And here's another chapter put together in a day!

I've been sitting on doing this one for a while - I've had part of this chapter (which's name I am quite proud of, by the way) written for a while, and I've finally decided to write around it.

So read on- oh, what's this? A review?

5ri88le: thankyou for the compliment and becoming the first-ever review on this story! I'll come visit your Teen-Ink account soon!
That's right! That was the elusive Books_And_Scribbles I've been telling you guys about for a while now! Teen Ink doesn't get a lot of views, but it has things other than fanfics on there too - original stories, articles on various things, poems, and probably more that I can't remember at this point in time - so have a look there if you'd like to!

And, finally, onto the actual chapter!

So, she would admit she was surprised when she nearly fell off the cliff, but she was happy that no-one had been impaled.

Oh, wait, what was that sticking out of her shoulder?
The only thought she'd had in that moment that was relevant to her situation was Welp, this'll make for a good story at my next school, as most of the others were wondering about completely other things (Like how does she have such a good haircut? And she's got a shield better than Cap's giant metal frisbee, followed by a mental note to test a Furby prank she had in the works on the others who had come to their aid, which was over written by can I steal Percy's sword to cut off Rosebud's tail? And other such things).

There was a roar of "For Zeus!" from the girl with the amazing shield and brilliant haircut – who was also holding a giant spear that's handle (pole? Shaft?) had to be at least two metres long – as she jabbed at his head with it. He swatted it aside with his hand – actually, no, not a hand. It was a large orange paw with very large claws that sparked against her shield.

And just then Sol registered she was indeed falling, as she realised this was happening in almost slow-motion.

Her sight had deceived her. Just. Fucking. Great.

She swore aloud too – a long string of creative swearing that she'd learnt from her father and Natasha (when she'd been undercover as 'Natalie'), swapping between English and Russian because that was the language Natasha swore the most in.
Sol had gotten a few off Clint too – mainly creative loop-hole ones, but swear-words nonetheless.

Back to reality.

She reached over and snapped the spike in her shoulder, separating the tip in her shoulder from the majority of the large projectile, which fell into the ocean below.

She flung her wings as wide as she could, creating as much air-resistance as possible – her four-metre-wide wings (which resulted in an eight-metre wingspan) provided a lot of it.

She flapped them once, twice, thrice, four times (fourice?), as was now flying – or rather gliding. She turned her dive to certain death into a swoop which just brushed against the tip of one of the waves, and looped back around towards Westover Hall.

The whirring of helicopter blades grew, before becoming almost deafening.

She looked down, using her 'supreme vision' to find said helicopter, and she did find it.
It was three metres under her.

Oh god, I'm fucked, she thought bitterly, before remembering that there was nothing stopped her from going faster (except, you know, the Sound Barrier), so she did.

She landed somewhat safely, considering her feet had gone straight into Thorn's face, causing her to go into a baseball-esque slide.
Well, it was his face. The rest of his body was a giant, orange lion with the tail she'd noticed earlier.

Then she noticed the giant weeds on the floor, which had large tears straight through them.

She looked over to where Percy, Bianca, Nico, and the blonde girl who'd snuck into the dance earlier were standing.

"Cut off his tail!" she yelled at them, breaking into whatever conversation they were in the middle of, while pulling her Glocks out of her suit jacket – they had fire hand-painted on them (the Glocks, not the jacket), as it turned out Sol wasn't half-bad at painting – and she shot a bullet at Thorn. "Rosebud!" she yelled, and fire another round. "Yeah, that's right! Over here- oh fuck oh shit go over the damn cliff!"
That last part was brought about because when the large lion-scorpion-monster-thing turned on her, showing off his fangs, and pouncing on her, she'd realised exactly what it was like fighting with minimal adrenaline.

That problem was fixed quickly though.

Then a solution to the most immediate problem surfaced – if whoever (or whatever) had summoned the weeds hadn't already died to this thing, could they summon something flammable?

