Leo Valdez POV (Point of View)
Life is cruel, people change, emotions are complicated, titans are evil, and so far friends disappoint. Nothing makes sense. The only thing that has never disappointed me in my entire life the and also only thing that never changes is… fire. It keeps me warm, cooks my food, takes care of me, kills my enemies, and basically deals with all my problems. It is what has kept me alive so far and I am going to put it to the test once again. I left had Chicago a few days before and was almost at Toronto when the gas in my stolen car ran out.
"Dang, you give up on me already?" I asked the car. It was a old ford mustang, even old it was oddly beautiful. Whoever I had stolen it from would be super sad when he or she realized it was gone. It was charcoal black and had two white stripes running from its hood and all the way to its tail lights. It had average size rims and a nice stereo but it was useless to me now.
"Dammit!" I yelled to the skies. I was so angry I decided to put all my emotions into my flames. A white and blue streak of flames shot from my palm and engulfed the car in milliseconds. I stepped back and watched the flames turn to orange. It only took a minute before the car in front of me exploded and flames and shrapnel shot in every direction. The flames licked my body and blew my hair back, reaching out almost a good 20 feet. The highway I was on, turned golden for a moment.
I smiled to my self and inhaled the work of my art. Beautiful, I thought. I now stood on a part of the road that you wouldn't notice unless you got stuck there; it was a one of those barren looking forests: no leaves, dark, damp, cold, creepy. I sighed and watched myself as I exhaled steam.
"Nothing for it." I told my self. I was walking the next 123 miles to Toronto.
The trip was uneventful but the tracking was hard. I walked over endless hills and past countless trees. I had read that the average human walks 5 miles an hour. I don't know for how many, but I walked for at least 6-7 hours and aside from that I had a feeling I was doing much less than 5 mph. The trip seemed endless, every time I rounded a corner or peeked over a hill all I saw was more road. I swear, with the mix of my ADHD and my natural lack of patience, I lived a year in a couple hours. I occasionally heard rustling in the woods next to me, but assumed that if there were monsters they would have fled when they got a glimpse of my face.
The woods were beautiful; there trees stood up like monstrosities, the leaves hid the floor from sight and the silence let your thought loose. The bark on the trees was a dark brown, the number of leaves on the floor was surreal. It was like counting them would be just as impossible as counting the grains of sand on a beach. As I walked in the cold, I drifted into my thoughts; thinking about all the adventures I had had so far. When I thought of the skirmish with Atlas the wound in my shoulder began to ache. I thought of my encounter with Gaea and when she killed my mom, which made the wound in my heart ache above all my other battle scars. I was so lost in thought that I didn't hear the coarse hum of an old motor as it approached until it was right on me. An old Jeep pulled up right next to me on the road and kept driving as I walked on forward. In its truck where a bundle of supplies; there was a sack of grain, hay, tanks of kerosene, gasoline, and fertilizers. In its drivers seat was a young girl about my age, maybe a little bit older, her hair was wavy brown and was tied back in a pony tail. Her eyes were brown, and she was wearing a tight light blue shirt and dark blue jeans.
"Hey there stranger" she said to me, "What are you doing out here walking? Did your car break down?"
"Blew up." I corrected.
"Are you serious?" She asked, "Was it a mustang?" I nodded, but refused to look at her, for she might recognize me from some wanted poster.
"Woah, that was some thirty miles back." I shrugged of the statement like it was no big deal, but the truth was my feet were getting tired and I didn't feel like flying.
"Come on, I've got room, plus the next town in another 40 miles up ahead." She reasoned. I looked at her face one more time. Dammit just my type, not good.
"Are you sure." I said glancing at her. No no no, my conscience implored me.
"Of course." She smiled. I jumped in her moving car, and once I was in she sped up.
"I'm Patrick Maxwell, by the way" I lied. What? It was either that or Elvis Bob. Plus I used to like watching Sponge Bob. She took my hand and added…
"Mines, Amanda Lagess." I nodded.
"Um, are you sure it legal for you to be driving" I asked her nervously.
