Disclaimer : Yami Tensei owns nothing except the Original Characters.

~0~

The Pen of Death

~0~

Ah, how the times had passed.

Ray twirled a golden drachma across his fingers, lazily looking outside through the windows of the Greyhound bus he was in. He just chuckled to himself when the memories from years ago started flashing through his head, and he let them. The first signs of when he became a demigod- no, the signs of when he realized he was one. Then the friendship he made in the camp he might be tempted to call a second home, and many more such trivial yet at the same time important memories. Oh, how things were so simple in the past.

Ray stopped his coin play and put the currency into his hoodie pocket. New York, his one true home, had revealed itself. His family had no idea he was coming home early, and he supposed it would make a fine surprise. His mother would probably bake cookies, and his brother would... wait, now that he thought about it, Percy was still at Yancy. Or was he home? Darn, he couldn't remember. Oh well, he could always see it for himself.

He truly did miss his merry little family. This day seemed to be for the better, and Ray, for one, would readily welcome it.

~0~

Percy grimaced when he saw the building came into view.

He never had a good relationship with school trips. Why? Maybe him accidentally blowing up the school bus at the Saratoga Battlefield, dropping his entire class into a shark tank, burning down the replica of an elephant in the National Museum of Natural History, and other stupid things may have something to do with it.

He could just imagine the things that would went wrong today. When he would have to go to the toilet, it would be his luck that all of the stalls there were plugged. Then the entire floor would be flooded with toilet water, mom would be sad when he got home, while Ray would definitely find it funny.

A splatter of something wet hitting his cheek made him look away. Grover Underwood, his scrawny best friend that walked weird, determinedly looked ahead, ignoring it. A ball of brown and red... thing dripped down from his rasta hat, and unto his shirt.

Percy wiped the thing from his cheek, stared at it, then wiped it to the bus seat.

Nancy Bobofit struck again.

"Okay, that's it, she's going down," Percy muttered, standing up.

"Percy, no!" Grover whispered furiously. He fished desperately through his bag, then pulled out a book just the moment another ball of peanut butter-ketchup hit him. "You're already in probation, you know that."

"But...!" Percy glared as another brown and red ball flew through the air, to Grover's book.

"Hey, it's okay. I like peanut butter. Besides, Ray already have enough blackmail against you to last for a lifetime, you don't want him to get more stuff."

Percy clenched his fists. But Grover was right. Not the blackmail thing, but the probation. The headmaster would have his hide if the trip ended up with something destructive, no matter how amusing it would be.

SPLAT! Another chunk of Bobofit's lunch made a crashlanding on the cover of Grover's book.

Instead of stomping to the back of the bus and give Nancy the old one-two, which would end badly for him (the girl was huge), he offered Grover to use his jacket as protection instead, since it would be way easier to wash a jacket than a paper-filled book.

~0~

Fortunately, Mr. Brunner was the one leading the tour. The old teacher on a wheelchair always knew how to make even the most boringest thing sound exciting.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Grelod also followed them from behind. His prayers of her having a random diarrhea wasn't answered. That biology teacher clad in black leather jacket from Germany was scary. Some students whispered at the back of the class that she rode a burning Harley with a horned skull in place of its headlights like Ghost Rider to instill fear, but he thought that just sounded badass.

Still, Mrs. Grelod was still pretty creepy. What was worse, she seemed to hate him, and he had no idea why. She also liked saying the word 'Dear' with a wicked smile to any troublemakers, making skins crawl, so yeah.

Mr. Brunner strolled ahead.

Surprisingly, Percy had been here before. In one of the rare occasions when Ray and him were home at the same time, Ray told him the two of them were going to have a trip, since Ray had a few days off work, whatever his work was. For some reason, Ray wanted them to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Percy thought he would find it boring, but he ended up liking the trip. He found out new interesting stuff he didn't know Ray knew- like apparently the Titan of the East Hyperion would sometimes blind his brother Iapetus, the Titan of the West, with his light just for kicks.

The group stopped at the bottom of a tall column with a sphinx sitting on top. Ray told him it was a stele; a grave marker, for a girl around twelve, like his own current age. The explanation Mr. Brunner gave was the same as his brother's, making him remember that Mr. Brunner was once Ray's teacher too.

