A/N: Ah. Okay, fine. I lied. Not a week at most. Jeez...
But anyways, I actually redid this chapter last minute, since the original was a bit cliché and cheesy and rushed. I didn't bother to go back and reread chapter one before typing, so the atmosphere and situation might have shifted rapidly. If I get five plus reviews commenting on how badly it disrupts the flow, I'll try going back and rewriting.
And to answer anonymous guest's comment on the half, half, half to third, third, third, you're completely right, mathematically speaking.
But that's boring.
And boring's bad.
Half, half, half just rolled off my mind easier than third, third, third.
But just enjoy the show! Percy's gonna have the concentration for this whole chapter.
Warning: Lotsa swearing! And since I might as well mention it, I don't own either PJO or AR. As much as I want to, I don't.
Luck of the Goddess
Chapter Two: Fake Diplomacy
The boy sprung into the air with a deadly grace, blood trailing behind like a personal jet-cloud of red. His eyes were flaring and his lips were pulled into a feral snarl as he sailed the distance between him and the demigods.
And Percy was thinking all like, Shit. Monster. We totally fell for that one.
But, thing was, the monster didn't look very monster-like at the moment. Still a boy and all that. Still keeping his (its?) true form hidden. Still stubborn as Death.
Percy watched as Annabeth swiftly leapt into action, stroking her dagger in wide arcs to let the Celestial Bronze do its job. Suddenly, he realized that he should probably be doing something. Like maybe helping.
Oops.
Percy deftly drew Riptide into a shining, deadly swipe of glowing godliness as the monster-What kind of monster was the boy, anyways?- danced away from one attack only to find himself in another.
Percy felt his blade make contact (Like, Hades yeah!), so he, unfortunately, also felt the vicious backlash of it bouncing off the monster-boy's skin.
And so that's how he found himself in a situation where his shoulder was dislocated and the monster was basically clubbed instead of diced. Appropriately, the beast-boy was unceremoniously sent flying into the trunk of a tree.
Percy almost- almost- flinched at the unholy cracking sound that echoed throughout the clearing as some bones presumably broke.
(Honestly, he mostly felt worse for the tree.)
What bothered him most was the fact that the monster was still whole. Celestial Bronze was like, the nuke to all countries when it came to Grecian monsters. Maybe not the most accurate comparison, but still. The unknown monster should've been dust in the wind by then.
Instead, it-he-whatever was crumpled in a shivering, bleeding pile at the base of a hunk-of-a-ginormous tree. The bleeding was only from some other injury already inflicted on its (His? What proper pronoun could Percy use for... er... him? It? Gods-damn-it!) exposed back. The hard slice delivered directly to the monster's stomach hadn't even opened up a wound.
Annabeth looked about as bewildered as he was.
Neither of them had time to calculate the equation (monster plus impervious to Celestial Bronze to the power of higher Mist control equals X. Solve for X), cuz' that was when the monster swung itself back up.
And here Percy was thinking that broken bones were supposed to hurt.
An all-mighty roar pulled him out of his thoughts as the monster pounced again.
Percy just barely managed to bring Riptide up in time to block the attack, despite his throbbing shoulder.
Ringing contact.
Time froze.
Percy watched as the surrounding air rippled once. Twice. Three times. Each wave of pulses pounded on his head like some kind of insistent migraine.
You know how when you step very slowly into the pool ('cuz it's just so freaking cold and you didn't have the good sense to swim on some other, warmer day), it kind of looks like the water-line's some kind of portal that turns your body into wavy line? Got that concept?
Well, take that, two demigod teens in orange T-shirts, dangerous weaponry, some freaky boy-monster-thing, and you've basically gotten what happened.
As the wavy-effect kind of swept over him, Percy watched the boy-monster-thing (he really didn't know what to call him- it- aw, screw it) sprout golden fur all over his body like puberty on fast-forward.
And maybe he had been a bit freaked out when he saw the huge-ass claws clasped firmly around his sword.
"Gods, no!" he cried and swung the monster off Riptide, sending it (Yes, it was now officially an "it." Percy was tired of debating with himself) flying once again. It landed lightly on the balls of its feet and crouched with a right damning look in its eyes.
The monster now had a lustrous coat of blood-soaked fur on its body (strangely, it still had torn jeans and T-shirt on). Its previously wind-swept fair hair had grown at a remarkable rate, cascading around its face and shoulders like a sunny mane.
That, topped with the ears poking curiously out on top its head, its slitted, dilated pupils, and the tail swinging around in little predatory circles behind it, made it look like some kind of cat.
But, as if in a trance, it seemed to calm down a bit.
"Course of action, Wise Girl?" he prompted sort of unhelpfully.
Annabeth gave him a weird kind of look, "Thinking, Percy. I'm thinking."
"Think faster, maybe?"
"Yeah... No. That's not how it works."
Percy bit his lip and sighed. The monster was still crouched and at the ready, assessing their every move with a piercing patience.
"I don't think we have much time," Percy gritted out. "Simba here looks like he's about to pounce. And, y'know, my shoulder's aching up a storm right now."
He swore he just saw the monster's lips quirk upwards a bit. But monsters didn't have senses of humor, no siree.
Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows just so, the way she did when she was thinking. Percy knew she was probably mentally beating the answer out of herself, being a child of Athena. There was a minute of pause (or it could've been a second, Percy couldn't be sure), and he was starting to wonder why the monster hadn't attacked again.
