One Month Later... - Olympus
Crafter was starting to wonder whether Zeus was good or evil. His prediction was starting to lean towards the latter. As winner of a Reality TV show, Crafter was granted the power of being the God of Explosives. Apparently the God of Explosives is so important he has to stay in Olympus, completely cut away from his friends, family and home. It only took Crafter a month to realise how much of a burden this "reward" was, and every night he dreams of being mortal. He hasn't even been able to do the cool stuff like exploding bad guys, or cars, or buildings. He just sits on his throne, which isn't even comfortable, for that matter, and waits. If he is lucky he gets to attend an Olympic gathering, also known as a lecture from Zeus. Crafter could only imagine centuries of this, never ending, undying torture. He couldn't quit, there was no going back anymore. Olympus was similar to Tartarus. A living hell of no return... ever. He ran his hand along the quartz column, his finger outlining the carvings of ancient Greek heroes, it was probably the most exciting thing in his room.
He couldn't take it anymore, he was about to break the biggest rule in Olympus, he was sending an Iris message. Making sure nobody was at the fountain, he quickly flicked a golden drachma, ancient greek coin, into it, asking Iris to show Nakayla, the girl of his dreams during the contest, now just a friend.
The shimmering water of the fountain created a vivid image of Nakayla. She was wearing black, and was holding an umbrella. She looked like she was waiting for a cab, outside what looked like an airport. Her eyes were saddened and her hand held the umbrella weakly. Crafter had seen this girl with a weapon, she would usually have steady hands. Crafter hoped she was just shaking from the cold, but he sensed she was stressed, her eyes were shadowed due to lack of sleep, even the makeup couldn't hide that. Nakayla never wore this much make up so it was certainly hiding something. In the few seconds he had before she noticed his image, he had deduced that something was wrong, and he only hoped it had nothing to do with Ben, her boyfriend, and Crafter's best friend.
"Nakayla, what the hell happened?" he asked in anger, not towards her. She looked startled at first, but then looked down. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed her eyes.
"Shouldn't you know?" she said through her teeth. "You're all high and mighty, with your big godly powers and your big godly friends and your home in damn Olympus?" her anger wasn't well hidden.
Crafter took a moment to take this in. He had been in enough arguments at home to know not to retaliate. He knew she was acting out of stress and anger. "Nakayla, I am sorry for what happened, but it is not in my power to watch over people. I've been through hell here, but- "
"You've been through hell, you don't have enough power, it's all about you, Daniel. Olympus has changed you, what happened to the modest Australian teen, what happened to my best friend? I'm in love with Ben, but you were the nicest, funniest guy I knew, apparently not anymore." She blinked back tears
"Please, maybe Olympus has changed me, it would change anyone, but it hasn't changed the fact that I care about you. I want to help you, tell me what happened. Where are you?" He knew that a lot must have happened to her, he'd never seen her this torn.
She took a deep breath. "Sorry. Something happened at home, and I decided to come and live with Ben. I... At home, I was... Look, I have to go, talk to you in a couple years, maybe three? Because it seems you don't have enough for me." She waved her hand through his image and both shut down.
Crafter was angry, because someone had hurt his friend. His three brothers died in a car crash, and he swallowed that. He kept all that stress and anger bottled inside him and let it sit there for almost six years, and now someone has hurt Nakayla, so someone is gonna get their ass kicked, really hard, because all of his anger was erupting. He charged out of the garden and into the main hall, pushing Zeus into a wall.
"Let me out, give me a job to do, it's driving me crazy!" he yelled at the God of the Skies. Crafter knew she was talking to Zeus, her father, it was obvious now. She was angry at her father for not helping her, and so was Crafter. Crafter didn't have the power to watch Nakayla, but Zeus did, and he let it happen, whatever it was.
A storm erupted in the God's eyes and Crafter had hoped he wasn't about to be turned into a weasel.
"You have no right to stand up to me!" he boomed as the walls shook. "I have been up here for longer than all of your ancestors, I am bigger, better, stronger than you! If you think you can stand up to me then you will have a fate worse than death, worse than Tartarus! It's my job, not yours to -"
"I'll tell you what your job is to do, big guy." Crafter managed to brave it out, he knew he had to choose his words wisely, but Zeus was going to be his escape, one way or another, and at the moment death was better than Olympus. "Your job is to help people. Especially people you are close to, like your daughter. I understand if you are too busy, but I'm not. Please, for me, you and most importantly your daughter, let me help her. I need to, and I think you know it's the right decision."
"Daniel I'm afraid it isn't that easy, and my answer must be no. I'm sorry, but Nakayla's life isn't as important as Olympus." Zeus said without showing signs of sympathy.
