Chapter Five
Percy felt sick. His stomach felt wrong. He got out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. He went to the toilet and fell down beside it. His head hung over the bowl.
He spit into the toilet, and kept his mouth open as drool fell out of his mouth heavily. A second later, he felt it. He retched into the toilet bowl, but nothing came out. He did it again, and puke erupted from his throat.
The mixture of tater-tots and chocolate painted the toilet a weird color. He kept throwing up, upchucking everything he had eaten the night before.
Once he was done, he kept his head above the toilet. He felt more fatigued as he waited to see if more would come up. Once he deemed it safe, he flushed the toilet.
He walked out of the bathroom and into the small little, well, it wasn't really a kitchen. There was a coffee pot, a microwave, a sink, a toaster, and a fridge, all on a counter by the door. He reached into the fridge and pulled out an Eggo waffle. He stuck it into the toaster and waited.
A few minutes later, the waffle was ready. He grabbed it and bit into it. He wolfed down the breakfast item. He opened the fridge, grabbed the bottle of orange juice, and took a swig.
Hopefully he could keep that down. At least until after the fight.
LINE BREAK
Percy's next opponent was a minor God. The God of Fear, Phobos. Percy felt confident going into this fight, considering that he had already fought this God a while ago.
The God stood in front of him, in the form of a teenage boy with eyes of fire. He wore a black tight fitted shirt, torn jeans, and a leather jacket. He also had a bandana on his head. He had a knife tucked into his belt.
Percy unsheathed his knife.
"Where's that sword you had last time? I want to use it to gut you like a fish." Phobos said. "I've been waiting for a rematch, for a chance to show you that last time was a fluke."
"It's with your mother." Percy said. Sure, it made no sense, but it made Phobos mad. And that was his intention. "I must've left it there last night. I was preoccupied with other things after all."
Phobos drew his knife. His eyes burned brighter as he saw red. He charged at Percy. Percy sidestepped and slashed at the God with his knife. He cut the leather jacket, but missed any flesh. Phobos turned around, before charging again.
It seemed like Phobos was like a bull. He couldn't change directions as he charged. Percy already knew that Phobos was a very weak fighter, relying on his abilities and Godly strength to win fights. But after Percy's comment, Phobos was too angry to use his powers.
As such, when Phobos charged again, Percy sidestepped and stuck out a leg. Phobos tripped over the leg and fell on his face. He rolled over, and made to get up, but Percy straddled his stomach.
Phobos went to stab Percy with his knife, but Percy caught his hand. He twisted it, breaking Phobos's wrist. Percy didn't even look away from Phobos's eyes as he did it. He bore his eyes into the God. He wanted the fear God to feel fear.
Percy took his knife and raised it above his head. He brought it down, stabbing the God in the heart. Percy pulled it out, and ichor started to leak from the wound. The fire in Phobos's eyes died out.
Percy got up and wiped the ichor on his shirt. He looked at the Fear god, before deciding that he liked the leather jacket.
He lifted Phobos's dead body and took the jacket off. He wiped the sand off of the back and put it on. It was almost a perfect fit. A little big, but it went well with the plain white shirt.
Percy felt weird. A weird stirring in his stomach. He felt like a passenger in his own body as a black substance covered his body. It licked its nonexistent lips with its long tongue, before lifting up Phobos's corpse and biting its head off.
"Dead." It muttered. "But it'll do. For now."
Then the black sludge faded away, leaving Percy standing dazed and confused.
Then Percy's ears caught onto the loud noises the crowd was making. Most of them were cheers.
"Well, it appears that more of you have won money from this round. Not many of you bet against Percy Jackson. It seems you are learning from your mistakes." Tartarus announced. "And what of Percy Jackson?! That transformation! Never in my years, have I seen anything like that!"
Percy walked out of the arena and back to his room. He felt the throw up starting to climb his throat again. He stumbled to get to his door. He unlocked it and immediately ran into the bathroom.
He just barely made it to the toilet. He threw up the waffle and orange juice. Once he had nothing in his stomach, he was left dry heaving, wanting to upchuck, but there was nothing.
