“If a name is all you need…” Rex breathed, narrowing his eyes at the short man. He began whispering, “And they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?"

Then Rex heard a sound, like a still, small voice speaking in his ear.

Atlas.

“His name is Atlas,” Rex told William. “Or at least that’s what he goes by.”

He had to switch mental gears quickly though, because the men in suits raised their hands and bolts of light flashed across the room toward him and William. Rex kept his arm raised and as each bolt struck his invisible shield, a new flash of light in the shape of a cross appeared even as the beams vanished.

“How well does that beast of yours listen to you?” Rex said, briefly noting the dog’s sudden re-emergence.

Meanwhile, the short man just shook his head slowly as Hercules charged him. “How predictable,” he said.

Then he hauled back and threw a punch at Hercules with enough force to stop a charging rhinoceros.

”Who do you work for!?!” Hercules roared as the punches stopped him dead in his tracks, one might even say they pushed him back with each punch. He was quick too, the first strike wasn’t something he was expecting and he had a hard time following each strike after. The glowing continued.

“It really doesn’t matter. You’ll be dead or his soon anyways.” the short man said as he cracked his neck with a quick jerk to the side. “Now, give up. Or I’ll make you.” he rubbed his nose a little and started walking towards Hercules way too confidently.

”Larger men than you have tried!” Hercules said dodging the next blow, catching it and then flipping the short man over with enough force to knock someone out. It didn’t though he rolled and threw Hercules with ease to one of the nearest exhibits.

William watched as Hercules exchanged blows. The god was getting his *** kicked. “Atlas”... William looked to Hercules and shouted, “Atlas?” another flurry of spells stopped short of Rex’s shield and he looked down at his legs for a moment to think. “Well enough. Shadow, protect.” phantom barks sounded throughout the museum as the dog barked once and dove into the nearest shadowed area.

”The titan!?!” Hercules pushed himself up from his broken bust it would be impossible. He hadn’t seen any gods or titans in this realm for centuries. It couldn’t have been. Unless... they stole his name!

The hell hound erupted from one of the shadows near the other two mystics who were throwing spells and trying to close the gap between them and William. One of the mystics screamed as Shadow started to maul him. “How did you get the name?” William asked as Hercules asked, ”Is your boss Atlas?”

Rex’s eyes widened a bit as the sounds of a massive dog mauling a man took center stage in the cacophony of the otherwise quiet wing of the museum. He shook his head and resolutely glared at the last mystic, who was now rapidly running to the side, strafing Rex and William while putting distance between himself and the demon dog.

The firefighter kept turning, keeping himself and his shield between the boy and the bolts, their energy fizzing out of existence as they struck his field of turbulence.

“It’s as Matthew once said,” Rex began in response to William. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find.”

One of the bolts suddenly twisted at the last second and tried to curve around Rex’s shield but the bolt wasn’t quick enough. “You wanted a name, I just asked for it. It’s all I have the power to do.”

Meanwhile, the short man grabbed one of the pedestals that didn’t have anything on them and hurled it at Hercules. “My name is Atlas, you idiot! How on Earth have you stayed alive this long?”

William knew sighed, he was going to ask who Matthew was but didn’t bother as Rex continued to speak. Scripture. The firefighter was almost as bad as Hercules.

”Through willpower!” Hercules roared as he caught the pedestal and set it down to the side doing his best from destroying anything. This would not be another Library of Alexandria incident. The god just had to keep telling himself that.

Atlas charged and lunged for the god wrapping his arms around him trying to slam him into the wall. ”Ha! I knew it! It couldn’t have been my Atlas. You just stole his name.” Hercules dug his feet into the ground stopped the charge and reached under the shorter man and lifted him into a suplex. Falling backwards the god shouted, ”It’s a different Atlas!” as if it would answer everything.

“Shadow, fetch.” William eyed the other spellcaster who was throwing bolts of energy. One of them turned before hitting the shield. “They are adapting. Does your shield get bigger?” the boy continued to move into cover the squeaks of movement behind Rex gave the man his heading. “Helpful as always, we should keep moving.”

Atlas rolled from the break in the flooring and brought Hercules down with a sweep.

“It can get bigger,”[ Rex said as another couple of bolts slammed into his shield. Each one had a curve to it, but Rex was able to block first one and then the other. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold it though!” he said.

