A/N: I'm not an idiot this time! I'm not doing this alone! This is a co-op story I'm working on with another author named CatKkit. This chapter was NOT written by me. I just did the editing. So for those of you who are familiar with CatKkit's work, you'll recognize the way it's written. For those of you who are not, but are familiar with mine, you won't see much of my handiwork here. So, before we begin, a reminder: I did NOT write this chapter. We do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, HOWEVER, we DO own Mallory and Aria. Enjoy! Don't forget to rate and review!
BOOM
A tall, black-haired woman walked quickly through the quiet, dawn lit streets of New York. She was well dressed, in a two-piece suit and carrying a briefcase and umbrella. Her steps were quick, making her heels scuff heavily against the ground. She turned, walking down a quiet alleyway. She suddenly jumped back, looking around the street behind her, checking if she was being followed. Seeing nothing, she moved on.
A figure detached itself from a doorway after a pause, breathing hard. That had been a close call. She had almost been spotted, and then the monster would have gotten away. She had to be more careful. She didn't come this far for nothing.
She followed the 'woman', picking up her pace as she went. This would be a perfect place to ambush her, she thought, her gaze flicking around at the high walls. She focused her eyes forward again and found a pair of purple ones flashing at her.
The dark-haired woman broke out in a run, the air around her wavering. She skidded to a stop as she came to a dead-end almost immediately. There was nothing down there, no fire escape or dumpster to jump off of.
"Hey! You!" the pursuer shouted. The dark-haired woman rolled her eyes and turned around, sniffing. It only took one whiff to realize that she was a demigod. She let out an angry hiss, but the demigod just stepped forward.
"My name is Mallory Wiffen, and I have some questions to ask you!" she shouted. The dark- haired woman adopted an expression of confusion and innocence, but Mallory just rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on lady! Stop with the disguising. It'll make it easier on both of us."
The air around the woman shimmered again, revealing her true form: same face and hair, green skin that turned to scales as they got lower, eventually splitting in two serpentine legs. The clothing she had been wearing morphed into golden armor. Mallory let out a sigh of relief as she caught sight of the unusual purple eyes again. This was the right dracaenae.
She opened her mouth to speak again, but the dracaenae was not having any of it. The briefcase changed into a large bronze shield, and the umbrella became a spear. The spear was thrown with near-deadly accuracy, forcing Mallory to duck to the side. She rolled to her feet, only to get hit in the face by the shield. She felt blood burst from her nose as her eyes began to water. She could hear the dracaenae slither past her; either to escape or retrieve her spear, she didn't know which. Both were not good.
The dracaenae reached to spear, which had impaled itself in the concrete. She tugged it out and turned, only to be met with a flying tackle that knocked her flat. The spear clattered just out of reach. The dracaenae moved to grab it, only to find a dagger pressed to her throat. Mallory sat on top of her, panting.
"Okay, now that I've got you, I want you to answer a question: Where is your boss?" she asked. The dracaenae began to hiss again. "I've got all day to sit here. Lord knows what the mortals will see."
The dracaenae looked at her with anger in her eyes before speaking. "Queen Sess is dead. She was slain at the Battle of the Labyrinth at-"
"Hey, snake face. I didn't ask about your Queen. I know she's dead, and I know you're working for someone else. The question is: Where's the boss? The current one?" Mallory asked. The dracaenae's jaw tensed before opening and Mallory leaned forward expectantly.
"I'm not a traitor," she hissed, jerking to the side and throwing Mallory off and into a wall. She grabbed her spear, pointing it at the downed demigod. "You've been a problem for a while now. I'm going to put you down once and-"
BANG!
The dracaenae let out a scream of rage, clutching the back of her head as she fell to the ground. Mallory jumped to her feet and came to the decision that the dracaenae was not going to talk. She grabbed the monster by the hair and drove her knife through the brilliant purple eye. She watched as the serpentine woman burst into a cloud of dust.
"This is disgusting," Mallory muttered as she began to brush remains of dust off of herself. She froze when she heard breathing behind her and spun around. She stumbled back to barely avoid getting hit by a metal pole.
Holding the weapon was a girl with short, choppy black hair. It was hard to make out what she was wearing because of the shadows in the alley, but Mallory assumed that it was something dark. A bag of groceries hung from one of her arms, and the pole was in both hands, still raised defensively. Her silver eyes were wide with fear. It was clear that she had seen the dracaenae.
"What the fuck was that?" the girl asked, still staring at the pile of dust. "Was that a fuckin' person? Did you just fuckin' kill someone?!" She looked like she was about to faint.
"Maybe we should talk somewhere private," Mallory said, taking a step forward. She tried to take the pole, which looked like it had been broken off of a stop sign, away from the girl, but she brandished it threateningly.
"How do I know you won't kill me?" she asked, still eyeing Mallory with caution.
