Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

You! Get over here!

- Out of the way-- - Hand it over to me.

-- or I'll give ya a second smile. Hurry up with that money.

All of it. You've got more than that. Come on.

- What about him? - That's all you have?

Let me kill him.

We heard you were in the neighborhood--

- we just had to say, "Hello".

Hello.

Get him!

I gotcha!

And don't come back!

Did they hurt you?

Oh, there's nothing like a bit of exercise to get the old blood flowing.

Speak for yourself.

Oh, come on-- don't tell me you didn't enjoy it, Hercules.

I saw that look on your face.

Well, then you'd better remember it, because I'm not gonna wear it again.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, look-- all I wanna do now is curl up beside the fire with Deianeira and the kids.

Hey! You're not gonna be by the fire, tomorrow, are you?

Oh, don't worry, Iolaus. I-- know you need help with your blacksmithing.

Good. 'Cause, uh--

you know, I'm feeling' kind of stiff here.

Are ya? You know? Me too, but-- if Deianeira's still up,

maybe I'll have her work out some of the kinks.

Yeah.

Hmm... kids.

Deianeira.

No. No. No!

Ilea.

Aeson.

Clonis!

No!

Damn you, Hera! You'll pay for this till the day I die!

This is the story of a time long ago.

A time of myth and legend,

when the ancient gods were petty and cruel,

and they plagued mankind with suffering.

Only one man dared to challenge their power-Hercules.

Hercules possessed a strength the world had never seen,

a strength surpassed only by the power of his heart.

He journeyed the earth, battling the minions of wicked stepmother, Hera,

the all-powerful queen of the gods.

But wherever there was evil, wherever an innocent would suffer,

there would be Hercules.

Mommy! Mommy! Daddy's home!

Hercules! Come on!

There's no time for dozing!

We got work to do!

They're gone, Iolaus.

And there's no bringing them back.

What? What are you talkin' about?

Deianeira--

the kids-- Hera killed them.

Oh, no.

What happened?

Fireball--

Hera sent a fireball.

There's nothing left of my family except the scorched earth they were sleeping

- nothing.

- But-- Zeus--? - Zeus--

- Zeus betrayed me! - He's your father--

- he should have done something! - Well, he didn't!

Now he won't even show his face to explain why!

Revenge is all that's left, Hercules.

We wage a war against Hera-- you and me.

We'll turn everything she ever touched into rubble.

That's for me to do-- no one else.

I've always helped you before. Why not now?

It's not your fight, Iolaus. Go home.

I can't just walk away from you.

You can if I ask you to-- and that's what I'm doing.

Please, just go.

You're my friend.

And you're mine--

the best one I've ever had.

That's why I'm askin' you to understand.

All right-- but if you ever need me--

Stay well, Iolaus.

Go away.

But I've travelled all the way from Ister seeking help.

People are dying there.

Well, people are dying here, too!

I know nothing about that.

It's not your business.

Maybe I'm in the wrong place. I'm looking for Hercules.

I'm Hercules! But I still can't help everybody whose path I cross.

Then you're not the Hercules I've heard so many stories about.

Not anymore.

How can you call this Hercules a hero?

He's too busy ravaging his own home to help anybody.

He must be crazy.

You people think it doesn't matter cause the blood of Zeus runs in his veins.

Hey! Why don't you pipe down till you know what you're talking about?

I know what I saw with my own eyes-- that's all I'm saying.

You didn't look into his heart.

If ya did-- you'd have seen it was broken.

You don't make any more sense than Hercules did.

He lost his family. You understand that?

They were swept away in a fireball sent down by his stepmother.

The goddess, Hera?

And his father's no better. Zeus turned his back on his own blood.

Where's your respect for the gods?

In a pig trough, where it belongs.

Hercules deserves our respect now-- and our sympathy.

Well, I shouldn't have brought him my problems.

Yes-- you should have.

If things were normal, he'd have helped you.

I don't know who to turn to, now.

Are things really that bad?

Worse than anybody in my village ever thought possible.

- Then I'll help you. - You?

Right. They call me-- Iolaus.

- And you are? - Lykus-- of Ister.

Good to know you-- Lykus, of Ister. So, tell me what the trouble is.

A She-demon.

She turns the men of my village into stone,

and then steals their souls and gives them to Hecate in the Underworld.

Hera's sister. Why does she want their souls?

To satisfy Hera-- who hates us for refusing to sacrifice our first-born sons.

I'll take care of your She-demon for you.

Ready to go?

Thought you'd changed your mind.

Not my style. What gave you that idea, anyway?

Well, you weren't here when you said you'd be.

I-- thought you might have been scared off.

Hmm-- scared-- me-- it's just, uh-- well,

I didn't wanna seem predictable. It's the way I operate.

Come on.

Hercules?

Mother.

- How did you know? - Zeus told me.

He doesn't have the courage to talk to me, huh? My own father.

No, Hercules-- not now. There's plenty of time for anger.

But your grief-- has to come first.

That doesn't make sense.

In Hera's mind, it does. And she will do the same to your

happiness on Earth-- anything to curse you with a lifetime of loneliness.

- Are you safe? - Don't worry about me.

But-- you're my family, too. Hera hates the fact that Zeus loved you.

It was a love that lasted only a little while.

Yeah.

He lets everyone down sooner or later.

But no one as badly as you.

I wanna know why.

It was a woman.

You mean, his lust counted for more than my wife and children.

He's so ashamed, Hercules. For the first time in his life,

he wishes he was mortal, so he could crawl off somewhere and die.

As far as I'm concerned, he is dead. From now on, I'm on my own.

No, you're not. You have my love, too.

I know I do.

And you have mine.

Where are you going?

To pay Hera back the best way I can-- by destroying her seven temples.

That won't bring your family back. You'll only put yourself in danger.

Nothing will happen to me, Mother. I'm the son of a god-- remember?

Hercules! Hercules?! Come back!

Hercules.

Please accept our offering, Hera.

Who is that?

Hey! You can't!

Don't!

But he can't just trample through our shrine like that.

- That was Hercules. - Are you sure?

Absolutely. I saw him drop a giant like a bad habit, you know.

In the same fierce mood as today, I'm betting.

No-- no, he was-- much happier then.

Don't doubt me, Lykus. I've fried bigger fish than your She-demon.

You know? When Hercules and I were-- battling the Titans--

we were up against bearded behemoths-- eight feet tall-- no ten-- even twelve.

We still managed to beat back two waves of those ugly brutes.

I tell ya--

my head was echoing with the clang of swords for weeks after that-- oh, yeah.

I thought Hercules always fought his battles by himself.

Yeah, well not when I'm around, he doesn't.

We're a team-- Hercules and me.

Not what the stories say.

Stories? What stories?

Oh-- the one the scribes tell.

Now, why would you go paying any attention to them--

when all they're doing is passing along hearsay?

No, you go to the source, Lykus. You go ask that Hydra if

it was just Hercules out there, cutting off its heads, huh?

I got my licks in, too-- you better believe I did.

Uh-oh-- trouble.

Oh-- can't you just push it out of the way?

Yeah-- no problem.

Hercules wouldn't break a sweat with something like this.

Yeah. Yeah, you're right.

He'd, uh-- save all his energy for the-- She-demon.

You comin' or not?

Oh, yeah-- right away.

You can't stop me, Hera.

You know? This is really beautiful country.

You can go back to enjoying it just a soon--

Young love.

- Orestes. - What?

You got something against romance?