Chapter Twelve: Strangers in the Night
Before she woke up to the sounds of fighting, Luna had a strange dream, one that seemed very familiar to her.
In her sleep, Luna dreamed that she was on some sort of beach. She wasn't alone though; next to her, sat a handsome black-haired boy.
"How are you, Luna?" the boy said to Luna
Luna turned and looked into the handsome boy's eyes. She saw that his eyes were green like Rachel's, but they matched the color of the sea rather than the color of young grass.
"Well, first of all, who are you?" she asked the boy.
"Did you really forget my name that quickly, Luna?" teased the handsome boy.
Luna continued to stare at him. Who was this guy?
"Um, so you wanna make out?" the boy then asked after a moment of silence.
The guy clearly did not have a way with words, but he was good-looking, at least in Luna's opinion. Rolling her eyes, she leaned her head forward for a kiss.
That was when the dream ended and when Luna woke up to the sounds of fighting. She instinctively looked out the hotel room's window and groaned inwardly when she saw that it was still night time.
"Gods, what are those Slayers doing at this ungodly hour?" she complained loudly as she got out of bed and put on a jacket.
This question was answered when Amanda, the blond-haired Slayer, burst into Luna's room and said in a serious voice, "Luna, we have company."
It turned out that the company was a group of Sues who were looking for a place to stay for the night. Some of them had entered the dining hall and saw Nicole, who was about to go up to bed herself. Anyhow, the Slayer had managed to escape the hall and yell for help. Jonah, the other Slayer, heard her cries and woke up the other two Slayers for the inevitable battle. Amanda had been ordered to wake Luna, and that's how it went.
When Luna and Amanda got to the second floor balcony, they saw their friends attempt to fight against a rather large force of Mary Sues and some mythological creatures. Some of the Sues rode on pegasi and were firing arrows at the three Slayers on the first floor.
"Luna," said Amanda, pointing her sword at the Sues.
"I know."
Luna Shining Diamond took out her bow and her refilled quiver and began firing arrows at the pegasi riders. As the Mary Sues went down, the winged horses lost control and started to crash into various walls of the lobby.
After she was finished with the riders, the Sue faced Amanda, who had a blank look on her face, and said, "What are you doing? Get down there and help your friends!"
"Oh right," stammered the Slayer as she regained awareness and started going down the stairs. Luna watched her for a while before climbing the balcony's gate and jumping off.
The Sue landed in the midst of the battle, between Slayers and their enemies. Her appearance surprised the enemy Sue in front of her, who then got stabbed in the face.
"About time," said Nicole, who was behind Luna and was firing bullets at a Copycat Sue of Nico di Angelo.
Luna smirked at the Slayer before going off to help the others.
The daughter of Artemis rushed past Jonah, who had his shield out and was repeatedly slamming it onto a downed Sue's head. On the other hand, Neville was having trouble fighting off his Sue.
The Sue was firing arcs of electricity at the hapless Slayer as he did his best to avoid them. Finally, the Copy-Cat Sue got a hit and managed to knock Neville into a sitting position.
But before the Copycat could do anything else, Luna stabbed her in the back of the neck while saying, "Get away from my friend, you Thalia Grace ripoff."
As the horribly-written character vanish into smoke, she smiled triumphantly at Neville, who strangely had a frightened look on his face.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Look out behind you!" the Slayer croaked out.
The Sue immediately turned around, but it was too late. Luna was now trapped in the Gary Stu's bear hug. She tried to move her hands, which held her knives, but the Stu's arms were too strong and managed to keep them to her sides.
"You look gorgeous," said the Stu as he stared into Luna's golden eyes lovingly, "Let me kiss you."
"Get off," growled Luna, but before she could do anything, the Stu leaned forward and kissed her on the lips.
The kiss lasted for about a minute. When the two of them broke apart, the Stu smiled at her and said, "Okay baby, go beat up your friends now."
Luna sneered back at him and knocked the Gary Stu down with a kick to the chest. The Stu tried to get up, but Luna pinned him down with her foot before he could do so.
"Impossible, I gave you the OOC curse!" exclaimed the Stu, "How are you not under my control?"
