My breathing shallowed even more, and I forced myself to take three deep breaths, staring him in the eyes.
One, two, three
"Okay," I concluded, looking to the door warily. "I'll go, but only if at any time if I feel unsafe, I can leave, and everyone is honest and tells me what is going on. Do we have a deal?"
"Yes," the boy breathed, staring fervidly at the door. "Now, if you could just fly slowly behind me, and on my count, flap the hell through the hole and wait at the lone tree." He said, slipping a pen out of his jeans pocket, before uncapping it. The pen transformed into a three foot sword, bronze, and my wings fluttered rather noisily in fright. I calmed down and hovered my way silently over to the hole, and the boy started counting on his fingers.
Three, two, one
He swung at the door as my wings gave one tremendous flap boosting me through the hole and outside.
"Wow," I breathed, taking in the stars and moon, the dusty land reflecting the sheen of the night sky. The air was fresh, and I could feel the chill starting in my finger and wing tips, but I didn't care. This was the most alive I'd ever felt, free and wild and adventurous.
I suddenly remembered the raven haired boy and whipped back to see him fighting, using the sword against robot droids. My lungs full of new energy, I swooped to the floor, snatching up a branch and soaring back up to the hole, folding my wings so I fit and landing on my feet in the middle of battle, ducking as a robot swung a metallic arm at me and retaliating swiftly, hitting it as hard as I could near its base as it toppled and I flew above a robot that charged at me.
"What are you doing?!" the boy yelled, and he swiped at a robot about to get too close to comfort.
"Helping you!" I replied, flicking a robot with my stick
"I don't need help! You need to go and meet the others!" He said, taking two out with one swing.
"Not leaving without you!" I said, flapping higher as a taller droid went to take me out. "Can't we just go without the dramatic fight scene?"
"Fair enough. On my count! One, two…. Three!" On three, we simultaneously flitted up and out, ducking any swinging arms.
We flew out into the night, soaring over the clouds as I trailed slightly behind him, trying to catch the words about flying and spaghetti (don't ask because I don't know).
"Okay, we're getting close now. Angle your head downwards slightly and let your body follow, and try not to crash." He advised, demonstrating. I shakily lowered my head and felt the wind pushing resistance, and I slowed as much as I could by spreading my red-peach wings, the pleasure of the moment coursing through my veins. I realised I was about to ram the guy, so I tilted my wings to avoid him, catching up to him. I was neck and neck, and slowly gaining as he turned and looked at me, eyes wide with surprise. I passed him quickly after and broke eye contact, looking down to find I was dangerously close to the ground. I tried flapping my wings but they couldn't move, the wind pressure was too much. I was only about five metres from the ground now, and I started panicking, flailing and screeching like a banshee, anything to try and slow me down.
Four metres, three, two, one, impa-
There was no pain, or really anything except a gentle bobbing. I slowly eased my eyes open to find my nose was hovering a mere centimetre from the ground. I realised the guy had grabbed my ankle at the last second, saving me from a possible death. I tried to look over my shoulder at him, but I had only moved my head slightly above my shoulders when my face met the ground and I rolled over, spitting out dirt and moving my hands to wipe my eyes.
"I'm so sorry. You okay?" he asked, holding out a hand which I accepted begrudgingly. "You're heavier than you look." He said casually, then obviously realising what he had said and looking at me with wide eyes.
"I said that out loud, didn't I?" I nodded in response, while he ran a rather tanned hand through his coal-black hair. "I'm an idiot, please ignore me,"
'Gladly' I replied in my mind, but on the outside I merely nodded, brushing the red dust off my shirt before looking around.
"So, where's this 'safe place'?"
"Well, believe it or not, up."
Naturally looked to the heavens, finding no sign of anything. Then again, what could I expect? A giant sign saying 'Safe Place for Different People Here! Free Lasagne on Thursdays!'
"Follow me, and try not to die this time." He said, though when I looked to see where we were going, he was fiddling with a small radio, looking very confused.
"Here," I said, holding out a hand. He placed the small device in my palm, and I began pushing buttons and muttering the occasional question.
"Security code?"
"Two-three-one-seven-seven-oh-seven." He recited without hesitation.
"Lollies? Really?" He shrugged in response, and I continued making my way through the ridiculously complicated security codes.
"Security question answers?"
"Turquoise,"
"Yep,"
"Seaweed Brain,"
"Uh huh,"
"'We All Live in a Yellow Submarine.'"
I merely raised an eyebrow as I typed it in, finally letting me into the device.
"Channel number?"
"Three hundred and seventy-two."
I turned the dial and there was a loud burst of static before some muttering, and then actual talking.
"Someone's in on line eight, hold up…This is….Bad Boy Supreme Super-Sized McShizzle, come in Per- I mean, Seaweed Brain. Geez, I love that name on you. Fits." A squeaky voice called, changing halfway through the sentence to a deep manly growl.
"Seaweed Brain to Mr. Constantly-changes-his-name, I swear we decided on Repair Boy? Anyway, I have the new initiate from eighty-two, or was it eighty-three? Anyway, rope please!" he spoke into the radio, and after a few seconds of clanking on Repair Boy's side there was a rope dangling down from the sky, and Seaweed Brain grasped it and started shimmying up it. I made a move towards the rope, but he looked down and shook his head.
"Nu-uh, you've got another ride. See you after?"
