To all my readers... forgive what you are about to read. I actually wrote it a year ago before I even thought of joining fanfiction so if it's a bit rough around the edges I apologise.
Hi! I'm the author.
Let me introduce you to Lucine Maximus Sullivan.
The new demi-god.
I was a little (just a little) vexed to find a rather large lack of Percy Jackson original characters on fanfiction so then I had a thought, much like a light bulb… make my own! …If I'm honest it took far too long to think of. My poor and tiny brain…
Unfortunately for my new character I'm about to dish out a whole load of crap on her head. Big stinking pile of crap…
But of course that's what always happens to a main character of a story like the 'Percy Jackson' story.
Can you say Greek Tragedy?
Trust me; Percy is the main hero in this little play…average…big, make that huge; the story will be epic.
But my girl Sullivan has her own shoes to fill too and will be bringing about a host of new and intriguing events. Basically it won't just be a re-run of the books.
This tale starts after the first novel/film: the lightning thief.
It will only be based upon the books. In relevance to the movie however one or two things have been added from the film but not much of anything else. I have furthered much to the storyline.
For example…
Percy is almost 15 not 12/13 (way more fun)… as is Lucine, Annabeth, Grover etc. Actually Lucine is 2 months older that Percy.
I'm thinking of combining the personalities of both the film and book versions of Grover but not sure yet. I'll let you know.
Percy has a somewhat different relationship with Lucine than the other characters… and I don't necessarily mean a romantic one, at least not a first… he has to work out his feelings for Annabeth and decide what to do about them… whatever they may be. Not saying.
Physically you can think of him looking like he does in the film since I've combined both film and book personalities; they are quite similar. However as he gets older he'll become somewhat more impressive i.e. taller, harder jaw line…
There maybe one or two other things/changes too.
The story will take part over the four subsequent years (if not more) of the books.
It will be full of drama, humour, romantic implications (let's wait until they're a tiny bit older) …oh and you're going to feel kind of sorry for my new heroin, at least in the beginning.
And yes there will be action…
Tons…
…Love it.
Please be kind.
Disclaimer: I do not own PJ but I do own my oc.
The Stuff of Legends
Book 1
Percy Jackson and the Descendent of Heracles
Chapter 1:
And so the New Girl Kills the Mother of All Cobras
She'd always been told that she would reap what she sowed. And yet she was pretty sure she hadn't sowed a thing in her life that would justify this.
Getting the crap kicked out of you in the girl's bathroom at school… it was a low blow for anybody.
Not that she didn't fight back.
…Which maybe she shouldn't have considering it was that that got her in even more trouble than usual.
She'd head butted Stevie.
The Queen Bee of Summerville High school.
The tyrannical teen had more than earned it. The 16 year old super model in training had made it her personal mission to make her life, the life of the new girl an absolute misery in the making.
Less than a year ago fresh faced 14 year old Lucine Maximus Sullivan had been enrolled into yet another new high school by her father. The kicker was that she was at more than a year younger than the rest of the class. Her academic performance was a head of her own year and previous teachers had advised on an advanced placement for her. Rather than be subjected to the obvious outcast status that that would definitely bring her, she decided to just skip a year or two.
Not that this new plan would make her any less of a social pariah.
She hadn't meant to but in her very first week at Summerville High she'd managed to make the beauty queen of the class, year, school… look like an idiot. Not that it wasn't an especially difficult thing to do.
All she'd done is point out certain historical facts to Stevie Queenie who'd somehow mistaken painfully simple trivia from the Korean War with world war two. For example, World War 2 was not about the Chinese…
Anyway ever since then she'd been placed on Stevie's personal shit list, er hit list.
Add the IQ to her outrageous name (I mean Maximus, really? Thank you dad) plus the age difference, plus English accent, plus physical appearance (explained later), plus ADHD and ADD and voila! Instant outsider status…
…And bully victim.
She wasn't necessarily very smart either, Lucine just read a lot. And that's not modesty it's truth.
She had nothing else to do since her father died… just weeks after she came to the school.
He'd had a contingency plan in case something like this ever happened.
In case he was killed…
She was Daddy's little girl. The world lost colour when he left her. Everything was black and white and grey…
Like old photo shot's of Stevie's fist currently coming in for a landing on Lucine's face. And this wasn't actually the first time something like this had transpired.
You know she's not a violent person by nature and she knew maybe three moves at most to dissuade an attacker.
