To everyone reading this, thank you! Trust me when I say that if you stick around, you'll be given good content.

This chapter was really fun to write. Since this is the first long scale fight, and I love writing fight scenes.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (except the OC's) Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Heroes Of Olympus, or Trials Of Apollo. All of that belongs to Rick Riordan.

Now then, on with the ninth chapter. Time to see what Malachi is all about.

9. We Try (And Fail) To Fight A God Killer

Has your life ever flashed before your eyes?

Seriously. Like, have you ever had a near death incident and in a split second, the events of your birth all the way to the present just speed by like a lightning quick slideshow?

No? Okay, let's try again.

Have you ever had a nightmare where you were falling, and it felt so real, your stomach had turned upside down, you were screaming, fearing for your life, and then when you wake up in a puddle of sweat, you still feel that same fear?

Okay, well multiply that by a hundred and then you'll understand what I felt standing in front of Malachi.

I take back all of what I said about him not being intimidating, he is.

And yeah, I'll admit that I'm a little terrified. Malachi radiated utter power, like the energy from a thousand nuclear plants, all coiling inside of one body.

I could read people's aura, and right now, I wished that ability didn't exist. To put in perspective, I can feel Percy's aura right now, and it's immense. More than any demigod or monster that I've encountered so far.

But feeling Malachi's aura right now, Percy compared to it like an ant to a dinosaur, it was so drastic it wasn't even funny. This guy could wipe us out with ease, and it was about to happen.

The others took notice of Seth's death and Malachi standing beside of the car, a huge spear in hand that also pulsed with energy.

All four of them got out of the car, weapons ready, but as soon as Talon saw who it was, he faltered.

He looked at Malachi in disbelief, I had never seen this emotion on the assassin's face. He looked like he'd just landed on Mars, and found out he had no way back to Earth.

He stumbled over his words breathlessly, "M-Malachi? No way, I...didn't believe it but...you're actually...what the hell are you doing? Why did you kill the satyr?"

Malachi turned to Talon, studying him, his eyebrows knit in confusion for a fraction of a second, like he was trying to place Talon in a forgotten memory, but couldn't.

"Do I know you?" It was the first time I had heard him speak in person, and it was the same as my visions. Kind of deep and gravelly, but also a little friendly, like the captain of the sports team wishing his players good luck.

Talon was stunned, "You don't remember?" Then he looked at the spear, and his eyes widened, "No way. Malachi, what the hell are you thinking, using that kind of metal?"

He had figured out it was Heavenly Diamond. I still kind of wanted to laugh at that goofy name, but I was so shell shocked by the scene before me that all I could do was stand there.

"This is the most powerful metal in existence. It is the only kind worthy of my grasp. I plan to use it to slay the gods." Malachi said, admiring the huge spear.

Talon took a step toward him, which I thought was suicide. Up until then, no one had moved besides getting out of the car. Percy stood at the driver's side, Riptide tightly in hand, Annabeth stood at the passenger's side, the bone sword drawn, and Harper stood behind Talon, both knives in front of her.

Malachi only looked at him with slight interest, Talon said, "So...you're actually this god killer?"

Malachi nodded, "Yes. It is the will of my master, and my destiny to rid this world of the Olympians while he takes the throne." He then studied Talon, seemingly gauging his power, and maybe even trying to remember where he had met him. He smirked, "You would be smart to join our cause. You are powerful, Son of Nikandreos, the Man of Victory, the Man of Creation."

Nikandreos? Who the heck was that? I may have been missing something here, because like I've said before, I'm not a genius on the history of our world. But I would think I would have heard about a god named Nikandreos somewhere.

Talon's eyes widened even more, "Y-you remember. That day on the shore, wh-when I told you the truth...you remember."

The truth? Shore? What the heck was going on here? How did these two know each other? And why couldn't Malachi remember him if he had known him?

Malachi looked puzzled, "I don't know what you are talking about, I just have the knowledge of Nikandreos. The story was not told to me."

"Yes it was!" Talon said loudly. This must be important to him, because he was getting upset. "I told you on that island the whole story! I told you and Sera the truth about my father! The only beings on this planet that knew otherwise were Master, myself, and the gods."

That seemed to hit Malachi like a ton of bricks. His eyes widened, and he got a faraway look in his eyes, like he was searching for something...or someone.

"Seraphina" Malachi said softly.

"Yes!" Talon shouted, "The three of us! We were best friends! You and Sera fell in love! We survived that hell together and even had some good times!" He then practically ripped his leather jacket off and thrust his forearm at Malachi's face. On his forearm, to my surprise were tattoos of five straight horizontal lines. No...they weren't ink tattoos...

They were burned onto his skin.

He thrust his arm at Malachi again, "SEE!" Then he grabbed the god killer's right arm and held it up. Now I really thought that Malachi would just glare at him and the assassin would be pulverized. But Malachi only looked confused, and a little strained.

Talon searched frantically for what I guessed to be matching lines on Malachi's arm, but there were none.

"No, no, no. They were here. Five just like mine, how the hell are they not here?!" He then looked at Malachi, "Do you seriously not remember anything? Why? What happened to you, man?"

