14 Immortal beings sat on their thrones waiting for the meeting to commence. It was finally the day. The day on which Percy Jackson the saviour of Olympus, would undergo the ceremony to officially claim his title as the commander of Olympus. But first he had to undertake certain tests to prove his prowess. As if on cue the fit to the throne room opens, as the hero of Olympus steps inside.
"Ah ! Welcome Perseus we were just waiting for you." Zeus proclaimed addressing the young demigod.
"Today we are going to test you on various aspects to test your abilities in all the fields required for your post. Not wasting any more time least us begin. Your first test is the test of speed, Hermes you may begin."
The messenger god nodded standing up. "Percy for my test we will be playing a game of treasure hunt. All over the globe 5 of these golden balls have been placed by an impartial judge so no one knows where, our task is to collect all the five balls, the first one to do so wins. The position of the next ball is placed with the previous ball. The positions of the first baj is in these envelopes. Are you ready ?"
Percy nodded taking the envelopes. "On the count of three we begin 1... 2... 3."
Percy quickly opened his envelope to read the first clue. "CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK, MANHATTAN."
Without wasting any time Percy immediately took to his fastest speed and ran down the Empire state building hearing the crackle of lightning behind him as he broke the light barrier. Reaching central park he immediately searched the premises looking for the ball. He found it only to see that Hermes was already standing there.
Cursing he immediately pocketed the ball and opened the next clue.
"CHRIST THE REDEEMER, BRAZIL."
Putting a burst of speed he rushed to his destination crossing continents in a matter of seconds. As the enormous statue can't into view, he ran it's boundary finding his clue before Hermes, much to his relief.
" 14.5994° S, 28.6731° W, THE ATLANTIC OCEAN" His next clue read
Picturing the coordinates in his mind he rushed to his destination. Stopping on the exact coordinates in the middle of the sea (Excuse me son of Poseidon here ! Perfect bearings on water in case you forgot. ) he found his next clue.
"THE COLISEUM, ROME."
But when he reached there, he was just a second ahead of Hermes. It seems that he too was catching up. Locating the clue he quickly read it.
"THE EIFFEL TOWER, PARIS."
With grim determination he accelerated towards Paris. Locating the tower he immediately scaled it in just a fraction of second, while Hermes was still not there.
Picking up his last ball he found another clue
"BACK HOME, FIRST ONE WINS ! "
Grinning he ran back at his full sites, just as Hermes reached the final clue, pushing all thoughts of defeat from his mind he continued running with only one goal Victory ! . Reaching the Empire state building he began his vertical ascend feeling the cool air brush past him. Reaching Olympus he sped towards the throne room, reaching few seconds before Hermes. Grunting on his defeat Hermes slumped back on his throne casting a fake glare at Perseus.
"Well done Perseus ! Well done. You successfully aced your first test." Zeus said congratulating him.
"Your second test will be the test of healing. Apollo."
The said god jumped from his throne, grinning like a baby ( which I believe he is. But don't tell him I said it. ) "Yea bro, beating Hermes for your first test I've got to say you got style, but not let's not dwell on that. My test is going to be in stages. Let's begin.
For your first stage you have to heal a sword wound."
Apollo waved his hand as a training decoy appeared in the room in a human form with long deep gashes on its body. Asking with it were all the supplies and equipments I needed like nectar, ambrosia, sewing needle and like that.
"You may begin."
The demigod quickly rushed to the human/decoy seeing his shirt soaked in blood.
Carefully he cut his shirt off, avoiding his wounds. Once the garment was cut and he got a good look at the wounds he paled when as he concurred the person didn't have much of a shot of surviving based on how much blood he lost, before he shook the thoughts off and set to work. This may be a decoy but tu him it looked more human than anything
He opened up a flask and poured a little nectar on each of the gashes, stemming the blood loss for a moment and giving him a chance to work.
Taking out a dagger he forced the hilt into the groggy persons mouth.
Barely acknowledging anything Percy pulled out a lighter and a needle puttting the flame to the needle for a moment. When he pulled it away he looked down at the wounds nervously.
"Just bear with me buddy, I'll put you back together but you've got to lay still."
