Chapter 2

Harry strode down the throne room, casually ignoring the pantheon, and stopped in front of the biggest throne, upon which sat Zeus.

"You, brother, shall taste my fury!" Poseidon raised his trident.

"SILENCE!" Harry's magically amplified voice reverberated in the huge Throne Room.

And then there was silence... for about two seconds.

"You... a mere mortal... think you can challenge me?" Poseidon asked, his full fury now focused at him.

Harry had seconds to react, in which he just managed to cloak himself in his advanced invisibility cloak, when the full force of a thunderstorm hit where he had been just moments ago.

Since the cloak worked by creating a pocket dimension, he was completely unharmed, if unimpressed.

Poseidon looked at his trident. Then he glared at Hephaestus, who threw his hand in the air, as if saying 'Even I don't know how that happened.'

"Are we done crying like a baby, and can we discuss things using reasoning and logic."

What do you think readers? Did Poseidon stand down and have a reas– oh who am I kidding, this is Poseidon we're talking about.

The full force of seven massive hurricanes crashed on the place where Harry had been standing, leaving a giant crater in the middle of the hall. Harry calmly walked out of the smoke, looking completely bored.

"Happy?" Harry asked mockingly.

Of course not.

This time, the full Pantheon pitched their efforts. Zeus turned the very air into poison, helped by Apollo. Aphrodite pitched in by making everyone jealous of everyone else, while Ares summoned cursed fire which started burning everything. Even Dionysus, or Mr D if you are from camp Half-Blood, threw a grape into the wildfire of destruction, not to be left out.

After more that five minutes the gods stopped, and the crater was now a giant hole overlooking Manhattan.

And Harry stood right next to the hole.

And that was when Athena turned visible and tried to stab Harry, and her blade went straight through him, and then Harry's illusion disappeared, revealing a smirking Harry on the other side of the giant hole.

"Goddess of wisdom, huh?"

Athena growled.

"So as you can see..." Harry spread his hands, "You simply cannot harm me. And yes, I can see you Ares, trying to throw that knife at me. No. It's time for you to act and behave like fucking gods, and not some third graders with a butter knife."

Percy agreed wholeheartedly. He almost wanted to applaud, but restrained himself. Because unlike the mysterious Mr Black, he would not even survive a friendly pat on his back by the gods.

"Are we clear?" Harry shouted.

Apollo couldn't restrain himself any longer. "What the fuck are you?"

Harry smirked. "Glad you asked. I'm Mister Black."

Poseidon could hear the full 'Mister' instead of the abbreviation.

"What do you want, Black." It wasn't always that the gods got bested by a single mortal. And the sound defeat hadn't left Zeus feeling very happy at all. No sir.

"As I said, for you to stop behaving like kindergarteners."

No, he absolutely hated defeat in any way, shape, or form.

"And what makes you think that we will listen to you, mortal?"

Harry looked at the giant hole, then looked back at Zeus. "Really?"

Zeus did not blush. And anyone who said otherwise would die.

"So... the problem is that some of you," he glared at Ares and Athena, who was back at her throne, "have personal agendas against the kid. And so you're trying to — and it was a good try, I will give you that — have him gone. Your poor little hearts can't handle killing the boy yourself."

"The Laws forbid us," Ares murmured, and then he realised that he had spoken aloud. Poseidon glared at him. Harry went on talking.

"Which is just stupid. How can that boy," he pointed at Percy, who was standing huddled together in a group with Annabeth and Grover, "be of any concern for you? What is he gonna do, flood your bathroom?"

Percy really wanted to say something in his defence, but Annabeth managed to shut him up before he spoke.

"You guys are a bunch of cowards... sitting on your thrones, looking all majestic, while kids are dying down there, because you all are too busy congratulating yourself."

Apollo hurriedly hid his trophy collection of the Brightest Smile of the Century.

"I never imagined I would have to say this to someone who is more than ten thousand years old... but please grow the fuck up."

He looked over at Artemis, the only goddess who had not tried to kill him. "And remember, you have to lose sometimes in order to win."

He then turned to Poseidon, who was still steaming due to the humiliation. Literally. As in, actual steam rose from his body into the air around him.