Malachi was stunned, he didn't know what to make of it. His face was contorted in concentration, like he was trying to remember what Talon was talking about, but it wasn't working.

Talon kept trying though, "Alright fine, you may not remember me, but Sera...You loved her more than anything, you protected her, you comforted her, and I could tell that she had never experienced that kind of care before, the way she flinched a lot, her timid voice, her mannerisms." He then shook his head, chuckling, "I was kind to her, helped her out with some of the creeps messing with her, but you...she adored you, man. You were her hero. Don't you remember anything about her? Her face, maybe?"

I don't think I've ever been more confused and surprised before in my life. The others had pretty much the same expression, trying to make sense of all of this. I couldn't believe Talon's tone, he was actually desperate, trying his best at something besides fighting.

Malachi thought for a moment, then it seemed something had triggered, only to be shut down immediately. The god killer turned and frowned at Talon. "I don't know you, and I don't remember any girl named Sera."

Talon's face morphed into pure pain and disbelief. I couldn't believe my eyes, I couldn't believe the assassin could express such emotions.

Malachi continued, "You are doing better on this quest than expected, and I can't have you foiling my plans, so I have come as an Inquisitor to exterminate you all."

I have no idea what came over me, but I ended up doing the dumbest thing possible.

I charged.

Yeah, that didn't go as planned.

I had planned on taking Malachi by surprise, landing a full force blow to the face, maybe doing a little damage.

What actually happened went like this.

The moment I leapt toward him and reared my fist back, he looked at me and in an instant I felt myself being pulled away at the speed of sound...literally the speed of sound. I felt a gust of wind possessing the power of two F5 hurricanes catch me in mid air and sling me backwards into the street. I flew back, all of my surroundings a blur, I crashed into buildings, rammed into cars, and after a solid ten seconds, and what seemed like three miles of distance, I skidded to a painful stop on the sidewalk of a library.

Mortals yelped and ran, some tried to check on me, but I waved them off, feeling a throbbing in my arm, and my mouth tasting slightly like iron. I stood up with some struggle and tried to regain my train of thought.

My friends.

I immediately broke out into a sprint, running nearly at the speed in which I was thrown. I didn't know how Malachi had power over wind, maybe Ouranos gave it to him as a gift or something, but all I knew was that it was insanely powerful. He hadn't even moved, just looked at me, and sent me flying back three miles across the city.

I was stupid to run back to the danger, but my team had to fight this behemoth...that is if they were still alive.

I came to a stop near the parking lot of the Zoo, Percy's Prius had been flipped and battered from being thrown a couple of hundred feet. Percy himself had shielded Annabeth from the wind surge and was now helping her to her feet a few dozen yards away from where they originally stood thirty seconds ago. Harper and Talon...weren't so lucky. They had both been slung backwards, Talon almost as much as me. He had landed roughly in a restaurant, and was laying face down on an empty table, mortals freaking out and vacating the area. Harper had only been thrown about a hundred feet, and luckily landed on top of one of those curtain things that hang over store entrances, as opposed to splatting on the asphalt. I heard a groan and saw Talon getting up. I couldn't believe he wasn't even injured, he had been thrown back a mile or more, and there was barely a scratch on him. Maybe he had a medical coin or something, because every bone in his body should be broken.

Malachi walked casually, stopping three hundred feet in front of me at the edge of the street, mortals had mostly left the area in fear, and I was very relieved that Malachi had made no attempt to slaughter them.

He looked around and frowned, "Where did you all go? Surely that little display wasn't enough to incapacitate you."

Then out of nowhere, at a speed I could barely register, Percy appeared next to Malachi, his face full of anger. He swung Riptide in a deadly, full powered arc at the god killer's face. But Malachi was completely ready, he quickly stuck up two fingers, the index and the middle, and caught the blade in between them, stopping the attack. A shockwave burst around them, cracking the road and sending a wave of energy my way.

Malachi looked at Percy, who's face conveyed disbelief and strain, and said, "Percy Jackson, the Savior Of Olympus. Your time of peace has made you feeble. Perhaps if this were the Battle of Manhattan, we could have some fun. But unfortunately, as you are...you are no challenge." He then casually flicked Riptide out of Percy's hands and it soared towards the ocean nearby, splashing in the now crashing waves. Percy couldn't move, he was shook to his core, having been so easily stopped. Malachi grabbed Percy's throat, lifted him, and then slung him towards the very ocean he sent Riptide. Percy flailed, flying like a hail Mary football, until eventually letting his instincts take over, and forming a diving position. Within a few seconds, he too splashed in waves, disappearing.

"Yes" Malachi said, "Go to your father's domain, gather some of his power. It would be far more entertaining."

Before I could really comprehend what just happened, I heard Talon yell, "ALL AT ONCE, HE SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO DEFEND AGAINST IT!"

I took action, Talon sprinting beside me, I saw Harper and Annabeth make their move behind Malachi, both of their respective weapons drawn. We all closed in and attacked simultaneously, I punched with full strength, Talon flipped his sword coin, and held the celestial bronze blade firmly, stabbing at Malachi's face. Harper was in the air, coming down behind Malachi, aiming for his neck, both knives in a stabbing position. Annabeth was at his other side, also aiming for his neck, the bone sword flashing like a white glint, swiping for the kill.

