Chapter 27
Disclaimer: I have consulted with a genie about claiming ownership of PJO, but it has not happened as of yet. So for now I don't own this property, but by all that is good, I shall one day. You mark my words, Disney… You mark my words… JK PLS DON'T SUE ME.
Percy had pretty much shut off. After he had found out what had happened in London while he had been in his coma, he hadn't done very much. Not socially. He pretty much just stared at pictures on his laptop. Various newspapers in the UK had published biographies and obituaries on the people that had died in the attack. Percy had read every last one he could find. He made himself do it. He made himself memorize every name. Every face. He didn't ever want to forget them. Their blood was on his hands, after all.
He had taken the idea of "beating himself up" to a ridiculous extreme. He barely ever spoke to anyone. Artemis kept trying. He pretended she didn't exist. He didn't even have to try too hard. She barely even registered to him. He was so far in his own head.
Ans there was even a constant reminder of what had happened, just in case Percy ever came close to forgetting. One he couldn't possibly ignore. His back was proving to be a constant source of agony. Apparently, what Sara and even Chaos had neglected to tell him, was that the healing process for something as delicate as the spine, was horribly painful. It had come as quite a shock to him at first, and it was pretty awful. He actually had to stop himself from healing when he needed to sleep, so that he could get his usual hour. He knew he could stop it for a little bit longer while he was awake, to give himself some reprieve, but he chose not to. Sometimes, suffering was good. It served as a reminder of what had happened. Not to mention, he wanted to be able to use his legs again as soon as possible, and he wasn't going to make things go any quicker by slowing down his healing. So he kept it up, and bore the pain. It didn't make him any more sociable though…
Thalia tried relentlessly to talk to him. To comfort him. He didn't let her. He didn't see any reason that he should be comforted. He didn't see any reason that he should feel better. Why was he special?
Aside from reading obituaries and biographies, he did very few things proactively. He ate occasionally, but not often at all. Maybe one meal every few days. And even that made him feel sick. He barely slept anymore. Maybe an hour or two every few days. He wasn't capable of sleeping much more than that. Every single time he did so much as blink, he was visited by visions of what the Giants had done to him. How painful it was. How humiliating. How he had tried and tried, and hadn't so much as inconvenienced them. The only thing he did that really made him feel anything, was hunting. He was hunting the terrorists that had been behind that attack, and he was hunting them with a blinding fury. It was the only time that he felt like he was alive. Aside from that, he may as well have been dead.
Almost every waking moment, was spent searching for them. His obsession with them had become quite unhealthy. One of the things Thalia and, to a lesser extent, Artemis pleaded with him to do, was to ease off on his pursuit of them. Their pleas went unheard. He was going to find every last one of them, and kill them all. Painfully. Maybe once he did that, he would consider going easier on himself. But not one moment before.
But that presented a problem. How was he going to do it? If he had either his powers, or the full use of his legs, he could wipe them all out without breaking a sweat. But as it were, he had no idea how he was going to go about it. He could take them all out with pure marksmanship, he knew that, but it would be incredibly difficult with a manual wheelchair. He couldn't roll both wheels and shoot at the same time. He would have to figure something out.
He figured it would only be another night's work until he had their location narrowed down.
And he was right. He had them. Down to the street, and the godsdamn building. He had them. For the first time since learning about the attack, he smiled. The action felt foreign on his face. It had been over a week.
Getting there would be difficult. He'd probably have to fly, which he detested. But what other choice did he have? He couldn't shadow travel. Nor could he use his powers over the water to boost a journey by the sea. Flying would be the most efficient way to get anywhere.
He looked online and booked the soonest flight. It left in around 6 hours, so he had a lot of time to kill. Artemis and her hunters were away from camp, hunting for their dinner. But they should be getting back soon. Percy decided to go back to his tent and drop off his laptop, pack his portable armory, and then wait outside for them. He'd have to tell Artemis that he was going, and then he could leave.
But there was one obstacle in the way. His scumbag brother.
Jack was sitting on Percy's bed, which he hadn't even noticed until he'd entered the tent himself. And he had a knife in his hand. Percy froze for a second, deciding what to do. Artemis and the hunters were gone. But hopefully they would be back before too long. In the mean time, all Percy could really do, was stall. He was fast, but Jack was a God. Percy, at less than half power, was not going to get out of that particular fight unscathed. So he needed to buy himself as much time as he could.
Percy moved himself the rest of the way into the tent.
