All rights are reserved to their respective owners. I own nothing in this piece of fiction except my OCs and the story itself.
"Well, Perseus. Whenever you're ready." Rolling my neck, the cracks were audible.
I even went to the extent of rolling my wrists, while maintaining eye contact with the prepubescent demigod who was more than ready to rumble.
Perseus narrowed his eyes, putting away his weapon with a click.
Running towards me, his fist cocked back.
Telegraphing a hook that could reel up a Kraken, the son of Poseidon attempted to deck me in the schnozz.
His fist, unfortunately, whisked past my face with a sidestep, and the added effect of making the raven-haired sea spawn stumble ahead.
"You missed." I pointed out. "Urchin for a fight and can't swing?" I grinned.
My response to the comment was a clothesline so wide that I thought the boy was going to pin some laundry on it.
Lazily backhanding the maneuver, to what I didn't think was that much power made the touted child spin into a bathroom stall door, breaking it and landing into a toilet bowl, which subsequently shattered on impact.
"Wow. I had a feeling you weren't the best at fistfights, but saying that you're hot shit is kind of poetic now." I laughed, poking at the inadequacies of my opponent, provoking him to anger.
"Screw you!"
Which succeded.
The water that the toilet contained was sprayed at me, but its path divided into two thanks to my wind barrier, doing nothing of importance.
The son of the Earthshaker tried to shoulder bash me, hoping that I'd been blinded by his waterworks.
But as he closed the gap, now only a foot from my position, I used my electrokinesis and shapeshifting simultaneously to turn myself into lightning and teleport to the side, a couple of feet away from the boy's trajectory.
His eyes widened at the movement but then almost bulged out when I materialized into human form and grabbed him by the hood, swinging him into the glass mirror, shattering it.
"ARGH!" Screaming, Poseidon's demigod son winced before rolling onto the counter and off of it.
Before he could hit the ground, I kicked him in the temple to readjust his position, sending him flying to the opposite wall before bouncing off of it, leaving some cracks on its surface.
Falling to his knees, I knew that the combo string I executed took a lot out of the brat. But I gave him a break by hitting him into the spot where the busted pipe could spray him down with water.
Perseus grabbed the counter before regaining his vigor.
He tore off the ledge before throwing it at me in an impressive showing of strength with the empowerment of water on his side.
My answer to his attack was a hard stare; squinting my eyes and sending a concentrated blast of wind pressure to shatter the marble that came at me into a million pieces.
"Learn to throw a punch before you throw bricks, blockhead!"
I shouted before another one came rushing in my direction, to which I grabbed it and crushed it in the palm of my hand.
Sprinting ahead, the water splashed about around my dry feet before my arm swung forward with a blur, pelting the marble sand into Percy's eyes, blinding him.
He hissed, his eyes irritating him immensely from his reaction.
The stinging sensation of a slap was the next thing I threw at the preteen, his body recoiling to the direction of the strike before he was backhanded with the same hand.
A jab from the right to Perseus' nose twisted it to the left, and an opposite elbow hook snapped it back straight. Grabbing his shoulders before driving my knee into his plexus did the trick in not only winding the kid but also setting up for a knife-hand chop to his ear, just behind it on the left side.
Before long, Perseus collapsed to the wet ground, his balance deserting him with his form flopping like the fish his father governed over.
The alarm in his eyes was prevalent, scrambling to get up but his center of balance was dismantled in the strike.
I almost felt bad for the twerp.
"Wondering why you can't get up?" I asked, my voice laced with taunting and goading undertones.
Bathroom Boy only growled at me.
"What the heck did you do to me!?" He asked, irritated.
"Hit you behind the ear. To dumb it down for you, once that specific area is struck, you can say goodbye to your center of balance and hello to the floor. Difficult to pull off, but once it connects, it's a one-way ticket to the dirt." I aptly explained.
"Lucky I'm only teaching you how it works. Hit any harder and you black out, or worse." I warned him, with static crackling around me to emphasize the alternative fates.
"Then why aren't I getting up from this!" Perseus was rightfully discombobulated since his wisdom couldn't explain his current state.
"Your water can't help you that much since I didn't really hurt you as much as I impaired you." Further explaining, and clarifying why he could move was another good deed of mine.
