CHAPTER 7: I RIDE THE WORLD'S ANGRIEST CHICKEN (Reika's thoughts)

This was officially worst case scenario. So here we were, outside in the middle of the night. I was in my old trainers that were definitely way too worn out, unarmed, in the middle of nowhere, and Zach was unconscious, also unarmed, with his only weapon being something that only he could use. In a hurricane. And right in the eye of the storm was the source of it all, what looked like a gigantic, five ton parrot.

This thing was huge, a gigantic green bird with black feathers around its plume, and each time it flapped its wings, there was a fresh wave of wind that destroyed stuff around us. The caravan was barely the size of its feet, and it had dug its talons into the side of the vehicle. Zach said that he'd seen a flying saucer, but I'm not sure what alien movies that he'd been watching if that was his definition of a UFO. In retrospect, I probably should have calmed down and thought about a plan of action. Maybe I should have given Zach some medical attention. He didn't look too good, what with his eyes rolled up to the back of his head. But I didn't. I pulled one of my usual, impulsive stunts.

I pushed myself up against the side of the truck, planting my sneakers firmly on it. I took a deep breath, trying not to let the biting, stinging wind stop me. I could feel power flowing through my veins, like my blood was turning to liquid fire, searing my muscles into action. My heart was doing overtime, and it was a struggle just to maintain my breathing. Without my blades? There was no way this was going to turn out okay. Then I kicked off.

The first thing I felt was the wind trying to slam me back, like a giant hand was arm wrestling against my whole body. But that wasn't stopping me. After all, it was just a hurricane, right? Nothing special. I sprinted right through the wind, the scenery around me becoming a blur as I dodged past a careening Ford Focus. I almost felt sad seeing it rolling through the carpark like that. Whoever owned it would not be happy when they found it.

The giant bird was rising higher into the air, the caravan now quite a few feet above the ground. There was no way the couple and Riley wouldn't notice it. A Prius bowled through the air on a one way collision course to my face, and a few other signs and small trees were also being chucked through the air. The storm was getting stronger the closer I got to it. Perfect.

I leaped into the air, my foot landing on the windscreen of the Prius. I ran all along the vehicle as it turned in mid-air, then leaped off of that. A wayward tree nearly took my head off, but I simply grabbed it, trying not to let the bark tear the skin off my palms as I spun through the air. Now I wasn't on the ground, the wind was starting to push me back again, blasting me back against the tree I had just passed.

I kicked off of it, leaping from one airborne and potentially fatal object to the next. I knew the drill; one slip up and I'd be a ketchup stain on the pavement. I could see objects and bags flying out of the window, including Zach's bag of guns, closely followed by Riley's bag as they got snatched away by the wind. I was glad that I put my stuff inside a cabinet, but I wasn't sure if it would stay bolted in these winds.

I took one more leap of faith, my arm outstretched towards the car. I felt my fingers curl against a shattered window. I screwed my eyes shut as a jagged piece of glass dug itself into an already raw wound, but catapulted myself higher anyway, yanking myself up to the bird's talon. Clambering up it was not an easy task, and every time the bird flapped its wings, the air nearly tore my grip off of it. I made the stupid mistake of looking down, and saw the lights of the ME A T restaurant receding into a small dot in the distance. That alone nearly killed me, my blood going cold at the thought of falling. I forced myself to tear my eyes away from the sight.

We were definitely moving now, but we were heading south, not west, and fast too. I couldn't stay there. My grip would eventually slip, and I would be heading for a hundred foot drop. Demigod or not, I was dead if that happened. I grabbed hold of a clump of feathers, and using them as handholds, I pulled myself higher and higher, sliding past its wings and onto its back. The wind stung and snapped at my clothes, the chill worse than any freezer anywhere. I'd take ice and snow any day over the way the wind was sapping my strength. Finally, I headed towards its neck, a huge collar of feathers already puffed up in a natural bed. I buried myself in them, amazed at the way they blocked almost all of the wind, warm air trapped in it. As long as I stayed really still and held on tight, I wouldn't fall to my death.

