Chapter 7
A Revealed Horror
Tempest knows that he's terrible at concealing his emotions, after all, he'd never really needed to. He was basically always alone, so he had the space to cry and laugh all he wanted, even if he didn't do that often as he usually just shoved them aside in favour of focusing on his tasks. So this shock of a discovery had left him in unknown waters, shaking and afraid.
The other three pretended not to notice his failing attempts to quell his shaking, Grover especially.
So when they contacted camp then went to get food, he stayed out of the diner, saying he was going to sit this one out.
Now here he was, sitting on the roof and thinking. It was quiet, with the breeze silently flowing around him.
Suddenly, music flows into his ears. Startled, Tempest jumped, only to realize that there was something new on the helmet's display.
'You really thought of it all, didn't you?' Tempest thought, lifting his helmet off to wipe away the tears daring to fall down his face. He swore he could hear Chris snorting as if that were obvious, saying, Of course, why not?
'Silly question, I know,' He told no one in particular, tears still threatening to fall from his eyes. He takes out the necklace, rubbing it out of remorse.
In his sorrow, he misses the faint presence of darkness, the creaking of an opening door and the diminishing roar of a motor. Tempest also misses the faint glow of the crystal-like metals in his pocket as they slowly get absorbed by the armour he wore, the missing plates in his armour filling themselves in the ether where they were stored.
Suddenly, the trio exited the diner, worried emotions plastered on their faces.
"Hey Tempest," Annabeth was the one to speak, "We're going to raid a water park."
_|-w-|_
It was sunset when they arrived, the night sky almost visible as the sun sank behind the mountains. The gate to the water park was locked and barbed wire was placed on the top to deter trespassers. Old litter lay scattered at their feet.
"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date, I'd hate to see what she looked like," Percy said.
"Percy," Annabeth glared, "Be more respectful."
"Why? I thought you hated Ares."
"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."
"You don't want to insult her looks." Grover cut in.
"Who is she? Echidna?"
"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little wistfully, "Goddess of love."
"I thought she was married to somebody… Hephaestus."
"What's your point?"
"Oh.. uh." Percy coughed and changed the subject hastily. "So, how do we get in?" Tempest was already at the gate, picking the lock.
"Anyone have a bobby pin?" he asked, looking at his broken paper clip.
"Here," Annabeth tossed one at him, which he caught and went back to the lock.
"There we go," Tempest muttered, popping the lock open. He tossed the bobby pin back then opening the gates. Grover was already on the other side, his shoes having sprouted white wings.
"I feel like you planned that." Tempest scoffed.
"I might've," Grover replied, shrugging. "You guys coming or what?"
They walked along the main walkway, looking at the rundown buildings and rides. There was no scent, just the usual salt smell that Percy always gave off.
They stopped at a souvenir shop three of the four staring at the rack of clothes.
"Clothes," Annabeth gasped, "Fresh clothes."
"Yeah," Percy breathed, "But you can't just-"
"Watch me,"
Annabeth took half a rack with her, disappearing into a changing room. She exited looking like a walking advertisement for a dead waterpark.
"Great Naga," Tempest snorted, looking away, "No…"
"What the heck." The other two took some clothes and when into the change room too, making Tempest want to just fall over.
"I don't even know anymore…"
"You sure you don't want any clean clothes, Tempest?" Percy shouted from inside one the stalls.
"I'm good."
"Suit yourself."
The other two came out, both looking like advertisements just like Annabeth.
"You should get some too, Tempest," Percy remarked, "It would look great on you."
"Shut it, salt breath."
They continued to look for the Tunnel of Love, being instructed by Ares to do so. A fetch quest, in essence. Tempest subconsciously hated fetch quests.
"So Ares and Aphrodite, they have a thing going?" Percy suddenly said, looking a bit worried by the dark.
"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth replied, "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."
"What about Aphrodite's husband?"
"Well, you know. Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"
"She likes bikers."
"Whatever."
"Hephaestus knows?"
"Oh sure. He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places like…"
She stopped in front of a pool, Tempest's eyes flicking up.
"Like that." It was a huge pool, bowl-shaped with bronze statues of cupids flanking the edges. He immediately gravitated to the statues, finding them a bit odd.
"Guys, look." Grover pointed at the bottom of the pool, where a pink and white boat with a canopy sat. A shield lay in the boat, making Tempest guilty he didn't notice the magical aura that it emitted.
