Chapter 1: Stepfather

Percy's POV

I stood, quivering, in the living room. It was my seventh birthday and what am I given?

Beatings.

Gabe Ugliano is a disgusting man. He was five and a half feet tall and sported a fat belly big enough to make Sumo wrestlers look skinny. The worst thing was he stank. Gabe Ugliano smelt like someone who had been living in a sewer for the past five years. By the way he never showers; he probably has.

Our apartment looked like a garbage can and smelt like a sewer. Food scraps and broken glass littered the floor and the wallpaper was torn all over leaving letting the underneath mold show.

I had no idea why but my mother refused to call the police and when I did she always denied that anything was wrong to the police. I knew that while I might get knocked around a bit, she is driven to the brink of death. While I may never see it, it was definitely evident. Whenever Gabe raises his hand she always flinches, even if it was moving to reach for a towel.

Gabe had even gone the extra mile to buy a bullwhip. That is rather funny actually because he is so fat that it is too hard for him use. Nonetheless he is relentless.

I stood there as Gabe approached me with a vase held in his hands. It was an ornamental Chinese vase which was worth quite some money. Of course Gabe doesn't know that and neither does he care. The only cash he is interested in is the paper kind they use as currency nowadays.

"You little brat!" Gabe growled out threateningly.

He raise the vase above his head before throwing it down at me. I moved to the side slightly and avoided being hit. I heard it crash behind me as I ran around Gabe.

He couldn't spin fast and I made a beeline for the kitchen. As the door got closer to me, I had one thing set on mind; I needed a knife.

I neared the kitchen drawer and pulled out the first thing I could grasp: a meat cleaver. It was then that Gabe managed to close in on me.

He grabbed me from behind and growled, "No you don't punk!"

However it was too late for him.

I pivoted on the ball of my and drove the cleaver through his shoulder. It sheared through his bones and they let out a sickening crunch, but I was unfazed because of my fury and need for retribution. He let out a howl of pain that pierced through the busy streets of Manhattan.

It was now that my mother chose to enter our apartment. She looked at the commotion to see me pulling the cleaver out of his shoulder as he collapsed to the ground. I brought the cleaver down again but this time at the opposing shoulder. The cleaver looked like a weapon of evil as blood dripped from it. Both times he cried out in pain, probably attempting to call the neighbors. The third time was brought down on his manhood; effectively castrating him.

I looked at his as he screamed, "Mercy! Please! Mercy!"

"Then mercy you shall get." I raised the cleaver again, adjusting my grip. I never mentioned what kind of mercy, did I?

He looked at me in terror and screamed as loud as humanly possible, "Please! Mercy! You said you would give me mercy!"

"This is mercy." I drove it at his forehead; instantly killing him and putting him out of his misery. The cleaver made a satisfying 'THUD!' as it clove right through his thick skull. My mother looked at me in horror as she yanked the butcher's tool from his head. I looked at her. Realization finally hit me. I just killed a person; it wasn't manslaughter, it wasn't execution. No, it was an act of murder. As much as I hated him I had never thought to kill a person before, much less to make that person suffer before he died; no matter how deserving.

"Murder! James! Call 911!" I heard a woman scream. I looked at the kitchen window to see one of our neighbors staring at my mother in shock.

I was fairly certain she thought mother did it.

The woman ran off and I heard a door slam from next door. The woman probably feared for her life as I had never seen someone so terrified.

"Percy! Don't worry my boy; I will take this blame." My mother said comfortingly as she grabbed a tissue and started wiping my fingerprints off the handle of the knife.

"No!" I screamed, reaching for the knife.

"No, Percy this is my responsibility. I can't let you face punishment. It was my mistake marrying him. You will never understand why though, not right now." She said and I felt tears welling up. Somehow I had managed to do it without getting so much as a trace of his foul blood on my clothes yet my mother had managed to get it all over her clothes. I realized she was trying to make herself look guilty.

"No mom, you can't do this!"

(Time Skip)

No matter how much I said that it was me everyone turned a blind eye. They refused to acknowledge that Gabe was abusive to both of us and that I had done it. The first time I tried to plead guilty the Judge laughed and mocked me saying, "Get this kid out of my face, he's still in diapers and makes a terrible liar."

