Chapter 4: Planes, Trains, and Demigods

Chapter 3

Mark Great, another monster.

Ashley floated in front of me.

“What, nothing to say?”

“Not again,” was all I said. he frowned.

“Again?”

“Oh come on!” Mark yelled through the glass. He was slamming his gladii against the window, trying to break it to get out. Alex was doing the same with her weapon, both to no effect. My shoulders tensed, and I flexed my hands. Watt fit into my left hand, and the electricity arced across Joules.

“Never mind, attack!” The two wind horses charged forward firing lightning at me. I could see the arc where the lightning would travel in a mixture of blue and red lines. I lifted Joules and absorbed the blast. My glove grew bigger, forming a wire-frame version of itself made of lightning. I grabbed the closest horse thing and crushed it. It burst into golden dust. The wire-frame glove dissipated. I jumped to the side, out of the way of the second charging horse. Ashley fired a blast of lightning at me, which caught me in the chest and sent me flying into the window the others were attacking. The window cracked.

I took a breath, shocked that I wasn’t dead. I got up and, with the exception that my shirt was blackened, with a hole where the bolt had hit me. I looked up.

“What are you?” Ashley asked. My mind started to process information, Ashley was too high up for me to attack him, and the flying horse was attacking me too much to be able to climb anywhere to get within range. Flying horse?

The wind horse thing was, in fact, flying. It ran like a horse, and talked like a horse, but flew like...something that flew. I flexed my arm and put Watt away. As the horse neared, I jumped off the window and got onto its back, holding it with Joules. Lightning flowed out of the glove and became reigns for the horse. It fought, and dodged Ashely’s lightning while trying to dislodge me. After a few minutes it calmed down, its hooves thundering upon the ground.

“Alright Thunder,” It neighed appreciatively at its name. “Lets get ourselves a bully.” I brought Watt back out as Thunder and I charged Ashley. He wore a shocked look, then he turned around and tired to escape. Thunder was faster, however, and we caught up to him. I stabbed the blade into his chest. With a resounding scream he puffed into golden dust. I directed Thunder back to the ground in front of the doors. I got off and petted his mane. He pushed his head under my right and, and the glove glowed, sucking him in. Mark finally opened the door.

“You are definitely a son of Zeus,” he said. Josh chose that moment to jump off the roof in an attempt to tackle an Ashley that was no longer there.

“I got you!” he cried as he fell to the ground. After we got him up and ensured that nothing was broken he complained about missing the whole thing. Mark ignored him and continued to stare at me.

“It’s alright buddy, don’t worry about it. I get the feeling were gonna run into more monsters soon enough.” Mark nodded.

“C’mon you two lets get moving, our train leaves in a minute.” We ran after him and reached the train. Mark had gotten the four of us a private compartment. When we got inside Josh immediately lied down and went to sleep. Alex and Mark sat side by side holding hands and talking.

“Remember the last train we were on?” She asked.

“Yeah, Moscow. Recovering that Russian kid, the daughter of Aeolus.” He replied.

“The snow monster.”

“The minotaur.”

“St. Petersburg.” She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. I felt like an intruder on their moment. I rested my head on the inner compartment wall and went to sleep.

I woke in a very comfy chair, with some nice finger foods and a cup of soda on a little table next to me. Across from me was another chair like what I was sitting in with someone inside of it. The man sitting in the chair across from me was wearing a dark blue pinstripe suit with a proud, grim face covered in black and grey hair. Rainy grey eyes studied me as I studied him.

“Well boy?” he asked.

“What am I psychic?” I asked irritably. He laughed.

“I suppose not. I am your Father. Unlike your siblings, you have not known of your father until just recently.”

“Is that supposed to mean anything.” He looked annoyed at my interruption.

“You are beginning to sound like your sister. Stay quiet and listen. Both your siblings knew, from their earliest memories, that I was their father. They knew of their birthright, and as recent events have shown, it is what helped prepare them. You, unlike them, did not know. Your mother brought you up without any knowledge of me. So I am going to tell you what they knew.

