Chapter 2: Ann
Tartarus Prison
Percy POV.
"Ly, Ly, wake up." I said, shaking Ly slightly, but he just mumbled in his sleep, something about his mom and "stupid earthborn". This went on for about two minutes so I decided to get rough. I got desperate because I heard some footsteps, so I grabbed a piece of shattered glass.
Oh no, are you sure that's a good idea? asked the voice.
"It's the only one I got, besides, his healing factor will save him." I said, raising the glass shard and sticking it in Ly's arm. This only made him twitch a little bit. "Oh come on!"
In a fit of annoyance I stomped on the shard, putting it deeper in Ly's arm, but he still didn't budge. "God dammit Ly, you stupid puppy dog, get up!" The moment I said "get up", Ly jolted up and looked at me angrily.
"What the hell did you call me?!" shouted Ly. I just looked at him awkwardly and pointed at his arm. He looked at me weirdly, but looked at his arm and yelled, "What the FUCK?!"
He violently ripped out the glass shard and the wound on his arm immediately closed up, "I know my healing factor saves me, but WHAT THE HELL MAN?!" He kept shouting some curse words at me until he noticed the broken glass, an unconscious Bob, and the fact that his handcuffs were off.
"Okay Jackson, what kind of black magic are you pulling?" he asked, scratching his head.
"We'll talk about that later, right now we got an army of angry prison guards about to overrun us, so we probably should get a move on!" And as if on queue, the clatter and angry shouts of various monsters were heard charging towards us. Fun. Note the sarcasm.
"Right." said Ly as we made a break for the other direction.
"*Huff* Alright mysterious voice, where to?" I whispered.
The first thing you need to do is find a weapon, more specifically, your sword, Anaklusmos.
"Okay, and how do I find it?" I asked, running as the prisoners in the cages started screaming and rioting for us to let them out.
I don't know, ask the Werewolf, said the voice, making me roll my eyes.
"Ly, we need to find my weapon Riptide, where would the Warden keep it?"
"Well, considering it's you we're talking about, it'd probably be in the Vault." answered Ly, making me scrunch my eyebrows. The Vault is an impenetrable…well, vault, where they keep the very dangerous belongings of the powerful prisoners, like Kronos's Scythe, the Minotaur's Axe, Iapetus' Spear, Kampê's Scimitars, etc. It's guarded by some of the Warden's most powerful guards, including one of his assistant Wardens.
"Ok, and where is it?" I asked.
"The other damned way." he growled out and we both immediately stopped.
"What?! You mean to say we ran all this way for nothing?!" I shouted, throwing my arms up.
"Well, how the hell was I supposed to know you wanted to go to the vault?!" Ly yelled back and we continued arguing for a few minutes, completely ignoring the fact that an army of prison guards was about to flatten us.
"Hey, there they are!" someone shouted and we turned around to see several dozen monsters in prison guard uniforms looking very pissed.
"Uh oh, should we run?" I asked.
"Nah, too late for that, besides, I haven't done any fighting for a few years so I'm feeling a bit out of practice." said Ly, cracking his knuckles.
"Be my guest." I stated, moving out of the way as Ly moved forward and confronted the Cyclops at the front.
"So you think you can escape little demigod, unfortunately for you, its not gonna be that easy!" shouted the Cyclops but Ly just laughed.
"Hmm, I'm guessing you're new here, so you obviously never heard of me before, and you probably won't after I shove my hand through your heart." Ly mocked viciously, angering the Cyclops.
"Why you little…!" shouted the Cyclops, bringing out an unusually large baton and smashing Ly. I almost felt bad for the Cyclops. He didn't seem to know what he'd gotten himself into. "Hahaha! That'll teach him."
"*Yawn* That the best you got dumbass?" queried Ly, standing on the Cyclops' head.
"What the?! Get off!" shouted the Cyclops and Ly jumped off his head and landed back in front of him.
"Oh gods, you really are a newbie." Ly sighed. "Well, time to get serious and show you what I got."
"Grr, why you!" thundered the Cyclops, swinging his baton in an arc, but it passed right through Ly. "W-What the?" I felt like saying, 'Dude, you just failed epically.'
"Sorry, but right now I'm pretty much made of air, although…" Ly's form started shifting until he was just a silhouette and rushed behind the Cyclops like a tornado, "I can also do other elements. FIRE!" I saw a small spark inside Ly's silhouette that turned his entire body into a blaze, engulfing the Cyclops, burning him to ashes. All the monsters behind Ly looked shocked as his body returned back to normal and he crossed his arms gave a large grin.
