Chapter 3 ~ Highway to Hell
"Mom?"
"Hmmm?"
"I'm bored."
The black-haired boy stood fidgeting in a black chariot. His messy hair fluttered in the wind and his eyes, so different, looked down at the world. One sea green iris, the other pitch black.
Eleven-year-old Perseus wore a black hoodie with green trim and patterns.
On the front was a white crescent moon covered by a raven.
He wore long dark pants with camouflage patterns and black combat boots, the soles of which were shod with stygian iron.
All in all, he looked anything but normal. He was average height, but definitely had more muscles than other kids his age.
He frowned and held the reins of the demonic horses loosely in his right hand. He looked down at the Long Island beach and watched as a large group of children, a centaur, and a fat man sat around a fire and sang.
Although he flew only a few hundred feet above them and the chariot of the night was quite impressive, no one looked up. He was invisible and he hated it. He wanted to be seen.
He wanted to interact with others of his age. Make friends.
He did have his brothers and sister and Percy would always love them. Especially his sister Lyssa. The Goddess of Madness and her little brother were virtually inseparable.
Who would have thought the goddess who, on the orders of Hera, had made Heracles slaughter his entire family in cold blood like animals and bathe in their blood, could be so good with children.
"I want to meet other demigods, people that are my own age. Have adventures. Everyone back home is thousands of years old."
Nyx sighed. She had known the day would come. Perseus, or Percy as Lyssa had started calling him and as he now preferred to be called, had always longed for the mortal world.
Every night since he was eight years old and was in no danger of falling hundreds of feet to earth from the flying chariots and ending up as the most powerful demigod pancake in the world, he had accompanied his mother on her nightly journey to see the world.
He had often asked about his father and Nyx had told him that he had been one of the mortals down there. Ever since, Percy had been interested in the world there, beyond the red clouds and black rock caves of Tartarus.
"So there's not enough action and adventure for you in Tartarus?" Nyx asked incredulously.
Percy rolled his eyes in annoyance and turned his gaze to Mother, who twitched her dark wings and let more darkness descend on New York.
"You know what I mean."
Nyx sighed again. "I know. I guess you're old enough now."
"I've been old enough for years." Percy replied.
"It's okay honey." She stroked his hair and Percy tried to duck away, which was not so easy in the small chariot.
"But let's still celebrate your birthday tomorrow and then you can go to Camp Half Blood in a few days."
Percy eyes widened and he bounced up and down excitedly, causing the chariot to shake.
"Really? Oh thanks mum!" he said and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Come on, let's hurry up and then fly home."
After dinner, Percy was taken aside by his sister Lyssa. Her red eyes flashed excitedly and she had a mischievous grin on her face.
Percy had an inkling of what was to come. And he was absolutely in for it.
"Percyyyyy, lets go prank someone."
Percy's grin mirrored his sister's and he moved closer to her. "Who do you have in mind?"
Percy and Lyssa's pranks were legendary in Tartarus. They had once glued Thanatos's wings to his bed with magical superglue and then given a few empousai lust potions. They had then left the empousai alone with their brother, who could not move from the bed.
Another time they had stolen all of Eris's clothes and switched them with the worn loincloth of a cyclops.
Needless to say, Eris was quite angry and had may or may have not threatened to poison the two, while a poor cyclops had been running around the pit searching for his undergarments.
"Ohhh I know someone veeery special we haven't played a prank on in a long time. We will need the help of Thanatos but it will be epic."
Her grin got even wider if that was even possible. "We're going to prank Uncle T."
Tartarus was actually having a quiet day, the Primordial, not the place he represented. There had been no monster uprisings and the Titans were still where they belonged.
The Primordial of the Pit of Terror sat down relaxed and poured himself a whiskey.
He was dressed in a dark purple suit, as he often was when he wasn't about to torture the living daylights out of someone for his pleasure. Purple flesh and muscles were bulging under his clothes. As he was about to take a sip, the door to his office with a view of the entire Tartarus opened.
In came the only eleven-year-old who was hanging around in the pit.
"Percy, nephew, what are you doing here?"
Percy dropped into a chair next to the ancient god.
"Oh, I just wanted to drop by and say I'm going upstairs for a while."
Tartarus put glass back down untouched. "You're going to the camp for demigods I suppose?"
Percy nodded.
"Really? Oh come on isn't my pit cozy enough for you?"
"No offense Uncle Tartarus, but the air alone sucks down here."
Tartarus turned away from the window and picked up the whiskey again while frowning.
"But with my blessing, the air isn't deadly poisonous to you anymore, is it?"
He took a sip and spat it back out. Fire came out of his mouth and would have caught Percy had he not already been out the door.
"Phlegethon water? Perseus! Come back here you little rat!" shouted Tartarus angrily. One look at his suit and he only got angrier. The fire had eaten through the suit.
"It was brand new!" roared Tartarus and ran after his nephew through the door of the throne room. He didn't notice Lyssa, who had hidden next to the door and was now slipping into the throne room.
He heard his nephew's footsteps and laughter further down a staircase. He ran there only to see Percy leap out of one of the windows and then being caught by Thanatos who was hovering next to it with his wings outstretched. Both vanished from Tartarus's sight. Grumbling, the old god made his way back to his throne room. He opened the bronze doors and went inside, only to see a sight that made him grow dark purple in rage.
Lyssa, Percy and Thanatos all had buckets of pink paint and glitter in their hands. The throne of the ruler of the Pit of Punishment was usually an impressive structure of gold and black obsidian.
But now it was pink, and Tartarus was just watching Lyssa paint unicorns on the side when Thanatos grabbed them both, threw a bottle of pink liquid on the floor, and pulled the siblings into a shadow with him.
