icefox: hello everyone. Sorry it's taken this long to update. I was busy with school, then I was busy with holiday stuff, then open office was being stupid. Enjoy. Sorry if there are any mistakes. Finishing this up and posting at four in the morning. I really need to get to sleep... *yawns*
Disclaimer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians is owned by Rick Riordan and Maximum Ride is owned by James Patterson.
Chapter 6: Arrival At Camp Half-Blood
"Kai!" The flock screams as their mute flock member crashes to the ground.
"What is that thing?" Nudge cries as she points to the ugly creature that had just attacked Kai.
"It's rude to stare little girl!" The creature rasps in a low female voice.
"Well, pardon me for being rude, but isn't it also rude to tackle mutant bird kids out of the sky when they were just minding their own business?" Nudge asks. The creature hisses at her, making her fly just a little further away.
"Never mind that! Where's the lightning bolt?"
"The... lightning bolt?" Iggy asks.
"Yes! The lightning bolt! The one that brat stole!" The creature shrieks, pointing it's talons towards the remarkably intact Kai coming out of a strangely wet crater in the forest clearing.
"Lady, the only thing we steal is food. You've got the wrong guy." Fang says after he flies up from setting Max down next to Kai, but the creature ignores him.
"Percy Jackson! Give me the bolt!" It screeches as it rushes towards Kai who was sitting on the ground holding Max.
"Percy! Catch!" Kai remembers his name is Perseus Jackson just in time to turn and catch a bronze pen thrown by the scrawny brunette boy that just spoke. Kai gives him a 'what am I suppose to do with this?' look. "Uncap it! Hurry!" The boy shouts as he watches the creature come closer, hardly slowing down by the flock attacking it.
'Might as well. Don't have anything to lose." Kai thinks as he uncaps the pen and thrusts it forward. The pen turns into a bronze sword just in time for the creature to impale itself. It shrieks in surprise and fury before exploding into yellow dust.
The flock barely lands before Kai is bombarded with questions he couldn't answer and exclamations about what just happened. Before the mute could say anything, however, his wrist is grabbed by the brunette that threw the pen who started to drag him away.
"C'mon Percs! We need to get out of here before more come!" The brunette is saying, but Fang isn't having any of that.
The raven winged boy put his long legs to good use by walking in front of the stranger and put a hand on his chest to stop him.
"Excuse me, but who do you think you are? Coming here, calling Kai 'Percy' and 'Percs' like you know him, and trying to drag him away? And what do you mean 'before more come'? Are there more of those creatures coming?" Fang says, closer to demanding than asking. The stranger makes an odd sort of bleating noise out of distress.
"I'll tell you everything you want to know, but can we do it while walking? We need to get someplace safe."
Fang stares at the brunette suspiciously for a minute before turning to Iggy.
"Iggy, could you pick Max up? She's laying right in front of you."
"Are we following him?" The strawberry blond asks as he picks up his unconscious leader.
"If he's not lying about those creatures coming, we have no choice. He seems to know about them."
"Fang, do you think Max will be okay with this?" Gazzy asks, looking at the grimacing girl in Iggy's arms worriedly.
"I don't think she'll be happy with it, but if she was conscious, I'm sure she would have done the same." Fang answers while staring at Max as well, worried about the obvious look of pain on her face even while unconscious.
"What's wrong with her?" The stranger asks after he shows Kai how to turn the sword back into a pen and the group starts walking.
"We don't know. She just screamed in pain all of a sudden and fell unconscious a few minutes later. I think it had something to do with her head because she was holding it when she started to scream." Fang answers. "Now do some explaining. First with your name and how you know Kai."
"My name is Grover Underwood, and I know Percy -I mean Kai- because I'm his Protector." The brunette starts.
"Wait a minute. Protector?" Gazzy asks, thinking that if that meant what it sounds like, Grover isn't doing a very good job.
"Yeah. A Protector is a satyr from Camp Half-Blood charged with protecting a demigod until they get to Camp. Neither of his parents believed that he was dead the day he was born, so they talked with Chiron, the activities director, and had him assign Percy -Kai- a Protector in case he was found one day. Mr. D, the Camp director, found Perc -Kai- somehow a few days ago and sent me to find him and bring him to safety."
When Grover mentions that he's a satyr, the flock looks down and notices for the first time that Grover has goat hooves instead of feet.
'How did we not notice that?' The group wonders to themselves.
"Camp Half-Blood?" Nudge asks after shaking herself out of her daze.