“First, after this, barring exceptional service, you will not see me again.”

“Why?” I interrupted again. He scowled.

“Remember when you were at the pool, learning to swim?” i did. My mom had a pool in the backyard at that house. She had taken me out there, in floaters and all, and put me through the basics of learning how to swim. I objected every time she let me go.

“My wonderful son, as much as it pains me to say this, I will not be around all the time. What if the only way to get from point A to point B is to swim, and I am nowhere around to help?” I had spent the rest of the day working to learn to swim, that phrase had somehow put the idea in my head that if I didn’t my mom would go away.

“I remember.” I said.

“It is similar. If we help our children whenever they need it, fight their battles for them, swim them across the creek, the effect would be much worse than in that one case your mother proposed to you. All of you would be weak. Useless. We cannot help you with anything. As the King of the Gods I must set an example, and not communicate with my children if at all possible. To continue, as you have already learned you have power in my realm of influence. You can control lightning, much better than either your brother or sister. However, unlike your brother you cannot fly, nor do you have much control over the winds.

“Now for your weapon. Each of my children have weapons that are symbolic of me. Your sister, Thalia, has a copy of my shield Aegis. Your brother, Jason, had a coin that served him in a similar fashion to my lightning spear. You however, have something that I designed, not a weapon that copied me. The sword, Watt, was the first attempt of the Roman Demigods in creating Imperial Gold. It is Celestial Bronze that is blessed in my first temple, having the same powers as Imperial Gold. It also altered the metal enough so that it works as a better conductor.

“The second weapon, Joules. That was a gift I was going to give to Aeolus for doing such a great job in capturing wind spirits. It was to help him capture more spirits. Then I learned he was cheating, having Demigods do the capturing for him, so I kept that gift until you came along. It will store that storm spirit for your use.

“With that boy, I think we are done here.” Before I could respond I passed out again. I guess my interruptions must have really annoyed him.

I woke to Mark shaking my shoulder.

“Wake up kid, we got to go.” I got up.

“What? Why?” I asked as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I looked outside and saw the train wasn’t moving.

“All the Mortals see is an avalanch. What is really there is a group of Hyperborian Giants.” He climbed out the window to where Josh and Alex were waiting. I followed him after grabbing my bag.

“What are Hyperborian Giants?” I asked.

“Frost giants essentially. Usually peaceful, but as of last summer they turned against us, so were not taking any chances.” Alex responded.

“Where are we Satyr?” Mark asked. Josh stared in confusion for a second, then he picked up some grass and gnawed on it.

“Near Lincoln, Nebraska,” he said.

“You can tell that from some grass?” I asked.

“Well, a little soil and nature magic too, but ya.”

“Cool.” Josh smiled at the comment. Mark looked upset.

“The ADAV hasn’t recharged enough. I can get us to Indiana, and we can take a train to New York. Should solve the problem.” He said.

“Why not take a plane?” I asked. The look on his face was a mixture of horror, pain, and fear. In any other situation it would have been hilarious, now I was a little worried about what it meant. Alex, however, did start to laugh.

“My Roman here,” she affectionately patted Marks arm, “is afraid of heights. Taking a plane goes against every instinct he has. However you are right Max. Flight seems to be the only option.” I smiled.

“Get me to Lincoln and then a phone.” I said. This time all three looked at me like I was insane.

“Max, communication technology and Demigods don’t work together well.” Alex said. Apparently, Demigods, who know they are a Demigod, who use phones and other such modern communication devices tend to attract the wrong crowd.

“is there any way for me to communicate with my mom?” I asked.

“Iris Messaging,” they all said.

“Wazzat?”

“The Goddess Iris allows anyone to communicate using rainbows. Why do you need to communicate with your mom?” Mark asked.

“Hmm? Oh, right, she has a pilot friend who lives in Lincoln and has a private plane. If her friend is still home, we can get a private flight to New York.” Alex and Josh agreed that this was a good plan.

Chapter5