Ah so good to be back! Even though I was only gone for about 3 days XD. It's a gloomy rainy day here in Toronto, so why not write?! :D So here is chapter 13, its introducing new characters and clues as to what's going to end up happening to our friends. I hope you like it, if you do please review, follow, etc. So here it is. Enjoy...
Percy VI
Percy wasn't liking this game at all. Again, he felt that he had failed himself and Annabeth. The only thing he could seem to remember was that they had been attacked by an army with Hyperion in the lead, and then they had fallen, only about 300 feet, no worries. Finally, Percy, after being through so much battles and wars, had simply blacked out and collapsed.
And now, he was here in a strange room just sitting on a chair. He wasn't gagged or tied against his chair that he was sitting against, and also had a headset connected on his right ear. Behind him was a door that seemed to be locked.
He took a look around the room as he wondered where he was and whether if Annabeth and even Pythos were okay. He was in a darkly lit room that later on extended into a narrow tunnel. And who knows where that went? The walls where damp and the room was humid. The place seemed to have an eerie glow emanating all around. He half expected Hyperion to come and say: Hi, my name is Hyperion, and welcome to Jack-no, nevermind.
He had been here for about 10 minutes already, and was finally coming back to his senses. He jumped to his feet, ready for action, however, none came. He looked for his sword, Riptide, which was surprisingly here. He wondered if Hyperion had only kidnapped him only for a tea party.
"Anyone here?" he said. No sound came except for an echoed voice. And then, his headset buzzed to life.
"Perrrcy?" said Annabeth, he didn't need to think twice to know who it was. "Is that you?"
"I think so, where are we? Wait…where are you?" He spoke. He tried to sound confident, and he really was, but he just ended up sounding confused. He was getting real sick Tartarus. Maybe if this place was blue, he thought.
She took a deep breath and explained him the situation. She told him about how a mysterious man had kidnapped them and brought them here and how he wanted to play a "game". She also explained to him that apparently, he was trapped in a maze with only one objective: to find the key and map and get out, however both of them had no idea how to do it. Annabeth could see the whole maze through cameras and she could also see the traps and lasers. And then she told him about a gruesome rule of the "game".
"Percy, if you step a trap… I either have to detonate your trap or my trap but I don't know what my detonator will do." Said Annabeth, sounding terrified.
Percy became enraged. Who would be so cruel to punish them like this? A real fight would be one on one, not like this. He also became annoying because for no reason, Annabeth had been dragged into this. She would have to make a decision that would probably ruin her both ways. She would have to make the same decision Percy had, and there was only one man capable of doing this…
"Hyperion." Percy growled, "He's the one behind this, it's his way of getting revenge".
That was just not fair! It wasn't Percy's fault that Helius had died. Either way, Percy was stuck in between deciding the fate of two people, and he just couldn't leave Annabeth. It wasn't his fault…right?
"Well, it looks like you made him pretty angry." Said Annabeth, "I have a whole bunch of TV screens in front of me and there are a lot of traps…this is not good"
At this point, Percy took lead of the situation. A daughter of Athena saying that "things where not good" was usually a bad thing. A bad, bad, thing.
"Well let's get started planning our deaths!" he said, trying to sound cheerful.
Annabeth didn't respond to that and he thought that it meant: Sure! Let's go blow out heads off!
He took a walk around the room, expecting no traps in the small rectangular room. A dim lamp's reflection danced along the narrow walls.
"Right so, just continue walking along the hallway, I don't see any traps and by my calculations, you'll arrive at a fork where the tunnel divides into two. The left leads to the key and map while the right leads to a spike pit. I personally recommend the spike pit" said Annabeth.
After a long time, Percy laughed as he began his trek through a maze that didn't appreciate survivors. Well, he didn't know that yet…
"And Percy…stay safe please." Said Annabeth, "I mean, because then… we can't do the quest"
"Oh so you want me to stay safe just for the quest?" said Percy, lighting up the gloomy mood.
"Ok, on second thought, just stay in that maze, gods Percy, this is impossible" said Annabeth. Percy couldn't see her but he couldn't help imagining her smiling at his stupidity.
And so he began his walk towards his death, in the land of death. There were spiders crawling all over the floors. He picked one up and quickly tossed it ahead of him to detect any traps. He could almost hear Arachne cursing him.