"Yes it is, and you are too blind with power to see that." Crafter said, not loudly, but with definite hatred towards Zeus. "You know, you shouldn't have kept me prisoner here, that was a big mistake. Because now I have to escape, and then you would have to find me, and that would be a big waste of your precious time, wouldn't it?"
"You can't escape Olympus." Zeus muttered, but he seemed unsure. If anyone in the world could escape Olympus, Crafter could, and they both knew that. All he needed was time, which he didn't have. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, you let me go, or I jailbreak and then you have no idea where I am."
Zeus blinked. He seemed a little threatened. "Daniel, if you escape I have the permission to kill you within reason."
"Zeus, I have the permission to turn all demigods against you, so careful what you say."
"Those are words of spite, they aren't sincere. I know you Daniel, you wouldn't do that."
"Wrong. I didn't know you, so I wouldn't have done that. Now I have realised how truly horrible you are." All you had to do was look at the story and see the titans as the good guys, then it made much more sense. "Now, I'm gonna ask you one more time, let me free, or watch Olympus fall."
Zeus looked angry, but for once, defenceless. "If you leave, you will no longer be a God, do you understand?"
"Crystal clear, and I don't think that's such a bad thing." Crafter said, still angrily.
Behind Zeus, the doors opened, and Crafter was free to go.
The sounds of rush-hour New York had never felt so good. Constant car horns, chattering of nearby people. When you are confined in a palace for a month, you start to miss these noises. It reminded Crafter of when he and his best friend, Carlos, had decided to put money towards the deaf and blind by completely covering Carlos' eyes and completely sealing Crafter's ears. They lasted 24 hours before giving up, and when Crafter could hear again it was the best feeling in the world. Crafter stopped talking to Carlos about two months before the competition. Nothing too bad happened to trigger it, they just stopped talking fir a while, then Crafter became good friends with Carlos' sister over a week-long camp, Carlos took it the wrong way, and now he refuses to even look at Crafter. Carlos' sister, Sara, got into a fight with her boyfriend and he beat her, she ended up in hospital with all memory lost. Life at home for Crafter was unpredictable, it made it less boring. Until now Crafter has been in the most systematic, predictable and boring room. now he was free, and it was time to find Nakayla.
Meanwhile... - Tartarus
If it wasn't so dark, perhaps you would recognize the figure walking through the depths of Tartarus. A good soul turned evil, turned crazy. This mysterious black figure walked into a giant area crawling with monsters, they all seemed to be working on something, they crowded what looked like engine grease, a piddle of black liquid.
"Is it ready?" said the unidentifiable body, who has a deep booming voice. Every word has power in it, like he could convince a man he had no legs.
"Yes massster, it is ready," a nearby gorgon hissed.
"Good, where is our subject?"
hert
"Here, massster." The gorgon grabbed a woman by the hair, and shoved her face into the black liquid. The liquid, as if it had a mind of it's own, seeped into the woman's mouth and she screamed, as all the monsters cackled.
The dark figure walked out again as he called back, "take her to the surface." He smiled as he moved away, and muttered to himself; "you think we are in a fixed story, where we can only do things we could, almighty gods? Well we are creating something, and you will not see it coming!" He laughed evilly.
"That's all I remember," a young girl, about eleven, said to her older brother. For once in his life, Zachery looked grave. He hugged his younger sister.
"Don't worry, Em, it was just a dream, none of it is real." At eleven years of age, Emily was the best sister Zach could ask for, she was smart, mature, and she loved greek mythology. She was also starting to get into gaming, which he also thought was awesome. What worried the teen, was that the dream probably was true. Just like himself, Em was a child of Hermes. "Look, Em, I need to go to a friends place, since mom and dad aren't home you have to come. Is that okay?"
"Sure, can I take my toys?" she asked eagerly.
"Absolutely, but only two remember?" Zachery laughed, there was a rule to make Emily only take two toys in public at a time, ever since she lost Chimpy, a toy monkey, they made it so she only had to look after two.
"Trust me," his mother had said to Em, "two is more than enough," she laughed as she hugged them both. That was two weeks ago, the day after, their mother went missing, and then their step-father went looking for her. It's been far too long, and Zach was getting worried. Emily knew something was wrong, she wasn't an idiot, Zach knew that. For some reason she trusted they were okay.
The next thing he knew, he was in his mother's car driving to Melody Summers' house. He didn't have his license, but he handled the car like a pro.
"Ozzi wants to know where we are going," Em said, holding up a toy koala. She was only eleven, but Zach knew she had to let go of her toys soon, she was a demigod, things were about to get rough.
"We are going to a friend of mine's house, you don't know her yet," Zach said. "Her name is Melody." Zach's reasoning behind seeing her was simple, she was daughter of Apollo, and he is God of Prophecies. Right now, she was the closest thing he had to making sense of the dreams Em had been having.