Using his left hand to steady the back, he carefully set to work. The decoy for his part took it well, putting the dagger hilt to good use as he bit down while Percy slowly stitched his wounds back together one at a time.
Every God and Goddess watched in awe he served the wounds flawlessly. It took nearly thirty minutes for him to close all the gashes, beads of sweat were visible on his face by the time he was finished. He looked down at his work and approved of the job he had done. He reached into his pack again before looking at the back of his patients head with pity.
"If I were you I'd bite down hard right now."
Percy poured a cold liquid on his wounds making him bite down so hard he thought his teeth would break. His screams of agony were muffled as the alcohol seeped into the fresh wounds. After a minute, a second liquid was poured on them as well making him sigh with as the nectar soothed his searing wounds.
After a moment Percy pulled something else out of his pack before he knelt down near the person's head, "Apollo help me. I need to bandage him but we need him sitting up and we need to be careful he doesn't rip his stitches."
The sun God knelt on the other side of the patient as they slowly raised the him up so he was seated on his butt.
"Raise your hands." Percy ordered. As soon as decoy complied, Percy began to wrap the bandage around his torso.
Percy smiled, getting up, "And it's done he should feel tired for some time but no need to worry that's no ordinary bandage. It's soaked in nectar and a sedative. It's going to make him sleep and heal his wounds overnight."
"Very good Percy you passed the first stage, for the final stage you have to heal a poisoned wound. You have approximately 5 minutes to identify and cute the piston before the person dies. Oh I almost forgot you cannot use my healing powers for this. And begin."
As Apollo finished another decoy appeared, but this one's skin was a sickly shade of green, Percy could easily see the poison. Without wasting any time he took a sample and began examining it. The colour and smell of the poison confirmed that it could only be the Chimera or the Manticore poison. Summoning a ball of water he placed it over the poison, when nothing happened he concluded that it was Chimera poison as Manticore poison is soluble in water while this one clearly wasn't.
Rushing towards the god of Underworld's throne. "Uncle I need your permission to pick a flower from which only grows in you domain to make the antidote.
"You have the permission nephew." Hades spoke.
"But Pers..." He tried to speak but the demigod has ahead rushed towards the underworld.
"But how will he pass through my realm ? I don't presume Charon will let him pass through. Seeing that he was quite crossed with his last break through." A confused lord of the dead questioned.
Hermes grinned "There won't be any need of that uncle he could have easily passed to your realm without your permission, he just asked not to show disrespect." At seeing everyone's black expressions he explained, "Okay let me explain it like this, we all know that air can pass through any surface, Right ? Well, Percy here has the ability to vibrate his body week above the speed of air giving him the ability to pass through any surface, no boundaries can stop him."
As Apollo finished explaining Percy instantly appeared in the room with a very odd looking flower in his hand.
Glancing at his watch he cursed, he only had 2 minutes to go. Crushing the the flowers he mixed them with a little nectar making a paste and applied it on the wound. As soon as he did the body started hearing up, all the poison seeping out , making sure that the poison was out of the body, he heated his dagger and cauterised the wound to prevent the antidote from oxidising.
Slowly the colour returned to the body making him sigh in relief.
Turning to his audience he found a grinning Apollo and the rest smiling at him in wonder.
"Very good Perseus you passed the first two, now for the third is your mental resistance, for this you have to resist Aphrodite's charmspeak. We will begin whenever you are ready." At Zeus' command Aphrodite got up and made her way towards Perseus
Hera who had conceded to act as referee made her way in between both and called out to Percy and Aphrodite separately to make sure they were ready. Both answered in the affirmative. Then the referee shouted, "You may begin."
"Come Percy come to me and surrender yourself." Aphrodite spoke using the full might of her charmspeak
Percy gasped, startled as the effects crashed into him. It would be so easy to just let go into the embrace he thought, Aphrodite was already very beautiful, and the charmspeak made her seem just that much more appealing. Then his consciousness kicked in. ' Percy what are you doing? You are letting her win! Think of happy thoughts and release your mind to fight her off!' The voice helped him come back to himself and he found that somehow he had ended up nearly four feet closer to the goddess then he had started. He flushed, embarrassed that he had nearly lost the challenge without even putting up a fight.
