The Alien
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.
Some confusion over who Wheels is: Wheels is an alternate Percy Jackson that is the son of Hephaestus. If you re-read Chapter 70 of Backup Plan, there you will find the teaser titles of other stories I've thought about doing. Wheels comes from what would've been the story Wheelchair-Bound, exploring the life of Percy as a legless son of the forge god with a magic wheelchair. Instead, for the most part, Wheels will be explored in this story.
At the time of this AN, no one disagrees with Shin'en, which is cool, because Shin'en's opinions there are my own regarding the ending of the Trials of Apollo and the paths everyone was taking.
Anyway, this chapter is the introduction of Asteria, featuring Lycaon, Porphyrion, Zethes, Calais, and Khione!
Disclaimer: I own nothing of any franchises herein
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All eyes were on the newcomer, the Second Master, this Asteria Jackson, apparently Percy if he were a girl. The big jumbo screens provided high-res video feed of her, letting all see her clearly no matter how far up in the stands they were.
She had a calculating expression as her eyes roamed, taking in the sights, assessing her surroundings, and that's when experienced and sharp enough people began to think that something was…off. It was subtle and hard to discern, but the keen eye, the eye belonging to the kind of people similar to who Asteria really was, was able to pick up the offness. The way she moved, how her hand didn't stray too far from the holstered gun on her thigh, the way her eyes scanned about—all the signs of a predator feeling her surroundings, ready to attack at the slightest provocation.
Of course, very few recognized these mannerisms. The majority of the audience was just totally enamored with the concept of a female Percy Jackson, and there were a whole lot of girls that couldn't wait to meet Asteria and see what she was like. Those girls that had been mentally and emotionally shredded by Shin'en were happily welcoming this new line of thinking, eager to take their minds off their new existential crisis.
When Asteria's eyes settled on Sally, she went rigid, her eyes widening slightly and her mouth parting by a fraction, not enough to reveal teeth. Then the instant passed, and she finished crossing the distance from the teleporter to the stage. She broke into a happy grin and opened her arms wide, her and Shin'en embracing each other like siblings.
The hug revealed that the two were the same height, and that Shin'en could actually smile genuinely.
"It's good to see you," Shin'en said warmly.
"You as well," Asteria smiled. She planted a sisterly kiss on his cheek and directed her attention to the amputee. "Wheels!" she crowed.
Wheels rubbed his temple. "God, that's always weird. Hey, Aster."
The two hugged as best could be done when one was sitting in a wheelchair.
"Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way—what the hell is going on? I was in the middle of an engagement."
Shin'en hummed once, smile still playing about his lips. "Some kids shit their pants and now we have to clean them up."
Asteria crossed her arms. "My diaper-changing days are far in the past."
"I know. This is a Chaos thing."
Asteria made a disgusted sound. "Him again?"
"Him again," Shin'en confirmed.
"Have the others arrived?"
"No. You and me for now. Feel free to socialize while you have the time."
"Hey, before you do that, can I see that?" Wheels asked, gesturing the bracer on Asteria's arm.
She hit a button and a jet of air was released, accompanied by a metallic release sound. The bracer slid right of her wrist and she handed it to Wheels. "If you break that…"
"You'll have hundreds more back home?"
"Yes, but that one holds a particular value to me."
"I shall handle it with care," Wheels said honestly.
Asteria nodded, pressed her shoulder into Shin'en in a kind of goodbye hug, and hopped from the stage, clearing the twelve steps to land on the floor with barely a bend in her knees from the impact. She made a beeline for Sally, walking at a pace that seemed unnatural. What didn't help was the heavy thudding that resounded from each fall of her foot, like she was either putting all of her weight into each step, or weighed a lot more than she looked.
Sally, breathless and with a thumping heart, met this girl who she, like with Shin'en, had already mentally assimilated as her daughter. The prospects of this encounter and this exchange of stories was exciting.
Excitement turned to abject dread with this one question.
"You're Sally Jackson?"
"U-Uh…yes?"
"Do you have a room here? I would like to speak in private."
"Y-Yes. Follow…follow me."
Asteria regarded a few others. "Annabeth, Poseidon, Artemis, Thalia, and Percy. You may join us."
Some looks were exchanged, pondering over the specific choices of company.
Asteria looked at Thalia, who had her mouth open to ask a question, but it was answered preemptively. "Reyna may also join."
Asteria began walking away, heading for the nearest door, and that made it clear that no one else would be permitted.
As they all left, Apollo was pale as he stared at Asteria's back.
"Dad?" Will asked, all his brothers and sisters from both camps sitting around their father. "Are you okay?"
"She is not hu-human," the medicine god answered shakily. "A-Acid for blood…"
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Sally personal suite in Hotel Valhalla was quaint, cozy, comfortable, and a perfect rendition of her Manhattan apartment without walls and if everything was on one floor. The suite bubbled with excitement with no small amount of apprehension. Percy as a girl was a fascinating thing, and everyone wanted to know more about Asteria, like what was her school life like, the quests she went on—how were the different—who was her love interest—Annabeth was dying to know that—what had she meant when she said her diaper-changing days were over—did she have kids already, because she looked to be barely out of her teens, barely into her twenties—what was the story behind her gun, what was the weapon thing on her back?
Ad infinitum.
After maneuvering some furniture around, Sally occupied the big couch, Poseidon on her right, Percy on her left, and Annabeth left of him, and left of Annabeth was a smaller couch occupied by Thalia and Reyna, and to Poseidon's right was Artemis in her own recliner. Asteria opted for sitting cross-legged on the coffee table, which had creaked when she sat on it.
There were a bunch of questions that wanted to be asked, but Sally asked the first.
"You asked me if I was Sally Jackson…what-"
"You were murdered minutes after I was born. I grew up never knowing you. This is the first time I'm getting to meet you."
Hearing that she was murdered in Asteria's world, Sally's hand reflexively gripped her son's, who looked just as pale as his mother.
"Human scientists with Clear Sight," Asteria said. Her eyes were starting to creep everyone out with their venomous green color, and the way they never blinked or moved.
