Chapter seven.
We spent two days on the train, occasionally seeing a centaur family or some strange shadow in a forest, but nothing extraordinary. I mean, I slept a lot (Annabeth calling me lazy ass) and didn't notice nothing extraordinary.
When we arrived at St. Louis Annabeth woke Grover and me up to see the St. Louis arch.
On the way up Annabeth kept telling us some stuff about architecture that we tried to, but couldn't understand. What attracted my attention (and Percy's as well) was a woman with a Chiwawa, and dogs weren't allowed in the arch. At the top, after seeing some stuff, we decided that Annabeth and Grover would go down the elevator (there wasn't enough space for us four) and Percy and I would catch up with them. But our plans were ruined when Percy started talking to the woman.
"Hey, miss, aren't animals not allowed here?" He asked her.
"Oh, but this is not a dog, this is my son." She said.
"Your son?" He asked.
"Indeed" She said, showing her forked tongue. Wait, FORKED?
The chiwawa transformed into a monster in which's belt you could read:
Chimera
Beware: spits fire
If found, call tartarus.
Fucking shit. While that, the woman transformed herself into the queen of monsters, Echindna. So there's where the mom-son thing came from.
"You have no chance, little heroes!" She screamed. Chimera shot some fire but Percy and I were able to dodge it. Percy uncapped riptide and charged forward, he was able to dodge one attack but Chimera's snake tail grabbed him by the leg and threw him into the Mississippi river with sword and all. I couldn't stand it. My only and best friend was going to be killed by some lion freak? No, I think not.
I felt anger overtake me, the floor cracked and there were cracks going up the walls. My k-9 teeth were transformed into sharp canines, my hair went blonde, my whisker marks became darker and went further through my cheeks, my eyes now were blood-red and similar to a fox's. My nails grew and were now black and there was a red aura around me similar to a fox and with one long tail.
I charged in the Chimera's direction and she shot fire. I blocked it with my bare left hand. My other hand's aura expanded and took the Chimera all along it's body. I tightened my grip and crashed the Chimera, transforming it into golden dust.
"Now your turn" I said to Echidna, but the voice wasn't mine. I didn't fucking give a shit for it. Another tail grew and I felt stronger, but losing control of my body. I didn't fucking care, that little shitty snake woman had killed my friend.
I raised my hand and a finger expanded rapidly. It stabbed Echidna's chest and transformed her into golden dust. Then I saw a family and a policeman at my side, and I lost all anger. The kid had a little bruise on his cheek. I had harmed him. I had harmed a civilian, a kid. I transformed into myself. I was feeling exhausted. I went took the elevator without saying a word, tears in my eyes.
I was a monster.
When I arrived at the base of the arch I Hiraishined to where Percy's body should be and had a bit of a surprise to see him alive, getting out of the water totally dry. Like I had nothing to do, I hit him on the head.
"What was that for?!" He asked me.
"DON'T FUCKING SCARE ME LIKE THAT, YOU BASTARD!" I yelled "I FUCKING THOUGHT YOU WERE FUCKING DEAD AND HAD TO TAKE OUT CHIMERA AND ECHIDNA USING SOME FUCKING POWER I DON'T FUCKING KNOW ABOUT (stops to breathe) AND I FUCKING HURT A FUCKING FAMILY AND A POLICEMAN, DAMNIT!" I yelled. I heard some kid saying something about a man boy appearing of the yellow and a boy getting out of the water dry, and I knew the kid's mother wouldn't even look, she was too delighted on the news channel.
"Yes, Percy Jackson and Vicent Johnson who blew up a bomb on St. Louis's arch. If you see any of these two boys (Insert mine and Percy's photos), please call the police." The newsman finished.
"Oh, man!" Both me and Percy said at the same time.
"Let's find Annie and Grover" I said.
"Annie?" Percy asked. Then burst out laughing. Oh, man, I'm glad he is alive, but right now I wanted to kill him.
