Previously on Immortal Warrior,
He looked at Percy, who was still unconscious. Judging by the heartbeat and the waves emitted by his brain, Apollo knew he was in a coma. There was nothing he could do now, except take him to his palace, where he could be treated better.
For now though, they had to retreat. There were enough losses for the day. He stepped away from Percy and looked up. A golden beam of light engulfed them all and suddenly they disappeared. Just in time too, as the entirety of Kronos's army surrounded the palace of Orthrys.
(Camp Half-Blood)
Almost three weeks and there was still no word from Perseus. Chiron scratched his beard. He had heard what happened. Although they had managed to rescue Bianca di Angelo and Artemis both, the mission had almost failed.
The gods were silent. They refused to leak any details of the mission to Chiron. Something that worried the centaur greatly. What exactly happened at Orthrys?
The demigods rested at Camp Half-Blood.
Chiron worried for Luke. The young man trained ceaselessly at the Arena. He must've seen something.
The centaur was broken out of his thoughts when the dinner horn sounded. Sighing, he exited the Big House.
Dinner was not very eventful. However, many noticed the absence of Luke Castellan. Nobody said anything though. His absence didn't go unnoticed by Chiron, even if the Hermes table was overcrowded. He decided to speak to Luke after dinner.
(After Dinner)
The centaur sighed again as he entered the arena. It was littered with straw. There was no sight of the practice dummies. "At least those dummies won't be bothering anyone."
Luke turned around to face his mentor, wiping sweat off his forehead. "Chiron."
Chiron stared at Luke. "We missed you at dinner. What happened? Training too hard?"
Luke shook his head. "Not hungry. I want- ... I need to train."
"For what? Slicing up unarmed straw men?"
Luke frowned. "You weren't there, Chiron. At Orthrys. You don't know what happened."
The centaur nodded. "Of course. Neither you nor Thalia have even bothered to give me the mission report, something that you need to do at the end of any quest."
Luke looked slightly apologetic. "Sorry Chiron. I haven't had the time."
"Well. You have time now. What happened at Orthrys? What did you see that drives you to train like this?"
Luke sighed. "I- Where do I start? It's all messed up!"
"Just tell me the events as you see fit."
The son of Hermes nodded. "Alright. After the group left camp, I took Annabeth's hat and followed them. I uh ... needed to keep an eye on Annabeth and Thalia."
Chiron smiled. "I'm sure that was all you wanted to do."
Luke blushed like a tomato. "And then ... at a coffee shop in D.C, Thalia kinda found out."
Chiron raised an eyebrow. "You were invisible. How did she find out?"
The demigod blushed redder. "I uh ... sort of bumped into her? Accidentally."
"So let me get this straight. You were invisible and you bumped into the person you were following, by 'accident'?"
"Yes. I mean, NO! I didn't. I was following her, and she stopped suddenly. Not my fault."
Chiron smirked. "Of course. Please continue."
Luke heaved a sigh of relief, glad to change the topic. He would've exploded if he turned any redder. "And then, the Nemean Lion appeared-"
(Thirty Minutes Later)
"And then Apollo raised his hand and frowned and we all landed in the throne room. Kinda funny. All of them jumped in their seats."
"What did they say?" Chiron asked.
Luke frowned. "Nothing much. They rushed to heal Perseus.". His voice was slightly bitter.
Before Chiron could say anything, Luke continued. "I sort of get it that they don't visit us, but how come they show him so much favouritism?! Hermes would never do that for me, the way he was so sad and all! I can't believe it!"
Chiron laughed. No. I mean, he literally laughed out loud in Luke's face.
The demigod's eyes narrowed and his blood boiled.
Chiron stopped a little. "Do not misunderstand me Luke. I'm laughing at you. Not at your predicament, but at your thoughts."
Luke's fist opened. "Huh?"
"My boy, do you honestly believe your father cares so little for you?"
"Yes."
Chiron's eyes narrowed. "No. You're wrong. He cares for you and your siblings more than you could ever imagine."
Luke scoffed. "As if."
Chiron frowned. "Luke. Tell me this. Do you have any idea why I don't teach? I run this camp and I organize many things, but never will you see me training a lone demigod in private."
Luke didn't answer. He had no answer.
"I can't have favourites. They always die. Do you understand me, Luke? I cannot keep continuing the cycle of having to train that student for years and then losing that student. I simply cannot do it. But Hermes cannot do that. You are his son. Despite what you might think, he hasn't abandoned you. Look around. Look around carefully. In your happiest and saddest moments, you will see your father."
At the Camp borders, a hooded figure appeared. This unknown person carried a sack across their shoulders, entering the borders as quietly as possible.