They dragged me one of the audience seats near the back. His last comment riled up hatred in my stomach. My mother had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to fifteen years in jail.

I stood up as they dragged my mother away and I ran over and hugged her one last time before she would have to disappear into jail for the next fifteen years of our life. Tears trickled down my cheeks as my mother whispered words into my ear.

"Be strong Perseus. Save this world." And with that she left.

"The boy will need a guardian…" The judge said. At that, my eyes bolted up in horror. I sprinted to the door and ran away; not looking back. I would not have a guardian. I didn't have any aunts or uncles and both my grandparents on my mothers side were dead. As far as I knew, my father is a deadbeat who left a week after I was born and never returned to talk to me.

I would not let another asshole take care of me. In my time living with Gabe I had become a rather psychopathic kid. I was more reckless and started playing with fire and knives more. The years of my life spent living with Gabe were a living hell. I honestly believed that perhaps I had done something terribly wrong and that God had sent Satan himself to torture me and my mother. Obviously I was wrong as the 'Beelzebub' was most certainly mortal. God is apparently still very much not real.

Then a thought occurred to me... How the hell was I going to survive alone.

(6 Months Later)

Zeus's POV

For the first time in decades I had come down to the mortal world to relax with Hera. We entered a restaurant and sat a table.

A drunk man walked up to us as our eyes scanned down the menu. He looked at Hera and practically melted in her beauty. The problem with gods and goddesses is that even if they aren't a particularly good looking god, they are still more attractive than most mortals. Even Hephaestus is considered more attractive than most mortals even though he is a cripple.

He kept giving Hera flirtatious looks and I glared at him demanding, "Will you stop flirting with my wife for so much as one second?"

"Come on girl, you can do better than him; come with me and I'll give you the night of your life." He said flirtatiously moving his hand to her breasts.

"Keep your hands away from me! Piss off if you aren't here to take our order!" Hera snarled at him.

"Oh come on girl, you know you want it!" he said suggestively and I was struggling to keep my anger down. Hera had managed to convince me to try and not kill everyone who pisses me off even a little bit and in return she won't try to kill all of my children. I eventually relented, realizing that I was maybe a bit too murderous and I was portraying the same murderous tyrant king that my father was.

"I do not! Go away!" Hera screeched and everyone in the restaurant was now staring at the commotion. Now instead of saying more he grabbed one of her arms while using the other hand to grope at her breast and pulled her into a kiss, forcing his tongue down her throat as she fought to push him away.

It was then that I snapped. I bolted upright and punched the guy in the face as he pulled back, making him crumple to the ground before dragging him out of the restaurant.

"You dare kiss MY WIFE! You dare grope MY WIFE!" I growled in the most threatening way possible. I dragged him into a side alley with Hera trailing.

As soon as I dumped him to the ground we both began kicking the crap out of him. It's amazing really; Hera is a rather peaceful goddess. But when she is pissed off, she becomes a dangerous, vengeful killer. In my opinion that's what makes her awesome and is partly why I love her. Sure I cheat on her but millennia of life gets boring. You can't blame me, most men do it. Honestly if she found a mortal man that I a hundred percent approved of then I would allow her to cheat with him but that was really never going to happen. Partly because as goddess of marriage she wouldn't bother trying to find one and partly because there is no one I would approve of.

It's the same with Artemis. She asked never to HAVE to lose her virginity or HAVE to get married. As long as it is someone I approve of she could lose it without worry. Unlike popular belief she never took the vow, she is simply waiting for the right one. I was scared when she fell for that gigante Orion. All the Olympians knew he was a rapist among other things but she refused to believe that until her own hunter was raped by him. Plus the gigantes are our enemies. Like popular belief Orion is a son of Poseidon after he urinated into a pelt or something like that. But Orion actually had three parents. Poseidon, Gaia and Tartaros. The pelt passed through Gaia into Tartaros's domain and became a gigante. Because of his connection to Poseidon he didn't have snake legs like the others but he was certainly NOT attractive or kind. Artemis fell for him because of hunting skill. Stupid right?

Well I was thankful she was still her old self when she tortured and killed the gigante. I placed his form into the stars not as a sign of her love, but as a warning never to play games with Artemis and the Hunt. Sadly these stupid mortals never got the message and think that it really is possible to win her love and ended up getting themselves killed or worse. After Orion's trickery she only hated men even more.

