Polyphemus
Right then. If 9k words gets me 9 Reviews, then by that trend, a 20k chapter should get me 20 Reviews! Hopefully.
:P
Everyone rather nailed it on the head what I planned to do with Luke, though that really shouldn't be shocking.
Still undecided about a pairing, if any. Though there was a comment on Percabeth. And a comment on only some other powerful enough girl.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Dishonored
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"Hello, Luke."
Luke's eyes popped open and he flew from his bed, sword swinging from under his pillow. The two-sided sword of steel and Celestial bronze clanged against the pale neck of the black-eyed being—some god Luke didn't recognize—and his sword was knocked from his hand due to the exchange of forces. Luke's hand hurt after that one.
Since he wasn't vaporized on the spot, and the god didn't feel threatening or seem threatening in any way, Luke opted for diplomacy.
"Who are you?"
Looking again at the specter, Luke finally noted that he was not in his cabin on the Princess Andromeda. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all gone, as was the rest of the ship, and the ocean, and everything else. Instead, there were a bunch of floating islands of rock with what looked like mannequin figures on them, or really convincing wax dolls since they were all of people from Luke's life, that he could see from where he stood. Along with the off-color blue that was apparently the sky and the light source that seemed to be coming up instead of from above, Luke could only assume he was not in Kansas anymore.
"I am the Outsider. I have pulled you into my realm, the Void, to have a little chat with you without anyone interfering."
"Uh…thanks."
"You've seen Percy in your dreams, the power he has that he used to destroy Scylla and Charybdis, and lay waste to Circe's Island. I am the source of that power, and now I offer it to you. My Mark will allow you powers beyond your world, magic that no god or Titan can tamper with."
"What's the catch?" Luke asked, naturally skeptical about being offered powers from a god.
"What you do with the powers that you have is your choice, and yours alone. Do you accept my offer?'
Luke could tell he had only seconds to decide, and figured that Lord Kronos would probably be able to pull his ass out of any fire he found touching it, and therefore nodded. Immediately, his left hand felt like it was burning from the inside out. He looked and beheld the emergence of a strange symbol he didn't recognize. It glowed like a brand and lit his whole hand up.
And then it cooled and the color faded to black.
"I have one expectation, however," The Outsider said.
Luke's guard went up, ready to fight despite how he knew he couldn't win. "What?"
The Outsider leaned in uncomfortably close, solid black eyes glinting.
"I expect a good show."
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Percy noticed Annabeth fidgeting. "You gotta go poop or something?"
Annabeth whirled on him, face red and totally scandalized. "No!" she practically screeched. "And even if I did, I'd never tell you about it!"
Percy blinked, not understanding why someone would be so defensive about a simple bodily function. "Okay," he shrugged. "Based on what I can feel, there's this island ahead with a whole lot of clean water around it as opposed to all this other water. We'll get there in two hours, eighteen minutes, and forty-eight seconds."
Annabeth shifted again. "Are you, ah…picking up any monsters nearby? Particularly monsters that are lounging on some rocks?"
"You mean the sirens? The monsters that lure people to their deaths with their hypnotic music that makes the sailors see their dreams? Yeah, they're thirty-seven minutes down the water."
Annabeth felt put off that Percy so easily pegged what she was alluding to. She was hoping he didn't know what the sirens were and would therefore be totally compliant with her plan of tying her up so she could listen to the siren's song. She wanted to see what they had to show her because of the legend that if you saw the siren's vision and lived, you'd be that much wiser.
A prime example of her hubris, for sure.
Annabeth noticed something though. "You aren't worried about the sirens?"
"I blew up Scylla and Charybdis."
"…right. Fair point," Annabeth agreed, "but the sirens are different. Their song can-"
"Show a person what they desire most? I've already done what I desire most."