"Hey there, bro," he said mockingly, "What can I do ya for?"
"I'm sitting on your bed, with a knife in my hand. Do I need to spell it out for you?"
"No, I suppose you don't. Though I have to say, I honestly wasn't expecting this."
Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, really? You thought you could just beat me half to death in my own camp, and I'd just let bygones be bygones?"
"Ah, so that's what this is about? Revenge? Because if we're going to broach that particular topic, you have a lot more to answer for than I do."
The younger son of Poseidon rolled his sea-green eyes.
"Oh, please!" he drawled lazily, "It was over 20 years ago. I thought you'd be over that by now."
"Did you now? Well, I hate to break it to you, dear brother, but I'm not going to get over that until your heart stops beating."
"You see? How can you not expect me to kill you, when you talk like that?"
"Ok, I suppose I see your point," Percy conceded.
"Well, thank you, Percy. I'm glad we agree."
"Don't worry about it. But do you honestly think you're getting away with this?"
Jack raised an eyebrow at that.
"I don't see how I won't."
"Don't you? Honestly, Jack, I thought you were better than this."
"Well, do tell. How do you think I'll be caught? You certainly won't be telling anyone."
"I won't need to. Thalia will realize what you did. She'll figure it out, and then she'll hunt you across the world."
"You always placed too much faith in her," Jack said disdainfully, "Even if she does work it out, she'll do nothing. I'm a God now, brother, don't forget. And if she starts making waves, I'll just kill her too,"
Percy sighed, and shook his head, "Seriously? I thought you were smarter than this. Do you think there's a scenario where Thalia doesn't tell Artemis what you did? You may not be afraid of Thalia, but Artemis should make you wet yourself,"
Jack shrugged, "Father will protect me."
"No, he won't. Not if you kill his favourite son,"
Jack bristled.
"Not without proof it was me," Jack said, doing his best to ignore the 'favourite' comment, "Unless they can definitively prove that I did it, father will never believe them. He'll do everything in his power to protect me."
"I see you've learned a lot about covering your tracks since I've been gone. If you weren't such a fucking psychopath, I might actually be proud of you."
"Watch it! I'm the one with the knife here!"
Percy nodded, "I suppose it's always been your first instinct to murder anyone that stands in your way!" he hissed.
"I did that for you!" Jack bit back.
"Oh, don't kid yourself! You know better than that! Moving to New Rome was my idea, not her's! Don't pretend like you were doing anything for me! Don't pretend you were just looking out for your brother!"
"I WAS! YOU JUST COULDN'T SEE IT! YOU COULDN'T SEE WHAT THAT HARPY WAS DOING TO YOU!" Jack screamed, rising to his feet.
"BULLSHIT! YOU WERE JUST A SCARED LITTLE BOY! YOU JUST WANTED ME TO STICK AROUND, COVERING FOR YOU FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! YOU DIDN'T CARE ABOUT ME! YOU JUST WANTED WHAT WAS BEST FOR YOURSELF! MY HAPPINESS, BE DAMNED!"
Jack, evidently, had had enough. He flung himself across the room, at his Percy. Admittedly, things hadn't quite gone to plan, on Percy's part. He'd originally hoped to keep Jack talking for as long as he possibly could, but the mere sight of him caused too much pain. Too much fury. There was a fleeting thought in Percy's mind of Chaos telling him not to kill his brother. But it left his mind just as quickly as it came. If Jack was going to try to kill him, he wasn't going to hold back. Percy was willing to bet that he was more important to Chaos and her plans, than his brother. If need be, Percy could stay on Earth and train the demigods.
Percy dodged to the left, as best as he could with the clumsy wheelchair, and then slammed back into Jack's side. But Jack was a God, so there wasn't very much that could really hurt him. That being said, the hit did what Percy had intended it to. It fazed his brother for a second. As soon as his brother was hit, Percy was moving himself away, making a 'run' for the door. He needed to get out into the open. His tent wasn't completely soundproof, but he still wanted to be outside. The sooner Artemis and the hunters found him, the better off he'd be.
Then Jack was behind him, yanking the chair back. The sudden shift in momentum, forced Percy out of the chair and onto the rough ground, face first. Hardly fun, but far from the worst thing he'd endured. He didn't have many options from his current position, and both sons of Poseidon knew it. But Percy knew something his brother didn't.
