Ancient Enemies Rise
Wow, I tell y'all that my friend was in a car accident, and only one person verbally expresses their concern. Just a little stung, but it's okay, it's okay. They're doing fine, thank you.
Anyway, people noticing the budding relationship between Percy and Lou...good. Zoё coming in, with her strong past relationship with Percy's Fourth Life, is going to create one hell of love triangle, possibly even love square with Annabeth potentially taking a liking to Percy. Haven't made a final decision yet.
Also, this is the chapter in which we have cameos from men and women who serve the Cross, the Light…
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or AC
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When Lou Ellen said she 'liked' Percy, one could easily infer that she just liked him, not liked liked him. As in, the kind of 'like' that one had for their friends, non-annoying classmates, and hobbies. A non-romantic kind of like. But Percy knew better.
He had been married once, he had dealt with courtesans, harlots, whores, he had courted a beautiful girl before he was taken under the paw of Lupa; he knew exactly what kind of 'like' Lou Ellen was referring to, and he wasn't entirely sure he was okay with that.
He didn't know how to feel about that.
Even though the fifteen hundreds were literally half a century ago, to Percy, it was only a few days since 1527. Just a few days since he was a married man with children. Grown children, yes, but still his. Still his baby boy and his baby girls. One did not simply move on from such an experience.
It felt like an insult to Claudia's memory to romantically love someone else, especially when Percy missed her so much it hurt. She was his wife, dammit. Married for over twenty years. He knew her body, just as she knew his, and they shared the bond of matrimony.
But she was gone now.
The vows they had taken, the vow to only separate on death...well, death had effectively done them apart, and by the vows of Christian marriage, Percy was free from Claudia. On paper, anyway, spiritually. However, emotionally? Fuck no. It had just been days, not even a full 72 hours, since he had awoken from his reliving of the Renaissance, and his memories and emotions for Claudia were still fresh upon his mind.
But she was dead now. It literally did him no good to get 'hung up' on her.
Percy sighed to himself, frustrated at the situation he found himself in. Going from a married man of 50 to a single child of twelve in a scant few seconds...that sucked.
A small flashback crossed Percy's mind. Beckendorf telling him that Lou was interested in him (Percy), and then asking if he was going to pursue that potential relationship. The Assassin more or less responded in the positive, saying he would if the opportunity presented itself. Well, the opportunity had presented itself with grand entrance.
Percy had also said that any relationship was best put on hold till the world was saved and the quest over, so he put his thoughts of Lou Ellen's confession and his feelings of Claudia away. For now.
Seeing that he was alone in his room now, Percy drew his Bible out from the slit in his jacket, brought his legs up Indian style, and opened up to his bookmarked page. He got a solid five minutes of reading in before the door was opened, and Annabeth plopped down opposite of him.
"How can you read that?"
"By looking at the words."
"It's written in English, though, really small, too. You shouldn't be able to read it all."
"And yet I can. Here, you try."
While she looked highly dubious and scrutinizing, Annabeth accepted the offered Bible, and brought it to her preferred reading distance. Her eyes widened. "I can read this. The words are tiny and not written in Ancient Greek, but they're not bouncing around." She looked at Percy, awed and amazed.
"H-How…?"
Percy smiled. "If the Lord wills it, so it shall be. It is His will that we can read His Word, and so we can. Simple as that."
Annabeth had that look on her face that said she was thinking of so many other possibilities and explanations for the reading phenomena, but the words seemingly died in her throat as she began pouring over the Bible, drinking in every word her brain deciphered.
Still, Percy was no fool, and he knew that Annabeth wasn't reading the Bible because she was interested in it; no, she was reading it because could read it. It was the only text not written in Ancient Greek that her dyslexia couldn't prevent her from reading, and that simple fact enslaved her curiosity and undying desire for knowledge and new experience.
Basically, it was like discovering something new and you couldn't get enough of it.
Then Percy saw something bounding along the way next to the train, something that was eyeballing him with a hungry gleam.
"So, Annabeth. How's the Bible?"
"Thought invoking. Did you know I've never read one of these? Only heard bits and pieces."
"I'm glad you're enjoying it. Also, have you ever been to the zoo?"
"Of course."
"Do you remember the Big Cats of Africa exhibit?"
"Yes. There was one male panthera leo, and exactly seven female panthera leo, three of which were pregnant."
"Did you want to get up close and personal with them?"
"Not particularly, no."
"Well, that is unfortunate."
"Why?"
"Nemean Lion."
Annabeth paled as her eyes bugged out of her skull. "Huh!?"