It's only fair if I'm the reason he can't stand up straight.
"Look."
I tossed him a piece of ambrosia. I wisely kept my mouth shut on where exactly it came from.
He caught it, looking at the chunk skeptically.
"It's fine. Do you really think I need to poison you if I can floor you? Get real." Rolling my eyes, the boy ate the chunk before finding the strength to get up from the ground.
"Why help me?" Another question? Come on already.
"Why not? No real beef between us, if I exclude the whole fight we're having right now." I gestured to the entire bathroom.
"You threw me into a toilet!" Perseus recalled. "Mortals don't just do that! Who are you? And what are you?!" All true statements and questions.
I just didn't feel like explaining my life story to an eleven-year-old at the moment.
"Perhaps I should knock you out, so you'd stop asking so many questions. You almost sound like a child of the goddess of wisdom, kid." I mocked.
Percy as a nephew?
Get out of here. Would be funny to make him call me uncle, though.
"No, I don't! Do I...? Crap, maybe Annabeth is rubbing off on me." He muttered to himself, which I heard thanks to my selective hearing ability.
Oho~. So my sister's daughter is the one who's making Coral Cranium ask things?
Good work, niece.
"Heads up!" I shouted before he snapped his head in my direction.
"Might as well leave you with something constructive to do before I take my leave," I told him, to which he gained an odd look.
"Huh?" Perseus asked.
"When you throw a punch, start with your dominant foot behind your other, and copy that positioning with your dominant and non-dominant hands," I told him, mimicking my stance with my words.
The water around my feet rippled rhythmically, giving my demonstration a feeling of control yet the approach of forcefulness behind it.
"Knuckles to your chin, neck tucked slightly, and kick off the ground with your back foot. When you slug, raise your lead hand to your temple, twist your hips, extend your dominant hand whilst swinging your shoulder, and clench your fist right before contact is made."
Following through with the aforementioned movements, I emulated a perfect straight punch.
Which moved with such force that the resulting near miss gashed the boy's cheek, the water around my feet splashing all over the entire bathroom. It also caused the wall behind him to indent in the image of a fist with spider cracks stretching to the entire bathroom wall, shaking the room from my concentrated might.
Blood trickled from it as the sound of the roaring wind was sure to be heard from his spooked expression.
"You got that?" I asked, my conversation partner unresponsive.
So I waited.
...
...
...
"Should've known." Percy was dumbfounded out of his mind.
What can I say? Awesomeness has that effect on others.
Should at least put the kid into a nice nap.
I slowly closed each one of my fingers into a fist before winding back with ferocity.
A blinding hook to the chin that shattered the remaining glass in the room was hard enough to cause Perseus' brain to touch his skull with the added shock from impact, rendering him unconscious.
Spit and blood flew from his mouth, his head slumping to the side before his body toppled over in the same direction. Grabbing him by the hoodie (again), I dunked his head into the running water to ensure that his jaw wouldn't hurt too much when he awoke.
And that he wouldn't spend too much time with the concussion I just gave him.
Sighing, I knew I couldn't just leave him there in his most vulnerable state, lest a monster collects one of the easiest wins of their life.
Stretching out my hand, I surrounded his body in an electrostatic shield, not only turning the water into a hazardous electrified version of itself but also making Perseus himself deadly to the touch.
At least until he woke up.
With that settled, I left the crime sce- area.
Walking out of the bathroom, I thought to myself.
Percy was probably the reason why I got surrounded, considering the scent of a clear-sighted mortal and a demigod of the Big Three was akin to leaving two sports cars unlocked with all doors open in the middle of Detroit.
Secondly, am I actually supposed to believe that Percy was the child of prophecy?
He can't even win a bathroom fight, but could be so deadly that he decided the fate of Olympus?
Give me a break.
I understand that he has potential, that's a given. Even when outclassed, he's willing to fight and can take a beating, that's for sure.
But he lacks critical thinking skills, H2H, and many other abilities that would help him in battle. Especially when taking away his two primary fighting styles, hydrokinesis and swordsmanship respectively.
The Lord of Seahorses sired a one-trick pony.
The utter irony.