Percy twisted himself onto his back, and drew his handgun at the same time. Jack barely had time to swear, before he hurled himself out of the way. Percy was, by any human metric, a supernaturally good marksman. By Chaos' army standards, he was pretty good. He was better with longer range shots, rather than close range, but at a distance of a few feet, a kill was virtually guaranteed. But Jack was a God, and as such, was incredibly quick when he wanted to be. And quicker still when he needed to be. The younger son of Poseidon was a blur as he dodged out of the way.
Percy fired half a dozen shots into his own tent. He didn't really care about that though. If tearing up his tent was the price for his brother's death, then he would pay it a billion times over.
Once Jack had regained enough composure, he sent a blast of pure energy into Percy's gun. For a second, he wondered why he didn't use it on him directly, rather than just to knock the gun out of his hand, and then he realised. If Jack used any divine power to kill him, then the suspect pool would be reduced considerably. There weren't too many deities that hated Percy enough to actually try to kill him. It would be a simple process of elimination. The bigger the suspect pool, the safer Jack would be. So he needed to make it look like anyone could have killed him. God, mortal, or anything in between.
The gun went flying across the tent, and Jack was instantly moving on him, intent on stabbing Percy right in the throat. But Percy was pretty quick. As Jack lunged, Percy wrenched himself to the side, grabbed Jack's knife arm, and forced it to go past him, into the dirt he was lying on. Then he snapped his head forward and landed a beautiful headbut right against Jack's nose. Immediately, they were both covered in Ichor, as it exploded out of the young God's nose.
Jack swore again, as he went stumbling back. Percy had to ignore every instinct he had, and retreat instead of pressing the offence. He wasn't going to win. He needed to force Jack to flea. And the only way that was going to happen, would be to get Artemis and the hunters to come back.
Percy desperately called on his powers. At that moment, he would give virtually anything to get them to work properly. But as had become the norm ever since the Giants' attack, they ignored him completely.
He was retreating as fast as he could. But not nearly fast enough. A broken nose would be enough to make virtually anyone pause for a moment. But not Jack. Not anymore. He had already recovered, and was closing in on him. But surely, Artemis would be back soon. She must have heard the gunshots. They weren't that far away.
Jack knew what he was thinking.
"Let me guess, brother. You're expecting your goddess to come running any minute now, right?"
Percy said nothing, but his insides went cold.
"You seriously never noticed? Maybe I overestimated you…"
Percy took a look around. His supernatural senses had pretty much returned to what they were before the Giants had beaten him senseless. But even so, he had to specifically look for it, in order to see it. But it was there. Some type of force field.
Percy blinked at it.
"A force field?", he thought, bewildered, "Since fucking when?"
Jack grinned, which made him look slightly demented, since he was covered in his own blood. Finally the exterior resembled the interior.
"Did you really think I spent the last two decades twiddling my thumbs? I know you're not exactly fond of me, but at least give me some credit! It's just a combination of water manipulation and some divine power. Easiest thing in the world. For Gods like me, anyway. It might be a challenge for a mere mortal, like you. Now, everything inside this little bubble we're in, won't make a sound audible to anything outside it. We're completely alone. No rescue team. No cavalry."
"I thought you were smarter than this, Jack," Percy said spitefully.
The aforementioned son of Poseidon quirked an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you said that before. It made just as little sense than, as now. Tell me, dear brother, what do you think I've done wrong?"
"You fell for it."
"Fell for what, exactly?"
"The same thing every villain falls for."
Jack dipped his head back and laughed.
"I'm the villain now, am I? Yeah, I suppose from your perspective, I am. Fine then, what exactly is it that we all fall for?"
"The, obviously immense, urge to monologue."
"Is that so? And, pray tell, what exactly is it that my monologue, as you so put it, has cost me? Do you think your goddess is about to show up behind me? Are your friends about to ride to the rescue?"
Percy faked a smug grin, "Yes, actually," he bluffed. And then, as Jack turned around to see if there was indeed someone behind him, Percy slammed the large rock he had found underneath him, into the side of his brother's skull.
Jack howled, and went stumbling away. Percy used the opportunity to get his knife from its sheath, and lunged towards his brother, burying the blade in his foot, and keeping him rooted to the ground. Then he spun as quickly as his disabled form would allow, and started crawling away. Hopefully, Jack would be delayed enough that Percy could get out of his little bubble, and call for help.
And he was. Percy got out, just in time, Jack at his heels. He was just able to bark out a loud "ARTEMIS" before he felt the knife slip between his ribs, into his left lung. He was completely unable to resist as Jack took him by the legs and dragged him back through the barrier. He looked furious, and he wasn't going to waste too much time. Not anymore. But Percy knew he wasn't going to use a weapon to finish the job. That was something he could rely on his brother for. His rage. He was far too angryto use a knife or sword. He was going to use his bare hands, and relish every moment.