"Yeah, it's a camp for demigods. People who are half human and half god."
"So, you're saying Kai is half god." Iggy says, his tone of voice making it obvious he doesn't believe his mute friend was half god of all things.
"Yes. A Greek god, to be specific. Probably a god that deals with water because of all that water that saved him from his fall and the fact that he's completely dry when he should be drenched. Chiron, at least, knows who his godly parent is, but never told me, so we'll have to wait 'till we get to the camp for that."
"Can you tell us the name of Kai's mother and where he was born?" Angel asks, reading the question from Kai's mind. Kai smiles at her in gratitude, which she returns with a sweet smile of her own.
"I sure can! His mother's name is Sally Jackson. She's a wonderful, kind woman. You'll love her. As for where he was born, it was in New York."
"New York. That's why we never found her! We were looking on the wrong side of the country!" Gazzy exclaims.
"So, where is this 'Camp Half-Blood'?" Fang demands.
"Right off of Long Island."
"So... New York?" Iggy guesses after trying to remember where Long Island is.
"And you want us to walk there?" Gazzy asks incredulously.
"Nope. We're going to hail a taxi." Grover answers. The group of bird kids stare at the curly haired newcomer in disbelief. He wants a taxi to drive eight people, seven of them filthy kids with wings, from California to New York?
"Excuse me?" Fang finally asks when they stop by a deserted road.
"We're going to hail a taxi." Grover repeats, pulling a gold coin out of his pocket.
"What's that?" Nudge asks.
"A drachma."
"A what?"
"A drachma. A Greek coin."
"What are you going to do with it?" Gazzy questions. Grover smiles uneasily.
"You'll see."
Here, Grover says something in a foreign language no one recognizes and throws the drachma into the road where it sinks into the concrete. Angel is wondering with everyone else what is suppose to happen when she hears something curious in Kai's mind.
'Stop, Chariot of Damnation?'
"Kai? What do you mean by 'Chariot of Damnation'?" The flock is looking at Kai curiously over Angel's question when the ground where the drachma disappeared darkens and bubbles into a red liquid like blood in a rectangular shape. From this, a taxi that looks like it's made out of smoke rises out of the ooze. On the side of the taxi, there is a sign that says 'Gray Sisters'.
The driver's window rolls down and an old lady with grizzly gray hair covering her eyes pops her head out.
"Passage? Passage?"
"Eight to Camp Half-Blood." Grover answers.
"I thought so. Alright. Get in."
With that, Grover opens the passenger door and looks at the flock expectantly. In return, they look at him like he's insane.
"What?" Grover asks, as if it's normal to try to fit eight people into a space that is only suppose to fit three at most.
"You want eight people to fit in a space that only has room for three." Fang points out.
"The taxi is made out of smoke. It'll lengthen to fit everyone." Grover answers. The flock look at each other, than reluctantly file into the car. Grover is right. When everyone get's in, the taxi lengthens itself to seat a bigger group, giving everyone their own seat with Max stretched out on Fang, Iggy, and Kai's laps.
The Gray Sisters taxi seems like a normal taxi at first if you ignore the fact that it is made out of smoke. There is three old ladies sitting in front, the other two identical to the driver. The flock is wondering why there is a need for three people in the front when the driver floors the accelerator.
"Are you insane?" Fang shouts at Grover, arms wrapped protectively around Max and legs pressing up against the seat in front of him to keep him in place.
"Gray Sisters taxi service is the fastest there is. We're lucky to get a ride from them. Usually they only operate in New York and surrounding areas. Chiron convinced them to give us a ride from California to Camp Half-Blood just this once." Grover answers, buckled up with the huge chain they use for seat belts and holding the armrest like his life depends on it.
"Lucky? Can they even see where they're going?" Nudge cries while holding her own armrest.
"No!" shouts the driver.
"No!" says the one in the middle.
"Of course!" replies the one in the shotgun seat.
"They can't see?" Gazzy exclaims.
"They have an eye." Grover tells him.
"Each?" Nudge asks.
"No. Total. They share it."
"How can you share an eye?" Iggy shouts.
"Easy." the driver shouts. "You just pop it out-" Here the driver hits the woman in shotgun on the back of her head and catches the white 'ball' that appears. "-And put it in your eye socket." Now she demonstrates by pushing the eye into the area where her eyes should be. "Ack! Pole!"
The flock screams and clutches anything near them as the driver swerves to avoid the pole she almost ran into.
