At some point, Percy felt it coming. Not right away, no, but when he did, he knew what was wrong. When Percy felt that stab of pain in his stomach, the numbing in his mind, and that shivering sensation jetting down his spine, something in the back of his mind connected the pain to it's source. He was having another attack.
Percy gripped onto the hippocampi's mane, and shut his eyes tight. He started shaking, and he could feel himself slipping away. He fought to stay in control, but the putrid black filth that was the disease ventured forward and attacked his nerve system. He began to fight harder, and it strained on his mind as he fought - and lost - the battle for his own mind. Reality mixed with fantasy, and Percy couldn't tell if the blood-bath before him was real, fake, or some sort of symbolism for what was going on inside him. It began to coarse through his veins, and Percy started breathing heavier. His muscles tensed as the black goop ran over them too.
The hippocampi felt this, and was confused. Did gripping on it's mane so hard mean to go faster? It stopped entirely to look up at him.
Percy ran his shaky hands through his hair, and he held the top. He opened his blood-shot eyes, and his pupils receded to the usual animal-like state. He ground his teeth, and they turned to fangs. Claws shot out, piecing his head. (Though the Styx bath he had acted in the usual armor-like way, and he didn't feel a thing)
Percy stood on the hippocampi's back, then swan-dived into the drink.
He swam over 200 miles per hour, the rage and sea powers propelling him forward. Luckily, there was nothing to destroy out in the sea. He was going to make it to Texas a little earlier than expected.
"OH GODS, WHY DID I AGREE TO THIS? WHY?" Thalia cried. They had only been flying for around 20 minutes, but to Thalia, it felt like a billion hours. I was excruciating.
BlackJack must've been telling her to either calm down, or cram it, but unfortunately, there was a language barrier of sorts. She couldn't speak hoarse.
Tears actually streamed down her face, because of how traumatizing it was. She was losing her mind, to put a finer point on it. She prayed desperately to any and every God she could think of, but stopped when she came to Artemis. Artemis. Kicked out. Toying with her emotions. Artemis. Left alone. Because of her. Artemis. Former role-model. Present enemy. ARTEMIS.
Disabilatating anger replaced disabilitating fear, as her blood boiled, and her screams of terror turned to screams of rage. ARTEMIS. Rotten, spoiled little - ARTEMIS! Dirty, lying, back-stabbing - ARTEMIS! If she ever got her hands on her- ARTEMIS!
"**** YOU, ARTEMIS! I HOPE YOU DIE IN A HOLE!" Thalia screamed aloud.
Poor innocent BlackJack. He had to fly across the country with a lunatic on his back.
"GODS **** YOU! ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!"
Poor, poor BlackJack.
"Oh. My. Gods. THAT WAS FREANIN' INSANE!" Max laughed. They had arrived at beautiful Turtle Bay, by shadow travel, which was now Max's favourite thing to do. The sun was high in the sky, and it couldn't be much later than two in the afternoon. A perfect beach day, aside from their mission to stop Percy.
Nico chuckled, "I thought you'd like it. Now come on, we've got to get to Percy before he-"
"Uh ... Nico? What the hades is that thing on the horizon? It's going like, 50 miles per hour! I didn't think sea creatures could be on steroids, but-"
"HOLY ****! It's Percy!" Nico said, amazed. "How the **** could he get here so fast? Unless ... oh ****. Max, run. Run now, and don't look back, okay?"
"What? Why?"
Nico started shoving him forward, opposite the ocean, "Just go! Percy's having a major attack! RUN!"
Max held Nico's shoulder's, "I can take care of myself, it's okay. You run. I got this."
"What? No! What'd you mean, 'you got this'? You can't handle him when he's like this!"
"Maybe not, but I can go down fighting hard. I can give you more time, and you can shadow travel out of here. To the lotus. You can stop him there, if he's still having that attack thing when he get's there. Just go. Please. I promised Dad I'd protect you, and I really care-"
"What? Dad? But ... I ..."
"JUST GO!" Max yelled, pushing Nico behind him, as he charged to the water.
Nico was to stunned to move, or even breathe for a few seconds there. Hades ... Hades told Max to protect him? Impossible. Hades hated him ... right? He wasn't sure of anything. He just stood there. Blinking, trying to remember to breathe every once in a while. His thoughts were overloading his system. They spun around in a deadly hurricane, and he was so desperate to release the pressure of the swirling calamity that his lips actually formed the word, "... Impossible ..."
