A/N: Disclaimer : What I own... is none. My Original Characters, however, is a different story.

~0~

When A Guy Tried To Kill You For Eating Chicken

~0~

Ray stepped out of the shower, sighing. He really wasn't looking forward to another day of school. At least Percival was there, and he was about to learn Latin with Mr. Brunner, so it was somewhat bearable.

As he walked around his room and pick up various clothing to wear for today, his mind wandered back to yesterday. He had no idea what happened, and he was starting to believe that it was all a dream. Almost.

Ray looked down at his thumb. Yesterday, there was a cut there. It was shallow, sure, but it was pretty long. And then it just disappeared without a trace after he put it in water. Also, there was that weird spear thing. A trident. What was that? Not to mention mom's boss. What was up with her, too? Were they all related? And why now? He had always washed wounds with water… was that particular tap in Sweet on America magical or something?

He shook his head, picking up his black hoodie. Look, he was going to override his brain in school today, and he was determined that he wasn't going to start from home.

Ray stopped midway from putting on his black hoodie. Oh yeah, they were about to go to Montauk after school. That thought recovered his mood, and he grinned the whole time while wearing his clothes.

~0~

In the small dining room, their mom was frying some bacons and eggs, humming softly to herself. Percy was on the table, munching a piece of toast caked with (Ray wasn't surprised) blueberry jam. None of them seemed to notice him yet, so Ray just took a seat beside his little brother.

Ray scanned the table. There were a few slices of toast, at least a dozen bacons, and a plate of scrambled eggs. He just wanted to eat a piece of bread. He wasn't hungry at all.

Ray looked up. "So... what do I get for breakfast?"

It was then Percy noticed who arrived. "Oh! Good morning, Ray!"

Ray ruffled Percy's hair. "Good morning to you too, Percy."

As Percy was busy trying to talk to Ray while eating at the same time (Ray had a hard time trying to keep a straight face), mom turned around and put some bacon on Ray's plate, two slices of toast, and some scrambled eggs. She then ruffled their hair lovingly.

Ray stared at his plate, picking up his fork, trying hard not to sigh. He wasn't hungry, and he was definitely not famished. Still… mom took her time to bother with him by cooking him breakfast, so the least he could do was eat it.

Ray just finished his first bacon stripe when mom poured milk into his glass. "So..." Mom drawled, sitting down and playing with her own food, still wearing her apron. "We'll be going to Montauk after you finished school."

Ray nodded, but he didn't say anything. By the way mom talked and acted, it was obvious that she had something in mind, and that "something" wasprobably something she didn't like. And by extension, there was a chance he wouldn't like it either.

"I've been thinking..." Mom bit her lip. "And... after we go to Montauk, Ray... you'll..."

"Yes...?" Ray raised an eyebrow and took a sip from his milk.

"You'll be going... to a... summer camp."

Mom spent a minute trying to calm Ray down after he choked on his milk while Percy freaked out.

"What's with the sudden invitation?" Ray accused, face still red because of the sudden loss of oxygen.

"Well, honey... I think you need to go to this summer camp," mom said softly.

"Why?"

"It's... it's complicated, Ray." Mom sighed. "It's for people like you."

"You mean freaks like me?" Ray raised an eyebrow. "No offense, Percy."

"Look, dear... it's just for summer. I think that you-"

"Mom, I don't care about whatever summer camp this is," Ray cut her off, "Just... why did you do something concerning me without even asking me first?"

Mom bit her lip. Ray could tell from speaking to mom on a daily basis that she was trying (and failing) to coax him into this camp. To think she actually enlisted him without his own permission…

It was something small, sure, but she still did something behind Ray's back. Look, truth was, his family were the only people in the world he could trust. He tried making friends once with the kids in his school, but it failed miserably, and he was not keen on trying again any time soon. Percival still partially disliked him, and the only reason they tolerated each other was because they had nobody else at school. He hated being betrayed like this. And by his mom, of all people…

Ray shook his head, and quickly finished his breakfast ("breakfast" being a single toast). After that, he picked up his backpack, and smiled at Percy, ruffling his hair. He hoped that when Percy grew up more, he didn't experience the things that he had.

Without another word par from "I'll see you later, Percy," he left for the school bus.

~0~

Percy looked at his mom. "Mom, why are you crying?"