At least he was able to defeat Ares, I'll give him that. But I beat Ares, so it doesn't count.
Most importantly, he had potential. So I'll keep an eye out for him.
Moving on, I had to rendezvous with Mother. Fishing my marble out of my pocket, I observed the direction it rolled in.
North North East, which meant she was closer to the Bronx than Queens. The marble rolled decently far as well, which made it more difficult to estimate her position. The only surefire way I'd know her position, would be to find her.
The subway was efficient, but I was broke.
That would've been a problem if I were completely mortal, but I could just cheat the system and become one with the air itself. Thanks, Mom.
Vaporizing, I went down into the subway terminals bypassing the security, and lo and behold, no subway in sight.
Just my luck. Tyche has abandoned me, alongside the rest of Olympus.
Besides the overdramatization, there were much more mortals than before waiting for a train to take down here that up at the terminal's higher floor. Reverting in a crouching position, to avoid any suspicion of randomly appearing, I stood up.
I never thought about my height that much, but going from what I could see, everyone was sort of short compared to me, allowing for a clear view of my surroundings.
I even spotted a redheaded girl, who was looking at me rather intently with a taken-aback expression about how I seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Worse yet, she was the only person who saw me out of all the people present.
Which meant one thing.
An acutal clear-sighted mortal.
... Ok, so apparently the Fates had a hate boner.
Knowing that staying too long would attract her to my position, I decided to promptly do the most intelligent action in that situation.
Jump headfirst into the train tracks.
Ok, ok, ok. That sounded stupid. I wouldn't do that.
Without coating myself in the Mist.
Mustering my mystical atmidokinesis, I enveloped myself in a layer of the esoteric medium as the ginger girl observed me. I proceeded to walk to the edge of the terminal before levitating off the ground, my feet parallel to the floor over the tracks.
I then proceeded to breakdance i.e. windmilling to psychologically distress the clear-sighted human, her eyebrows reaching for the stars and eyelids ceasing to exist.
As mean as it might be, if she's perceived as mentally unstable, it'll make her the center of attention instead of me, which boded well for my mission.
She tugged onto the sleeve of a woman with similar features, who then looked at her.
"Mom, look! Somebody's dancing on the train tracks! They're floating too!" She pointed in my general vicinity.
"Rachel, just what are you talking about? Nobody's there." The lady who I assumed to be her mother from similar hair and facial features peered in my direction, as nothing could be perceived by her, due to her normal composition.
I pulled the skin under my eye and stuck my tongue out, holding my leg with my other hand in a b-boy freeze pose.
"Hey!" She shouted, clearly offended by my antics.
Yet her shout was soon followed by the coming of a subway train, to which she saw me look surprised, directly staring at her before it seemingly crashed into me.
Snickering, I simply moved away from the vehicle before it actually hit me, and proceeded to run across the subway system.
That poor girl is probably going to be in therapy because of me.
Maybe I'm not such a good person. Can't say I didn't try though.
As I skedaddled across the dark, desolate, and somewhat unnerving subway tracks, the metallic sound of my shoes hitting the iron ties echoed through the otherwise pitch-black tunnel.
I knew I'd probably catch up to the other train at this rate, but I might as well find something to do while I get there.
And this was a great opportunity to experiment with my powers. More specifically, electromagnetism.
Unlike Father, content with his simplistic use of his abilities, I sought a more refined and sophisticated use of my electrokinesis.
Enter Electromagnokinesis.
With this highly complicated rendition of energy, I am able to perform much grander feats, as opposed to the likes of my half-brothers. But for the sake of not reducing New York to atomically reactive ash, I'd start small.
With a Webster axe kick, I used the rotation of my ascent to generate kinetic energy before landing on the railing of the train, using the current that ran through the strip of metal to cut as an auxiliary source of energy.
"W-W-W-W-W-Woah!" In the midst of my body adjusting, I vibrated like never before. Must've been the electricity running through my nervous system in my mortal shell.
I adapted before using the soles of my feet as a base to execute the attraction and repulsion mechanic of electromagnetic control.
Sparks of blue lightning flew from my feet before they left a luminescent trail of energy that made my vision somewhat comprehensible.
