Percy Jackson: Battle Royale

Team Player

He awoke hours later, his head throbbing with pain. Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump. The room blurred as his eyes struggled to adjust. His heartbeat was prevalent in his ears, and he struggled to lift his head.

When his vision returned to him fully, he managed to look around the room he was in. He recognized it somehow, despite his limited thinking capability. It was the hideout of the Seven, still heavily boarded up and guarded by at least two of them at any time.

"You're awake." He heard a voice from his left, and Percy turned his head. Apollo was slumped against the wall, clutching his arm and staring at him barely awake. As Percy looked at the god's arm, he noticed it was wrapped in bandages to the wrist. That explosion must have taken its toll on the god.

He looked down at himself and sighed in defeat. His shirt had been stripped off of him, and he could see that his entire torso between the breast and waist was wrapped in gauze. His left hand, where a piece of shrapnel had embedded itself, was wrapped up tightly, and it felt too frail to pick up anything. Thankfully all his wounds were numb, which was a positive.

"Percy!" Hazel said, crouching down in front of him. The former demigod did his best to grin at his old friend, but it was hard to portray the same emotion in his eyes that was on his face. "Hey, Haze. How's it been?" He asked, and the daughter of Pluto smiled. "We've been good, Percy, but you clearly haven't. Apollo and Artemis have already been tended to, and we were just waiting for you to wake up." She informed him, and he nodded.

Frank walked over to him and gave a concerned look. "What happened, Perce?" He asked worriedly, and the son of Poseidon shook his head. "We were betrayed. Dad gave us shelter, then turned and tried to sell us out. Now Hermes is gone." He said, sighing pathetically.

Hazel put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay, Percy. We came right on time." She said, and Percy felt like pointing out something. They weren't on time. Hermes was shot before they arrived. But that would likely hurt her feelings, so he kept his peace.

Percy tried his best to stand up, but couldn't help but release a grunt of pain as he pulled himself up the wall. Thankfully neither of his legs were hurt, so he wasn't crippled should push come to shove. His torso was burning, however, and he could only use his right hand to pull himself up.

Hazel and Frank watched him go as he walked over to Apollo. The music god looked up at him weakly and gave his best grin. "What's up?" He asked. Percy looked down at him in pity. "How you doing?" He inquired. Apollo just turned his head to look at his left arm. "I'll be fine. It's just gonna hurt for a while." He said.

Percy nodded, then looked around. Jason and Leo were talking by the door, and Leo chucked a grin at Percy once he noticed him. Percy smiled and waved back, then looked to the other side of the room. He noticed Piper and Annabeth were bandaging up Artemis, who was shirtless and facing the wall so they could access her torso. Of course, all the boys were on the opposite side of the room from her.

He made his way over, leaning on tables for support and trying to get used to walking with the pain in his ribs. It felt like his body would crack at the slightest wrong movement. Annabeth saw him coming and smiled, before going back to wrapping the gauze around Artemis' wounds.

Percy managed to carefully shuffle past Piper and get in front of Artemis. She had her arms crossed with a hand on each shoulder, both keeping her arms out of the way for Piper and Annabeth and covering her breasts, despite the fact she was wearing a bra. Percy pulled a chair from the table and it scraped against the ground, while he sat down facing Artemis once it was in place.

"Hey." He said tiredly, and his girlfriend smiled. "Hi." She responded simply, and they sat in silence for a while. "How's your wounds?" He asked, and she looked down at the bandages, which were hurting her burns thanks to the pressure and movement from Piper and Annabeth.

"They're fine. Wouldn't wanna get shot there, though." She said with a chuckle. He looked down at her stomach and then at his. "Hey, we have twin wounds." He said, and she looked at both their torsos too. The goddess laughed, a melodious sound in such a dull environment. "Yeah, let's not belly bump anytime soon." She joked, and he nodded with a smile. "Duly noted."

