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Chapter Two: Teen Movie Extras and Magical Monster Glitter. (Oh, and Carter, too.)

Let me tell you this ahead of time: I am not one to get caught by surprise. Studying ancient

Egyptian magic as well as stopping a giant chaos snake from ending the world does that to you,

believe me. So far, in my short thirteen (almost fourteen) years of living, I've a)been possessed by a temperamental goddess, b)tamed the god of evil, and c)defeated numerous monsters, demons, and gods. Yes, Carter helped me through some of the challenges, but a lot of times I had to make my stand alone.

So you would think that facing some rat monster in the middle of Brooklyn is nothing compared

to everything else I did. Apparently, my experience said otherwise.

When the rat charged at me, ready to mince me up with those sharp rodent teeth, the only thing

that went through my head was: I am going to die in the jaws of some feline wanna be.

I mean seriously! Why would a mouse disguise itself as a cat? Ironic much? Or maybe it wanted to see if being the predator was more fun than the prey. Well, if the monster was ever looking for my opinion, I think the rat body is a tad bit more impressive.

These were pretty much the exact thoughts going through my head as the thing charged at me. Not Oh! The wild rat used tackle! Maybe I should get out of the way! Yeah, I know, I'm stupid. [Yes, I actually said that, Carter. Don't look so surprised!]

The monster's teeth were inches away from my head when Jason tackled me to the ground,

effectively saving both of our lives. The rat sailed through the air and landed behind us, growling

angrily. It spun around, getting ready for another attack.

I stood up, spitting dirt and grass out of my mouth, and backed away slowly. Jason followed my

lead, still clutching something in his pocket. I watched as the mortals around us ran screaming out of the park, shouting about what sounded like a rabid evil death cat.

That was when I noticed that Jason didn't look all that shocked. In fact, he looked like he was taking a fighting stance, getting ready for battle. It occurred to me that Jason was the first person to figure out that something was wrong. I started to consider that maybe this guy was actually amagician, when the boy pulled out a shiny round...coin? Okay, how in the bloody hell will a coin help us?

I got my answer a moment later. Jason flipped the coin expertly, and caught it in his right hand.

But the coin wasn't a coin anymore, it was a three foot long, wickedly sharp, golden sword.

The boy charged at the monster's face, stabbing at the rat and making it hiss threateningly while it backed away. Jason sidestepped as the rat lurched forward, snapping its rodent like jaws, and took another stab, this time at it's side. The weapon made contact, but bounced off the creature's hide like it was made of iron. Jason rubbed his arm awkwardly, suffering from a rebound. The rat took its opportunity and tackled its opponent, knocking the sword out of his hands and forcing him to the ground. I kind of expected a little more from someone who could conjure a sword out of thin air, but oh well. Time for Sadie Kane to save the day. Again.

I looked around frantically for something to throw at the monster and distract it. Grabbing the first

random rock that I spotted, I threw it at the rat. The pebble bounced harmlessly off the creature's pelt, but it sure as hell got its attention.

The creature turned its red beady eyes toward me. It let out a long, gravelly growl, filled with vicious, slimy teeth. I considered whether to run or not; that thing looked really angry. Crawling forward, the rat left its previous snack be and instead decided that the girl in combat boots looked much tastier. My hand instinctively reached to my side, where my magician's bag usually was. Remembering that I left all my stuff back at the mansion, [What? It's not like I expected to be attacked by a vicious rat monster!] I was silently aware that I was pretty much useless in a fight now, and that I was definitely going to die. When it finally sprang forward, I was already running across the park, toward the gate. I was extremely conscious of the bounding feet of the monster behind me. Breathing so hard it almost hurt, I tore through the gate and onto the street, trying as hard as I could to avoid any innocent passerby mortals that got in the way. I had just rounded onto another random street, giant rodent behind me, when I literally ran into Carter. With a strangled yep, my brother fell on his rear end right in the middle of the street, me awkwardly stumbling on top of him. We quickly untangled ourselves, brushing off invisible dust.

Carter opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, a loud roar somewhere behind us. "What was -?"

I grabbed his wrist, effectively cutting him off, and pulled my idiot brother into a nearby alley. We

watched as the giant rat came to view, its feet pounding hard on the pavement. It occurred to me

that while the two of us were safely hidden out of sight, the rat didn't necessarily have to use its eyes to find us. Actually, eyes would probably be the last thing it would use. They again, I'm not an expert on killer rats – I wouldn't know for sure. So all I could do was silently pray to the gods that the disgusting stink of the nearby garbage container was enough to mask our sent.

