Hello there, gods, half-bloods and friends. Welcome to the next chapter of The God Hunter.
Hope you enjoy and now story time.
Matt groaned in annoyance as he had a miserable night.
The group camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local teens had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.
Taken food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but they didn't dare light a fire to dry their damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day.
It was decided to sleep in shifts with Percy volunteering to take first watch.
Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Grover fluttered with his flying shoes to the lowest bough of a tree, with his back put to the trunk. Matt was laying on his back, hands propped up behind his head as he stared at the night sky.
"Go ahead and sleep." Percy told him, "I'll wake you if there's trouble."
"Who else?" Matt said with a smirk but he still couldn't sleep.
"It makes me sad, Percy." the voice of Grover said.
"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"
"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground, "And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."
"Oh, yeah... I guess you'd be an environmentalist."
"Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."
Matt began to zone out as they talked about the satyr god Pan, who had gone missing and how Grover wanted to get his searcher's license to go look for him. A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rainwater, things that might've once been in these woods.
"Hey Matt." Grover said suddenly, "Are you awake?"
"...I am now." Matt said annoyed as he sat up, feeling as if something was watching them.
"Can you... Can you dial it a bit back with Annabeth?" Grover said, "She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..." His voice faltered.
"Grover." Matt said, "What did she need to forgive you for?"
Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.
"Wait a minute." Percy said suddenly, "Your first keeper job was five years ago. Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong..."
"I can't talk about it." Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if pressed him, "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Something isn't what it seems."
"Really?" Matt said with a roll of his eyes, "You don't say?"
"What I mean is..." Grover said, "The Fur... The Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy... Why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."
"They seemed plenty aggressive to me." Percy said.
Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"
"Asking about me." Percy said.
"Possibly... But it sounds to me like they weren't talking about a person." Matt said, "It sounded more like they are asking about an object."
"That doesn't make sense." Percy said.
Suddenly they were bathed in light, coming from a set of headlights as the sound of a running engine filled the silent clearing wakening Annabeth from her sleep. Matt used his hand to block it out the sudden light as the foursome where on alert at once. The engine suddenly stopped running but the lights stayed on.
It was to his surprise to see possible the last thing he was expecting.
"Wait." Annabeth said wearily, "Isn't that your RV?"
Right before them, with tracks leading to the road stood nothing less than Matt's dad RV. He was sure it was her as he looked at the car plate which read F4LL3N1.
"Yeah, I believe it is." Matt said, approaching it carefully, "But what is it doing here?"
"More importatnly, how did it get here?" Annabeth said.
Matt walked along the side, peeking into the window but found nobody inside. Opening the door, he stepped inside first to find it just as how he had left it back at camp Half-Blood, just as messy.
"Hello?" Matt said, "Dad?" but he received no response.
Taking a look around in any spot someone might be hiding, the shower and the toilet but he found nobody and nothing. Giving the clear, the others came in with their backpacks, Percy carrying Matt's with him.
"Seems nobody is here." Percy said as he and the others joined him inside.
"Yeah, seems like it." Matt said, hands in his pocket, "So what do we do?"
"I'm not sure if we should stay in here." Annabeth said closing the door behind her, "RV's don't suddenly appear out of thin air."
"I kind of agree with Annabeth here." Matt said gesturing to his side, "But we can't look a gift horse in the mouth. It's a drivable vehicle, it got food, shelter and build in laser guns."
"It does!?" Grover said as he plopped down on the couch, "Where did your dad got this car?"
"No, it does not have build-in weapons. As for where dad got it? It was a gift from Mr. Siffer." Matt said to the confusion of the rest, "An old family friend, he looked after my dad when he was young."
After he explained he walked towards the drivers seat, he checked the ignition to find the key's still there.
"Call this a stroke of luck." Matt said with a grin, "Because I don't know how to hotwire a car." as he got in the drivers seats.
"You can't be serious." Annabeth said, coming over to him, "You don't know how to drive."
"Yes, I do." Matt said as he turned the key in the ignition and turned on the engine as the radio came on, "My dad gave me a few lessons in his Porsche and I only scratched the paint a bit. So how hard can an RV be?"
"This is a bad idea." Annabeth mumbled as she got in the seat next to him.
Percy sat down next to Grover as Matt moved the car from parking before putting his feet on the gas paddle. His eyes widen when the RV moved backwards and almost ran into a tree.
"...Obviously the R is for Reverse." Matt said with a sheepish grin, putting the RV in Drive, "Not Really Fast."
"We're gonna die." Annabeth muttered, "And Matt's driving is the cause."
They spent two days on the road, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.
Stopping during the night sleep, though even Matt found it odd they hadn't needed to stop for gas. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember his dad ever having to refill the gas tank during their road trip either.
They seemed to be on a lucky break as they weren't attacked once.
Percy had to keep a low profile because his name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers.
The picture's caption read:
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with three teenage accomplices. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.
"Don't worry." Annabeth told them, "Mortal police could never find us."
As they drove, Matt spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch.
Another time, towards the evening, Matt saw something huge moving through the woods. He thought it was a lion, but those don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer with fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.
"Can't believe him." Annabeth muttered one early morning, taking her usual seat next to Matt.
"Good morning, Sunshine." Matt said as he was already driving the RV, "What is it now?"
"Percy has this dream of an evil voice offering his mother for his help." Annabeth told him what Percy had said last night when Matt was asleep, "But that doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."
"So who could it be." Matt said.
She shook her head, wishing she knew the answer. "You can't barter with Hades. He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy."
"Thought he was one of the more reasonable gods." Matt said, "At least according to the myths I heard about."
"Well stories can be misleading." Annabeth huffed, her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. Percy can't be tempted to make a deal for his mom."