We had him surrounded. He couldn't dodge, he wasn't invulnerable, and he didn't have four arms, so he would get hit, by at least one of the attacks. I secretly hoped it would be my punch, because I wanted to avenge Seth. The poor kid had deserved better. He was finally free from Old Joe, only to be cut down like he was an annoying weed.

What happened next, took everyone by surprise. As our attacks got two inches from his face and neck, in nearly an instant, a blue and white flash of crackling energy came down from the sky, blinding us, shocking us, and sending us rolling backwards.

It was lightning.

I knew it was. No way could it be anything else. This was confirmed by the thunder that came a second afterward. He had summoned lightning from the sky in a deadly bolt, the electricity spread and hit all four of us. He had defended himself and attacked us at the same time. I tried to push myself up, and I immediately smelled my burning shirt and jeans, my hair was slightly singed, and It felt like I had been drained of energy, like I had just been burned to a crisp and then sent through the ringer. He had put a lot of voltage on that attack.

I got to one knee, the others still on the ground, groaning. Malachi looked down at them, and shook his head in disappointment. I tried to force myself up fully, but I felt so tired, like I had just finished a full day's work. I fought against the drowsiness and the stinging, and stood up, my mouth completely dry.

Malachi noticed me, and smirked. "You definitely have your father's durability, Matthias. I put extra power in my attack on you." Then he studied me, and clicked his tongue. "So much latent power, so much potential. If only you trained properly, if only you gave into your rage. You could surpass your father, and even give the gods a run for their money."

I felt a chill down my spine when he said my real name. And again, why did he consider me a challenge? I mean yeah, I had done some awesome things recently, but the events of the last few minutes had humbled me completely, this guy was on a different level. And I was actually half hoping that Percy had gone to get his dad's help. We could use an Olympian to even the odds.

I gritted my teeth and began to charge at him, but as soon as I took the first step, he hefted the huge Heavenly Diamond spear on his back and brought it in a striking position, like he was about to hit a home run. He then quickly brought it down in an overhead arc, stopping the swing a few inches above the asphalt.

What resulted was a thin slice of wind that came from the strike. It seemed to emerge from the spear and at the speed of sound, flashed by me, giving a delayed reaction, nothing happened for a second. I had stopped, waiting to be cut in half. But then I felt the ground shake, and in a burst, the ground erupted. Roads upturned, thousand of pounds of asphalt went flying everywhere, breaking windows and soaring into the air, cars were skidding and rolling like crazy. A tour bus flew at me, heading straight for my upper body. I kept myself firmly planted in the ground despite the wind, and caught the bus, stopping it dead in it's tracks and keeping it steady in the air with my hands like I was lifting Simba from the Lion King. It took no effort to catch and hold the bus. What took effort was staying balanced from Malachi's wind slice. I threw the bus a few feet from me, and it crashed on the concrete, leaving even more cracks than there already were.

After a moment, the destruction stopped. And when the air cleared, my mouth fell open. Right next to me, on my left, was a wide, straight line of cut road. The road had been sliced open. I looked back and sure enough, miles of the road was splitting in two. I looked into the gaping gash, and saw dirt and darkness. I could only guess how far it went down. Since it was Malachi's cut, it probably went until it reached magma.

My shoulders slumped in disbelief. This guy was insane. There was no way in Hades that we could defeat Malachi, let alone even scratch him. He didn't even move and had summoned a wind surge as powerful as three full Hurricanes, he summoned a million volts of electricity in a single bolt, to the point where even I felt the shock. And now he had made one swipe with the spear, and cut the road in half for miles upon miles, Olympus only knows how far the cut went into the Earth.

I glanced at the others, Talon was up, facing Malachi. Seriously, how was he alright? Who the heck was Nikandreos? What were Talon's abilities exactly? The girls were barely on their knees, groaning and coughing. Trying to heal themselves with nectar.

Talon took his shot...literally. At an incredible speed, he drew his revolver from seemingly nowhere and shot six rounds at the god killer. All aimed with perfect accuracy to the head. Malachi deflected every shot with his spear, the bullets clanging and ricocheting to the side. Talon grimaced like he knew it would happen, and then out of nowhere, a sword appeared in his hand. He quickly swung, and the blade clashed with the spear, sending surges of energy around the two.

Talon visibly struggled, pushing with a lot of strength, and Malachi looked relatively calm. Although I noticed a hint of surprise on his face at Talon's striking force. The metal hissed, until they parted and began exchanging strikes. Talon doing all of the attacking, Malachi blocking every single one. The metal clanging, each strike heard even from my stance, a hundred feet away.

I ran towards the fight, and within a second, I was behind Malachi, and within another second, I sent a full strength punch at the back of his head. This time he let it hit him, and my fist made brunt contact with the soft spot of his neck and head. It felt like I had hit an immovable object. I didn't feel pain, but I didn't feel him move in the slightest either. He quickly slashed his spear at Talon, and the assassin tried to parry with his sword, but the Spear was insanely strong, and cut through the sword like butter, shattering it into a thousand Celestial bronze pieces. That spear was the real deal, and Talon was right. Heavenly Diamond was far more powerful than the metals we were used to.