His mom wiped something from his cheek, watching his older brother enter the bus. "I... I think I just made a mistake, but… I don't know.

Percy just nodded and continued to quietly eat his toast. He could see that something made Ray angry. Percy hoped that his brother's anger weren't aimed at him. But he never heard of a kid being angry to his parent, either, just the other way around, so... he didn't really know.

"Mom," Percy called quietly, looking up. "Why do you want Ray to leave? Do you hate him? Please don't hate him..."

Percy couldn't help it. He started crying. He just couldn't stand at the thought of someone hating his brother. Ray was his best friend and his idol. His older brother. By all means… Ray was the only one he had. Mom could try, and he loved her for it, but only Ray actually understood things from their perspective. The one that he could always turn to when mom wasn't around, and the one that he could always talk to about those weird things happening around them. Ray was… was his only friend.

No, no! Things shouldn't start this way! Montauk was a place of fun, they shouldn't be fighting before going there.

Percy barely noticed, too upset about their soon-to-be-coming trip, but mom stood up from her seat the moment he started crying. She took him in her arms, and Percy just latched on, sobbing to her shoulder.

"P-please don't h-hate him..." Percy hiccuped, still crying. "H-he's my big brother... p-please don't hate him..."

He didn't hear his mom's useless attempts to soothe him, didn't feel his mom's arms surrounding him in an embrace, didn't see that it was his mom hugging him.

…So he had mistaken his mom's tears as his own.

~0~

The only thing Sally could think was:

She messed up.

She messed up real bad.

She couldn't even stand with just one of her sons being angry at her. And she definitely couldn't stand both of her sons being angry, sad, and disappointed at her. It was like an announcement that she had utterly failed her children, and they would hate her forever. She knew she was new to this motherhood thing, but she never thought she would mess up this early- or at all… gods.

When Ray's eyes were painted with those three emotions at the same time, then Percy started crying believing that she hated Ray, she was... well, it was indescribable. Her heart was torn apart. Guilt swarmed her, then she became angry at herself. Especially when seeing how Percy reacted to it… gods, she should've remembered how close they were to each other. They were pretty much joined to the hip. If they were separated, they would be… stressed beyond relief.

She had- oh, the other mothers had told her that kids around Ray's age had begun to be dramatic, sure. But still, seeing those feelings presented right before her, even though she knew they would come one day, wasn't a walk in the park. Ohh, why did no one ever tell her that parenting would be so- so- stressful?

After crying a bit with Percy, she pulled away. "Shh... Percy, don't cry. I don't hate your brother."

Percy looked up. He sniffled. "You-you don't?"

"Don't say something like that, Percy." Sally smiled sadly. "I could never hate any of you."

"T-then why you do want him t-to leave?" Percy hiccuped. It was like even imagining Ray leaving sounded like the worst thing to him.

Honestly, Sally felt like it is. Her husband was unreachable, and she didn't dare imagining losing one of her boys.

"Oh, Percy. It's the opposite." She pressed her forehead to her youngest son's. "I don't hate him, far from it. He has to leave for a while because I love him."

"W-why?"

"Because..." she trailed off. Now what should she tell him? "You... you'll find out when you're older. But just know, Percy, I will never hate your brother nor you."

Percy sniffled once more, then nodded. Sally smiled tiredly, then ruffled his hair before returning to her seat. Now, she just needed to make amends with her oldest son.

Looking up again, she saw that Percy returned eating, though with far less enthusiasm than before.

"...Look, Percy..." Sally started hesitantly. She wasn't looking forward to making things worse. "How about we... pick up your brother after school?"

It wouldn't be easy, at least not conventionally. One of the reasons she always brought Percy, and Ray whenever possible, to Sweet on America other than free, trustworthy, babysitting (cough) was because the smell of candy was thick. Mixing that with the smell of mortals, and barely any monster would show up. Rarely would she let them be together, especially if far away from a place she could trust.

But for now, Sally would gladly make an exception.

Percy lit up like a Christmas tree, all the signs of distress disappearing from his face, a grin breaking through his face. "REALLY?! Thanks mom!"

Sally let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. That was one of the easiest ways to make her sons happy again, but she didn't think it would work. Once, Ray was sulking after he got a black eye from a fight in school. She offered him candy, and even ice cream, but he just refused. Then Ray brightened up considerably when he laid his eyes on his brother, who was running at him.