"Give me back the eye!" The one in shotgun shrieks.
"No! I need to see!" The driver shrieks back.
"Are we almost there?" Angel cries.
"Almost!" The driver rasps while giving Angel a crazy smile in the rear view mirror and drives even faster if that were possible.
Ten painful minutes of smashing against seats and doors later, the driver hits the brakes and announces that they are at Camp Half-Blood. The group of eight can't get out fast enough, flinging the doors open and scrambling out of the doors. While Grover pays the Gray Sisters the drachma they're owed, the flock looks around.
"So, this is Camp Half-Blood?" Fang says as he stares at the Greek entrance, the still unconscious Max back in his arms.
"Yes it is." Grover says as he walks past them and towards the entrance. "C'mon. Since your DNA is different than normal humans, you should be able to pass through."
"So, if we were normal humans instead of avian/human hybrids, we wouldn't be able to pass through?" Fang asks, easily entering the camp with everyone else.
"There's a barrier around the camp to keep humans and monsters out." Grover clarifies.
"The one time I'm glad to be a mutant bird freak." Iggy mutters to Fang, who responds with his Mona Lisa smile.
Grover leads the flock through Greek styled cabins and training fields full of kids wearing armor and bright orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirts to a huge farmhouse.
"Mr. D. Chiron. I got Percy." Grover says as he walks up the steps of the porch with the flock to stand next to a table where two men were playing pinochle. One man looks like a drunk, middle aged cherub while the other was a kind looking brunette in a wheelchair.
The man that looks like a cherub huffs in annoyance. "Well, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now don't expect me to be glad to see you."
This causes the flock to tilt their heads to the right in unison. Grover sweat drops and smiles awkwardly.
"That's the Camp Director, Mr. D. The one next to him is the Activities Director Chiron."
Chiron smiles kindly at Kai.
"Young Percy Jackson. How are you?" the man asks. Kai looks up at the sky like he's thinking and shrugs his shoulders. Mr. D. snorts.
"How can you not know how you feel?" The angry looking man remarks snidely. This made the flock angry.
"We just got attacked by an ugly, screeching, flying thing who accused Kai of stealing a lightning bolt of all things and tossed around in a speeding taxi made out of smoke driven by three crazy old ladies who can't even see right after losing our home and escaping from the insane scientists that took us from our parents to turn us into mutant bird freaks, so forgive us if we don't know how to feel!" Iggy yells at Mr. D angrily.
"Yeah! We've been through a lot the past few days!" Gazzy agrees.
"It's not all that surprising that we don't know how we feel with all that's happened to us." Fang supports, talking calmly instead of yelling.
"Anyways," Chiron continues with a sigh. "I know that there is a lot of explaining to do, but I also know that you probably want to meet your parents." Chiron smiles at Kai's hopeful look. "Now, because of what he is, you can't meet your father yet, but we can set up a meeting with your mother. Would you like that?" Here, Chiron smiles even bigger when Kai smiles and nods his head rapidly. "Alright. I will go set that up now."
With that, Chiron wheels away to set up the meeting. Mr. D stares at the flock as a whole before shifting his gaze to Max and sighs.
"Take them to the infirmary." Mr. D says to Grover. "Make sure everyone knows that girl is not a demigod. Wouldn't want anyone giving her ambrosia or nectar. Once the meeting with Peter Johnston's-"
"Percy Jackson." Grover interrupts.
"-mother is set up, someone will be sent to the infirmary to let you know. Now go!" Mr. D says gruffly, drinking some sort of alcoholic drink if his attitude is anything to go by.
"C'mon guys. Let's get Max to the infirmary." Grover says while ushering the flock into the big farm house.
"Peter Johnston?" Nudge asks.
Mr. D doesn't really like being here and doesn't bother to remember the names of anyone." Grover answers with an awkward smile.
"Was he drunk?" Angel asks with a worried look on her face. Fang sees this but decides to ask about it later. He doubts Angel was worried about the angry cherubs health or anything.
"No, he's not allowed alcohol. He was drinking Diet Coke."
"He sure looked and sounded drunk." Gazzy mutters.
"That's for sure." Iggy agrees.
"Well, he is the god of wine." Grover comments in Mr. D's defense.
"Wait a minute. Are you seriously telling us that that guy is a god?" Nudge demands, causing Grover to nod.
"Yeah. He's Dionysus, the Greek god of wine."
"Seriously?" Gazzy asks.
