All right guys, here it is! Now a lot of time has passed which meant a lot of changes were made to the story, the plot, characters etc.
If anyone's actually interested, I was just busy, yup. Life's a bitch.
Now onto more important matters! I really hope you guys are ready, because this Act s'bout to end! Short right? Yeah, the next will be even shorter, well I'm guessing it would, because I haven't start planning it yet :P
Another thing, I've been really interested in writing these two other stories that might be published sometime soon, they're really good and interesting and ORIGINAL! (One big attribute in my writing is originality) Although one of them is a REALISTIC and brutal take on "Captain of Chaos" cliché and the other is a complete embodiment of the word "fantasy" so look out for those.
First Wave
My body hurts, like a flatten ribbon, weak and swore. This is my first recording of this sensation, this brutal sate, however my body disagrees with my mind. In spite of this trivial occurrence, what caught my interest is rather the calming air that brushes against my skin. The feeling was almost like I can open my eyes and peer to the outer world, like floating barely under the horizon.
Thick clouds formed over Percy as he stood on solid ground once again. Burning scars ripped across the furious skies and high claws protruded from the shaking earth. He could at least take comfort in knowing what was up and down, at least so he had hoped.
Sirens rung from above, darkly clothed specters spiraled the skies, diving in and out from the clouds. From beneath, the ground divided in two. Hot air breathed out from the long clack, pouring out light like a broken dam.
Blinding lights burst from the underworld and clashed against the flying reapers. Light mend with darkness, setting the world ablaze with ghostly fire. The bright titans took from of various golden armors, ancient and powerful. These tall giants wielded weapons matching the suns and stars, against the smaller, but more so frightening, shapeless avengers and their more practical arsenal. One such specter soured downward pass the towering lighted guardians; the specter sank real low to the rumbling battlefield.
Percy blinked as the specter covered him in blackness, all sound melted away leaving the cold, damp den in silence. He felt wetness soak into the sole of his shoes, he waited and listened and when he was sure nothing would awake from his movements Percy took a step forward.
Splash of cold water waved throughout the cavern, torch burst from above his head, fire burning in bowls, held by tall poles. There, in front of Percy, a gigantic city, a beautiful city of stone and marble. A distinct feature was their plants and vines that littered the old architect. Then, slowly the ancient buildings fell and crumbled, vanilla stones dropping off, brick by brick.
In its place, was a new, more modern city, one that immediately struck Percy. Greek buildings. The architect of the two generations were easily noticed, one looks to be older and more nature concentrated, beautiful, while the other seemed more busy and… human appealing.
Percy's eyes widened as he peered through the water under his feet, there was no reflection, but a whole new area. A modern day New York, except without all of the skyscrapers, making the only defining point being the Empire State Building. The ground melted into water and Percy fell under, his eyes opened and he was standing again, on the other side of the mirror, gazing at the black and white lights of the skyscraper.
The front door burst open to endless darkness, Percy's body lifted off the ground and was sucked into the open door. He landed on a groundless plane, his sight was gone, his feelings were gone, his hearing was gone, he was in utter solitude when the smell of rot reached his nose, the smell of death. Percy's heart skipped a beat and his mind raced, the smell got stronger and the cold presence of Death tingled his neck.
In the nothingness, Percy was pushed against a wall; sharp stakes nailed his limbs cutting off their mobility, two on each arm and three on each leg posing a cross. Finally, something appeared other than darkness, skull, burning yellow flames in place of its eyes, cold, meatless fingers that rose from under its cloak.
"No…" Percy whispered uncontrollably, a fear washed over him like the coldness that crept into his flesh.
The Grim Reaper touched Percy's chest, a wave of torturous cold froze his body. Percy let out a struggling cry; the Grim Reaper sank its claws into his chest, deep within. It gripped what could only be Percy's soul, pulsating in his ears.
"NOOOO!" Percy screamed. The Grim Reaper ripped out its hand, pulling a blue light the size of an apple along with it. Percy's body burned, not with heat but with coldness, his flesh melting off of his arms and chest. Golden fire ate at his eyes and he cried. His lungs shriveled and dissolved, causing his voice to falter.
Even without his sight, Percy knew a darkness, even more morbid and black than the current, wrapped around him, he was dead.
Percy bolted from his bed, panting in cold sweat. He gripped his chest, for a terrifying second his heart had stopped, but the settle thud slowly returned. He frantically felt his arm and its coldness; it felt as if he was trapped in a freezer for god knows how long.
In his search, Percy noticed the faint glow under the thin layer of his shirt. Hesitantly, he removed the buttons until he could see the source of the phenomenon, as he had foreseen the light emanated from the center of his chest. Despite having guessed the end result of his actions, Percy was still left shocked upon finding the bright stone embedded in his chest, rather scared he was surprised. Never before had the stone became so active, being able to easily light up the dark corners of their room.
What's more unpleasant was the small veins that leaked from the stone, thin tendrils of blue light that seeped into his body. Strangely, the supernatural light felt comforting, like when one treks the snow filled grounds for a long period of time then enter a heated room.
[]
"Are you alright, Percy?" Bianca asked. Early in the morning, Luke had awakened Bianca and intended to spend the morning searching for clues. Percy had already been awake when Bianca rose, he sounded fine, promising he would dress up, however, when Bianca peeped into his changing room (after she knocked, of course) she found the boy sitting on the edge of his bed, staring out the large window next to him.
She silently took a step closer, examining Percy's motionless peace. Once she came closer, even that was disproved. Percy sat, holding his arms close to his chest, his legs press together, under his light breaths, he was shaking, at times even trembling. But she couldn't tell rather he was fearful or not without seeing his face.
"Percy?" The boy flinched, startled.
"Bi-Bianca, it's you." He sighed, rubbing his biceps to ward off the cold. "Is it just me or is it cold in here?" He smiled sheepishly.
It was still summer and they both knew of the heated weather outside. "I guess that fireplace wasn't such a bad idea then?" Percy laughed and stood up, making sure his shakes were gone before leaving the room, leaving Bianca to ponder on such little grounds. What could have distracted Percy so much as to make up a bad lie? Of all the times she knew him, he had never told a lie that she didn't believe. Once he even managed to persuade her to believe Annabeth was a transvestite. It took weeks to feel relaxed around her again and even longer for the blond to fume out her anger.
"Well, look's like the Girl Scouts finally got ready." Justin grinned. This made Percy's already rotten morning just a little worse, looks like someone's going to be cranky.
Unlike Percy, Luke laughed, even though, it was clear that he didn't find that funny in the slightest, but being a Hermes kid, he has honed his acting skills to the max.
"I know you're suppose to have camp pride and all that, but no one in town's going to take you lot seriously." Justin's lip twitched, glancing at the bright orange t-shirts.
"I can't disagree, but we only have one color." Luke smiled; Percy could tell he was trying his best to hide his sass. However, Percy had no such restraints, heck, his middle name might as well be Sass.
"Well, some of us don't have the luxuries to visit the mall every two weeks." He crossed his arms.
"Percy." Luke warned, he gave another smile to Justin who strangely looks to wear a face of pity instead of anger. What right did he have to pity them?
