Genre: Romance/Adventure
Rated: T
Summary: Percy left Camp Half-Blood because the new camper whom he had helped made his life at camp miserable. Unsure of where to go, he finally accepted the Powerful Guy in Black's offer to go to this place called 'The City of Protogenoi', without knowing that his whole new life had already begun the day he said 'yes' to the guy!
Setting: 3 months after The Last Olympian. Heroes of Olympus never happened.
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Everything belongs to Rick Riordan.
Chapter19: Here Goes
Announcement
The reviewers who will receive my Vivian's special chapter are the following
375th: Guest (no email)
380th: The Nutty Squirrel
385th: Dusk-R
390th: OfAllPeople
395th: prince of the seas
400th: weirdguy26
405th: ChaosVoid1772
410th: A PJO HOO fan (no email)
415th: Guest (no email)
420th: Tinycheer
I will send the link to these reviewers who have reachable addresses.
Some of you tried to post your email addresses, and it didn't work. I suggest you just put your name and the host, with a conjunction in between. For example, I am reviewing and I put down "kimjoysu and hotmail" Just that would be fine.
Or, better, I suggest you make an account. It's free and easy. And you can PM me, and I can PM you, if there's something wrong or you just wanna talk to me.
Next chapter, guess who'll receive the special chap? :)
19
Here Goes
They marched in complete silence, leaping from tree to tree with inhuman speed and leave-Hermes-demigods-in-awe stealth, all the while trying to expand their vision as far as they could. Rosamund, who was the best lookout—because of her past training—seemed to be knitting her eyebrows. Even from afar, just reading her expression, Percy could tell that she didn't like this. Although as far as his special eyes could tell, there was absolutely no movement in ten miles ahead, and to the left and right.
After a while Rosamund signaled for a halt. They all jumped down to the ground and crouched down behind a big boulder. Then she began in a low voice, "I have a feeling something's wrong."
Vivian studied her. "Your expression tells it all. I can't sense anything abnormal at all, though."
"Me neither. What could be wrong?" Even as he said this, the back of his neck tingled. He didn't know what it was, but his instincts told him things weren't going to go as smoothly as they had hoped. "Okay. Now it seems like something's up for sure, I admit. I feel like we're the deer walking into a trap," Percy added dryly.
"You could be right," the Erebus General mused. "Everything from the last point has been going too smoothly. No more scouts, no more ambushes. My guess is they've already found out about intruders, since it's been some time now that unit was blown away. Maybe they were expected to come back fast, considering their combat skills…"
"You bet they have." Rosamund sighed. "Look, my instincts are equal to any animal's, maybe even surpass them. And the good news is the alarms won't stop ringing in my head."
"In conclusion, we pay extra attention and be extremely careful, or else we might end up fighting all of the security guards there, and worse, any possibility of the inventor still being there—if he's there at all—will be gone the moment the fight breaks out," Percy concluded. "So what's our plan again? Destroy the factory and wait to see who runs out, because one of them could be the inventor? And after that capture all of them?"
"Yes. Now we should just keep going. I'm sure we can handle enemy ambushes well enough," Vivian closed the discussion as she jumped back to one of the tree branches. The two remainders followed her quietly, their hands at the ready to pull out their weapons at anytime.
They proceeded with caution, the tension building up even more as they got closer to the location of the factory. Rosamund had taken the lead, as she had the best vision. All things were in complete silence until…
"Below!" Vivian screamed. "Dodge to the side!"
Rosamund's body reacted to her warning immediately, so did Percy's. He swerved to the side, and as he did so, he felt something swoop past his left arm, barely any inches. It was a jagged blade, the size of his leg. He gulped. His eyes darted around, trying to grasp the current situation. There were about thirty men, all covered with mud and dirt. He realized—as he noticed big holes on the ground—that they had actually dug their way up from underground to ambush them. And that was just about the only right thing to do against Successors, since their vision couldn't reach underground. Whether it was just coincidence or their knowledge of this ability—or even their bad luck—Percy couldn't care less now. He just had to look once, and he already understood that all these men were seasoned fighters; They knew battle well and they had definitely won a lot. Now he was looking at the owner of that jagged blade that almost cut him, a big guy with brown mustache and hair pretty much all over his body, sizing the man up. The hairy ape—Percy decided to give him a name—was trying to keep up with Vivian's movements. Her twin half-gun-half-blades swung around in a fluid movement, their owner pulling this off effortlessly and elegantly, as if she was dancing. Percy stared.
"What are you doing, spacing out? Do you wanna die? Hey!" Rosamund called out to him, already engaged in a fight, her silver sword moving in bright flashes under the dark shade of the forest. The Chaos General coughed and broke his eyesight away from her fight. Apparently the way her hair flew when she turned just really caught his eye, for no particular reason either.