"Completely."
"Well, I guess that explains it." Angel says, clearing the worried look off her face. The flock look at their youngest member questioningly.
"Angel?" Fang asks.
"Mr. D and Chiron. I couldn't read they're minds. I couldn't read the minds of the Gray Sisters or the flying thing either. It must have been because they were gods or monsters."
"Wow. You couldn't read their minds?" Nudge asks, not believing that there was anyone's mind Angel couldn't get into.
"Not surprising. I mean, they are gods and immortal beings." Grover reminds them.
"Anyways, what's a god doing here on Earth? Especially one that doesn't look like he wants to be here." Nudge questions.
"He was sent here as punishment for chasing after an off-limits wood nymph twice. His sentence is 100 years being the director of Camp Half-Blood with no wine and no grapes. That's why there's strawberry vines in the fields instead of grape vines."
"Grapes?" Angel asks curiously, not seeing what grapes have to do with a god of wine.
"Grapes are what wine is made out of." Fang inform her, clearing the confusion from her face.
"Oh." She simply says as the group steps into a room full of linen covered beds. A young man looks up from restocking the shelves when the group comes in.
"Hello. Can I help you?" He asks with a soothing tenor voice. The group relaxes almost immediately after hearing the young man speak.
"Yes." Grover starts, use to the young man's voice and not in the daze everyone else seemed to be in. "This girl-" Here, he points to the unconscious Max in Fang's arms. "-passed out after having an extreme migraine."
"I don't think it was a migraine." Fang disagrees, snapping out of the calm daze the young man's voice put him in after hearing Grover speak. "She was fine one minute, than screaming in pain the next. It was too extreme and fast for that to have been a migraine."
"Anyways, she's not a demigod, so don't give her any ambrosia or nectar." Grover warns. The young man opens his mouth to asks how she got through the barrier before he catches a glimpse of her wings and closes it.
"I'll see what I can do. Put her on one of the beds." Fangs shakes his head to keep him out of the calm daze the soft tenor wants to pull him into before nodding to the man and lays Max down on the closest bed.
"Thank you, um..." Fang starts to thank the young man with the hypnotic voice before realizing he did not know his name.
"Lee. Lee Fletcher. Son of Apollo and Head of the Apollo cabin." The young man, now known as Lee, answers with a smile and holds his hand out for a handshake. "And yourself?"
"Fang." The raven winged teen answers while shaking the offered hand. "The others are Iggy, Kai, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel."
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Lee says with a nod. "As for helping your friend-"
"Max." Fang supplies.
"Max," Lee edits with a nod toward Fang. "It's no problem. I'm a son of Apollo. Healing is what I do."
"Apollo?" Angel and Gazzy ask at the same time. Lee laughs and nods.
"Yes. Apollo is my father. He's the Greek god of healing, among other things."
With this cleared up, Lee walks closer to Max until he is standing next to her bed. Slowly, he bends forward and brings his hands up to cup Max's head without actually touching her. Next, he closes his eyes and softly sings a short song in a foreign language, his voice more healing and heavenly than before. They find out from Angel reading Lee's mind that the song is an Ancient Greek hymn being sung to Lee's father Apollo. The group watches in stunned silence as a soft gold glow slowly appears around Max and jump when Lee speaks unexpectedly.
"I found the source of her pain and can remove it safely. I don't know exactly what it is, but it was surgically planted when she was young. There is also something in her arm. Should I get rid of both?" Here, the son of Apollo opens his eyes and looks at Fang, the supposed leader, with calm glowing gold eyes.
"Yes. Please." Fang answers, calmed so much by Lee's voice and gold gaze that he could barely keep enough tension in his leg muscles to keep himself standing. Lee nods and turns back to Max to sing a different, longer, song in Ancient Greek. Once the song is over, the golden glow disappears and Lee sits back on the side of the bed with a tired sigh.
"It's done. That took more energy than it should have because of how long it's been there and where it was, but Max is fine now. She just needs to wake up when she's ready to."
At hearing Lee's reassuring words, the flock simultaneously release worried breaths they weren't aware they were holding.
"That's good to hear!" Nudge exclaims, the entire flock agreeing with her.
"Thank you again." Fang thanks with a grateful smile.
"Like I said, it's no problem." Lee says, smiling in return. The healer turns to continue restocking the shelves when he pauses and turns back around. "Those things in Max's brain and arm, who put those there?"
