Half-Blood Saints
Written By: Rave Rose of Twilight
Warning: I don't own Saint's Row or PJO or Borderlands or anything else I might plan on using if only for reference sake.
Chapter Two: A Field Trip From Hell
Oh how he was beginning to regret sitting with Kiki and Viola DeWynter. First of all, they insisted he sit between them. Normally not a big deal. Within minutes of the bus starting to drive off toward the Stilwater Zoo, both Kiki and Viola had passed out on his arms, preventing him from reaching into his pocket and putting in his earbuds to play some kind of music loud enough to help him ignore the irritated looks he was getting from the guys in their class.
What wrong could he possibly have done to cause him to go through such torment?! Whatever it was seemed to cause Mr. Grovetree some sort of amusement if his chuckling anytime his gaze landed on the two girls and Colt was anything to go by.
The bus ride was annoyingly long. Between the 'whispers' and occasional wad of paper thrown his way, Colt was quickly growing more and more agitated with his 'peers'. Then the bus breaks down half way there, forcing the students to take an early lunch. Luckily, Colt always had a tool set on him and within a matter of minutes, the engine was fixed, cleared of the oil build up and with a new spark plug, and they were back on their way. This also gave Colt time to fish out his earbuds and he traveled the rest of the way to the zoo listening to a mixture of radio stations ranging from 80s and 90s Pop and Rock music to Dubstep.
Once they reached the zoo, the students, followed by Mr. Grovetree, disembarked the bus. Much like how Colt and Mr. Grovetree expected, the students dispersed to the four winds. Colt's eyes were roaming left and right as he looked over the zoo and the people who were visiting the various enclosures. For some reason, his gut was screaming at him and he was never one to ignore his gut instincts.
When he let Mr. Grovetree know about the unsettling feeling he was having, but the teacher just kind of laughed him off. "Go on, Colt," he encouraged. "Go explore the zoo. I told everyone we're going to gather back here in an hour to talk to the zookeeper. Have fun out there."
With that said, Colt walked away from his teacher, the uneasiness in his stomach refusing to go away. His gray eyes darted from left to right, scanning over each of the zoo's guests. He blinked his eyes furiously. Damn his ADHD. It was really starting to get to him.
His stomach growled and his metallic hand reached down to his stomach, rubbing it gently. When was the last time he remembered to eat? It must have been a while. As he looked around for some idea of where the food court was, a familiar and alluring smell found its way to his nose. The smell that every Stilwater resident knew by heart.
Freckle Bitch's.
As he followed his nose to the familiar fast food joint, he saw an admittedly attractive woman wearing a pair of Daisy Duke shorts and a blue shirt tied to reveal her rather ample bust and her midriff. She had freckles adorning her cheeks and red hair tied into a messy pair of ponytails.
"Welcome to Freckle Bitch's where you can't beat our meat," she announced to everyone, flashing the male passers-by a wink and nod.
Colt snorted. The woman was either a prostitute who got hired by Freckle Bitch's and decided to pull double duty to earn some money on the side or a professional stripper who knew that she needed to draw in a male audience using her sex appeal. He walked past her and sat down at the counter where he was greeted by another girl who looked just like the one out front.
Must be the company uniform, he thought before his hunger took control again. "Welcome to Freckle Bitch's. How can we service you today," she said seductively.
"I just need The Fist, some fries, and a Big Swallow," Colt said plainly. The waitress nodded, writing down his order before passing the ticket to the back and ringing the bell.
As Colt waited for his meal, his mind began to wander. The gang fighting was getting closer to Saint's Row, the place he called home. But he did his best to keep his distance from the warzones.
Los Carnales was a Columbian Drug Cartel and ran the Southern Island. Because of their connections to Columbian drug czars, they had a near endless supply of drugs and enough weapons to keep fighting the wars. When they got too big, Benjamin King built his own gang known as the Vice Kings and managed to kick Los Carnales out of the Sunnyvale Gardens, where they primarily operated. Still, this did not deter Los Carnales and eventually they recovered from their major losses to the Vice Kings and rebuilt to become a significant threat.
The Vice Kings ran the entertainment industry in Stilwater. Prostitution. Retail. Music. Any part of the entertainment industry in Stilwater and you could bet it was run by the Vice Kings.
Lastly was the smallest gang of the three. The Westside Rollerz controlled the car and street racing scenes. You remember those rich kids who lived in the 'burbs and flaunted their wealth through their cars? That's what the Rollerz crew consisted of.