Mr. Brunner started explaining the carvings on the side of the column. Some students listened, while the few truly hardcore ones took notes, while the rest just talked to each other. Unfortunately, he stood close to the chatters, while he actually wanted to listen to what the old teacher was saying.

Everytime he told them to shut up, Mrs. Grelod would shoot him with laser eyes. Another proof that she didn't like him. If he knew why she disliked him, then he could stop doing whatever it was that made her hate him, then maybe she would go bother someone else.

Mr. Brunner kept explaining about the carving, pointing at one.

Nancy snickering about a naked guy on the stele was the breaking point. He turned around and grinded out, "Will you shut up?"

However, right at the moment he said those words, most of the chatters died down.

The group laughed. Mr. Brunner raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you have a comment, Mr. Jackson?"

His face was on fire. "No, sir."

"Is that so? You have been listening then?"

"Uh... yes sir."

"In that case." Mr. Brunner turned to the stele once more and pointed to a carving. "Can you tell me what this means?"

He never thought it would happen, but Ray's lecture just saved him. "You mean Kronos eating his kids?"

"Yes." The next few silent seconds was what made Percy realize the teacher was waiting.

"He did that because..." Ray told him a dozen times when they were here, but when he actually needed the information, they fled to the deepest corners of his mind. "He was the King..." Titans, Gods, Giants... what was Kronos again?

"King...?" Mr. Brunner waited. The group stared at him expectantly.

"Titan!" The word struck him. "Kronos was the King Titan, and he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods, so he ate them."

"But?"

"But... but his wife his baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead, right? Then Zeus grew up, tricked Kronos into barfing his brothers and sisters-"

"Ew," someone said behind him.

"-then the gods fought against the Titans in this huge war," Percy continued, ignoring the disgusted sound. "And the gods won."

A few muffled laughter behind him.

"As if this is important." Nancy snickered. "When we got our job application, there's gonna be a question, 'Why did Kronos ate his kids?'"

Her friends laughed along with her.

"Magnificent question, Miss Bobofit." Mr. Brunner nodded. "Why would this matter, Mr. Jackson?"

Grover and a few others snickered.

"Oh, shut up," Nancy hissed.

If he wasn't in his current situation, Percy would've laughed right along. Mr. Brunner was the only one who could hear Nancy saying things, one of the reasons why Brunner was his favorite teacher. He could hear anything, like a radar.

Percy thought about the question. For some unknown reason, this bugged him.

Ray told him that people learn history to prevent the same tragedies and mistakes that happened in the past to happen again, but he doubted a guy eating his own babies, then his wife hiding the last baby and replacing it with a huge rock, then the guy eating said rock, then the last baby growing up and having his father puking out his older siblings, who were alive inside the guy's stomach, would be replayed in real life.

Finally, Percy just shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"I see." Mr. Brunner frowned. "Regardless, you obtained half-credit, Mr. Jackson. It is indeed correct that Zeus used a nauseating mixture of mustard and wine to make Kronos disgorge his five older siblings, who, as gods, lived fine and grew up undigested inside the Titan King's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him up with his own scythe, and threw away his remains into the deepest pits of Tartarus. With that out of the way, I believe it is time for lunch. Mrs. Grelod, if you please?"

The group walked away from the stele, following the biker-looking teacher outside. The girls looked like food was the farthest thing away from their minds, as their faces turned green, while the guys just pushed each other around and pointing at the naked statues, laughing, and generally acting stupid.

Him and Grover waited until everyone left before they themselves walked away, but Percy knew something was coming. Just before they took their third step, Mr. Brunner called for him.

He told Grover to go on ahead, before turning around to face the approaching wheelchair-bound teacher. "Yeah, sir?"

At the moment, Mr. Brunner looked like the man filled with wisdom like Percy imagined him to be sometimes, before the elder ended up in a wheelchair. His brown eyes always had a look as if he had seen everything, knew everything.

"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner said, quietly.

"The immortals?"

"Real life." Mr. Brunner corrected. "How the immortals connect to real life. How anything related to the immortals connect to real life."

"Ah." An idea hit him. "Like how Hyperion liked to prank Iapetus by blinding him sometimes?"

Mr. Brunner raised an eyebrow, but now in amusement. "Well, if you wish. But know that what you learn from me- and your mother, and your brother, is very important. I expect the best from you, my boy."