"This is too easy," Percy said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"
"Too convenient…" Tempest muttered, going back to the statues. Something was off about it, yet nothing was too.
"There's a greek letter carved here, Eta. I wonder…" Annabeth whispered, deep in thought.
"Grover, you smell any monsters?"
Grover inhaled, "Nothing."
"Nothing like, in the Arch and you didn't smell Echidna nothing or really nothing?"
"I told you, that was underground."
"Okay, I'm sorry." He inhaled, "I'm going down there."
"I'll go with you." Grover offered.
"No. I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."
"Sure. But what could go wrong?" Tempest climbed onto the pedestal to take a closer look at the bow and arrow.
"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me-"
"Are you kidding?"
"What's the problem know?"
"Me, go with you to the...the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"
"Who's going to see you?" A pause. "Fine, Tempest." The Armonian turned to look at the boy and breathed.
"Gay shit." then returned to picking at the arrow, shaking the shaft. Another moment of silence.
"Thanks, Armour face. Way to kill the mood."
"There was a mood? Of what? Ecstatic shippers?" Tempest questioned, tilting his head upwards.
"You know what? Fine, I'll do it myself." Percy slide towards the boat, a scowl on his face. He clearly didn't like Tempest's little 'joke' (which he is crap at making). Surprisingly, Annabeth slides down with him, muttering something about males.
Tempest climbed to the top of the statue, looking at the seams.
'Weird…' He picked at the ridges, looking for a way to pry the thing clean open.
"Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."
'Love magic? There's that now? How desperate are humans in trying to woo someone?' Tempest snorted, taking a look at the duo. Annabeth had a scarf poking out of her pocket, pink and cloaked in a red aura.
"What?"
"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here." Percy shrugged at Annabeth's demand and reached for the shield only to freeze. Something in the statue shifted and creaked.
"Wait."
"Too late."
"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap." Then the whole pool erupted in noise, gears creaking and what sounded like chains rattling.
"Guys!" Grover suddenly yelped. The cupid statue Tempest was studying drew its metallic bowstring, the arrow in its hand winding back.
"Shit," he launched himself off the statue right before the arrow fired, a bronze string trailing the thing. A net was forming from the threads. Taking a string in his hands and ignoring the thin strands that snaked their way up his arm, he cast a spell.
"Fira!" the threads melted in his hands, coating them in bronze coloured ink. He's too distracted to notice the upgraded spell.
The cupid's heads popped open, revealing cameras. Spotlights shone down from above as Tempest continued to melt the threads, having taken out his keyblade to use as a conduit.
"Live to Olympus in one minute...Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight…"
"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed over the gears, "I'm so stupid! Eta is 'H'. He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares! Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"
Just as Percy reached for the rim of the pool when a hatch opened and little metallic insect-like things cascaded out.
Annabeth reacted by screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Spiders!" She shouted, a look of unparalleled terror on her face. "Sp-sp-aaaaaaah!"
"Damnit!" Tempest just misses her hand. Percy caught her instead, slipping back towards the boat as the spider things flooded the area.
"This is a pool, right?" Tempest asked Grover, who gave a shaky 'yes'.
"Find the on switch for the pump or something! Go!" He scrambled into the booth, randomly slamming at buttons and hoping for a result.
"Nothing's working!" Grover reported back, voice quaking in fear. Tempest looked down at the spider-infested pool, right at Percy.
"Jackson! There's water under your feet!"
"Got it!"
"Thirty-four, Thirty-three…" A pipe exploded, flooding the pool with water and creating a whirlpool, thrashing the boat around. Annabeth was still screaming in a blind panic, eyes frantically darting from one short-circuiting construct to the other. Percy was trying his hardest at controlling the water as it continued to spin them around.
"Fira!" Tempest burned the threads that relentlessly tried to mend the netting before equipping his glider, forming a pair of wings on his back. "Hold tight!"
"Twenty-five, Twenty-four, Twenty-three…" Tempest lands on the roof of the boat, punching a hole in it and grabbing the panicking Annabeth.
"I can't pick up two people," Tempest told Percy, fighting against Annabeth's struggling form, "You're on your own!"
"What?!"
"You're the son of the sea god, for Christ's sake! Do something with your hydrokinesis!" With that Tempest launched himself off the roof, Annabeth calming down slightly. He swiftly lands onto the pool rim, putting the girl down before whipping out Chris' Keyblade too cast another Fira spell.