"Well, let's just go." He grabbed his keys from the backrest of the couch and pushed pass Percy out the front door.
Once he was out Luke sighed and turned to his comrade. "Percy, please be nicer to our landlord."
"Yeah well, it's hard being polite to a genuine asshole."
"Sssh." Luke hissed, jabbing his thumb to the stairs. Percy groaned, completely forgetting that Justin's mother might still be upstairs.
Bianca entered the room and gave them a quizzing stare.
"We need to go." Luke said simply and left out the door followed by the other two. The morning air was dry and the sun glared intensely on the eroded gray road. Unlike last night, the drive to the town took far longer than Percy remembered, and when they reached, it certainly wasn't too great a sight to see.
Most of the buildings were dull and small, some made of plain, freshly cut wood and others made of concrete. Only one apartment was open throughout the whole town, a few houses connecting to the owners' workplace. A dressing shop, ham and bread goods, fruit stand, a small clinic, and a puny shopping center mainly concentrated on food and supplies.
"Nice little town, very cozy." Percy said, his forehead pressed against the window.
"It certainly ain't one of your big cities, but it's enough." Justin replied from the driver's seat. For someone who knew how it was like to live with below bare minimal resources, Percy wasn't quite making fun of the town; in fact, the only aspect he had issues with was the ghostly feel of the place. Even then, he couldn't really complain, considering he had lived inside a cave for some duration of time, and almost nothing scaled up with a dried up cave in the middle of winter with near no food surplus.
"I like the feeling of the place." Bianca mumbled, mostly ignored by everyone. Of course she likes it, ever since she found out her identity, it was like she was trying to be creepy and gloomy.
"We should probably talk with some of the citizens if you don't have a problem with that?" Luke turned to Justin once again in the shotgun seat.
"Hm?" Justin turned to Luke, momentarily ripping his eyes from the road, Percy gritted his teeth as they passed a fire hydrant, too close for comfort. "All righty, I don't see anything interesting to talk about, but why not?" The car made a few more turns and stopped at what seemed to be the town square, with a small field of yellow grass sandwiched by two roads.
Justin jerked to a stop and popped open the door, the others followed.
"Alright, so where'dyou want to start?" Justin rested his arms on the car's hood and stared at Luke.
"Oh, um, where ever is the closest I guess, we can move outwards from there." The blonde surveyed the area around the Square and his brows came together in noticing something.
"It doesn't matter, most of everything is around here." Justin propped his back against the car.
Percy preformed a slow spin and realized that most of the town was indeed closed off, some by yellow police tape and others by the fact that the entrances were boarded.
"Why is there such a lack of… life?" Hell, even that cave Percy stayed in had more activity.
"It really is like a ghost town."
"Bianca, I think we need to have a talk later." Percy brushed pass her under the shadow of a maple tree. He leaned forward and counted the few buildings that seemed to still be open.
"Why, exactly, are all these stores closed, in fact why are there so little people living here?" Luke asked, now that he thought about it, there was a drastic lack of people at the airport.
"There was an earthquake in the next town over, a good 15 to 20 miles to the west. It wiped out the whole town, half of the townsmen left, too afraid." Justin said.
"An earthquake that destroyed a whole town?" Luke exclaimed. "I thought you said the trimmers had stayed at a minimal?"
"For the year." Justin reminded. "The quake happened a little longer than that."
"Wait," Percy step forward, standing on the edge of the maple's shade. "You said that the town was about 15 miles away?"
"More or less."
"Wouldn't the shock have reached here as well?"
Justin nodded in agreement. "It had, that's why all those stores are closed, a lot of the town had been hit, so much that it's impossible to feed a whole town of people, so they left and it got worst and worst."
"And the rest? Why haven't they moved yet?" Luke raised an eyebrow.
"Well, this place is kinda special to them. Lots of them were born on this here rock and they intend to end here as well."
"I guess I understand the feeling of nostalgia, but if an earthquake attacked that can wipe out a whole town, then this place isn't safe in the slightest." Luke said, clearly sparking a fire in Justin.
"Well, there hasn't been any kind of trimmers that did more than tip over a cup, so I think we'll be just fine." Justin argued.
"Was there any kind of warning when the Earthquake struck a year ago? You can't possibly think that it's still safe here, next thing you know the island's going to blow." Percy narrowed his eyes, Justin bit his lips and back away, it was almost like he was fighting halfheartedly, like he agreed with Luke.
"Let's get this over with, okay?" Justin began to walk in the direction of the town shopping center. The constructions were only across the town square field, yet it felt like twice the distance, like when the loading bar slows to compensate for the slow processor.
When they entered the circle of buildings, it felt like some kind of gloomy movie, no particular color popped out, most of everything had a dull gray taint to them, making even the very air hard to breath. They walked past a local mechanic when they finally spotted a citizen, an old man with bolding hair, wearing an overall, a foot long rusted wrench in one hand and a pair of black gloves in the other.
The tension between the demigods and the smith radiated, it's definitely a closed-in society. With a brutish grunt, the smith jerked his head at Justin as if demanding him to explain.
"That's good ol'Jukes, he's been around before my mom even remembered." Justin stopped and sank his hands in his pockets.
"Who're these city scouts?" Jukes grunted, a rough voice from decades of smoking.
Luke chuckled, and rubbed his arm. "Good morning Mr. Jukes, my name is Luke; I was just around with my friends on a school research trip, if I may, can I ask a few questions?"
Old Juke's frown deepened. "Why on earth would anyone do 'em research on this rock?"
"It's actually a supernatural research, our school really concentrates on what the eyes cant see." Luke said a bit embarrassed.
"Supernatural? What stupid nonsense." Jukes stepped through his gray metal double doors, the demigods followed. The smith tossed his wrench on the counter with a load thud and dropped his gloves beside it. "Good grief, the world has really grown stupid."
"So are you stating that there hasn't been any sorts of supernatural event occurring? Like apparitions of any kind?" Jukes hesitated, glaring at Luke.
"There ain't no shit like that going on here!" Jukes barked, as he cursed Percy coughed loudly and covered Bianca's ears. "Now get the hell out of my shop!"
The rest of the meetings were somewhat similar, all of them seemed to all have some form of hostilities towards the demigods or another, half of the time, they were treated as if they had some kind of rare deadly disease. When they finished speaking with the shop owners of the shopping center it was already afternoon, so they called it a day and decided to untwine and rethink their strategy.
In their walk of shame, Percy took note of the numerous amount of closed off or restricted areas, such as neighborhoods and other larger buildings, mostly rendered useless with a few gaping holes.
"We have literally nothing as results of a whole morning's worth of investigation!" Luke cried, digging his fingers through his hair.
"I'd hardly call it investigation," Percy sighed. "It's more of an one-sided discrimination."
"I don't understand how these people can be so uncooperative! I mean, I changed our background, like, six times." Luke said.
"I don't think the 'camp of Greek and Roman monster research club' was all that believable, or creative." Luke grunted his response. "Or how about 'the new animal species research program' because that's totally realistic." Percy smiled deviously, just because their 'search' turn up junk didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it.
