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I accidentally take one of my teacher's head off
2005
Hello, my name is Zack Johnson. Call me what you like, I have other things to care about. Anyways, I've gotten detention as frikkin usual. Damn teacher. Apparently, the sub thought I was asleep. After the detention I headed home. I had to hand over all money to my drunk of a caretaker. I do what I can to forget he ever existed and climb onto the roof of my house. I'm up there for almost four hours. After the fourth, something hits me in the face. They're keys to a motorcycle. I look down. A Harley Davidson motorcycle is just sitting there. "No way." I jump off the roof and see if the keys work. When the do, I hide them in a cave about six blocks away. I'd better go sleep, if the sub thinks I've been sleeping again I'm toast.
Well the field trip took my class to some museum of some handicapped old guy. I found the section on Ares quite fascinating. During lunch, the sub and the moron of a caretaker drag me into another room, By their teeth! What the hell is this? All I know, is that I'm call kids help phone after this. They throw me to the floor. I look up. Bull man and creepy old lady! I manage to avoid getting nailed by a large fist. The old guy runs in. Wait a minute runs? He's centaur! He shoots a frikkin bow and arrow at the old lady and she runs for it. I'm starting to realise what's happening. The horse-man-hybrid throws a wii remote at me. "What the hell am i supposed to do with this?!" I yell angrily.
"Press B!" Holy crap it turns into a sword!! The worlds becomes a blur. when it stops spinning, the minotaur thing is beheaded. I cut off one of the horns. the centaur is walking slowly towards me. I run for it. I hijack the school bus and start driving it home. A loud CRASH comes from behind me. I look behind me. The creepy old lady just crashed through the roof.
I hit A. "Whoa, a crossbow!" The thing is dodging every arrow I shoot. I press 1. A knife. I starting swinging the blade around. I manage to land a light gash across it's chest. I quickly stab it where the hamstring should be. It falls to one knee, I slash it across the neck. It crumples dead. I shove it out the door. And continue to drive. I look down at the door. Ugh. The creepy old things head didn't go through. I open the door and leap out. I roll about six feet. Nothing broken. Good. I run for the cave. Yes! the bike works I roar out the cave and on to the high way. I don't know how long I was driving. Something was just, egging me on somewhere. I notice a slight flash of gold on the side of the road. I stop. I climb off (if someone steals that bike.....). there's nothing. I look around. There it is again! I run towards it. there's still nothing. I turn around. "Oh.....my.....fugging.....gods." A lizard like being, clad in black and gold armor, is standing in front of me.
I get fused to a demon
The lizard thing speaks. "I am Verx. The demon prince."
Despite the combination of the urge to barf and the urge to scream. I manage to say: "So, demons have royalty?"
I half expect him to eat my head. But he nods. "Yes, But I was born different. So I got kicked out of the castle from about nine stories up." I wince. He continues. "I snuck into Camp Half-Blood," Huh? "And the Oracle told me," Huh? "That life is meaningless to me now. In truth I believe her. So now, I've found you, And I'm confident I'm making the right choice."
He jumps at me. Well, some shimmery shadow of him jumps at me. his body just drops dead. I look around, everything is so clear. I sprint back to the motorbike. Am I really that fast? I climb on and start driving. I look over my head after awhile. "Oh gods....." If I'm correct, that's a manticore. I gun it, zooming as fast a possible. A spike hits the ground in front of me, causing the the bike to flip. I fly out, expecting to die. But nope, I see a flash of gold and I land easily. I look down. Several swear words come out of me. I'm that demon-prince-thing! I whirl around, the manticore charges at me. I grab his arm and snap it like a twig. It screams. I punch it in the head and throw it into a tree. It throws about four spikes at me. i dodge and tear it's head off. It evaporates into gold dust by the looks of it. I blink. I'm human again. I try to get the bike to work. Only thing that happens, I fly into a rock.
Comatose
2006 A slight flash. A young boy's face. A juice box next to me.
Another flash. A teen girl with blond hair. Blackness.
I wake up. Huh? Looks like some type of 1476 hospital. I sit up. I feel something on my back. Good. It means mom's combat knife is still there. A blond teen girl walks in.
"CHIRON! HE'S AWAKE!" Wait, what?
That centaur walks in. "Hello my boy, Zack."
I throw on my most confused look. "I really don't know you," I look at the blonde. "And I sure as hell don't know who you are," I gesture to the centaur called Chiron.
"You're a demigod Zack." He says.
"I've noticed that actually."
They bring me outside. "This is Camp Half-Blood, a place to train demigods." I look around. Maybe I will stay. I notice a drunk looking guy sitting on a throne of grapevines, playing a card game with a donkey person.
"Who's that?" I ask.
"Dionysus, or Mr. D" The donkey man is half trying to peel some grapes. Chiron brings me to cabin. Looks like a crowded one. Cabin eleven. I'm guessing it's Hermes. "So Hermes is my dad?" I ask.
"Not necessarily. All unclaimed children go here."
Like that made any sense. "Meaning.....?"
"Anyone who doesn't know who their Olympian parent is."
I go in. I was right, this place is crowded. There's at least twenty-five people here. A few say a cheerful hello, which I meekly respond to. Others look too depressed to do anything. A taller one comes up to me and starts telling me about this place. Apparently weather can't get in here. Crap. No winter. There's CTF games. Cool. Challenges at sword and spear fights. Awesome. This place is a "me-stayer" place. Then he starts telling me about the cabins. The Hermes and unclaimed cabin, the Ares cabin (I'm too small), the Aphrodite cabin (HELL NO!), the Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Hades, Zeus, and others I'm too lazy to check. When we come to dinner (Pizza and hamburgers), there appears to be nothing to drink. The tall kid from the cabin told me to say what you want. I mutter: "Grape mixed with root beer and cream soda slurpee." Oh wow! "I've got to get me one of these!" The others laugh. "What can I say? I'm from manitoba."
The drunken looking guy stands up. "Attention campers! Shut up!" Everybody stops talking. "Anyways, like I care, we have a new camper, Zane Jackson." A kid at the Poseidon table snorts. "Correction, Zack Johnson. I hope somebody drowns him." If I wasn't naturally pale, that's how I would have turned. "Capture the flag is tomorrow, Hermes versus Athena. Now, get out!" Everyone leaves.
