Enough with the politics, time for a little action.
I hope you enjoy this next chapter. I brought back an old friend who's changed a little since the last we saw her.
Remember to review!
Happy Reading!
-c.c.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything you recognize (Riordan)
"Oh hey," Percy said from the grass on my right. Carefully, I walked over to him and sat down.
"Must have been some message, you were in there for, like, an hour," Percy stated, ripping blades of grass from a balding spot in the ground. I nodded in agreement.
"How was dad?" He questioned.
He was fine. Big and godly, you know.
"What did he say?"
Not much.
"Not much for over an hour?" Percy looked at me with a dubious glance.
I did a lot of waiting.
At that moment, Percy's stomach growled angrily.
"Well, my stomach's been waiting too. I bet, if we leave now, we can make it by the end of lunch." I nodded and we both pushed up to our feet and got moving. Heading down Olympus was much quicker than heading up, but Percy still had issues. Partially because he pretty much rolled at least half way down it at one point, and I had to chase after him. But eventually we made it back to the lone elevator door wedged in the grassy hillside at the end of the road. It was a quick ride down as we hurried out the door and over to the street. Percy pulled out a drachma to hail the Chariot of Damnation… but nothing came. He tried again with another coin, but it too, wouldn't take and no one came.
Uh oh. This was good and bad. Good: The three hags were probably up with the council right about now. Bad: We could not walk ALL of the way home. Percy looked at me in exasperation and tucked the gold coin away in his pocket.
"Well, now what?"
We walk, I signed. Percy shrugged and we started walking down Fifth Avenue in the same direction we came from earlier. Not too far along, Percy's stomach made a low and long monstrous noise. He looked over at me with puppy eyes, and I knew what he was going to ask.
"Nooooooow can we go get donuts?" He placed his hands over his angry tummy and increased the intensity of his cute puppiness. I rolled my eyes.
Fine.
Percy's face lit up with joy.
"I know exactly where to go! I saw it on the way over," He sidled up next to me. "Aaaand it has coffee."
I smiled. Okay, I did love coffee. I was convinced and we quickened our walking until Percy pulled on my arm and pointed over the lunch crowds to a small corner coffee shop. The sign over the doorway read: MY TWO SONS BREWERY
Upon reading the sign, I got an anxious feeling in my gut. Something about it made me weary… but at the same time I was compelled to walk inside. Of course, that might be attributed to the promise of coffee. Percy was already inside and in line by the time I convinced myself that coffee shops don't hurt people.
"Um, how many can I have?" Percy asked me as he peered into the pastry display.
As many as you can afford. I smirked in response.
"Dang it, I thought you would be nicer than Annabeth. I always have to pay for my own donuts."
As Percy decided, or rather, tried to decide on a flavor, I took notice of the rather long line that filled the small space, plenty of women of all ages getting their coffee and breakfast type foods in time for the lunch hour. I took another sweep of the room. They were all women actually. Percy seemed to be the only man in the shop. Oh, except two male baristas in the back. I almost missed them because of the red scarves around their throats. They covered the baristas' whole faces.
Percy stepped up to the woman at the register and ordered his fill of sweet goods. The woman, with her hair tied back with a bandana and workers apron on, did not smile or make any courteous motion toward Percy as she took his order and his money. She directed him harshly toward the end of the counter to wait for his order. Then I stepped up to the register.
Oh gosh, I forgot I couldn't actually tell her what I wanted. I made a stopping motion with my hands and pointed to Percy. Somehow, this woman knew exactly what I was trying to say.
"Oh, hun, no, you don't need him, I've got this." She smiled and pulled out a handheld menu from underneath the counter. It was then I saw her outrageously large rubber gloves on her hands. So, that's pretty odd. But I just smiled a thank you, and pointed out the mocha that I wanted in a small cup. I noticed that she didn't look at the menu, and instead she just stared at me.
"Um, hun, did you come with him?" She gestured toward Percy and made a skeptical glance in his direction. I looked at Percy, who stood with his hands in his pockets, impatiently waiting, and then back at the cashier. I nodded.
"Honey, you don't need him!" she laughed heartily, "Men always hold you back— see, I can tell that you are a beautiful and independent young woman. You could rule the world, love!" I smiled with half-hearted intent and signed a questioning thank you. The crazy, gloved woman continued.
"If anyone knows about that it'd be me, you know," The woman propped herself up on her elbows and leaned in. "I had a man once, boy he was trouble. Once I realized it, I went nuts. I got rid of him and felt so empowered. I opened up my own mall, can you believe that!" She snorted and laughed some more. I felt bad for everyone in line behind me, but I turned around and everyone in line had vanished. In fact, everyone had vanished. Even Percy!
Okay, this was not normal. I tried to walk away, pointing to my imaginary watch to say I was late. The woman would not relent. She followed me down along the counter.
"Oh what's the rush love? There isn't anything more important than you, you know. I used to run around, trying to become big and everything too. But actually, I had lost myself. I was nothing without my two sons, who I hadn't seen in so so long, I was nothing." We had reached the edge of the counter and I began to step back when the cashier reached forward and grabbed onto my arm.
