1. Stampede!

"Would you two stop it?"

My parents pulled their lips apart and looked at me.

"You're embarrassing me."

We were standing on the curb outside my high school's auditorium as all the sports teams were filing out from the awards ceremony. Nobody else's parents were kissing right there on the sidewalk. Why couldn't mine be normal or at least, pretend to be?

My mom let go of my dad and wrapped her arms around me instead. "Mom, this really isn't any better," I groaned.

"Sorry, CJ, you'll just have to deal with it. I won't see you for three months, so you're getting a hug whether you like it or not."

I rolled my eyes, but hugged her back. As much as I didn't like to admit it, I'd miss her over the summer. As my mom and I said our goodbyes, Dad hailed her a cab. She had to go back to the office, so it would be just me and Dad making the trip to camp.

After Mom got into her cab, I turned to my dad, "Come on, let's go."

As we climbed into Mom's car, Dad laughed, "Are you in a hurry?"

Heck yes, I was in a hurry. "I'm already three weeks late."

Baseball went late this year. Our team was on fire this season. We made the state championship, and some of us played on the state's all-star team, which bled into the summer. The athletics awards today marked the end of school related sports stuff, so I could finally go to camp now.

I removed my necktie and buckled my seatbelt. Dad was just about to pull out when there was a knock on my window; it was Nic. I rolled the window down.

"Off to baseball camp?" she asked.

I nodded, "Yep."

"Well, have fun," she smiled.

"I will, and you have fun in Florida." She had plans to visit her aunt in Florida for her summer vacation.

She grinned widely, "Count on it. I think I'll to learn to surf while I'm there."

Gods, that sounded like fun. "Just try not to get eaten by a shark," I teased.

"I'll do my best," she laughed. "Well, I'll let you two get on the road. Bye, Mr. Jackson."

"Bye, Nicole," Dad said to her.

"See ya, Chase. Call me if you get a chance."

I nodded, "Will do. Bye, Nic."

Dad pulled out onto the street and cut his eyes at me, "Remind me again why you two aren't dating."

I wish I knew. It seemed like every time I got up the nerve to ask her, I choked. I shrugged, "I don't know, Dad."

"It wouldn't have anything to do with a certain young lady at camp, would it?"

"No," I insisted. I knew he was talking about Lexie, but she had nothing to do with why I hadn't asked Nic out. Besides, Lexie and I were just friends, and she had a boyfriend; she and Russ had been a couple for a while now.

Dad grinned, "Are you sure about that?"

"I'm done talking about this," I said as I leaned forward and turned up the music.

We'd been out of the city and on the open road for about half an hour when Dad pulled into a gas station. He didn't pull up to a gas pump, so I figured he had to pee or something, but he surprised me when he said, "Get out of the car."

I pulled my sunglasses down and looked over at him, "Huh?"

He opened his door and said, "Get out. You're driving."

I tried to contain my excitement, "Are you serious?"

He laughed, "Well, yeah."

I jumped out of the car and ran around to the driver's side. So much for containing my excitement. I'd just gotten my learners permit a few months before, and I had driven a little, but I definitely needed more practice. I sat down in the driver's seat, buckled my seatbelt, adjusted my mirrors, then pulled out onto the road.

Now, had I been with Mom, she would've been giving me step-by-step instructions on how to correctly operate a motor vehicle, and it would've annoyed the crap out of me, but Dad, he just slumped down in his seat like he was planning to take a nap. I guess he figured he'd been in more perilous situations than riding in a car with a fifteen year old behind the wheel. Little did I know, I was about to blast that theory all to hell.

Volvos are supposed to be among the safest cars on the road, but safe is a relative term. When I looked into the rearview mirror to see a stampede of four huge horses with fire expelling from their nostrils closing in on us, I felt anything but safe.

"Dad."

He stirred in his seat a bit, but didn't wake up.

"Dad, wake up." I was trying to stay calm.

"Hmm."

I shook his shoulder with my right hand, "Dad!"

"Are we there already?" he yawned.

"No, we've got trouble."

