Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.
I own none of the characters, not even the OCs I made as they are part of the PJaO or Mercy Thompson books and anyone is free to duplicate them for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.
Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.
00088888000
So much for my resolution to write a chapter every two weeks. It's been close to six for this one. Sorry about that, but my muse is screaming NCIS, Harry Potter, Dexter and Battlestar Galactica right now. Every time I sit down to write a chapter, I draw a blank. I can think of a hundred different ideas when I'm at work, but as soon as I get home; it's nothing but ideas for other stories.
Finally, in a fit of temper, I actually wrote one of those stories out, or at least the first chapter. It's being beta read as I write this. Hopefully it'll be up before the end of the month. And low and behold, this chapter is starting to flow.
Maybe I'll just write chapters as they come to me rather than trying to stick to a single story all the way through, what do you think?
00088888000
I finally found everyone's last names except for Felix. Anyone know it?
00088888000
Really guys, No one's posted on my forum!
00088888000
Tuesday, Day Three
Mercy
"So, let me get this straight," Tad began; "when the two of them got back from the dance, HE was a SHE, and she was hanging all over HER."
"Not only was Percy a Paulena, she was a VERY indecently dressed Paulena. And yes, a VERY tipsy Annabeth was most defiantly hanging all over her." I replied; "Of course, the guards showing up guns killed their mood somewhat, but luckily Ben showed up and gave the OK before a tipsy Percy could do anything to them. And now that I think about it, Ben had ZERO snarky comments about their state. Do you think Ben is actually scared of them?"
Tad just snorted; "They scare the crap out of DAD, I sure hope you guys are smart enough to be scared. So, the bit about the home improvements you're making, any chance you can let me see the design?"
"You'll have to ask Adam about that, Beauclaire's assault on our house has made Adam a little leery about you guys for a while, so I wouldn't count on it. Besides, with the kids in the house, he's having major control issues, so be careful when you ask."
"I hear and obey. Still, since when have I become 'one of you guys' to you? I'm still just a half-fae."
Now it's my turn to snort; "Your mien dropped last night Tad. You may only be half-fae, but you've got power, and enough that people have started to notice. With your ability to hide it stripped away last night, it wouldn't surprise me if you have to start getting involved in all those supernatural politics you dislike so much. Then there's the fae politics as well, you can't forget those."
"Don't I know it, as much as I wish I could, I can't, nor can I avoid them. Hell, dad was sent here by the son of a hero he killed as a favor to dad. The two of them would happily kill each if given even the slightest provocation, but suddenly, Beauclaire just decides to do dad a favor. And yes Mercy, I know all the expected reasons; 'he's a friend of yours, so you'll give him more information; it gets him off the reservation and out of Beauclaire's hair; it gets him out of reservation politics; etc. The first is possible, though I think everyone knows Dad will charge a VERY high price from Beauclaire for anything you give him, the second is likely I'll admit, the third is stupid. Dad's more connected than ever to the politics of the reservation. As much as he hates them, once he realized what was going on, dad dug deep into his cookie jar of favors owed to get a line on reservation happenings. And not all of the Gray-Lords are happy with Beauclaire right now, rumor has it Nemane and Beauclaire traded blows, though I honestly doubt it. At least physical blows anyway, verbal and political, I can almost guarantee."
I paused in thought, here we were, Tad and me, in my garage sorting the mess the earthquake made, (Honey was in the office in the air conditioner, jokes on her, I had one of Adams techs rig it so no matter what you set the gauge for in the office, it would go off the one out here, and I only kept it about five degrees cooler than out here). The damage around town, while as extensive as expected, wasn't anywhere near as bad as could be imagined, and surprisingly enough, no fatalities. I'm sure that helped Tony's mood a lot. I'm not sure who I felt sorrier for, Tony or Zee, for Zee was right now meeting with local police in his official capacity as Ambassador from the reservation, and because of his well-known friendship with me; Tony was on that team though not given the lead.