The first step was complete, but what was I meant to do after that? Whatever I was thinking suddenly drifted to the back of my mind. I knew it. I used up way too much energy with that stunt. And I was running against a storm too. My muscles were burning and my bones felt shattered. The sickening nausea caused by having your insides jiggle around at high speeds was returning, and I felt like I was going to be sick right on this creature's back. There was no way it would take that well. I swallowed down the bile in disgust, willing myself not to puke all over it, then lay my head against its warm back, drifting off to sleep.

I woke up to the sight of the setting sun. I guess I was thankful to the fact that I wasn't having to squint against the bright light of daybreak against my retinas, but that just meant I had slept the entire night and the entire day. My stomach was not going to forgive me for missing so many meals. I poked the top of my head up out of the bird's feathers and observed my surroundings. Wherever we were, it didn't look like Manhattan anymore.

All around me were the tops of mountains, green valleys between and below them. There was a single mountain road weaving in and out of them. While roads and rocks surrounded us, we looked like we were on the top of a plateau, inside a bundle of logs and trees that made up its nest. It looked like it had taken half a forest just to make it. Since the bird wasn't moving and was on solid ground, I was guessing the caravan was somewhere nearby, maybe planted under its wing as it curled up. Its muscles all stretched and creaked as it shifted itself into a slightly more comfortable gigantic feathery ball. I didn't move an inch as I waited for who knows how long, until I was sure it was doing what I thought it was. It had fallen asleep. Well, I guess it made sense. It had been flying all night and for who knows how much of the day. It needed to catch up on its rest.

I slowly slid off of its back, still clutching onto its feathers and using them as holds on my descent. There was no way I was going to let myself break a leg on a twenty foot drop. Finally, I landed on the ground, trying to orient myself after having been in the air for so long, and looked around for the caravan. I found it half buried by a gigantic wing.

"Reika. Reika!" I could hear an urgent whisper coming from it, and a few moments later, Riley's face appeared in the window. I crept towards the vehicle, opening the door as silently as I could. Riley pulled me in before I could step a foot inside myself.

"What the hell is going on?!" she half screamed and half whispered. "Where the hell are we?"

"Well, we just got picked up by a giant green bird. No idea where we are, but I'm pretty sure it's not Denver. Last I checked, there were mountains."

"Are you kidding me?! This is totally not good! We're on a mountain in the middle of nowhere, with a giant bird of prey as our host! When I woke up, I didn't know where you and Zach were and… where's Zach?"

"He missed the flight."

"Great. The one person who can control monsters and he's not here when we need him. Shows how reliable he is." There was a rush of activity from the front of the caravan, the old couple pulling themselves out from the front seats.

"Is everybody okay?" Roger asked. He was still just as red faced as ever, and it formed a funny contrast with his ghostly looking wife. "You're all safe, right?"

"Y-yeah, we're fine," I replied. "Zach wasn't on-board when we got…." I wasn't sure where to go from there. I wasn't even sure what they would be thinking, being mortal and all. Their expressions remained stony for a few moments. Then, they began to crack into a wide, archaic smile that probably hadn't been seen since the late seventies.

"They took us, didn't they?"

"Um, who took us?" Riley asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Maria spoke up. "The aliens! I woke up and saw the whole thing! There was an intense light, and we were pulled up into the sky. They even took the car this time! That's a new one for me!"

"Aliens?" Riley looked sceptical, and I kind of got her seeing as we were clearly inside a giant bird's nest.

"Didn't you see the UFO?" Roger asked. "Well, I guess that's understandable. You were asleep the whole time."

"Riley," I began. "How the hell did you sleep through all of that?!"

"Oh come on, I was exhausted!"

"You literally slept through a hurricane! A hurricane!"

"You're exaggerating-"

"There's bits of twisted metal and broken crockery everywhere! There's a bit of broken window right next to the chair, your head was on that spot!"

"I must have just gotten lucky then, huh?" I rolled my eyes, and looked for my rollerblades. I had to dig through piles of debris and broken crockery but I eventually found them, impaling a cabinet door. I quickly dusted them off and searched for any loose screws or wayward splinters while the old couple headed for the door. Riley quickly went over to stop them.

"I don't think that's a good idea!" she quickly said.

