I've decided to finish this story before I graduate High School, partly as a goodbye to the people that have favorited/followed this story, and partly as proof that I didn't abandon this story even though it's been like 2 years. This story is being revised. Expect short chapters, small mistakes, and bad writing, as I'm mostly just writing to finish this story. An Update every week hopefully.

I don't own anything. Enjoy.

ONE

Apollo could count on his hands alone how many "godlike" duties he had actually carried out in the millenniums since he had ascended into immortality.

Apollo had to groan at his misfortune, as this was one of those times.

Zeus was on a power-trip from another victory from another fight between his just as hot-headed brothers, and like every other week like this one, Zeus decided to expand his territory to rub it in. Which was why Apollo was currently bumming it in Manhattan.

Manhattan was large by population, large with surface area, but everything was clumped together like a plop of dough. The city had alleys, and those alleys had alleys, running behind every apartment building until there were more passageways than actual streets.

Apollo knew them well - he was a god, duh, and like that title allowed, he could see everything in the city he chose (forced) to adopt as his own. So when he heard the scream, in the weighted light of dusk, he was understandably confused when he couldn't pinpoint the exact location.

The strange thing about all the wailing, a high - pitched keening that broke the blanket of silence and the murmurs of the night, was that no one else seemed to hear it, because if they did, they wouldn't ignore the grating noise that left his ears heavy and ringing and continue on living like they weren't minutes away from being eaten by whatever monster decided to grace the living with its presence.

Apollo clenched his fists. But as quick as it sounded, and as long as it went on for, the scream abruptly stopped. Apollo let out a puff of air he hadn't known he was holding, and glared at his shoes. He hadn't asked for this. Who did Zeus think he was sending him to this cold city, with oblivious, stupid humans and their loud monsters.

Apollo almost popped out of the mortal world. But then he heard it, felt it despite the thousands of other people doing the same thing, inaudible for anyone but a god. It was the weeping of a child, and search him if it didn't pull at his heartstrings despite his current annoyance with the human race.

It reminded him of the times he had seen children lay against the stiff walls of broken buildings, tiny little things that had days to live, if even, that died alone. He remembered every one that had laid against his temple, praying as they were struggling to breathe through illness, hoping for a miracle he could not bring. It had left him cold, even though his every morning was spent riding among the heat of the sun.

This one was hidden behind a maze of alleys, even as Apollo used his super hearing to track the sound. He could not find it, but he started walking, almost in a daze. While he had done nothing for the children of the past, Apollo had been given explicit permission to help anyone in need, as long as it was beneficial to the expansion of Zeus's reign, and he could always continue that after he saved the city from the sad kid only he could hear.

Of course nothing was ever as easy Apollo hoped. The screaming started minutes into his determined trek through the city, and it was getting louder.

Apollo stumbled over his own feet as clutched his ears, he ran into cardboard boxes littered around the alley he had dove into desperate to escape the noise, but he barely noticed anything because his ears were actually bleeding. Dripping down his fingers and onto the ground, golden ichor poured from his ears. Apollo was more shocked about that than the fact the screaming was suddenly meters from his leg.

And of course, Apollo then tripped over something hard.

...