I heard Carter gasp quietly when the monster came into view. The rodent trotted on, absolutely

oblivious to the two teenagers huddled behind a dirty dumpster. The monster disappeared around the corner, which I was glad for. I did not want to be squished behind that gross hunk of metal forever.

We both climbed out slowly from the cramped space. Carter sent me a glare, as if asking What did you do now? Ha! As if it was my fault that a freaky giant rat was chasing after me! [Shut it, Carter.] "Yeah, yeah, save the lecture for later. So, Mr. Encyclopedia, do you know what that thing is?"

My brother immediately developed this annoyingly thoughtful look on his face, like he was trying

to figure out the meaning of life or something. He gets this look every time Egyptian mythology is

brought up. I hated that look. It was as if he was saying hey, I'm thinking. Please shut up 'cause i don't need your advice.

"Well..." Carter began, drawing out the "L's". "The only description it fits is the Ichneumon."

"Ickie- what now?"

"Ichneumon. It's a type of carnivorous rat."

"Well, no duh, Captain Obvious."

Carter shook his head and continued his mythology rambling, completely ignoring me. "According to mythology, it is the killer of crocodiles. It hides in the mud until it's skin

hardens in the sun, then rushes into the mouth of an unsuspecting crocodile and devours it from the inside."

I stared at him for a while. Then "Ew! That's disgusting, Carter! What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" He immediately leaped at defending himself, "It's what the legends that I read say!"

"But that's just...ugh! It eats the crocodile? From the inside?" I made some ugh -ew- gross noises in the back of my throat, wringing my hands from sheer disgust, when a stray thought hit me.

"Wait...if that's the size of the rat, then what's the size of the crocodile?"

Carter frowned, eyebrows scrunched together. "Uh, actually, its supposed to be tiny, normal

sized."

"Alright, well why is that one the size of a bloody car?"

"I don't know! I'm not the one who it's chasing after now, am I?"

"Oi! It wasn't my fault!"

"Really? When is it not your fault? "

"Huh, you have a point there."

"Oh, for the love of...do we have to do this now?" Carter threw his hands up dramatically. "Look,

we have a giant rat monster on the loose. We need to stop it before it...before it..."

"...before it eats an innocent crocodile?"

"Exactly!"

I sighed, not really caring about the argument anymore. "Fine. I'll need my stuff, though."

Carter grinned and pulled my wand and staff out of his magician's bag. "Here."

I gaped at him. "How...?"

"Did I know that you'd need it? Oh please, don't you think that I would know my little sister by

now?"

"S -shut up! It's not that often that I get into trouble." But I was grinning. With my magic tools by

my side, I actually stood a chance against this monster. I wasn't helpless anymore. I felt like doing a victory dance, but that will have to wait. Defeating the ickie thing came first, celebrating came later.

That was when I finally remembered a very important fact. "Oh come on!"

My brother jumped up in surprise. "What? What is it?"

I face palmed. "Er, I kind of forgot about this guy I met earlier." I peeked through my fingers at a

confused Carter. "He, um, kind of saved my life and I, um, kind of ditched him."

Carter frowned at me. "A guy you say?"

"Yeah, I think his name was John or Jordan or something." I took me a while figure out why exactly Carter was giving me a strange look. "Ew! So not like that, Carter! I barely know this guy,

I just met him a couple of minutes ago! Plus, I already have a boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend is the god of death."

"So?"

"Nevermind." he shook his head, as if thinking why am I wasting time on this? "Alright, let's go

save this John. "

"No, I'm pretty sure his name is Jason."

"Alright then, let's go save this Jason guy. Jeez, he sounds like some 70s teen movie extra or

something."

"He looks like a 70s teen movie extra, too."

"...Great, just great."

. . .

It didn't take us a while to find the random park that I had blindly stumbled into before. All we had

to do was follow the trail of destruction the giant rat monster had left behind, and we arrived back

to the starting point.

Jason was apparently waiting for us. He was sitting right in the middle of the now destroyed little park, looking as if this was what he saw every day in his life. Which, if my theory about him being a magician was true, he probably did.

"Hi." Carter said, kind of awkwardly.

