Chapter One: The Endless War
"So what do you think happened to Percy Jackson and the other canon characters after the Mary Sue attack on Camp Half-Blood, Nicole?"
"Not sure, Matt. It's hard to say, especially when it happened twenty years ago. Personally, I don't have high hopes."
"I suppose we could ask Rachel Dare, but I'm not sure how much she kno—"
"Nicole Smith, Mr. Coin would like you to report to the front," suddenly said a cool female voice on the loudspeaker.
Nicole, a Sue Slayer, stopped conversing with her friends and immediately ran for the front. She passed some other fellow Slayers as she ran.
It was obvious why Coin wanted her up; he probably had a solo mission for her to undertake.
Mr. Bryan "Coin" Foster, son of Athena, was wearily doing a crossword puzzle in the newspaper. He was about to write down another word when Nicole burst into the room.
"Hello...Mister...Coin," wheezed the seventeen-year old.
"Ms. Smith," greeted Mr. Coin before smiling, "There is no need to waste your energy on running to my office. You ought to save your energy for the mission I'm going to give you."
"I know, sir," said the still-wheezing Nicole, "But it's just that I am excited to accept my first solo mission."
Mr. Coin laughed softly. "You do remember, Ms. Smith, that this mission is also your test to join the Elite, correct?"
"I do, Mr. Coin," replied Nicole.
"Very well, Ms. Smith," said Mr. Coin, clapping his hands together, "Your solo assignment is to capture a Level Two Mary Sue for me. This mission will not only test your hunting skills, but also your trapping skills."
Nicole, after hearing this, quickly ran for the door and Mr. Coin had to speed up his talk just to make sure she heard all of his words.
"Remember Nicole," he said in a louder voice, "The Sue has to be brought back alive. I will have no choice but to fail you if you only bring back its decapitated head!"
"I know, sir!" yelled back Nicole from the hallway.
Mr. Coin listened to Nicole's receding steps for a few seconds before sighing.
She is so enthusiastic, he thought sadly. If only she knew the truth about the the war between Slayer and Sue.
He brushed back his graying hair and went back to his crossword puzzle. In just ten minutes, he completed it.
Next, he folded the newspaper back in its proper place. Out of habit, he checked the business section of the newspaper. Just as he expected, he found financial tables detailing the stocks of various companies.
The newspaper had outdated information, but Coin didn't mind. The sight of the stocks reminded him of the good days, back when he was merely a banker.
Meanwhile at Manhattan...
"What do we have on the radar, commander?"
"A SYOD meeting, soldier!"
"Ummm, what's does 'SYOD' stand for, sir?"
Frustrated, Elite Slayer Jonah Wayne put his hand on his forehead. A new Slayer had joined his unit, but judging from the newbie's behavior and incompetence, Jonah could have mistaken the Slayer for a trainee.
"It stands for Submit Your Own Douchebag, soldier!" barked Jonah Wayne. The new Slayer shrank from the intensity of his voice.
Most of the other Slayers gave warning looks at Jonah; they all knew their squad leader very well. Jonah Wayne was a son of Ares, which meant that he was a great tactical leader and fighter. Unfortunately, he was also an asshole. Many times, someone needed to keep him in check.
The newbie muttered his apologies, but Jonah ignored him. He continued to look at his radar and led his team through the deserted city of Manhattan to their mission destination. After 30 minutes, the squadron of Sue Slayers finally arrived at Central Park.
"What are we here for, sir?" asked the newbie once more to Jonah.
"Just shut up," Jonah growled. He suddenly ran for the trees with his team quickly sprinting to catch up with him.
Under the cover of the trees, Jonah took out his binoculars with his team mimicking his actions. With his visual aids, Jonah could see that the SYOD meeting had already started.
"What are we supposed to be looking at, sir?"
Once again, Jonah put his hand on his forehead but this time, didn't yell, instead he said, "Can someone volunteer to answer all of Neville's stupid questions?"