But she knew nothing of how to stop three girls all at least a year older than her systematically beating the crap out of her.
She'd never had the guts to raise a hand to Stevie, not once all year but the… the… girl just had to bring up her dead father.
Ergo… head butt.
Now recently 15 (this June) she couldn't even believe she'd actually done it and after a brief moment of pride felt a ripple of fear wash over her as the three of them stared at her like she was worse than something they'd stepped in. Like she was trash… a bug…
That needed to be squashed.
Also unfortunately Stevie was actually a tough cookie.
After that they'd dragged Lucine by the hair (such a girly thing to do, I hate that) into the bathroom where the three wanabe cheerleaders thoroughly tore a new one into her.
Nobody helped her… ever. While Stevie was paying attention to the new girl the other losers and nobodies were blissfully ignored.
Lucine felt there were only two consolations for her pitiful self.
One, Stevie's tag team couldn't hit for… well anything.
And two, Stevie had a black eye forming.
Keeping her arms raised covering her head and face, a defensive act soon rendered useless by the amount of times they'd been forced back down she wondered how long it would take for Stevie to defuse.
The girl had been at it for over 5 minutes and trust this; when you're on the floor and scared like Lucine was right now 5 minutes might as well be 5 hours. She would also love to admit that she coolly blocked the pain of those fists and feet but as always she felt every second of it.
The first time Lucine had been beat up she was pretty ashamed to admit that she'd cried and whimpered for hours on end afterwards… but back then she'd had her father there to comfort her. His very presence always made all the feelings she'd tried so hard to bury rise to the surface as if he were deliberately sucking out of her all her fear and pain.
…God, I missed him.
Stevie finally paused, breathing shallowly as if she'd been on long run (such a chore) before standing back and stepping away from Lucine. Rubbing her bruised knuckles she nodded at her two friends who nodded back and walked out of the bathroom but not before pausing to kick the fallen girl in her side as they did so, as if reminding her that she was in fact worth nothing. Cheers girls.
Then Stevie crouched down in front of her and Lucine actually flinched as if willing herself not to cower, which she hated about as much as she hated Stevie.
And Stevie saw it… and smiled… cow.
"That…" She said to Lucine quietly, "…was a warning. I'm not even close to done for making you pay for this." She pointed at her darkening eye and Lucine had to fight off the smile threatening to slide on her split lips. Then her head tilted in contemplation. "…Surprising though. Never thought you'd have the balls to do it."
"Well… I'm not a guy so…" She said as she licked her bloodied bottom lip.
Stevie actually smirked. It was an ugly thing. Then she lifted a single finger. "You get one."
Standing she made her way to the bathroom door leaving her victim slumped on the tiled floor. And of course Lucine's sarcastic reflex just had to kick in right then and there.
I have a complex, an allergic reaction to absolute bullshit forced on me by bullies like Stevie.
"What, just the one?" She shook her head acerbically. "Karma Stevie, karma."
Silence…then Stevie turned slowly. "Don't push it. This is the most fun I've had in years. Usually I'm stopped before I go too far but…" She shrugged still smirking. "It looks like even the teachers don't like you enough to even help you." Then she sauntered out of the bathroom.
Lucine sighed, grateful to finally be alone; as if what just happened was as small as a slap on the wrist. Inside her heart was pounding and as she slowly and painfully pushed herself up, she winced at the vision of her face in the mirror.
She was black and blue and red. Not a pretty picture. Made all the bolder by her hair.
She had deep red hair. She'd say fiery red but then again fire is blue and orange. There was a warming quality to it that she liked. Down to earth but unusual. "Worth stroking" her father had once said. It was short too; a little longer than a boy's and it flicked naturally in different directions.
Her father was Richard Sullivan and the only similarity to their looks was the deep blue of their eyes and even then she won out in weirdness factor. Though almost violet her eyes also held in them a mix of at least five other colours circling and flickering on her iris, around the pupil, melting into the cerulean. Gold, green, yellow, ice blue, the slightest hint of grey… A ratio of about 70:30.
Her skin too was… unique.
There was a creamy olive/caramel quality to the colour and yet it was only a shade or two darker than most girls. A little like Baileys Irish Cream her father had said.
A note about Lucine's father before you all declare her officially obsessed.
He was the best person in the entire world to her. Night time or sunshine, through rain and storm he was always there protecting her and nurturing her weak, weak self.