"Mr. D seems nice," I say weakly. CTF seems to be on everyones minds right now. Hermes is allied with everyone but Poseidon, Apollo, Athena, and Hades. "Does anybody die?" I ask.
"Nope, though loss of limb isn't out of the question." I slept horribly.
CTF
What was I thinking? I woke up at five to start practicing, but I almost killed Chiron. Now, CTF is a lot more violent then you might expect. I officially suck with shields, so I just chucked it at the first opponent I saw. That really made him mad. I only just got away. One kid I've learned to stay the fugging hell away from is Percy Jackson. That guy is lethal. But what the hell were they thinking, sending me on offense? I'm just avoiding everyone as best I can. Stops working eventually. A couple Athena kids attack me. I have no idea how, but I disarmed them with one swing. I happen to come across where the flag is.
"Right when things seem to good to be true..."
Percy Jackson jumps out. "...it usually is."
I swing a couple times at him. He easily blocks. I accidentally turn my sword back into a wii remote. "Oh fugg..." I barely dodge his next attack. I press 1 on the remote by accident. It's a knife. "Awesome." Now I go crazy. Percy is on the retreat now. Knife fighting is where I excel. He gets whooped. He has a slash across his face and a light stab wound on his left arm. One Athena girl, looking really ticked, attacks me. A ten second fight. Percy's back up. I remake it a sword. How I won this time, I don't know. He's on the ground panting after twenty seconds. I'm hopping with energy. "How the fugg did I do that?" I ask no one in particular.
"I don't know," Chiron come up to me "but I intend to find out." I gulp. He pulls me onto him (is it just me, or does that sound wrong?) and starts galloping toward the really big house. Oh ugh, I'm stuck seeing Mr. D.
I meet the god of drunks and idiocy
Well that went well. Mr. D treated me like a oversized bag of horse crap stuck in a sewer all day. He got about six nymphs to do a physical examination on me (I sedated myself) DNA testing, they dropped me off at the Big House, and Zeus know what else (And I'll be asking him).
He lets me go. I'm treated like a hero by the campers that were on my team. I managed to buy enough time for Clarisse of the Ares Cabin to nab the flag. But on the down side, I have to spend a night at the Big House (I threw up when I heard this). I go to the Big House. It looks like I'm stuck playing cards with the guy. I lose purposely.
"Will you hurry up and sleep? I'm tired of your face." Mr.D says. I look at him. Something in my expression made his eyes flash with purple fire. I just look into the inferno that is his face. Grapevines snare around one of my feet. A gold flash, and I'm taller then Chiron. He pales. "Demon."
I re-phase. "Nope. I'm not a demigod though." I summarize my experience with the demon prince. He sighs. "Eventually I'll have to bring you to Olympus to see if any god will claim you. But for now, just stay in the Hermes cabin. I'll have to put up with a pompous windbag like you." I grin and leave. I just realized something. I can be an a** to Dionysus and get away with it.
I get claimed.
The first thing I do after breakfast is head down to the arena for sword practice. I take on a couple Apollo kids, who I thrash easily. I stay there for an hour. After that I go on some obstacle course thing. You had to climb over trees and rocks and such. I fell out of one tree. Which hurt. A LOT. During the climbing wall I had to fight about seven other kids while trying to not be eaten by a hellhound (massive dog from tartarus). But it was during free time the weirdest thing happened. I was walking to the bathroom when a couple of girls from the Ares cabin jumped me.
"So, punk? You think you can just be the best? Well, welcome to the world." Clarisse from the Ares cabin said while dragging me. That was when I realized where they were taking me: The girls bathroom.
"Crazy b****." I say to Clarisse.
"You just earned yourself an extra swirlie." Crap. Just as they open the door I spin myself, tripping Clarisse and causing the other to fall. The other girl draws a knife. "Well you've got emotions that need controlling." She tackles me. I hit me head on one of the sinks. She slams me into the stall. I get up and slam my shoulder into her stomach and SHOVE. We fly though The rest of the stalls. She passes out as she hits the wall. Clarrisse jumps out and throws me into a mirror, smashing it.
"I'll feel that in the morning." I wisecrack.
"If you live that long." She pulls out a spear and lunges. My wii remote flies to my hand and becomes the four feet of metal that beat Percy. I whirl out of the way as she tries to impale me. I slip behind her and stomp on her hamstring. She falls with a yell. A boy I recognize from whichever cabin comes out of nowhere. I whistle. My motor bike comes by at the speed of sound and clips him. He lands headfirst in the toilet. Mr. D walks in. "Well, I see you've been claimed. I'm really sick of you children of Ares."
The next day, I go to visit Clarisse in the infirmary. The first thing she does when she sees me was:
"I'll get you punk." I grin.
"Not a nice way to treat your brother Clarisse."
"Oh, crap."
I leave. I am quite honestly glad to have gotten claimed by Ares. It's better then Aphrodite for sure. I head down to swords practice. The first thing I notice is a black haired boy fighting another of my half-brothers. He whoops him.
"Mind if I try to win?" I ask the poor guy who just got his arse kicked.
"Feel free." He grumbles and walks off to find a different target.
I bring my sword out. "So, you mind if I try to beat you?" I ask.
"Why not?" I can tell he looks at my shield arm and wonders why I don't have a shield.
"To be quite honest with you, I suck with shields." He doesn't attack, so I decide to go first. I fake an attack to the left and swing up. He manages to block and counter with a downward slash. I sidestep and kick his shield. The impact causes him to stumble. I quickly slip around and trip him. he rolls to get up. He surprises me by slamming his shield into me. i was expecting a sword attack. He manages to get me to the ground. I roll beneath him as he jumps at me. After that, I lost track of what happened. The fight lasted for hours. We would sometimes come within a hair's width of each other and fly away. It ends with the both of us panting on the ground.
"What's your name?" I ask and throw up my breakfast.
"Fred Johnson, son of Athena. And you?" He vomits up his breakfast.