She kept that to herself, however, as she was hit by another spike – this one in the leg – and was forced to limp towards cover, firing more rounds of bullets at the monster as she retreated.

The blonde looked at her, stormy grey eyes calculating, before registering the poison-laced spike in her leg.
"It fuggin' hurts," Sol said. "You got anything to help with it?"
"Yeah – just hold on for one second," she said.
Percy sighed. "Sol, this is Annabeth Chase. Annabeth, this is-"
"Solana Stark – Sol is preferred though, right?" Annabeth said, as if reciting a fact before double-checking with whomever had given it to her.
"Yeah – now on that medica stuff?"
"Of course – Bianca, could you look in that backpack? I'm gonna need you to grab the thermos and zip-lock bag of what looks like brownies."
Bianca did so, handing Annabeth the things.
"Percy – go cut off Rosebud's tail for me?" Sol asked, right as her vision began to blur. "I think you've got plenty of adrenaline left."
"No – I'm going to stand guard. Make sure you're not impaled again, etcetera," he said stubbornly.
She half-shrugged, wincing as the pain spiked (Ha-ha, brilliant pun, I'm a genius), and Percy left her field of view.

Annabeth handed Sol the thermos.
"It's nectar – food of the gods," She explained. "If you're a demigod, you'll be able to drink it."
"If not?" Bianca prompted, clearly worried (Nico was going through his Mythomagic cards in Sol's peripheral vision, checking to see if he had all of them).
"If you consume nectar or ambrosia – the brownies – and you're fully mortal, you'll burn up," the blonde said.
Sol unscrewed the cap, and caught the scent of cheeseburgers – melted cheese, burger, bun, everything.
She downed it, and discovered it tasted like cheeseburgers, too.
The pain in her leg and shoulder eased, and she downed the rest of it.
"How people can make a liquid taste like cheeseburgers, I will never know," she stated, before standing up, a little wobblily.

Annabeth's eyes widened, and she yelled "Get down!"
The urgency in her voice got Sol to pay attention to the monster, which had turned towards us, having previously been occupied by the other two.

Sol noticed he wasn't putting weight on his front-right paw – he was limping.
Good.

She hit the floor, and her wings disappeared into whatever pocket dimension they disappeared into when she didn't want them visible to make her a smaller target.

The volley of spikes went over them, and there were several thunks as they collided with something (Sol later discovered that 'something' was Percy's shield).
There was a thwack and a yelp and Grover landed next to Percy.

"Yield," Thorn said.
"Yeah, nah," Sol replied insolently as she got up. "Fuck off."

In hindsight, that was both a Bad Idea and why she was the target for his next round of spikes – they somehow got the same spots the previous ones had, as well as others.

She stumbled, her vision blurred, and hurled a last fireball at the lion-scorpion-catapult-monster standing ten metres in front of her before collapsing.

When she awoke, she was surprised to feel a warmth that she was certain was golden in colour (don't ask her about how it was gold. She didn't know), but even more-so to see a face about thirty-centimetres away from her own, which had chin-length golden-blonde hair, blue eyes and dark skin.

Also a nose.

And she wanted to punch something at this moment in time.

And, her mind recalled, noses were fun to punch (and, though she wouldn't admit it, this particular nose would look better punched).

So, her fist connected with the nose of the face in front of her, and the body it was connected to recoiled backwards, the hand that was connected to the same body was brought up and pinched it as golden blood dribbled from it.

"You're welcome," he said.
"Well, I haven't said 'thankyou'," she retorted, before smirking, "but I believe the broken nose is enough."

She sat up, and registered that her Glocks had been put back in her suit jacket as their reassuring weight was there.
She looked around as she got up: she was in a clearing, presumably in the forest next to Westover Hall, and there was still snow everywhere (she wasn't cold – that was normal; she had a higher natural body temperature than most, meaning that she also had a higher tolerance for colder temperatures). The clearing was occupied by (possibly) over a hundred teenaged girls, who seemed to be laughing at the guy Sol had just punched. Percy, Grover and the girl with the great haircut were there too – though Percy's sword and the girl's shield and spear had disappeared.