"You'll pay for that!" shouted a Dracaenae and the rest of the monsters charged.
"Did I mention I'm also a werewolf?" said Ly, jumping into the fray, transforming into a ten foot, black furred grey wolf and massacred the monsters. Most of the time he shifted forms, between fire, water earth and air, so you'd see a blaze shaped like a wolf with fiery red eyes burning monsters, or a wolf shaped mass of earth, popping in and out of walls or the floor, crushing or burying monsters, or a mass of water shooting spouts of water or water blades, drowning or slicing up monsters. Bit dramatic but hey, it was cool! Sooner or later all the guards were a bloody mess or had no body at all, and I didn't even have to lift a finger.
"Wow, a bit overkill don't you think?" I said, careful not to step in any of the guards as I made my way over to Ly, back in human form.
"Nah, they deserved it, c'mon, the vault's this way." Ly answered airily and we ran. We passed a few guards along the way, but we either left them dead or dying. Occasionally we would release a prisoner and they would attempt try to kill us or run the other way. Eventually the endless line of cells ended when we met a maze that probably went on forever.
"Dammit, first it was the cells, now it's this maze!" I shouted, rounding some corners, leading to a dead end, "I thought you knew where you were going Ly?"
"Hey, I only figured out the general direction, not the specific way!" shouted Ly and we got into another argument, which lasted another few precious minutes. We immediately stopped when we heard footsteps and chatter coming our way.
"Shit, more monsters!" I said, about to run.
"It's too late for that, get over here!" Ly said, pulling me back. He took a stance and smashed his fists against both sides of the wall and a wall of stone rose from the ground and closed up in front of us (like an earth bender from Avatar). The chatter and footsteps started getting closer and closer until it was right in front of us.
"I can't see. Ly, check if they have a map." I said.
"Right," he said. Ly flicked a part of the makeshift wall and the wall cracked a bit, forming a little peeping hole. There were two Empousai, one Dracanae, two Cyclops and a Laistrygonian giant arguing about something.
"Do you even know where the hades we are going?" shouted one of the Cyclopes.
"Of course I know, we just need to find those two escaped prisoners." said the Laistrygonian.
"Or we could tell the Warden they escaped and leave them be." hissed the Dracaenae.
"Yeah and we'll be the Warden's next meal, great idea." said one of the Empousai.
"Good point, let's keep going, hey, where's that map?" asked the other Empousai.
"Right here, now, if we go straight we should stop in front of the poison gas room then we take a left." said the Laistrygonian, pulling out a map and reading from it.
"Ly, they have a map!" I exclaimed quietly, which is, of course, a hard thing to do. Come on, do I not get some congrats for that? Never mind.
"Yep, that map is a definite need. I'll take the Cyclops and the others, you take that Laistrygonian." said Ly and I nodded. He punched the wall and a small rock launched out and hit one of the Cyclopes in the head.
"OW!" exclaimed the Cyclops, rubbing his head.
"What's wrong?" asked the Laistrygonian.
"A damn rock flew at my head!"
"Don't look at me, it came from over there." said the Dracanae, pointing at our wall.
"Let's check it out." said the Laistrygonian and all the monsters started moving in.
"Alright, they're coming, get ready." said Ly and when the monsters came within range, we struck. Ly opened up the wall and created two earth-wolves that mauled the Empousai. He then used his fire and air powers to incinerate the Cyclops and Dracanae while I used a rock to knock out the Laistrygonian. In just under twenty seconds we got the map and killed them all, except for the one I knocked out. I picked the map off his hand and gave it to Ly.
"Here's the map." I handed it to him, but he didn't take it.
"Why the hell do I have to take it?" he asked.
"Well… one, I don't have any powers, two, you have a healing factor, three, you have powers, four if anything tries to kill us, you'll just heal, five…" and the list went on and on…or something like that.
"Alright, alright, I get it, why do you always have to make a good point." Ly rolled his eyes then snatched the map out of my hands and read it, mumbling under his breath as he did so. "Ok, I figured it out, follow me." We made our way to wherever Ly said to go, once or twice we ran into some monsters or really angry inmates, but either Ly fended them off, or the voice gave Ly and me instructions, even though I was the only one who could hear it. I still have my doubts about trusting a mysterious voice in my head. For all I know I could be crazy and about to send both Ly and me to our deaths, but the voice always assured me, it was able to dictate what would happen and how I could prevent or exploit it, and believe me, I'm not that smart. After running into a few monsters and dead ends, we came to a large vault door, I mean really large, at least twenty feet high and eighteen feet wide.