Luna smiled sweetly at him. "I'm a Mary Sue, buddy." Then, she sent him to Hades with a thrown knife.
"CAMPERS! BACK OFF!" screamed a voice near the hotel entrance. The remaining Sues rallied to the voice and immediately regrouped in front of the hotel doors.
Luna decided to back off too and reunited with her friends near the stairs.
"So what next?" she said to Jonah.
"We wait for them to make the next move," replied the son of Ares.
Luna turned her attention back to the enemy group and saw that it was composed of two Gary Stus, three Mary Sues, and one extremely large hellhound. The remaining Sues and Stus didn't scare Luna, but their pet monster made her quite nervous.
For a while, the Slayers and Sues eyed each other, each side waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally, the Sue side broke the stare down when one of its members stepped forward. The Slayer side raised its weapons in response, but the Stu just smirked at the Slayers like they were toddlers in a talent show.
"Are you Slayers naturally that bloodthirsty?" he sneered, "Or did your creators make you that way."
Nicole glared at the Stu. "We were created to rid the world of characters like you."
As the Stu gave an irritating grin to the Slayers, Luna thought that he looked much like the boy in her dream as the Stu had emerald-green eyes and raven-black hair as well. However, unlike the boy in her dream, the Stu in front of her was a jerk.
The look-alike caught Luna staring at him and said to the Slayers in a pompous manner, "So, how come you have a Sue among you? If I recall correctly, I am pretty sure that Mary Sues cannot be Slayers as well."
The Stu's friends laughed at this.
Before Nicole could respond, Luna frowned at the Stu and said in a loud and dramatic voice, "I am among the Slayers because I am the perfect Sue killer, you idiot. I'm immune to your curses and powerful enough to take you and the others down. You should not question this irony, but rather question how you can defeat me."
Nicole rolled her eyes at this; meanwhile, Amanda wasn't even paying attention and Neville was coughing nervously.
"Very well," replied the Stu in an arrogant voice, "But before I can proceed with kicking you and your Slayers' asses, let me introduce my team and I."
"Make it quick," muttered Jonah under his breath, "I already feel like pasting your head to the wall."
"This is Nick Specter di Angelo, brother to Nico di Angelo," first said the Stu, pointing to a pale boy with headphones and a black blade (aka the Stu Nicole was fighting earlier), "And this is my beautiful girlfriend, Polly Totolee Uslyes Sparkles."
His girl looked beautiful enough with her rainbow eyes and sparkling golden hair, but none of the Slayers bothered to pay attention to the Stu's introductions to his other teammates.
"And this is my faithful hell hound, Mrs. O'Leary," the Stu said, pointing to the giant, tank-sized dog next to him, "Get ready, Slayers because she is going to make you her chew toys!"
Mrs. O'Leary gave a threatening snarl as if to confirm the Stu's statement, but instead, the giant dog lied down and began to sleep. Luna giggled nervously at this.
"Get up, you bitch!" said the Stu angrily, who then kicked the hell hound in the face, "This isn't time to sleep!"
The dog opened one eye at the Stu and began to growl. The Stu quickly backed up for safety, and the monster glared at him for a while before going back to sleep.
Disgusted with his hound's behavior, the Stu turned back to the Slayers and finished his fabulous speech with, "And to conclude, I am Mark Douchebag Triton Jackson, son of Poseidon and also the brother of Percy Jackson. I am one of the greatest demigods to have ever been created and you Slayers shall soon suffer my wrath."
Something that the Stu said sounded important to Luna, but she disregarded this thought and instead yelled back, "We'll see about that!"
"Hmmph," scoffed Mark as he turned back to his group of Sues and began issuing commands to them.
Likewise, Luna turned to her Slayer allies and said, "Let's show them what we are made of guys! Charge at them!"
"Excuse me, but I believe I'm the tactics commander of this group," replied Jonah in an annoyed voice.
Luna flared up at this and retorted angrily, "Hey! Just because you are a son of Ares doesn't mean..."
The Sue's response began to trail when Nicole shot her warning look. That was when Luna wisely decided to shut up and let Jonah take the reins.
