Insomnia
Part Two
Deeper in the city, up in a tall Ivory building with the word sleep in big blue letters with technologies underneath. A man with short black hair and stern blue eyes. Looked out upon the city of New York. Standing firm with a small smile across Benjamin Mann's lips. He spots a shadow in the corner of his eyes hovering by the wall.
"We have a problem," The Luke whispered.
"Go on" The Benjamin said.
"It seems the gods are on to us."
"Sounds exciting. How many are there?
"Three, two gods and one half-breed."
The Benjamin merely laughed as he rubbed his hands together.
"Well, while it doesn't seem like much a challenge, this should be fun anyway."
"Your orders?" The Luke asked.
"Keep a close eye on them for now,if they get too close, you know what to do."
"Yes sir," the Luke hissed before disappearing back into the dark.
Taking a deep breath, Benjamin put his fingers through his hair while taking a sip from his glass.
"Nothing will come between me and end ever nothing.
In town, walking down the street with Percy in front, Selene continued looking at the black feather that was giving off a dark glow. Morpheus raised an eye brown as he glanced down at the feather as well.
"That's a shadow hawk feather,"Morpheus said.
"Aren't they a part of Nyx's air fleet.?" Selene asked.
Morpheus nodded. "But why are they here now?
"I hate having more questions than answers," Selene said, looking around. "Where is Percy?"
Morpheus looked round for a while until his eyes fell upon a long line at the Pharmacy that wrapped around the corner. He and Selene looked up at the massive signs in the window in bright neon green letters causing Selene to move closer.
"Want a full night's rest? buy Sleep guarantee to give you the rest you need to make it through the day." Selene said.
Before Morpheus could open his mouth, Percy emerged from the pharmacy. Pushing thought the line, he walked over to the two of them with a small white bag in hand. Looking around, Percy motions for them to walk away, so the three of them walked a few blocks away as Percy opened the bag and handed Morpheus the pill bottle.
"I was curious about what the big deal was, so I bought some and it wasn't cheep fifty dollars for fourteen pills." Percy said.
The three of them continued walking until finding an empty bench at a part by a lake. As they sat down, Morpheus opened the top of the pill bottle. Looking in side he noticed a familiar tan glow. He picked up one pill and looked at it. The way the tan sand like essence danced around in the capture caused anger to surge within Morpheus.
"Father's sand…" Morpheus trailed off.
Pulling out his cell phone, Morpheus stared at it as it buzzed away. The name read dreamer. Sighing, he held the receiver up to his ear.
Percy glanced at Selene.
"I wonder who is calling him?"
"Probably Phobetor or Phantasus Morpheus's brothers. He asked them to keep Nyx busy while we look for Hypnos." Selene said.
Percy nodded as the two of them stared at the sleep capsules.
Morpheus took a deep breath.
"Hello Phants,"
"Any leads bother?" Phantasus asked.
"We found father's sand being used in pill form."
Phantasus went silent for a moment. "The humans are selling sleep?!"
"Humans no but someone is, Morpheus said. "Oh, has Grandma deployed the shadow hawks?"
"No, why?"
Now it was Morpheus turned to be silent.
"I see we'll keep grandma bother good luck." Phantasus said before hanging up.
Slipping his phone back into his pocket, Morpheus turned back to Percy and Selene.
"How is it?" Selene asked.
"There, keep Nyx busy," Morpheus said before looking at Selene. "As for the shadow hawks, Nyx's are still resting."
"Excuse me, shadow hawks?" Percy asked.
"One of Nyx's battalions humanoid hawks that have a deadly sting attack that can insanely kill humans while driver other lifeforms crazy.
Percy gulped and nodded.
Standing up, Morpheus continued walking, with Percy and Selene running to catch up.
"We're heading to Sleep Technologies." Morpheus said, pointing to the name on the bottle.
"How do you expect us to get in?"
"Oh, I have my ways Morpheus said, followed with a smirk.
Watching from the shadows, a pair of dark purple eyes glowed as they followed the trio.
Walking down the hallway to his office, he nodded to his employees, who either bowed or nodded in passing. Since the Insomnia incident occurred, Benjamin has gained a lot more employees, prompting them a free supply of sleep seem to work, but only those who are not human know the secret to his success.
Walking into the elevator, Benjamin pulled out his key card. Scanning it, he pressed a button with a symbol on. it, the door. opened there stood men and woman in matching. purple outfits, the men wore purple suits and women's dresses. The moment he walked by, they bowed. He continued on toward the man's doors.
Stopping at the door, he straighten his jacket and walked into a lab where dozens of men and woman with white lap coats where typing away on computers while tons of wires were connected to a large chamber sucking out tan glowing sand from a man with long tan color hair and sad matching color eyes. The man in the chamber looked right at Benjamin and the once strong tan glow waned, much to his delight.
"Come to gloat again?" the man in the chamber asked.
"It seems someone up there is trying to find you."
"I see. You won't be able to keep this up forever."
Benjamin smiled. "I may not, but by the time I am done with this world it will be so far gone not even the Gods will be able to fix it."
"Why are you doing this?"
Benjamin didn't say a word, he just stared at Hypnos for a few moments and walked away.
