The God Of Headaches

"How the hell am I supposed to believe any of this?"

"I won't expect a useless mortal like you to understand what is about to happen."

"Can you please shut up with the insults and explain like a civilized, whatever you are?"

"Whatever..? You will regard me as Lord Zeus, you incompetent mortal child. And they aren't insults. You are worthless."

"Yup, I'm insane." Jack had come to a conclusion. "I hit my head hard against the rocks, somehow survived and fell into a cave of sorts, and now I'm hallucinating conversations between a twenty-foot cyclops," he laughed as he spoke now, "And an infuriating voice in my head that keeps dissing me and calling itself the king of the gods."

He was sure that was it. Since he woke up, it had been one unbelievable event after the other. Having a voice in his head tell him the end of the world was at hand completely slapped Jack back into reality. This couldn't be real.

"My my," the voice in his head, Zeus, said. "You are many things, boy, but definitely not insane."

Jack chuckled hysterically. "Explain what you are then, oh mighty Lord Zeus. Prove to me you're more than some kind of alternate personality I never knew about."

"I don't think that's how it works," Zeus sighed. "But if you have such little faith in the gods, I will use the little power I have to show you."

"Go ahead then Zeus," Jack dragged out the name sarcastically.

Zeus grunted. "Tell the elder cyclops he may be excused."

Looking to his side, Jack was almost elated when he could no longer see the giant that had lead him into the massive workshop after trying to crush him like a beetle underfoot. His happiness was short-lived. He was amazed he didn't hear the banging of metal earlier. The cyclops had gone back to his long-abandoned work.

Jack turned and immediately spotted Steropes pounding away at a metal sheet on the massive iron anvil. Although the work looked gruesome and tiring, Steropes had a massive grin plastered on his face as he swung the hammer down repeatedly.

"You may leave, Steropes," Jack called out, sorry to disturb his work.

Halting mid-swing Steropes looked, or sniffed, in Jack's direction. "Master needs alone time?"

"Yes yes, get out," Zeus grumbled in Jack's mind.

"Yes Steropes," he replied. "I'll call you when I'm done."

Nodding, Steropes rested his hammer against the anvil, beside the others, and marched out of his workshop, leaving Jack alone with the arrogant voice in his head and weapons that would leave him looking like a piece of torn paper if they accidentally fell.

"I'm waiting," Jack snorted.

"Very well mortal. Just don't urinate on yourself."

Jack opened his mouth to give a snide remark, but a sudden pain in his head shut him up. Crying out, he dropped down to the floor clutching his head with both hands. His eyes were sealed shut as he tried to rid himself of the pain by rolling around, but images flashed in front of him at a speed his brain couldn't seem to handle. Jack was barely able to make out the outline of a familiar person before the images stopped as suddenly as they began. Finally, the pain subsided, leaving Jack sprawled on the ground, trying to piece together what just happened.

"I should've known your mind was too weak to handle divine images," Zeus grumbled in his head, almost apologetically. "But I hope that was enough to make you see reason?"

"More than enough," Jack groaned. The pain he had felt was more than real and neither the voice nor the cyclops had vanished from whatever bullshit world he had stumbled into.

Pulling himself up to a sitting position, Jack rested his back against the little table he had found the amulet on.

"I must be mad," Jack mumbled, still refusing to grasp how real of a situation everything he had seen so far was turning out to be.

"I keep telling you you aren't suffering from any mental handicap," Zeus said. "Are all humans this disbelievingly ignorant?"

Wishing he had just died by the rocks, Jack replied. "We just don't have godly encounters every day."

Dropping his head back, against the table, he sighed. "What do you want exactly."

"I said so before. The world is in danger and you have been chosen to aid me and my brothers."

"Your brothers, as in Poseidon and Hades?"

"Yes. They should have also found their mortal hosts by now as well," Zeus informed. "Really don't want to see them though. Blasted fools."

Looking up, Jack felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. As delusional as he felt, the possibility in the reality of the processions around him so far seemed to resonate in agreement with something inside him. Everything felt unreal, but deep down he knew. And he was scared beyond reason.

"Why me?" Jack asked, his eyes still trying to make out the ceiling with the faint electric glow and the master bolt on the table from the forge.

"The fates work in ways one can never understand. I would've preferred a much physically bettered host to be fair."

"You can communicate without hating on me you know."

"Bah," Zeus scoffed. "I am merely speaking the truth. But I cannot change anything. You were chosen for a reason."

"Saving the world?"

"Well yes. But you must learn."

Lifting an eyebrow, Jack stood to his feet. "Learn?"

"Yes mortal child, learn," Zeus said. "You have been graced with immense power and you know not how to harness it."

Jack glanced down at his palms. "What power. And why am I just knowing this now?"

"You got the power when you put on the amulet. It holds a whisper of my consciousness while the bolt holds all my power. Once you put it on, you synced me with the bolt, unlocking everything you need."

"So what? It filled me with 'godly' power?"

"My godly power yes. And you're going to learn how to channel it."