For a child of one of the big three, Anton Deimorti was depressingly comfortable with being mostly mortal. He had few friends at camp and liked it that way. He was the head of his cabin at camp half-blood but that's only because his elder half-brother was away a lot and his younger half-sister was twelve. So what if he was fifteen? There's still a difference... Yes, the head of Hades cabin was rather dull. He could summon ghosts, but why would he want to? It's just more people to talk to. So he spent his days keeping the cabin clean, reading up on other people's exploits and trying to keep under the radar from camp activities. He was perfectly happy just the way he was.
It was an ordinary week night for Anton except for the storm brewing outside which the camps magic usually kept away. He didn't mind though, the rain against the windows was rhythmic and calming. He wore his black smoker's jacket with purple lining over his shirt and pin-striped trousers that stretched all the way down to his leather shoes. His half-sister had gone to bed so as usual he chose to stay up late by his desk and study. It must have been half an hour later that the wind and the rain blew open a window leading to behind the cabin. Anton got up and walked over to close it but to his shock he saw an intruder leaning against the frame. The night made the figure a silhouette but Anton could tell he wore dark boots, a long coat reaching into the space, guided by the wind, and a top hat. In his left hand there was a 4 foot long spade with a blade that was as dark as nightmares and was more like a battle axe than a gardening tool. The figure used the long handle to keep the window from closing in on the room. A means of a quick getaway perhaps? A flash of lightning illuminated his face and for a moment Anton saw the look of madness in the figures eyes, nearly covered by hair as dark as the night outside and wild as the smile on his face. The figure hopped down from the window sill and with a sweeping motion of the spade, he bowed.
"Greetings, cabin leader Anton." From the candle light inside the cabin, Anton could tell the intruder was about seventeen and saw how darkness crossed the light to get to him, as if the shadows were made up of snakes. He stood up straight and spoke again. "My name is Damian Grey." Anton recognised him now. He wasn't a camp member but he used to be. He did visit from time to time, always arriving in a carriage drawn by skeletal horses. He would come in the camp, trade words with the director, and then leave, not to be seen again until a few months later.
"Why have you come here Damian?" Anton asked, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. Which he didn't. Hades children must be formal yet firm. Feared and yet respected. These were all traits Anton had trouble mustering. Damian smiled like a snake would smile at a mouse.
"I need your help, to be perfectly honest." The thought of this guy, a legend in the half-blood underworld community, needing someone like him was daunting at the least. Damian was a son of Erebos, the Greek god of the darkness, and the first in centuries. He had fates for sisters and the ferryman for a brother, a family reunion would be the cause of tales for thousands of years. "I need someone who can command souls and obviously, someone like you would be up to the task... come for a stroll with me?" He held out his bony, pale hand as if to pull Anton up to him.
"Now? In the middle of the night?" Anton asked.
"What better time for underworld children such as ourselves?" Damian replied. Not to seem incapable or frightened, Anton went to take his hand.
"Very well, I will see to your request." As soon as Anton touched him, they were both immediately transported to the ruins of an ancient coliseum. Damian stood tall and unfazed whilst Anton stumbled, dazed and dizzy from the shadow travel. He had tried shadow travel before, but felt unnatural doing it. "Wh- where are we?" He mumbled in confusion.
"You'd be happier not knowing, you can take my word for that. Now, not to panic you or anything but do try to survive." At that, Damian disappeared in a puff of smoke, as if he was never there in the first place. But behind where he stood was the cave where warriors and animals would come out to fight each other millennia ago. From the darkness and rubble, grunts and snorts came and stomps of a large creature grew louder and louder as it got closer and closer. From the dim moonlight, a gigantic creature could be seen as it stepped out. It was a wall of muscle with one eye in the middle of its wide forehead, and just below that, a snarling mouth drooled, lined by canine teeth. The Cyclops spotted the demigod in an instant. No doubt it had already caught his scent. Anton wasted no time in running away and sprinted in the opposite direction. However, the Cyclops wasted no time in chasing him and roared as it crossed metres in seconds. Anton weaved in and out of the ruined columns but the Cyclops merely charged through them in a wave of brute force, debris sent flying. Anton had to concentrate his utmost to keep ahead. He could feel the ground beneath his feet bend and move to push him forward away from the harm behind him. It was an impressive display of precision of power on his part. It might've even helped him escape from other smaller monsters. But not this one. In moments the monster had caught up and with one fling of its arm it sent Anton slamming into a far wall, winding him completely. Anton had hit his head hard and couldn't find any will power to move, let alone get over the pain he had received. The Cyclops walked towards him and looked down on its fresh meal, animalistic delight in its eye.