"Z-Zack Johnson. Son of Ares." I stuck with him for the rest of the day, seeing what he did. Some of the stuff didn't agree with me. of course, when I told him I was headed for the climbing wall tomorrow he looked at me like I was insane. Lunch sucked. In the afternoon Mr.D wanted to play cards again. This time he told me to actually try. I kicked his butt. He kicked me, across the camp. It took me an hour to get away from the Aphrodite girls after I landed in their cabin.
At night I noticed Annabeth from the Athena cabin sneak out. I decided to follow her. I climb on the top of my cabin and jump from roof to roof. I push a button on my wii remote. It become a crossbow with a scope. Nice. I scope after her. She's headed into the Big House. I fire through one of the windows. I laugh quietly. She's running for her life now. That Panther head Dionysus has is bouncing after her.
I eat about six dead people
Ow. All I can say. Ow. Children of Athena are good fighters, and I just took on fourteen of them. Only Micheal didn't attack me. But that Natalie girl, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. That hurt. A lot. I head for the forges afterwards and began crafting a second wii remote. The symmetry of trying to make one was quite simple. I fuse a metal mix of tempered steel, celestial bronze, stygian iron, sky metal, and oceanic steel. I also mix the metals with my other sword. I make the blades about a foot and a half long. I return to the training field, where a whole bunch of other kids a sparring. Micheal isn't here. Damn. But that Heph-something girl over there looks like she might be a challenge. I waltz past a kid that got annihilated by her.
"And you are?" she asks me.
"Why are girls always pushy with me?" I complain.
"Well?" Impatient much.
"Zack, son of Ares." I draw my swords. She takes out a Stygian Iron sword. I grin mentally and lunge. She brings up her own blade and blocks. I whirl around and swing my sword at her legs. She blocks and shoves me back. "Not all that bad." I say and lunge again. She blocks again. I jump back. "They're generally meant for swinging at people." I indicate her sword.
"Be that way," she mutters and attacks me. I fake running and somehow perform a backflip and land on her back, causing her to fall to the ground.
"Your name?" I ask.
"Maybe I just won't give it to you." Performs some kind of flip and pins me to the ground. to the ground. "Revertion much." I say.
She gets off of me and I stand up. "Name?" I ask again. Nothing. "You know I'm going to keep asking until you tell me."
"Not saying."
Ah, I like being annoying! I leave the training field and head to the climbing wall. I discover that monsters make decent stepping stones. Aside from the flaming ones. As I jump down from the top of the wall, I see Percy talking Annabeth and the Natalie girl that seemed to enjoy hurting me. I overhear that Percy's getting a quest, and he wants them to go with him. I quickly slip into my room and put a few granola bars, my wii remote, duct tape, a jar of greek fire, my other wii remote, dental floss (Useful beyond belief) and sixty arrows. "Sneakout time!" I mutter maniacally.
Jailbreak..............campbreak?
I start to upgrade a few of my arrows. If they work, they should seal the cabins so no one can get out. I fire one at my cabin. An electric current runs over the whole cabin. "No one's getting out of there for a while."
I spend a decent amount of time sealing the cabins. The last one is the Athena cabin. Thank gods that Nat is a slow packer. She looks up and sees me. "That's right b****es, I have a crossbow." I fire. She won't be getting out of that for a bit. I run, heaving with laughter as I go. I walk into the big house. I find Chiron.
"Excuse me, Chiron, I was just wondering, what is the quest the Percy's going on?" I say this in a young, innocent voice.
He smiles and says, "We've heard rumors of a group of children of Hades that had been on the Titan's side that are attempting to bring back Kronos again. Nothing to worry about, seeing as Percy's on the case."
"Thank you Chiron." I say in the same voice and leave. I grin and jump onto my harley. I rev it and go. (Quick thanks to the Hephaestus kids for adding a muffler) I go for about three hours before stopping at an A/W restaurant. I order a milkshake and sit down. I laugh quietly. "I can't believe they let me do that." I think I can handle this quest myself.
"Not everyone did." A voice says from beside me that almost made me phase. I look to my left and see (Three guesses who!) Fred. "Did you really think I'm that stupid?" I blink. "Well, obviously, seeing as I thought it worked." Fred grinned. "So, what? Are you taking me back?"
"Nope. I'm gonna help you." I was about to argue. But then I realized that he may be right about this. He was my only match at sword combat, and he's a child of Athena. Not to mention that I actually trust the guy.
"Alright, so what now?" He grins again. He whips out a map. "I managed to get this from Natalie before you locked her in. It's the map of their base of operations." I look over the map. The basement is labeled: Sacrificial Chamber. We looked things over for about a minute before we got up.
"How are you going to ride?" I'm not having anybody but me sitting on the driver's seat. He points at a sidecar. "Oh." He hops in. I drive through the small city we were in. "We need to be about forty miles west of here!" Fred yells. I gun it and we are there in five minutes. I park about a hundred yards away from this house in the middle of nowhere. We crawl through some very tall grass. The house is about three stories high. "How do we get in?" Fred whispers. I notice a small window that leads to the basement. I indicate to it. He nods and we crouch-run there. We peer into the window. What we saw will give me nightmares for all eternity. Hell, it'd give Hades nightmares. We see a mortal tied to the wall and a black hooded man with a chainsaw. Another black hooded being is behind the first. The first slashed the mortal in half (Fred looked away). And the second dove underneath and opened his mouth, so all the blood and organs could fall in. Afterwards, he reached up into the half-body and tore out the vocal cords, which he handed to the first. The first then ate them. I look at Fred. He looks very horrified, basically how I feel.
"We have to wait here for a bit." I whisper. "It's our only way in, and we have to stop this." He nods. We get ready for anything. After an hour of waiting, the demigods-from-hell go upstairs to the other floors. Fred uses his sword to cut the window open. We pull ourselves into the most hellish house in the world.
The Hell House
I jump onto these guy's freezer. Fred hides behind a washing machine. "Now what?" He whispers. "One of us should check to see if there are any prisoners."
"And the other?"
"Goes upstairs and kill everyone."
