I've had this idea floating around for a while and I thought I'd give it a go :) I'm unaware of anyone else writing something like this, so any similarity - if there are any - is completely unintentional.
I've done my best to check for any typos, spelling and grammar errors, but if you see any, just let me know and I'll fix them.
Disclaimer: I do not (unfortunately) own Percy Jackson or any other of the characters from the series. I also do not own Disney's Hercules.
Chapter 1
Percy Jackson ran through the musty halls of Goode High School as if chased by a psychopath wielding a knife. He was late on his first day. His first day! How was that even possible?
After missing the bus from the stop in front of the Manhattan apartment he shared with his parents, he'd hailed a cab only to be stopped by the Monday morning traffic of the busy New York City. Ten minutes into the traffic jam, he'd left the cranky cabby swearing his rage at the rest of the world, to proceed on foot. This can't get any worse.
The weather it seemed, accepted his challenge and a few minutes later the heavens were raining down on the pedestrians, caught unaware as the heavy clouds had appeared out of nowhere.
Fifteen minutes and five blocks later, Percy Jackson had sprinted through the front doors of the high school, barely acknowledging the security guard sat in the reception, leaving behind a trail of water and muddy footprints.
Turning right down the corridor he knew led to his Algebra class, he ran straight into the person going in the opposite direction. His fall was broken by something incredibly soft. "Umph!"
He looked down to find two piercing grey eyes glaring at him angrily. "Well, are you going to get off of me or what?" asked the girl, who Percy didn't recognize. She shoved him off of her with surprising strength and attempted to get off of the floor only to slip on the water he'd trailed in from the downpour outside.
He stood and with an apologetic smile he held his hand out to the girl to help her off the wet floor. The girl with blond hair and grey eyes refused and stalked off without as much as another glance in his direction.
Percy shrugged and continued on to his first class, which by now - if he was not mistaken - was almost halfway through. Great. Detention on my first day back.
He knocked on the door, already dreading Mrs. Dodds' furious tirade - and Percy would know. He'd been on the end of them more times than he could count.
A raspy 'Come in!' answered his knock as he turned the knob.
He was sorely tempted to close his eyes to avoid the stares and sniggers that were sure to follow, but he didn't, fully prepared to take the full brunt of the woman's temper head on.
Mrs. Dodds was a petite woman with grey hair that was always held back in a bun. She very rarely wore anything other than a plain dark skirt that fell well beyond her knees, flat black shoes that were scuffed from use, and a simple blue blouse. What stood out was the leather jacket that she was never seen without. It somehow seemed out of place for the aging school teacher.
Her eyes, hidden behind thickly framed glassed were as dark as coal as they regarded sixteen-year old Percy Jackson. The rest of the class stared at him with mild amusement, taking in his soaked appearance. His shoes certainly felt wet as did his t-shirt which stuck to his chest and upper arms. He was likely to get a cold after that.
He risked a glance at Mrs. Dodds only to find her glaring at him, much like the girl in the hall had earlier.
"I'm sorry for being late, Mrs. Dodds. It won't happen again." He thought he heard her snort, but he wasn't stupid enough to call her out on it.
"Detention, Mr. Jackson," was all she said, again in that raspy voice before sitting down at the desk again. He nodded. He was already in enough trouble for the day. But for some reason the sound of her voice, although completely normal as he'd heard it a thousand times before, sent chills down his spine.
He frowned and sat down in the only available seat left next to the girl with spiky black hair and electric blue eyes, who looked extremely bored. She didn't even look up at him as he pulled out his book from his bag.
Percy turned his attention to the letters and numbers of his Algebra book, but his dyslexia had worsened in the last few weeks, ever since his birthday. To quell his already growing headache, he took another glance at the girl sat next to him.
She wore heavy eye-liner under her blue eyes that crackled like electricity, dark jeans with holes at the knee length and further up her thighs, a black t-shirt that read 'Death to Barbie' with the picture of a decapitated Barbie Doll head. All in all the girl looked like the regular Goths that attended Goode, but he didn't recognize her and he'd known all of classmates since freshman year.