That was, of course, the death of the Kaldwin family and the avenging of the Brigmore Coven, despite the uncertainty that Percy now faced regarding his life and the mission he accomplished. On one hand, it didn't really matter if Delilah was telling the truth about her origins or was just deranged or was actually a liar, because what was done, was done. Percy had a new life ahead of him, one that didn't involve Dunwall or the Empire. On the other hand, it was a burning desire to know the truth.
Though what would it matter one way or the other what the truth was? That life was behind him now.
Annabeth looked pensive. "I…I wouldn't be so sure about that. The sirens could show you something you never expected, and we could be done for."
Percy shrugged again. "Fair point."
Annabeth pursed her lips at being quoted. "I'm just saying-"
"That I'll just blow the sirens up before they can start singing? Fantastic idea. Great minds think alike, as they say."
That was counterintuitive to what Annabeth wanted. "Well, before you blow them up, I was hoping you could tie me up so I can listen to a little bit of their song. They say those that hear the song and live become wiser."
Percy stared at her, the corners of his mouth twitching. "Usually, it's the guy who wants the girl to tie him up. And he has to pay for it, too."
Annabeth turned red as a cherry as she realized her poor choice of words. "Quit making things weird!"
"You're the one who wants me to tie you up. You're the one making things weird. What are you, like, eleven, twelve?"
"I'm thirteen! I'll be fourteen next month!"
"Oh, wow, thirteen. Yeah, that makes it so much better."
Still blushing, Annabeth said, "Look, can you just give me a few seconds to listen so I can see for myself if the legend is true? And make sure I don't go overboard and try swimming to them."
"I can cut off your arms and legs," Percy offered happily. "But then you'll probably just flop across the deck like a fish."
Annabeth recalled a children's song about flopping across the deck like a fish, and the mental image of her, a quadruple amputee, doing just that with a determined look on her face made her indignation fade away as a smile tugged at her lips.
"Please don't cut off my arms and legs. I'm attached to those."
Percy snorted. "I think you're weird, but I'll let you listen for a little bit."
Annabeth decided to take it. She nodded and smiled. "Thank you."
And so, when they got to the sirens, the siren song actually faltered a bit at what the seagoing demons saw. Annabeth, upside down, rope tying everything from her waist down (up?) to the mainmast, while more rope pinned her arms above (below?) her head. Her pose had her shirt falling down, exposing the bottom of her bra.
The sirens all looked at each other, shrugged, and cranked the volume back up. Not the weirdest thing they'd ever seen in their thousands of years of life. However, they quickly surmised that something was very wrong when the pirate ship did not come veering towards them. The girl started thrashing, and so they started singing louder, putting more effort into it in the name of dinner.
This lasted for all of two seconds before a bolt of lightning came from the helm, vaporizing one of the sirens, and then branching bolts darted to all of the other sirens, turning the whole…group? Flock? School? Herd? Gaggle? Whatever you called a collection of sirens that killed and ate sailors, they all died with Percy's Chain Lightning Blast.
Annabeth screamed at the top of her lungs in despair at the loss of her great dream. She screamed and screamed and thrashed and thrashed, totally heartbroken and anguished at what she'd seen. Percy hopped over the railing and slashed the ropes, dropping her on her head before she twisted so much she flayed herself. There were already deep red marks along her exposed arms and legs.
The blow to her head was enough to stun her to where she wasn't emulating a seizure, but she was still crying softly. Percy did not know what to do with a crying girl, but he remembered the times that he cried when he was younger, usually when a nightmare scared him, and what Mom had done for him.
He sat on his butt with his legs crossed and pulled Annabeth into his lap, positioning her head in the crook of his neck, and he began to sing the lullaby Mom had sung to him.
"After sparrows three times call
After gull does three times fall
Come, Maiden,
Mistress, Mouse, and Hen.
Come fisher, farmer
Frog and wren.
Once a king dressed in red
Warmed by the flames of feather bed.
While all the town starving cried
Chilled by winds the Month of Ice.