He straightened in his seat, "Trouble? What kind of…" He must've looked in the mirror and seen the monsters closing on us. "Step on it!"

I pushed the accelerator to the floor. The speedometer ran up: 70, 80, 90 miles per hour, but with my inexperience, it felt like mach 5. My heart was racing as I swerved through traffic, avoiding vehicles by mere inches.

"Dad, I can't do this! I'm gonna wreck!" I yelled in panic.

"Calm down, Chase. Just focus on the road. I'll handle the Mares."

Calm down? I was driving a hundred miles an hour down a four-lane blacktop with a herd of fire-breathing, flesh-eating horses chasing me. I most certainly was not going to calm down.

Surprisingly, the traffic began to clear a path for me. The only reason I could think of was that the Mist was likely making it look like we were being chased by four police cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring rather than horses that were bigger than Clydesdales and meaner than Ares.

Dad rolled down his window and stuck his head out. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'll try to talk some sense into them." Oh, right, he could talk to horses. "Hey!" he yelled at the Mares. "I'm the son of Poseidon!"

I don't know what exactly those rabid horses said back, but Dad grumbled under his breath, "Not again." He must've dealt with flesh-eating horses before. "No, not seafood!" he yelled. "I'm your lord! I command you to stop!"

Dad brought himself back into the car. "Well?" I asked.

"Yeah, that didn't work. They think you're shrimp and I'm lobster."

Shrimp? They thought I was a shrimp? I slammed on the brake. Dad hit the dashboard, and the horses went racing past us.

"Put your seatbelt back on," I told him.

I jerked the wheel to the left and punched the accelerator. The car spun 180 degrees, and I never let off the gas. I sped down the road traveling west instead of east, now. As I swerved around oncoming traffic, Dad gripped the armrest like he was holding on for dear life. I looked into the mirror to see the horses were bearing down on us again. I switched lanes from right to left and back again, trying to use the traffic to impede the Mares' pursuit. It wasn't really working. The horses just leaped over the cars or in some cases ran right into them, knocking the vehicles out of their path.

One of the horses was right on our bumper, and I could smell paint burning as the Mare's fiery breath scorched the trunk of Mom's car; she was going to be so pissed. I noticed a semi-truck up ahead, so I drove right up behind it, and at the very last second before I'd hit it, I swerved right. The Mare on our bumper didn't anticipate the move, and she plowed into the back of the tractor-trailer.

"Woo!" I yelled with excitement. "One down, three to go!"

"Chase, let one get up along side us," Dad said as he pulled Riptide from his pocket.

As Dad removed his seatbelt and rolled his window back down, I slowed just enough to let one of the Mares catch up to us, but instead of going for Dad's side of the car, she came up along my side. She put her head down and slammed it into the driver's door…hard. The window shattered, and glass filled my lap. It's a wonder the airbags didn't deploy. The force of the impact pushed the car over two lanes to the right, and I was almost on the shoulder before I regained control.

"You alright?" Dad asked.

"I'm fine. Hang on!"

I turned the wheel to the left and slammed the car into the horse just like she'd done to the car. She stumbled, and it gave me the opportunity to pull up alongside her where she would be on Dad's side. Dad hung out the window and uncapped his ballpoint pen. It grew into a three-foot long celestial bronze sword that he drove into the neck of the giant horse. The Mare reared up and screeched in pain before bursting into a cloud of combustion then ash.

"No seafood for you," Dad chuckled.

I looked back to see one of the Mares still chasing us, but the other one was nowhere to be seen, that is, until I looked forward. Somehow she'd gotten ahead of us and was now barreling straight at us like she wanted to play a really messed-up game of chicken. I had no interest in playing; I knew I couldn't win. I jerked the wheel to the left, and the car went into a spin. I fought with the wheel until I finally got the car straightened out in the eastbound lane. The two Mares, who were running at full speed, collided with one another and hit the pavement, rolling head over tail.

"Whoa!" I gasped. "Did you see that?"

"They won't be down long," Dad said. "Just keep driving. There's a bridge a few miles up ahead. Stop on it."

