::With a sound similar to that of a toga being torn apart, the bright light returned and Hermes reappeared, still clutching the little silver box and hovering in place. He looked around and snorted, "Geez, like, the nutty thing is a sham anyways. It didn't even work. Man, Hades, I ain't gonna listen to...you...again?"

At first glance, Hermes could have sworn he was in the same area for the tree he was in was still at his side and he could faintly hear the rushing of the river near by. However, all was not the same. He heard different sounds, mortal sounds, loud as ever, but there was something different to them. The air smelled different too, almost rank and dirty.

Waving his hand, Hermes made the box disappear for another time when he could toss it at Hades for giving him bogus goods. He then cautiously hovered downwards to see what exactly was going on with his surroundings and what all the noise was about and especially that smell! He looked towards the river and shrugged to himself because there was nothing unusual about it, but as he turned to face where Hercules' villa is, a soft gasp escaped him.

Instead of rolling fields of grass and trees, there were tall buildings which rivaled the palaces and castles he was used to seeing. These were horrible and gray and seemed to devour the very sky and the land on which they sat. The noises he heard was coming from that way and what was making them was unknown to him, but he wasn't too eager to find out.

Panicked, Hermes flew back up into the tree and straddled a branch, his hand clutching his heaving chest. "M-man, like this is not cool. This is really not cool." He swallowed hard and raised a trembling hand to the side of his face to wipe away the sweat that was rapidly forming. He laughed weakly to himself and shook his head, "Like, I guess your gizmo did work after all, huh, Flamehead?" he thought aloud.

Even though he was still scared out of his wits, Hermes knew he had to look around. As far as he knew that sight he just beheld was an illusion of some sort caused by the effects of the light that came from the metal box. No mortal could have built that stuff. Then again, why couldn't they? It was something they actually would do for it was loud and destructive and that's all humans seemed to understand at times.

Taking a deep breath and gripping his Caduceus tightly, the little God dropped from the branch he was sitting on and flew upwards to the tree's top and hovered there simply scanning his surroundings. The mass of buildings ahead of him did frighten him and there was no way he was going to fly that way to check things out, but he knew he had to explore to see if all of Greece was like this.

Turning due south, Hermes sped off towards Thebes. If anything, the temples made for worship to him and the other Olympians would be of some comfort and possibly have some answers. However, he was stopped dead in his flight by a horrible sight as Thebes came into view. The temples were still standing, although they were literally in ruins. Hermes couldn't believe his eyes. How could this be? he thought and flew slowly towards the closest one that was built for his brother, Apollo.

The once tall columns were now smashed and broken all over the ground and the proud statue of Apollo that guarded the door was now headless and guarding nothing but rubble. Hermes flew back slightly not believing what he was seeing. How could the Greeks allow something like this to happen? The temples were his people's biggest meaning in life and to see the structures destroyed like they meant nothing sent a chill of fear down his spine.

Suddenly, his head jerked up and he sped off towards one temple that meant more to him then any temple around and the one that he helped construct, that of Megara. Much to his horror, hers was in no better shape then Apollo's, but as he flew around the ruins he was stunned to see that the fountain in the garden was still in one piece as was the statue of Meg standing next to it.

He flew towards it and stared into the statue's carved eyes almost as if looking for answers there. "Megs, what happened?" he asked it while reaching out a trembling blue hand to touch the figure's cracked stone face. He then looked skywards towards his heavenly home. Could Olympus be just as destroyed? Maybe the Titans managed to return and did all of this and perhaps this was Hades' original plan. It made sense, get rid of the messenger so Olympus would have no warning of danger, but no, Hades, though as wicked as he was wouldn't go through that kind of trouble, he would just up and do it, messenger or not.

As burning as he was about flying home, he just had to find out for himself if the rest of the world was anything like Greece ended up being. He also didn't wish to see his home or any of Olympus in the same state as Thebes seemed to be. He didn't wish to find out the possible fact that his family and friends no longer lived there either. That was one bit of news he wasn't anxious to see, though it was a nagging feeling inside of him to go there immediately. No, he had to look around the world first. All these ugly, tall buildings and rows and rows of mortal dwellings all stacked ontop of each other like so many wine crates couldn't be anyplace else. Mortals may be dumb, but surely they all couldn't have done this to their land world wide.