Gathering his wits he put all his focus on throwing off the effects till finally he didn't feel them at all. Smirking mentally he formed a plan and continued to walk towards Aphrodite putting everyone under the illusion that he was still under her charm.
When he was barely two feet away from her he leaned closer towards her ear and whispered, "No thanks." His warm breadth sending shivers down her back.
When he pulled he was pleased to see a very flustered goddess of beauty standing rooted to her spot. She tried speaking but somehow couldn't form coherent sentences.
"Ha ha ha, a speechless Aphrodite, I guess there really is a first time for everything." Athena exclaimed from her seat laughing uncontrollably.
That shook Aphrodite from her embarrassment, she folder her arms as if in anger but was smiling. "Very good Percy, I must say this is the first time someone has thrown off my charm at full power. For that I would like to give you a gift if you accept."
Percy bowed to her, "It would be my honour, Lady Aphrodite."
The goddess beamed and raised her hand making her eyes glow with raw power. "I Aphrodite from this day declare you Percy Jackson immune to any form of mind intrusion. No person or object whether magical or not cannot read our fierce you to reveal your thoughts."
The demigod smiled nodding towards the goddess in thanks. Aphrodite winked and walked back to her throne.
The king of gods cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Moving on, the fourth test is the battle of strength. Perseus will be fighting against my strongest demigod soon Heracles."
The result was instantaneous as soon as Heracles' name was mentioned Percy's eyes darkened
The throne room doors opened wide to reveal a young muscle clad man. Percy instinctively pulled the blade free of it's scabbard and made his threat known to the god.
"This match is very simple. It's a fight between you two to see which is the stronger. The winner will be the one standing while the person defeated will be on the ground unable to get up. Do you understand?" said Apollo, as saw Hercules nod his head, and Percy doing the same.
"I'm ready," said Percy, as his voice was silent, but held a great deal of power, anger, and an edge.
"So am I," said Hercules boasting his self confidence.
"Then you may begin when I leave," said Apollo, as he vanished in a flash of light, and in that same flash of light Percy moved hitting Hercules right across the face with all the strength causing the arena to shake violently from the impact.
Hercules was standing still one second then in the next second he was being socked in the face right into the arena wall. The wall itself had an invisible barrier that went from within it, all the way up in a dome like manner, and would protect the audience watching them in the ever possible event projectiles were thrown around by the fighters.
'That hurt! This damn half blood hurt me. ME! Hercules! The Son of Zeus! We'll anything he hits me with I can return,' thought Hercules, as he got up from the ground, and walked toward Percy now with the intent to hurt the Hero Of Olympus.
Unfortunately, Hercules couldn't get in a hit at all due to Percy's speed causing each punch aimed at the demigod's flawless face to miss, and the hero landing another hard right to the other man's face. The Son of Zeus by this point found himself reacquainted with the arena wall yet again, wincing in pain at the impact of the fist that hit him in the face, and the wall he hit moments later. Before Hercules could even react, Percy was right in front of him, and felt another punch with this blow hitting him in the stomach causing the demigod to fall to his knees with the involuntary desire to puke rising from it.
"Is this it? For all your boasting, not once have you been successful in hurting me, and proving you are the superior one between us. I'm not impressed," said Percy, as he picked the Son of Zeus off the ground by his neck, and threw the man across the arena to other side hitting another wall.
Sitting on his throne above watching this fight, Zeus frowned at the sight of his nephew going all out on his son, and dominating the fight the moment Apollo told them they could start. He watched the young boy, who would one day be the world greatest hero since this world's ancient days, get angry when someone he cared about got hurt, and unleashed a fury on the older boy that even the Achilles would be impressed.
"Get up Hercules! I know your tougher then this. Get up or I will make you get up," said Percy, as he saw Hercules slowly rise of the ground clutching his ribs, and spit blood out of his mouth before wiping his chin of the excess crimson.
"So you figured it out. I was wondering if you suspected or even cared about me holding back," said Hercules grinning at his opponent
"Why hold back? You knew the moment I came to this arena to fight I would use all my power to crush your body into paste," said Percy, as he saw Hercules shrug, and let out a small chuckle.
"I was curious. I wanted to measure power and the only way I felt it was possible is if I let you appear stronger. Now however, I know I can beat you, and I'm going to prove it to everyone here watching," said Hercules with his ego once more being inflated by himself.
