On the Wings of Victory (A Percy Jackson Quest)

"Up, Hector."

The faintest voice in the back of your mind stirs you. You open your eyes, spitting out dirt as you sit up. The forest floor is hard against you as you find your bearings. The world spinning as though it's fallen of its axis. You know that you shouldn't be here, out in the middle of nowhere. There's something prodding at the back of your mind, your every hair is standing on end. You feel colder than you have in years. There's something so fundamentally wrong about where you are, but for the life of you, you can't figure out what it is.

With nothing else to turn to you look to your left and right. You're in a forest, a small clearing of trees around you. To your right lies a wrecked car. Broken glass and scrap metal lining the forest floor. Panic seizes you. Alicia and Doug might still be inside. Your fingers dig into the dirt as you force yourself to stand, almost toppling over as soon as you get up. You stand on shaky legs, breathing deeply, trying to force the world to stay straight from sheer force of will alone. You need to check if anyone's still in there. You need to help them if they are. You need to find a phone or something to contact the police, maybe a hospital.

There are a lot of things you need to do, a list in your mind that grows longer and longer with each passing second.

A list that vanishes once you hear it.

A snort echoes behind you through the forest, you'd think a bull, but you don't know a bull that could sound so ruined and metallic.

You turn in its direction. The sound of snapping trees and branches herald its arrival. The closer it draws, the more of it you hear. Each thundering step it takes, accompanied by a ragged discordant melody as steel grinds against steel.

And then you see a cloud of smoke through the trees, one growing nearer and nearer. Amidst it two red eyes bore into your soul. The closer it gets the more you see. Along its side the metal has caved in, smoke jutting out of the now damaged hide. It stalks towards you unbothered by its injury, coming to a stop at the edge of the clearing. You glance at the ruined car, slowly edging away from it but the movement doesn't go undetected.

The bull lets out an enraged roar, your hands immediately covering your ears to deafen the worst of it. A single hoof lifts of the ground before it falls again, grinding against the forest floor moving clumps of earth with ease. It lowers its head towards you. Two great horns dripping with what you can only hope is oil and not blood are now aimed at you.

You begin to scramble backwards; you know what's coming. You need to-

A siren. Off into the distance, brings both of you to a pause, the single sound is then joined by many and the bull looks towards the noise, and then back in your direction.

For a split second you can see it weighing up something in its mind. It looks towards the sirens, the noises growing louder with each second.

It states back at you one more time, before it stalks back into the trees, disappearing within the smoke.

You don't understand why.

Everything happens quickly after that. They arrive barely even a minute later, swerving into the clearing, red and blue lights nearly blinding you. You're swept up by the paramedics and taken for testing. It takes you barely a second to realise who they are as Alicia and Doug are retrieved from the car and taken to the hospital. You try and run over to them as they're lifted out, but the paramedic refuses to let you leave the back of the van. The only real sign of damage on the three of you that you can see at least are cuts, scrapes and on your end a purplish yellow bruise running up your arm. A quick test later and while it's hurts to move it's not broken.

After the battery of tests, the woman looks at you again and says that they'll still be taking you to the hospital for monitoring over the next few hours.

You live in:

[] Washington D.C
[] San Francisco
[] San Diego
[] New York City
She then asks if there's any family they can contact. Someone who can meet you at the hospital. You tell her that the only family you have is your dad.

Your dad is…

Pick One:

[] Military – Your dad has served his whole life and will continue to do so. Where he goes you follow, until college that is. You've been raised to value preparation, organisation to always trust in what you think is right Trait: ???

[] Sportsman – A former athlete who retired at a startling young age, he now spends his time doing two things, helping out the local scene and looking after you. He's had a more hands off approach to your parenting than most would expect, but hearing stories of his heyday ignite that competitive edge in you. Trait: ???

[] Businessman – Be ruthless, it's the motto your Dad has lived by in the business world and it's the motto he has passed down to you. Trust your instincts, be quick and decisive. Often having to fly out of town you've been passed through as many babysitters as you can remember and largely had to fend for yourself, but you still love it when he's home. Trait: ???

[] Life Coach – Each day is filled with its own mini-victories and with proper planning and dedication these victories can be achieved. Your dad spends his time trying to help as many people as he can improve their lives and achieve success. You're included. Trait: ???

[] Daredevil – If there's a rush on this world yet to be had, or a record that needs to be broken then your dad will find it. It's in his nature. Life's too short not to shoot for glory. Trait:???

"Hopefully, they'll be able to find them." She tells you as she closes the door behind you and takes a seat on the opposite side of the van. She then yells at the driver in the front to get moving and you lurch to the side as you feel the van make a hard U-turn.

You turn to regard her, several answers cropping up in your tongue but you bite down on each one. Telling her you'd seen a giant mechanical bull would probably have her looking for brain damage, or at worst she'd think you were lying about something and Alicia could get in trouble since she'd been driving.

She nods to herself as you stay quiet. "Damn shame what happened, you're lucky you kids seem to have got out in one piece."

As the drive continues you both fall into a silence. The more you relax, the more your body seems to sing with exhaustion, to the point that moving feels a chore. The more tired you get though, the more you seem to remember as if your mind is filling in the blanks to encourage you not to move. Rewarding calm with memories.

Every so often you catch her glancing in your direction and when you do, she gives you a reassuring smile. You feel your lips move in return, if it was reassuring you've got no idea.

You don't tell her that you remember the three of you driving. That you had gone around the bend and found it charging towards you so quickly you'd barely had time to react.

Your friends hadn't seen it.

You'd tried to warn them, even grabbed at the wheel to swerve but it had been too late. The world had gone into slow-motion for the briefest of seconds, and then it had returned to normality with the sound of a sickening crunch.

You don't tell her that you know it's still out there, and you're sure that it'll come back for you.

For now, you sit in silence.


Welcome to the World of Percy Jackson, where monsters and myth are still very real and you my dear protagonist can see them. Why can you see them? Because you're the child of a Greek Goddess. You're a Demi-God, and that makes many things out there want to kill you.

You are Hector Reed, 15 years old and about to enter this world of madness and mayhem in which you'll meet many, many types of beings. Some may aid you, others will hinder. One thing is for sure, you'll enter a world which exists side by side with humans and you'll forge your own path to the future. Provided you live that long of course…

Name: Hector Reed
Age 15

Inventory
2 Gold Drachmas

Perks /Traits
Beyond Reason – If something seems off to you, no matter how small it is, you do your best to sniff it out. (-5 to all perception/discovery related rolls)

Skills
Basic Swordplay - D
Basic Spearmanship - D
Basic Bow and Arrow Skills – D

Relationships

Harrison Reed - 5 - Your father, raised you since a child and will always support you no matter what.
??? - 5 - ???
Amos Hellesly - 1 - Head of the Hermes cabin, watching over you since you arrived at Camp Half-Blood
Daphne Nakano - 0 - Cabin-Mate, child of Hecate
Reggie Sands - 0 - Apollo Demi-God, spends his time writing poetry and keeping Cash in check
Tyler 'Cash' Montgomery - 0 - Country musician and part-time prophet, after his first meeting with you he gave you a warning.
Tina Cossack - (-2) - Hephaestus camper that does not like you for reasons you've yet to ascertain.
Samuel Judge - 0 - Ares Camper, Rough around the edges and hates incompetent people, hopefully you aren't one of them.
Kyle Lemson - 0 - Head of the Ares Cabin and from the looks of it Amos' partner in crime.