I smile. "My type of job." Fred slinks along the wall. I creep upstairs. "Maybe I should have let Natalie come along." I whisper and draw my two crossbows. I walk into the living room. Empty. I check the staircases. Empty. I check the bedrooms. Empty. I open the bathroom door and fire. One was hiding in here. Now he's got two arrows nailing him to the toilet. I check the remaining rooms. Nothing. I move downstairs. I slip behind a fridge down here. "Damn it." I mutter. These creepy guys have caught Fred.
"Why are you here?" One of them asks him. He says nothing. Brave guy. A really big one walks up to the shmuck interrogating Michael. He puts on a helmet and draws a large axe. I extend my swords. I charge out. "Hey b****!" I yell as big guy turns around. I jump up and plunge both blades up and into the eyes of hugey. His partners let out bellows of fury and draw weapons. I feel a rage welling up in me like nothing before. Maybe just a Ares kid effect. But when I started to glow red, that's when I got worried. Something else was controlling me. I hear a voice in my head. Cease your struggle. I will help you.
I went berserk. Completely. The swords I carry spun out of my hands and acted on their own, slicing through nearly everyone. Fire flies out of my hands and incinerates a fair few of the survivors. The fire was blood-red. The power is Demon Rage, my power put into you.
I realize that the voice is Verx, the demon I'm fused to. And the one that makes me an immortal. I walk over to Fred and help him up. "To camp?" I ask.
"I'm into that."
We leave and jump onto the bike. "Campward ho!" I cry. One quest down. Let's just hope that the other campers aren't TOO p*ssed at me.
I become the champion interrogator
They weren't. The next day, I woke up and went to sword practice before breakfast. After breakfast, (Pancakes and chocolate milk) I go on the climbing wall for a few hours. Monsters, falling rocks and lava are good for training. Just after lunch (Turkey sandwich and apple juice), Chiron trots up to me.
"Hello. I trust you're enjoying camp?"
"Rhetorical."
"Of course." He smiles. "Anyways, I need you and Percy to help me with something. A demititan was recently taken in by our people about a week ago. I need you guys to interrogate him."
I nod. I meet Percy near the big house. "What do we need?" I ask.
"Who he's working for. We've heard rumors about Hyperion being freed by a bunch of demititans." We enter. Clarisse is working on him now. We hear her through a glass wall that looks like a wall to the demititan.
"Look, we can give you anything you want, just tell us who you're working with." Clarisse says. He's silent.
"I'll take him." Percy says, walking in. After around fifteen minutes the guy has still said nothing. The Heph-something cabin comes in.
"Why're you here?" Charles Beckendorf asks.
"I go in after Percy."
"Ah." After twenty minutes. Percy's gotten nothing. "What will you do If I fail?" I ask Nico.
"We use our imagination." Pleasant. After another five, Percy gives up.
"All yours Zack." I enter the room. I almost lost composure. I knew this man. I sit down in front of him. On a metal chair. "You know who I am?" I ask. Nothing. "I know you. You should probably be afraid." Nothing. "My name is Zack Johnson." Nothing. "Son of Ares and Marie Johnson. The woman you diagnosed with cancer three years ago."
The man pales. "Ah, recognition. Although now, I doubt it was cancer." He starts blubbering. "I was just doing like I was told! Don't kill me!"
"That's not why I'm here. Who are your collaborators?" Nothing. "If that's how you want to play it." I say and flip the table between us.
He speaks. "You're the only one here who doesn't have their head stuck up their a** Zack. Join us."
"You little B*tch." I slam the man up against the wall. "I know you killed my mother and I know you are trying to kill others. NOW QUIT SCREWING WITH ME AND TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!" Nothing. "If that's how you want to play it." I beat the hell out of him. Giving him a broken nose. I reach into my pocket and slowly, deliberately, brought out a pair of pliers. I rip off one of his fingers. He screams. "Tell me."
"Never." I walk out and grab an oil can. I spill it into his bloodstream. The scream was unearthly. I take out my sword. "Fine! They're in Rome!" He bellows. I leave. The others seem too scared of me to move. With a damn good reason. The bastard diagnosed my mother with cancer. Looking back now, it's obvious that he put something in her that the mist would cause mortals to interpret it as cancer. After calming down, I walk over to Chiron.
"Child, that wasn't what I meant when I said interrogate."
"It worked."
"Well, I suppose that you're probably a good idea for a war zone quest if one ever comes up."
I nod and walk back to my cabin. So, Hyperion could be released. And that f*cker is responsible for my mother's death. "Keep in perspective Zack...." I mutter to myself. About an hour later, at the dinner hall, Chiron stands up.
"Everyone, there's a quest that needs doing." He could have dropped a bomb. The place explodes with cheers. Chiron settles them down. "For our own reasons, we will have to keep the prophecy from you." Looks of puzzlement spread throughout the hall. "We will say this. One child of (How the hell is that spelt!?) will need to lead. Before you ask, myself and Dionysus will choose who." The Heph-whatever cabin is standing on edge.
"I think Nico will suffice, I'm tired of the guy anyways," Dionysus says. I roll my eyes. "Charles, the quest is this; You need to capture a demititan son of Kronos. Yes there is one. We need him brought back here. For interrogation." Chiron explains.
"I'll take-" He looks around. "I'm gonna need Zack on this one."
I smile. "I'm in." He glances at the Poseidon cabin. "Percy?"
"Absolutely."
Chiron glances at us. "You leave at sunrise. Charles, don't let Zack at him on the way back."
Officially questing
I'm up an hour before dawn. I pack my Wii remote and a gondolier of throwing knives. I put them in my backpack and run out to find Charles sitting next to a little girl, around eleven. I walk over. Nico speaks without looking at me. "Zack, this is Lady Hestia, goddess of the hearth."
I bow slightly. "Madonna." I say in Italian.
She smiles (good, she didn't mistake it for that horrid singer). "A child of Ares with manners."
Nico says incredulously, "Don't be so surprised."
After about ten minutes, Percy comes over. "Are we ready?"
"Good to go."
"Ready."
Chiron trots over. "Last I knew, he was in New York. Good luck."
We hop onto my motorbike (Which got a scream of approval/delight from the Aphrodite cabin, for whatever reason), me driving, of course. And the other two in sidecars.
