“Welcome young Demigod, welcome, to Alexandria! The U.S branch at least.” Jake stared at the man blocking off the gates into the school with clear confusion in his eyes.
“Uh… mister Yule, I don’t think you’re supposed to be here.” Jake said, looking down to the letter stating what he was to bring for school, and that he was supposed to wait at the entrance for his guide.
“Nonsense, I funded this school, no one can keep me from being here, no one!” The man in the blue Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts and flip-flops seemed adamant that he be allowed to go wherever he pleased.
“Now Edgar, we all know you’re lying… The little miss is scary enough to keep you away.” Jake looked to the side, seeing no one… that’s when the speaker revealed themselves.
A strange mist seemed to be there, unnoticeable until now as it moved away little by little to reveal a man in a cowboy hat wearing a button up shirt and denim vest, wearing slacks and boots.
“Charlie, how are you doing, aren’t you supposed to be in Australia?” Edgar asked, and once more Jake wondered at how the man was in charge of all Demigods in the world.
“I’m alright Edgar. And as for why I’m here, I’m the kid’s guide and Team Commander.” Edgar blinked before frowning, crossing his arms.
“Now hold on, don’t I get a say in teams normally? Obviously you’ll be Team Charlie, but who else would be in it?” Edgar asked as Jake just decided to keep quiet and listen to the powerful people in front of him.
“Well me, Jake, one of Shane’s younger brothers, a War God Demigod, there was a new daughter of Hermes and finally Mary.” Edgar just raised an eyebrow in response to the last bit, making Jake think that this ‘Mary’ must be a unique existence amongst Demigods.
“Huh… that seems pretty solid, a front-line fighter, a technician, two long-range fighters and Mary… well, she can fight just about anywhere.” Again, this only reinforced Jake’s thoughts that this ‘Mary’ person was special if she was an ‘all-rounder’…
He already pegged himself as a long-ranged fighter after researching Apollo, who was apparently his father.
He used Wikipedia by the way. The one site on the internet he trusted near unconditionally when it came to information, not counting the website Aegis had on Gods they had encountered or knew about.
Apollo was not a God that descended to Earth apparently, and thus he wasn’t on Aegis’ website, so he just looked elsewhere instead, no big deal.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Though the exact members are still a bit iffy for us to decide… I’ve already contacted Mary, she’s willing to join up but only if she knows the other candidates.” Charlie explained as Edgar sighed, scratching his head.
“Fine, I’ll accept that you want to talk to Jake here. Go ahead, explain everything… I’m going to go look around for a bakery.” Edgar walked away, Charlie blinking for a moment before he shouted after the blonde.
“Hey, didn’t the little miss say you should stop eating sweets?” Charlie asked, and instead of getting an answer Edgar just walked faster, hoping to get away from Charlie who was chuckling.
Then he turned to Jake who was just blinking in surprise with his bag on his back.
“Right, sorry about that kid, I’m an old friend of Edgar’s. My name’s Charlie Baker, I’m one of the top-ranked Demigods of Aegis, as well as your team commander when we eventually get sent out.” Charlie’s explanation got Jake to snap out of his surprise as he extended a hand in response.
“Oh, nice to meet you sir, I’m Jake Thomas though I suppose you know that already…” Jake said as Charlie looked at the hand with a raised eyebrow before taking it.
“I do, but at least you got manners kid. Lots of Demigods think they’re hot-shit until they get the crap beat out of them, so I’m glad we can skip that step with you.” Charlie’s words did not make Jake feel much better beyond knowing he wasn’t going to get beaten up.
“Oh… that’s nice… so, this is Alexandria?” Jake asked as Charlie motioned him to follow him, Charlie looking around with a nod.
“Yep, it’s a boarding school for Demigods and humans alike, though obviously it was made by Aegis for Demigods especially.” Charlie said, gesturing to the campus which was admittedly huge…
“By the way, the campus is about five square kilometres in size. Also, get used to using the metric system, as we get missions outside of America often and no other place uses the imperial system.” Charlie warned as Jake blinked at the size of the place.