Jack's hands found Percy's throat. If only Jack had been a mortal, Percy would have been totally fine. He would have simply used his enhanced strength to crush his forearms, and that would be that. But apparently divinity was a pretty sweet deal. Jack's arms were completely unaffected. But there was one specific area that got no stronger, no matter how much divine energy was stuffed into someone.
Percy thrust his arms up as fast as he could, and sank his thumbs into the divin son of Poseidon's eyes. Jack screamed, and it was one of the most glorious sounds Percy had ever heard. If he'd had the use of his legs, he would have followed it up with a monstrous kick to the stomach, but circumstances wouldn't allow that. Instead, he just held on for as long as he could, in an effort to cause as much damage to his brother as he could.
But holding on proved to be easier said than done. Unfortunately, his brother wasn't an idiot. Even when panicking. Instead of trying to wrench Percy's hands away from him, he rained down punches until Percy's instincts became too strong to ignore, and he brought his hands down to shield himself.
As soon as his eyes were empty of fingers, Jack reeled back, and staggered a few steps. Percy couldn't even move, he was so tired. He was in a lot of pain. And even if he could move, what would he do? Where would he go?
Jack, on the other hand, was going into overdrive trying to figure out what his brother was doing. What he was planning. He couldn't see. Not yet. So to be safe, he let out a huge wave of water in every direction, in an effort to get him, wherever he was. And he did. The water hit Percy just as he was trying to sit up, and it swept him away a little bit. A lot closer to the border of Jack's little forcefield. Percy started crawling slowly. He had no energy left. All he could manage was a slow pull through the uncomfortable dirt.
Then, miraculously, Artemis appeared. She was running towards the camp. She didn't see him. Not yet. He was mostly hidden by a tent. He tried desperately to catch her attention, but it proved difficult from his position on the ground. And it proved even more difficult when Jack appeared behind him. The younger Son of Poseidon swung Percy onto his back, wrenched his arms behind his back, and proceeded to continue his chokehold from before. But Percy was out of tricks. There was nothing else he could do. It had taken everything he had to simply survive for as long as he had. He was done. Unless Artemis spotted him by some miracle, he was going to die, there and then, staring up into the bright red eyes of his own brother.
Then a beam of energy nearly took Jack's head clean off his shoulders.
Jack went flying, and landed nearly 10 meters away. It only took him half of a second to realize what had happened. Artemis was already in the air by then, hunting knife in hand, aiming right for Jack's jugular. But then the oddest thing happened. Suddenly, his body became a little bit moist. Then very moist. Then he was completely soaked. Then it looked almost like his skin was melting away. And then, finally, Jack's entire body dissolved into a small wave, which turned the soil beneath him into mud. Artemis landed on nothing, cursed, and composed herself. She turned around and dashed over to Percy, to check on him.
And for the second time since learning of what happened in London while he'd been in his coma, he smiled, as Artemis inspected him. Then, finally, he allowed himself to fall unconscious, and sleep.
—-
Percy woke up the next day, refreshed. His whole body felt sore, but he managed to sit up and inspect himself. There was a dull ache in his back, where he'd been stabbed, and his throat was very tender, but aside from that, he was ok. Aside, of course, from the constant pain in his back, which had almost become background noise. Almost, but not quite. He grit his teeth, and looked around for his wheelchair. It was parked next to his bed.
He managed to swing himself over, and then he left the tent and found the hunters having breakfast. Just the hunters. Not Artemis. He felt a sliver of panic pass through his mind.
"Where is she?" he asked Thalia, the first words he had spoken to any hunter in quite a while.
She looked slightly stunned.
"Percy? Are you ok? What the hell happened?" she demanded.
"Later," he dismissed, "Where's Artemis?"
Thalia crossed her arms over her chest, but answered, "She said she had to go meet the Olympian council. She's going to report Jack for attacking you."
The sliver of panic grew considerably.
"When?"
"She just left. Why?"
Percy didn't answer. He closed his eyes and prayed to her as loudly as he could, if that made any sense. A second later, the phone she had given him started to buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and answered.
"Percy?"
"You can't tell them anything."
The confusion in her voice was obvious.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"The council. You can't tell them anything about what Jack did."
"Are you joking? Why not?"
