Annabeth was looking at the shopping list in the hand. 'So, Percy, we need rice, chicken, milk, apples, chocolate, flour, eggs, blue food colouring, baking butter, sugar...' 'Annabeth, I know what ingredients go in a cake.' Percy was walking to the shopping carts, with a coin in his hands. 'This is going to be fine.' Percy pushed the cart over to her. Annabeth sighed. 'If you say so,' She said, while narrowing her eyes. Percy rolled his eyes. 'Annabeth, I only crashed into the aisle with pastries last time because there were a bunch of blemmy's following me.' 'Sure. But I still take the shopping cart. We can't come home with broken ingredients when they need to be used for a cake for Estelle's birthday, now can we?'
Annabeth had some experience when going grocery shopping with her boyfriend. There was always some kind of monster following him. It didn't matter to which store they went, it didn't even have to be a grocery store. There had been Blemmy's in Target, Cyclops in Dollar Tree, A few wild Party ponies in Goodwill. Annabeth looked at Percy. It was clear that he was trying to think of monsters they hadn't encountered yet. 'We don't necessarily have to run into something today,' Annabeth mumbeld. Yet, even she knew that that was wishful thinking.
They reached the eggs, yoghurt and chicken without any incidents. Percy took a deep breath. 'I am going to try to reach the sugar... on my own!' He declared. Annabeth gave him a suspicious look. 'Alright, but try not to get caught by any monsters or gods...' Percy had only heard the 'alright' part. He sprinted down the aisles. It was then that Annabeth remembered that the sugar was on the other side of the Walmart they were currently in.
Percy felt like eyes were looking at him from everywhere. While he had his way to the sugar, he started running even faster. He almost collided with a mother with a toddler in her shopping cart. He stopped just in time, but the toddler dropped his plush starfish. He started crying, but Percy swiftly picked up the plush, gave it back to the child, stumbled a 'sorry' to the mother (who was giving him a seriously nasty stare) and continued to run further.
Annabeth saw her boyfriend running harder and harder from the grocery aisle. She turned around, to the broccoli, determined to not look at how many things Percy would run into. She grabbed a cauliflower and threw it in the cart. After that she proceeded to grab some oranges, but was stopped by some seriously sharp teeth in her hand.
In the meantime, Percy had just reached the sugar. He grabbed a pack, and started to sprint back to the cart and to his girlfriend, full sonic-mode. While he was running, he passed the mother and the toddler again. The mother shot him a dirty look. 'You shouldn't be running in a Walmart without good reason. She pitched up her nose and grabbed a bag with rice cakes from a shelve. 'I have a good reason, ma'am,' Percy said as he was running by. Just when he said it, he heard Annabeth scream from the grochery aisle.
Annabeth had never grabbed her knife so quickly. She looked at the thing before she stabbed, and realised it was an extremely small Harpy. She lowered her knife. The harpy let go of her hand. It started bleeding, but the harpy flew away. Annabeth left the shopping cart for what it was and started sprinting towards the aisle with bandages.
Percy came rushing onto the grocery aisle, but saw conspicuously no Annabeth. He did she the shopping cart. He also saw the creature that was trying to climb into the cart. He dropped the sugar, and it broke on the floor. In his haste to look at what was in between his groceries, he stepped on the packet, and it burst open even further. Within seconds, there was sugar everywhere. Percy pulled out his sword, but couldn't find whatever had just crept into the cart. He thought he saw something moving around next to the eggs and the milk. He pinned his sword into that area, which did nothing except for causing the cartons filled with milk to break open and spill on the floor and the eggs to crack open. A few yellow yolks dripped onto the floor without breaking.
Annabeth tore open a packet of bandages, not even caring that she would have to pay for it later on. She sloppily tied it around her bleeding hand. She ran back to the cart, but was stopped on the way by a woman. 'Where are you going, young lady?' The woman asked. She grinned, and rows of sharp teeth revealed themselves. Annabeth stabbed the woman with her knife, but couldn't get a lethal strike. The woman's disguise burned away, revealing that she was an empousa.
Percy saw the thing slither out of his shopping cart. He didn't care for the huge mess on the floor, but started chasing whatever it was around. The mother came walking around the corner again. She saw the mess, she saw Percy, she was clearly going to say something, but then she saw Percy's sword. And she saw his sword - not a frying pan, or a bowling pin or whatever the Mist turns swords to these days. The woman picked her child out of the shopping cart. The toddler was sleeping happily, sucking his thumb. The woman held the child on one arm, and pulled a gun with godly bronze bullets out of her backpack.
Annabeth started running, but the empousa came after her. Annabeth was faster, but realised quickly that she was running straight for a dead end. With no other place to go, she climbed on the shelves with cookies. An older man passed by, saw the girl on the shelf, saw a crazy lady running towards her with what looked like knitting needles to him, and ran for is life. He pulled out his mobile phone, and dialed 9-1-1 while running as fast as his old legs could carry him.
