Umm, thanks for the continued support. We've reached ten reviews, and thirty follows, which is pretty cool, especially considering this has been up for like five days. I'm pretty sure this is one of the most successful fanfictions to come out this week, so thanks for that guys.
I'm not very good at this whole talking to you thing, but if you have any questions, ask them in a review and I'll try to answer them at the bottom of the chapter.
So anyway, chapter three. I'm not sure how this turned out, considering it's basically all talking and exposition, but hopefully I've made it a bit interesting. This is the last of part one btw, which was meant to be more of an introduction/prologue thing than anything else.
Part one: A new life
Chapter three: One hell of a ride
The manticore dissolved into the same yellow dust as the cyclops did, and I jumped to my feet from beneath the remains. Not everything dissolved however, the manticore massive sting still remained.
"A spoil of war," Chiron said, as if reading my mind, "sometimes dropped by powerful monsters. I recommend you leave it."
"Why? I worked really hard for this." I whined.
"We have already attracted alot of attention, and a fresh manticore sting will still emanate alot of power, power which monsters can pick up on very easily. It would be easier to escape without it." he reasoned.
Makes sense. I simply nodded my head, before going to check on the other three.
I pulled Bianca off Grover's body, and both groaned simultaneously as they were snapped from unconsciousness. Grover had a gash on his head from where Bianca had crashed into him, but other than that, he seemed fine. Bianca, on the other hand, had one of the manticore's spines jammed into her gut.
"Oh my god, Oh my god. Chiron, what are we going to do?" I asked as he trotted over.
"My sister," Nico piped up, "she's going to be alright? Please say she's alright." I'd almost forgotten about the little guy, but showing his sister bleeding out on the floor was probably not a good idea.
"Hush child, she will be fine." Chiron assured him. He then snapped his fingers in front of Grover, and the satyr jumped right to his feet with a shout.
"Huh, wah, woah," Grover spurted incoherently, before seeming to remember where he was, and spinning around to fight the manticore. "I'll kill you for that, you- wait, what happened?"
"The manticore's dead, Grover." I said.
"Really? Well thank the gods you're all alive and well. I could've gotten fired for this."
"Alive and well? Bianca is bleed-" I shouted indignantly, when I remembered Nico and lowered my voice to a whisper, "Bianca's bleeding out on the floor!"
"Ah not for long. She's a child of the big three, a little gut stabbing won't do much. Especially with Chiron here." he reasoned.
I turned around, and sure enough, the spine was on the floor, and Chiron's hand was over the now open wound, which seemed to be rapidly closing. Nico seemed to be looking on in wonder, then Bianca eyes burst open, and she tried to rise before collapsing back to the ground.
"Stay, Bianca. You just suffered what would normally have been a mortal wound. You will need a few moments to rest." Chiron told her.
"Nico." She breathed out, as if suddenly aware of her recent run in with death, and opened her arms.
"Bianca!" Nico cried as he rushed into her arms, not caring about the blood coating her stomach.
"Chiron, how are we going to get back without being noticed?" Grover asked.
"Do not worry, I have called for backup," the old centaur assured him, "in fact, they should be here right now."
Sure enough, as if it had all been planned out, the furious beat of massive wings could be heard from the door. I immediately pulled my pen back out, but Grover instead had a look of confusion on his face.
"A pegasus chariot? That's how you're going to sneak us out?" Grover asked.
"I think we're far passed sneaking. Now hop aboard children, monsters shall be here soon." Chiron ordered.
"And how will you get in? There's only three seats left after all." I said.
"Do not worry, Grover and I will be running on ground. Our legs are much faster than that of most monsters, after all." Chiron replied.
I looked at Grover, before giving him a clap on the back.
"See you at camp, G-man."
"Hold on tight in the Chariot ride. They're usually a bit... turbulent." He nodded to me before walking off to stand with Chiron. The Chariot was arranged so that there were two seats at the back, two seats in the middle, and one seat in front for the driver. It had little propellers on the side, and had reins attached to four massive pegasi, each of varying colour but all sharing a pair of large, majestic wings that were so white they seemed to glow in the night.