He held up his other forearm against his left forearm, which was currently holding the invisible shield. Now his arms were in the shape of the cross, mimicking the light signature that flared with each strike. The shield warped and expanded and within seconds, the invisible energy morphed from a heater shield into a dome that covered both of them.

It wasn’t a moment too soon, either. The enemy caster had stopped with the regular bolts and he seemed to be miming typing something on a keyboard. When he pressed the enter key, he threw his hands out to the side and a dozen smaller bolts exploded out from his hands. They arced and streamed and danced through the air and they started bombarding Rex’s shield from every angle.

“Gah!” Rex said before stifling the sharp pain in his head. “I need an opening! Can your dog do something?” Rex asked.

Meanwhile, Atlas spat at Hercules. “You’ll stay down if you know what’s good for you,” he said before starting to run past the man and a free-standing statue to get to William.

The prince of power wiped the spit from his face and chuckled. ”How can I stay down? When those I fight with inspire me so?!” Hercules rose and caught a fist as Atlas tried to plant one right in his jaw. The demi-god struggled for a moment as he found his footing. It was his whole body against Atlas’s fist, no not just his body. His willpower, where he found his strength.

“Make it bigger, if I get hit I might lose control of Shadow and Hercules is useless without me.” William said looking as the shield turned into a dome and covered them both. William took a breath and started muttering under his breath. Pulling some magic to channel into Hercules as the shield was bombarded.

“You can’t win..." Another fist shot into Hercules’s face the god chuckled as it seemed to be weaker than before. “How are you getting stronger?” the son of Zeus grew brighter as he stood taller. ”Because I don’t fight for myself.” Hercules brought his head down hard on Atlas causing the man to go dizzy for a moment, long enough for Hercules to throw him across the room. This time not as worried what the man hit William and Rex of the Inferno were in danger.

“On it.” William stopped chanting and snapped his eyes open and pointed towards a small statue of an owl. A blue spectral owl formed before it and started flapping it’s wings. “Go!” the owl flew at the attacker and gouged one of it’s eyes with a loud ‘scree’

”Another summon?” Herc said in disbelief. Was he not enough?

“You should be focusing on Atlas.” William chided and looked to Rex “Can you figure out how they are channeling?”

Another barrage of energy bolts splattered around Rex’s dome of faith, his shield neutralizing the power of each one, albeit at cost. “Nyuuh!” he grunted as each hit felt like a slap to the face. The hits would only get harder.

Behind him, he could hear muttering and Rex barely caught the action between Hercules and Atlas out of the corner of his eye, but he had faith his friend could handle himself. He didn’t have a good answer for William though. Channeling? “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.

When the owl attacked the bombardier, Rex was ready.

He dropped the dome. “Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled!” he yelled and a cloud of light burst into being in front of him before coalescing into seven hovering fist-sized balls of fire. Then he started flicking his hands sharply, like dealing cards, and with each motion one of the fireballs went whizzing toward the owl victim.

For once Rex wasn’t worried about a fire. That entire part of the gallery was barren, nothing but smooth walls and marble tiling. A couple of the fireballs struck the man like burning rocks, but not in any immediately vital areas. Several others splashes against the walls, leaving scorch or soot marks, or even making a few exposed nails glow red, but nothing a bit of cleaning wouldn’t fix.

As the last fireball spun off toward the man, Rex lunged forward in a dead sprint. ”The Lord is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path,” recited. Another fireball appeared, this one around the height of his knee and it kept pace with him.

Then Rex tackled the man and smashed him into the wall before forcibly shoving him down to the ground. Now the fireball was eye level with the man and only a few inches from his bleeding, gouged face.

“Stop this,” Rex commanded.

“I just called that thing by incantations. I didn’t see them speak. Hercules channels the power through his tattoos and body. I didn’t see them speak. If it’s an item I can get the owl to grab it. I just can’t tell yet. Can you ask for an answer again?” William asked as two more men in black trench coats entered taking off their hats and muttering spells of their own.

One of them had a large cat made of spectral purple. “Shadow!” the hell hound vanished into a shadow and leapt out to match the purple tiger. The other spellcaster brandished a sword that glowed silver and charged at them. “Like he had a sword.” indicating that was how he was channeling his power. Was William the only mystic who had read into magic?