After that, Sally found out that she just had to make her boys see each other when they're upset, and they'd flip like a switch immediately.

Kinda makes her jealous. She wondered what it would feel if she had a sibling.

~0~

Despite the fact that his favorite teacher, Mr. Brunner, was standing in front of the class, in his full armored glory, Ray still gazed at the blackboard blankly. His mind was full of distractions. He thought about the things that happened yesterday, but unfortunately, none made sense.

The first thing that came to mind was that he was dreaming. Yes, he dismissed it immediately. He just dreamed last night. What, he was dreaming while dreaming or something?

The second thing was that some weirdo had drugged him with something, or he accidentally drugged himself. He didn't know what kind of medicine that could make hallucinations of him having Wolverine-ish abilities. Besides, not many people would go near him. He doubted anyone could inject him with some weird substance without him knowing (and being amazed), and there is absolutely no way he'd do drugs.

And then the third thing that came to mind was he ate something that was not supposed to be eaten. He dismissed that too. He ate something expired once, and he almost spent an entire day of going back-and-forth to the bathroom, but never hallucinations.

Then what did it mean? Was it... real?

Before Ray could continue his probably awesome if not confusing as heck thoughts, a jolt snapped him out of it. Ray turned around and saw Percival giving him a cold look, his legs outstretched as if he just kicked Ray's seat.

"What were you thinking?" Percival raised an eyebrow accusingly. "Mr. Brunner is talking right now."

Ray winced. "Oh... yeah. Right. Sorry."

"Mr. Jackson, Mr. Schneider, you two want to tell the class something?" Mr. Brunner said.

Percival's glare to Ray became ten times colder. "No, sir."

Ray always forgot that Mr. Brunner's ears could hear anything. Just like an elephant.

Mr. Brunner's eyes were twinkling mischievously, so Ray knew that the old teacher didn't mean any harm. Well, at least, he knew that Mr. Brunner didn't think his actions brought any harm.

But seeing those kids at the corner, jeering at him, Ray was certain that he'd have to hide at recess later.

Ray sighed. "No, sir."

Mr. Brunner raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" he looked at the blackboard, then his eyes lit up. "Mr. Jackson, can you tell me about this?"

Mr. Brunner pointed his sword (how awesome was that?) to the blackboard, or more specifically, to the word 'Protegonoi'.

Percival gave Ray a look. It should be easy enough. Good thing Ray considered them to be cool when Mr. Brunner told the class about them. Seriously, beings that compose existence itself? If the class wasn't ancient history stuff, he would've thought they were learning about a fantasy novel.

Regardless, Ray cleared his throat. "Well... Protegonoi, or Primordial Gods, are ancient deities said to rule the cosmos before the gods- even before the Titans themselves. It was said that they are powerful beings, and they can't be killed, like how Ouranos, the Primordial God of the Heavens was cut into a million pieces-"

Many girls made a disgusted sound.

"-And was still alive." Ray was getting worked up. "Also, according to Illiad, the Titan Oceanus was the source of the Greek deities, not the Primordial Gods, though Hesiod wrote that the first Primordial God was Chaos. Phere-something Syros said that the Primordial God of Time, Chronos-"

For a few moments, Ray was excited for something related to school.

"While your knowledge-" Mr. Brunner cut him off, smiling. "-Is admirable, I didn't mean to confuse you. I was about to ask this."

Mr. Brunner pointed to the word 'Titan' on the blackboard, which was directly beneath the word 'Protegonoi'.

Students burst out laughing. Someone even shouted "Nerd!" in the background.

Ironic, that Mr. Brunner was the one who would deflate that excitement right off the bat.

"Settle down, class!" Mr. Brunner ordered. "I was serious. You should be more like Mr. Jackson in the future."

The students just snickered. Was it difficult for the Earth to swallow him up and be done with it?

Mr. Brunner shook his head, then he smiled at Ray. "I would ask you if you know anything about the Titans, Ray, but I think we already know you know much."

As the students laughed once more, he wondered if Mr. Brunner teased him or that was actually a genuine compliment. He could feel Percival staring at the back of his head.

"Nevertheless, you acquired half credit for sharing your insight on the Primordial Gods, Mr. Jackson." Mr. Brunner told him. "Now then, class, write ten immortal beings you know and their description, then you can have an early break."