Jonah gave the Sue one last glare before turning to everyone else and saying, "Okay, we are outnumbered five to six, but I'm not worried about that because that Relationship Sue, Polly, can't fight worth a damn, but still, don't let her kiss you."
"Why?" asked Neville in confusion, "What happens when she kisses you?"
Nicole rolled her dark brown eyes at this, but Jonah's reaction was a little more violent.
"Use your brain, idiot!" Jonah snapped at Neville.
Neville looked sheepishly at the ground in response. He tried to mutter an apology, but Jonah was not having any of it.
"Quit that self-pity bullshit. It gets you nowhere with me!"
Nicole pinched the top of her nose, her eyes closed, not really believing what was happening in front of her.
A small frown forming on her face, Amanda interrupted Jonah's rant. "Jonah, what's the plan? Gods of Olympus, we don't have enough time watching you be a complete asshole to Neville."
The blond was right; on the other side of the lobby room, Mark had finished issuing commands to his team and now, said group was charging right towards them.
Jonah cursed in Ancient Greek and said, "Sorry, what I wanted to say was that I was worried about the hell hound they have there. I'm pretty sure that stupid Copycat can't control it, but either way, it's a monster and will be bound to attack us sooner or later."
"I will take care of it," said Luna grimly, "After all, I have had experience with overgrown monsters."
Jonah nodded at her and then said to the rest of the group, "Okay, Luna will take the dog. Everyone else, get ready to increase your kill to death ratio."
If there was something that a Slayer had to reluctantly praise a team of Sues for, it was for their synchronized attacks on their opponents. Simply put, a group of medium-powered Level Two Sues was quite formidable even for two Elites, two normal Slayers, and one Level Two Sue called Project Fire.
The Nico di Angelo clone started off the Sues' attack by summoning groups of skeletons from the earth and sending them to attack the Slayers. Then at the same time, Mark Jackson used the new crack in the lobby to create a tidal wave from the now-exposed underground pipes. The rest of Sues, except for Polly, charged at the Slayers. Meanwhile, the hell hound was still sleeping.
Luna was the first on the Slayer side to rush at the Sues and as she ran across the lobby, she immediately noticed the zombie warriors.
"So you can summon reinforcements, big deal," said the daughter of Artemis, "I can do the same too!"
She whistled and soon, large timber wolves were attacking the skeletons, diverting their attention from the MS Slayers who were now engaging three of the Sues in battle.
"Get the dog!" yelled Jonah as he slugged a Sue in the face, "And watch out for that Stu's tidal wave!"
"I know, Wayne!" screamed back Luna as she jumped over a skeleton to get to the sleeping monster.
She was fifteen feet away from the hell hound when a large wave of water slammed into her chest and knocked her into one of the lobby walls. As Luna shook her wet silver bangs out her eyes, she got a glimpse of a black-haired warrior with a sword, ready to kill her.
"Ready to die?" asked Mark.
Luna tried to get up, but another stream of water from the hole discouraged that action.
"I guess so," murmured the Stu, "This is too easy."
The Stu walked towards Luna, but before he could take two steps, an arrow with a gold glow sprouted out of his right wrist, causing him to drop his sword.
"Not so easy, is it, Douchebag?" replied Luna as she righted herself up and watched the Stu gingerly take out the arrow from his arm. Then, she quickly charged towards Mark.
As she leaped at the son of Poseidon, Luna put away her bow and took out her bronze knives, which gleamed in the moonlight that came through the broken hotel windows. The Sue tried to stab at Mark, but he just rolled to the side and reached for his blade...
"Oh no you don't!" screamed Luna, "Luuuuuuuuuuuuuna Kiccccccccck!"
The daughter of Artemis stuck out her foot in midair and kicked Mark in the face as he managed to grasp the handle of his sword. The blow knocked the Stu to the ground and left him with an empty hand and a rather bloody nose.
"Yeah, you suck!" taunted Luna as she landed upon the floor softly.
The Sue rushed once more at the Stu, but Mark wasn't completely down yet and managed to throw another stream of water at her, knocking Luna backwards into a wall again.