He casually flicked his hand, and a wind surge sent Talon into the building to our left. He soared and crashed into the glass door, breaking it on contact.

Malachi reached behind him and grabbed my wrist with his right hand, he squeezed, and I felt a stinging pain shoot up my arm, then an immeasurable amount of pressure on my wrist. I heard the bones crack and break, I screamed. He kept squeezing, and I most definitely felt the pain, and regretted punching him. This was unreal, my tough skin was nothing compared to his god like strength. He turned, his face emotionless. He wasn't breaking a sweat, he was casually breaking my wrist, and I was grinding my teeth in agony, screams no longer able to escape my mouth.

I dropped to one knee, he still had a firm grip on me, not planning to let go.

"Give in to your rage, and that attack would have actually hurt me, Matthias. I'm disappointed. Master said you were strong, yet your punches feel like a fawn's attempt at locking antlers with a full-grown buck. You have the potential, but currently you are nothing."

I saw that Harper and Annabeth had gotten up, and were trying to make their way toward me, but couldn't. Effort etched on their faces, but they couldn't move. Like they were trapped in quicksand. I couldn't figure it out until I looked at their hair. Harper's raven and Annabeth's blonde curls flowing wildly behind their heads. Malachi was keeping them in place with a wind cage.

Malachi smirked. "Like flies trapped in a spider's web. The power of the air is a dangerous thing. The four basic elements are thought to be equal. But most give the edge to fire, due to its destructive capacity. I think now though, you would agree that air can be quite formidable, huh?"

I could barely move, let alone agree with the psycho. I had no time to even process his words due to the pain, and just when I thought he was going to rip my hand off, I heard a familiar voice shout, "What about water?"

Malachi turned too late. A hundred-thousand-gallon whirlpool of salt water spiraled at the god killer, engulfing him in its embrace, it roughly trapped Malachi, and pulled him away from us, and into the ocean with Percy, who was now controlling a giant personal hurricane made of water, air, and small thunderclouds.

The whirlpool slung him across the waves, and he skipped and skidded on them, before sinking below the furious white caps.

I knew that had only surprised him, and probably didn't do any real damage. Percy knew it too, and yelled at us, "I'm getting some help from dad! I'll hold him off as long as I can! You guys come up with a plan to get out of here fast!"

Annabeth and Harper had been freed from their wind cages the moment Percy had grabbed Malachi. The daughter of Athena stumbling on herself, desperately searching for Percy, until she spotted him. She cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled, "Seaweed Brain!"

He was pretty far away, but I thought I saw him smile. "Come up with a master plan, Wise girl! I'll catch up when I can!"

Annabeth tried to protest, but a split second later, a ton of water exploded and scattered everywhere near Percy. Malachi emerged from it, and floated upward, until reaching Percy's level. I saw his hair flapping wildly on his face, his trench coat and clothes soaked, but they were also flapping. He was using the wind to levitate himself.

He and Percy were paralleled to each other in a standoff. Percy looking impressive and intimidating. He had a thousand foot wide hurricane of salt water around him, roaring and spinning with crazy speed, and him at the top, his arms outstretched lightly, controlling the water like balancing on a tightrope. Malachi floated about fifty feet the opposite, seemingly nothing around him, except the wind beneath.

I heard him faintly shout, "Now that's more like it! Show me your former strength! Make me use some of my real power!"

Percy yelled in defiance and the hurricane moved forward, and so did Malachi, an avatar of lightning now encircling him. It crackled and glowed with energy, full sized bolts crashing down in every direction. Thunder boomed, the hurricane roared, and the two clashed with city shattering force.

Literally...If I hadn't been thinking quickly enough, the entire city would be in ruins right now. I could feel both of their auras. The lightning form boosting Malachi's to astronomical levels, and Percy's hurricane skyrocketing his to a level way beyond what he was earlier. I knew though that the gap was still way too much. Malachi was still way more powerful, and Percy could only stall him for a minute at most.

Their clash sent a nuclear sized shockwave in every direction, I saw a few buildings seemingly disintegrate, the bricks and metal crumbling like crust off of pie, and they fell to the ground, smashing everything underneath. It was a great thing that mortals weren't around, because the amount of buildings being destroyed would have likely crushed them. Heck, the force of the shockwave would have instantly killed them.

Then I thought about the rest of my group. Annabeth, Harper and Talon.

They didn't have tough skin like me, and even I was barely holding out from the shockwave. I knew that they would die from it.

I looked back and to my surprise, saw Talon with a shield the size of a hummer in front of himself, Harper, and Annabeth. Blocking them from the atomic force.

Talon yelled at me, "DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT SHOCKWAVE OR YOU'LL BE SAYING GOODBYE TO THIS ENTIRE CITY!"