"Where'd you get this thing?" Percy asks. "I'm guessing a gift from my father." I never really found out.
Charles looks up. "Why couldn't I drive?"
"One, its mine. Two, you'd just get us arrested."
We stop by a diner for lunch. I set a slight trap for anyone who attempts to steal the bike. Basically he'll be catapaulted about sixty feet. We head inside and get burgers. "What's the point of getting that?" Percy asks. I scowl. "Is there something wrong with only getting meat on a burger?"
"It's weird."
"Coming from a demigod, that's rich." Charles interrupts. I laugh to myself.
"Good one." We eat there for about seven minutes. Eventually, a pair of construction workers come in. The angle the way they sit so that they're warching us. I keep an eye on them. They eat a poutine each, still watching us. I whisper to the other two. "Two construction workers, behind you. Haven't stopped watching us since they got here."
Percy nods. "Fake bathroom trip, try to get a new view on them." I stand up and head over to the men's. One follows. I head in first and hear a noise like a knife. I wall run up and flip over him. His stab misses and the knife is stuck in a mirror.
I smile. "You demigod bastard!" He growls.
"And you are?" I ask and put my own knife to his throat.
"A demititan. Long live Hyperion!" He grabs my wrist and pulls the blade into his own throat.
"Crap." I say and move out to the main room. I swear it was bombed while I was in the bathroom. Charles is standing over the dead body of the other worker, while Percy is hiding all the knocked out mortals behind the counter.
"Pleasant." I say. We run out (I snatch my burger, no way I'm leaving something that tasty behind). We drive to a hotel and park. I look down at the keys and see a button I haven't seen before. It's purple. I push it. The bike turns into a key chain. "Nice." We head into the hotel. Nico uses a computer to look for certain locations. I glance around. This place is so familiar, yet I'm certain I've never been here before. I'm Canadian for Zeus's sake! Suddenly, I get very dizzy. I vision starts to fail. I sit down on a lobby chair. "F*ck, what is this?!" I mutter. My vision blacks out entirely. I start to see again, only differently. Everything's dark, but the people glow. Percy and Nico are blue, but everyone else is white. This is my vision.
"Verx?" After that, A brief conversation between the two me's explain that sometimes, I'll see people's intentions through this vision. Handy. I look around. A gold trail can be seen on the floor of the hotel. "That's his path." I whisper and grab Charles and Percy. "I know where he's gone. Follow me." We head out the door and follow the gold trail through New York.
"Zack, we have to stop for some form of rest," Percy says after seven hours of walking.
"Fine. I deactivate the vision and we check into a motel nearby. I throw myself onto one of the beds and I'm instantly drowsy. "I'm sleeping now," I say groggily.
"Ok. Don't die in your sleep."
"I'm immortal, f*ckwit."
The last thing I hear before falling asleep is Charles saying: "I can see this kid with Nyssa someday."
A chase worthy of Jack Bauer
I wake up and kick Charles (Who slept in an armchair). "Wake up." He jerks awake. "Pleasant." He mutters and we walk over to Percy. Neither of us can wake him up, so we dump him out of the bed. Among the stuff that falls is a picture of Annabeth. I don't bother trying to suppress a snort. He gets up, swearing furiously. We head over to the parking lot and I bring my bike up.
"I'm still getting used to you doing that." Percy mutters. I re-activate my demon-vision and I drive after the trail. We drive through the highway, back alleys, you name it. After about two hours, the trail leads into an apartment building. "He's in here." I say and we get out. I shrink the bike and turn to Charles. "Ok, guys. Non-lethal takedowns only. We need him alive." I nod. "How are we gonna keep him in the building?"
"Percy will cover the fire exits. I'll take the front door, you get to the roof."
"Done. Good luck."
I rely on Verx to help me get up the side of the building. I scale it so fast I was like greased lightning. I jump up onto the roof. I take out a comlink earpiece. "Any sign of him?" I ask Charles.
"No. Percy?"
"Take a right at the first hallway Charles. He's running to an elevator. Take the stairs."
"On it. Zack, I think he's trying to get to the roof. Stay alert." I hear Charles running for about two minutes. Then I hear a couple clangs and a sick snapping sound.
"Sh*t, what's happening?"
"Zack! He's coming your way! Percy, my leg's broken, help me out!"
I see the guy come out a roof hatch. He's about eighteen, wearing a red hoodie, black jeans, and a baseball cap. He sees me and starts to run towards the edge of the roof. I follow, praying he's not doing what I think he's about to do. He jumps onto the next roof. It's about a six foot jump, at a downwards angle. I jump without thinking. I land with a roll and follow him. He jumps onto the next roof, a McDonalds. I don't follow, and instead jump on the giant M. I then start to follow from the ground. He's headed to a large, armored van. I run at it with everything in me. I bring out my remotes and turn them into knives. The target jumps from a low roof into a door on the top. I jump at the side and plunge the knives into the side of the van, giving me something to hold on to while they drive away. I hold on for dear life. They start trying to ram me into the sides of buildings, other vehicles, people, you name it. I use my daggers to climb up the side and onto the roof. A person inside opens the roof hatch. "Ah, crap." he's holding a gun. I rip one of the knives out of the roof and stab forwards, into his left eye. He falls silently. I swing my self into the van. I duck under a sword swing and kick the attacker in the stomach. I grab my knife and throw it at him. He collapses. I turn and see the butt of a rifle come down on my face. Naturally, I black out.
When I woke up, everything was blurry. I mean, I could no see my own hands, type blurry. I shook my head to get rid of the disorientation. I see that I'm in a very small cage. "Welcome to our hell." A voice says. About three other cages were next to mine. One held a tanned, muscly guy, another was a super short person, and the third, a very hot girl. "Where, in the name of Zeus, am I?"
"A demititan labor camp." The hot girl says.
"And you are?" I ask.
"I'm Jennifer, daughter of Demeter, this is Tanner, son of Ares, and Jared, son of Apollo." I hit myself on the head to get rid of the last dizziness.
"Zack, son of Ares." I say. "Well, you must have really p*ssed them off, to have been brought here. Most of the Demititan army is in this building." I swear. This could be either terrible hell, or a stroke of good luck. If I could get out of this cage, I could take most of the army down before they could subdue me. I attempt to phase. Nothing. "What the hell?" I whisper.