"Are you kidding me?" Roger yelled. "We've been waiting patiently all day, and the only thing it's proved is that they aren't hostile. Do you have any idea how rare this is, to actually be on-board an alien spacecraft? Just look outside!" I didn't know what they were seeing, but when I peered out the window, I saw the sleeping face of our feathered air host. Looking right at it now and in broad daylight, it looked really colourful, and the dark blue of its collar had turned to a vibrant indigo. It almost looked peaceful sleeping there, but its face was armoured by some weird bone ridge, and there were weird beads hanging by threads on the side of its face. They almost looked like they were a flamboyant set of ear rings.

Riley looked at me, and I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know what to do, and I wasn't about to offer any suggestions.

"Look, why don't we take a look around first? We don't know what's out there, and you wouldn't want to get hurt and miss the chance to explore a place like this, right? Besides, they might attack anybody who leaves, so we should scout it out first." They didn't look happy, and Maria snapped a picture of the outside using a digital camera anyway. I had no idea what would come out, and I still wasn't sure what they would see when they looked at it. Either way, they let up, going to the crumpled up back seats.

"Don't go too far," Roger said. "If anything looks weird, tell us about it, pronto. We've got a lot more experience than you kids." I rolled my eyes as I strung my blades around my neck by the laces. The ground didn't exactly look like the best place to be rolling around on them. My stomach growled in protest as I stood up again, but food would have to wait.

We crept out, looking around in wonder. The bird's nest was massive, way too massive. I stepped on a loose branch and screamed as the whole thing gave way. I felt Riley grab my arm as I dangled above a huge crevice in the construct. My scream echoed all across the inside of the nest. I had to applaud the creature for some pretty impressive architecture, but it wasn't exactly hazard free for us puny humans. Riley turned towards the bird, hoping that it hadn't heard my scream. It stirred its feathers, opening and shutting its great white beak before drifting off back to sleep. I felt slightly offended. Were my lungs not strong enough to even yawn about?

She pulled me out, and together we clambered to the lip of the nest. To our right was a vast plain, a distant road spreading further away from us, while our left had a few more mountains dotted sparsely among rolling green and yellow plains. Straight ahead of us was the tip of an even taller mountain, and in there a cave large enough to have once housed a smaller, slightly more user friendly version of our kidnapper.

"Why did this thing take us here anyway?" Riley asked.

"I dunno, probably to eat us? Apparently Half-Bloods are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

"If that was it, then don't you think it would have eaten us on the spot instead of take us to its home?"

"Huh. Maybe it's got chicks or something? And it's gonna chew us up, and feed us to them!"

"Don't say that! Especially with that creepy expression on your face, it's freaking me out!" I'm guessing I had a sadistic smile or something on, but it's not like I could help that. It sounded logical and kinda cool, though I wasn't looking forward to being bird food either. "I haven't seen anything like that, and there's no eggs either, so that's probably not it either. Why then?"

We didn't get much further in our questioning when we heard a hissing sound. No, let me rephrase that. We didn't hear a single hissing noise, we heard a whole lot of hissing. Like there was a squad of snakes slithering in sync up sandy shelves, seeking suitable sustenance. My sibilant sentence wasn't far off the mark, as they began to rear their ugly heads from behind a large rock formation. Green and scaly, dressed in blue battle armour, these were not the friendly creatures that Zach had been summoning before.

From the waist up, they looked like women, albeit quite a bit scalier, and with green skin. They came complete with forked tongues and slit eyes like snakes. Coming out from their waists however, were thick green twin snake tails. Their movements looked weird, a bit like they were walking on skis that kept wriggling around.

"Are you kidding me?!" I squealed. Riley ducked, pulling me down with her so we were concealed from view.

"Scythian dracaena," she said. "What the hell are they doing here?"

"Not sure I wanna find out," I replied. "Come on, we have to get the old folk out of here. Who knows what they'll do if they find them."

"I've got them, you scout around for a viable escape, or at least a hiding spot. There's no way they won't check the car." Riley went back to the vehicle while I crept away from the dracaena. I tried not to move the big bird too much, and climbed out the other side of the nest. Now that I was on flat ground, I could finally kick up a storm with my speed, but my head started spinning just thinking about using my power again. I would have to keep it real restrained.

I crept around the nest, peering at them from behind a large protruding log. The biggest, and probably the ugliest dracaena approached the bird. It was holding a big golden trident in one hand and a blue shield in the other. It pointed the trident at the bird and poked it a few times rather forcefully. The bird squawked, coming to life in a flurry of feathers as it looked around in confusion. The movements alone rocked the whole caravan and shook the nest, and just moving its wings in a panic nearly bowled everybody clear off the mountainside, myself included. Its big black eyes blinked as it looked for what woke it up. Its gaze focussed on the dracaena. It calmed down, folding its enormous wings as it sat down peacefully again.