The owl flew away as the fireballs bombarded the caster and Rex charged. William used this time to wheel himself to cover. The squeaking of the wheels was music to Hercules’s ears. His young master was still safe.

Pulling himself from an indented marble wall feature Atlas dusted his shoulder off. “We are many and you cannot win.” with the reinforcements here Atlas walked slowly towards William. “Give us the manacles boy. He’s too much power for you alone.”

The man with the glowing sword charged Rex.

William stopped moving as another mystic walked out from a shadow and raised his hand towards William. The boy struggled to move as if he was frozen in place.

”William!” Hercules lunged and charged the man holding the boy in place lifting him and slamming him down onto the ground hard. The mystic stopped moving and Hercules stood proud and placed himself in front of the boy and Atlas.

”This is my decision to make. The boy is the most worthy to wield my strength. That was how I came to this era. Don’t question my judgement while you attack a child. You will never wield my power.” his glow seemed brighter as Atlas charged the prince of power again.

William spoke as if everything he said was common knowledge. Rex frowned. The boy’s words carried well in the marble and stone chamber, as other than the combatants, there was almost nothing else in there to absorb or otherwise mess up sound. Still, none of it helped Rex.

“It doesn’t work like that,” he yelled back when William asked him for more answers. The Lord knew that Rex had tried that sort of thing many times. It was only a name that he could get a straight answer about. “Names only.”

Then the man slumped beneath him started wiggling his fingers so Rex grabbed them and held them up to his hovering fireball. “I said stop!” he roared into the man’s ear.

Then the sound of running feet, coming right at Rex.

“And, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed,” Rex said as he turned and crooked a finger at the swordsman.

A six-foot tall and wide bush made of solid, burning flames sprouted into existence in front of the man, its branches rapidly growing and twining, capturing his blade and starting to encircle the man’s arms as he ran into the burning bush. “Aahhhhh!” the swordsman yelled as he immediately let go of the sword and started to extricate himself from the hellish hedge.

Rex turned his gaze back to the man beneath him, his eyes blazing with St. Elmo’s fire. “Now. Stop.”

The man decided to go limp.

William rolled his eyes as he ducked behind another marble statue looking out to the newcomers for anything useful they could use to their advantage. It was how he and Hercules got along so well when they got into incidents like this. It seemed to be repetitive.

After the bush of flames disarmed the sword wielder William shouted to the spectral owl. “Get me the sword!” the owl disengaged from divebombing one of the mystics and swooped low for the sword doing it’s best to avoid the flames.

It was an exchange of blows as Atlas and Hercules went back and forth trying to beat the other into submission. It seemed they were still evenly matched as Hercules’s glow brightened drawing more power from William and the other masters in the city.

With a mighty uppercut Hercules knocked Atlas back a few feet and forced the man to stumble a bit. ”It seems you have a glass jaw!” Hercules roared with laughter and continued the assault charging at the man and lifting him and slamming him down on the ground. The marble under him buckled and cracked.

“Herc! Rex! Finish this up!” William said making a break to a further statue where he met the owl with the sword. The feathered summon dropped the sword in William’s hand and flew back to the mystic who was controlling the purple cat.

Rex stood up and yanked the mystic to his feet, who Rex then used as a shield in front of him. “Don’t try anything funny,” Rex said. Then he began reciting another verse as he stalked toward the mystic with the purple tiger.

Another bush of burning flame erupted underneath the tiger, encasing it in a burning bramble and trapping it off the floor. Branches stabbed and constricted even as they scoured and burned the creature. He ignored William’s command. Of course he and Hercules were trying to end this. Rex didn’t say anything though - no need to throw out extraneous or redundant commands.

He dismissed his first burning bush and looked at the remaining three assailants who were not otherwise occupied with Hercules. One was lying bleeding on the ground, courtesy of Shadow’s mauling. One was hampered by an owl and the fact that his tiger had been ambushed so quickly. The third, the swordsman, was backing up against a row of empty glass display cases.

“Barry, Allen, Wally, Wes! Where are you?” he shouted, a hand up to his ear on some wireless device. “Get in here! We needed your help five minutes ago!” His other hand started waving in a complex pattern and then an azure arc of energy shwooshed out in William’s general direction. “Answer me!” he shouted.

