Chapter 4: It Takes One Spark

Percy and Kestrel walked towards the front gates of the Winchester prison. As they did so, they had to put their cane and katana respectively in a sack to avoid suspicion. Luckily for the cyborg assassin, he was capable of calling over his armor and enter it quickly, or have it fight alongside him, thanks to a special earpiece he carries around with him.

"Halt, state your business." the soldier in front of the gate ordered.

"Have you no respect for your superior?" Percy snarled, getting in character as Kestrel mentally sighed. "We're here to inspect the prisoners."

"My apologies. What's in that sack? I must inspect it." the soldier said.

'Bollocks.' Kestrel cursed mentally.

Percy sighed and presented the cane and katana in the sack.

"All confiscated goods. I will personally dispose of them." Percy told the Atlantean soldier.

"Very well, head on in." the soldier said, handing the sack back to the duo. They shrugged at each other and entered the premises. They observed as the prisoners, identified by their sky blue jumpsuits, were being led into the center building away from their shipping container cells by a bunch of Atlantean soldiers and automatons. The prisoners acted a lot like robots from the looks of it.

"The brainwashing is in effect, or part of it at least." Kestrel muttered.

"Take cover in one of the watchtowers and rig a few explosives in some vital spots. I'll help these people." Percy ordered, giving Kestrel her katana. "We'll meet inside before the fighting starts."

"Sure thing."

They split up, with Kestrel going after the nearest watchtower and Percy following the prisoners.

"Thank...you..." the cyclops groaned.

"You must be wounded. Do they ever feed you?" Elise asked.

"Nope..." the cyclops said, sitting down on the floor. The raven haired woman frowned. She didn't have anything to feed to the poor big guy. "You...pretty lady."

Elise tilted her head. "Thank you, I guess. Do you, by any chance, know where I can find a purple muscle car? A 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda to be specific."

"Right there." the cyclops pointed at the far edge of the junkyard. Elise noticed a dirty shade of purple she could only recognize as her car, thanks to Eagle Sense.

"Alright. Thank you." she thanked the cyclops before running to the car, but the monster's voice stopped her.

"Can you...also do something for me?" he asked. Elise groaned, worried about what could happen, but she snapped out of her hard emotions and turned to the cyclops.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You...skilled. You can help my friends. Cyclops like me."

Elise knelt down on the ground, sizing up the prone cyclops. She considered leaving Kansas already, but the cyclops could prove useful in the future.

"Are they being forced to tow cars like you?"

"No. Their labor is much worse, especially our leader's."

"Where are they?"

"Find an old warehouse. Help them, and we'll help you in return."

Percy felt really impatient, and he knew it. He just didn't care. In fact, he was just...angry. He couldn't believe what had happened to the world, even though he found out almost yesterday, but still, they had the nerve to capture his son, take him prisoner, and torture him!

Right now, as he followed where the prisoners were going, he wished he could teleport to Olympus and wipe out Poseidon and his lackeys himself, but he knew full well he couldn't get to Olympus unless he had an army, and his only army is being blocked passage by an impenetrable barrier covering the entire Earth starting with the mesosphere.

He had to shut down that barrier somehow, but first, he had to help these people.

'If Bran got involved, then maybe Elise is somewhere on Earth.' he thought. As his mind raced at a million miles an hour, a few muffled voices broke his thought.

"Excuse me, sir, but why are you here?" a soldier asked him, stopping Percy from entering the building.

"I would like to inspect what is happening here in the prison." he replied.

"You don't know? Where were you stationed?"

"Denmark."

"Seriously? I suppose one more extra officer in the station wouldn't hurt. Come in, and why do you have a cane?"

"It's my personal torture tool, now scram."

Percy entered the building, and he felt like he was in that damn space pirate ship years ago, when Aelin was kidnapped. Before he could do anything, he noticed security cameras around. So, he went up to a nearby soldier, asking,

"Where is the security office in this place?"

