Chapter 4: The Heir of the Sea.

It is no coincidence at all that the Prophecy mentions the Titans. They were never completely gone, after all. Their ideology remains in their underground supporters, and it is no secret we are seeing an increase of activity in the Monster groups.

Poseidon's Notes, page 1.

"He's an idiot." Annabeth said as she arrived at the gym. It was packed. Apparently in just a few minutes the gossip had spread that Clarisse was going to fight some new hunter they assumed was foreign because he was too old to be unclaimed. Annabeth had arrived too late to stop it.

"Calm yourself, Annabeth." Chiron said next to her, "Perhaps Clarisse will be reasonable."

"Clarisse? Reasonable? Do you know her to pull punches?" Annabeth asked, and Chiron had the decency to wince.

They stood on the upper balconies of the Gym, in a small booth that was reserved for Chiron. More than a Gym it was an underground arena, with several benches around the small training field in the centre. He saw Nico and Thalia walking towards her, and she resigned herself to what was about to happen.

"I leave you two alone for five fucking minutes and he manages to get into a fight with Clarisse, what in the unholy name of Madonna happened?" Nico said.

"She taunted him, he bit." Annabeth said.

"Who is this guy?" Thalia asked, her spiky black hair slightly wet from her post-workout shower.

"A new Enlightened we picked up. He is our age, but he was not brought in to be trained. Now he's here, and everyone assumes him to be some foreigner because of his age."

"Wait, an untrained person is going to face Clarisse?" Thalia asked, "Are you insane?"

"I couldn't stop it, okay?" Annabeth sighed, "Look, let's just hope it will be over quickly."

"I doubt it. The entirety of Olympus is here. Apparently, they want to see this 'foreigner' in action."

Annabeth sighed again and grabbed her blonde hair in a frustrated manner.

"Is Will ready?" Annabeth asked in the end.

"Yeah, he has a standby team ready to take him out when it ends…" Nico dejectedly replied.

"So, no chance at him winning, huh?" Thalia asked.

"Not unless he is hiding some serious power." Nico said.

"I do not know what is worse…" Annabeth thought as Clarisse entered the arena to cheers, "Him getting humiliated by Clarisse and making his life harder, or him somehow winning and displaying power similar to his father…"

Percy entered the Arena to cheers and boos.

"Oh, well," Annabeth resigned herself, "I guess it's time to find out."

Percy entered the Arena to cheers and boos.

He was confused, why were there so many people?

"Ready to die, Punk?" Clarisse said. She was wearing a simple sports bra and yoga pants. Percy noticed that her arms had several tattoos and scars, and ever her neck had a nasty scar.

Percy, on the other hand, was still wearing that ridiculous uniform.

"Uh…" Percy said, "No?"

"Unlucky." Clarisse lunged at him and tackled him to the ground.

Percy hit the ground hard, the air rushing out of his lungs. Clarisse kicked him again, and he flew a few feet away, his ribs protesting.

"What's wrong, Punk?" Clarisse taunted. "Not so tough now, are ya'?"

"Y-you can surely pack a punch…" Percy said as he struggled to get up.

He managed to dodge a punch from Clarisse, but the second one caught him in the jaw. That definitely had loosened a few teeth. Again.

"I need drugs to deal with this…I wonder where my stash is…." He thought as he felt another punch coming towards him.

A kick caught him in the gut, and he felt the already feeble air in his lungs be expelled, with a few droplets of blood.

The crowd was booing and laughing at him.

"Pathetic." Clarisse said, "And here I came expecting a fight."

Percy kicked her feet, and she stumbled. She did not fall, however, and Percy now faced a really angry Clarisse who stood over him.

"Watcha do that for?" Clarisse said, placing a booted foot on his neck. "What's wrong, Prissy? Your girlfriend Grover over there didn't tell you what I do to pussies?"

Percy turned his head to face Grover, who looked at him with pity in his eyes. He faced back Clarisse and glared at her.

