(January 17, 2003)
A beautiful young Middle Aged red head watched from her kitchen as Ulysses played in the backyard of their home a couple miles from New York City. Watching the boy she gave birth to play sent her backwards in her mind, she remembered the time she got the news that she was pregnant. She wasn't even seeing anybody, so she thought of the only thing that could have happened, a complete miracle. It was also proven when the doctors took some of his blood when he was 5, he was genetically superior to a normal human. It would explain why he would never get sick, and if he got hurt his body would heal three times faster than normal.
Even with his little quirks and the unbelievable unexplainable conception of her child she loved him dearly. Every chance she could get she would hug her son and plant a big loving kiss on his cheeks which made the young boy to squirm. A small giggle escaped her lips when she saw Ul trip only to spring forward on his hands landing on his feet confusing the boy himself. "His reflexes have grown since last time he tripped, his body is learning from his mistakes." The ringing of an alarm knocked her attention from her son to her sons lunch, she slowly walked to the oven turning it off and lowering the door to reveal a small pizza.
"Sweetie! Lunch is done!" She yelled as she used a large wooden paddle to pull the small pizza out of the oven and slid it onto the large plate she had left out onto the table. It didn't take long for the sound of her sons feet to hit the wooden floor before rushing into the kitchen and sitting in his usual spot at the table. Her eyes landed on the boy who stood at 3ft 3in, he had short wavy red hair and her hazel eyes. He had a small black mole on the right side of his chin and a row of freckles connecting from cheek to cheek over his nose.
Going into one of the many drawers in the kitchen counters before pulling out a pizza cutter. Walking back to the table she cut the pizza into four slices her smile seemingly to grow as she heard her son bounce in her seat. "Alright calm down and eat up Kiddo." The kid laughed loudly taking his two pizza's yelling out a quick thank you before eating a large grin on his cute face. "Thanks Mom! You always make the best food." He said after taking a big swallow after biting half of his pizza, the little munchkin had cheese a tomato sauce all over his face and some on hide blue shirt.
After the lunch the young woman pointed towards the stair case to the second floor. "Alright Ul, go get cleaned up so I can take you to your friends house." Ulysses pouted as he grabbed his plate taking it to the sink and getting onto his step stool, he rinsed off his plate before setting it to the side. "Do I have to go mom? I'm having a bad feeling..." the mother sighed a sad frown forming on her lips as she walked up and hugged Ulysses. if there was one thing she found out about her little hero was when he had a bad feeling something always went wrong from small accidents to major problems.
"Yes Dear, you have to go. There is no reason for you to keep yourself here, go and have fun" she said before ushering him off towards the stairs the frown growing from sad to one of foreboding. She too was having a terrible feeling, as if she was being hunted by an apex predator. Letting out a deep sigh she herself went to her bedroom on the first floor not noticing the two pairs of bright yellow eyes watching from the foliage outside.
(33 minutes later, New York City)
Ulysses was dropped off at an apartment building and the boy bounded up the steps as his mother drove away. Ulysses turned his head slightly his eyes filled with worry and Dismay, with a sigh the young boy walked up to the front door of her apartment raising his small fist before knocking on it. The door opened to reveal a beautiful young woman with long brown hair and sparkling Blue eyes and a mile to radiate the area of it was night. "Good afternoon Miss Jackson!" Ulysses said giving the young mother a bright smile on his face that always seems to spring up when seeing the kind woman. "Hello Ul, Percy is upstairs in his room" with a quick thanks from the child and a giggle from Sally Jackson Ulysses ran past Gabe who was playing poker with his friends.
He slowed down nearing Percy's room, he opened the door to find Percy putting on his shoes. "Hey Percy!" Ulysses said walking inside as Percy stood up a smile gracing his face. "Ul! Is it 1 already?" Percy said looking towards his clock on the wall by his bed scratching his head. "Well let's go then!" With that the two person stampede made their way up to the roof where they made a little hangout for themselves out of spare wood they would find. "Alright so what game are we going to play today Perseus?" Ulysses asked causing Percy to groan in agitation as Ul used his first name. "Hmm let's continue my streak in Sorry" Percy said making Ulysses pout as he had yet to win a round of Sorry, Grumbling Ulysses agreed making Percy chuckle as they entered their little hangout.