Once he arrived at the place where the tunnel divided into two separate tunnels, he chose the left one and kept on going. He tried to ignore the occasional scattering sounds behind him, because whenever he looked, there was nothing there at all. He figured that it was just Hyperion playing with his mind. For a trap made by the Sun Titan, this place was a little too dark.
The walls began to get narrower until Percy was practically crouched like a mad scientist assistant. He wondered how Annabeth could possible see him in the tight space. He arrived through more hallways and doors continuously as Annabeth guided him along the seemingly endless maze.
Then he arrived at a room that led to two doors. He paused, waiting for Annabeth's help.
"Okay Percy, take the left on-no the right, well actually-" began Annabeth.
"You don't sound so sure" said Percy.
"Uh no, take the left door, I'm sure" said Annabeth.
Percy did a silent prayer to his father, Poseidon, (who had strangely disappeared from Percy since the Titan war), that his head would not get blown off. He figured that the cross-over between the roman and Greek gods had probably had a large impact on Poseidon however he couldn't even imagine that it would be so bad…
He slowly opened the door and was greeting with a reassuring sound of silence. He took a slow step into the door. Percy should have been good at sensing traps when they were near, but this time, he could not.
He jumped when he heard an alarm go off and a stick of dynamite light on fire that was directly above him. He only had a couple of seconds before it would go off and he wouldn't be able to run. For some reason, the fire didn't move along the wire to the dynamite stick. It instead, stood in place. He found himself unable to move as roots sprouted from the ground and took hold of him.
A new voice came on their radios. "My friends, you make these games so boring." Said the horribly familiar voice of Hyperion, "I thought that I would make this a little more…interesting by adding my own special trap, and after all, I can't eat popcorn with something so boring!"
He began to laugh. "You have thirty seconds Annabeth Chase, before the bomb blows. You must decide whether to set a trap on yourself or your friend. There is no escape from the maze my boy, you should know that. If everything goes as I say then maybe…I'll kill you gently" His voice went out.
Percy wasted no time at all deciding what had to be done. He hated it when other people still had to save Percy. In one month, Percy would turn 17. He should have been able to protect himself by this age. It was the only reason he was alive.
"Annabeth, blow the dynamite. It's okay! I have a plan, don't worry" said Percy. He would never let Annabeth get in trouble because of something stupid Percy had done. This wasn't good. Percy had a bad feeling that only one demigod would be returning back from this trip and he would make sure that it would be Annabeth.
"What?" she shrieked. "No! I can't do this, not after…" her voice got cut. She seemed to consider her options.
"No Percy, I can't do this! This isn't fair, and besides you'll die…I'm sorry" she said. Percy could sense her mind working like a calculator, thinking multiple plans at once.
"Annabeth, NO! You can't do this! There's always another way, how will I get out of this maze huh? You tell me that!" Percy gasped. The timer read 7 seconds. Time was coming down, and he would not let it end like this.
"I'm sorry Percy, but do you see a choice?" She took a deep breath and laughed. "I'll see you later right?" The timer was on 2 seconds, and then 1.
He heard her press a button.
"Annabeth NO!" he cried.
He heard a deafening scream that erupted through his headset. The flame on the headset died out. The words rang in his head. Did we ever have a choice?
The world seemed to freeze for Percy as his eyes widened at what had just happened. He shouted her name continuously and prayed that she was okay. He yelled and yelled but still no response. He cursed everyone who had ever caused this. He kept on calling her name but was replied by silence.
And then, he heard rustling and a tiny squeak.
"Well that was interesting." Said Annabeth, weakly.
Percy's heart stopped punching his chest. He sighed in relief.
"Annabeth are you crazy?" he said.
"I'm fine Percy, thanks for asking. I just got kinda squished by these walls moving closer and the fact that my cuffs feeling like spikes, probably because they are." She managed to say.
Now he was both relived and angry once more. How could she have been so…well he didn't know what to say, except to be grateful for having her in his life.
"Now can we continue?" she said.
And so, once again, he began walking and walking, and wondering and wondering, what chess piece was next.
After about twenty minutes, Percy found himself staring at a staircase that stretched for about 10 meters, and after that, a stand with the map and key on it. It would be a cool staircase if it didn't have an endless drop under it, and also the fact that it was over a cliff. We could use this at Camp-Half Blood, thought Percy.
