I sighed. Some kind of monster had been eating up all our pegasi. I was really getting tired of this stuff. I mean, come on! After fighting in two major wars, getting godly items since I was twelve, holding up the sky, losing my memory,and falling into Tartarus for the love of Dad, shouldn't I get a break?! But noooooooo. The Fates just hate me, and now Guido and Porkpie had vanished, and since I was the only one who could communicate with them, I was the one sent out to find them. Not that I didn't like them, but I was a bit sick of fighting monsters.
After an extensive and thorough search (okay, I followed the screaming), I ran up to a particularly swampy part of the Long Island Sound, where, to my shock, I saw some other guy fighting, wait, was that… a giant crocodile? I mean, it may be swampy, but Long Island doesn't get crocs… right? Odd. I'd never seen a crocodile monster before, as they weren't really native to the Greek Isles (A/N: Right?).
I continued watching the insane guy battling the croc thing with a big stick. I almost wanted to laugh. I mean, come on dude, a stick?! At least have SOMETHING SHARP to stab it with. What was he gonna do? Whack the monster to death? I snorted. That would have have been amusing to watch. The as I watched, the crocodile swallowed him whole.
Well, now it was my turn to tackle the beast. I uncapped Riptide and charged.
After a couple of good jabs, I managed to get the monster to regurgitate the guy from earlier. My anger was moving the water, as it was bubbling around me. By now, my shirt was filthy. Oh, Styx. I promised Mom I'd stop bringing the Long Island Sound home with me.
As I looked at Barfed Up Dude, I noticed that he did have a sword. But something was wrong with it. It was all bent.
"The crocodile." he said. "Where did it go?" I frowned.
"You're welcome"
"What?"
"I stuck that croc in the rump." I said, mimicking the action. "That's why it barfed you up. So, you're welcome. What were you doing in there?" My question seemed to anger him.
"I was resting!" he snapped, clearly annoyed. "What do you think I was doing? Now, who are you, and why are you fighting my monster?"
"Your monster?" I trudged toward him, ignoring the muck. "Look, man, I don't know who you are, but that crocodile has been terrorizing Long Island for weeks. I take that kind of personal, as this is my home turf. A few days ago, it ate one of our pegasi." The guy looked shocked.
"Did you say pegasi?" he asked. I ignored the question.
"Is it your monster or not?"
"I don't own it!" he growled. "I'm trying to stop it! Now, where-"
"The croc headed that way." I pointed south with Riptide. "I'd already be chasing it, but you surprised me." Lie. I sized him up. He was wearing weird linen PJs with a belt. He looked Africa, but had an American accent. No matter what, he definetly a demigod. How else could he see the croc through the Mist? But who was his [arent? Definitely not Demeter, Apollo, Hades, or a minor deity. Hestia, Artemis, and Hera didn't have any kids. He didn't have that Dionysus vibe, or the Athena looks. He definitely wasn't a Roman. So that left Zeus and Ares, and I wasn't inclined to think that Hera would let a child of her husband reach their teenage years without punishment. I shook my head. "I give up. Son of Ares? You've got to be a halfblood, but what happened to your sword? It's all bent."
I seemed to have angered him.
"It's a khopesh." he snapped. "It's supposed to be curved." He then gritted his teeth. "Just get out of here. I've got a crocodile to catch." I couldn't believe him. After failing to kill the monster, he wanted to go after it?! Actually I was kind of impressed. But mostly I was annoyed.
"Dude, I have a crocodile to catch," I insisted. "Last time you tried, it ate you you. Remember?" His fingers tightened around the hilt of his weird bent sword. What had he called it, a kopis?
Next thing I knew, a giant blue glowing fist slammed into my gut. Okay, now I was angry. After saving his life, he thanks me by punching me?! No way. I was not going to let him get away with that! He shouted something that I didn't hear, as I willed the water to become a wall. With a battle cry (a quiet one), I sent it straight toward him. Then, before he could recover from that, I advanced toward him, Riptide already unsheathed.
Amazingly, he deflected the blow. As he fell back, I kept attacking.
