So, where was I again? Oh, right, right.

The first thing we did was use my belt and tie to make a makeshift sling for Percy. He didn't have either, what a rebel. Just wrapped the tie around his arm and then tied the belt over his shoulder—pretty useful stuff to be writing down, actually. Got a pen? Ah, never mind.

That done, I pulled a drachma out of my pocket and tossed it at some of the mist that had built up from the sprinklers earlier. I said the incantation, and man, the look on Percy's face when Beckendorf popped up next to us through the Mist was priceless. Beck was surprised too, actually. Makes sense; not every day two kids suddenly appear next to you in your car.

Yeah, that Beckendorf. We're pals.

I guess you could say he's intimidating. I mean, he's gigantic, and his face is constantly set in this rock-solid scowl like he's always smelling something fishy, but trust me, he's actually a real friendly guy. Since Quint was on the way from his house to camp, I'd asked him to stop by and carpool, to make it easier on my parents. My family wasn't exactly made of money or anything.

I had to stop Percy from waving a hand through the Iris-message while I explained what was going on. Luckily, Beck was almost to Quint, just fifteen or so minutes away. I told him, yeah, we can wait. The truth is that I wasn't sure if we could make it even five minutes, but I decided to keep that to myself.

That done, I finally let Percy do whatever he wanted, and naturally he dissolved the message immediately. He turned to me with a look that said something like 'do it again,' so I grabbed him by the sleeve and dragged him out the gym, heading for my room to get him some first aid for his arm. We ran, because every cell in my body was screaming at me that we weren't safe, and I was just waiting for a monster to pop out and eat us around any corner.

On the way, I finally explained to Percy what was going on. You know the spiel. Myths are real, gods are real, you're probably the result of one of them getting it on with your mom or dad or whoever it is, there's a camp for people like us, etcetera, etcetera. I'm sure I don't have to go over this with you.

"Oh, I get it now," Percy said, a hand rubbing his chin like some sort of detective. I wonder what crime show he got that from. "You're just crazy. Now it all makes sense."

I remember almost tripping halfway up the dormitory stairs. "Huh?! I'm not crazy!"

"Man, you're even in denial. It's worse than I thought."

At that point I was starting to think that I could have some basis for hating his guts after all. "How can you not believe me? Don't you remember the giant shapeshifting monster that almost killed us just now?"

"Well yeah, but one monster freak doesn't prove a whole bunch of gods and mythical stuff." We were darting past rooms now, and I was trying to get enough of a handle on my incredulity to still pay attention at all the room numbers. "I mean, look at me. I've got kickass superpowers, but you don't see a whole legion of people flying around and stopping bank robbers or whatever."

I didn't respond, partly because I couldn't really argue with that, but mostly because we'd finally reached my room. I shoved him in there, locked the door behind us, and then to top it off, dragged the chair in my desk over to prop against the handle. Then, I went over to my drawer, reaching into the top box to look for my emergency ambrosia.

Percy looked around my room while I searched. It wasn't the neatest place in the world, I'll admit that. From what I remember, my desk had books stacked and piled on top of each other, probably high enough to reach my nose. There was a whole mound of clothes next to my bed—which probably wasn't made—all clean, as I'd thought to do my laundry the day before. The walls were blank; just white brick. My roommate had already taken down all his posters, and I just never bothered to put any up anyway. The window was big enough to cover almost the whole wall, and it had the blinds drawn like usual.

Looking back, maybe it would've been nice to have a painting or something to hang on the wall. It would've made the place feel more like home and less like a cave refuge where I happened to put my stuff.

Nothing of mine was packed, as opposed to my roommate who had all his bags and suitcases lined up neatly against the wall. I'd planned on having Beck help me put everything away, something that didn't end up happening for obvious reasons. Damn, I still miss that memory foam pillow!

"What did you do to that monster anyway?" I asked, actually curious, but also kind of embarrassed by the mess and wanting to take attention away from it. "I've never seen any demigod do that before."