The bulk of the fighting was done by the Kings and Los Carnales. The Rollerz just sat back and watched, hoping that by the time the bullets were done flying, the two hardcore gangs would either destroy themselves or be weak enough for them to move in and take over.
A large pound and a half burger, an order of fries, and a large drink were set in front of Colt, who grabbed the drink and took a sip before setting it down. The whole thing was a mess, if you asked him. Why the police or government didn't do anything to stop them was beyond him. Then again, considering how openly corrupt several government officials were, it wouldn't surprise him to learn that many of them were being bribed by the gangs in question.
He grabbed his burger and took a bite. It was super juicy and cooked to the perfect medium rare. Toasted sesame seed bun. Tomatoes. Onions. That hot spicy brown mustard that just brought it all together into one of the most delicious burger experiences known to mankind. His stomach's loud roar turned into a quiet rumble as he swallowed the burger in his mouth and followed it with a cola chaser from his Big Swallow.
There's nothing quite like Freckle Bitch's.
Just as he was about to take his second bite of the wonderful burger before him, he heard the multitude of people screaming at the top of their lungs. Turning around, he watched as people of all races and genders raced by with panic-stricken looks on their faces.
"One of the lions is loose!"
"Run!"
"We've got to get out of here!"
Colt sprinted from his seat and looked in the opposite direction of where people were running and the sight made his blood run cold.
Earlier...
Kiki and Viola DeWynter had decided to visit a few of the exhibits, content that any would-be suitors would believe they were with Sam Colt since they had been sitting close to him and hanging out with him since after Mr. Grovetree's class let out. Did they feel bad about manipulating him? To a certain extent, yes. Colt, as he was often called, seeming to defer to that rather than Sam or any other sort of name, wasn't like other boys they manipulated. He was a loner who was often teased for being a cripple, needing a prosthetic arm and leg. He treated everyone save for Mr. Grovetree, it seemed, with relative indifference, if not outright disinterest.
He was one of the few people in the school who could tell them apart just by noticing something as small and insignificant as the nail polish they used. He didn't worship the ground they walked on like some love struck puppy as many of the boys in their school was prone to do. To him, they were just Kiki and Viola DeWynter, two girls who just happened to attend the same school as he did rather than idols or eye candy...and they found it hard not to respect him for those very reasons.
He was...different, but in a good way. Rough around the edges and always suspicious when something out of the ordinary occurred around him, such as when they chose to approach him.
Viola dragged her fingertips across the glass of the snake enclosures while Kiki hummed to herself, wondering where to go next before they had to rejoin the rest of the class and continue their field trip. That was...until they heard a sobbing sound coming from nearby.
The two walked over and saw a little girl wearing a red hooded cape huddled in front of the lion cage and crying. The two approached her, causing her to look up with red, bloodshot eyes. Her hands were furiously flying through motions that confused the two girls. They tried to talk to her, but she continued to go through those strange hand motions.
So preoccupied with the sobbing girl, they didn't notice a fairly tall man with sandy blond hair and blue eyes fiddling with the lock on the lion enclosure before running off out of sight.
The next thing the girls knew...was chaos. The crowd suddenly started screaming and it took only seconds to figure out why. A large yellow-furred lion was looking at them with a clear hunger in its eyes. It released a loud roar, causing chaos to unfold around it. As their eyes fell upon the mammoth creature, they could swear that they heard the subtle hissing of a snake somewhere nearby.
It lunged, intent on devouring the three in front of it. Kiki and Viola closed their eyes and used their bodies to cover the sobbing hooded girl. They waited for...something to happen. Pain. The dampness of the lion's gaping maw. Anything.
And yet...nothing happened. Were they dead? Was their death so painless that they simply arrived in the afterlife?
They heard the subtle sound of metal creaking in protest and, rather hesitantly, opened their eyes.
There he was. Colt was standing there with his hands each on one half of the monster lion's jaw. His legs were tensed and fighting to keep him in place as he wrestled with the monster lion. Their eyes were wide in surprise.
"Why," Kiki asked quietly, unsure as to how or even if he heard her.
"My body...just moved on its own," he said with a heavy grunt. 'It was just like that time...in my dream...' "Get out of here," he barked at them as his body strained to hold back the beast. The two were frozen in place. "RUN!"
The twins, shaken from their shock, grabbed the girl and proceeded to flee the scene, the hooded girl looking back and reaching out toward him. Once he couldn't hear the girls, he chuckled to himself. Oh how his mind flashed through the images. As soon as he saw Kiki, Viola, and that little girl about to be eaten, he could have sworn he saw her again. The girl from his dream.
Thalia Grace.