"You have a good kid. And you are much better than many gods here, because you actually claimed your kid." Poseidon didn't like it, but that did make him feel happy. "However," Harry continued, "that does not mean that your temper tantrums will be allowed to continue. No, that just won't do. Do you know how many cities and villages were destroyed because you couldn't stop your anger? How many boats drowned? No? While I was waiting to be called, I did a bit of research," Harry's tone changed, becoming much more deadly, "More than one million humans lost their life... one million. Not to mention the property loss and the families torn apart, because you, who calls himself a god, couldn't hold your temper."

Poseidon looked at Percy, and then he fell silent, head bowed in sadness. Percy wasn't sure, but he thought he saw genuine remorse in his father's eyes.

"And finally," Harry turned to Zeus, "the big man himself."

Zeus raised his eyebrow.

"You are the single worst person who could ever be a king... ever. I am very surprised how this lot," he pointed at his back, towards the other gods, "hasn't yet tied you up and threw you in a cave somewhere."

Lightning started cackling around his hands.

"Start ruling you fucking moron... or step aside. You have two options."

Harry pulled out his sword, and the temperature around him turned very cold.

A bolt of lightning flew from Zeus' hand, right at his chest, but Harry managed to block it with his sword, which absorbed it completely.

"Done?"

"Who," Zeus thundered, "are you to tell me how to rule my kingdom?"

Harry sighed. "That, right there, is the problem. You refuse to listen to critique, when that is the most important aspect of a good ruler. To listen to his people. To improve himself. Are your subjects afraid of you? Then you're doing it wrong."

That left Zeus speechless. As much as he wanted to ignore this bug, he was saying the truth. Black had quoted his own book back at him, a book he had written back when Greece was much more well known and feared.

Back when he didn't have to carry his Lightning Bolt everywhere he went.

Harry then turned to those he had ignored for some time now, and spoke, "I don't know much about you... but you are not doing your jobs properly when things are how they are... so, you know, man up. Or rather, god up, and do your fucking job. I don't want to come back for a second time."

With that, Harry pulled out his Motorcycle, revved it up, and flew out of the rather convenient hole in the ground. The motorcycle's form could be seen shifting into that of a ghost horse, as he went farther and farther away.

There was silence in the Throne Room, and then the gods started popping away. Dionysus took the kids back to his Camp. Eventually, only Zeus was left on his throne, which was as majestic as ever, but he felt something missing. Pride, he was missing pride. Throughout his years of being a king, he had made many mistakes. Even he could admit that. But never had he ever believed he wasn't a good ruler. He sighed, his face aging up a few hundred years. Well, no better time than now to correct what has been wronged.

Artemis was with her hunters, right in her element. Away from men and their enormous egos. She hated being near the Pantheon, she was so repulsed by it all. The fake grandeur, the fake friendships... everything was fake. Not like the wild. If a leopard wanted to eat you, he would. There wouldn't be any sweet-talk to bring you in his inner group as he plans to assassinate you in the dark of night, no. He would attack, and you would either be powerful enough to kill it, or it would kill you.

Simple as that.

She tried, yet again, to focus on her hunt, but a certain someone kept coming to her mind, distracting her again and again, as she tried to filter the smell of the wild boar from all the other smells of the jungle.

Mr Black.

Zoë Nightshade, her trusted lieutenant, crept through the thick undergrowth without making a sound. She had trained her well. The silver light of her chariot lightened up the forest in the dark of the night.

"Would you like to rest tonight, milady?" Zoë whispered.

Artemis sighed, loosening her bow back into her quiver. If even Zoë could see her agitation, there was no point trying to hunt.

"You have been very... distracted, ever since you returned from the Solstice meeting."

She really appreciated Zoë not trying to be invasive, but in a conversation she was about as subtle as a three year old trying to hide something, which is to say not at all.

"I have told you many times, Zoë, if you think you would like to know something, just ask. I would tell you if the information is meant to be shared."

"I am not one to annoy my queen with useless banter," Zoë sniffed, "like... like... a boy," she shivered.

Artemis laughed.

"You know, they aren't all bad..."

"I'll believe that when I see one."