Percy's lips turned into a thin line. Sometimes he didn't like being Ray's brother.

He didn't understand exactly, but he just knew that basically while Mr. Brunner taught Ray, his brother was his star student. Ray knew everything about ancient history. And because of that, Mr. Brunner expected him to be like his brother- to know everything about ancient history.

He wasn't his brother. Ray was smart, he wasn't. He even turned Gabe from a world-class jerk to a genuinely likable guy, for crying out loud!

Percy couldn't remember ancient names. He still couldn't pronounce all of them correctly. He couldn't remember all of that. He asked his brother one night while he was working on a homework, just what was the secret for being so smart in ancient history.

Ray had this faraway look, and said that it would happen to him eventually. He said that as if it was a bad thing.

Well, whenever it was, it wasn't happening anytime soon.

He mumbled something about trying harder, and Mr. Brunner dismissed him. As he walked away, he glanced back at Mr. Brunner, and saw the elder staring sadly at the stele, like he knew who the girl was personally.

~0~

Most of the class sat on the front steps of the museum, eyeing the traffic of Fifth Avenue. Nancy was trying to put something wiggling inside a woman's purse, some guys hurled crackers at nearby pigeons, while the rest tried to eat normally.

With the sky being as dark as it was, Percy couldn't tell when exactly was the time, just that it was still noon. Maybe it was global warning, or maybe aliens, but the weather never stopped getting weird since last Christmas. Snowstorms, icestorms, thunderstorms, normalstorms, you name it, it happened. If a meteorstorm started, Percy wouldn't be too surprised.

Like some of the more normal kids, him and Grover sat away from the rest of the group. It was a tactic to make people think they weren't from the school of freaks and weirdos.

He knew mom and Ray worked hard to make enough money so he could enroll in this school, but still. Though, at least it was better than public school- at Yancy, the teachers knew they were freaks and weirdos, so they knew how to handle them.

"Detention?" Grover asked, pulling him away from that memory.

"Nah." Percy sighed. "Mr. Brunner wanted to talk me again. I mean, we all know I'm far from a genius."

Grover didn't say anything for a while. Just when Percy thought his best friend was about to say something inspiring to cheer him up, he said, "Can I have your apple?"

Percy shrugged, and handed it over to him. He didn't have much appetite anyway, especially after hearing the being-cut-into-pieces story earlier.

As Grover devoured his apple, Percy stared on ahead at the traffic below, the yellow cabs lining the road and waiting for a passenger. It would be so easy, he thought glumly, to just hop in one and go back home.

It wasn't even far, just a few miles uptown. Mom would be glad he was home, hugging him and telling him how much she missed him. But as soon as it happened, she would be sad, and would likely tell him to return back to Yancy. Despite the fact that this was the sixth school in sixth years and he was very likely to be kicked out again.

And, well, he wanted to be someone... worthy.

He may not be smart, but he wasn't a total idiot. Whatever work Ray did, it brought them as much, if not a little more, money that mom made. And most of that money were spent on the damage repairs on the things he had broken, like the school bus and elephant replica.

He costed his family a good fortune. If he didn't have this darned ADHD, who knows, maybe his family could afford something nice for a change.

Percy inwardly groaned. He wouldn't be able to stand mom's sad look and Ray's troubled gaze at home.

Just as he shoved the thought of leaving the museum away from the front of his mind, something overshadowed him. He looked up, not being too amused.

Nancy Bobofit and her big and ugly friends grinned at him. She was probably bored of sneaking live frogs inside tourists' bags. Before he could do anything, Nancy dumped her half-eaten lunch on Grover's lap.

"Oops," she said, looking back at him with a knowing grin.

Percy reined in his anger. He knew exactly what she wanted from him, and he wasn't going to let her have the satisfaction. But it was hard. Several school counselors had told him over the years after he got into fights. "Hold your anger, count to ten," they had said.

But enough was enough. Nancy was an irritating jerk who never stopped bullying his best friend. He was so enraged he could barely think. The next thing he knew, Nancy was inside the fountain, face planted on the bottom.

Percy blinked. "What the-?"

Nancy lifted her face from the fountain floor, and screamed, "Percy pushed me!"

A wild Mrs. Grelod appeared. The kids around them started whispering.

"Did you see it?"

"The water..."

"It just grabbed her!"

Percy winced. He had no idea what happened, but he knew he was about to be blamed for it anyway.