"Unless you're a monster, you have nothing to worry about," she said. "And if you were a monster, you would have tried to kill me already. Look, I'm-"
"Mallory Waffles," the girl said. "I heard you yell earlier."
"Actually, it's Wiff-," she stopped herself. "You know what? It doesn't matter. Can we please go somewhere else? They probably know that I killed her already." The girl looked at Mallory again with narrowed eyes. Mallory stared back. "I will answer any questions you have." The girl glanced again at the pile of dust that was starting to scatter in the breeze.
"Come with me," she said finally, gesturing for Mallory to walk next to her. "We can go back to my place."
…
Apparently, her place was an abandoned bar with boarded up windows and a chain on the door. It was a few blocks down from the alleyway where the dracaenae died. They came in through a dummy vent on the roof.
"No one bothers me here," she had said when they had entered. The girl had finally revealed her name, which was Aria. She sat Mallory down on an old barstool and brought her a wet washcloth to wipe the blood off of her face. Now they were sitting in an uncomfortable silence.
"At least it's not broken," Mallory said, touching her nose lightly. She set the cloth down and leaned against the counter, looking at Aria. "So, what are your questions?" Aria took a deep breath as if she were bracing herself.
"What the fuck was that thing?" she asked. Mallory almost let out a sigh of relief. Aria was starting with the easy questions, despite her fond usage of the most frowned-upon curse words.
"A dracaenae," Mallory answered. "Evil snake warrior lady."
"What was it doing in Manhattan, of all places?" Aria asked, moving around the bar now, trying to find something for her nervous hands to do.
"It was heading for a meet-up with some other monsters," Mallory said, watching the girl move around. Aria wasn't taking the information very well, but then again neither did she after first learning about monsters from her dad.
"Why were you fighting it?" Aria finally stopped moving and was now refolding some old, battered clothing that sat on a shelf.
"I needed some information from it, which I didn't get," Mallory muttered bitterly. That was almost a month of tracking down the drain. Her tone told Aria not to pry.
"What's with the weird rings?" she asked, pointing at Mallory's hands. There were three rings on each of her hands, one on her pinky, one on her middle finger, and one on her thumb.
"Gifts from my mother," Mallory said. She leaned forward on her elbows. "Come on, Aria. Ask some interesting questions."
"Monsters," she said immediately, "Why have I never seen one before?" she asked, moving away from the clothes now and sitting on a stool across from Mallory.
"I honestly don't know," Mallory said. "If the dracaenae had known you were so close, it would have either taken another route or gone after you."
"Why the hell would it do that?" Aria asked, looking surprised.
"Because you're like me," Mallory said, smiling at Aria's now insecure look. She was clearly wondering how she was like the girl sitting across from her who may or may not be a murderer.
"And what are you, exactly?"
"A demigod," Mallory said. Aria just stared at her, and Mallory stared back, keeping her face serious. "Child of a goddess and a mortal."
"You're fuckin' crazy," Aria said after a pause. She slid slowly out of her chair, moving towards the pole that leaned on the wall. Mallory didn't try to stop her. "You get out of the looney bin, recently? I know the number for that place. 'Cause you need serious help."
"Then how come you saw the dracaenae too?" Mallory asked, leaning forward on her elbows. "And I know you saw it for what it really was."
"I…" Aria trailed off.
"You're the child of a god or goddess," Mallory said. "If you weren't, you wouldn't have seen the dracaenae. Just accept it."
Aria stayed quiet for a long time, studying her hands. Eventually, she looked up. "So what now?" Mallory raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Well, now you've got a problem," Mallory said. "Monsters know where you are, so they'll start coming after you in droves." Aria paled slightly, but she just pressed on. "You should probably come with me. I can drop you off at a camp for demigods. Kind of a safe-haven, if you would."
"And if I don't want to do that?" Aria asked stubbornly.
"You'd die on your own," Mallory said bluntly. "So, it's either camp or death."
"Is going wherever you're headed an option?" Aria asked.
"I mean, yeah. If you want," Mallory said, rubbing the back of her head. She hadn't really expected that. "I just thought that you might feel safer somewhere that monsters can't get you."
"Okay. I'm goin' with you, then," Aria declared.
"Alright," Mallory said with a nod. "We should probably leave in the morning and get moving. I've got another dracaenae to hunt down south."
"Hunt?" Aria asked. Mallory smiled.
"I'll tell you about it in the morning," she said, biting back a yawn. "Do you have anywhere for me to sleep?" Aria nodded and wordlessly led her to two old couches. Mallory picked one and flopped down. Aria took the other one.
She stayed awake long after Mallory clocked out, which wasn't that hard. Aria's eyes swept across the old bar with its boarded up windows and cracked shelves. Moonlight was shining in through some of the cracks in the ceiling, dimly lighting her home. She couldn't help but feel nervous. She was leaving behind the life that she built for herself, but then again it wasn't really much of a life. She felt like she could trust Mallory. She certainly didn't seem to be a liar.