"I was getting desperate, anyways, I can really care less what they think we are, I just want some kind of lead." Luke huffed pulling his hand up to shade the glares of the afternoon sun.
"Well let's rethink this then," Percy tried to remember the whole prophecy. "Three shall travel to the island of rocks, nearest to the west."
"Check" Luke said.
"Followed by the phantom of the unseen."
"What?" Luke turned to Percy.
"Sorry, sorry, I mixed it up." Percy bit his lower lip, he had completely forgotten the first prophecy that was given to him. "Take to the curse of the ancients." Justin's lip flattened.
"Nope."
"And tear the mountains wrath from stone to stone."
"Well, we do have a mountain." Luke glanced at the low-sloped green mountain in the distance. "Now that I heard it again, doesn't that sound a little like something else?"
"Brick by brick." Percy nodded, it sounded awfully alike. "Next line: Journey to the depths of the darkest temples."
"Oh!" Justin waved his hand. "Did you say temple? Because I know of a temple in the mountains!"
"Great," Luke rubbed his hands together. "Two birds, one stone." It seems that his second quest was finally taking off.
[]
The group made it back to the car where they drove just outside the small town on the same road from the airport. There was a split from the main traffic to a small dirt path, Justin could only take them so far until the road was too unstable to continue from there they walked on foot.
Nothing too interesting occurred, in fact if Percy didn't know better, Justin was just taking them on a stroll through the woods. The small dirt path narrowed and broadened, at one point the path was cut off by a fallen tree that seemed like an odd landmark, because after that point there was more and more unroofed trees. What caught Percy interest was the way the trees were separated, it seemed to have been forcefully ripped in two directions; in one example a tree was split straight down in the middle, one end was touching the ground and the other curved in the opposing direction.
Another thing to take note was the bushes seemed to get significantly larger, some higher than Percy himself. Percy's eyes narrowed at one particular point where a large tree had tipped over to his left, right over three connected bushes that rose far above Percy's head, yet not a single branch was broken. What's more intriguing was on the foot of the bushes, the dirt floor where fairly clean, a drop or two of leafs.
"The temple is pretty old, it's been around before the town was created." Justin said from the front of the line, he slowed down until he was at the center. "It's said that this used to be some ancient praying ground for some tribe."
"So I've read." Luke said. Percy pursed his lips, it was like if Justin had read from the same source they had. "Why is it that there isn't a tour for the place, I would expect people coming from world wide to see this sight."
"No reason, just some people go around spilling bull crap that there's a curse on the temple, not to mention, the place isn't really the safest in the world, it is pretty old."
"You said that there was a curse?" Luke asked.
"What? You scared?" Justin teased which felt strangely normal.
"No," Luke said defensively. "It might be important to the quest."
"It's nothing, just a bunch of people being paranoid, you know how people blame on things they don't understand?" Justin waved it off, the remainder of the trip was quiet no one spoke eagerly awaiting the temple that peeked over the tree line.
They finally made it to the old stone complex with many arches and towers. The building had several layers, a long staircase at the front and a metal fence blocking it off from the party.
"The area is restricted." Said the guard in blue uniform.
"But we just need a quick glance." Plead Luke. "It's for our school project, it will only take a few minutes."
"I'm sorry kid." The middle-aged guard shook his head. "The area is dangerous, the building is old and even a small tremor can collapse the whole thing."
Percy crossed his arms. "And the earthquake a year ago barely made a dint in it, huh."
The officer pointed to Percy. "Listen here kid! When I say it's off limits, it's off limits!" Percy narrowed his eyes and turned around, walking away from the fuming guard. Luke turned from the temple to Percy and followed his companion.
"Hey look, maybe tomorrow we can look around the woods a little more?" Justin offered. Percy made a "tisk" sound and continued to march, at one point Justin resumed his position at the lead.
Percy slowed and moved next to Luke talking in a light whisper, the blonde nodded and Percy moved away again. The plan was put into motion when they reached the car again. Percy slapped his forehead.
"Damn!" He curse, causing everyone to turned towards him.
"What's up?" Justin raised an eyebrow.
"I dropped Riptide!" Percy groaned. Bianca blinked moving her hand to her pocket and feeling the bump where Riptide rested.
"You gotta he kidding?" Justin sighed. "How can you lose your sword that easily, and I thought Camp was suppose to train you to be a warrior?" Percy narrowed his eyes and glared at Justin.
"I'll have to go back and look for it." Percy said with a hint of annoyance.
"I'll go with you." Luke walked next to Percy. "It's gonna get dark soon."
"No!" Justin growled with frustration. "I know these paths the best."
"Then we'll just walk home." Luke waved his thumb at Bianca and himself. "It's just half a mile walk right? I remember the route pretty well. Be the time you find that pen it'll most likely be dark." Justin gritted his teeth, he snapped from Percy to the devious grin on Luke's lips.
"No, no." Justin closed his eyes and sighed, a moment of silence slip by until he opened his eyes again. "Luke why don't you just go with Percy, I don't even know how the thing looks like. I'll take Bianca home, I'll come back for you guys."
Like shook his head. "We can make it back ourselves." He insisted.
"No, Chiron specifically told me to keep an eye on you guys." Justin rattled his keys. "Come on." Bianca slipped into the back seat and the car took off immediately.
As the car sank into the distance Percy let go a breath of tension.
"What was that for exactly?" Luke turned to Percy and raised an eyebrow. "It seems to me that you're just trying to annoy the guy."
"Well, I'm pretty sure you heard him, right?" Percy smirked. "'I know these paths more than anyone.' implying that there's more than one."
"The other paths could be miles away, maybe he meant paths in the woods that doesn't lead to the temple?" Luke defended.
"Yeah well," Percy started to walk down the path at a rushed pace. "I just so happened to have found a branching path earlier, I think." They traveled for some minutes before they reached the fallen tree, by now the sun was to edge the tree lines.
The forest was void of sounds, no chirps from birds or cracks from crickets, certainly no rustles of animals, it all felt so strange, so fake. Percy scanned the area carefully and stopped when they passed a line of bushes letting Luke bump into him. He pushed pass Luke and examined the arrangements of nature.
"Look." Percy said pointing to the bushes. "They're fake, or at least artificially made by some deity." Luke also noticed the difference between this particular section, which lacked leafs, compare to all the others. "Not to mention the tree." Percy pointed to the tall tree that cover the three bushes, a belt wrapped around the trunk where there wasn't any bark.
"There aren't any mosses." Luke pointed out, the area where the trunk divided. "So this happened recently. A monster maybe?"
"A smart monster." Percy pushed pass the thick bushes and exclaimed in triumph. "Knew it!" Luke hurriedly followed after Percy, grunting as the branches gabbed into him, who ever placed the bushes there clearly didn't want anyone to see or go to the other side.
Behind the wall of nature was a small dirt path mostly erased but still easily seen. The two looked at each other and nodded, together they braved the unknown.
[]
They were seriously beginning to run out of light, the sun set was only half an hour away and they still had so much ground to cover.
