Hey there, mortals. This here is the next chapter. I do hope you'll be enjoying this.
I do not own PJO. I only own my OC...s
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Zeus' Assault
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Ray got out of the shower, feeling weirder than ever. Firstly, yesterday, a wound that just healed itself. Secondly, the glowing trident above his head. And finally, the worried expression of his mom when he told her about it.
He looked at his black stone half on his hand which emitted a soft white glow, a small smile reaching up to his face.
The symbol of his and Percy's eternal brotherhood.
'Heh, Percy...'
He never saw Percy without a smile at least once. He truly did love his little bro.
He shook his head before he entered the small dining room. His mother sent him a smile while his brother was still busy munching a slice of beef.
He took a seat beside Percy. "So... what's for breakfast?"
It was only then Percy realized who just came. "Oh! Hey Ray!"
Ray ruffled his hair affectionately. "Hey you too Perce."
Percy beamed at him for a while, before continuing to eat his beef.
Sally gave Ray a plate of scrambled eggs and two slices of beef.
"So... just one more day until Montauk," Sally started when Ray started eating.
The brothers nodded.
"Look, Ray... I've been thinking..."
He swallowed a mouthful of beef. "Yeah...?"
"And... uh... after we go to Montauk, You're going to a... summer camp."
Ray and Percy choked. "WH-WHAT?!"
"Come on, it's just for summer! And it's a summer camp just for people like you!"
"You mean freaks like me. No offense Perce."
"Look, it's-" She caught a look at the time. "RAY! YOU'RE ALMOST LATE! FINISH YOUR BREAKFAST NOW!"
All previous thoughts forgotten, he quickly finished his breakfast, and hastily drinked his orange juice. After he was done, he immediately grabbed his backpack and lunch, then ran for the honking school bus. "BYE MOM! BYE PERCY!" he waved.
They waved back until he entered the bus.
"Sorry I'm late!"
The bus driver just waved it off. "Nah, it's fine, just don't repeat that again, got that, kiddo?"
Ray nodded, and walked over to an empty seat as the bus started to left his family's small apartement.
~0~
"Mom, why do you want Ray to leave?" her youngest son asked, with sadness evident in his voice, when they were heading to Sally's workplace in a cab.
"I want him to stay, Percy, I really do, but..." She hesitated. "He HAS to leave, it's for his own good. You're going to understand that when you're older."
Percy looked at his white stone half, which emitted a dark yet soft purple glow. "Okay..." he nodded sadly.
Sally didn't like seeing one of his sons were upset, so she tried to cheer him up.
"...Look, how about we... pick your brother up after school?"
His eyes immidiately lit up. "Really?! Yay! Thanks mom!"
She just smiled. If other children will stop upsetting about something by being bribed with ice cream or something of some sorts, her boys just have to be promised that they will meet each other earlier. Kinda made her jealous.
~0~
The academy that Ray studied in was Yancy Academy. Now, he was learning his favourite class, history, with his favourite teacher, Mr. Brunner. (hahah!)
Ray gazed out the window, thinking about the things that had happened the past few days, but it didn't fit in anything that he could think of. The first possible thing to him was that he got drugged and as a result he started hallucinating. But then it didn't explain why Percy could see it and their mom to know about it. They could be hallucinating, too (or a result of his hallucinations), but that seemed highly unlikely. Besides, he didn't do drugs, and he was sure as Hell he wasn't drugged either.
Hmm... or perhaps from expired food? Ray then shook his head, dismissing the idea. Expired foods won't make you hallucinate, just give you diarrhea.
Or probably-
"Mr. Jackson can I have your attention please?" Mr. Brunner, interrupted his thoughts.
"Sorry Mr. Brunner, I kinda spaced out for a moment there," he scratched his head sheepishly. Some students snickered while other students gave him weird looks. How can he space out on someone who wore a full armor and carrying a sword instead of chalk?
Mr. Brunner nodded. "As I was saying, the gods sometimes went down to earth and fell in love with mortals," he pointed his sword to the blackboard.