"Now I get it!" I yelled. "You're some kind of monster!" He intercepted the strike, and our swords met with a CLANG!
"I'm not a monster!" he gasped out.
I swung again, but this time, he caught Riptide with an ivory stick. Blue sparks shot up my arm, but I felt no pain. Who was this guy?
"You said the crocodile was yours." I scowled at him. "You lost your pet, I suppose. Maybe you're a spirit from the Underworld, come through the Doors of Death" I said, thrusting my hand out and commanding the water to obey me. The river reversed course knocking him off his feet.
He threw a rope yelling 'TASSEL', or something like that, just as Riptide cut into his arm. The rope flew me, tieing my arm to my head. Wow, Annabeth would not believe this! I lost my balance, as the momentum plopped me into the water. Dang, this guy was good. After a minute, I sighed.
Glaring at him, I said: "I'm really starting to hate you."
"Hate me?" he protested. "I'm gushing blood here. And you started all this by calling me a half-blood!"
I rose, struggling to keep my balance. "Oh please. You can't be mortal. If you were, my sword would have passed right through you. If you're not a spirit or a monster, you've got to be a half-blood. A rogue demigod from Kronos's army, I'd guess." He blinked.
"So when you said 'half-blood'..." I stared at him.
"I meant demigod, yeah. What did you think I meant?" He was silent for a moment, as if processing what I'd said.
"What are you?" he demanded. "Part combat magician, part water elementalist? What gnome are you with?" I laughed, albeit a bit bitterly.
"Dude, I don't hang with gnomes. Satyrs, sometimes. Even Cyclopes. But not gnomes" He seemed shocked for some reason. Siriusly (A/N: Ok, I know that isn't how you spell serious, but I couldn't help myself! Even though this is Percy Jackson, not Harry Potter!), to have that amount of power, he HAD to know what he was! Unless he wasn't…
I watched as he swallowed. "Look," he said. "I'm sorry about hitting you with the fist spell. It was an accident. But the thing I don't understand… it should have killed you. It didn't. That doesn't make sense."
"Don't sound so disappointed." I muttered. "But while we're on the subject, you should be dead too. Not many people can fight me that well. And my sword should have vaporized your crocodile.
"For the last time, it's not my crocodile." I shrugged.
"Okay, whatever. The point is, I stuck that crocodile pretty good (A/N: Oh Percy, GRAMMAR CAN BE YOUR FRIEND!), but I just made it angry. Celestial bronze should've turned it to dust."
"Celestial bronze?" Before our conversation could continue, I heard a scream, one that I recognized. Lacy, from Aphrodite (Ok, I totally made this up, just now.), as well as a quieter one that I was pretty sure I wouldn't have recognized, had I not heard it before. Becky, a child of Apollo (A/N: OC) was often plagued by nightmares, so the camp heard her scream a lot. She had a really high-pitched voice. Siriusly. Anyway, getting off topic. Stupid ADHD. I locked eyes with Linen PJs Dude.
"We've got to stop the crocodile." He said. I nodded.
"Truce?" I suggested.
"Yeah," he said. "We can continue killing each other after the crocodile is taken care of."
"Deal." I said. "Now can you please untie my sword hand from my head? I feel like a freaking unicorn."
I still didn't trust the guy. I mean, trying my hand to my head with a rope? Not a good way to earn my (or anyone's) trust. But right now, we had a bigger problem. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice I was going much faster than Linen PJs Dude. I was jolted out of my musings (like the new word? Annabeth taught it to me.) by Linen PJs Dude asking what my name was. I gave him a suspicious glance.
"I'm not sure I should tell you. Names can be dangerous." You could anger a god or goddess just by saying their name, or at least get their attention. He nodded.
"Fair enough. I'll go first. I'm Carter." The newly named Carter offered. Call me crazy (Thalia would), but I believed him.
"Percy." I said. Neither of us offered any last name. We were temporary allies, not friends. We continued walking. I heard Harley from Hephaestus, Beth from Demeter (A/N: OC), Natasha from Hecate (A/N: OC), and James from Hermes (A/N: OC, but see what I did there? Huh, huh?) all screaming now.
