Chapter Six: Charlie
We Meet the God of Storms. Not the One You're Thinking Of.
They wandered the small town of Lamar, Colorado, for a little while until they found what Ajax needed: three ravens sitting on a telephone wire.
He waved to them.
"Hello," he said. "I'd like to enlist your services."
"Great, now we're talking to birds," Charlie grumbled.
She looked up and down the street. A couple walking by looked at them strangely, but no one else was about.
Her skin tingled. The air felt charged, the way it does before a storm. She looked to the sky to see dark clouds gathering on the horizon. If that wasn't a sign of how things were going, she wasn't sure what was.
They were facing an enemy they knew little about, an enemy who had unknown numbers, an enemy who could possibly find them at any time, depending on whether or not Rock Guy had tracked them or just gotten lucky. And, facing facts, she'd basically lost that fight.
Fight smarter, her mom commanded.
How was she supposed to do that?
She looked back over to Ajax. He was scrawling messages on scraps of paper while describing what he was sending to Zoe.
"One will go to Chiron, to tell him what we have guessed about the threat. I'm sending one to the thanes, like I said, and then one to the Roman camp. Is there anyone in particular I should have it find?"
"Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano or Frank Zhang," Zoe supplied. "They're the praetors right now. Percy Jackson, too."
Ajax nodded and kept writing. After a minute, he rolled the papers up and stuffed them in miniscule capsules he produced from his pocket. Then, he offered one each to the ravens. As they pecked at the capsules, swallowing them, he told each its charge aloud. The ravens cawed once he told them where they were to go. Two beat their wings and soared east, one west.
"Cool," Zoe said. "Do you think—"
The rest of what she said was lost in a thunderous explosion. The air filled with a blue light, and a shockwave picked Charlie up and threw her several feet down the street.
She landed roughly, turned it into a roll, and ended in a crouch, not once letting go of her hammer. She saw Zoe land in some grass in front of a squat, metal building across the street, and Ajax skid to a halt on the sidewalk.
The dark clouds she'd spotted suddenly formed overhead, casting the street into darkness, illuminated weakly by the blue light, which emanated from a short man dressed in bamboo armor and carrying a curved sword who was now walking down the street, closest to Ajax.
"Hah! Demigods," he said. "Easy pickings."
Ajax stood, only to be struck by a bolt of lightning as the man waved his sword in an arc. The blue-white bolt leapt from it and hit Ajax, throwing him back several feet. He landed, smoking slightly, and grunted.
"I'm okay!" he called. "Just a second."
"You won't be, little demigod," the man grinned.
Charlie weighed names for him in her head as she charged, swinging her hammer around herself. Shorty? Lightning Guy was obvious and derivative of Rock Guy. Little Big Man? That was a mouthful.
He spun his sword toward her and she dove to the side, the blast of lightning scorching the ground. She came up swinging, but he met the blow with his sword, his stance low, both hands on the hilt. They strained against one another for a moment. He had long, dark hair and eyes that flashed with lightning. She assumed this was the Asian dude who threw lightning Ajax had described.
"All right then," he grunted. "Let's dance."
He fell back, swinging his sword low. She let it hit her and bounce off her legs, cracking him upside the head with the haft of her hammer. He snarled and threw out a hand. A blast of wind buffeted her, sliding her backward across the ground.
Zoe called out from behind her.
"Hey, I know who this is!" she said. "He's Susano-o! God of storms."
Susano-o smiled and inclined his head.
"You're right. Now you know how lucky you are to be killed by me."
"Yeah," Charlie shrugged. "I don't know anything 'bout you."
He spun and thrust his sword toward her. Lightning erupted from it and sent her tumbling along the street. Again, she turned the motion into a roll and came up on her feet, in a crouch.
"You know nothing of me?" he growled. The scent of ozone, already thick in the air, became overpowering. Winds began to gather around him, howling and whipping his hair about. Then, they died away and he lowered his sword. "Actually, that's not that surprising. It kind of skews part of our whole mission statement if you did."
"Uh, yeah," she said, standing. "Okay."
