Pandora hadn't tried to portal very far - she'd mostly gone straight up, hoping to get clear of the cavern by teleporting to the mountainside above. Unfortunately, Zeus had tackled her half way through the portal, preventing her from opening another portal quickly, and sending them both tumbling down the bucking mountain side.
They clattered down through a field of white stones - no, not stones, bones - the entire mountainside was covered with dusty human skeletons. Pandora cried for help as she saw some of Prometheus and Kronos's surviving titans fleeing the quaking mountainside. Only two among them stood their ground as steam vents opened up and lava burned its way out of the mountain.
"Typhon! Echidna!" Pandora shouted, "Zeus betrayed...!"
"Shut up traitor!" Zeus said as he smashed Pandora's face into a rock, stunning her.
"Where's Prometheus?" Echidna demanded.
Zeus started to manufacture a story, but then just threw up his hands, "Fuck it, I was going to have to deal with the two of you eventually, right?" Zeus summoned a bolt of lightning and swung it around in the air, snapping it at the two warriors like a blinding white whip.
Typhon and Echidna were both badly weakened - the loss of their troops to Kronos's powers had drained them much the way it would have drained any titan, and Kronos's spell had also disintegrated their armor and weapons. Zeus, however, was riding high on the humiliating defeat of his own father, and didn't need any weapons.
Nevertheless, the transhuman soldiers fought to avenge their men and their master. They rushed in and struck with bare hands and feet. At first, Zeus tried to show off by ignoring their unarmed attacks, but the duo hit a great deal harder than he'd expected, and they knew how to make it really hurt. Typhon belted him hard enough across the jaw to spin his face right into Echidna's fist. Echidna followed her punch with a knee to Zeus's gut that doubled him over, and Typhon brought an elbow down on Zeus's back, throwing him to the ground. Zeus called a thunderbolt down on himself, knocking away the two transfhumans, and staggered back up onto his feet.
Typhon and Echidna breathed heavily, if they were going to have any chance of standing up to Zeus, they needed to start getting in-touch with their titan-sides, and they needed to do it fast. Typhon closed his eyes for a moment, thinking about all the amazing things titans were supposed to be able to do searching for something... something that felt right, that felt like it was within his grasp.
Zeus launched at him, wreathed and lightning, but Typhon raised an arm and, with a flash of light, created a seamless shield of unfamiliar metal. Zeus's fist connected with the shield and rang like a bell, but held strong.
"Titanium," he heard a voice inside his head speak, followed by, "And you're welcome. Now kick his ass brother." Typhon recognized the voice - it was Kasios. The titan he'd fought for years on end was calling him his brother - it was demented, but Typhon wasn't going to look a gift-horse in the mouth. He used the shield to screen for the wind up to a punch, catching Zeus by surprise with a right cross as a set of interconnected metal rings appeared around his fingers. The titanium knuckles didn't burn Zeus like iron, but they did damage like steel.
Zeus reeled back and started to summon a bolt of lightning, but Echidna shoulder-charged him as he loosed it, sending the blast careening off to obliterate an unfortunate boulder. Zeus grabbed one of her arms, but then recoiled in pain, his hand coming away filled with long, dark, poison tipped spines.
"What the...?"
"I guess you never met Tiamat," Echidna said as her arm shape-shifted to replace the sea-urchin-like spines with crab like pincer, "She was a real bitch." Echidna grabbed his face with the pincer, yanked her towards him, and then punched him with it, flipping him over.
"You got Tiamat?" Typhon asked.
"Yeah, Kasios?" Echidna said.
"Yeah, I feel like I should be pissed, but it also seems kind of appropriate, right?"
Zeus rose back to his feet and began hurling lightning bolts as quickly and furiously as he could, "You fight like children!" He shouted, "Conjuring weapons and changing shape like juveniles! Let me show you real power!"
Typhon and Echidna dodged frantically, each of them taking a few shocks, but evading the worst of it. Zeus started to slow down, his lightning taking longer to summon with each go. "What's... what's happening?"