"Ssso, you've returned from your hunt?" I was probably not an expert on reading the emotions of parrots, but the bird definitely glared at her. "The amrita, and the Megiddo ccccircuit? Don't tell me you've failed again." The bird moved its beak right in front of her face. She scrambled/slithered away in terror, the other dracaena crawling to her side to back her up, all of them pointing their tridents up at it. It slowly pulled its beak away and lifted its great wing, revealing the caravan beneath it. The dracaena squealed in delight, climbing in towards it.

That's not good, Riley's still inside, I thought. Distractions were needed. I picked up a fist sized rock. It would have to do. I took careful aim, and chucked it at the lead dracaena. I completely missed, hitting a random log instead. Still had the intended effect, all of them turning to the source. I have to get the timing right…. I kicked off, the heat returning to my legs, accompanied by the fatigue and strain my power brought. I was at the other side of the little plateau of ours and holding another rock before anybody could blink. I chucked it again, and this time I hit my target, a dracaena at the back getting a large black eye as it dented her in the face.

"Ow!" The others all roared and hissed angrily, their attention now focussed on the source of the violence, but I was already gone, at the other side of the big bird. I peered through a gap in the nest, noticing Riley leading the old couple out while the dracaena's attention was turned. I picked up another rock and tossed it at the leading dracaena. Anything to keep them busy. That backfired as soon as it caught the rock, now fully aware of where it came from. It hissed in fury as it stared into my eyes, the rest of them all joining their glares with hers.

"Uh, hi guys!" I said sheepishly, perfectly aware of the fact that the bird now knew where I was, and was roaring angrily as it turned to look at me. The dracaena could wait, the bird was the problem. I wasn't even in the same weight division. I turned heel and ran, ignoring the protests my muscles were making. A few hurled spears landed just a few feet shy of my back, landing with a thud in the hard rock as I moved in zigzags, throwing all of their shots off target.

The angry squawking of the bird sounded like it was right next to me, and echoed all around the mountains. I didn't have to look back to tell the thing had gone airborne, because suddenly it felt like I was running through a tornado, my feet leaving the ground as I tried desperately to grab onto something, anything for leverage. I grabbed a dracaena tail. That went down well for the both of us, me screaming in disgust and the dracaena in fury as she turned to face me in mid-air. Nope. I was not going to apologise. Instead, I pulled my rollerblades off my neck and swung them at her face. She screamed as the wind took her further away and off the mountain, and my attention turned back to the giant roaring bird above me.

It hadn't gotten very high yet, but it was kicking up a storm. I didn't want to wait for a repeat of yesterday's hurricane. The wind finally dropped me just at the edge of the mountain, and I had to hold on for dear life. The bird was slowly approaching, each flap of its wings threatening to send me for a three thousand foot drop.

"Hey, guys, let's talk about this, huh?" I pleaded, trying to stall for time before I could get sent flying to my doom. "Why're you attacking us anyway? It's not like we've done anything wrong. Well, maybe killed a few snakes when we were younger, but come on, every hero has!"

"Where is it? Where is the Megiddo Circuit?" she screamed.

"Ah great, another one," I mumbled to myself. "I mean… what the hell is that? The mega biscuit? Never heard of it!"

"Don't try to lie! We know you have it!" The bird let out an angry roar, and the dracaena had to turn around and calm it down. "Hurry up and kill them! Then you can get your immortality!" That got it ticking. If I had stayed still a second longer, I would have died. I dived to the side (at an all too painful twenty miles per hour) as it suddenly lurched forward, its talons smashing into the rocks where I was just hiding. I'm pretty sure I cleared a good thirty feet with that one dive, and even then I was only inches away from sudden death, the edge of a talon whizzing past my ear.

Okay, I have to admit, that I was definitely freaking out now. My throat had tightened up and I felt like I couldn't breathe. My whole body was hurting after I rolled straight into a giant rock, and my muscles felt like they were turning to jelly. I tried to get up, stumbled, and fell. I got up again, but the ground decided to pull itself away from beneath my feet. I knew it, I'd already used my power way too many times. My body was running on fumes now. And just when things couldn't be getting any worse, the bird turned around to face me. I felt my blood running cold in my veins. I would have had a witty response, I swear, but I couldn't really feel my body anymore, let alone my tongue for me to talk.

