Thunderstruck
Disclaimer: Percy Jackson belongs to Rick Riordan
So, to summarize, I had raised an evil Titan, defeated an evil Titan and had fallen in love with a dryad. Or maybe that last one was a bit iffy. Anyway, the afore mentioned evil Titan now had a sword placed against my friends neck. Worse still, I couldn't help but feel that I'm missing something. Some piece of this whole thing doesn't click. Somehow Kronos is once again manipulating me. Or then again, maybe he isn't . Back to my life!
Ouranos looked into his son's eyes. "For a time I wondered who would be the one to bring me back. I didn't really I except you, the one who sent me here."
Alex didn't pale, or back down. He just raised his head, seemingly oblivious to the sword that was digging into his neck. Hell, (or Tartarus) he was tough. "Technically," began Alex, "I wasn't the one who sent you here. I didn't even lay a hand on you. Or a sword for that matter."
Ouranos smiled, but didn't take the sword off Alex's neck. "Yes, you didn't actually harm me. All you did was obliterate all my warriors so that they couldn't help me against Kronos's army," said Ouranos.
Alex knocked the sword off his neck and stood up. "We can argue about how exactly I caused your fall later. The thing is, I brought you back."
Ouranos folded his arms across his chest and stood back. He raised himself slightly from the ground, thin trails of black light running off his body unto the forest floor. His nails turned and shot out gold light and he threw both his arms back. Spielberg would've been jealous. The entire forest seemed to truly come alive. In a few seconds the entire tomb was overgrown by wild growth. Plants overcame every thing. Annabeth looked slightly pained and Alex looked slightly amused.
"You know, these days we don't bother with those effects," said Alex dryly.
Ouranos looked up. "The gods mustn't know the method of my return. I suspect I have a sizeable amount of gods against me right?" asked Ouranos.
Almost bestial. "Yeah, there are plenty of them. The ones you have to worry about most are called Zeus and Kronos." It was weird that Alex didn't immediately name my dad. I was getting the idea that he felt this was a touchy subject to me.
Ouranos looked thoughtful for a moment, looked at me, and then back at Alex who gave him a slight nod. "Of course. Zeus will want to sent me straight back to the hellish place Kronos sent me too." What kind of place would a Titan consider hellish? I'm thinking, a perpetual Avril Lavigne concert. With Mr. Rogers on the bass.
"Well, yeah," said Alex. "He'll probably want to organize a council meeting right?" asked Alex.
"Yes, definitely," said Ouranos. "Well, gather your merry band of half bloods. Except for the blue eyed girl. She doesn't look too merry. Anyways, we have to go prepare for the meeting."
Alex nodded and put me and Annabeth on his shoulders. Ouranos put Thalia on his shoulder. Both Thalia and Annabeth looked a bit too shocked to say anything. But Thalia still managed it.
"Ouranos, am I right when I say if your face is seen on Olympus the gods loose they're ability to keep the other Titans in Erubus?" asked Thalia. Ohh, that might be a problem.
"Yes," said Ouranos. "In fact if any Titan puts a foot on Olympus they loose a great deal of they're power. You see, Olympus is seen as the gods home. Nature itself has accepted that fact. So if a Titan places his foot Olympus, nature itself becomes confused and recognizes the titans also as gods. So then the gods, in essence loose no power, but the titans regain, to a certain measure, they're powers. With they're power back they will be able, with luck to ensure a means of escape from Tartarus or Erebus, as you call it."
Did he actually listen to what he was saying? Beethoven is deaf and even wouldn't be able to listen to that for more than seven seconds. Not in fact listening, but more like washing the words over his like music, but being unable to actually hear what is being said, he, that is to say Beethoven, would, 0h crap now I'm starting too.
"So this is where Heaphsteus gets it from?" said Alex, shaking his head. "Come on, lets go to my base."
"You have a base?" I asked. This was starting to get more like a RPG game than real life.
"Yeah," said Alex, grinning. "I always went there after school. Oh, and the woman you thought was my mom was actually a stray dog I found in Cleveland."
Alex and Ouranos continued flying eventually landing us at Alex's house. He led us past the décor, which when free from mist proved to only be sandpaper. Weird. Anyway Alex then took us into his base. Or his basement. It also seemed to be paradise. There was a lounge with a TV and a couple of game stations, the walls were decorated with black and white posters. There was even a cooler with nectar and coke next to the computer and the sounds of My chemical romance filled the air. Alex, you just gotta love him.