"When did you learn to fly!?" Annabeth suddenly shouted, staring in shock at the dissipating wing/glider on Tempest's back.
"Mmmm… a few years ago." He hummed, focusing on Percy's movements.
"A few years!?" The boat immediately jumped out of the swirling pool, crashing into a rundown fast food building. Percy stumbled out from the wreck, the shield strapped firmly to his arm. He puts his hands on his knees and starts panting.
Grover is the first to react, running to Percy's side.
Tempest lets Chris' blade go back into the ether, unaware of Annabeth's mumbling something about Keyblades.
"Never… again," Percy whispered, still recovering.
The sound of gears stopped on their own, the cupid-cams closing up and the threads melting into a pool of bronze at the bottom. The spotlights clicked shut and the counting stopped, leaving a normal, dark, abandoned waterpark.
"Why did we do this again?" Tempest asked, feeling a bit peeved.
"For a shield." Percy answered, "That reminds me, we need to have a little talk with Ares."
_|-w-|_
"So," Tempest put his hands against his mouth, "let me get this straight. Ares gave us a ride." Nod, "And it's a cargo truck," nod, "with is also filled with animals."
"Basically."
"Fine, I'll get in." Tempest got in first, as immediately recoiled after smelling the interior. Inside there were cages lined up, zebras, lions and other exotic creatures behind steel bars. They were painted different colours, streamers and other human-made products stuck in their furs and horns. The herbivores were meat, the lion, a sack of turnips.
"Verbal irony…" Tempest said remorsefully, remembering the name painted on the truck. The others grunted in agreement, seeing the pitiful state the animals were in. They moved to the very back of the truck, hiding behind the lion cage and sitting of some sacks of food. The air was stiflingly moist and hot. It started moving after a little while.
Soon, Tempest couldn't take it anymore. After Annabeth's little 'plan' to free the lion right then and there, he opted to just switch the foodstuffs.
He quietly scooted over to the lion's cage, silently pulled out the bronze katana and stabbed the nearest turnip. Tempest slowly moving the blade back out and dropped it in the zebra's cage. Annabeth had brought out the tray of hamburger meat, dropping it into the lion's cage. Grover was doing his best to calm the animals.
After all that, Tempest slumped against the lion cage, watching as the big catwalk over and lay against the cool bars. He took a beam in hand and forced some converted mana into them, looking as white mist peeled off the cold beam.
When Annabeth started talking, he was only half asleep.
"Hey, I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy, Tempest."
"'S fine..." Tempest slurred.
"That's okay," Percy said, clearly more awake then Tempest.
"It's just.." She shivered, "Spiders."
"Because of the Arachne story. She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"
"Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyways, I owe you two."
"We're a team, remember? Besides, Tempest did some fancy flying."
"'M not that good…" Tempest said through his half-asleep state. He heard them snort at his idiocy.
Before the two could start another conversation, Tempest slipped into his subconscious.
He was met by the soft, green glow of his stained glass floor. The bright crimson of his jacket, the warm glow of the sunset of Twilight Town. He missed the little town.
Tempest moved to the center of the platform, staring at the two Keyblades that were stabbed through the floor without a crack. There was a keychain too, the one he had found in a dumpster, the steel coloured one with the green crystal. It had meaning, he just didn't know what meaning.
The Keyblades were his and Chris'. He missed his old mentor, even if he was a little annoying. Tempest wiped away the tears on his face then stared out into the void. There was a speck of colour, out there in the distance. One that glowed blue and reminded him of the sea. He didn't know if it was just his imagination that put the platform out there in the distance and he was never able to confirm or deny it. After all, he didn't have wings.
'Guess I'll wait here until someone wakes me up…' He hummed, letting his legs hang off the platform and dangle just above the void. He was still avoiding that memory.
_|-w-|_
A raven watched as a kid in a straightjacket struggled. There were other kids in the room, filling out the door. There was a teacher, scolding the poor child's tardiness. There was another one, with black, punk-styled hair and dark eyeliner. She was also wearing a straitjacket.
A howl of wind, a screech of something unholy and the raven suddenly disappeared, and the dream melted to nothing.
Tempest awoke to the motionless truck, quickly moving behind a sack of feed. The others had felt it too, hiding behind the feed sacks too.
