A/N. Once again, we have a review of .
"Oof Sally bit the dust… now Percy has to stay with that turd Gabe, and I'm guessing it's gonna cause problems with Percy's alter ego and him trying not to get caught. Good story so far tho" -Deeznuggets2121
Well Nugget, (can I call you that?), first of all, thank you. And yeah, it's gonna cause some problems, and you'll see what I'm talking about later on.
Anyways, only one review, so now it's onto our regularly scheduled chapter.
Percy turned to Mr. Nightshade. "I don't think this is a good idea. I can't live with him."
The chief shrugged. "You have to live with some guardian since you aren't eighteen yet. And this is the only person that is close enough to your mom." His eyes glinted in the light.
Percy looked back at his step-dad, before pinching his nose. He had forgotten how bad this man smelled. It was like if you took moldy garlic pizza and wrapped it in gym shorts, then you left it in a middle school boy's locker room for a year.
"You're really gonna send me to live with him? He has a criminal record!" Percy tried.
"I'm aware. You're the one that brought him in after all."
"Yeah, thanks punk." Gabe spat out.
"Well, you better go on home now. Better rest after today's activities." Mr. Nightshade said. Percy wasn't sure, but he could've sworn he saw a malicious smirk on his face.
Percy scowled. "Yeah, sure."
LINE BREAK
The entire apartment smelled like Gabe. Beer cans littered the ground. Cigar smoke permanently permeated the air. Trash bags were overflowing. A poker table sat next to a recliner in the otherwise bare apartment. The paint on the walls was peeling.
Percy guessed that without his mom to pick things up, this is what the apartment would have looked like. Looked like he would have to pick up this place.
"You're room is there, I guess." Gabe said, pointing to a room.
Percy was about to walk to it, but was stopped by Gabe.
"Not so fast, there's rent." He sniffed the air. "I smell a twenty."
"You really haven't changed, have you?" Percy asked. "I would've assumed that your time in jail would've changed you, for the worst, sure, but changed you."
Gabe shoved Percy up against the wall. The wall cracked behind him. "You listen to me, Brain Boy. You are in my house, where you will respect me! Otherwise I will send you to a military academy, you hear me?!"
Spit flew from Gabe's mouth and landed on Percy's face. He wiped the spit off and put it on Gabe's face. Then patted his cheek.
"I'm not 5 dumbass. Notice how I'm taller than you? You don't scare me." Percy said. He spoke it slowly to drive the point home. He pushed off the wall and broke out of Gabe's grip.
"Military school it is then." Gabe's face broke into a smile. Though it didn't look right. Uncanny Valley vibes.
"Please, you're too lazy to get off your ass and drive over to pick up a form." Percy snorted.
"Oh yeah? Watch, I'll drive over there right now."
Gabe walked out of the apartment and to his camaro. Percy rolled his eyes. Gabe would have to either bring him or bring the form back. He needed the child's signature after all.
He walked into his room and sighed. The bed was bare, except for the car magazines. Well, they weren't all car magazines. He was sure he saw a couple of porno ones too. The room was empty besides that. The paint on the walls was peeling in the room too, and it also smelled like Gabe.
He knocked the magazines off of the bed and pushed them under the bed. He was hesitant to lay on the bed. Who knows what colonies of bacteria cultivated on it. He really didn't want to lay anywhere in the room.
He sighed. This was going to be a very long one and a half years.
LINE BREAK
Percy sweeped the diner. Slowly making his way throughout the dining room. He was almost finished when Joe came up to him.
"Percy, you have to go home."
Percy looked up. "What?"
"You have to go home."
"Why?"
"Why? We're closed, that's WHY!"
"I'm just cleaning for the morning."
"Percy."
"What?"
"Look, I don't know what's going on in your life, but I can't have you here all the time, overworking yourself."
Percy stood up and breathed in. "I just need money, so I'm working overtime."
"What do you need money for?"
"My mom's funeral." He said, not skipping a single beat.
Joe's eyes widened.
"You know how that apartment burned down earlier this week? That was mine. Only casualty was my mom. And I don't have enough money for a funeral."
"Look, I'll give you a bonus, enough to cover everything for it. All you have to do is promise me that you won't spend so much time here."
"What if I don't want to go back to where I live?"
"I don't care where you go, I just can't have you here."
Percy sighed. "Alright. Fine. I'll go."
He put up the broom and grabbed his backpack. He walked out of the door. "See you tomorrow Joe, for my usual shift."
Percy walked out of the diner and tried to decide if it was a good time to head back to Gabe's. Probably not, since a good time to go back was never. There were not enough words to describe how much he hated this man.
Percy decided to go for a walk in Central Park. He walked through the park, taking in the beauty of nature. The trees, the grass, the water. The water looked refreshing.