“Oh, I have studied that before, when I was working in Chemistry class… ounces and pounds aren’t as precise as milligrams and kilograms for me…” Jake scratched his head as Charlie nodded with a smile.
“That makes sense, Apollo is a God associated with many scientific and artistic ventures, including art, poetry, medicine, and so on. Greek too, and they came up with a lot of concepts we still use today.” Charlie stated as they continued their walk, making Jake’s eyes widen.
“What, just ‘cause I look like a thuggish cowboy doesn’t mean I’m stupid kid. Any Demigod worth their salt has to know about Gods, as much as they can… that, and no Demigod is an idiot.” Jake looked confused but Charlie just rolled his eyes.
“Just follow me kid, we’ll explain it later.” Jake nodded and followed as they entered the main building which was across from the gate entering the school.
“Okay… also, sir, I haven’t gotten a class schedule yet…” Jake asked as Charlie reached into his pocket, pulling out a slip of paper and handing it to Jake.
“There, I got it from the little miss… er, Rose Cora. She already set up your schedule after comparing it to your old subjects and who your God parent is.” Charlie said, leaving Jake to check his schedule while Charlie moved to the receptionist.
His classes had barely changed, except that he no longer did Life Education for some reason… instead, he got a new class labelled as Demigod Studies, which he figured was unique to Demigods entering the school.
“Hey kid, straighten up, I’m going to be showing you to each of your classes, you can ask any questions you got while we walk.” Charlie said as Jake followed behind the man.
“Does that mean you might not answer sir? You said I could ask, but you didn’t say you would answer.” Charlie’s smirk was hidden when the boy asked the question… the boy was interesting it seemed.
“That’s exactly what it means kid. If you asked me any personal questions I might not answer after all.” Charlie admitted leaving Jake to think for a bit.
“Okay sir. I wanted to know why my schedule seems to have traded Life Education in exchange for Demigod Studies? Well, the why is obvious, but what do I learn there?” Jake asked as Charlie thought about it.
“Not quite sure kid, I never went to this school so I wouldn’t know, but I think they teach you about mythology and such, possibly magic too.” Charlie said, and he wasn’t lying, he wasn’t part of the modern generation of Demigods.
“Okay… by the way sir, I was told that Demigods don’t age after a certain point… is this true?” Jake asked with a bit of worry in his eyes, something justifiable in Charlie’s view.
“It’s true kid, Demigods will never die of old age or any sickness that is not magical in origin. In addition, we’re super strong, durable, and built for surviving battle, so we’re hard to kill too.” Charlie admitted, making Jake frown.
“Sir… how old are you?” Jake asked as Charlie looked over to the boy.
“…I was around for the wild west, which should say enough.” Charlie said, walking onwards as Jake paused for a moment before catching up…
The wild west was the period of time between the early seventeenth century and ended around the early twentieth.
That was almost three hundred years worth of time, not to mention that it’s been over a century since that time ended…
Charlie was at max around four hundred years old…
“Kid, call me grandpa and I’ll kick your skull in.” Charlie said straight up and Jake raised his hands in defence, inwardly thinking that Charlie probably said that to lighten the weight of the statement… but it just wasn’t to be.
“What about Edgar sir? Is he older than you?” Jake asked as Charlie chuckled and shook his head.
“Nah, Edgar’s about two hundred and fifty, give or take. The little miss is barely twenty years younger, but don’t mention that.” Charlie warned and Jake thought to the old adage about women worrying over their ages and agreeing.
“Bit of trivia for you to know kid, Demigods, after a certain point, stop considering their ages and instead we classify ourselves into categories.” Charlie said, and thus begun his explanation.
From what Charlie explained, there were three classifications for Demigods that Aegis had. The first was the above mentioned modern Demigods, they were the Demigods who Awakened to their abilities after Edgar’s fight with Baldur in the year 2000, most were anywhere between the ages of sixteen and roughly thirty eight at this point.