Percy looked down and sighed. "I can't believe dad did that." He said, and Artemis frowned. "I know he was your father, but I've known him longer than you. That's exactly the kind of thing he would've done 2000 years ago, though I thought he'd matured over the years." She thought aloud.

Piper and Annabeth frowned. "Percy, we're sorry about what happened. I told Jason we should've gone earlier, but he was persistent in not risking our lives. Not that he doesn't regret not getting there in time." Piper apologized, and Percy waved her off. "It's okay, Pipes. What's done is done, we can't change how it happened." He said.

Artemis sighed as Piper and Annabeth finished wrapping her up. "I'm so tired, but I won't be able to sleep." She said, and Percy smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, me too. Still, we have to make it for a little while longer. What time is it?" He asked, and Annabeth checked her watch. "4, you were out for a few hours." She said, and Percy smiled at his girlfriend. "See? 8 hours left, we're almost 6/8 of the way there." He told her.

Annabeth smirked as the two girls sat on the table next to Artemis while the goddess put a spare shirt on. "I didn't know you could do fractions, Percy." She said, and he shrugged. "I don't know what you mean, I'm just comparing the time to pizza slices." He said, and Artemis facepalmed while Piper giggled.

Jason walked over, now that his half-sister had her shirt on, and crossed his arms. "We need to talk." He said. All four of them were eyes and ears, waiting expectantly as he sighed. "Ares and his goons are getting more persistent. They're checking every room again and again, determined to get everyone. Not only that, Heracles is on the warpath. It's only a matter of time before one of them finds us." He said. "And what are you suggesting?" Annabeth asked, and Leo walked up beside Jason. "We get them first, of course."

The four raised an eyebrow and looked at each other. "And how do you suppose we do that?" Artemis asked. "We get the jump on the Ares kids. The war god's set up camp in the throne room, so at any point when there's a large gathering of them we could try to get in with our weapons while they're all unprepared. For Heracles, we don't know how to get his armor off, if we're honest." Leo said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

The four agreed that if they could pull it off, surprise attacking all the Ares kids was a good idea. 9 of them with assault rifles versus thirty or so Ares and Mars children would be an easy win if the children of war never got a chance to fight back.

"There are the hallways around the throne room, roughly second floor level." Artemis said. "Most of us could stay up there and fire down upon them before they got a chance to react." She suggested. Jason nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. I'll send Frank and Leo out to get some more firepower and Piper and Annabeth can take out any guards on the second floor." He said.

Jason turned back. "Right, we're set. Frank, Leo, you guys go loot some bodies for ammunition and high-powered weaponry. Piper and Annabeth, go clear the balconies around the throne room. Please, guys, don't get caught. This is our only hope. Percy, Artemis, Apollo, you guys are hurt. Rest up and we'll call on you when we're ready." He said.

The gods nodded, and while Apollo went to lie on a couch, Percy and Artemis sat down in a corner, similar to how they had been at Poseidon's safehouse. As the seven went to work, Artemis cuddled into Percy, basically sitting in his lap. They waited there for a while, talking quietly and resting themselves as they waited. The night would be long and rest was exactly what they needed.

Percy's eyes were shut, yet he could hear everything around him. He couldn't move his arms or legs, only breathe. This was a foreign feeling to him. It was as if he was halfway between being awake and asleep. Like his body was unconscious but his mind was fully alert.

As he sat paralysed, Artemis was still laying with him against the wall, likely asleep as well. He couldn't call out to her or even tap her on the arm to get her to help him. He had no idea what to do. Percy briefly wondered if he'd been hit with some sort of toxin that shut down his nerves.

There can only be one. A whisper cries throughout the room. It was loud, but Artemis did not stir. He furrowed his eyebrows as best he could, trying to discern where the voice was coming from. It was like an echo, the whole room was speaking.

There can only be one. It said once more, and for some reason Percy began to stress, like something was about to happen to him. He saw an arm, slowly reaching out to grab him.