Chapter 3: The Highway Street Fight
I rolled when I hit the ground, taking away the impact from my legs. I jumped to my feet only to be run into by the creature, and we tumbled together, head over heels, rolling into a ditch. I heard the screech of brakes and then the slamming of car doors.
"No! Run! I've got this!" I yelled, punching the creature in the jaw a few times, just to let him know that I meant business. He responded by delivering a right hook that left me seeing stars. We got off of each other, and faced off, duel style.
"Hah! Stupid halfling! You cannot kill me while my patron still lives! I will bring you and your friends to my patron, and you will serve her well!" he yelled before charging me, flinging a cover fire of spikes at me. I ducked and dodged them, only to be met by the 200 pound monster hurtling at my chest. I reacted instinctively, shifting my weight to my toes and leaping into the air, twisting myself to that my heels were positioned right at his skull. The force of my feet colliding with his head stunned him, but that was all.
"You know, you've got a stupidly thick skull," I commented to the monster.
"Joe! Get out of there! You can't kill him!" I heard Annabeth yell.
I just smiled to her. "Where there's a will there's a way, as they say. I happen to know something that no one can resist," I said, pulling out a large device, with two prongs on one end, and the mother of all batteries on the other end. I saw my friend's eyes go wide with terror.
"Monster, I'd like you to meet the tuning fork of death!" I yelled, touching the two prongs to the back of his neck. I could literally see the shockwave of energy rippling through his body, his body convulsing as hundreds of volts of electricity flew through his body. After about a minute he just dissolved into dust, but he reformed again almost instantly.
"Gah! Stay dead would you!" I yelled, only to be found in the monster's clutched yet again. I saw my four friends race into the battle, Aaron armed with the bat, Annabeth with another knife, Mary somehow had a bronze sword, and Maggie had an old section of rusted pipe. Yup, I have some pretty awesome friends.
I struggled under the grip of the monster, trying not to breath in his rancid breath. "Hoo. There's a new trend going around buddy. It's called brushing. I recommend it strongly," I said, trying to stall so my friends could get behind him and brain him.
Apparently he didn't appreciate my humor, because he snarled at me and motioned to cut me again with a spine on his tail.
"Go ahead," I said. "I'm already inoculated against your little poison."
He snarled again, and then there was a slam, and his body fell on me again.
"Wow, deja vu all over again," I muttered, shoving his body off of me. "Thanks for that," I said, but they couldn't reply because the monster rose up again, now looking really angry. We had rolled to the edge of a small pond, and I had sunk about ankle deep in mud. It was much harder to react, like having my feet in concrete. I tried to roll out of the way of the monster's next swipe, but I couldn't react fast enough. The swipe, armed with a razor sharp claw, was going to slice my neck in half, and I could only watch it happen.
I heard a yell from all my friends, all at once, and then several things happened at once which shook me up pretty bad. A pillar of water jumped out of the lake and wrapped around the monster, followed by a bolt of lightning that wound its way around the monster, followed further by a bolt of green energy that surrounded him, encasing him in a shell. Annabeth just stared. Me, I was just grateful my head was still attached to my body.
I had one last idea to get rid of this monster. I went to my bag of party tricks and pulled out a black sphere with a string attached to it. Annabeth's eyes widened.
"Is that..."
"A bomb? Yup. Heads up gang!" I yelled, lighting the fuse and stuffing the bomb down the creature's throat. The magic bonds holding him released, and he fell to the ground, choking on the lit bomb.
"Hit the deck!" I yelled, throwing myself and Annabeth to the ground as the bomb went off, scattering his body around until all that was left was a fine yellow dust.
"Well, that takes care of that problem," I mumbled, rolling over to allow myself to breath.
"What was that?" Maggie asked.
"C4. Man, I love that stuff. What the hell did you guys do though. I didn't know that you could do magic. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Um, because we only figured it out THREE SECONDS AGO! Would anyone mind telling me what the hell is going on?" Mary yelled.
"I'll explain everything, but only once we get to camp. I'll be able to tell you some things in the truck, but it'll take awhile to tell you everything," said Annabeth.
We all piled into the truck, and this time I squeezed in so I could hear everything. This story would be too good for me to pass up.
"So, to begin, the god of olympus are real. All of those myths, they actually happened. The gods are forces of nature that move with the spirit of the west, in this case America. The gods sometimes come down here and have children with mortals, demigods. I am one, a child of Athena, and you all are too. We'll have to wait until you're claimed to know what child you are, but I have my suspicions already. There is something weird about you though, Joe. You say you knew both of your parents? You weren't adopted or somethin?" said Annabeth.
"Nope, I was born to them, and they raised me until they died. In fact, we all did. Right guys?" I said. They all mumbled an affirmative. We all had great parents, but the subject was touchy.
Annabeth screwed her face in concentration. Something was wrong.
"What's up?" I asked.
"It's just weird for a mortal to remarry after meeting a god or goddess, especially to raise a demigod. I have a suspicion, it's nuts, but I'll have to ask Chiron," she said.
My brain clicked, putting the pieces together. Demigods. Annabeth Chase. Chiron. Greek gods. "We're going to Camp Half-Blood aren't we? Those stories, they're real?" I asked. I saw all my friends eyes widen in realization too.
"Ugh, curse that stupid son of Apollo, Riordan. When he published those stories after the Second Titan War, we had to go into triple lockdown of the camp to keep hidden. Now he's publishing what's happening with the Giant War. I knew I should have tried to convince Chiron not to let him write those books. Too late now I guess," she said.
We drove for an hour, until we came across an old strawberry stand. I took in the scent of the countryside. My parents used to take me to the country every once in awhile. We went apple picking, berry picking, did corn mazes, cider mills, you name it. It was a wondrous time.