The train was derailed by a massive collisional object.
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Fire, destruction, train cars strewn about the trees, afternoon and quite possibly several dead bodies (hard to differentiate the stink of corpse and the burning of foliage and fuel) was the scene the quest found themselves in after the Nemean Lion knocked the entire vehicle clean off the tracks.
Several tons of metal moving at several dozen miles an hour, almost casually derailed.
Let it be known that the Nemean Lion was a powerful monster.
Percy, Lou, Annabeth, Beckendorf and Grover faced the giant cat down with varying levels of apprehension. The satyr was chattering, making his sound magic completely useless, the craftsman had a massive shield on his left arm, and a three-sided hammer in his right, the smart one held a knife and her hat, Luke's flying shoes on her feet, the witch looked to be running through her mental spell book, desperately searching for anything powerful enough to do any good, and the Assassin already had a strategy in mind.
"Hey, Percy?"
"Yes, Annabeth?"
"Wasn't there a story—"
The Lion bounded forward, covering a distance of fifty feet with single leap. The quest scattered in different directions. Charles was closest, and he swung his hammer with a war cry befitting a child of Ares. He nailed the Lion right in the face, and then he barely brought his shield up in time to defend against the responding claw-laden paw. He was sent flying, massive gashes in the metal of his shield, and his arm.
The Nemean Lion looked to only be slightly annoyed.
"Wasn't there a story in the Bible that was like this? David was sent by some evil king to be fed to lions in a cave?"
"When we have more time, I will be more than happy to tell you how that story really goes, but as it stands…"
Percy twisted the ring on his finger, causing his crossbow to appear.
Lou Ellen had thrown up a magical shield, one that took the form of an archaic circle with too many squiggles, sigils, and symbols to make out, to protect herself, Charles, and the one who was trying to heal him, Grover. The shield glowed with bright light, a clear indication of the amount of power Lou had put into her spell. The beads of sweat tinging her brow was also a clear indicator of strain.
The Nemean Lion shattered it with a casual swipe of his paw, the backlash of which sent Lou Ellen sprawling with a cry. Unexplained fury bubbled in Percy's veins.
"Hey! Micio!"
The Lion looked at him.
"Remember how Heracles wore your pelt as a sign of pride and honor? Now you're not even worth it to him as a doormat. In fact, when I last checked, he was using you to wipe his posterior."
Everyone looked at Percy in horror as he purposefully taunted one of the most powerful Grecian monsters, but his words did the trick. The Nemean Lion opened its maw to let out a mighty roar of anger—
SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING
—and received a mouthful of celestial bronze crossbow bolts. The Nemean Lion collapsed on its side, and melted into a garment of a kind. Percy watched this happen with a dispassionate expression.
"Amen," he said dully. He turned his crossbow back into a ring, and approached his shocked allies. "Are you three alright?"
"Y-Yeah…" Lou stuttered.
"Percy, did you just...the Nemean Lion...with a crossbow...in under a minute?" Grover managed.
"A minute? I must be getting rusty. Usually it takes less than forty seconds."
"Percy!" Annabeth said aghast. "That was one of the most infamous and powerful monsters in all of history. It's only been beaten by one other hero, and that was Heracles. He had to wrestle it with his bare hands!"
"Yes, and I used a weapon of the future to make a hard job easy. Think smarter not harder, right?"
Everyone stared at him, completely dumbfounded at the absurd amount of casualness Percy was displaying at what was otherwise a legendary accomplishment.
"Well, Beckendorf, if you're in travelling condition, we need to get started on saving as many survivors as we can. St. Louis should only be a few miles away by this point."
"I can help with that," Lou said. Though she looked tired and worn out, all due to the amount of magic put into her shield spell, she still had enough power to cast an incantation. "Dnif eht srovivrus."
A pulse of purple light came from her, covering the surrounding half-mile radius before fading out. After it faded, Lou managed to look both panicked and confused at the same time.
"Uh, guys…? Small problem: there aren't any survivors."
Everyone looked at her.
"Are there any bodies, then?" Percy asked seriously.
"Dnif eht seidob."
Another pulse of purple energy that faded after traveling for half a mile. Lou had that some look on her face. "Nothing," she said.
Silence fell over the quest, with the only sound being the crackling of the flames. Percy exhaled heavily, deciding on a course of action.
"We move on. Once we arrive in St. Louis, we'll find alternate means of transportation west."
"You're saying we just leave?" Annabeth asked incredulously.
