Hi, just Re-did the formating on this, hopefully it works. This is new version of the first chapter, so it kind of stuffs up my second chapter authors note, oh well. Yep, I don't own any of the real Percy J books, and... uh... yeah, Please review.

Chapter 1- Beaches of England.

Perseus twitched his shield slightly, deflecting the jarring impact of the Anglo-Saxon blade to the side. Quickly pushing his shield into the man, he sliced at the man's hip with the bloodied metal of his own sword. Swearing, the man jolted back, enabling Perseus to press his advantage. Feinting a swing at the man's head, he the dropped suddenly, driving the top of his shield into the jaw of the Briton. As he stumbled, Perseus jabbed through his stomach, before pulling his sword back and setting himself for his next opponent. "Is there no end to these British barbarians"? He muttered in Greek, the battle had raged since the morning and had no signs of letting up. As he saw the Norman forces fleeing from the British shield wall, he began to smirk. One of the Saxons facing him growled, "What are you smirking at, Norman dog, your men are fleeing." Instead of railing at the man, Perseus's smirk only got wider, "Watch".

As the two enemies looked on, the Norman forces suddenly turned, charging back into the chasing Saxons, hacking them down. A bark of rage suddenly distracted Perseus, bringing him back to the conflict at hand. "Trickery!" the man growled. Perseus tutted, shaking his head at the Saxon, "No, no, no my dear man… tactics, clever ones to if I might say so myself."

"You," the man spat out, "You did this." Perseus shrugged under his breastplate, "what gave it away? The fact that I'm armoured like no one else on this field, of the fact that I told you?" He had to admit, he felt bad about taunting the man, he was a good soldier, but if he wanted to get through that shield wall he was going to have to break someone. It worked, the man charged out of the line, running at Perseus as if to cut him down with the first stroke. Flicking the blow to the side, Perseus spun round the man, before cutting him down. Then, in what many thought was a fit of madness, he charged through the gap the man had left.

Slicing left and right, parrying and thrusting like mad, Perseus hacked his way through the line, eventually breaking through to the other side. It wasn't hard to spot his target; he had a huge banner waving over him after all. The men in the line behind him bellowed in rage, but were unable to turn, too busy dealing with those who had followed him into the gap. Dodging the occasional arrow as he went, Perseus ran up hill towards Harold of England. Slamming his sword point first into the ground, Perseus grabbed one of his spears. Arching back, he suddenly snapped forward, throwing the projectile into a huge arc. Idiots, he thought as the guards followed the motion of the spear, Perseus snatched up his sword again and ran onwards. The spear struck the closest guard, going straight through his chest and sticking into the leg of the guard behind him. By the time the soldiers had turned back around, the archaic warrior was upon them.

He slammed his shield into the head of one, knocking him unconscious, before slicing leg of another, smashing the hilt of his sword into his head to put him down. He then spun, forcing the group to jump back, but catching one of the men in the side, the steel tearing through the poor quality chainmail like paper. One of the men sliced at Perseus, managing to score a thin line along the bare skin of his bicep, and eliciting a small growl of annoyance. Stupid, Perseus bit at himself, I need to be more careful, or one of these days I'll be the one on the ground. Snarling under the Spartan helmet, Perseus slammed his sword down onto the Saxons shield, twice in quick succession, before slicing under the raised shield, the metal biting into the chest of the soldier. Another one charged at him, and Perseus ducked into the charge, dropping lower before powering upwards, using his shield to throw the man over his shoulder. The other men had some form of spears in their hands, they seemed like a cross between a sword and a spear, the tips being too long to be any use for throwing. Once more burying his sword in the ground, he grabbed his second spear off his back. It was slightly shorter than those of the guard, but he wasn't intending to get that close. Setting his body again, he flung his spear through the throat of the centre guard, before grabbing his sword and running towards them. He deflected the first spear to the left of himself, before rolling to the right and slicing upwards to cut off the head of two of the spears. Beyond their blades, he realized, the spears were useless for any form of combat as they lacked the manoeuvrability of throwing spears, but in a Macedonian phalanx… he couldn't help but grimace at the idea of one of those with these spears. Eventually, all the guards were down, most dead, but a few simply unconscious. Perseus grimaced as he looked around. Was this all he was, he wondered, a weapon to be wielded in battle… a tool. For too many years my life has been bloodshed and war. He stared at "King" Harold as the black-eyed son of Hades approached.

"Why are you so determined that I die." He asked, anger evident on his pale face, "You are a demigod, you have no stake in who rules England!"

Perseus frowned, "Even Demigods have mortal family, and it was from my brother that you stole this thrown. What is more I do not wish you dead, as I told you through the iris message, your father wishes to meet you."

"My father is lord of the underworld, the way to meet him is to die!" Harold exclaimed. Perseus shook his head, exasperated by the cruel reputation that Hades was given, even by his children.

"There are other ways to reach the Underworld, your father would only wish your death if you had dishonoured his name. As far as he has told me, he is actually proud of your accomplishments in England, and does not wish for you to die in this battle. It is more likely that he will make you his lieutenant than it is that he will kill you."

"If that is so," Harold began, "How would I get to the underworld?"

"Shadow travel." Perseus said simply.

"I can shadow travel to the Underworld!?" Harold gaped at him, "Isn't there some kind of barrier on entrance?"

"You are his favourite living mortal son, he has allowed you passage into his realm."

"I'm his only living mortal son."

"That might help." Perseus smirked. "Oh and remind your father of our deal."

Harold frowned at that, "What deal?"

"He'll know."