"The Vault." I breathed as we approached door. No one, not a single guard was around so I assumed they tried to ambush us along the way.
"Damn, it's bigger than I thought. Let's crack this thing open." said Ly, cracking his knuckles and his hand lighting a concentrated fire as he went to work cutting the vault.
It's not going to work you know, that door is 5.37 meters thick and made of a mix of stygian iron and lead. It'll take years before you even penetrate the surface, said the voice.
"And what do you think we should do 'oh mysterious voice in my head," I thought back.
Well, the first thing you could do is duck, said the voice confusing me at first, but I did it anyway and soon enough a black arrow narrowly missed me, clipping the top of my head.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed, tearing Ly from his vault cutting and rushing over to me.
"Jackson, you ok?!" barked Ly, heading over to me.
"I'm fine, but where-?" I was interrupted by a voice coming from the shadows.
"Damn, I missed. Hmph, that sucks." grumbled the voice.
"Who…oh shit." said Ly and soon enough a figure came from the shadows that gave me goose bumps. Bad vibes and all that, ugh.
"Greed, nice of you to drop by." I mumbled and the man laughed. He had spiky black hair, pale skin, purple eyes and an annoying grin. He wore a vest with a hood with fur around the hood on top of a black skintight outfit, dark green jeans and didn't wear any shoes.
"Glad you still remember me after your spike torture and I see you're trying to get into my vault. I don't have a problem with you little inmates escaping, but if you try to touch my stuff, you're as good as dead." said Greed
"Sorry, but I just needed to pick up something that's mine, I hope you don't mind." I snarked.
"Oh, well sorry, but finders, keepers and I'm definitely keeping this." Greed grinned, pulling out a familiar three-foot long celestial bronze sword.
"Riptide!" I thought, but when I looked closer, I saw some kind of black parasite stuck on the hilt. It had small teeth, white eyes and it looked like the venom symbiote from Spiderman. "What have you done to my sword?!"
"Oh, you mean this. Don't worry it kept trying to run away, so I had to put a leash on it. Why do you think it never retuned to you during your little vacation here in hell?" said Greed, smiling and showing us Riptide and the parasite.
"Ok Greed, give Jackson his sword back and open the vault so I can get my stuff, or I'll have to hurt you real bad." Ly threatened, cracking his neck and knuckles.
"Oh, I'm so scared, a puppy dog and a de-powered demigod about to kill me, what ever shall I do?" Greed mocked and for some reason he thought it was a good idea to put on a falsetto at the end. I mean, seriously? This dude was insane.
"Kill him?" asked Ly, flicking me a grin.
"Kill him." I replied and we charged, but we stopped when a bunch of arrows came from the shadows, narrowly missing us and landing on the floor.
"Hahaha, did you really think I'd be here alone?" laughed Greed. He whistled and several dozen monster-prison guards came out from behind, around and in front of us until we were completely surrounded. Ugh, I don't think I'll ever stop wondering why the baddies get minions and we don't.
"Ah-ha. And here I was wondering where all the guards went. Guess we got our answer." I muttered to Ly as we stood back to back.
"Jackson, right now is not the time to start a conversation like that." Ly hissed back, eying all the monsters left and right.
"Touché. Ly, could you forge me a weapon? I don't have claws made of fire like you do." Ly stomped his foot and a blade made of hardened earth shot out of the ground and into my hand. Sometimes you just gotta love this werewolf.
"Best I could do on short notice, don't abuse it too much or it'll only last a few minutes." warned Ly, wind starting to swirl around his hands and small rocks around him shook a bit.
"Good enough." I said, taking up a battle stance.
"I'll take the monsters, you take Greed." said Ly, nodding his head towards the main mess of this all.
"Sounds good." I was about to charge at Greed, but Ly grabbed my shoulder and turned to me.
"Jackson, be careful. I'd hate to have to run all the way back to the cell just to free you again," he threatened.
"Psh, do you even have to say that?" I asked, grinning.