THWANG!
The Cyclops toppled over face first on to the hard stone floor just in front of Anton, completely unconscious. Behind him, Damian hovered, lifted into the air by the shadows themselves. Both of his hands were on the handle of the downward facing spade, madness in his eyes. Taking control of himself, he came down to the Cyclops level and turned it over with his foot. In a burst of movement, he slammed the flat side of the blade spade back down onto the Cyclops's jaw and again and again until all of its teeth had been beaten out of it. Every so often he would take a break, kneel down and put the teeth inside a little sack he had in his breast pocket. And then he would go back to the beating until he had every single tooth. When he was finished with his 'handy work' he finally crouched down in front of Anton.
"What in all of Hades realm is wrong with you?!" Anton tried to shout, but ended up moaning.
"Uh, well, Ghosts and monsters hate me. That's two things?" Damian admitted. "C'mon, we'll take you for a walk to clear your head before we head back. Oh, but before we do..." and with a flick of his arm, Damian decapitated the Cyclops who disintegrated into a heap of golden dust instantly. He then lifted Anton up and supported him his shoulder. They hobbled along to nowhere in particular.
"What is it you DO for camp half-blood? I mean, you always come and go in a big carriage and the camp director is never happy about it, but you come in anyway. And THEN you disappear for months on end." Anton was overwhelmed with questions, but at least it took the attention off of his head pains.
"I'm not surprised you don't know a lot, what I do isn't very... safe. Well, in short, I'm a grave robber." Damian waited a few moments for that to sink in. Grave robbers are DEFINITELY not ok in the underworld. "I go all around the world to tombs of demigods and I take their celestial bronze, stygian iron and even some imperial gold."
"What's imperial gold?" Anton asked.
"Never you mind, that's what. Anyway, that's what's in the carriage that you see every time I come by."
"Isn't that a major disrespect to all demigods? What you're doing is wrong."
"Wrong?" Damian laughed. "Do you know how much celestial bronze your camp uses in a year? Especially with all the quests going on recently. I'm going to tell you something my mentor told me: 'While you struggle to keep your conscience a garden of riches rots in the ground.' Without me, your camp wouldn't have nearly enough metal for that new ballistics initiative they're developing. It's ugly – but necessary. Anyway- we're here."
Anton looked away from Damian's gaze to see they were in a dark corridor leading to a brightly lit room. Damian must have shadow travelled him mid conversation. That just showed how powerful he really was. Sometimes it was the simple things to a great degree that made a demigod seem more superhuman. Anton stumbled ahead through the corridor to the room and found inside was a small teenager, a little younger than he was. He had his blonde hair draped across his head in no particular style and he wore a lab coat which was stained with several fluids, one of which definitely blood, and much too big for him. He was working on a massive body on a surgical table but quickly covered it with a sheet when he noticed Anton. One wall of the room was covered in iron doors and the opposite wall had dozens of x-rays, diagrams and calculations. The room was a morgue.
"Oh, a guest with a fully operational heart, that's a first." The boy muttered.
"Careful he doesn't cut you open and take it for experiments." Damian whispered to Anton. There was something about his voice which was joking, but something else that was serious. "I'm afraid the son of Hades has a nasty cut on his head-"
"Have you brought the teeth?" the boy interrupted. Damian fished the sack out of his pocket and tossed it onto the surgical table. The boy checked inside eagerly then nodded. "I shall tend to the conduit. You put these in place."
"Of course... Toddy." The boy glared at Damian as if to say 'I hate that name'. He swapped places with Damian, pulling a container of pills out of his pocket and handing them to Anton.