"Oh, I like that face." Clarisse said, applying more pressure to his neck. "But didn't mommy ever tell you to not mess with strangers?"

"D-d—"

"Oh!" Clarisse said sadistically, "He's trying to speak, what is it, Punk?"

"D-d-don't talk a-about my mother…" Percy managed to say, and he began to push Clarisse's foot out of his neck.

"Oh, he can fight!" Clarisse said gleefully, "It seems that your mother is your soft spot! I wonder what happened to her. Is she proud of her Prissy? Her weakling of a son? A little boy who did not get any strength, are you even Enlightened? Poor her, imagine the face of disappointment!"

Percy was feeling it. The darkness…the rush.

"S-shut it!" Percy pushed harder, but Clarisse had the weight advantage.

"Poor little woman! I wonder if she was as weak as you, however…where is she now? Did she abandon you for some rich guy? For someone who would pity her and pump her seed into her? No, you smell of street…ah I get it! She ran away with some rich guy, right? Just like a common who—"

Clarisse's eyes widened for a microsecond before her entire world exploded in pain. Percy had felt the rush, begging him to come out. For once he didn't stop it.

High in the viewing platform, Annabeth winced every time Clarisse hit Percy.

"It's a fucking massacre…" Thalia said, "Poor boy…"

"I-it'll be over soon…right?" Annabeth said, feeling guilty.

"Hey, it's not your fault." Thalia said, "He got into a fight he couldn't win."

"But I'm supposed to protect him…"

"Protect him of what? His stupidity?" Thalia asked, "Surely there's nothing more dangerous than getting into a fight with Clarisse. Besides, Will will fix him…that's a mouthful."

"Guys…" Nico said, "We should probably stop it…"

Clarisse had Percy pinned down, one foot on his neck. She seemed to be taunting him.

"Yeah, we should, Chiron…"

"No." Chiron said.

"What?" Thalia yelled, "The girl is about to kill him, Chiron, we should stop this now!"

"No…wait…I want to see something…" Chiron said.

"Chiron, now is not the time to test your hypothesis, if Percy dies today, you won't get another chance, and he will be furious with you, stop it now!"

Chiron seemed to be conflicted, and Annabeth understood why. If Percy was truly his father's son, then perhaps he stood a chance. Yet at the rate it was going…

"Very well…" Chiron said eventually, "I think we shou—"

Chiron's eyes widened, and Annabeth turned to see Thalia and Nico's eyes widen too.

"Guys wha—"

Clarisse flew from one side of the arena to the other. She hit the opposite wall hard, cracking the stone behind her. She fell to the sandy floor and began to heave, throwing up whatever she had eaten earlier.

"W-w-what the f-fuck?" Thalia asked. She wasn't looking at Clarisse, however, her eyes were glued on Percy.

She gasped when she saw him.

He was standing now, his shirt in tatters around his barely covered chest. His dark hair seemed to be floating, and she could feel the air around them turn instantly moist, like a sudden rainfall had come and stopped. The arena smelt salty, sealike, but it was not calming, it was the smell of the depths of the ocean, of algae and salt, the smell that sailors smelt when they were about to drown. Yet what terrified her the most were his eyes. Before they were beautifully green, calm and restrained, yet now they glowed like a stormy ocean, an unleashed catastrophe.

"We need to stop this now." Chiron said quickly. "Thalia, Nico, stop him! Annabeth, get Dionysus!"

"Chiron wha—"

"You need to stop him now!" Chiron said, clearly panicking.

"Chiron, clam down." Thalia said, "Perhaps this is good, you don't need to worry about him it seems…"

"Its not him I'm worried about." Chiron said, "This was a one-sided massacre from the start, and Clarisse was never going to be the victor…"

Annabeth saw Percy calmly walking towards Clarisse, then she felt it. His raw power, his untrained power. She smelt the ocean after a storm, the screams of sailors who were caught in the tempest and were silenced under the waves. This was no longer the Percy Jackson she had rescued; a boy weakened by whatever he had gotten into his body. This man, no, this monster, this was the man who had killed six others with a fork at the age of ten. This was the son of a man feared even between the strongest hunters. Annabeth clasped a hand over her mouth as she tried not to throw up from the sheer pressure radiating from the boy.