Percy hummed, then pointed at one of the books on my desk. Slowly, it rose into the air, and drifted into his hand. He held it up all proud. "I can move things with my mind. So, for that guy…" he threw the book into the air and pointed at it again. This time, it rocketed back into the wall, like it had gotten hit by a baseball bat. "Mind bullets! It's kinda like punching someone from really far away. Except, I only have two fists, and my mind has, like, infinity fists, so…"

That was the first and only explanation I ever got from Percy about his powers. It drives me insane to this day, because I know that he's found out more about it, and he won't tell me just because he thinks it's funny. He actually said that, too! God, what an asshole.

But yeah, telekinesis. I've thought about it, and I don't think it's as simple as just pointing at something and thinking it into flying up. He said it's like 'punching someone from really far away,' so I think there's some kind of energy that comes out of Percy, like he can pull out an invisible arm that reaches out and does whatever he wants it to do. I don't know, that's the closest I've ever gotten to figuring it out.

Anyway…

"That's great, Percy, but try not to break my stuff next time." I found the ambrosia soon enough, and threw him the little box. It stopped midair and floated down to him. "Eat those," I said, then I went over to make sure that the book he'd slammed against the wall wasn't too dented. Of course, it was.

"What are these?" he asked, looking over the small plastic container. Judging by his face, he'd probably never seen glowing food before. "Tic Tacs?"

"They're ambrosia pills. Basically, they'll fix you up, but be careful not to—"

He popped the lid open and downed half the damn thing.

"…. Eat too many…"

I'm assuming you know how stupid this looked to me. Two of those things is enough to get most people up and ready, and four could probably close up whatever holes you manage to get stabbed or shot into you. Most people usually settle for working condition rather than full blown regeneration, though, seeing as taking even three is right on the borderline of horrible agony in your internal organs.

Percy? He munched on those pills like they were candy. "These are pretty good! Tastes like blueberries!" He was about to eat the rest of them when I stepped in and snatched them out of his hand. "Hey! I was just getting into it!"

I shoved the box in my pocket. "Don't 'hey' me! Ambrosia's the food of the gods, you idiot! Eat too many and you'll liquidate your insides!"

"My insides don't feel liquidated! Actually…" He smiled. Slowly, he brought his broken arm out of the cradle he'd had it in, flexing his fingers in front of his face. It worked as good as new, if probably a little numb like anything else healed the same way. "Dude, this is awesome! What kinda vitamins are in those?"

I eyed him for a bit, trying to see any sign of pain, maybe some veins lighting up as the blood in them superheated into lava, but none of that happened. In fact, Percy looked more energized than ever. Better than perfect.

I remembered the metamorphogos saying that Percy didn't have anything to do with what was going on. How his scent was different from mine somehow, enough to mask mine. His powers weren't like anything I'd ever seen, and more than that, they were already way strong as young as he was. Demigod powers were supposed to grow with age—at least, that's what I'd been told. Something didn't add up.

I would've put more thought into it then, but at that moment a giant, scaly bird foot broke in through the window, ripping through the blinds with long claws, and wrapping its talons around Percy. It then drew back, taking him with it, glass shards getting all over the floor. I got fined pretty bad for that.

But that's when I truly learned the demigod golden rule: never forget that you're never safe. I ran to the window and stuck my head out to see a koiníthea flapping away, Percy struggling in its grip.

Even now, I still have no idea how anyone managed to domesticate one of those. Koinítheas are… Well shit, you've seen the one that's out there. We're talking a good bus-length wingspan here, and that's on average. The worst part about them isn't even that they're big enough to go fishing for sea serpents on a good day; it's that their feathers let them blend in with any kind of cloud. They're reflective or something, I don't know. Imagine walking down the sidewalk, minding your own business, when all of a sudden, whoosh! You're a good five hundred feet in the air like that, and your only options are to get dropped to your death or get eaten when it finally takes you to its nest.

This particular one was currently a solid grey, since that's the color that covered the sky. Yeah, it was that summer, so we hadn't seen a day without a sheet of storm clouds covering everything up in a week at least. I didn't even think about it at the time, funny enough, but there were bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

Anyway, the koiníthea screeched at me, and only then did I notice the thing on its back. There was a freaking giant riding on the bird. It was something so ridiculous that I didn't believe it at first, and I was so stupefied I couldn't even be all that scared.