"These caged have power inhibitors," Jared, the short one explains.
"Damn." They explained how they got here. They had left Camp Half-blood a year before I woke up, went around hunting Demititans, and got themselves stuck in here. After their story, a guard comes in, thankfully, with food. Not so thankfully, it's a few pieces of bread and a spoon of water. "Damn." I mutter.
Escape from.....where am I?
Well, let me put it this way, this is HELL. Tartarus would probably be preferable. I'm only just living off of the food. I can't see the others very well, but I do know that Jared enjoys complaining, Tanner doesn't talk very much, and that Jennifer is up there on my list of dating options. (If I ever get out of here)
"Are there any other prisoners here?" I whisper to her.
"There's a few hundred on the lower floors." She answers.
"We must be in one bag-a** building then." It went on for, I think, a week. I couldn't see a bloody thing outside, so I had no idea what the time was. After a little while, I had had enough. "I got an idea." I whisper to Jared.
"I'm all ears."
"Are there any exercise breaks?"
"Once a week, ours is tomorrow."
"Perfect. Wake the other two." He obliges and I explain my plan.
"Not bad. But you're still forgetting the number of guards in the gym." Jennifer says.
"That's why I'll need you and Tanner to tell the plan to the rest of the inmates. They'll handle the guards."
She smiles. "In that case this'll probably work." I grin. Tomorrow we'll bust out, kill all the demititans, whoop the arse of everyone else that gets in our way.
Well, things went a little south after that conversation. A few guards walked in and took Tanner to a different cell block. Jared objected, and they beat him senseless with a big stick. "You sure he'll be able to do his part?" I ask Jennifer.
"He'll have forgotten about the beating by the time he wakes up. He'll be fine." I nod and lean my back against the edge of my cage, using my hoodie as a pillow. "Good night to you too," Jennifer says irritably.
"I thought you were the tough one."
"Tough and sensitive one," She says with a smile. It's the last thing I see before falling asleep.
One of the worst sleeps of my life. I swear the dreams were visions. I saw camp. Things didn't seem so good. Percy and Nico had returned to tell them about my capture. The other Ares campers were screaming curses at the titans, the Athena's seemed to be struggling to come up with a rescue plan, and Percy was attempting to keep the Hades kids from summoning an army of dead guys. The dream changed. I saw New York at night. It was quiet, for a change. I could see the park. A trio of young men sprinted through the shadows. They seemed to not want to be seen. Each of them carried axes. They began to chop at a huge tree. I realized with a jolt that it was the tree that held Hyperion. I felt someone prod me on the shoulder. I jerk aside and the dream changes again. I see a man, about, say, 32, swinging a spear around. I duck as it flies above my head.
"Name of.....!" I look at the man.
He smiles at me. "Zack, I never thought I'd see you after that bike accident." I figure it out.
"Ares? Father?" I ask.
"Indeed. I see you've found your way into Urkota."
"Urcoata? Is that a type of clothing store?"
"No, wise*ss. It's the name of the labor camp you're sleeping in. I wanted to warn you. Tomorrow, during your escape, a titan is going to show up."
"What?! Which one?!"
"Prometheus. He is going to try to brainwash the inmates and make them serve him."
"I appreciate the warning, father."
"Go, get out of here, this spear is on sale."
"Huh?" I wake up. Jennifer is waking Jared.
"Ready?" She whispers.
"I guess. But I have bad news. A titan is going to show up."
Jared pales, but Jen smiles. "I knew that already."
"How?"
"I'm a girl. We know everything." Tanner rolls his eyes. After a while, the guards come in to escort us to the exercise break (Which seems pointless, LABOR camp). Jen wanders off to let everyone else know our plan. We're still doing it. Jared sneaks up behind me and shoves me.
"Outta the way!" He says. I turn and shove back.
"Screw you." He punches me in the face. I respond with a foot in is gut. I grabs my foot and twists. By now, A large crowd had showed up. Perfect. He slams me to the ground. I head but him back.
"Your strikes are weak!" He yells over the crowd.
A guard comes up with a baton. "What the hell is this!? No rations today!" Jared swears at him. The guard turns and starts to beat him with the baton. I use my foot to sweep his legs out from under him. I wrap my legs around his neck and snap it.
Jared helps me up. "Every escape begins with the first step!" He yells to the crowd. "Step one! Acquire the keys!" He yells and pulls them off the guard, as well as a dagger. "Come my friends, let us leave this hell!" The crowd runs. I take up the rear. We sprint through the building, taking out a guard here and there. eventually, we bump into Tanner, who is killing two guys at once. "Step two! Ascend from the shadows!" Jared bellows. We run up the stairs to the door where the labor takes place.
"Jared, they must know this is suicide." I say to him.
"Victory requires sacrifice, we older inmates know this better then any." He opens the door and the crowd surges forward. Most of them are torn down by archers along the opposite roof. "Zack, Tanner, Jen, with me!" We follow him to a large cart filled with wood. Jared passes me the dagger. "Keep us covered." They start pushing it towards the guard building. The archer's arrows bounce off the cart. When we get there, we sprint into the building, Jared kicking it open. "Tanner, open the armory! Zack, clear the roof! Step three?"
"Rain flame!" I respond and run up the stairs. Three guards stand up top, wielding bows. I use the knife to stab one in the back of the neck. One of the other two turns, and I lunge forwards and stab him in the stomach. By that time, the third was raising his bow towards me. In desperation, I fling the knife at him, which sinks into his heart. Another two prisoners join me and we make a makeshift slingshot. We grab the guards fire arrows and load them into it. I take aim at the other guard tower and fire. Twenty flaming arrows rain down on it. A couple of guards fall from the tower. The arrows had lit them both on fire. I run back downstairs. Jared is holding a two sided axe, Tanner a club twice as tall as me, and Jen is holding a wicked looking blade. She passes me my two wii remotes.
"Thanks." I say and we charge out the door. Other prisoners are seen fighting guards everywhere. Armed with swords, spears, axes, bows, one was even armed with a tire. I cut through three guards in one swipe and turn and stab both blades into another's chest, blood flying everywhere.