"So how are you doing so far?" Luke smiled considering that that was supposes to be his line.
"What do you mean? How I'm feel in the quest or being the leader of the quest?" Luke laughed.
"Both I guess."
"What are you trying to say here?" Luke said accusingly. "Are you trying to say that I'm a bad leader?"
"No, of course not." Percy shook his head and waved both hands.
"Well then you're a bloody liar." Luke sighed. "To tell you the truth, I'm nervous." His voice held heaviness that Percy was far too familiar with.
"You're afraid?" Percy stated more than asked.
Luke raised his hands. "Hey, hey, you don't have to be rude about it." He let out a weak chuckle, but it fell silent again. "You're right, it's been years sense I had a quest, I don't want to repeat what happened before."
"You can't be afraid, if the leader is afraid, then how the hell are the subordinates suppose to follow?"
"Yeah well, you're a better leader than I am." He laughed sickly. "The quest is going nowhere."
"We're on this path right now aren't we?" Percy said. "We're making progress, slowly but surely. First the stage must be set, then the play may conduct."
"Yeah well, I'm not even sure why we're doing this for." Muttered Luke. "We're not retrieving the Master Bolt, this is pointless."
"If it was pointless, then the Oracle wouldn't have walked." Though, they were both still a little uneasy about that.
"So I'm just fulfilling another task for the gods. Big deal." Luke snarled.
Percy turned away from Luke and thought, he rummaged his memories until one quote popped up, one that upheld his confidence enough to keep moving thought the two wars. Of course the quote had been altered, but the meaning stayed intact.
"The gods don't take actions against other gods or humans for that matter, because. Maybe they don't want to, its not that they can't, it's because they're afraid."
Luke grinned. "Yeah, the gods, afraid, that'd be a thought."
"Like it or not, it's true. They're afraid to make mistakes, because they're in such a high position they can't make mistakes, they can't disgrace themselves." Percy stopped, he was unsure if this will have the same affect on Luke as it did on him. "We, as human, can make mistakes, that's what we're hardwired to do, to fight, to defy, to survive."
"So…" Luke said slowly. "You're saying we're born to fail, to be made fun of, a low class, not even considered the same species of respect."
"No, humans also can make changes, they jump at opportunities and achieves what the immortals are afraid of. We have the power and selflessness to change what nothing else can, that because we have death on our side."
Luke laughed bitterly. "So the only strength the gods have over us is exactly what makes them weak?" Percy didn't answer the question, it wasn't something someone can make you believe, Luke had come to the conclusion himself.
"We might not be superior, but we are different, we are on a completely different plane of rules than the gods."
"And that's why the gods use us, I guess. If we have the power to bypass their rules, then we're something they could use, huh?" Luke waved his hand lazily. "We're just fighting for bunch of stuck-up brats that can't complete their own task. Just fighting for strangers."
Percy stepped in front of Luke cutting him off. "Then don't fight blindly, fight with me. Forget about those lousy gods, just look at it this way; the two of us are fighting together ad whenever the gods have you out hunting monster just remember that I'm in the same situation. We're not fighting for the gods, just to protect you and me, to keep each other safe."
"Like hired mercenaries."
"Precisely, and we're not the only ones, how about Annabeth? Bianca, and everyone in cabin 11, they're all in the same boat as you and me."
Luke smirked halfheartedly.
"Fine, maybe this'll make my point clear." Percy backed away, raising his right arm; fist pointing to Luke, then slammed it to his chest. "As long as you don't have a solid reason for fighting, I swear on the Styx to never use my water of attributes outside of it's domain." Thunder crackled over the sky.
Luke blinked, then sucked in a sharp breath in realization. "Percy, what have you done?" He whispered through closed teeth, not sure if he was angry at Percy or himself.
"Heh," Percy grinned. "Not a big lost. There's more to me than water manipulation."
Luke's lips twitched into a frown. He couldn't stop this now, it was Percy's choice and his own, of course Luke had been a key importance to the promise. "All right, you're lost."
[]
After a few minutes of walking in silence, they made it to the fence; there was no entrance in sight so their only choice was to climb it. It was only after they dropped down on the other side that Luke noticed to light bulbs that were off.
"Electrified?" Percy muttered, but it doesn't seem like it was turning on any time soon, so they continued.
"We need to hurry." Luke said, the sun was indeed setting, coloring the sky orange. "What are we looking for?"
Percy hissed as they reached the corner of the temple, on the other side two policemen were scouting the grounds in front.
"Back." Percy whispered, they moved to the other end of the temple where Percy carefully checked for any guards before sneaking into a concave courtyard at the very back of the square ziggurat. "They have the entrance to the place blocked."
"We can't climb it either." Luke looked at the tall structure. He clawed at the yellow bricks and managed to take off a good chunk of the surface. "Definitely not. Don't tell me this was all for-"
Percy gagged, hugging his stomach. Groans escaped from his parted lips had he struggled to calm himself. His heart pounded in his chest so loudly that he could barely breath, his skin felt like lava, and a sharp electric sting ran through his core. Limit Beak, but why?
"Corrupted data detected." Mnemosyne blared the warning. "Percy, it is close. Please be careful, it is provoking an unnatural reaction from your body."
The hell is it?!
"I don't know. I am currently trying to pinpoint the source, but it is difficult to process with this strange miss clouding the area."
The hell are you talking about? Percy pressed his head to the ground and moaned out.
"Since the beginning, there has been a thick fog preventing me from further accessing any other information, through all my research, I cannot understand the fog's cause or epicenter. Behind you."
Percy turned his head and coughed, Luke wrapped Percy's arm around his neck and picked him up.
"We need to go." Luke stated, but Percy waved his hand in denial.
"I'm okay, I'm okay." Percy panted, the longer he felt the sensation the weaker it got. "I think we found something." He pointed in the general direction of the wall at the end of the small courtyard.
Luke dragged the limping Percy to the wall and thoroughly examined the textures.
"There!" Percy gasped. Luke stepped towards the bush that grew against the wall and kneeled down. On the inner side of the bush, there were black tainted leafs. Luke carefully moved the branch aside and gasped.
Against the wall, where the brick was suppose to be was a rip. A rip that tore reality itself, on the other end was blackness, an ocean of numbers and letters and symbols the same pattern as with Ares.
"Ajah." Percy muttered. "It looks like the same thing as before."
"What does this mean?" Luke glanced at Percy, but was clear he was as lost as Luke was.
"I-It's corruption of some sorts."
"Corruption?"
Percy nodded. "I don't know, but remember when Ares spilled this? He then transformed into Ajah."
Luke breathed. "So is this... Ares? What's going on I thought we were done with that."
"Maybe when the corruption poured from Ares, it seeped into the world."
"And made itself here? So is this what the quest is about, what are we suppose to do?" Luke reached out and was about to brush the rip when Percy slapped his hand away.
"If it transformed Ares into that monster we can't take any chances." Luke nodded.
"What the hell are we suppose to do?"
[]
"What the hell took you?" Justin barked, leaning against the driver's door with his arms crossed, his index tapped irritatingly.