(On the Drive home, Francine)
After dropping Ul off at the Jackson's Francine started driving straight home a frown on her face, her sons instincts have always been spot on. When Ulysses turned five his bad feeling kept them out of a small car crash, the look on his face was worse than before though. Something is going to happen, her boy's instincts were never wrong. She flew down the road to the house at high speeds before drifting into her parking place. She quickly got out before rushing into the house with her own instincts telling her to get a weapon. Rushing to her kitchen she rummaged through her drawers before pulling out a 10 inch knife she uses to chop vegetables.
Slowly she walks throughout her house locking the windows, the front and the back door before she went to her fridge to get a bottle of water as her mouth started to go dry. She started to feel a aura of Malice and sense imperilment, Risk and danger. She raised her head and looked towards the windows over the sink to see nothing but her backyard, with a small sigh she went back into her fridge grabbing a bottle of water. When she closed the door and turned walking back to the living room she missed the two sets of glowing eyes staring at her from the kitchen window and the storms clouds raging above.
Carrying her knife in a reverse grip she opened the bottle of water taking a sip, closing the bottle she set it down on the coffee table to grab the remote to the tv. Turning it on she immediately flipped to the news hearing the low rumble of thunder from a great distance. She was about to sit down when the house phone started to ring, she couldn't help but smile knowing exactly who it was. she turned and walked to the phone that was sitting on its charger, picking it up she saw the caller ID being the Jackson's sos eh answered. "Hello?" She said feigning ignorance of who it was until she couldn't help but giggle at her sons worried tone. "Mom, is everything ok? I have a very bad feeling..." he said making her smile turn into a deep frown, the storm, the feelings she was getting herself they were to coincidental.
"I know Baby, just hang tight ok? Wait until the storms passed over before asking Sally to bring you home ok?" She said in a kind way but had a firm undertone that always made Ulysses to straight his posture and listen. "Yes ma'am...bye, I love you." her son spoke back with a bit of whine Francine's smile returning. "Bye Hun, I love you too." She hung up just as a thunderous boom resounded as lightning struck close by, her house shook and the power went out. Gripping her knife tightly she turned and slowly made her way to the basement door, she opened the drawer in the nightstand grabbing a flashlight. Turning it on she opened the basement door the sound of rain echoing throughout the house.
Slowly stepping down the stairs she made her way over to the back of the basement where the breaker box was. She opened the metal door and started flipping through the switches, with nothing working she sighed and closed the door. That's when the house shook but not from thunder, no the sound of wood and glass breaking made her rush to the basement door. Grabbing the doorknob she slowly opened the door to peek through the crack, what she saw made her eyes widen to their absolute limit. The front door and the wall with the windows was completely broken into, glass and wood splinters completely covering her living room her TV included as the screen was completely shattered.
A bead of sweat started to form out of fear, slowly she closed the door hearing what sounded like snarling coming from the kitchen. Slowly the woman went backwards down the stairs pointing her knife towards the door as she tried her best to stay silent. She hid underneath to stairs as the sounds of fabric tearing, doors being smashed and glass being shattered gripped her heart in fear. That's when the door to the basement flew off its hinges slamming into the wall, Francine covered her mouth so her yelp was muffled. She watched the staircase as the steps creaked under a massive amount of weight the steps bending under it.
Her eyes widened even further when she realized there wasn't anything on top of the stairs, an empty space where snarls and growls could be heard as it treaded down the steps. Her eyes tracked the the thumps of what sounded like heavy paws hitting the concrete floor. As it slowly made its way to the breaker box Francine took that chance to rush up the basement stairs and started heading towards the broken down front wall of their house. It didn't take long for whatever was after her to barge itself out of the basement and charge full speed towards her.
Lightning flashes behind her and time seemed to slow down, her eyes widening at the shadow she saw in front of her from the invisible beast behind her. The menacing shadow came from the monster was larger than an English mastiff, it had two massive heads with razor sharp teeth. Seeing this brought her back to her study's in college, Dioskilos, the Two headed dog related to Cerberus. Everything seemed to shiner for Francine as her eyes were opened beyond the mist, slowly turning her head she got a good look at the massive two headed monster. The Dioskilos had light grey fur and was shaped similarly to a wolf, it had one of its front paws raised revealing large claws. Moving her arm backwards the best she could she tried her best to swipe her knife at the beast.