"Jeb Batchelder looked at my blood minutes after they pulled me out of you and saw the genetic code of the demigod: one half normal, the other half golden. He had you murdered, and me taken across the country to a black site in Death Valley to register me for a bio-weapons program. They spliced me with cuttlefish DNA to assist with the augmentations they made, steroids and amino acids to make me stronger, bigger, smarter, and when I turned six they spliced me with another creature's DNA: Linguafoeda acheronsis, aka Internecivus raptus."
Reyna recoiled the hardest, the Latin naturally clicking in her mind faster than the others, even the two gods—but only because they were in their Greek forms right now. Those names meant "foul tongue from Acheron" and "murderous thief" respectively, and everyone was left ignorant as to what creature on this planet bore those names.
"Thanks to that creature, my eyes are now this color, my incisors are sharp like they are, I'm a lot heavier than I look because my muscles and bones are denser than a human's, and I'm now a girl. I was born a boy."
There was a very tense silence for a few seconds.
"…so you're transgender?" Thalia asked distantly and dazedly, ADHD sparking the question amidst the shock.
"More than any human can ever dream of being."
"And the gun?" Reyna asked.
Asteria pulled the weapon from its holster. It was a beautiful firearm, a Desert Eagle, plated in shiny, polished nickel, a muzzle break attached, and the handle was smooth black pearl. Asteria dangled it around her finger from behind the trigger.
"This belonged to the head of security of the facility I was held in for the first eleven years of my life. After he killed some other experiments there that I considered to be my family, effectively ruining our plan to escape and make a life for ourselves, I went on a rampage and slaughtered everyone between me and the Director. I took this as a trophy and keep it as a reminder."
"Oh, baby…" Sally whispered.
"After tracking down and killing the Director, I was at a total loss as to what to do with my life, so I tried to commit suicide. You stopped me just in time."
Poseidon swallowed, gripping his trident so hard his knuckles turned white.
"You teleported me to Olympus and put me in a coma. When I woke up, you introduced yourself as my father and I nearly killed you because I was rather upset with the idea that my father would've abandoned me and left me to spend my childhood in a dark box being experimented on every day. Anyway, we made an understanding and I spent the next six months undergoing therapy and counseling on Olympus with the other gods before being introduced to humans again, being sent down to Camp Half-Blood.
"I managed to make friends out of Clarisse, Drew-"
"Drew!?"
Annabeth, Percy, Thalia, and Reyna balked at the same time, correctly assuming that Asteria was referring to the stuck-up, prissy, daughter of Aphrodite.
"Yes, Drew Tanaka. And Beckendorf, Silena, the Stolls, and pretty much everyone, really, but those were my best friends."
"What about me?" Annabeth asked, noticing she wasn't mentioned.
Asteria's rueful smile and gleaming eyes made the blonde nervous. "Oh, you. You were an arrogant little bitch."
Thalia and Reyna instantly burst into laughter, accompanied by Poseidon, while Percy had to look away so Annabeth couldn't see his smile.
"I…I was?"
"Very much so. To the point that I almost killed you for your mouth. Luckily, Chiron was there and the next day we started on straightening you out."
Annabeth shifted under those eyes, the amusement behind them and the way the statement was phrased making her think that the straightening of her other self had involved some kind of humiliation.
"S-So, uh, what…what did we become…after I was, uh, straightened out?"
"Guess," Asteria smiled, obviously delighting in their ignorance.
"Are we…girlfriends?" Annabeth tried, keeping her mind open to the infinite possibilities of the Multiverse.
"No."
"Boyfriend and girlfriend?"
"No."
"Husband and wife?"
"No."
"Wives?"
"No."
"Are involved in any kind of romantic relationship?"
"No."
Asteria's venomous green eyes twinkled with amusement.
"Okay, I give up. What am I to you in your world?"
A big, wide grin that showed perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth with abnormally sharp incisors.
"You're my daughter."
Reactions were immediate. Bug eyes, slack jaws, cries of surprise, strangled gasps, startled squawks, almost falling out of chairs.
"I'm your daughter?" Annabeth breathed, thrown for a loop so huge she wasn't in full control of her mental functions. "But how? I—you—you can't be any older than we are—how old are you, anyway?"
Asteria's grin got even bigger, almost unnaturally big as her lips and cheeks pulled back farther than where they already were. "Never ask a lady her age," she teased. "You are my oldest out of four. Annabeth, Ariel, Amelia, and my only son, Arcadia. Eleven, the middle two are nine, and the baby is five."
"I'm a grandmother?" Sally asked, swaying a bit. "When do I meet them?"
"Hopefully never," Asteria said plainly. "They play rough."
Rough being said with a deep underlying tone of grave and dire warning.
On top of trying to figure out what that meant, everyone was still reeling from murdered Sally, experimented on, gene splicing, slaughtered everyone, born as a boy but now a girl, on top of Asteria's youthful appearance and how she had four children, one of which was Annabeth through some complicated means, who was eleven years old, which really begged the question of just what in the hell had happened in Asteria's world.
"Did you adopt me?" Annabeth asked, trying to wrap her head around her being Asteria's eleven-year-old daughter.
"I did, spiritually, emotionally, and eventually biologically. You were once Athena's and Frederick's, then I made you mine, rewriting your whole genetic code to where you are truly my daughter."
"Huh?" Annabeth squeaked.
Asteria's grin got even bigger. "When I said that my diaper changing days were over, I was referring to yours as well as my other daughters."
Annabeth looked ready to faint. "You…daughter…changed my diapers…?"
"To this very day, I am still trying to figure out how you managed to get more poop on your shirt than in your diaper."
Annabeth turned red as a cherry, and the snickers of Thalia and Reyna weren't helping, nor was the light, motherly giggling of Sally as she no doubt recalled some of Percy and Estelle's diapers. For his part, Percy looked disturbed at the thought of his girlfriend being his daughter in another life, him having to wipe her butt.
"What's that on your back?" Artemis asked, speaking for the first time in an attempt to keep everyone's heads from exploding.