"But if you did know who I was, you'd know how lucky you are to be killed by me," he continued, raising his sword. The winds returned, buffeting her and snapping her jacket back. "I am Susano-o, god of storms!"
"Yup, that's what I said!" Zoe called from the building's lawn.
Susano-o turned and sent a bolt of lightning arcing at her.
"Eep," she cried, rolling to the side and scurrying further back.
"Normally, I would kill the insolent one first," Susano-o proclaimed. "But she knew who I was, so she can die last. Although," he called back to Zoe, "I'm the god of the summer storm. And waves, too!"
"So you are gods," Charlie grunted. "Kinda weak."
"All right, first of all, that's just rude," Susano-o said. "Second, I can see you're not the smart one, huh?"
Just then, Ajax, who'd taken advantage of the darkness to steal around the god, shouted a battle cry and swung his axe at Susano's neck. The god reacted quickly, managing to get a hand in between his neck and the blade. The axe bit deep into his palm, easily shredding the leather glove he wore, and he grunted. Lightning surged across his body and flared out, blasting Ajax away. He landed in the street and groaned.
"Again, okay," he reported. "Mostly."
Susano-o flicked his hand, golden ichor flowing from the room, reflecting strangely in the faint blue glow emanating from him. He looked to Charlie again.
"And you just stood there?" he asked. "Some friend you are."
"Yeah, well," she said, swinging her hammer up to rest on one shoulder. "I don't like him all that much. Besides, you could strike down an injured opponent. Or you could fight me."
"Trying to goad me so your friends can escape?" he guessed. "Adorable. I think I'll just kill him first and then you."
He spun and raised his sword to strike Ajax with lightning.
"Charlie!" Zoe yelled. "Ask him how his sister's doing!"
"How's your—" she began.
Susano-o whirled about to face her, his eyes giving off sparks of electricity.
"Don't you dare mention her to me!" he roared.
He charged her, raising his sword over his head. She let her hammer slide through her hand to rest on its haft standing up and kept a loose grip on it. He reached her and brought his blade down in a blow to split her head open.
She would never admit to fear, but deep, deep down, she had doubts. Some primal part of her worried that one day, the Curse might fail in a critical moment, and she'd die like any mortal.
Today wasn't that day.
The blade struck her head and stopped. She punched Susano-o upside the head, causing him to stumble back and spun, bringing her hammer around in a short blow. It slammed into his side and bamboo crunched, sending him stumbling back.
"Yeah," she snarled. "Let's dance."
"Wait," Zoe came running up. "Susano-o, if you wanna not kill us, I'm sure we could be buds."
He let out a roar and lightning strikes began storming around him, creating a cage of electricity. Howling winds tore at Charlie's jacket at Zoe's top. He leveled his blade at Charlie again, a ball of lightning coalescing around it.
"Oh, boy," Zoe said, in a Mickey Mouse voice. She patted Charlie on the arm once and sprinted away. "Okay, have fun babe!"
Susano-o lunged, the ball of lightning erupting from his blade and surrounding her, a vague heat on her skin. She blocked his strike with her hammer's haft, and they began trying their level best to kill each other.
Susano-o fought recklessly, clearly used to killing anyone with lightning long before having to engage them in melee. He made powerful, wild attacks that left him open to counterattack. She simply took the blows, matching his style, hammering away at him with two-handed strikes.
She forced him back, cracking his armor and landing one nasty blow on his head. Still, he was a god, and he hardly slowed or faltered for the first minute, bombarding her with lightning and raining heavy attacks on her. Slowly, though, he began to show signs of wear. He stumbled more, and gripped his sword weaker. She mercilessly pressured him, Bellona's voice in the storm.
Conquer! Kill him!
Finally, he swung a horizontal blow at her chest and she blocked it with her hammer's haft and then hit him in the stomach with it. He staggered, and she backhanded him, snapping his head to the side. She kicked him in the knee to drop him into a crouch, and he lost his grip on his sword. It clattered to the ground, and she snapped it up and buried it in his chest.
He gasped and cried out, lightning weakly flaring around him. The winds waned off. Her victory thrummed in her veins.
He looked up at her and laughed, ichor swelling from his chest and dribbling from his mouth.