The trailer doors creaked and flung all the way up allowing sunlight and heat to flood the interior.
"Man!" A gruff voice exclaimed, "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and picked up a water jug and pour some in the water dishes. He stopped at the lion's cage.
"You hot, big boy?" He sneered, dumping the rest of the water on the lion's face, who growled weakly in irritation.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man huffed. He then threw the antelope a squashed happy meal bag. Then turned to the zebra.
"How ya doin' Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"
The zebra looked in Percy's direction and knickered. A warped silhouette raced out the trailer, a few bangs following its disappearance.
"What do you want, Eddie?"
"Maurice? What'd ya say?"
"What banging?" the one inside left to go bicker with his friend. Annabeth came back then.
"This transport business can't be legal." She said, taking off her cap.
"No kidding." A pause, a rumble from the lion. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!" The zebra knickered again, as if talking to Percy.
"We've got to free them!" Grover exclaimed. The two both looked at Percy from confirmation. The boy himself looked deep in thought, having an inner debate with himself almost.
The zebra looked desperate, and head butted the cage.
The people outside were shouting at each other, but it wouldn't last.
"We have to move, now." Tempest hissed to Percy, "We don't have much time." Percy nodded, and slashed the zebra's cage open. Grover gave what looked like a blessing to the animal.
Just as one of the men peeked in the trailer to see what the noise was, the zebra jumped out and landed on the man. Panic ensued, cars honking, people screaming and just general chaos.
"Hey," someone yelled from outside the trailer. "You need a permit for that!" Tempest acted on instinct, creating a hole for the other two animals.
"Just read my mind," Grover whistled quietly before proceeding to give the same blessing like for the zebra.
"Good luck," Percy told them as they left. More screaming.
"Will the animals be okay?" Percy asked Grover, "I mean, the desert and all-"
"Don't worry. I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely. They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."
"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?"
"It only works on wild animals."
"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth deadpanned.
"Hey!"
"Kidding. Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."
The four of them started to walk, and somewhere along the way, Tempest got split up from the others.
'Shit,' was a reasonable reaction. He scaled a building, reaching it's a fairly low roof. A spike in Darkness made his stomach drop.
"Shit." A few dozen heartless appeared. Emblem Heartless and a few Pureblood.
"Fira!"
'This is going to take a bit.' He grimaced, dual wielding his bronze blade and the Keyblade. He plowed through the horde, only to have more heartless take their place.
They were slowly overpowering him, pushing him into a corner.
'Damnit, damnit, dammit!' He cursed, flinging a Soldier off the roof only to be slammed in the gut by a Air Soldier.
Tempest sliced it clean in half, kicking its fading body off the edge. He impaled an approaching Large body through the gut and used it as a club to knock half of the Heartless before it, too, faded.
Then, the darkness forces dogpiled him just like when he was at the warehouse.
"Asure Fira!" A blast of blue tinted fire launched the Heartless all off, burning all to a crisp. Tempest started panting, letting the Keyblade disappear and slowly sheathed the katana, not caring one bit about the attack he pulled off.
"Time to find the others." He said, donning the wings before leaping off the building.
.
.
.
Half a day had gone by and he still hasn't found the others. He lifted the sub in his hands. He had paid for it with transformed munny. It felt weird to have currency on him, after all those years of having nothing then the clothes on his back and the fact no one wanted him in the houses or stores. This Mist stuff was doing him good.
He was sitting on another roof, with his armour off and jacket tied around his waist. Tempest took a bit from the sub, staring off into the pitch-black sky.
Finding a place to sleep wouldn't be an issue. Fining the others will be. After all, he had lost track of Salt breath's trail. And that's usually not possible.
He finished the sub and re-donned the armour, his jacket still tied around his waist. To bad the HUB didn't have a map to follow or finding the others would be just too easy.
.
.
.
Another day, another failure. Tempest still hadn't found the others. He had, however, found a trail. It had lead to a casino that smelt of… something. It gave off a tremendous amount of magic, something that made him back away.
So here he was now, fending off another horde of Heartless on another rooftop.
Tempest smacked away a diving Shadow, bored with the small amount of enemies. He sweeps away the rest of the Shadows then takes a seat on the roof.
'Guess I'll do some reading…'
Entry #11
Xehanort made a mistake. Computers plus me equals disaster. At least the music is good. I even started to… illegally download some. Hey, apparently they have every citizen listed in a supercomputer or something. So to them, I don't exist. So it's fine, right?