Then there were Century Demigods, those whose ages were roughly 100 years old or just slightly younger. Charlie fell in to this category, currently being over three hundred years old. Most high ranked Demigods were in this category.
For the last group they were the Ancient Demigods, Demigods who were around during the times of myth, meaning the youngest Ancient Demigod would be around a thousand years old at the minimum.
In Aegis there were only two such Demigods, though Edgar claimed to know a third… these Demigods were not children of powerful Gods though, and so their power was more equal to Century Demigods who had battle-oriented parents.
Jake was in awe of the last category, but before he could ask who were the Demigods in that category, they had arrived to Jake’s homeroom apparently.
“Here we are kid, the kids in this class have similar classes, so they can help you find your way around. And respect your teacher.” Charlie’s warning was heeded as he walked away with a wave over his shoulder, leaving Jake to knock on the door.
After a moment, the door was opened and Jake blinked at the sight of small boy opening the door…
Was he in the wrong section?
“Ah, you must be Jake, I’m your teacher, Christian Rook, Demigod son of Athena, make fun of my name and die.” The boy introduced himself as he closed the door behind him.
“Uh… hello sir, yes, I’m Jake… sorry sir, I’m just a bit surprised.” Jake said as the boy giggled a bit while waving him off.
“Oh don’t worry, I get that a lot, miss Cora wants me to grow up more but I refused. Children have brains much more malleable than an adult, so I remain a child to have a more adaptable brain! It does come with disadvantages though, like a short attention span.” The boy said as Jake nodded with a confused look.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“So you just chose to remain a child? You can do that?” Jake asked as his apparent teacher nodded… though Jake couldn’t think of the child as ‘mister Rook’.
“Sure, but only if you awaken to your powers as a child. I did, and because growing up seemed boring, I decided to stay a child… obviously, it was a stupid reason, but it worked out.” Mister Rook stated as Jake just shrugged, not quite getting it.
“Anyway, come in, I was just busy explaining that a new student would be joining our class.” The ‘boy’ said as he reached for the door handle, opening it.
“Class, this is our new student.” Jake flinched a bit at the quick introduction before he looked over the class, seeing nineteen other students, as classes in Alexandria were apparently much smaller than public schools.
“Uh, hi, my name is Jake Thomas… though apparently my surname is supposed to be Ignus, I’m still getting used to that.” Jake admitted as some murmuring went through the seats.
“Alright Jake, you can sit next to Derek over there, we have a minute or two before classes start so feel free to mingle a bit.” Mister Rook, standing on a chair, pointed over to a spot near the middle of the class where a lone empty chair was, and a boy next to it waving… he must be Derek.
Jake moved to his seat, looking at his classmates as he nodded at them, finally sitting down and placing his bag on the floor below his desk.
“Hi, I know mister Rook said it, but my name’s Derek, Derek Oliver. I’m a Demigod like you.” Derek said, making Jake widen his eyes in surprise as Derek reached to take his hand.
“Nice to meet you Derek. Is it inappropriate to ask who your God parent is?” Jake asked as Derek chuckled while waving it off.
“For some people it’s an issue, but I don’t mind. My dad is Ares, God of War and all that jazz.” Derek said as Jake smiled a bit, glad that the son of someone so famously aggressive wasn’t immediately a fighter.
“Ah, my dad is Apollo apparently.” Jake said as Derek began to smile at the name.
“Whoa, so our dad’s are both Olympians… not to mention that Ares and Apollo are brothers… so we’re cousins?” Derek asked as Jake considered the statement.
“I guess? I’m not certain on the unique biology of Demigods, but in the sense of the divine, yeah, we’re cousins.” Derek smiled at that as he stretched out a fist.
“Well, it was already said, but nice to meet you cousin. Sorry if I go overboard during training later.” Derek apologized ahead of time as Jake accepted the fist bump with a confused look on his face at the mention of training.
“Hey, hey, so you’re the son of Apollo, that sounds cool.” Another voice cut in from in front of Jake’s seat, making him turn from looking at Derek to look at the person talking to him.