She had led him through dozens of other traps and Percy had been careful not to set off anymore. The rooms became narrower and tighter as he advanced, and then finally, he had arrived in a large clearing with a cliff in the north. Above that cliff was a floating staircase. Literally!
Annabeth's voice brought him back to reality.
"Percy are you even listening to me? I said, these stairwells are covered with the laser I was talking about. It's made to fry the first heat source it has contact with. I hope you're good at ballet." Said Annabeth.
Then Percy heard a loud vibration through the microphone and he thought that he could also hear screams as well. Next came a voice. It was one voice but it sounded like a person talking in several different voices at once. Some were monotone, and others where really high pitched. It seemed to be singing and screaming at the same time. It was no voice Percy had ever heard before, and the voice seemed to carry one message only. Death.
"Wrath" the voice said, "Lord of light must be reflected pain, use the heat source" and then the 'thing' began to laugh.
"My name is Eurynomos, and my job is incomplete" said Eurynomos and the voice drifted away.
Percy began to get the chills. The voice was scary as it was, but what "Eurynomos" has said, confused Percy a lot. Lord of light must reflect pain? What did that mean? Okay the light lord was probably Hyperion right? But what was it about the reflections and heat source thing? Percy was left baffled, however Annabeth seemed to get the plan.
"Percy did you hear that? Lord of light must be reflected, that is your heat source! Percy! Oh gods, that's brilliant!" said Annabeth.
"Uh yeah brillia-listen what did the dude mean?" he said.
"Percy," said Annabeth. She seemed to be rolling her eyes. "I think what the creepy voice thing was trying to say, was that if we can reflect the lasers to shine at Hyperion, then we could trap him instead! You could also use it to break your way out of here and we could escape!"
Percy still didn't see how this all could work. "Ok, first of all, where are you? And how do I reflect it on Hyp-" Percy stopped talking as he noticed a small rectangular shaped booth, like the ones in an operating room, hovering to the left of him.
With a gasp, Percy saw a dark figure over the tainted glass windows, staring back at him, freakishly smiling. It was Hyperion. He was there the whole time! "Hey Annabeth, Get ready to run, are the lasers all over the ground? Because he's directly to the left of me, can you see him?"
"Yeah I can make out a shadow but can't see it clearly, according to my calculations if you rotate your sword 45 degrees towards him and about a meter off the ground, you should have him, but this is risky" said Annabeth, sounding worried.
"Don't worry, when do things go wrong when I'm in charge?" said Percy. The answer would have been always but Percy didn't want to think what would happen if he messed up. He would probably get burned to ashes. Great! Where was Apollo when you needed him? A battle between the Sun Titan and the Sun god would have been fun.
Percy didn't waste any more time, he wasn't very good at math but had learnt at camp, how to rotate swords to view them as mirrors, so he was prepared.
He took a deep breath, pulled out his sword, and hit the laser at the location where Hyperion was standing. Laughter erupted the room.
At first, nothing happened, and Percy was wondering whether he had messed up or if Hyperion had just turned the lasers off or something, but then a large crackling sound came from under the stairwell and flashed all the way to the booth where Hyperion was sitting. It was a direct hit! The laser passed through the booth and hit Hyperion, sending his figure hurtling backwards.
At that moment, Percy, assuming that the laser had turned off, ran up the stairs and collected his belongings. He quickly ran back down and looked for a way to find Annabeth.
He found a camera that had probably broken off by the explosion and found a wire connected to it and going off into a door that Percy had not seen before. Well, this was the only clue Percy had as to where Annabeth might have been kept so he followed the wire.
He opened the door to reveal another long corridor and a door towards the end. Percy wondered why the titan had been so foolish in putting Annabeth's room so close to the key and map. Maybe it was a trap…
No, never mind, the titan was just stupid, because as he opened the second door, it revealed Annabeth, sitting on a chair with spike cuffs cutting through his wrists and a wall closing in on her! She only had a couple of seconds before she would be crushed. She was already limping away from the trap walls but it wasn't enough.
Although he was tired, seeing Annabeth in danger ignited his energy level once more. He ran over to Annabeth and carried her over to safety.
The sea green eyes met the stormy grey ones and they both gave each other a fierce hug. For once after a long time, Percy knew that he hadn't failed.
"Thank gods your alive" said Annabeth, "But we don't have much time, we have to hurry!"