Mortals.

I looked at Hera seeking permission to kill.

Yes I have to seek her permission to kill now. It is embarrassing but it has made a impact on me. I was told that I was generally a better ruler and more just cause of it.

She nodded.

The man lay on the ground; his face a bloody pulp. I summoned my master bolt and blasted him into the underworld before turning to Hera. She smiled at me, "Thanks, you have changed."

I smiled back and pulled her into a kiss.

We walked all the way to central park and sat on a bench. It was a beautiful snowy day and all I wanted was to relax. The mortal world had changed a lot since we last saw it. These mortal vehicles called cars are really ingenious inventions worthy of Hephaestus. All he makes are failed Talos robots while these mortals don't unleash their products on the world until perfect for it's function.

We sat in the park chatting until a green eyed kid came stumbling by holding a bow. I watched as he nocked an arrow and aimed at something behind him. He couldn't be any older than seven yet he was holding a full size recurve bow like a professional.

Then the thing he was aiming at burst out of nowhere and he fired. A whole pack of hellhounds had began pursuit on him.

"He can't be older than seven yet he has a pack of hellhounds after him? He has to be one of Poseidon's!" I growled out the last bit. It meant that Poseidon too had broken the oath. My daughter Thalia had died not long ago.

But one thing proved to be unnatural for a son of Poseidon. He moved with the speed and grace of one of the hunters. But that was not the surprising thing; the surprising this was that his archery was amazing at such a young age. He fired his last three stone headed arrows off killing hellhounds immediately.

Smart, while mortal metals may not harm monsters or gods, rocks and wood still did. The boy began summoning arrows out of ice but I could see his strength was waning from the exertion of forming ice arrows out of moisture in the air.

Suddenly he collapsed to his knees in exhaustion and it was then that I intervened. I deliberately let my power show and walked in front of the monsters; effectively telling them to come and eat me. They saw me and immediately knew I was more powerful. While the ancient laws prevent me from helping our attacking, if I was attacked first I could fight in self defense.

As one hellhounds lunged at me I drew a sword and quickly dispatched it. The other monsters looked at me before growling and closing in. The boy looked at me frightfully as I let out an electric discharge in a perfect radius of ten meters and fried all of the monsters.

The boy scrambled back fearfully. He seemed rather malnourished and probably homeless by the way he wore a heavy military camouflage coat that was in tatters but would still keep him warm in the harsh winter weathers.

An idea popped into my mind.

"What is your name? Where are your parents?" I asked as I mentally explained to Hera what I was going to do. Her face adorned the brightest smile I would think possible to have ever seen and nodded vigorously.

"Uh. My mom is in jail and my dad is a deadbeat who abandoned me a week after I was born." he explained sadly and I looked at him in sympathy.

"Ok, son. I'm going to give you an offer." I started, "How would you like to be mine and my wife's adopted son?"

He immediately replied without hesitation, "I'm sorry I don't trust people in general."

I felt a bit hurt at that but I persisted using my powers again, "You can trust us."

He looked happy and said, "I would love to be your son!" Then he wrapped me I a hug

Meanwhile I had a mental conversation with Hera, "What was that? His opinion changed in a matter of seconds."

"I used my power over electricity and nudged his nerves to make him trust me." I replied mentally.

"What is your name?" Hera asked.

"Perseus Jackson! One of the only heroes with a happy ending!" He shouted loudly.

"Well repeat after me," I cleared my throat, "I, Perseus Jackson accept for Zeus and Hera to be my adoptive parents."

He repeated and then he glowed electric blue. One of his eyes turned electric blue while his other remained sea-green.

"Perseus I bestow upon you a great gift. I give to you, the harpe of your namesake!" I pulled the Adamantine sickle-sword out of thin air. This sword was the original scythe Kronos used to castrate his father. I had given it to the original Perseus as a gift. The weapon had three forms: scythe, sickle or a harpe sword. All three are agriculture tools. I had the connection between Kronos and the weapon severed when we won the first time I sent him to Tartaros. It is no longer his symbol of power but the evil potential to make an immortal fade still remains. Kronos would need a new weapon next war though.

"I would be honored to carry this... Father." I smiled at that word as I pulled Hera and Perseus into a group hug.