Chapter Title: I Discover That My Quest-Mates Are Insane
Alternate Chapter Title: Foes New And Old, Part One
(A/N: As probably can be expected, from here on until later on in the story, the plot will mainly be told by just Colton, Michael, and Lavinia now. This chapter also includes references to TMNT 2003 Season One Episode 17 "The Shredder Strikes Back, Part One". References to the Kane Chronicles as well as Star Wars will also be made in this chapter.)
When I had expected that Colton had a plan to guess us all started on this quest, I had not really expected at all this his plan to do this actually involved.. well.. him summoning a big bag out from gods knows where, putting all of our items inside of it, and then letting Michael hold the bag — which shrank down to the point it looked like he was holding a bag full of garbage in his hands — while Colton simply walked out to the freeway and started trying to flag down traffic the way you would if you were a hitchhiker.
But I wasn't kidding here at all. That was literally his damn plan. I couldn't help but facepalm, and just glare at the guy as he stood out by the edge of the freeway, trying to look like your average hitchhiker. A whole lot of thoughts were running through my brain now. Was this guy fucking nuts?
It was soon evident, at least in my mind, that he was.
"What is even with him? Hitchhiking? This is beneath a Roman!" I said to Michael, while chewing on one of my packs of bubble gum.
"That jerk Octavian basically left us to accomplish this quest with nothing but we have like 'true Romans' as he put it.." Michael said to me, the malice in his voice right now clearly suggesting that he well and truly hated the camp augur by now. "..so is Colton simply going to let us hang out to dry when Camp Jupiter is in danger? He certainly doesn't seem like he's going to! He's not giving up that easily, it looks like!"
"True.. but resorting to hitchhiking?" I said back to him. I really felt like it seemed beneath a Roman to have to resort to hitchhiking to even begin to make progress on a quest.
"I mean.." Michael began. "I didn't hear you or that brat Octavian offer up any ideas, so like it or not — even though I sure as hell don't know what's up with Colton, I'm trusting him. He sure seems like he knows what he is even doing right now on this quest, even more than I do myself right now."
I wanted to say something back to him, but I couldn't. He was right. I hadn't really offered up any advice on how exactly to even do this, simply because I'm basically been at Camp Jupiter for a while — just a couple years in fact — and I hadn't even gone on a quest at all. Going on a quest with a clear strategy as to where you are going and how you would get there was typical of what groups sent out on quests given by the Gods were like, but thanks to Octavian — and to a smaller extent Percy's group, here the three of us were — having to stoop to the level of becoming hitchhikers just to retrieve the sword of Jupiter. Like I said, it seemed beneath a Roman to have to resort to doing this. Yet, also like I said, thanks to Octavian — here we were.
Did I like it?
Nope.
I still had to go along with them though, because Michael is the son of Apollo and Colton is the Monster King, after all. Which to be honest, looking at him, you couldn't really guess at first that he was who he was. The old legends about the Monster King, from what I had heard, depicted him as savage, ruthless, without pity, mercy or any sort of compassion, basically that of a barbarian from the deepest depths of evil imaginable.
And yet, right now — all of that failed to hold up to the reality that was Colton Reynolds in a nutshell.
Colton, from what I have observed of him so far, was basically none of those things. Sure, he was angry a lot of the time, but the more time I spent around him, the more certain I felt that his rage was against people and/or things that had wronged him in the past or in the present — like someone who really just wanted to change things and was willing to do anything within the limits of things, even push them to their limits, to make it happen. Nothing could stop him — it would be either he would succeed in what he was trying to do, or else. Plus, he was just a normal human who didn't really seem to have any part of his body look deformed or seemingly more monster than human like in appearance — which according to legend, many of the past Monster Kings Typhon crowned typically had some sort of defect like this when they were made King.
Richard III, that one King of England who Shakespeare made a play about, was one of these kind of figures who was made the Monster King by Typhon due to the fact that one of his shoulders was higher than the other.
Colton, however like I said before, wasn't like that.
He was far different than anyone that I had ever met, and to be honest, I just felt a bit intimidated because of it. I couldn't help but wonder what exactly he had gone through just to be this way. I really did.
Either way though, whatever I thought about him and Michael, both of them were my quest mates so I had to put up with them, despite their.. uh.. unusually non-Roman tactics for starting this quest. It did tell me something else about these two though. Wherever these two had come from, from the looks of it, not really having much of a plan apart from knowing where you're going and that was it was pretty much normal for them.
It wasn't for me, but it definitely seemed normal for both of them, even if Michael was still amnesiac. Somehow, I suspected that Colton wasn't quite so amnesiac anymore. I don't know how, I just had a bit of a gut feeling about it.