"Yes. There's nothing more we can do here. Lou's magic can't find any bodies or survivors, so the safest assumption is that a divine hand is at work. Further, the smoke from these fires will soon attract attention, if they haven't already, and the last thing we need is to be here when authorities arrive. If the burning forest is what concerns you, do not worry, for the fire department will be here with water bombs soon enough. Any further arguments can be had after we're moving."
Effectively in Vergil mode, Percy turned around and marched off in the direction of St. Louis.
Grover, Lou and Charles, with a new set of scars on his forearm, followed.
The son of Hephaestus saw the argument lingering in the blonde's eyes. "He's right, Annabeth. None of us have any kind of spell or tool that can be used here, but the mortals have the technology necessary. Besides, you know Percy's wanted for the disappearance of his mom; him being here, at the sight of this nightmare, would only bring us more problems. Let's go."
With a sigh, Annabeth conceded and followed.
Percy's Bible was still in her hand.
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Lou had picked up the spoil of war left behind by the Nemean Lion, and she had blinked at what she held, for she recognized the pattern of the coat due to a vision she had seen of Percy's past.
His many pasts.
"Maximum Dracula…"
She ran ahead and gave the beautiful coat to the Assassin, informing only of its divine origins. Percy took the large coat and slipped into it. It had been a perfect fit, and he looked hot in it. The blush on Lou's face said as much, and even Annabeth had been terrible in hiding her glances.
If Percy noticed these looks (which he did) he did not say anything. He kept himself focused on getting to St. Louis.
They got there safely enough, with the only hindrance being that Annabeth couldn't hold it anymore, and she asked Lou if she could borrow some wipes, to which the witch snarkily replied, "Borrow implies you're going to give them back to me. I do not want a bunch of poopy wipes back, thank you very much."
Hubris though her fatal flaw may have been, terribly desperate she was. "Please, may I have some wipes?"
"Of course. All you had to do was ask."
Annabeth returned from behind a tree about eight minutes later with a relieved look on her face.
No, the real problem that arose during the fast march to St. Louis, was when they actually arrived in St. Louis. This problem came in the form of a certain daughter of Athena's architecture fetish.
"Can we please go see the Arch?" Annabeth begged with puppy dog eyes.
Vergil had been a father of twin girls. He had been a fearsome warrior, a devout Christian among Catholics, a steely military leader, a wise mentor to countless men and women, a sharpshooter with a crossbow and a gun, and he had faced down massive swaths of men without fear. He had been stern, he had been forceful, he had been resilient as the crust of the earth...and he had been quick to cave into the puppy dog eyes of his daughters.
In all the things Percy had inherited from Vergil, that weakness presented itself.
Which was rather concerning because Annabeth was the same age as him, but was invoking the same reaction out of him that Vergil had when it came to the adorable wants of his baby girls. It was even more concerning given the fact that there were much more pressing matters on hand than going to see the Gateway Arch.
Nevertheless, Percy allowed for a visit to the architectural masterpiece.
He was also not blind to the look Lou Ellen gave to Annabeth.
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While annoyed, Percy was not wholly surprised when he heard the faint whispering pick up in his ears as he, Annabeth, and Grover entered the underground museum of the Gateway Arch, Lou Ellen and Beckendorf choosing to stay behind so that there wouldn't be too many demigods in a single enclosed space. That, and the witch no doubt wanted to rant to the blacksmith her woes regarding Annabeth and her small episode with Percy.
An application of Eagle Vision combined with a lingering glance backward and peripheral vision yielded an image that annoyed the Assassin. A fat woman with the same aura as Dionysus and Hestia, albeit on a much smaller scale, was walking a small dog, a Chihuahua, that had the ethereal aura of a chimera about it, the same way Chiron, the Furies, and Grover had the ethereal aura of their respective forms as well.
So, a minor goddess, and a monster, a terrible one at that.
Percy growled as the present battlefield yielded negative advantages. Too many people, too big a space, too many variables. The Mississippi River was dangerously close, and Percy could very well pull it through the concrete and flood the museum, but he doubted he had attained the control necessary to prevent the drowning or crushing of so many innocents. Grover and Annabeth? Sure. Everyone else? Too big of a maybe.
Of course, there was the option of separating, but this minor goddess might not have been after him specifically, or at the very least, not up for a chase, meaning she would simply attack Annabeth and Grover in a successful attempt at drawing him out from wherever he had disappeared to.
Then again, there was a less populated battleground a few hundred feet in the air.
In the cramped space, Annabeth continued to rattle off trivia like a broken machine, and while Grover paid rapt attention (with a pitifully lost look on his face), Percy instead chose to make conversation with the minor goddess.