"A reward from an honorable man."
Asteria pulled the weapon from her back, and from the closeness, everyone could see the things wrapped around it. Beads, talismans, the small skulls of rodents that were not native to Earth, and designs carved into the handle depicting alien victories.
SCHING
Everyone flinched when the weapon extended into its full form, that of a two-ended spear with bladed prongs on either side of the middle handle. The four demigods went pale and rigid when they saw the weapon, recognizing its shape from the Seven Masters painting. Any doubts they might've had about Asteria being the Second Master were instantly washed away as the weapon was recognized as being the one held in the image of the Master seemingly surrounded by a horde of monsters, creating an intense foreboding about Asteria's true nature.
"This is called a combistick. It was given to me as a sign of recognition after my victory in battle against a powerful enemy."
"What enemy?" Artemis asked, though she had a feeling she knew the answer.
"In due time," Asteria promised with a grin. She collapsed the weapon and put it on her back.
Artemis nodded, being correct in her earlier guess. "I take it you wanted me to come along due to the relationship we have in your world? Did you join the Hunt?"
Thalia and Reyna looked excited, pushing their sickened feelings of Asteria being experimented on and her body warped down in favor of getting excited over what stories there were to tell about this female Percy being a Hunter of Artemis.
"I did," Asteria smiled in fond memory. "Camp life got stale for me so I looked for something different. You and I hunted together during my six months on Olympus, so I asked if I could join the Hunt as an intern, to get a feel for what the life would be like, and you accepted. Unfortunately, I could not accept full Hunter membership," Thalia and Reyna deflated, "because I started puberty."
It was Artemis's turn to deflate. "And you lost yourself by becoming smitten with a boy so I couldn't accept you fully and that's how your son came about."
"No."
Everyone looked again at Asteria. The grin was gone, the gleam in her eyes was gone, and all traces of mirth were gone. The way she had answered no—so heavy and laden with memory.
"The creature I was spliced with, Linguafoeda acheronsis, is an extremely hostile, vicious, and deadly thing, and its instincts were adopted into my genes. One instinct dominates above all of my others: survival. Survival of myself, and survival of the species—through every means. When I started puberty, and I became capable of reproduction, certain instincts and latent abilities kicked in, ones that have made me an extinction-level event, and a threat to all forms of life in the universe.
"Such a threat, actually, that in order to have saved my planet from me, you gods had to engage in a full council to discuss what action you would take against me. No one wanted to kill me, but there was next to nothing any of you could have done to stop me from spreading the species, so my death was eventually decided upon, and then further measures decided to keep me from breaking out of the Underworld. You were heartbroken, Dad, but you would've rather seen me dead than what I became."
"What did you become?" Poseidon swallowed.
"A mass-murdering serial rapist."
It became so silent that a mouse scurrying across the carpet would've sounded like a stampeding heard of elephants. Everyone was waiting for Asteria to suddenly break into laughter and tell them about the looks on their faces, but that never happened. Asteria maintained her neutral expression.
"If we decided that you needed to die and be locked up in the Underworld," Artemis said, "how are you here?"
"Shin'en."
Shock once again rippled through the room.
"Shin'en came and told me what I would do when my period started, how I would seek to reproduce, and how everyone would be considered fair game, even my best friends in the Hunt, Zoë, Thalia, and even my friends at Camp, and there was nothing that could be done about that, and he was right. The only thing that saved you and your sisters is that I transformed the three of you. However, I never did get the chance to harvest anyone from Camp or from the Hunt, because Shin'en gathered all of you in the throne room, and…well, one way to put it is that he spared all of you from witnessing my conquering of the globe and the slaughter of all life on it."
"He killed us," Annabeth said in a small voice.
Asteria nodded. "He did. He saved all of you from killing me and saved me from living the rest of my life with the memory of killing all of you. I don't expect any of you to understand, only to know that I am grateful to him, and I consider him to be my brother."
Her threat was silent but sharply felt.
"How did you have a son?" Sally asked, pushing away everything else and focusing only on family.
Asteria smiled fondly, instantly radiating happiness. "The people that experimented on me also took and shipped samples of my DNA to other facilities. When they saw the success between me and Linguafoeda acheronsis they used those samples to try and create other hybrid lifeforms, and one was successful. Spliced with a subspecies of acheronsis, he and I engaged in a fight for supremacy, and I narrowly won. I decided to mate with him, and gave him my heart. He took it, gave me his heart, and we had Arcadia."
"If he was made with samples of your DNA, wouldn't that make him your clone?" Annabeth asked.
"Yes," Asteria answered simply.
Everyone decided not to comment on how that was basically incest in favor on trying to stomach the fact that this very beautiful girl, who was Percy in another life, was a murderous, recombinant, rapist.
Artemis's silver eyes were sharp. "You speak of puberty, reproduction, your species, and harvesting all life on the planet…what is this creature you were spliced with? What is Linguafoeda acheronsis?"
"Asteria," Shin'en's voice buzzed through from somewhere. "You're up."
"…to answer your question, Artemis: you've been given the answer already, but if you're still lost, I imagine you're about to be shown."
"Hey," Sally said. "We're going to sit down together, you me and Shin'en, and we're going to talk. I want to know about my other children."
"No, you don't," Asteria warned.
"I do. I don't care about what either of you did in your worlds. You are still my children, and I love you both."
'We'll see about that.'
Everyone recoiled and grabbed at their heads when the unfamiliar sensation took hold. Asteria's voice, but without sound, and in their minds. They all looked at her.
Asteria smirked a final time, though this time everyone reacted when they saw her teeth: no longer were they white, but now translucent, and her gums were no longer pinkish, but solid black. Then she was gone in the same water-based teleporting technique that Shin'en and all children of Poseidon could use with enough training.
Sally reached over and pulled the shaken Percy into a hug that he readily accepted.
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Asteria arrived in the Feast Hall to hear an alarm blaring. She recognized it as the same alarm used in the 2004 animated Batman series originally called The Batman. Shin'en and Wheels were still at the command area. She came to stand next to them.
