In which Percy really should focus on her surroundings more and now the pretty girl helping her fight. Also, Piper is certified badass and Crusty sucks.
Replies:
Undeath9087: Honestly so do I lol, gotta love spot.
Thickneck: Because he was angry and grieving and he didn't think.
Ryan Fowler: No Nemean Lion for Percy, though she will have her own pet.
Guest: You shall have to wait and see- I can't say too much without giving it all away- and they won't be learning who's behind it yet.
Jubby1905: Hah, you gotta love it though.
Jason: Oh Hades is never going to like Zeus, the question is can Percy win him over enough to get him to even just send the Bolt back via Hermes. And I feel like Egyptian magic can work on them to a degree, certain spells anyway. But it's not as effective.
Guest2.0: I know right, they've got it super easy right now.
Guest: Because Percy looks like a small, almost dainty little kid at this stage.
Percy had been itching to do something, anything other than wander aimlessly through the streets of LA, and this, this was going to work nicely.
The guys weren't total amateurs, they clearly had some experience with menacing, and there were a lot of them, but, well, none of them were trained fighters. That much became very clear about five seconds into the fight when Percy ducked under the wild swing that had been aimed at her head by the ringleader. She slid up under his defences and her fist hit his chin hard and his head snapped backwards- which ouch, that must have hurt him. Percy resisted the urge to cackle in delight as he staggered back, swinging low as her food glided out and around as she turned, catching two of the boys feet and taking them out from under them.
And out of the corner of her eye Percy spotted Piper, her fist flying through the air and crashing into one of the thugs stomachs. Percy resisted the urge to cheer her friend on. It would only distract her after all. Still, she did feel somewhat smug. After all she was the one who'd taught the other girl most of her technique.
Piper was very good, if Percy did say so herself-and she resisted the urge to cackle when she saw Piper kicking one of them in the balls.
The only issue was how many of the thugs there were. Percy was loving the fighting, and Piper knew her well enough to not just charmspeak the boys into going away. She knew the daughter of Poseidon needed something to vent her frustration.
But even Percy wasn't perfect, and there were a dozen of the guys, and one of them managed to get her from behind whilst she was distracted by Piper-and she let out a pained gasp when a knife jabbed into her shoulder from behind.
"FUCK!"
"Percy!" Piper's eyes widened as she turned her head, but to give her credit Piper didn't even falter, she switched gears from physical combat to her powers in a heartbeat.
"Get away from her-" and the teen who'd stabbed Percy instantly let go of the knife, and he staggered back quickly, his expression turning dazed.
But of course Piper didn't stop there. Her back straightened, "You're all going to leave us." her voice didn't even waver, "Run away. Run away like the cowards you are-" she paused before adding, "And you-" she pointed at the thug who'd stabbed Percy. "You're going to wet yourself."
And he did- Percy let out a slightly hysterical giggle at that as she saw a wet patch growing in his pants- but then they were all running and Percy let herself stumbled backwards, back hitting the wall of the alley they'd been backed into.
And Piper was by her side in an instant, pressing the palm of her hand to Percy's cheek. "Okay, okay look at me." her voice was shaky, but there was a gleam of determination in her eyes, "Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine." Percy breathed out, "Can- shit that is not nice-" it was a sharp hot burning pain in her shoulder.
"You don't say." Piper let out a slightly hysterical laugh, "Okay, do you want me to pull the knife out?"
"Yes. Yes I need you to do that." Percy took a shaky breath, "That is a very good idea." she tilted her head back, letting it rest against the cool stone behind her.
"On the count of three then." Piper was clearly forcing herself to stay focused, and Percy was impressed. Her friend had grown so much since they'd first met.
Their eyes met as Piper's fingers curled around the handle of the knife and Percy couldn't help the faint smile that spread across her lips, which made Piper raise an eyebrow.
"What- why are you smiling?"
"I'm just thinking about what happened before I told you everything." she pointed out softly. "Remember?"
And Piper let out a shaky laugh. "Huh, well would you look at that. It's like deja vu."
"It really is, I was so happy when I re-OW! I thought you said you'd count from three!"
"Yes, but I was never gonna do it." Piper didn't even hesitate, "Doing it like this means that you don't expect it." she was pressing her hand hard against Percy's shoulder. "You're bleeding but I don't think it's too bad."
"I'm pretty sturdy." Percy grimaced, "It hurts but I've definitely had worse before.
"You fought a giant chaos snake of course you've had worse." Piper's lips twitched fondly. "Gods you know, most people would think that being best friends with a movie star means paparazzi, fans and crazy shopping trips. They would not expect it to include standing in a dirty alley putting pressure on a wound after some crazy assholes tried jumping you."
"Eh, I'm not a normal movie star." Percy grinned, "I'm much too cool for that, don't'cha think?"
"Uh huh." Piper lifted her hand from where she'd been putting pressure on the wound, "I wanna look at it properly-let me-" she carefully looked at the wound and frowned, "It doesn't look good but I don't think it's too serious."
"See, I'll be fine." Percy waved her uninjured hand dismissively.
"I still want to try and clean it out with some water and wipe away the blood." Piper's voice was firm, "I think I saw a store just down the block that was open, it was the only one. It might not be perfect but there's probably a first aid kit or something in there."
"Okay, that sounds reasonable." Percy pulled away from the wall, and she let Piper lead the way, pulling and prodding her along as they ducked out of the alley and made their way to the show.