"Hi." Jason returned the greeting, looking back and forth between the two of us, then looked at me. "Glad to see you're still alive. So, are you a half-blood?"

"What?" This was the second time that I have heard that term used before, and I was pretty sure

that Jason didn't mean our African American/European heritage.

"Are you half-bloods? You know, demigods."

Then it all clicked into place. A magician that wasn't actually a magician, the freaky golden coin

sword: it all pointed to only one thing.

"Oh, gods. You're Greek."

"Um, actually, I'm Roman."

"Same thing."

Carter shot me a look that said that no, it's not the same thing, but I ignored him.

You see, I met a demigod a couple of months ago. In short, the meeting involved a freaky three

headed monster -staff, a blonde version of Carter, and a giant guy with a flower basket on his head. It was fun while it lasted, but then again, suddenly finding out that there was another set of egotistic ancient gods somewhere? Yeah, not so fun anymore. In fact, it was far from fun. I actually spent the rest of the day in my bedroom screaming my head out in frustration.

And now both my brother and I had just met another demigod. Wonderful.

"Look, uh..." Carter tried, figuring out what he should say to this guy. "Well, we're not really..."

"Hey, what have you been doing all this time?" I cut Carter off, turning to Jason. "Picking flowers while I get eaten by Mickey Mouse?"

He stared at me. "You know, you remind me a lot of one of my friends. And no, I wasn't picking flowers. I was trying to figure out what that is." he pointed at the spot he was sitting next to when we found him. Something was glinting in the dust, giving off a steady pulse of magic. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be dust. Golden dust. O-kay then.

"It's monster dust," Way to go, Carter, for stating the obvious! "but why is it here? I mean, the monster's still alive, isn't it?"

I crouched, staring at the glittering particles of mysteriousness. The powder lay scattered almost innocently in the freshly cut park grass. It sparkled in the sunlight, giving off a vibe that was clearly not normal. Or earthly, for that matter. The dust looked way too bright to have come from a monster, but nevertheless, in had. "Let's poke it with a stick, and see what happens."

Both boys looked at me, bewildered. "That's...a really bad idea." Jason finally managed to say.

"That was sarcasm. Calm down."

"You know, you act so similarly to him that it's ridiculous." Jason gave me a pointed look, like he was trying to figure out what to do with me. Carter just rolled his eyes.

"She's always like that. Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

Jason shook his head. "So, what do we do with it?"

Carter frowned at the monster glitter, cupping his chin with one hand. It was his favorite pose. "We should collect it. Maybe it could tell us why the Ichneumon is bigger than normal. And why it didn't go after us."

I understood what he meant. It was highly rare for a monster to leave a magician be, especially one with as much magic as Carter and I had. The fact that the rat hadn't found us yet was strange. It was like it grew tired of chasing me, and moved on to do other things. Whether this was good or bad is hard to tell. Maybe the dust could help us figure out just that.

Carter took out one of his empty potion vials that I had given him a while ago, and handed it to me. I gently scooped up some of the glittery substance with my hand and poured it into the vial. Sealing it with the cap, i handed the dust back to Carter, who quickly put it away in his bag.

Jason watched the procedure with silence. He looked thoughtfully at the two of us, as if trying to figure out some tricky puzzle. "Wait, what were your guys' names again?"

"Kane," Carter replied. "why?"

Jason's eyes widened, as if he just remembered something big. Really big. 'You're...those guys, aren't you? The Egyptian ones."

HUZZAH! UPDATED! And a half a month hadn't even passed, yet! And yes, I'm being sarcastic. Soory for the long wait, guys. I've gotten distracted by...other stuff. (Glares at Fullmetal Alchemist).

Aaanyway. No, I'm not Uncle Rick. If I was, you'd know.

Nico: Why am I here, again?

Me: Cause I said so. And I'm bored. And the reason why I didn't post for a while is because there were, like, two reviews.

Nico: You, you didn't post because you're lazy and you never finish your stories.

Me: (Glares at Nico) Seriously, guys! There is like at least 12 of you who like this, yet only a sixth reviewed the first chapter! How about a deal: You guys give me more reviews, and i give you more chapters? How does that sound?

Shout out for the people who did review. Ya guys get cookies! (::) (::)

What I did good on: The fight scenes, I think. And the dialouge. The dialouge always comes easier for me.

What I did bad on: Serous Sadie is seriosly hard to write.