"So, when am I going to see the babies in your pack Mercy?" Tad asks; "I know it sounds kind of girly, but I've never even heard of a baby werewolf."
"Charles."
"What? Sam's brother? What about him?"
"Charles was born a werewolf. I'm honestly surprised you didn't know that. Charles was the first werewolf Born, and still the only natural born. At least that anyone knows about, and trust me, anyone remotely connected to a werewolf pact right now knows about little Brandon. Why do you ask?"
"Because I didn't know it was possible and everyone is asking about it. Dad had more calls from the reservation last night asking about the baby werewolf than about the earthquake of the invasion of the dead combined, and before you ask, no, I have NO idea how they found out. I highly doubt it was Ariana unless someone has put a magical bug on her, and that's not likely with the drain of the Silver Born. The only fae who know about Paulena and friends is Dad, Uncle Mike, Edythe and the Gray-Lords, assuming Beauclaire told them, though Nemane knows for sure. She was monitoring Beauclaire when he left the other night, so she actually saw the whole thing. I think you can thank fae politics for her un-involvement."
"And how often have you and your dad pounded into me about not thanking fae?"
"There is that. Still, it seems strange that she wouldn't intervene at all. Maybe she was just appraising Percy and gang, a threat assessment if you will."
"So how'd we do?"
Tad let out another snort; "Do you really need to ask? According to dad, when Beauclaire got back to the reservation Monday morning, no one spoke for three hours until he left to go to D.C. I'd say they passed any sort of test anyone had for them, and scared a whole bunch of really powerful fae in the process. By the way, with Honey here 'guarding' you, who's watching Riverwind."
"Daryl and Auriele for starters, plus Warren and any wolf who isn't publicly outed who Adam trusts to stand guard but doesn't trust around me. As you might have gathered, Adam moved anyone who was particularly vulnerable right now in our pact to Honey's house with several extra guards to boot. Right now, Honey's place is better guarded than ours, though I think that's intentional on Adams part. Anyone who attacks the house right now and is an actual threat is likely to be on our side of the reality divide. By the way, you get the memo on being seen in public today?"
"Yes! Dad told me quite a bit about that and what's going on. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants are closed today for clean up so we can't do that. We're almost done here; you want to join one of the public volunteer work crews?"
"Normally I'd say no, as civic minded as I am, but today, yeah, I'm feeling kind of charitable right now. So how about the son of the fae ambassador and the wife of the werewolf alpha go make a couple of positive headlines for our respective groups"
Tad just looks at me with a grin; "Do you want me to tell Honey, or will you?"
11155555111
The driver looked over at the man in the passenger seat; "Coming up on the juncture of I-82 and I-90 sir." They were in the lead vehicle of an eight van convoy of CNTRP agents and their 'Cargo.' They were decked out for riot suppression or a high stakes, knock-less entry home warrant serving, with a bit more armament than would normally be available to either. Just to transport their guests from Kennewick to Seattle. "Any chance of the weather improving before we hit Snoqualmie sir?"
His passenger just laughed; "You're kidding right? We're lucky we're getting the break we are. If everything goes to plan, we'll be hitting the worst part of the pass just about the time for a slight easement in the storm. At least according to the weatherman." Another laugh at the last part, weather prediction being so accurate and all.
They hit I-90 westbound and the driver listened to the rest of the convoy call and confirm they were still with them. After a couple of minutes his passenger asked over the radio about the condition of the guests. Getting all clears from the first three; "Seven, I repeat, condition of guest four."
"Sorry sir, he was 'Resisting' us again sir." The radio replied.
"Don't get out of hand Jack, we're not animals, and neither is he, unlike our other guests." The last part being muttered to himself after he clicked the radio off.
Looking out at the sights as they drove, supposedly alert for danger, he noticed a couple of the billboards. "SIR! We've got a problem sir!"
Instantly alert, his passenger asked; "What is it?"
