See, I'm not that bad, am I? I'm not making you wait that long to find out what happens to Percy...
Brittany (guest): Omgs, the green ones are my favorite too! ;) I'm so glad you decided to review for the first time. Also...*dramatic swoon* Oh no, you guessed my secret! My superheroeness has been discovered! (Do superheroes swoon?)
HadesMxadod (guest): You know, I'm torn. Some people want more fluff, and others think that I have reached my maximum limit for fluffiness. But I'll try to add some more Frazel/Jasper/Percabeth while still keeping the fluff at cute kitten level and not Percy's baby seal look level.
Me (guest): Five Ways to Die is going to be updated today...right after I have this one up. It's the longest chapter yet, although it was a little disappointing...I actually think I might tweak it a bit and turn it into an actual fanfiction (a different one, of course), but I'm not sure yet. And writing for two is already a little hectic, so I don't know. And I will tell my friends about the clan thing, I promise.
The GoldenGroups (guest): OMGSSSSSSS ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS RIGHT NOW? AND YOU TOO, FLYAWAYFREE? I'M HYPERVENTILATING, I'M SO HAPPY I'M NOT ALONE ANYMORE YAYYYYYYY! We totes have to figure someway to meet. Do you live in southern, northern, or middle Indiana? I'm southern, myself.
flyawayfree (guest): You get another separate response, because your review was so long. No torturing with math! I hate math. I'm good at it, but I hate it. *shudder* Oh, and as to the other part...you might want to hurry and read this chapter. ;D
Indiana Pride (guest): I feel so...the opposite of alone. We should find a way to get together with The GoldenGroups and have a PJO slumber party somewhere.
ariadne0318: Thanks so much for your compliments! They mean a lot, and I've actually already started on my own book, which is about-you guessed it-Greek mythology. It's really hard to right your own thing, though, because you have to completely create everything from scratch, and breathe life into your characters and the story to make it good.
lildramaq13: Thanks! I thought so too.
Chickenismylife (guest): Well, here's the update...so...yeah.
centarsarejurks (guest): Yeah, you need an account to post stories, but it's completely free! Everything on fanfiction is-that's another thing that's great about it.
daughterofzeus911: No, this isn't the challenge. Geez, I didn't even think of that. No, his challenge is much bigger...yet simple...and doesn't happen until they face Gaea.
Sol Invictus (guest): CHOCOLATE CHIP ALL THE WAY! Chocolate chip cookies are the bomb. I love them. :)
drinkingthestarswithbob: Wow, London? I wish I lived in London...and Florida's nice too. Even though I've never been there.
summergirl012: Thank you very much. And I hope my next chapters meet everyone's expectations.
Carrot Seven: YES! Bleeding Out is my favorite too! So weird how much I have in common with so many of my reviewers...my second favorite has to be Nothing Left to Say-in large part because of Viria's artwork that goes along with it.
I wish I had a name: I will never stop writing. I will continue until the day I die-because writing is my favorite. 3 ;) So don't worry.
WisegirlAnnabethChase: You too? Yaaaaaaaaaayyyyy, I'm not alone! Okay, so that means you, me, The GoldenGroups, and Indiana Pride all have to get together and have a Percy Jackson slumber party where we have epic fun and eat blue chocolate chip cookies.
Dylan (guest): I laughed out loud for like five minutes when I saw your review, I swear to the gods. Goes to show how weird I am, I suppose, that I find that amusing, but it made me smile.
Cherries (guest): I've read the Staff of Serapis, actually, I just only was able to recently. But I did read it before I posted the chapter about Frank's ancestor telling him about Carter and all that-I just decided to do it anyway. And if I do include any characters from the Kane Chronicles, don't worry-it's never going to become a true crossover. There'll probably just be multiple mentions, and maybe an appearance or two-but Rick does that too, in his books.
Here you are, my children!
Chapter LXXV
Percy
Percy really doesn't like deja vu. Especially since it usually means he's reliving a bad experience. In this case, it's being bitten by the Chimera's rattlesnake tail.
He swears out loud, a string of curses that would make a pirate blush, and yanks his arm out of the snake's mouth. He can feel the venom already spreading through his limbs, but he uncaps Riptide and slices through the snake where it grows from the Chimera's behind, turning the snake tail to dust, and then stabs his sword into the Chimera's goat body.
The lion roars in pain, and Frank and Jason both follow Percy's lead while it's distracted and stab it, making it crumble to powder and sending it back to Tartarus.