I shook my head and sprung into action. I leapt up at half strength in my legs until I reached skyscraper height. I saw the damage the shockwave was doing, it was making its way slowly across the city, it had already destroyed an entire street of road, and a dozen huge buildings, leaving nothing but rubble. I quickly let my instincts take over, and reared both of my hands behind my back, putting full strength into them, and with a primal shout, I clapped.

Yeah, I clapped.

Look, it sounds lame, but it saved the entire city of New York. You ever read or watched the Incredible Hulk do the thunderclap? Where he claps his hands together and a huge shockwave results from it?

Well, that's what I did, but on a city-wide level.

I couldn't explain it, I just clapped as hard as I could and a sonic shockwave erupted from my fingertips, dashing across the city at the speed of near light, making contact with Percy and Malachi's clash shockwave, and dissipating it.

Wow.

I hadn't been useful at all in this fight...if you're kind enough to call it even that, but I had at least stopped that shockwave from destroying the entire city.

I looked at my hands as I plummeted to the ground. How strong was I, really? Earlier I had thrown a ten ton Hydra, and just now, I had stopped a shockwave capable of destroying a giant city...without even using the red aura. This was nuts, why couldn't I direct that toward Malachi? Or maybe I had, and he was just that durable that it didn't even affect him.

I didn't have time to contemplate my own strength and weakness, because I landed clumsily on the ground, the other three desperately talking.

I ran towards them, noticing Percy in the ocean to our side, sending wave after wave, giant water fist after giant water fist at Malachi, and the god killer deflecting and blocking with white bolts of lightning. The thunder booming and the force shaking the ground.

This must be how god's fight.

I realize that Percy wasn't a god, but man...he was actually kind of holding his own against Malachi. Albeit, the god killer was laughing and begging for Percy to attack faster and with more ferocity, but I could tell that the bolts of lightning he used to deflect the attacks were far larger and more concentrated than the one he had used to attack the four of us earlier.

At one point, a dozen giant, dangerous looking sea creatures that I didn't know the name of popped out of the water in unison, and threw themselves at Malachi, the god killer was enveloped in a lightning avatar again, and small volts of electricity scattered around him, frying the giant sea monsters, and sending them back to the depths.

Percy grimaced, realizing that they had responded to his dangerous situation, and gotten killed. He was losing energy, and couldn't keep this up, we had to form a plan now.

I sprinted toward the group, they were trying to run, Harper tugging Annabeth's arm desperately, but the blonde was not budging.

"Come on, Annie! We need to leave!" She shouted urgently. Talon was motioning wildly at Annabeth.

Annabeth stood her ground and shook her head furiously, "I am not leaving Percy! He needs help!"

Talon trudged over quickly and shouted, "There ain't a damn thing we can do, blondie! He told us to go, it's a noble sacrifice, an end fitting to a warrior like him, now we need to get out of here!"

Annabeth yanked away from Harper's grip and shrieked, "NO! I will not leave without him! If I die, so be it, at least it'll be together!"

I stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, "Nobody's dying. Not today...I'll go help him."

It was Harper's turn to shriek, "NO! Matt, you don't stand a-"

"Chance?" I interrupted. "Yeah, I know. This guy really is the god killer. I've never seen an Olympian fight..." I looked above us, the sky was completely gray, storm clouds swirling above Malachi now, lightning bursting and crackling, being sent at Percy, every bolt staggering the hurricane, forcing the Son of Poseidon backwards. I looked back at the others, "But I imagine it would look similar to this. Maybe if I enter red aura mode, I can at least catch him by surprise and send him flying across the sea, maybe giving us enough time to run." I started to walk toward the raging battle, until a gloved hand roughly grabbed my shoulder.

Harper's eyes were wide, but she seemed furious. "I am not letting you kill yourself, Shark Boy."

I gently retracted her hand from my shoulder, and said, "And I'm not letting Percy die. We leave together, all of us, safely." I said it with such confidence, I was almost convincing myself.

Talon threw his hands up and said, "You're crazy. Look, it don't take a genius to tell how this battle's gonna go. And right now, it ain't looking good at all. We need to escape."

"Okay, and you do that. I hope you've got a coin for transportation, because you're getting these two away from here. And I'm going to help Percy."

Talon shook his head, "What the hell is it with you? Why do you have to be so good natured?"

I shrugged, "I just want to keep everyone safe, nothing special about it."

He shook his head incredulously and waved me off, like shooing a pest.

Annabeth nodded at me gratefully, Harper looked like she wanted to protest or yell at me, but couldn't find the right words.

I didn't stick around, Percy was getting weaker by the moment, I had to help.

I sprinted toward the ocean, the mist washing my body, eventually soaking it, my hair now unspiked and plastering against my forehead. I looked up, and sure enough, Percy's hurricane was way smaller now, the Son of Poseidon looked sick and weak, barely able to make the movements to keep up his water defense against the bolts of lightning. Malachi only smiled and kept spamming the deadly electricity. I knew that if he wanted to, he could send one enormous strike from the sky and obliderate the hurricane. But I also knew that he was having fun, and liked using his immense powers, so he was sending casual bolts at Percy.

Still though, no small feat for Percy at all. One bolt of lightning earlier was nearly enough to knock me out cold, and Percy had blocked like fifty with his salt water.

