(A/N) These chapters are getting very, very short. It is my duty as a writer to give you a proper story that's chapters are so short it's basically a collection of one-shots. It does not say one-shots in the Summary, so I therefore am going to step up my game in order to give you nice, long chapters.
WRITER'S BLOCK IS STILL GNAWING ON MY BRAIN AND IT'S GETTING VERY ANNOYING SO I AM SORRY IF THIS STORY IS BECOMING OF LESS QUALITY. IT IS MY FAULT.
Disclaimer: I do own PJO
Exodus POV
The wind whipped my face as I gazed down upon the small village below, smiling wickedly. People screamed and scrambled around like tiny ants as flames leapt from their homes. The fire department was desperately trying to extinguish them, but their water was useless as the burning green fire ate away and anything and everyone in its path. I twirled a still-full vial in my fingers, surprised at how strong his hand-eye coordination skills had been. If they had been any lesser than they were now, I would've already dropped the vial and sent both me and Python up in flames like the town.
Speaking of which, the green snake was coiled beside me, his unblinking eyes watching coldly as the mortals screamed and flailed their hands, trying to rescue their pets and relatives from the burning homes. This blaze of Greek fire would certainly put us on the gods' radar, but that was the entire point; it was meant to be a red herring, an event that made them lean towards a drakon or another unruly monster that they could easily dismiss. They wouldn't expect their greatest hero to turn against them at all, not one bit. Despite some suspicion, nobody would expect Perseus Jackson to go sour; his fatal flaw was loyalty, and he'd saved them once with Kronos and once with Gaea and the Giants. The Greater Power would not fail like all the rest, and even though I knew that that's what monsters said about the other two powerful beings, this was a whole new ballgame.
The Greater Power, quite like Gaea, had not woken in several centuries, for he slept more deeply and best of all he was able to doubt himself; he was not prideful like Kronos or rash like Gaea. In his sleep he has analyzed every possible scenario and solved every single one, victory on all sides. He had backup plans, and backup plans for the backup plans; an infinite amount of backup plans since he slipped into sleep a millennia before. Every strategy, every battalion placement, was perfection. It was my duty to start this war, not abruptly with an all-out battle, but leaving little hints one by one.
First I assembled a large amount of my brethren and cousins, several Dragonborn hydras and a multitude of Dragonborn crawlers and harpies, and had them meet in the Rocky Mountains, which was basically sending off a flare to the gods. The "meeting" lasted about twenty minutes, and it was basically just an exchange of news and jokes amongst us, and then we dispersed once more.
Next I had Python begin to pick people off in New Jersey. It was all over the news, and it was rather hysterical; the mortals kept saying things about the old legend of the Jersey Devil, but that beast had long since been slain by Grover Cleveland on June 24, 1908, but the wounds from the battle had caused his death soon after. He had been a child of Bacchus, and his advisors had secretly been satyrs, so they concluded that his death had been from a serious illness rather than from the Jersey Devil.
Then it had been this, the burning of Woodstock. I had such an exciting life.
"What sssshall be our next move, Exodussss?" Python hissed in contempt as he watched the historical town burn. "Hydrassss in the musssseumssss? Crawlerssss in the White Housssse?" Woodstock had been a place of peace and love, but this certainly was not peace. The mortals must've blamed it on a freak accident, the greenness of the flames to the copper they used for their knick-knacks baubles, and trinkets. If so, why wasn't the water from the fire department working? I delighted to watch them try to figure it out, and luckily Python and I were shrouded in Mist, or else we would've been spotted by now.
"I'm saving the White House one for last, but we'll have to release some in Congress Hall as well so they don't check him. This stupid check-and-balance government would be much easier if it was a dictatorship, a dictatorship that I intend to spread throughout the world, all ruled by the Greater Power. Just imagine starting a nuclear war with Russia at the drop of a hat!" I chuckled sinisterly, cracking my knuckles. "We can watch with popcorn as Russia and the US destroy each other, and then we get China involved too. Then India and both Koreas. It'll be chaos!"
"The Dragonborn will feasssst on the blood of their enemiessss, while I watch from Delphi, that wretched ssssun god rotting in Tartarussss." Python chuckled, and it sounded more like a sickening hiss.
"Agreed, python, agreed." And after that silence ensued, and we watched as Woodstock crumbled to ashes.
-Ω-
Percy POV
I cried out plaintively as I watched the monster that wore my face like a mask stare at me with eyes that were red rather than green
"I was lucky I could find you. Very nice hiding spot." it told me, looking around at the blackness that roiled and shifted. I spat at him in reply, baring my teeth. "It's all of my good memories." I was about to tell it that this part of its mind was a void, dark and empty, but then I understood the joke. I laughed bitterly and turned away from it, crossing my arms.
"I thought that in return for leaving you could, I don't know, leave me the hell alone!" I hissed.
"Why would I ever do that?" it asked, truly astounded that I would think that.
"You're just like Shadow from Jason's memory! You're going to make me your personal slave and then pretend to be all friendly and lovey-dovey with me." It looked horrified and disgusted.
"Goodness no! I am not the personification of a disease, thank you very much." it scoffed. I rolled my eyes, bt Exodus either didn't notice or didn't give a crap. "Besides, unlike this 'Shadow' you speak of, we share a mind. I am you, you are me. If I drive you insane, then I'm going to go insane too, and that's not fun. So…yeah."
