!" Penelope muttered as she turned around. He had now made himself visible to everyone. "Well, ya got me, I give up," he said, he clapped his hand and was gone. As he left, all of the people effected by his spell suddenly fell to the ground in a daze. "Well, that was a little too easy. wouldn't you say?" asked Herc, looking over at the dazed Iolaus, who had fell out of his chair. "I've heard of this before. He wants you to think every thing's fine, but at nightfall, the spell will come back unless we go fight it at the source," Daphne said. "Okay, this is the plan, we get them," He said, gesturing towards Iolaus and Daphne,"and we go to his temple, maybe we can find him." Herc went over to Iolaus, "Iolaus, Iolaus, wake up!" he said. "What, have I won something?" asked Iolaus, waking and opening his eyes. "Uh, no, but just get up," Herc said impatiently. "Have you won something?" he asked, still half in a dream. "Oh, snap out of it, Iolaus," Herc said, he grabbed him by the arm, he have to go track Cupid or else we'll be under his spell forever." "Okay, Iolaus said, even though he hadn't said a word. Kora had woken and walked behind the counter for the water and Penelope had succeeded in waking Daphne, so thay left the Inn and set off in the direction which they had gone in when they went to get firewood. They were almost to the temple and were walking through some open fields when they heard a strange soung and saw a shadow pass over them, looking up they saw Cupid. The god landed, standing in front of them, "So, you're gonna fight me, huh? Well I hope you know your'e gonna lose!" Cupid said. He began making a lightening ball. "We'll see about that," Iolaus said, jumping on his back. Cupid immediately hit Iolaus with the lightening and sent him sprawling to the ground. "Might as well finish off this worthless mortal," he said, creating another lightening bolt. Herc charged him, and the god fell, "We'll give you more firewwod, if that's what you want," he said, trying to reason. "It's too late now!" Cupid yelled. He shot lightening at Herc, he rolled and dodged it, then Herc picked up a long stick and began fighting Cupid off with it. He was doing well until Cupid raised his hand, sending a powerful bolt of lightening through him, just then, Iolaus unexpectedle came up behind him and tackled him to the ground. Herc quickly recoverd and helped Iolaus restrain the god. "I said we'd get you more firewood," he said. "I'll be back," Cupid said, for he knew he'd lost this fight. Once again, he disappeared. "Let's get outta here," Herc said, "before he does come back," They walked back a long the road, Penelope and Daphne would stay at the Academy for the night before reporting to Aphrodite, hopefully to get their freedom, the next day. As they neared the Academy, Iolaus remarked, "Herc, next time Cheiron needs firewood, make someone elso go. There's too many winged men with arrows involved, and that's not my line o' work."