'Eat them of frost
Eat them of snow,'
The monarch decreed to them below.
Up on a spike
They perched his head.
Cursed his name,
Burned his stead.
Hush-a-bye and don't be affright
Mama will sing through all the night.
Many an hour before morning sun,
Don't dream of horror yet to come."
Percy started softly humming the rhythm, rocking Annabeth gently like Mom did.
"…I think-" Annabeth choked, swallowed, and tried again. "I think that's the creepiest lullaby I've ever heard."
"Really? It's what Mom always sung to me when I cried about my nightmares."
That honestly explained a lot about Percy, Annabeth thought, if his mother sang that were lullabies that gruesome. A king that let his people starve to death during winter, and then got decapitated for it, his palace burned to the ground—while certainly just, that was also just macabre to sing to a child.
"Your mom has some unique lullabies."
"Well, she is a witch."
"Oh. That's cool. My mom's a goddess. She's never around though."
"My mom's my heart," Percy said proudly.
Just then, his heart glowed in his chest, shining mutely through his clothes. Annabeth was totally mortified yet fascinated.
"Magic?"
"Magic," Percy confirmed.
"So, like, if you misbehave…does she give you a heart attack?" Annabeth asked, question fueled by her ADHD-ridden mind.
Percy looked up in thought. "Don't know. I don't really ever disobey my Momma."
Annabeth looked like she couldn't comprehend the notion of a child actually obeying their parents. Granted, she did run away at seven years old because she was unwanted and neglected, and had only recently started sending letters to her dad in Virginia at the insistence of Tea to try and patch things up. Further to Annabeth's stance, living in CHB for the majority of her life, practically all she saw were rebellious kids that came from broken homes, with parents that didn't love them or want them, or couldn't figure out to manage dyslexia and ADHD and therefore were totalitarian.
You will do what I say and how I say to do it, and I don't want to hear your excuses!
Or something like that.
Seeing a demigod kid have a happy and stable relationship with their mortal parent actually made Annabeth feel just a bit jealous. This jealousy brought about a bit of clarity, and she realized she was sitting in Percy's lap with her head against his chest. Instead of springing up, she just cleared her throat.
"Thank you, Percy, for, uh…that."
"You're welcome."
He got the message and let Annabeth get up. She plopped to her butt, resting against the mainmast.
Percy could see the weight on her shoulders. "Wanna talk about it?"
"…my dad never wanted me. He just ended running into my mom, Athena, at a college lecture he was giving. The two shared some small talk, and I think there might've been a date or something, and then, like Athena was born from Zeus's head, I was born from hers. All my siblings are born like that. We're all brain children.
"Anyway, so there's my dad, suddenly having a demigod baby girl literally dropped on his front porch in a golden cradle delivered by the west wind god Zephyros, when he had no desire for children at all. He didn't drop me off at an orphanage or put me up for adoption, but he doesn't love me, I know that. After putting up with his neglect for seven years, I ran away and made it on my own in the streets for a month before two other demigods found me. Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, and Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus.
"Together, the three of us made for about another three months before the monsters got to be too much to handle. Grover found us about that time, and we had to march across the States to get to camp because magical teleportation is too much to ask for, I suppose. We made it to the borders, monsters by the dozen after us because of Hades' rage. If Thalia hadn't stopped and fought them, we all would've died. As it was, Thalia was mortally wounded, so Zeus turned her into a pine tree so that her soul wouldn't fall into Hades' hands."
Percy recalled the big pine tree towering above every other tree at the edge of camp.
"Luke became bitter and resentful, and took on a quest to steal one of Hera's golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. He went up against Ladon, failed, was literally scarred for life, and even angrier because his plan to revive Thalia failed. Fast forward a few years, and it turns out he stole Zeus's Master Bolt in order to give it to Kronos to kickstart the Titan's resurrection to start a new war. Fast forward another year, and I'm pretty sure he poisoned Thalia."