"If your little pep-talk is over, guards, ATTACK!" shouted Greed and all the monsters charged towards us. Ly created several wind-wolf clones that tore apart several monsters, before turning himself into a wolf and sinking his teeth into a Hellhound. I, on the other hand, was doing my best to avoid any or all monsters; I was hopping over monsters, trying to get to Greed. I finally reached him after I vaulted over a Dracaena and our swords clashed.
"So, deciding to go for the big fish eh? Good luck kid." Greed said smirking and throwing me back a few feet. He ran towards me and I had a split second to block before he slashed his sword up in a wide arc. "Do you think you stand even a small chance? Do you even know who I am? I am GREED, the pure incarnation of the wanting of man, and I want it all. Money, land, women, power, status, ALL OF IT, and a little brat like you won't beat me here!"
He kicked me in the gut, momentarily knocking the wind out of me before trying to get me with a strike to the chest. I barely managed to block him before I started my counter attack. I slashed upwards and we locked swords for a minute before he backed off and tried to cut me in half. But at that moment I saw he had completely dropped his defense and tried to finish me in one move. I took that chance to try and impale him in the stomach.
"Goodbye!" I shouted, stabbing him in the stomach, but instead of running him through, the earth-made sword literally broke in half the moment it made contact.
"W-What?!" I thought and Greed smiled as he brought down his sword, slashing me across my chest. I fell to the ground, hard and two monster guards picked me up and held me in the air.
"HAHAHA! Wa-ha-ow, did you really think something like that would pierce my skin?" Greed grinned.
"W-What happened?" I asked.
"Oh, didn't you know…?" he lifted up his shirt to show his stomach…completely made of stone? Huh, new meaning to 'rock-hard abs' I hue-off track! Sorry, blame the ADHD. "I can absorb matter and use it as a type of 'second skin'. Glass, rock, steel, anything that is solid I can turn into armor. So, in a nutshell, this fight was over before it even began!" Just then, a Laistrygonian came forward, holding in a bear hug a very angry Ly.
"Grr, let go of me you oversized dung heap! I'll burn you, drown you, bury you and scatter your ashes so far away there won't be anything left!" he shouted along with other curses and swear words that are a bit too explicit to mention.
"So the werewolf is here as well, perfect! So, how will this go down, hmm? I kill you and you re-spawn back in your cell, or I can subject you to a few tortures, then kill you. So, which is it?" said Greed, patting Riptide on his hand like a thug with a baseball bat.
"Bite my ass," I snarled, and Greed's smirk disappeared.
"*Sigh* Your call," said Greed as he drove Riptide into my stomach. "Say hi to the warden for me will ya?"
"Jackson!" shouted Ly and that was the last thing I heard before passing out.
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Unknown Location
Percy POV.
"Oh crap, I died. Well that escape attempt failed so, so much for your help mysterious voice." I thought.
Excuse me, but your little escapade isn't done yet, snapped the voice.
"How exactly would I manage that? As you may or may not have noticed I just got stabbed in the gut and am now being teleported back to my glass cell where I will spend another eternity of very painful tortures." I replied.
If you'd care to open your eyes, you'd see that it isn't over. I was reluctant at first, but I opened my eyes and instead of cold stone and a glass wall all I saw was white, nothing but white.
"Where am I?" I thought.
Well, for starters, you could try looking behind you so we could discuss things in a face to face manner, instructed the voice…outside my mind, like he was behind me, and when I turned around, big surprise, someone was standing there. But, he wasn't just anyone, he was…me? Well, more like a silhouette of me, a white entity with only a mouth that looked like me, but wasn't me at all.
"That's better, now we can see each other mano-e-mano, so to speak." said the form, smiling.
"So, you're the voice I keep hearing in my head. This just keeps getting better and better, so what's your name?" I asked.
"Hmm, I don't really know, just call me Truth, for I can only speak the truth and I can't lie to you." answered Truth.
"Truth huh, real original." I thought.
"You know I can hear your thoughts Percy," dead-panned Truth.
"Oops, sorry." I said.
"It's fine." he replied.
"So, how do you suppose I turn this around. As I mentioned before I've just been stabbed in the stomach." I paced around waiting for an answer.
