99 Gods: Odysseia Read online

  99 Gods: Odysseia

  Randall Allen Farmer

  Copyright © 2014 by Randall Allen Farmer

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work, in whole or in part, in any form. This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, organizations and products depicted herein are either a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.

  What Has Come Before

  (as recounted in 99 Gods: War)

  “I’ll make this short and sweet, as I’m not accustomed to public speaking in forums like this. As you’ve just seen, I can do miracles. My name is Dubuque, I’m a Living Saint directing God Almighty’s miracles, and I am but one of 99. We’re here to end national war, a new commandment sent by God, and our creators trained us in how to end wars. Beyond that, we’re here to do good. Venerate us as Living Saints and together we’ll do good, and make the Earth into a paradise.” … “The last thing our creators said to us was ‘Your capability to change the world does have limits. As we have hinted before, you are not alone.’ I take that as a warning to us Living Saints to be cautious, and cautious I shall be. Any questions?”

  Seven weeks after the 99 Gods appeared, Atlanta, one of the 99, confronts a group of Gods who call themselves the Seven Suits. They attack Atlanta, and she defeats them, also freeing Dana Ravencraft, a powered follower of the woman God Portland.

  Atlanta and Dana flee to one of Atlanta’s strongholds, a place called the Anime Café, in Athens Georgia. Atlanta introduces Dana to an obscure group of barely abnormal humans called the Indigo. One of the Indigo members, Jan Cox, tells Atlanta about a fight between the God Miami and an unknown mortal, a fight the mortal won.

  Ken Bolnick, a Telepath with primarily telekinetic talents, contacts Nessa Binglehauser, a partly sane Telepath and old companion of his, and asks her if she’s behind the sudden appearance of the 99 Gods. She denies the accusation and gets upset, but agrees they need to work together, because Miami, one of the 99 Gods, attacked Ken, and because one of Nessa’s friends vanished right after the 99 Gods appeared, likely kidnapped by a God. Ken asks Nessa to marry him and after initially saying no, she agrees and they marry. They need help and head to Florida to visit an old strange contact of theirs named Opartuth.

  John Lorenzi, a priest as well as a magician hunter, wants to ally with Dubuque. Dubuque instead declares John on the other side; he attacks John and believes he kills him. John wakes up, however, alive and in a coffin. John, after much prayer, decides he possesses the moral authority to oppose Dubuque, uses his anti-magical talents to free himself, and flees Dubuque.

  Dave Estrada, a businessman, is suffering from a life threatening condition, acute cadmium poisoning. He tells his friends his medical condition is getting worse, and they suggest he seek out one of the Gods for help. His wife, Tiff, warns him she’s found out some of the Gods are interfering with the economy.

  Atlanta and Dana consult with the Gods Portland and Phoenix, and they agree the Seven Suits and their manipulation of global finance is a problem. Portland mentions another problem – some Gods have worshippers, and these worshippers are driving them insane. Despite Atlanta’s violent ways Dana agrees to become Atlanta’s chief of staff.

  Dana and Atlanta arrange to allow Atlanta to dispense miracles in an organized fashion. They discover that the Seven Suits also bothered the God Miami, and they go visit. They find out Miami likes having worshippers and won’t give up on them. On the way back they distantly detect Ken and Nessa, which discommodes them.

  Dave’s biggest consulting client unexpectedly goes bankrupt, putting his own job in peril. He and his wife Tiff need to cut costs, sparking major marital tensions. He decides to spend most of his time away from home trying to hunt up new clients. Dave, while visiting with his friends Marty and Steve, concludes the Seven Suits were behind the destruction of his major client.

  Nessa and Ken find out Opartuth is no more – and Miami finds and attacks them. Nessa telepathically blasts Miami, but instead of Miami’s mind being hurt, Miami’s physical body explodes into millions of tiny silvery droplets. Nessa takes a sample. Later, she and Ken find two more of Opartuth’s kind. These two deny being behind the appearance of the 99 Gods. In trade, they tell Nessa her lost friend is a captive of the God Nairobi; in return she must fix a messed up Telepath.