"Dammit! I hate it when you do that!" complained the daughter of Artemis as she got up again, pain ringing through her back and bottom.
Blood dripping down his face, Mark smiled at her pain and made more water come out of the lobby floor hole and go around him. Luna realized her situation was going from bad to worse.
Instead of tossing the whirlwind of liquid at her, the Stu drew the water closer to him until he was immersed in a ball of water. Before Luna's eyes, Mark's wounds started to heal.
"Heh, try to beat me now," said Mark cockily as the cut in his wrist closed up into a white scar.
"You asked for it," murmured Luna grimly, putting away her knives.
With astounding speed, Luna drew out her bow, notched an arrow, and fired at Mark in one quick motion. However, before the gold-glowing arrow could touch the son of Poseidon's face, a hand of water came out of Mark's sphere and knocked the arrow aside.
Then, Mark made a pushing motion upwards with his hands, and his sphere of water immediately became an enormous wave that towered over Luna and him. The Stu smirked at her as he got ready to throw it all at Luna.
Luna was wondering what she was supposed to do. She knew that if the wave hit her, she was screwed.
That was when she looked at the sleeping hell hound behind Mark. At this, the Sue's mind began to form a plan.
Luna quickly fired another arrow at Mark. The projectile's motion startled the Stu, but he didn't need to dodge, for the arrow didn't even come close in nicking him.
Mark sneered at Luna after it missed him and laughed, "Your aim was horrible! Are you really that bad at archery?"
"I won't be laughing if I were you," replied Luna coolly.
The Stu continued to chuckle until he heard some murderous growls behind him. At first, he ignored them, but soon, he also felt cold puffs of air blowing on his neck and head as if there was someone breathing behind him. Finally curious, he turned around and saw only a growling mouth before seeing complete darkness.
"Argggh, help!" he screamed as he tried to prevent Mrs. O'Leary's upper and lower jaws from crushing him. Meanwhile, his giant tidal wave dropped down to the floor and flowed around the floor before stopping.
Luna rushed at the hell hound, but the monster was still having trouble biting down on Mark and instead ran into the lobby entrance and out, leaving a very large hole above the doors. The Sue quickly followed.
When she finally stepped out onto the street into the light of the half-moon, she saw Mark, who seemed to have escaped from Mrs. O'Leary's mouth and was now fleeing from her. Without thinking, the daughter of Artemis began to give chase to Mark as well.
Energy flowed through Luna's body as she gained effortlessly on the Stu of Poseidon. When she got near enough, she did a flip over the still-running Mark and landed right in front of him, blocking his way. Mark tried to turn back, but that path was blocked by Mrs. O'Leary, who was now crouching on all fours and was snarling ferociously at him.
"Looks like you lose," said Luna, walking towards Mark without bothering to take out any weapons.
The hell hound was edging closer to Mark, preparing to jump on him. The Sue immediately noticed and said in a commanding voice, "Stay, girl. I will handle him."
Mark turned back to Luna and growled, "You are going to handle me? As if!"
The Stu ran at Luna and tried to slug her. To his outrage, the Sue easily dodged the blow and countered with a left hook to the face.
"Argh, stay still, you idiot!" he cried out as he started to punch rapidly at Luna, who managed to dodge all of the hits.
The Sue continued to avoid Mark's attacks until the Stu began to tire. That was when she went on the offense and gave Mark a back-kick to the stomach.
The Stu grunted as he fell to the ground, exhausted. Before he could get up, Luna jumped to his side and stepped on his face, giving him another bloody nose.
"You fool!" he cursed at her while holding his broken nose. Mark tried to get up, but Luna stopped that by pressing her right foot on his chest.
"How da Hades did you peat me?" the Stu cried out angrily as he tried to wiggle out of Luna's pin.
The daughter of Artemis raised her beautiful head to the moon and said in a strange, high voice, "Moonlight gives me extra strength."
The Stu raised his eyes to the celestial object as well. As he looked at it, he stopped struggling and began to focus on the silver ball in the sky, surrounded by twinkling lights. Soon, he stopped moving altogether and only stared into the sky; it was almost as if he was petrified by the moon's mystical stare.