"Sir, the billboards don't match the road signs sir. All of the highway markers say we're going west on I-90, but the billboards are advertising stuff that's east of the juncture. I don't take this road all that often sir, but I'm pretty sure that restaurant, Blustery's, on that billboard is in Vantage sir."
"And this bridge looks a little to long for crossing the Yakima. That's the Columbia River here! Gun it, SHIT!" He exclaimed, just as they hit the bridge. Pulling out his radio; "Alert one, alert one, we have a class omega situation, all teams on aler…" Cutting off in mid word as a giant hand made of water reached out of Wanapum Lake on the Columbia and finger flicked into the side of the van just as they were about mid-point on the bridge.
Just like a kid flicking a pea at his sister at the dinner table, the finger smacked into the side of the van, lifting it up into the air slightly as it hurtled towards the edge of the bridge. Luckily, it slammed into the barricade, only leaning over about forty-five degrees, the driver getting an amazingly good look at the water below before the battle between forward momentum and sidewise momentum caused the front bumper to catch the barricade and send the van hurtling end over end another two hundred feet, propelling the driver and his passenger out their respective doors along with the four other agents in the back of the van.
The driver blacked out from pain when he hit pavement. When he regained conscience, he awoke to pain. Going over his aches with his first aid training, the driver was able to safely conclude he was likely out of the fight, with a broken leg, broken arm, several fingers and a wrist, at least one broken rib, probable concussion and a laundry list of other injuries; he managed to roll over onto his back and start to sit up when suddenly, he came face to face with the head of a horse.
The horse head mind you, had seaweed hanging all over it, attached to a body that was very roughly gorilla shaped, and had a whole mouthful of large, toothy piranha fangs. He went instantly still, all pain replaced with fear. It just looked at him for a moment before; "You look delicious! MINE!"
"FIDEAL!"
Whipping its head to the side to look at another creature from a nightmare, it bowed in subservience, but with ill-concealed hatred in its stance.
"Bring him over with the others, and make sure that they're all accounted for; and ALIVE Fideal. Just bring them here." The other creature told it.
The horse creature reached down and grabbed his good leg, at first grateful for it not grabbing his broken leg, that gratitude quickly disappeared when it started to drag him over to the other group. Unable to lift his broken leg off the ground, and desperately trying to cradle his arm and lift his head while his leg and rib cage were dragged across pavement, the driver passed out again.
When he once again awoke, the horse creature, Fideal, was nowhere around. There were however, over a dozen other creatures, most certainly fae, standing around. Including a fifteen foot tall anthropomorphic catfish with a single glowing red eye, claws as long the drivers forearm, and a clawed tow, like the velociraptors from the movie Jurassic Park, that was longer than his leg.
It stood there, tapping one of those infernal toe-claws into the concrete, waiting for a news crew to get set up down the bridge a ways. The driver just lay there in agony. He idly wondered if they were going to get air support, only slowly remembering the wind storm that was keeping all air traffic in the state grounded.
Once the news crew was set up, the creature launched into a speech about how the agents were the ones in violation of the law, and guilty of crimes including kidnapping, assault, etc. Although the news crew was not allowed to film the first three 'guests of the agents, they were allowed to give a brief description of the ages, genders and their lack of clothing, with heavy implications of improprieties taken on them by the agents. As if they'd sink so low with animals.
That's when the driver noticed the fourth guest. The one the news crew was interviewing. The bloodied, but unbroken former member of their team who wouldn't do his duty to country and race, the traitor. The one who even now was letting the news crew know that he hadn't technically yet been fired, and how he still had the authority to arrest people, and how he was placing the agents under said arrest.
One of the creatures, a snake with arms and legs placed the driver in handcuffs, being only somewhat gentle with his broken bones. Than the creatures and the first three guests were lifted up on a platform of water and lowered down into the river and lake. Only then did a swarm of local police and Washington State Troopers come and start to treat injuries and make arrangements for detainment.