  Atlanta and Dana visit the Gods Akron, Worcester, and Montreal, looking for allies against the Seven Suits. None of the three Gods are interested in helping Atlanta, and they tell Atlanta they think Atlanta’s criminal clean-up activities are too violent. Later, Atlanta and Dana visit the Gods Boise and Dubuque, still seeking help against the Seven Suits. They are able to talk with Boise, but Dubuque ignores them and sends them on their way. After their return to the Anime Café to talk business, they get the Indigo group to ally with them with one of the Indigo members arranging to be a powered follower of Atlanta, specializing in healing.

  John recruits a low end Telepath, Reed Matús, to help him. They go visit the Indigo group’s second headquarters, in Indiana, to get their help searching for allies and enemies. They find only a few potential allies (including Nessa, Ken, Atlanta and the woman God Celebrity), and far more enemies.

  Reed goes to talk to Celebrity while John tracks down Nessa and Ken. Celebrity, a female practical God who can change shape and exude charisma, agrees to help. John tracks down Nessa and Ken. Nessa and John butt heads, as they have interacted in the past and don’t get along. John wants to help them and he ends up buying Nessa’s sample of the God Miami. At the end of their meeting, Ken tells John he needs to give up on his magician hunting ways and become a magician again, despite the extreme danger involved.

  John, after much meditation and fasting, seeks and gets guidance from the Virgin Mary about Ken’s advice. She shows him the truth behind his worries – Dubuque is a worshipped God, and John’s mission is to stop him. John remakes his vows, frees his magic, and becomes a true magician again.

  Later, unknown attackers go after John while he’s sleeping at home. He barely escapes, using magic, and he realizes he needs more allies and extensive magical practice.

  Dave learns his cadmium poisoning is terminal. His friends convince him to seek help from the 99 Gods for his condition. One of his friends is in contact with a follower of Boise by the name of Diana, and directs Dave to her. Diana isn’t a normal human being, and she gives Dave cryptic advice which Dave boils down to ‘seek someone else besides Boise to help you’. She also tells Dave he’s meant for bigger things, implying he too isn’t a normal human being. He doesn’t agree.

  When he returns home, his wife Tiff confronts him, gets him to reveal his diagnosis, and forces him to let her help him find one of the 99 Gods who will cure him.

  Atlanta, Montreal, Portland, Phoenix and Boise get together to talk business with Dubuque. Dubuque agrees they need to do something about the Seven Suits and agrees worship of the 99 Gods is very bad. Dubuque’s mission is to create what he terms the City of God, a theocratic replacement for national governments. Atlanta notices Dubuque is somehow influencing the other Gods to follow his mission, using an unknown method. She attempts to fight Dubuque’s influence and fails. She prays and learns she possesses the power to fight the influence, but doing so will hurt her. She decides to fight Dubuque’s control anyway and calls him on what he’s doing. Dubuque demands she give up on her violent ways. They exchange strong words; to escape Dubuque’s control Atlanta ends up fleeing, ceding her nascent alliance to Dubuque.

  Atlanta and Dana discover Nessa and Ken nearby. Dana convinces Atlanta they need to warn them about the danger of Dubuque, and they go to talk to them. Atlanta and Nessa butt heads; Atlanta does warn them about Dubuque but in the process learns Nessa and Ken
are out to stop all the 99 Gods.

  When they return home they go to visit an Indigo group stronghold. Atlanta agrees to set up 99 God-style defenses on the place, and Dana learns some of the secrets of the Indigo group.

  Dubuque, Portland, Montreal and Phoenix visit Nessa and Ken after Atlanta and Dana leave. Nessa and Ken decide there’s something off about Dubuque and his crew, but they do come to an agreement with them to work for Dubuque, even though they don’t trust him at all. Dubuque wants Atlanta and Miami captured and brought to him; if Nessa and Ken succeed Dubuque agrees to rescue Nessa’s friend from the God Nairobi.

  Nessa and Ken find the messed up Telepath they agreed to fix, Alton Freudenberger, in Dubuque’s territory. Later, after fixing Alt’s mental issues, Nessa has a psychotic break, ending up naked in a small forest, calling many wild animals to her. She calls Ken to her, seduces him and gets herself pregnant. Later, they convince Alt, a clairvoyant who gets good hunches, to help them find allies.

  Dave’s wife Tiff gets him in contact with a follower of Portland. Dave listens to the offer and learns that to get Portland to heal him he must join Portland’s organization as a volunteer. Dave turns down the offer, upsetting Tiff. After this and the earlier failure with Boise’s follower, Dave decides to do things his way. He decides Dubuque is the God for him.