“Hello there, I’m Johnny Adams, I’m a normal human unlike you two special ones.” The boy said with a grin as Jake just looked at Johnny with confusion.
“Oh don’t mind, I’m studying here to become an agent for Aegis in the future, so I’ll be a co-worker of you Demigods. I’ll look forward to working with you.” He said with a smile before a slam sounded out from the front desk.
“Alright, let’s get to our first class of the day, Mathematics.” There were a large amount of groans through the class as Jake frowned.
An hour later, Jake stumbled out of the class clutching his head as Derek patted his back.
“Walk it off cousin, walk it off… maths is difficult with mister Rook after all.” Derek barely fared any better, and that was only because he was actually in the class since the beginning of the year.
“Isn’t… isn’t that university level mathematics?” Jake asked wearily as Derek nodded with a serious expression on his face as they walked to their next class.
“It kind of is, Demigods are on average smarter than normal people, something about knowledge of the Divine having to do with it, but that’s complicated. So we get harder classes to better apply our raised intelligence.” Jake blinked at that, raising an eyebrow at Derek.
“What, just cause I’m the son of the God of War doesn’t mean I can’t be smart at times. I’ll have you know my I.Q is currently one hundred and twenty.” That was actually pretty good seeing as Derek was the same age as Jake…
“That’s above average at least. Mine’s one thirty by the way.” Jake recalled getting tested in his youth and he found the test to be quite fun.
“Eh, whatever, Apollo is a God of Knowledge anyway.” Derek waved it off as Jake blinked…
Maybe that was why he learnt things faster than other people? Sure explained a lot, as well as Apollo being God of archery, music, poetry, art, healing, etc…
Huh… Jake’s choice of hobby and school subjects really should have pointed it out, given that he was studying to be a surgeon at some point, and he was part of the Archery club and the school band before the whole God business kicked off.
And he quite enjoyed Shakespeare. The man’s plays were unfortunately tragic and Jake found them quite emotional for that reason, at least if acted out correctly.
“So our next class is English right?” Jake asked as their class finally got to the classroom they needed to get to next.
“Yeah, though we learn two forms of English, namely American standard and British standard. The latter is what we use overseas most often…” Derek frowned and Jake understood his complaints.
Working internationally but starting out America was a bit of an issue when it came to having to learn that the rest of the world did not work the exact same way…
Jake’s father (or at least the man who raised him) complained about it a lot actually, as he was British and moved to America for a job where he met Jake’s mother.
His complaints were many and varied, including the measuring systems, the pronunciation of words, the usage of certain words changed, and even sports if the man was to be believed.
Jake still thought that baseball was better than cricket, regardless of what his father said. Rugby was awesome though, less armour than in American football… seriously, their helmets were more like tiny bits of padding to keep you from dying, but allow you to get injury.
In the words of a certain comedian from South Africa- ‘I suffer Rugby every Saturday’
“It’s the same with every other class by the way, they teach us both sets of information if necessary so that if we go to another country to fight a God, at least we’ll be able to survive there.” Derek sighed as they waited for the class still using the English room to walk out.
As the other class began to walk out, two people walked closer to Derek and Jake, a girl and boy, as the girl raised a hand for Derek to high five.
“What’s up cousin!” the girl shouted, and Derek responded with said high five and the same sentence, leaving Jake rolling his eyes, already pegging Derek as a happy go-lucky kind of jock.
“Oh, yeah, we got a new cousin here, Jake Thomas, though his real surname is Ignus. He’s the son of Apollo.” The girl and the boy both looked at Jake with approval and a nod as the boy extended a hand with a bit of shyness.
“Hi there, my name is Mark Bismarck, I’m a son of Hephaestus, as boring as that is compared to having a God of War as a parent.” The boy had some snark on him, Jake could appreciate a good dose of sarcasm.