He had no reason to run toward the lion. He barely knew Kiki and Viola aside from their very limited and very brief interactions with one another. He could have fled. Run away. But something deep inside of him refused that call of action. He couldn't sit by while someone was in danger.
"So it's just you and me now, huh," he asked the beast. His steel gray eyes began to glow as an inferno swelled within his chest. His arms felt as if they were burning from the inside out...no. His whole body felt like it was burning with an unquenchable fire. "Having a hard time? Then let me give you a LEG!"
His prosthetic leg smashed into the rib cage of the lion, sending it tumbling away with a cry of pain. It got back up from the blow and roared angrily, its tail, now a green snake with fully functional head, was swaying as it hissed at him. Before he knew what was happening, the snake head spat out a glob of green goo, but Colt used his prosthetic arm to block it. The goo hissed as it devoured the sleeve of his shirt before he slung the acidic substance off with a flick of his arm.
Colt roared as he charged the monster, his adrenaline kicking in. The beast did the same, charging at him. A powerful bronze fist struck against the lion's snout, releasing a sickening crunch as bone and cartilage shattered upon impact. The snake head lashed out quickly, but hit the metallic arm with a resonating clang.
The teen grabbed the snake head with his other hand and, once he had a firm grasp while keeping the serpentine head from being aimed at his face should it choose to unleash another acidic blast, began to use his newfound strength to lift it off the ground as he began to spin. He continued to pick up speed in his spin before finally releasing it, sending it flying into and through the enclosure that once held it.
As the dust began to settle, Colt's eyes narrowed as his mind and heart told him that the fight was far from over. Suddenly, a blast of fire flew toward him through the dust, forcing him to dodge only to be surprised by the snake tail lashing out at him. Luckily, he had his fist cocked back and launched a powerful right hook into the snake's gaping maw, striking one of the teeth and sending it falling to the ground while the snake writhed in pain.
Seeing the fallen tooth, Colt quickly grabbed it and launched himself on top of the monster before using the tooth and stabbing it as fiercely and as swiftly as he could in as many places as he could. The eyes. The neck. The spine. The snake head reared back and proceeded to lunge at Colt only for the teen to dodge, resulting in the snake biting the crown of the lion. The two roared in agony as the acidic poison flowed through it. Colt was down on one knee, the needle-like tooth still in hand and ready to continue fighting.
As the lion roared and the snake hissed, its movements became sluggish. The two heads looked at him with a weakened glare before vanishing into a golden dust that blew away in the wind.
Colt's breathing became easier as the adrenaline left his system. He tucked the large fang onto the boot on his artificial leg before sighing in relief. "What the hell was that," he asked nobody in particular as he fell to his back and slipped into a blissful, dreamless sleep.
When Colt woke up, he noticed he was surrounded by Kiki and Viola, both of whom had admittedly beautiful smiled and slightly teary eyes, the little girl with the red hooded cape, who was currently hiding behind the legs of the twins, and Mr. Grovetree, who was smiling at him, though it wasn't the usual stoner smile he usually carried. No. This one seemed genuine and free from any possible chemical high he may have had.
He groaned. Ugh. His head was throbbing like wild. What happened? One minute he was eating at Freckle Bitch's, the next...he's holding off this yellow lion. Then things get blurry real quick.
"Easy there, Mr. Hero," Viola teased as she placed her hand on his shoulder and forced him back down. Man he felt so weak right now. "You're still in pretty rough shape after dealing with that lion."
He closed his eyes and tried to remember, but nothing was coming. He looked down at his chest and left arm and saw what looked to be bandages. "The doctors say that the lion had managed to scratch you up pretty bad," Kiki said. "They were pretty deep, but not so deep that it would leave a scar."
Colt grunted. With all of that adrenaline, he must not have noticed that the lion had done so much damage to him. "Why am I so dizzy," he said, repressing the gagging that made him come close to throwing up.
Mr. Grovetree pointed at the IV sending fluid to his arm. "Well, they did dose you up pretty heavily on pain killers," he mentioned. "I'm actually surprised you're this coherent. With as much drugs as they have pumping into you, you should be as high as a kite by now, if not completely catatonic."
Colt wasn't sure if his teacher was impressed or jealous at his body's tolerance for drugs. He'd rather the former over the latter, if he were to be completely honest.
"Was anyone else hurt," Colt asked.
The twins shook their head negative. "Once we found Mr. Grovetree and told him what was happening, he gathered all of the students to the bus before going out to find you," Viola told him. "He said he found you passed out and bleeding by the dead lion's body."