Percy looked around before diving in. He sank to the bottom, since it wasn't very deep. He didn't feel the water, or the pressure.
He breathed in and out, a smile coming over his face. It felt relaxing to be in the water. He sat down and leaned back.
A fish came up to him. It seemed to be curious about the human that was intruding it's territory. Percy reached out to it.
The fish swam away. Probably back to it's home.
Home.
Where was home? It certainly wasn't Gabe's terrible apartment. No, it was his mom's apartment, which was burned down. But it was still there. Maybe, one last time, he should go visit it.
He swam up to the surface of the water and walked out of the lake. He walked steadily to his old apartment.
Eventually he came up to the burned building. The whole thing was darkened with ash and soot. Parts of the building were missing. Percy sighed at seeing his home in disrepair.
His will resolved. He forced himself to go into the building. He noticed that the front lobby seemed to be mostly spared, save the few spots of burned wood. The front desk was abandoned, which made sense. As he walked past he saw a USB with tape on it. He couldn't make out the small writing on the tape.
He walked down the hallway to his apartment. The door was gone, as a result of when he kicked the door in.
Percy walked into the apartment and looked around. The entire living room and kitchen was burned. It was all black. The natural gas stove was almost in pristine condition, besides the ash covering it, which was weird.
His mom was gone, along with Paul. Their bodies had been removed from the premises and were at the morgue, waiting for a funeral.
Percy walked into his room. It, like the rest of the apartment, was burned badly. His posters were ash, his desk was black and not brown like it was supposed to be. He turned around, looking at the room, when he noticed something weird.
His closet was intact. He made his way over to it cautiously. He pulled open the sliding door and looked inside. His clothes were intact, along with everything else he had shoved in the closet. He moved some of the clothes that were on the floor when he came across his chest.
He stared at it in shock. It was in perfect condition. No sign of a fire raging in the apartment was shown on the wooden surface. It was still locked, obviously. He had no way of opening it when the key for the lock was in the chest.
He stood up, still staring at the chest. He turned around and left the room, before coming face to face with his mom's door.
He opened it. And just like everything else, it was burned. The entire room. Anything that was flammable was burned.
But what wasn't flammable was his mom's stone desk. He walked over to it. The desk was made of stone, and survived the fire. He walked over to it.
The top of the desk was smooth. The kind of smooth that gave you shivers when you ran your hand across it. It was covered in ash. He wiped it off.
He opened one of the drawers. Inside was a bunch of papers. They weren't burned. They had survived the fire, presumably because of the desk. He looked the papers over. They were notes. Notes for his mother's novel.
He checked another drawer. The first draft of the novel. It was complete. Sure, there probably would've been changes that she would have made, but the basis was done. He placed the draft back.
He checked the last drawer. There was a single envelope in the drawer space. It read in big letters, "OFFICIAL DOCUMENT TO BE OPENED UPON DEATH OF SALLY JACKSON".
Was he holding his mom's will? That was the only thing he could think as he slowly opened the envelope. With trembling hands he took out the folded paper inside and unfolded it.
His eyes ran over it as he read. His eyes widened. She had left everything to him. Granted, it wasn't much, but it was still everything. However, there were no instructions on who to contact to take care of Percy after her death.
Percy folded up the paper and put it in the envelope. Then he put the envelope in his pocket.
He walked out of the room and back into the living room. Then he turned to the stove. In his gut, he felt that something wasn't right about it. He walked over to it and inspected it.
He wiped the ash off of it. Instead of some kind of company name and logo where you would expect to see one, there was an image of a scythe. Just like the one on that chest-faced guy's shoulder.
Percy pulled the oven/stove out from its little spot. He squeezed in-between the cabinets and the oven and looked behind it.
The line that fed natural gas to the stove was cut. A clean cut. Someone or something intentionally cut it.
Percy squeezed back out and stood up. The fire WAS intentional. But why his apartment?
He wondered if the security cameras were still in place. The landlord had taken names for who wanted a security camera in their apartment and they had opted for one. Turns out, the landlord meant that he had access to them, and not that he was buying cameras for tenants to use. Go figure. Needless to say the landlord was quickly arrested. But he wondered if the cameras were still in place.
Percy walked out and into the front lobby. He saw the computer and USB. He walked over to it and picked it up.
'Security footage for the week of Nov. 29- Dec. 5'
'Convenient.' Percy thought as he plugged the USB into its port.
The monitor turned on and a window popped up with some files. There were only 3 files, each one labeled with a day. He clicked Dec. 1 and looked through it. There were a bunch of videos, each one labeled after which apartment it was. He searched for his number before finding it.