The empousa had no interest in the old man. She wanted to get to the young demigod. With alarming speed, she started Climbing onto the shelves as well. Annabeth crouched away over the top of the shelves. She knew that if she could reach one of the other shelves, she would be able to stand straight up, meaning that she could run and figure out a way to kill the empousa.
Percy didn't even ask the woman her name. Both of them ran for the slithery thing. When they ran around the corner to the stationary aisle, Percy got a good look at what it was: A telchine. He didn't always zone out during Chiron's lessons; He knew that if there was one telchine, there were more telchines. The woman didn't hesitate, but shot the telchine. With a low yelp it went to dust. The woman looked at her child, which gave out a low cry in his sleep. She kissed him on his forehead. 'There must be more monsters,' She said, 'I am Katherina, daughter of Nemesis.' 'Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon.' Katherina gave him a surprised look. 'It is not every day you get to fight alongside a living legend. Now let's get the other monsters in here,' she said.
Annabeth put her feet to the closest shelve on the aisle with cleaning products, and took a jump. She landed just on the top of the shelve, but the few seconds she needed to find her balance were exactly the seconds the empousa needed to take a jump and reach for Annabeth's ankle. Annabeth screamed and sprinted over the high shelves. The empousa followed closely. Annabeth turned around on the tip of her toes (Those ballet lessons from when she was four until she was twelve were finally paying of. 'Thanks, Chiron, dad,' Annabeth thought) and stabbed the empousa in her chest. She screamed and turned into dust. Annabeth looked at the dust on the floor, and she suddenly saw something under the toilet paper.
Percy and Katherina were looking around in the cereal aisle, when Percy saw something flop about behind the coco puffs. He started hacking into the boxes, but it didn't work. He looked at Katherina, wanting to ask her what to do next, but that was the moment Annabeth popped her head over the shelves and started to climb down. Katherina aimed at her, but Percy laid his hand on her arm. 'That isn't a monster. That is my girlfriend Annabeth, a daughter of Athena.'
Katherina lowered her weapon. 'I found something. There is a basement under the toilet paper,' Annabeth told her boyfriend. 'Who is this?' 'Show us the basement, I'll tell you on the way.' They walked back to the aisle with toilet paper, soap, shampoo and cleaning products, while Katherina told Annabeth about herself. When they passed the grocery aisle, Annabeth looked at the sugar-egg-milk puddle on the floor, but she didn't say anything. At that point, Katherina's child woke up and started crying.
Katherina tutted and pushed her weapon into Annabeth's hands. She held her child into both of her arms, trying to calm him down. 'Shhh. We are going home in a few minutes, sweetie.' The child kept bawling. Katherina sighed. 'I have a better weapon than the two of you and she is a child of Athena.' Katherina pushed her toddler into Percy's arms and took Annabeth by the hand. 'Let's go and look at that basement.' Annabeth shrugged and the two women walked over to the basement, leaving Percy with the toddler.
Percy looked at the crying child for a few seconds. After that, his loving instincts kicked in. He sat down in the puddle of cake-ingredients and started rocking the child in his arms. 'Shh. I got a tasty rice cake!' Percy got a rice cake out of the packet that had rolled onto the floor, out of Katherina's cart, and held it for the toddler. He slowly stopped bawling as hard as possible, and took a bite out of the rice cake.
Annabeth pulled open the cover of the basement under the toilet paper. She saw a ladder and, like every demigod would, she and Katherina climbed down. When Annabeth's foot hit the floor, she heard someone talk. She turned around, and saw two red curtains. The voices were coming from behind one of them. Katherina walked towards it, and slowly looked behind it. She immediately stepped back again. 'That is a lot of monsters. I think they live here.' She said it as quiet as possible, but apparently one group of weird monsters none of the demigods recognised heard them.
A group of empousai pulled the curtain away. Katherina and Annabeth didn't know how fast they had to climb back onto the ladder, and run back into the store. When they ran past the toothpaste, they heard an explosion behind them. When Annabeth looked back, she saw a few ends of Greek Fire reaching through the hole.
They ran back to Percy. 'Perce! We have to get out of the store! Greek Fire!' Annabeth screamed. Percy picked up the child and ran out of the store, together with the two woman.
When they reached the outside of the store, Percy gave the toddler back to Katherina and they all looked around, at the walmart. A bunch of other people started to run out of the store. Percy saw a few monsters slither out of the store as well. It was then when the police and fire truck came riding around the corner. 'It might be time to leave,' Percy said, as he handed the packet of Rice Cakes to Katherina.
That was a lot of text. The rest is going to be shorter, I promise (Unless some of you like it?)