"You said you drove a mustang out here." She pointed out.
"Touché" I acknowledged
"Doesn't matter I I break the law a little there isn't much security in this neck of the woods anyway" she continued. I laughed.
"Glad to know there are still careless people out there" I commented. She smiled like it was a complement.
Afterwards I made up some BS story about how there must have been a leak in my gas tank and that I notice it last minute before it blew up. She told me about how she was headed to a large working farm not too far from the suburbs of Lansing, Michigan. We rode sharing information about each other, though I have to admit everything I said was made up. At least I made her laugh a few times, and when she did she melted my heart. She was nice enough to offer me a place to stay in her family house not too far from the farm.
"We here?" I asked as she stopped the Jeep in a large circular drive way. The stones underneath the car made awkward crunching sounds as we approached the front steps of a large house. Of to our sides were beautiful fields as far as I could see, and in front of us a house loomed over us in a welcoming fashion.
"Pit stop" she answered. There we were in front of a large wooden door, to a house that I couldn't see the end of. She beeped the horn twice and as we waited I got this serious rich vibe from her, but something were off. After two minutes a man wearing a nice suit came out of the large door followed by two other guys'.
"How may I help you Ms. Lagess." The man asked formally.
"Um, could you take what's in the trunk and give it to Sam" she asked.
"Of course" He replied and immediately the two men followed him and started to unload the trunk. I just sat there trying to cover my face and at the same time watch the scene.
"You're rich?" I whispered to her.
"No." She answered.
"We're done Ms. Lagess". The man informed her with the same formality.
"Thanks Marc, you're a life saver." She praised. The man thanked her and waved her off as the other guy's disappeared behind the door. We drove off in silence as I tried to formulate a different question. I took me a while but finally I came up with one.
"You're rich?" I asked again.
"Nooo." She answered trying to make a point with me.
"You totally are!" I exclaimed, "If you own that place-"
"I don't!" She said with finality, "And I'm not rich… my parent are"
"Ha, same thing!" I said. Then notice that strangely she didn't seem to like being rich otherwise I doubt she would be in denial.
"At your service Ms. Lagess" I mocked.
"Stop." She whined playfully. We drove on for a while passing occasional houses and other cars.
"Still" I said, "You're making deliveries and are in a car like this when you have a property and house like that.
"This is my car, I, me, Marcia Lagess, bought it with my own money." She bragged.
"Yeah right." I laughed, "You're what, 15?"
"Yes" she replied.
"Where'd you get the money for a car?" I asked playfully.
"I worked for part and the other part came from my allowance" she answered with then she frowned.
"How much do you get? 1000 dollars a week" I questioned.
"Bah! I wish. I get 300" she sighed. I shook my head in disbelief. I get 0 dollars a week, I thought, much less have real parents. As much as I resented her for the privileges she got, I felt grateful for the fact she was giving me a place to stay. It wasn't exactly the smartest thing to offer to a complete stranger; I mean the person could be a criminal and as it turned out I was.
I asked questions that a normal teenager would ask and while I was at it I managed to keep my identity completely oblivious while giving her a good time. She told me that she and her family moved out her as did many other rich families to get a way from the imposing threat of the savage monsters. She also told me she went to a small school in the area where only about 600 studied and told me that she had got fed up with her rich bubble when she noticed other people suffering and cowering in fear. She was being really nice and opening her self up to me a little all the while her eyes shone beautifully as we drove into the sunset. I told her about how I wanted to change the world and she couldn't agree with me more. Though, she just didn't know how far I would go. She seemed like a young ambitious girl who looked over the raging world from safety and was trying to dream up a solution; sticking to the stereotypical assumptions: monsters are bad, people are good. That could very well be the most unrealistic belief ever. Her innocence had allowed her to allow me a place to stay with her and she still hadn't realized who I was. I didn't hate her for it but I was worried her beliefs would come back and bite her on the butt. I on the other hand knew better and was a conflicted young boy that was trying not to turn bitter, though had already come up with a solution. My plan was to find powerful companions, fight my way to San Diego where the titans resided on Mt. Othrys and destroy them.