Echidna screams in rage from her place at the treeline, and then glares at Percy. "You will regret this, Jackson! Gaea is going to destroy you, and you will not be able to stop her!"
Then the snake lady turns and sprints into the trees-she can move pretty fast when she wants to for someone wider than the tree trunks that she's running through.
"Oh, save it." Percy mutters at her back. "Didn't you hear me when I said death threats are getting annoying?"
Jason and Frank run up to him, their eyes wide with concern. "You okay, man?" Jason asks.
Percy waves his hand dismissively. "Fine, fine. Just give me a second."
He closes his eyes and concentrates, focusing on all the nearby water. He feels the familiar tugging in his gut, and a stream of water flows out of the trees and up his arm, instantly soothing the burning pain from the rattlesnake's bite.
Then he opens his eyes and holds out his arm for Jason and Frank's inspection. "See? Fine."
The bite wound is already closing, although Percy knows it'll probably be a bit sore for a few days.
"I got bitten the first time, too, and it was fine when I fell into the river. Rattlesnake venom is apparently pretty simple to heal. Pit scorpion venom, on the other hand, is not." He remembers Luke's betrayal, and absentmindedly rubs the scar on the back of his hand.
"I'm kind of concerned that you have experience with both." Jason tells him, giving him a weird look.
"Yeah, well, you only live once, right?" Percy replies, grinning.
"Unless you achieve Elysium and get reborn." Frank adds.
"Whatever." Percy says impatiently. "Anyway, we might want to start back to the-"
He stops suddenly, and looks into the woods. He could have sworn he heard...
"What's wrong?" Jason asks.
"Shhh." Percy shushes him, turning to hear better. He listens intently, and then he hears it again.
"No way." He says in disbelief. "It couldn't be."
"What?" Frank asks. "I don't hear anything."
"Neither do I." Jason agrees.
Percy ignores them both and steps forward, straining his ears to hear more. He's rewarded by hearing the voice again, distant, but not too far. And this time it's unmistakeable.
"It is." He confirms, grinning, and plunges into the trees, capping Riptide as he walks. He trusts it to Frank and Jason's curiosity for them to follow, and, sure enough, he soon hears them striding after him.
"Percy, where are you going? We need to get back to the Argo II!" Jason calls after him.
Percy continues to ignore them, determinedly pushing on, occasionally pausing to listen again. If he's right, spending a few extra minutes on land would be worth it.
The voice gets louder the farther he goes, obviously angry, and definitely not his imagination.
As they get closer, he slows down and tries to be as quiet as possible-just in case. Then he comes to the edge of a clearing, and when he peers over the bushes lining the edge, his grin widens even more.
Jason and Frank come up behind him, panting. "What are you doing?" Jason asks.
The voice breaks off midsentence, just sudden silence.
"Duck!" Percy hisses at Jason and Frank. Then he steps forward, and, faster than he would have thought he could, reaches up and catches the silver arrow just before it would have split open his head.
He looks at the arrow in his hand and grins again, more genuinely than he has in a long time, because it's such a reassuring sight.
He steps through the bushes, nonchalantly twirling the arrow through his fingers.
"Geez, Thals." He greets his friend. "You're losing your touch."
Thalia Grace stares at him from the middle of the clearing, frozen. The other Hunters, with arrows set to fly, look to her for her orders, except for Phoebe and a few others that know him, who are just frowning at him in distaste-he is a boy, after all.
Thalia unfreezes finally and rushes forward, lowering her bow to her side in a clear sign of trust. But her electric blue eyes are flashing threateningly, and Percy braces himself for what he knows is coming.
She stomps forward and punches him in the shoulder. Hard.
"You go missing for eight months, and then you just show up and insult my archery?! And no one even had the decency to tell me what's happened? Seriously? I didn't even know if you were alive!" She screams at him.
Percy grins and tries to pull her in for a hug. "Missed you too, Thals."
She punches him in the chest. "You are such a Kelp Head."
"Noted. Now are you going to hug me, or am I going to get punched again?" He asks, still grinning unabashedly.
She glares at him, and he's sure it's going to be the latter, but then she steps forward and hugs him, enough that it's hard to breathe. But he ignores that and hugs her back.
When she pulls away, he grins down at her even wider. "Always nice to get a hug from your worst enemy."
"Best friend, idiot." Thalia corrects.
"What's the difference?" Percy asks innocently, and she punches him again.