Luna then lowered her head at the Stu and remembered what she was supposed to do. She took out her knife and threw it at Mark's neck, killing him.
The Sue almost forgot about Mrs. O'Leary, who was still sitting some yards away from her. Luna didn't notice the hell hound until she walked into the monster, who whimpered at her touch.
"Oh, hey," she said to the hell hound, "What's the matter?"
The enormous dog bent her head down and gestured to one of her front paws. Luna looked down at the paw and saw that a broken arrow was sticking out of it like some kind of strange plant. Towards this point, the Sue had nearly forgotten about the arrow she shot at the monster earlier.
After Luna took out the splinter, the hell hound licked her face and wagged its tail happily.
"Let's go back to the hotel," she said to Mrs. O'Leary.
When the two of them got back inside the hotel, Luna saw that no one was in the lobby other than her Slayer allies. All four of them were still alive, but they all had cuts on various parts of their body.
"Are you okay?" asked Amanda in a concerned tone as Luna sat next to her.
"Other than some bruises, I'm alright," answered Luna, "I'm a tough girl, Blondie."
"Mmmm, if you say so," said Nicole with a smirk. The Slayer had a gauze bandage around one of her forearms.
The Sue reluctantly smiled back at Nicole and turned to Neville, whose hair was quivering nervously for some reason.
"What's wrong, Neville?" she asked the Slayer.
Neville shakily raised his arm and pointed it at Mrs. O'Leary, who was now licking Amanda in an affectionate manner. Amanda didn't seem to mind although something told Luna that the blond wasn't going to enjoy having dog spit in her hair later.
"Neville's right. Why's that monster here?" growled Jonah, eyeing the monster with suspicion, "I thought I told you to get rid of it, Luna."
It took some time for Luna to convince the others not to kill Mrs. O'Leary. While Amanda was okay with the hell hound, Jonah and Nicole didn't feel comfortable with such a large monster being in their presence. However, that was nothing compared to Neville, who almost pissed his pants at the touch of Mrs. O'Leary.
"Please don't eat me," whimpered Neville as the hell hound sniffed him curiously.
Eventually, Jonah grudgingly let her keep the dog. However, he told her that the hell hound was her responsibility and that he would have to kill it if it got too dangerous.
As a result, Luna stayed with the dog in the ruined lobby room while the others went back upstairs.
After making sure her friends were out of earshot, she looked at Mrs. O'Leary's eyes and said, "I have a feeling that I seen you before."
The hell hound stared back at her but did nothing other than wag her tail. Then, the giant dog slowly curled up on the floor around Luna and began to sleep.
"I suppose I'll sleep too," said Luna to the empty lobby.
The Sue used Mrs. O'Leary's body as a pillow and began to sleep once more. She immediately began to dream as soon as her head hit the monster's furry back.
It was the same dream as before; Luna was once again sitting on a beach next to a handsome black-haired boy. This time though, an orange will-o-wisp hovered near the boy and her.
"Oh, it's you, my idiotic creator," said the Sue, "What the hell do you want?"
"I'm here to give you back the rest of your memories, dummy," replied her creator in a bored manner, "Remember how you wanted them back so badly?"
"You know, you could have given me all my memories during our first visit," said LSD.
The will-o-wisp chuckled. "I would have if it weren't for the Restrictive Rule."
"What's that?" asked Luna.
"Oh, it means that the lesser creators cannot directly interfere with this universe, no matter what," responded her creator, "You know, like that Ancient Law of the Olympians that-"
"Gods cannot directly interfere with mortal affairs," finished Luna, "Yeah, that's pretty much sucks."
"Well, it is smart," said her creator wisely, "If the lessers are allowed to directly impact this world, chaos would reign or something like that."
"Great," said Luna, "Say, now that you are here, can you tell me who of the Olympians are still alive?"
"I will tell you, but let me say that they are in no state to help you and your friends," said her creator sternly, "Their spirit has been crushed greatly by the Mary Sues already."
Luna was disappointed by this but refused to show it as she listened to her creator recite the names of the still-living Olympians.