Anyways, I now have a stack of CDs full of songs. Maybe I'll start writing my own some day. Won't that be interesting?
Entry #12
So. Fanfiction. That's new. I honestly don't know what to say about it. Some of it is really frickin' good, others… not so much. Not so much is actually an understatement. I guess humans are really complicated.
Today I also found out that I am an amazing pickpocket. I returned everything, of course, but It astounds me how unperceptive some humans are. Well, always looking down at the phone of yours can't be a good thing, I've seen my fair share of car crashes. Seems like they haven't even started to study the immense amount of mana around them.
They really are stupid, aren't they?
Entry #13
Xehanort finished up his business finally after a week of waiting in the sewers. I swear the people have already made a urban legend about the 'Lizard in the pipes' or something.
Anyways, the fourth world. It's literally a universe inside a universe. I'm not even going to try to explain it. Also, giant space cats. Enough said.
Saki's Letters #26
Dear Chris,
Children, hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… (It goes on like that for a pretty long time)
So. Eraqus got some kids. Now there's two more warm bodies in the castle and they are so. Fricking. Cute and annoy, i just can't anymore!hhhhhhhh
Saki.
'She must've gotten a typewriter or a printer sometime in the past,' Tempest hummed thoughtfully, putting away the book.
.
.
.
Honestly, Tempest didn't know what to think. Sure, he found them. But it was behind a huge, fricking, magic barrier. And it's anchor was inside the barrier, and he can't get to it because he can't just walk through a mana gate. So here he is now, silently screaming his head off while sitting on a roof on the other side of the street of the hotel/casino.
Tempest just sat there, hoping that the others see through the illusion themselves, after all, they were running out of time.
.
.
.
"Blizzard!" Tempest froze the front line of Heartless before unleashing an Aero spell, blowing away the back line. He equipped his glider and left the ground, a chain link and steel rope tail trailing behind him.
It had been five days since his separation from the group, one day was left. The sky was so dark it looked black and Tempest was sure rain was going to pore down on him.
A wyvern dive bombed him, catching Tempest right in the stomach.
"Rrrrrrr," He growled, getting slammed into a nearby wall. The keyblade sliced through the dragon-like Heartless like butter, it's left wing appendage severed from the rest of the monster. It toppled over, unable to keep its balance anymore. Tempest kicked it aside as he blocked a Soldier as it leaped from a roof. He used the other blade to chop the armoured Heartless in half before another one leaped at him from behind.
"Tempest!" A tin can flew from beyond the alleyway, striking the Soldier and moved its path of flight. Tempest spun around and smacked the Heartless, sending it into the wall.
"Took you guys long enough!" Tempest fumed, flipping the bronze blade and stabbing a Shadow approaching behind him, "Five days. Five. God. Damn. Days!"
"We get it!" Annabeth shouted before Percy could shout back, "Now we better go, we're wasting time!"
"Right," Tempest said, running after the others.
At the side of the road, Annabeth hailed a taxi and ushered them inside. Tempest was pushed into the front seat. Annabeth leaned towards the driver.
"Los Angeles, please." The driver chewed his cigar, gave a glance at Tempest, then at the other three.
"That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."
"You accept casino debit cards?"
"Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first." She handed over a green card with a golden icon on it. The driver eyed it.
"Swipe it,"
He did so. The machine started shaking and made rattling noises before the dollar sign came up with an infinity symbol. Tempest's jaw dropped, gaining some shocked glances.
The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth.
"Where to in Los Angeles… uh, Your Highness?"
"The santa Monica Pier. Get there fast, and you can keep the change."
The taxi driver did his best.
_|-w-|_
"What got you so scared back on the train?" Percy suddenly asked, making the memory come back for Tempest.
"Nothing," He grimaced, doing his best to keep his voice steady.
"I don't believe you,"
"Nobody believes me,"
"Come on! You saw something, so spill it!"
"..." Tempest had turned to glare at Percy, who was sitting in the back set with his arms crossed and a determined expression on his face. He wasn't just going to let this slip by. "Why do you want to know? It has nothing to do with you."
"It has everything to do with the team. So spill."
"I recognize someone." Tempest begrudgingly said, fiddling with the sheath in his lap.
"That's not so bad."
"It is. Because it's from my teacher's past."
"Then how do you know him?"