The whole class cheered, but Ray didn't have the heart to do it.

He did the work as fast as he can, then gave it to Mr. Brunner, before finally walking away quickly from the class. He didn't know if those laughters were his imagination or not, and he didn't want to know.

~0~

"How is it that you always find me?" Ray whined, slumping.

"You get predictable," Percival replied, sitting down next to him. "This is the only place where they won't bother you."

They sat at the bottom of a set of stairs, their lunches on their laps. A few feet away, the school janitor, Mr. Darren was mopping the floor. Mr. Darren had this sickness, Hyper... something, that made him look like a real life version of a werewolf.

Because of that, he was ostracized by most of the people at school. Darren said the only reason he got this job was because the previous principal, Mr. Bonsai, took pity on him, so Darren didn't know if he still had his job or was about to get fired, since Mr. Bonsai quit and all that.

That was why Ray liked to hang around him. Other than the fact that no student would approach Mr. Darren, he could sympathize with the guy. Ray was, after all, being shunned because of a reason he had no control of, just like him.

"Well it didn't stop you from bothering me," Ray muttered.

He screwed up real bad. God, he hoped a meteor would hit the school so he didn't have to face the class again. Remembering it over and over again, and Ray couldn't get rid of the sheer embarrassment of what he just did. He groaned, furiously scratching his hair.

"No," Percival agreed. "So... how do you feel?"

"Don't tell me... you care about my well-being?"

Percival looked at Mr. Darren. "You know what? Just forget I ever said anything."

Ray laughed bitterly. "I feel terrible."

"Understandable." Silence. "What were you thinking? It isn't often you would ignore Mr. Brunner."

"It was nothing. It was just something in my mind."

"Oh." Percival looked at him. "Family?"

"No. I was... wondering about my sanity."

Percival snorted. "I keep wondering if you have one all the time."

Remember when he said that sometimes he wants to call Percival his best friend, while other times he wants to bash Percival's face in? Yeah. This was one of those moments.

Ray decided against bashing Percival's face in. He lacked the proper tools. "I saw some... weird things."

"Oh, really? Like what?" Ray wasn't sure, but Percival didn't sound sarcastic (shocking). He sounded... interested.

"Nah, it didn't make any sense, really." Ray sighed. "It was random."

They might be friends only because of circumstances, but still friends. And Ray wouldn't let go of his only friend by making him believe he was cray-cray.

"Humour me."

"To a guy that barely has any?" Ray raised an eyebrow. "I'll pass."

Percival sighed. "Please... do tell."

Ray sighed, then he took a deep breath. "Well... yesterday, there was this... I dunno, hologram? There was this... green hologram above my head just yesterday afternoon."

"...A... green hologram...?" Percival muttered. Ray could almost see those cogs working in his German friend.

"Yeah? What about it?" Ray took a gulp of his water. "I know. Stupid, right?"

"...Yes, it would. If not for the fact that I've seen one myself."

Ray spat out the water. Mr. Darren frowned at him.

Ray didn't see it. "Whoa, you've seen one too?! Great! That means I'm not going crazy!"

"Don't be too confident, mine was silver. It could mean that we're both crazy. Besides, what did that owl even mean?"

Ray gave Percival a blank look. "What owl?"

Percival returned an equally blank look back at him. "The owl hologram. What else?"

And he said it in that condescending 'Duh' tone Ray hated. That jerk's nerve. "Owl? Mine was a trident. You know, that three-tipped-"

"I know what a trident is, Jackson," Percival cut him off, but he looked like something else was on his mind. "But... why a green trident? Mine was a silver owl. Odd."

The two went silent for a moment. Ray was a bit glad, though. He was just happy that he wasn't the only one to see weird stuff happening around here. And the fact that the other one was Percival, his only friend that he wanted to strangle most of the time, was just an added bonus.

Ray was about to say something, but then- "I have to apologize for my actions, Ray." A voice said guiltily. "What I said earlier didn't make your peers feel better about you, did it?"

Ray looked up. Mr. Brunner, in his wheelchair, was approaching them.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Schneider," Mr. Brunner greeted, if a bit somberly.

"Mr. Brunner," the two chorused.

"...Mr. Jackson." Mr. Brunner stared at Ray. He had this look in his eyes- a binding look that you just know he didn't want you to disobey. "I apologize for this, but please, take a walk with me. I wish to talk about something."

