Sorry guys for the late update… the modem broke and hence no internet connection for past 5 days.

Happy to say, I'm back!

This one has lots of action! Enjoy!

Chapter 7

The first thought that came to Percy's head when he looked back was "Duck!"

Pushing the boy's head down, he did the same- not a moment too soon, because the place where their heads had been were now embedded with a dozen thorns.

Thorns?

Holy Poseidon…

A manticore.

"We meet again, Perseus Jackson," came the familiar voice of Dr. Thorn, "and this time, there are no hunters to save you." Looking back, he could see the face of the manticore on its lion body, and its tail bristling with spikes.

Percy felt anger growing inside him. It was just a few months from the last titan war, and the monsters had already come back?

"No need for hunters to kill you, cactus man,"

Thorn's nostrils flared as he shouted, "Why you-", then he stiffened, "I smell… something different about you, sea spawn."

"Oh dear… has the ickle beastie caught a cold?" Percy taunted, but inside he was growing cold. Monsters like Thorn could easily sniff out a demigod, especially a son of the big three. He desperately tried to cover up the boy's scent with his own.

"I smell…air. The power of the sky." Thorn clicked his fingers, grinning, "Why, you have a demigod son of Zeus!" His eyes drifted down to the cowering boy beside Percy. "Hello, Godling. I believe we have not met." He held out his hand formally, as if they were in a meeting. "I am Dr. Thorn, a manticore, one of the most dangerous monsters alive!"

"That's because all others have died," Percy retorted.

Thorn gave Percy a look of hatred, "I'm not speaking to you, spawn. We'll have plenty of chat later. But for now…" He threw a thorn from his tail, which embedded itself next to the boy, who flinched. "I believe I just introduced myself. It would be terribly rude if I am forced to eat you without knowing your name." He held out his hand.

To Percy's horror, he saw the boy's hand stretching towards Thorn. Just before he tried to summon water to blast away Thorn, the boy spoke, "I'm Jack. How are you?"

So saying he extended his hand to touch Thorn.

At that moment all Hades broke loose.

A blue light emerged from Jack's hands, and Thorn fell down, shocked- literally. Percy knew from personal experience that Thorn's hand would probably be numb for sometime, and decided to make the best of it.

He made a punching motion with his hand. Mimicking his actions, the water took the shape of a fist, and punched the manticore on the stomach. Thorn went flying backward, crashing onto the tables and breaking the glass. Several people screamed. Only then, did Percy notice that the people had formed a circle around them, listening to their conversation as if they were the prime time show on T.V.

"Why didn't they go away?" raged Percy, before deciding that he needed to get both Jack and himself to some place safe, so that the people do not get hurt. The water around them obeyed his thoughts, and splashed them through to the nearest pool in the corner, where thankfully, there were neither the people nor the monsters.

"Jesus!" Jack spluttered, coughing out water from his mouth.

"It's not Jesus, kid, it's Zeus!"

Percy took Jack's hand, and was pulling him towards the nearest exit, when he heard the noise of guns.

BANG! BANG!

He froze and looked around carefully. Green clothed men were firing bullets all around. On their chest were badges, which spelt "Security". Percy was feeling relieved that the security had come to rescue them when he felt a bullet grazing his leg.

Jack flinched.

He realized that the security were not here to kill Thorn, instead, they were here to kill the demigods.

He started pulling along Jack to take cover behind a table, but apparently, Jack had had enough.

"NO!" he screamed, and then shocked Percy away. He started running away from Percy as fast he could. Percy cursed and tried to follow him, when he felt a sharp pain in his leg.

A thorn.

He immediately pulled it out of his leg, hoping that the poison had not spread. But his hopes were immediately dashed a second later, when a burning sensation started in his leg, and started to spread all over his body.

"Water…" He willed his element to heal him, but it was slow healing. Apparently, the poison was strong enough to even resist healing from water. He tried to see through the haze blocking his eyes.

The casino had become a disaster. It looked a scene straight from a horror movie. Blood was spilled everywhere, ad people were cowering under cover. And Jack had run… straight into the clutches of the security guards. It looked like he was putting up a fight, but one untrained demigod was nothing compared to the monster trained mortals. And savoring the view was Dr. Thorn.

"I have to save him somehow," Percy thought desperately. His eyes then fell on a motorbike that was still roving on a platform.

Ok. Time for desperate ideas.

He stumbled to his feet, the pain in his leg almost making him crippled. He somehow walked up to the bike. Cowering beside the bike was a female model who had apparently been showing off the bike's features.

"Keys?" he asked the model.

She pointed a shaking hand at the stand beside the bike.

Percy put the keys in the starter and kicked the lever. He then pointed the bike towards Thorn, who thankfully hadn't noticed him yet. It seemed like he was bent on torturing Jack.

VROOOOOM!

Thorn had only time to say "What the-" when he was sent flying due to the force of the impact.

"Come on!" Percy yelled to Jack, who wasted no time and sat down behind him, holding his waist for dear life.

"All right!" He performed a 360 on his bike, which probably would have given his mom a heart attack, and then burst through the windows.

CRASH!

"Someone should be really filming this," he thought, as his teeth rattled from the impact on landing on ground. He immediately gunned his way towards the traffic in front of him. Hopefully, Thorn won't follow him when he was with mortals.

BANG BANG!

Percy cursed. He had totally forgotten the mortal guards. He raced his way through the traffic, between the cars and trucks, but the guards kept following him. He could here the guns firing, and could almost feel the bullets coming their way. Any second now, they would be dead-

"NO!" Jack yelled, and a spark of electricity emerged through his fingers, incinerating the bullets just before it could hit them.

"Thanks Jack."

"Don't mention it."

By now, they had come to a free stretch of road. He immediately increased the speed, and he could hear the guards falling behind. Percy sighed in relief. Just then he heard a roaring sound up in the sky.

Looking up, he saw Thorn on a helicopter.

"No way! How can monsters be so…modern!" he cried. Then Thorn's voice boomed.

"Perseus Jackson! You cannot evade me this time! The moment I throw this grenade, you will blow up!"

Grenade?

He looked at Jack, and saw that his eyes were wide with fear. He tried to think of something that would save them. To buy some time, he yelled, "Jack! Pray to your father!"

"Excuse me?"

"Pray to your father to kill the enemies!"

"I don't have a father." Jack returned stiffly.

"JUST DO IT!" Percy roared, as he swerved to avoid the grenade. Behind him he could hear Jack murmuring a plea to his father.

For a second, nothing happened. Then-

BOOM!

The whole sky lit up with a flash of lightning. For a moment, it was as light as day. Then the lightning receded, and when he saw upwards, he saw a sky free of any helicopters.

"Thank you, uncle," Percy called out gratefully, as thunder boomed. He looked behind at Jack, who was looking shocked. "Yeah, that was your father!"

Then he realized that Jack wasn't shocked due to the lightning. He was clutching his stomach, and was looking pale. Percy looked down and was sickened at what he saw. Protruding from Jack's stomach was a piece of metal, probably from the helicopter blast, and it was covered in blood.

"Oh no, oh no…You just wait… You'll be all right." Percy muttered in panic, as he tried to look for the nearest hospital.

But the bleeding was increasing continuously, until at last, Percy was forced to stop. He cut a piece of cloth and tied it tightly across Jack's stomach, in the hope that it would staunch the bleeding.

Just then, he saw a flash of moonlight appear a little distance away from him and the sound of a hunting horn.

Percy grimly looked down at Jack, "Come on, your sister will help you."