I want to thank everyone that read the first chapter. Hopefully you enjoy this one as well.

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A lone boy walked through a dark alley. Rain was pouring down and his clothes were drenched. Lightning was lighting up the sky. Thunder shook the entire city. Someone was angry, really angry. And the boy new it was his fault. He shouldn't have done it. But he had to. There really was no other option. Otherwise it would never stop. Another lightning bolt flashed above his head and hit one of the nearby apartment buildings. Sirens were sounding in the distance. The flashy blue and red lights flickering in the rain.

A trash can flew away and landed in a puddle with a loud "Klang". The boy's foot hurt. He hadn't really thought that through. Thinking had never been one of his strong suits. He was more of a talker. Not a fighter. He had to get his way through his charisma. A lot of people liked him, and helped him because of it. Not today. Today no one liked him.

Another thunder shook the air. The young boy winced under the sound. It scared him. A lot. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, but his legs couldn't carry him. Not anymore. Not after all these hours. So he did the next best thing and plopped down on the ground. And everything went black.

The next morning, he was woken up by the distinctly hideous smell of garbage. As he looked around, he found torn open garbage bags all over the small alleyway. It looked like the rain hadn't stopped until late in the night because all of it was soaking wet. Including himself. The water was chilling him to the bone. His clothes, equally as drenched, did nothing to stop the cold or wetness. On top of that, he hadn't eaten since… yesterday's events. All in all, he felt miserable. And from now on, he would have to deal with things on his own. He simply couldn't go back. He had to look forwards, into unknown territory.

He didn't know where he was. Not really. Obviously he knew it was in Liverpool. But where, he had no clue. As he lived in the outskirts of the city, he hadn't really spent much time getting to know the inner city. And unfortunately, that was where he was now. Somewhere in Liverpool's inner city. So he decided to walk around randomly and see where his feet would take him.

So he wandered around the city aimlessly. He passed by lots of businessmen in nice, clean, and probably warm, suits. Lots of women who were dressed up for work as well. Most of them wearing long pants and long sleeved shirts. It was nearly winter after all. Amidst all these chique-looking workers, the young boy stood out like a sore thumb. He was dressed in a simple hoodie, which he had gotten from his uncle as a birthday present, and black pants. But he was soaking wet. His hair, which was normally a flowing middle part, was pressed down on his forehead. And his clothes were no better, seeing as he slept in the rain in the middle of a garbage patch.

A storm was raging in his chest. How could they do this to him? He had always been such a good child. He had barely ever gotten into trouble, especially little if you compared it to kids like him. But yet, still they thought it was a good idea to throw him out on the road. Oh how much he hated them right now. The storm was raging on in his chest. He could feel it surfacing. His muscles were tensing up. He couldn't stop it. Any moment now he would unleash his powers on these poor Liverpudlians. He tried to control his breathing. He couldn't let these poor people suffer from his anger issues. The storm was raging on though. He felt hopeless, helpless, against his own powers. That's the way he had always felt. It was too much to contain in such a small body. It needed out. Especially when he was angry. Often it was then when he couldn't contain himself and bad things happened.

Once, the entire school had been blown-up and washed away after one of the teachers had forgotten him in the corner for the entire day and he had been put there for a crime he didn't commit in the first place. That was about the worst of it, and the most recent one as well. Seeing as it had happened two years ago. But he felt really bad about it afterwards seeing as he had hurt many unsuspecting, uninvolved children. And, it was not like he had planned it or something. It just kind of happened. He was angry and felt the same raging storm in his chest, and then 'BOOM'. And the entire school had exploded into tiny pieces.

So he knew bad things could happen if he let his anger get to his head. And he didn't want to get the poor Liverpudlians involved. They had nothing to do with it anyways. He clenched his fist and tried to think of happier times. That one time uncle Theodore had taken him to go to the water park and he had eaten his fist ever ice cream. Or the times when his dog Fluffy played with him in the park. He tried to keep out the bad memories as best as possible, and slowly but surely his heartrate went down. The storm had calmed down.

He looked around and saw everybody still going their merry way, nobody paying attention to the young, filthy looking kid standing in the middle of Liverpool's most busy squares. Not that he cared. He preferred it actually. That way he could start looking for a place to eat. And he didn't need to look for long. About everywhere around him, there were shops, restaurants, and even market stalls. All of them sold their own, delicious looking and smelling, food. He decided eventually to walk into a calm burger place. The sign outside said: "Nancy's Homemade Burgers!". That sounded good enough.

The inside of the restaurant was designed like a 19th century living room. Lots of colourful blankets were covering the floor and walls, big flowing curtains hung in front of the windows. The furniture was old, sturdy oak. In addition to all that, the wall blankets were covered in paintings and giant chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The colour pallet was very busy, in contrast to the actual restaurant, but it felt homely, and calming.

A young, plump woman greeted the boy from behind the counter. "Hello young sir, how can I help you?" Her accent was typically Liverpool. She was dressed in an old Victorian-style dress. She was a bit atypical, but beautiful none the less. Short black hair rounded off her face nicely, and her green eyes were inviting him to come closer. She looked, and felt, very much like a mother figure.