Percy chose the right moment and dropped down on top of one of the men coming up behind Rosamund's back, the tip of his blade plunging down the man's right shoulder. "Say what you want, but now you owe me."
She fumed. "I had already noticed that, like, a gazillion years ago, and he was also my next target too. You just stole my game, Shish Kebab Pervert!"
"Whatever. I'll just—wait, what was that? Shish Kebab Pervert?" Percy frowned as he fended off another opponent, this one a little tougher than the other.
Rosamund merely grunted. "I heard you killed that monster for your trial. Everyone's so excited about it. Percy's so awesome, he's so great, he got Shish Kebab's helmet from his trial, blah blah blah." She spoke in a high-pitched voice as in mockery.
"Hey, don't come up with weird names—especially if you're gonna use them on me. Oh, by the way, it's Senior Shish Kebab, not just any normal noobies, you know."
"It's Senior Shish Kebab, blah blah. You know what, what-e-verrr. I don't care anyway." She stuck her tongue out at him, at the same time warding off a blow from the enemy with her slim sword.
Percy chuckled. "Um-hm. Someone's jealous."
"I am not jealous of you!" She barked.
"I wasn't suggesting that, but well, since you just admitted it, I guess I—"
"Guys, be a little more serious, won't you?" A sharp voice from Vivian cut them off. Rosamund grumbled something like, don't tell me what to do. And Percy just shrugged. But then he noticed that Vivian was having a harder time fighting her opponent than usual. The guy she was fighting was big and very buff, that's all he could tell, as his body was covered from head to toe by a helmet and black clothing. Although Vivian was both firing her bullets and cutting him with her weapon, only the fabric was torn apart—which revealed the gleaming metal that was supposed to be his skin.
His jaw dropped. A-A cyborg! A real-life cyborg!
He turned to Rosamund, who was having an intense spar with a tall, slim man, and asked, "Hey, what's up with that guy? He's a cyborg!"
She looked at all the corpses lying on the ground, examining them briefly, and concluded, "These guys are branded criminals. They actually belong to the agency, but which unit, I'm not sure. I guess the guys we just finished off were rankless." She looked at Percy's blank look and sighed. "Meaning, they had just entered the agency and I think, were still in training. They hadn't met the standards yet, so they were dispatched here to work under someone with bigger influence."
Percy pointed at the black guy. "So you mean that dude is a ranked criminal? He's in the rank?"
"Oi! Don't frigging ignore me!" The middle-aged guy he was fighting protested. They ignored him.
She nodded grimly. "A pretty good one at that. At least in the top hundred. No, top fifty, otherwise he couldn't have gotten permission to get the surgery to turn himself into a cyborg. But this is really weird. If he's in a really important rank, at least he should carry his ID around. That's his key into the agency." Just as she said that, Percy heard heavy footsteps. He dodged the blow from the guy and swung Riptide upwards, killing him. He whipped his head to the direction where the sound came from. Tall figures were running towards this place.
Their reinforcements had come.
"This is the last group, I think. They wouldn't have anybody else working here," Rosamund said.
Percy didn't really hear her. There was that little gap between the fat, big trees about twenty feet away, and the figures were pouring in from it. He looked more closely, and realized that beyond the gap was a clearing. The factory must be hidden there!
A plan suddenly formed up in his mind. He tried to get closer to Rosamund amidst the criminals, slashing his way through with difficulty, since all of them were not inexperienced in combat. When he got close enough, Percy told her his idea. "Listen, I just saw the factory. You can't see it because of the trees, but it's a little more than 20 feet away. And if we keep fighting here, obviously we'll never get there. So here's what we do: you and I push them to the edge of the forest. And when we see the plant, I'll leave all these bad boys to you and blow it up somehow. I think we can leave Vivian for a while and then come back to help her. You sure she'll be okay, right? I mean, she's the toughest warrior I've ever seen so far—"
"Hold on. How are you going to destroy the factory if you don't use the bomb anyway? And the bomb's with Vivian, which means that you have to help her defeat that guy first."
"No, I don't actually. And the bomb will take a while to be set up, and these guys will try to get in the way for sure. Just trust me okay? I can do this… Well, if you don't trust me, no one else does, because, to be honest, I don't really trust myself either," Percy finished with a dry smile. Then he rolled to the other side when a bearded guy hurled a javelin at him.
The Ananke General rolled her eyes while yanking her blade out of her opponent's throat. "Fine. Do whatever you want. If your plan fails, we'll proceed with mine."
He nodded in consent. Then the two Generals started guiding the enemies towards their desired location, aiming on moving rather than killing. A few minutes passed, and they broke out through the gap to a clearing. As Percy had seen, the plant stood in the middle, looking grey and grim under the influence of the dark forest. The building was plain enough, with grey bricks forming up a wide, three-story high factory. The door remained shut, guarded by two huge men on either side. Their eyes widened as soon as they spotted the two Successors. One of the guys' hand went to a small red button near the entrance. Needless to say, Percy just got that nothing good on his side was going to happen if the guard pressed it.
