Hello there, gods, half-bloods and friends. Welcome to the next chapter of The God Hunter.
A quick update for this week before I go on vacation, so don't expect a chapter next week.
Anyways, hope you enjoy and now on to the reviews.
Guest: He really isn't but okay.
Necros The Saiyan knight: Now that's an interesting question. It all really depends on where and with who Matt ends up. But I can imagine Matt reaction to his story like "That's rough buddy."
Now story time.
After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, lights where seen up ahead: the colors of a neon sign. Matt sniffed the night air, and he definitely could smell food.
Fried, greasy, excellent American food.
They walked to a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.
It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary.
"What the heck does that say?" Percy asked.
"I don't know." Annabeth said.
"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium." Matt said, being a shade more quicker than them.
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.
"Hey..." Grover warned as they crossed the streets.
"The lights are on inside." Annabeth said, "Maybe it's open."
"Snack bar." Percy said wistfully.
"Snack bar." she agreed.
"Snack bar." Matt said, hands in his pockets.
"Are you three crazy?" Grover said.
"Not sure about Percy and Annabeth, but me? Probably." Matt said as they walked, "Though I prefer the term differently rational."
The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated, "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
They stopped at the warehouse door.
"Don't knock." Grover pleaded, "I smell monsters."
"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies." Annabeth told him, "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat!" he said scornfully, "I'm a vegetarian."
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans." Percy reminded him.
"Those are vegetables!" Grover said.
"Aluminum cans are vegetables... Right." Matt said dryly, "Look if animals didn't want to get eaten, they shouldn't be so delicious or be made out of food."
Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall Middle Eastern woman, she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all that could be made out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant.
She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?" her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern.
"We're lost, we got separated from our circus caravan." Matt said quickly, "The ringmaster told our parents we would be meeting at the gas station if we got lost, but maybe they've forgotten, or maybe we're suppose to meet at a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost."
"Oh, my dears." the woman said, "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."
With a thanks to her and they went inside.
Annabeth muttered to Matt, "Circus caravan?"
"I know! I'm good at bullshitting but even I'm surprised." he whispered with a big shit eating grin, "Sometimes my genius is... it's almost frightening."
The warehouse was filled with more statues, people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. One would need a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size.
In the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.
"Please, sit down." Aunty Em said.
"Awesome." Percy said.
"Um..." Grover said reluctantly, "We don't have any money, ma'am."
But Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice children."
"Thank you, ma'am." Annabeth said.
Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly. "Quite all right, Annabeth." she said, "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."
Their hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking.
"That was odd." Matt thought, "When did any of us tell her our names?"
Before they knew it, she'd brought plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries. Whatever was wrong with this woman, she could cook. These were some very good burgers.
Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat. "What's that hissing noise?" he asked.
Matt listened, he did hear some sound that sounded like hissing.
"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked, "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."
"I take vitamins. For my ears."
"That's admirable." she said, "But please, relax."
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched them eat. It was a little unsettling, and as his dad had told him, always trust your the feeling you get in your jellies.
But he needed something more concrete to back up his theory.
"So, you sell gnomes." Matt said, trying to sound as if nothing was wrong.
"Oh, yes." Aunty Em said, "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."
"A lot of business on this road?" Matt said, taking a drink from his shake.
"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."
Matt turned to look at a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than one would see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.
"Ah, you notice some of my creations do not turn out well." Aunty Em said sadly, "They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."
"I always found fingers the most difficult, but perhaps that is a difference between drawing and sculpting." Matt said, "So you make these statues yourself?"
"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that even Matt couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
Annabeth had stopped eating.
"So two sisters?" Matt said, his eyes briefly meeting Annabeth's.
"It's a terrible story." Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Matthew, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."
"Such a sad story..." Matt said, turning to the others, "We should go, our parents will be waiting."
Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.
"Such beautiful gray eyes." Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly. "Matt is right, we really should go."
"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up.
"Please, dears." Aunty Em pleaded, "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"
"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.
"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."
Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy..."
"Sure we can." Percy said, "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"
"Yes, Annabeth." the woman purred, "No harm."
Allowing Aunty Em to lead them back out the front door, into the garden of statues.
"Percy." Matt muttered, pulling at his arm, "Something is wrong. We need to get out of here."
"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"
"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted.
She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Matt pushed both Grover and Percy behind a row of statues. Ducking behind a statue himself, he heard a strange, rasping. Peeking around, he saw that Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.
More rasping, the sound of tiny snakes from about where Aunty Em's head would be.
"Run!" Grover bleated.
Matt heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.
"Alright, stone statues, hissing of snakes... Okay, we're dealing with Medusa." he thought, "Think Matt think! how did Medusa die again? Something about Percy's namesake and she was asleep... Which she isn't now. Great..."
