Hello, here's another update! And, just to say, yes Presley is a girl. And, it just so happens that my mom's name is Arlene, but she's nothing like her =] -That was an answer to an awesome reviewer, Person Who-

Chapter 4

It ended up raining hard, so me decided to stay at an abandoned motel. It wasn't much, the only thing really usable was the bed. And it wasn't even that pleasant. While it was storming out, Presley, Nico, and I stayed in the motel lobby. They started a fire in the fireplace, and sat around it. I sat on a dusty couch far from them. Nico sent a few odd looks towards me, and I found myself feeling self-conscious.

"So, Arlene." Presley said and turned to me. She squinted her eyes at me, she probably couldn't see me, since I wasn't in the fire's light. "Why don't you sit here, I can hardly see you over there."

Nico gave her a look, and I felt hated. Not the type of jealous-hated, the I-want-that-girl-to-die hated. I awkwardly made my way to the fire, and sat a few feet in front of it, and a few inches away from Nico, who was staring at the fire, deep in thought.

"What happened?" Presley asked, getting right to the point.

Nico's head snapped up, and he stared at me intensively. I pulled my sweater sleeve over my hands, not really wanting to talk about it. I bit my lip and looked down, slightly ashamed because I was meant to be the leader of an evil...group.

"Well?" Nico's rough voice said.

I glared at him, and he glared back. "I can't say, not right now at least. Not in front of this coward." I growled, still glaring at him.

"Coward?!" He yelled, standing up.

I got up, too. And clenched my fist, being careful not to use any magic. "Yes, coward. You're afraid of me because I'm Kronos' daughter!" I yelled.

"Why would I be afraid of you?! You can't do anything right, and you're useless! Right now, I wish I didn't even have to be stuck here with you in this crappy place! This is all your fault! It's your fault why the gods are angry, it's your fault why Chiron is so nervous, and...everything's your fault!" He yelled. Is that the best he could come up with?

"Guys..." Presley said.

I took a deep breath, not wanting to use my power against him. I calmly replied, "Nico...I don't want to hear how worthless I am, or how useless I am. I've had enough of you, from now on, you are dead to me."

He blinked, astonished that I said that and didn't put up a fight. I calmly sat back down and gave Presley a look and she said nothing. Nico was still standing, completely surprised. Then, we heard a loud roar outside. Presley and I stood up, and we all ran outside.

It was completely dark out, even lights from the Manhattan apartments were all off. I could hardly make out anything from the pouring rain. But, I could see a large shadow moving around in the darkness. I blinked, the rain was annoyingly hitting my face.

"What is that?" Presley asked.

"I don't..." I didn't get to finish was I was saying because it was clearly in view now.

It was a hell hound...except not. It was in the shape of a large, black dog, but it had some other features as well. It had tusk coming from it's mouth, and horns on his head, replacing it's ears. It's coat seemed to glitter, and it's nails were at least one foot long, when it roared, not barked like normal hounds, it's sharp, white teeth showed. And, black drool fell from it's mouth, as it hit the ground, it sizzled. Poison, maybe? Acid? What was really weird though, was it's eyes; They were completely silver, a glowy kind of silver. The eyes made you shivered when ever you looked directly into it.

Hunter and I gave girly shrieks, while dead-to-me Nico just stared at the beast in horror. I reached for my sword, and remembered the bad guys took it. I cursed under my breath as the hound prepared to pounce on us. Presley and Nico took out their swords while I stared at the thing. One huge leap, and it was in front of us.

I screamed fell backwards, as did Presley, Nico stayed put and swiped his sword at the beast's muzzle. It cried out and growled, send black drool to fly onto Nico. Nico yelled out in pain as the drool burned his arm. Surprisingly, I felt like I should stick up for Nico.

As Nico fell, I notice his sword skittered over to me. Maybe...if he doesn't mind...I can use it to fight. I picked it up, and instantly, the hound looked at me. Hunter yelped as it jumped on us and crushed us under its sharp claws. I screamed as one of it's sharp claws dug into my leg and I heard the bone crack.

"Arlene!" I heard someone yell, but it wasn't Hunter. It sounded suspiciously like Nico.