"Come brothers! Show no mercy!" Jared yells. For a whiner, he's a good motivator. I cut down another one before our forces make it to the next building. We run forwards, me and Tanner in the lead.
"They're trying to keep us out!" Jen yells. Sure enough, a door is closing. Tanner surges forward and catches it. I slide under, my blades turning into crossbows. I shoot one guard and turn to see Tanner take three arrows in the chest. He collapses, and the door cuts off his legs as it closes on a pool of blood.
"Damn it!" I yell an turn firing. Another guard falls, and arrow in his eye. I shoot another two and slip into the control room. I hit the switch and the door opens.
The prisoner army lunges forward. "A helicopter has arrived! They're trying to kill us from the air!" One of them bellows.
"Good!" Jared replies.
"How is this good!?" A demigod with a russian accent calls out.
"Because it is as we will it! Zack, here!" He throws me a harpoon launcher. I grab it and plant it on the ground just outside the door. The prisoner army is dead silent. The helicopter blades are the only sound. "Step four." Jared says quietly.
"Skewer the flying monster!" I yell and fire. The harpoon flies through the cockpit and impales the pilot, causing it to spin out of control. The crowd roars its approval. Then it began to roar something else, despair. An unearthly roar of a non-crowd origin sounded. A look up. My heart stopped. A drakon, which is basically a big-*ss snake, is slithering towards us. "Oh gods." Phase.
I instantly knew that Verx was right. So that's what I did. I jumped at it, phasing mid-jump. This time, I actually see it happen. I start to grow a few feet. My arms become scaly, black and gold armor covers me, my head becomes like a snakes, bat-like wings sprout from my back. I ignore the looks of astonishment on everyones faces and fling myself at the monster, loosing a roar of my own. It tries to eat me, but I move out of the way with ease. I use my clawed hands to climb up it's armored bulk. I bite down on it's back and tear off a portion of it's armor. I bite that next. the drakon roars and turns at me. Sadly, my teeth were stuck in it's side, so it ate me. Without a doubt, that was the most disgusting moment of my life. It's breath was HORRID. Being sucked down it's throat wasn't very pleasing either. When I was about halfway down, my hand caught fire. I was just annoyed at that point, but then I realized I was controlling it. So, I did the natural thing, and grabbed the side of the throat.
The fire spread like death during a p*ssed off Hades. An extremely loud THUD sounded after a while. So, I start to eat my way out. Luckily, I manage to find the hole in it's armor before it disintegrates. I phase when I land.
"Did everybody see that? I will not be doing it again!" I say. The prisoners are a little edgy now. Figures. We still fought our way through a small army of demititans.
"Step five!" Jared yells. "FREEDOM!"
The crowd yells. And we make our way through the last building. After the drakon I remember killing seventeen guards before something else happened. Another helicopter showed up. I was about to shoot it down when it shot a small canister down at us.
"Tear gas!" Jennifer yells. I passed out from it soon after that. When I woke up, I was lying in a garage. I looked around and saw Jared and Jen pulling in a couple of motorbikes. I pull out my keys and summon up my own. They raise eyebrows at that. We hop on and drive for our lives.
"Where are the others?!" I yell to Jared.
"Dead. The gas got them before we could get you out." He replies. That means we're the only ones left. I duck my head as an arrow is shot at me. "Don't stop! Keep moving or you're dead!" Jared yells. He's right, the arrows are missing me by millimeters.
"There's a truck up ahead! Zack, get it!" Jen yells. I make the motorbike a keychain again. The energy used in that movement launches me at the enemy truck that was nearby. I land in the back of it. I use one of my crossbows to kill the driver. The others drive next to the truck and hop on.
Jared takes the wheel. "The train will be here any minute guys!" He yells. The last part was to hop onto a train that comes by everyday, as gathered by the late Tanner.
"Get down!" Jen yells and grabs me. She pulls me down as an arrow swishes over us.
"Thanks!" I say.
"Don't mention it."
"The train's here jump now!" Jared yells. Sure enough, it is. I throw Jen, using help from Verx, onto the top of one of the cars. I demon jump up onto it myself.
"Jared c'mon!" I yell.
"Freedom was for you my friend! Not for me!" Seven exact seconds after he said that, the truck explodes.
"NO!" Jen screams. The train had already taken us to far to go back.
I visit the rockies
After the escape, Jen and I weren't precisely sure where we were. It was snowy, and very rocky. She was freezing because of the snow, it was nighttime, and on top of that, she doesn't wear very thick clothes. We found ourselves wandering through a forest. "Do you have any idea where we are?" I ask.
"No."
"Whatever happened to girls know anything?" She sticks her tongue out at me. We continue on through this frozen forest.
"I never did get your last name." I say, half trying to get her to speak, one quarter trying to know more about her, another quarter trying to lift her spirits.
"Vaia." She answers, pronouncing it: vy-uh.
"Johnson." I reply. After what felt like an hour, we managed to find a road.
"About freaking time!" She mutters, teeth chattering. What I didn't understand is why on earth I didn't feel cold. After about a minute of pondering this, Verx spoke to me. There's fire in your blood. The demon part of you. Hellfire.
That summed it up. I took off my sweater and gave it to her.
"Are you trying to freeze to death?" She asks.
"No, I'm not cold." She takes it. "Something to do with the monster you turn into?"
"Yeah." We kept going. Chaos nows how long later, we found, to our surprise, a convenience store, on the side of a mountain.
"A little too convenient." She says. "The alternative is stay out here and die." She nods and we head in. Now, when you think of a convenience store, you think that it's a gas station with chips and ravioli. but this place, was the MEANING of convenient. It had everything. From food to spears to snowmobiles.
A small little man is behind the cash register. "Hello youngsters." He says in a reedy voice.
"Hello." I say, as Jen runs off to the clothing section. "I must say, you could make all other convenience stores change their names." I say.
"Thank you. It's been such a long time since I've had customers, much less someone as young as you." I look past him. There's a calendar there. It's July eleventh. I'd been missing for longer than a month.
"Who are you?" I ask him.