"Guess no one gave you the titan-health education seminar," Echidna said, "Those really fancy abilities of yours, they aren't free. You need followers to power them, and I don't see anyone praying to Zeus!" Echidna spun and kicked him hard in the face.
"We on the other hand," Typhon said as he smashed Zeus's face from the otherside with the edge of his shield, "we can fight like children all, day, long!" Typhon backhanded Zeus with the titanium shield, knocking him backwards with a broken nose.
Zeus spit out a loosened tooth, and got steady on his feet. He summoned one more lightning bolt, but this one he concentrated on until it became as solid as a real weapon. It took on the distinctive shape of a jagged spear with a long sharp point at one end and a broad axe-head at the other. He roared and rushed at Typhon, stabbing and swinging the spear, beating Typhon's shield like a blacksmith's anvil.
Sparks showered off the shield, Typhon staggered back trying to get in a few counterattacks, but Zeus's onslaught was savage. Echidna rushed him from behind, covering her skin with a thick, spike-covered carapace, but Zeus wheeled about at the last minute and struck her across the face with the axe-end of his long weapon. She convulsed from the electricity, and tumbled to the ground.
Zeus lunged for Echidna, ready to finish her off, but Typhon grabbed his long white hair, spun, and flipped him over his back, sending the titan rolling through the boneyard. Echidna got back to her feet, leaped through the air and landed fist first, narrowly missing Zeus's face. When Zeus tried to roll onto his hands and knees she followed him, wrapping an arm around his neck. Clinging to the man's back, she wrapped her legs around his waist and tried to unsteady him by forcing her heels between his legs. Her spiked armor dug into Zeus's body, but with no other weapons at hand, Echidna sprouted a pair of dagger like fangs and started viciously biting Zeus, trying to get at his throat.
Zeus struggled with her, but as they fought, she continued changing, making it hard for Zeus to get a grip on her. The wolf-like fangs at Zeus's throat were replaced by the mandible of a centipede. The spiky-armored legs around his waist were replaced with two snake-like tails that coiled around his torso and tightened, crushing the breath from his body. Her finger nails became talons strong enough to draw blood from his skin, and then mantis-like claws that cut into him like scythes.
"Oh, I like your spirit," Zeus gasped, "I think I'll take it."
Typhon tried to warn Echidna but it was too late. Zeus pulled out Pandora's box and held it up before both of their faces, holding his breath. Before Echidna realized what was happening, it was done. Losing the A.I. didn't change her back to her human form, but it completely disoriented her. It was as if half of the events she'd experienced since the battle outside of Knossos had been erased from her mind. Nothing made sense any more... why did she look like a monster? Did that just happen, or had she always been that way?
"Echidna!" Typhon tried to get her attention, to rally her back to the fight, but Zeus struck him dead on with a lightning bolt. Typhon got back to his feet, shaky from the shock, and swung his shield at Zeus. Zeus grabbed the shield edge on and stopped it mid swing.
"I'm feeling a lot better now, thanks," Zeus said. He released a jolt of electricity into the shield forcing Typhon to release it, then slapped the man with his own weapon before tossing it aside. Zeus fell upon Typhon with the box in one hand and began punching him with it. Zeus finally grabbed him by the throat and strangled him, cutting off his air for several minutes punctuated by erratic jolts of electricity, and then opened the box as he released his hold on Typhon's neck. Typhon gasped for air, and then tried to hold his breath, but he started hyperventilating involuntarily. Typhon heard the voice in his mind simply shout, "Game over!" as the Legacy of Kasios left his body and disappeared into the box. Zeus punched the man a few more times - powerful, slow, deliberate strikes that created shockwaves comparable to the quaking coming from below them.
Satisfied his enemy wouldn't be getting back up, Zeus walked back across the field of bones to Pandora and grabbed her, "You and me, we're going to go wake my brothers and sisters, now. Got it?"
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