Gods Among Us

John Newton never intended to destroy the world; he just wanted a harem. And not just any harem; he could have gotten that without going to the lengths he did. No, he wanted a harem of gods.

The young yet brilliant scientist, in a workshop at his house, readied his device, packing it up in a trunk. In another trunk would go batteries he had charged to meet the crazy power needs of his device. Where he was going, there weren't any power outlets. He struggled to carry the two trunks out of his Pasadena house and into the Uber outside, waiting to take him to the airport.

At the airport, he bought himself some shitty airport food - he'd need it to last the next day of travel. He checked in both his trunks and went through security without a hitch, and ended up in a seat, listening to some music to calm his raging nerves while waiting for boarding to begin.

"Hello passengers, and thank you for flying with us today. At this time, we'd like to welcome all our first class ticketholders to board the aircraft."

John had booked himself a first class seat, using up much of his not-very-large financial reserves, in an attempt to distract himself from what would happen in just twenty four hours. He quickly boarded the plane, not even stopping to ogle the hot gate agent, and got in his seat.

Twelve and a half hours later, in Reykjavik, Iceland

The plane touched down, and John got up even before the plane reached the gate. He was one third of the way to a new life. He was first off the plane, and almost ran to his next flight, a connection to Svalbard. He bought some airport food that was surprisingly not crappy, then boarded his second flight.

Three hours later, in Svalbard

Two thirds of the way to a new life, John thought, as his second flight reached the gate. Though he was tired, he couldn't sleep with the excitement and anxiety flooding his body. He grabbed his bags, then lugged them over to his next plane, an old, beaten up Soviet helicopter that would take him to his final destination. He paid the captain as agreed, up front, two thousand dollars in cash, return trip included, and then another five hundred for proper arctic gear, which he would definitely need. At this point, he was visibly shaking with excitement.

Later, at the geographic north pole

The plane ride had gone without a hitch, and the pilot had landed about fifty meters away from the geographic north pole itself. John pulled on a heavy jacket, heavy pants, boots, a hat, gloves, and polarized goggles, and then got out of the helicopter. To his surprise, even in midsummer, the cold still bit, even through the clothes he was wearing.

He lugged the trunks to the exact location, checking a GPS receiver to make sure he was exactly at the right spot. Even just a bit off would cause a failure. He was exhausted at this point, having not slept in twenty four hours, but he was kept awake by his sheer excitement. Everything, so far, had gone perfectly. He set up the device, carefully assembling it then connecting it to the batteries, and set a timer for five hours, fifty nine minutes, and thirty seven seconds, the exact amount of time until the summer solstice, when the barriers between Earth and heaven were at their thinnest. Only then did his device stand a chance of ripping open the very fabric of existence.

He could sleep now, as the machine did not need his guidance any more to function properly, but chose to stay awake, popping two caffeine pills, to watch the splendor of humanity's greatest achievement lighting up the sky.

The hours passed as he waited.

And then there were only ten minutes left. He made sure the pilot was not watching; he didn't want the pilot to know his true goal here: not the furthering of human knowledge but pleasure for John's surprisingly large cock. He had set the device to let through just six gods, only young females, and made sure that none of the rest of the inhabitants of heaven could get through. He wanted gods, not some random good samaritan idiots.

He walked about ten meters away, his eyes fixated on the timer.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

And John Newton never saw the zero.

Unknown to him, his exhaustion had led him to make a stupid mistake, one that even the legacy admits at his college wouldn't have made. The device blew up, annihilating every living thing above the ice in a hundred-meter radius, including the unfortunate pilot and his helicopter. But in the end, it did its job, and a hole was opened up in reality, as expected. The wormhole would still collapse after six people made it in, but it lost its power to select who'd make it. John would probably not have been pleased with the end result had he been alive.

In heaven, at the Mountain

Some humans called it Asgard, some called it Mount Olympus, but the residents of heaven just referred to the home of the gods as the Mountain. At the Mountain, the gods lived a life better than those of Earthly kings. Anything they wanted was immediately granted to them by the ever-grateful residents of heaven, with just the small price of governing the world, of course.

In heaven, the gods were at their full strength, and thus noticed when a small hole in reality was created in a forest five thousand miles away. None of the gods had seen this before, and six of them were dispatched to investigate. Those six were Thor, Athena, Shiva, Gilgamesh, Thoth, and Coyote. An extremely well balanced team, ready to confront anything and everything that came up in heaven. Then again, nothing much came up in heaven.

The six immediately teleported to the site of the anomaly, and the wormhole promptly sucked them in. Eternities of comfort hadn't prepared them for the trap that manifested itself there.

There were now gods among us.