She knew he'd died because of her. She knew that, heart and soul. And she paid for it daily.
Richard Sullivan had a secret and unlike most boring secrets this one was deadly.
Throughout her short, happy but sad life she had been to 4 primary schools in England and 3 high schools in 2 countries in North America. This last one, Summerville, was near long Island. She hadn't visited the Empire State building yet but then again she'd been planning to go with her father before he…
She'd been able to sneak a glance at the horrid reports on her father's body. No pictures. He'd been ripped to pieces. There was no car accident on the freeway… Nothing much to pick up…
But you know sometimes that happens when you're a half blood.
Three years ago on Lucine's twelfth birthday he'd explained everything to her. Of course he'd had to especially after she'd been attacked in broad daylight by some serpent like creature that was far too big to fit in between the alley ways that it had hunted them both to. And then as if in a movie, her dad had gone and pulled an ancient archers bow from some hidden area in his coat. Like Narnia. In two seconds 3 arrows protruded from the monsters chest and it had exploded into sand molecules that quickly vanished. All in front of his open mouthed daughter who couldn't help but think that her father was the coolest thing since sliced bread… since Breaking Benjamin etc.
The weapon had somehow retracted in his hands to form a small engraved pocket-knife.
With a sheepish expression he'd taken her hand towed her back towards their apartment where they'd packed… again.
And he'd explained. The whole thing. And she'd believed every word. Now some may refer to her as too trusting and naive and maybe she was but my father never lied to her.
He was a half-blood. A son of Hermes, the Winged messenger of the Olympians, Warrior and God of travellers.
And as such he attracted a fair amount of mythological creatures. But if nothing he was a survivor.
Now normally that doesn't mean that any child conceived by a half-blood would be affected blood wise. However he'd been forced to at least get used to the possibility that his daughter was different too. After Lucine was born and after years of delving into the shadows and successfully hiding his demi-god self their attacks had increased and mainly around his daughter.
Puzzling though that she didn't have dyslexia. He mentioned to her that it can take years for a demi-god to awaken and show his or her true colours. They would also have ADHD, ADD and dyslexia. She didn't have the last one and yet she could read Greek almost as well as he could. She didn't show any other attributes of note except these and so her dad naturally thought that she wouldn't be targeted due to the weak nature of her connection to his world.
He was so wrong it was shocking.
The creatures began to slowly turn their sights on her. And every time they'd moved home. Home is where the heart is and their hearts were with one another.
She didn't have a mother. Apparently she died in childbirth or so her father said. There were no pictures of her around their old house, no memorabilia but her father wasn't bitter towards her. When she'd him asked he'd simply hugged her and said:
"Though I will always miss her she gave me you. You are all I need. How could I ever be bitter?"
Lucine thought about those words now as she stared at her colourful reflection in the bathroom. So dad, proud of me now? Are you watching over me as I cower in the girl's bathroom? Please tell me you're not, how mortifying…
She'd mourned the loss of her father but she didn't feel crushed by it. Every memory of him made her feel like she was swimming in chocolate. He was always with her. Even last winter when she'd had to make another run for it and had spent two weeks outside in the freezing cold over Christmas with the other homeless people; in sewers and near the docks. She was a survivor too; she just wished her dad had taught her self defence…
Lucine shook her head and reached for the tap. The water was refreshing on her aching face and hands. It was good that she was a naturally quick healer but even so the bruises would still be there a week from now. It was coming to the end of another school year and in a few days she'd be free.
She hadn't lied about her father's contingency plan, she just hadn't tried to follow it through yet.
He had a strong box stored in his bank and Lucine was instructed to go collect it and follow the instructions which were all coded in Greek writing. If he died or if she were attacked at school and couldn't get to him she was to leave and follow the co-ordinates.
But she'd waited. She wanted just once to complete a full year in school and to make her father proud whether he was with her or not. Richard Sullivan was quite the Smart Alec himself and knew how to work around the system being the 'government'. He'd past these gifts onto her who could con any teacher and forge any signature. She was currently living alone in her father's third apartment; she'd lied to the student councillor about staying with some Aunt or other. She had no one else. She felt weak, alone, a bit of a coward and detached.
For some inexplicable reason she knew once her exam results came through she would have to leave. It was finally time. For what she didn't know, but she knew that in just a little while everything would change.
