Welcome to the first chapter of City of Secrets! :) If you have not read School of Secrets, I STRONGLY suggest you go read that first. This story won't make much sense unless you've read it. For my older readers: I want this story to be a little more evenly paced than School of Secrets was, so this one will be a little longer. Also, at some parts of this story most of you will probably go Qwerty, what on earth are you thinking? You guys are gonna have to trust me- all the chapters are planned out and such, so I'm not just randomly pounding this stuff out. It has a purpose, I promise! Shout outs: (These are taken from reviews in the last chapter of School of Secrets)
Myusernameisorigional- Just a warning: there will be many cliffys over the next two storys… sorry :( On the bright side, I update pretty quickly usually, so you probably won't have to wait long!
8EternallyMortal8- I'm writing as fast as I can! ;)
PepsiCola541- It's been two days, that's not too bad, right? ;) Also- I'm in the U.S. too, so there isn't any time difference and na, I don't really find lol annoying unless people use it as a word. Have you ever heard people do that? It drives me crazy! Is it really that hard to just laugh? Ok, sorry for that mini-rant. And as to the titan thing- I wish I could tell you…but I can't. It's a big part of the plot… although if I remember correctly you find out in Chapter 9 (I'd have to check my chapter outline to be sure, but I think it's somewhere around there)
Disclaimer: Wanna hear a secret? *whispers* I own nothing… except the plot!
Percy's POV
I don't know what I'd been expecting the wheelchair man to say, but I wasn't expecting that. I looked over at Annabeth, who looked as shocked as I did. I still felt like to clearing was spinning- this man was not only claiming my dad was alive, but claiming to know him. My dad had been lost at sea years ago… at least, I though he had been.
Over the last few months I had learned that nothing is ever as it appears. I'd been sent to a boarding school (The MIST Academy) run by Luke Castellan and the Titan Kronos. What's a Titan, you ask? Good question- I'll tell you when I find out.
Anyway, The MIST Academy had seemed like the perfect school, but beneath it's glittering surface it had a rotten core. You see, MIST stands for Missing Intellect of Special Talents. It sounded fancy, but it pretty much meant that the school rounded up all the unique kids it could find and stole their powers. They had this special machine called the Altering Chair that leeched your power and put it in the form of a pill.
Headmaster Luke's grand plan had been to collect all the pills, take them, and then use his powers to take revenge on all the people who had cast him out. Specifically, his parents. In the end, it turned out Kronos had been using him for his own purposes, although none of us have any idea what Kronos's real motive might have been.
Whatever Kronos's plan might have been, Annabeth (my best friend and girlfriend) knew something was up and formulated an escape plan. It had been going fine until Annabeth had gotten the brilliant idea to return for Luke, figuring Kronos had blackmailed him into being evil or something. Luke and Annabeth go way back, and she had been pretty firm in her belief that there still was some good in him. (What? Pfft, no, I'm not jealous about that!)
Long story short, I went back and rescued Annabeth, and accidentally killed Kronos. Now, we had escaped, only to have wheelchair guy tell us we had jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
"Why should we believe you?" Annabeth asked cautiously when I remained silent.
"Because you have no other choice," wheelchair guy said seriously, looking her straight in the eye. She hesitated, and then looked to me. Using facial expressions, we had a silent conversation.
Should we trust him? She asked silently. We didn't come this far to trust strangers, after all.
He said he knows my dad. Maybe he knows what Kronos meant about my bloodline. In my mind, the decision was made up. I had to jump at any opportunity to learn more about my dad. Annabeth gave me a long look, and then nodded slowly.
"Alright, we'll come with you," she said. Some of our companions (other former MIST students who had escaped with us) looked like they disagreed, but they didn't argue with Annabeth. (Trust me, she can be pretty scary when she wants to be.) Wheelchair guy looked relieved, and then turned and motioned for us to follow him. We followed hesitantly, following his lead and staying quiet.
"Look, if we're gonna trust you, at least tell us your name," whispered one of our friends harshly. Her name was Reyna, and she's cautious by nature. Wheelchair man hesitated for a moment, than answered without looking back.
"Chiron," he said shortly. Annabeth and I exchanged a look, both thinking the same thing: First Kronos, now Chiron. Both mythical names.
Annabeth motioned for me to slow down, and I obliged 'til we were both trailing in the back of the group.
"If he makes any move to attack, we run. Agreed?" She whispered.
"Yeah," I muttered, wincing as a stray branch brushed against my bruised side. Annabeth and I had both been injured in the fight with Luke and Kronos, and were in no shape to fight Chiron if he turned out to be a threat.
"I know you want to know more about your dad, I'm just wary to trust him," she said to me in a undertone.
"Thanks," I replied quietly. Annabeth shrugged.
"If I were offered the chance to find out more about my birth mom, I'd jump at the chance, too."