"Right, this is the base," said Alex. "We probably won't be here long. I just have to check my e-mail." Alex switching on his PC.
Annabeth looked scared and uncomfortable in the base. Thalia was looking through Alex's CD's. She still couldn't stop talking about the fact that just about every band she liked had over 3 new cd's out. Oranos was hovering behind Alex as he started to check his e-mail.
"Can you see if my e-mail has come through?" asked Oranos.
"I don't think so," said Alex. "I mean you were dead long before I invented fire, never mind when Hermes invented the internet. Who's going to send you a message?"
"You'll be surprised," said Ouranos. "There you go," he said, after running his hand over the keyboard. "Now lets see if what's in my inbox."
"Dear god," commented Alex, and I think he was referring to Hermes. "You have over a billion messages!"
Woah! It seems the god of time has never heard of spam filtering.
"I may already be a winner, advertisements for deodorant and encyclopedia and Paris Hilton's cell phone number? How did I get this crap?" asked Ouranos.
"I have no idea," said Alex. "However, lets check my mail." Alex typed a few things. "Hmm. Well I have the location of the gods council. We are expected so it's not going to be on Olympus."
"Then where is it going to be?" asked Ouranos.
Alex grinned. " At the McDonalds at maple street," he said.
Two hours, three cabs and four fashion crises later we were in the McDonalds. To say fashion crisis was an understatement. It took us forever to get Oranos to take off his robes and when he did, he did it right in front of us. Without warning. I almost went blind but I survived by covering my eyes with old pizza slices. We then went through a suit, which he blasted into oblivion. I got some basic scaring but I'm still okay. We then went for jeans and a t-shirt but he hated that two. Tracksuit? No. In the end we had to let him go in his blue gray robes and a sweater. We calmly entered the McDonalds.
Where to begin. All the god's were arranged around some tables with a couple of open spots for us. At the head of the table sat Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Zeus had a pin striped suit with a large tomato sauce stain on it on. Poseidon was wearing white pants with a mint green shirt that said "Kiss me I'm the sea god". Not exactly discreet. Hades had chosen a simple outfit. He wore jeans with a dark blue button down shirt and his hair was dyed lime green. Just your normal family gathering. With gods. And titans.
"Oh, so we are all here now," said Zeus, and swept his hands over his children and brothers.
"We've already ordered so you may place your orders now," said Hermes, who was wearing a tracksuit with a sky blue shirt. His curly black hair was hidden under a pink baseball cap.
We sat and placed our orders. "I'll have a Big Mac," said Thalia.
"Super sized chicken nuggets," said Alex.
"I'll have four quarter pounder meals, seven chicken fold over meals, nineteen big mac meals and a fillet of fish. With diet cokes. I have to watch my figure," said Oranos. Yep, he was an American god alright, but then again he hadn't eaten in a couple of thousand years.
"Yes," said Zeus. "Now gentlemen, let the meeting begin. You may produce your spies." Zeus had his squirrel, Hades had Jeff and Poseidon had an elk. Ares and Apollo also had spies but they weren't impressive. A magpie and a pig.
"I will never understand why you use that corpse less head," said Poseidon, looking at Jeff.
"Named Jeff," interjected Hades. Ah ha! Good to see someone who's on the ball.
"I don't care what his name is!" said Poseidon angrily. "He had no legs! Or arms! He can't be a spy! For the love of god, he is spineless!" yelled Poseidon. Hmmm. I'm not sure but I think my dad was referring Aphrodite there. Cause she is really hot.
"This may sound strange, but the only way to get ahead is to get a head!" said Hades and started laughing.
"Very good master," said Jeff, chuckling. "But mind you don't get a big head," he added.
"I don't need to get a big head," said Hades. "You're doing just fine!"
"Oh dear god," said Poseidon, and I think he was referring to himself there. "How may head jokes to these guys have?" he asked, burying his in his hands.
"Are you okay?" asked Jeff. "Because you look like you have a head ache. "Of course, when I have a head ache, I just ache!"