"Okay…" I said a little uncertainly, still marvelling at the fact I was outside my house. Finally, I felt free enough to adventure. The cryptic 'Seaweed Brain' had disappeared into the clouds, and the sky was lightening. It was close to dawn, we had been flying for hours, but my wings weren't at all tired or strained. I stood for a few more minutes before there was a whooshing sound above me, my hair slipping out of its ponytail and whipping around my head like crazy. I shaded my eyes from the first rays of sun and looked up, seeing metal glimmering back at me.
Metal?
I was still trying to see what glinted at me when there was a piercing burst of static, and I fell to the ground, scuffing my pyjama pants and clutching at my ears. I heard footsteps and voices, and before my ears stopped ringing my head was covered in a bag and pulled tight, almost too tight to breathe. I started to try to undo the draw strings so I could have some oxygen, but to no avail. Someone's hand slapped away mine, and someone else said something about choking me, so they loosened the draw strings a little so I could breathe. A different set of hands gently lifted me up by my shoulders, and they must have been tall, because my wings were slowly calming down after flapping wildly when I couldn't breathe, were still out pretty far. If I could take a guess, my wings would be an almost black yellowy-green, which meant I was frightened or afraid and distrustful.
"Come on Jas-, I mean, Sparky, you have to be a little rougher, get them scared." A voice commanded, and I was shoved forward as to prove a point.
"Not too hard, she's almost died twice tonight already!" A husky voice said, and I was proud to recognize it as Seaweed Brain. Thanks, awesome memory condition.
"Everyone just needs to be quieter, please." A gentle female voice said, and they all shut up. There was someone walking right behind me, pretty big guy I assumed, because I could hear his foot falls and his breath was on the back of my neck, but from above. He occasionally pushed me in the small of my back in a different direction, but apart from that it was just me, the slowly rising sun, footsteps of the others and the number of footsteps rolling along in my head.
I had just passed three hundred and seventy when they stopped, leaving me to continue walking forward until I got a mouthful of feathers, light and poofy, and I backed up a small bit to the sound of amused laughter of the others.
Suddenly, the footsteps started to recede, one pair making its way close to me, taking the bag off my head and flapping away hurriedly. I blinked incessantly until I got used to the light, and I realised I was standing on the edge of a cliff, sun rising to my front. I spread my wings, basking in the light, letting it touch my wings in ways it hadn't before. I closed my eyes and leaned forward, and a gentle breeze picked up. I leaned into it, cherishing the feel of the wind rushing past them. I leaned backwards after the wind started to feel weaker.
Why did I do what I did next? I will never know the answer. Maybe I thought I had something to prove, or all the fresh air had made me gone slightly mad.
"I AM ANNABETH, A FREE SPIRIT, HOLDER OF KNOWLEDGE, MASTER OF OWLS, READER OF LANGUAGES. I PLEDGE MY ALLEGIANCE TO MY FREEDOM, AND THE FREEDOM OF OTHERS. ACCEPT ME AS I AM, AND TAKE ME INTO YOUR WAYS."
I closed my eyes after that and leaned over the edge of the cliff, spreading my wings halfway down. I flew back up, into the clouds, and landed smoothly in front of the group.
There was Seaweed Brain with gorgeous shifting sea-green angel wings, arched and shortish, standing next to a short Latino boy with grease all over him and wearing an oversized tool belt, with short and round leathery dragon wings, changing from a simmering red to a flickering orange and back again. Next to the Latino was a pretty Native American girl, with long brown hair and pretty pink angel wings, tall and elegant and shifting hues as I looked at them, next to her was a tall guy with blonde hair and blue eyes, long grey feathered wings with flashes of light constantly. Towering over him with broad shoulders and visible muscles was a guy with black, military style hair and ridiculously small angel wings, unfairly proportioned with the rest of him, however those wings looked pretty buff too, in their pulsing red pattern. Hovering stiffly beside him was a very short girl, with dark skin and frizzy black hair, stormy black leathery wings almost as big as her hanging at her sides. On her other side was a pale, scrawny boy, with black hair and bat-like black wings, except his were long instead of tall. Standing a little away from the scrawny guy were two more girls, one with a boyish cut and silvery dragon wings, the other with long black hair, a regal air and purple bat wings. There was one last guy hovering at the end, blinding yellow wings behind a blonde surfer guy, smiling brightly at me.
"Well, you've surprised us with reciting the pledge and all. Looks like you're one of us, now." Latino said, before he was silenced by a glare from Regal Purple.
"Yes. Welcome to the Heroes of Olympus as we like to call ourselves. We all had or have hovering issues, and wing colour issues, and we are more than just a support group. We are a family and a military, as I'm sure you will hear when we get back. Names, right. I'll go left to right, code then real. Seaweed Brain, Percy, Repair Boy-"
"Bad Boy Supreme Super-Sized McShizzle!"
"As I was saying, Repair Boy, Leo, Beauty Queen, Piper, Sparky, Jason, Klutz, Frank, Witch Girl, Hazel, Death Breath or Ghost King, Nico, Pinecone Face, Thalia, me, RARA, Reyna and Doc, Willl. We'll take you back and you can chose weapons, nickname, rank, cabin, et cetera, and get caught up on what's actually going on. Oh look, your wings have stabilised. Colour-wise, I mean."
I turn to look back and my leathery wings have gone grey, like my eyes, but changing, forming shapes and taking them away.
"They're beautiful," I breathed, and then turned to my new family.
"So I'm a Hero now?"
{AN: Hey guys! Hope you like this chapter, and I'm upping the word count for each chapter, so this one is 2000 words. Let me know any ideas/requests, and if you want me to update quicker/more often, and I'll do it. Also reviews = quicker uploads. Good bye my cutie-kats! ~myaw (PS. What do you think of calling you guys cutie-kats?)}