I guess he was trying to warn me because a glob of drool was about to fall on me. I covered my face with my arms and screamed as the drool burned my arms. Painfully, I pulled myself from under the thing and helped Hunter up, even on my broken leg.

The beast growled and started biting and pulling Presley's leg. She screamed as she saw her blood leaking out of her jeans. I tried pulling her from the beast, but I only made it worst. I decided to use Nico's sword. I weakly stood up and tried getting close to the beast. I couldn't get any more close than a few feet, so I threw the sword and it struck the leg of the beast. While it was distracted, I limped back to Presley, but had passed out from the loss of blood. I glanced over my shoulder, where Nico was slowly moving, but clearly in pain.

I grabbed a bow and arrow from Presley's side, since I lost Nico's sword, and aimed. I shot three arrows to the head, but they didn't hit where I wanted it to hit. One hit the beast's eye, one didn't even make it close to the thing, and another bounced off it's fur harmlessly.

I turned back to Presley and fed her some nectar she had in a small bottle in her bag. When her eyes fluttered open, a breathed a sigh of relief. Then, the beast whacked me with it's paw, sending me flying. I landed on something soft...on Nico. He grunted as I rolled off him. I gulped down a sob as the pain on my broken leg became unbearable. The rain didn't help either, it was stinging my leg with ever drop.

I became aware that Nico was badly injured, also that he raised some skeletons and were holding off the beast.

I forgot all hostility towards him, and tended him, even thought I was the one losing a lot of blood. "Nico? Nico! Nico?!" I shouted over the rain as he closed. Once his eyes opened again, I fed him nectar.

Once he was done with it, and I mean all of it, there was none left for me, He leaned up. He looked at my weakening face a flash of concern showed in his eyes, but it was quickly gone. He stood up, not seeming injured at all and surveyed the problem.

I tried standing, but gave up as soon as I realized I couldn't walk. Nico looked down at me and helped me up. He reached in his pocket and pulled out two squares of ambrosia, and he...gave it to me. I took it and ate it, and could feel my leg healing.

"Thanks." He said.

I gaped at him. Did Nico diAngelo just say thanks to me? I nodded and looked back at the beast, since my leg was healed, though it still hurt.

Suddenly, The beast let out a startling cry, and it exploded and yellow goo fell everywhere. I backed up, not knowing what happened. Nico's skeleton minions pulled apart and sunk into the ground. I narrowed my eyes when I saw a figure walking from where the beast was. It was a guy...blond hair, piercing blue eyes, it's remarkable that I could see his eyes even in the dark, and...he sorta looked kind of cute.

He was wiping goo off his closed and looked up at us with a mocking smile. He walking up to me, Nico, and Presley, who had just appeared next to us. He glanced at me and smiled.

"Hello, there, Blondie." he greeted. I think I heard...an Irish accent in his voice? "Saw you across the street, saw you all fighting, decided to help...clearly, I did."

We all stared him and I decided to speak up. "Who, exactly, are you?" I asked,

He smiled and said, "I'm Stark Thunder. Son of Zeus." With that, the rain had stopped. He gave gave me a heart-stopping grin and added, "And I believe you are the infamous Arlene Keister, daughter of Kronos."

I stared at him and wondered, how did he know my last name? I never told anyone my last name. "How did you-" I started,

"I know people. But, that's not the issue right now. The issue is, while on my way here, I noticed a fairly large group, shall I say, warriors? And, I think they're after you" he said, pointing at me.

"How do you know they're after me?" I huffed.

"Well, I heard one of them say, 'We need to get Kronos' child, or our mission won't be successful." he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

And he wasn't lying because I heard lots of shouting, and behind him, I saw a crowd of people with armor and swords.

"I say we run." Presley offered.

"Does this have anything to do with your kidnapping?" Nico asked me.

"Yes..." I said, uncertain.

"I think we better start running now" Stark said and we took off, onto the street. I cursed under my breath as several apartment lights turned on.

"I thought I was dead to you." I heard Nico say to me.

I thought about that. "Would you rather I throw you in front of the evil army and then you'll actually be dead?" I asked him, while trying to run faster.

Either it was my imagine, or Nico has gone completely mad, because(I swear!) he just smiled.

This took me a good took hour...I don't think it's all that good though. I hope you like it!!

P.S. To the dude that visited Greece, that's awesome!