"If these trivialities do not end right no I will thunder strike everyone of you," said Zeus. Ohh, he looked stressed. Obviously he didn't get all of the jokes.
"Oh come on guys," said Hades and picked Jeff up. "Look! He's smiling at you," he said to Poseidon. "But hey, I can't say if he likes you in that way."
Poseidon was about to avenge himself when Annabeth brought our order. Unfortunately, she was followed by an angry looking manager. "Mister Smith," she said, addressing Zeus. "You promised the elk and the squirrel would be the worst. But a severed human head. No way can that be allowed in the restaurant. The health inspector will surely close us down if he hears about this," she said. Her badge read Jude but I wasn't going to call her that.
"Oh great," said Jeff sarcastically. "This crap again. First I can't go on carnival rides. Or the bathroom. Then the movie theater assistant refuses to believe I'm older that eighteen. I am three hundred fricking years old. I should be allowed to watch whatever I want and-"
"Sir," interrupted the manager, addressing Hades. "Please stop the ventriloquism. It really looks as if the head is talking." Ah. She obviously didn't believe in Jeff. The poor guy.
Hades, however, looked fired up. He was the skulking lord of the dead, evil, cynical and hard rocking. But no one messed with his guys. No one, except Hades himself. You could see that by the way he removed Jeff's head from his body. He made one clean slice with a sword. One lovingly clean slice in a room with newspapers on the floor.
"Lady," said the lord of the dead, and he looked like it. His hair reverted to black, all light seemed to flee from the room and everyone felt fear beyond anything grip there hearts. Ohhh, Ouranos has some competition. "If you so much as try to remove Jeff, my family friendly head spy, I will turn your entire staff into rats and call the health inspector so that they will close you down. I will then turn your arms and legs into cheese and let the rats eat them. Afterwards I shall put you in a dance club and leave you there until the second hand smoke kills you. Do I make myself clear?" asked Hades.
You may think it's crazy, but the manager believed him and ran off. Then again, it's almost impossible to look into Hades's eyes and not believe he can do anything. Anyway, Zeus had, had enough. "This meeting shall now come to order!" he yelled, causing thunder to cover the walls. Some couples were thunderstruck, but I was okay. That was all that really mattered.
Poseidon looked up. "Finally," he said angrily. "Elk, tell them what you told me," said Poseidon, gesturing at the Elk.
The Elk stood up and bowed before Lord Zeus. "Suck up!" yelled Jeff.
"Hades, you will control your head or lose it," said Poseidon irritably.
"Hey! That was actually mildly amusing!" said Hades.
"Oh for the love of god!" said Poseidon, and this time I think he was referring to Zeus. But Zeus was to busy eating to help. "Elk, just deliver the damn report," he said angrily.
"Yes, my lord," said the Elk, bowing his head. When he did that, I could see through the mist and saw some weird silver horns and flashing red eyes. Freaky. I did not want to know what the "Elk" really was.
"I have, as my orders say, been watching the Princess Andromeda. The situation those not look good. All monsters swarm to the place for the chance to rip the hated half bloods to shreds. I am not sure of the cause , but some sort of enormous power hangs over the ship. It is great, perhaps too great to be stopped. It proved it's strength when Lord Prometheus tried to destroy the ship. It stopped him quickly and effectively." finished the Elk. Alex nodded. He obviously knew something was weird about that ship.
"Mr. Elk," began Zeus. "If we were to attack the ship, what is the most likely result of the attack?
"My lord, my answer is doubtful. The power they have should be sufficient to stop any attack we can launch, save if the entire big three would make one final charge together. Otherwise, it is hopeless. Of course, if the power can be used offensively, there is a large chance that any attack will fail." said the Elk.
Zeus stroked his beard, deep in thought. "What is exactly is the nature of this power, as you call it. You haven't been very specific on how it works." said Zeus.
"My Lord, the power seems to work exactly like the power of Kronos, only it's wielded by the half blood Luke. My lord it would seem, this power is actually Kronos who has somehow manifested himself in side of the half blood." Said the elk. "What's worse it seems to contain not only the power of the titan lord, but also of several other gods. It is like when he merged his powers with the other Titans to remove Lord Oranos from his throne."
"Can this power be used to destroy us?" asked Zeus, his face expressionless.