Ray glanced at Percival, but his friend just shrugged. Darren glanced at them, but soon focused back on the floor he was mopping.

"Sure."

~0~

The walk was silent. And awkward, but Ray was used to being ignored and thus producing silence, so he didn't really feel awkward. He could see the awkwardness getting to his teacher, though. Mr. Brunner kept opening and closing his mouth at random times, like he was searching for something to talk about.

Not like Ray expected any. It was no secret that Mr. Brunner was somewhat dense when it comes to social interaction with those younger than him. A student once told him tearfully that his grandpa died, and what did Mr. Brunner say? The old teacher was so surprised at the sudden question, so without thinking, he literally said, awkwardly, "Yes... they do that. The situation was so stupid and funny, Ray just wanted to laugh and cry at the awkwardness at the same time.

Ray wondered why Mr. Brunner wanted to talk to him. Maybe he was about to be given the letter that he wouldn't be going back to Yancy next year? If he was, Ray wouldn't be surprised. His patience to his other teachers had already dwindled out, anyway, and he wanted to spend more time with his mom and Percy.

Now, if that was the case, what should he do? Hm... well... he could probably take dogs for a walk to work. Or probably sell newspaper. But those sounded so... lame. Possibilities were out there, why choose the easy ones? He needed to make money, though, so he couldn't really afford to be picky.

Those thoughts were forcefully pushed out of his mind when he hit something hard. Rubbing his now throbbing forehead, he looked up, only to saw a man staring down at him, looking annoyed.

Was this guy wearing metal under his clothes or something?

Looking closer, Ray noticed that this guy was HUGE- there were these big muscles bulging beneath his vest. This guy also looked like he had the same favorite color as him- he was wearing black jeans, black combat boots, and a black leather jacket. Everything on him was all black, with a few red mixed in. The guy's eyes were covered in sunglasses, and he had this huge knife strapped to his thigh.

All in all, he looked like a very, very violent biker, especially with those scars covering his face. The type of people mom would tell them to avoid no matter what.

Ray had a feeling he couldn't avoid this one.

Mr. Brunner was sweating all of a sudden. "Ah! Lor- I mean, Mr. Superintendent! I thought we were going to talk in my office?"

What kind of superintendent was THIS?! He didn't remember the superintendent to be a WWE wrestler! Heck, Ray would be far less surprised if Mr. Brunner said that this guy was a wrestler the school had invited for a P.E. class or something. Goodness knows he wanted to see the residential bully McGuire get a beating or two.

"Do not fret, Brunner. I will see this-" The huge guy said, then stopped himself. "I-I mean... don't worry... old man. I'll... uh... take... things from here."

Then the guy gave a clearly forced grin, with sweat visibly running down his forehead.

Ray squinted at the man. Mr. Brunner gave him a funny stare too, but the old man just shook his head, looking at Ray again. "I... I see. Well then, I'll leave you to it, superintendent."

Mr. Brunner turned around and left, but before he did, he whispered in such a quiet voice that Ray had to strain his ears to listen.

Be careful, Regulus.

What the...?

The guy looked down at Ray after Mr. Brunner left. Ray himself had to crane his neck to look up at this behemoth of a man.

"Come, Ray Jackson. We shall-" the guy coughed to his fist awkwardly. "...I mean, we should speak in private... uh... dude."

Ray squinted at him again.

~0~

An awkward silence engulfed the two of them as they traversed the halls. Ray had no idea if he should make a small talk or not (he didn't want to anger a guy that could break his neck in a second), and the occasional glare that guy gave him didn't help either.

What on Earth did he do wrong?

Suddenly, they stopped. Ray looked up, and realized that they had stopped in front of the cafeteria door. Unlike literally every day, he didn't hear any sounds coming from inside.

"Sir?" Ray asked. "Why are we... here? I thought we were going to speak in private?"

Superintendent grunted. "It's fine. No one's here."

Ray really doubted it. But he wasn't the one in charge, so what the heck. They stepped in.

And, sure enough, the cafeteria was empty except from them. Even the cafeteria lady that used to stand absolutely still behind the counter was absent.

It was odd, to say the least.

Ray walked ahead, then turned around to look at the guy. "So, what are-"

The guy was gone.

