I finally did it! I had this typed up for a while, but I kept on forgetting to upload it. I remembered now and instead of just putting it off another day and forgetting it, I decided to do it now. Here, is Chapter 19, AKA Jason fucks everything up.
We arrived in Prospit late in the evening, but it seemed that life was just starting in the golden city. It was a scene out of Beauty and the Beast: Prospitian greeting each other early in the morning as the day began for them.
I only knew this because Dave split us up again: Frank, Hazel and Nico went west; Piper, Leo and I went south; while Dave and Annabeth went west. To the south there was the city's wall, and we bounced towards it as we looked for something out of the ordinary.
"There!" we finally found something strange-a dead Prospitian lying on the wall. His red blood spills over his elaborate clothes and trickles onto the gold pavement. Protruding out of his hard shell is a knife.
"How are you supposed to check if one of these guys is alive or dead?" Leo asked, poking the dead Prospitian with his foot.
"I'm pretty sure he's dead, Leo," Piper sighed.
"Okay, but I thought this place was supposed to be Metropolis," Leo continued.
"Even Metropolis has it's villians," I replied.
"THAT'S PRETTY DEEP PRETTY BOY! HEE HEE HOO HOO HAA HAA!" Lil Cal cackled.
"Yeah, thanks Superman," Leo added.
"Psst!"
"Be quiet Cal," I shushed the wriggling puppet on my back.
"THAT WASN'T ME!" Cal shouted.
"Psst!"
"Then who is it?" Piper looked around. "There!"
Piper pointed up at one of the towers to both sides of us. There's a Dersite behind golden bars, looking out of place in the light city.
"Psst!" he continued.
"What do you want?" I asked.
The Dersite stuck his arm out and pointed it at the dead boy.
"Do you know who did it?" I continued.
The Dersite nodded his head.
"Can you tell us?" I asked.
The Dersite stuck his tongue out in a disgusted facing, probably trying to display that we can't communicate with him.
"I've got something," Leo floats up, bringing the trapped Dersite a black device. "I was making it for the Dersite on our ship. Maybe you can use it."
The Dersite takes it greedily, and begins to speak, "Yeah, I saw who killed the bas-poor innocent guy."
"Who?" Piper asked.
"Jack Noir? Who else? He's uh, a terror on this land," the Dersite explained.
"Do you know where he went?" I asked.
"Yeah, I could show ya . . . but, ahhhhhh I'm kinda stuck," the Dersite explains as he taps the metal bars in the window. "You could, maybe, free me, and I can help ya all ya want."
"Sure, who are you?" Leo asked as he pulled a saw out of his tool belt.
"Uh . . . why don'tcha just call me Bec," the Dersite explained. The bars fall from his prison and he jumped out, strolling over to the killed Propitian.
"Where did Jack go?" Piper asked Bec.
"Ta the White Queen's castle, a' course," Bec explained as he pulled the knife from the Prospitain's body, wiping the blood off with the Prospitian's clothes. "Ta get 'er, well ya obviously know, ta get 'er ring!"
"Where is her ring? Isn't there the Black Queen's ring?" Leo asked.
"That bitch!" Bec exclaimed, turning around to face Leo, clean knife in his hand. Something in my gut said to take the knife away, but another voice said that it was nothing. Bec continued, "Well, Jack can't find 'er ring so he wants the White Queen's ring ta have power again."
"Why do you know so much about Jack?" Piper asked.
"I . . . uh . . . used ta work with the filthy bastard. He owes me money," Bec explains. "Now, are we goin' or what?"
"With the murder weapon?" Leo asked.
"Of course," Bec scoffed. "Why waste a perfectly good stabbin' knife?"
"I really don't know why," Leo replied.
"Now let's get ta tha castle," Bec declared.
"Can we really trust him?" Piper whispered in my ear.
"Yes," I said without hesitation. I started to fly, picking Bec up and led us in the direction her pointed us in.
As we flew, something in the back of my head seemed wrong. Lil Cal at the moment was oddly quiet as Bec went into an in-depth analysis of how much he hates the Black Queen and the uniform he had to wear when he worked for her. Something told me that this was wrong. I should ditch Cal and Bec, but a louder voice calmed all my fears. It told me that everything was perfectly fine, and I could trust both of them. Cal was a gift, and we were lucky to stumble upon Bec. With Bec, we can get the ring before Dave. That seemed perfect.
"And man, the hats were so shit! I could've stabbed a bastard just for how much I hated the hats! I did stab a bastard cause I hated the hats!" Bec shouted as he waved the knife around. "Wait, this is our stop! There, through that window! The throne room is right there! I can almost smell that ring!"
"How do you know that?" Piper asked.
"The layouts of tha Derse and Prospit castles are tha same," Bec explained as I flew him through the window, Piper and Leo following.
I let Bec down as we landed. He took a quick look around and began to slink towards the empty, golden throne.
"Where's Jak?" leo asked.
"Hang on a second," Bec replied. He messed around with one of the arms of the throne until he opened a small compartment. "Ha! Stupid bitch, leavin' in a shitty spot!"
"Uh . . . Bec?" Piper tried to get the Dersite's attention as he pulled a golden ring out of the compartment. It has four glowing pearls on it, and it pulsates with power. Bec looked down at it hungrily. I stare at the ring as well, fixated by the power it held, though it can't do much for me.
"Jason!" Piper grabbed my wrist, dragging my out of my daze. Cal wriggled disappointedly on my back.
"Bec!" I shouted. He looked up, scowling angrily and looking like he was going to use that stabbing knife of his. I draw my sword, "Where's Jack?"
Bec growled, "Right here."
Bec (or Jack) slipped the ring on and he transformed. He howled as his mouth grew into a snout with blood-curling, jagged teeth. Ears perked at attention grew out of the top of his head. One arm disappears but a sword grows out of the middle of his stomach, looking quite sharper than mine. Black wings uncurl from his back, slowly beginning to beat and raising Jack off the floor. Around him, green, yellow and white energy began to crackle and pulsate
"Thanks for helping," Jack drew the sword out of his stomach with his one arm, snarling and growling as he does. He pulled back, looking as though he's ready to strike, "Grave stuffers."
Huh. Well. That's a nice place to end the actually story. Next up is what would happen for the rest of the Bane of Skaia. Also, thank-you to everyone who ahe commented since last time, you're all wonderful people! So until next time, good day.