Golden Boy: Son of Apollo

"Aw man, Tony. Why do you always have to carry that dang bow around everywhere? It's like your favorite toy or something," Riff Lorton complained to his best friend Tony Wyzek. His best friend stood very tall and muscular, but not bulky, with raven black hair and brown eyes. Tony's dad had left when he was a baby, leaving him to be raised by his mother, Linda, a skilled pianist. All they knew of his father was that he was an excellent musician as well, and had golden blond hair and blue eyes. They'd also discovered that Tony was dyslexic and had ADHD. Tony explained that he'd been diagnosed with the ADHD since he was a little kid and they'd discovered the dyslexia when he entered kindergarten. Then one day his class had taken a field trip to the museum, where Tony was immediately drawn to the Ancient Greek exhibit. He'd been enjoying looking at the designs depicted on everything in it, wondering what each thing represented, until he discovered that the ancient Greek lettering on everything was as clear to him as English would be to most people. He didn't know what to make of that, and neither did his friends when he told them. "How can you read ancient Greek? No one can read that stuff! I certainly can't," Riff told Tony. "Hey, I don't know why I can read that stuff. It doesn't make sense to me either, okay? I've never been able to read ANYTHING without having trouble before, but suddenly I can read this? It doesn't make any sense!" Tony said, frustrated. The next several days were spent trying to figure out why he could read ancient Greek. Then one day, things went downhill for Tony and they all discovered who Tony really was.

Tony and the boys were walking down the street in front of Doc's store one night when suddenly three feathered creatures with the heads of a woman and the bodies of birds flew from a nearby roof and landed in front of them. "What the heck is that?!" Baby John asked, clearly terrified. "I think that's what's called a harpy. According to the myths, they're very nasty and vicious creatures, very dangerous. I think we'd better get out of here NOW!" Tony cried, running full speed in the opposite direction of the harpy. The strange thing was, even when they split up, the harpy chased Tony instead of following them. "What do you want with me? I never did anything to you!" Tony shouted to the pursuing creature. "Not a big talker, huh?"Tony then heard a voice in his mind, one that sounded familiar somehow. It told him how to defeat the harpy. "Who are you? Where are you?" Tony asked, confused. The voice merely reiterated its prior sentence. Tony acted without even thinking and drew his bow, putting an arrow to the string, shooting with deadly accuracy and hitting the harpy square in the chest. The creature dissolved into dust a second after Tony's arrow hit it.

The Jets just stared in mute astonishment at Tony standing there, sword in hand. It was Riff who finally broke the silence. "What the heck?! What just happened here?!" he exclaimed. "I have no idea," Tony said, not understanding what had happened either. "Explanations later. Right now we need to get you out of here," Aaron said quickly. "Whoa! I'm not going anywhere with you! I don't even know you!" Tony said, unnerved. "Look, I've been assigned to protect you and others like you, and I'm telling you we need to get you to your home so you can pack and we can get you safely to the Camp," Aaron said. Tony started to ask more questions, but Aaron cut him off.

They headed out for Tony's house and when they got there, Aaron told Tony's mother, Linda, what had happened, simply saying, "Linda, Tony needs to go now—like right now." Linda immediately raced to the bedroom to start packing a suitcase for Tony, ignoring his questions, promising to explain on the way to the Camp. En route to the Camp, Tony learned that Linda had met his father when she was attending a high society ball. She hadn't known who he was, but she had known one thing, that she was very attracted to him. Something about him had drawn her to him. One thing had led to another, and before they knew it, she was pregnant. Nine months later, Tony had been born and for a while things were wonderful. But then one day he'd had to leave. Linda hadn't even found out his name, but she kept saying he was "dazzling". Tony thought he heard Aaron mutter something like, "They're always dazzling", but he wasn't sure, so he kept quiet. He didn't understand and probably never would, but he tried to not be sullen about it.

Once they arrived, they ran into a fight between a minotaur and a young boy. "Run Percy!" the woman who was with the kid screamed. "Not without you, Mom!" the kid cried, determined not to leave his mother behind. "Go!" his mother cried, and finally the boy, Percy, ran toward the campground Tony could now see in the distance. "Go with Percy, Tony," Linda told her son. "I can't enter Camp Half-Blood. Only you can. It's a place where you'll be safe, okay?" Tony was reluctant to leave his mother, but he finally did as he was told. He grabbed his stuff and ran toward the camp. Once he got over there, he felt himself pass through a barrier, but the minotaur that was chasing him hit it and couldn't get through. He was safe, then, he saw a guy coming toward him who seemed to have the upper body of a human teenager and the lower body of a goat! "What the heck?!" Tony exclaimed in surprise. "Hi, I'm Grover, one of the satyrs here at camp. What's your name?" the guy asked. "I'm Tony Wyzek. What kind of camp is this, anyway? Also, are you really half goat?" Tony asked, puzzled. "Yeah, I am. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, camp for young heroes-in-training. You must be the guy my friend Aaron mentioned," Grover said. Tony was surprised that Grover knew Aaron, but assumed that Aaron must also be a satyr based on the conversation they'd had when Tony met him. "Camp Half-Blood? 'Half' meaning what, exactly?" Tony asked. "I think you know. You remember what I mentioned at the museum about how the gods came down to earth and hooked up with mortals, and then they had kids", Grover said, putting deliberate emphasis on the last word.