Eyes widening in surprise, Ray looked around, and the creepiness meter went past eleven when he saw the guy was already standing in the middle of the room, his back facing him.

Ray gulped. "Uh... sir?"

The superintendent turned his head and stared at him in a creepy way, his sunglasses weirdly glowing a bit red.

The Superintendent suddenly asked. "...Who's your father, boy?"

That was unexpected. "I... I don't know?" Ray answered hesitantly. "I mean, he left when I was little, so I don't know who he is."

Superintendent nodded, like that was the correct answer he was searching for. "I see... what did your mother tell you about your father?"

Instead of answering, Ray's eyes widened. "You know who he is?"

The guy gave a vicious sneer. "Just answer the question."

"Uh... she said that he's 'Lost at sea, but not dead.'" Ray just shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what it means either."

Ray had no idea what was going on.

The only thing he could think of was that he had might or might not steal one extra fried chicken when he was really hungry in the cafeteria a few days ago. Or when he sneaked a stray kitten he found on the road inside his backpack so he could keep it as a pet (that cat was cute, okay?). Or that one time he tricked Percival into breaking a guy's nose because he kept trying to steal his money. Or…

...Those was the only things he could come up with. He made a mental list of all the bad things he had done, but the list became so long, complicated, and confusing, so he gave up.

So Ray was surprised and not surprised when the Superintendent threw a freaking table at him.

Ray ducked just the exact moment it sailed past his head. He snapped his neck up to see the superintendent pick up another table.

"W-what are you doing?!" Ray stammered, slowly inching to the exit. "Are you trying to kill me or something?!"

"Actually, yes, I am indeed-" Superintendent stopped, then thought of something else. "I mean, that's right, brat! I'm going to kill you! Because, you see..."

Superintendent threw away the table, and pulled out his hunting knife. It slowly morphed in his hand into a huge, two-handed sword, with a skull as its hilt, and a ruby in its mouth.

It actually looked pretty cool when it wasn't pointed threateningly at Ray.

"...The problem is: you were born into this world."

Then all of a sudden, the sword morphed into an awesome-looking double-barrelled shot gun, and with a loud bang, the wall just a few inches from Ray's position was blown to bits. The weapon was thrown from the guy's hand, and for some reason, the hole where that shotgun bullet hit caught on fire, and the fire spread quickly, as if the entire concrete wall was nothing more than cloth.

Superintendent looked as surprised as Ray was.

"So this thing could do that?" the guy chuckled. Superintendent removed his sunglasses, revealing that his eyes weren't eyes at all- instead, orbs of fire floated menacingly inside the eye sockets. "Die, seaspawn."

Ray already high-tailed out of there before the superintendent- who he was pretty sure wasn't the superintendent at all- finished his sentence, fire alarms blaring loudly as he did.

~0~

'...This is boring.' Sally thought, watching the cars sped past the window in the shop. She chuckled when she realized that she sounded a lot like her eldest son last night. But the chuckle disappeared when she remembered what happened this morning. So she sighed.

It was a really slow day. The only customers were just little kids with their parents that occasionally came a few times a week, and that was it.

She barely paid attention when a couple of police cars sped past the shop, their sirens blaring loudly. She barely paid attention when pedestrians stopped walking and pointed to the sky. She also barely paid attention when her manager walked out of her office.

"Huh? What was that all about?" Kristen asked. "Cops?"

Kristen walked outside the shop. Sally checked her son in the lounge, who was more cheerful than this morning, and busy playing with toy cars, before she decided to follow her boss outside.

Outside, people were watching and pointing at something in the sky. Sally looked up, and noticed pitch black smoke billowing from somewhere in the city.

Sally felt like a bug was crawling on the back of her neck. She didn't know why, but she had this feeling in her gut that something was wrong.

"What's going on?" she asked no one in particular. A few minutes later, a fire truck went past, followed by an ambulance, all of their sirens screaming loudly. "Did a house catch on fire or something?"

Sally then realized that the police forces, firefighters, and ambulances were all heading to that particular cloud of smoke. She felt a small hand slipped into hers. Sally looked down, just when Percy stared up at her.

"Mom?" Percy wrinkled his eyebrows. "What's going on?"

"I... don't know, Percy." Sally looked back up at the smoke. They all spent several seconds staring at the smoke, when Sally's phone rang all of a sudden.