Attracting myself to the strip of the rail allowed me to practically grind on the tracks like a professional skater. And since I was magnetically bonded to the path I was taking, dismounting was all but possible.
Now that I got myself used to the grind, it was time for some fun.
Jumping off of the left side, my feet were yanked to the right side, the trail of blue lightning stretching behind me as the landing caused a spike of static.
Leaping into the air once more, I twirled with my arms stuck out like a top before landing on the tip of my shoe, the magnetism holding up with my perpetual twist.
Flipping from my position, I pulled off a triple somersault before landing into a crouching position, lightning flowing off of my body with that trick.
And in the same moment, flipping three-hundred-and-sixty degrees onto the other rail, with another large discharge of electricity upon my landing.
With each trick, I gained significant momentum, almost like some kind of game reliant on a style system.
Oh. So that's how this works. Well then.
If one was able to gaze into the subway tracks, they'd see nobody. Mist, duh.
But if they could see into the supernatural world, a madman that was trying to imitate an inflatable tube man was what their brains would try to comprehend.
Wait, did I just call myself crazy?...
This darkness is doing things to me. That or the flipping rushing blood to my head. Probably both, definitely one.
At this point, I'm pretty sure a subway train should be appearing at any moment since I'd been flipping, twirling, and rotating so much that my sense of direction was going to resemble a room of mirrors.
Lo and behold, the light at the end of the tunnel was nearing.
Wait, no that's-
My body slammed face-first into the back of the cart, a loud thump causing everyone to twist their head to the back of the cart. That did the trick in getting everyone in that cart's attention, that peered in my direction at the sound of impact.
Luckily (for once), the electricity I conducted also made the lights flicker, which diverted the attention from the car to that instead of my wipeout.
Acting in the moment, I shapeshifted into mist, removing the Mist's influence from my presence as I slipped through the crack in the door of the cart before rematerializing into my mortal form.
The murmurs of the crowd were prevalent as I walked through them. Most mortals were unconcerned, or unbothered by my entry with me looking for a free seat.
Finding one entire row of seats unused, I sat in the dead center, taking a sigh. Taking out the marble, it rolled to the front of the train, meaning that at the very least, I was heading in the right direction.
The marble was returned to my pocket, as I folded my arms and waited for the next stop.
Finding a place to lay low from Olympus was easier said than done, since if we were not dealing with the gods, the monsters from the pits of Tartarus would terrorize us to no end.
They were even some that were eying me on the train, but they were wary of my presence. Most likely from the consecutive kill count I achieved in a matter of seconds.
I now understood why the mortality rate was so concerningly high for demigods, especially in dense cities where monsters could easily stalk and isolate their prey without a hitch.
It's a good thing I put that energy shield on Percy.
Massaging my temples, I let my vision be obscured for a moment.
Then I felt something.
This was no mere mortal or monster. After focusing on the individual who spontaneously appeared next to me, their presence was able to ward off the immediate monsters within the train cart with several people getting up and leaving the cart.
Approximately half of what was in the car remained.
If they were powerful enough to do that, it meant only one thing.
An immortal was in the seat next to me. More specifically, a god.
"You must be Argentos." Their voice rumbled with power, a clear sign that he held the force necessary to acclaim their divine title, whatever that may be.
"Everyone in Olympus is hot on your tail, and here you are taking the subway without a care in the world." They continued, as the sound of their voice made fewer people feel like staying in the cart, as one by one the mortals dispersed to other cars.
"Fated to defeat the King of Olympus no less. No wonder you have so many enemies up in the realm of the gods." The voice said the fact like it was common knowledge, and they'd be right.
"Being the personification of your father's downfall does that to people." Letting some of my divine power seep through my voice, I had to match the pressure they imposed on me. Trying to figure out who he was would be more difficult than I thought since he didn't sound like anyone I knew off the top of my head.
Poor mortals couldn't bear to be in the room at this point, many leaving with cold sweat running down their faces with the cart now eerily empty with the two of us alone in our seats.
"Being right under his nose in the most ironic fashion. You certainly inherited your mother's cunning." A chuckle escaped their lips. "If I weren't guarding Zeus' throne, you'd be on your way to Tartarus, brat." He told me, the murderous intent in his voice clear as day.