"History's repeating," Shin'en said with a smirk. "Lycaon and Khione have retaken the Wolf House and are using a goddess who didn't heed my warning as a sacrifice to bring back Porphyrion."
'Which goddess?'
"Lupa."
There was a great startle in the assembled audience, the Romans shifting at the revelation that their goddess had been captured and was basically being fed to a Giant. Lupa was their honorary mother, and for many, the closest thing they did have to a mother, since all Roman demigods had to first train under Lupa and understand the expectations of the pack, something that Lupa helped with, giving wisdom and guidance, providing a furry, comfy, warm place to sleep, and sharing her boundless maternal love in her own special way.
The praetors went marching across down the steps and across the floor to the stage.
"What's the plan?" Frank asked. "We're ready to step up."
Shin'en, Wheels, and Asteria burst into laughter. It was the only sound in the whole Feast Hall except for Wheels' machines, since everyone got quiet at the derisive noise.
"You weren't listening to me," Shin'en stated. "I said that it's over for you. Your part is done. There is no more opportunity for you, or anyone else in here, to participate in these affairs. To put it plainly, all of you will be nothing more than spectators."
"You can't just expect us to do nothing while our goddess is in trouble!" Hazel cried.
The sentiment was backed up by many shouts of Roman agreement.
"I expect you to make valiant efforts in undermining my authority and attempting to break out of Valhalla in the false idea that you actually stand more than a snowball's chance in hell against the new levels of power that the enemy now possesses. As much as I would to watch all of you…fuck around and find out…and die a horrible death and serve as an example to everyone else, it is actually a minor side objective to keep you alive. Besides, none of you are permitted to engage in this skirmish anyway. Only Asteria."
The praetors looked to the girl in question, conflicted in trusting her because she was the Second Master, and doubting her because they hadn't seen any of her skills or prowess.
"What's happening is one of those specific assignment things Chaos mentioned back on Olympus. To put it in terms you might be able to comprehend, this is Asteria's personal Mark of Athena, in that it is a task that she must complete by herself as dictated by a higher power. Do you want to defy the supreme overlord of your life?"
Frank and Hazel felt some deep, underlying implications and double meanings behind that question, but they shared a look and then shook their heads.
"Good," Shin'en chirped. "Now sit back down."
Doing their best to maintain their image as the mighty praetors at being dismissed and ordered to sit like a couple of dogs, Frank and Hazel returned to where they were sitting. They'd barely turned around to start walking when Shin'en redirected his attention.
"As I was saying, Chaos has given us as assignment. You, no weapons, Wolf House, don't let Lupa be destroyed, but Porphyrion must rise. In attendance are Lycaon, his pack, Khione, and Zethes and Calais, her brothers."
Asteria nodded, a critical look in her eye as something went across her mind.
"Yes," Shin'en answered her question.
Asteria smiled, a pleased, inhuman sound leaving her mouth. She unclipped her gun and removed her combistick, Shin'en accepting them from her.
"This is going to be awesome," Wheels grinned.
He hit a button, and the computer chimed, "Portal opening."
The tube whirred and glowed, spilling light. Asteria hopped down from the stage and moved at a brisk pace into the light, vanishing.
"Portal closing."
"Alright, alright," Wheels said. "Let's get the show started!"
He hit some buttons and all the computer screens pulled up a different set of information all linked to Asteria. One screen displayed her vitals, like heartbeat and blood pressure, another displayed a t-posing cross section, providing feedback on bodily status, like injuries, another displayed rudimentary information, like her name, birthday, gender, height, weight, and age, with those being Asteria Jackson; August 18, 1993; Female (formerly male); 5'10; 318 pounds; ?, which led to much confusion over what formerly male was supposed to mean, how she weighed so much despite her petite frame, and why was her age unknown.
The main computer and the two big screens provided a magical livestream of current events.
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Asteria appeared in a frozen wasteland of dead trees and snow, the temperatures below freezing thanks to the power of the resident snow goddess. However, despite the cold, and the fact that she appeared to be wearing a t-shirt and capris, Asteria shivered not, nor showed any signs of being affected by the snow.
Looking to the East, the Second Master began to trudge through the thick powder.
When she got close to the Wolf House, a small, nearly unnoticeable smile graced her face, and her next step into the snow caused it to erupt around her as a net made of chain lengths of Celestial Bronze sprung from below to dangle her from the branches of a tree. Laughs and jeers echoed through the forest as gangly and smelly men dressed in pelts stepped out from behind the trees.
The leader, a crown of bones upon his brow, eyes glowing solid red, smirked, his teeth all filed points, smiled. "Well, well, one of these planeswalkers that threatens the war, a fetching young lady at that. Tell me, what is your name?"
Lycaon received nothing but a silent stare.
"You know, I could let my pack have their way with you," the wolf king threatened.
Said pack laughed and whistled, showing how eager they were to rape Asteria.
"But you are fortunate," Lycaon said. "The Earth Mother has made it clear that the first male and female planeswalker that we capture are to be used as the blood sacrifices to wake her. Come on, men, drag this one to the Wolf House so that she may be used to instill fear and despair in the enemy."
One the wolves broke the branch and he and another started to literally drag the netted Asteria through the snow towards the Wolf House.
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"She's been captured and you're just standing there!? We have to do something!"
Shin'en had a little smirk on his face as he looked over his shoulder at Reyna.
"Relax. She's just playing with her food."
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"Behold, Lupa!" Lycaon crowed. "Your rescue party!"
He gestured to the chained Asteria, being dragged through the Wolf House by the two werewolves.
Lupa, trapped in a cage of wood with roots digging into the ground, and roots leading into a mound of rising and pulsing dirt, growled, her yellow eyes blazing with hate.
Khione rolled her eyes. "Quit goading her before she bites your balls off, Lycaon." She looked at Asteria. "Oh? A girl?"
"Indeed, sister," her brother Zethes declared, a white rose in his hand. "A fine and fair maiden. So cruel to have sent her here alone against a force as overwhelming as this."
Khione rolled her eyes at the hopeless romantic her brother was.