So yeah I had a bad day followed by a worse week.
Stevie had upped her game and it was all Lucine could do to keep dodging her.
She was the opposite of Stevie in everyway.
She wasn't tall or pretty. She didn't have much of a chest on her either and her hips where nonexistent. She was an oddball and always had been.
The last day of school was a relief in disguise. Luckily for her she'd received her results since they were so going to expel her for what was about to happen anyway. She'd aced all her exams and so with a smile went to drop off her revision books at the school library.
When she'd first laid eyes on the Library room she'd been pleasantly surprised by its size and then immediately depressed by its lack of information on the Greeks and the Romans. Even so it had become a kind of sanctuary for her. A place where she new that Stevie would never dare set foot in.
Except maybe today.
Her luck had run right out. Completely dry. Nothing left; like a stop watch. Her time was officially over.
In come the monsters. Out goes her childhood…what was left of it anyway.
There were three of them. Again. Stevie and her two body guards.
Lucine could just manage to see them through the gaps made between encyclopaedias and English literature on the 3 rows of books between her and them. She was sitting on the floor in an alcove between a row of books and a row of draws using the old dewy decimal system for the books.
They whispered to one another for a moment before Stevie sent her two followers off in different directions around the library and Lucine was sure her name passed their lips as they conversed.
"Oh crap." She whispered.
They were trying to pincer her in. It was the last day and Stevie could afford to be caught gallivanting around the library.
She moved quickly. One thing her dad had taught her was to always move, to keep moving, and to never stop.
So she moved down one row of bookcases and poked her head around the side. Follower one was right there but facing the opposite direction so she ducked quickly into the isle across from her and down to the right. If she was lucky she might be able to reach the emergency exit without being caught.
But as we know luck would be rather absent for her today.
Managing to bob under another unit a few minutes later she quietly reached round the side and once she saw that she was out of sight leaped forward to touch the bar of the emergency door perpendicular to the front entrance. It opened-
And she immediately slammed it shut. For a moment she just stared down at the ground in shock… Oh no…
Then she pelted hell mell down the library, Stevie and her friends be damned. For what she just saw… she wasn't going to die for some bitch queen contest.
"There she is!"
Follower 2 shouted out as Lucine bulldozed passed her and leaped over a trolley of books.
"Out of the way!" She screamed.
And then follower 1 rammed into her from the side forcing her down painfully to the ground in front of a row of books on Art History. She gasped and fought to breathe as the girl got up.
"I've got her!" Her arms strained Lucine down.
She inhaled mouldy carpet as she tried to manoeuvre onto her back. "Get off me! I need to leave! We all do!"
"Not bad Michelle."
Oh perfect…
There she stood. Stevie in all her mechanical doll wonder. But she didn't have the energy to fear her right now, she was more concerned with what she saw tearing up those stairs through the emergency exit.
Lucine tried to warn them. "Seriously, you need to get out of here now!"
Stevie had her hands on her hips, a smirk on her face, and a condescending note to her voice as she spoke.
"Really? You're actually going to-"
WHAM! Something huge, something long and serpentine slammed into Stevie so hard Lucine heard bones cracking and winced.
Michelle screamed something unintelligible and quickly moved off of her as she scrambled to her feet and darted around the first row of shelves. The thing's body just kept coming foot after foot after foot. Lucine watched with wide eyes as a monster of a snake no… cobra more or less whammed Stevie's body to the side and into Michelle who was knocked unconscious immediately.
This was actually happening. In the middle of the library…
Lucine's breath caught in her chest when the cobra's head swerved in her direction as if it had heard her thoughts.
It was Green, brown and glittered black. She'd think it was regal if it wasn't currently trying to eat her. Why is it always a snake? No really, I want to know. Diversity people!
Then it reared back and its mouth opened. Long gleaming fangs slowly slid out of its jaw and it hissed violently at her. Yay me. She'd made a friend. It had to be 20 feet tall, er long. Its eyes turned to slits and she swore she heard its voice in her mind.
Hybrid child
Huh?
Absently she knew her surroundings were in turmoil. The two librarians were currently under their desks and frantically hammering on their security buttons. She kind of figured that they should really stop screaming so as to not attract it's the deadly viper's attention. But then she remembered her father's words: "It's the Mist you see. Mortals can't see creatures of myth. It's like a special cloak. All they do see is something their brains have volunteered for them, something that makes some sort of sense. It's one of the reasons I know that you're special too. You can see through the Mist like me Kiddo."