"Sorry." Luke flashed a smiled sheepishly. "We had to double check everywhere, we found it just a second ago."
"Well you all sure took your damn time." Justin snared and glared at Percy through his brand name sunglasses.
"It was a pen after all." Percy retorted.
"Where is it? At least let me see it for all that trouble." Luke glanced at Percy uneasily, Percy casually flipped out Riptide in pen form.
"It turns into a sword." He said in a monotonously with a tab of annoyance.
"Yeah, I can tell." Justin said after a sniff, he nodded in approval. "Now how did you even drop that?" Percy shifted the pen to the other hand and pulled his right pocket out revealing a hole. "Knew those old camp uniforms are crap." He muttered before entering the car.
Percy turns Luke glanced at one another, Percy pulled Riptide across his neck in a cutting motion saying: I'm going to kill him.
"Save that for later." Luke climbed into the car. "Hey," Justin tilted his head to the side. "Can we drop by any electronic shop? Like Radio Shack?"
"Why?" Justin sighed.
"Um, I broke my phone charger." Justin's jaw tightened, as if finally making the connection from Percy's question, which Percy had to give the guy credit, he would never have thought Justin to have enough brain mass to remember what happened two minutes prior.
"We'll go tomorrow, the local shop closes at 8." Luke searched the dashboard and found the digital clock that read 7:42.
"Sure, I guess we're not going anywhere." Their drive home took no time at all, they were herded into the house where Justin wave for them to go upstairs like children. After Justin left Luke turned to Percy before climbing the stairs.
"We should probably freshen up first."
"Yeah, you go first, I need to talk to Bianca." Percy followed Luke up the stairs and into their room where Bianca had already taken a shower and was lying on her bed in her nightgown. Luke left with a bundle of clothes leaving the other two alone.
"Here," Percy tossed Riptide; Bianca snatched it with both hands.
"I was wondering, how did you keep that in your pocket if you relinquished your ownership?"
Percy smirked. "Simple yet annoying, I just had to keep a hold on the thing." He moved over to Bianca's bed and sat on the edge. She glanced up from her magazine and raised an eyebrow. "We found the same type of corruption as Ares." She closed the issue and stared at Percy.
"What's going to happen next?"
Percy remained silent, clearly too tired to think of that, but he still had to put on a thinking face to keep up the hard persona. "I don't know, but I want you to be ready, anything and everything can happen in a blink of an eye, and if you were to ever find yourself lost in the fray..."
"Retreat, recuperate, regroup." Bianca listed off swiftly.
"Good." Percy smiled softly, he moved closer to Bianca and into a more comfortable spot. "Are you doing okay?" Bianca raised an eyebrow but knew better than to respond with a single worded answer.
"I'm doing fine." However she couldn't work up the willpower to do so.
"Or are you pretending to be doing fine?" Percy switched from eye to eye for a better reading. "You know there's nothing you have to hide from me, I'm not just some random kid, I care about you."
Bianca shook her head. "I can't tell you."
"Why?"
"Because," She hung her head, trying to delay the answer until it was unnecessary, but she underestimated Percy's stubbornness.
"It's never good to hide things away, just tell me while you can."
"It's nothing." She mumbled, her eyes staring at the spine of the magazine.
"Because what? Because it involves Annabeth? The Camp? Demigods?"
"No!" She said desperately. "It involves you!" Percy stared, almost speechless, but not totally surprised. "No, that's not what I meant. It involves me, it's about me and only myself, it's my fault." She said the last part weakly.
Percy pursed his lips but stayed silent only watching Bianca's crooked form.
"It's just that… it's just that, what if..." She trailed off; her voice quivered slightly when she took in a breath. "What if I could have stopped him?" The room remained quiet, neither of them wanting nor knowing what to say.
"Hold your breath." Percy said simply, he placed his hand on her shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. "Wait for him to return, because he will." Bianca turned around and locked eyes with Percy, how do you know? They asked. "You need to trust your brother, if he's anything like you, I won't just throw his life away, he'll live on." The shower hose shut off, Percy shifted to the edge of the bed. He gave a reassuring nod and exited
[]
After the, strangely unsatisfying, shower Percy decided to slip into his jeans instead of a more comfortable short, the feeling of unease seemed to grow. Bianca had recovered enough to take note of Percy's anxiousness as some form of a warning, considering he almost never seemed to be bothered in the least bit, even against the whole of Ares's cabin for bathroom hours.
They met up with Luke in their empty room for a rather awkward meeting before sleep. This was the first time Luke really even reflected on a quest and for Bianca; this was the first formal quest to begin with.
"Do you want to start off?" Luke asked desperately to Percy, who shrugged in response, it wasn't like he was really an active speaker back in the Rebellion days.
"Well, we can start off with the island."
Right, thanks. Percy smiled briefly, which seemed to confuse Luke. "First off, who's even heard of Limestone Island?" No one spoke, Luke and Bianca looked at one another.
"It is a pretty small island." Luke defended. "It's not the easiest to find because of their failing mining industry thus lacking in importance."
"Then how did Chiron decide that this of all places was where the quest was suppose to begin at?" Percy asked more to himself.
"Maybe it's because he heard about the temple and thought…" Bianca threw out, but thought her defense had more counter attacks than evidences.
"We can't really question Chiron, you know." Luke took over. "He's not stupid, he always have reasons behind his actions."
"True," Percy muttered, he wasn't too fond of the whole "trust in Chiron" thing, if the man's so knowledgeable, why can't he just spit it out then? There always was a reason… "Unless-!"
Three consecutive beeps chime from within Luke's duffle bag. Luke pounced to the floor and unzipped his bag, shuffling through the sack until he pulled out a slime black phone.
"Hello?" Luke pressed the phone to his ears.
"Hello, Luke?" Annabeth's answered on the other side through a thick wall of static. "Luke w-w-where are you?" Her voice was cut and distorted by the horrible signals.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
"Huh? What was that? I-I-I c-can hear you!"
"What do you mean?!" Luke shouted.
"What do you mean, 'what do you mean'?" Annabeth stopped for a few seconds. "Never mind, where have you been? I was trying to reach you all day!"
"Just calm down and tell me what's up?" Luke sighed.
"What?" Annabeth screamed into the phone so loudly the other two flinched. "You know what, n-n-never mind you. I as was saying, I just talked to Chiron an-" The call was cut off. Luke ripped the phone away from his ear just in time to see the dead battery sign.
Luke stared at the blank screen for a moment before he cursed out. "Fu-"
Percy coughed to blocked out the curse; he smiled sheepishly at Bianca who also smiled.
Luke jolted up and marched out of their room, repeating a number under his breath. Percy and Bianca followed him through to the end of the hallway and burst opened the double doors. Inside was a large room, mostly occupied by a giant king size bed and a looong black dresser. Many candles lit the cozy chamber, with thick, old curtains blocking the three large windows on the other end of the room.
"Can we barrow-?" A familiar picture in a small, wooden frame sitting on the black dresser stopped Luke's words. He hurried to the picture and picked it up, his unbelieving eyes searching the old photograph.