"Be quiet, Kelp Head." She growls at him. "And give me back my arrow."
Percy obliges, handing it to her with a dramatic flourish that earns him another glare. "Now, are you going to say hi to your brother, or should I?"
Thalia freezes again and looks over his shoulder. This time, her reaction is completely different.
Her face lights up in joy, and she smiles, pushing Percy aside. "Jason!" She cries happily, pulling him in for an enthusiastic hug.
"I feel like I should be offended." Percy comments to the other Hunters as he watches her much happier and less painful reception of Jason.
"He's her brother." Phoebe says, surprising him. Usually the Hunters only even communicated with him by glaring. Of course, they know him a little better than most boys, especially Phoebe, since she fought with Thalia in the Second Titan War.
"Uh huh." Percy replies. "And I'm her best friend. What's your point?"
Phoebe rolls her eyes and turns away, muttering insults under her breath.
"Hey, you can't use Kelp Head!" Percy calls after her. "Only Thalia's allowed to call me that!"
Phoebe responds by flipping him off over her shoulder. She's always so nice.
Percy returns his attention to the others. By now, Thalia has pulled out of the hug and is now talking animatedly with Jason. Frank is standing awkwardly off to one side, watching the Hunter warily.
He walks over to join them and claps Frank on the back, smiling at him reassuringly. "Frank, this is Thalia. Thalia, this is Frank."
Thalia breaks away from her conversation and looks Frank over, starting at his face and ending at the bow and arrows strapped to his back. Then she sticks out her hand.
"Nice to meet you, Frank." She greets him briskly.
Frank shakes her hand firmly, still watching her warily.
Thalia pulls away first, and turns to Percy, her eyes curious, questioning. "So, what are you guys doing here?"
"Frank was having a nice chat with his ancestor." Percy answers. "That's where he got the fancy bow."
Thalia looks back to Frank. "Are you any good with that bow?"
"Pretty good, yeah." He answers, his eyes shining with a hint of pride.
She looks him up and down, and a small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. "We'll see." Then she turns back to Percy again. "That doesn't answer my question very well, though, Kelp Head."
"It's a perfectly satisfactory answer." Percy protests. "You just don't understand it."
"Exactly my point, idiot." She tells him, crossing her arms. "I can't read minds, you know."
"Really?" Percy asks. "Huh. And all this time I thought you could."
Thalia glares at him. "Keep it up, Kelp-for-Brains, and I'm going to break your nose."
"Well, you know, the whole thing is kind of a long story." Percy tells her.
She spreads her arms, palms up, gesturing at the clearing around her-most likely referring to the fact that the camp is set up a lot more permanently than usual. "It's not like I'm particularly busy at the moment."
"Fine, but we need to hurry. I promised Annabeth we'd be back to the Argo by dark." Percy relents, his tone impatient.
Thalia snorts, scoffing. "Trust me, Percy, she's learned by now that you're never on time. She probably doesn't expect you back until midnight."
Percy opens his mouth to protest and then closes it and nods. "Probably not." He admits. "But if we tell you our story, you have to tell us yours. After all, you're also here without any obvious reason."
"Deal." Thalia promises. "Now, come on, we have a lot of catching up to do."
Percy's mind slips to the events in Rome, and his smile disappears. "Yeah." He says absentmindedly. "We do."
As he steps forward to follow her, a sudden rush of pain burns through him, almost making him pass out. He winces and rolls his shoulders, trying not to show any outer sign of the pain. Then it's gone as soon as it came, and Percy takes shallow breaths until his vision is back to normal.
Looking around, no one seems to have noticed what happened, except maybe Frank, who's watching him with a half suspicious, half concerned look on his face-but Percy knows he can trust Frank not to tell anyone about it. Frank's good with secrets.
It can't happen again, though. Percy thinks to himself. I have to keep it hidden.
So he straightens, grins, and strides forward to join the others, doing his best to hide the pain that's slowly ripping him apart from the inside.
Aww, poor Percy. Oh, and just in case someone asks-no, the pain isn't related to the snakebite. It's not remnants of the venom, or anything. Although it might be remnants of something else...*evil grin*
Oh, and sorry guys, no double update today. I spent all my writing time yesterday working on Five Ways To Die's update chapter, so I didn't write for this one. Sorry.
Next update will be Friday-I promise.
I love you, wear pink bunny slippers, don't drink poisonous gorgon's blood, and play catch with Cerberus!