So the middle aged women were seeing something completely different were they?
She wondered what and for one bizarre moment thought of a sumo wrestler charging into the library with a machine gun or a crocodile skimming its way here and there snapping at their old fashioned footwear.
Its head shot towards Lucine and she snapped out of her funk. One very awesome thing about the ADD was that it helped her increase her finesse whilst moving. She threw herself down the parallel isle and rolled on the floor coming up sprinting. The King Cobra dived after her.
Something was happening to her body. Her heart rate was increasing but it didn't bother her and rather than a warning sign it was more of support. As if she was downloading instructions. She was pretty freaking scared but she also felt exhilarated.
And an idea started to form in her mind.
Hybrid Child of the Half-Blood.
It was like the thing that wouldn't shut up.
She got the feeling that the creature was waiting for something to occur, something she didn't understand and didn't want to.
She looked back and jumped with a loud yelp when she saw it gaining on her. Kind of a stupid thing to do really seeing as it almost made her topple over. Her ankle threatened to twist and in her effort to stabilize herself she tried to rotate her body forward and to the side. The result was a side flip… or was it a no handed cartwheel?
She landed heavily and didn't stop though she blinked and faltered.
How did I do that? It was a bit of a shock to the system.
That had never happened to her before.
Unfortunately this seemed to only increase the beast's fervour.
Hybrid Child! Still yourself! The Queen of all Cobras's commands you…
Wait… it was female? Really? …Oookay then.
"What do you want from me?" Lucine shouted as she ducked into another isle.
CRASH!
And there goes a row of books.
The idea in her mind changed form and strengthened.
Found you!
The serpent's head had roved into the cornered area in which she'd been taking a breather and she jumped… again.
"Good for you. Want a cookie?" Yeah good one there Lucine, aggravate the already aggravated Monster snake.
It hissed and hurled down the longest aisle of books. Half the Library was already in ruins by now as she ducked again to an opening in the side that the snake didn't see.
To consume a Hybrid Child would make me invincible. It hissed in her head. And if I were to fail… he he … it would only prove the existence of what many have been searching for. Not that you could ever kill one such as me- WHAT IS THIS!
She'd really had enough of this game of cat and mouse.
She just about managed to find her way to the head of the stacks and she threw her adrenaline full self upon the large bookcase until it bevelled in the opposite direction.
Do you know about Dominoes? No not the pizza place. The game. Well it was a little like that. Row upon row of book cases fell swiftly into one another with a resounding slam every second.
The Queen Cobra being as large as she was couldn't escape before being buried underneath God knows how many books. Lucine didn't have much time now so she sprinted to the other side of the library and vaulted up onto the Journal stacks at the end of the final row. She used these to leap up onto the support rafters for the lights in the ceiling where she crouched and pulled out her father's favourite weapon. The Grecian bow. She had an arrow notched by the time the Cobra's head crashed upwards and forced the mountain of books to each side. It hissed and spat until-
Lucine whistled. Classy, I know.
Its head snapped up.
She grinned as she stared down the arrow at the creature.
Perfect bulls-eye.
And she released the arrow.
It hit the arrow dead centre in between the eyes and through the brain. The snake didn't so much as twitch and if she could read snake expressions with accuracy Luccine would have to say that it was astounded. It vanished into sandy dust almost instantly.
All of a sudden exhaustion hit her. She allowed the bow to morph back into its pocket-knife form. Then a panicked laugh escaped her throat as she looked around at the mess.
"Oops."
And of course it was at this moment that the school's security and half its teachers swarmed into the Library looking pathetic as they tried for fierce expressions and failing miserably. They'd come to stop what they thought was probably some sort of gang war in the school only to find…
Lucine.
Hanging by her merry self from the rafters with a pained but idiotic smile on her face as she waited for her own personal judgment day.
The headmaster was there too, the prat. Useless bugger. He spluttered wide eyed at the mess for a few short seconds before looking to her as his cheeks turned purple in an apoplectic fit.
"EXPULSION!"
Yeah, I know… a bit rushed. Maybe. But it had to be. Anybody whose read the books know the detail involved in the stories. Plus I needed the intro chapter to be done with as quickly as possible. The chapter won't be quite so long or detailed as my bleach story; the pace is different.
Adios.
Oh, and review please!