"Greeting, ma'am."
"Hello, sonny."
"Am I correct in assuming that we are about to be adversaries?"
"Indeed, sonny," the woman smiled.
"Ah." Percy looked at the growling Chihuahua's collar. "And am I also correct in assuming that this cute little pup escaped from Tartarus? A lost chimera, perhaps?"
"How astute, sonny! And they say children of Poseidon are dumb."
Percy grinned cordially. "Yes, ma'am. I do try to set myself above my siblings."
"You do an excellent job, sonny. Lord Hades will certainly enjoy your company."
The elevator dinged, Annabeth and Grover filing out first. Before the minor goddess departed, Percy had one final thing to say, "Don't count on it yet, pagan."
The chimera growled.
The Assassin pulled the hood of his coat up, throwing most of his face into shadow. His ominous appearance attracted the attention of the rangers on duty, but they were hesitant to do anything as he simply stood at a window overlooking the city.
Eventually, the rangers had to go on lunch, which meant that the Arch's visiting hours were coming to a brief end, which in turn meant everyone needed to vacate the premises with much haste. Unfortunately, after the elderly couple, a ranger, Annabeth, and Grover got into the only elevator, there wasn't any room left for the family of three, the other ranger, or the pagan and her chimera.
The god began to bark loudly, frothing and foaming at the mouth, drawing all attention.
The pagan sighed. "Alright, sonny. If you want to do it here, then go ahead."
The Chihuahua began to shift and change, growing bigger, its bark deeper, louder. The mortals huddled against the elevator door, the ranger trembling as he held out his Taser. Percy watched the dog take its true form from the corner of his hood. He was not afraid, even when the creature spewed fire and blew a hole in the Arch.
"That's certainly counterproductive," Percy deadpanned.
A big part of the Creed was staying anonymous; a monument exploding was not anonymous.
Still, what was done was done. The only thing left to do now was protect the innocents. With distinct schnikt's, the Hidden Blades were out and ready. The chimera growled, its snake tail hissing.
"Well? Come on, then!"
The beast lunged, and Percy leapt back. The snake tail shot out, intended to bite him, but its fangs shattered like glass against the Maximum Dracula. The Assassin swiped his arm, lopping off the serpentine tail, and lion head snapped at him, only for its own teeth to also shatter harmlessly against Percy's clothed forearm. The demigod brought his extended limb back, and stabbed the chimera in the side of its neck, the celestial bronze knife gliding through the mane and into the neck like a lightsaber through butter.
The beast dissolver, and the pagan howled. "MY SON!"
"Oh, you're the one who was named after the anteater."
Echidna's eyes literally blazed. "I am going to turn you into an ant and feed you to one of those accursed animals."
"Uh-huh, sure."
The crossbow was out.
SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING-SCHING!
The pagan goddess screeched and screamed as she was impaled fourteen times by a bunch of large stingers. In response to this attack, Echidna glowed with terrible brightness, and Percy swan dived out the hole left by the chimera. Just in time to escape the explosion caused by the pagan.
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The Assassin crashed down into the water with textbook Leap of Faith technique. Immediately upon splashdown, his arms crossed over his chest, and he felt very annoyed.
'Hide in plain sight, they said. Let the crowd mask your presence, they said. Yeah, well, it's bloody hard to do that when you're fighting exploding pagan gods! Oh dear, I hope those sheep up there survived that…'
Yes, in all this chaos, Percy still had enough humanity and cognitive processing to feel concern for the mortals that had been left topside.
A piece of the Arch slammed down next to the Assassin. Right, he needed to get back to the shore, find a ride west, and keep his head down. Lord willing, nothing too detrimental had happened up there...another piece of concrete the size of a car violently kissed the water.
Percy Jackson
The demigod froze, whipping about to find the source of the voice that called his name. An application of Eagle Vision revealed a glowing blue person/thing approaching. It was a woman...a woman that looked like his mother.
Glowing blue or not, Percy's eyes narrowed at the entity. In this world, anything that looked like a loved one was bad news.
Do not be alarmed, child. My time is short, so I must be brief. Your father wishes for you to come to Santa Monica. He has message to deliver to you, but being this far inland prevents him and me from giving it. Get there as soon as you can, child, and beware the many challenges you will face.
The entity began to fade away, but she had a final message before she completely vanished.
Your father watches you with great pride.
Percy stared at where the Nereid had been, unblinkingly. Then he kicked to the surface.
It appeared that a detour had to be made.