"Leave her alone!" someone roared. The bird barely had time to turn its head when something small but stupidly strong collided with it. Its expression was priceless (or whatever it passed for in a bird), its whole face contorting and crumpling in on itself as a single, tiny fist slammed into the side of its face. The whole bird toppled over into a heap of feathers on the ground, the storms from its wings stopped as suddenly as they started.

Riley fell, landing gracefully on the ground (or as graceful as you can get when you're leaving two tiny craters when your feet hit the ground), a thunderous expression on her face, licks of translucent red flames coming off of her, the aura of Ares. Her bronze gloves were on and ready to rock. "Alright, who's next?!"

A dracaena made the mistake of attacking her head on, even after seeing her take out a ten ton canary. It stabbed at her, but she simply stepped to the side, catching the spear in one hand and snapping it like a toothpick. That creature didn't live for much longer, disintegrating in a cloud of yellow dust. The remaining ones all hissed, deciding that one at a time wasn't cutting it. Four of them went around her, while four charged from the front, holding their shields up like a large metallic wall while they stabbed at her.

She clawed and batted most of them away with no problem, and the ones that got through just glanced off of her, though not without leaving a few small cuts. She looked way too pissed off to notice the ones that were sneaking around her. I tried to warn her, but my mouth still refused to work properly. One of the ambushers was holding a weighted net, and decided to go fishing for Half-Blood, chucking it at Riley. Even as it took her down, I knew there was no way something like that would hold her, but while she was still startled they all rushed at her, stabbing and spitting in rage. Blessings of Ares or not, eventually they would start doing some major damage.

Okay, if I've got any hidden power or whatever, now's the time to figure it out! I stood up on wobbly legs, now having to fight back the nausea and rising headaches. Just another one of the symptoms of being a child of Hermes. And then we heard the horn. Nobody seemed to notice, or at least care, about a random car horn. Not until the red 1969 Dodge Charger ran over half of the dracaena. That got everybody's attention.

The car came to a screeching halt, wiping a dracaena off its windscreen like it was a giant, slimy bug. The rest of the dracaena scattered in confusion, and I didn't blame them for being confused. I'd almost forgotten that we were on a mountain road. The car's headlights flashed as two figures stepped out of the front doors.

"Took you long enough!" Riley yelled as she struggled with the net.

"I didn't think you'd be struggling this bad," Zach said as he dusted off his coat, his goggles equipped. "But man, keeping up with you guys wasn't easy. I would have lost you completely if it wasn't for Nekomata." Nekomata, the second figure, smiled, her tail swishing back and forth happily.

"I just followed the funny bird smell until I got here. And that's when I noticed there was something else here too." The dracaena were starting to get back to their feet, just a little dizzy after almost getting turned to roadkill. And even worse, the bird was getting up again, not even fazed by Riley's punch. Zach seemed to get the idea, pulling out a shotgun from the front seat. He whipped it out and pointed it straight down at a groaning dracaena at his feet, firing it straight into its head. It didn't even have time to scream, vaporising instantly.

"Celestial bronze shells," he said as he pumped it. "One shot and you're all dead." They didn't seem to care, all readying their lances to hurl at him. The bird roared, hopping back onto its feet. As soon as it got airborne, Zach started panicking. "Wait, wait! You want amrita, right?" The bird stopped, furling its wings again. "They told you that they wanted amrita, right? If you attack us, I can't give you any, right? A-and if they attack me, you'll never find out where I hid it either!" Immediately, the bird turned on its own allies, roaring at them in rage. They were completely petrified, frozen in position before slowly lowering their weapons. If we were scared of the bird, the dracaena were completely terrified of it.

He slowly edged away from the car, Nekomata eyeing them all with such melodramatic suspicion that I couldn't take her seriously. Riley was still struggling with the net, but now that everybody was at least trying to be calm, I was seriously hoping she wouldn't get out just yet. He edged closer to me, keeping his gun firmly pointed at the dracaena.

"What the hell is amrita?" I asked.