Mrs. Grelod pulled poor little Nancy out of the fountain and made sure she was okay. No bruises, no cuts, no anything. After the teacher promised her they would get some new clothes from the gift shop, she turned around to look at him.

Mrs. Grelod smiled. It was a scary, almost delighted smile. Apparently she was waiting for him to lose his cool. "Now, dear."

"I know." Percy sighed. "A month erasing workbooks..."

Oh great. It just flew out of his mouth.

Mrs. Grelod turned around. "Come with me."

"Wait!" Grover suddenly yelped, pushing Nancy's and his own lunch off his lap. "It was me! I pushed her!"

"What?" Percy stared at him. It was impossible- but it actually happened. Grover was deathly afraid of Grelod, and yet he was trying to cover for him.

And there was a lot of emphasis on trying. Mrs. Grelod' glare made Grover shudder as if he was naked in a blizzard.

"Is that so?" Mrs. Grelod asked, looking between Percy and Grover a few times.

"N-!"

"Yes!" Grover cut him off with a nod.

"I don't think so." Mrs. Grelod turned back to Percy. "Come, dear."

"But-!"

"You. Will. Stay. Here." Mrs. Grelod ordered slowly and forcefully, as if Grover was a disobedient little child.

Grover turned to him in desperation. Dismissing his friend's abrupt change of actions as nothing weird, Percy shrugged. "It's fine, G-man. Thanks for trying anyway."

"Dear." Mrs. Grelod hissed at him. "Now."

Nancy grinned at him.

He gave her his promised death stare, and followed the teacher back into the museum. Before he reached the bottom step, a hand pulled him back.

"Percy, do you still have Ray's pen?" Grover whispered furiously at him.

"What?"

"Do you still have it or not?"

"Y-yeah, I do." He was getting confused at Grover's tone. "What's wrong?"

The pen was something special. Ray gave it to him when he was eleven, a year ago. He said to keep this pen safe, but he didn't explain further.

Well Percy didn't care anyway. It was a gift from Ray, an item to remember him by. Besides, the pen was cool- the ink glowed bronze, but it didn't look girly like glitter. He could never lose it too. It was awesome.

"Nothing!" Grover said nervously, when Mrs. Grelod turned to look at them from the top of the stairs. "Just... you might need it."

Percy was filled with dread. "A month filling workbooks?!"

"Yeah." Grover nodded. "Probably."

A shudder went past him, and without further prompting, he climbed the stairs into the museum. Mrs. Grelod was nowhere in sight, so he could only guess that she was already inside the building, probably tapping her shoes to the tiles impatiently.

Surprise, surprise, she was already at the other side of the room, entering the Roman and Greek gallery. Percy doubted he was out talking with Grover for so long, so how did the teacher managed to walk so quickly. Did she sprint or something?

Percy had to jog to reach her. The gallery was empty, except for the two of them. Mrs. Grelod was growling at a marble display of the Greek gods. The sound made his skin crawl.

Right before he reached a few feet from the teacher, Mrs. Grelod turned around to look at him. The look in her eyes was... dangerous.

He suddenly didn't feel too safe. He pulled out Ray's gift- his bronze pen- out of his pockets and fiddled with it. For some reason, it felt heavier.

"You have been giving us problems, dear," Mrs. Grelod began, walking around him. Like a cat stalking its prey, he uncomfortably realized. But that was probably a coincidence. "Do you truly believe you can outsmart us?"

He tried his best to not stare blankly at her. "No, ma'am?"

Mrs. Grelod raised an eyebrow. "Then you confess?"

"Er... ma'am, I don't-"

"Wrong answer, dear." She sneered.

...was his mind playing tricks on him, or was the shadows actually moving?

Glancing down, he realized that yes, the shadows were moving. They moved as if being sucked by a magnet.

And Mrs. Grelod was the magnet. Blackness gathered around her feet, as she she just stared at him and cuffed her leather jacket.

He took a step back. His pen's weight increased.

"Hand it over, dear. And I assure you, you will suffer less pain," Mrs. Grelod simply said.

What on earth was she talking about? The only reason she would say these things was if only the staff knew he was selling mom's baked goods and/or candy ilegally from his dorm room, but that hardly caused any problem. Well, except some sugar rushes here and there, but generally no problem at all.

