Chapter 3: The Great Escape (Part 1)
AN: I own nothing all credit of Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus is owned by Rick Riordan.
As the Cyclops walked into the room he expected the prisoner to keep his head down as he did for the past two years, but when he looked at the prisoner he met the gaze of sea green eyes, and a smirk plastered on his face.
"What's got you so excited today?" Jared asked, somewhat nervously as Percy didn't answer but the smirk on his face grew into a vengeful smile. "Yeah, okay." Jared said now completely nervous as Percy's eyes followed Jared's every move, but never broke eye contact.
As Jared started to unshackle Percy he kept fingering his whip, his only source of protection against one of the greatest Heroes of all time. The one hero that almost every monster, Titan, or immortal had on the top of their kill/ revenge list. When he was done, he shoved Percy out of the door, a clear indication to get moving. As they left the prison cell and started down the long corridor made of jagged stone and only lit by very dim glowing blood red torches, Jared became even more nervous, as it was harder to keep an eye (heh get it eye, no) on the prisoner as he kept walking and molding into the shadows created by the jagged rocks and dim lights.
Then out of nowhere Percy stopped, turned and kicked Jared in the stomach with all of his might, knocking the wind out of him and causing Jared to hunch over, out of shock from the sudden attack. When he did this Percy took off at a sprint down the cavernous hallway. As he reached a specific turn in the long corridor he stopped and got into a crouch and slid back about 5 feet into a crevice, and hid in the wall. This crevice he had spotted when Jared whipped him one time and he fell to the ground. He then found this incredibly dark crevice, and kept the location mesmerized as he knew he was going to need it at a time like this.
After about thirty seconds he heard the labored breathing and heavy footsteps of the running Cyclops, Jared. As Jared ran by the crevice though, he caught the slight scent of the sea behind him. Realizing that this was the prisoner he turned to investigate this scent. As he turned around and headed down the way that he had came, he had no idea that the son of Poseidon had left the crevice, and using the shadows had started to sneak up behind him.
Just as Percy was in the perfect position, and about to grab the Cyclops around its neck, an enormous fist collided with Percy's ribcage. The power behind the punch was enough to break at least one rib, knock the breath out of Percy, and push him back a couple of feet. This, obviously, gave Jared enough time to grab his whip (named Slash), and reorganize himself for the next attack.
As Percy charged forward, Jared cracked the whip at Percy's chest. The whip cut through Percy's skin, leaving a new scar, and causing multiple cut to reopen, both leaking blood. Percy staggered back a little, and tried again using the same tactic but received similar results. He had to switch up the strategy a little.
This time as he charged he waited right until the whip started its way towards Percy. As it got closer Percy slid down on his knees and bent his back so close to the ground that he might as well be laying down, and shot his hand up in the air grabbing the whip and wrapping it around his wrist.
This all happened so fast that Jared still pulled back his whip before realizing that he is also brining Percy with it. As he flew in the air, Percy stuck out his other fist, in a superman like pose, and crashed his fist into Jared's nose. And when Jared stumbled Percy ripped the whip out of his hands, spun in a 360, and slapped Jared with the handle in his temple. Jared fell to the floor visibly unconscious.
"And I thought that you were going to be more of a challenge." Percy panted, as he turned around and walked away. He got about 10 feet before he felt the ground shake and a monstrous roar sound from behind him. Percy turned and was met with a charging Cyclops less than 5 feet away.
Moving on complete instinct Percy grabbed the whip and turn another 360 and crouched on his knee, while the whip slashed across Jared's throat. Jared took one more step before he tumbled to the ground sliding to a stop, less than an inch from Percy.
"Damn, okay, maybe it wasn't as easy as I thought.", Percy thought in awe at what he just did on instinct. "Now how the Hades do I get out of here.", he whispered to himself.
"Go forward for ten meters, take a left, go another ten meters, take a right and you'll find a staircase. Go down. There are ten levels to Tartarus, based on the beings strength and power, you're on level 7. Once you go down the stairs you'll find yourself on level 8. Find the next set of stairs until you reach level 9, then ten. at level ten the exit through the smaller set of doors and you'll escape.", a voice that held unimaginable power, but didn't necessarily want to cause harm, said in Percy's head.
"Wow that seems way too simple.", Percy wondered out loud, but got no response back, "Then again I have no better lead. Nut that was still sort of creepy."
Percy did what the voice told him to do, and found himself at the top of the stair case. It was about 5 feet wide and went down at an unheard of angle for any stair case. The pitch blackness and the incredulously hot breeze coming from the stairs filled Percy with a feeling of apprehension. Taking a deep breath, Percy descended into the darkness that was the stair case.