Annabeth wiped tears from her eyes, struggling to keep it together, struggling not to fall apart.
"I'm going to be an architect," she insisted. "One day, I'm going to make things that last forever. They'll never rust or tarnish, they'll never fall or break or collapse, and they'll be so beautiful and important that they'll never be taken down, even thousands of years from now."
Percy decided to hold his tongue on how nothing lasts forever. How many times had one dynasty to the Empire of the Isles claimed they would last forever, only to be assassinated or die of natural causes with no heirs? The Kaldwin dynasty was one of the longest running ones, and Percy had ended it himself. However, he was able to put two and two together.
"The sirens showed you a world with all your buildings. You, Luke, Thalia, and your dad all happy together."
There had also been some of Annabeth's friends and siblings from camp, along with Tea, Bell, their mother, Wendy, and Dr. B, but it was close enough to the head of the nail that it broke Annabeth's dam.
She burst into tears and desired physical comfort so strongly she flung herself at Percy. He caught her and figured the best thing to do was simply hold her and let her get it all out of her system. She eventually cried herself to sleep in Percy's arms, and he had no idea what to do with a sleeping girl, and so he decided he might as well get in a nap of his own.
He summoned a Doppelganger and had it man the helm of the ship. Then he got cozy against the mainmast and closed his eyes.
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It seemed like seconds later that they opened again when he felt a disturbance. The water changed.
He nudged Annabeth, who was drooling on his collarbone, and she groaned awake. "What?"
"You're drooling on me."
"Wha-? I don't drool. Tea and Bell are the ones who drool-" Annabeth's eyes snapped wide open and she leapt from Percy as if had just caught fire. She was absolutely mortified. "Oh, gods. I'm so sorry!"
"Nah. Compared to the fact you also peed on me, drool isn't that bad."
"WHAT!?"
Annabeth's eyes snapped to her crotch, her hands feeling up her shorts. Percy's snickers keyed her on the fact that she'd been had.
"You are so immature."
"Says the girl drooling on me and had a legitimate freak-out over the possibility that she actually peed herself in her sleep."
Annabeth's face contorted, turning red and angry.
"Anyway," Percy cut her off before she could retort, "we're here. Polyphemus's Island in dead ahead."
Annabeth's anger deflated. "Did you have to say dead?"
"What are you worried about?" Percy asked with a raised brow.
"I mean…it's Polyphemus! No hero has ever killed him before. Odysseus only got lucky that his plan didn't blow up. There's also the flock of carnivorous sheep Polyphemus is supposed to have with him."
"The flock…of carnivorous…sheep."
Percy was trying not to laugh at the concept of flesh-eating sheep, and the deadpan way he said it made it hard for Annabeth to keep the smile off her face.
"Yes. Carnivorous sheep. The myth says they're as big as horses."
"Flesh-eating sheep big as horses." Percy's mouth was twitching dangerously as he tried to reign it in.
"Apparently fire comes out of their butts when they fart," Annabeth said, unable to keep herself from grinning.
"I know fire comes out of someone's butt when they fart. You totally missed it, but I was awoken prematurely by this sound like an airhorn, and then the deck was on fire. Luckily, there was plenty of water to put it out."
"Hm, maybe you should check your diet. Eating things that make you fart fire are definitely not good for your health."
Percy pouted as his joke was turned against him. Annabeth smirked at his expense.
"In all seriousness, though," Annabeth said, getting serious, "what are we going to do about Polyphemus and his flock?"
"We? We will do nothing against Polyphemus and his flock. I will blow them all up like I did with Scylla and Charybdis, and if some of them want to be stubborn, then I'll slice them up like I did Circe."
"…okay, fair enough. But what about a backup plan? You know, if your powers suddenly don't work or whatever."
"I've got some preserved seawater in my pouch. I can pop one of those and get an instant boost. It'll be enough to handle a half-blind cyclopes and some sheep."