  Soon he makes contact with Dubuque’s organization, and learns how Dubuque heals: you pray to him. After attending one of Dubuque’s church services Dave is won over and starts praying to Dubuque.

  Dubuque, answering Dave’s prayers, cures him. Dave’s friends disown him over this, fearing he’s fallen under Dubuque’s sway. Dave’s wife Tiff fears the same, but she’s noticed Dubuque’s prayer-based healing isn’t something known about by the media or the internet. She wants it known, and, after Dave gets around a feeling that this is a bad thing, she convinces Dave to blog about his experiences.

  Later, Dave has a Dubuque-prompted bad dream, goes to check up on Boise’s follower and finds out that unknowns killed her. The nudge bothers Tiff a lot and she tells Dave so.

  John learns the Seven Suits stole his local bank accounts, and he talks to the Gods Singularity and Inventor, who are no help and who don’t impress him. He decides he needs to ally with Atlanta.

  After much work, John meets with Atlanta. She doesn’t trust him at all. He convinces her to ally by providing her with quite a few tidbits of unsuspected information. First, he says Dubuque has worshippers. Second, he has spies in Dubuque’s headquarters. Lastly, he passes along Celebrity’s discovery that the 99 Gods all died as mortals before the Angelic Host made them into Gods.

  Nessa, Ken and Alt recruit several people to help them, including three Telepaths and two failed Telepaths they term Mindbound. Celebrity approaches Nessa’s crew as an emissary of John Lorenzi and Atlanta. They talk and Celebrity shows them some of John’s spy records from Dubuque’s lair, where Dubuque admits to setting up Nessa and Ken to get themselves killed by sending them after Atlanta and Miami. Nessa gets angry. Celebrity also tells them John has figured out Dubuque has worshippers, but gives no proof. Nessa’s crew uses telepathic tricks to find Dave’s blog entry. Yes, he’s a worshipper of Dubuque. They decide to bring this information to Portland to see if they can flip her to their side.

  Atlanta talks to Miami, telling him she found a way to get Nessa and Ken to stop hunting them, but fails to convince Miami that Dubuque is a threat. Later, John Lorenzi tells Atlanta some other God is interfering and that he’s lost contact with Nessa’s crew as they are travelling to visit Portland. They investigate and figure out a different unknown God sent a hit squad after Nessa’s crew. Evidence points to Worcester, who they learn also has worshippers. Atlanta’s territory is attacked, politically, and Dana and John convince Atlanta that Dubuque is trying to distract her from defending Nessa’s crew. Atlanta’s been put into a bind – no matter what she does Dubuque wins and she loses. She decides to help the Telepaths anyway.

  Before Atlanta and her allies can reach Nessa’s crew, the hit squad attacks and blows up the tour bus they are using. Ken’s telekinesis saves the mortals, but the explosion reduces Celebrity’s physical body to vapor. Atlanta and her allies arrive soon, helping them take down the hit squad and heal the wounded. The fight occurred in Boise’s territory, which attracts Boise to the alliance.

  Boise brings Celebrity back whole, but Celebrity’s vaporization changes her from a practical God to an ideological God. Boise holds court with Atlanta’s alliance and Nessa’s crew. After tricky research convinces them Dubuque is behind the attack, they agree to ally against Dubuque (and his worshipped City of God allies). The attack also prompts the Gods Freedom, Inventor and Singularity into joining the alliance. Nessa’s crew and Celebrity decide to continue on to Portland, despite the danger, while the alliance works on figuring out how to stop Dubuque’s mind control trick.

  Nessa, Ken, Alt and the rest of her crew talk to Portland and convince Portland that Dubuque is behind the attack on them and that Dubuque has worshippers. Portland and Dubuque speak; afterwards Portland realizes Dubuque has been fooling her about a great many things. However, Portland doesn’t trust Atlanta’s alliance enough to allow John and the allied Gods to visit.

  Dubuque sends the God Miami, who he now controls, to capture the Telepaths. At the same time he and Phoenix send powered minions to harass Atlanta’s God alliance and keep them from interfering. Atlanta finds a way to go help Portland (without Portland’s agreement) and she brings along a secret weapon. Atlanta gets in Miami’s way and tells Miami to back off. Instead, Miami attacks her.

  Atlanta and Miami fight each other while Miami’s powered minions attack Portland’s headquarters and attempt to take down the Telepaths. Nessa and Ken and the rest of Nessa’s crew fight back. In the fight one of Miami’s followers uses an unexpected weapon to take Portland out of the fight.