We continued talking and exchanging jokes. Finally, after the sun had already gone down, we drove off the road and onto another property. When we stopped in front of the house I was blown away again. The place was so huge that calling it a house was a major understatement. This was a mansion; the lights that shone out of windows in the distance gave it a majestic feeling. She drove her car into a round-about and then casually got out of the Jeep. The engine silently lost it life and the car headlights shutoff. The sound of humming crickets filled the night and the croaking of the occasional toad made the night seem like mother natures natural symphony.
"I think its best that my parents don't see you." She warned me. I couldn't agree more with her.
We approached the mansion carefully looking out for people. We got in unseen and when judgment moment came she expertly snuck me past a few servants. We occasionally ran down corridors, making sharp turns and hiding in random rooms. Believe it or not she had something like an auditorium in her house, not to mention that the living room was like the size of a hotel lobby. When we finally arrived at my secret room I was worn out.
"Stay here." She ordered and I nodded. Yeah right, I thought. She left the room in a hurry looking content and thrilled by my presence. As soon as she left all went eerie quiet, it took a few minutes but suddenly in the distance a door wheezed open and then closed. Foot steps echoed in hallway, the sound making its way through my closed door, then disappeared slowly.
I opened the door and looked around the corner where the footsteps disappeared to. I looked right and left before dashing after the footsteps. The lights in the corridor where a luminous orange that gave the place a cozy feeling thought all that changed as I rounded a fourth or fifth corner. As I rounded the corner I got a glimpse of a man in a white coat; he was semi bald, grey hair, wore silver rimed glasses and stood at the edge of a large steel futuristic vault looking door. Woah, I thought in stun and awe. The man swiftly waved his hand over a brass disc looking object, which was positioned at chest level to the right of the vault. A holographic keyboard appeared along with a monitor. I watched in awe as he typed away furiously, at crazy speed and with proficiency, a few seconds later the large door hissed open and he casually walked in as two guards saluted him. One of the guards whispered into his ear and he nodded, then a second later the door closed behind him.
The whole thing seemed surreal. One thing was for sure, I had definitely gotten myself into something interesting. I walked up to the steel door put my hand on it and could feel every bit of the machinery about it; three tons, double reinforced hinges, temperature resistant, whatever was going on in there need to be kept secret, badly! I walked over to the disc and waved my hand. The holographic key board and monitor appeared. I looked behind me to make sure no one was approaching, then closed my eyes and concentrated. As I cleared my mind, the sound of my lungs and the hum of all the machines sonorously clouded my ears. I felt a camera filming me but ignored it, I concentrated a little longer and then felt the code to the vault slip into my mind. I typed in the characters on the key board and then the vault made the same hissing opening as it did when the old man went in.
"Halt!" the one of the two guards cried as they both came into view from behind the vault door holding the G36C assault rifle in firing positions. Dang, I thought.
"Who are you and how did you open the vault?" The guard spoke again. The guard was dressed in a blue uniform jacked and had an earpiece like his partner. He had short black hair wore clear square glasses, and his eyes were squinted and focused. He looked mildly strong and in a bout his thirties like his partner, who had a buzz cut hair style.
I closed my eyes and breathed slowly.
"Relax. I am unarmed and am simply a guest of honor. I mean no harm." I lied reassuringly as I slowly lifted my hands. The glasses man nodded towards his friend who slowly approached me, probably to do a frisk. The air was tense, the guns waiting. I counted the guard's steps, steps that lead to his death. I focused on my arm, my power just waiting to explode, so I discreetly started to heat up my arm. When the man was almost on me my arm was so hot it was burning the air.
The man twitched as if he just noticed something, but it was too late. I shoved the barrel of the gun off to the right and with my steaming hot left arm attacked with a punch. His wail in pain endlessly echoed down through the corridor, and the fear on the other guards face were drowned by the sound of gunshots. My left arm had burned straight through the approaching guard's chest. The guard's blood spewed around my arm but soon stopped as I completely burnt his insides. The guard with the glasses started shooting furiously. I lifted his buddy and used him as a shield as I prepared a fire ball in my right hand.