"The half-god people that are born after their... 'exchange-'" Students snickered-"...are usually called demigods, or half-bloods," Mr. Brunner continued. "Now, Mr. Jackson, can you name a demigod hero?"
Ray smiled softly. "Perseus," he said, memories of Percy in his mind.
"Good, good, anyone else?" Mr. Brunner asked Ray's other classmates.
One answered 'Hercules,' then there were also 'Oddyseus,' 'Theseus,' 'Orpheus,' etc. etc.
"Very good." Chiron smiled. "You see, there are many Greek gods and goddesses, such as the twelve gods and goddesses of Olympus and the other minor ones.
"Now Mr. Jackson, could you tell me what are the other immortal beings besides the Gods and Goddesses?"
"Umm... the Titans, Giants, Monsters, and... Protegonoi?" Ray hesitantly answered.
Mr. Brunner nodded. "Correct, Protegonoi, or in other words, Primordial Gods, are different than normal Gods or Goddesses. Unlike the Titans and the Gods, the Protogenoi are essentially sentient aspects of the universe itself, and therefore, cannot truly be killed. Ouranos, for example, the Protegonos of the Heavens, could not be killed even though he had been cut down to million pieces-"
The girls made a disgusted sound and faces-
"And was thrown into Tartarus. Now, write 10 immortal beings you know with their description. Those who have finished can have an early break."
The whole class cheered.
~0~
At break time, Ray sat on a tree that faced the main building, bringing out his lunch sandwich, while the other students were hanging out in the academy grounds and/or eating their lunch.
"Jackson," a voice called. Ray looked down, and grinned when he saw who called. His best friend, Percieval.
Percieval was a serious guy that barely understood the word 'joke.' Or he did, but his sense of humor was dry. His grey eyes always seemed to calculate or think about something. If not, then it twinkled in amusement of his best friend's antics. He was born in Germany, but his parents were from England. He didn't learn many German language, and he left Germany when he was still young.
He let his blond hair grew until it reached the nape of his neck, and he kept it that way. He never cut or let it went longer than that.
"You got some free space there?" he asked, holding up his own lunchbox.
Ray shrugged. "Feel free to go up here."
Percieval nodded and climbed up, then he sat behind Ray, on the other side of the tree trunk, looking at the city. It went silent, as the two friends ate their lunches.
"...What were you thinking?" Percieval suddenly asked, distracting Ray from his sandwich, "It's not often you ignore Mr. Brunner's teachings."
Ray sighed, and put down his sandwich. Because of that distraction, a slice of meat slipped from the bread and fell to the ground. "It was nothing, just something on my mind."
"Family? How's Percy, by the way?"
Ray started to tidy up his lunchbox, deciding to finish it later. "No. And he's fine, thank you for asking. Just... I'm starting to question my sanity."
He heard Percieval snorted. "Don't we all?"
Ray contemplated whether or not he should Percieval's shoulder for that, but he decided against it because they were on opposite sides. "No, I mean, I'm starting to see weird things."
"Oh, really? Like what?" Ray wasn't sure, but Percieval didn't sound sarcastic. He sounded... interested. Worried.
"Meh, it didn't make any sense, really. It was really random."
"Humour me, then."
"To a guy that barely have any sense of one? I'll pass."
Percieval sighed. "No, really... do tell."
Ray took a deep breath. "Well, yesterday, above my head, there was this... I dunno, hologram?"
Percieval went silent. Ray glanced behind him, at the trunk he used to prop his back, and picked up his water bottle.
"Schneider?" he asked using Percieval's last name, "What's wrong?"
"...A... hologram...?" Percieval mumbled. "Was it green?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Ray said, looking at the school building again, taking a few gulps of water. "I know, stupid, right?"
"...Oh, it would," Percieval replied, "If not for the fact I've seen one myself."
Ray spewed out the water. "Whoa, you've seen one too?! Awesome!" he said, grinning.
Percieval stood up slowly, balancing on a branch. "I guess. But what did that owl meant, though?"
Ray also stood up, jumped on a branch so he stood near his best friend. He looked at Percieval with a confused expression. "What owl?"
"The... hologram?" Percieval said that in a 'duh' tone, "What else?"