This was the one person who should have never existed.

Percy was in a bliss. His senses had never been clearer, and he could hear gasps and sudden silence coming from the crowd that had been booing at him a few seconds ago. It felt so good! The passion of being free for the first time in…forever actually. When was the last time he had felt like this, so strong, so quick, so free.

He began to feel everything around him. Fear, panic, fascination, awe. He relished those feelings. If he was not under some sort of roof, he would've sworn that it was about to rain with how moist the air had gotten around them. He felt a smile creeping onto his face, a smile of pure pleasure as he calmly walked towards Clarisse, who was throwing up on the other side of the arena.

She turned around when she felt him approach, and her eyes were wide. Gods, was that fear? It was so…so…beautiful.

"What's wrong Clarisse…" Percy said in a dark voice, his grin splitting his face into two. "Want to repeat to me that part about my mother?"

"F-f-fuck…YOU!" Clarisse lunged at Percy, but Percy simply sidestepped her lunge and hit her with an elbow in the back. Just as she was about to hit the ground, Percy grabbed her by the hair and flipped her over, making her land hard on her back.

"Ugh!" Clarisse heaved as she hit the ground. She kicked at Percy, who blocked it and pushed her legs away. She managed to push him slightly back, allowing her to get up.

"W-what the fuck are you?" Clarisse asked.

"Me?" Percy said, "I'm just someone who really. Hates. BULLIES." Percy laughed and in a moment of pure bliss, he rushed towards her with an open palm.

Percy slapped her, and two teeth flew out of Clarisse's open mouth as the slap echoed through the arena. She turned once, twice, thrice! Falling onto the ground of the arena with a gasp of pain, blood began to fall from her mouth. Percy merely smirked down at her.

"Just what is this feeling?" Percy said to himself. He began to feel…something in his mind. Was that a shadow? Did it say something? A whisper perhaps?

"Stop!" Percy heard someone yell, and Nico landed in the Arena with the Spiky haired girl he had seen earlier.

"Stay where you are, Percy, don't make us hurt you." Nico said calmly, lifting a hand.

"I didn't start it, Nico." Percy said, the smile not leaving his face, "She bullied Grover, she said horrible things about my mother. You told me that this place trained people to get rid of monsters, isn't she the type of monster that you should be exterminating?"

"It doesn't work like that, kiddo." The spiky haired girl said, "Clarisse is one of us. Yeah, she's rough around the edges, but she can be a damn good fighter if you have her on your side. From what I saw, she got what she deserved, now step back."

Percy seemed to stop for a moment. Pondering his options. The voices, getting louder however, edged him on.

"Kill her" they said, "She's just like him, a bully, a torturer. Look what she said about your mother! No one talks about your mother like that…imagine what she must have said to Grover, or to others! She's a Bully, a MONSTER!"

"No." Percy said as he walked towards Clarisse with a predatory stance.

"Then I apologize for what we're about to do." He heard Nico say.

A shadow surrounded Clarisse and swallowed her, making her disappear. He turned towards Nico who held Clarise bride style. If he wasn't so furious, he would have laughed at the smaller boy carrying a girl twice his size.

"Now why would you do that?" Percy asked.

"To protect you." Nico said.

The spiky haired girl lunged at him, and Percy raised his arms to try and block her punch. His eyes widened when a hit got him in the face, snapping his head back hard. He felt something in his back snap and doubled forward when another punch hit him in the gut. "She's different…" Percy thought, "She's stronger than Clarisse!"

