Welcome to Gaia! ::

Once in the hills David was able to change back into his normal uniform. "God that thing was so constricting. So whats going on Sgt?" McLock turned to David. "We are pulling out and regrouping is what." "Why are we doing that?" "We found out what we are dealing with. This isn't your normal everyday supernatural being. This woman is a Greek god." "What are you talking about?" "She is Athena." "Your telling me I shot a Greek god in the back with a tranc gun?" David now felt rather dumb and lucky. "Thats what it looks like. So we are pulling out. We simply don't have the equipment to deal with this kind of job. We need to go back regroup, resupply, and I hate to say it get help from the army." David gave a sigh the whole point of being black ops was no red tape. If they worked with the army all that red tape reappered thicker then ever. The team moved east away from the camp where they were soon picked up and taken out of the area.

"You make a good point... But honestly, I'm concerned about what my own military may try to do with you. Things will fall out of my hands easily before long at a proper base. It is part of why I wish to speak with you alone," Nikolaos explains, nodding. "If you'll come with me, we can get to the heart of the matter here," he invites her, holding out his hand as a courteous gesture.

"Schedules? I take it you've already thought up a plan of action, then? I mean, you haven't been out of that ruin for very long," he says, guiding her to Kanelos's old tent, which had been cleared out save for a couple chairs and a table.

"Please, have a seat," he says, setting his laptop down on one end of the table and standing by the seat at the farther end of the enclosure.

"Ah no, no... You see, I simply understand that you are, well..." Nikolaos begins, but then simply opens his laptop and turns it around so as to display to contents of the screen to Athene. It was the picture of her he'd received from the soldiers that found the hiker. She was standing over the ruins, clearly at a height of several hundred feet.

"I'd say you may not have had your typical night's sleep, Miss Athene. Regardless, what we are discussing here is something the likes of which may... No, will change the course of this world's history. So I hope you understand why I wish to speak with you here, in this manner."

((Crap, missed the blonde-haired bit in your transformation... Well, let's see here...))

"I wasn't quite sure of it myself... Your face is a bit different, and the hair is of course... But the first thing that jumped out at me was the eyes, and your build is similar. The way you carry yourself. Of course, that's not really grounds for identifying someone as, well, this... But I did a little research. This WAS a very important and highly-publicized archeological dig, after all, and so there was a publicly-available list of people involved at the dig site. Mostly professors and researchers from various universities and their students. Pretty routine," Nikolaos begins to explain.

"There was not named in any capacity, however, an Athene of any kind. I'd also heard plenty about you in my report I received. Kanelos did in fact keep a close eye on you, and it would seem that everyone here--among the civilians, that is--has been very willing to follow your every footstep, almost without question," he continues. "Not to imply they fear you or anything, of course... It's just odd that someone who has no connection to the dig site should be speaking on their behalf, and quite boldly if I am not mistaken."

Shifting in his seat, he shrugs and says, "We also have a system of identification in this country, with photograhic IDs. We have a computer database with software we can run to match an ID to a picture. It uses measurements between facial features, along with other data, to determine this. Needless to say, there were few ID images that could constitute a match, and they were people who, for various reasons, cannot possibly be you. Most were dead, too old, too young, or had some manner, or lack, of distinctive feature. It helped that they'd been running this search anyway since they were looking to confirm the identities of survivors."

Shrugging, he says, "At any rate, everyone else here is accounted for. They have positive IDs. You're the only odd one out. So in a way, you could say it is process of elimination. I'll admit it is a sizeable risk I'm taking, but I'm confident that even if you aren't this... giantess... you know something of where she is. And I need to know, because I need to get to her before the politicians do. God knows how they'll try to use her."

Nikolaos smiles, which a slight chuckle, and nods slowly. "You're absolutely right. I'm looking to get to this giantess before anyone else does. I understand if you don't trust me in the least. Military people of any considerable rank tend to be more about politics than protecting people these days, after all."

"...Alright, consider this," he says. "What kind of position is this giantess woman in? Chances are she might have been seen in the past as some kind of monster or goddess or something, I don't know, but now she's here, in a world of science and technology. Her ways are all but obselete, now. There's not a person in the world who fears or worships her, or even knows she exists. What is she going to do?"

Setting his hand on the table and drumming his fingers a bit, he continues. "I somehow doubt that she'd try and live a normal life as a normal person. No, no, no... She's something extraordinary today, let alone thousands of years ago. She's used to being someone important, I think, and it'd only be natural for her to want to continue that. Tell me, does that make sense to you? What do you think she'd try to do with this strange new world she's been flung into?"

"...I was afraid of as much," Nikolaos replies, his finger tapping the table slowly. "I'm going to assume that it would result in both, personally. Even if she were powerful enough to compete with modern conventional militaries, such a conflict could quite possibly escalate into a thermonuclear attack, if certain nations grow desperate enough. I cannot conceive of anyone surviving such an assault. The environmental and potentially civilian casulties would be tremendous as well."

Glancing down at the table for a short bit, he replies, "The only viable option for me, it seems, is to aid in a search for her kind. It is an enormous risk, but I would consider it preferrable to certain conflict of unpredictable proportions. It still leaves the problem of how to handle revealing her nature to the world, but all I can say regarding that at this time is the obvious--that she will want to approach with benevolence, not force. Even then, it will be an enormously precarious endeavor."

"Ah, well... Ancient gods are somewhat known for being disagreeable on a good day, really," Nikolaos answers, shrugging. "Wars between gods and titans, and generally being nasty people toward 'mortals' in general. I mean, there is the story of Prometheus being tortured by having his liver eaten every day for giving something as basic as fire to mankind."

Shifting in his seat, he adds, "In addition, there's the issue of how a deity gets sealed away in a tomb for thousands of years to begin with. These are people who were on top of the world, but are suddenly placed in a long slumber, for what may have been intended to be eternally. I honestly have to assume it was not willingly, and I imagine some would not be happy about it upon waking up."