"No way," Tony said unbelievingly. "Yep, you're a demigod. Two points for you!" Grover whooped. Tony couldn't believe it—he was the child of a god? "So who's my parent, then?" Tony asked. "We won't know for sure until you're claimed. Once you are, then you move into the cabin of your respective parent. Until then, you stay in the Hermes cabin. Whoa guys! Watch out! Newcomer coming through. Hello! Gosh!" This last comment was directed at several campers with bows and arrows who'd almost shot them full of arrows by accident. After that, Tony and Percy were shown to a field near the lake where a bunch of centaurs were running. "Mr. Brunner!" Percy shouted. It turned out that the centaur was actually known as Chiron. He spent a little time talking to them before they had to go get Tony and Percy settled into Hermes cabin. Then Tony and Percy spotted the gray eyed girl he'd seen before facing off with several other campers, easily besting them all. "What's her name?" Percy asked Grover. "Her? She will squash you like a bug!" Grover retorted. "Her name," Percy repeated more slowly. "Annabeth-daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy," Grover replied. She did look rather fierce, and Tony hoped he wouldn't have to fight against her in a battle. Grover and the others had mentioned being claimed and Tony wondered what that could mean.

It was over a week before Tony found out what being claimed meant. They were at the campfire, when suddenly all the campers stared at Tony and everyone gasped in shock. "What is it? What's wrong?" Tony asked. Then he saw a fading symbol over his head: a lyre. "The parentage is revealed. Hail Tony Wyzek, son of Apollo, god of music and prophecy!" Chiron declared, to the astonishment of the whole camp. After that, Tony went back to the Hermes cabin for the night, then was shown to the cabin for Apollo the next day. It hurt his eyes to look at it, as it glinted like the brightest gold in the sunlight. He learned that he had powers related to his godly father. They could heal people by singing a song to his father (in Ancient Greek). He could curse others to only speak in rhyming couplets that can take days or even weeks to wear off (depending on strength and number of people in the spell). He already knew he was skilled in physical contests and games, and that he excelled in the arts. He also learned he was precognitive and that he had an extremely rare ability: photokinesis. He could create illusions, create light shields/force fields, project healing energies (different from Vitakinesis), call up a blast of lights to impale or blind enemies for some time or maybe forever, even create a ball or shape of light to blast.

One evening, life at Camp Half-Blood was rocked with the dramatic appearance of Hades. That was when the campers found out that Zeus's master lightning bolt had gone missing and Percy was the prime suspect due to being Poseidon's son. In order to prove his innocence, he had to go on a quest to find the bolt and return it by the summer solstice in ten days or there would be dire consequences. Annabeth and Grover volunteered to go along with Percy to help him retrieve it, and Tony did too,figuring he might be able to help them find it. However, Chiron believed that Hades had stolen the bolt, so he, Percy, Annabeth and Grover headed to Los Angeles where the entrance to the Underworld was located. Along the way, they encountered several mythological monsters and Ares, who told Percy that his mother had been taken to the Underworld, but she was still alive. As they approached the pit of Tartaurus, Luke's winged shoes—a gift from his father, Hermes, which he'd given to Percy, who'd given them to Grover—tried to pull Grover into the Underworld, but Grover managed to get them off his hooves just in time.

They eventually made it to the Underworld and had a confrontation with Hades, who also believed Percy had stolen the bolt as well as his Helm of Darkness. It turned out Hades hadn't stolen the bolt, so they were at a dead end again. But then, Percy checked his backpack and discovered the missing bolt inside. Apparently when Ares had given him the backpack, he'd snuck the bolt inside. They fled the Underworld and they relocated Ares, whom Percy defeated by hurting his heel. Ares then gave them back the Helm of Darkness, which they returned to Hades. They then headed out of the Underworld and caught a ride back to New York City, where they headed toward the Empire State Building to return the Master Bolt to Zeus. They managed to make it and Tony beheld his mother at full size in the Olympian Pantheon. Percy was exonerated, but one question was still unanswered: who was the original thief who took the Bolt?

The group headed back to Camp Half-Blood after returning the Bolt, but before they'd even gotten off the building, they ran into Luke. He told them Chiron had sent him to help them, but then Annabeth sensed something wasn't right since they hadn't been able to tell Chiron anything. She confronted Luke about that, and Luke revealed that HE had taken the lightning bolt, but had been captured by Ares. Luke had appealed to Ares' love of a good war and convinced him that all he had to do was hide the Bolt for awhile and it would start a war between the Olympians. Ares had accepted and as a result, a war had begun between Zeus and Poseidon, with different gods taking each side. Percy was the first to figure out that Luke was working for Cronos. He was proven right a moment later when Luke laughed evilly and confirmed Percy's suspicions. The young demigods engaged Luke in a battle royale over New York City.

Unbeknownst to Tony, his friends were watching the battle and saw him fighting Luke alongside the other demigods. Finally Percy managed to vanquish Luke with his power over water and they all returned to Camp Half-Blood, where they found forms to fill out so the camp director, Mr. D. (aka Dionysus) would know who was staying at camp year-round. Tony and Percy chose to return home and Percy got to go to a new school and get rid of his smelly stepfather, Gabe Ugliano. Tony lived a very different life after that as well. He had a new sword from Chiron that he frequently used to battle the mythological monsters and other creatures that came into his life, while balancing time with his non-demigod friends, school, and camp too. He made a name for himself as a hero and left behind a legacy that would last a lifetime.