Wait, guarding Zeus' throne? ready to end my life at an opportune moment with a powerful presence that could scare mortals away?
Those individual traits many gods and goddesses could emulate, but put together I could piece together who the person next to me was.
They seemed like they were itching for a fight, so aggressive. But they didn't immediately engage, so unlikely that it'd be Ares. But the throne part narrowed it down a lot.
This could be Zelus, but his glory would dictate he'd kick my ass in front of all to see, instead of a musty and cramped subway.
Kratos, God of Strength and Power was sitting next to me.
His frame was large and likely brimming with the strength he represented, filling in the black suit like the other monsters with the exception of a red tie, resembling a secret agent of sorts but his head was bald not unlike that one hitman in that popular game series.
Agent 46? 48? I'll remember it later.
But he also sported a goatee, clean-shaven everywhere else on his face with the exception of his chin.
Moving my hand, the only way he'd consider respecting me is if I confronted him with grit and audacity to match.
"Kratos, how come you're not at Father's throne?" My eyes narrowed suspiciously at the personification of strength.
"Why do you think? He mobilized all of his immediate forces to sniff you out. My siblings, your siblings, some harpies that still haven't come back yet, and some other creatures that have all gone MIA." Kratos unveiled.
Oh, well at I know where the harpies are.
But that means that Zelus, Bia, and Nike are also on my ass alongside my other siblings, such as Ares, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, and Hermes.
"So you found me. What now? Call everyone up and try to fight like a coward? Or better yet, chain me up like you did Prometheus? It'd save the trouble of getting your ass handed to you." I goaded him, appealing to his pride as a warrior.
"Watch your tone, boy. I already have to be disrespected by the gods of stature, and a bastard of Zeus will not get away with the same deed." His voice bellowed, glaring at me with his blood-red eyes. They radiated intense energy, an attempt to intimidate me out of my wits completely.
That bastard comment did get under my skin, though.
Bald piece of- No. If I get flustered, he wins.
"Or what? Both of us know how you're going to solve this problem." I let electricity spark around my body, the car's lights flickering with my bioelectric discharge affecting the circuitry of the subway car.
"Don't you remember what happened to your father, Pallas? Felled by my sister no less. Your impending defeat is genetic at this point." Getting under his skin was easier than I thought, veins forming on his face with his teeth grinding together.
"Instead of a shield, I might turn you into a cripple. Fitting since you coerced my blacksmithing brother to torture that titan all those centuries ago, calling him the same thing." I remarked with a snide look, to which a snarl was heard from the god who sat next to me.
The next thing I knew, my head was smashed through the glass behind me and into the tunnel wall with bricks flying from where my head dug into the wall of the underground system.
Acting quickly, moving through the singing pain of my head being flattened behind me, I grabbed the hands of my aggressor and squeezed with all of my might.
The cracking of my opponent's bones was heard with the blood in my veins being transformed into ichor, giving me the divine strength necessary to rip his hand off of my face, with the added bonus of some broken bones.
As he stumbled from my maneuver, I pushed myself off of the edge of the subway window frame and pinned the god to the ground, capitalizing off of his stunted balance.
Sending Kratos to the ground, I dug my knee into his chest and stepped on his broken hand with my other foot before slamming my knuckles into his face, ichor and spit flying out of his mouth from the impact.
Another fist snapped his head in the other direction before I slugged him to the left, then to the right, and continued softening my knuckles on his flesh.
Golden blood splattered on the floor as I unloaded my fists on the god of strength, whose gargles and gutters of pain was music to my ears.
His body recoiled with each hit, my hands sullied with his blood with each strike causing the floor to dent. I even pulled him up by his neck before smashing his face into the ground for the extra damage.
Kratos soon grabbed my face with his free hand before shoving me into the roof of the subway car, freeing himself from my pin. He grabbed my ankle before slamming me back onto the ground, causing the subway to shake from the shock.
The pain hit me like a truck, my back and the back of my head burning from the hit, but I couldn't focus on it for my divine cousin prepared to WWE elbow drop me, as I barely rolled out of the way of an attack that punched a hole through the subway floor.