He fast forwarded it till the end of the day. He watched as Paul and his mom came home and went into her room. He cringed as they didn't come back out. But he needed answers so he soldiered on. They came back out and Percy put it back at regular speed.
"Congrats on finishing the first draft!" Paul was saying.
"Couldn't have done it without you. Now, how about some wine to celebrate?"
They had wine in their apartment? Percy didn't know that. He watched as they took out wine and poured themselves a couple of glasses. Then his mom mentioned making them something to eat. She brought out a pan and turned on the stove.
A giant explosion threw them both back. Percy watched in horror as Paul fell backwards onto the couch and suffered. Time passed as the flames grew.
Finally, the door burst into the apartment, followed by Percy. Percy, who assessed the situation.
Percy paused the video. So it was the stove that seemed to cause the fire. Which means that the severed gas line might've been the reason. Since it was cut above the valve, natural gas would leak in continuously. Then when fire was added, a huge explosion, just like in the video.
He stood up straight, before he heard talking from outside. He grabbed the USB and took it out of the computer. He ran and turned the corner, before stopping. The talking came closer, before he was able to hear it.
"I told you, the boss wants us to grab the USB and wipe the files on it. No one can know how the fire actually started. It would be impolite to not do it."
Percy peeked around the corner and internally groaned. There were two of the Blemmyae in cop uniforms and mechanical heads walking towards the desk. One of them looked around the desk.
"Do you see the USB?"
"No. Do you think the other guys just haven't placed it yet?"
"Maybe, but it's unlike them. They are always punctual."
"Hmm. What could have happened?"
"Do you think someone could've stolen it? But who would do that? It's just plain rude."
"I'd say. Let's report back to the boss man and tell him."
"But what if someone didn't steal it? What would we do then? He would send us to Tartarus!"
"Um, then let's tell him we don't know for sure. That's sure to buy us some time. And after all, telling the truth would be polite."
"I don't think that's a very great idea, but alright? If he gets mad and kills us, it's your fault."
Percy rolled his eyes. They were kind of incompetant now that he thought about it. He waited until they were out of view before jogging over to his apartment.
He decided in that moment, fuck his grades, fuck Zoë, and fuck being sad. Determination filled him. Something bigger was going on here, and he was going to figure out what.
And to do it, he would need the help of someone.
Someone he knew very well.
Sea Storm.
LINE BREAK
Percy pulled up to Gabe's apartment in his mom's Prius. Well, he guessed it was his now. He turned the car off and got out before walking over to the trunk. He opened it and looked at the boxes he had in there.
After his evading of the Blemmyae, he went to a hardware store and bought some cardboard boxes. Then he drove back to the apartment and packed everything that survived the fire. Then he loaded them into his car and drove to Gabe's. He had left a couple of things at the apartment. He would move those later though.
It was well past midnight at this point, and he was sure Gabe was asleep. He carried a box with one hand and opened the apartment door. Gabe never left it locked, which was stupid, but it wasn't like anyone was going to break in, and even if they did, the pure stench of the apartment would drive them away.
Sure enough, gabe was asleep on his recliner. Percy treaded carefully through the room, avoiding the beer bottles and cigar butts. He slowly brought every box into his room. And soon enough he was going through them.
He put clothes in his closet, some leftover posters on the walls, and a rug that he had forgotten about went on the floor. He had put a lot of stuff into his closet. And after all was said and done, he had one thing left.
The chest which contained his superhero gear.
He stared at the lock, wondering how he would open it, since the key was in the chest. Then the idea smacked him in the face. He gripped the lock in his hand and squeezed, breaking it.
Percy took the broken lock off of the chest and opened it. There was not a speck of dust on anything in the chest. Percy picked up the pen and slipped it in his pocket. The notebook was next. He flipped through it, reminding himself of the upgrades he wanted to make.
Lastly was the suit itself. The black mixed with blue made him smile. The golden trident on the chest reminded him who was counting on him. And that just made him feel the pressure on his shoulders again. How was he meant to become the God of the Ocean? There were probably millions of people who deserved it more. Why him?
That seemed to be the question he was asking himself a lot lately.
He was chosen. He was chosen by the sea. Not Poseidon, the sea itself. That had to mean something, right? But then again, the seas chose Pontus. They chose Oceanus. They chose Poseidon. Who's to say that they won't replace him in a couple of years?
These were all things Percy didn't know. He did know one thing right now.
Sea Storm was back in action.
A/N. So, Percy is a superhero again, and is going to try to solve this conspiracy. Also, I know, that's not how wills work, but whatever.
Thank you Zaeng_. Couldn't have done it without you once again.
So, I think I'm gonna prioritize this story first, then work on the others. If you have a problem with that, please voice them here, and I'll be sure to ignore them.
Thoughts?