It was in vain though as she was swatted to the side, the mortal blade not having any effect against the beast. Her body was sent bouncing against the ground until it crashed into her car leaving a massive dent in it. Francine Roma was left a heap on the ground by her car with her head, arms and back left scraped and bleeding from the attack. The Dioskilos slowly walked over to the mortal woman and sniffed her as she weakly groaned in pain and whines in fear. Baring it's fangs and raising both heads the beast snapped its jaws and started to tear into the woman causing her to scream in pain before eventually going silent.
(Percy Jackson's Home)
It was now 4 am with both Percy and Ulysses sleeping next to each other, in the middle of the night Ulysses started having a nightmare. The redheaded boy would toss and turn as he had terrible visions in his dream like sleep. There was a thunderstorm above his house and it was darker than the night, he could hear screams, smashing sounds and glass breaking before a loud howl. He started to sweat and cry as he heard his mother scream with squelching sounds, with a final snap of what sounded like crushed bone her snapped up a look of horror on his face. Before he could catch his breath time froze to a stop as a shield appeared in front of him, below the shield it said {Mission Request}.
"W-What the?" He said as the shield disappeared and words took its place that said { Journey to Power! Make your way home. Careful! With your awakened power monsters will attack you at every turn! } with that it disappeared time flowing normally again, quickly getting to his feet Ulysses got dressed in his normal clothes and rushed out of Percy's home. Running down the sidewalk in the rain he was able to grab a small broken pipe, he stopped in his tracks as lightning struck in front of him. When the flashed died down it was revealed to be a large snake with venom dripping off its fangs, the world slowed down around them. A health bar showed up above the snake and out of the upper corner of his vision, the snakes health was 10 while his was 22.
(Cue Final Fantasy Xiii - Blinded by Light)
Ulysses growled in frustration getting into a small squat the pipe held in front of him in a defensive stance that would allow him to counter attack. 'H-How do I even know how to fight like this?!' Ulysses yelled in his head as the snake slithered forward quickly going to bite his ankles. Moving his foot back avoiding the snakes attack her swung the legs forward kicking the snake back dealing 1.5 damage. Trying to take this chance Ulysses rushed forward and slammed the pipe down on the snakes head dealing a heavy critical hit. 3.5! With half the snakes health down the snake hissed loudly and two blue squares formed under its health bar. One had what looked like a shoe and the other had a sword, suddenly twice as fast as before it jumped and wrapped its body around his neck forcing Ulysses to drop his pipe.
It started to squeeze and went to bite his face only for the child to grab hold of its neck keeping it at bay as it snapped its jaws while choking him. Squeezing his own hands Ulysses tried to choke the snake, both health bars started going down by one. When the snakes health reaches two it's grip loosened and Ulysses was able to thrown the snake off activating something as the next thing Ulysses sees is the words [Chaos Event]. Grabbing his pipe he looked up to see the snake already leaping forward to bite him, a golden arrows appeared telling the boy to move left. In an instant Ulysses turned his body right and leaned back allowing the snake to fly past him. Reaching up Ulysses grabbed the snake by the end of its tail before swinging it down and slamming it into the wet concrete.
As it rebounded up The redheaded boy jumped up with his pipe before landing on top of the snake stabbing it into the head finishing the battle with a swift kill. Ulysses panted and heaved with his lungs burning from both exhaustion and the lack of air from earlier. The snake shattered like glass before forming into a glowing white orb of energy hovering in front of his chest before entering him. A shield formed in front of him with the words { Battle won! 15 exp gained, snake skin gained, venom gained!Would you like to spend Exp? Yes or no! }. Ulysses was very confused, of course he's heard the term before from people who have played something called an RPG. "Y-Yes or n-" before he could finish a light flashes in front of him.
In front of him was a dark world filled with millions of stars, the most prominent was a constellation in the form of a Greek helmet and the numbers over it. It showed his HP which was at 19/22, his Strength which was at 1.5, and magic which was at 0. His vision slowly narrowed to a single dot on a start of the constellation which was a glowing blue crystal orb. It needed 10 Exp to unlock, but Ulysses didn't notice he just slowly reached at it before his finger tip tapped it. It glowed brightly { hp 6, strength 3.5.} Ulysses felt a sudden rush of strength before everything faded, not even caring about what just happened he gripped his pipe tightly before rushing off.