It had a glowing neon sign above the door- though Percy didn't even bother trying to take time to read it- neon always played hell with her dyslexia.
They pushed their way through the doors and they stopped mid step, Percy blinked- it was a bed store of some kind- they looked like water beds-and Percy glanced at Piper, who gave a weak little shrug.
"Well this is weird right?"
"Nothing weird about it!" The voice was a loud booming thing that made Percy almost jump, her eyes going wide.
"Holy crap! You scared the shit into me." it was coming from behind them, and Percy turned to look.
The guy who was standing behind them looked kind of like a raptor in a leisure suit. He was at least seven feet tall, with absolutely no hair. He had gray, leathery skin, thick-lidded eyes, and a cold, reptilian smile.
Something about him automatically set Percy on edge. It was almost like the word 'threat' was stamped onto his bald head. Except it wasn't.
Somehow this one man felt a long more dangerous than the thugs outside had.
Everything about him just seemed to feel out of place. His clothes looked like they belonged in the seventies. The shirt was silk paisley, unbuttoned halfway down his hairless chest. The lapels on his velvet jacket were as wide as landing strips. The silver chains around his neck, well, Percy decided not to try and count them.
"I'm Crusty." the man gave them a yellow toothed grin, and Percy couldn't help but say;
"You don't say." which earned her a pinch to the side from Piper, which was honestly fair.
"We're sorry to barge in." the other girl gave her a sweet smile. "We were wondering if you had a first aid kit."
"You hiding from those no good teens?"
"Not hiding exactly." Percy almost pouted- she did not like the implication that she'd ever have to hide from a bunch of teenaged mortals with knives.
"Looks like one of them got you good." the man nodded towards Percy's shoulder, "I'll go get you a first aid kit kids, come with me."
And with that he was turning, heading deeper into his showroom, and Percy glanced at Piper, who looked as uneasy as Percy was feeling.
"We need to fix up your arm."
"Do you ever get tired of being the one with the common sense."
"Oh only all the time." Piper snorted, "You know what, after this when we get home, you and I are going skating-"
"Yes!" Percy let out a victorious whoop, "We can skate down the rails in Time Square-"
"Okay I have to admit that does sound fun." Piper laughed, "You can let Sadie do your hair again so people don't recognise you-"
"I'm thinking bright blue this time."
And so the two girls followed the creepy salesman deeper into his store- and as they talked a part of Percy was scanning their surroundings.
There was every kind of water bed you could imagine: different kinds of wood, different patterns of sheets; queen-size, king-size, emperor-of-the-universe-size.
"This is my most popular model." Crusty spread his hands proudly over a bed covered with black satin sheets, with built-in Lava Lamps on the headboard. The mattress vibrated, so it looked like oil-flavored Jell-O.
"Million hand massage." the man told them, "Why don't you try it out- you should probably sit down anyway, I'll go get the first aid kit."
"I'd rather not." Percy said swiftly, "No offence but we're not here shopping. We just want the first aid kit."
"Of course-" and then his hand was lashing out, and Percy let out a startled yelp as she fell backwards onto the bed.
That was awkward enough as it was, given the chunky backpack that pressed uncomfortably into her back, and then Crusty snapped his fingers, said "Ergo," and ropes shot out from the sides of the bed, curling around her ankles and wrists, lashing her down to the bed, she bit down a scream as they yanked her arms up above her head, pain shooting through her shoulder.
And okay- okay that was very weird- the mattress was vibrating! It felt incredibly strange. "Hey!" she swallowed hard, "Hey you creep what the heck do you think you're doing let me go!"
"Hey-" Piper didn't have much chance to move because Crusty was grabbing her shoulder, yanking her into his side.
"Now now, we'll find you a bed in a second-" he was tilting his head, tutting, "Such a shame, you're too short-"
"Oh crap." Percy groaned, her head dropping back onto the pillows- and gods but this was not fun. "I know you."
"Oh?" the man's face almost lit up, "Do you now-"
"Yeah, yeah I do." Percy gritted her teeth, "You're Procrustes. If people don't fit your beds you either stretch them out or chop off bits until they do." well this wasn't good. She was sure that Carter and Sadie would find this hilarious if they were here. They always teased her for being the shortest of the three of them- which was ridiculous she was younger than them. And her mom totally said that she'd have a growth spurt soon.
Though- she had heard the healers at the First Nome discussing concerns that the coma had stunted her growth slightly.
Of course there would be no way to know until she was that bit older. And that didn't help her with her issue in the moment.
"You do know your stuff." Procrustes beamed, "I could smell that she's a demigod-" he nodded his head towards Piper, who was stood very tense, her fingers curled into tight fists. "But you- I'm not so sure about you."
"Oh I'm a demigod." Percy glared at him, "You know of all the people I could have threaten to kill me I didn't expect it to be one of my half brothers." she let out an annoyed little huff at that.
"Half-" the monsters eyes widened in surprise. "Well now that is interesting." he peered at her curiously, "You know I don't think I've ever had any demigod sisters before- well that's interesting- and- hm... I've met demigod children of Poseidon before. But they all had our fathers dark hair- I've never seen one quite like you-" he moved forward, reaching towards Percy's hair, and his grip on Piper's shoulder slackened, and the girl pulled herself free quickly, her knife out in an instant, and before he had time to turn around she was driving her blade into the back of his neck.