"What if I told you that I can hit you a lot harder then I already have? That what I've hit you with so far was not my full strength," said the hero, as he saw Hercules frown a little, and saw...something in his eyes that seemed like worry.
"You're bluffing. You wouldn't hold back on me ," said Hercules, as he had to admit the punches were very powerful, and would not deny they hurt.
A lot!
"Am I? This fight is only just starting Hercules. Everybody up there watching and wishes for me to destroy you," said Percy, as he was looking at Hercules with intense anger that was equaled only to the edge in his voice, and it even made several of the Gods watching to look at him with something close to fear.
The real fighting began...NOW!
Many in the stands of the stadium on Mount Olympus watched with undivided attention, as the Hero of Olympus once more unleashed his fury upon Hercules, and each powerful blow the demigod landed was shaking the stadium down to its very foundation. He had unleashed all his fury upon the son of Zeus, as he didn't stop hitting the man whenever in hitting range, and was now seeing the fear in his foe. A look that every single one of his foes had when they realised the person they were facing was not someone they could win against.
As for Hercules himself, he did get in quite a few punches of his own, but they were so few, and even when they sent the Son of Poseidon back they seemed to only cause a brief pause between them. In fact, all the blows Hercules seemed to land seemed to barely effect Percy at all, and even Zeus was surprised to see that he was throwing off such blows so easily. It soon became apparent to Hercules that this fight was no longer a test of strength, but a fight for his own survival, and it was a losing battle for him.
Among the crowd however, only two people knew this would happen during this fight, and one of them was Athena and the other was Artemis. They both watched from there seats happy to see their favourite brother humble out the arrogant Son of Zeus
A thundering blow from demigod's fist to Hercules jaw brought them back to the battle below in the arena where he stood over the defeated son of Zeus. The man, who had once been villain to many, and a hero to a select few on a planetary scale had been cast down by the current hero of the Olympus. The said man barely had a mark on his body, which were already healing, and he picked Hercules up by the neck before looking his foe right in the eyes.
"Had enough?" He said , as his voice was dark, and almost cruel sounding while the once sea green eyes now glowed power.
As for Hercules himself, he was coughing up blood, as his body dangled like a worm on a hook in the Son of Poseidon's hand on his neck in a seemingly unbreakable grip, and the pressure from that hand was going to leave a imprint in the form of a nasty bruise. A nasty bruise that would remind the demigod of just who he picked a fight with and lost to. The son of Zeus had learned by the third blow he had landed on the half blood, which had done little to stop the demigod, the fight could not be won, and found himself unable to raise his hands to defend himself.
By the time Percy had lifted him off the ground, Hercules was barely conscious,
It was time to "Render unto Caesar", as he had heard the quote from the son of another God, and give the Hero Of Olympus what he desired.
"I...yield to you...Perseus," said Hercules in a whispered voice, but his words echoed loudly enough throughout the stadium, and everyone heard it as clear as cloudless day.
"That's the smartest things you've said to me," said Percy before dropping the man onto the sand and walking away from the defeated son of Zeus.
"Wait Perseus." Apollo exclaimed appearing beside him. "As per the rules, the winner gets the opponents weapon as a spoil of war. I give you this Hercules' club."
Apollo handed the defeated gods weapon over to Perseus, who firstly thought about breaking it then thought better and walked towards Artemis's throne, kneeling at the foot of it. "Lady Artemis, I offer this to you, a symbol of defeat of the man who disgraced my friend Zoë Nightshade."
Artemis for her part has tears in her eyes as she got up from her throne and hugged him eliciting gasps from everyone, she wisely chose to ignore them. "Thank you brother, you have finally purged my greatest regret of leaving the vile man unharmed. I am honoured to accept your offering."
The weapon vanished from his hands as Artemis made her way back to get throne.
Zeus coughed getting everyone's attention "Well that was interesting ! Moving on, Perseus your last test will be the test of skills, you will be directly facing Athena in a weapons fight, you cannot use your speed for this test. Daughter you may proceed."
Athena appeared next to him sword and shield at the ready. "Ready to get your ass kicked brother." She smirked
Percy matched her smirk. "Don't you know dear sister it's not good to day dream."