The giant wore what I guess passed off as armor to him: pads on his knees and elbows, a biking helmet, and a bulletproof vest. Like someone pretending to be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The worst part about it was the lance he held over his shoulder, full of gnarled points all along the sides. Next to him, there was a keres. The only thing that darker than her wings was the look on her face, an angel of death come to grind our bones to dust.

The giant looked at me, chin raised. "Demigod! I am Sir Wulfaine Manslayer! I comst to exact vengeance upon thee for thy crimes! Release thyself to our justice, else thy companion suffer the consequences!"

Yeah, that's right, it's the god damn Manslayer Band! That's the first time I ever met them, so it took me a sec to figure out exactly what was going on behind their personal brand of ridiculousness. Seeing my face, the keres decided to give her two cents.

"Sir knight, that boy surely means to run, just look at him! I say we kill him now, and then this one too," she floated down to Percy, salivating while he struggled against the koiníthea's grip. "Better yet, we'll tie them up and drag them through the gravel path! Or hang them upside down over a pot of boiling water! Or leave them skewered through a metal pipe on the highest building we can find and wait for them to get toasted by the coming lightning! Yes, yes!" She had a faraway look to her as she thought through our many gruesome deaths, and her tongue hung out of her mouth like a dog in heat… Ugh. I guess that's one thing about the more humanoid monsters: she'd be really hot if she wasn't so terrifying.

Wulfaine thought so too, apparently. "Tarry, my sweet Vendruvia, and settle thy malignant aims!" he said. "Such exorbitant medicines are beneath thy personage—though perhaps not thy dispositions—notwithstanding the disgrace that wouldst befall our commingled esteem, as I have sought to impart on thee hitherto."

… Or it went something like that, at least. Wulfaine isn't exactly an easy one to imitate, but hey, I'm doing my best here.

Percy had given up by now, happy to wait things out in his talon cage. He might've found a way to break out with his powers, but even then, he was smart enough to consider the four-story drop that he couldn't survive if he did.

But this was a seriously dangerous situation I was in. Two flying monsters way above my pay-grade, a crazy chivalry giant, and the only guy that could've helped me out of it being used as a hostage. Thinking on that, it gave me an idea.

I looked up at the giant and, gulping down the part of me that wanted to run and run fast, shouted: "Hey, this shapeshifter's part of your group, isn't he?!"

That got their attention. "Correct thou art, demigod!" Wulfaine said. "In truth, I was just this moment thinking on mine own frightful compeer! If thou knowest his whereabouts, I hereby ask of thee to release such information!"

I took my knife and pointed it at the empty space next to me, somewhere hidden by the wall. All they could see was me threatening something out of their sight, and I forced myself to smile, trying to sound on top of things. "He's right here, unconscious! Let the kid go and I won't kill him!"

We all ignored Percy's 'You're a kid!' to begin the standoff. Luckily for me, Wulfaine was on the gullible side, because he was quick to turn to Vendruvia with worry written all over him.

"Well, we seemst to have stumbled onto quite the pickle, my lady. Our dear and loyal friend Randal is in arduous danger!"

Vendruvia wasn't as easy to trick. "Sir knight, this is clearly a lie! Don't be bought by something so obvious!"

Wulfaine hummed, looking to me. "Art thou lying, boy?"

"Uh… no?"

"My lady, he's positively serious!"

While Vendruvia palmed her face, Percy looked up at the giant like for the first time. "Oh, you're just an idiot!" he said, solving the puzzle of the century.

The keres shook her head. "You won't fool us, boy! I'll gut you and spread your entrails all over my body! I'll bathe in your blood! If you really had Randal there, you'd show us!"

I glared back at her. "You ready to bet on that?" I asked. "Even if there's a one-percent chance that he's here? I'm not screwing around!"

"Don't pretend like you're in control here! You could have a one percent chance of having Randal there or, even a ninety-nine percent chance, but we have a hundred percent certainty that your friend is right here and about to get eviscerated by my meticulously manicured claws!"

"Maybe, but I don't give a crap about that guy! I was only using him because he's strong! You guys care about your friend enough to not just immediately kill your hostage on the incredibly minuscule chance that I actually do have mine!"

"Ooooh, he's got you guys there," Percy said.