"Ahem."
Then, the most girlish scream possible was emitted from said person's mouth as their hood came off, revealing one Annabeth Chase.
Chiron stood there in his centaur form towering over the demigoddess.
"WHO DARES- ... Oh. Annabeth? What are you doing out of your cabin?!" Chiron demanded.
The demigoddess was lost for words. "I uh ... was ... visiting the city!"
Chiron frowned. "Where is your pass?"
Annabeth looked everywhere but Chiron. "I ... lost it. Some monsters attacked and it got lost in the fight."
The centaur shook his head. "Very interesting story, Ms. Chase. You must tell me more about it ... in my cabin! Tomorrow morning!"
Annabeth cringed. Chiron was a little upset.
The centaur stared at her. "What are you standing there for? Back to your cabin! Now!"
The demigoddess quickly ran to her cabin, avoiding the harpies.
Once inside her cabin, Annabeth tiptoed to her bunk, setting the sack she carried onto the floor slowly. Without making too much noise, she opened it and rummaged through it until she found what she was looking for. It was a sleek black laptop. A small one.
Making sure no one noticed, she switched it on, dimming the brightness to a minimum. She cringed when the laptop made a sound as it switched on. She glanced at her snoring cabin-mates, thanking every god and goddess she knew for not letting any of them wake up due to the sudden sound that occurred at the Windows icon when the laptop started up.
When the laptop finally booted up, which took ages, Annabeth opened a private browser window and began to search.
'The first titan war'
There were an innumerable amount of search results, most of it was utter rubbish, like Zeus single handedly crushing the entirety of the titans or in some cases, the titans making peace with the Olympians.
Annabeth sighed. She decided to take a risk. She took out a flash drive which was given to her by Luke. He claimed that it allowed any laptop to connect to the Olympus network. So she plugged it in.
Almost immediately, the laptop's screen changed. The browser covered the entire screen and a 'Welcome!' message filled the entire screen before disappearing. She sighed in relief and got to work.
The search results were much more encouraging this time. She used a combination of searches.
'History of the Titanomachy'
But it was more of the same. Annabeth didn't understand. The flash drive was plugged in wasn't it?
'The first titan war'
It was then that she remembered what Luke had told her about the quest. He said that some being had appeared, and Apollo knew him. He called him ... Darkstorm. So she searched that name.
'Darkstorm'
Annabeth was definitely intrigued now. The images of the being looked like they were taken straight out of a comic book. His armour was black, with hints of gold here and there. The armour looked really light, and could've passed for leather if it weren't for the clear metallic finish on it. The figure was covered head to toe in said armour. However, Annabeth noticed one thing. The armour, gauntlets and boots seemed to be made out of one material, whereas the space between the shoulders and the elbows were different. Same goes for the area below the hips and above the shins.
She raised an eyebrow at the Spartan helmet which sat on his head with a golden plume instead of a red one. A cape was attached to his armour, which was almost entirely gold, but there were black strands interwoven in it, reducing the glare from the cape.
Shaking her head, she exited the site and opened a different link. The same. The next ten websites showed her the same picture, so she concluded that, whoever Darkstorm is, he's real. Ten different websites cannot tell you the exact same thing, unless they all copied from the same source, in which case Annabeth would be wrong, but she didn't feel that Olympian internet would be as crazy as the mortal one, with all sorts of fake information in it.
She decided to dig more information about said person. Someone who could supposedly destroy Apollo and Artemis in single combat.
The information she found was ... scary, demoralising, whatever you want to call it. According to the gods, Darkstorm was a being who first appeared just before the titan war. Annabeth frowned. There was no mention of Darkstorm being a demititan or demigod. Did the gods not know? According to Luke, Darkstorm was attacked from behind by Artemis and later injured a little by Perseus. He swore up and down that he bled red, not gold.
He also said, and I quote 'He[Darkstorm] moved faster than Apollo could finish his sentence. The last person I saw going that fast was my father.'
Annabeth wondered how fast he was. Shouldn't Hermes be able to match him? He was the god of speed after all. Luke was proof enough of that. He's the only living son of Hermes who had not inherited his father's sneakiness or silver tongue. Not even his light fingers. Luke was the only one who got his father's speed.
It was one, but not the only reason he was the best swordsman in Camp right now. She doubted whether even Thalia could defeat him. As a child of the big three, Thalia was much faster and much stronger than your average demigod, but Luke seemed to be even faster. Although, he did lose last time they sparred.
She yawned loudly, waking Malcolm. Before the sleepy boy could see the laptop, Annabeth slammed the lid close and violently shoved it under her bed.