Giving the cracked statue of Meg one last touch of affection, he turned due east and flew swiftly towards China. If anything, Mr. Wang or the dragons there would be able to help him. They were always so wise and knew answers and if anyone respected Gods and places of worship, it was the Orient. In seconds, Hermes reached the Pagoda rooftop he always sat upon to eat and to watch fireworks, but to his amazement China was almost the exact as Greece was although not as dirty and destroyed.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Hermes flew slowly down to Mr. Wang's shoppe and gasped as the sign on the door said the place was closed. Wang was never closed so early in the day! Lowering his glasses, he read the hours printed on a sign on the door and frowned. "Wang, you went nutty, man. Closed on Sun's Day? Man, like that's your busiest day!"

Disgusted, Hermes waved it off and flew towards the dragon gathering in the town's square and landed on a statue of Cho Lung, the head dragon he always spoke to. Looking down at the square below, Hermes was hardly able to see the ground for hundreds of people were walking about and riding in odd looking chariots that weren't powered by horses. They were noisy to say the least and smelled like the stench he picked up back in Greece.

"Geez, why bother?" he growled in comment on the scene below him and then called out to the cities dragons in the ancient dialect. He waited for a moment and called out again. Hermes furrowed his brow and frowned for it was not like the dragons of the city to ignore being called upon. They are always highly attentive and even more so to a fellow guardian such as he.

Sighing heavily, the blue God looked about and sadly shook his head. First his homeland was messed up and now this. Hermes rubbed his chin and tried to figure this all out and realized that he was only going to places that worshipped and believed in more then one supreme being, that could be the problem. He had to go someplace where mortals weren't so dependant on such beings.

Pushing his thin body from the statue, the little God hovered in place for a moment hoping the dragons would come in answer to his calls, but still the skies were empty. With a heavy sigh, Hermes held his Caduceus at his side and sped off towards England. If their culture was turned upside down, he would know all is truly lost and accept the fact that the world he once knew and loved was forever gone.

So much was going through his head as he tore on towards the country. He had fleeting moments of all the other places he loved like the waterfall in Africa and the field of flowers in Ireland and wondered if they were gone too. Chances were very strong they were and if not, there was some new mess near them, changing their beauty. However, Olympus and his friends and family were dominate in his mind, but he was way too panicked and frightened in that outcome to even try and persue the truth. If they were gone all would truly be lost and he would be stuck in this crazy place forever, completely and utterly alone.

Hermes was so caught up in his frustration and thinking that he wasn't even watching where he was going and slammed right into a large structure that was blocking his forward flight. Dazed, he staggered back a bit before his wings faltered and he fell. Instinctively, he grabbed for the wall and felt his fingers curl around a cold metal object.

After a few moments he shook his head and tried to clear the haze in his eyes. "Man, what did I hit?" he said aloud and looked confused at the item he was holding on to and more importantly what it was attatched to. Carefully, he tested his wings and seeing that they were working again, Hermes let go of the metal he was clutching and flew back to look this thing over.

The structure was tall and almost column shaped, but had a spire at the top. The thing that puzzled Hermes the most was the part of it he was hovering in front of. It somewhat resembled a sundial and had Roman numerals adorning it, but it had different sized metal bars on the face that seemed to be slowly moving, softly whirring as they went.

"Dig that, a sundial that works with no sun. Isn't that too nutty?" he commented jokingly to himself, seemingly impressed with this bizzare man made thing looming in front of him. He was just about to lean his Caduceus on his shoulder when he realized it was missing. Hermes blinked behind his purple lensed glasses and looked around before remembering just how high in the air he was. Swallowing hard, he looked down and saw a crowd of people gathering in a cautious circle around the golden staff laying on the ground.

Shrugging and knowing that people normally didn't fear the tiny messenger, Hermes dove down to retrieve his staff, his confused mood turning to concern as he hoped no humans got hurt from his carelessness. Normally he wouldn't think twice on whacking one of them with his staff, but something unintentional like this he would feel horrible about.