Wulfaine nodded, combing through his beard. "I fear we cannot altercate 'gainst such reasoning."

Vendruvia, eyes aflame, turned to the two. "Of course we can! Will you two take this seriously?!"

I'd managed to get under their skin a bit. They were hesitating now, and that was all I needed. After all, Beck was on his way, and if I could stall long enough for him to get us out of this mess then that would be a job well done.

But since demigods can never have it easy, it was at that moment that Randal, in the shape of a bull, crashed through the door, blowing it straight off its hinges. We all stared at him, everyone trying to process what it meant for him to be there, until finally, Percy's scream cut through the standstill.

"Malcolm! Throw it at me!"

Unfocused as I was, I followed along with it almost immediately. It was like my subconscious had already decided that there wasn't anything else I could do to get out of that mess. All those hours of practice kicked in, and I flipped the knife in my hand, catching it by the blade with my fingers and throwing it at Percy.

Eyes wide and pupils dilated, he followed the spinning blade like a snake ready to jump for the kill. The knife was aiming to itself into the koiníthea's talons, just inches away, when its trajectory suddenly turned, shooting up to the bird's left wing.

You know when you're cutting a piece of paper with a pair of scissors, and if they're sharp enough you can slice right through without even putting any effort into actually closing the blades? Yeah, that's what it reminded me of when my knife cut across that giant wing like a buzz saw, clipping off all its primary feathers.

The bird started struggling, one of its wings now dead weight. Wulfaine glued himself against the its back, dropping his lance to get a better grip on the reins.

"Herncrowen! Hold fast, my noble steed!"

The koiníthea screeched, the sound bouncing off the walls as it started losing altitude. It flapped desperately, but it was no use. It fell, taking the knight-giant and Percy with it, and they crash landed onto the courtyard below.

Watching all this, Vendruvia and bull-Randal acted at once, both charging at me, one from the air and the other from behind. All my other options gone, disarmed and surrounded, I did the only logical thing you could expect anyone to do in that situation. I jumped out the window.

What, was I supposed to let myself get skewered from the back, or get my head chopped off by that angel-lady's claws? I figured that if I was gonna die anyway, I might as well be the one to pull the trigger. You'd do the same thing.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the crunch of bones as I landed feet-first onto the stone path below. I prayed to my mom; a little angry, not gonna lie, but I can't say I didn't find some peace with it, midair and hurtling to my death. My life hadn't been long, but it wasn't all that bad, I thought. I'd made some friends, had some fun, and you know, getting killed fighting a shapeshifter and a crazy demon lady wasn't the worst way to go.

Since I'm here talking to you, obviously the self-reflection didn't last very long. Next thing I knew, it felt like someone caught me. And when I say someone caught me, I don't mean that I landed on someone's open arms or something; I mean that my entire body simultaneously felt like it'd been caught from every direction. I opened my eyes, and a dozen feet down, arms held out at me, Percy used his powers to float me down as gently as he could. His version of gentle isn't like everyone else's, and I ended up with my face against the ground, but man, it was way better than the same thing at terminal velocity.

He patted me on the back as I struggled to my feet. "That was hilarious!" he said. "Your face was all like, 'you're not taking me alive!' You really are crazy, huh? Hahahaha!"

I made to respond, but at that moment, bull-Randal ended up crashing down right next to us, tearing up the stone and digging himself a nice little crater. He was left stuck on the ground tail-up. I guess he didn't have the time to change his mind about charging headfirst at someone right in front of an open window.

Vendruvia swooped down to where Wulfaine and Herncrowen were a good distance away. They looked over their pet, and when they decided it wasn't hurt too bad, their eyes came back to us. Nearby, Randal began shifting again, his form covered in the same black matter as before.

I guess I should set the scene a bit. Quint's a pretty big school; something like ten thousand students, and all of them live on campus. The space you need for dormitories is probably equal to or even greater than the space you need for everything else. They got around this by making the whole place a giant, castle-like, donut-shaped building, with all the actual school stuff—classrooms, the gym, the auditorium—taking up one half of it while the dorms made up the other half. We had sports fields and courts outside of that structure, you know, for football and tennis and all that, but generally everything was kept inside that circle. Who knows, maybe they've expanded since I went?

