After driving for a while, I decide to try flying. Of course, being the legacy of Zeus (or Jupiter, maybe even both), I can only go so fast in the sky. What I would give to ride in the Sun Chariot once more. After finding out how crappy flying is, I get back into the Avalon. I eventually reach a small town with a gas station just before sundown, where I happily stock up on some junk food and gallons of gas. I pay and head out to find lodging. The small town does not have a motel or anything of the sort, but it does have a nice patch of forest. I once again set up camp and seclude it with some magic. Deciding that I didn't have enough of a dose of danger today, I head back out to explore the town.
The town only has one neighborhood worth of people, all of who are white. Since I'm the only half-Asian in town, I got lots of funny looks. Ignoring all the attention, I continue. Eventually, I find a fairly large junkyard. This place must have been a hotspot for drag-racers and truckers, for this place is littered with things like diesel engines, truck radiators, and turbos. Deciding I need a better ride than free, I scour the junkyard. Eventually, I find a nice supercharger and an inter-cooler assembly, both completely intact. I find the owner of the yard and pay him for the parts, once again getting a funny look.
As I make my way to the entrance, three other people were scouring the junkyard. They are also looking for stuff like turbochargers and inter-coolers. I spot another stash of the parts to my left. Without knowing why I'm suddenly so kind, I call out to them.
"Hey, over here!" I call out.
The men look over to me. Then, they suddenly disappear and reappear in front. Reflexively, I whip out a katana and shield. The two men merely smirk.
"Calm down, now, Arthur," the one on the left says. "I believe we have met, although I'm not in your familiar form."
Familiar form? Of who?
Suddenly, the teenager, who I now notice is wearing a laurel wreath and high school track outfit, fades for a moment and shifts into another man. He's now middle-aged and wearing a professional track outfit.
"Lord Hermes," I blurt out.
"Yes, that would be me," he replies. "I finally have a day off after a while, and I intend to spend it well. The other two here are Hermod, Norse god of messengers, and Thoth, Egyptian god of knowledge."
"Hello, Arthur," Hermod offers me. "Are you a speed enthusiast as well?"
"Not really," I reply. "I just want my car to go faster towards the west."
"Helping Uncle Hades in his war?" Hermes/Mercury asks. I can't seem to place him right now. He's somewhere between the two, as though he's always fleeting. "The situation in the Underworld is pretty out of hand. I finally got around to helping Thor with his situation in Asgard, and now he's pledging his help in the Underworld as well."
"Odin is pretty dismayed with him," Hermod interjects. "He wants him to stand by and secure the Nine Worlds first, but Thor says something about that war down there is calling him."
"In any case, we have three down there now, and you're soon to join him," Thoth says. "Say, lad, care for a match?"
"Match of what?" I ask.
"We're here to deck out cars for drag racing," Hermes begin. "
"Why not?" I muse. "Surely beats fighting hybrids all day."
"Say what now, Arthur?" the three gods all ask.
I recount the events of today about the weird Chimera creature and the Laestrygonian elf-giant cannibal. The other two are wide-eyed, while Thoth gazes back with intrigue. His eyes looks like that of an Aphrodite camper, iridescent and shifting like a kaleidoscope. I thought he world look like a bird, but currently, he has the head of a human.
"That's not good," Hermes says. "This hasn't happened since Olympus was located in Britain. I still worked out of Hong Kong in those days."
"Indeed," Hermod says. "And Boston just became the gate of Yggdrasil around the same century."
"I must update my archives," Thoth says. "Arthur, assuming you survive your quest, come over to Memphis. I have an entire section dedicated to hybrid creatures that need to be updated. A Laestrygonian-elf hybrid certainly has never happened before. If you can remember him, I can pull the image out of your head."
"Let's worry about studies after the quest," I answer. "I'll love to come by, Lord Thoth, but once thing at a time for now."
"Anyway, who's ready to drag-race?" Hermes perks up. "We all will meet at Weston Street at 8:30."
I return to camp and get to work on my Avalon. Thankfully, the car is the all-wheel drive version or I would be in serious trouble trying to drive a front-wheel one. I install the supercharger, and pleasantly discover that this car already has a turbocharger. I swap out the inter-cooler and twin-charge the V6 engine. I also found a replacement window from a scrapped Avalon and install that. This took some work without proper tools, but my gloves are a lot more versatile than I thought. I can conjure up lots of tools if I can remember what they look like, which still means I can't summon the right tools half the time. Nonetheless, I eventually finish the modification, which I estimate added 300 horsepower to the base engine, way more than the average Avalon. Only one way to find out how well that scales.