Like seriously, it wasn't really just a gut feeling. Something about him right now just seemed off. I don't know if it was the look he had in his eyes, or the way he wasn't unsure of things anymore, but really.. he seemed like someone different right now.
Maybe I was just being crazy about it though. Sure, he had what seemed to be a headache when he caught the Monster King's sword that Mars had thrown to him yesterday, but he couldn't really have remembered everything about himself by now, could he have..?
I certainly didn't think it was possible.
Michael nudging my shoulder jerked me out of my thoughts and back to reality. "What?" I asked him. Michael looked definitely annoyed.
"Are you going to keep staring off into space or hurry up? Colton just got us a ride! Come on!" he shouted, then sprinted off towards Colton, who sure enough, had managed to apparently convince the driver of a tractor trailer to give us a ride as he was hopping into the cab on the other side of the truck. The bag had shrunk a bit for some reason, but it didn't really matter much.
For a moment, I was dumbfounded. How in the gods' name had that worked? That shouldn't have..
Like I said before, it felt beneath me as a Roman for having to hitchhike and catch a ride in order to make progress on a quest. But what other choice did we have on this one? It was either do whatever it took to succeed or camp would maybe perish. I didn't want that to happen obviously, so in the end, I made up my mind and started forward, heading for the truck.
I honestly wished that my godly mother was not witnessing me do this to be honest. That would be embarrassing.
Either way though, as I got into the cab, I knew one thing about Colton Reynolds. He's far more resilient than I could have ever imagined. Little did I realize just how much more my quest mates had in store for me.
- — - — - — -
None of us really said anything to each other for the first few minutes of the truck ride at all. Michael was simply fiddling with a rubix cube Luke had — according to the guys — pickpocketed from one of the stores that they stopped at on the way down here, I just sat in between them, and Colton — as usual, he seemed deep in thought, with little to no emotion present on his face.
It was, for the lack of a better word, rather unsettling to look at. I couldn't really look at him like that for very long.
"Are you.. really just that.. emotional-less to look like that?" I asked him, and he now looked a bit confused.
"Not really.. no.." he said back. "I'm not always like this."
Not always like this. Could it be..?
"So do you remember now or something?" I asked him. He simply nodded. I noticed Michael's head turning in surprise out of the corner of my eye.
"I remember everything now.." Colton said. "..and believe me, there's a lot of things about me — as well as Luke, Michael, and Percy — that might as well flip everything you know about the mythological world upside down." He chuckled a bit as he said this, though I had to imagine that he likely was not kidding at all about any of this.
Still though, I had to admit, I definitely was curious as to what he did remember. So, I figured. Why not take a bite?
"Okay — I'll bite.." I murmured, chewing on bubble gum as I did so. "What exactly would flip everything I know about the mythological world upside down?"
Colton looked at Michael nervously for a moment, and then back at me. The sound of the truck seemingly obscured the driver from hearing us, so he wasn't worried about being overheard as we all sat in the small compartment behind the driver's seat. Then, he took a deep breath and spoke.
"All four of us.. we're all Greek demigods."
I spat out my bubble gum, mouth wide open in shock. He did not just say what he just said.
"Y.. you're.. joking, right?" I asked him, hoping that he was joking. Michael just looked on surprised, seemingly responding as if the knowledge that he was Greek was resonating within him somehow, as if it were also a part of his memories too.
Colton shook his head no, and reality began to sink in. Along with some uncomfortable truths for me.
The whole time, Camp Jupiter had four Greek demigods within its own ranks. I was currently on a quest to retrieve Argonaut, the sword of Jupiter, and both of my companions were Greeks, never mind that one of them was the damn Monster King as well.
I started hyperventilating a little, before I calmed down. Then, I stared at both of them suspiciously. "But that's.. just.. crazy!" I said. "How do you all even still exist..?"
"We have our own camp.." Colton muttered. "On the east coast of the USA. Camp Half Blood."
"Seriously?" I muttered in disbelief. "On the same continent as us..?"
"Reality is surprising, isn't it..?" he said back. "I don't exactly know how both camps have lived without knowing the other exists, but if we're here, seems like that time is coming to an end — probably because the Great Prophecy demands it. I mean, I'm already a part of it by default due to being the Monster King."
"But why you..? Why did Typhon decide to make you the Monster King.. the first one in sixty years..?" I asked him.
"Believe me.. while I still have no clue as to why Typhon would even choose a Greek to be the Monster King.." Colton started, only for Michael to join in and in a way that made it clear without a doubt that his memories were now coming back too.