"You really should learn to inspect your surroundings" Truth said, sighing. At first he confused me, but then he just pointed behind him and my eyes widened. Behind Truth was a giant pillar of black mass, similar to the one stuck on the hilt of Riptide, but with one major difference. Strapped to the middle of the pillar was a girl wrapped in tentacle like ropes, she had blonde hair, fair skin and occasionally her copper-brown eyes would flutter open before closing once again. Normally if I saw a girl strapped to giant pillar of who knows what, I do to try to save her, but I couldn't move considering the uncanny resemblance the girl had to…
"A-Annabeth?! No, that-that can't be!" I exclaimed and turned to Truth for an explanation.
"You want an explanation, the truth is that I can't give one, but all you need to know is that you need to free her from her bonds." he explained.
"Yeah but…that girl, is that…?" I wasn't able to finish my sentence because I was too shocked to try.
"That girl is who you think it is, more or less. Now if you wanna get out of here and beat Greed, you better hurry up and free her." said Truth and I didn't hesitate to rush to free the girl.
"Alright." I replied taking a deep breath and exhaling before charging at the mass. But before I got close, blade shaped tentacles lashed at me and I nearly got shredded, but I was able to jump to safety with only a minor cut on my arm.
"Nice try boy, but you're not getting my prisoner." said a voice; it sounded like someone was speaking through a fan, choppy and robot like. Hopefully this voice won't end up as another 'Consciousness' like Truth. Hmm…anyway, as I looked around for someone my eyes fell on the black pillar. The pillar started pulsing and shifting for a while then it completely stopped, two seconds later several red eyes and rows of teeth suddenly popped out of the mass.
"Wh-what the hell are you?" I asked.
"Me? Well, I don't have much of a name, but you can call me Parasite. I know, pretty original right. Now tell me, how did you get to this place?" questioned Parasite.
"Well I took a left there, a right there, got stabbed in the gut and bam! There you were, sitting there with a girl all tangled up in your ugly mass of a body, so let her go before I have to hurt you." I threatened and Parasite just laughed.
"Hahaha! You think you can even lay a finger on me, go ahead…if you dare." Parasite said smugly before dozens of black tendrils shot out from Parasite's body and flew straight at me. I quickly jumped out of the way and ran up one of the tentacles and tried to kick Parasite, but more tentacles formed which knocked me away. I landed several feet away and quickly got up before a dozen blade shaped tentacles tried to impale me.
"Hey Truth, you mind helping me out here!" I shouted, running and dodging all the tentacles shooting towards me.
"Sorry, I'm just part of your mind. I have no physical body therefore I cannot interfere. But I can offer some helpful advice, Parasite over there is the parasite of Greed and as any parasite would do is that they would find a place where they could suck the life out of you, more specifically we are in Greed's very soul." stated Truth. Grr, curse the Consciousness for being snobby.
"That's very interesting and all, but how do I kill it?" I jumped over a tentacle that tried to trip me. Heh heh, fail.
"Percy, you can't just dive into someone's soul all willy nilly, you first have to have a bridge to connect you to that soul, and that bridge I used to bring you here is your mind." he said.
"And your point is?" I ducked under a tentacle that tried to swipe my head.
"Your mind's the bridge, your thoughts are the bridge, this place is not bound by the regular laws of physics, and anything you think of can become reality. Just think of an invisible locker, just put in a combination and reach in and grab your belongings." That's when it hit me, literally. As I was talking with Truth a tentacle hit me square in the chest, knocking the wind out of me.
"Now I got you!" said Parasite, making all the blade shaped tentacles fly at me.
"Gah, ok, ok, locker, locker, locker, locker!" I thought, putting my hand out in front of me and closing my eyes. I expected to be impaled a dozen times over, but instead I felt a slight pressure on my hand then nothing.
"What the?!" said Parasite, I slowly opened my eyes and in my hand was a celestial bronze shield the size of a wall.
"Holy gods of Olympus, it worked!" I thought grinning. "Hey Parasite, how'd you like a shot at round two!" I imagined putting back the shield in the locker and pulling out a sword, and a few seconds later a celestial bronze sword appeared in my hand. Still had nothing on Riptide mind, but it was pretty damn good.
"Grr, you are starting to infuriate me boy!" said Parasite, launching all his tentacles at me, but in a split second I cut them all off. "Gaah, you'll pay for that!"
Parasite tried to launch another volley of tentacle-blades, but this time I was prepared, I blocked most of them, but the rest I let land on the ground. I used the tentacles as a path to reach Parasite's "face". He tried knocking me off a few times, but I either blocked or dodged and when I reached his face I jumped in the air and stabbed one of his eyes out.