"Artemis, I'll answer your questions, I promise, but you can't tell them anything. You just have to trust me on this for now."
"Percy, I… I've already called the meeting, I can't just go 'Ah, nevermind everyone, my mistake'. I need to tell them something."
"Then make something up. Whatever you need to tell them. But not a word about Jack, ok?"
She hesitated for a few long moments, but then sighed.
"Fine. I'll trust you on this."
He let out a breath of relief, "Thank you."
"I'll see you when I get back."
She closed the call, and Percy put the phone back in his pocket. By now, the entire hunt was looking at him like he had finally snapped.
"What in Zeus' name was that?" Phoebe asked, oddly enough.
"It's a long story. I'll tell it when Artemis gets back."
And only then, did he start to think of what he was actually going to say. He couldn't tell them that Chaos had told him that Jack needed to be spared. He couldn't tell them anything about her. That was his first, second, and third priority.
A few awkward seconds went by in silence. Thalia offered him some food. He accepted, and ate his fill. He had barely eaten a thing in quite a while, so he needed the nourishment.
Then Artemis appeared in a bright shower of silver light. She wasn't dressed in her usual hunting uniform, instead wearing a bright white toga that she must have been wearing at the council meeting. It looked good on her. Vaguely like a wedding dress, Percy noted absently.
She seemed to realize what she was wearing, and immediately changed into her usual uniform before starting in on him with her questions.
"Well, thank you for that, Perseus. I just floundered around like a fish out of water in front of my 13 fellow Olympians. Improv isn't exactly my strongsuit, you know."
"Don't disrespect fish like that," he told her casually.
Apparently, that was not the thing to say to her in that moment.
She crossed her arms across her chest, and fixed him with a very menacing look.
"You had better tell me why you did that, or I'm going to get angry."
Percy sighed, "We can't expose Jack. We need him."
"What on Earth for?" Thalia asked, bewildered, "He tried to kill you, Perce."
"I know. But with how the monsters are acting, and all of the giants being back, we need to be at full power. They could attack at any time. Jack, for all his many faults, is good at training the younger demigods. He's more useful to us, without the rest of the Gods knowing what he's done."
None of the hunters looked particularly happy about that.
"That's a very pragmatic point of view to take, Percy," Artemis said slowly, "Are you sure there isn't some part of you that wants payback?"
"Of course I do. But my petty needs, aren't more important than the entire demigod race. As soon as the Giants are back asleep, I'll kill him myself, but I can't until then."
A few seconds went by before Thalia spoke up again.
"Why did he do it?"
Percy cursed in his head. He'd been hoping none of them would ask that.
"Because I know something about him," he said warily.
"What?"
"I can't say."
Thalia blinked, "Why not?"
"Because if I do, you'll kill him. Consequences be damned."
"Percy, have a little faith in me."
"I do, Thalia. But I have to be objective about this. Anyway, you don't want to know until you can do something about it. It'll just eat you up until then. I'll tell you when it's time, I swear on the River Styx."
Thunder rumbled distantly, and it served to alleviate some of Thalia's concern.
"Fine. I'll trust you."
Percy nodded, gratefully. Artemis unfolded her arms. She looked significantly less pissed.
"How are you feeling?" the auburn haired Goddess asked.
"Not too bad. Just eager to get back to work, really. I meant to tell you earlier, I'm going to London for a day or two."
"London? Why?"
He felt himself darken considerably, "The people responsible need to suffer."
She caught on to what he was talking about, and looked concerned more than anything else.
"Are you serious? How are you going to do this, without your legs, or your powers?"
"I'm strong, smart, and I have fantastic aim. I'll be fine."
She raised a disbelieving eyebrow, "You're going to kill a few dozen terrorists with a single handgun?"
"Not necessarily," he said, before turning himself around and going back to his tent. He returned to the common area with his portable armory, which he opened up in front of the hunters. They each had a look inside, and came away with a look of minor awe.
He went inside, picked up a shotgun, an assualt rifle, a bunch of spare ammo for both, and a few grenades, flashbangs, and remote explosives. He loaded them all into a satchel Artemis summoned for him, and with a little bit of mist manipulation, he could get it past airport security without any problems.
He left immediately, and hailed the first cab he saw.
The ride to the airport was fairly uneventful. Getting through security was easy. He was on a flight to London within an hour of arriving at the airport, sitting in first class. He spent the many hours of the flight, checking several maps of varying detail. He looked at several property listings and made sure he had them dead to rights. He'd already done all of the work before he had fought Jack, but he wanted to go over everything again, and make sure nothing had changed since then. But it hadn't. He still had them. They were going to die.