"You," he rasped. "You have no idea what's coming for you. And this … this is not over."
The black clouds overhead dispersed and the blue light faded as Susano-o died. His body and his sword exploded into bolts of lightning and vanished. The streetlights came on around them as the night returned to normal.
Ajax, his hair standing on end, his shirt blackened, but otherwise seemingly unharmed, walked up alongside Zoe.
"Well, my plan is certainly just let Charlie fight them all," Ajax nodded.
"That never wasn't my plan," Zoe grinned. "So, you're just fine? Two lightning bolts don't faze a Norse warrior?"
Ajax rapped his shirt, which made a strange, hollow clanging noise.
"Magical armor," he smiled. "Do not, under any circumstances, machine wash."
"What happens if you—" Charlie began.
"Do not!" Ajax repeated.
"Okay," Zoe raised her hands. "So we got one — yay! Go us. Good job, Charlie."
"Yeah," she grunted.
"Aw, dammit, we should've asked him how they're finding us," Zoe sighed. "Him and Rock Guy have conveniently been where we were."
"On the bright side, he probably wouldn't have answered," Ajax said.
She rested her hammer across her shoulders and looked to Ajax.
"World Tree," she said. "Maybe they can't follow us there."
"Right," he nodded. "I should get us gone."
He fumbled in a pocket and withdrew a small stone inscribed with a rune. He tossed it into the air and struck it with his axe. Instead of knocking the stone away, his axe seemed to stretch the stone into a glowing rift in the air, about as tall as Zoe. He strapped his axe to his back, crouched, and stepped into the rift. He disappeared immediately without a trace.
Charlie and Zoe exchanged a glance and Zoe held out her hand. She took it, and followed Zoe into the rift, ducking her head.
The transition happened without fanfare. One step, they were in Lamar, the next, they stood on an enormous branch in the boughs of a tree so large it stretched into infinity. Ajax grinned at them from a little further down the branch.
"Welcome to Yggdrasil," he said. "The World Tree."
The rift closed behind them with a sound like a zipper. Zoe gazed about in wonder. Charlie eyeballed their branch and determined it to be about the width of a four-lane highway. A strange, weak light permeated the air, leaving the World Tree in perpetual dusk.
"Wow," Zoe said. "We just fought a Japanese god and now we're standing on the root of Norse mythology. Heh. Root."
"Well, we haven't been erased from existence or whatever," Charlie grunted. "Let's move and hope that sticks."
They set off along the branch, walking in toward the center of the tree.
"Zoe, why did you bring up Susano-o's sister?" Ajax asked. "And why did it enrage him?"
"Oh he kinda forced his sister to hide in a cave for years," Zoe replied. "Which was bad 'cuz she's the sun."
"A cave?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah," Zoe nodded. "I guess it had a big rock at the mouth to block it off. So I guessed it might be a sore spot for him. Really, I just kinda wanted to screw with Charlie."
Charlie stared at her. Zoe batted her eyes. She rolled hers.
"You're only half as cute as you think you are," she growled.
"Well, that's still pretty damn cute," Zoe smiled. "And I don't need you to tell me I'm not, so up yours."
"Out of curiosity, how much time do you two spend not bickering?" Ajax asked.
"Very little," Charlie grimaced.
"We don't fight fight though," Zoe said. "So it makes up for it."
"Ah," Ajax said. "Of course. And — Odin's beard, Ratatosk!"
Zoe jumped as Ajax shouted and pointed, but nothing was there. He grinned and Charlie cracked a smile. Zoe put her hands on her hips.
"See, but now, if he really does show up, no one's gonna believe you," she said.
Then, a deafening chattering split the air. In it, strangely, Charlie heard a voice.
Can't even defeat a little earth god? Didn't you kill a Titan? Guess you just got lucky, then. And, for some reason, the perennial, you swing like a girl.
"Well, that really is him," Ajax remarked. "We should run quickly."
He and Zoe took off in a sprint. She looked up to see an enormous, frothing, orange squirrel barreling down the tree trunk.
"Well, shit," she sighed.
She sprinted after the others, away from the raving, divine squirrel.