The guard with the glasses stopped shooting and started running down the corridor. The fire ball danced to the tip of my two fingers as I imitated a gun with my hand. I aimed it down the corridor and let it fly as the guard shouted into a radio.
"It's the 'Phoenix Demigod' Leo Val-!" he never finished the sentenced. The fire ball hit him and expanded on contact torching his entire body. He wailed in pain and agony as his torched body disappeared around the corner. The sound of the scream echoed into the darkness along with the light of the fire. The guard that I had impaled with my burning arm fell to the ground as I pushed him away. The hissing sound of burning flesh numbed my mind.
"I've done it again. Next headlines: 'The Phoenix Demigod Kills More!'" I imagined. I let out a long sigh. Can't be helped, I thought.
I started down the corridor. This time the hallway no longer had cozy feel, it had more of an opaque and cold feel to it. Florescent lights occasionally flickered as I walked by I made one turn and came face to face with a wide staircase at the bottom another vault door and in front of it a dozen guards, not all human. There was one Cyclopes, who was fiddling with a bone with was an enormous sledgehammer at his side. The Cyclopes' teeth were stained with blood and his single eye was bloodshot. Among the others were 5 blue uniformed guards holding back a vicious hound of dogs who barked furiously in my direction. Noticeably, there were six dracaena, standing tall, all holding bronze spears, and all on high alert.
I put my back to the wall and sighed. For some reason my gut was telling me there was something in this building that I needed to see. Maybe it was the fact that no one got this rich in this depression doing ethical work.
I crouched behind the wall and peeked around the corner and saw the guards again. All of them were still there looking out for me, since word of my entrance had probably gotten around. I clamped my hands together and compressed as much fire together as I could. Just like that I threw it around the corner, before it even hit the floor it blew. Fire shot past the wall, at incredible speed and intensity, and engulfed me as well. Though the fire didn't hurt me, muffled screams assured me that the guards weren't as lucky. The fire finally died down a bit, leaving parts of the ceiling, wall and floor on fire. A plank of wood fell right besides me and broke apart into small embers. As powerful as my bomb was the vault door stood right were it had been, though now it was stained black from smoke and flame.
I started casually walking through the flames, towards the steel door. As I walked unsuspectingly someone swung at me full force. In that moment my instincts took over and I threw myself onto the floor not a moment to son. The Cyclopes' sledgehammer sailed a millimeter above my head, and then hit the wall to my side. The sledgehammer broke into the wall and sent chunks of rock and mounds of dust all over the place. I expertly rolled away, then used flames to launch me up and backwards through the air. I had just lost ground and now standing between me and the door was a Cyclopes.
He tore his hammer out of the wall and glared at me over the raising flames. Cyclopes are immune to fire so for him to stand completely unaffected in the middle of the blazing inferno was expected, though I admit I had forgotten about him.
"Stupid demigod! You can not defeat me with fire" he boasted and then laughed a crazed laugh. I snickered, and then reached into my pocket. My hands closed around a hot bronze object, about 3 or 4 centimeters long and not to wide. I pulled it out and looked down in my hand; there in my hand was a glowing bronze chess piece, specifically: a pawn. The Cyclopes looked at me disbelievingly and still laughing, but started walking towards me as he dragged his sledgehammer.
"You are truly foolish 'Phoenix Demigod'. The titans could use someone of your skill. Yet you fight for the loser's side; the gods side! Why?" the Cyclopes stopped walking towards me and asked.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, "I don't fight for the gods. I fight for me. I owe the gods nothing I am loyal only to myself."
"Then why do you oppose us?" the Cyclopes asked.
"Hate" I said, "I fight for revenge!"
The Cyclopes laughed, then charged. I charged at him as well. We ran at each other in the blazing inferno, and even if only for a moment all seemed quiet. I knew that the first hit would win the battle, and considering that the Cyclopes was around fifteen feet tall, that combined with his hammer meant his reach was a lot longer than mine. I knew I had to dodge.