"Hades is still alive, of course," said her creator, "Zeus is also alive, but his wife is dead. Poseidon is alive as well, but he's run off with Athena or something."
"Is that all of the surviving gods," said Luna sadly, "Zeus, Hades, Poseidon and Athena?"
"I don't know about Athena, but yeah, those are the survivors," said the glowing ball.
Luna turned to her creator and said in a resentful voice, "If you are right about the gods not helping us and all, then how do you expect my friends and I to defeat the Mary Sues."
Her creator laughed at this and said in a booming voice, "The answer is simple, my little OC. You just need to look in a mirror to find it."
The Sue puzzled over this, but before she could think of a plausible answer, her creator floated towards her before making contact with her forehead.
Then, all the Sue could see was darkness. She could feel her physical body waking up...
"Wake up, Luna," said Nicole impatiently. The Slayer was shaking the Sue's body, trying to bring her back to reality.
The Sue opened her eyes and slowly sat up. She looked behind her back for Mrs. O'Leary, but it seemed that the monster already woke up and left.
"She's outside," the Slayer said in a bored manner in response to Luna's unasked question. "Come on. Breakfast is waiting."
Luna didn't argue with this and walked down a hall with the Slayer, who seemed to have developed a good amount of tolerance for the Sue. As they walked together, memories began to flood in Luna's mind.
The Sue saw herself kissing the green-eyed, black haired boy, whom she now remembered as Percy Jackson. There were other scenes that depicted of her playing with Mrs. O Leary, whom Luna remembered as the pet of Percy Jackson.
There were other scenes too that had a blond girl, who looked almost exactly like Amanda, jealously watching Luna and Percy hugging each other or doing something together.
Annabeth Chase, Luna instantly remembered. She was a canon character that got (rightfully) pissed at her because Luna took her boyfriend.
Finally remembering the important details, Luna sat on a squashy chair to the right of Amanda, who handed her plate of buttered toast. Still as she bit on her bread, she decided not to think about the rest of her regained memories. After all, she was already dizzy from relieving a portion of them.
"Are you alright?" Amanda asked when she noticed Luna staring off into space.
"Yeah," replied Luna in an offhand voice, going back to her bread for a moment. She then raised her head to look at the television that sat on a black stand in the middle of the dining lounge. "Can somebody turn on the TV?"
"You seriously think that TV channels are still available after all these years?" sighed Nicole.
"Just try it, Nicki."
A look of exasperation on her face, Nicole stared at Luna in silence for a few seconds before turning away as if Luna hadn't said anything at all.
Immediately afterward, Luna looked to Amanda for aid. The blond Slayer managed to find the remote for her, but in the end, it was all in vain. Nicole was right; there was nothing on TV except snow static.
The rest of breakfast continued in silence. When Luna finished her bread, she began to think about Percy Jackson and some of her former Camp Half-Blood friends. Tears formed in her eyes when she realized that they were probably dead.
"Get a hold on yourself," the Sue muttered to herself, "Your former life means nothing to you anymore."
After about ten minutes, almost everyone finished their morning meal. Neville, on the other hand, was still eating, his eyes distracted by a book strangely titled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.
"NEVILLE! FINISH YOUR GODDAMN FOOD!" barked Jonah ten minutes later. His voice surprised the Slayer, who instantly set his book down and began speed eating like his life depended on it.
When Jonah saw that Neville was done, he stood up from his seat and walked in front of the other four.
"Before we go, I have something to say," he announced to them.
Nicole raised her eyebrows, but otherwise stayed quiet like the other Slayers and Luna.
"I know that we are Mary Sue Slayers," said Jonah, "But I feel we-"
The son of Ares stopped, for he had heard a strange noise behind him. He turned around and to his surprise, saw that the TV was on. Meanwhile, his allies peered around his body at the TV as well.
"Can't you move?" Luna complained to Jonah.
The stunned demigod complied with her statement without argument and the Sue saw a very familiar face on the now-working TV.
It was Serenity. Her face sneered at Luna as she said, "Hello, my fellow Sues, the Slayer Organization has just been overthrown."