She sighed in relief as he went back to sleep. Then she did the same. That night, Annabeth had nightmares about the golden cloaked monster.
(Olympus)
Olympus was in an uproar due to recent events.
Zeus slammed his bolt to the ground. "SILENCE! YOU WILL SIT DOWN ON YOUR THRONES RIGHT NOW! OR CONJURE UP A CHAIR AND SIT IN IT! WE SHALL CONDUCT THIS MEETING WITH SOME ORDER DAMNIT!"
The gods were still nervous. Apollo and Artemis were both sitting on their thrones with a pained expression. More from the humiliation than the actual pain. He glanced at the middle of the throne room. The floor was bloodstained with a mixture of red and gold. Perseus was in a water bubble which was floating a few feet off the ground.
Some gods were openly staring at the demigod. His armour was shattered at the breastplate where the golden shard had entered, and a gaping hole was right above his heart. Even then, blood flowed out of the wound at a phenomenal rate. Apollo reckoned that the only thing keeping him alive was the fact that he was in a body of water.
Athena spoke. "Father. I don't know how it is possible for Darkstorm to grow this powerful. He was never this powerful. I don't know any deity who could grant him such power."
"Yes.", Poseidon spoke. "According to Apollo, he was able to perform feats only possible with the aid of godly energy ... something that a demigod can only access minute amounts of. Even then, no god should have been able to do this either. The only theory I can come up with is that he may be the mortal offspring of a protegenoi."
Zeus's attention was caught rather sharply. "What?!", he hissed.
Athena seemed to agree. "What Poseidon is saying could be right. It would certainly explain his strength and his control of immortal energies."
Hermes's eyebrows raised, looking at his half sister. "Our reign really is coming to an end."
Said wisdom goddess glared at him.
"Alright, okay. By Chaos! You guys have no sense of humour!"
Usually, his jokes would've at least made the other gods crack a smile. This wasn't 'usually'.
Dionysus, for one, wasn't reading his wine magazine or dozing off on his throne.
Athena stood and waved her hand. In front of Perseus's water bubble, a holographic screen appeared, showing a map of the United States and the surrounding water bodies. "Kronos has already assembled most of his armies. He is only waiting to regain his own strength and for the rest of the titans to do so as well. Scouts say he's already amassed an army of almost twenty million regular monsters and five hundred thousand powerful monsters. Every single one of his brothers have aligned with him and they also have Darkstorm, someone who we still don't know much about."
The goddess sighed.
"We have two legitimate armies. That too, only if Hades cooperates. The armies of Poseidon and all the dead in the Underworld. There aren't many demigods alive at the moment. There are roughly about sixty in Camp Half-Blood and almost forty-five in Camp Jupiter. The rest are only legacies. We do have several other gods to help us, but it's safe to say that most of them have joined the enemy."
Hephaestus stood shakily, with one hand holding a stick. The god seemed to look older, and even had a white beard. "That's not all. We still have the thousands of automatons planted all over the world. They could be of some use."
Ares stared at the forge god incredulously. "A couple thousand automatons aren't going to even dent Kronos's army."
"Oh they will. These were made specifically for that, remember?"
Artemis clutched the armrest of her throne and stood. "Then we'll have to make do. Right now, our primary concern should be catching Darkstorm and killing him."
All the gods nodded unanimously.
Apollo stood. "Darkstorm has to die. A person of such power who doesn't need to obey the divine laws? He needs to die first."
Zeus nodded, about to flash out, before something caught his attention. "Wait. speaking of divine laws, you broke them by directly interfering in an ongoing quest."
Apollo looked taken aback. "What? Kronos would've gotten exactly what he wanted if I hadn't interfered!"
Athena took interest. "Oh, what's that?"
Apollo glared at the wisdom goddess. "A bargaining chip you idiot! He would've used Artemis as a bargaining chip!"
"There's something you should know, Apollo. What I just did, it's called sarcasm. Ever heard of it?"
"Why you fu-"
"ENOUGH!"
Zeus glared at both his children. "Apollo, I'll deal with you later. After we defeat Kronos."
(Orthrys)
Outside the palace of the titans, where Atlas stood once more holding the sky, where two gods were soundly defeated by a mere mortal.
Darkstorm stood near the edge of the mountain, watching a screen hovering in front of him.
He turned to look at an empousai who shivered as he spoke. "Fetch Iapetus. Now."
She nodded, catching a small glimpse of the screen he was watching. She gasped as she slowly ran to deliver the message to the titan.
On the screen, she saw the gods. Sitting in a bright room. A throne room. The throne room.
