A/N: WOOHOO! Another chapter! Life is amazing, except for the fact that I'm running on barely any sleep, since my school volleyball team won our league and Halloween in two days away.
Ranger: Why dost thou complaineth? Thou suffereth far less than those from thy beloved stories.
Me: Ah. You're still here. Great. Is that how you're going to talk from now on?
Indeed, mortal. Thou knowest ye hath always desired to speak in this manner, but ye hath not been able to do so yet. I foresee-
Well, thou rippest off - ahem. You're ripping off the Arrow of Dodona and making me look cheap!
Verily, I dost not careth.
Anyways, please enjoyeth - I mean, enjoy this chapter. It's quite a bit longer than the last one, I think. I haven't really checked the word counts yet, but it seems longer to me.
Thou dost not writeth near enough to satisfy thy readers, nor thy self. I believeth thou wouldst say, "I cannot getteth mine satisfaction."
You mean "I can't get no satisfaction," like the song?
Forsooth.
Followers: Alex Focker, BisexualKitsune, a butt kicking assassin, Hellhoud117, , and The-Pug's-Quill.
Favorites: Alex Focker, Blazinator, 5 sibs, Shadowknight23, BisexualKitsune, a butt kicking assassin.
the Bass Beast: Yeah, I know the last chapter was a little short. Sorry about that. I intend on making future chapters longer though. That last one was just short because right around that time I hit a rough spot in my writing. Not to worry though; it's all gone now! And I'm glad I'm keeping you guessing. I always hate it when you can tell exactly where the story is going. :)
IcyFox17: I hope you have started watching. Because soon the spoilers will start. Not in this chapter, so don't worry about it...I think. My timeline is slightly ahead of y'all's. I'm already thinking ahead. And I know! I could kill Rick! As sson as I saw that, I was like, "WHAT THE HADES HAPPENED, RICK, SPAWN OF THE DEVIL?! YOU CAN'T JUST TELL ME SOMETHING TRAGIC HAPPENED AND THEN LEAVE ME HANGING!" Writing Percy is so fun though. I just adore his character. Anyways, about the Legends... They were originally going to be included, but then it became too many characters to handle, so I just opted for one additional character. Hope school's going good for you! :)
Turtlepower12: Ah, yes. The multiplying cats... This will cause some problems... :)
RosettaQueen20: Oh, yeah! Just how interesting though... You have no idea. :)
BisexualKitsune: I am so glad this made you want to laugh. That's is my number one goal for sure, besides keeping the characters (especially Percy) in character. :)
MormonWolf (Guest): Aw, I'm so glad you enjoyed the first one and are enjoying this one! :)
At out next meeting, I shall respondeth to thy reviews. For now, many thanks to ye who know followeth this story. Many thanks to those who have bestowed their favor upon this humble article of literature. Perhaps most importantly, many thanks to those who chose to shareth their thoughts. May ye ride fast and far. May thy sword never fail ye and thy horse never fail ye.
READ AND REVIEW!
The remaining members of Team Flash and I watched as the procession of kitties advanced towards us menacingly. Gods, when did my life become so pathetic that I backed away from kittens?!
"Wait! Those are those demon cats you were talking about," HR suddenly realized.
Barry turned his head slightly, a hurt expression on his face. "Yeah. You think I would just fry an innocent kitty?"
"Wha-? N-no…" HR stammered.
"What do we do?" Caitlin asked anxiously. "Right now we're just sitting ducks!"
Cisco frowned. "Well, I think technically we'd be sitting cats, 'cause we're actually being attacked by-"
"Shut up, Cisco," she said cutting him off.
I thought as fast as I could, which was, sadly, considerably slower than two of the people in the room. "Okay," I said finally, "here's what we'll do. I'll distract them and lead them out of STAR Labs while you guys contact whatever help you need. Then I'll shake the cats and come back here."
"That sounds like a terrible idea," Cisco answered. "Let's do it."
"I like your reasoning," I smiled. That one statement pretty much summed up my entire life. But of course, it was everyone else coming up with the bad ideas. I am, as we all know, a born genius. I stepped forward and drew Riptide ignoring my companions behind me, who were making all sorts of noises.
Actually, it was kind of hard to ignore. Wally gasped, "Are we just supposed to accept that he has a sword that defies the laws of physics?!" He then decided to keep things more simple with, "Holy Styx!" Well, okay. That wasn't actually what he said; it was the mortal version of that.