"Somewhere on the second floor, sir."

Not saying a word, Percy briskly walked around to find some stairs.

Meanwhile, Kestrel found it pretty easy to secretly take out the guards on one of the watchtowers. All she had to do was snap their necks and slit their throats, quietly. As she rummaged around the equipment in the watchtower, she reminisced about what she had seen earlier.

Was Percy a freak of nature like her? She was a lab experiment born from a test tube full of her "sister"'s DNA and he was a cyborg even without his armor. No, she didn't have the time to wonder if she can relate to him or not.

Anyway, Kestrel found some C4, hid them in a duffel bag, and walked out of the tower.

Elise began to wonder if the cyclops was bluffing or not. So far, she hadn't found a warehouse with blue paint on it. However, she did need all the help she can get, but with all these people hopeless and the old satyr even more hopeless than them, she was on her own, for now at least.

"I wonder if I'm making the right decision here. Well, anything to get these people's hopes up, I guess." she muttered to herself.

She brushed a lock of her raven black hair that strayed into her eye. Elise noticed something at the corner of her vision. It was a warehouse. It didn't look like it had been inbahited by anyone, but she decided to go have a look anyway. The skies were suddenly rumbling, which was strange for her as Zeus had to have been silenced by now. She walked over to the door and opened it.

Nothing but dust...and a human shadow...with horns? Elise thought it was another satyr, so she investigated.

"Hello? Who's there?" she called around, but nature's response was the echoes of her voice. The shadow hasn't moved an inch.

Confused, Elise walked over to the shadow. The shadow appeared to come from her right, so she turned around,

only to find some practice dummy and some fake goat horns glued onto it. She instantly realized...it was a trap! Before she could contemplate what the living hell she was going to do, Elise felt a prescence behind her that was definitely trying to kill her.

She instinctively ducked, turned around, and socked whoever tried to kill her with a right hook. She hit someone, alright.

"Why you...blagh!" a voice called out from the dark.

'I guess it was a satyr.' Elise thought. She noticed something move in the shadows, and moved out of the way in time from a club swing that would've sent her head flying.

A shape bursted from the darkness before Elise could to anything. She quickly rolled to her side and ran back to tackle the shape and kick the club away.

She noticed that the shape was DEFINITELY a satyr. The satyr was around 15 or younger by human standards, had curly brown hair, small horns and big, mean eyes. He wore Greek battle armor, except for the goat legs that take up the waist down. The satyr quickly got up and attempted to grapple with Elise, who merely sidestepped and tripped him. This went from an ambush to a bullying fairly quickly.

"Kid, quit embarrassing yourself." Elise sighed, not wanting to kill the satyr because of his lack of skill.

"Quit callin' me a kid, cupcake!" the young satyr snarled back, getting up and trying to punch Elise again, who simply threw him to the ground. Her nose wrinkled a little because the satyr smelled like caffeine and other ridiculous things.

"You are to me." Elise sighed. "Now, who the hell are you?"

"Why should I tell you, Atlantean scum?!"

For what felt like the umpteenth time, the mystery satyr tried to hit Elise with a predictable right punch. She catched the punch with one hand and quickly struck him in the neck with her other hand. That alone knocked the satyr out.

Percy found the security room, but the door was locked. He cursed silently. So, he went for the next option: knock on the door.

No response. The ex Mentor sighed. He never thought he had to do all this again one last time. Percy thought that his last fight with Kronos was going to be the last, but no. He had to get back into the assassin business to save his captured son and find his lost daughter.

That was when he remembered an old memory, when he was still living the peaceful life, when he was still...perfect, not a part demigod, part machine type thing.

How would Aelin react when she sees his cybernetics? Sure, Fleetfoot went from golden hound to full on robot wolf, but this was different.

His mind raced at blazing speeds, but, Percy thought that no one else must know for now other than Kestrel.

22 years ago...