"Kill her and use her head for hockey?" Calais, Zethes' twin asked, voice heavy and dumb.
"No, Calais," Khione said impatiently, "we are not going to kill her and use her head for hockey. We need her for the Earth Mother's rise."
"Can we use her head for hockey after Earth Mommy wakes up?"
"…I'll ask."
"Yay!"
Khione shook her head and looked at the werewolves. "Take her over there and keep watch. This is usually the part where some unseen person pulls off a desperate plan of attack and everything we've worked for is undone."
There being an adjacent area that might've been a bedroom at some point, but the ceiling and two of the walls were gone. The wolves did their job and dragged the chained Asteria over to the room.
When the big mound that was the rising Porphyrion started to pulse with energy, there were cheers, howls, whoops, and hollers as the wolves grew excited, the prospect of their promised hunts and the savory half-blood meat to follow dancing through their bloodthirsty minds. As the dirt mound pulsed, a strange sound began echoing through the trees in time with the pulsing.
It was an eerie sound, like distant screaming down a metal corridor….
But everyone just chalked it up to the energy the Giant King was releasing.
As for Lupa, she was a powerful and intelligent goddess. She was not as powerful as the likes of Jupiter, but through the believing power of her Roman children, she ranked up there with the likes of the other Olympians. Still, despite this intelligence and power and divine status, she was still a wolf, and wolves had an acute sense of survival. So, when Lupa saw the things that she did, she went into a full panic in her organic cage, barking and thrashing around.
Lycaon's pack stiffened, none of them attributing this behavior to her impending demise as Porphyrion drained her essence. Being wolves themselves, they recognized this panicked display, and when the scent of blood tore through the chilly air, they all whipped around to where Asteria was supposed to be under guard.
Lycaon sprinted over, a shocked gasp leaving him.
"What is it!?" Khione demanded.
She came over and released a breath of her own.
The chain link net had been broken—no, not broken, melted, the Celestial Bronze links steaming as they were chewed away by some kind of acid, and the two wolves guarding Asteria were missing, aside from two blood puddles.
"AAAAUGH!"
The scream drew all heads, and all eyes just barely managed to catch one of the werewolves being dragged away into the dark forest, something attached to his ankle. The screaming continued until there was a bestial grunt, then silence.
Except for the pulsing, screaming wind.
Lycaon howled, and his pack transformed. Their pelts fell away as pelts of their own grew. Their limbs popped and cracked, human bodies shifting into wolves. Their eyes blazed red, their sharp teeth were yellow, their breath rancid, and their fur black as a shadow at night. The pack, easily thirty strong, charged into the forest to destroy whatever threat had befallen them.
Lycaon smiled a smile full of teeth, his confidence in his pack's power tipping into arrogance. You needed silver to kill a werewolf, and whatever was out there didn't have silver. But that smile steadily faded as the sounds reached his ears. The pained and distressed barking and high-pitched shrieking. The sounds of skin and muscle tearing, the wet slopping noise of entrails on the ground, the snapping of bone. And a foreign hissing noise of a creature that Lycaon knew not.
Terror began seeping through his bones, terror of the unknown. What was happening? What was out there?
Then it all went quiet.
Even the screaming wind held its breath.
A deep growling suddenly emanated from behind Lycaon, and when he turned around to see the cause, the king of the werewolves became nothing more than a newborn pup.
Shaped like a human female at about 5'10, a segmented tail two-and-a-half times that length sprouting from her tailbone, shaped like a spinal cord and ending in a sharp blade. Four tubes sprouted from her back, along her spine between her shoulder blades. The top tubes were angled up and out, slightly longer than the bottom tubes that were angled down. Her skin was solid black, but it didn't look like human skin—more like the exoskeleton of a beetle. Her hands and feet ended in claws, her hair wasn't human hair but many leathery dreads, and her teeth were straight, translucent, the incisors sharp, the tongue and gums black, the lips pulled back in a snarl, and her eyes.
Slit pupils just barely wider than a piece of paper sat within circles of venomous green, which in turn were locked within oceans of darkness that were her sclera.
Blood dripped relentlessly from her splayed claws, down her front, covering her mouth, and from the whole length of her tail, bits of viscera clinging to her in place.
This was Asteria Jackson, the Xenomorph Goddess.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was very quiet in the Feast Hall as the congregation beheld the true form of the Second Master, recognizing that her earlier appearance as a college girl was a falsehood.
Sally was weeping, being held by a pale-faced Poseidon.
Experimented on, Asteria had said, spliced with DNA.
And now they were seeing just what that really meant.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Lycaon's fight or flight instincts kicked in, and he went with fight. He bared his teeth and growled back.
Asteria's growl got louder, turning into a brief roar as she thrust her hands out and sent Lycaon flying, striking his chest. The king of the werewolves tumbled through the air and smacked hard into the snow, facedown. When he peeled his face out of the cold powder, he saw a pair of black legs, and he trained his eyes up.
Asteria hissed at him, bloody saliva cascading down her front.
Lycaon growled and stood, but Asteria was gone. Red eyes widening, he spun around with a haymaker, and Asteria dodged with ease. Lycaon threw another punch, and Asteria once again dodged, though this time she swung her arm, claws out, and raked four lines across the wolf king's face.
Lycaon gasped as his blood leaked down his cheek, into his eye and his mouth. He turned to continue the fight only to see an open pair of jaws. Asteria clamped down on the false king's throat and tossed her head, decapitating Lycaon in a messy eruption of ichor, strips of skin and muscles, and pieces of bone flying about. Lycaon's headless body collapsed like a dropped puppet.
A growl with so much bass to it that the snow shuddered left Asteria as she turned to face the children of Boreas.
Khione, Zethes, and Calais had taken up positions around Lupa at the onset of the attack, and so they'd just been standing there in mute horror as they beheld Asteria, and witnessed her speed and savage, brutal strength. And now her eyes were on them, Lycaon's head still held in her jaws.
Asteria dropped the cadaver and crushed it under heel as she advanced with a purposeful pace, ichor splattered across her mouth and trailing down her chin.