Or maybe they found out he never actually read the books the teachers assigned him to do, and instead got it off from some of his nonchalant smarter classmates? Reading books reminded him of that time in third grade where a teacher tied him to a chair and forced him to read a book, since having Dyslexia and ADHD wasn't normal, the teacher reasoned. Tom Sawyer's, he still remembered. He had a mental breakdown several times in that session. He still had nightmares about it.

Mrs. Grelod huffed. The shadows climbed her pants, turning it pitch black, but it didn't stop there. "Time is not a luxury you have at the moment, half-blood."

Half-blood?

The darkness enveloped her, and her eyes glowed like fire. She grew larger until she was a good few feet taller than him. Her hands elongated into claws, and a pair of leathery wings sprouted out of her back. She grinned at him, revealing rows and rows of yellow fangs.

Mrs. Grelod wasn't Mrs. Grelod. Whatever this thing was, it was going to kill him if he didn't do anything soon.

He didn't thought things could be weirder, but it did. The pen he had been holding on suddenly transformed. From a fancy-looking bronze pen to a three-feet tall bronze blade.

Mrs. Grelod lunged at him, wickedly sharp claws aiming at his throat.

Percy yelped, fear and confusion overtaking him, as he stumbled aside. He could feel the whoosh of air as the talons slashed the space where he once stood.

He quickly staggered back to his feet just the moment Mrs. Grelod whirled around and charged once again. The sword- was it Ray's?- seemed to hum in his hand, reinforcing the idea of what he had to do, but his limbs were shaking so bad he was actually quite surprised he hadn't dropped to the floor cowering in fear.

Mrs. Grelod came nearer and nearer. Clenching his eyes shut, Percy held the blade tightly in his hand and did exactly what his gut commanded him to do. He swung the weapon.

Hisss!

"...oh my."

At the sound, Percy cracked one eye open. Five sharp, yellow talons were mere inches from his face. But it wasn't moving. He dared himself to look further behind the terrifying hand.

It wasn't a clean cut. Mrs. Grelod was cut in a half, but literally. The cut reached half of her body. But instead of blood, golden sand spilled through the wound. Mrs. Grelod stared at the bronze sword embedded in her chest in what looked to be surprise. Then she lifted her face so she could look at him in the eyes.

Her eyes burned like fire. But somehow, Percy could tell dark amusement were painted in there.

"I knew holding back would do nothing good," Mrs. Grelod mused, still looking at him. "What was Lord Hades thinking, I wonder?"

"...uh?"

"You don't understand? Congratulations, dear!" Mrs. Grelod cackled with barely restrained rage. "Your first kill is a Fury!"

"I- wh- what?" Percy was getting more and more confused.

"But do not fret, boy." The red gaze burned through him. "The next time we'll meet, I will not hold back."

Mrs. Grelod exploded into golden sand. But the way she glared at him, with so much malice and promised pain... he knew that look wouldn't go away for weeks, if not months. The sword clattered to the floor.

It was then Percy realized he was taking quick, rapid breaths. He fell back on his behind, putting his face in his hands. When his breathing came back normal, he finally looked up.

There was nobody in there.

There was no golden sand.

There was no sword.

In front of him, on the floor, was his pen.

...was he imagining things?

Taking a deep breath, he stood up, snatching his pen. He stumbled outside the museum, barely noticing the slowly trickling crows of tourists entering the building. Outside, it started to rain.

Grover sat on the last steps of the museum now, crowding with their classmates. Nancy was instead at the fountain, still dripping wet from her diving experience, grumbling to her friends. She saw him first, and growled, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."

Percy stared at her. "Who?"

"What do you mean, 'who?' Our teacher, idiot."

He blinked. They never had a teacher named Kerr. Deciding that she probably hit her head on the bottom of the fountain or something, he approached Grover instead.

Percy asked him where was Mrs. Grelod.

"Who?" Grover asked.

The slight pause and reluctance of meeting his eyes meant he was probably lying, but Percy hadn't really paid attention when Ray told him the signs of somebody lying so he could be wrong too.

Still. "Not funny man." He frowned. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed. Grover winced, and hugged himself.

Percy noticed Mr. Brunner sitting in his wheelchair at the bottom of the handicapped ramp, reading a book under a red umbrella. The old teacher would know what was going on.

So he walked over to the elder.