The boy walked towards the counter. "Hello there", he greeted her back. "I would like something to eat please."

"Oh sure." Her smile was contagious. She listed all the items for sale and the young boy chose one of the simplest burgers she had. He pulled out a £10 note from his back pocket and paid for his meal. The 5p he got back were quickly tucked away. He then smiled and sat down at one of the tables.

Waiting for the food didn't take long at all. The lady brought him his food and then left him to tend to himself. It was good, the food, but not amazing. But he was glad he got something to feed him. He would've starved otherwise. As he was gulping down his food, another man entered the restaurant. The newcomer radiated immense power. So much that the boy almost fell off his chair. His blond hair was glowing like the sun and flowing like as it were in the wind. On top of that magnificent hair, laid a laurel wreath. His clothes were just as extraordinaire. A golden toga covered his body. In his hand he held a golden lyre. Even more magnificent was the shining… What was that shining thing on his shoulder. It seemed to flicker. One moment it was a bag of hockey sticks, the other it seemed like a… bow?

Golden boy didn't seem to have much time because he immediately walked over to the young boy's table. The kid had regathered himself but was still shaking ever so little. Who wouldn't shake being in the presence of a literal god.

Apollo sat down in front of the kid then frowned. "Is there something wrong kid? Are you not happy to see your coolest, funniest, handsomest family member."

The boy didn't look very talkative but he managed to whisper in shock: "What are you doing here?"

"Oh well, needed to pass by a message, being god of prophecies and all that. Excuse my appearance, I'm on my way to Olympus." The god of prophecies and the sun seemed to see no wrong in his actions. All the other gods would have slapped him in the face if they saw what he was doing right now. Walking into Liverpool centre while dressed as a golden god was not a great idea.

The kid still seemed to find it hard to get a word out but it wasn't needed as Apollo was fine talking on his own. "So, firstly, I heard you got dad angry. Wouldn't do that again if I were you. It's not fun having to talk to him while storms are raging all around. And secondly, I have to give you this map." The god of music dropped an old looking pirate map on the table. It was made of parchment, and was written in prehistoric ink.

"Oh yeah and before I forget. Find yourself the hidden key, only then shall you be able to talk to mee." The god elongated the last line to make it rhyme properly. "What do you think? I wrote it myself. Cool huh. Now that all that is done, I need to go. Appointment at Olympus remember. My chariot is waiting outside. Bye." And with those words the god of the sun fluttered back to the door and set off to Olympus. Leaving the boy shellshocked and flabbergasted.

In the span of two minutes he had received a map and a prophecy by the god of prophecies himself. Who apparently thought it was a good idea to come into Liverpool in his semi-divine form. With all his attributes and all. At least he tried to hide the bow. But the Mist was so poor even the young kid was able to see through it.

He now looked at the map the god had thrown on the table. It was a map of Europe. With one cross. That was everything. A map of Europe with one red cross in Greece, like a treasure map. The events had passed by so quickly he didn't take in much of what had happened. Only one line really. Find yourself the hidden key, only then shall you be able to talk to mee.

It was straightforward, that was at least something. And it didn't sound much like a prophecy. It sounded more like a challenge in the shape of a not so very well formed prophecy. So now he only had to find the hidden key to, probably the cross on the map, then go there and open it, and voila. His dad wouldn't be angry anymore. Why the gods always needed to be so complex, no one knew. They could never simply accept a simple: "I'm sorry, I'll never do it again."

The events had taken away the boys appetite. Good thing his plate was empty. So he grabbed the map under his arm and headed out the door. Yet again he found himself not knowing what to do. Now that he had a goal, you'd think it would be easy. Think differently. Find the hidden key. It could be anywhere for the sake of the gods. So after some thinking, the boy decided it would be best to get closer to the cross on the map. The only thing he had to do now, was to find an illegal way to get from the UK, to Greece, seeing as he couldn't pay for anything anymore. He had only 5p left after his meal.

As he thought of ways to make it to Greece, his feet had lead him over to the port. The sea was calm, but there were not many boats out during winter. The only exception, a giant cruise-ship. Maybe, if he got lucky, he could get on without paying. But first, he had to know where the ship would stop. So he walked up to the first best person to ask. It was a family of six. The two parents looked tired with their children. "Excuse me sir, but could you tell me where this cruise goes to?"

The man looked at the young boy, then answered: "It goes to the Mediterranean." "Yeah, it stops in Lisbon, Valencia, Nice, Palermo, and then it goes to Athens", his wife added on.

"Thank you very much", the boy said before walking a little bit away to observe the ship. It was going where he needed to go, now he just needed to get onto it. Giant ropes were keeping the thing at the dock. It would be very obvious if he tried to climb up those, but there were not many other options. One of the other options was to swim to the boat and climb up the side that way. But he didn't care to get wet a second time. His clothes had just dried up. And on top of that, it would be a lot harder. Oh well, hard isn't impossible, he should be able to do it. He looked around and saw some fishing docks around. There he would be able to get the materials to get on board.