Khione made a panicked sound, and thrust her hands out, shooting a beam of white energy at Asteria that struck true. In a flash, the daughter of Poseidon was frozen solid in a block of ice. The ice cracked and shattered an instant later and Asteria resumed her march.
"Uh, Zethes, Calais! Get her!"
Khione might as well have told them to stab themselves and hop into the ocean with a bunch of sharks nearby.
"I'll back you up, I promise!" Oh, sweet merciful Earth Mother…please get me the fuck out of here!
The brothers spread their wings and flapped, shooting forward.
Asteria's tail struck, the cords of muscle between each bladed segment expanding like a frog's tongue. The bladed tip went right through Zethes and Calais, turning them into a couple of winged shish kebabs. Asteria reared her extended tail up high, going above the trees, and with a violent flick sent the brothers hurtling off at terminal velocity into the unforgiving branches.
Khione winced and flinched as she heard the machine gun-intense sound of splintering wood. Then she remembered the bloody teenager making her way over. With a desperate scream, Khione put everything she had into another beam of icy energy.
The white laser shot down the way, into the trees and far beyond. It was cold enough as it was, but Khione's attack literally turned everything it struck, and everything close enough to solid ice. Khione didn't let up for a second, pouring everything she had as the goddess of ice and snow into a fervent, panicked, last-ditch effort for survival.
You can imagine her sanity-shattering dose of fear when a pair of black, bloody, clawed hands calmly reached through the beam to clasp her hands.
Khione shrieked like an electrocuted pig when Asteria splintered her hands. The snow goddess dropped to her knees and beheld her mangled phalanges, the fingers bent in unnatural ways, bones sticking out at all places among the palms, ichor profusely leaking everywhere. A deadly hiss sounded from above, and Khione found herself crawling backwards with just her legs, all rational and logical thought processes gone from her mind.
Khione cried when her back pushed into a wall, and she could go no further. Her eyes shut tight and she turned her head as far to the side as it could go when she heard and felt the heavy thumping of approaching feet.
"Haaaaaah…"
The goddess of ice and snow trembled, shuddered, and shook. Asteria dropped to all fours and crawled forward, coming to straddle Khione, putting her hands against the wall on either side of the goddess's head, legs braced on either side of Khione's, tail ramrod straight. Asteria leaned in close, so very, very close, her lips brushing across the goddess's turned cheek.
"No, no, no, no, no, no…" Khione repeated over and over again.
'I'm not going to kill you,' Asteria said in Khione's mind. 'I have other used for you.'
Khione heard a wet crackling sound, and she hazarded a look. Her jaw went slack as she watched Asteria's throat bulge from collarbones upward, like something was coming out of her. Asteria's mouth opened wide, impossibly wide as her jaw unhinged, exposing the twin rows of pearly, lethal teeth, and there, the last thing Khione saw, was a wriggling black mass at the back of Asteria's throat.
The mass shot forward and Khione's world went dark as she felt something going down her throat.
Lupa was going nuts by this point, the two-fold terror of being absorbed and destroyed in the ritual for Porphyrion's rise and the existential danger of being near whatever the hell that black thing was supposed to be. Lupa's root-like cage was sinking into the ground, and she was frantically tearing at it with tooth and claw, not so much to escape Gaea, but to escape Asteria.
Yes, the mighty Mother of Rome was desperately trying to flee not the clutches of the Earth, but the jaws of the demigoddess.
Lupa heard violent tearing from behind her and she looked to see that Asteria had ripped the cage clean apart. The girl's eyes were solid black. She grabbed Lupa's hindleg and yanked her backward. Lupa reared back, aiming for the throat, but Asteria's mouth was wide open, and like with Khione, the wolf goddess went still as something wrapped around her face, something going down her throat.
The huge earthen mound crackled with energy, glowing, until it all exploded outwards.
"RETURNED!" Porphyrion roared in triumph.
A low hiss drew the Giant king's attention.
"Ah, the little hero. One of these other Percy Jacksons that we were warned about. I see you've made quick work out of the…the mutt…and…" Porphyrion's thoughts were derailed when he saw just what had happened to Khione, Lycaon, and Lupa. The Bane of Zeus shook his head to focus.
"No matter. You cannot defeat me, girl. I am born to destroy Zeus. I command the skies as he does. I lead greater forces than he does. I have trained with my father Tartarus and have become even stronger than Olympus itself! I have laid low my siblings, wrestled the Titan's into submission, and destroyed armies—and you will be my first victory in this new and final war!"
Asteria's lips curled upward, showing all of her teeth. 'You dare boast to me?'
Porphyrion recoiled at the voice in his head. "What devilry is this?!"
Asteria chuckled, a horrible noise like metal bending and twisting.
'I am Asteria Jackson. I destroyed all of mankind. I wiped out the pantheons. I pulled Olympus from the sky. Then I was but a weak child. Now I am old and strong…strong…STRONG! My skin is stronger than Achilles, my speed greater than Hermes, and my strength greater than Hercules! My teeth are swords, my claws are spears, and the shock of my tail is a METEOR! My arms are HURRICANES!'
Porphyrion howled and gripped his head as Asteria's voice boomed in his mind like loudspeakers cranked to maximum in the spare bedroom. Her boasts of how strong she were accompanied by the stomp of her foot, creating earthquakes that brought the snow down from the trees. The boast of her tail was accentuated by its strike against the ground, shattering the stone of the Wolf House, once more making the earth shudder. And the boast of her arms was made real by bringing them across her chest in an "X," then whipping them out, creating a wind so hard that Porphyrion stumbled, though he managed to regain his balance.
'And my breath…DEATH!'
Asteria turned her head and opened her mouth, a pressurized stream of greenish fluid blasting out to shoot an easy distance of a hundred feet.
Porphyrion watched the liquid melt and destroy everything it touched, rendering the whole area of affect to be an obscure place of smoke and steam, the air filled with the sound of hissing and sizzling. With a start, Porphyrion realized it was acid—molecular acid that destroyed at the basic building blocks of the universe, and Asteria could spray it from her mouth.