She realised everyone was waiting for something – what that was exactly, Sol didn't know.
She spoke.
"Don't expect me to spring into a song-and-dance just because I'm in a clearing full of teenagers," she said, sarcastic humour having returned (not that it had left in the first place), "though I would like someone to tell me exactly what happened, and maybe also explain the ugly-yellow Maserati." She winced. "Yellow is a terrible colour for it. Maybe invest in some orange?"

The girls started laughing again, while the guy who'd been suffering from a broken nose not five seconds before (which had spontaneously healed) began to glow.
"If you would like to live, I'd suggest you stop laughing," he growled.
Sol raised a disbelieving eyebrow and turned to face him. "Congratulations, you've survived what most important and humourless people cannot; the Stark Family Sass."
"I have humour –"
"Evidently not a very good sense of it, as it seems."
He glared at her.
"I believe we weren't going to kill anyone today?" one of the girls told him, with the finality that suggested that it was a reminder, not a question.

Sol grinned triumphantly, and he turned his attention to the girl.
"And now, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."
"These demigods will also need a ride," the girl (who was apparently his sister) said, gesturing to Percy, the girl with the shield, Nico and Sol. "Some of Chiron's campers."
"No problem!" he said, checking them out – Sol had jogged over to the others while the siblings had been talking. "Let's see… Thalia, right? I've heard all about you."
The girl with the good haircut blushed – this was Thalia apparently. "Hi, Lord Apollo."
"Zeus' girl, yes? Makes you my half-sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? glad you're back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time –"
"Brother," his sister said. "You should get going."
"Oh, right," Apollo said. then looked at Percy. "Percy Jackson?"
"Yeah. I mean… yes, sir." Percy replied, carefully.

It was at this point in time that Sol realised that to most other people, Apollo would've appeared as a very hot guy. To her, though, not so much.
Perhaps it had something to do with the fact she'd read up on mythologies after Loki's invasion – just in case the other pantheons of gods were real, too – and Apollo had been a 'Lady Pleaser', though he'd been depicted as having same-sex partnerships (see Hyacinthus' tale). Sol, at this point in time, identified as being asexual – it didn't mean she wouldn't have relationships, just that that was her orientation at that moment.
So, after a complete dive off-topic and questioning her own sexual orientation in the back of her mind, she realised they were getting into a large yellow school bus that was taking up the space that Apollo's Maserati had taken up before she'd dived into her mind.

One of the Hunters grabbed her pack and Apollo offered to help her with it. Her eyes flashed murderously as she recoiled from him.
Sol squeezed past them, finding herself a seat near the front. She leant against the window and watched as the Hunters piled into the bus, all going to the back so they'd be as far away from the guys as possible.
When there was a gap in the crowd – which so happened to be between the last Hunter and Percy – Sol moved a few rows back, and was joined by Thalia.
"What did Apollo mean by 'Zeus' kid'?" Sol asked her.
"My father is Zeus," Thalia replied. "Simple as that."
"Oh-kay. So, aerokinesis, electrokinesis, or do you have both?"
Thalia stared at Sol, bewildered and confused, and Sol sighed.
"Aerokinesis – manipulation of air. Electrokinesis – manipulation of electricity," she explained. "I guess you could have weather manipulation too, but who knows, really."
"I can summon lighting bolts, so kind-of electrokinesis, I guess," Thalia said. "Going by the amount of ambrosia and nectar the Hunters gave you, you're a demigod. Do you know who your godly parent is?"
"Nope," Sol replied, popping the 'p'. "I guess she doesn't really care, considering the amount of nights Pepper and Happy were taking care of me while Dad was out drinking."
"You might be a child of Aphrodite?" Thalia suggested.
"Maybe, but if Mom was the goddess of beauty, love and procreation I wouldn't be able to do this –" Sol summoned a small ball of fire, threw it in the air, and caught it again before extinguishing it – "would I?"
"I mean, it could be Hephaestus, considering your father and all –"