Colt nodded weakly before allowing his body to relax. As long as nobody else was hurt, he could rest a little easier. Mr. Grovetree nodded as he watched Colt shut his eyes. "Come along, everyone," he said. "Mr. Colt needs his rest and we should go back to the school."
"But what about her," Viola asked, placing her hand on the girl's head. "The police arrested her father for opening the lion cage and she has no other relatives to turn to."
The teacher knelt down and looked the girl in her silver eyes. The twins watched as the two were having a silent conversation with one another before the teacher chuckled and rubbed the girl's head. "I think it would be safe to leave her here with Colt for the time being," he answered, causing her to nod emphatically. "I'm sure the nursing staff won't mind. We can always come by tomorrow morning since it is the beginning of the weekend to check on them."
As the DeWynter sisters left the hospital, Mr. Grovetree pulled out a cellphone given to him and many of the older satyrs by Hermes, who guaranteed that it had a decent level of protection from Lamia's curse. He looked up a familiar number before pressing send. The phone rang for several minutes before the sound of the other end of the line picked up.
"Good afternoon, Balthazar," came a familiar, yet aged voice from the other end. "It's been many years since you've called me. How have you been lately?"
Balthazar Grovetree laughed. "I've been well, Chiron," he replied. "You know. Teaching young minds and whatnot. Sadly, this isn't a personal call. I believe I've found several powerful demigods hiding right under my nose."
"Really," Chiron said, intrigued at the discovery. "Any idea who their parents might be?"
"One of them is a craftsman," he mentioned. "Very good marks in Science and Shop Class. The other two girls...well, they are rather pale, but they get remarkable grades in Math." Balthazar walked through the hospital before finding a rather secluded space, free from pedestrian traffic. "They also found a young girl. She has a green thumb. Brought this absolutely beautiful rose with her, but she does seem rather...spry and energetic."
"I...see," Chiron muttered. "Do any of them seem to fit the Great Prophecy?"
"No such luck," Balthazar said sadly. "Too old. But that isn't all I have to say. The gardener girl's father unlocked and released the Chimera from its cage in the Stilwater Zoo. Thankfully, the craftsman took care of it. Barely got hurt save for a few scratches. Might leave a few scars, but nothing dangerous. He's powerful, Chiron. The strongest one of his sons I've seen in my life. He took on the Chimera without a single weapon to defend himself. Just his fully functional prosthetic limbs that, if I were to hazard a guess, were made from Celestial Bronze."
"Remarkable," Chiron said in awe.
"Indeed," Balthazar said solemnly. "I think he might be beginning to 'awaken'. It won't be long before more monsters begin to show up once they catch his scent. And the scent of the other three girls won't make things any easier. Combined with the gang violence so rampant in the city, I fear Stilwater will quickly become a virtual warzone on both the mortal plane and the supernatural plane."
"That is quite troubling," Chiron noted. "We need to get them to Camp Half-Blood soon before anything else decides to come after them. We can't afford to send anyone though with all of the violence there, unfortunately. We'll need to get them to move away from Stilwater before we can send someone to guide them."
"I'll see what I can accomplish, Chiron," he replied. "But I can't make promises. I know it might sound cruel, but I really wish that these three gangs would just finish one another off."
The other end of the line was silent, but even Balthazar knew that silently, Chiron somewhat agreed with his statement. Not that he'd ever wish for someone's death, but if nothing was done, they couldn't send any Satyrs or experienced demigods to guide newly discovered demigods back to Camp for fear that they would be killed by one of the gangs in question. Between the likely increase in monsters due to demigods 'awakening' and the odds of the demigods getting killed in the middle of gang warfare, nobody was safe to venture into Stilwater that wasn't already there.
With nothing else said, the two said their final farewells before ending the call. Balthazar made the trek to his car and drove to the small, energy efficient home and using the opportunity to write in his journal. He wrote down Kiki, Viola, and Colt's names with a line along with other names or code names. Rich One. Craftsman. Then he wrote a blank space with a dash followed by Harvest with a slash by it followed by Tradesman. He looked at the names and sighed.
Twin daughters of Hades. The son of Hephaestus. And finally, the young daughter of Demeter and Legacy of Hermes. Beside the word Craftsman, he put in parenthesis the word 'Awakening'. It was a code word used to describe demigods who were beginning to unravel their identity or had peered through the Mist and saw a monster or some other supernatural being.
He put his pen down and rubbed his tired eyes. He was beginning to feel his age more and more.
Slowly, but surely, the aged Satyr laid down in his bed to rest unaware that those last moments would be the last on this plane.
The sound of a gunshot rang out through the night.