"Ambrosia. The stuff you guys eat."

"Why does it want ambrosia?!"

"I'll explain later. Do you have some?"

"Yeah, inside the caravan, in my backpack…."

"I'm getting some, we need to show it to the bird."

"What? Um, okay, sure I guess…." He headed for the caravan, still eyeing the dracaena suspiciously, though he probably didn't need to with the bird's ever watchful eye lording over us all. None of us was willing to risk getting it angry. Except maybe Riley. He returned holding a bunch of ambrosia squares in his hands, my pack slung over his shoulder. He held them up to the bird.

"See? This is what you're looking for, right? And the nectar too." He clasped them all in one hand while he pulled out a flask from my bag with the other. He unscrewed it, holding it up too. The bird slowly dipped its head, peering at them. I'd read somewhere that birds didn't have a sense of smell, but this one was definitely sniffing something. It seemed to be satisfied, squawking happily. "You can have it all. All of it. And then, these dracaena can hold up their part of the bargain. Immortality. Blessings of all kinds. The chance to be like Garuda." The bird was looking at the snakes expectantly. If a snake's complexion could change, then that was what was happening now, their colour changing from toxic green to a sickly pale colour.

"Um, yesssss, of coursssse! I forgot, we left it with Nene, she can give you your immortality!"

"What, you mean this Nene?" Nekomata asked, opening the boot of the car. She pulled another dracaena halfway out of the boot, this one slightly smaller than the others, tied up with thick ropes and gagged, probably Nene. She looked pretty scratched up, like an army of angry kittens had tried to attack her. "That's not what she said, just so you know. She said that you were lying about all of it. That you don't have any way to give this guy immortality, and you just wanted to use its power to get at us."

"And then you were going to turn it into a giant thanksgiving dinner so you wouldn't have to deal with it anymore," Zach finished.

"Y-you can't prove that, you can't prove anything!" a dracaena squealed.

"Oh really? I can't" He pulled out a mobile phone that I hadn't seen before and pressed play:

*static, followed by the sound of guns being shifted through*

Zach: Good idea, there's got to be a good reason for snakes and birds to be together… okay, why're you here?

Nene: Wh-why would I t-t-tell you?

Zach: Because if you don't, we'll feed you to that giant bird that we've been trailing, that's why!

Nene: No! Don't do that! Please, please! Ssssuparna won't have any mercy!

Zach: Aha, so you don't like it either, right? Then wouldn't you like me to try and get rid of it for you? *long pause* really, it's better than me threatening you, right? You don't look like the other big, scary snake women. You're scared, and not of us either. If you tell us everything you know, we promise we'll get rid of the big scary birdie.

Nene: … You promissse you won't tell the other dracaena?

Zach: I swear, I won't tell another soul. It will be our little secret.

Nene: Okay…. The bird is called Ssssuparna. None of us know where it came from, but it wants to be a hero for sssome reason. The othersss told it that they would make it a hero if it could get sssomething for them, and wanted it to find your friends and the Megiddo Cccircuit. In return, we would give it honour and immortality.

Nekomata: That's impossible, only gods can give immortality, right?

Nene: But Sssuparna doesn't know that. It thinks we'll help him.

Zach: *unintelligible, probably bad language* And what happens once its done?

Nene: I don't know… but nothing good. The othersss are ssscared of it too.

*Recording cuts*

The other dracaena all groaned in exasperation. Apparently, this wasn't the first time that Nene had messed up. Nene tried to scream at him through her gag. Zach looked back at her with a mischievous grin.

"I kept my promise. I didn't tell them anything. You did with this recording, and Nekomata too. The part about cooking Suparna, I just kind of guessed." It roared in fury. "Oh come on, I'm human, you expected me to be honest? And I didn't tell another soul. Not a human one at least." That did it. The dracaena roared in fury, charging for Zach, but they could barely take a few steps before Suparna roared, unfurling its wings in rage.

Buffets of wind bowled them all over. One of the more unfortunate ones tried to stand up again, just to find itself face to face with Suparna's giant beak. It pecked like a lightning bolt, its head darting to the ground and swallowing the dracaena whole before I could even blink. It did it two more times and two more dracaena disappeared from existence. Most of them wised up and started running. Two of them tried to fight, but they got slapped off the mountain with a giant wing, disappearing from view in the distance.