"I can tell who you are, son of Ares." He says. My jaw almost fell off.
"How do you....?"
"I am a son of Morpheus. I was abandoned by my mother to live out here when I was five. Luckily, I found this place."
"So you didn't start this store?"
"No. Another demigod, a son of Zeus, ran this place. Before him a son of Ares, and before him a daughter of Aphrodite, who started this place out." Figures that a daughter of the love god would start a store.
"We'll probably just get snow gear and food, how much will that be?" I ask.
"This store flourishes on giving, not prices. It's all for free." I'm pretty certain that I could've used surgery on my jaw at that point. I half run to the weaponry section. I'm not normally a shopper, but when I see something I really, REALLY like, I just can't help myself. It's split into power sections. I skip practically everything else and go right into the last one. Sitting there is a ring. There's a ruby encrusted in it. "I see you have an interest." The old Morpheus kid says.
"You could say that."
"Only someone destined to wield it can. On top of that, that person needs to have a real need for it's first use. After that, you can use it at will."
"Fascinating. May I-?"
"Take it." I scoop it up and put it in my pocket.
At that point, Jen runs up to me. "Follow me, I need opinions."
"Wait, what?"
Basically, I was stuck sitting outside a change room for two hours giving opinions on her outfits. The trick is to say: "You look great." In as many different ways possible. When she heads back in (for the five hundred, fifty sixth time) A group of people dressed in tuxedos walk in. One of them is taller then most men, about as tall as Shaquille O'neal. His face looked like a p*ssed off hamster got at him. Long black hair tied into a ponytail. The other two look like they're in their early twenties. The old Morpheus kid welcomes them in. The tall one walks up to him, picks him up with one hand, and drops him outside.
"Find them." He says.
"Damn it." I mutter. They must be from the labor camp. At that point, Jen decided to be done and come out. I jump into the change room and, with one hand, pull her towards me and jump to the side, where the door doesn't wouldn't show our shadows, with the other, I closed her mouth.
"Quiet." I whisper to her. She raises her eyebrows. I draw on of my wii remotes and turn it into a knife. I listen in on what one of the demititans are doing. He's checking all of the change rooms, starting with the one furthest from ours. Once he gets into the one next to the one we're in, I stab the knife through the wall. When I pull it out, it's covered in blood. Jen reaches for her suitcase thing.
She mouthes "Snowmobile" at me. I understand instantly. I slip out and signal her to follow. We slink along the wall. The snowmobile section is on the other side of the store.
"Go." She says. I slide on the floor into one of the aisles. She follows. We creep along the aisles, ducking from each to each. Sadly, the other demititan bumped into us, quite literally. He slams his fist into my face and picks Jen up with one hand. I fell over. I use my knife to cut one of his achilles tendons, then wrap my legs around his head, which allows me to snap his neck. At that point, we just started running to the snowmobile. I hop on and gun the engine. Jen jumps on behind me and wraps her arms around my waist.
"Don't get any ideas," She mutters to me. We take off.
"GET THEM!" Scar guy screams. From everywhere, demititans on snowmobiles of their own barrel down the mountain towards us.
"Go!" Jen unnecessarily yells in my ear. I gun it. I drive down a near vertical slope. They follow relentlessly. I see a forest and drive towards it. I only just miss a couple of trees. A few of our pursuers crash into trees or each other as the vertical turns to a 45 degree angle. I see a cliff up ahead. I pin the throttle and jump it. None of the remaining pursuers make the jump. "Zack you're insane!" Jen screams.
"Admit it, you like how I think." I answer and keep going. The radio starts buzzing. Chiron's voice comes out. "Demigod emergency transport respond immediately. Where are you?"
"Chiron, this is Zack. I think I'm in the rockies."
"Zack!? I thought you were dead!"
"How long was I missing!?"
"Three years!"
My stomach falls. I have a ton of explaining to do.
To put it simply, I was trampled. Not good enough? Well, we were picked up by Chiron in a helicopter. A couple demigods holding Shotguns jump out.
"Shotguns? Things have improved." I comment. I recognize one of them as Percy.
"Hey Zack, you've grown."
"I suppose three years in a jail cell will do that. You on the other hand, have a longer story to tell me."
"True. I'll explain when we get back. Dionysus will have to help. And, we'll have to introduce your girlfriend to camp."
Jen made an obscene hand gesture.
"I've been there before." We hop onto the chopper and fly off.
Camp, three years later
2009 The changes at camp scared me. The numbers of the demigods there had decreased by more then half. Just in front of the camp is a large stone slab. On closer inspection, it had names of demigods and (What I think were) hunters of Artemis. "Those who died." A sad voice says, making me jump. It's Natalie. She's sitting next to it, a depressed look on her face. "Come on Zack." Percy says. I follow him into the big house. I sit down in a parlor like room. Mr. D is there. "What happened?" I say instantly. "Well, Luke became Kronos, attacked Manhattan, Typhon nearly destroyed us all, most of us died, We only just won, I started dating Annabeth." Percy explains in a nutshell.
"Damn. Why did I have to get captured?"
"Indeed. We could have used you."
"Why is Natalie out there like that?"
"Her boyfriend, Michael Yew died in the battle."
I swore under my breath. I look at the calendar. It's July 2009. Damn, I really was gone three years. I walked out. I wanted to know what else had changed. I put this into a nutshell. Hermes cabin is down to half people. There's a ton more cabins, to my terror, Clarisse has a boyfriend, security looks upped, and the place seems far more romantic. In fact, Aphrodite kids are chasing practically everyone around. By the looks of it, the Hermes kids are in on it too. What is going on? I put the thought out of my head and climb the big house to avoid be chased myself.
"Hey," I look over and Jen's sitting leaned up against the chimney.
"Avoiding the love hell?" I ask.
"Partly. My siblings are every bit as annoying as they are to me." I was confused at that, but I decided to not chase the subject. We stayed up there for the rest of the day, sometimes throwing rocks at the Aphrodite girls. At the end of the day, I jump down and head for the Ares cabin. I got a mix of dirty looks and looks of relief. I throw myself onto my bed (Which for some reason, Clarisse kept for me) and fall asleep instantly.
Trivia
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