I tried to find the anger inside of me, the rage. I tried to imagine the steam emerging from the pores of my body, the red aura glowing around me. But nothing happened. Nothing at all. I strained and focused on all of the things that made me angry, but nothing worked.

I yelled in frustration, why wouldn't anything happen? The only chance of me doing any damage was with the red aura, and now I couldn't even conjure the stupid thing.

Deep down I knew the reason, and I hated it. I wasn't angry right now, I was...scared.

I hated that so much. I rarely experienced fear. I had faced monsters unimaginable and every time demolished them. I had faced the Shark monster, the Stymphalian birds, and the Chimera at a young age. Recently I had defeated the Nemean Lion, two Cyclops', and the Hydra with relative ease. But experiencing just a fraction of Malachi Stallard's power...I felt fear.

Someone stronger than me. Not even a god, but apparently a half blood that had gained some crazy boost from...Olympus knows what. All I knew was that I was useless right now, and my friend was fighting with his life to save us.

I shut my lips tightly, clenched my fists, and jumped at the god killer.

My springboard, the concrete, cratered and crumbled from my leap, I zoomed at hundreds of miles an hour at Malachi, closing the distance within half a second, and appearing beside of him. He turned, mildly surprised, and then smirked. I did no such thing, my face contorted to one of defiance, and I jabbed at him using all of my strength. My fist hit nothing however, because the instant I swung, he turned a light blue, and disappeared in a bolt of lightning, his levitation winds dissipating. I was left with my punch momentum sending me tumbling in mid air to the water. I had failed and missed, of course. Every time I think I can do something against this powerhouse, he comes up with some crazy ability that puts him twenty steps ahead. I mean, the guy disappeared in a lightning bolt. There has to be a limit, right?

I was saved by a platform of water catching me, Percy had his hand out, controlling it, his face strained and in great pain. I immediately jumped off onto the harbor dock nearby to relieve him. But it didn't last long, another bolt of lightning struck, thunder boomed, and Malachi levitated in front of Percy again, his face devoid of humor and enjoyment now.

"Thank you, son of the sea god, for those few minutes of enjoyment. But now, I am getting bored, and I've had enough of you." Malachi then widened his eyes, and held his hand up to the sky, summoning the largest bolt of lightning I had ever seen. It was as long as three empire state buildings, and it coiled in a wide circle, blue and white flashing dangerously. He reared back and threw it with effort now, the bolt struck at a billion miles per hour, and hit Percy's hurricane, the cyclone of salt water immediately burst, the water scattering everywhere, most of it turning to steam from the heat. Percy himself was thrown backward into a nearby fishing shop.

That strike and fatigue combined, Percy had to be unconscious...or maybe even dead.

No, I thought. He's tougher than that.

I glared up at Malachi, he glowered at me, looking down, his arms crossed.

"And what are you going to do?"

I gritted my teeth. I hated being so useless, I hated standing by while other people got hurt, I hated it, I hated it.

I hated him.

With a yell, I jumped faster than I ever had before. It was like I was on the harbor dock one moment, then in an instant, I was in front of Malachi, my fist reared back.

His eyes widened, and I noticed too. My right arm was billowing steam, and a red glow surrounded it. It was just the arm, not the rest of my body.

I had put all of my strength and beyond into my arm.

I decided it was now or never, and I took the opportunity. I put everything I had into the punch, and I hit him square in the jaw. His face contorted, head turning in recoil, there was a moment of delay. Then with a thunderous BOOM! He instantly flew back, going at an incredible speed, mile after mile, until finally he became a small dot on the horizon, and then nothing. A huge shockwave surging as a result from my punch, the grey clouds were blown apart by the force, until eventually there was a gaping hole in the clouds, revealing a bluer sky above.

I didn't have time to process what I'd done. I had to check on Percy.

I ignored the intense throbbing in my wrist and arm. The squeezing Malachi did earlier had left my wrist black and blue, it was cracked for sure, and I would need some serious ambrosia. I trudged through, tossing aside rubble and pieces of wood, searching for Percy.

I eventually saw a pile of wood and fishing supplies at the back corner of the shop, and I quickly uncovered it, an unconscious Percy lay there, the outline of a pen in his soaked jeans pocket. I heard his clothes never got wet unless he wanted them too. I guess he was so concentrated on not getting killed that he didn't have time to avoid getting soaked, because he was drenched on the floor.

I lifted him on my shoulder and carried him fireman style, sprinting as fast as I could without ragdolling Percy too hard. Making my way through the broken streets, desperately on the look out for the others. I had no idea where they would be. They could be hiding, riding on something, teleported to another country, it was hard to tell with Talon's wacky abilities and the coins.

I double taked a few times, ran down different roads, climbing fire escapes and looking outward, trying to find a sign of them. They weren't back at the parking lot, I guess Talon had gotten them moving. But on what? Where?

It was only until I ran past the upper east side when I saw a huge military jeep, a Humvee booking it on the road. I squinted, and saw sunglasses, dark black hair, and familiar blonde. It was them, I guess Talon had flipped a coin and the huge vehicle had popped out of it. I began to wonder for the tenth time, who was Nikandreos?