"How'd you find me?!" I spat.
"It was an accident, really. The strange things you run into when you're trying to find your local mental Starbucks." it replied with a shrug. it inherited my sassiness too? I'm offended.
"Well the Starbucks is that way." I snarled, pointing right. "Now leave."
"I found something much better, though." Exodus told me and plopped down onto the floor, motioning for me to sit beside him. I remained standing and bared my teeth.
"I want to be hip."
"Hip?"
"Yeah, hip. Along with that I just learned a new word; hashtag."
"This is embarrassing."
"Hashtag sorry. Hashtag my-host-is-a-grumpy-face."
"Dear God…"
"I wanna be a hipster."
"Do you even know what a hipster is?"
"No, but that's not the point."
I couldn't believe that I was talking to him like this, all friendly-like, and pretty soon I found myself unconsciously sitting across from him and engaging in conversation. I never wanted to be a hipster (no offense to all hipsters out there), but it wasn't my style. Now I was talking to a parasite who looked like me and was technically me who wanted to be a hipster. Out of all the Dragonborn Crawlers out there it just had to be Exodus who had to slither into my body and take over. He was the least qualified to do that! Then again, he was doing a good job of keeping me here.
I snapped out of it; this was a parasite, a stupid creature who was inside of me. I couldn't just succumb to him, or else I'd be weak. But I couldn't kill him because it meant I was killing myself as well. I was at a crossroads. Just like how Exodus had access to all of my memories and thoughts, I had access to all of his. I knew what he planned to do, and I had to say that the plan was ingenious, a little too ingenious if you ask me. Raise the Greater Power using my body? Pretty foolproof. Unless I found a way to get out somehow…
-Ω-
Frank POV
New Rome must've been in chaos. Raging fires, anxious people, disorganized ranks; it would all fall apart without Reyna and me. At first I was overwhelmed by sickening betrayal, because it looked as if Percy had sprayed sleeping gas into my face and Reyna's. Then when I had woken up here and first met Exodus, I realized that it indeed had not been my friend who had captured me, but more like the creature that was living inside of him. I wanted to tackle him and rip him out from the nape of Percy's neck, where I saw the lumpy form that was the horrible worm, but I knew that both Exodus and Percy would die if that happened. I didn't care for Exodus much, but Percy was one of my closest friends, one of the bravest demigods I have ever seen, and I didn't want to lose him.
There must've been a loophole somehow, another option, a third path. But as I paced the cold stone floor no ideas came to mind that would only cause the death of Exodus and not Percy. Reyna and Nico watched as they sat hunched on the bed, their expressions defeated but still hopeful. The three of us had all tried to smash down the door, but it was titanium and nearly broken Reyna's shoulder. I personally had tried to turn into an elephant to smash it down, but the room was too small for the transformation to complete.
Aside from that, we had tried everything; I scouted the length of the room as a mouse to see if there were any holes I could travel through, Reyna had drawled to Exodus through the door sexily, Nico had tried to shadow-travel us out, and last but not least we resorted to reverse phycology and threats, though Exodus seemed to be ignoring us. Either that or the doors and walls were soundproof as well as enchanted for anti-shadow travel. We had been waiting hours in silence, only exchanging the smallest of words and halfhearted jokes. My stomach snarled and that seemed to set off a chain reaction as all of our stomachs began to complain.
"We have to do something now or else we'll starve to…" Nico was cut off as the door opened. The three of us leapt to our feet, well, two of us due to the fact that Nico was still handcuffed to the bed. Exodus emerged and closed the door behind him, and I raised my fist to rearrange his facial features, but Reyna stopped me.
"The Styx promise." she hissed. "It's better to be locked in here than break it." I grumbled to myself and crossed my arms, but I was distracted by what Exodus was currently wearing.
"Uh…" Nico said awkwardly, scratching behind his head with his free hand. The parasite was wearing a beanie, non-prescription glasses, a huge scarf, a striped shirt with a leather jacket, and last but not least he was wearing shoes without socks.
"Sup'?" Exodus asked and took a sip out of his Styrofoam Starbucks cup. With the other hand he was typing on an IPhone 6, and I could clearly see that the Instagram app was opened.
"What happened?" Reyna spluttered as she gawked along with us. It was very, very weird to see Percy dressed in hipster clothes, and I don't think that Percy had ever drank a sip of Starbucks in his entire life…not that he needed the extra caffeine, though.
"Someone took a picture and used the hipster filter." Nico scoffed disgustedly. Uh-oh; a hipster and an emo in the same exact room together. The world was going to explode any minute now.
"Sure, sure." Exodus replied and took another sip of his Starbucks, liking one of the pictures he was looking at. That's when I realized that that wasn't the Instagram app at all, in the corner it said 'Monstagram' in curly script. You had to be freaking kidding me. I nearly slapped the phone out of his hand, but he put it in the back pocket of his skinny jeans, and, even though I'm not gay or anything, I had to admit that Percy had a nice butt. Too bad it was always hidden under the baggy clothing he usually wore.
"Starbucks?" he asked, gesturing to a plastic starbucks bag that was slung around his arm.
"Uh…no." I was pretty sure that this was going to be a long night.