Mark had brown hair approaching a shade of red and a tiny figure in comparison to Derek, or even Jake who had a swimmers build with how he exercised…
Jake made certain to train in shooting arrows with both arms though, as archers typically had lopsided muscle structure if they didn’t train their off-hand a lot.
“And I’m Terri Cole, daughter of Hermes! So we’re all kids of the second generation of Olympians, hence, cousins.” She explained as Jake looked a bit bewildered at the sudden finding of family…
Of course he would though, the Greek family tree of the Gods was strange and messed up, given that Hephaestus and Aphrodite were brother and sister yet were married.
Terri was stereotypically blonde and peppy, though judging from the odd bits and bobs all over her bag and in some places of her outfit, she seemed like someone who liked arts and crafts.
As they introduced each other, a girl walked past their group with only a glance in their direction before she walked on, her face cold as she saw the four chatting…
“Who was that?” Jake asked, wondering what he could have done to earn the mystery girl’s ire so quickly.
“That’s Mary Baker, she’s a Demigod like us, but she’s a bit special in comparison to us.” Derek said, as Jake finally had a face and appearance to put to the name Charlie mentioned, considering her long black hair and stormy grey eyes.
“Wait, Baker… is she related to Charlie Baker?” Jake asked as the three looked between each other, and back to him with a bit of uncertainty.
“I don’t know who that is, but odds are they are siblings of the same God. It happens, just look at Mark.” Terri explained as Mark sighed and nodded.
“Yeah, Hephaestus has a lot of kids, and we all have the same surname, Bismarck. Well… that’s mostly because of who our eldest brother is.” Mark sighed as Jake raised an eyebrow, but before he could ask the question he wanted to, he was dragged into the classroom by Derek.
Once the class was over, the roles were reversed of the mathematics class, with Derek complaining and Jake trying to help him out… Jake was good with languages out of his love of poetry, he tried to learn other languages to read poetry in their original languages.
He liked Stormy Petrel as one of his favourites by the way.
“So hey, before we get to… Biology, who’s Mark’s brother?” Jake asked as Derek gained a serious expression as he explained.
“He’s someone important in Aegis, he’s basically one of the top Demigods, despite being a son of Hephaestus, he’s the smartest guy in Aegis by far.” Derek explained as they walked across the courtyard in the middle of the campus to cut across to their class.
“So why did Mark look a bit… unhappy, at the mention of his brother?” Jake asked with a raised eyebrow as Derek frowned.
“It’s because of how amazing his brother is. There are over thirty children of Hephaestus, that we know of, and most of them aren’t that strong, but Mark’s elder brother is a different story.” Derek considered his next words carefully before they walked back into a corridor.
“Basically, Mark’s elder brother is amazing, and all his siblings look up to him, including Mark… but his brother is too strong for them to try and compete.” Derek explained.
Jake didn’t quite get it, but he got that Mark’s elder brother was apparently a powerful Demigod, and much more powerful than his siblings, and that makes Mark a bit unhappy.
Biology was soon over with, Jake smiling as he left the classroom… he quite enjoyed Biology, though he could do without the needlessly long names for things.
All that memorization…
“Alright then, it’s lunch time man, let’s go get some food.” Derek said, gesturing for Jake to follow him as they walked away from the school to Jake’s surprise.
“Don’t worry man, as long as we’re in class the school is pretty chill with us leaving… besides, we’re Demigods, short of a God descending nothing’s going to hurt us.” Derek explained even as they searched for a shop nearby.
Jake was feeling a bit lost, given that he had lived in a quiet suburb in Washington for his whole life, and now he was across the country from his home…
Alexandria happened to be built in Los Angeles, for explanation.
Known only to a select few in Aegis, but the school was only built there because Edgar wanted a place near the beach when he visited the school.
He was rich and he liked the beach, and needed to build a school. Win for everyone in his opinion.
“New to L.A?” Derek asked as Jake nodded looking in the direction of the ocean in the distance.
“Yeah, lived in Washington for my whole life, so this is a bit new to me… by the way, Derek, how did you Awaken?” Jake asked, as Derek blinked as they walked into a seafood place.