Mr. Brunner looked up when he approached, eyes a bit distracted. "Yes, Percy?"

"Sir, where is Mrs. Grelod?"

The old man stared at him blankly. "Who?"

"Mrs. Grelod. The biology teacher. She's the other chaperone teacher here."

Mr. Brunner's eyebrows furrowed, concern flashing in his brown eyes. He leaned forward, like he was inspecting him closely and carefully. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Grelod in this trip. As far as I know, there is no Mrs. Grelod in Yancy since I've began teaching in Yancy years ago. Do you want to go to the medic?"

~0~

"Jackson, he used the pen."

"...I'm a bit busy here Perce so you might want to wait a bit."

"I believe you deemed this matter to be of utmost importance."

"Can this wait? I'm in a really tight-" BANG- "situation over here."

A sigh over the telecommunication device. "What is the problem now?"

"Underworld if I know." Ray frowned, checking his revolver's bullets. How long did it take for Marcus' weapon to reload again? A minute? Two? "I'm being chased by two Furies. They keep screeching at me, 'Hand it over' and 'Give it back'. Did Alexa stole something from the Underworld?"

"I don't think so."

Blast it all. If he knew the reason for the Underworld's most feared torturers to come flying at him at full speed, he'd know how to escape them too. This could be troublesome.

"Do you recquire assistance?"

Ray glanced behind him, toward the fountain in the middle of the parking lot. If he could reach it, he could fight back. "No, no. You're in command of the crew for now, Percival. Take care of this 'utmost important' thing you're talking about."

"Understood."

The device crackled, a small earpiece with a really really small MarcusBryantTM insignia on its side,then went off. Ray shoved it inside his pocket, knowing that it would hardly bent in there. He took a peek from his cover, an alcove of some sort, and immediately ducked back. A stream of flame went racing past his hiding spot, and made a line of ash on the ground.

"It is useless, godling," one of the Furies snarled somewhere. The problem was, every one of them looked and sounded exactly the same so he had no idea who was who. "Give us back what you stole and I assure you we will not torture you to death."

Thunder boomed.

What kind of compensation was that, Ray wondered. Bending the Mist to his will, he made an illusion of himself running out of the alcove and into the open area. To his dismay, the illuson wasn't burned to ashes. That meant the Furies could see through his illusion.

Great. One card lost. The other option was talking with the Furies and plan an escape as he did, but he had already done that and ended up being chased to Hotel Plaza's somehow empty parking lot.

Everything was supposed to be simple too. He just got a few non-fighting days, which for him was quite the luxury, but of course as soon as he could visit his mother at the apartement, a couple of Furies would burst from crevices on the ground and started demanding he return 'it'. He was so surprised he barely noticed they managed to evaporate his bottle of water, making him virtually defenseless.

Where was Stalker when he needed that damned bird?

"Squawk!"

As if said bird could read his mind, the crow's crow sounded indignant. Then again, knowing Stalker- or specifically, having no idea what Stalker was, he somehow probably could.

Stalker swooped into his hiding spot and landed on his shoulder. He lifted his right talon and pointed straight ahead.

That meant there was another cover right in front of his current one, but the problem was how to get there. There were two Furies right outside, waiting for him to make his move.

Come to think of it, where were-

Ray immediately ducked when a line of fire so hot it looked a bit white almost cut his head off. Stalker screeched, annoyed, and jumped at the Fury's face. Both tumbled to the ground in front of him. Seizing his chance, he jumped over both of them and sprinted past as the other Fury's whip grazed his left foot, leaving a searing pain on its wake. It burned, but manageable.

When his revolver felt heavier, he knew it had reloaded. So as he ran for cover, he aimed his gun at the quickly approaching monster, and fired several bullets. Most of them missed, and the only one able to hit his target was melted in mid-air by the Fury's fluid slashes of her fire whip.

Cursing inwardly, he finally reached the second cover, which was behind a car. The fountain was only several yards away, but the Fury was now definitely chasing him.

Ray took a deep breath, and stood up, firing several bullets to the Fury's general direction. She flew up, effectively dodging all of them, and swooped down, one talon outstretched and the other pulled back, preparing to strike with her fire whip.