"I was nothing, until I found my Mistress," the woman smiled heinously. She had a death grip on my arm and there was no one around to see this. Until this point, I thought I had realized who this woman was, but a mistress? What mistress?
"You see, honey, I went bad. My good nature expired when I got rid of my husband. I did some bad things," she said looking at me intently, "as all women do. But I met my Mistress and she fulfilled me. She set me straight, she gave me my sons back." The woman looked down at her gloves. "Not without a price of course."
I attempted to pull away again. Instead, the woman wrenched me closer to where she was able to whisper to me.
"Do yourself a favor, hun." She looked me dead in the eyes. "Go to her before you make the mistakes I did."
Alright, I thought to myself, I would start 'not making your mistakes' by keeping my men with me. In one swift movement, I knocked my head into her temple with full force, knocking the woman back with a screech. I ripped myself from her weakened grasp and darted into the back of the shop, where the baked goods were made. I had a hunch Percy would be where the donuts were… not by any coincidence I'm sure. I pushed through the swinging double doors to see Percy lying in the center of the room, tied up with rope… and blissfully eating donuts from off of the floor.
The cashier pushed open the doors in close pursuit. I opened Riptide II and sliced Percy's ropes, startling him as if he hadn't yet noticed I was there. I turned around to see the lady fumbling around in a desk drawer by the doors.
"Ah! Curse these gloves!" She said this and ripped them off violently. I could now see her hands dripping and stained with what I took to be blood. She grabbed a long knife from the drawer. Things were starting to fall into place.
"Woah, what in Hades?!" Percy screamed when he saw the woman's hands.
"Haha, you mean these?" She wiggled her crimson talons at Percy. "Well Mistress wasn't going to give me my boys back without a little something to remind me of why I lost them in the first place." She walked towards us slowly.
Percy turned to me.
"Wait, is that—"
My voice returned in a quick blue frenzy of light.
"—Medea," I affirmed with a sneer.
"Oooh, Mistress was right, you are very pretty when you're cross," She snickered and then became serious. "The Mistress will see you no matter what, but for my own sake I can't let this man be hanging around you any longer, he'll taint you!"
"Wait! What mistress? What's going on?" Percy cried as we stepped back onto half eaten donuts and away from Medea the coffee shop owner.
"Oh, boys! Mommy could use a little help in here!" Medea screamed out to her children. The male baristas in their red scarves came out from the front of the shop and flanked their mother holding short swords. Percy and I took a final step back, and I heard a clang as my foot hit a metal bucket. I looked over to Percy and he nodded.
Medea came running at us with a scream and at the last second I picked up the bucket, jammed it onto the witch's head and kicked her in the chest hard enough to send her flying through the bakery doors. Without wasting a second, Percy took the son to the right, and I ducked a blow from the son on the left. I rolled under the man, coming up behind him to begin choking him with his own scarf. The man blindly stabbed in the area behind him trying to hit me, but I held on. I twisted the scarf to tighten the hold, but as the son was giving up, the scarf ripped and he fell hard on his knees.
With the scarf gone, I could see the monster's head, barely attached and still profusely bleeding by a large gash that separated his head from the rest of his body. My stomach mutinied at the idea: This was the second part of Medea's punishment, remembering what she had done to kill her sons.
Without a second thought, I plunged my sword down through the back of the son's neck and through his torso. Pulling the blade out, his body fell to the floor in a pool of blood. I looked over at Percy and the right son suffered a similar fate to his brother. We were just about to run out of the shop when Medea burst through the bakery doors and began to sing.
"No, stop her!" I shouted at Percy, but he was already weakened by the sound of Medea's song. The witch had her eyes closed in concentration, lucky for us she hadn't yet seen her two sons lying dead once more on the floor. I had to think fast.
That's when my eyes landed on the donuts that littered the tile where Percy had been tied up.
Percy started to put away his sword and walk towards Medea. I hurried with an armful of pastries around to her backside. Swiftly, I shoved the first donut down Medea's open throat as far as it could go. The song stopped and Medea gagged violently, shooting her eyes open in the process. She attempted to spit the donuts out, but I pushed more and more of the desserts into her mouth. Medea was forced to chew and swallow them; however, she wasn't fast enough. Percy soon recovered from the sleeping spell and came to my aid, holding Medea's hands as we fed her as many donuts as we could.
And, uh, I guess there was something in the donuts. Cause after that, Medea wasn't really mentally there anymore. The witch lost her balance and Percy and I caught her.
"Uh, Katrina, what are we going to do with her," Percy asked in a whisper.
"Gosh these are soooooo goooood," Medea loudly interjected.
"I have a plan, let's get her out front," I whispered over to Percy. Together, we drug Medea behind the counter.
"Who maaade these—" I shoved another donut in Medea's pie hole as Percy opened the hood to the pastry cabinet.
"Okay, now push on three. One, Two, Three!" Medea was a little heavier than we thought, but we got her in the cabinet the first go around. I shoved the last of the donuts in her mouth before shutting her in the display.
"Now let's get out of here!" I whispered to Percy. He needed no convincing and we bolted out of the shop, and back down Fifth Avenue.