Percy sat on the one bed in his bedroom. He was wearing nothing but white pants and he was sweaty from working out and he held a picture in his hands. It was a picture of him from his days as Mentor.

"Is everything okay?" he heard someone ask. Percy looked up and saw his mother in law, Evalin Ashryver. "Perseus, why are you so down? You know Aelin doesn't return from her trip in another day, right? Or is it about the 'thing'?"

Percy looked at her as if she was crazy. What was her deal when it came to his romantic life with her daughter? Especially the 'thing'?

"It's not that, Lady Evalin. It's something else."

Evalin noticed the picture and sighed.

"You miss those days, eh?"

"The thrill...the adrenaline..." Percy muttered. "And more importantly, what would come to be after all that: more people all over the galaxy are freed from their oppression.

"Then again, you gave it all away for a life with my daughter." Evalin pointed out. "If you ever consider going back out there, you must consider how much Aelin will worry about you." Percy sighed and stood up from the floor.

"I know. Sorry I worried you. Just a little peachy." he said before walking out of the room.

"Hello, can I help you with something?" a voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Percy shook his head a little and he noticed the security door opened and an Atlantean soldier was standing in front of him.

"Oh, I'm just here for a check up on your systems." he replied, getting back in character.

"I've never received word of something like that." the soldier pointed out before slamming the door on Percy's face.

'Damnit.' he cursed before deciding to walk to the reeducation class. He walked down the stairs only to run into someone.

"Ah, apologies!" a familiar voice said.

"Kestrel?" Percy whispered.

"Aye, sir." she replied. "I'm done with the C4 planting. What do you want me to do?"

"Stay outside for a while. If you hear anything happen in here, go in."

"Okay."

The duo split up again. Percy could hear a lecture going on somewhere deeper in the building. He clutched on his sack and entered the room where the voices were coming from. As the metal door swung open, he observed what was going on around him.

He was definitely interrupting something, but what was it? Percy had no clue. All he saw was a bunch of sleeping demigods seated unnaturally properly on some school chairs in front of an Atlantean officer. The demigods appeared to have strange helmets on them that are somehow connected to the ceiling by some wires.

"Excuse me?" the officer asked him. "Who are you?"

"I'm just observing how things are here." Percy replied.

"I have never heard of such an inspection of the reeducation class."

"There's a first time for everything. How is it going along?"

"Very smoothly." the officer gestured at the demigods.

"They're in a trance." Percy noted the obvious. Kestrel said it was brainwashing, but how exactly were they doing it? Thankfully, the oblivious officer continued to speak before Percy could think about it too much.

"You see those wires connecting to their helmets? Flowing through those is the power of a powerful daughter of Morpheus by the name of Katrina Argyle. With some well placed electrical shocks, we got her to use her powers to send all of them to her father's realm for some...reeducation, especially that guy."

Percy noticed the officer pointing at one of the demigods at the front row. He looked around 17 at most, had pale skin and messy black hair.

"That's Grady, child of Thanatos (not my OC. Grady is by child of Thanatos)."

"What makes him so special other than his heritage?" Percy asked, curious as to why the officer put emphasis on the demigod.

"His mother is a child of Hecate. That combined with the fact that his father is the god of death, makes him all the more dangerous. Once the reeducation of this class is complete, they'll be servants of the new world order. What's in the sack, by the way?"

Percy shrugged, dropped the sack, and pulled out Kestrel's katana. He drew the blade and slashed the officer across the throat in a flash. In the next few seconds, he slashed all the wires off of the demigods' helmets. They all awoke with groans as the alarm sounded.

"Huh? What happened?" the teen, Grady, asked, his unnatural blood red eyes were blinking like crazy.

"No time to explain." Percy stated as he took his helmet off. He threw the sack over his shoulder. "Gather up everyone and let's get out of here!"

As he paced around, waiting for the demigods to recover from their trances, Percy wondered,

'Why is it always about the sack?'