The trio disappeared and the bottle shattered on the floor. Pink smoke filled the room and gave off a scent of roses, like perfume version of a smoke grenade.
"Aaargh!" roared Tartarus, "my throne! Come back here so I can stuff your asses in a drakon!"
"Hahaha! His face!" Percy collapsed on the living room floor laughing as the trio reappeared in the Mansion of the Night.
"I thought he was going all soul vacuum cleaner with his face when he saw us!" laughed Thanatos in his smooth voice.
"That was legen...wait for it...dary! That was absolutely legendary!" Lyssa roared in laughter, giving her brothers a high five.
"What's going on here?" Nyx asked her children as she breezed in the door.
"Oh nothing Mum, don't worry just a few jokes." said Percy.
"Hmmm those jokes wouldn't happen to have anything to do with Tartarus who just showed up at my door demanding and I quote 'to feed the three little punks to hellhounds'?" Nyx asked with a grin, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe, maybe not."
"Yeah sure... Now off to bed, it's a birthday party tomorrow!"
Percy woke up the next morning with a grin. Well, morning was not really easy to say in Tartarus because there was no sun here. Another of the reasons why he wanted to get out of the pit. But today would finally be the day. His twelfth birthday.
Percy ran downstairs and was greeted by a few smiling faces.
"Happy Birthday, Percy!" shouted Nyx, Thanatos, Lyssa, Eris, and surprisingly, Tartarus.
Percy was jumping up and down with excitement.
"Unpack, unpack!" squealed Lyssa and pressed a package into Percy's hand.
He tore down the paper and spotted a black belt with throwing knives made of stygian iron.
"Cool huh?" Lyssa said and grinned when she saw the expression on Percy's face.
"They refill automatically so you don't have to worry about the knives."
From Nyx, Percy got a couple of daggers with green engravings that showed a crescent moon and a raven on the other.
Thanatos gave him a copy of his own black scythe of death.
The most beautiful weapon came from Eris. She presented him with an elegant katana made of stygian iron that seemed to be mixed with silver.
"This is real silver in case you ever have to fight werewolves. " Eris explained.
Tartarus gave him a black necklace with a raven pendant.
"Press on the pendant Percy." Tartarus advised him to do.
He did, and darkness swirled around him. When it cleared, Percy had on light leather armor. It was fully black, except for the crescent moon with a raven visible on the chest. The armor was light and the plates of solid leather with a metallic interlayer did not restrict his movements.
Instead of a helmet, a hood slipped over his head that felt as sturdy as the rest.
The only massive thing was the right shoulder plate, which showed the three heads of Cerberus made of silver.
Percy spun once in a circle and tested out a few movements. The armor fit perfectly.
"Wow thanks guys this really incredibly cool." he said while grinning like the exited child he was. He jumped up to each of them and gave them a quick hug. Tartarus grumbled something about cuddly little demons.
Lyssa smirked. "We do want you to look like a badass when you go to camp and not some demigod off the street. "
"If you guys don't mind I'm going to go outside for a bit and try out the gear."
"Sure why not." Nyx said.
Why not let a twelve-year-old boy run around alone in the worst place in Greek Mythology?
Well, among other things, because Percy knew every stone here and had even trained with Tartarus himself while the Lord of Punishment was taking a break from from punishing.
Percy dissolved into shadows and reappeared on one of the many levels of Tartarus. To his right was a rock wall with cave entrances and in the distance to his left was the Phlegethon, the River of Fire.
Fortunately, with the blessing of Tartarus, Percy no longer needed to drink the water or was it the fire of the Phlegethon to breathe the air. Unfortunately, this did not change the disgusting smell of sulfur.
While Percy walked along the plains some memories shot through his head.
Tartarus had let armies of monsters pour out of the cave entrances during their training and only allowed Percy to use his powers over the shadows, but not his blades.
Percy had had to learn the hard way how exhausting controlling shadows, shadowtraveling, and solidifying shadows to use them as weapons was. But it was worth it in the end. He could now form the shadows into claws on his hands that could slash enemies as easily as his blades.
Summoning his real blades from the darkness was much easier and had the advantage of not having to carry his equipment around all the time.
He was torn from his thoughts of brutal training when he heard a voice. That was for Tartarus first of all nothing unusual, since thousands upon thousands of more or less intelligent monsters or deities were running around here.
But when he looked around, he saw only a tall teenager. "Strange, I should be here the only demigod, well technically demiprimordial in here," Percy thought.
He couldn't see his face, which was wrapped in some dark cloths, probably to protect himself from the winds and the sand. But the figure was clearly human.
Curious, Percy followed the person, whom he estimated to be 16-18 years old based on his height. Percy scurried from rock to rock, always in the shadows and invisible to anyone looking in his direction.
From a safe distance, he watched as the teenager stopped in front of a cave. A faint golden glow seemed to emanate from it. Percy followed him into the cave and watched as the stranger knelt before a golden sarcophagus.
Percy's eyes widened. He had, of course, heard stories about the last remnants of Kronos, the Titan King, and the Titan of Time and Harvest.
"So you found me. Good." the raspy voice of Kronos called out. It sounded as if hundreds of knifes suddenly tried talking by scratching over stone.
"My lord, I promised not to disappoint you." the strange teenager answered.
"Well done. Soon, very soon I will tear down Olympus and give the demigods the freedom they deserve."
The teenager put one hand on the sarcophagus and pressed the other on some kind of amulet.
"Yes, Lord Kronos..." he said and they both disappeared in a bright golden light.
