Clockwork

6

"Percy, just calm down. You don't need it anyway." Hephaestus tried to calm the son of Poseidon down. "'Don't need it'? It's my heart!" Percy said, looking at the bundle of wires on the table. It had stopped pumping, and while it didn't affect Percy's body in any way, Percy couldn't help but feel like a monster without it. For two years he's been dead, and he can't bear the feeling of not having a heart in his chest. "Clockwork, without any reason for it being in there the machinery is going to reject it." "Is there no way to make it that I don't vomit my heart every other week?" Percy turned to Hephaestus with the best baby seal eyes he could muster. Hephaestus looked at the son of Poseidon and with a huff, he rolled his eyes and limped over to his work table. "Hand me the damn heart." He grumbled.
~
"When's your next pick up?" Percy said, his sword pressed against the boy's throat. "Wh-what?" The boy asked, startled. They were in a neighborhood with a lot of children around, all of the homes were beautiful, and overall a nice cover-up for the daily trafficking that goes on here every day.

"P-pick up?" The boy asked. "Did I stutter? Yes, pick up." Percy said, stressing the last two words. The boy still had confusion painted all over his face and Percy rolled his eyes. "You had a job. What was it?" Percy said, trying again, this time saying it slowly. "I don't know. Drop off some packages?" The boy said. "Do you really think I would be holding a sword to your throat if you were dropping off some 'packages'?" Percy asked incredulously. "Is it not packages? Aw man? Is it drugs? Oh no, if the cops find out my ma is going to kill me." The boy panicked, now more scared of what his mom might do instead of being afraid of the metal-man holding a sword to his throat. Priorities.

Percy sighed. Artemis had put a group of hunters on this and they had given him a phone number that they traced from a trafficker's phone. They said the trafficker was dead, as he was an idiot and tried to lure in one of the younger hunters, but that he had plans to have a couple of demigods dropped off of which he was going to pick up from the drop-site.

What kind of idiot has 'Picking up the packages (Young Adults)' on their calendar on their phone, or records their conversation, which is how he got this kid's address. His voice sounded close enough to the young and grateful voice he had heard over the phone, as the audio was worse than an argument between Zeus and Poseidon... a lot of static and crashing noises.

"Where is the pick-up?" Percy asked again, losing the little patience he had to begin. "Look, man, I didn't know anything-" "Hurry it up, I do not have all day." The boy nodded quickly before telling Percy the location of where he was supposed to drive. Let him think he was there to pick up drugs and not actual people.

"I'm taking your truck," Percy said, and against the boy's protests, Percy held out his hand, the one that wasn't a sword. The boy thought better than protest and risk making him angry, so he placed the keys in Percy's outstretched hand with a grumble. Percy turned and got into the truck, thankful the truck wasn't just controlled by buttons, which would mean he would have to stop and search his database to even know how to drive it.

When Percy became Clockwork, he began to hate driving with a passion, as his cogs turned faster than the wheels of any car, and he'd be able to beat one in a foot race, but the people dropping off the demigods knew what license plate to expect and would not come out if they didn't see it.

He reached the location, (which was unsurprisingly an abandoned building), and without putting the car in park, cast a glamour over him, making him look more or less human. Again, no specific features accept the mop of black hair on his head, which would be the only thing a person could remember about him.

Percy didn't have to wait long for the knock at the truck. Large brown bags were piled into the truck and Percy stepped out of the truck. "Hey! You must be our driver! Thanks for doing this, we've been trying to get these delivered but they kept calling in sick, and the Mrs was becoming annoyed with having them in our garage." One of the men said.

He looked fatherly, with brown eyes and brown hair and smile lines. Overall a nice person. One even Percy wouldn't have pinned with being involved with trafficking.

"Right... but can you tell me what's in these bags? The guy who gave me the job didn't tell me." Percy said, his voice a little higher, sounding much younger than he really was. Not that much younger, since Percy died on his 35th birthday ten years ago, he was only about 45. 44 actually, August 18th hasn't passed yet.

"Just some farm stuff, ya know, manure, tools, that kind of thing." The man said. The men who brought it out with him nodded in agreement. The lies just rolled off the man's tongue, and if he hadn't known any better, he would've believed him. "Oh ok. I was scared it was drugs." Percy said, faking a relieved laugh. He wanted to limit the chatting as much as he could, so he nodded to them, got back into the car, and left. He drove out of sight, then a little more, before pressing on the breaks to go to the truck.

He unzipped the body bag and a mess of red hair puffed out. A boy was fast asleep, red hair, long eyelashes, high cheekbones. With every breath, his closed eyes fluttered. Percy unzipped the other six bags. One of the people looked exactly like the first boy.

There was a girl with pretty blonde hair, another boy who was blonde, another girl who was a brunette, a boy with a full head of silver hair, and a boy with black hair. There was one thing all of these people had in common. They were beautiful. Not 'hot', beautiful. Not Thanatos or Cupid beautiful, but they were up there.

Percy slammed his metal hand on the back of the truck, and all of them jumped awake- all accept the one with silver hair.

"Fuck... They drugged us." One of what Percy assumed as twins said. "Language." The blonde boy said, almost automatically. "Sh-shut up. W-we don't wanna get i-in tr-trouble." The other twin said. "Please. He's obviously just the delivery boy. He can't hurt the 'merchandise'." The twin said to his brother.

The first words that were about to come out of Percy's mouth were, 'I come in peace', but he made the mistake of taking off his glamour and scaring them all into the back corner of the trunk.

"When was the last time you have eaten?" Percy asked instead, not able to force too much emotion in his unhuman like voice. "L-l-last week?" One of them answered, Percy not sure which one did. "You eat before we continue. You can ride in the trunk or you can try to squeeze into the actual driving part. We're not going where you think we're going."

"So they feed us now? What, are they fattening us up?" One of the twins whispered. "D-does Greek mythology have some type of witch that eats demigods?" The other twin asked fearfully. "I-I think they gave Eliot to many drugs. He's still sleeping." The black-haired boy said, nudging the silver-haired boy's side. "I doubt it. He just likes sleeping." One of the twins said.

Eliot? So they aren't named after numbers. Then there must be something special about the group of twenty.

Hefty?

What have I told you about calling me that kid?

Can you contact lady Hestia about giving me food enough for seven people?

Sure thing kid.

"So..." Percy started, touching Eliot on his neck and letting a shock of electricity run through his hand, waking him up with a jolt.

"Tell me about yourselves."

That's the end of the part, hoped you liked it! You people have a chance of naming the characters, other than Eliot of course.

Well until next time,
                     ~DemonsFromAbove