He gritted his teeth, and his stomach clenched. A 'beam' of water shot from the fountain and slammed into the Fury, making her screech and fall, but it was barely deadly. Ray jumped back from the car as she fell on top of it, crushing the metal frames and glasses under her weight. She glared at him with pure hatred as the car's alarms blared.

A black shape zipped away from the other side of the crushed car and roughly landed on his shoulder. Stalker hissed, several black feathers smoking, but the bird's beady black eyes glinted with pride.

The other Fury appeared, furious. She lunged, jumping past her sister and the screaming car. Quick as lightning, she cracked her whip. Stalker flew away just in time, but the same thing couldn't be said with him.

Ray choked out a scream as he fell to his knees. There was a burning cut on his chest, and his reddened palm informed him that it was bleeding. WhyonOlympuswoulditbebleeding? The whip was burning for crying out loud!

He wasn't given the time to mend his wound as the first Fury had recovered. Her sister flew up as she flipped the goddamn car into his direction.

He managed to stumble out of its path just in time, but in his haste he landed with his scarred chest on the asphalt. Ray hastily pulled back, hissing in pain. Oh great, now the parking lot had a red mark on one corner.

The second Fury dropped down from the sky right in front of him, barely giving time for him to recover, and snarled. "Die, honey."

Something gripped his neck, and suddenly he was flying. Then his head hit something hard, and his vision blurred.

For a few seconds, he stayed still. Pain raged on the back of his brain.

"Ugh," Ray muttered. Oh how he hated his life. And these two bat women. It was hardly fair how they ganged up on him.

Shakily, he tried pulling himself out of his position laying on the ground. His hand slipped, and he fell back on the wet ground. Dimly, he noted two huge black shapes walking slowly toward him, both holding bright red ropes.

Wait.

Wet ground?

His eyes lolled around to look at the grass surrounding him just the moment his vision became stable. Water pooled around him, and he could feel the cut on his chest closing, his light-headedness disappearing.

Ray lifted his head, and looked behind him.

The car crashed into the fountain, completely destroying the bowl, making water fly everywhere.

"Last chance, honey," the Fury who threw him warned. "Give us back what you stole."

His gut clenched.

The fountain became a concentrated explosion. Gallons of water slammed into both Furies, throwing them back a few feet away.

"Can you not understand," Ray croaked out, standing up. Gah, his throat hurt, and there was a ringing in his head. "That if I have whatever it is you're searching for, I would've given it to you the first time you asked for it?"

Both of the Furies spluttered, coughing out water out of their mouths and noses. Ray groaned again, holding one hand to his forehead. Did he hit the fountain or something?

Glancing back, he noticed a red splash on one side of the fountain, dripping down to the pooling water, making them all slightly red.

Well. Thunder boomed overhead, and when Ray looked up, the sky turned gray, droplets of water started falling.

Cracks could be heard as a weapon made out of frost rose from the water beside him. Interestingly enough, it was red, a result of the water mixing with his blood.

He turned around just the moment one of the Furies recovered and charged at him, roaring. He thrust his hand out, and the frozen sword shot right into the monster's chest. Instead of barreling into him, she crashlanded in front of him, before dissolving into dust, dropping into the water and disappearing.

"Megaera!" the remaining Fury screamed. "You will pay for that, godling!"

"You burned my wallet!" Ray complained, holding up his melted wallet and the few cash inside for emphasis. "How am I supposed to pay for it?!"

The Fury screeched, flying into the air. Her whip glowed bright, and she swung. A huge fireball came hurtling into his direction.

Eyes quickly widening, Ray thrust his hand to the fireball. Water surrounded him, and burst outward into a ball of liquid, rushing to meet its counterpart.

When they collided, a heavy mist descended into the parking lot. From deep within the clouds of white, the Fury snarled. "You will suffer, honey!"

Ray took a deep breath, and focused. The feeling in his stomach intensified, as tendrils of water formed from the puddles surrounding him and rose. They immediately shot off into the mist.

He could see flashes of orange light as the last remaining Fury fought back against the onslaught. Which wasn't supposed to be that hard, considering Ray only knew the monster's general location and thus just flailed the tentacles with reckless abandon.

His head pounded, and he swayed on his spot, but he still stood. The head injury hadn't seem to heal properly. He needed time to heal that type of most probably serious wound.

The mist dissipated when a flaming arc cut through it, also cutting off most of his tendrils. The Fury looked aggravated at most, and was barely hurt.