At that moment, he disarmed his opponent, grabbed the spear, and threw it at the guard.
The guy fell. Fortunately he hadn't pressed the button.
Percy swerved past another criminal, picked up a fallen enemy's dagger on the way, and threw it towards the other guard's head, preventing him from completing his late comrade's unfinished task. He shouted to Rosamund, cutting across the clearing where there were fewer opponents towards the plant, "I'll leave them all to you!"
…Because I'm pretty sure once I use my powers, I'll be pretty much a little bit more useful than, well, useless. I don't think I can even stand up properly, Percy thought.
He took a deep breath and concentrated on his stomach, reaching for the door to his powers. This time it was easier to pull out his powers, since they had just been used a little while ago. He deleted the gravity pulling him towards the center of the Earth, raising his hands to keep the balance while his body took off from the ground.
Percy positioned himself ten feet above the dead center of the plant's roof. And…
What next? He asked himself, revealing a grim smile. Man, if Rosamund knew I have no frigging idea how to do this she would totally be like…Ugh. I don't even want to imagine how her glare will kill me.
He contemplated what Chaos had told him.
'The power will come in handy when you want to destroy things…(with a wink)'
F that, he thought, facepalming. It's goddamned useful. Thank you for nothing, you stupid Protogenos! He groaned. But then he remembered something else… A sweet voice ringing in the cold wind of the night, its owner trying to cheer him up in her own clumsy way (by confusing him with science, perhaps?).
'Normally, air pressure is exerted on our bodies from all directions, as long as the planet we're in has air. But if you add air molecules in certain places, for example, above the object, the pressure will be increased and the thing will be crushed…'
The Successor exhaled slowly. He looked at his left palm and decided to try what he had best. He turned the hand so the palm was facing the roof and willed the air molecules around him to move according to his thoughts. At this moment, while he was floating in the middle of the air with nothing attached to his feet, he felt one with it.
His body tensed up with concentration while he sensed the air molecules begin assembling in a ball that seemed to expand rapidly. When he thought the ball was big enough, he attempted to compress it with his right hand, by bringing the two hands together. With a huge effort, of course. He gritted his teeth as it was harder than he had thought, and his belly was not helping. It churned and seemed to burn with non-existent flames.
Finally, the big invisible air ball became a visible one, its color dull grey. It could even fit in his hand. Right now he was holding it, his fingers tightening around the ball. In a moment he would release his fist and see and it went. No. I had to be now. He had used his powers to the point of exhaustion, and if he wasted anymore time, he would lose control of the gravity and plunge down to the roof.
The Chaos General sighed, "Here goes."
General Vivian was annoyed with herself.
She had been fighting this criminal for the past ten minutes, and nothing seemed to happen any time soon since neither of them refused to even get injured by each other. She was completely stuck with this guy, and she couldn't go help her friends fight that large group of criminals. For her, this was completely unacceptable, and a failure. And it was really getting on her nerves right now.
In fact, Vivian was wrong to be so hard on herself. She knew it in her mind that her opponent was the renowned Metal Blood, a famous ranked criminal from unit 17. He was ranked the 42nd. But she ignored it anyway.
Not only that, Metal Blood got his name from his body, which had been transformed from head to toe since he had joined the agency, not even one part of his body was flesh, as it was rumored. It wouldn't be so frustrating if the metal that made up most of his body were to be normal, since her special bullets could create holes in it as easily as going through cake. But it seemed that his metal flesh was reinforced with another layer of rare coating. She didn't know what type of coating it was nor did she know how it worked. She just knew that all her attacks were bounced off by his bodily suit of armor, and he was too slow to hurt her. His only strong point was defense. And his weapon was his grip or his embrace, which could break bones as easily as she could snap a branch.
Despite this terrifying fact, she convinced herself, There's no way that a Successor trained by Erebus himself would lose to this scrap of metal. Think, Vivian, think harder.
Normally in order for one to be able to breathe, their heart must beat. Then how can the heart, which moves all the time, be made of metal? The muscles might be coated with only some light layer of protection, and it would be the most vulnerable part of his body—the same goes with his organs. But who cares about the insides? Since the skin that was supposed to protect all of those was invulnerable.
His arms shot out to hold her into a grasp, and she jumped back. He threw a boulder at her, and she dodged sideways. This would go on and on, and his opponent would get exhausted. When their movements became slower, that would be his chance to crush them. That must be how he earned his rank. He had limitless energy and a giant body, which gave him the opportunity to attract the agency's eye. And so they decided to turn him into what he was now.
