Chapter 13

MEG POV

(A/N *Spongebob music plays* Whooo lives down in Texas and writes PJATO? RICK RI-ORD-AN! Eg not me.)

Before this frightening taxi drive, Meg had not heard of the Grey Sisters, and she didn't particularly want to again. A smoky grey car that looked as solid as the steam from a bonfire didn't exactly scream reassuring. Still, it was a pleasant enough ride if you enjoyed screaming along at a hundred miles an hour, with three squabbling old ladies in the front. Not quickly enough, Meg and her companions found themselves standing (albeit a bit dizzily) on the sidewalks of Trenton, New Jersey, outside the Battle Monmument. Clarisse had to pay the old ladies with almost double the starting fee when they asked them to drive this far out of their service area, but with a bit of bribery and some 'diplomacy' from Clarisse, (threatening to stab them with her spear) they got here. "Now all we need to do is get to the Transit Centre. Should only take us an hour or so." She led them off southwest to Nottingham Way. They hadn't gone far when Meg piped up.

"So what's it like, being adult demigods? Do more monsters come and attack you, or do less?" Chris frowned

"We're probably not the best examples. We had to fight a war when we were seventeen, so we don't exactly have a grip on normal. Not that many monsters have attacked us in Arizona, but then everything seems small after you cut down hundreds in battle." Here he looked over at Clarisse and smiled. She scowled, but Meg could tell she was trying to hold back a grin. "Come on, the Blessing of Ares was pretty sick. You took on a Drakon single handed with no armour, and then proceeded to wipe the floor with the rest of them. You were as untouchable as Percy during that fight." Clarisse scowl/grinned again and twisted so she was walking backwards.

"To answer your question Meg, it's not terrible. If you can get through the attacks and quests in younger years, you should be fine. It's… what passes for peaceful." As if to counter that statement, a car parked at the end of the street was flipped over with a crash, and smoke started coming out of the undercarriage. A roar echoed around the buildings. Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Because I had to say something. Come on, lets see who needs help." The three half-bloods activated their weapons and took off down the sidewalk. (A/N Nooo, I've lost so many good cliffhangers. I need to sort out my chapter length, but I don't want to add another page to Chris and Clarisse's monologue about being adult half-bloods. Best I can do is a line break.)

They found the problem in the form of a pack of Gryphons, harassing a 15 year old kid. He was armed with nothing but a backpack and a brick, which seems to have come from the pile across the road. A gryphon screeched and dove in, but the boy turned, throwing his brick at the bird/cat hybrid, catching it in the face and sending it spiralling into the road, where it burst into powder. The boy looked stunned, until Clarisse yelled at him. "What are doing kid, get behind us!" The teen, being sensible, decided the best course of action was to get behind the much better armed people. Running for the boy, Meg leaped over a Gryphon and stabbed it in midair, rolling to a stop next to the new guy. She crouched next to him, trying to get him to calm down.

"Right, I need to ask you some questions. First, what do you think they are?' She pointed to the monsters.

"How am I supposed to know, one minute I'm walking back from school like normal, next thing I know those… things come out of nowhere and start attacking me!"

"Yes, but what do you see when you look at them?"

"Giant cat things with wings that want to eat me!" Meg cursed and stood up.

"Guys, he's one of us, or at least he can see through the Mist. What do we do?" Clarisse stabbed at one, then stepped behind Chris so he could block.

"Finish these off, then figure that out." Clarisse stepped out and impaled a Gryphon that would have take Meg through the neck. "Watch your back, and try to arm the newbie." Meg nodded, then twirled and slashed at a monster.

"Hey, kid, we need to get you somewhere safe. Where's decent cover around here?" It took him a moment to respond.

"Uh, there's an alley down there, fairly narrow." Meg grinned and pulled him up.

"Alright kid, lead us there. Clarisse, Chris, follow us." Chris looked back over his shoulder and inclined his chin to show that he understood, then started backing off behind Meg. Clarisse, noticing this followed suit. Meg turned and ran off behind the other guy. Chris sheathed his sword and followed, with his shield still on his arm to block attack. Meg and Chris made it to the alley, but Clarisse still stood in the road fending off the monsters.

"Clarisse, get in here!" Chris's shouting was panicked. Meg remembering her promise to Percy, cursed and got up. Before she could do anything, Clarisse raised her spear and touched one of the Gryphons. Immediately a lightning bolt shocked the cat/eagle hybrid, and jumped through the air landing on each monster, frying them and moving onto the next. Before long Clarisse stood alone in a circle of yellow powder, breathing heavily. Chris gave a wide smile and ran to her, developing her in a hug. "Sweet Styx, don't do that again." Clarisse smiled and pulled back.

"Consider me warned." She pulled his lips to hers, only to be broken apart by the sounds of the new guy fake-gagging.

"Alright, tone down the PDA a bit, thank you. Now, I believe you guys owe me an explanation of what the ruddy heck just happened!" The teen looked a bit put out, understandably, seeing as he had just had his first monster encounter. Now that she had the chance to, Meg looked him over. He wasn't bad looking, not overly muscled but definitely not scrawny. He was wearing a dark grey hoodie, khaki green joggers and a pair of black Nikes. He had light brownish hair, with hazel eyes and a bruise forming on his left cheek, presumably from the fight. His eyes darted from one demigod to the other, his feet ready to run off down the alley. Clarisse and Chris walked in, still with their arms around each other.

"For an explaination, we need to know about you. How old are you, do you have an absent parent, is there a guy in your school who walks funny, laughs oddly and tries to get close to you?" The kid looked to Meg for conformation. While she personally had never had this talk, being raised with greek/roman mythos as a child, she knew how unsettling it could be. Meg nodded encouragingly, and the guy looked Clarisse in the eye. I'm fifteen, sixteen in October, My dad died before I was born and there's not anyone at my school like you described. Clarisse frowned.

"Odd, need to tell Chiron about that. Next question, do you have any fighting experience at all?" At this he brightened considerably and started digging through his backpack.

"Yeah, I do an after school boxing club, to keep in shape and all." He brought out a pair of brass knuckles. "Almost got mugged one time, so I thought I'd make sure it wouldn't happen again." Clarisse frowned.

"Alright, so not useless. What's your name?" The kid stood up, suddenly alert.

"Oh no, not happening. You guys are gonna drug me and take me to some cult aren't you? Those things, that was all a hallucination wasn't it? Well you're not getting me that easy." He grabbed his backpack and took off. Clarisse sighed.

"Hoped he would have taken it better. Meg, can you go get him?" Meg, feeling excited at the fact an older demigod was entrusting her with an important task, nodded and took off, after the kid.

(A/N Dun dun duuuuuuuun. Who is the mysterious new guy? Will Meg catch him? What the ruddy heck is happening? I needed to keep it swear-free but he doesn't know about the godly world yet, so he can't swear like a demigod. Eg, 'Sweet Styx' 'Holy Hera', stuff like that. Also thank you New Jersey for the existence of Trenton! I needed a city with an Amtrak station to Miami, that was close enough to New York to be within reasonable distance of the Grey Sisters Taxi Service. Trenton, thank Zeus, is that city.)

Vaya con Queso,

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