He was unaware of them at the time, but tears steaked down his cheeks. The shock of it all was unbearabliy devastating. His breath now came out in struggled gasps, trying to keep his tears and temper from flaring. It was unfathumable. Hades was incable of a pleasant thought, let alone a thoughtful action, as far as Nico knew. But ... he just didn't know.
His head stung like acid had been skirted through a cooking dropper, now trickling down exterior of his brain.
Max and Percy had each other in their sights, and they both came barreling forward to attack the other. Max stopped abruptly at the shoreline, as a kind of challenge. Come on land and fight fair. Percy, enraged further, only went harder, practically at the speed of a fighter-jet now. When his fist made impact on Max's face, Max flew back about twenty feet, landing flat on his back, and knocking the wind straight out of him. He wheezed to Nico, "GO!"
Nico only stared down at him, still unable to form a complete thought.
Max got up, an dodged a ball of tide Percy had flung at him. It was faster than a speeding bullet, and intense enough to rip straight through him. Percy growled and reached for another.
"FOR **** SAKE, NICO! MOVE, GO AWAY, DO SOMETHING!" Max screeched.
Nico shook his head clear. Well, not clear, but enough for his brain to send a message down to his feet to get the Hades out of there. He stumbled backward a little, but saw Percy scooping another death-ball. Just as the tide left his hand, Nico thrust his hand forward, ordering shadows to form a solid shield around Max. It bounced off harmlessly.
Percy howled in rage, and charged at them on all fours.
Nico screamed to Max, "Concentrate on that spot on the sand," He pointed just in front of them. "Imagine it ripping open into Hades! NOW!"
They both concentrated intensely on that spot until the earth shattered open. They widened the pit, now circling them in a full on moat, about 50 feet wide. Max fell to his knees and held his aching head, but still contributing to the moat. Nico let Max widen it, and started slowly and painfully raising his hands, as if he was lifting the ground out himself. With their muscles strained, their heads spinning, and their veins prominent, they stood, almost triumphantly, as jagged rock raised them higher and higher towards the sky.
Percy raged forward, and with one mighty leap, he managed to cling to the edge, just barely, with only the claws on his right hand grasping the cliff edge. He flung himself up, and smoothly, almost rythmically, continued this pattern of clinging and flinging.
Max and Nico both raised the cliff higher, but soon realized that Percy had them cornered. If they kept this up, they'd go straight into the atmosphere, lose all oxygen and suffocate. They needed to get out. Nico took on raising it higher, while Max tried his hand at shadow travel.
He tried a slow pained ripping motion with his hands, but it didn't work. He tried concentrating on a certain spot, but that had the same affect of nothing good. Nico shouted, "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! YOU GOTTA PRETEND IT'S LIKE A PORTAL! FIND THE SPOT THAT OPENS IT!"
"What?"
"JUST DO IT, HE'S GAINING!" Nico yelled back.
Max wasn't sure what he meant, but he concentrated on a spot ... a spot ... what spot? Where is it? How could he- then he found it. A single black rip, that anybody could miss at first gaze, only, it was in his head, but the image replicated that of which he was supposed to rip open. He ripped the spot in his mind, and reality followed as such. Just big enough ... just wide enough ... there! He grabbed Nico's shirt and jumped through, commanding the shadows to transport them to the Lotus.
Yes, I know it sucks. Yes I know I suck for not updating. And yes, I know it's thoroughly flawed. However, to make up for my laziness, and lack of competence, the next few chapters will be a little longer. (I was super busy with homework, after-school programs, and other fics, that it slipped my mind to update. !) As for the sucking, I know, I know. I myself had thought for a time to even go as far as discontinuing, removing it from the site, and erasing all evidence of it ever existing. But that would be braking the promise I made to myself to not discontinue it. I said I wouldn't at the start, and I won't. I could go on and on about how it sucks, but I won't trash-talk it because ... well, it's my first fic. And it'll always be my first fic. I'm not using that as an excuse, I'm just saying that, even though it's stupid, it's my handy-work, and I'll go down with it to the bitter end.
P.S. Thanks to everybody who ever reviewed, put it on your alert system, or just plain read this! You're all officially epically awesome, and get this digital novelty squeak toy. Look, it's shaped like dog poop :D