Justin entered the room and gasp sharply, Percy glanced back to Justin just as he squeezed shut his eyes. Not a single second later, the blanket on the bed flew off; Justin's mother jumped off her bed and snatched the picture frame from Luke's hand.
"Mine!" She growled. "Don't you dare touch it."
Luke blinked at the mother, still completely shocked and confused more so than the other two.
"Help!" A muffled cry from outside followed by a small tremor. Percy's eyes grew wide as a sensation of sharp sensitivity and heat rose from his guts, that same feeling he felt when they discovered the corruption at the temple.
Percy led the charge down the stairs, Bianca quickly following, only Luke lingered a moment longer. Justin threw open his car door and the rest filed in, he slammed on the peddle and almost flew off the ground. If Percy ever thought Justin's driving was reckless then, now he was completely terrified for his life.
The drive didn't take long, considering they were only a 5-minute run away. Even before they drove into the town, people were already fleeing; more civilians than Percy had ever thought was in the town. Percy kicked open the door, which didn't go unnoticed by Justin, and sprinted to the town square, what's left of it.
What once was a silent, boring town was now a battlefield ablaze in raging flames. Monsters, ones that Percy never even dreamed of, roamed, and clawed, and spat. Some of these creatures were on their hinds and others were on all fours. One common theme seemed to be the corruption, pixelated black scars on their arms, and backs, some even on their faces. The scars had symbols swimming and moving within, like the ones at the temple, or even the ones Ajah had.
"Cover the roads, make sure no monster leave through those exits!" Percy shouted over his shoulder.
Luke summoned his black blade and met the first of the monsters, one that resembles a lion. It leaped at Luke who had enough sense to drop to the ground; he repulsed and slashed the beast in its rear. The lion roared in agony, but quickly recovered, the bloody gash was covered by black blood that leaked from the corruption and instantly healed.
The lion lowered its body and sprung around, Luke calculated the timing and kicked himself backwards, three small tear appeared on the chest of his orange shirt.
Too slow! Miscalculations were to be expected, after all, the timing was completely theoretical and this lion wasn't a Hell Hound, which was the original intended target. The lion leaped again, this time, Luke spun clockwise, out of the way, following smoothly with another swing of Backbitter.
This time, the cut ran along the side of the lion, deep enough to delay its healing, so it lay there, groveling, Luke didn't have time to finish his kill, another beast fell from the sky, he dived into a roll.
Not too far away, on the next road down, Bianca had unsheathed Riptide and was batting aside drill like thorns. Luckily, it didn't come at her all at once; the monster was all the way up the street, puking out brown thorns that probably were coated in poison.
To her right, the entrance to the smithies ripped open, out came an ape like creature on its hinds. Bianca fell backwards into a roll and away from a wide swing, she quickly jumped back once more to avoid the thorns, she was starting to pick up the pattern. The ape charged at her, only to fine his target under his swing, Bianca ran Riptide along the ape's thigh then stepped back as three thorns stabbed into the back of the ape, bringing it down instantly. She took that chance to slip behind an old gray car; she felt the three thuds from the thorns then sprang up, raising her blade.
With a battle cry, spikes of black obsidian pierced through the paved road, jabbing three different monsters as it finally reached the thorn-spitting beast. However, her victory was short, the monsters that were hanging from the spikes quickly regenerated and began to push themselves off the rocks.
[]
Percy's shoulders rose and lowered, taking deep breaths, to calm his heated skin. His "plan" was to attract the majority of the Empties into the center of the square as to dilute the danger for the others. However, one thing that he greatly overlooked was that he didn't have a weapon.
Now, if it wasn't for his backbreaking training routines, he might have been a laughing stock, sadly that didn't mean that his body was anywhere near developed, therefore he wouldn't dish out damages, just avoid them.
An Empty awkwardly advanced on Percy with weirdly quick strides, he waited for the beast and anticipated the attack, after all these were just mindless, empty monsters. The Empty swung its maw downwards; Percy rolled to one side and lifted his right arm, supported by the left, pointing to the Empty's abdomen.
"Clykes!" Percy called, a small yellow burst, acted like a shotgun spreading in a small radius and promptly blew off a good portion of its midsection, this was the most effective way to deal with these regenerating small fries, Percy allowed himself a smile.
Blow 'em shits up! As a curtain Titan of Light had often said. Percy spun around and pressed his palm to the chest on an oncoming Empty who he had sense only moments before it was too late, the beast jerked backwards and wheezed, a gaping hole in his chest, the corruption desperately trying to close the fatal wound, and it surely will.
Percy kicked the head of the downed Empty and launched himself off, sending a wide and painful kick to the next monster's head, Percy landed on the ground, bringing the Empty along with him, a firm heel planted in it's dented forehead. From the right, another Empty advanced, Percy thrust his left hand to intersect the piercing jab, Percy held the attacking arm into the air with his left hand and swung his right hand just as the monster did, making it a split second faster, the yellow light flashed and pulsed the monster back.
From behind, Percy heard the clear thud of another enemy, he side skipped, keeping one foot on the injured monster beneath, Percy stomped the incoming Empty with a high kick, forcing it to stagger back. Percy took one step closer and pushed both hands into the monster, for a moment only pushing it only slightly, the spark of yellow blew the monster across the cracked road.
Percy brought his hands to his face and rubbed them on his cheeks, feeling the burning warmth. His fingertips were numb and his palms were beginning to blister, this was what he got for using excessive Arcane Art with such undeveloped and unprotected body.
Hot stench of monster breath flowed with a shaking howl; Percy glared at the Empty in front of him, with both arms melting into blades. Percy dashed, almost unnaturally, not in his speed but in his non-existent hesitation, he sprinted just fast enough to slide pass the jab of the monster's right blade, he held up his right arm to block the Empty from using his right arm, then sent three fast punches to its ribcage, of course resulting in no effect.
He ducked low and under the horizontal slash of the left arm and twisted, swinging his left heel into the monster's shin, kicking it out of balance, then blasted the Empty with a burst of light, ripping it straight in half.
"Shit." Partially for being so physically pathetic and having to resort to continuously using his Arts, and partially for cutting it in half. As he had observed once before, the monster in two pieces was now starting to grow new organs, dividing into two copies like two distorted twins.
More and more monster began to unearth themselves right from the poorly paved roads, have they been sleeping right under Percy's nose or did they tunnel under during the night?
In a fit of unnecessary anger, Percy layered his forearms together, the left on top of the right.
"Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust, wash the dark with the glare of Flame. Aklemidation!" Percy swung both arms apart cutting the heated air; a thin line remained from the fast and swift gesture. The thin light accelerated through the street, growing rapidly in size that less than 7 yards off it had increased to 2 meters thick and 6 wide. The arc shattered into many fragments of varying size and again it divided, until the light covered the street like a river of yellow fire.
Soon the Empties were all washed away, the yellow light drained and dried away as fast as it came, leaving limbs that hopelessly squirmed to regenerate, the part that made Percy sick wasn't watching them but knowing that they will regenerate and it won't take long even at such a state as they are in now. Percy dropped to the ground on all fours panting and coughing, his fingernails digging into the broken up ground, painful coughs clawed his throat. What came out was not relief, but blood, splattering the ground and his hands.