Percy knew that she was right. They both began limping/running away from the room and back to the spot where Percy had zapped Hyperion. The titan was nowhere to be seen but Percy knew that the titan wasn't done with them yet.
So they ran and ran, and wondered and wondered, which chess piece would fall next.
Finally they arrived at the spot where Percy had regained consciousness and looked for a way out but unfortunately, the door was still closed and locked. A voice made them turn around.
"Going somewhere my children?" said Hyperion, walking into view, looking as well as ever, although he had a bruise above his eye.
"I'm afraid we aren't done! Wouldn't you like to go and meet Helius again? He would love to meet you again Percy Jackson, SON OF POSIEDON" he said.
And then, the whole room shuddered and the same screaming/laughter came from the ceiling again. It was the same voice that had helped Percy and Annabeth before.
The voice seemed to laugh and scratch nails on a chalkboard at the same time and a red mist began forming into a shape Percy could not identify.
The thing only said: "Go son of the sea, there is a deed incomplete." And then the door unlocked to reveal the sky of Tartarus.
Annabeth didn't give Percy time to think or react because she grabbed his arm and they both ran and ran, and wondered and wondered, what deed was incomplete.
They heard a ear-piercing scream coming from behind them. It was definitely Hyperion. Percy could only wonder what their life saving friend had done to the guy.
As they ran away from the door, Percy looked back and realized that the door was actually part of a large cement building that looked more like a prison than a home.
When they had covered a large distance through the red woods, they heard a familiar sound of beating wings, and soon Pythos the red dragon, landed in front of them.
Annabeth! Percy! I thought you two had been killed! After they captured you, I had managed to escape and cleanse my wounds in the river, and that's when I heard an explosion. I thought you two had been killed, but I had to see it myself. I do not know where the satyr is however I think he was able to escape, when I fell to the ground, he probably woke up and ran away. I shall look for him soon, the dragon seemed to blabber on and on.
Then he asked what had happened to the two of them and Annabeth explained. When Annabeth got to the part of Eurynomos and how it/he had helped them, the dragon roared and stomped a paw to the ground. Percy almost fell as he felt an earthquake and then realised that it was just Pythos.
Do not humiliate me, daughter of Athena! These matters are nothing to joke about. It is impossible and what you said was very cruel. Said Pythos looking ready to bite a head off.
"No really!" said Percy stepping closer to the dragon, "We heard him, he sounding like a chalk board, but he saved us! Who is he anyway? He was turning into some red mist guy when we left. He just said: Go, there is a deed incomplete, and so we left, seriously, no lies" said Percy holding up hands.
The dragon seemed to study the two for a long time and then he brought and eye close to Percy and gazed at him sadly. Percy noticed that the dragons paw where shaking, and with dread, he realised that the dragon was actually scared.
My boy, Eurynomos, the "guy" you claim to have heard, has been the most wicked demon to have walked on this world. The demon feeds of off flesh of the dead in the underworld and haunts them for eternity. He has also been known to have possessed mortals to feed off of their souls. The monster never had any good until Hades tamed the demon to recognize his flaw. Unfortunately, Eurynomos was killed and banished forever, and never to return. He hasn't been alive since 4 millennia. People predicted the beast to return someday although it was impossible. The demon will need a soul to possess of the big three so it can either return to Hades and make peace, or torment the world. I believe, Gaea has added a new chess piece in this war. And Percy, the chess piece is coming for you, and it will need you alive to eat you from inside.
The dragon moved closer to Percy. And that shall be its last deed.
Whoa so now we have a little horror in this story :D And don't worry, it only gets better. This chapter was pretty big as to developing characters and mystery. Also please let me know, do you want more humor? I haven't been really adding good comedy into these haha, BUT I CAN if that's what you guys want or any other genre.
All the monsters I pick are from actual Greek Mythology. Eurynomos was a demon who would basically eat...humans. Isn't that...interesting. And where is the Coach gone? He keeps on disappearing and getting into trouble... Also maybe if Percy could, I don't know, tame? the demon, then maybe he would get it's powers and- no I'll save that for the next Percy POV, but I think you guys know what is probably going to happen :)
So that was chapter 13, then next chapter will probably be Leo, although I haven't written it yet. It should be out tomorrow if I can finish it. Please follow or review. Feedback is always appreciated :D And well, that's all I have to say. So be sure to read the next chapter :D
SO UNTIL NEXT TIME GOOOOODBYE! :P