"Take these. They'll make you feel better." They looked nothing like the ambrosia Anton had had before, but he would take anything to stop the pain. "You may call me McFarlane, son of Asclepius. Now I'm sure you're quite bemused by all of this but I personally promise as soon as you do us one simple favour to help our... 'Experiment' run along smoothly, you can go home to your cabin and get a good night's rest for your hard work. Wouldn't that be nice?" A moment passed before Anton replied.
"Sure, whatever, let's just get this over with."
"Excellent!" McFarlane blurted. Damian looked up from the mound of flesh underneath the sheet.
"The teeth are in place, I assume you've implanted the mechanical heart?"
"Of course I have! Do you realise how many favours I've had to call in to make this work all in one night? The storm, the heart, the heavy lifting of the internal organs!"
"Where did you even get that mechanical heart... thing?" Damian asked.
"I traded designs with a child of Hephaestus but never mind that." Thunder boomed from outside and the ceiling opened up. A machine then lowered itself above the table, electrical arcs emitted from it to any metal object they could find. "Perfection!" McFarlane turned his attention back to Anton. "Now, all you need to do is summon a soul and place it underneath this machine." Anton paused to consider his next question.
"Any soul in particular?"
"Not really, only one that's calm and not likely to panic." McFarlane answered. Anton lifted up his hands and directed them to just above the specimen on the surgical table. Blue energy flickered and a ball grew out of nothingness. Then the ball changed to make out the face of a person. It peered around the room and looked directly at Anton with worrisome eyes. Then, as quickly as it appeared, it was sucked deep into the chest of the specimen on the table, screaming as it went. The machine above roared to life and fired blood red energy intensely down onto the table. The light was so bright; Anton had to cover his eyes with both of his hands. Then, he could hear a deep breathing and a presence he didn't feel before. When he uncovered his eyes he saw that the specimen wasn't on the table anymore. It had stood up. It was so tall it nearly touched the ceiling just by standing. It had scaly arms and legs, a furry torso and razor sharp claws. Its hair wriggled and writhed and on closer inspection Anton saw the hair was spider legs. It moved in a clumsy way, as if it wasn't used to the muscled body it had. It looked like the kind of creature that could give the Cyclops a run for its money. Heck, anything would run away from that thing! It didn't help that the separate limbs and features were sown together and left horrid scars all over. At first the creature was slow, moving each finger separately. Then it closed its fists, piercing itself with its own claws. The beast roared in pain and went into a fit of rage. It lashed out at the room around it, slashing its claws across the machinery that brought it to life. McFarlane hid under the table to avoid the swipes whereas Damian just seemed to pass through the claws which should have torn off his entire head. It charged past Anton, knocking him down with its immense momentum. Once it had left, McFarlane crawled out from his hiding spot.
"I thought I told you to summon a CALM spirit!" He shouted.
"It's not like I had much of a choice." Anton replied.
"Oh yeah, it's not like the entire history of the human population is in the underworld. Oh wait! It is!" McFarlane retorted.
"Regardless, we have to catch the vessel." Damian interrupted. He was probably the most harm because the so called 'vessel' couldn't get near him. Lucky. Anton and McFarlane got to their feet and ran out of the room through the corridor with Damian close behind. Once they were outside the building, Anton realised where they were. Outside a morgue with a small entrance, underneath a small hill. But the hill became larger and at the peak was a white tree with a golden light hanging off of one of the branches that shone through the night and the pouring rain. This was half-blood hill. Anton could have walked away this entire time. The vessel had already reached the top and in its rage attempted to attack the tree.