"Daughter of Zeus!" Apollo called. "Lord of the sky. Perfect."
The two girls looked up, and realised that Apollo was asking Thalia to drive the bus.
"Oh, no," Thalia refused. "No thanks."
"C'mon!" Apollo said. "How old are you?"
Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."
Apollo tapped his lips. "You're fifteen, almost sixteen."
"How do you know that?"
"Hey, I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You'll turn sixteen in about a week."

Thalia was about to retort when Sol broke in. "Hey, she doesn't want to, so she doesn't have to." She gestured at Grover. "Why don't you let someone who wants to drive have a go?"
Thalia shot her a thankful look.
Sol gave her new friend a no worries smile.
Apollo looked at her, stricken. "But he's too furry!"
"I didn't mean Grover explicitly – Percy might be able to drive, you didn't ask," Sol pointed out. "Use you prophecy powers – if Thalia drives, for all we know she could crash the sun into a lake and we'd all be screwed, but if Percy drives, he might get us to our destination safely. We don't know! You do."
Apollo didn't want to take no for an answer.
"Maine to Long Island's a really short trip – you don't have to worry! Besides, Thalia is Zeus' daughter, he won't blast her out of the sky, unlike the last kid I trained."

Thalia began to protest, but her efforts were futile.

Sol went and sat behind her up the front.
Thalia sat down in the driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles went white, and Apollo hit a button on the dashboard which made a sign pop up at the top of the windscreen – Sol was pretty sure it said WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER.

"Take it away!" Apollo told Thalia. "You're gonna be a natural!"

After making sure everyone was seated, Apollo began to give Thalia pointers like 'Speed equals heat,' and stuff.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked Thalia.
"Nothing," Thalia said shakily. "N-nothing is wrong." Her body language and tone said otherwise.

She pulled back on the wheel, which tilted and the bus lurched upwards so quickly that if Sol hadn't been prepared and steeled herself against the sudden G-Force, her neck would've snapped.

"Slower!" Apollo told Thalia.
"Sorry!" she apologised. "I've got it under control!"
Her tone and body language, again, said otherwise.

There was a minute of stunned silence in which everyone composed themselves, before Percy broke it;
"Thalia, lighten up on the accelerator."
"I've got it, Percy," Thalia said through gritted teeth.
She kept the accelerator floored.
"Loosen up," Percy told her.
"I'm loose!" Thalia forced out.
She was so stiff she could've been a painted version of one of Sol's larger wood-carving projects.
"He's right, you know," Sol agreed with the younger boy. "Loosen up."

She was about to reply when Apollo cut her off;
"We need to veer south for Long Island – hang a left."
Thalia jerked the wheel, and there was a yelp from Grover as Percy crashed into him.
"The other left," Apollo suggested.
Thalia jerked the wheel the other way, which sent Percy crashing into Sol.
"Sorry," he said.
"'Tis fine," the Stark heiress told him as he moved back to his seat next to Grover.

I need to help her with this, Sol thought.
She got up.

"Which button opens the door?" She asked, and Apollo looked at her as if she was mad (she was – blame her father's genes).
She repeated her question.
"That one –" Apollo pointed to a red button with the word DOOR marked on it in black – "but why would you?"
"My enhanced skill set consists of: A, pyrokinesis, B, fire-resistance, C, being able to lift immensely heavy weights while using my fourth power; flight," Sol told him, raising a finger for each ability she mentioned. "Now open the door."

Apollo did so.

She jumped out it.

Free-fall is an amazing feeling – if you're not currently scared shitless from the height you're falling from and everything that could go wrong, that is.
Sol didn't worry about the ways she could die; she'd done free-fall many times before.