Ray frowned. "My hologram wasn't an owl. It was a trident."
Now it was Percieval's turn to look at his friend confusedly. "Huh?"
"Yeah, Percy saw it too. It was a glowing, spinning, green trident in mid-air. Pretty cool, actually."
Percieval furrowed his eyebrows. "Weird. Mine was a green owl. Huh."
Ray was about to reply, but then a deep voice below him cut him off. "Ray Jackson?"
Ray and Percieval looked down from their spot on the tree.
A man stared right back at them. The man's tall, imposing, and very muscular form really unnerved Ray. With long black shoulder-length hair and a gray-and-black neatly trimmed beard, he looked like those rich people that liked to look down on others. He had brilliant electric-blue eyes with a serious and proud, but very handsome face. He wore a dark blue striped suit with matching pants and black shoes. The air that surrounded him oddly smelled like ozone.
"Uhh... yes?" Ray answered, sharing a look with Percieval.
"Follow me, please. We have something important to discuss in private."
Ray gulped and nodded. Usually when somebody in a suit and said something in the lines of 'we need to talk,' it was somebody from the disciplining teachers. This didn't look good.
The man also nodded in response and turned back toward the cafetaria, which was odd considering that he said in private, but Ray just shook it off.
Ray looked at Percieval apologetically, but his friend just shrugged. Ray then jumped down from his spot on the tree and proceeded to follow the mysterious man.
Then awkward silence started two hang around the two males while they were walking to the cafetaria.
"So..." Ray filled the silence. "Is something wrong?" They entered the hallways towards the cafetaria. 'Why is it empty?' Ray thought.
The man just gave him a funny look for a moment, as if Ray missed something obvious.
"Wh-why are you looking at me like that?!"
The man just shook his head, and before he knew it, they were in front of the cafetaria door which was unusually quiet.
They entered the cafetaria and sure enough, it was also empty. 'Huh. Weird,' Ray noted as he looked around.
He turned around to look at the man, only to realize that he wasn't in the same place as he was before, but rather in the middle of the room with his back facing him. '...Wow, how did he move so fast?'
"So, uhh... what are we going to discuss about?" Ray walked around the cafetaria.
The man didn't answer. He just turned around and looked directly at Ray's purple eyes.
'Okay, this is getting creepy.'
"Look, I don't know what's the problem is, but-" at first, Ray thought that they were going to discuss about something like that the teachers have founded out that he sold candy he got from his mom to the other students or he copied text from internet for English tests, or anything else that was unimportant in that matter.
So he was genuinely surprised when the suit wearing man hurled a table at him.
He barely jumped out of the way before it hit the wall behind him and shattered.
"Wh-what the-?! What the HELL man?! Are you trying to kill me or something?!"
"Actually, yes, I am planning to kill you." The air around the man started to crackle with electricity. "Because, you see, the problem that we are going to deal with is the fact that..." he pointed his hand on the direction of Ray.
"...You were born into this world."
Then, he fired freaking lightning bolts at Ray from his hand. He narrowly missed his target, but it exploded a wall upon impact. Alarms started to go off.
"Oh, and if you want to know my name, it's Zeus," he started to charge another lightning bolt. "But you don't have to remember it, because soon, you will know nothing..."
"...Seaspawn..." he spat as he fired the lightning bolt.
'...Who the HELL is HE?!' Ray thought frantically as he dodged the bolt.
~0~
'...Just another boring day...' Sally thought in boredom as she looked around the candy shop. She chuckled when she realized she sounded so much like her eldest son last night.
She barely paid attention when police cars with their sirens blaring, went past her working place.
"Hm? What was that all about?" her boss said as he walked outside. She decided to follow after checking Percy, who was playing, with action figures this time, in the lounge.
"...Cops?" she said confusedly when she stepped outside the shop. She felt a tiny hand slip on her hand a few minutes later.
"Mom...? what's going on?" Percy asked her.
"I don't know, Percy," she answered. She looked at the direction where the cops were going, there were smokes billowing from the distance. 'A fire?' She thought confused. Then fire trucks went past them, and an ambulance, all with their sirens blaring loudly. 'What is going on?'
