Chapter 44 - Ullr

Stefan sat disconsolately in one of the recliners at the game shop where Cody worked, staring into space. He was scheduled to return to Germany in a week, and he was not looking forward to leaving his newfound friends behind. Cody sat next to him, absently killing aliens as they discussed his imminent departure.

"You still going to manage the YouTube channel when you get to Germany?" Cody asked as he stuck a grenade to an alien.

"I don't know," Stefan admitted with a sigh. "I would like to, but it will be kind of hard to manage from Germany. I would have to have someone else upload any new footage. It just wouldn't be the same, not being here to handle it in person."

Cody nodded his understanding. "How's the channel doing anyway?"

"Once the world found out Heidi was the person composing all of the music, it went from fifty-thousand subscribers to several million overnight," Stefan replied with a wry chuckle. "She's still one of the hottest topics in alternative media. Most people think she's an alien."

"I'd imagine some of the songs will only reinforce that belief," Cody laughed. "Especially the one about returning to the stars."

"I've actually had tens of thousands commenters pushing for another concert," Stefan said with a wistful smile. "Everyone in Miss Devons' class that follows the channel said they would be willing to play for another concert, but we really don't have anywhere to play. People from all over the USA are saying they would travel out here to watch her perform in person."

"That explains the text I got from Miss Devons this morning then," Cody said, mowing down a squad of hive aliens. "She said one of the county commissioners wanted to know what she knew about a planned music event involving Heidi and the rest of her class. Apparently, someone is already telling people that we are holding a concert at the fairgrounds here."

"What did Miss Devons tell them?" Stefan asked.

"That she didn't know anything about it," Cody replied with a shrug. "I told her that I hadn't heard anything about it either."

"Weird," Stefan murmured.

"Yeah, but that's what you have to expect from fanatics," Cody declared with a roll of his eyes. "They come in all shapes and sizes, and from all walks of life. I've seen some of the nutjobs posting on that YouTube channel. They make me seem normal in comparison."

"I wouldn't go that far," Stefan said dryly. "But yeah, there are more than enough crazies to go around. I wouldn't put it past one of them to try and start arranging a concert without asking Heidi first."

"She would usually put a stop to that kind of thing before it began," Cody began with a frown, and then stopped. "Oh yeah, I guess things were a little weird yesterday."

"Weird how?" Stefan asked, turning his full attention to Cody as he heard the undercurrent of gravity in his friend's voice.

Cody's avatar died as he lost focus, staring off into the distance. "I'm not sure I'm at liberty to talk about it. Suffice it to say, she was a little preoccupied and might not have been as omniscient as usual yesterday."

"You're seriously going to leave me hanging here?" Stefan asked indignantly. "Come on man, what happened?"

Cody sighed, turning his attention away from the game. "Heidi had a little breakdown yesterday. She's fine now, but apparently she's receiving a slow trickle of memories from Hades' other lives that are extremely disturbing. Hades made a first person appearance that completely blew my mind. Apparently, she was also one of the main Egyptian goddesses long before she was Hades. She told us that all of the gods from every culture's mythology would be making an appearance before the final battle with the Titans."

"Every culture?" Stefan asked, his eyebrows climbing into his hairline. "Like, Thor and the rest of the Asgardians as well?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Cody nodded, ignoring his avatar as it respawned somewhere on the moon. "I'm looking forward to seeing the Trickster, personally. He's a Native American god that I feel a personal affinity to."

"How long until they show up?" Stefan asked intently.

"No idea," Cody shrugged. "Soon, I'm guessing, since the Titan's are already getting restless."

"The Titans are real?" a voice behind them asked incredulously.

Cody scowled as he turned around and found one of the other local gamers standing behind them. "How long have you been standing there, Nicholas?"

Nicholas took a step back when he saw Cody's scowl. He had just graduated that year, and Cody fully expected him to take up permanent residence at the game shop until his parents kicked him out of their house.

"Not long," Nicholas replied placatingly. "I just heard you say something about all of the gods of mythology returning to fight the Titans."

"You better have Heidi wipe his memory," Stefan told Cody gravely. "She's made it pretty clear that she doesn't want the Titans to be common knowledge yet."

"What?" Nicholas took several more steps backward, his face worried. "No, I'm cool! I won't tell anyone, I swear!"

"Would you stake your life on that?" Cody asked, his eyes boring into Nicholas as the air around him grew suddenly cold.

"Easy, tiger," Stefan murmured, watching Cody warily.

Cody blinked and then shook his head as a sudden wave of dizziness swept over him. For a moment, he had felt like someone else was speaking through his mouth. He had felt Heidi's noncorporeal presence before, and it had felt nothing like this.