Vivian had had a glimpse of what was under his helmet though its glass. He had a mouth. Well, duh, he had a mouth. But this very fact might lead to her victory. She crouched down as another boulder flew past her and reached into her cloak to grab two different sets of bullets. One was red, and one was green. She inserted the red one into her left gun, and the green one into her right. And then she fired.
The first few bullets hit his arms, which he had brought up to protect himself. She heard his ugly laugh, which was mostly muffled by his helmet. Then, while he was still holding his arms against his face, expecting the same attacks, she jumped over his head. She twisted in midair, aimed the left gun at his helmet, and fired.
Two bullets hit it, and the specially-made disintegrating flames ran around the helmet, completely evaporating it in seconds. By the time the criminal noticed what had happened, his real face had been exposed. As expected, his face was also the silver color of metal. Moreover, there were a special type of sunglasses attached to his skin. Any hopes of defeating him by jabbing the eyes were none.
As the guy recovered from his shock, he opened his mouth big and laughed. His laugh thundered though the thick forest. "Wahahahaha! You thought you could kill me by blasting my brains off, huh! Is that what it was? Hahaha! Foolish girl! I know your name, and I have heard of your reputation, General of Erebus! You are said to be the most brilliant and calm, but what I've seen today proves otherwise! Now what will you do, eh? Now that you've realized I am invincible, what can you do! Hahaha—"
Keep laughing, Vivian thought as she took aim with her right gun. Then three bullets were shot into his open mouth.
"Urgh!" He swallowed it unintentionally, since the bullets had gone into his mouth while he was laughing. He blinked. His face started to turn red with anger. "What the hell did you do, girl! Whatever you do, it won't work, I tell you, it won't—Arghhh!"
Suddenly his face contorted with pain. He hugged his chest and stomach, as if those two parts were causing him pain. Brown liquid poured out of his mouth without stopping. It was his blood. The metal had changed the color of it into something that smelled of zinc and slightly iron. He writhed on the ground, as if tortured by something invisible.
Vivian took out the green set of bullets from her gun and read the label to the dying man. "These bullets contain specially mixed acidic elements, gathered from the all of the most poisonous plants ever recorded throughout the universe. One bullet instantly disintegrates anything that comes into contact." She looked up and said to him, "Well, since the metal in your throat was too strong, the bullets probably bounced off it until they fell into your stomach, and maybe before that one of them touched your lungs, or even your heart…I'm telling you this so you know the cause of your death."
The Erebus General witnessed the last moments of Metal Blood, a criminal ranked 42nd in the criminal agency. She did not avert her eyes from his hateful, bloodshot glare even once. She searched his clothes and found his criminal ID, but this one different from the others. And then she walked away when his eyes became glazed, and he died.
Several of the IDs she found from the corpses lying along the path were also the same as his. The usual criminal IDs were black, written in white letters. These IDs were white, written in black, but with the same information. She made a note to herself to talk to Jayden when she came back to the army.
Vivian finally reached the edge of the forest. She walked into the clearing. There she saw her friend Rosamund and the criminals. Surprisingly, they were not fighting. They were all staring at something in the sky. She looked.
It was him.
Percy was standing in midair, holding his hand down towards the factory, his eyes glowing with white lights dancing in the sea-green whirlpools. She had seen his eyes shine like that once, when he came to her rescue during the last mission. She noticed a little air ball, barely visible, under his left palm.
She noticed at once that the Chaos General was in pain. It didn't show from his expression, but she could tell from the way his body tensed. Percy could release it in any minute now, but why didn't he? Was he having a problem in doing so? The criminals were starting to climb the walls of the factory, having noticed something wrong. She hesitated, then called out in a small voice that she thought he wouldn't hear, "Percy…"
Unbelievably, he seemed to be snapped out of a trance and then turned to look at her. For a moment their eyes met. She saw relief in those green eyes, but then his gaze turned back to the factory.
He narrowed his eyes, and the air ball shot out from his palm. As it hit the top of the roof, it expanded into waves of heavily compressed air pressure…
KABOOOOOOM!
To be continued
KimJoysu's Notes: What's up, guys! I know you probably want to kick me for taking such a long time for this chapter. But I've been busy the past few months. Good news: I'm in DC now. And I'll be here till July. Bad news: I've been so busy I haven't read HoH yet! Even though I bought it two months ago, LOL. I guess I made this chapter long as an apology. So…apology accepted? Like it, hate it, please R&R!
P.S. As a Christmas gift to everyone, whoever reviews gets Vivian's special chap from me! :) (Of course, this tests if you guys read my A/N or not. If not, I'm not sad, but too bad! Lol) And thanks, those of you who reviewed about my cousin and tried to cheer me up! I already wrote down my apology on a post-it paper and stuck it to my parting gift to him. (Not much, but still a progress.) I'm in the States and I'll see him next year. And I hope we'll talk. Thank you guys so much!