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Finding his worried allies had been easy, for they had no idea how to hide among a crowd. They tried to ask, talking over each other, what had happened, to which Percy shushed them all and promised an explanation when they were out of the area. The train station was the chosen destination, in hopes there was another line west, and that all rail traffic was still operable given the previous disaster at the hands of the Nemean Lion.
All things considered, the trek back to the trains had been an easy one filled with no close calls, aside from the mother of the family (everyone had survived, thankfully) almost calling Percy out due to his rather noticeable coat, but the paramedics thought she was simply delusional.
No, the true problem came when the quest passed a news van, and they picked up on what was being said.
"While the previous train accident of today was ruled as a terrorist attack with unknown perpetrators, the bombing of the Gateway Arch has one suspect: Percy Jackson. You may have heard his name before, and that's because twelve-year-old Percy is already wanted for the suspected kidnapping of his mother, Sally Jackson, and the destruction of his step-father's, Gabriel Ugliano's, Camaro."
The TV behind the reporter cut to a feed from a surveillance camera.
"Here we see Percy Jackson, aged twelve, in a heavy leather coat of some kind, exiting the Gateway Arch elevator with his hood drawn up in a suspicious manner. Fast-forwarding, we can now see Percy engaging a service dog with blades, ones that have been hidden in the sleeves of his coat, and a grenade to blow a hole in the floor. After that he then proceeds to use more explosives, before swan diving through the hole. From there, cameras lose sight of him, though it is suspected that he may have died on impact of the Mississippi River. Searches for his body have so far come up negative.
"If you see this boy or have any information regarding his whereabouts, please, contact this number immediately and help bring this dangerous criminal to justice."
In a twist that had everyone believing a god was watching out for them (which Percy knew was a fact), there was a train prepped and ready for departure to Denver, and they arrived just in time. Their seats from the other train were even available.
Lou Ellen summed up the situation ever so eloquently.
"Well...that's a problem."
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A skyscraper in the middle of a sprawling metropolis
Around an ovular table, several men in expensive suits sat in expensive chairs, their attention focused on an expensive TV that had just finished reporting the situation in St. Louis. Upon the finger of every man present, was a gold ring adorned with rubies...rubies cut and stylized to form a cross.
The TV reversed the footage, and split into two screens. On the left, was the child, the glints of his blades shining from past the sleeves of his coat, a coat which every man recognized as one of Jacob Frye's many adornments from the 1860s; and the right image was the child caught mid swan dive, a form that every man recognized most strongly.
At the head of this table, a man rose from behind the television, a bearded man.
"Gentlemen," Warren Vidic said, "they've returned."
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South Dakota
"The Farm"
30 men and women of ages sixteen to sixty, all had their eyes glued to their own TV, and they couldn't believe what they had just watched. A child, wearing something akin to Jacob Frye's Maximum Dracula, with Hidden Blades, and just killed a dog and blown up the Gateway Arch, but not before performing a Leap of Faith into the Mississippi River.
That was their trademark.
William Miles, father of Desmond Miles, rose from the couch.
"Everyone, we're going to find this Percy Jackson, and bring him in for questioning."
No one disputed the defacto leader of the shattered and broken Brotherhood.
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Bad Weather, a bar in Brooklyn, New York.
The place wasn't as lively during this time of day, but it would soon be bustling within the next few hours. Still, there were people in attendance, and the TV's were playing the news. While everyone was shocked that it was apparently a kid that had derailed a train and blown up the Gateway Arch, there was one person, an employee behind the bar, that had more cause to be enraptured than anyone else.
This employee recognized those movements, those weapons, and it brought to him great shock, and with that shock came distraction. He was pulled back to reality by an impatient customer.
"Hey, buddy, I asked for that Shirley Templar two minutes ago. Where is it?"
"Uh, coming right up. Just a moment, sir." The employee hurried to that back, to the manager's office, and didn't even knock. He was in a hurry. "Boss, an emergency just came up. I need to leave, now."
"When do you think you'll be back?"
"I don't know."
"If you're not back within two weeks, you're fired."
"Deal."
Desmond Miles bolted out of the establishment, to his car, and burned rubber back to his apartment, where he hastily packed clothes, money, and weapons, and then hit the highway with reckless abandon.
He needed answers as to why a kid was running around as an Assassin.
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It's going to be really fun when all these adults have to deal with the kid who commanded their Order 500 years ago. Especially when said kid beats all of them within an inch of their collective lives. Or even better, when the adults try to order the kid around.
Oh, yes. Really fun.
Anyway, we all know what comes next: Ares, a water park, some animal cruelty, character development and bonding, and the Lotus Hotel. All lots of fun.
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