  The fight, and the loss of innocent civilian lives during the fight, makes the national news. Dave begins to wonder if the Gods as a group are bad. Even stranger, the fight prompts a British Telepath to go public, revealing to all that a few Telepaths, Psychics (who use their tricks unconsciously) and Mindbound do exist, that Telepaths are powerful, and some of the Gods are trying to hunt them down and kill them.

  In the fight, Atlanta eventually realizes the only way to stop Miami is to kill him, which she does with her secret weapon. In the process she herself falls. Soon after this, John and the surviving members of Atlanta’s divine alliance escape Dubuque and Phoenix’s attackers.

  In the aftermath of the fight, Portland becomes the leader of a new and expanded divine alliance, a new God named War appears, the Indigo group’s analysis of Nessa’s sample of Miami shows the Gods are made up of exotic matter nanomachines and John mysteriously reveals “Satan is coming”. Dave learns he is a Psychic and Tiff, his wife, is going to divorce him because of his ongoing worship of Dubuque.

  (as recounted in 99 Gods: Betrayer)

  After Dave Estrada’s partners buy him out and his final divorce papers from Tiff come through, an old acquaintance, Elorie Portath, approaches him. She wants to hire him to go on a dangerous quest sponsored by John Lorenzi to find out what really happened to his religious order, the Ecumenists. He agrees, not having any better offers. He soon meets the rest of the brainy team, and feels outclassed.

  Dana Ravencraft, the fallen God Atlanta’s chief of staff, ends up as the regent for the divine replacement for the fallen Atlanta, a child God named Bob. She makes use of the Indigo group to help her run the territory. The Indigo group drags her and Bob on one of the Indigo’s quests against the evils from Hell. Dana had doubted the reality of Hell, but when she experiences the horrors of the Hell universe, she becomes a believer. In the midst of this mess Dana meets the Godslayer, the angelic backer of the Indigo, and experiences the strange machinations the near powerless members of the Indigo must go through to fight Hell incursions.

  Nessa, while off recruiting people to help Portland, runs
into an Indigo squad (and Nessa’s mother), and helps them rescue an Indigo member from a young Telepath. Both she and Ken sense their Telepath group is about to fall apart. Later, when they attempt (and fail) to rescue one of John Lorenzi’s students, Willie, from an old woman John names as Satan, the group does fall apart. Satan turns out to be an ancient crone who relies upon Telepath-style luck; she and John have clashed before, and this time, Satan considers John’s taking on magician students to be unconditionally wrong.

  Nessa and Ken convince Satan to go bother Dubuque, who attacks Satan immediately, despite his holy goodness. She and Willie survive, and she decides to live in Dubuque’s HQ and be pests. Satan’s presence destabilizes Dubuque’s mind, and after a blithering rant in front of Portland, Portland decides the time is right to rein in the worshipped Gods of Dubuque’s City of God faction, who have all gotten a bit screwy in the head.

  War, the replacement God for Singularity (who has changed his name to Orlando and now runs the old Miami territory), is called on to lead the charge against the North American worshipped Gods. She is a God of war and only appears as a projection; she keeps her real body hidden. She, along with Alt Freudenburger’s group of Telepaths and other associated allied Supported (normal humans wielding the power of the Gods) start by confronting Worcester. They manage to strong-arm Worcester into talking to a delegation of Gods led by Portland; in the process they free an anomalous Supported, Lydia, from Worcester’s control. Lydia is something new – a person with top-end Supported tricks who isn’t actually supported by any of the 99 Gods. War and Portland name Lydia and others like her as Natural Supported. Alt and crew take Lydia to Portland for training.

  Nessa and Ken decide it’s time to free Nessa’s friend Uffie Zumbrenen from the God Nairobi. Nessa and Ken are not particularly functional, especially Nessa, but manage to recruit a new set of bodyguards and head off to the city of Nairobi, where a representative of Nairobi informs them that Nairobi won’t talk to them unless properly bribed. Portland is able to come up with an appropriate bribe that isn’t a bribe, and they learn the price for freeing Uffie – they need to come up with an equivalently smart and knowledgeable replacement. This is a problem, because after the Atlanta-Miami fight, nobody with any brains trusts the Gods enough to work for them without substantial compensation.