"Probably the people that turned us into mutant bird freaks." Fang says with an angry frown on his face, arms crossed over his chest.
"So, you weren't born with wings?" Lee inquires curiously.
"Nope. Some scientists working for a place called "The School" did this to us when we were babies." Angel answers. The group looks at her in incredulity or, in Lee's and Grover's cases, curiosity.
"Wait a minute! So, we're not test tube babies? I mean, we knew Kai wasn't because we heard things from the scientists and everything, but we always assumed everyone else was test tube babies. How did you find out?" Iggy cries.
I heard it from the minds of the scientists. They somehow got the avian DNA into us before we were born using some sort of test. Then when we were born, they either told our parents that we died or our parents sold us to the School for money."
"That's terrible." Lee says, a sympathetic frown on his face. His frown deepens when he realizes something. "Wait a minute. You said you 'read it' from the minds of the scientists. What did you mean?"
"Angel can read minds." Fang answers nonchalantly. "Now, why were you asking about the chips?"
"I was wondering if it was possible for you guys to have those things in your arms and brains. Would you like me to find out and remove them if they are there?" Lee questions, getting disbelieving looks from the flock.
"Y-you would really do that?" Nudge stutters.
"Really?" Gazzy asks hopefully.
"Of course. I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want to." Lee responds, smiling sweetly at them.
The flock shares a look and nods.
"We would love it if you removed anything the School might have put in us." Fang accepts for the group. Lee grins and closes his eyes before singing the first Ancient Greek song. Like with Max, the flock begins to emit a soft golden glow. After a minute, Lee opens calm glowing gold eyes to stare at the flock.
"There are chips in everyone's arms, but nothing in the brain or anywhere else." he informs in his healing tenor before switching to the other song. This time, it takes much longer because of the amount of people.
Lee finishes the song and the glow fades away. Lee wobbles a bit, than falls forward, collapsing in Fangs arms.
"Lee!" The flock yells in shock and worry as they crowd around Fang.
"Is he alright?" Nudge asks.
"He's fine. Just tired." A new voice says from the doorway.
The group whips their heads in the direction of the new voice to see a young man a few years older than Kai leaning against the doorway.
"Who are you?" Fang questions, failing to reign in a look of suspicion. The tall blond in the doorway raises both eyebrows in slight surprise at Fang's look.
"Will Solace. Son of Apollo. I came here to tell you Chiron wanted to see everyone back on the porch and saw what happened. Anyways, don't worry about Lee. He's just tired from healing everyone. Go ahead and lay him on a bed. I'll look after him and send your friend after you when she wakes up." Will says calmly, blue eyes resting on Max when he says 'friend'.
"I don't know..." Fang says, staring at Max with an uneasy look on his face. Will sees the expression on Fangs face and smiles reassuringly.
"I won't hurt her or anything."
"I'm not worried about that." Fang says with an awkward smile directed towards Will.
"He's probably worried that Max will beat you up when she wakes up." Gazzy says, hitting the nail on the head.
"Yeah. She's the kind of person to punch now and ask questions later." Iggy agrees.
"Than it's decided." Fang says, finally laying Lee on the bed next to Max's. "I'll stay here and make sure Max doesn't freak out when she wakes up."
"Alright. Than I'll take everyone else to see Chiron." Grover speaks up.
The flock says goodbye to Fang for the moment and follows Grover out of the infirmary. The last thing Kai sees before the door shuts behind them is Fang sitting beside Max, holding her hand and staring at her with the most emotion Kai has ever seen from him.
End Chapter Six
AN:) I know that probably isn't how healing goes in the PJATO world and lee probably doesn't have a voice like that, but I don't really remember what lee is like or how people heal, so I took a creative license with it. I don't think he even shows up except to die in the battle at the labyrinth, actually...
Songs
Pokemon Theme (Dubstep Remix) by Arion
Zydrate Anatomy from Repo! The Genetic Opera
One Reason by Fade (Deadman Wonderland)
Resuscitated Hope by Lisa Komine (Gosick)
Howling by Abingdon School Boys (DARKER Than Black)
It's the End of the World As We Know It by Riddlin' Kids
T.N.T. by AC DC
Festival of Asylum by Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid)
The Black Pearl by Klaus Badelt (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
My Immortal by Evanescence
One Minute To Midnight by Justice
Ninja Rap by Vanilla Ice
Matryoshka by Hatsune Miku and GUMI (Vocaloid)
Hikari Sasuhou by Back-on (Murder Princess)