"Your birth mom?" I asked. I knew a lot about Annabeth, but she rarely talked about her family life.
"She left us when I was a baby," Annabeth explained quietly, not meeting my gaze. I wanted to say sorry, but I knew it would sound hollow. I knew how it felt, to have a parent leave so soon after your birth. I'd spent a lot of my life wondering if I was the reason my dad didn't have the guts to stick around and marry my mom. So instead of offering half-baked apologies, I just slid my hand into hers and squeezed it lightly. She shot me a grateful look, but jerked her head back around when the group suddenly stopped.
We were standing in front of a rickety, unstable looking bridge that connected the small island we were on to the main land. We were also crouched behind some bushes, hiding from two stout creatures by the bridge.
"Earth-bounds," Chiron muttered darkly, looking at the creatures. I followed his gaze back to the creatures, and as the rising sun hit them, I struggled not to gag.
If you've never seen an earth-bound, you're lucky. They were like clay people, with blocky legs and arms, but with black eyes that seemed empty and unfocused, and one blood-red eye in the middle. The poor excuse for clothes they had draped over their bodies was a strange array of animal furs and old newspapers, and the stench… oh gods, was a shower and a toothbrush such a terrible idea?
"What are they doing?" Asked Annabeth, her voice sounding strange. When I turned to look at her, I saw she was pinching her nose closed. "Trying to stop us from leaving?"
"No, child," Chiron corrected. "They were here to stop you from arriving."
"What?"
"They can't have people walking to the heart of the island," Chiron explained.
"They really need those things to ward of some lost tourist?" Annabeth scoffed quietly, looking dubious.
"They do not fear mortals, child."
"Then what are they guarding against?" Annabeth pressed, but Chiron just shook his head.
"That isn't important right now. Right now we need to get you off the island."
"How did you even know we were here?" Asked Reyna suddenly, eyeing Chiron suspiciously.
"I was sent," was all Chiron would say.
"Ok," Annabeth sighed, abandoning her inquiries for now. "So how do we get rid of them?"
"Watch and learn," Chiron said smoothly, rolling his wheelchair right into the middle of the path. "Hello," he called to the earth-bounds cheerfully.
"He's insane," muttered Annabeth.
"Oh, completely," agreed another one of our companions, Thalia Grace. (Who happened, by the way, to be a good friend of Annabeth's and my cousin.) We watched as the earth-bounds turned to Chiron, yelling something in a strange language before charging.
For giant clay creature, they moved incredibly fast. Inhumanly fast. Chiron didn't even bat an eye as he pulled a bow from behind his wheelchair that none of us had noticed before, sliding an arrow into place, and shooting the first earth-bound straight through it's red eye with a easy, practiced motion. The creature didn't bleed or cry out, but the red eye turned the same dull black as the other two and it slumped to the ground, dead.
The other hesitated briefly, but Chiron quickly led it to the same fate as the one it's brother had suffered.
"Come on, don't just sit there gaping." Chiron urged, rolling his wheelchair to the edge of the bridge. "Re-enforcements will be here soon."
"How? You killed them both- there's no one to warn the others," Reyna objected, but when I looked back to the dull black eyes, a chill ran through me. I had a bad feeling someone knew exactly what had just happened, and whoever it was, I didn't want to meet them.
Chiron led us quickly across the bridge, which surprisingly held up well, and lead us into the sleeping city of Manhattan. I looked over my shoulder at the desolate island we had just left and suddenly a thought occurred to me.
"Chiron?"
"Yes, Percy?"
"Why don't the people around here notice a large, evil island just off the coast?" I asked curiously.
"Oh, they can't see it." Chiron said, dismissing my question easily. "Let us hope they never do," he continued under him breath. I got the feeling I shouldn't have heard that last part, but I did anyway. How can an entire city miss an entire island? And how could they just wake up one morning and see it? I wondered, but I didn't ask. I was too confused already.
"Goodbye," Chiron said suddenly, wheeling his wheelchair around.
"What, what?" I asked.
"No! We still have questions!" Cried Annabeth at the same time.
"These things are out of your control, Annabeth." Chiron said gently, although I couldn't remember Annabeth ever telling him her name. "Go home."
"I can't," Annabeth said, her voice breaking a bit on the last word. I had no idea what she was talking about, but apparently Chiron did.
"I'm sure one of your friends will shelter you for the time being," Chiron reassured her. "Goodbye."
And with that, Chiron was gone, leaving us with far more questions than answers.
So, City of Secrets is officially underway! Just in this first chapter, it's obvious things aren't quite right in Manhattan. Also, I never mentioned this in the beginning, but thanks so much to all of you. Your reviews for School of Secrets were so encouraging, and you guys really seemed excited to see a sequel. It really motivated me and just absolutely made my day. :) Anyway, reviewer's question: Best reviewer's questions? I'm running out. :( I'll give you credit for any you submit that I use! Until next time!