Once his body finished trying to turn itself inside out, he flushed the toilet. He stood up shakily. He stumbled over to the sink and turned on the cold water. He splashed his face with it. He looked into the mirror, seeing himself. He verified that nothing looked wrong and dried his face off.
He walked back into the bedroom and sat on the bed. "What is happening to me?" He questioned quietly.
A weird squelching sound came from his side as black tendrils sprouted from his back. They interconnected and expanded. A face grew at the end of it. It had large milky white eyes, a large grin with sharp teeth, and a longer than normal tongue.
It faced Percy.
"What the hell are you?" He asked it quietly.
"I am Venom." It said. It's voice was deep, very deep. "And you are mine."
"You bit his head off." Percy stated, confused.
"Fuel in the tank." It said. "Listen carefully. You did not find me. I found you. Think of yourself as my ride."
"Where are you going?"
"I want what you want. I want the surface."
"How do you know about that?"
"I know everything about you."
"How? How do you know everything about me?"
"I am inside your head."
"Are you uh, are you gonna eat anyone else?"
"Quite possibly. Cooperate and you might just survive."
"Oh God."
"Now, we have a tournament to win."
LINE BREAK
Thalia had a secret. One she held close to her heart. If it ever got out, it could ruin her life. She would be kicked out of the Hunters of Artemis and quite possibly be turned into a bear and hunted down for sport.
It wasn't even a bad secret in general, it was just that with her group, she had committed something taboo. She had forsaken the company of men, leaving them behind for immortality. But she never really wanted to. She only did it to get out of the prophecy. She hoped that when the prophecy passed, she could leave. That was her plan. Then she could act on her secret. Her big, oh so serious secret.
Thalia liked Percy Jackson.
She hoped that she could leave the Hunters and be with him. They'll even be closer to the same age biologically. It was perfect. She was gathering the courage to ask Artemis to leave when news reached her.
Percy was dating Annabeth.
Her heart felt like breaking. She cried herself to sleep that night. A picture sat on her nightstand, one of her and Percy before she joined the Hunters. That night it laid face down.
She decided to stay with the Hunters. She now officially joined their ranks. Their ranks of women who had been hurt by men. She put her responsibilities on a pedestal, focusing on them to distract herself from her broken heart.
But then she got sad (but great for her) news. Percy and Annabeth had broken up. Their experience in Tartarus took a huge toll on them, so they split. This was Thalia's chance! She could leave when the war with the giants was over! It was like the Fates themselves gave her a second chance.
But just as quickly as she got it, it was taken away.
Percy was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in Tartarus. Thalia once again cried, real ugly sobbing into her pillow. Was she just destined to be heartbroken for eternity?
It wasn't like she was unjustified in her actions. Even Artemis had kind of shut down, and she wasn't even that close to Percy. The other Hunters didn't care too much, but they definitely noticed the lack of cohesion from their leaders.
Thalia decided that she needed some fresh air. She had been couped up in her tent, wallowing in her self pity for too long. She unzipped the tent and stepped outside into the sunlight.
She walked into the forest they were camped in. She came across a lake. The water was the same color as his eyes. Great, she couldn't go anywhere without being reminded of him.
She heard something come up from behind her. She didn't get a chance to look to see what it was though, as she was blindfolded and gagged.
It had been a while since any of the Hunters had seen Thalia. So when reports of her missing started to reach Artemis' ears, she decided to investigate.
She walked over to Thalia's tent. "Thalia? Are you in there?" She yelled. She got no answer.
She decided to make an executive decision and went to unzip the tent. At least, until she realized that it was already unzipped. That was weird. Thalia never left it unzipped when she was inside.
She stepped into the tent. Everything seemed to be fine. The bed was messy, which was to be expected of her, the tent was a mess, also expected of her. But it wasn't like there was a fight or a struggle. It was just a general mess.
But Thalia was nowhere to be found. Artemis let out a small burst of power. This was how she usually found Hunters that she couldn't find. It had a 100% success rate.
But Thalia's signature never popped up on her radar. It was like she disappeared off the face of the Earth.