Percy nearly threw up once another punch got him in the gut. He was breathing heavily, his hands resting on his knees lest he fell over in agony and exhaustion. She was strong, too strong. Each punch, each hit was harder than the one before. Percy had never faced anyone like her, and that included some of the most retched men he had ever known.

The girl looked down at him, and he could see a flicker of disgust on her features.

"I can't believe that you're letting it control you." She said in barely hidden disgust, "You're no better than those disgusting creatures that roam the earth. I don't know what Chiron or Annabeth see in you, in my eyes you're nothing more than a pathetic waste of air. We should throw you back into whatever trashbag you came from."

Percy felt cold within him. White, hot anger. How dare this girl treat him like that? He was powerful, he was so powerful. He was not a pushover; he was not going to be treated like a weakling. He felt the rush fuelling him, his senses heightening, his muscles tensing. He could feel how the blood rushed through his body, and he could also feel the blood rushing through the other girl's body too.

"Embrace me…" one of the voices said, a dark and powerful voice that echoed inside his head. He felt for her blood.

"Use your power…" another voice said, this one almost seductive. He felt it flow through her veins.

"Let go…Let go!" another voice said, it sounded like a woman screaming, like…like… "Please! Let go! Percy!"

Like his mother.

Thalia Grace and Nico Di Angelo looked down at Percy as he heaved. If Thalia was completely honest, she was glad that it was over. The boy had immense power, but it was clear that he didn't know how to control it. His emotions were not strong enough to maintain it, and if he kept fighting, they ran the real risk of him losing control.

An Enlightened unchained, without the emotional barriers in place, was something both dangerous and majestic to behold. The Hunters of Olympus prided themselves in that, in that they were different from the Monsters because they knew how to control their powers, yet the boy in front of them was an enigma. A wildcard. He had the potential of becoming both, addicted to the Enlightenment, or a powerful Hunter.

"Let's go. I'm sure that Chiron is waiting. I have a few words for him myself." Thalia said as she placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. Nico behind her for safe measure. Yet the moment her hand touched his arm, something inside Thalia screamed at her to run away, to hide, to escape. She chose to ignore it, albeit uneasy, and pushed the boy to stand up. Yet when he turned his head to look at her, when he narrowed his eyes into her, she begged whatever god existed that she could turn back time and listen to her instincts.

The boy's eyes glowed a dark green, a sick green. The colour of a rusty ship that had sunk its passengers, the colour of the ocean when its promising death and destruction, the colour of poison, of hatred. It was a tone two shades above black, yet too dark to be emerald. She had only heard of eyes like that once, when her father spoke about the man who had maimed him.

There were rumours that the man had sired an heir, and that the heir could be as powerful as his father if not more. She had not believed it, her brother had not believed it, even their father had scoffed at the idea that the man whom he hated held enough emotion to spawn a creature of his seed. Yet here he was, it was undeniable. The boy in front of Thalia was the heir of Poseidon himself, and nothing was a bigger proof than seeing the eyes that she had been taught by his father to fear.

"Move." Percy said, pushing the girl back with a single shove. He could feel his body tensing, his heartbeat accelerating. The power was better than any drug he had ever taken!

Something inside his mind, however, a sliver of humanity, began to work furiously checking his body for an overdose after feeling the familiar sensations through his veins.

"First, check for changes in temperature." A voice spoke in his head, yet Percy ignored it as he lunged towards the girl, furiously punching and kicking, his movement being led almost by a natural instinct. He saw the girl wince in pain, yet Percy was relentless and began to hit her harder, quicker. He grabbed her wrist, twisting it unnaturally as he jumped over her and kicked her in the back.

He heard a snap, a groan of pain, and suddenly the girl was on the floor. He stomped on her neck once, twice, thrice. When she didn't pass out, she had the audacity to push him back!, he kicked her in the stomach and as she doubled over, he grasped her by her choppy black hair and slammed a knee onto her face.

Another sickening crunch, yet this time when the girl hit the ground she did not move.