Just as he got into sights, a hush fell over the small crowd gathered by his Caduceus. Hermes ignored them and flew lower still to bend down and pick up his staff. He twisted it between his thin blue fingers then looked up at the people in front of him. "Like, I hope this didn't hurt any of you. If it did, well, I'm truly sorry," he said as sincerely as he could and gave the people his most politest of grins.

"Blimey, what the 'ell is that thing?" one man from the crowd stated, his eyes wide with fear. Hermes sensed something wasn't right with these mortals and he slowly began to fly backwards and up slightly to get out of their reach. Normally he would have sped off in cases like this since if he gets grabbed he wouldn't be able to get away, but for some reason he was froze and unsure of what was going on.

The crowd continued to be stunnned and silent when suddenly a woman screamed, "It's one of those alien things! He's going to start zapping us with his lasers! He's going to kill us!" she shrieked. When humans get scared about something it always takes one person to literally make others go crazy and that's just what happened now with the frightened woman. About half the people in the small gathering ran off calling for the police and whatnot and the other half just gaped at the small blue humaniod type being hovering about 10 feet off the ground.

Hermes gulped and knew he better make tracks if he wanted to get away unharmed , but yet he wasn't sure what to make of all of this. He didn't mean to drop his staff like that and he did say he was sorry. Why were the people acting so nutty? He was just about to question one of the males in the crowd when he noticed a handful of people rushing back towards him and they looked and sounded hostile.

Seeing this as his time to exit, Hermes gathered himself, put a tighter grip on his Caduceus so he wouldn't drop it this time, and flew quickly upwards towards the structure he slammed into moments ago. The humans wouldn't be able to reach him at that height, so he knew he'd be safe while he tried to get his wits about him.

Landing on one of the long, black metal objects attatched to the mechanical sundial's face, Hermes sat down and rubbed the back of his neck. He was starting to even doubt that he was even sane any more because this was all too nutty to him. Humans couldn't have changed this much could they? Just then the metal object he was seated upon moved with a click and a loud BONG came from behind him. Hermes cried out in fright and bolted blindly from the area. As he tore across the sky, his mind began to clear and he figured the best thing for him to do was go back to Greece and see if Olympus and his friends were still around. He wanted so badly to have done that in the first place, but he just wasn't thinking rationally and was more in shock over what happened to the world.

It was night when he finally arrived in Greece. Hermes decided that the best thing to do is to head towards the temple of Zeus and see if the Lord of the Gods would answer his calls. He hesitated flying up to Olympus because if the temples were ruined he was not eager to see his home destroyed. He knew if Zeus failed to reply like his dragons back in China, then all would be lost and he would travel to Olympus one last time to look around before he'd try to decide his fate. Living in a world like this for all eternity wasn't what he wanted...not alone anyway. Granted, the little God was a loner, but to lose everything he had, especially his wife and son would be extremely cruel.

Hermes approached the ruined temple, but to his surprise it wasn't as deplidated as the ones belonging to his brother or his dear Megara. The roof was still up, if you could even claim it as such. The little blue God slowed his flight and entered the ruins and made his way to where the huge statue of his Lord Zeus still sat, broken severely, but it was in much better shape then he expected. Landing on the statue's shoulder, Hermes broght a trembling hand to his brow and wiped off the sweat that was still continuing to bead there. He set his Caduceus down upon his lap and closed his eyes.

"Like, hey daddy-o Zeus, it's me, your flighty messenger, Hermes! Please, man, like, what's going on with this nutty time and place? I can't figure out anything and am scared to come home. So, like, ahhhh...please, could you help me out here?" Hermes waited and looked around the temple for any sign and he strained his ears to listen for a reply, but saw and heard nothing. Swallowing hard, he called out, "Hey, Zeus-y! Give me a call, man! This is not cool! ZEUS!"

He rapped his knuckles on the statue's chipped and aged head and called out again, but the silence screamed at him. The little messenger's shoulders dropped and he hung his head down to his chest as the painful reality finally hit him harshly in the face. By Zeus not answering it was evident that he, Olympus, the other immortals, and mostly his Megara were no more. The day's events finally caught up with the swift messenger and he buried his face in his hands and wept openly for now he was truly alone in a world that knew nothing about him or cared.::