"I will, sir," replied a calm voice, which Jonah figured to be Blondie's.
Assured that he won't need to answer anymore questions, Jonah went back to spying on the SYOD meeting. Meanwhile, 'Blondie' started to answer Neville's questions in an undertone.
"Your name is Amanda, right?"
"Yes, but you can call me 'Blondie', Neville"
"I'm just going to call you, 'Amanda'. Anyways, I forgot the definition of a SYOD meeting."
"A SYOD meeting is a meeting between creator spirits, which are those glowing orbs over there near that bench, who want to bring their original characters together for an adventure or quest of some sort.
"Where are the original characters? I don't see any."
"It takes time for the creator spirits to transfer their original character to an exact location or actually create one."
"Wait, didn't SYOD stand for Submit Your Own Demigod, Amanda?"
"It used to, Neville, but the term changed after the Golden Age. That was when the Sue Slayers started to call such meetings, "Submit Your Own Douchebag", because many of the OC's submitted were very Sue-ish. Anyways, not all original characters have to necessarily be demigods."
"Oh, so we are here to terminate the Mary Sues that come to this meeting, right?"
"Yes, but we are also here to rescue any unfortunate, normal original characters who came to the meeting."
Neville finally understood the entire mission of his team. He thanked Amanda for her help and went back to watching the SYOD meeting.
Elsewhere in Manhattan...
"Shiz, why did I tell the pilot to drop me at Manhattan again?"
It was around noon on the first of July in an unknown year. Nicole was searching for Sues in Manhattan and so far she didn't find any. She had thought that many higher-leveled Sues will lurk in the now ruined city, but now, she found out that her rash assumption was incorrect.
Nicole kept wandering around the abandoned alleys to continue her search, but only found broken-down cars and old, drifting newspapers.
She wondered if she should call the pilot again to drop her off at a new location when she suddenly caught a glow of light from around the corner. Nicole stopped and slowly took out a silver horseshoe charm from her inner jacket pocket and tapped it. The charm morphed into a three foot-long bronze blade.
Nicole walked slowly as she crept around the corner. She looked around it and saw two girls next to a burning trash can. One of the girls was asleep; the other was awake, shivering next to the fire. Nicole took out her flat, round radar from her left pants pocket and noticed that it read the two girls in front of her as Mary Sues. Smiling grimly, she quickly rushed at the Sue duo.
When she got within seven yards of the Sues, Nicole felt her emotions shift. Abnormal feelings of delight and admiration arose in her as she ran towards the Sues. Remembering her training, Nicole focused on her rationality, something that a Sue's charm couldn't affect.
Hearing her footsteps, the alert Sue noticed her and managed to dodge Nicole's first swing. Nicole rushed the Sue again but the Sue began tossing fire at her, lighting up the entire alley. Luckily, the fireballs flew past Nicole with only one of them singeing the right side of her face.
The Sue then whipped her waist-length raven-black hair back and took out her weapon, a knife, but it was instantly dropped after Nicole stabbed her in the stomach. The Sue's beautiful flame-colored eyes widened in shock as she felt the pain of her death wound. The poorly-written character then fell to the floor and melted into a pile of rainbow dust.
Nicole turned to the other Sue, expecting to see her awake, but instead, she saw that the other Sue was still asleep. Just to make sure she stayed asleep, Nicole took out a small bottled flask of knockout drops of her right pants pocket, uncapped it, and poured the flask's contents on the sleeping Sue's head.
The sleeping Sue was not like the Sue that Nicole had just killed; she had the unnatural beauty of a Sue, but also had the toned body of an athlete. Unless Nicole was mistaken, the sleeping Sue was definitely a Level Two.
Just in case though, she took out her radar to check. At this proximity, her radar was able to approximate the danger level of the sleeping Sue.
"One Level Two Sue, two feet away," read the radar.
Nicole called for the pilot.