"Gods why is it so HOT!" he said as he ripped the remainders of his shirt and began to furiously sweat.

"Second, check for discoloration in the limbs and face." The rational voice kept speaking in his head. From a corner of his eye he saw that his fingers were turning blue, his hands deathly pale. His nails were already a shade of sapphire, and the tip of his fingers were quickly darkening.

"Percy…" he heard a voice and turned to see Nico staring at him with wide eyes. "Percy, you need to calm down, you need to control it!" he said.

Percy ignored him and lunged at him, yet Nico seemed to shift into the shadows and appear behind him.

"Third, check the heart rate, it's important that you calm down!"

His heart was beating quickly as he lunged after Nico again and again, yet Nico kept avoiding him, as if stalling for time.

"Listen to me Percy, you're letting the Enlightenment consume you! It's taking over you, you're not this person!" Nico swore as Percy managed to get a hit on his arm, yet immediately disappeared into the shadows and appeared behind him, hitting him on the back of his knees and making Percy kneel.

"What would your mother think!" he said, "Is this what you've become! Is this what you are! A monster?!" Nico yelled at him from behind.

Something flashed in Percy's mind, a memory of a young woman with long brown hair. She held him as he cried, he had gotten another beating from Gabe. His arms were bruised, and he knew he was bleeding from somewhere as he felt fresh blood falling down his face. The woman didn't mind however, she simply hugged Percy back, rubbing circles on his back, kissing the top of his head.

"Mother…" Percy said in a coarse voice.

"Remember her, Percy. You're human, you're not a monster. That's what separates us! We can feel Percy, they cannot! Embrace your emotions." Nico spoke from behind him.

"Mother…Mother…." Percy felt tears falling down his face. Gods, what was he doing?

"He's making you weak, Percy…" A deep voice said in his head, "He's doing exactly what they did, weakening you by calling on your mother, he's preparing to stab you in the back! You cannot trust anyone, Percy, only yourself, only us!"

"Stop…" Percy whimpered, still kneeling. He felt the rush within him, fuelling him, yet he was fighting hard to keep it at bay.

"You can control it Percy…" Nico said from somewhere around him. "You can win…"

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Percy yelled suddenly. The earth shook, water began to rise from somewhere as the arena began to quickly flood. The air around him began to sizzle, small flashes of lightning around him. Out of nowhere wind began to pick up around Percy in a circle, growing stronger and stronger by the second. He turned quickly, grabbing Nico by the neck in a surprisingly quick move. He could still feel the earth shaking, the winds blowing, the water flooding his surroundings. He stared at Nico through tear filled eyes, something within him screaming at him to stop. He felt the rush in Nico's body, his blood, and a tentative feeling within him touched it. Nico's eyes looked at him in curiosity before a flash of recognition and pure terror appeared in them.

"There are moments when a person will be so deep into their drugs that they will begin to see the world through different eyes, as if they were living another life." The rational voice said in his mind, "Usually this is fine, however when you combine it with the symptoms of an overdose, this can result in accidents, in injuries.

In death."

White hot pain attacked Percy's senses, he immediately let go of Nico as he began to scream. He grabbed his head, his throbbing head. It felt like it was being cracked open. He saw visions, shadows. He saw his mother being beaten, raped, he saw himself as he was forced to stand and watch as they took her, one after another, after another, after another. He saw himself as he stood above Gabe, stabbing both of his eyes, then his throat. He saw himself standing in front of the six bodies that had been raping and beating his mother a few hours ago, and he saw her own body with a slit throat, blood pooling rapidly around her.

She stared at him, her eyes wide, yet she managed to smile, to forgive him for what he had done.

Percy came back to reality, falling to the ground. He could hear himself screaming, calling for forgiveness, for the release of death. The voices in his head screamed too, yet others laughed, others taunted him. He could still hear the sounds of flesh from Gabe and his mother, the sounds that a body makes as its being stabbed. He could almost feel the sensations of a final gasp on his face, his hands sticky with blood. He felt the weight of life, the strings of madness calling for him.