Mrs. Dodd drawled on while he ignored her and instead he concentrated on the swim trials that were to take place later that day. Percy was a virtual shoe-in for a place on the team, but the coach liked to keep things fair.
The bell woke him up from his stupor sometime later and he realized with a jolt that most of his classmates had already left. Not wanting to be late for his second consecutive class of the day, he sprinted - again - out of the classroom unaware of the demonic grin that graced the Maths teacher's papery lips.
The rest of the day, thankfully, passed uneventfully and with relative quickness. After catching up with most of his friends - or rather the few he had that didn't think he was weird - in History and during the lunch break, Percy headed for his final and favourite class: Latin.
He'd been surprised when his mom had suggested he take it, but even more so when he found he actually liked it and it was the only class where he seemed to truly excel. It was also the only class with his best friend Grover.
Grover had moved to Goode the previous year, a transfer from some school Percy couldn't remember in Oregon, but they'd soon become fast friends.
Mr. Isaacs had retired the year before, having had enough of teenagers' withering attitudes and general disregard for any and all rules. The prospect of a new teacher was exciting.
He calmly walked behind the limping Grover and shouldered the tawny-haired boy's backpack, as the taller of the two took his crutches in hand.
"Thanks, Perce," he said gratefully, ignoring the snickers of those around them in the hall.
As the warning bell rang, the corridor slowly emptied and soon enough it was only Percy and Grover. They turned left and saw the blond girl from earlier and the spiky haired Goth Percy had seen in his Algebra class, talking painstakingly fast under their breaths. The blonde was shaking her head in clear frustration at whatever she was hearing, but soon stopped when she caught sight of the two friends.
As they walked past them, he thought he saw Grover give them a look, but then again he could have just as easily imagined it.
Mr. Brunner turned out to be best teacher Percy had ever had after barely ten minutes of class. The way he described myths, both Greek and Latin, was so incredibly detailed, one would think he'd actually witnessed them!
Not five minutes into the introduction of the year's curriculum, the blond-haired girl and the spiky haired Goth had entered the classroom, much calmer than they'd been in the hall. They took their seats at the back of the class, dragging their chairs as they sat down and pointedly ignoring everyone around them.
"Thank you for joining us, Annabeth, Thalia. Be sure to arrive on time next time." Neither girl replied.
The exciting tale of the origin of the Olympians followed and Percy was completely enraptured by older man's story, his sea-green eyes following the teacher's every movement. Though his ADHD often didn't allow him to sit still during his classes, he was rooted in his seat and for once he could see the words written on the blackboard with no difficulty.
"How did Zeus overthrow his father?" asked Mr. Brunner. His grey eyes lingered for one moment on Percy, searching for something, some kind of recognition, before moving to a classmate who had dozed off at one point. "Ah, Mr. Coulson, would you be so kind as to enlighten us?"
The boy in question blinked lazily, his chestnut hair messy and stuck up from where he was lying awkwardly on his book.
"Huh?" The teacher smiled indulgently and tapped the name 'Kronos' written in chalk.
"It seems as though you have fallen victim to the trickery of Morpheus. Try not to let it happen again, Mr. Coulson. Now, I asked if you knew how Zeus overthrew his father." Jimmy Coulson just stared at the Mr. Brunner, quietly assessing if his teacher was indeed sane. Most of Percy's classmates did, in fact. Percy crossed his arms against his chest, smirking slightly.
"Err... He err killed him?"
"In a way," admitted Mr. Brunner. "Anyone else? Percy perhaps?"
Percy met the teacher's eyes who waited expectantly. "Well, he didn't actually kill him. Zeus," and thunder resounded in the distance," used Kronos' own sword to cut him into pieces and then tossed them into Tartarus, but he didn't die."
Mr. Brunner's eyes gleamed brighter, a spark of silver in them.
"And how do you know that?" His tone was soft, but Percy could tell he was waiting for something, not just his answer.
