Davis and Son was a small bar in a bad neighborhood, the exact place you'd make sure your kids never, ever go. But Mars was that kind or guy: the kind of guy who sends his kids to buy assault rifles, or find his other kids who he had never told him about. A dead beat God. Still, he was the God of War, and Achilles didn't want to burn alive, so he pushed open the door.
The first thing that struck him was the smell. The place smelled like cigarettes, beer, rotting meat and monsters. The second thing that struck him was the butt of a shotgun that hit him in the chest.
"Get the hell out of here!" The shotgun wielder yelled.
Achilles shoved the shotgun out of his face and head-butted the man in the gut.
"My Dad said you can help us. Big guy, probably back from crushing people with one thumb."
The man put down the gun and smiled. He looked about forty, and had balding red hair. He wore an old army jacket and jeans, and was short and bulky.
"Ah! You're the demigods! Your Father saved my dad's neck in Vietnam. Some son of Nemesis was executing... oh, it doesn't matter. Welcome to Davis and Son!"
Achilles looked around. There was a Dracaena in a skirt and jumper at a booth with a guy who looked like a hippy, wearing multicolored clothes, who looked like they were flirting. A large, icy blue Hyperborean Giant was drinking pints of beer and smoking a huge cigar, and a bloody Satyr was doing shots with a drunk Centaur while another Satyr lay unconscious on the floor. A Cyclopes was feeding a Hellhound on a leash that barely fit in the pub some steak.
"What is this place?"
"A Bar who those who are... Different! No mortals, only Gods, Monsters, Nature spirits and Heroes! Two drink minimum for Automatons."
"Oh. Ok. That's... Cool."
"We have your horses out back. We'll be feeding you and giving you a bed tonight. I'll get Dad, he'd love to meet you."
He turned, and walked off behind the counter. Achilles turned to Connor.
"Do we leg it?"
"Yea... No. I'm not angering your dad. He wants us to stay, we stay. Dude's waiting for a chance to kill me."
A Harpy in battle armor with a bronze scythe on her back entered, and sat at the table.
"What a day! The damn demigods wanted me to polish their armor again! Kronus didn't mention working for children of the bloody gods!" She said, grabbing a coke and placing a dollar on the counter.
"Should we kill her? She's the enemy."
Taylor pointed to a sign on the wall that said "No killing, no Mortals, no outside food.
"They even have a sign telling us not kill. Interesting."
"I hope they have ambrosia and nectar. What dies it taste like for you guys? I had cherry Bon-Bons and icy Orange juice like we found in that supermarket with the ghost manager. Delicious."
"Steak. And Oreo Milkshake. I could eat that all day."
"It astounds me you're not the size of a house." Connor said, before getting kicked in the leg. "I'm kidding! What about you, Achilles?"
"Cranberry juice and cupcakes. Best combo ever."The bartender appeared with an old man who wore a huge smile.
"Kids! I'm Davis, the bar owner, son of Fortuna. You're Mars' son, right? He saved my ass in 'Nam. Nemesis' brat, some officer in with the Vietcong was executing captured soldiers, so I led a some guys out to kill him. He led us straight into an ambush. We lost a lot of good men, and I got hit in leg. While I was lying, covered in blood, I prayed to Mars. Then, some guy in fatigues appeared with a flamethrower and fried them to Hades, leaving Nemesis' kid. Then one of my mates came in with an M16, shot him straight through the chest, carried me back to base. I met the guy later, and he told me he was Mars, and I owe him a favor. This is it."
He pulled up his pants, revealing a prosthetic leg.
"Got it amputated after that. So that's why I'm giving you this place to stay, in case you're suspicious. Which, if you're a true demigod, you should be. I'll be seeing you around. Marcus will get you some food and a room. Bye, kids."
He walked off, and his son, Marcus, showed them to a table, and they sat down.
"What's that?" Taylor asked, pointing to a dark brown stain on the chair cushion.
"I think it was a cat. Then it was dinner. Now it's a stain."
"OK then." Taylor said, looking at the stain distastefully.
"I'll get you some dinner. We have a spare bedroom upstairs when you want to sleep. There's a sofa and a bed. I need to get back to bar after I get you food." Marcus said, before walking off.
Achilles took out a map of the East Coast out of his bag, and laid it out on the table.""We can probably ride the Pegasi to Atlanta, find a lift from there and get to Orlando using... We'll find something. Then we find Ezio, and... I assume we'll be dead by then. So we hope we go to Elysium. That's the plan.""So... Remind me why we're doing this." Connor said.
"I don't want to get blasted to bits, and we have nowhere to go." Achilles said.