“Oh, you want to know that? Well… I happened to be nearby when a team of Demigods were fighting a God, near enough that it apparently counted as an encounter with the supernatural.” Jake got the idea, as he had gained his powers as a Demigod during a fight against a God.
“Though Jake, I don’t recommend asking others that… some people are traumatized by how they Awakened.” Derek warned, his smile vanishing for a bit to convey how serious he was being, getting a nod from Jake.
“In return for asking me such a personal question, what about you, how did you Awaken as a Demigod?” Derek’s question got a sigh from Jake as he thought back to the events of a week ago, back when he was still around Washington.
“I was attacked by a God. Can’t pronounce his name, was an Aztec God. Killed everyone around me then challenged me to a contest, which I somehow won…” Derek was wide eyed at this as they sat down after he ordered some food.
“Wow… not a lot of people survive their first encounters with Gods you know? Even for Demigods it’s the same, I’ve only been in a fight against a God once, against Anansi.” Jake raised an eyebrow, unaware of the God.
“He’s an African Trickster God… honestly he didn’t seem interested in killing people like some other Gods, but the area around him for a few miles were covered in spider webs and people couldn’t go near.” That got a wince from Jake…
Spiders, while he didn’t exactly mind the things, a spider God? That sounded terrifying.
“Well, I say fight but I wasn’t the one to go upfront. I was a tag along for one of the Council members.” Jake’s raised eyebrow showed that he did not know what Derek was talking about, as their food finally arrived.
“The Council of Demigods, they’re basically the seven top Demigods in Aegis, they’re all really powerful. I was brought to witness a fight against a god by Samuel, the third ranked Council-man.” Jake wondered at the name, given by Derek’s pronunciation the man sounded Spanish or Mexican.
“Well, if I remember right, the council members include Edgar Yule, who is ranked one. No one knows who his God parent is except some of the other Council members.” Derek’s words finally got a response from Jake as he bit into some fish.
“Is miss Cora one of them? She seemed strong if mister Yule was scared of her.” Jake asked as Derek nodded with a chuckle.
“Yeah, though you don’t need to be so formal with Edgar man, he’s strong, but he’s pretty relaxed with us weaker Demigods.” Derek said making Jake nod… fish bones were annoying.
“Yeah, miss Cora is rank two. Her God parent is apparently Pandora, who technically shouldn’t be a Goddess but what do we know eh?” Jake knew Pandora at least…
All the World’s Evil, and a Handful of Hope and all that jazz.
“Then Samuel, he’s rank three, son of Mi..micht… I can’t say the name, but an Aztec God of Death.” That sounded impressive for many reasons after all…
Death is inevitable.
“Rank four is actually Mark’s brother, Shaun Bismarck, son of Hephaestus, he’s one of only two Ancient Demigods.” That… sounded really impressive, if Hephaestus Demigods weren’t that powerful, him being the fourth strongest Demigod should say something about him as a person.
“I forget the names, but for the others, Rank five is the son of Odin, rank six is the Daughter of Nike, Goddess of Victory, and rank seven is a son of Heracles, better known as Hercules.” The last one got a raise of the eyebrow from Jake.
“Yeah, Heracles was a Demigod like us, a hero, but at some point in his myth he became a God of Strength, Sports, and a few other things. So he’s technically a God now.” That got a shrug as they continued eating.
“So Jake, quick question, do you think you’d like hanging out in Alexandria?” Jake looked outside the window of the shop, looking towards the large gates of the school and shrugged.
“It’s only the first day… but I could get used to it in time I guess.” Derek smiled and gave his ‘cousin’ a pat on the back.
“That’s the best I can ask for at current man. Come on, we’ll be late for Demigod Studies!” Jake’s eyes widened as they began to run, not wanting to be late.
Jake never noticed that they were running a bit faster than thirty Miles per hour, and that anyone who saw them running just shrugged, looked at whoever was confused and said one word.
“Demigods.”