"Titans don't die, especially not in Tartarus. According to the myth he's just imprisoned." Percy was pretty sure he'd never heard that little tidbit, but the memory of a three thousand year old war echoed in his subconscious and he saw them - shadows that fought fiercely with gold swords, one of them wielding an object shaped like a lightning bolt that shone brightly whenever it came in contact with its opponent's skin. One of them cried out in pain when the blade struck a shoulder and plunged into blood covered armor, cracking and distorting the metal at the opening.
More shadows soon joined in and arrows flew as fast as bullets, imbedding themselves in his chest and legs. Spears were thrown, a few hitting their target, others simply disappeared once they overshot the shadow crying out in pain. It is done. You have lost, father.
The memory faded in a blink of an eye and Percy felt so incredibly cold and he shivered when someone - a girl, gently touched his arm. Ears ringing with clanging swords, he couldn't focus on the girl's face, but her voice was soft, comforting. He was sure he'd heard it before. Her face was the last thing he saw before darkness claimed his vision, his limbs suddenly feeling heavy and everything ached.
He dreamt of a woman with dark hair - black like his and it cascaded down her back, falling just beyond her waist. Her eyes were so kind, so loving and they gazed at him with such familiarity that he wondered if he'd met her before. It felt like it.
Another figure - a man joined her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and whispered something unintelligible in her ear. She smiled and something stirred within him, a longing for something he thought he'd lost long ago. The woman reached out to touch his cheek, nothing more than a caress, but it brought tears to her eyes and he wanted to take them away, but the man did that for him and gently tugged at her arm, pulling her away from him. He didn't want that. He wanted to know who the woman was and why she was so familiar.
But they disappeared in a flash and Percy was left feeling empty.
Percy woke sometime later, eyes blinking as they caught sight of the fluorescent flickering lights of the ceiling above, and struggled to accustom themselves to the brightness of the room. He was no longer in his Latin classroom. He could tell from the heavy smell of antiseptic that emanated from every corner of the room. Nurse's office. Perfect.
He sat up, joints cracking as he did so and leaned against the white wall. The elderly nursed looked up from her magazine and stared blankly at him, eyes void of any emotion. Percy frowned and with no certain amount of difficulty hopped off the uncomfortable bed and waved a hand in front of her face. Nothing.
He was about to call for help when her hand reached out to grab his arm forcefully.
"M-Mrs. Walters?"
Her irises disappeared, fading into the white of her eyes and a cruel smile twisted and contorted the sweet and plump face of the nurse. Mrs. Walters' complexion changed into a very pale grey as her fingers turned into sharp talons, digging into the skin of her arm, drawing blood. His blood, however, held hints of a deep and rich gold mixed in with crimson.
The woman's smile became even more sinister.
"I've been waiting for you, Perseus Jackson," said the nurse - thing. Her claws dug deeper into his arm now dripping with red and gold blood and Percy screamed.
Mrs. Walters laughed, a terrifying sound that bounced off the walls and forever embedded itself in his memory. He was dreaming, right? This was all just a nightmare. A horrible nightmare.
Black leathery wings began to emerge from Mrs. Walters' back, stretching the fabric of her shirt to the point of ripping it, until they finally opened up like a bat's wings. The monster let out a wail as a set sharp yellow fangs slowly surfaced and replaced her denture. The fake teeth dropped to the ground with a thud.
Dark mist shrouded his feet and began to crawl its way up his leg. Percy felt numb, his vision darkening (again) and he no longer felt in control of his lower limbs as they slowly began to shake uncontrollably, to the point where he could no longer hold himself up. Knees dropping to the floor, the creature never let up on his arm, that now throbbed painfully.
Mrs. Walters bent into a crouch, her foul stench making him dizzier and more nauseous by the minute - and pulled his neck closer to her razor-sharp teeth.
The door swung open and hit the wall with a loud bang. All Percy could see was a flash of gold and a shower of something that resembled dust before he lost consciousness for the second time that day.
So, what do you think? Is it worth continuing?
If anyone's interested, I'm looking for a beta (or several) to help me out and to kick my arse when I'm procrastinating, which I tend to do A LOT.
Cheers, guys :)