"Uhh... Sally, correct me if I'm wrong," her boss asked after a moment of silence.
"Yes?"
"But, isn't that smoke coming from the Yancy Academy?" he said unsure.
A second passed. Then two. After ten seconds, she looked at the smoke's direction.
"Yes, so?" she asked.
Realization kicked in.
"...OH MY GOD, IT'S COMING FROM RAY'S SCHOOL!" she put her hands on her mouth, her eyes wide.
"SIR!" she turned towards her boss.
He nodded. "You can go," he said, "And bring Percy with you, there's no one else in here besides me right now, and I can't babysit your son while managing the store, so take him."
She nodded thanks, ran inside, grabbed her bag, ran outside again, called a cab, picked Percy easily, and entered the cab.
"YANCY ACADEMY! PLEASE GO AS FAST AS YOU CAN!"
"But, ma'am, it's dangerous there! I can't-"
"PLEASE! MY SON IS IN THERE!"
After a few seconds, the cab driver sighed. "Fasten your seatbelts, it's gonna be dangerous."
Sally nodded and did as he said.
"Mom... what's going on...?" Percy's voice trembled slightly, tears brimming in his sea green eyes.
"...I don't know, Percy, I don't know." She grabbed him close. 'Ray... I hope you're okay...' she thought as the cab went as fast as it could towards the school.
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'Crap! This is NOT going to be okay!'
Ray ducked to avoid another bolt, which exploded a wall in the hallways.
He escaped from the cafetaria a while ago through a blown off wall, but his pursuer didn't give up. He dodged another bolt.
So far, his situation wasn't too well. He had scrapes all over his body thanks to exploding doors and other furnitures. He had a heavy burn on his right arm because he dodged a bolt a second too late. And his feet were freaking hurting because of running for God knows how long. Plus there was also the fact that the whole school was on fire.
Zeus didn't even look winded at all. He just fired lightning bolts after lightning bolts on the direction of Ray and casually avoided falling debris.
Zeus.
Ray didn't know why on earth a man that shot lightning bolts have a name similar to the Greek god of the sky, weather, air, lightning, honor, and justice was chasing and planning to kill him.
How did he know that, you might ask? Ray was actually a nerd.
The man growled. Looked like even he was starting to get annoyed.
"...That's it, I was actually planning to kill you off quickly and painlessly, but this is starting to get ANNOYING!"
The non-existing wind in the halls started to pick up. And thunder clouds started to form inside the room.
'Oh boy,' Ray thought as numerous thunderbolts struck down the room repeatedly. 'This is NOT going to end well.'
A bright light blinded him for a bit, thus he didn't realize that Zeus appeared above him, wielding a thunder-coated gladius.
He aimed the sword right at Ray's heart and rushed downwards to stab him while he was still blinded.
But right before the sword even came close to his skin, a nearby puddle of water, that was created because a bolt struck down a water tank, shot towards the man, surprising him, and slammed him into a wall.
Ray blinked out the blinding light on his vision, and when he came back to his senses, he noticed that Zeus had crashed through a wall.
"Ouch... what just happened?"
He felt a slight tug in his stomach a few seconds ago, odd. Ray shook out of his stunned condition, and stared at a puddle. Hm... the last time he touched water, his cut got healed.
Ray looked at his arm, then to his legs. He then glanced at the hole Zeus got thrown into, then he shrugged. Might as well.
He walked cautiously over to the puddle, throwing wary glances at the hole. He knelt beside the puddle, and slowly put his hand in it. he didn't move his gaze from the hole, which was a good thing, because Zeus was slowly getting up, rubbing his forehead irritatedly.
Ray cursed and drew back his hand. Then he noticed that the throbbing pain in his limbs had lessened, and when he looked at it, the wounds had indeed, healed slightly. Huh.
He was cut off from his musings when he heard Zeus roared.
"Uh-oh."
Ray ran away on his now healed legs while dodging the attacks of a now pissed off man that had a name similar to the god of the sky.
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Well... that's that. I sincerely hope you like it.
Have a nice day, and no lollygaggin'!
-Yami Tensei