(The Roma's home)
Ulysses ran up the dirt drive way until he skid to a stop his eyes landed on the destruction of his house, he stepped forward and his foot landed in an extra thick pool of liquid. Looking down his eyes landed on a large pool of blood, he slowly followed it till his eyes landed on his mother. The flash of lightning made his vision turn from his mother laying by the car to a open field, a burning building and two bodies laying in front of it. He rushed forward heavy set of tears flowing down his already wet face. Sliding on his knee's the image of Ulysses and Argyris laid on top of one another as Ulysses held his mother and Argyris held his wife.
The young boy's breath shuddered as he started to sob loudly burying his face into the crook of his mothers neck. Hiccuping as anger slowly built up in his heart and sadness threatened to destroy his young mind. A growl forced him to stop and slowly turn his head his gaze landing on the Dioskilos exiting the Forrest blood dripping down its snouts. Gripping his broken pipe, his nostrils flaring in anger. He gingerly got back to his feet and turned fully to the animal, his jaw gritted tightly as his rage only seemed to grow at the sight of the two headed dog.
The area ripples as time froze with Ulysses getting into his battle stance, a burst of adrenaline rushed through the child's veins as his instincts kicked in. "You! YOU'RE THE REASON SHE'S GONE! IM GONNA DESTROY YOU!" With a loud roar the battle commenced, a health bar formed over the Dioskilos. The beast had 80HP, bowing down slightly the Dioskilos leapt forward forcing Ulysses to dive to the side. The readheaded boy didn't hesitate and charged towards the two headed dog and slammed his pipe against the side of the beasts leg. -5HP. Roaring loudly the beast snapped at Ulysses forcing him to tumble backwards.
The monster didn't let up and swiped at the young boy with his claws slashing at his torso. -6. His health bar lowered significantly forcing the boy to take a strategic retreat hopping backwards to gain distance. 'I can't fight it! It's too strong!' Ulysses though trying to figure something out, gazing around his eyes landing on a damaged tree ready to topple over. [Chaos Event]. His eyes landed back on the Dioskilos that was rushing at him, pushing his wounded body he ran towards the damaged tree. The monster slid on the wet ground and slammed against the tree Ulysses was resting by. -10HP. It shook off the cobwebs before rushing forward to chase after the smell that drew him to the house in the first place.
The burning in his lungs returned as Ulysses bobbed and weaved through different trees trying to at least slow down the monster. The Dioskilos only slashed the Trees out of its way, sliding to a stop he stopped at the damaged tree seeing it was clawed partly by the beast to mark its territory. "It's not deep enough..." again an arrow appeared in front of him, following it he ducked and jumped to the side dodging a swipe that made the damage on the tree worse. The monster whirled around and started swiping and snapping its jaws at him. Ulysses did his best to keep up getting clipped every couple of swipes of the beasts claws. The Monster tried to slam his paw down on top of Ulysses but he dodged to the side raising his pipe over his head, slamming it down onto its paws the sharp end stabbed the paw into the ground. Punching one of the heads he rushed past the damaged tree jumping forward his feet planted into another tree.
Time seemed to slow as both Ulysses and The Dioskilos turned towards each other, Rage once again overtook him once again and with a roar of anger he kept forward. The Boy's shoulder roughly slammed into the damaged tree, a loud snap and crack was heard as the damaged Tree shook from the impact. Slowly the tree leaned forward before slamming on top of the monster killing it under its weight. Ulysses panted and wheezed as he picked himself up off the ground his right shoulder dislocated. His blurry vision was good enough so he could slowly trudge his way towards his mother, the tears returned full force as he kneeled by his mothers body. Leaning down he rested his face on her torso sobbing loudly as the storm continued to rage on.
As he cried he never noticed the shield and the words under it. { Quest Completed, 20HP, 10Strengrh. }. with the quest completed a chapter ended and a new one has begun, the death of Francine Roma will push Ulysses to grow stronger. Unknowing to the young warrior a being of unimaginable power watched his suffering and couldn't help but chuckle. "Yes that's right, your suffering will make you grow my child. And when you're strong enough the game shall truly begin!"