"Is she your girlfriend?" Of course Em would ask that, she asks him that about every girl he knows.
"No, Em, she isn't, she's just a friend, nothing more," Zach didn't have feelings for Melody, but he knew how Em would respond.
"Not yet she isn't," Em giggled.
"She's just round the corner, remember, friends." The car parked on the side of the road, and they jogged to the house, knocking on the door. "Yo, Mel, it's just me Zach." Apparently that wasn't convincing enough because she still opened the door with a dagger in the other hand. She grabbed his sleeve and ripped it up, revealing his wrist. She grabbed his hand and looked at his arm. Then she did the same to Em, rather violently in Zach's opinion.
Em took out her camera, and looked at Melody. "Can you hold his hand again? I didn't take the picture in time."
Melody looked at Zach, then sighed. "What do you want?"
Zach looked into the house, then at Melody. "We might be here a while, is there somewhere we can sit?" he asked while walking inside. She grabbed him by the neck and shoved him against the wall, then put her dagger at his throat. Em screamed and ran away. "What the hell? I don't want to hurt you, Melody, it's me, Zach!.. Please." Melody looked like she was scared, did she not remember him?
"Take your shirt off," she said seriously. Zach hesitated, wondering why, and she cut his cheek. The pain fired through his face and he winced, trying not to cry. He took his shirt off and threw it to the ground. She looked at his chest and sighed. She trudged inside and waved for him to come inside.
"Hold on princess," Zach said, as anger swelled inside him. "My sister ran off, you cut my face, and you just strut inside as if nothing happened? What the hell?!" He ran outside calling his sister's name. If she was in any way hurt, Melody was dead. Zach wouldn't hesitate to burn her. She had better have a damn reason as to why she did what she just did, and even then, he doubted she had to be so harsh. He could feel blood trickling down his throat and a wave of nausea hit him. Blood loss? He didn't know, he just had to sit down but there wasn't enough time. He had to find his sister, he ran across the garden, feeling extremely dizzy, then he fell, and everything blacked out.
When he woke up, he had no pain anymore. He got up, felt his cut, it wasn't there anymore. Was this just all a dream? Looking back at it, it was a little too weird for reality. While wondering where he was, a voice interrupted his thoughts.
"She was behind the bins." It was Melody's, he turned around and saw Melody and Em sitting down.
Zach fumed at her calmness. "You've got some explaining to do, before I -"
"Not important," Melody said quickly. Obviously it was important, but she just didn't want to share it. "What is important is the dreams your sister is having.
"His sister has a name, and it's Emily," said Em. Zach was happy she was brought up like this, he'd seen other girls her age, they needed a caution sign taped to them or something.
"Yeah, anyway, the dreams. From what your... Emily has said, it looks like they've somewhat possessed this girl. I have a feeling it has to do with... never mind." Melody looked at the ground. Zach wondered what she was hiding. Then he realised something that he should have realised when he woke up.
"Melody?" She looked up. Zach had to ask this carefully. "Where's your family?"
She sighed. "Upstairs, don't go up there. Don't even look up there. It's hard to explain, but there is some kind of disease which spreads through skin contact. My whole family has it, it's not attractive. They aren't unwell I don't think, but they look horrible. They are pale and thin, with black veins and pure black eyes. I had to check if you guys had the... disease. Why else would you think I'm wearing gloves? I think it's linked to Emily's dreams, the black liquid... black veins." Zach and Emily looked at each other.
Emily chimed into the conversation. "Our parents went missing two weeks ago." Their conversation was rudely interrupted when the upstairs door crashed open and Melody's family came charging down, with a zombie-like stride holding black daggers.
Melody looked at them and yelled, "don't kill them, Zach!" He wasn't planning on trying. He grabbed Em and took her outside while Melody closely followed. It amazed Zach at how quickly diseases spread. Outside there were these black-blooded mutants swarming the streets, picking off survivors. Melody handed Em her dagger and it saddened Zach that such a young girl should wield such a burden. "Only if you have to," whispered Melody, and Em nodded. They crept in the shadows trying to avoid suspicion and noise. Em was shaking, they left her two toys in Melody's house, they were replaced with Celestial Bronze in a matter of seconds. As thousands of infected swarmed the streets, with Em's dagger, Zach's sword and Melody's bow, they'd last five, maybe ten minutes? He held his breath, they were trapped. Hidden, but trapped. Their only escape was to be seen, and fight. Melody drew an arrow and looked at him, her eyes stressful. They both knew these were real people. It wasn't their fault they were... whatever the hell this is. Melody aimed for the nearest enemy, and fired.