Once outside the lab, a woman approached Benjamin. She bowed before she spoke.
"Luke has reported, the trio are coming to the building
"Good, I can finally see who I am dealing with. While giving them a taste of who there are dealing with." Benjamin said. Followed with a smirk.
Standing outside the large build of Sleep Technologies, Percy noticed many people greeting them with smiles. There were no dark circles under their eyes and their smiles seem genuine.
"They are being taken care of well here."
"But for how long, I wonder."
Morpheus' eyes glowed as a light lined his body and Percy's. when the light disappeared, Morpheus wore a suit, as did Percy. Selene zapped her self transform her simple pants and top into a navy blue dress with white flat dress shoes.
"Lets go, we're just here to investigate, nothing more."
Nodding, the three of them walked through the main doors and up to the receptionist's desk. Percy's eyes wandered over the lobby. The vast paints of a purple mural of tan color like a man with a smile sail across the painted night sky that started from the entrance and spread across the ceiling and walls he couldn't help but smile as he got lost in how beautiful the massive mural looked.
"It gives a wonderful inspiration for our mission here." A male voice said.
Percy turned to his left to see a man with black slicked back hair was a navy blue suit. He turned to Percy, extending out his hand.
"Benjamin Mann CEO and founder of Sleep."
"I'm Percy Jackson," He said, shaking his hand.
"Are they your colleagues?"
"Yes, we are here to see you," Morpheus said.
Benjamin smiled, extended his hand out to the others. Selene bowed slightly while Morpheus shook his hand.
"Mr. Mann, my name is Joseph from Dreamer Enterprises. You have already met my under study Mr. Jackson and this is my security Lena.
Benjamin smiled. "Welcome to sleep tech, where we aim to help the world sleep again."
Morpheus and Benjamin walked in front, while Selene and Percy followed them. The four moved from room to room, examining the process and testing of the pills along with the financial process. Yet Percy couldn't help but feel as if they were being watched. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake it off and looked over his shoulder.
"I don't like this," Percy whispered as he stopped moving.
Selene did the same. She realized that in the hallway, the surrounding lights had dimmed, morphing into purple lights. But as she looked closer, she saw that those were not lights but eyes.
Selene snapped around to see Morpheus and Benjamin still walking. But as she looked closer, she noticed a pair of wings on his back much large, then any other shadow hawk she had ever seen. Her eyes narrowed.
"Is he?" Percy asked.
"Yup" is all Selene sternly. "You ready?"
Pulling out his pen, Percy nodded as he clicked his pen, and his sword appeared. Morpheus stopped when he did. He heard footsteps behind him. Benjamin did the same. He turned to him as his eyes gave off a purple glow, followed by a smirk.
The purple lights from the walls emerged forming into human like beings with wings on their backs.
"Shadow hawks." Morpheus said, as he transformed back into his normal form.
"Morpheus, Selene and Percy, it's so lovely to meet you how do u love my trap." Benjamin said, backing away with a smile.
"Selling sleep?" Percy asked.
"In a world filled with insomnia, it's a wonderful plan and the result is beautiful." Benjamin said, following with a smile.
"You won't get a way with this." Morpheus seethed.
Benjamin smiled. "But I already have. While I may not kill a god, I can slow them down.
Snapping his fingers, all the shadow hawks on the wall glowed as they aimed their wings in their direction. Morpheus and Selene's eyes closed as they formed a shield around the three of them as dozens upon dozens of glowing feathers shot out of the walls.
Selene and Morpheus tried to move, but the force from the stingers was keeping them in place.
"Only investigating huh, well this turned out well," Selene said.
"Let focus on trying to get out of this," Morpheus said.
Percy remained silent. He noticed the shield they were holding up was crumbling away piece by piece. They need to get out here and fast looking around. He stared at the large window down the hall. Taking a deep breath, he knew what he had to do and man; it was going to hurt.
The moment the shield dropped, Percy ran toward the end of the hall. Stingers flew by, missing his ears by an inch. Just as he was at the window, a stinger hit his leg. Gritting his teeth, he swung his sword, deflect as many as he could. But he couldn't stop them all. With tons of stingers in his arms, back, chest and legs, he glanced out the window and noticed the water fountain outside by the entrance. Pushing the pain to the back of his mind, Percy's eyes glowed.
"Duck!" he screamed.
Morpheus and Selene hit the ground as the window shattered as an enormous wave of water crashed thought, washing away all the hawks down the hall. Morpheus and Selene ran toward the window, scooping Percy up into his arms as they jumped out of the window and disappeared.
Benjamin emerged from the wall, walking past multiple unconscious Shadow hawks laying on the floor. Stepping over them, he made his way to the now shattered window and looked out at the sky. A rumble reached his ears, followed by streaks of lightning.
"Luke," Benjamin said.
Luke emerged from the wall and stood beside Benjamin, bowing.
"Yes sir," he said.
"Send a flock of hawks after them and release your brother."
Luke's eyes lit up at the sound of his brother being set free.
"Yes, and thank you won't regret this sir." Luke said before disappearing back into the wall.
Benjamin continued looking up at the gray tinted sky.
"The storm has finally arrived, and it looks like it will be a doozy."