'Well?' she asked. 'Well? Where are your boasts now, Bane of Zeus?'
Porphyrion sank into the ground like a lead weight through water.
Asteria snorted and turned.
A portal of light appeared and she went through, dragging Khione and Lupa behind her by their legs.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
There was complete and utter silence in the Feast Hall when Asteria came through the teleporter, still covered in blood, bearing her true form, dragging the two goddesses like sacks of trash. On their faces was a black thing.
Shin'en looked down at her, the side of his mouth quirked up. They spoke telepathically, so to all the stunned and fearful people, it looked like they were having a staring contest.
'Starting a new Hive already?'
'Of course. I never pass up the opportunity for new material.'
'Unfortunately, you cannot use the einherjar or anyone else in the hotel.'
'Awe, I can't? But think of the Hive I could build with these hosts.'
'I know. Chaos's rules.'
Asteria pouted. 'What a killjoy. Ah!'
The facehugger attached to Lupa lost its black color and fleshy consistency, turning grey and drying out, cracking and breaking off from the wolf goddess's snout. Lupa's eyes immediately popped open and she bounded up, snarling at Asteria, who just regarded her with an expecting expression.
Some Romans in the audience got up, intending to come to the aide of the closest thing they had to a mother, but Lupa barked at them, sending a message of her own.
Stay back!
Lupa growled. I don't know what you did, but-
CRACK
The sound of bone breaking caused many to flinch due to how unexpected it was. Lupa's eyes widened in pain and shock, and she pitched to her side, kicking her legs, frantically whimpering.
"What's happening!?"
"What's going on!?"
"Someone help her!"
These cried and more came from the audience as it was easily recognized that something was very wrong.
"I'd stay back if I were you," Shin'en called to those that were weighing on thoughts of approach. "It's about to get messy."
CRACK
CRACK
Lupa brayed in agony as something rammed her ribs from the inside, once, twice, and on the third time: SPLOOSH!
Lupa's underbelly exploded in a wave of ichor and entrails, and she went still, the light disappearing from her eyes. There was much screaming and vomiting from those with weaker stomachs at the sight of such gore, but the true horror was reserved for the little thing that was amidst the mess.
Small, like a puppy, glistening gold from its hosts insides, quadruped, a little tail, and a domed, elongated head.
Khione's facehugger died and fell off. Her blue eyes opened and she pitched forward from her laying position, hands splayed over her chest. She made a strangled gurgle as something bulged and caused a spray of blood. Then she pitched back, writhing and screeching as what was inside her desired to come out. After so many pushes, success was achieved.
Khione's chest bulged outward and finally erupted. She went limp, hands twitching, as there, curled in the mess that was her chest cavity, was not one pure white snake-looking thing, but two.
They slithered out and joined their half-sibling at their crouched Mommy, who looked positively ecstatic.
Asteria opened her mouth, gold and red crusted around her lips, and gave a low hiss. Her three new babies all hissed back, their secondary mouths emerging and opening wide.
Shin'en gave a nod to Wheels, and the cripple hit a button on his keyboard, starting a video. With the voice of the English dub narrator from the JoJo series, Asteria was introduced to the horrified audience.
"Asteria Jackson! Born as Percy Jackson on August 18, 1993, her genetic code was examined by a mortal scientist with Clear Sight, who was able to see the unique DNA sequence of the demigod. Sally was murdered minutes later, and the infant Percy was taken across the country to a black sight known as The School in Death Valley, a 72-floor nightmare built into the earth than ran on geothermal energy. There, Percy, now known as Subject-3, was ruthlessly experimented on, his DNA played with, and his humanity robbed.
"When he turned six is when everything changed. He underwent a new experiment, one involving the DNA of Linguafoeda acheronsis, aka Internecivus raptus, aka the Xenomorph, aka the Alien, and after so many days in a cocoon, emerged as a she with no memory of her first six years. Deceived by the Fates in order to control her, Subject-3 learned of her new body: hands and feet that secret an adhesive film that allows her to climb any surface; projectile claws sharp enough to rend all metals; an exoskeletal carapace strong enough to block missiles, bombs, bullets, and blades; a healing factor that renders injuries moot; eyes with a second fovea that make them sharper than a bird of prey's; an extendable tail sharp and strong enough to puncture a nuclear bunker; dorsal tubes hooked directly into her occipital lobes that allow her to sense and see the bioelectricity and pheromones of prey; a jaw with more bite power than the tyrannosaur; superhuman physical prowess; acidic blood, with all internal organs aside from the heart having been converted into storage sacs; and all the powers of a child of Poseidon, magnified through training and will.
"For the next five years, Subject-3 would harness these powers, becoming the most lethal killing machine in the whole School, securing victory over every other experiment she faced, until one day she began to metamorphose once more. Another group of experiments, children successfully spliced with avian DNA that gave them wings, who collectively called themselves the Flock, were pitted against Subject-3, and when they recognized her from a chance meeting when she was still a boy, Asteria changed.
"She challenged the Fates, who had been masquerading as Xenomorph Queens in order to keep her from breaking out and wreaking havoc across the globe, and overthrew their phantom control over her. A new bond established between herself and the Flock, Subject-3 endeavored to train them and help them all escape in the name of a new life together. When Subject-3 was called to Antarctica to do battle with her arch enemy, the Predator—three of them—Angel, the youngest member of the Flock at four years old, kickstarted the escape and got everyone killed in the name of martyrdom. Angel's idea had been that even if they did escape, they would be hunted wherever they went, and so she ensured that they would never have to live life on the run, and that Subject-3 would tear the School apart…and she did.
"Subject-3 broke out upon the revelation of the Flock's fate and massacred everyone of the School. She also started a chemical super fire that not only destroyed the School, but raged beyond control to burn a massive path across California as Subject-3 relentlessly chased the woman known as the Director, the one responsible for all the evil that took place in the School, including every tortuous experiment conducted on Subject-3. After finally killing the woman after five years of being at her mercy, Subject-3 collapsed, exhausted, San Francisco a burning nightmare around her that was steadily being put out by rain.