"Anyway," Artemis interrupted before the argument could grow bigger, "I was thinking of Mr Black."

"Oh. Oh."

By this time they were back at their camp, where other girls were attending the fire and being otherwise useful. Artemis had always been very open and honest with her hunters, lies and deceit had no place in her camp.

"Who's Mr Black?" one of the newer and younger members of her group asked innocently. Zoë glared at her, but Artemis waved her away. Many other curious eyes met hers, all wanting to know the same, but refusing to say it out loud.

Might as well...

"Once upon a time, in a land far away..."

The girls snorted.

"Okay fine. Seven thousand years ago, if memory serves me right, I was hunting a special flying squirrel. You see, its fur could heal the greatest of wounds, mightiest of blows."

The girls were completely entranced, even those who had been with her then. Artemis wasn't known for telling stories.

"But try as we might," she continued, "we could never seem to catch it. The squirrel would simply vanish whenever we fired an arrow, arriving in some other random forest in the world. Neither swords nor traps had any effect on that magical creature. This frustrated me to no end. I would have Hephaestus build me better traps, I would spend hours on end simply crafting my bow to be as quick as possible, but the squirrel was always, quicker, faster, smarter."

A few girls grew outraged on behalf of their queen, which she found endearing.

"Finally, after a hunt lasting more than six months, we finally tracked it down to a village in Africa. By that point the hunt had turned into an obsession for me. We generally stay out of civilizations, as you very well know," the girls nodded in sync, "But this time, I decided to give the village a visit. Because I had heard rumours about a healer who could heal any wounds," the girls, smart that they were, figured it out quickly.

"Exactly. Even I thought the healer had somehow hunted what I couldn't, and so I decided to give him a visit. And learn how he did it."

A few girls were astonished, how could Artemis not be the best hunter in the world? The very idea was ridiculous.

Artemis shook her head. "Even I have had to learn hunting, you know that, right?" Best to nip that in the bud.

"Anyhow," she continued, "I entered his home, and I asked him what medicine he used to cure the villagers. And sure enough, he pulled out a box full of the magical fur, fresh and ready to be used.

"I asked him, 'How did you hunt the squirrel?' to which he said, 'I didn't hunt any creature,' to that I replied, 'No need to lie, healer, I just wanted to learn your craft of hunting,' to which he merely laughed. I grew more and more frustrated, and asked him, 'Well how do you have the fur of that squirrel?' and he grew silent.

"'Are you trying to kill the beautiful squirrel?' he asked in a deadly voice, and despite being immortal, I must admit, I did feel a tiny bit scared. We then talked, and I told him how I had tried hunting the squirrel for so long, to which he said, 'Have you tried losing?'"

Artemis let that hang in the air for a moment.

"'Losing? I–I am the best hunter, I don't lose,' I said, to which he stood up, and told me to follow him. I followed him into the middle of a thick forest, and I was amazed to see the squirrel flying through the trees to meet the healer. It landed on his shoulder, and he gave the squirrel some nuts. It played around him for a time, and then went back into the forest. The healer collected the fur that had fallen around him, and then asked me, 'Do you understand?'"

Artemis then emphasised, "Do you?" to the girls.

"I never captured the squirrel. I never could, and so I lost. I lost completely and totally, and in the humiliating defeat, I won."

She opened her palms, showing the girls a hand full of the magical fur. Gasps filled the room.

"The healer told me that his name was Black."

Her story told, she went outside the camp for a little walk. Zoë joined her.

"What made you remember that healer?" Zoë asked.

"I met him today, at the pantheon."

Zoë was speechless for a few moments. "How... That's... impossible. How can you tell it was the same Mr Black?"

"He said those words, Zoë. He said, 'You have to lose sometimes, in order to win.'"

AN: That's a chapter done. I must say that the response I have received has made my day. Thank you for your continued support.

That said, please don't expect the story to follow the plot points of the canon books... that's basically impossible at this point. Also, I cannot, and nobody can, emulate the exact character of Mr Black that Rorschach created. This is my interpretation of Mr Black.

My advice would be to not take this story too seriously (because Merlin knows I don't) and to enjoy the ride it takes you through.