-Line break-
(Percy POV)
I trudged down the stairs for about 5 minutes before I saw a tiny dot of light in the distance. As I kept walking it kept getting bigger and brighter, until I reached the bottom of the stairs, and a massive arch that led into a desert that seemed to be endless. AS I walked towards the arch, letters glowed on its surface.
The letters wrote, Warning: Enter the Desert and only the strong of mind and body survive.
"Yeah didn't see that one coming.", I sighed defeated, hoping that I was going to escape without anymore tourtcher.
I walked through the arch and found myself in an endless space of sand, sandbanks, sand dunes, and sand. I turned around but found only more sand, and no sign of the entrance. The desert air was impossibly hot. Just by standing there for a minute left me drenched in sweat. The odd thing was that there was no sun, just a red glow coming from high above, that left an unnatural shade of red on the sand.
I started my trek to find the end of this desert. After about an hour I was beyond tired, I was beyond exhausted. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I didn't bother even picking them up, just dragging them along. After about another minute I just dropped out of pure effete.
As I breathed deep heavy gulps of the hot desert air, I saw a figure walking closer to me. As I looked up I saw my mom. She smiled at me and started to walk closer. I couldn't believe it, MY MOM. But she died, I saw her die. as she came closer, she just stopped. Suddenly her throat just split open and blood started to ooze out of her neck. I Just stared in horror as she dropped to her knees and started to have a seizure.
"MOM,MOM!", I screamed in a mix of shock, horror, and disgust, at what I am seeing. I started to claw my way towards my mom. Just as I reached her, she just vanished like she was never there. "Wh...what? A...a mirage.", I whispered as I stared at where my mom was, before tears threatened to fall, at what I saw, even if it was never there.
"The desert was created to attack your emotions with complex mirages, when you are at your weakest." the same voice said in my head, although I didn't pay much attention.
-line break-
After 5 minutes of just kneeling there looking at where my mom was, and trying to remember what the voice had told me (after I gained control of my emotions).
"I've got to get out of here.", I said to myself realizing I couldn't take any of this again. I struggled to my feet, and once up I started to trudge my way forward to... well nowhere actually, I had no idea where the exit was.
After another hour I couldn't stay on my feet and fell once again onto my knees and fell face first into the sand. When I looked up I would've jumped up in anger and hatred if I wasn't so exhausted. That is because when I looked up I saw the smirking face of the one person I hate the most in my life. Smirking at me was the person who made my blood boil just at their name. Smirking at me was the person, no not even person, monster, who killed my parents. Smirking at me was the face of Annabeth Chase. And as I looked into her eyes I saw flashes of the day when she killed my mom and Paul.
I started to get angrier and angrier by the second. Just as I was about to lose it, I finally remembered what the voice told me and started to gain control of myself. when I had my emotions reeled in, Annabeth's smirk faltered, and a smirk started to grow on my face.
"You're not real," I said. And now it was Annabeth's turn to get angry. "You're not real." I said again, louder. By now she looked ready to blow. Her face was all red and her face was scrunched up, that no matter how much I wanted it to I still found adorable. "You're not real!" I said one last time, louder than the other two. Annabeth opened her mouth as if to scream (but nothing came out), and charged me. I stood my ground, not moving an inch still, and defiant. Just as she reached me she dissipated into mist.
As I blinked back my shock of what I just did a strange blow of wind from behind me had me turn around. AS I looked behind me the sand started to twist and lift off of the ground. this kept happening until a twister formed. On so large and powerful that all of the sand in at least a 5 mile radius was sucked up. The tornado had my hair whipping all over the place, but surprisingly didn't pull me in. But just as quickly as it came it left, and in its place stood the exit, which looked almost exactly like the entrance but the words said, Congratulations, instead.
I just smiled tiredly and started the last twenty meters to freedom from the desert. As I passed under the arch the desert, thankfully, disappeared from behind me. As well as ten letters changed so that they now spelled, Level nine ahead be prepared the limits of your mind will be reached.
I just put on a small smile at the idea that the people who run Tartarus can't come up with a better sign, because these signs all said the same thing. Then I steeled my nerves, and got ready to get my mind put to the test, and started down to level nine.
AN: Okay there's the last chapter for a while, because I'm going away for a month. I will keep updating when I get back so don't worry. Thanks for all of the support so far and PLEASE REVIEW it is a great motivation, to update sooner, when I get back. Peace out peoplez.
