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Collections/Challenges: Whumpay, Day 10
Prompt(s): Loss of Power
Characters: Jason Grace, Percy Jackson, Ma Gasket and co
Rating: Teen
Summary: The war with Gaea was over and Jason had decided to stick around and help with the fallout. He’d been on a routine monster clean up looking for some stray Empousai. He didn’t expect to find Ma Gasket and her sons, Sump and Torque.
The worst part? They were organizing a monster mafia, with Ma as their ringleader.
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Jason wasn’t expecting this.
He’d been on a routine monster hunt, trying to find the monsters left over from the war. This one particular group of Empousai had been causing trouble for satyrs and demigods alike. Following them home, infiltrating schools—it was a nightmare. Jason had volunteered to try and hunt them down. He didn’t have anything going on that weekend, plus he was a son of Jupiter—they wouldn’t be able to resist his smell.
He’d been checking out the outskirts of Brooklyn, the area around their last reported sighting. Funnily enough, it was right next to Gravesend Bay. (If that wasn’t ominous, he didn’t know what was.) He’d been looking for an hour when he saw it—just a glimpse, but unmissable. A tall Cyclops about a block down the road, currently making a right turn. It wasn’t the Empousai he was looking for, but he supposed it would do.
He ran up to the corner, silently tracking the Cyclops until he was a good twenty feet behind him. He thanked the gods that he was downwind otherwise this would get real ugly, real fast. He followed the Cyclops for a good ten minutes, getting increasingly more frustrated as time went on. He kept making sporadic turns, two rights, then a left, another right, three lefts—a right, on and on. He secretly hoped the monster was just awful with directions, otherwise he knew Jason was following him and he should start preparing for an ambush.
Thirty minutes later, he was still following the Cyclops. After going in a complete circle that had Jason dam near tearing his hair out in frustration, the Cyclops finally lead him to a series of abandoned buildings. The first was almost falling apart—holes all over the ceilings, collapsed walls, overgrown weeds and rotted wood. The newest building looked to be recently vacated. It was still structurally sound, but the overgrown grass and boarded windows told him that it had been long since abandoned. That’s where the Cyclops went, and secretly, he was glad. He didn’t feel like fighting in a house that would probably collapse if he sneezed too hard.
Jason waited a moment, holding his gladius tightly in his hand. He could call for backup, or he could take them on by himself. He snorted, he figured there’d be maybe two or three in total. He could easily take them out, especially if he had the element of surprise.
With a smirk plastered onto his face, he slowly approached the building. He used his powers to hover above the floor—he didn’t want to risk a creaky floorboard. Really, he was so quiet a mouse would be jealous. The entryway was of course boring, nothing but plain walls and a dirty floor. Vaguely, he could make out two voices talking down the hall. He walked slowly through the house until they got louder, hiding behind one of the door frames in the room over.
“-ind them.” One of them had said, and Jason tensed, freezing where he stood.
“They’re hidden, only we know where they are. Us monsters need to work together if we want to defeat those stupid brats.” A female voice this time, familiar, but Jason couldn’t put his finger on why.
“They’ve been looking. I’ve seen the scouts.” A male voice—likely the Cyclops Jason followed in. Just then a sharp laugh pierced the air, malevolent and deep, and Jason’s blood ran cold.
“Let them look.”
He heard the footsteps retreating further into the house, floorboards creaking with every step. Once he thought it safe, he peaked around the corner. On the other side of the room was a staircase leading down to a basement, probably where the monsters had gone.
Jason hesitated—should he call someone? From what he had gathered the monsters were forming an alliance of sorts, and clearly the Cyclopses were in on it. At the same time, they knew where the Empousai were. If Jason could find out more—well, this could kill twenty birds with one stone.
Something in his brain told him to call someone anyway. If they were planning an attack, they’d be prepared; they’d have weapons and dozens of monsters at their disposal. Based on what he heard, they didn’t know he was here. If he could sneak out and call for backup, he could shut this monster mafia down, today.
With a solid plan in mind, he made his way out of the house, walking far enough down the road that he wasn’t worried about a sneak attack. Luckily there was a random bottle of water of the ground (how convenient), and Jason used that to start an Iris message, tossing a gold coin into the stream of water. He contacted the first person he thought of: Percy Jackson.
The conversation was short. Jason told him where he was, what he heard, and to hurry. Percy told him he’d be there. Jason smiled and swiped his hand through the message, left with a decision. Should he wait for Percy and take them on together, or take them on now?
The Roman part of his brain said to wait. There was strength in numbers and a greater chance of victory, especially with how powerful they were. The Greek part fought to go now, knowing Percy would show up eventually. If something happened, he already had backup on the way, why not take down some monsters in the meantime?
He barely waited ten minutes before he was walking back to the house.
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The air was tense the second he entered the building, charged with negative energy. Jason went anyway. He was once told that he had the survival instincts of a deer on steroids, and he couldn’t say he disagreed.