"The tree is in danger! If it becomes damaged, the border protecting camp could be destroyed permanently! Damian, stop him!" McFarlane cried. But Damian was already at the peak, slashing at the vessel forcing it away from the tree. McFarlane and Anton rushed up to meet it from behind. But Damian was vulnerable while he was attacking and the vessel knocked Damian down with a burst of power in the form of a head butt. However the vessel slipped on the mud, twisted and toppled over on to its back. Damian took advantage and held it down with tendrils of shadows. The vessel roared as loud as the thunder in frustration as the rain pelted its face. McFarlane sprinted towards it with determination that Anton had never witnessed before. He pulled out a scalpel from his left pocket with his right hand. Three meters before reaching the vessel, it elongated into a five foot long halberd with a one foot long blade of half bronze and half steel. McFarlane slashed upwards and cut the vessel's torso open, organs and ribs peeking out. Then, without hesitation, he plunged his hands into the fleshy crevice and explored its insides. Once he found what he was looking for he pulled with all his might and out came the still beating mechanical heart. It was the size of a skull and had moving gears sticking out of it. On one side was a looking glass with dim blue light seeping out.
Then, all time seemed to stop. The rain floated midair. The blood of the vessel stopped spurting out onto the grass. The wind stopped blowing.
"I am rather torn how to deal with this." flowed a voice from the tree. When all three teenagers looked up, they could see why it would seem time had stopped. Leaning on the tree was a man who looked like he had been frozen in time at the peak of his life. His dark hair glided down to his shoulders and his skin was the colour of dark wood. From his back came a pair of beautiful angel wings, folded neatly against his dark robes. The god Thanatos spoke again. "On one hand, this is an impressive display of creation. I should know, I've seen all of life's flaws. And an even more impressive display of death. This was more of a slaughter than a battle. However, you have also stolen something that doesn't belong to you." He pointed at the still beating heart. "But I suppose I'll see you all eventually. Merely return the soul and all will be as it was before."
McFarlane clutched the heart that little bit tighter. But Anton stepped forward and with a gesture of his hand, the blue light left the mechanical prison and floated towards the god. Thanatos waved his hand and the light faded once again. "My thanks, son of Hades. I'll see you again soon." And with that final comment and a great flap of his wide spread wings, he took off into the night sky. Time resumed for the rest of the world, the rain came down but soon stopped and the sky cleared to reveal the stars and moon once again.
The next day was bright as usual and no one around knew what happened last night. Despite it all Anton had remained under the radar. He left his cabin and went to the entrance just in time to catch Damian before he departed. He was atop his carriage ready to leave at a crack of the reins.
"Don't ever pull a stunt like that again." Anton commanded. There was a stern tone in his voice that wasn't there before. McFarlane stuck his head out of back of the carriage to see him for possibly the last time. "And you. You're failed experiment could have killed someone."
"Yes, it could it could have." McFarlane replied. "Which means it was an absolute success." Anton could have taken Damian's spade and shoved it down McFarlane's throat right there and then, but he held himself.
"Regardless, the vessel is gone now."
"Well that's where you're wrong. The source may be gone, but the vessel remains operational. Exactly as designed. And you forget, I still have the heart." From his lab coat pocket, McFarlane pulled out the bronze and fleshy heart. He hopped into the back of the carriage and went to close the back doors. But before he did, Anton caught a glimpse of what was in there. A surgical table with a goliath on top, covered by a white sheet. Before Anton could act, the horses rose up on to their hind legs then charged full force forward. A wall of shadow appeared to meet them but they just passed through and disappeared, horses, carriage and all. Anton was left where he began. Alone. But now he knew he had to improve himself. For when the time came that the vessel would return.
Hey there stranger. This is one of the stories in a planned series based in camp half-blood. The series isn't canon to the original books so can take place in other time periods. This series will not specifically have a definitive start and end so you could read any of them in any order and still be fine. I always feel a sense of guilt when writing about another author's characters because I haven't been given specific consent to use them, so I create my own.
Things to look forward to in the future: Who could design a machine that holds life? How did the storm get past the barrier? When will Thanatos or The Vessel return?
Now, if you have read my previous 'submit your own OC' story 'The Demigod War' then you will have noticed it hasn't been updated in years and probably won't be updated anytime soon. I wrote it when I was younger and it feels cringe worthy reading it again. But who knows, maybe I'll go back and finally finish it. If you haven't read it then do take a look if you wish.
Reviews and favourites are always helpful. Give feedback or ideas and I'll try and keep writing. As always I litter my work with references to songs, video games etc. So see if you can spot them all ;)
Thanks again, DetonationDusk.