The wind whipped at her face, and she was reminded of the Battle of New York, when Tony had fallen from the steadily-closing portal as she closed her eyes to preserve the delicate organs that lay within her eye-sockets, and made a mental note to invest in a visor that would protect her eyes, grant her full-access to her peripheral vision, and hopefully to access a HUD (Heads-Up Display) and JARVIS.

The sky was starting to look black – they were currently above the clouds, where 'Cruising Level' for most planes was.
She couldn't help but admire the view.

"Snap out of it, Sol," she told herself, though she could barely hear her own voice over the rush of the wind. "Get your wings out and go."

And she did.
Her wings slipped into reality, and she blazed across the sky – sub-consciously summoning fire as she went, creating a fiery tail behind her, much like that of a comet – after the bright yellow and burning-hot school bus that she had just been in.

She got underneath it as it dived, nearly knocking herself out in the process, and pushed upwards against its downward pull.

Sol made the mistake of opening her eyes to see what was below them, which just happened to be a small, snow-covered New England town.
Or, at least it used to be snow-covered.
Before her eyes, the snow and ice covering the roofs, lawns, trees, roads, side-walks - everything.
Small plumes of smoke were popping up all over the town.

Sol now had two jobs:
The first and most immediate one was stopping Thalia from crashing the sun-bus.
The second one was to stop this town from burning down.

She tapped into her pyrokinesis, sensing the small fires, and pushing them down, smothering them mentally while she was physically occupied.

The bus (finally) came out of its dive and went up instead of down, making Sol's second job complete as the fires were blown out by a sudden burst of cold air.

Sol detached herself from the underside of the bus and decided to fly beside it, in full view of those inside.

The strain of the wind on her face was less now, as Thalia had decided to 'loosen up', as Percy and Sol had been telling her earlier.

Thalia slowed down as they reached what Sol assumed to be the cost of Long Island, and she searched it for a place to land, finding a large valley (which was where they seemed to be aiming for) which had what seemed to be a whole summer camp in it, complete with woods, a beach, a dining pavilion (with no roof - weird), twelve cabins arranged in a U formation, a lake, which seemed to be for canoeing, and an amphitheatre with a firepit in it.

They were only a few hundred metres away.
Thalia should be braking.
She wasn't braking.

Sol flew around to the front of the bus, put her hands on it and flew against the bus's engine (or whatever it ran on).

It pitched forwards at a forty-five degree angle as Sol reached what she was pretty sure was a hundred kilometres per hour (or sixty-two point one-three-seven miles per hour for those who use the imperial system) and crashed into the lake.

Steam billowed upwards, sending several frightened young women scrambling out of the water with half-woven baskets.

The bus bobbed to the surface, as did Sol and several capsized, half-melted canoes.

Has anyone amongst my readers ever owned or heard of the Furby?
For those who don't know what it is, it's an electronic toy first released in '98 that has haunted households ever since. It resembles a furry bird.
If that does not satisfy you, either look it up, or watch Matt Rose's two videos on Furby horror stories (and horror stories from other similar toys) that are on YouTube.

Anyway, Sol has a fascination with how scared she can make others of them that will shine later on in the story when she really lets her inner Weasley Twins out.

And, really, letting a fifteen year old who doesn't know how to drive drive a school bus full of teenagers - semi-immortal or otherwise - when said fifteen year old really doesn't want to just proves that Apollo is more than just a dumbass: he's irresponsible (which is how Artemis really describes him sooooo... *shrug*)

So, review before the next chapter is up? Please? I... I want to read more...

-Wolf

(PS: The pizza place gave us 'cheesy bread' instead of garlic bread with our pizza tonight.
I'm ace.
We like garlic bread.
You never get between an ace and their garlic bread [or cake].

The moral of the story: if you work at a pizza place, never forget the garlic bread in an order that asked for garlic bread. They may not be as forgiving as I am.

Thankyou for listening to my TED Talk.)