"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face." Matt heard Medusa say soothingly, "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."
"Percy, I know your not the sharpest tool in the shed!" Matt shouted as he called his sword to his hand, "But even I shouldn't have to tell you to not listen!"
"Silence, Hera Spawn!" Medusa snarled, "The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy. Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this. You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."
The sound of buzzing, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Percy! Duck!"
In the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.
"Duck!" he yelled again, "I'll get her!"
Thwack!
At first Matt figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.
"You miserable satyr." she snarled, "I'll add you to my collection!"
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
Matt used his blade's reflecting of her face. "Hello Matthew." she purred, "Be a dear and lay down that blade."
"Nobody calls me Matthew." Matt growled, "Only my dad has that privilege!" as he charged at her with eyes closed.
But his attack was nullified when he felt the air knocked out of him and his blade lost through the air.
It seemed he had missed Medusa allowing her to evade under the strike and hit him in the stomach. With his eyes open he could see her gruesome features had a grin as his eyes lied upon them. Matt stared at them for a minute until realization sat in.
Looking down to his hands and body, he should be stone by now but he was still completely flesh and blood. He looked back into her eyes, getting a smug smirk on his face as he saw the pure emotion in her eyes.
The look of fear.
"Y-you wouldn't h-harm an old woman." Medusa said with a gentle smile as she took a few steps back, "Right, Matthew?"
"What did I just say?" Matt said as he summoned his sword back to his hand in a flash of white fire before slicing through the air and slicing Medusa at the neck, "Only my dad gets to call me that!"
Her body disintegrated but her head flopped onto the ground and rolled to a stop.
"Oh, yuck." Grover said, his eyes were still tightly closed, "Mega-yuck."
Annabeth came up next to Matt, her eyes fixed on him. "Your..." she said cautiously, "Your okay?"
"Yeah..." Matt said, disappearing his sword in a white flash of flames, "I guess I am."
"How did you do it?" she said, "How are you not a stone statue?"
"Good question. The answer is, I have no idea." Matt said with a shrug, "Maybe I'm just super badass."
Ignoring his comment, she looked up at the night sky and very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.
"So, anyone else hurt?" Matt said, hands resting in his pockets.
"I'm fine. Why didn't..." Percy said with a trembling voice, "Why didn't the head evaporate?"
"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war." Annabeth said, "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
"Oh cool." Matt said, "Then we can use it as a weapon."
"Do I need to tell you how bad of an idea that is?" she said.
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.
"The Red Baron." Percy said, "Good job, man."
He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun." he snatched his shoes out of the air.
Together, the four stumbled back to the warehouse. With some old plastic grocery bags from behind the snack counter they double-wrapped Medusa's head. Before they sat down on the table where they had eaten dinner.
"So we have Athena to thank for this monster?" Percy said.
Annabeth flashed him an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."
"Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa." Percy said annoyed.
Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of what was suppose to be Percy's voice, she said, "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"
"Forget it." Percy said, throwing up his hands, "You're impossible."
"You're insufferable." she hissed.
"And both of you are very annoying." Matt interrupted as he stood up, "I'll be back."
"Matt." Annabeth called after him, "What are you..."
"I'm going to do something I needed to do for a while now." he called over his shoulder.
Having relieved himself in the bathroom, Matt walked into the warehouse where he found Medusa's office. Sitting in her chair, he whistled a tune as he looked through the desk.
He found her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was 'DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California'.
"Good to know." Matt said, folding up the bill and stuffing it in his coat pocket.
"What is?" Percy said as he came into the office.
"Found the address to the Underworld." Matt said looking through the desk for more useful items.
He turned around to see Percy looking through the cash register.
"Dude!" Matt said, jumping up from his seat and he walked over.
"What?" Percy said, "Not like she's going to need it."
"It wasn't a 'what the hell, dude', it was an 'good idea, dude'. Very pragmatic, Percy." Matt said with an approving grin, "Seems like we're two of a kind."
The cash register contained around twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins.
"I got an idea." Percy said suddenly, "Can you help me look for a box."
"Sure thing." Matt said.
Rummaging around the rest of the office until the right-size box was found. Back at the picnic table, Percy packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
"Oh, add my name to it." Matt said sharing the same grin as Percy as his name was added.
And Matt Hauer, XoXo.
"They're not going to like that." Grover warned, "They'll think you're impertinent."
Some golden drachmas where put in the pouch and as soon as it closed, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop.
"I am impertinent." Percy said as he fist bumped with Matt.
With a satisfied smirk, he looked at Annabeth, wondering if she was about to criticize them.
But she didn't. "Come on." she muttered. "We need a new plan."
There you go, hope you enjoyed.
As for the explanation how Matt ignored Medusa's petrification... He got that from his dad.
Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite, or follows this story. And I see you people next time.