Scrambling to my feet, I grabbed the back of his suit before throwing him into the air and crunching down.
My feet crackled with electricity before I sent the nervous signal to jump and causing the muscular fibers in my leg to exert significantly more energy than what was considered safe or even possible for a mortal.
Added on top of the electromagnetic repulsion from my feet, Kratos was in for one hell of a can of whoop=ass.
"Raimei Shinryuken!"
Resulting in me leaving a shoeprint on the ground as I uppercut Kratos into the roof with enough force to shake the entire subway train.
His head broke through the light and stuck itself into the top of the car, where he was now stuck.
His body dangled in the air as his hands tried to push him out of his predicament, but some shards that were electromagnetically attached to the ceiling of the roof not only electrocuted but also stabbed, causing golden blood to drip from the ceiling.
The train started to slow down as we approached the next stop, that being 51st Street.
Wait. I fought Kratos in the time it took one subway stop?
"We are being held up by the train of..." A voice echoed on a speaker system, somehow the train not being stopped because of a man hanging from the ceiling was more surprising than I thought it'd be.
I am so glad I didn't pay to get in there. Held up after ONE stop? The MTA is the villain of public transportation.
"I would love to stay and catch up, but I have to leave you hanging for a bit. See ya." I waved as the doors slid open before I booked it.
The gasps and screams of people behind me were heard, but that was figuratively and literally behind me since Kratos was only gonna stay there for so long and I looked mighty suspicious as I was now being covered in blood both mortal and divine.
I ran up and out of the building completely, before onto the sidewalk, skidding from the blood underneath my shoes.
It left a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn't floor him, but I hadn't the time to waste. If Kratos knew my position, that news would surely spread.
I needed a new costume change to disguise myself again. Running past some stores, I looked at their selection.
Timberland, huh?
My shoes shifted from bloodied Converses to black Timbs, the weight of the shoe enough to sound like I was practically curb stomping the ground.
A hat shop was next, with a matching black Yankees cap with a white insignia. A Nike shoe gave me the inspiration to cover my shirt with a Nike tech fleece.
Sure, it wasn't meant to come out for a couple of months if fashion trends are anything to go by, but being a trendsetter might just be a side effect of evading the ops.
My jeans became grey and ripped, changing color from their black counterpart with me running from the metro to where the marble pointed.
"The last time I take a subway in this city.
Retrieving my marble, It rolled further north.
Well, that's good. The path was direct and linear.
What wasn't good, was that harpies in the guise of suited agents were on him once more.
This Matrix gag was getting tiring, and running or fighting did nothing to end it. No matter how different I looked to fool the gods, any monsters could always pick up my scent.
Shit.
I had to distance myself from them, and quick as well as find my mother.
Hmm...
Seeing a traffic light, I also saw an opportunity.
Jumping to it, I grabbed the pole before swinging and launching myself into the air, independent of my flying capabilities. Father can't regulate every object in the air, and if I don't call upon his domain, he can't triangulate my position.
Sailing through the air, the marble began to glow in my pocket. That must've meant that I grew closer to Mother's position thanks to the pole swing.
My eyes scanned over the many mortals that I flew over at the apex of my jump.
Making my way into Harlem, the abhorrent scent graced my nose as I cringed in disgust. Yet it brightened upon the sight of my maternal figure.
Mother was spotted in the corner of my eye, walking with another lady having a conversation about something. I could've listened in, but her explanation would be much more useful and concise than whatever out-of-context fragment I'd garner.
Swerving my body onto the roof of a building nearby, I skidded on its surface before maximizing friction and coming to a stop. Sliding down the wall of a five-story apartment. Jumping from the wall and landing on the ground with a seamless maneuver, I walked out of the alleyway.
Mother instantly noticed me as she came up and wrapped her arms around my body, squeezing the life out of her baby boy's body.
A mother's love; hurts so good.
The other woman, however, only rolled her eyes at the sentiment. I couldn't really describe what she looked like as her appearance kept changing between some of the deities that I came into contact with but couldn't really settle on a specific one.
She radiated an aura of dread, making me have the intention of disliking her very presence. It was undoubtedly powerful, yet I couldn't really keep the artificial hatred surmised by her appearance since I never really hated anyone I came across with.