Annabeth parked the truck on the other side of the street and we strolled over the hill. My eyes widened as I took in the view below me. Down below was a massive strawberry field, but that's not what caught my eye. In the valley was what I approximated to be a small city. There were ton of buildings, all Greek architecture, of every shape and size. The place was amazing.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Camp Half Blood," said Annabeth. She walked over the hill and beckoned us to follow. We walked over, but then I hit the wall. Literally. I hit an invisible wall that held me back. It only lasted a second or two, but when it was gone I was left gasping for breath, like I had just run a mile. I then felt like my body was in turmoil with itself, fighting itself over what controlled my body. My instincts were screaming both run and stay at the same time, and I just held my head and sank to my knees, feeling blackness swamp me for the second time that day.
I woke up in a weird structure, on a bed that was incredibly soft, an ice pack on my head. Annabeth was standing over me like a mother.
"Do you mind?" I asked, and she jolted a little, obviously surprised that I was awake.
"How do you feel?"
"Fine, but man, I have the mother of all headaches. Whatever happened to me, my head did not like that."
"Probably just a lingering effect of the manticore poison. Maybe your little antidote didn't work as well as you hoped," she said with genuine concern.
"Is that what that thing was? Well I know that the antidote worked, plus, these symptoms were different, like my body was waging war with itself. That invisible wall started it all," I said, kneading my temples.
Annabeth looked surprised. "What invisible wall?"
"I don't know. I ran into something for a few seconds, as if the camp were, I don't know, rejecting me somehow."
Annabeth looked intrigued. "I need to talk to Chiron about this. If you're feeling well enough, I'll give you a tour of the place."
"I'm coming. Nothing but a headache now," I said, hopping out of the very comfortable bed.
We walked around the entire camp, Annabeth showing me everything about the camp, the climbing wall, the canoe lake, the forge (which looked awesome), the stables, and all the other stuff, finishing with the cabins. They were all lined up in the courtyard, shaped in a massive greek omega. The cabins varied in shape and appearance, and some were rather bizarre. One looked like it had grown out of the ground, and another looked like an army of skeletons had assembled into a house. Annabeth showed all of them to me, and I must say, they were fairly spectacular.
"So, one of these is mine?" I asked.
"Yup, once we find out who's your parent," she said, walking into the Athena cabin. I walked in after her and I knew that it was home. The place was filled with scrolls and books, plans and blueprints for countless projects. There was scientific equipment strewn all over the place, tons of experiments bubbling and brewing.
"Oh yeah. I like this place," I said, gazing around at the complex.
Annabeth smiled. "I thought that you'd say that. You're most likely a child of Athena, considering your scientific and strategic prowess, but I don't know. You may be Hephaestus too. Only time will tell. Right now we'll put you four in the guest cabin for now until you're claimed, which shouldn't take long. Come on, I want you to meet someone."
We walked through the camp until we came upon a guy riding a horse. Correction, a guy who was part horse. A centaur to be exact. He was talking to my friends, so I skipped around back to join them.
The guy, who I supposed was Chiron, glanced at me and paused for a second, as if he were confused, but the expression quickly faded and he continued with his speech.
"Well, I would like to give you all an official welcome to Camp Half-Blood. I'm sure Annabeth told you most of what goes on here, but in case you are ever confused, just ask Annabeth or I and we will tell you what you need to know. Any questions? No? Alright then. Annabeth will show you to your cabin," he said before running, or is it galloping, off to do something else.
Annabeth led us over to what can only be described as a standard summer camp cabin, wooden structure, unpainted, and it could hold about twelve. It looked homey, and since I hadn't really had a home since I was ten, I made myself at home. I plopped my stuff down, setting my laptop on the desk space that I had, and tried to find a plug for it.
"Hey, got an outlet around here?" I asked Annabeth.
She took one glance at my laptop and nearly screamed in frustration. "You idiot! Technology attracts monsters! I can't let you keep that laptop, unless you want to get mauled in your sleep," she said.
"Hey, calm down. That's my life's work on there. I'm sure I can just rig a celestial bronze reverse Faraday shield that will keep out any kind of signal that a monster can read. In fact, you don't happen to have any celestial bronze wire on you, do you?" I asked, rolling up my sleeves and pulling out a pair of pliers and piece of paper, and started to draw out a plan for my reverse Faraday shield.
"I don't know if it'll work. I'll have to run it by Chiron first," she said, and ran off to find Chiron. Not five minutes later she returned. "He says that you can try it, but he's not sure if it'll work. You may need some magic to be infused in it. Maybe Maggie could help you there," Annabeth said.
"Uh, why?" she asked.
"Because you are almost certainly a child of Hecate, goddess of magic, especially after that spectacle on the highway."
"Oh. Ok."
"So, Annabeth, where can I get some wire?" I asked.
"Try the forge. I'm sure the Hephaestus kids can help you out with your design," Annabeth said.
"Nah. I worked for a mechanic for several years, so I'm good with my hands. That guy was a crazy good inventor too. Good man. Anyway, best be getting to work," I said, running off to grab my wire.
"Uh, Joe, dinner starts in five minutes, so you may want to wait on that. And then there's the sing-along at the campfire right after, so you may have to wait on your project," said Annabeth.
"Ooh. Are we allowed to bring a song of our own to sing, because Joe, you could whip out that song again. The fiddling one. I love that one," said Mary, pretending to play a little fiddle.
"I told you before. I don't know how I did that. I don't know how to play a fiddle."
"You did that once."
"Yeah, but I don't know how I did that."
"Wait, you can play music?" asked Annabeth.
"Yeah he can, and sing too. He's the best, even if he won't admit it," said Aaron, smiling.
"Hm. There's is definitely something different about you four, but I can't put my finger on it. Come on. Let's get to dinner. I'm starving," said Annabeth.