"Just to warn you," Carter told me. "You can't kill the monster."
"Watch me." I muttered.
"No, I mean it's immortal." He said. (A/N: My computer is insisting "immortal" isn't a real word! Can you believe it?!)
"I've heard that before. " I said. "I've vaporized plenty of immortals, and sent them back to Tartarus." He shook his head like I was giving him a headache.
"No," he said. "This monster is a petsuchos-a son of Sobek." I had no clue who that was. I'd never heard of a Sobek in Greek mythology. When I asked him what Sobek was he said:
"Lord of crocodiles. Egyptian god." Wait, WHAT?! EGYPTIAN?! As if there weren't enough gods running around already, someone went and said "Oh you know what? These guys don't have enough problems, so we'll just add Egyptian gods to the mix. Yeah, that was smart dude. Real smart. I looked at the bent sword and ivory stick in his belt.
"Where are you from? Honestly." I asked suspiciously.
"Originally?" Carter asked. "Los Angeles. Now I live in Brooklyn." That didn't help my uneasiness.
"So this pet-suck-oh or whatever-"
"Petsuchos, " he corrected. "It's a Greek word, but the monster is Egyptian. It was like the mascot of Sobek's temple, worshipped as a living god." I know the word is Greek! I'm Greek! But I couldn't say that, so instead I grunted.
"You sound like Annabeth." I said.
"Who?" He asked.
"Nothing. Just skip the history lesson. How do we kill it?"
"I told you-"
Becky screamed again, followed by a loud CRUNCH. Carter and I sprinted to the top of the hill, where the place looked normal (except for the croc and the police cars of course) for a demigod.
I took in a lot of details about the scene, many of which I will not bore you with. Short version: Yellow light in his eyes, 40 feet long, white jagged teeth, big, expensive necklace. There, now you know.
Then I noticed Lacy, Becky, Harley, Beth, Natasha, and James hiding behind the wreckage armed with Celestial bronze daggers (Lacy, Beth, Becky, and James), a bronze hammer (Harley), and a glowing purple light (Natasha). I wondered what Carter saw. With a subtle nod from me, they threw their weapons.
Carter ran past me yelling "Get away from it! Run!" I wanted to laugh. By now, they'd gotten their weapons back. They could defend themselves. But then, my fatal flaw kicked in, and I started to agree with him.
Carter threw his stick at the monster yelling something that sounded like "Hah! Here!". But when the stick hit the croc, it sparked and blue (yay, blue! Argh! Stupid ADHD!) light flickered across its body.
As the monster writhed, Lacy, Becky, Harley, Beth, Natasha, and James scattered, probably hurrying back to camp. Why Chiron had let them leave, I had no idea.
I whistled. "Well, you got his attention." I said
"Yeah" Carter said.
"You sure we can't kill it?" I asked.
"Yeah. Even if you could destroy his body, he would just reappear somewhere nearby. That necklace? It's enchanted with the power of Sobek. To beat the monster, we have get that necklace off. Then the petsuchos should shrink back into a regular crocodile."
"I hate the word should" I grumbled. "Fine. I'll get the necklace. You keep him occupied."
"Why do I get to keep him occupied?" Carter complained.
"Because you're more annoying." I retorted, before running off as the croc charged.
I had no clue what Carter was doing, but I just went, and starting attacking the monster. I was doing okay, until Carter distracted me by becoming a giant blue chicken man.
"Holy Hera!" I yelled. "What the-?!" Then the croc slammed into him. I winced. I may not like him much, but no one deserves to be flattened by a 40 foot long crocodile except maybe dear old Grandpa Kronos and Great-Granny Gaea.
Then-miracle of miracles (A/N: Anyone get that reference?)-Carter survived. Joy and blue cookies.
"What the creeping crud was that?!" I yelled, after Carter had tried (and failed) to kill the monster. "You're inside a giant glowing chicken-man!"