The gods and I all show up at 8:30. Each of the gods show up in their scrapyard beaters, which to anyone who doesn't know, look like pieces of junk. Of course, we car guys appreciate a nice sleeper.
Hermes introduces his car first.
"I'm using a 1994 Honda Civic all-wheel-drive coupe that I swapped in a sick 2001 Z28 Camaro engine. I turbo-charged it, and I think I'm rocking 680 horsepower," he explains.
"I'm driving a 1994 Nissian 240SX with a twin-turbo 2JZ from a Toyota Supra," says Hermod.
"How did you get a 2JZ?" all of us ask him.
"Isn't that a Japanese engine?" asks Thoth. "Did you run to Japan while we weren't looking?"
"I found it in the junkyard," Hermod says. "There is literally every kind of car part in there. I would assume that makes sense, since this place is used by drag-racers all the time."
Everyone nods suspiciously.
"I'm driving a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle that I managed to cram a mid-engine setup into," says Thoth.
How he accomplished that is beyond me, but since he's the God of Knowledge, he probably knows everything.
"It's got a Toyota Camry V6 and supercharged to precisely 730 horsepower."
"I have a 2014 Toyota Avalon that I stole yesterday," I say sheepishly.
Hermes gives me a high-five.
"Right on, Arthur!" he says.
Of course the God of Thieves approves.
"It's twin-charged to around 680 horsepower, I believe," I continue. "I don't know if the speedometer can even measure my speed, nor do I know if the transmission can handle it, but considering I rode a jerry-rigged bicycle I dug out the ground from one of Annabeth's hideouts, I think I can handle this."
Hermes's expression suddenly darkens.
"After the race, show me the bike," he says. "I think I know which one you were riding."
The four of us all line up our cars on Weston Street, which is a paved, but otherwise abandoned four-lane highway. A large yellow sign marks where I presume to be the quarter-mile mark.
"Let's go easy on Arthur," Hermod perks up. "He's not driving a manual."
"He's kidding, of course," Thoth says. "Better learn to work those paddles behind your wheel."
I put my car into manual shift. As the other three gods rev their engines, I can only offer a whimper. They even decided to tune the sound of their exhausts.
A giant number three appears in the air, which I presume is the countdown. At two, I begin to feed some gas. As soon as one disappears, I floor the gas and hope for the best.
The four cars all roar to life. At first, as I am being left in the dust of the much lighter cars, it's a close race between the 240SX and the Civic, so close that I can't tell who's growing a beard. Then, Thoth's car outpaces them both. Then, I feel the supercharger kick in, followed by the turbocharger.
There's got to be way more than almost 600 horsepower in this car. I blast past the two other Japanese cars, then close my distance to Thoth. There's not much of the quarter-mile left, but at the last possible moment, I grow a beard and overtake the Beetle. I cross the finish line and begin my slowdown.
Once everyone comes to a stop, the gods all look at me in shock.
"What did you actually do?" Thoth asks. "There's no way there's only 600 horsepower in your car. Your car's transmission should have disintegrated."
"I don't know if the previous owner did anything, but all I did was add in a supercharger and repair the broken window from the first thief," I reply.
"Let me see under the hood, will you," says Hermes.
I pop open my hood and point out all of my modifications, all of which are exactly where they're supposed to be. Thoth, in particular, is looking at the car in intrigue.
"Amazing," he finally says. "Other than the parts Arthur added, the rest of the car is bone-stock. Toyota really has made some amazing cars over the years."
"Well, I guess I got lucky then," I answer. "This will take me out west in no time."
"Good luck, Arthur." says Hermes. "We're going to meet Apollo in Mongolia for some good old-fashioned pranking. You guys want to just flash there or take the Sun Chariot?"
"I'll love to take a spin in that thing again," Hermod says. "That last time I used it to deliver something to Odin from Zeus back in 1066, I grazed a star and caused a supernova."
"Alright then, hero," Hermes says. "We'll see you soon. One more thing before I go, just know that you're my legacy too, although it's like a kill count for you now."
"You Greeks can tell if someone has your blood?" Hermod questions.
"I can help you with it on the Sun Chariot," Hermes answers.
With that, the three of them flash out, and I get back into my car and drive back to my camp.