In the front seat was a massive boy, who looked to be around fifteen and could probably break rocks with his bare hands. On the second row another person stood, a girl who appeared around my age with long princess curls and tan alifornia skin. She would have looked pretty normal, except when she flung herself a solid five metres out of the chariot with seemingly little effort, I got a look at her eyes. They were stormy grey, and seemed to ooze intelligence.
"Annabeth Chase, nice to meet you." She pointed to the guy in front, "this is Butch, and he's our driver for the moment. Don't annoy him, as he could probably beat you up with his pinky finger. Now we're under a bit of time pressure, so if you could get in as quickly as possible, that would be very good, for your own sake." Well she's a bit serious.
"Why don't you try to add some emotions to your voice Annabeth, it might make people like you more." Grover interjected with a smile, while Bianca and Nico got into the middle row.
"I don't care what people think of me Grover. And good luck by the way, I think I saw a dozen dracenae surrounding the area." She said back, and when Grover visibly paled, she gave off a little laugh.
As I climbed aboard, Annabeth joined me in the back seat, and she insisted that we all put our seat belts on, ensuring us that we would need it.
"Oh and one other thing. For this little flight you will not call the King of the Gods by his actual name, and instead call him Mr. Z, understood?" We all nodded. "Now, we don't exactly have a runway, so we're going to go for a vertical take off. Prepare yourselves."
"Wait!" I shouted, "A vertic-
Suddenly the pegasi flapped their wings and shot into the air, and the chariot followed it barely a moment later, lurching upwards. The pegasi kept gaining height until they were about half a kilometre in the air, before leveling out, the chariot flailing behind it almost vertically. The pegasi then made a short node dive, which seemed to stop a bit of the turbulence, and the chariot righted itself. Then Butch pressed a button on the controls, and metal wings like that of an aeroplanes flipped out from some hidden compartment, and most of the turbulence stopped. The pegasi then slowly pulled up, the chariot following safely behind.
The wind sounded like a tornado in my ears, but Butch pushed a button, causing a large crystal to start glowing. Immediately the wind stopped.
"That was so cool!" NIco exclaimed. Bianca obviously didn't agree, as she promptly threw up over the side of the chariot.
"Sorry about that." Butche's deep voice said from upfront.
The views pretty good from up here. I looked around, and noticed Nico watching in wide eyed wonder, Bianca looking like she was ready to throw up again, and Annabeth with her eyes fixated on the sky. And as if it were trying to imitate her eyes, the sky became the same stormy grey.
"That's strange, the sky was clear a few seconds ago." I said to her.
"First off, your current understanding of weird, it needs to be thrown out the window away." Fair enough. I am in a flying chariot, being pulled by pegasi. "Second, the weather is controlled wholly on the whims of the gods, not meteorological patterns, and the gods happen to be quite unstable by the way."
"Well ignoring the terrifying fact that the all-powerful gods are supposedly unstable, that explains why the weathers always wrong." I said jokingly, and was rewarded with a little chuckle from Butch, though Annabeth still looked very serious.
"The gods are not all powerful by the way. They are very strong, and have special benefits like control of the weather. But in a fight, gods are definitely defeatable by a team of demigods. Hell, I think Thalia could probably take down one of the weaker Olympians by herself."
"Everyone keeps calling us demigods. I get the basic gist of it, but co you mind explaining please." Bianca called out whilst still leaning over the side of the chariot.
"Well, as I'm sure you've guessed, one of your parents was a mortal, and one of them was a god. You probably never met one or both of your parents, have you?" We all nodded.
"It's normal. The gods don't like to deal with us demigods, we're more consequences of their flings with mortals than anything else. Unless you're very strong and bring your parent some kind of glory by being so, you probably won't even be claimed." She explained.
"Claimed?"
"If your godly parent recognises you as their child, their symbol will float above your head for a bit and you might experience a minor power boost. At the moment, it happens about fifty percent of the time."
"Okay, so the gods are unstable and bad parents. Any other good news?" I asked as lightning began to crackle above us.