I closed the distance, still carefully holding on to Percy in fear that Annabeth would kill me if I dropped her boyfriend while running at sixty miles an hour.

They eventually noticed me and the girls waved me over urgently, I jumped and landed on the bed of the vehicle where they were, they had their weapons in hand.

I set Percy down gently and Annabeth immediately flocked to him. Pushing his wet hair out of the way and checking on him with concern. Harper glanced at him too, and winced. She knew just like I did that if Percy was the one getting knocked out, then we had better run.

Annabeth looked at me, "H-he's alive. Thank you, Matt. I don't know what would have happened if we would've left him there." She said the last part while glaring through the glass window at Talon, who was driving.

He poked his head out the driver's side window, "Hey! Don't go blaming me! I just wanted to get us the hell out of there! You heard Jackson, he was willing to sacrifice himself to save you!"

Annabeth swung her sword at his head, he yelped and quickly pulled it back it the vehicle. I didn't know why, because he seemed invulnerable to damage earlier. But it was kinda funny, he was a little scared of Annabeth, which was understandable. She was very intimidating when she wanted to be. And I don't think Talon is used to tough women.

"He was going to catch up with us! Not sacrifice himself! Gods, all you care about is the drachmas!" She yelled.

Talon became serious, pulling off his sunglasses with one hand, "If you'd said that earlier, you would've been right. But now...it's different."

"It's Malachi isn't it?" I said, "You obviously knew him."

He didn't say anything.

Annabeth softened a bit, she seemed to sympathize with losing memories. I got the reference, I had heard about Percy's time missing, with amnesia.

She then touched his cheek, "At least we're all safe."

Harper nodded, "Agreed." Then she turned to me, "So, how did you escape Malachi? Don't tell me he's following us."

I shook my head, "No, I took him by surprise, I think. He won't be chasing us for a little bit."

She seemed like she wanted to question further, but decided against it.

I turned to Annabeth, "So what do we do now?"

She sighed, "We need to heal up and rest. But I don't know of a safe place. Whatever you did to get him off our backs, I doubt it'll last long. Er, no offense."

I shrugged, "None taken."

Harper had her knives clenched, she turned, "Why don't we just leave the city?"

"We can, but we need to figure out where the next creature is and form a plan first."

Talon poked his head out again, a little cautiously this time, "You good?"

Annabeth turned to him, chuckling lightly, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hit you with the Drakon sword. Like it would even scratch you anyway."

So she had also noticed Talon's seemingly invulnerability too.

He continued, "I know of a place where we can rest, It's very secretive and super luxurious. I doubt Malachi can locate it unless he's invited."

"What kinda place is it?" I shouted.

"A hotel" was the response.

Annabeth's eyes went a little wide, and she said nervously, "Um...you aren't planning on driving to Vegas, are you?"

Talon knit his eyebrows, then after a moment he rasberried with his mouth, and said, "Oh, no, no, no. We ain't going to the Lotus Hotel. Hell no, that place gives me the creeps."

Harper looked confused, "What's so bad about it?"

Annabeth looked at her, "It's designed to keep you there forever. And time moves way slower. Say you were in there for a couple of hours. Well, to you it would feel like a couple of hours, but in reality, on the outside, two to three days would have passed, if not more." She shuddered, "Percy, Grover, and I got trapped there a long time ago, and we barely made it out."

Talon whistled, "Lucky you made it out period. Very hard to resist it's magic. I did a job for a client near there, he gave me a Lotus Cash Card. I didn't know what to do with it, so I shot the thing with my revolver."

I got a little freaked too. I don't know why, but the idea of a hotel that entices you to stay forever, and slows time...is unsettling.

"So what's different about this hotel?" Annabeth asked Talon.

He lit up a little, "Oh man, this place is the total opposite. It's called the Paradise Inn, and it's run by this minor god, and it's twice as big and nice as the Lotus, and it doesn't have any magic forcing you to stay, or time freezing magic. Really, it's just a super, super nice hotel. The hotel of the gods, most call it."

"Gods stay there?" I said.

He nodded, "Oh yeah, on vacations and stuff. Hermes goes there to escape his mail work, Aphrodite goes to enjoy the pool, and I think even Ares goes sometimes to play the fighting games." Then he raised an eyebrow, "The only downside to this place is that it's crazy expensive. I mean, a lot of drachmas. And I heard that if a demigod stays too long, like a week or more. Then you literally blow up from all the god energy surrounding you...So I'd say we should make it a one nighter."

"Where is it?"

"In the city. It's hidden though, you gotta know where to look." He turned to us, and the familiar wicked grin appeared on his face, "Luckily for you guys, I do."

Harper tapped my shoulder, and pointed behind us, "Uh, you might want to take back the lucky part. Look."

Behind the Humvee, running at us with incredible speed, were six wolves made of what appeared to be lightning. They were regular sized wolves, a blue and white outline of their shape, and they had pure white eyes, no pupils. Kind of like Harper's left one.

They bounded after us, snarling and crackling. We all took notice, Talon cursed and sped up, going faster than the speed limit, every pothole threatening to throw us off.