He was abruptly interrupted as Annabeth let loose an aggravated groan, "What the heck is it? I've never heard of a monster like this!"
"You mean you have no idea what we're up against?" Percy questioned incredulously. This was Annabeth! Annabeth was never clueless.
"Oh, I have ideas," she muttered darkly. "But, y'know, they're all crossed out when I reach the fact that this thing happens to be bipedal.
As if to taunt them, the monster stood up on its two legs and swaggered around in a little circle for before smiling cheekily at them.
"Screw you!" Annabeth all but yelled, and Percy couldn't help but smile slightly.
The monster paused for a second. Then, as if second-guessing itself, it sort of prowled (Percy had to physically remind himself that it was supposed to, oh, you know, have several bones savagely broken) up to them. Percy pulled Riptide up in a protective cross.
The monster calmly studied them for a second.
"... You know I can understand you, right?"
Percy startled at the soft rhetorical question that streamed easily from the monster's mouth.
Annabeth cocked an eyebrow, "Why, of course. Why else would I have yelled at you?"
"Maybe to vent frustration?" it queried.
"Do I look like one to do that?"
"At first? Actually, yeah."
"Touché."
The monster smiled, "I might want to warn you, I still feel the compulsive urge to kill the both of you right now."
Annabeth nodded, "Understandable. Grecian monsters usually feel that around demigods. You a new one?"
The monster stopped to think for a second.
"Technically, yup."
Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "Technically?"
"Complicated."
"Ah."
"Wait a second," Percy interjected, waving his arms in the universal gesture for slow down. "What's going on right now?"
"Fake diplomacy," both the monster and Annabeth answered. The "duh" at the end was kind of implied.
The monster raised its hand, "I'm curious about what the heck's goin' on with me. I'm about this-," it put its fore-finger and thumb about half a centimeter apart, "-close to either collapsing and breaking down crying or trying to tear both your guts out. My control's running thin."
Annabeth nodded, "So we have an information trade. Two questions each."
"Did you two simultaneously come up with this?" Percy asked.
"Yup."
Percy sighed, "Okay. Okay, fine. Your tactics might as well be lost on me. I'll just stand and listen."
The monster "thumbs-upped" him.
"I'll start," Annabeth offered. "Monster species?"
It shrugged dismissively, "I'm not quite sure what you could classify me as, but let's say Nemean Lion. My turn. What's a demigod?"
Annabeth raised an eyebrow dubiously, "A child born of both mortal and immortal blood. I'm one, Percy's one. So I'm guessing you were the Nemean Lion who bit through the steel cage at the zoo and started running amok in the city." The monster threw her an incredulous glance, but played along. "Why'd you try to kill the harpy? You're both technically monsters."
"It attacked me. Why?"
"I haven't the slightest. Maybe it was in a bad mood."
Percy snorted, causing both the monster and Annabeth to snap their gazes to him.
"Monsters're always in bad moods," he muttered sheepishly. "And can I ask a question?"
The monster smiled an amused smile, "I dunno, can you?"
Percy rolled his eyes, "May I ask a question?"
"Go ahead."
"Should I call you an 'it' or a 'him?'" he blurted out.
There was a period of silence before the monster chuckled slightly.
"I'd like to think myself a 'him,' thank you very much," it- er, he- replied softly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go bash my head into a tree to keep myself from killing you. As much as I want to, my annoying conscience is stopping me."
"Wait, wha-?" Percy started.
It- he padded silently up to a giant oak and, before anyone could stop him, brutally face-trunked.
He crumpled to the ground immediately.
Percy exchanged glances with Annabeth before gently peering down at the curled-up form of the monster.
The golden fur was starting to slowly disappear, being concealed patch-by-patch by the Mist. All that remained was the ears, the tail, a regular head of scruffy blonde hair, and the claws.
"So..." Percy started. "That was probably the most interesting monster encounter I've had in my life."
Annabeth nodded solemnly, "Agreed. But, hey, if the monster wanted to go easy on us, I'm not complaining. You know the drill for Nemean Lions, Seaweed Brain. The mouth."
Percy blinked and once again readied Riptide. He gently pried open the monster's jaw, revealing straight lines of completely regular teeth, except for two wickedly sharp canines.
Breathing, Percy lifted his blade and prepared to finish off the strange monster.
Riptide slowly started to plunge down.
~x-X-x~
"No!"
~x-X-x~
A flash of light.
Percy froze, blade hovering inches away from its target.
A glowing circle of gold light hung above the monster's head. A symbol of a round ball hung proudly in place like a hologram.
A claiming sign.
Percy's mind took a second to compute the situation. He slowly and deliberately shrunk Riptide before stuffing it back into his sweat-drenched jeans, eyes still on the sign.
He glanced expectantly at Annabeth. She too was also gaping at the golden light. He strolled calmly to her side and put a hand comfortingly on her shoulder.
Annabeth snapped out of it as soon as she felt his touch. Percy watched as she slowly turned to look at him.
As one, the two of them turned to stare at the monster-demigod-whatever lying unconscious on the forest floor.
She sighed.
"Chiron's gonna totally love this one."
A/N: So that concludes chapter two! Remember, if you feel like it kind of jumped, make sure to comment on it. If I get five reviews telling me the atmosphere shifted too rapidly, I might (might) rewrite this chappy.
But either way, My Blessings From Hell,
Devil's Den