Annabeth pursed her lips, getting frustrated at Percy's disregard for his personal safety. "Okay, but let's say, hypothetically speaking, you can't actually do this all by yourself. Like, you get overwhelmed, or determine the flock and/or Polyphemus are too much for you to handle."
"In that case, we'll make it up as we go along."
"You mean think on our feet?" Annabeth balked. "You don't think on your feet—you make plans, backup plans, and backup plans for the backup plans!"
"Were you ever potty trained?" Percy asked curiously.
Annabeth stared at him. "Yes, I'm potty trained."
Gods above, never in her life did she would ever actually say that to somebody. It sounded so weird and foreign.
"Good. Only potty-trained people can think on their feet."
If that was meant to be some kind of confidence booster, Annabeth firmly believed that it did not work. It just made her wonder what the Hades was wrong with Percy's brain.
She supposed that this is what being raised by a witch to be a magical assassin did to a guy.
As far as Percy's thought process went in regards to how to proceed with this mission, it was quite simple. He dropped a nail that was marked for Swap, and midfall, he separated his spirit with Foresight and went flying across the island. He found the flock of sheep being guarded by the gargantuan cyclopes Polyphemus. He went further about, and found the Golden Fleece hanging on a tree that was growing up next to this huge boulder that was blocking off a cave.
Percy recalled Grover, the satyr friend of Tea, Bell, and Annabeth, and how he was being held captive by Polyphemus. Percy sent his spirit through the boulder and into the candlelit cave, finding a satyr sitting inside, wearing a white dress. Apparently, Grover was one of those kinds of satyrs.
Percy's priority was the Fleece, however, and so Grover was placed second on the list.
To Annabeth's perspective, Percy suddenly vanished, making her jump, and then he almost instantly reappeared, making her jump a second time. He also had a shining, shimmering blanket with him.
"Is that-?"
"The Golden Fleece? Yep. If I recall correctly, the ram it came from was sired by Dad, so I am technically holding the remains of my distant relative."
That could've been phrased so much better, considering Percy was taking the Fleece solely for the sake of his distant relatives.
Percy unceremoniously placed the Fleece upon Annabeth's head, blinding her temporarily due to the size while she felt more invigorated than she ever had before in her life thanks to the magic, and by the time she got the Fleece off her head, there Percy was, standing with a familiar satyr.
"Grover!" Annabeth cried.
"A-A-A-Annabeth!" Grover bleated.
They hugged, and whatever moment was happening was ruined by Percy.
"Are you getting married to Polyphemus? Do I need to take you back?"
Grover went, "BLAH-HA-HA!" in primal terror. "No! I'm only wearing this because he thought I was a cyclopes too and didn't eat me!"
"Oh, okay, then."
Percy saw no reason to linger, and so he commanded the water and yanked the Queen Anne's Revenge in a one-eighty. When they got far enough, the Fleece's magic that kept the island lush and beautiful was removed, and so the land rapidly decayed into a pile of craggy rocks, a far cry from the meadows and fields that once covered the surface.
Polyphemus's outraged and…heartbroken?...wail was heard even as far as the trio had already sailed.
Percy didn't care. He needed the Fleece more than Polyphemus. If some desperate mother with cancer-ridden children between the ages of five and ten came running up to Percy, telling him they were going to die in the next 30 minutes, putting him in the position to have to choose between saving Tea and Bell or those kids, he wouldn't even hesitate to save his siblings. He'd probably even kill the mother just so she wouldn't attack him or try and steal the Fleece from him.
Grover didn't care either. Polyphemus had been eating satyrs for thousands of years, using the Fleece as a lure, fooling satyrs into thinking it was the great god Pan.
Annabeth also didn't care about Polyphemus's Island turning into a wasteland. She hated cyclopes with extreme prejudice.
"You're Perseus Breanna Copperspoon, right?" Grover asked hesitantly.
"Does everyone know I am despite me never having met them before?"