"Right, round two!" Riley roared, finally tearing her way out of the net, fists clenched and ready to rumble.

"No, we're done here!" Zach yelled, pulling her away from the rampaging bird.

"What? But I can-"

"No, you can't, we have to leave, now! Reika!"

"Right, I'm up already…." I stood up on wobbly feet, heading to the car. Nekomata slammed the boot shut, and then disappeared. We all somehow crammed ourselves into the front seats, and Zach immediately floored it. I was wondering where he got the car, or when he learned to drive for that matter, but that was definitely the least of our worries with the storm that was starting up again behind us. We had to be killing the suspension with all the bumps and potholes we were driving over. Especially after I saw him heading for the very edge of the plateau. I couldn't see what was over on the other side of that drop, and I didn't want to know how far the drop was to the ground.

"Hey, Zach, what're you doing?!" Riley asked.

"Shut up and watch." He shifted up a gear, the whole machine roaring into life as it sped towards the cliff, and finally launched into the air. I screamed. He screamed. We all screamed. Somewhere between all the screaming, he pulled out the Megiddo Circuit, pressing a few buttons in a panic. Two ghostly figures appeared on either side of the car, looking in through the windows. An aura on the left, and a ventus on the right. The aura waved excitedly at us until the ventus violently nudged her to focus. Or went through her or something seeing as his elbow went partway through her arm when he did.

The two of them flew down beneath the car, disappearing from sight. I know you're not meant to look down when you're somewhere really high up, but this time I couldn't help it after seeing them disappear below us. I peered down at what little I could see. The road looked like it was a million miles away, and what made matters worse was that we were going to miss it, instead heading for an even higher drop a few metres off course. And then, the impossible started to happen. The car started turning, in mid – air no less. Just a gentle tilt at first, a slight slant that wasn't too hard to believe. And then, the whole car was suddenly veering off its course, heading for the road instead. Even the fall didn't seem as steep anymore. The ground was still heading for us way too fast though, and lo and behold, there were two massive trucks that just so happened to be way too close to our target area. I forced myself back against my seat. If we crash landed, I didn't want to be the one idiot who wasn't ready for it. I gripped the dashboard and shut my eyes.

We hit the ground with a crash, every bone in my body jarring from the impact. I felt like I was being tossed around in a giant washing machine, and the car creaked and groaned with a cry of twisted metal. I couldn't see what was happening, but the car felt like it was veering violently side to side, and it was only a matter of time before the whole thing tore itself apart.

I cracked my eyes open slightly to see the car was driving almost on its side, moving on just two wheels. Then, with a lurch, the whole thing tipped back onto four wheels, jerking us one more time before Zach skidded to a halt on the side of the road, a few metres away from the small truck convoy. We stopped for a solid five minutes, none of us saying a word while we all caught our breath, trying to understand what had just happened. I guess I finally realised that we were a little bit too cramped, and awkwardly climbed to the back seat, apologising as I accidentally kicked Riley in the mouth.

I looked through the rear view mirror. We had just fallen down more than a hundred metre drop, and we were still intact. There was still a storm kicking up on top of the mountain, a localised tornado towering up to the sky. There was no way nobody had noticed it, but I guess I couldn't underestimate the mist. I swear I could see a dracaena getting tossed through the air, but we were too far away to really tell.

"Zach," Riley began. Now that her breathing had become more regular again, her gloves were fading away from her hands, the red aura she was surrounded in disappearing. "I didn't know that you could drive. Where did you get the car from?"

"Well, I can't really. No licence or anything. But you learn these things when it's a life or death situation. You interested in General Lee over here?" he asked, stroking the steering wheel affectionately. "I had to steal it. You guys were getting away, so I hotwired the thing and chased after you. When you were getting away, I got Nekomata to follow you by scent."

"General Lee?" I asked.

Yup, General Lee. Thank bad television for that. Anyway, the important thing is that you guys are okay. I was scared that I was too slow."

"Oh no worries, I just nearly got blasted off a mountain," I said. "Riley, are the old man and woman…."

"They should be alright. I sent them down a path that was pretty much safe and sent an Iris message for some help. They'll probably think that aliens are dropping them somewhere."