He slowly made his way over to the stairs, looking down into the dimly lit room with narrowed eyes. He took in a deep breath—the grasp on his weapon firm—before starting his slow descent into the basement.
(In hindsight, he should’ve waited for Percy.)
Once he made it a few steps down the stairs, far enough that he could see the whole room, he stopped dead in his tracks. There were about a dozen Cyclopses, five Laestrygonians, and two Dracaenae. His brain short circuited at the sheer amount of monsters occupying the same space without trying to kill each other. Briefly, he wondered if he could turn around and wait for Percy outside while at the same time trying to come up with a plan that didn’t involve him dying at any point in the next ten minutes. He hadn’t even moved an inch more before he was spotted.
“Hey! It’s one of those halflings!”
Jason would’ve facepalmed, of course it was a Cyclops who snitched on him. Just then, he heard the same laugh he did earlier and a female Cyclops walked forward. That’s when Jason’s eyes widened—he knew her.
“My my..” she barked out a laugh. “If it isn’t the son of Jupiter. It’s been a while since we saw each other, hasn’t it?” Ma Gasket smirked.
Jason rolled his eyes, monsters always want to yap so stalling it is. “A year, if I remember correctly.”
She hummed. The monsters around her stirred and Jason adjusted the grip on his gladius. Finally, she smiled, it was too wide and too big, a grotesque show that almost made him gag. He refrained, he didn’t want to piss her off anymore than she already was.
“You remember my sons, right Jason?” She pulled two familiar Cyclopses out of the crowd, placing a hand on both of their shoulders.
Jason snorted, speaking without thinking. “I remember killing them. What were their names? Dump and dork?” He smirked at his own joke. So much for not pissing her off, he thought to himself. Well, guess it was time to sell it. He leaned onto the railing smugly, his stance relaxing.
(Should he be relaxing? No. Was he anyway for some reason? Yes.)
Ma narrowed her eye. “Sump and Torque.” She spat out, letting go of their shoulders. “You know, you really need to learn some manners.”
Jason let out a small laugh, feeling more and more relaxed by the second. He just needed to stall a little more.. “I mean, I was raised by wolves. They don’t teach you to say please and thank you. You’re too busy fighting for your life.”
She smirked again, and Jason refrained from wrinkling his nose. There was something so uncanny about her smirking that made him so very uncomfortable.
“Fighting for your life, huh?” She said slowly, then she looked around at the group of monsters, all of them buzzing with pent up energy. There were easily twenty in this room alone. “I bet we could give you a real fight, couldn’t we?”
At that the monsters perked up. Jason knew they had been waiting for permission, and they just got it. Fuck. Oh well. He laughed at her like she’d just told him she got hired by a modelling agency. “You guys? Please. I fought real giants last week. This is nothing.”
(Was he digging himself a deeper hole? Yes. Did he care? Not particularly.)
“We’ll see.”
Just like that, all hell broke loose.
The Laestrygonians charged first, drool dripping from the side of their mouths, rotten yellow teeth glowing under the dim light. They had their hands outstretched, eyes wide with mania—Jason was ready.
He turned around and sprinted up the stairs.
Behind him he could hear Ma’s laughter but he didn’t care. The basement was cramped, easily a death trap, but the main floor? It had exits, it was spacious, monsters would have to come up here one by one. He would have an easier time killing them that way if he could stay on top of things.
He turned around once he got a few feet past the doorframe, shifting over to the side. He waited for the first Laestrygonian to come up the stairs, slashing through his throat and cutting off his head within a second, killing it instantly. Gold dust flew everywhere, but Jason was just getting started.
The next two Laestrygonians came up one after each other, and Jason shifted on his feet. One of them went to grab his head, he ducked. The other went for his arm, he managed to pull away. He avoided every hand reaching for him, but he realized quickly that they were backing him into a corner and he needed to act now.
One of the giants reached for his neck and he swung the blade around, cutting off his hand before he changed direction and plunged it into his heart. Again, gold dust flew everywhere, but he was already looking for the third Laestrygonian. He knew that the other monsters had made their way up the stairs (way to stay on top of things) and he really needed to get away from the corner.
Somehow he dodged another swing, rolling into a summersault before he popped up, cutting his way through the two Dracaenae. One of them managed to slash at his arm—thankfully, his non dominant one—but he quickly decapitated her. There was no time for finesse. His goal was to kill as many of these suckers as he could without dying as quickly as possible.
The next five minutes were looking up for him. He killed the last Laestrygonian, a stab in the back after redirecting him into a wall. (He’d been really proud of that one.) He killed the last Dracaenae and six Cyclopses, leaving seven more to go.
The blood spilling from his arm was going everywhere, he was covered in bruises from stray fists, and he was tired. His muscles burned with exertion, his hand spasmed from how tightly he clenched his sword, his joints screamed at him to stop—despite all of this, he pushed forward. He was already halfway done, he couldn’t give up now. Besides, Percy should be here any minute.