Grover smiled slightly. "I have what's called an empathy link with Tea and Bell. I can read their emotions and they can read my mine, to an extent. We can also communicate through our dreams. They told me about you."
"Neat. Don't do an empathy link with me."
"Didn't plan on it."
"Good."
Percy turned the wheel, making the ship change course.
"What are you doing?" Annabeth asked.
"Putting us on a closer route to the boundary of the Sea. Once we're out, I'm gonna do the same thing I did with the Orca. I don't wanna do it here on account of the fact this water feels funny."
"It's laced with a whole lot of evil magic," Grover supplied.
"Yeah, that."
"And what happened with an orca?"
"It was the name of this boat Percy and I…commandeered…to get to the Sea of Monsters in the first place. Percy teleported it through the ocean from Montauk all the way to the straight between Scylla and Charybdis. Then it blew up…after Percy blew up both the monsters."
Grover's jaw dropped. "You teleported a boat across the Atlantic, and still had enough power to kill two of the strongest monsters in history? Dude!"
"There's also the fact that he killed Circe all by himself," Annabeth added.
Grover gasped.
Percy shrugged. "Circe was easy. She didn't know what I could do, and it cost her."
"That's still huge. No one's ever killed Scylla or Charybdis before, and never at the same time, and then turned around and killed a minor goddess like Circe. That's like…that's like stuff right out of ancient times! Dude, you're already a legend!"
"Thanks."
Grover deflated some at Percy's dismissal of his praise.
Annabeth's brow furrowed. "Percy, are you okay?"
"I'm focused on getting back to Manhattan."
Annabeth and Grover shared a look. The blonde shrugged, and so did the satyr. That made sense, and they really didn't want to push the boy who'd already done what seemed like four impossible things in rapid succession. Not to mention how he'd stolen the Golden Fleece right from under Polyphemus's eye and rescued Grover from his cavern prison in less than ten seconds.
Being from another world, with all of these strange abilities that no one understood or even had a decent grasp over, was proving to make Perseus Breanna Copperspoon one of the most powerful demigods in recorded history.
Hadn't even been here a week yet and he was already making huge waves.
No doubt he had the eye of the majority of the gods on him already, and neither Grover nor Annabeth could figure if that was a good thing.
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It was a little while later that they got to the border of the Bermuda Triangle.
"Alright," Percy chirped. "Everyone overboard."
"WHAT!?" was the twofold squawk of protest.
"I'm not gonna try and water travel this huge ship halfway across the planet," Percy sniffed. "The Orca sucked enough. I'm just gonna water travel the three of us. So, overboard."
Annabeth found that to be of sound logic, and so she just nodded, grabbed Grover, dragged him to the railing, and against his protests, hopped over. A splash and Grover's cry about how cold it was told Percy they'd made it in.
'It'd be real mean of me to leave them to drown,' Percy mused to himself.
But he wasn't that mean. At least, not to people he had no problem with.
Percy abandoned the Queen Anne's Revenge to the currents and joined the other two in the cold Atlantic waters. He actually couldn't see them so much as feel them due to how much distance had already been created between the time they jumped and he jumped, and how high the waves were going. He pulled them to him through the water, and they both looked freezing and stunned when they got face to face.
"Ready?"
"No!" Grover gasped.
"Perfect!"
Grover was treated to the same fizzy, bubbly feeling that Annabeth had experienced, like his body was being deconstructed into soda and then reassembled. As far as he and Annabeth could tell, nothing was wrong. Percy, however, felt like he got yanked offstage.
When they surfaced, Percy saw a huge ship that reminded him of the pleasure yachts that the Empire's elite aristocrats would use, and then he was suddenly flying out of the water along with the screaming Annabeth and Grover. They were plopped on the deck, Percy landing on his feet, and he saw the all the monsters and human teens wearing ancient armor.
