Hello guys, so it begins! Mwahahahah. Percy is not enjoying life right now.
Percy didn't like ladies with snakes for hair- in fact, she would quite honestly say she hated them.
Especially since she just couldn't seem to get rid of them no matter how hard she tried.
They should have died three days ago when she dropped a crate of bowling balls on them at the Napa Bargain Mart. They should have died two days ago when she ran over them with a police car in Martinez. They definitely should have died this morning when she cut off their heads in Tilden Park.
No matter how many times Percy killed them and watched them crumble to powder, they just kept re-forming like large evil dust bunnies. she couldn't even seem to outrun them.
She was honestly sick of running away from monsters that didn't seem to stay dead- it just wasn't fair. They usually came back after two hours or so and they just kept coming after her- and she was pretty sure she'd done nothing to them- though considering her lack of memories she could be wrong- they'd yelled at her a few times about avenging their sister and 'an eye for an eye' which made no sense to her.
She came to a halt as she reached the top of a hill, leaning over, bracing her hands on her knees as she took just a moment to catch her breath, trying to calm her frantic heartbeat.
She wasn't even sure how she was alive- the monsters claws just seemed to slide uselessly over her skin and their teeth broke when they tried to bite her- but she was exhausted. Beyond exhausted really, and she knew she couldn't keep going much longer, not without collapsing from exhaustion.
She'd barely slept over the past few days, she'd eaten whatever she could scrounge—vending machine gummi bears, stale bagels, even a Jack in the Crack burrito,
which was a new personal low.
Percy was well aware that she looked like a wreck- her shoulder length curls were a mass of tangles and her clothes were pretty much wrecked- she'd been having to steal clothes and wear them until they were beyond repair- all she had left now was the dress she'd woken up in the Wolf House in- and the sandles and the weird but pretty diadem along with the golden upper arm band which she was still wearing. They'd felt too important for her to throw them away, even if she wasn't sure what it was that made them so special. She just knew that she hadn't wanted to have to get rid of them so she'd gotten new clothes as soon as she could and she'd tucked the rest safely away into the backpack that she'd somehow managed to keep from getting destroyed. Or she had until her latest outfit got kinda shredded by monster claws and she'd been forced to change into the dress or risk getting arrested for public indecency, though at least the sneakers she'd been wearing hadn't been damaged- even she didn't want to fight in the strappy silver sandals.
Once she'd caught her breath she straightened up and looked around, mind racing as she tried to figure out what she should do next. Under different circumstances, she might've enjoyed the view. To her left, golden hills rolled inland, dotted with lakes, woods, and a few herds of cows. To her right, the flatlands of Berkeley and Oakland marched west—a vast checkerboard of neighbourhoods, with several million people who probably did not want their morning interrupted by two monsters and a filthy demigod.
Farther west, San Francisco Bay glittered under a silvery haze. Past that, a wall of fog had swallowed most of San Francisco, leaving just the tops of skyscrapers and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Percy felt strangely sad, a nostalgic longing feeling which she was sure was connected to her lost memories. She had to have been here before.
She wondered if it had something to do with the names- they were about all she could remember.
Annabeth and Rachel.
Percy sighed to herself- it really was frustrating. She knew the names but there was nothing solid- she felt flashes sometimes- she'd see a flash of red hair and think Rachel before it faded, and she'd see some fancy building and she'd find herself thinking 'Annabeth would love this' but any attempts to get more were useless.
And it wasn't just those two- though those names were the strongest- she'd see tall blond guys and she felt familiarity until she got close- she'd hear laughter, bright and warm and she'd turn around expecting to see a skinny latino boy for some reason. Or she'd see a display of mythomagic cards in a game store and her chest would go tight and ache something horrible.
She knew that it was all about people- people who mattered to her, people who she should remember but she couldn't and she felt lost and frightened the longer her memories stayed away.
The only thing that had kept her going was Lupa's promise- that if she kept fighting- if she finished her journey she would regain her memories. And gods but she wanted that more than she'd ever wanted anything else. She needed to know who she was, to understand.
She let out a breath, shaking her head as she pushed her worries to the back her her head. It was focus time.
Where did she go now? Should she cross the bay?
That was a tempting thought, she could feel the power of the ocean just over the horizon- the water always made her feel better- salt water was the best, she'd discovered that two days earlier when she'd had to strangle a sea monster in the Carquinez straight. If she could reach the bay she might be able to make a last stand, maybe even drown the Gorgons but the shore was at least two miles away.
She might be fast but she didn't think she'd be able to make it through an entire city without getting caught.
And she hesitated for another reason. The she-wolf Lupa had taught her to sharpen her senses—to trust the instincts that had been guiding her south. Her homing radar was tingling like crazy now. The end of her journey was close—almost right under her feet. But how could that be? There was nothing on the hilltop.
She didn't have much time to dwell on that thought because the wind changed and she caught the sour scent of reptile- she was far to familiar with it for her tastes by now.
She turned her head slightly- a hundred yards down the slope she could hear something rustling through the woods.
There was the sound of snapping branches, crunching leaves and hissing that she knew meant they were back, they'd caught her scent.
She let out a frustrated little huff, pressing her lips together into a thin line. She'd tried to conceal her sent of course, they'd outright told her it was her scent that was leading them to her- because she was a demigod apparently, the child of some Roman god according to Lupa. She didn't know which it was- but she felt like she should- none of it felt new to her as such, but it didn't fell right she knew that much.