Percy saw hell.

"Stop…please…I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" He heard himself saying. The rush receded; the voices stopped. Everything around him seemed to suddenly stop moving, stop making sounds. The earth no longer shook, the arena no longer flooding. It was quiet.

"What in the name of Chardonnay is going on here?!" A booming voice said. From the corner of his eye Percy saw a rather pudgy man wearing a purple Hawaiian shirt standing next to him.

"Lord Dionysus!" He heard another voice say. "I apologize, this is my fault. I wanted to see if young Perseus here was the same as his father, but I fear that even I underestimated how powerful he was…"

"Chiron, I swear to Rosé, you better have a damn good explanation for this!" the man yelled, "I have two students incapacitated, an arena that has been flooded, and…dear Merlot is that a crack in the ground? I want an explanation NOW!"

Percy was still whimpering, yet he felt a hand on his back.

"Percy…" he heard a voice, Annabeth? Speaking to him. "It's okay Percy…go to sleep. You will be fine."

"Hunters of Olympus!" one of the voices said, "I must deeply apologize. This has been a mistake on my part. I should've stopped this when I had the chance, I should've told you about what was going on ever since I knew things. However, I have failed you. What you have seen today is a testament to that failure, and a reminder that our emotions rule our actions.

"This boy is no ordinary boy. You may have heard of his father, and I beg you to put aside your prejudice and help him along the path of the Hunters. Hail, for today the last of the Great Heirs joins Olympus, Hail Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon, Heir to the House of Seas!"

The embrace of darkness swallowed Percy, who the last thing he heard was the terrified scream of someone around him.

Hey!

So lets talk a bit about the structure of the story.

Book 1 of Hunters of Olympus will consist of 5 parts of (roughly) 30 thousand words each. Between each part there will be 3 interludes about characters outside of the main cast. I can say now that the interludes between parts I and II are written from the perspective of Hestia, Artemis and Poseidon respectively. Each part will also be of (roughly) 10 chapters, but I'm looking at parts IV to be 8 and part V to be maybe 4 or 5 long chapters. Haven't decided yet.

Also, as you've noticed, at the beginning of each chapter there will be an epigraph of an in-world text that will either serve as an infodump or as foreshadowing for certain things, I already have all the epigraphs written for Part II and it honestly turned out better than I expected. Tell me your opinions on the epigraphs and what you would like to see :)

I decided to post a 3 chapters today since I have written until chapter 18. Thinking on maybe posting 2 chapters weekly, maybe one on monday the other on friday. There is also 3 interludes after part I, which will be published only once a week and then Part II will be again 2 chapters a week until the part II interludes and so on.

Part I is mostly focused on Olympus Academy and establishing the plot; Part II through III will be set in a location that will be revealed in the next few chapters and you will see lots of action. Part IV will be a down action and part V will be an avalanche of fights and battles that will be quite surprising for many, for I am not shy to kill characters that people like to strengthen some character's motivations. See that? That's called foreshadowing.

Other things that I want to say about the structure and pacing of the story, is that in the next few chapters you will begin to see a broadening of the story. I wanted to use this chapter as a hook if you will. Chapters 1-3 are quite information heavy, and this one is mostly battle and action focused. I think this is the only chapter of part I that has heavy action in it, but I promise that parts II and III will be very action focused. However it is an introduction to the type of action the story will have, and it will only move up from here. When I write action scenes I like to do them from several POVs, I think it adds to know the reactions of other characters. Oh and it will get more and more brutal the stronger the characters get.

Anyways, I think thats for the weekly author note. Hopefully you enjoy this triad of chapters, and from next week onward i'll start uploading 2 chapters a week.

Be kind to one another, stay safe and leave your comment on whether you like it, and what can be improved.

As always, Happy Reading.

-AWL