Aria continued to idle in her thoughts when something caught her eye. She focused sharply at the other side of the bar but saw nothing but a shadow. The moonlight seemed to shift back ever so slightly and the shadow didn't move like a normal shadow would.
Aria bolted up as the shadow began to run towards her.
"Fuck!" was all she could yell as she jumped up. Mallory next to her in an instant, getting between her and the monster. The rings on her hands morphed, forming brass knuckles with long spikes sticking out of the sides, making it look like she was holding knives.
"Aria, move!" Mallory shouted, shoving the girl aside before she had time to obey the order. Aria fell behind the old coffee table and began to scramble backwards. The shadow, which had to be a monster, was almost on top of Mallory. The blonde girl slipped to the side, causing the creature to run into the drywall, breaking a hole through it. It pulled itself out and lunged after Mallory.
"What the fuck is that?!" Aria yelled as she continued to scramble away from the fight.
"I have no idea!" Mallory shouted back. She swiped at the side of the monster after she slipped out of the way, only for her blades to deflect in a shower of sparks. "Pack your bag! We need to get out of here!"
Aria jumped over the bar, studying the broken cabinets in front of her, wondering what she should bring. She grabbed her old rucksack and began to throw in clothes and long lasting food.
"Cash and clothes!" Mallory suggested helpfully as the monster destroyed yet another wall. Aria was running out of time faster than Mallory was running out of walls.
Aria did a quick double-check of the shelves, pulling down a small bag of toiletries and then filling the rest of her bag with water bottles. "Done!" she yelled. She froze as the monster turned to look at her. Mallory drove the bronze tip of her weapon into the monster's face, causing it to scream in rage. She leapt on the nearest undestroyed table and jumped, easily clearing the monster.
"Go! Out the door!" Mallory yelled, scooping up her own bag. "Wait for me in the alley!" Aria did as she was told and sprinted out the back door. She reached the alley in seconds.
Mallory emerged from the old bar a minute later. Aria let out a sigh of relief and opened her mouth, but she was cut off when Mallory grabbed her arm and yanked her down the alley and onto the street.
"What-?"
BOOM
The alley was flooded with sound and flames as the bar exploded. A deep shrieking could be heard from the center of the blast.
Aria skidded to a stop, staring at the faint column of smoke barely visible against the dark sky.
"You just blew up my house," was all she could say as she gaped, open mouthed. It felt strange, though. It had been her home for as long as she could remember, and now it was gone in a flash of fire.
And she found that she didn't care all that much.
"I'm sorry, but we had to kill that monster. We can't have it following us," Mallory said. She put her hand on Aria's shoulder, turning her away from the flames. "We need to get going before more monsters come." They began to hurry down the street, Aria leading them towards the nearest bus station.
"How did it find us so quickly?" Aria asked as they took a sharp left.
"I have no idea," Mallory said, shaking her head. They continued their fast pace in silence until they began to near the bus station.
"What was that one?" Aria asked, referring to the monster.
"It reminded me of a hellhound," Mallory said quietly. Aria glanced over and saw her eyebrows furrowed. "It was strange, though. Hellhounds are usually like boxers or Labradors. This one reminded me of a wolf."
"That's a little unnerving," Aria said. The whole thing was kind of scary to her, and kind of exciting. Or intriguing, really.
"It also had armor," Mallory muttered. "Some kind of steel. My blades couldn't make a scratch."
"Are you saying they don't usually have armor?" Aria asked.
"Yeah, that's exactly right," Mallory said.
"So who put the armor on the scarier-than-usual hellhound?" Aria wondered as they came to a halt right outside of the bus station. There was no one there, save for a bleary attendant watching them from inside.
"I don't know, but I have a feeling that we'll be seeing more of them," Mallory said. She turned to Aria. "Are you sure you want to come with me? The camp would be much safer." Her voice was very serious.
"Affirmative," Aria said, pulling open the door for Mallory. "After all, you dragged me into this. It's your job to keep me alive." Mallory laughed and rolled her eyes as she entered the bus station, making a beeline for the attendant.
Aria hung back with a smile. Things looked pretty positive from where she was standing, even though she had almost been killed and her home had been destroyed. Something seemed right. It was like an awakening for her. The past her had been waiting for this moment for her life to begin.
She sat down next to Mallory, who handed her a ticket for Tennessee.
"If you're going to come with me, you're going to need to learn a few things." Aria felt a grin grow on her face as she rested back on the uncomfortable bench.
"I'm all ears," she said.
A/N: Ooh, off to Tennessee! Will they even make it? You never know with demigods. And what was that strange creature at the bar? Answers may or may not appear in the next chapter. So stay tuned, because that one is going to be my handiwork! Don't forget to rate and review!