After Percy finished laughing he muttered 'okay' and we went to find them.
"Percy, Vice!" We heard a shout. We turned around and saw Annabeth hitting Grover on the head.
"C'mon, guys, we gotta get the hell outta here" I said. And so we did. We entered the train and went in the direction of Denver.
When we arrived at Denver, Annabeth said that we should IM Chiron (I didn't know what Iris-Message meant).
We went to a car wash and Annabeth threw a Drachma into the small rainbow the water was creating. The Drachma didn't go into the rainbow, but it merged in it.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbows, accept my offer and let me talk to Chiron, from Camp Half-Blood" She said. Shortly after an image of Luke appeared. He was in the big house.
"Luke? Where's Chiron?" All of us shouted at the same time.
"He's busy trying to stop a fight between a son of Ares and a son of Athena" He explained.
"Why?" I and Percy asked.
"Someone told camp about the whole thing about Zeus's Lighting bolt. I think it's the same person who let the Hellhound enter that day." He said. Annabeth said nothing, she just kept glancing at me and then at Luke. She seemed to be deciding who she liked (I wanted to scream 'Choose me, Annie!') until she kept staring at me and then drooling. Hehe. You lose, Luke.
At that moment a car with hip-hop at all volume entered the car-wash.
"What's that?" Luke asked.
"Let me take care of that" Annabeth said trying to whip off some drool off her mouth. "Come, goat-boy" She said, grabbing Grover by the collar, what left me and Percy in front of Luke. There was a scream, then the sound stopped and the car went out of the car-wash at all speed. The water of the IM started to fade away.
"Bye, Percy, Vice. Send Hugs from me to Grover and Annabeth. Oh and tell Grover nobody will be transformed into a pine tree if he-" But whatever Luke was going to say was interrupted by the lack of water and the IM faded away.
"Well, we have to go." Said Annie behind us. Oh, man, I have to stop calling her Annie.
"OK" We said. We entered a restaurant and took a sit.
"Have you got money to pay, kids?" The waitress asked. I was about to make up another moving story involving a circus, but before I could start a man in a fucking scary motorbike wearing a tight red shirt that showed his muscles and wore black jeans. His hair style was military, just cut.
"It's my deal" He said. The waitress just stared at him. He took out a knife and started to clean his nails.
"What are you staring at? Go get some cheeseburgers." He said and the waitress went, not wanting to get stabbed, do some cheeseburgers. I don't know why, but I had to fight the urge to hit the guy in the face. All the others seemed to be feeling the same. I grabbed Annabeth's hand under the table. If there was someone who could stop me from transforming into that monster, that person was her. She looked at me, but made no objections.
"Ares" Annabeth said matter-of-factly.
"Heh, yeah, but I'm not here to pay you a cheeseburger or something. I'm here to make a deal." He said. All I could think of was: Oh, shit. It's not the better news when the god of war wants to make a deal with you.
"What do you want." I asked in a dangerous tone.
"Ah, well, you see. I was with my girlfriend in an aqua park and lost my shield, and I want you to retrieve it to me" He said.
"We won't do a fu-" But whatever Percy was going to say was interrupted by Grover putting his hand over Percy's mouth.
"Of course we'll do what you want, Lord Ares" He said.
"Good. Oh, and yes, the name of the park is Aqualand." He said, then vanished.
"Now, that was weird" I said. Only then I noticed me and Annabeth were still holding hands. I released her hand.
"Uh, Anni-Annabeth, do you… uh… can we have a little talk outside the restaurant?" I asked.
"O-okay" She answered.
Once we were outside the restaurant I decided to talk.
"Annabeth… do you like me?" I asked.
"Y-yeah, I do" She answered.
"Then I think I can do this without being hit" I said and kissed her passionately and she kissed back instantly. We broke apart after half a minute for lack of air and went back to the restaurant holding hands.