Standing out front was a younger man, twenties, wearing a short-sleeve blue polo tucked into khaki pants with a black leather belt. He had bronze-colored watch on his right wrist, a sword sheathed at his right hip, and Percy saw on the back of his left hand a very familiar mark.
"Luke!?" Annabeth gasped.
"Annabeth," Luke nodded in greeting with a kind smile, "Grover, and you're Perseus Breanna Copperspoon."
Snicker and chuckles broke out amongst the ranks.
"What kind of name is Copperspoon?"
"He's got a girl's name!"
"Are you sure that's not a girl?"
"Ten drachma says he's wearing panties."
"Twenty drachma says he's actually a girl."
"Eh, I'll put fifteen on he's one of those new trans things or whatever. You know, he's going from boy to girl."
"Isn't that just crossdressing with extra steps?"
Luke cleared his throat. "If you are all quite finished."
They all shut up, and Luke turned back to the trio with a disarming smile.
"Sorry about them. They're a rowdy bunch, but they grow on you given enough time…a lot of time. Anyway, we would like to have the Golden Fleece, please."
"No," was Percy's short and simple answer.
Luke nodded. "We would like to have the Golden Fleece after you've used it to save your brother and sister."
"And what are you going to use it for?"
The smile dropped from Luke's face as he got serious. "To resurrect the Titan king, Kronos. With him risen, we will topple the gods that have allowed this world to spiral out of control. The same gods that go around having kids and then abandoning them. The same gods that curse kids to be sick until they die."
"I feel like there's a catch to this—anyone feel like there's a catch to this?" Percy asked loudly to those in the back.
There was some shifting and discomfort going on back there, which Luke ignored.
"Only an oath of loyalty. Lord Kronos has sworn on the Styx to treat all the half-bloods that serve him with kindness, fairness, respect, and dignity, and will reward us for our service and our…our loyalty."
Luke looked like he'd swallowed a lemon at the fact that he'd used the word "loyalty" twice in the same two breaths.
"Yeah~," Percy drew out slowly with a flat expression. "I'm not gonna put any kind of trust in the guy that ate his own kids for the sake of his chair at the dinner table, and is also called the Crooked One. There's some red flags here that I think are being ignored."
"If you're not with us, Percy—may I call you Percy?"
"Sure."
"If you're not with us, Percy, then you're against us. And those who stand against us will kneel."
"Ooh~, scary poetry." Percy rubbed the rings on his thumbs and his tonfas sprang to life. He spun and twirled them, then caught them in a position where they were braced across the length of his forearms. "Personally, Luke, if anyone's going to be kicking Zeus's ass for what he's done to Bell and Tea, it's going to be me."
A shield sprang to life from the watch Luke wore, and he reached across to draw his sword. "You don't have to do this, Percy. We'll be the winners of this war, that's a promise."
"You're between me and getting the Fleece to my brother and sister, so I'm going to kill you now. That's a promise."
"You're welcome to try."
The Mark on Luke's hand began to glow a faint, sickly gold, while the Mark on Percy's hand glowed and thrummed a bluish green.
Percy wasn't surprised to discover Luke had been Marked by the Outsider. He'd kind of expected somebody to be eventually in this other world. He was just really hacked that it was happening right now of all times, when time was a huge factor to Percy.
He'd make this quick.
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Cliffhanger? Cliffhanger! And after such a short chapter, too.
Well, short compared to the monster chapters I've been cranking out lately.
Yes, Luke is now a Voidwalker just like Percy is, and his powers will be explored next chapter. They will make him able to hold his own against Percy, just because of what they are.
It also brings up this interesting question: who else, if anybody, will be Marked by the Outsider?
Fav, Follow, and Review please!
Please, seriously…please Review. A few hundred people get the email that there's a new chapter up. I know more than nine can think of something to say, like "good job," or "great chapter." Reviews really help me stay motivated to keep writing, and I really need some motivation right now with so many big projects on deck.