"You want me to stop on the bridge?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I just hope the creek's not dry."

Dad was right; they didn't stay down long. Soon, they were back in pursuit and catching up fast. I could see the bridge he was talking about up ahead, but I didn't know if we'd make it there before the horses caught up to us. I was driving as fast as I could without losing control. Much over 100 and the car felt like it was floating, so I kept it at about 95.

We were closing on the bridge when Dad opened the moon roof. I didn't know what he had up his sleeve, but whatever it was, it was bound to be interesting.

He climbed out of his seat and began to stand up on the center console, "Gods, I wish Dakota was here to see this."

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing. Just get ready to stop. We're almost at the bridge."

Dad stuck his upper body out of the moon roof, and when we were close enough to the bridge, I yelled, "Hang on, Dad!"

I pulled the e-brake, and the car went into a sideways slide onto the bridge. I'd timed it perfectly. The car came to a stop dead center on the bridge.

Dad was half-out of the car through the moon roof and had his arms thrust out to his sides. The horses were on a collision course with us and they were closing fast. Suddenly, two waterspouts rose up out of the creek, one on each side of the bridge. The swirling tornadoes of water that Dad had created and was controlling, emerged onto the bridge, and he waited patiently for the Mares to get close. When the horses were almost on top of us, Dad thrust his arms toward them, and the waterspouts obeyed his command. Each tornado slammed into a Mare, lifted the enormous horses off the ground, and had them in the spin-cycle. Dad maneuvered his arms to his sides and the tornadoes mimicked his movement. Both waterspouts had a Mare spinning in its belly, and as they neared the edge of the bridge, Dad slammed his hands down onto the roof of the car, which startled me, and I nearly jumped out of my seat. The tornadoes dove over the edge of the bridge and dissipated as they hit the creek bottom. The Mares splashed down into the creek and were quickly washed away by the swift current.

I blinked. That was so cool. I've seen Dad do some pretty wicked stuff with water, but it never ceases to amaze me how creative he can be in volatile situations.

Dad eased his body back into the car and settled back into his seat. He groaned, "I'm getting too old for this."

"I thought you did pretty awesome…for an old man."

"Ha, ha, shut-up."

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Speaking of awesome," he said. "Where in Hades did you learn to drive like that?"

I shrugged, "Playstation."

He burst out laughing, then ruffled my already messy hair, "Well, you did good, kid. Now, come on, let's get moving before the cops show up."

I put the car in gear and resumed the drive toward camp. "Hey, Dad," I said. "Does it ever bother you to kill horses like that?"

"Maybe, a little, but those weren't horses, they were monsters. When you're in a kill or be killed situation like that, you do what you have to do."

I know he's had to make sacrifices in the past to save himself and the people he cared about. Even if that meant doing things that didn't seem right. Those Mares were monsters, and they would've killed us given the chance, but they were still creatures of Poseidon, which must've made killing them conflicting for Dad. And I learned a valuable lesson right then: know where your deepest loyalties lie. Dad's loyalty was to me.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, I pulled up to the base of Half-Blood Hill. I had to crawl across the car and exit on the passenger's side, because, of course, the driver's side door was jammed shut. I grabbed my duffel from the back seat and walked up to my dad who was examining the beat-up Volvo.

"Tell Mom I'm really sorry about her car."

"Eh, don't worry about it," he shrugged. "We've got insurance."

"Insurance that covers stampede of fire-breathing horses?"

Dad scratched his head, "Yeah, I don't know how I'm going to explain that to the claims adjustor."

I laughed, "I'm sure you'll think of something." I looked toward the hill, then looked back at him, "Well, I guess this is it. Be careful driving home."

"I will, and you be careful on your adventures this summer."

I smiled, "Always."

He hugged me tightly, "I love you, son."

"I know, Dad. I love you, too."

He released me from the hug, but still gripped my shoulders, "If you ever need anything…"

"You're just an Iris message away," I nodded.

He smiled, "Have fun this summer."

"I intend to. See you in a few months."

"See you in a few months."

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.