As I we approached I quickly gathered flames around my arms and tried to compress them and make them as dense as possible. Not only my arms, but my body was now completely lit. Around my arms the gathered flames now resemble wings. The Cyclopes raised the hammer above his shoulder and swung at me, as I came within his range. Right as the hammer was about to hit me, I used the rising hot air, my control over flames and the accumulated fire in my arms to shoot me upward. As I rose the bronze pawn in my hand expanded into a beautiful, sharp, long, lethal sword.
I was right in front of the Cyclopes' face, some flames coming of my body making all my movements shine. I was a blur of light moving trough the air. As I hung in time I looked into the eye of my foe and saw nothing but fear. With one swift move I stuck my sword through his head; in one side, the point out the other. I removed the sword in the same second and flew over his body as it fell to the floor with a thud, lifeless.
I stopped right in front of the door I felt for the brass disk, and found it in the same place that it was on the previous door; at chest height to the right. I waved my hand in front of the disc but nothing happened.
"Oops." I muttered to myself. I tinkered with the disc trying to get it to work, but it was useless. I paced from right to left repeatedly trying to think up a solution; I tried pushing the door, tried punching the door, tried kicking the door, tried burning the door, tried asking the door to open, tried flirting with the door, tried petting the door, I even ran into the door headfirst 5 times, but still nothing worked. The agonizing thing was that my senses were tingling, as if to tell me something big was behind the door. I went back to tinkering with the brass disk and after ten minutes my work paid off.
I turned my sword back into a pawn and slipped it into my pocket and started typing in characters that felt right. Soon after the door opened I walked in blinded by intense light. As soon as I walked in the door behind me closed and the heat on my back immediately ceased. When my eyes adjusted I saw a bunch of surgeon and scientist looking figures all staring at me. I was in an extremely large room, about the size of a medium size airplane's haggard, and there were no windows hinting that it was underground. The room was white and was illuminated by white light. Plastic curtains and wooden walls with no ceilings stood out in the room. There was an enormous books shelf that went from wall to wall with a rolling ladder attached. Some of the surgeons had blood on their gloves and white aprons. Some figures wore mask while other didn't, there were about fifty people total. Everything in the room seemed wrong for some reason, and my senses were going berserk.
"Everyone get down" I ordered, "Or I'll turn all of you idiots into ashes."
Everything was eerie quiet for a while, and interestingly no one got down on the floor they just slowly backed away from me. Their disobedience was ticking me off so I lit my arms and walked towards them. All that did was make them back away quicker.
As I approached a cried in agony caught my attention, it was off to my left behind one of the plastic curtains. The cries continued as I approached, then with one swift move I pushed the curtains to the side.
Strapped to a bed by thick leather, was a girl, in her 20's, but something was happening to her body that was not natural. She continued screaming, unable to gain control; her veins were bulging out, and tears were rolling down from her eyes as she looked at me pleadingly. Her eyes said it all: she wanted to be saved, but I didn't know what to do! Blood rolled down her chin, and her skin started bubbling. She was undergoing a transformation. Her skin continued to bubble and her physique started to change; her arms were growing longer and thicker like her legs, her stomach was expanding, though her head only bubbled. All she could do was scream, and scream, and scream. I turned towards the surgeons.
"Make it stop!" I yelled, but no one came forward. The masked and unmasked people stayed quiet only watching as her body tore itself apart.
"MAKE IT STOP!" I yelled again as she screamed in pain. The pain was too much for her, because before anything else happened the screaming stopped.
Her body was now deformed and the expression on her face was heartbreaking. Blood was now all around her mouth and her body was now limp. She just lay there, eyes were now lifeless, and though I had seen death many times, even killed many times, this was just too cruel. The innocent should be left alone, but despite good sense and moral values under the titans experiments on rational life were allowed and probably funded. This caused my blood to boil, I was almost losing it.