"You okay?" Stefan asked, his voice thick with concern.

Nicholas was watching him like a mouse watching a snake. His eyes were filled with terror, and there was a wet stain spreading down his jeans.

"I think so," Cody replied slowly. "That was really weird."

"What happened?" Stefan asked, watching him carefully.

"I'm not sure," Cody answered, frowning as he noticed a trace of frost on his controller. "I felt like someone else was speaking through me. It wasn't Heidi."

Stefan raised an eyebrow. "Are they still there?"

Cody calmed his mind and focused internally. Silence. "No, I don't think so."

Stefan was watching him thoughtfully with a curious light in his eyes. Cody glared back at him, intuitively grasping where Stefan's thoughts were going.

"Don't even say it," Cody said flatly. "I'm not turning into a god."

A loud gasp reminded both of them that Nicholas was still within earshot. His eyes were wide with shock as he stared at Cody as if he had sprouted another head.

"It's time to call Heidi," Stefan declared, pulling out his phone. "We need to get his memory wiped."

"He won't tell anyone," Cody said confidently, the other presence once again filling his voice with an overtone of authority. He looked at Nicholas pointedly. "Isn't that right, Nicholas?"

Nicholas shook his head so fast that Cody worried it might fall off.

"Good man," Cody said in satisfaction. "Now go change your pants."

Nicholas nearly knocked another customer over in his haste to exit the store.

"Back again, I see," Stefan noted clinically as he studied Cody intently.

Cody squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head vigorously. "Stop that! This is my body, you jackass!"

The presence receded into the background, though it didn't vanish completely. Cody took a deep breath, then called Heidi's cell phone.

"This is Heidi," Heidi's voice answered after the second ring.

"Do you have time to stop by the game store?" Cody asked, unable to keep the anxiety out of his voice.

"On my way," Heidi replied after a moment of silence.

"Wow," Stefan marveled as he stared at the street where Nicholas was clumsily mounting his bicycle in his haste to leave. "I haven't heard that kind of intensity in a voice from anyone but Heidi."

Cody remained silent as he studied the subtle presence taking up residence in the back of his mind. It was amused. He could discern that much. There were small perturbations in his normally steady thoughts that made him grunt in irritation. Whoever it was, they were rifling through his memories. The subtle presence radiated a sense of antiquity that made Cody feel like a toddler in comparison. Whoever they were, they were ancient beyond his concept of the word.

Turning back to his video game, Cody tried to ignore the invasion of his privacy by killing aliens. Since Heidi had given him the ability to dream lucidly, video games felt more like doodling. The stunning world of visual and auditory sensation he experienced in the worlds of lucid dreaming were so superior to video games that he found it difficult to make himself wake up for real life, where his mind couldn't effortlessly control the rules of reality.

His eyes were drawn to the large windows at the front of the store as Aria's Kia pulled up with Heidi and Autumn. The few customers in the game shop watched the three women enter with a reverence that only hormones could inspire. Cody felt renewed amusement in the back of his mind as the thought crossed his consciousness.

As soon as Heidi laid eyes on him, her face broke out into a wide smile and her eyes sparkled with delight.

"Ullr, I see you found your way back too," Heidi told him warmly. She pulled him into a tight embrace, causing his face to burn as her body pressed firmly against his own.

"Still Cody, actually," Cody mumbled embarrassedly.

Heidi stepped back and stared at him with a small smile. "So you are. You have some extra baggage with you though."

"Yeah, I noticed," Cody grumbled, still flushing from the memory of her closeness. "So who's this Ullr fellow?"

Before Heidi could answer, a sudden burst of memories flooded his mind. He stood on top of an icy mountain, untouched by the cold. At near eye-level, an enormous Titan was destroying everything in its path. With a deafening roar, Ullr hurled a blast of energy at the ground in front of the Titan, causing the enormous creature to fall into the ensuing abyss. With another deafening roar, another wave of energy flowed out of him, wrapping a web of energy around the Titan as it leaped toward the surface with stunning power. As the net wrapped around it, the Titan was pulled back into the crater and pinned to the bottom. The energy net quickly shrank until an inverted popping noise signaled the end of the Titan. Before he had a chance to rejoice, a blast of scorching heat tore through all of his protective energy barriers, severing his consciousness from the ruin of his body as another Titan appeared behind him. His last thought was one of elated triumph; they had successfully defeated one of the Titans for the first time.

"Ullr was one of the most powerful Norse gods," Stefan told him quietly. "He was right up there with Odin."

"So you were able to defeat one of the Titans," Cody said to Heidi brightly. "Well, that's reassuring. I was starting to think we were seriously screwed."

"And that was with only a handful of us," Heidi replied with a wide smile. "We will take care of all of them this time."