"Farewell Perseus, hand of Olympus."

"Farwell Harold of England, first enthroned son of Hades."

With that King Harold II disappeared into a flurry of shadows. The shadows began to dissipate slowly before; in flash of blackness, they formed solidarity once more. When the shadows disappeared once more, they left behind a corpse, identical to the King who had left before, except for one, rather important difference. It was dead. Perseus could easily tell it was dead as it had an arrow sticking halfway though its head, which is usually a pretty good hint. Atop the corpse rested a thick, engraved, leather bound book. Sending a quick thank you to Hades, for the book not the corpse, Perseus tucked the book under his shield arm, before collecting his spears. He hooked the spears back into their slots over his back, before hooking his shield atop them, slotting into the same shoulder belt, his sword he then slid into his scabbard.

Stooping over, Perseus swept the corpse up, carrying it to a point where all the men on the field of battle could see him. "SAXONS, BRITONS, HEAR ME!" he bellowed, catching the attention of all. "Your king is dead, pierced through the eye by a stray arrow as he faced me. Surrender. Bury your dead. You have fought honourably and shall be treated as such. I swear to you, you shall not be harmed should you surrender!"

"Why should we believe what you say? You could kill us all once we lay down our arms!" one pugnacious thane yelled out, stepping apart from the rest of the men.

"I would have thought that my armour would have made my identity obvious, ask your men who I am. Then ask if I can be trusted."

The thane turned back to his men, and a murmur of noise arose from around him. The man turned back, with a slightly mollified, if curious face.

"They seem to be of the opinion that you have never broken a vow."

"Well," Perseus frowned, "I may have broken a couple that I made to my mother when I was a lot younger. Definitely the swearing vow, that was gone a couple of weeks after I made it." The assembled men chuckled at that; everyone made promises to their mum. Hesitating for a second the thane who had spoken lay his axe and shield on the ground, before kneeling by them. As if that were a signal, the men behind him began to do the same, a cacophony of noise rang from the battle, and the Norman troops moved out of the battleground. Perseus moved quickly to the first thane.

"My friends unbend your knees. Warriors only bow to those above them, and I am nothing but a warrior like your selves. Please, stand." As the men around him began to rise Perseus grasped the forearm of the man in front of him.

"Bury your men, and give your king the honours he deserves. He and you alike fought valiantly." The man nodded, before seeming to hesitate. "Ask," Perseus said.

"What is your name, if I may. I do not simply wish to know you as the Greek General."

"Perseus of Normandy, and might I know yours in return?"

"Gyrth Godwinson, Earl of East Anglia." Perseus blinked before smiling, "And here I thought you were a thane. My brother William would much like to speak with you. Come I shall lead you to our command tent." Perseus turned quickly before turning back, "You should give the men the orders to care for your dead and wounded first. I will send someone to help you find William. I myself am in dire need of a bath."

"Bathing in winters bad for your health." Gyrth called after him,

"So is battle but we were still here this morning." Perseus called over his shoulder before disappearing into the woods. Gyrth turned quickly to the men behind him and began to issue commands.

"Perseus my brother," a large bearded man called out as Perseus approached the tent. "I trust it was you who secured the surrender?"

"The men gave me the time William, I just had to do a bit of talking." William of Normandy smirked at the slightly smaller man,

"I swear Perseus, everything that comes out of your mouth is either modest or it's a rousing speech to inspire loyalty in the men. Take a break from it, finally claim some credit, celebrate."

"You know if I had the time I could out drink the entire army, I'm not sure how the Britons would react to their new king getting beaten on his first day, might make them wonder why I'm not king." From any other man that could have come across as ambition, but from Perseus William knew it was simply a mark of humour.

"Ah Perseus, always so busy running after the demands of your pagan gods, I tell you, its much easier to have a god who doesn't actually ask you to do anything but be good."

"I'm not so sure, your god doesn't let you do this," he said spinning a ball of concentrated water on his finger.

"Show-off," William muttered.

"Anyway, I need to go put this," he said gesturing at the book that he still had under his arm, "in Atlantis. I refuse to carry it round."

"That's another book you've charged a god, and you still haven't told me what for…"

"New metal"

"…Beyond that it's a new metal. But thanks for interrupting anyway."

"Look, I have to carry two swords around constantly, one for mortals and one for immortals. What I'm trying to do, is forge the two together, however the problem is, is that celestial bronze a "divine" metal, while steel is not. So when I try and merge the two, they bloody explode. What I'm looking at are the notes of ancient Greek philosophers, engineers, mathematicians, and some of the best smiths out there. They were all so close but they didn't put the ideas together. The one I just got from Hades is Archimedes Treatise on Divine Metals. I'm so close right now I can taste it, I just need to talk to Hephaestus about a couple of things and then I'll have it." William sighed. Sometimes he just couldn't understand his brother. It didn't help that they lived in almost completely different worlds.

"Go on." William muttered, "I'll explain to the men that you've gone… Again."

"They're used to it by now, I disappear after every battle, more or less."

"Yeah, and leave me to pick up the mess."

"Hey you're the one that insists on invading places."

"Be off with you, rude devil. I'll see you in hell."

"Nah we'll go to different hells anyway."

"Gah can you not?" Perseus walked forward and pulled his brother into a hug.

"Hey, ill be back before anyone else needs killing, so don't worry your head, you wont end up actually having to do anything." William laughed,

"I'm sure that you don't fight at all, just take off your helmet and show your face. That ugly things got to have a medusa affect." Smirking Perseus gave William a sharp salute, before turning and walking through the tent flap.