Immediately he felt another pain on top of his current one, one that was becoming extremely annoying.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be with you in a sec—" Percy's voice trembled has he coughed again. Like a loud infant yet also the might of a lion, the dual voiced Empty drawn Percy's attention by force. This one was certainly different, it's body has completely been covered in black corruption, not a single part left to its original form, even those eyes are blank and white, glowing in the, now dark street.
Percy slowly rose to his feet, squeezing his hand into fists. They hurt, of course they hurt, he was reaching his limit like on the verge of falling, the weightlessness, the dizziness, and the complete lost of orientation, was he even standing anymore?
The corrupted Empty disappeared? A gentle shake and there it was, in front of Percy, one stone hard hand sinking into Percy's guts, throwing him to the dirt 7 meters back, sliding on the floor scratched and bruised.
Up! Now! With trembling hand Percy picked himself up, if he didn't stand firm then he would only be pinned down and devoured.
Again, in a blink the monster disappeared, the whole world disappeared, only the white, malevolent eyes were in sight and then even that faded when Percy shut his eyes in agony, his body felt light for a brief second before hitting something hard and splintered.
Weak and limp, Percy's body posted up against a gaping dint in the bricked wall, was this here before or after he landed? Percy had no time to organize even his thoughts as a sharp rod pierced his skin and sank through his left shoulder, it felt so strange for such peculiar texture to grind against his flesh, he didn't cry out, he couldn't, there wasn't any air in his lungs to produce such sound, only a shift, a jerk that waved through his body. Then two more, sharp but not as slow and agonizing as the first, staking his right shoulder and right abdomen.
It hurts, why does it hurt so mush.
Why can't I stop the pain, prevent it from even reaching me?
I had the power to do so, had, but no longer.
How was that fair?
Everything I worked for.
All of it, they were washed away by a flood.
Now all that remains are the bare minimum and the memories of a stronger me.
To taught me, no doubt.
To show me how pathetically weak and helpless I am.
I want to go back.
I want to be strong, again.
To avoid pain.
To kill the thing that hurt me, to crush it.
I want power.
I need power.
"Power!" Finally from standing on the edge of fear, immense gales, reeking death, pushed the boy plummeting over, into the restless sea. From all sides tearing and grabbing, call him, warning him to return to the ledge to climb back to sanity. However his eyes were blind to the pleas, the beckoning sea thrashed the shores and opened, fangs bared, swallowing him whole, except he couldn't breath.
Drowning, that was the fear and pain Percy felt, holding onto his last breath, his lungs aching, his muscles throbbing. It felt intense and heavy, if he release he would be forfeiting his soul to the armor that now surrounded him in a coat of red light. He couldn't let go; he had to bear through the pain, just until the he regained sanity.
Percy's eyes snapped open, a wave of heat rippled through the town square, extinguishing the violent flames and blowing apart the breaking buildings. His irises were a terrifying and pure golden red, no markings, no pupils.
Percy's Body was covered by a thick, glowing, red hue, small gold vines curled over his body, from his back to his chest to his arms and neck. Small detailed markings like tattoos, shining brightly under the red armor, moving as if they were growing.
His right hand moved timidly up and over his chest, grabbing onto the rod that struck his left shoulder. Without sounds of pain or struggle, Percy ripped the rod from it's place in a wide swing so utterly fast and tremendously overwhelming that it evoked another thrash of uncontrollable wind.
The other two rods sticking from Percy's body broke under the pressure of the swing, the wounds closed almost immediately; hissing shut. There wasn't a rod in Percy's hand anymore; it was a sleek black katana carved with such demonic elegance way that it almost sang in a whisper.
The horned corruption roared once more, raising its arms, this time, it was Percy that appeared on top of the beast, a red trail of light behind him. Percy slash through the monster completely cutting it in half, from thigh to shoulder. Unlike the other times, the monster corroded away into black ashes, no regeneration, no squirming.
Percy set his eyes on the next target and flashed before it, black blood spewed out of its chest and stomach, again it burst into dust. More and more monster were drawn to the intimidating red light, and with a single swing, not even noticeable, a single gleam of light, and the pact exploded, showering black blood like rain.
[]
Luke sighed, turning away from the beacon of red light and faced his enemy, a mix of a bear and a sharp horned gazelle. A smirk played on Luke's lips, a flood of adrenaline pumping through his veins.
"Alright, now let's end this." He said coolly then dashed forward, waving Backbitter around beside him. The gazelle flared its arms out to catch the demigod, but somehow Luke launched from the ground with magnificent speed and thrill, flying into the gazelle and swing with one swift action, drawing blood.
The monster was blown backwards by the sheer power of the swing, dissolving into a pile of dust.
Luke turned to the next monster. "Heh, vulnerable now, eh?" He ran to the monster 4 meters away, bringing up his sword to block the thick, grizzly arm with razor shards attached. He kicked the monster in the muscular thigh, forcing it on one knee, then twisted into a kick into the abdomen, sending the creature rolling on the ground.
Luke gasped from excitement, he felt so… strong. He chased after the monster and arrived just as it tried to get back up, jumped and landed on the back of the beast, his sword sinking into its back. Quickly, without missing a beat, he spun around and blocked another blade, his muscles tensed and with a roar Luke swung upwards, breaking the monster's crossed arm guard, and followed with another swing, down the middle. The two monsters exploded into black dust at the same time. He scanned his area for the last surviving monster cluster in the streets trying to gather towards Percy's direction. He couldn't allow that, now could he?
Luke ran and took off shouting "Maia!" Lifting into the air by his winged shoes, he kicked a monster in the head for leverage and jumped higher to meet a birdlike monster the size of a car. The bird lunged, Luke rolled in the air, pointing his sword outwards, they pass one another so close that the blade sliced through the bird from beak to tail.
He then let gravity take over and plummet back down, only to flip right side the last second and stomped both heel into the same monster he kicked earlier, causing a dint and eventually the monster began to deteriorate. Luke used the head as a launch and sail through the crowd of monsters, twisting and rolling from their way all the while slipping Backbitter into the fray and slay many within seconds. At one point he rotated upside down and cut off the monsters legs, because on top they could so easily block and maybe even cut of his head with their overly large arms.
Luke skidded across the walkway and ended in a kneeling position as the monsters sprayed into black dust behind.
The blonde flipped Backbitter and rested it on his shoulder, he casually began to walk and survey the street for any more monsters, and surprisingly there were none. So he took it upon himself to gather everyone once more. Luke made his way through a long alleyway into the next avenue, not too far in his travel did Luke had to cut down an unknowing monster or two.
When he turned the corner Luke dropped Backbitter off his shoulder and let the tip hit the road. His eyes widened and his mouth spilt open.
Standing before him was a mountain of black obsidian spikes that rose into the height of a three-story building. Monsters, most not even completely dead, twitched, jammed between two pillars of rock or hanging from the tip of the spikes. Black blood dripped from the spikes onto the wide puddle of blood, clogged because of the tear and upturned ground. On top of the giant death throne sat a small girl, looking almost bored as the blood and ashes poured from the bodies around her.