"I'm sorry I couldn't it earlier," Zach said. It took a while before I realised he was talking to me. "I don't know, it didn't look like a monster to me when I saw it. I just… well… if I'd known sooner, I would have been more prepared."

"I get it, the mist sucks," I said. I know that he said he couldn't see through the mist, but now I'd finally seen how bad it was. Without his goggles, he'd be pretty much blind.

"Anyway, we've got to get out of here, quick. We're a little bit off track, but as long as we don't run into cops, we'll be there in two days. Let's just hope there's a gas station on the way." The engine didn't sound too happy about hitting the road again after that adventure, and there were definitely a few parts that were going to need changing afterwards. It didn't take long after that before Riley cried out in distress.

"My bag!" she yelled. "I didn't see it in the caravan! My dagger, my food, spare clothes, I left them all there!"

"Sorry, I didn't see them on the way here," Zach apologised. "I only managed to find my shotgun, and a few charms and drachmas. It was too dark to see anything else, and I didn't have that much time. Well, at least I've still got some of Reika's stuff."

"Well that's helpful, having Reika's bag but nearly no ambrosia because you thought it would be cool to feed it to the parrot!"

"Well it's not like I actually gave it some! I just kind of dropped a few, that's all."

"Well that makes everything better, huh?"

"Hey, guys," I said. "Instead of arguing, can we please get something to eat instead? I feel like I haven't eaten in a month." I wasn't trying to, but I heard a slight tremble in my voice and I could feel a solitary tear running down my cheek. I must have looked horrible too, because as soon as Riley turned to look at me, her expression softened considerably.

"You've been using your power nonstop, haven't you? Yeah, we have to take a break and eat. We'll collapse and die if we don't." I gave thanks to every single god I knew in my head as we headed to the side of the road again for a lunch break, and tore out a takeaway box from my bag. We'd remembered to get food from the ME A T restaurant before we were attacked. The fries were everywhere, the sauce tasted horrendous, and there was only one box of takeaway after losing the other bags, but I gobbled down my portion in seconds, and Riley had to struggle with her food to stop me from getting her beef jerky. Zach must have been just as hungry as me, because he wolfed down his own at near light speed, and then rested his head on the steering wheel in exhaustion.

"Zach, are you okay?" Riley asked. He waved her comment away absently.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied. "I'm just exhausted."

"Hey, when was the last time you slept?"

"When we were on the caravan."

"What?! You were driving this whole time just to find us?"

"Non-stop."

"Aww, you were worried about us!" I teased. I could see his face turning red through the rear view mirror.

"I was not! You guys know about the Megiddo Circuit, and all its limits. I couldn't let monsters learn about that!"

"Oh come on, just admit, you didn't want to be lonely, am I right?" Zach sighed, but didn't respond after that. "You gonna fess up? Eh Zach? Huh?" He didn't say anything. I pulled myself forward a little to see what was wrong. His eyes were shut, and his chest was rising and falling peacefully. His face was hard to see from the angle I was at, but I could see the corners of his lips tilted up in a small smile.

"Wow, he really was up all night," Riley said. "He must have been really scared if he wouldn't even sleep till he found us." I furrowed my eyebrows at him. He didn't exactly look comfortable. I reclined his chair and pushed his head back so he would be less painful to look at.

"This sucks. Our driver's passed out, and we don't have much time," Riley said.

"Why? It's not like we're on a time limit or anything."

"You already forgot? The Ukobach. It's still after us, and it's been three days. By now he's probably defrosted, and he's gonna be mad."

"Oh yeah, that guy…."

"Reika, don't let him freak you out. I can take him, no problem, if I can just get close to him."

"What, within cigar distance for him to try cook us again? I don't doubt you, but maybe we should try and avoid him altogether?" Riley nodded, but it looked like she wanted a rematch anyway. I resigned myself to our fate, and curled up in the back seat. My stomach was still fighting against me, but at least now it wasn't painful to just move. "I'm leaving the first watch up to you. You're the only one of us that actually got a full night's sleep."

"If I see any old men smoking cigars and setting trees on fire, I'll tell you," she assured me. I wanted to reply, but now that my limbs were finally given the chance to rest, I could feel myself going into hibernation. My head felt fuzzy, and my vision was starting to blur. Just before I shut my eyes, I saw Riley turning around and smiling at me. I tried to smile back, and then my eyes closed, and the world went black.