"Hawk!" He yelled. I unfroze and ran to the croc and jumped on the tail and climbed up the spine. The croc was thrashing, but I had plenty of practice keeping my balance in deadly situations, so I didn't fall.
"HEY!" I heard Carter yell. He tussled with the monster for a bit before yelling "Percy! Any time now!" I lunged for the necklace and tried to cut the thing, but Riptide couldn't cut through.
"Hurry!" Carter rasped.
"Can't cut it!" I replied.
"A clasp!" he said. "There's got to be one!" He seemed to spot it. "There-on the bottom!"
I scrambled down the necklace, reached the bottom, and held on for dear life. Riptide was gone, for now. Good news: the croc didn't notice me. Bad news: it noticed Carter. Extra bad news: I couldn't unlock the clasp.
"Percy!" Carter called.
"I can't unlock the clasp!" I yelled back. I pounded my fist against the base. "Some kind of magic?"
He didn't reply, and when I adjusted my position, I saw that he was shaping something out of wax. He threw the wax (which I now saw looked a little bit like a hippo) and yelled something I didn't understand. Immediately it sprang to life, sailed into the monster's left nostril, and hung there wiggling its stubby back legs. I have to say, from what I saw of it, it was a bit cute, just as the monster decided to try and eat him again.
I dropped off the croc and landed on the curb, joining Carter. A moment later I pulled him out of the croc's charging path.
"You okay?" I asked him. He nodded, gasping for air. It was only as I saw Harley offering him his hammer, that I realized the kids hadn't run back to camp. Thankfully, Carter declined the dagger.
"You guys," I said to them. "You hear those sirens? You've got to run down the road and stop the police. Tell them it's too dangerous up here. Stall them! Και τότε , το κεφάλι πίσω στο στρατόπεδο , και να πει ο Χείρων τι συμβαίνει (And then head back to Camp and tell Chiron what's going on)" They nodded and raced off.
"Good call," Carter rasped beside me. Thankfully, he didn't ask why I suddenly switched languages. I nodded grimly. At least those six wouldn't get hurt (unless Annabeth killed them for not bringing me back with them).
"You've got some moves Carter," I admitted. "Anything else in your bag of tricks?"
"Nothing," he responded grimly. "I'm running on empty. But if I can get to that clasp, I think I can open it." I sized up the petsuchos.
"Guess it's my turn to distract the croc." I said. "Get ready to run for that necklace."
"You don't even have your sword!" Carter protested. "You'll die!" I smiled grimly. Unbeknownst to him, Riptide had reappeared in my pocket during the conversation.
"Just run in there as soon as it starts." I said.
"As soon as what starts?" I didn't answer him, as the crocodile sneezed out the hippo (A/N: Ok, that sounded fine in my head, I swear!) and I charged the croc.
I had gone with my usual plan: Wing it, and hope nobody dies. I stood in front of the monster with my arms outstretched. With luck (not that Tyche liked me at all, unfortunately) the monster would go for me, leaving Carter free to get the necklace off.
By some miracle, it worked! The croc went after me, Carter managed to get to the necklace, and all I had to do was create a huge whirlpool. No sweat. Actually, it was a lot harder than that, and Carter transformed into a falcon, but I won't bore you with the details.
Half an hour later, we were sitting in a diner off the Montauk Highway. Carter had given me some kind of disgusting nectar, and most of our wounds had healed, although I had a few new scars that Annabeth would see the second she saw me. I was not looking forward to that. I had originally promised Carter lunch, but only found Riptide in my pocket, so Carter summond money (I had no idea how) for cheeseburgers.
After a conversation about what had happened, Carter ended up with both the necklace and the croc (which turned out to be just a small baby one). Annabeth and Lou Ellen would give me grief about that, but they'd forgive me once they heard the story (I hoped). Carter had also drawn a weird eye on my hand and told me that if I needed him, to just say his name, and the eyes would send him a signal. For now, I think I'll tell Chiron and the head counselors about this. I have a feeling, that one day soon, I'll be saying his name: Carter.