"We shall see brother we shall see."
It was only his training and enhanced reflexes that saved him. Athena swung at him with deadly speed and accuracy hoping to finish the match early. I brought Riptide up in a defensive block the two blades colliding into each other with unimaginable force. Using his strength he pushed the goddess back a bit.
Smiling, she wasted no time in rushing forward and we engaged in a deadly frenzy of blades.
The two fighters jabbed, parried, hacked and slashed in a beautiful dance of death. Both matching each other in skill.
Percy understood that to best her he had to take some risks. He faked a right jab hoping to catch Athena, but she saw right through it and kicked him hard on his side sending him tumbling on the floor.
Percy only had a second to bring up his blade as Athena swung at him with full force. His arm only vibrated from the impact, his sword however wasn't so lucky. It broke from the force of impact.
But he didn't have time to lament for his sword as Athena was onto him, forcing him to dive further away.
The thing that happened next would never be forgotten by him. He didn't know how but something from a door on the far corner of the room was... was calling to him ( Wierd right ) without meaning to our knowing why he raised his hand in that direction. The door opened with a tremendous thud and a blade, that's right a blade came flying out into his hands, drawing gasps from everyone present.
The sword in itself was a very intricate piece of work. It began with a small metallic section that seemed to be integrated with some form of circuitry. There was a hole in the center, surrounded by two small blue embellishments, as well as one larger metallic embellishment.
The hilt,seemed to be wrapped with a dark fabric. There were several evenly spaced rhombus-shaped areas not covered by this wrap, however.
Farther down the length of the blade was the prominent opening, very intricately decorated. It was tapered at four points on the exterior. There was also a large blue gem. Within this segment of the sword the blade began
The blade itself featured a bluish black inner section imbued with the same form of circuitry seen on the bottom section of the hilt. Surrounding that section was the edge of the blade. Being a double-edged sword, this edge extended to both sides.
At first, the blade widened until it surmounted in width approximately ten inches from the hilt. At that point, it slowly became narrower until the tip of the blade. There are three holes of various size in one section, and three more of a much smaller size closer to the end
Still in shock he took a few experimental swings with his new weapon, then charged catching the goddess of wisdom off guard. Overcoming her shock she reentered the fight, raining blow after blow on him. His body blurred matrix style as the strikes came faster and faster but none hit him.
Even Athena was getting tired at this point, slashing non-stop at sprinting speed would tire even a god. Her blows were getting a little wild and sluggish, opening herself up to attack. As she slashed her sword towards Percy's stomach, Percy jumped over the blade, twisted in the air and landed in the three-inch wide blade with amazing dexterity and grace, riding the swing out. The sudden increase of weight to her sword threw Athena off-balance, lurching her forward. As the wisdom goddess flew forward, Percy jumped off his blade, flipped over and held his blade at her throat.
"Yield." he questioned
"I Yield." she replied
Helping her up to her feet Percy turned around to face his audience only to be met with stunned silence. All of them were gaping at him more specifically his new sword. He cleared his throat trying to get their attention. "Is something wrong."
Zeus spoke "Nothing is wrong nephew, just unusual. The sword you are holding is not ordinary it is called the καταστροφέας (destroyer) it was the weapon of a Azrael the angel of death and destruction. It was given to Olympus for safekeeping till it finds its next true owner which now it has, the sword contains the essence of an archangel my boy, his power which is now yours to wield. You just have to call it"
Contemplating Zeus' words Percy closed his eyes and focused on establishing a connection with the sword. Calling to the power inside. But the emmenese pain erupted from his back as he felt something trying to claw its way out, he looked back to see two large wings protruding from his back.
It took him a few moments to come to terms with it.
He Had Wings.
He Bloody had WINGS.
Without meaning to or knowing how he flapped his wings making him float upwards, grinning excitedly he flew around the throne room squealing like a child. When the excitement died down he remebered that he had and audience and landed back on the ground rubbing his head sheepishly a wild blush on his cheeks.
"It... It's all... alright my boy." The king of the gods managed between laughs. "Now on a more serious note, seeing as that Perseus here has passed all his tests I as the king of Olympus officially name you Perseus Jackson as the Commander of Olympus. With that meeting adjourned."