“They’re not, umgh, coming!” Atlas yelled back at the mystic as he was smashed into the floor. “This is a bust! NNNNgh!”

With a roar, Atlas shrugged his way out of Hercules’s grasp and rolled away from the man. He got to his feet quickly, but with effort, and rolled up a shirt sleeve. The bronze-looking bracer there had a line of light that seemed to be fading. He quickly checked the other bracer too. Yes, same story.

“Time to bail!” he said and he whipped a paper amulet out of his pocket and smacked it against the floor. There was a brief blurring around the floor and then everything that wasn’t bolted down was suddenly pushed toward the ceiling, except for the people wearing specifically enchanted boots to resist the repulsion effect the floor was now producing.

The three statues and last remaining jewels in the room took flight.

Hercules grunted loudly as Atlas rolled away from him and ran. The other mystics seemed to be doing the same. At least the ones that could move. The statues went into the air followed by Hercules ”What trickery is this! Fight us cowards!” Hercules called out as he started to float upside down. The prince of power’s stomach started to churn.

William and Shadow started to float as well, thought the hell hound vanished into the nearest shadow of a statue that was now floating in the air alongside Hercules. The ancient brute swung and only sent himself hurtling backwards into a wall.

William was having better luck as soon as he went to the air he shouted for the owl to come to his aid. Something Hercules seemed more upset about then loosing his footing. ”I;m right here!” the spectral owl stopped bombarding the other mystic and flew back to William and perched on the back of his wheelchair flapped twice then righted the boy.

“They are getting away!”[/color] William said as he studied the sword in his lap as if it was more exciting to learn than the fighting going on around them.

Before Rex could get too close to the swordsman, the floor fell out from beneath him. Like everyone except their assailants, Rex was shoved into the air where he remained. ”What in Heaven?” he snarled and in the confusion, the mystic in his grasp twisted free and fell a couple feet to the floor, which he was able to walk on. ”No!” Rex snarled.

The man started weaving his hands in another complicated pattern, but Rex’s recital was quicker. He spoke a portion of scripture and seven more fireballs appeared in front of him, which he began flicking at the guy. He wasn’t trying to hit him, but he didn’t want to give the man a chance to attack again. The man broke off his casting to dodge the fireballs and then he started running for the entrance, alongside the swordsman. Neither of them stopped to grab their downed comrade.

“Don’t worry, Hercules,” Atlas yelled over his shoulder as he reached the door. “You’ll see us again! And next time, it won’t matter what allies you have with you. You and the boy will be ours!” He shoved the doors open. “Enjoy your ten minutes of flight!”

Then he was gone.

”Hercules!” Rex shouted. ”We have to get William out of here!”

”Atlasss!” roared Hercules as he tried to push off of the wall he was slowly coming up on his fingertips barely made contact but it was enough for Hercules to redirect himself with a small push. Unfortunately for Hercules that also meant he was bumping into the nearest statue continuing it on towards Rex.

”Pray that you don’t!” Hercules shouted as he looked to William. ”Summon me!” he couldn’t move the way he wanted. The boy only had the second rate summon with him. Shadow was still nowhere to be seen. “I don’t see the point but...” William looked up to see the mystics flee out of view and he decided that it was fine with him. Almost.

“Shadow, track.” William said before looking back to Herc and then a place nearby that was free of anything. “Herc, I need you.” the prince of power blinked out of existence with a bright light then reappeared a few feet from William

”I agree!” Hercules said, just not sure where to take him.

A statue moved through the air at Rex due to Hercules’s collision. Rex saw it, but all he could do was put his arms up. A burning bush could damage the statue and he doubted fireballs would stop it. Just before it struck him though, it seemed to wiggle slightly and then it missed him by inches, sailing across the repulsion field until it landed gently against the ceiling by the far wall.

Rex didn’t give it another thought. They were still floating. Well, floating wasn’t the right word. It was more like they were sliding against the force repelling them from the floor. It wasn’t powerful enough to just shove them flat against the ceiling, but Rex suspected that the more they tried to get to the floor, the harder the force would get when working against them. At the same time, Rex couldn’t even reach the ceiling or the wall in order to move.

”I’m stuck,” Rex admitted as he floundered in mid-air. ”If I could reach the floor, I think I could cut off the magic, but I can’t move in this. Any other ideas?” he asked.