HR made this weird little breathy sigh and then said reverently, "It's like the sword of Pierre Jameson!"
All of us frowned and then slowly turned to look at HR. "What on earth is Pierre Jameson?" Caitlin asked.
HR made a disbelieving noise. "You guys don't have that here? It's a very popular book series on my earth about the Roman gods and their demigod children. You'll have to read it sometime."
To draw the cats' attention away from my companions, who were being way too loud (cough - shut up - cough), I took another step forward. "Get back!" I commanded in my best...um, commanding voice. For some reason, the kitties didn't listen to me.
I heard Cisco mutter, "Honky cat," behind me, which did not make a lot of sense.
"Mm," HR nodded. "John Elton."
"Elton John," Cisco corrected in an annoyed tone of voice. (A/N: To understand what I am referencing, please look up "Honky Cat" by Elton John. It's a good song.)
That was the last of their conversation I heard before I jumped over the little group of cats in the doorway and ran down the concrete hallway yelling, "Catch me if you can, Bones!"
"Star Trek!" I heard Cisco say. "I knew there was hope for that kid!"
I ran out of STAR Labs with the cats still on my trail. Ugh. Here I was again, running from monsters. Nothing to see here, just another normal, potentially deadly, fluff-filled day in the life of Percy Jackson. Carry on.
After I exited the lab, I sprinted through the streets, waving my sword over my head and yelling insults at the kitty cats, like "Keep up, fuzzballs!" and "Cats are useless!" For some reason, I also got a lot of weird looks from pedestrians.
A few times along the way, the cats started to lose interest and jump on top of random people, so I had to kill a few to keep them interested. Unfortunately, this caused them to multiply. Ah, well. Lesser of two evils, right?
Anyways, I finally ditched the cats after diving into a lake and swimming across. By that time, I had already ran quite a ways away from STAR Labs, so it took me forever to get back. And when I did, I almost had a heart attack.
Sure, I had assumed Team Flash would be doing something while I was gone, but I hadn't expected them to start recruiting.
When I did make it back to STAR Labs and walked in the doorway of the Cortex, I was almost decapitated by lasers.
I saw them coming just in time and ducked, yelling, "Watch it!" A bottle of water on one of the nearby tables exploded. Oops. I winced as I straightened back up and continued, "Uh, sorry about that. But, why in the name of Hades' ghostly underwear would you shoot lasers at me? Not all of us have super speed, you know!" Then I noticed the blonde woman standing in the Cortex.
She was dressed in some kind of uniform or costume with a red skirt and boots and a blue long sleeved shirt. The odd thing was, I recognized her.
"Sorry," the woman apologized.
"Oh, hey," I said. "You were that alien superhero we ran into after the...uh, Duck Incident. It was Kara, right?"
Caitlin mouthed, Duck Incident? I glared at Barry, warning him to keep his mouth shut. Luckily, he did.
"Yeah," Kara nodded. "And it was Percy, right?" When I nodded the affirmative, she asked, "Where's your girlfriend?"
"Annabeth? Oh, she had to stay on our earth this time. We have several...situations going on at the moment she wanted to keep monitoring." I looked over at Barry and continued, "So this is what you meant when you said we were getting reinforcements?" I clarified.
"Yeah," Barry answered. "I called Oliver too; he's on his way." I gave him and obviously fake smile and a sarcastic two thumbs up, but Kara smiled for real.
"Great! Is anyone else coming?"
"No, I don't think so, unless Percy…?" Barry turned to look at me.
"Hmm? Oh, I don't know that anyone from my earth will be able to come. There are at least several dozen of those cats on my earth, and everyone else is trying to deal with those. Plus, we're monitoring a situation in the southeast. You never know, though. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Leo or Thalia or someone else decided to just pop into existence."
"Sorry, did you say cats?" Kara questioned.
I frowned. "Did you not tell her what she's fighting here?"
Barry shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I told her they were invaders from another earth, but no, I didn't tell her exactly what they were."
"Ah, well," I started to explain with a smile. "We're fighting a bunch of cats that turn into skeletons five times their original size and multiply by ten every time you kill them. Also, do I count as an invader from another earth?"
"Yes," Caitlin answered from her seat in a swivel chair.
"Cool," I said happily.
"Oh," Kara replied belatedly to my explanation of the cats. Barry smiled apologetically. "So, how soon will Oliver get here?" Kara asked, making an effort to hide how confused she was. I could relate. I had felt confused for a good part of my life.