"...My teacher had a thing for voice imitation, even if he couldn't get the female voices right."
"So, you recognize his voice because of your teacher? How are you sure about this?"
"Because it matches up perfectly. And I don't like what he said…" The driver was too focused on the road to listen to the two.
"What did he say then?"
"It's none of your business, human!" He suddenly barked. Nothing else was exchanged from that point on. Only shocked expressions and suspicious glances.
.
.
.
As promised, the driver got to keep the change. Tempest was the first to exit, not taking another glance at the others as they reached the beach.
He had half a mind to leave, just get out of their vicinity, but some part of him begged the conscious mind not to. So he didn't, instead just stood at the very edge and watched at a distance. He watched as Percy started walking into the surf, the humans on the dunes doing whatever the heck.
"Percy?" Annabeth called out. Said boy had gone completely underwater now. She stopped calling after the fifth time. She turned to Tempest and shot him a glare. 'You're not out of that mess yet.' was what it relayed, something Tempest knew well enough.
Percy came back, and Tempest trailed behind them. He had to shove the three into alleyways to avoid cops, he was still going to his job even they hated him.
Time slipped away as he followed them, the length of time a blur. The they were chased by a gang possessed kids wearing expensive white clothing. Percy swung his blade, only for it to pass through the kid harmlessly.
"We move. NOW" Tempest pushed them farther into the alley. They backed up into a waterbed store. The kids ran past the store, almost like it wasn't there.
"I think we lost them…" Grover panted.
"Lost who?"
'Shit,' Tempest stayed frozen in place. Something knocked against his head, and he was out cold.
.
.
.
'YOU.' A voice boomed in his head, male or female, he didn't know. 'YOU LEFT ME WITH ALL THE PAIN AND AGONY YOU LEFT BEHIND. I WILL FIND YOU, AND LET YOU TASTE THE POISON THAT IS VENGEANCE.'
'What do you want!?' he yelled into the void. He received a backlash of emotions, hate, anger, betrayal.
Then everything faded into nothing, nothing at all.
.
.
.
Tempest, in a blind rage, jumped up and bit the nearest object, which happened to be a length of rope.
Snap! The metal string snapped in his powerful jaws. In the middle of the comotion, Tempest's helmet slipped off, more notably the top half, revealing his scales and slitted navy blue eyes.
"Woah!" In one bound, he crossed the room and slammed into the giant in the room, forcing him into the wall. A gauntlet was removed on command and a heart was forcefully ripped from a chest. Tempest's eyes returned to normal, his expression turning from one of pure fury to confusion, then disappointment.
"Damn," He chucked the heart, now turning to dust, against the wall, "It's been two years. What changed?" He muttered, turning to the morifuled faces of the others. "Sure, yell at me all you want."
"I knew there was something off about you!" Annabeth immediately said, pulling out a knife.
"An overgrown lizard?" Percy yelped.
"Call me what you want, it's not like others haven't ridiculed me before," Tempest growled, cleaning off some of the disappearing monster muck. He walked over and put the helmet back on his head after strapping the gauntlet back on.
"I'll be waiting outside. Do what the hell you want." He stormed out the door, slamming it behind him.
He took a seat on the steps, putting a hand on his jaw and closed his eyes.
'One stupid mistake an I blew it. Plus I haven't gone berserk since two years ago, what changed?'
"Gotcha," Someone behind him said, then his helmet was popped out.
"Hey!" Tempest turned around to see Annabeth with half his helmet under her arm.
"You're going to tell me where you came from, or I'm not returning this," Annabeth threatened.
"Why should I tell you? Nobody listened to me before, why should I think you will?" Tempest shot back.
"Because there's no record of a humanoid dragon in Greek legends that match your level of intelligence and description. Plus your higher then average senses, reflexes and unique variant of swordplay gave you away."
"Fine." Tempest grunted, "I'll give you a hint." He raised his arm and pointed at the sky. "Figure it out yourself. As for what I am." He ripped the helmet from her loosened grasp.
"I don't think you'll know, even if you are the child of wisdom." Annabeth just stood still as Tempest returned to sitting silently on the steps.
A/N: Have a sloppy chappy. Real life things are getting in the way, so I might put some things on hiatus. In the meantime feel free to review and send me some 'world' ideas. Anyways, sloppy chappy= less motivation+ the will to do anything other than something productive. Hope you guys aren't mad.
~Storm