"AAAAAH, damn you dirty little brat!" shouted Parasite, black goo spilling out of his eye, slightly soaking me, but that wouldn't matter because in a few seconds I'd probably be bathing in the shit. I jumped off Parasite and again high into the air, but this time I headed straight for his open mouth.
"THIS IS A BAD IDEA!" I shouted as Parasite closed his jaws around me. A few seconds' later Parasite's eyes widened as the tip of my sword pierced his other eye from the inside-out and slowly moved it's way around his face, effectively severing him in half. The pillar that was once Parasite, started to collapse and hit the ground with a resounding thud, I slowly crawled my way out of what was left of Parasite, but not alone. When I was able to pull myself out, I reached in and grabbed something and pulled out the girl that looked like Annabeth.
"Whew, that took a while, I am so gonna have a bath when I get out of here." I said, shaking some of the black goo off me. After trying my best to clean myself of the goo I picked up the girl bridal style and made my way to Truth.
"Ok, so now what?" I asked Truth, but he remained silent, for a moment confusing me, but I understood when I saw the girl's bronze eyes slowly open.
"W-Wha… where am I?" she asked, looking around but her gaze eventually settled on me. "M-Master…?"
"Shh, it's ok, you're safe Anna…umm, miss," I said, almost calling her Annabeth.
"So that… thing is dead?" she asked, I nodded.
"Yes," I replied.
"Did you kill it with fire?" she asked.
"Something like that," I replied, chuckling.
"Then…that's…good," she said before passing out. I was about to lay her on the ground, but her form started to shimmer then go away.
"What the…!" I exclaimed, turning to Truth for an explanation.
"Heh, you want an explanation? She went back to the real world and it's about time you should too." said Truth *cough* Consciousness *cough*, snapping his fingers. The moment he snapped his fingers, my feet started to disappear, then my legs, my waist and it just kept going up. "Oh and a little reminder, that 'magic locker', in the real world it's completely empty, you're gonna have to put some things in there and it will be stored there for as long as you want. Good luck Percy!" That was the last thing I heard before everything went black. Bit o' luck might help, eh?
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The Vault
Percy POV.
The blackness slowly dissipated and I was once again back in the real world, monsters surrounding me, Greed smirking in my face, Ly shouting my name and Riptide plunged into my gut. Oh, how I miss all the fun when I pass out.
"How the mighty have fallen. I probably should take you back to your cell, but where's the fun in that? I wanna see your face in pain as I have some fun with you." Greed said, grinning sadistically, but it turned into a look of confusion as Riptide started sparking with green electricity. "Eh, what? Is the damned thing broken or something?"
As soon as he finished talking a burst of lightning blasted Greed across the room. "AAAHH!" he screamed, landing on a Cyclops.
"Don't worry Master, I'll save you!" shouted a voice as Riptide removed itself from my stomach, albeit a bit rough, and started floating in the air. "Oops, sorry about that!"
"W-What the, I thought…" said Greed, but he didn't get to finish his sentence as the black blob on Riptide's hilt slid off and landed hard on the ground, leaking black goo. "P-Parasite!"
"Thank the gods that stupid little bug came off. Now I can finally get serious," said Riptide. A bright sea-green glow emitted from the blade and kept on getting brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding. A few seconds later the light dissipated and in front of me was the girl that I rescued earlier from Parasite, the one who looked like Annabeth, blonde hair and stunningly beautiful. The only thing different was her bronze eyes. Also she wore something Annabeth would never wear; (look at Soul Evans' outfit from Soul Eater and change the colors a bit) a bronze sweater with black stripes on the neck and wrists with a little sea green trident on the spot over her heart, dark blue jeans and brown sneakers. "*Yawn* It's been a while since I took on my human form, but at least I can move on my own again."
"A-Annabeth?" I asked weakly, trying to stop the bleeding from my stomach.
"Annabeth? Nope sorry, but your getting warmer," the girl said.
"R-Riptide?!" I exclaimed.
"Yep! Well, I'd prefer if you'd call me by my Greek name Anaklusmos, but Ann is fine," said Ann smiling. "Sit tight Master, I'll make quick work of this joker."
"Heh, a joker huh, well at least you're confident, mind working for me little lady? I can make it worth your while," asked Greed, licking his lips.
"No thanks perv, but I'm fine with my current job, I really like beating people like you to a bloody mess. So…" said Ann, cracking her knuckles. "Who dies first?"
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