"No my lord. We have concluded that Luke can only use it on the ship, and even then, only when close to Kronos's sarcophagus . My lord, he is lacking a body, and having taken Luke's mind for his own , is capable of granting him the power of the Titan lord. However, when Kronos returns he will definitely retake his power and leave Luke to rot."
Oh, so maybe isn't as bad he seems. Maybe after harboring a slight grudge against the gods, Kronos entered his dreams and turned it into full fledged hatred. Or maybe he's just a bastard. Yep, I'm sticking with that explanation.
Zeus looked up. "My dear half-bloods," he said addressing me, Thalia and Annabeth. "It seems that you would have to infiltrate the ship and destroy either Luke, or the sarcophagus. That should place a dent in his regeneration plans and also ensure Luke doesn't continue using Kronos's power. You'll actually be doing the lad a favour" said Zeus, looking at Annabeth. " In the end, using Kronos's power would put an incredible strain on his body, killing him slowly. Now mister Elk would that be all?" asked Zeus.
"Yes, my lord," said the Elk and returned to his position next to Poseidon.
"Hades what is your and Jeff's reports?" asked Zeus.
"Get them Jeff," said Hades, tiredly, dipping his chips in Ketchup. He didn't really participate in meetings. He just listened, and when he was alone, decided what he was going to do. The lord of the dead worked alone. Except for his one side kick, Jeff! Awesome!
"Well, my lords and Poseidon," said Jeff, looking around the tables at the gods and goddesses. "It would seem that the all half bloods outside of the strongholds in Disney land and half blood hill are either being wiped out or are joining Luke. So far we've lost over forty half bloods. Twenty three joined Luke, fourteen were murdered by him and three died in a situation involving an egg timer, an atomic bomb and a paint roller."
Zeus looked up, his eyes grave. "Jeff I don't want you to paint a good picture here. On the subject of half-bloods, how may of the ones outside the camp half blood and Disney land are going to survive?" asked Zeus.
Jeff smiled a sad version of his cocky smile. "My lord, if things continue like this only the ones who agree to serve Luke are going to survive. However most of the half bloods have relocated to the Disney Land strongholds. It looks grim" concluded Jeff.
"Indeed it does," said Zeus. "Artemis and Hades I want you to help with the defense of Disney Land. Ensure you can be there in the blink of an eye to protect those half bloods there" said Zeus. "And now, for my own report. Nederhosen, you may begin," said Zeus and the squirrel jumped onto the table.
"Mighty Lords and ladies," began the squirrel. "I bring fair news. The forges have had a massive yield this year. We have enough weapons to blow the Titans straight back to Tartarus should the need arise" said the squirrel joyfully. There was some clapping at this, and Ares and Apollo exchanged knowing glances. Zeus was to busy spying on me to get Nederhosen to gather any real information.
"Now Ares and Apollo, do you have anything to report on the Cyclopes and the lizard warriors?" asked Zeus.
"No, my Lord they are both being unusually still," said Ares. Obviously a lie. There were more lizards people on Luke's ship then I had leg my legs were really hairy.
"Right then, let us proceed to the less pleasant part of this experience. And I don't mean the bill. I mean Oranos over there," said Zeus.
Oranos smiled stiffly. "I'm sorry gentlemen but I'm only here to kill Kronos. After that, I don't really know what I would do. Maybe haunt some people, start a fast food restaurant chain, whatever. I only want to be able to do to my son as he did to me," finished Oranos.
There was a weird kind of silence in the room. Every knew it made sense, but no one was really sure weather or not they could trust him. Hades spoke up. "I may not know about love" he said leaning into a more comfortable position, "but I know about hating. And this guy really hates his son. We don't have to worry about him betraying us until Kronos is dead" finished Hades.
You could see Hades left Oranos a hint in his word choices. Until Kronos is "Dead". Meaning the second he Kronos is dead, Zeus will turn on him. And Oranos will probably be ready, and that will start another war. I had no idea how, but I knew Hades didn't have time for that kind of crap. He would plot and ensure that Oranos fails in his plans. That was a warning in more than one way.
"Right," said Zeus, standing up. "Well, Thalia and Percy, you have your orders." Lord Zeus was about to leave, yet failed.
"Oh no, you bastard!" yelled Hades."You're paying this time!'