He sighed in annoyance, why he didn’t wait for Percy, he didn’t know. (Well, he did know, but that wasn’t the point.)
He shook his head, no time for distracting thoughts, he needed to focus.
Jason was fighting two Cyclopses, trying to stay out of reach from the other five. Apparently he wasn’t paying enough attention because one of them managed to club him in the back, sending him sprawling onto the floor. Before he could even think about getting up he’d heard the sound of the club sailing through the air, coming down hard onto his knee.
He’d heard the crack before he felt it.
A splitting pain shot up his leg and he choked out a scream. It felt like his knee had split into a million tiny pieces and it burned like it had just been put under lava. The pain radiated from the wound like a wildfire, his vision went spotty and he had the strong urge to throw up. His fingers dug into the floor and his forehead rested on the wood. He closed his eyes, breathing harshly as he waited for the first wave of pain to pass.
He heard the monsters laughing behind him and his face burned with anger. Through gritted teeth he pulled himself up, every movement sending lightning bolts of agony through his body. He could see a few of them giving him smirks, a few more grinning like wild animals, and Ma Gasket—she was holding the club.
“That’s what you get for killing my sons.” She snarled, her one eye bore a hole into his own and he stared back. He used the air around him to help him up, landing in a standing position. He was panting with exertion, his arms were shaking, his leg was a constant stream of unimaginable pain, but he was standing. Ma almost looked.. impressed.
Nevertheless, the fight resumed.
Jason avoided a swing at his head, cutting off his attackers arm at the shoulder. He stabbed the monster in the back as momentum carried him past. He used the air to hover over the ground like earlier, compressing his knee at the same time. It helped with the pain just enough that he could fight without seeing black dots or needing to puke.
Two monsters came at him full force within seconds. He managed to kill one, but the other grabbed his shoulders and threw him into the wall behind him. His head flew back with a sickening crack, but he didn’t stop fighting. His body wasn’t his own anymore, running completely on autopilot. The pain had shut off any logical thoughts, the only thing on his mind was surviving and tearing these monsters to pieces.
He got up, lunging through the air before cutting off the Cyclopses head. Three of them came at him while Ma stood on the sidelines, watching the fight with a satisfied expression.
He dodged another blow, retaliating with one of his own. One of them managed to land a hit on his ribs, stunning him just enough to throw him into the wall, again. This time he crashed onto the ground, spots dancing in his vision.
His arm moved without thinking and he stabbed the first Cyclops that came over—though his movements were quickly becoming sluggish and weak. The next monster easily knocked the weapon out of his hands and Jason’s eyes widened in fear.
Fuck, he was so screwed.
It was a blur of pain after that. One Cyclops picked him up and smashed him into the wall once, twice, over and over again. He couldn’t do anything to stop him, he couldn’t summon his powers, he couldn’t even scream. His head snapped back like a broken rubber band, colliding with the drywall again and again. His knee hung limply, every movement threatening to pull him into darkness. He was dimly thankful that the wall wasn’t brick. After about thirty painful, yet incredibly boring seconds, he broke through the drywall. Really he was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.
What made this situation that much funnier was the sound of someone entering the house. Perfect timing, as usual.
“Jason-?”
Crash.
He could perfectly picture Percy’s expression as he watched Jason get thrown across the room, colliding with yet another wall before falling onto the floor with a choked off yell.
He really regretted not waiting for Percy.
His knee was killing him, he was still bleeding and he’d lost control of his powers for fucks sake. His vision had permanent black spots and at this point he was certain he had a concussion, if not extensive brain damage. He was slumped down on his side, staring at the spiralling ceiling with his bleeding arm sprawled out next to him. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t talk. He could even twitch a finger. He could vaguely hear the sounds of fighting, yelling—he was sure the sound of drywall collapsing wasn’t his imagination, but he couldn’t be sure. His head wouldn’t stop spinning enough for him to look.
An unknown amount of time later he heard someone walking closer, dropping to their knees beside him. He tried to look over but for some reason his eyes weren’t working properly. They wouldn’t stop fucking spinning. He felt someone’s hand on his cheek and he relaxed ever so slightly, he knew that hand—it was Percy.
Percy was here.
He could hear him talking now, but his words were muffled and far away and all he could hear was gibberish. He gave a weak nod at him—to whatever he was saying, he really didn’t know. However, he was not expecting the other to try and pick him up and a harsh scream tore from his throat. The hands paused for a second, waiting for him to quiet down before they pulled him upright. His brain was swimming, it felt like he was on the worst rollercoaster ever and he almost threw up from the sensation. He panted harshly, closing his eyes to try and stave off the feeling of his head spinning every which way. The light was too bright, his skull was throbbing, he was dizzy.. he just wanted to sleep.
Jason could hear someone’s panicked shouting telling him to keep his eyes open, but he didn’t care.
He just wanted to sleep.