Father was probably the closest person that could be the bearer of that extreme disdain, but I didn't spend enough time with him to truly let that hatred sink in.
"Really? You hug random strangers on the street?" Her voice sounded annoyed, and disapproving from the familial affection that I received.
"For your information lady, I just happen to be her son." I slightly raised my eyebrows in response.
"Argentos! I'm so glad that you're alright! She separated from me with a smile, looking down and up at my frame. "What happened to your clothes?" She asked.
"Changed them."
"Why?" Raising a brow, Mother was curious.
"Long story short, I fought some monsters, fought Perseus Jackson, fought one of the guards to Father's throne, and swung my ass all the way here on a traffic light pole." I exhaled.
"The guardian of your father's throne? Which personification?" Mother inquired, with a raised eyebrow.
"Kr-"
"Don't say his name! Names have power, son. Always remember that." She put her finger on my lips, effectively shutting me up.
"Meh. I stuck his head into the top of a subway." Moving her hand from my mouth, I eased her worries. Those consequences would take some time to come full circle.
"Who's this lady?" I pointed.
"I am Nemesis, goddess of balance, retribution, and vengeance." She told me, her tone cold and stoic. "I was just having a conversation with your mother on our shared and mutual disdain for your father, amongst the other gods of Olympus," Nemesis explained.
"Oh. Couldn't really tell due to the fact that you're constantly changing in my perspective." I told her, and her indistinguishable brow arched.
"Is that so? Don't you have anyone you despise?" She asked me.
"Not really. Dad comes close, but his actions are in response to a prophecy that hints at his demise. So I can understand his view, but not his actions." I explained.
"Anyone else is just an extension of his will, following his order whether they agree or even understand." I thought back to the table of gods, ready to strike me down at the behest of their King.
After my explanation, her form settled on a woman with short, curly black hair that went to just above her shoulders and golden eyes that aged at me with interest. She currently wore a red jacket with black jeans and black combat boots. On her waist whip with most likely divine properties., that I'd rather not be flogged by.
"I see. Well, I was organizing a deal with your mother while you were away from the vicinity." She told me, gesturing to a smug Mother. "Since you're trying to leave New York to escape the eye of your father's forces, I decided to even the odds in favor of tweaking the difficulty of his efforts." She had a smile that hid malignant intent.
"Ok. But what about your motivation? Aren't you something of an ally to him?" I won't be too keen on trusting her blindly, as that sort of faith in others without valid reason lead to treachery.
"Simple. The downfall of the prideful and powerful is a favorite hobby of mine, and your father just happens to fit those requirements. Not only that, but I've been undermined by those Olympians for ages. Treated as nothing more than an auxiliary deity, on the sidelines in all aspects." She grunted, her face tensing with anger.
So Nemesis was unhappy with disproportionate treatment. Kratos said something similar when I was on the subway.
Hm. Minor gods weren't spared from the asymmetrical modus operandi either.
"You of all people should sympathize since he wants you and your mother's life for nothing more than escaping unjust imprisonment." Her eyes locked with me, reminding the both of us.
True, and the time she turned into a goose to evade Father's lustful advances.
"But I'm not here for sympathy. I'm here for a deal." Nemesis got back on track. "I will help you escape, in exchange for a request of my own." The goddess of retribution told me.
"Do not fret, the exchange is equivalent." Assurance was brimming in her voice, for I became open to her stipulations.
"What is it?" I turned to my Mother for her explanation. But she just motioned to Nemesis, her mouth being the source of the condition we were to follow.
"I need you to go to Tartarus." Nemesis revealed, to which I almost felt my jaw hitting the floor.
A/N:
Another chapter complete!
Betcha didn't expect that for an ending. Hope it did the trick in catching your attention there, heh.
Would love to hear your thoughts, so make sure and leave a review to tell me all about it! I'd really appreciate anything you readers would have to say, no matter what it is! So don't be shy and leave a reply!
Minor deities are far less used than their major counterparts. And because of that, they make the perfect catalysts for story developments, no matter who or what they are.
Dare I say, their lack of representation allows for far more creativity than other, more reputable Greek deities.
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