She'd tried rolling in mud, splashing through creeks- she'd even tried keeping air freshener sticks in her damn pockets but none of it worked. It was ridiculous. And she was honestly so ready for all of this to be over.
She grimaced as she started moving again, scrambling to the west side of the summit- which was way to steep for her to climb down. The slope plummeted eight feet straight to the roof of an apartment complex built into the hillside. Fifty feet below that, a highway emerged from the hill's base and wound its way toward Berkeley.
Wonderful, just wonderful. She'd backed herself into a corner. She tilted her head upwards slightly, glowering at the sky. "I hope you guys are having a great laugh at my expense." she grumbled the words, "Because I'm sure not."
She focused on the road- on the cars streaming past, flowing west towards San Francisco- she wished she was in one of them- it would be so much better than where she was now. Then her brows furrowed slightly. The highway had to cut through the hill. That meant there must be a tunnel, right under her feet.
Of course- whatever her senses were telling her about was beneath her feet- just like she'd been sensing. She was just too fast. She had to check out and find the tunnel, she needed a way down the highway.
She forced herself to stay calm as she slung her backpack off her back- she'd managed to grab a bunch of supplies at the Napa Bargain Mart- not including the waterproof bag that was protecting her shoes and the diadem.
She grimaced as she'd rummaged through them. She had a portable GPS, duct tape, lighter, superglue, water bottle, camping roll, a Comfy Panda Pillow Pet (as seen on TV), and a Swiss army knife—pretty much every tool a modern demigod could want. But she had nothing that would serve as a parachute or a sled.
Right, that wasn't good. That left her with two options, jump eighty feet to her death or stand and fight. Neither option sounded good, but- well, jumping was instant death, at least she stood a chance of killing the Gorgons again if she fought them. She gritted her teeth, eyes narrowing as she pulled her pen out of her jacket pocket, uncapping it.
She'd woken up with the sword on her first night at the Wolf House—two months ago? More? She'd lost track if she was being honest. She'd found herself in the courtyard of a burned out mansion in the middle of the woods wearing a greek style dress, a silvery jacket, the strappy sandles, a locket which she knew was important somehow, and a denim bracelet around her wrist.
Riptide had been in her hand- it was perfectly balanced, it fit her hand as if it belonged with her and etched along the guard was an Ancient Greek word Percy somehow understood: Anaklusmos—Riptide. It was terrifying, she'd been freezing, confused and scared. And then the wolves had come along- she jerked herself out of the memories- she tended to have that happen- she'd have moments when everything seemed to get blocked out- not always solid memories or flashbacks but moments where she couldn't think at all through the terrifying rush of it.
The main thing that jolted her out of the memories was a voice, familiar, and not at all pleasant. "There you are!"
Percy stumbled away from the Gorgon, almost falling off the edge of the hill.
It was the smiley one that she'd named Beano- admittedly she knew that ther name wasn't Beano, Percy was pretty sure that she was dyslexic because the words seemed to get twisted and jumped when she tried to read them.
The first time she'd seen the Gorgon, posing as a Bargain Mart greeter with a big green button that read: Welcome! My name is STHENO, she'd thought it said BEANO.
She was still wearing her green Bargain Mart employee vest over a flower-print dress. If you looked just at her body, you might think she was somebody's dumpy old grandmother—until you looked down and realized she had rooster feet. Or you looked up and saw bronze boar tusks sticking out of the corners of her mouth. Her eyes glowed red, and her hair was a writhing nest of bright green snakes.
The most horrible thing about her? She was still holding her big silver platter of free samples: Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. Her platter was dented from all the times Percy had killed her, but those little samples looked perfectly fine. Stheno just kept toting them across California so she could offer Percy a snack before she killed her. Percy didn't know why she kept doing that, but if she ever needed a suit of armor, she was going to make it out of Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. They were indestructible.
"Try one?" Stheno offered.
Percy fended her off with her sword. "Where's your sister?"
"Oh, put the sword away," Stheno chided. "You know by now that even Celestial bronze can't kill us for long. Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener! They're on sale this week, and I'd hate to kill you on an empty stomach."
"Stheno!" The second gorgon appeared on Percy's right so fast, she didn't have time to react. Fortunately she was too busy glaring at her sister to pay her much attention. "I told you to sneak up on her and kill her!" Stheno's smile wavered.
"But, Euryale…" She said the name so it rhymed with Muriel. "Can't I give her a sample first?"
"No, you imbecile!" Euryale turned toward Percy and bared her fangs.
Except for her hair, which was a nest of coral snakes instead of green vipers, she looked exactly like her sister. Her Bargain Mart vest, her flowery dress, even her tusks were decorated with 50% off stickers. Her name badge read: Hello! My name is DIE, DEMIGOD SCUM!
"You've led us on quite a chase, Percy Jackson," Euryale said. "But now you're trapped, and we'll have our revenge!"
"The Cheese 'n' Wieners are only $2.99," Stheno added helpfully. "Grocery department, aisle three."
Euryale snarled. "Stheno, the Bargain Mart was a front! You're going native! Now, put down that ridiculous tray and help me kill this demigod. Or have you forgotten that her brother's the one who vaporized Medusa? We agreed, an eye for an eye! He killed our sister we'd kill his-" she paused, "Again."
"What does that even mean?!" Percy blurted out, "What do you mean again? I've never been killed once as far as I know! I don't even remember a brother-" a flash of laughter, blue eyes, a smile that made the corner of someones eyes crinkle- she stepped backwards, shaking her head violently. Now was not the time to get distracted. She needed to focus.