"Oh, tons, but we're only a few minutes away from camp right now. The main thing is that the gods are petty, and that they hold grudges. If one god doesn't like another god for whatever stupid reason, then the children will probably be roped into it aswell. For example, you, Bianca, are the reason it's suddenly getting very stormy." She said cheerfully.
"Wait, what? How is this my fault, I thought you said the gods had control over the weather." She argued back.
"I never said you caused it, just that it's your fault. Mr. Z, as we're calling him, does not like his brother Hades. And because we demigods get roped into everything, the children have to pay. So, if any children of Hades enter the sky, which is Mr. Z's domain, they will instantly be struck down by a lightning bolt and killed, all just to get at Hades. And you, Bianca, happen to be a child of Hades, which is also why you're feeling so sick." She explained.
"But what about Nico? Surely he's a child of Hades too." Bianca asked.
"Yes, but his powers haven't developed yet, unlike yours." A particularly strong wind buffeted the chariot, and a bit even managed to break through the magic crystal wind shield.
"Mr. Z's getting mad Annabeth. We're about two minutes away." Butch told her.
"Why are we calling him Mr. Z again? You never explained." I asked.
"Mr. Z could sense the second Bianca entered the sky. Luckily she's not been claimed, or we would have been found almost instantly. Anyway, if we say his real name, he would know where we are instantly, and would blast us out of the sky. So we use code names, so that he has to search manually." She told us. A particularly large flash of lightning struck a little ways away, and was then emphasised by a massive clap of thunder. "That said, he's obviously getting pretty close. How long, Butch?"
"Under a minute."
The chariot was tense after that, and we all sat on the edge of our seats, ready to do something, though what, I had no idea. How did I end up here? I was living a fairly normal life this morning, and suddenly I'm supposed to be some monster fighting demigod who's being hunted by the king of the gods himself? This is so unfair.
A lightning bolt struck barely fifty metres from where we were. Bianca and Nico screamed, and I may of aswell, but don't tell anyone.
"Oh gods, where are we Butch?" Annabeth asked desperately.
Butch didn't respond, and everyone waited a second.
"Butch?"
"Aaaaaand," he paused for a second, before we passed through an invisible barrier. "here!" I wasn't exactly sure what I felt when I passed through the barrier, but it was noticeable.
"Woohoo!" Annabeth shouted. Despite her elation, I was still pretty worried. I mean, the sky is still pretty stormy. What happens if Mr. Z decides to attack us even when we're in camp?
Another lightning bolt hit barely twenty metres from the chariot. Why do I always have to be right?
"Butch, land, now." Annabeth ordered.
"Don't you think I'm trying!" He shouted back. "We're moving too fast. I can't land!"
I racked my brain to come up with a solution, and I looked around trying to find something that would help. I knew Annabeth would be doing the same. Suddenly a small lake revealed itself, and I got an idea.
"Annabeth, the lake." I said.
Her eyes widened the tiniest bit, before she nodded.
"Yes, that could work. Butch, fly low over the lake." She shouted.
"Wait, lake? I can't swim very well. I'll drown." Bianca said, somehow looking more sick than before. Butch undid his belt, and Annabeth and I followed his lead, before reaching over and doing the same for Nico and Bianca respectively.
"We're too high." Butch announced as we approached the lake. "We'll pass out when we hit the water."
"The nymphs will carry us to safety." Annabeth said as she grabbed Nico, who was flailing. I grabbed Bianca, and while she didn't quite flail, her strength made it very hard to keep hold of.
"On three." I shouted. Lightning crackled over head.
"Oh no. I did not agree to this." Bianca shouted, struggling harder.
"One. Two. Three!" We all shouted, sans Bianca, and leaped off the edge, plummeting over a hundred metres into the water. Half way through the fall, I looked up to see the chariot get destroyed in a lightning strike. Yet before I could count myself lucky for jumping out in time, we crashed into the cold water, and my world went dark.
Percy's Powers :
Demigod strength, healing, resilience and speed.
Some weird type of super speed.
Can control playing cards.
Can transform things into sand.