"From there, she was taken to Olympus and underwent training, counseling, and therapy, which ultimately had next to no success. After six months interacting with the gods, Subject-3, now Asteria Jackson, went to Camp Half-Blood and did not destroy it nor butcher anyone there, though were some close calls. After the events of the Lightning Thief quest, Asteria, deciding that she had grown bored of camp life, desired a new course, and joined the Hunters of Artemis as a tagalong in order to see what the life would be like. Through the events post-Lightning Thief, all the way up to the Titan's Curse, Asteria made friends with the Hunters and managed to become the adoptive mother of three little girls: Amelia, a five-year-old orphan at the time of her initiation, Ariel, a former boy who accepted maidenhood after being rescued from sexual abuse at the hands of Lycaon's pack, and Annabeth Chase, through a very complicated process. However, Hunter life was not to be.
"The Xenomorph species operates under two premises: annihilation and propagation. Whatever cannot be used as a host to further the Hive, must be destroyed. Any threats to the Hive that cannot be harvest must be destroyed. When Asteria hit puberty, these two instincts took hold and could not be fought. At that point, it was the end of the world, as the whole of Planet Earth was full of viable hosts, 6.7 billion humans, and billions more in other mammalian hosts, not to mention all of the gods and monsters that roamed about—yes, even the mythological and the divine were not safe from the spread of Asteria's global Hive. Aided by her mate, the mighty Cain, who has a story all of his own, and their four children, the adopted girls and the biological son, Asteria took the planet, wiping out everything alive in the American continents, before sending Annabeth to conquer Eastern Asia, Ariel conquer Africa, Amelia to conquer Australia, while she, Cain, and Arcadia their son, took Europe and moved through Western Asia.
"In less than two months, Asteria wiped out all life on the planet, and when that was done, she and her massive family of children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and great-great-great-grandchildren, entered a wonderful state of hibernation, only for it to be ruined because Chaos."
That was all just voice over. The video had accompanying images with each segment, like the double helix, one half gold, the other half assorted colors, a syringe injected into an IV, Sally going limp and her vitals flatlining, a computer image of the School, with its 70 sublevels and two above levels, Subject-3 as a boy, with his little compression shorts and surgical scars, the cocoon, Subject-3 balled up and covered in resin, obscured, with huge, fleshy tendrils shooting out of him to connect to the walls, floor, and ceiling, then Subject-3 in miniature, a little girl crossed with a monster.
There were a bunch of images of Asteria standing victorious over one mutant after another, there was a picture of the Flock, Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and little Angel, then a shot of Asteria facing the three Predators in the frozen Antarctica, then another image of the Flock, this time all the kids riddled with holes and leaking blood all over the place. The next image was of California from space, a bright line starting from Death Valley and stretching all the way to San Francisco—the fire that Asteria started.
So on and so forth, but what really grabbed attention was the part where the video talked about Asteria taking over the world. That part depicted a world map, the Americas covered in black cloudy stuff, and then when it said that this person went to conquer this place, it showed the black rapidly spreading across the map, with a number in the billions off to the side that rapidly decreased as the black spread, until the whole world was covered, and that number hit zero.
The human population.
"What'd you think?" Wheels asked. "Read your story and pieced this together in less than three hours."
'It's passable.'
"That's it?"
'You missed some things.'
"I chose to leave some things out," Wheels clarified.
'Oh~, I see.'
"Yep."
Asteria directed her attention to Shin'en. 'I'm going to play with my children now. Call me when Leviathan gets here.'
Shin'en nodded.
The Lupa-morph crawled up Asteria's back and got comfy amidst her dorsal tubes, and the two Khione-morphs slithered up and around Asteria's arms, all three still messy from their birth. The Second Master ascended the stairs, everyone scrambling away from her as she approached, except for a very select few.
Asteria paused and looked at her mother, studying her and waiting for a reaction.
Sally stood up and looked Asteria in her alien eyes.
"I still do," she said firmly.
Asteria quickly looked away, her tendril hair hiding the profile of her face, but Sally still saw a drop of greenish liquid fall from somewhere on her daughter's face. That drop hit the ground, and the ground started sizzling and melting.
Asteria nodded and left.
Sally watched her go and then looked at the melting puddle, wondering what had just happened. She felt a presence looming, and looked to see her other son.
"There is no water in her body," Shin'en said. "Her tears are acid."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
And that's this chapter.
The scene with Asteria and the Wolf House has some history to it. Originally, it was just going to be Khione getting harvested and Hera in the cage, with Chaos having popped in and taken her, but I was like, 'Nah, that's a bit too much,' so I decided that it had to be some other deity, one that wouldn't heed Shin'en's all-call, and Lupa was just perfect. Then I thought to myself, 'Well, Asteria rescuing Lupa will probably undermine the terror of Khione's harvesting, with the Romans hailing Asteria as a hero for saving their goddess,' and we can't have Asteria being a hero, and therefore we have the harvest of Khione and Lupa!
Also, the fight was full of references to other media and anime, with Asteria's appearance behind Lycaon coming from Underworld, and the way she took his head coming from that scene in Hellsing Ultimate, breaking Khione's hands comes from Rebuild of Evangelion, and I'll let you guess where Asteria's boasting came from.
The style of her intro is what will be used for the others, for the sake of those that haven't read my other fics and are therefore totally lost as to who they are. That is the brief overview of them. Also, when speaking about the world map getting covered in black, I imagine the song "Ruthless Queen" playing in the background as the black spreads and the population counter races to zero.
A lot of this will require some imagination.
Next chapter will be the Leviathan, after that the Ghoul, then the Psychopath, then things will get messy, since the stories of the Assassin and the Gunslinger are unfinished, so it's the choice of introducing them as they are at their current points, steamrolling through to their ends and putting this on hiatus to do so, or breaking continuity and bringing them after their stories are done and carefully avoiding anything that would be a spoiler for their own stories.
Decisions, decisions…luckily, I've got at least three more chapters to make up my mind.
Fav, Follow, and Review please!