"..but the circumstances that he became it under were anything but normal.. the Titan War last year — we Greeks were involved in it too.." he said, and Colton smiled.
"Nice to see you have your memories back now, dear Michael.." Colton said to him, and Michael just nodded.
"Dude.. same.. it's nice to once again know who you are and be able to approach the task at hand without having to constantly ask yourself is this who you truly were.." Michael muttered.
"You all were involved in the Titan War..?" I asked, confused. What came out of Colton's mouth next changed everything that I had ever known about that conflict — made it feel as if all that happened over here in California during the war feel like a second front.
"Oh yeah.. it started at Camp Half Blood and ended in New York City.. in the span of about three years.." he said, and my world just spun.
"What..?" I muttered, lost.
"Here's your stop.." called out the truck driver. "Hope you've enjoyed your ride." Something about the way he said that seemed off. I didn't know what.
"We'll explain later.." Colton said, having a peculiar glint in his eyes as his facial expression read off concern at what the truck driver said. He reached into the trash bag, and took out both of his swords, sheafing them where they went before sliding out of his spot and getting over the passenger side seat to the door. "Okay.. this looks like our stop.." he muttered. "Come on guys."
He had talked with the truck driver that stopped to give us a ride how far he would agree to take us and they eventually agreed that he would take us as far south as the exit south of Los Banos on Interstate Five, which would put the three of us at least just over 180 miles from the Tehachapi Mountains, and about just under 120 miles from Camp Jupiter. (A/N: I am estimating distances here when it comes to the location of Camp Jupiter, so these might not be accurate if Rick maybe gives an actual location as to where Camp Jupiter is on a map — around the area of the Caldecott Tunnel that is.)
As soon as we had all stepped out of the truck though, the reality of the situation that awaited us now hit us — especially me — hard, for I now understood why the words of the truck driver sounded off and why Colton had gotten his swords out of the bag.
Because what awaited us.. was a trap — even though it didn't appear to be so at first though.
A small group of.. enemies to put it bluntly because not all of them were monsters, awaited us at the Shell gas station — what we could see at first mind you. A couple of Cyclopes and a few zombies were clearly visible along the edge of the gas station — which even though the present of zombies in the daytime, especially ones armed with swords and a bit of armor, was unusual.. didn't really seem all that difficult.
That was until we all heard those footsteps. Lots of footsteps at that, with good amounts of what sounded like slithering involved in there too at that.
From on top of the gas station and around either side of it, more monsters emerged and believe me, it was understandable that my anxiety level now spiked given what confronted us in addition to the Cyclopes and Zombies now. There were now also a few massive brutes, that looked to be on average seven feet tall with major hulks of muscle, plus blond hair and what looked like snake tattoos on their necks carrying shields and spears. A few green snakes as long as a man's arm with an expandable collar of white spikes around their necks with yellow eyes, slithered along the walls of the gas station, and on the roof as well alongside a dozen more zombies with weapons that had appeared up there too.
A few Laistrygonian Giants were also here as well, as were what looked like statues that had six arms, were seven to eight feet tall and had what looked like large and surprisingly sharp rocks generating in their hands. The most surprising parts of it all were the fact that there were a couple of monsters here that had body of a leopard and the neck and head of a serpent, with elongated, scaly tongues and a forked tongue. Monsters that I had never even seen before.
So yeah.. with the collection of monsters that faced us now, it was definitely clear that we were very much in over our own heads at this point of questing.
Colton drew both of his swords, growling at the monsters — ready for a fight, while I simply glanced back at the truck, hoping that the truck driver had let his back on, only to find that the truck driver had already shut the door on us and stared down at the three of us with a malicious expression on his face.
I gasped when I saw the truck driver looking down on us. He had golden eyes, the same golden eyes as one possessed by a eidolon would have. He had been a part of this the whole time, for this had been a trap.
"Son of a bitch!" Michael said, having noticed as well and realized what he was seeing. "The truck driver was a part of this too!"
With all of this going on however, that's when my hearing suddenly blurred out everything else and I had what probably was a vision, if only with just audio.
I hear two voices talking in this, accompanied by the sounds of people screaming and the sounds of a sword fight. I don't know how and why, but the second voice.. sounded way too much like Colton for some reason. I have no way to explain it.
"You might have been a proud warrior once, but now you are just a pawn in the Gods' game!"
"I WIELD GREAT POWER, GIANT FOOL!"
I have no idea what this brief vision into what might have been the future meant, but it left me confused and wondering what exactly it meant as all Pluto then broke loose here.
To be continued..