But she had revealed herself to his sight, and that was already more than enough.

Stomach twisting so hard it started to hurt a bit, Ray thrust both of his hands with a yell. Dozens of water tendrils exploded from the fountain, hurling themselves into the last remaining threat.

Said threat swung her whip, evaporating the several farthest tentacles, but the others remained focused on his target. Quickly, they wrapped themselves around the Fury's limbs- including her wings, and pulled down as quickly as they could. He made sure the water squeezed around her wrists the hardest, to make her drop her weapon.

The Fury screamed as she was slammed to the ground, probably because he just broke her wrists. She crashed into the asphalt, sending a dust cloud upward, but he knew she wasn't dead yet, evidenced by the effort he had to put into his tendrils to keep her still.

Slowly, he stumbled to her. The effects of using water profusely while severely wounded had finally arrived. He needed to end this quick. So, before the Fury could even shout curses at him, he had already put his revolver against her forehead and pulled the trigger.

After she disintegrated, only then he let go of the water. They splashed uselessly to the ground, and Ray could feel his energy returning bit by bit. The rain helped with this process.

"Well." He breathed. He rubbed his forehead, relieved that the dread-inducing headache didn't appear. "That takes care of that, I suppose."

Stalker flew down, from wherever he was watching him struggle in a life and death situation, and landed on his shoulder. The bird squawked almost a little bit too jovially to his liking.

"Whatever." Ray rolled his eyes. "They should be appearing right about... now."

Right after he said that, the doors to the hotel burst open, and tourists started pouring out of the building, looking disoriented. As Stalker flew away from his perch, Ray cloaked himself with the Mist to make himself invinsible, and fled the scene. He could only imagine the looks on their faces when they saw the fountain crushed under an upside-down car.

When he reached a little bit further into Central Park, he allowed himself to slump down on one of the benches, the Mist disappearing off of him. Stalker landed beside him, on the bench's backrest, and started cleaning his scorched feathers. Neither of them were bothered by the rain.

Ray took a deep breath, checking off several things. Alive? Yes. Wounded? It would seem so. Did he look like a hobo? Perhaps.

What did Percival said to him before he disappeared? Something about a pen...

Frowning, Ray pulled out his telecommunication device.

He grimaced. When he put it to his ear, the only thing he heard was just jumbled statics which confirmed his suspicion that the thing was busted.

Sighing, he put it back into his hoodie pocket. Marcus would be able to fix this. But the problem remained, he couldn't ask Percival again on what he had said exactly.

Something about a pen. And a guy using said pen. How was that relevant to anything?

Percival also said that Ray had deemed this guy using this pen to be 'of utmost importance' so it was probably important. But he didn't remember anything about a pen. Only a sword that was disguised as a-

He froze. Quickly, dread and panic filled him to the brim.

Anaklusmos. That was the pen he had deemed to be of utmost importance. Because he had given it to Percy.

If it turned into its original sword form, that meant a monster attacked his brother.

Ray jumped to his feet, surprising Stalker so much the crow flew up a bit. Percy could be hurt, or worse! Godsdammit, why would the Furies attacked him the moment a monster attacked his brother?!

A chilling thought crossed his mind. There were supposed to be three Furies who served Hades. He had killed two, but where was the last one? Could the last one be...

Could the last one be attacking Percy?

He started hyperventilating. He needed to calm down. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

Today was a school day, so Percy was supposed to be at school, but his younger brother did tell him that his class was going to a field trip. Percy didn't tell him where- he was probably too bored to listen to the teacher announcing the trip.

However, Grover and Chiron was with him, amd they could protect him, at the moment. Percival and his friends were headed to Percy's last known location, so his brother's safety was reinforced.

Still... he was extremely worried. If one of the Furies did attack his brother, with the intent of reclaiming... whatever it was that was missing from the Underworld, which meant Hades himself ordered the attack on him, which meant the Furies wouldn't be the only things the Underworld God has in store for them.

Another thought entered his mind. He froze. He was worrying about Percy so much, even though he knew his friends were the most capable fighters in camp, he forgot the other person he cared most in the world. And this other person was far more defenseless than Percy if Hades chose to target her.

"Stalker." The bird looked at him. "Bring me to mom's current location. I'll follow you from behind."

The crow's black eyes lit up with purple light, and he flew away. Ray sprinted after him.