It's not like Quint was a perfect circle. There were roads and pathways kind of snaking their way through the outside shell and into the middle, and some parts of the buildings were a bit taller than others, but generally, there was a reason people sometimes called it a fortress.

We were in the courtyard that stretched all throughout the middle of the circle; rings of grass and expertly trimmed bushes, with exotic flowers all over that made you feel like you were looking through a kaleidoscope if you saw the whole thing from up top. I remember we called it the Glass Garden, since we weren't allowed to step on the grass. And man, believe me when I tell you that we were terrified of stepping one foot off the stone path, because the Saturday detentions they gave out were gruesome.

I heard that they didn't even have those paths a few years before I started there. The only way to get to the other side of school without them would be to actually walk all the way around, and let me tell you, that walk is no joke. I'm talking about something the size of a baseball stadium here. Definitely not something you'd wanna do in between periods.

Either way, I guess you could say we were breaking the rules at the time. Herncrowen hadn't had a soft landing, and Wulfaine's lance had landed on what used to be a dragon-shaped hedge.

Anyway, Randal changing was as good a sign as any to cut and run. I grabbed Percy's shoulder and tried to pull him along, but he only adjusted his sunglasses, staring the monsters down. "Alright, at this point, I guess you might be onto something with that whole Greek myth thing," he said. "I'll check out that camp you were talking about, but first…" He shook me off. "Lemme deal with these weirdos."

Now, while I was more than happy to let someone else do the heavy-lifting, I had to ask, "Is this really necessary? Let's just get outta here before they regroup."

Knowing everything I know now, he probably thought it was more than necessary. You see, while he knew how to use his powers, and had come across his own share of strangeness before all this ever happened, I don't think he'd ever had to really go to town with them before that very day. I guess it's something he'd been craving for a long time. Anyone with a souped up car or a new electric guitar, or hell, even a nice stash of big fireworks would know that feeling too. One day, they'd find someone to race, or an amp to plug in, or a holiday to celebrate.

And right then, Percy's holiday was right in front of him, in the form of four very crushable monsters.

Wulfaine looked at Percy, the eyes under his helmet heavy and solemn. "I taketh no joy at giving battle to one such as thyself, but I can admire thy loyalty to thine comrade," he said. "Howbeit, I've taken on the holy duty of exterminating all demigods, for the good of mine own. If thou refuseth to stand down, I fear I must take arms against thee."

Percy just stretched his arms above his head. "It's cool, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do and all that."

Speaking of which, Randal was still changing his form, though it was thinner than anything I'd seen him change into up until then. As he began to complete his transformation, Wulfaine threw his arms up in the air, hands spread, and he chanted:

"Prepare thyselves!"

"Or!" Vendruvia, who'd been flying circles over us, spun into place onto the knight-giant's shoulders, wings extended, the talons of her avian feet stabbing into his skin. "Submit yourselves!"

"To walk under the light!"

"To fight against our plight!"

"To expand the realms of beast and terror!"

"To revenge ourselves on human error!"

Why are you laughing? Of course this actually happened! These guys aren't exactly normal; I'd think that's pretty obvious by now. As for their little combo catch-phrase, it was very well choreographed, I have say, even if it didn't have much pizzazz early on. They got better at it later. So, as I was saying:

"Our holy order will slay thee mortal spawn!"

"If might makes right, we'll be sure to show our brawn!"

Randal's figure jumped high into the air, plummeting directly into Wulfaine's hands. He'd transformed into a long, two handed monster of a sword that only spoke of bloody evil, its hilt formed out of flesh and fur and meat, and its blade made of a dark steel that looked like stygian iron. A single, piercing eye rolled along, in its cross guard.

Percy, of course, was eating it up. Stars in his eyes and everything. I guess that'd make him their first ever fanboy.

"Now," Wulfaine said, and I couldn't help but feel something strange in my stomach when he looked at us, like I'd gotten into one of those pirate ship rides and the buzz had spread from my abdomen to my entire body, lighting up all my nerves and pumping blood through my veins twice as fast as was reasonably healthy. It was only later that I realized that's the adrenaline-fueled state you get in when you think you're gonna die. "What say you we have ourselves a duel?"


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