And so it came that the 12 year old boy who had been kicked out of his house not even 12 hours ago, was standing with a rope and grappling-hook on a dock trying to break into a cruise-ship. He was standing on the other side of the ship, as it was moored with a dock on either side. It was not too far to get to the ship, and the lowest deck was only 5ish meters high. He had secured the grappling-hook, held the rope tightly, and jumped. The water was cold, but not as cold as he would have imagined. It was freezing him to the bone, but he still had his senses and muscle-control. He had to swim only a couple of meters, before climbing out of the water to climb the rope. It was a slow and gruelling task. His hands were burning from the friction and his arms were getting tired. He had to hope no one would see him because if he had to jump back down he might not survive it.

He was halfway now, and he spotted some people on the docks looking at him. Please don't call security! He wanted to scream it at them, but then security would obviously come. So all he could do was silently pray they wouldn't think anything weird of it. Of course, they didn't. Loud shouting was all around him. The kid dug deep in his muscles to climb faster. One meter to go.

A face popped up from above the guardrail. "What do you think you're doing boy?" The bearded man in his stupid blue sailors costume smiled. But it was not a happy smile. More of a: Ha I got you, stupid boy, type of smile. But his smile was quickly wiped off his face when the stupid boy in question landed a punch on his jaw. The kid climbed over the guardrail and threw down the rope. He didn't need that one anymore. It would only raise suspicion. So, with the hard part out of the way, he started exploring the ship.

It would take hours before the ship crew gave up on trying to find him and decided to leave. In the meantime, more and more people had been boarding the ship. And seeing as it was very hard to miss a drenched, 12 year old boy being chased by a group of blue sailors, it became increasingly harder to get out of their grip. But eventually they gave up and now the boy was sitting in one of the pool dressing rooms. All the running and the hours passing by had dried his clothes, mostly. And now he also had to find out if his godly map had survived. Usually, swimming with a map made from parchment wasn't a good idea, but this map was godly, so hopefully it would be fine. He had bought a rain poncho and wrapped the thing in it. As he wrapped it out, his heart skipped a beat, but everything was fine. He had the map, and a poncho, but no more 5p.

Seeing as the map had survived, he wrapped it back in the poncho and stuck it in his belt. His hoodie was pulled over it after so you wouldn't notice it if you didn't know. And with all that taken care of, he walked outside the dressing room and into the swimming pool area. No one was around yet, seeing as they were still boarding. So he walked back onto the lower deck unnoticed and walked into the first door he could find. There, he found himself back in the gym, which he had quickly ran through earlier. It was just as empty as the swimming pool so he walked through it and entered the inner hallways on the other side. Lots of signs were pointing to different things. There was a lunchroom, a casino, an indoor play area, shops in all shapes and sizes. You would start thinking you were in a shopping wall. The boy shrugged and started following the sign that said: "Sleeping quarters." None of the other things really interested him right now. He really, really wanted to sleep.

And so he ended up on a staircase leading down to the lower sleeping areas. Lots of tourists were stumbling down with their luggage. All the sailor-lookalikes were guiding them down to their respective rooms. I wouldn't have much luck trying to find a room now. After all, more people were still coming so the chance I would be noticed would be greater than the reward. So I decided to wait it out. A ladder-like staircase on the opposite side of the corridor would do nicely for that.

The boy made his way through the waves of people and made it to the opposing side, where he climbed the ladder. As soon as he made it to the top, he realised something was wrong. He could hear shouting, and screaming in the distance. Apparently, the fates didn't like him today. And he couldn't do much to stop them. He had gotten himself into this much trouble already, a little more wouldn't matter. So, he raced down to corridor towards the sound.

When he got there, an interesting scene unfolded before his eyes. A little girl, about 10 or so, was laying with her back on the ground. Two men were standing over her. One of them looked like a typical construction worker, with big muscles, tanned skin and a rugged beard and hair. The other looked like he worked at the government. He was cleanshaven and his hair was slicked back.

The boy started doing what he had done his entire life to get out of threatening situations, talking. It was not easy when being held at gunpoint, but he was doing his awful best to try and bore them to death. And it was working quite well.

"Will you please, SHU.." Mister Government had had enough and started screaming. The next thing that happened was like it came out of a movie. Maybe it was the boy's anger for treating the poor child that way, or maybe it was the girl herself who caused it. But anyhow, the entire ship tilted to the side with a huge shock. The two criminals were thrown to the ground, the girl hit the wall but managed to scramble back to her feet. And, they ran.

They ran through the entire corridor, then down into the machinery, and out onto the lower deck (again). There, they managed to find a place to hide behind some wooden boxes. There, he could take a good look at the girl. She looked special. White hair, in a ponytail, reaching halfway down her back. Her eyes were covered in a pair of dark sunglasses, so he couldn't see which colour they were. In comparison to her flowing, clean hair, she was wearing hand-me-down clothes with some holes here and there. Her head hung a bit to the side as she asked: "Who are you?"

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Reviews:

reddevil47: Thank you so much for the review. I'm happy you've enjoyed the first chapter. Her godly parent is something you'll find out in later chapters.

Aethos: Thanks for the review. I didn't know that. It'll be hard to change, but I'll see what I can do. And also, its not going to be a very big part of the story.