It took Luke a moment before recognizing the girl as Bianca; she looked so small and frail on the rough, but flat seat. The cold gleam of the rocks like mirrors portrayed her solemn expression; a deadly princess that Luke took careful note not to mess with.
He did have enough guts to walk around the mountain that occupied the majority of the road. Did the monsters destroy the ground or did she? Luke wondered as he cautiously maneuvered around the blood puddles.
"So you've been busy." Luke called up. Bianca nearly jumped from her seat.
"Luke! When did you get here?" She glanced down over her seat.
"Just got." Luke answered, taking a spot near the front of the stones, he didn't dare to touch the rocks in fear that it might spring up and impale him.
"O-Oh." Bianca turned from side to side, feeling her face heat up in embarrassment.
"How much time did you spend on this… little project?" Luke sighed, his rush of energy turned into a sickly feeling not long ago.
"I-I, uh, it didn't take long." Bianca stammered as she hopped off the edge of her seat, the rocks bulged and curved and reformed to make a open passage for her to get back down.
"I know this is a bad time to say this, but you might have to put these-" Luke tapped the obsidian. "Back were they came from, I don't think the townspeople will appreciate this."
"Um, a-about that." Bianca twisted in place. "It might be messier to move it back, Percy hasn't taught me how to reverse my power yet, I tried earlier, but…" She looked behind her shoulder, Luke followed and found a small crack a distance away with half melting lava surrounding it.
"Well, not much different either way, I guess." Luke chuckled nervously. It wasn't like the rest of town was in any better shape.
"Do you remember were-?" Luke was cut off as a bright flash of red light sparked over the town buildings, the ones that were still standing that was.
[]
Percy's figure stood slanted in the ruin of the town, glaring blankly into the stars, his body relaxed, all but his right hand which wrapped tightly around Lucifer. With a spasm, the figure disappeared, and landed on another monster 30 meters away, jabbing his heels into the monster's neck with one foot and stabbed the blade into its chest, pulled out and repeated, then again and again until the damaged, un-healable, destroy the monster.
Even though a large chunk of the army had suddenly been annihilated, the monster kept come, surrounding him in waves. With another swing, red aura radiated and pulsed into the shops in a curve imitating the swing, growing 50 times in size, easily ripping through the rolls of shops.
No.
Another swing, killing dozens plowing into the road and park, uprooting the trees, leaving a gaping crater.
Stop it.
Ending with a wide swing of Percy's left arm, a spike of light ignited like fire, dancing washing away the enemies. The red energy spread and caught the buildings and began to burn and break the ones that weren't even disturbed.
Stop!
Percy's body stopped in mid swing, it became ridged and the knees gave away. The red hue of light became faint, Percy gasped, clawing his chest with his free hand. He fell over, his forehead pressing against the ground as he panted again for air. His shirt had been ripped in several areas, one of which included his chest revealing the Purity Stone, pulsating red. The vines, they grew from the stone, slowly as they came the vines retracted, the red glow faded completely, his arms and legs felt numb and the sensation of pinpricks coaxed his skin.
"Percy?"
I'm all right.
"What happened? My senses collapsed, all connection failed."
Percy didn't answer, because he didn't know the answer, all he knew was that he had lost control, shifted the levers and buttons to someone else- something else.
"Percy!" Not a second too late it seemed, Percy smiled with bitterness, he was always lucky wasn't he? Bianca and Luke ran to their fallen comrade, Bianca kneeled down and helped Percy up while Luke stood guard of the monsters looming in the distance.
"What's the matter, Perce?" Luke called over his shoulder, he couldn't help himself but tear his eyes from the monster to check on Percy, and by far Percy had taken the most hits. Again he was shouldering all the pain.
Percy pushed himself to his feet with Bianca supporting him the whole way. He glanced in the battlefield, where were the entire monster army that were here only a moment ago? Did… did he kill them? No it wasn't him, it was something else that did the killing, and he simply released it.
"Oh don't worry about the place." Luke shrugged uneasily. "We did just as worst." Of course he barely damaged his street, it was all the monsters, but he wanted to lessen the guilt. "You should've seen what Bianca—" The monster began to get close, only six of them. However something felt different, actually he felt weird before now, and now he had just returned to normal, less reckless, more careful, and more vulnerable.
Luke connected three monsters about equal distance away from each other. He dashed forward, under the first's hug, cutting it's upper thigh, then came to a holt at the second, the monster swung downwards, Luke spun around the and stabbed the monster in the abdomen. Then Luke jerked around and blocked the blade-hand of the third monster. He waited for the monster to release for a second strike to side step then follow with a horizontal swing, beheading the monster.
"Alright, three more." As soon as Luke said so the three monsters sank into the ground like water splashing on the dirt.
"Guys." Bianca warned in a frightened tone. In the distance another army marched, this one more vicious and thoroughly hated the demigods. The mob of townspeople, armed with guns and tools were clearly not looking for monsters to fight. They stood a few yards away from the three as if the demigods were leaking some kind of disease.
No one spoke, no one needed to speak the citizens' anger it was clear enough in their expression.
"We're fairly positive the monsters have been repelled, but we need to scan th—"
"Shut up." The blacksmith grunted at the front of the mob, Luke sure was getting cut a lot tonight. The citizens began to whisper frantically: the curse, it must be, why else, what will we do, it's their fault, get rid of them.
"You best get out of our town." A villager shouted somewhere in the back.
What town? Percy thought venomously. There's nothin' here but rubble, coward.
"Are you blaming us for causing the monsters' invasion?" Bianca spoke up firmly.
"Why else would they come?" Shouted a female villager. "It's the curse!" this sparked Percy's tired mind.
"It's because you're here! You're cursed!" The villagers cried in agreement. "We need to sacrifice them! That's what the gods want." Luke's lips curled in disgust, maybe in their sick and stupid believe or that fact that he might have felt that negativity towards his gods.
"That's the only way to right the wrong." The mechanic, Jukes grunted with minimal lip movement.
"Trouble." Bianca whispered, true they couldn't kill real people, well not Bianca or Luke. Not to mention Bianca can't cost light damage to warn off the civilians because of Riptide's Celestial nature.
A honk blared from behind the townspeople, the glaring light blinding the three demigods. The mob moved/pushed away as a small car pulled up, swiveling to the side only inches in front of Luke.
"In." Justin instructed sharply through open windows. They scrambled into the vehicle and Justin took off, making the widest turn Percy had ever seen and away from the mob, not like they actually made any attempts in moving. They just stared; glad to chase away their savior.
Now, this was waaaaay longer than intended, as you can see, there were MANY parts were I could have ended it. So yeah, editing was kinda rough, the new computer and program is really acting up with the spelling and grammar checks, which means I had to rely on my good o' crappy brain.
That stupid moment when you can't pop up any of the interesting notifications that you listed the night before, damn. Oh yeah, there'll be original characters (which will mostly be out shadowed by Percy, so no worries) and a lot of cursing, I can only think of two people that'll do that though.
Peace.