Why am I always knocked out? Seriously? What the fuck!? Why?! Is there any fucking reason to it?! Do you get some sick pleasure out of it?! You know what?! Fuck you!
I woke up groggily, feeling like someone was shoving a fire poker in my gut. I looked down at my stitched stomach and sighed, another scar for the collection, you know I am really lucky my wife has a thing for scars. I winced as I sat up in what looked like a room in the Big House, in the corner sat my brother Arthur snoring in a chair cradling his shotgun like a teddy bear.
"Yo dipshit!" I shouted startling Arthur awake, he looked over and scowled but I just smiled as I swung my feet over and stood up. I cracked my back as Arthur stood up and together we walked out the door where Chiron and Amos were talking.
"Thank the gods you are awake!" Amos said sighing in relief, I stared at him like he was insane was he really worried about me? Why?
"Oh the slice in my gut, Amos if that little of a cut could kill me I would have died a decade ago. This?" I said showing my wound "Fucking nothing!" I said slapping the stitches as hard as I could. Of course I would love to say that I stood there and bragged but I just remained totally still as pain wracked through my body as if I swallowed barbed wire.
"Your stitches are bleeding." Arthur noted shouldering his gun and grinning at how much pain I was clearly in.
I nodded "Yeah..." I said in a soft voice "Could you get Will?" I asked and he nodded before walking out to fetch me the healer to help with my stupidity. As soon as my brother left I dropped to my knees "Holy fuck! Oh my fucking Christ!" I said holding my reopened wound.
Amos rolled his eyes as Chiron helped me stand before I sat in a chair and the centaur started helping me patch the wound to slow the bleeding again "So we have to talk Chiron, the Gargareans have fallen and-"
"-And a very skilled fighter is responsible along with these benefactors Amos has mentioned. I believe we know who these benefactors are Mr. Strife." Chiron finished.
I sat up and then winced at my wound and leaned back again, I took a deep breath "Who the fuck are these guys?! I want names and if you have them their addresses please! I would absolutely love to pay these slimy fucks a visit!" I growled as Chiron.
"I do not think that would be wise Samuel. As it turns out these...'slimy fucks'...are ancient emperors that have figured out how to become immortal. There are three of them and they are calling themselves The Triumvirate, which is in the form of a mega corporation." he explained and as soon as he said that fucking name it finally hit me! Finally after all this time I remember where I saw that pudgy little fucker!
"He told me to call him N...Nero? I knew I recognized him! He's the one that gave Luke the Princess Andromeda all those years ago! He funded Luke? He's been behind the scenes for this long?" I asked and Chiron nodded, I just couldn't believe this. Where have these guys been and what have they been doing all this time, they've been hidden all this time?!
Then I remembered why we were here in the first place "Where's Apollo?" I asked Amos but he looked saddened by that question.
"He left, yesterday he took off to deal with the Triumvirate, looks like you got hurt for nothing Sam." he said hanging his head.
"Eh, getting hurt is part of the job description. Don't sweat it dude." I said with a smile. Though I must say it is slightly annoying that this plan fell through before we even tried!
The door flew open and Will stomped in and immediately slapped me across the face "Ow!" I shouted rubbing my cheek.
"Will you, just once, not be hurt when you enter this camp!?" Will shouted at me. I leaned away from him as he started ranting about how having so many injuries is not a good thing, my cheek was really fucking stinging there too, he sure can smack a bitch!
"Not the most important thing at the moment Sunny Boy. Kind of dealing with my entire families legacy being destroyed and some psychopath trying to murder me and at the same time watching him try and implement himself as the new king so that means that not only is Amos here basically a fugitive to the Gargareans but so am I, the camps are in danger of being sieged by these pricks oh and let's top it off with Hylla is six months pregnant and I would love nothing more than be at my house right now so I can take care of her but please lets talk about this fucking thing!" I shouting slapping my newly stitched wound again.
Yeah...it reopened I really have to stop doing that!
Will re-restitched the wound for me as he glanced at me and the wound silently "I...I had no idea buddy. Are you okay?" he asked.
I sighed "Not really dude, I try to do one thing and five more problems pop up preventing me from doing the first one!" I said scowling.
"Well I have an idea that may just give you an advantage, while you were unconscious for the thousandth time Percy told me about what happened in Philadelphia." Will said as he cut the last stitch and bandaged the wound.
I nodded "Yeah the guy that cut me to pieces is that psycho killer." I said glumly remembering the pain I was in, apparently whatever sword that was luckily was only magical against the fabric of my jacket otherwise I may have been dealing with another problem. See magical blades have a tendency to sap the soul if a demigod is stabbed with it, Jason told me about the time he was stabbed in the back with Imperial Gold and it almost killed him. Whatever Wolf is wielding is something we haven't used before.
"No not that, Percy told me about what happened in the steakhouse. You summoned shadows and when you were escaping you summoned a sword made entirely of darkness. So this means that not only did you inherit the powers of Eris you were also gifted some of Nyx's power." he explained.
"Okay...so explain how this helps me." I asked not following where he was going with this.
"Percy said that this Wolf guys sword cut your jacket as well as your gun right?" he asked and I nodded "However your shadow sword held against his attack. It didn't break under this guys strength." he finished.
"So you're saying I should figure out these shadow powers and then I'll be able to fight this guy?" I asked.
"Well, it will level the playing field a little bit, Percy said this guy was a beast so I'm not going to get your hopes up that you will beat him but at the very least you'll be able to stay alive." Will said, wow leave it to this little guy to break my hopes the second he lifts them.
I rubbed my forehead in frustration "But just how the hell am I supposed to master this shadow stuff? Time isn't exactly on our side here Sunny Boy."
"In that case we should probably get started." A voice said to my left, I looked over to see Nico standing at the door with a small smile.
"Neeks agreed to teach you." Will said smiling brightly.
I rubbed my eyes but eventually looked at the young Italian.
"Fuck it let's do this!"
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