It was Mr. Brunner. If she remembered correctly, Mr. Brunner was Ray's Latin teacher.

The feeling in her stomach multiplied.

Sally picked up. "Uh... hello?"

"Ms. Jackson?! I apologize for the sudden notice, but you have to come here!"

"Mr. Brunner?" Sally asked worriedly at Brunner's frantic tone. Also, at the fact that there was a background sound that sounded dangerously close to a scream. "What's wrong?"

"The school! The school caught on fire! We're evacuating the children now, and we-!"

The phone slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.

~0~

Mr. Brunner didn't say anything when he heard a 'Thud'. He just silently listened to the conversation on the other side of the phone.

"Sally? Sally?! What's wrong?!" A woman screamed.

"Mom? Mom?!" Ah. That must be... Percy.

Brunner sighed, and closed the call. He remembered how Ray always got excited when telling about his younger brother, Percy. He saw Percy once or twice when Sally visited the school, but even from just those instances he knew Percy was a good child, and loved his family very much.

And with that, Brunner realized that he would be breaking two hearts by doing this. His shoulder slumped, and he let out a more weary sigh. He brought up his wrinkled, and shaking, hands to his face.

He had made precautions, of course. No doubt the mortal law enforcements would be more than befuddled when they found out that no one in this fire and assault got hurt, par from some bruises the students acquired when they ran outside the building.

And they would be more than confused, though a bit relieved, when they found out that no one was killed in a fire.

Except one.

Brunner took a deep breath to calm himself down, and put his face in his hands. Never, not even once, in his immortal life was he willing to do this.

Oh, Olympus have mercy… what was he supposed to do? Risk all the children in camp to face Ares' wrath if he tried saving Regulus? Let Regulus die so Olympus will be satisfied? Oh, Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos… why…?

A planned murder for a child.

Gods… why did this had to happen?

~0~

The guy's cackle, who Ray would dub as Lunatic from that point on, echoed through the burning halls as Ray ran. Bullets soared everywhere, but thankfully none of them hit him yet. Probably because of the fact that Ray could hear Lunatic cursing profusely and kept yelling, "How does he use this thing?!"

"Stop running, coward!" Lunatic roared after he picked up the shotgun for the dozenth time (it kept jumping from his hands whenever he shot). "Don't be afraid of death!"

"Any sane person would rather live than die!" Ray shouted back. Lunatic roared and fired another shot.

It was just pure luck that the floor Ray ran on was wet from a shot water tank, so he slipped when the window above him shattered. Burning glass shards (was that even possible?!) rained down on him, cutting into his skin. He hissed, but he tried to focus away from the pain.

Ray heard an enraged howl from Lunatic. He looked behind him, seeing the madman picking up the shotgun. He would say how much of an amateur the guy was, but then again, who was he to judge?

Lunatic, realizing he was being stared at, gritted his teeth. He pointed his hand, and a surge of thunder surged towards Ray.

Ray yelped and slipped down again. Suddenly, a some type of whip made of water rose from another puddle near him, hitting the thunderbolt head on. The electricity surged through the water and to the puddle instead of flying at him.

Ray had no idea what happened, but thank goodness that water's a conductor for electricity.

Lunatic saw his failure, and let out a more pissed off screech. He picked up his gun. But then, the water tank near Ray exploded, gallons of water bursting at Lunatic in a surprising speed. Ray didn't know if it was his imagination or not, but the water almost shaped like a... fist.

Lunatic was thrown through a wall.

A sudden chilling thought arrived in Ray's head. Did he just... kill the guy?!

Then Lunatic roared underneath the rubble. A hand shot out from beneath it.

Oh. Ray felt something wet moving on his skin. Looking down, he realized (with relief that he didn't pee in his pants due to fear despite his heart that he was sure about to jump out of his chest) that the water moved up to his body, covering his cuts and bruises and other painful and annoying injuries. It healed him in the process.

It was weird. He was thankful of course, and that was kind of awesome, but that was still weird. Looked like the school had another of those magical tap water like Sweet on America.

Then he heard another 'BANG!' and another window shattered. Lunatic's upper body had risen from the rubble, like a zombie rising from a grave.

Lunatic glared at him, with those flaming balls of fury inside his empty eye sockets.

Ray whirled around and ran, continuing his search for a godforsaken exit.