"We could go to Camp Half-Blood. That place was nice.""Meh. I won't most of my time with people like me; but a bit more barbaric. And I'm a terrible person. I'm shocked you haven't stabbed me yet."
Marcus came over and put down three plates with fat, greasy chips, thin slices of chicken covered with breadcrumbs, and three big glasses of lukewarm coke.
"Thanks. This looks... Nice." Achilles said to Marcus, who smiled. They inhaled their meals within minutes, before walking upstairs to the spare room. Achilles didn't realize how tired he was until he took off his armor and lay down on the bed.
"So... I'll take the bed." Connor said.
Achilles laughed, and threw him a sleeping bag.
"You get the floor. Taylor can take the sofa."
"Thanks, buddy." Connor said.
"What? I'm a gentlemen, and I'm stopping you two from fighting, which would end with a black eye and Taylor sleeping on the sofa."
Achilles closed his eyes and within seconds he fell asleep.
Achilles dreamed of two men playing chess in a marble palace. One man wore a pinstripe suit, and had long, flowing black hair and a beard, and stormy blue eyes. The other was covered in purple robes and black armor, and held a scythe in his hand. He walked over, and looked at the game, and realized the pieces were weird. The pieces weren't normally shaped, and some glowed bright while others were dull. The chess board was giant, with thousands of pieces fighting, and they were all detailed and colored, so the only way he could tell the difference was their bases, half blue and half purple. Scythe wielder's side depicted mostly dull monsters, but he noticed a few humans. His brightest piece was a warrior with a pale scar along his face, and blond hair. The suited man's prices were all human, besides a few bright, large pieces: an owl, a boar, an eagle and a pair of intertwined snakes, as well as a few more. Achilles realized they represented the gods. There were two other bright pieces: a black haired kid standing on tiny green waves, and another black haired kid with a rapier, who was pretty dull compared to the wave kid, but still pretty bright. Achilles realized he was watching a metaphorical war. Zeus and Kronus, the Rebel Commander and greatest Titan, were playing them all like pawns. He noticed a monster, the Minotaur, was about to take a very dull Laistrygonian Giant, who seemed to be on Zeus' side for some reason. Achilles felt a dull throb, and the scene shifted into darkness.
When Achilles awoke, he was lying on the floor of the spare room. He got up and saw Connor, fast asleep on the bed. Achilles picked up Connor with a grunt and threw him onto the floor, before kicking him repeatedly.
"Don't you ever push me out of bed again, or I will skin you alive!"
"What's your problem, Achilles?" Connor said angrily. "You're freaking out, and you didn't even find one of Charlie's feathers wedged in your armor!"
Achilles took the feather out, a flame colored phoenix feather, and threw it at him.
"Pushing me out of bed woke me from an important dream, idiot."
"I had an important dream. Seems the monsters have recruited a giant hot dog. Coincidently, I woke up hungry for a hot dog."
"We should go. I don't like waiting around here."
"I'll get dressed and we'll go."
Hey got dressed and went downstairs, where they found Taylor eating sausages and drinking orange juice. They had breakfast, before saying goodbye to Davis and Marcus. They went outside and mounted their Pegasi. Achilles looked at Connor and Taylor.
Connor wore black tracksuit pants, a white t-shirt and white sneakers that seemed impossibly clean. He still had his Camp Half-Blood beads on.
Taylor wore jeans, a white blouse and white and green sneakers, as well as her Caduceus earrings, and a silver bracelet she had most likely stolen yesterday. She looked pretty cute... No, she was his friend, nothing more. That incident after the labyrinth battle was just an accident. An awesome accident.
Achilles had his armor in his pack and wore a leather jacket, black jeans, Aviator Sunglasses and black combat boots, as well as a bulky steel wristwatch.
He mounted Aithon, who was chewing contentedly on a piece of steak. He rubbed his flaming mane, before looking at Connor and Taylor.
"Ready?"
They nodded, and Aithon burst into the air, soaring above buildings. Achilles held on tightly as Aithon moved around an apartment building and snorted fire at it. He galloped along the sky for a long time, swooping under bridges and narrowly avoiding billboards, spraying flames that singed buildings. Achilles looked back at Connor and his Pegasi. He noticed that what he assumed was the wind was actually Connor's petrified screams.
"For the gods' sake, Achilles! Help me! This horse is insane! Your dad trained him to kill me!"
Achilles looked at the horse, who was galloping pretty perfectly not even doing any dives.
Achilles dropped back and punched Connor in the head."It's a freaking pony! Just sit back and try to enjoy the... Try not to scream."
Achilles flew ahead, and for the rest of the ride all Connor did was whimper