After an insufferably long flight, he got off the plane and jumped in the first cab he found. He gave the cabbie an address that was around 10 blocks away from his actual destination. If a disabled guy asked to be taken to a house that became the site of a mass murder a few hours later, the cabbie might remember. He wouldn't this way though. Percy would stand out a little bit, but not enough to make the driver connect the two events.
Once out of the cab, Percy started rolling down the road. It didn't take him too long, and he took back alleys whenever he could. Eventually, he arrived, and by then, he was physically shaking with fury. But above all else, was a weird sense of calm. His anger was a cold thing, coiling inside him like a snake. And it was about to pounce.
He turned off his healing, since he didn't want to make any mistake because of a moment's hesitation. The pain in his spine finally ceased.
Thne he took a moment to survey the scene. There were 3 guards around the entrance. But not obvious ones. They were doing a fairly good job at pretending they weren't there on purpose. But Percy could spot them clear as day. They were leaning on lamposts, smoking cigarettes, or sitting on benches, pretending to read newspapers. It was a decent performance. Percy paid them no mind. Once the action got started, they would go running inside, and he could deal with them there. Better than doing it out in the open.
He obviously couldn't use the front door. So he took a quick detour around the side of the building, until he found an open window. 3 floors up. Not the easiest climb, but he would make do. There was no way to make the climb with his chair though, so he left it in the alley. But he managed to keep the sack with all his weapons. It had drawstrings on it, which he tied around his shoulders, to keep it secure. Using only his arms, and his greatly enhanced strength, he managed to pull himself all the way up, until he got through the window.
And there, he was confronted with his first opponents. There were 3 of them, sitting in the room he had just unceremoniously climbed into, playing video games. It was quiet for a few moments, as they all looked at each other.
Finally, Percy cursed under his breath, and pulled out his gun. They were all dead before they could make a sound, but that wasn't really his concern. He didn't have a silencer on his gun, so the rest of the thugs inside already knew what was going on, and they were on their way. The rest of London also knew, and the police were probably on their way. He had to act fast.
From his position on the ground, he threw one of the remote explosives at the top of the doorway, and drew his assault rifle. It took a little bit of manouvering, but he eventually managed to get himself leaning against the wall opposite the door. A few moments later, the rest of the goons arrived, and Percy set off the explosive. Then he threw a grenade at an angle so it bounced off the wall, and down the hallway, where he sensed a few of them.
He let a few more get closer, then mowed them down. There wasn't much they could do against him. He had them at a chokepoint, and he was impeccably armed. But he did need to be quick about it. The police wouldn't be too far away, so he needed to make sure they were all dead before they arrived, and he had to make sure none of them would escape.
Eventually, Percy left the room he had been holed up in, and started clearing the entire place. Even though he didn't have use of his legs, they struggled heavily against him. Even if one of them got a lucky shot, and managed to land a shot on him, the bullets just bounced off of the armor Chaos had given him. He was completely impervious to anything they could do.
It was only a matter of minutes until Percy was the only living person in there. The guards from outside had come running inside. Percy had met them with a shotgun. A few had tried to make a run for it. Percy flung knives into their backs, killing them instantly. There was simply nothing they could do to stop him. He was ruthless. He was relentless. He was furiously angry. They deserved it.
Once they were all sent to Hades, Percy had to flee as fast as he could. The police were about 15 seconds away, based on the sirens he could hear. After a quick climb up the steps and a painful drop out of the 3-story window, he was back in his wheelchair, pushing himself away as fast as he could.
Of course, there was no way he could get on a plane immediately. He would need to wait at least a day, otherwise the timing would look suspicious. Percy wasn't exactly trembling at the thought of the mortal police agencies, but he would rather live without the inconvenience. So, he put himself up in a nice hotel for a night, and rested for a while. There wasn't much he could do. Even less that he wanted to do. So he just focused on letting time go by, and waited for the morning to come, and let him get on a plane back to the states.
A.N: Ok, that's that folks. Let me know what you all thought. I kinda like the idea of Percy having to get used to doing things without his powers, and of course, without his legs. I think there's some interesting stuff to do there. Anyway, thanks for reading. Thanks a TON to my wonderful beta Anon516. Quality of life improvements that make this easier to read, are all down to them. Hope you're all doing well, wherever you are in the world. Stay safe.