"Probably not for a few more hours," Caitlin responded. "He has to take the train, after all."
"In the meantime, we should probably work on how to track those cats," Wally said. "We can find metahumans, but magical metacats is another story. Besides, they aren't even fully meta."
Cisco frowned thoughtfully. "I might have an idea for that. You remember when we used the vibrational frequency of Earth-2 people to knock out all Zoom's metas?"
Barry and Caitlin nodded, while HR, Wally, Kara and I shook our heads and said, "No."
"Obviously not," Cisco said exasperatedly. "You four weren't here. Nevertheless, that's what we did. Since these cats come from Percy's earth," he continued with a nod in my direction, "we should be able to find them based on their frequency."
I shrugged. Most of that had gone over my head, but it sounded like they thought it would work. That was good enough for me. "Meh. Science. You guys can take care of that. I should actually check back in with camp and see how they're doing."
I walked just outside the Cortex, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed Annabeth's number. I waited patiently as the phone rang until she finally picked up.
"Hey, Seaweed Brain."
"Hey, Wise Girl," I answered with a smile. "How are things going over there?"
"Well, no one's dead yet."
"Good news, good news."
Annabeth hesitated for a moment. "There is one slight problem." Of course there was. I don't why I actually expected anything to go our way for once. "We found out that the cats can, uh...breathe fire."
I sighed. "Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. I better tell the others."
"Speaking of, how is everyone?"
"Well, Barry and Iris finally got together," I replied.
"Finally!" she exclaimed. "I might not have known them quite as long as you, but even I could see it."
"Yeah, well, aside from the new speedsters, that seems to be about the only good thing that has happened lately. Barry traveled in time and-"
"He did what?! Oh my gods, he can actually time travel? I have to figure out how he does that. I heard about the time travelling with the Reverse Flash and everything, but I didn't actually believe it and-"
"Wise Girl, calm down."
"Right. Sorry." Alarms went off all over the building. "What was that?"
I sighed. "I should go find out. Call you later, okay?"
"What is that?" I demanded as I stormed into the Cortex. Cisco and Caitlin sat in those fun little swivel chairs they had in front of the computers while Barry, Kara, and Wally leaned over them. HR stood in front of the desk, tapping the railing with his drumsticks.
As I went to stand beside HR, Barry responded, "We're not totally sure. At first we thought it was another Flashpoint meta or Savitar or something, but it's actually…something else."
"For the love of all things coffee," HR said as he looked at the security footage Cisco pulled up.
"Aw, Hades." On screen, the meta-skele-cats swarmed the streets in their skeletal form, leaving a trail of fire, destruction, and confused children yelling, "Kitty!" The cats had set fire to the cafes lining the street and were jumping onto people's faces everywhere we looked.
"How did they set fire to everything?" Caitlin wondered.
I winced. "See, I was just coming up here to tell you… Annabeth and the rest of the campers just found out they can breathe fire as well."
There was a beat of silence. "For real?" Cisco demanded.
Then, as we watched, one of the cats turned to another and sliced it to pieces.
"Why did it do that?" Wally demanded.
More cats popped up. I groaned. "They're increasing their numbers," I explained. "I knew there were more of them than last time I saw them!"
"Okay," Barry started. "We don't have time to wait for Oliver. We have to go."
"Don't worry about it," I said pointing at the screen. "He's already there." On screen Oliver jumped from rooftop to rooftop, shooting arrows through the cats below. This normally wouldn't be a problem, as the arrows would just pass right through the skeletons, but these cats were suicidal. Every time an arrow neared a cat, it would change back into its solid form so that it would die and multiply.
"We've got to get him to stop," Kara said decisively.
"Agreed. Let's go," I urged.
Kara and Wally stared. "Don't you have...I don't know, some kind of suit?" Kara asked.
I laughed. "No. That would just be an inconvenience. Doesn't it get annoying having to change every time there's some kind of threat?"
Barry, Wally, and Kara shrugged.
"I can fly you there, Percy," Kara offered.
I raised an eyebrow. "Did you say fly? Nah-ah. I don't do flying. As much as I hate being whisked places at super speed - no offence -" I said to Barry, who shrugged, "I hate flying more," I finished.
"Oh, right," Kara nodded. "Son of the sea god, right? The sky's rival territory."
"Finally, someone with a brain," I muttered, which made Kara smile.
"Let's go," Barry, now clad in his Flash suit, said.