I groaned, "Can't we have a moment of peace?!"

Before anyone could respond to that, the head dog jumped in an instant at me, tiny bolts surrounding it, the wolf opened it's mouth, revealing fangs made of fire. It looked cool, too bad it wanted to eat me.

Before I could do anything, and figure out how to even fight lightning. The dog was impaled by a knife to the side, it howled and dissipated in the wind, a few sparks of electricity in it's wake. The other wolves didn't take notice, they only ran faster.

I looked at Harper, who had obviously thrown the knife. "How did you do that?"

She shrugged, "Lucky throw?"

Annabeth intervened, "No, look." She pointed at the lightning pack, "In their middle, where their hearts should be, there's a small circle of white light. That's their life source. If you aim for that, you can kill them."

I nearly undid my necklace to get my spear, but the next sequence of events stopped me in my tracks.

Harper and Annabeth made quick work of the lightning beasts. Harper threw both knives at a pair, taking them out, the knives soon returning to their owner's hands, thanks to the magnetic gloves she wore. Annabeth sliced any wolf that tried to bite her. One leapt in front, which she stabbed and killed, the other came over the side, in a sneak attempt, but Annabeth was good. She had acted like she was distracted by the single lone wolf still bounding behind us, and when the other one attacked over the side, she quickly turned and swiped upward, cleaving the white light in half, destroying the wolf.

The last one kept it's distance though, the girls waited patiently for it to make an attempt, but it didn't seem to know what to do, it had seen it's pack get taken out in every way, so it couldn't decide what to do different.

Finally Talon tossed his revolver to Annabeth, and she caught it, almost dropping her Drakon sword. She looked at it in confusion, then stared at Talon like, what the heck am I supposed to do with this?

"SHOOT IT! I GIVE YOU PERMISSION!" He yelled over the wind.

Annabeth held it comfortably, so I guessed she knew her way around a gun. That or she was just adept to any weapon. She considered it, then aimed at the last wolf, taking her time, then she exhaled and pulled the trigger.

A celestial bronze round caught the wolf dead center, the white light disappearing, and the last of the pack gone.

She smiled in disbelief, "Wow. These things are actually pretty handy." She handed it back to Talon, who spun it once and put it somewhere in the front.

"See? Modern demigod weaponry ain't so bad."

I slumped on my butt, leaning against the bed of the jeep, trying to regain a sense of calm. I couldn't wait for this hotel, I desperately needed rest, along with everybody else. And if this place had a hot tub...you could bet that I would be in that thing.

We drove in silence for a bit, wherever this hotel was, it was still a bit away, and I was fine with that. I needed some time to reflect on the crazy events of the last half hour.

The fight with Malachi. Talon trying to get him to remember, mentioning things that I had no idea about. A girl named Sera? Those marks on his arm? What were they?

I did catch one thing that he said...Island.

The Cursed Island maybe. Maybe, Talon was there, along with Malachi, for some reason. Maybe they were part of this Operation I heard about.

Harper's past.

My super strength.

All of these things were big questions that I wanted desperately answered. And well, I would hopefully be getting one soon on the second one. I looked at Harper. She was sitting still, eyes closed, head raised towards the still slightly gray sky. Her pale skin seemed to fit this weather better than the bright sunlight, her black braided hair swayed with the wind as we drove.

I thought back to what we said to each other in Old Joe's office. How I challenged her mission, and that hug...

I wanted to know what happened to her, how it involved me, my necklace, all of it. But it was her memories, and they were probably very hard to talk about. I knew I needed to be patient, and even if she decided to keep all of that to herself, that would be perfectly fine.

Still couldn't help the curiosity, though.

Maybe I could find out at this hotel. After all, it was a time to rest. Just as good as any time to let it all out in my opinion.

My thoughts were interrupted by Percy stirring and mumbling. Annabeth's eyes lit up at this.

"Percy, don't move too fast." She said gently.

"Mmm? Where are we?" He croaked.

"On the road, we're going to a hotel for some rest."

His eyes were half open, but his tone conveyed worry, "We're not in Vegas are we?"

Annabeth laughed, "No. We're still in the city. We're going to another hotel. It's Talon's recommendation."

Percy groaned half heartedly, "Can't be much better then."

I snickered, glad that he was awake. He had really put it all out there against Malachi, trying to give us time to escape. I could only hope to be as selfless as the Son of Poseidon.

We pulled to a stop on the side of the road, next to a few large buildings side by side. Nothing out of the ordinary, but no hotels in sight.

Talon got out and raised his arms, "Ladies and gents, we have arrived."

"Uh, where is it?" I said.

He frowned, "Like I said, secretive." He then raised one hand and bowed mockingly, "Follow me, and I'll show you true paradise, kids."

So we did. Hopping out of the Humvee bed, hoping that whatever lies beyond, offers a few moments of peace and quiet for once.

(000)

Wow, I'm actually really glad with how that turned out. Stay tuned for the Hotel chapter, it's gonna be great, and I'm looking forward to writing it.

Anyways, thanks for reading! And be sure to stay tuned for chapter ten!

Until Next Time.