"So is this what you call an experiment fail!" I bellowed. Even through my rage something else caught my eye. In the far left corner of the room there was a steel cage and in it a pair of eyes looked at me. A humanoid figure covered in animal fur looked at me. I couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl or if it once was human; the thing even had a tail. For a while all it did was look at me. In its eyes a plead for help repeated itself.
"I want to die" it croaked. Everyone else in the room turned and gasped. Some smiled, forgetting momentarily that I was there, while others patted each other on the back. Whispers like "it spoke-", and "success" went around. I spent a few minutes just staring at the monster, with my sudden experience, my emotions and values just got mixed up. The figures in white took the opportunity and suddenly as if on q they all tuned at the same time and ran away from me. Some ran to the opposite side of the room and entered some sort of elevator, while others ran to a vault door like the one I had come in through. For some reason I let them escape, I was no longer in the mood action. This world was just too cruel, and this monster felt the same way: as its one wish was to leave it. I sat there looking into its eyes from a distance. The silence was sad and the air was dense, the monster was weeping a tearless cry and I remained in a daze.
After an hour or maybe two, I got up and pulled out my bronze chess piece. The pawn turned into a sword at my will, as I walked up to the cage.
"Monster as someone who wants to change this world and save the good people, I have failed you" I spoke defiantly, "Though I don't know anything about you, I feel that this was not your choice and as to value your last wish I shall make your death swift."
The monster/thing just looked at me with its human eyes. For a moment I almost cried, though I could explain why. With one last look into those eyes and at the one I had failed I raised my sword over my head and brought it down through its head. Just like that. Though killing it may seem cruel it was done from a wish of something that had lost the will to live.
I retracted my sword from its skull and sent a jet of flames from my fingers upon the body. In the daunting silence my motivation was renewed, and as I watched the body burn my lust for a new world grew. With the passing of the hours, the flames died down and all that was left was of the nameless monster were ashes. As I looked around the room I found an empty jar so I decided to drop the ashes inside and take it up with me.
With one last look around the room I decided that the information and history of events that was in this room needed to be eradicated. So I expertly torched the room with long jets of fire, a fire so intense it could burn anything, a fire of death and also a fire for restarting.
Leo Valdez POV
As I ran through the flaming corridors I kept looking for the girl who had brought me here. She's already out, I thought. I was wondering if she knew what was going on in the basement of the building. Though my mind was thinking about different things, certain things remained problematic. For one I was lost and I couldn't find my way around the building. Secondly even though I was immune to fire if this building came down on me I would die. Just as I came to that conclusion a wall that I had just put my hand against for support crumbled. The ceiling started to cave in and explosions in the building shook the floor. I concentrated deep on my power with fire and just as the ceiling lost to the fire a tower of bright white flames shot up around me, burning everything above before it could touch me. The tower of white flames burnt through the ceiling and every floor above the one I was on with a little more effort on my part the flames around me condensed and formed the body of the phoenix I was famous for. My body was now the fire and my arms were now wings, a tail was stabilizing me as I flapped my wings again and again. When the tower of flames finally died down, debris once again started falling towards me. I slowly rose, story by story, flapping furiously, and then finally I broke free into billows of smoke that polluted the sky.
I flew out into the dark night sky that illuminating the path as I went. The house was collapsing slowly, totally engulfed in flames, soon it would be totally destroyed. I looked down next to the house and saw group of people looking up at me, though they were to far bellow for me to see their expressions but some were kneeled while others lay on the floor. One person stood out among the others, mainly because she wasn't wearing white; it was Amanda, the brown hair girl who had brought me here, and she was being held by some older man or to be better described a man in white. That's all I saw as I flew away from the burning house that night, and to be honest I had seen too much. What kind of game was fate playing with me to arrange such preposterous and random coincidence?
After a while of flying I finally landed at the top of a hill. The night was cold and the lights of houses where all out. I stood in the strong winds and took the chance to finish one last aspect of business.
"Be free" I said as I emptied the ashes of the monster into the wind. Now all I had to do was get to Toronto… alive.