Titanomachy: Descendents

Many centuries ago, the great Goddess Athena gave birth to a baby boy. She named him Kiron, meaning 'wise teacher', as Zeus had commanded her to do. He had no father, born into the world by her own divinity and the blessings of Hera.

She raised the boy as a warrior, teaching him all he needed to know about sword-fighting, defense tactics, and infiltrating enemy camps. After five years, he was sent to the earth on his first mission - to aid the Americans in getting rid of their British masters.

That boy is me. Now, in the 236th year of my life, I am sitting across my mother on the dock overlooking the world. A small amulet laid between us, engraved with a young boy holding a sword, standing over the body of a man who looked strangely like Zeus. The wind whipped through our auburn hair and blew the scattered leaves around us.

Once the wind died down, Athena spoke. "Kiron, do you know what this is?" I shook my head. "This is the start of your new adventure. Zeus' power has become tyrannical. Some of the other Gods and I have plotted to kill him and give Poseidon charge of both air and sea -- at least until he can find a suitable offspring to take over the waters. There is a boy in Weybridge, Surrey, UK that has the power to stop him. You're going to find him."

I turned my head and peered at the clouds. They parted easily, leaving a small patch of land that I recognized as Surrey. I've been there once before; a Chimera that was chained in a mountain broke free and began preying on victims. "How is this to be done?"

"We have knowledge that the boy is at Esher College. You will take the vessel of a boy who recently transferred there. His name is Oliver Sykes."

I looked at my mother, shocked. She could probably see the emotion evident in my golden eyes, although the rest of my face remained stoic. "He's alive. I have only taken vessels of the deceased."

"Don't fret, my boy." Athena delicately touched my cheek and smiled. "He has committed his life to our cause. I told him how he may not come out of alive of this, that when you leave him, you may leave behind just a shell, but he told me it doesn't bother him."

"It might bother his parents." The words came out before I had a chance to stop them.

Luckily, Athena wasn't mad. "He has no parents. They died in a recent fire, which is why he can do this. Go, take the vessel, my son. Find this boy and train him for the big battle that will happen here on Mount Olympus soon."

My lips drew into a thin line, but I nodded. "I'll do what needs to be done."

Athena smiled again and laid her palm across my forehead. I've been through this hundreds of times, but each time still managed to catch me off guard. A flash of light clouded my vision, then darkness followed soon after.



The alarm clock blared with such intensity that it tore me out of a peaceful sleep. I shut it off, groaning, and opened my eyes. I was in an unfamiliar room, plainly furnished except for a dresser tucked in the corner and posters decorating the walls. The sheets were an icy blue that almost glowed in the darkness. My hands laid across them like a corpse.

I examined my hands and arms, fixating on the few tattoos that dotted them, then kicked off the sheets and examined my body. I was dressed in gray flannel slacks and a white t-shirt. The vessel was too thin and awkwardly structured. I had to remind myself that humans were full of imperfections and weren't like us immortals; when you are the son of a Goddess, it's hard to remember that not everyone was sculpted.

I crawled out of bed and left the room in search for a bathroom. The door was ajar in the room across from mine, and a woman sat at a mirror near the door, applying her make-up. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Who is this lady if his parents are dead?

The woman saw me and smiled. I paled. She put on the finishing touches of her mascara and exited the room. "Oli! You're up early. What's going on?"

I smiled stiffly, uncomfortable with being called a name that's not my own. "I had to pee."

"Oh!" The woman nodded.

We stood there for a few minutes. I shifted from foot to foot, eyes scanning the dark hallway for a sign of the bathroom. The two other doors in hallway were shut, and I couldn't take the risk of randomly choosing one. The woman was scrutinizing me.

"Oli?"

I trried to think of a logical excuse as to why I went to the other room should I choose it before I moved. It was nearly impossible without the details of "Oli's" home life. Would it be too strange to say that I just wanted to look?

"Oh my..." The woman trailed off and covered her mouth. I glanced at her. "It's happened, hasn't it? You're not Oli, are you?"

I frowned. "Of course I am."

"Then what's my name?"

I faltered. I had no idea who this woman was. Thanks, mom, for giving me enough details to not arouse suspicion.

"You're one of the Greek gods...he wasn't lying..." She whispered. Her hand fell from her mouth and clasped me on the shoulder. I flinched. "Which one are you?"

I examined her face. She was dead serious, her eyes comically wide, her bottom lip quivering. A voice whispered in my head, one I recognized as Poseidon's. It's okay. She knows.

"I am the son of Athena."

She gasped, then squealed. I stepped back from her. "I can't believe this! When he told me he was going to become a vessel for an immortal, I thought he was going crazy. But, as his best friend, of course I ended up giving him the benefit of doubt. I can't believe this..." She paused. She blinked a couple of times, then looked at me. The previous excitement in her hazel eyes turned into fear. "He said...that he might not make it back alive. Is that true?"

"Yes." I said. "A mortal vessel harboring an immortal is very damaging to the body, and there is a possibility that he won't make it out in one piece."

She covered her mouth again. Tears pricked at her eyes. "Oh no...Oli..."

My mouth drew into a thin line. I wasn't used to people showing emotion and didn't know what to do. "You'll go on. What is your name, anyway?"

She smiled, but some of the cursed things fell from her eyes. I watched them fall down her cheeks, thinking about how weak and pathetic humans were. "My name? It's Patricia...but people just call me Popeye."

"Popeye?"

She laughed. "Yeah...Popeye. You know, that old cartoon from the 1930's of the sailor who always has a pipe in his mouth and is eating spinach?"

"So... you always have a pipe in your mouth and you eat spinach?" I asked slowly. I remembered running into the creator, E. C. Segar, when I was chasing a Minotaur through the streets of New York. Afterwards, Zeus had to go through the trouble of wiping everyone's memory of the beast, and I got berated for it. I had to keep it in the countryside, but things got out of hand.

She shook her head, although still amused. Not only were they weak and pathetic, but they were strange. "Well I do love my spinach, but I'm not much of a smoker, really. It's because I used to be obsessed with both the comic and the cartoon and got the anchor tattoo."

She lifted up her sleeve. Popeye's signature anchor was tattooed right below her shoulder. She smiled at me and let the sleeve fall back down.

"Huh." I said, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah...anyway, school's starting soon, so you might wanna get dressed. I'll get your stuff together, okay?"

I nodded. Popeye pointed towards the bathroom, which was the door on the right, and I thanked her before leaving to get ready for my day as an average human teen.