"Why couldn't he? That's his mom." Matt said, "What would you do if you where in his shoes? If it was your dad?"
"Oh, that's easy." she said, "I'd leave him to rot."
"...The feck did he do?" Matt said.
Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on him. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound.
"My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Matt." she said, "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."
"Guess Hera didn't get that memo." Matt mumbled, "But how did you appear, I guess you weren't born in a hospital."
"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."
Matt looked out the front window, the lights of a sleeping town were drifting by.
"I don't know what to say, Annabeth." Matt said, "My dad found me in an abandoned building, maybe he thought my birth parents left me there. Which turns out she actually did, maybe she couldn't find my birth dad, or maybe my birth dad did leave me there. I don't know, dad never found any clues."
"Yeah..." Annabeth said as she kept worrying at her necklace, "From what you told me, your adoptive dad sounds like a good man."
"No, my adoptive dad is not a good man." Matt said, "He's a great man, and he is not my adoptive dad. He's my real dad."
"Your lucky he found you. My dad..." Annabeth said, "He doesn't care about me. His wife, my stepmom, treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened, you know, something with monsters, they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."
"How old were you?"
"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."
"The feck, how could they do that? You were just a kid! You had no control over it." Matt said offended, "But how did you mange to get to Half-Blood Hill? You couldn't have that done all by yourself."
"Because I didn't. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help." she said, "I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."
Toward the end of June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, they passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch.
"I want to do that." she sighed.
Matt looked up as he had been leaning his head on his fist while he steered, "Excuse me?"
"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Matt?"
"Can't say I have." Matt said.
"Someday, I'm going to see it in person." Annabeth said, "I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."
Matt couldn't help himself but laugh at the mere idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.
Her cheeks flushed when she noticed. "What's so funny? Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like...""
"Annabeth, you do know I give zero feck's what the gods do or expect from us." Matt said casually, "So, you want to see that Gateway Arch?"
He didn't wait for her answer as he turned the car so they drove towards the highway exit.
"Where are we going?" Grover said as he walked up to the drivers seat.
"Sightseeing, goat boy." Matt said, sending a smirk in Annabeth's direction, "Beside I could use some pizza."
Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. Threading their way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. Matt didn't thought it was that interesting but Annabeth seemed to be enjoying herself, so he consider the visit worth it.
Annabeth kept telling them interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing Percy jelly beans, while Matt enjoyed his peperoni pizza.
"Underground." Grover said distastefully, "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."
"Guys." Percy said, "You know the gods' symbols of power?"
Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over, "Yeah?"
"Well, H..."
Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place... You mean, our friend downstairs?"
"Who, Satan?" Matt said as he chewed the sausage, cheese, tomato sauce and dough in his mouth.
"Don't." Annabeth hissed at him, "Ever invoke that name."
"Anyway, our friend way downstairs." Percy said, "Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"
"You mean the Helm of Darkness." Annabeth said, "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."
"The H-dude was there?" Matt said.
She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus, the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true..."
"It allows him to become darkness." Grover confirmed, "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"
"But then..." Percy said, "How do we know he's not here right now, watching us?"
Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.
"We don't." Grover said.
"Ain't that great." Matt mumbled before he finished his pizza, "I could use another slice."
Having gotten just that, as they got shoehorned into the tiny little elevator car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar.
They started going up, inside the Arch.
"No parents?" the fat lady asked them.
She had beady eyes. Pointy, coffee-stained teeth. A floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.
"They're below." Annabeth told her, "Scared of heights."
"Oh, the poor darlings."
The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.
Percy said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"
"No." the lady told him, she smiled as if that cleared everything up.
At the top of the Arch, rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay though.
Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor. She probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.
Walking toward the exit, Percy, Annabeth and Grover loaded into the elevator, and Matt was about to get in myself when he realized there were already two other tourists inside.
The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."
"We'll get out." Annabeth said, "We'll wait with you."
"It's alright." Matt said, "I'll see you downstairs."
Percy, Grover and Annabeth looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.
Now the only people left on the observation deck were Matt, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.
The fat lady smiled at him, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.
"Wait..." Matt mumbled, "Oh, shit."
Her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at him.
"Now, now, sonny." the lady said, "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."
"Doggie!" the little boy said, "Look, a doggie!", his parents pulled him back.
The Chihuahua bared his teeth at Matt, foam dripping from his black lips.
"Well, son." the fat lady sighed, "If you insist."
"Did you just call that Chihuahua your son?" Matt said.
"Chimera, dear." the fat lady corrected, "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."
She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, she showed her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were sideways slits, like a reptile's. The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.
The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.
The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck.
The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Matt Hauer. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"
Matt stared at her, "Like the anteater?" he said, "Like Knuckles?"
She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Matt Hauer, my son shall destroy you!"
The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. Matt dived out of the way, rolling over the floor to dodge the bite.
He ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.
Matt summoned his sword, grinning before he charged at the Chimera, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at him. With his free hand, he send a blast of white flames forcing his way through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames and leaving a large hole in the wall.
As the Chimera turned, Matt slashed at its neck but the blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar.
Matt regained his balance, using his blade to stop the fiery lion's mouth of chomping down on his head by blocking its teeth with his sword. He managed to catch the serpent by the head before it could sink its fangs into his calf.
He put himself in a though spot, being forced down on his knees as he struggled to keep the head away from him as he held onto the snakehead.
The monster growled, and Matt growled back as he began to lift. Throwing the Chimera's body over his head, sending it flying through the room. Echidna roared in anger as Matt was holding the snake still in his hand.
Dropping it on the floor and crushing it beneath his shoes before he charged towards what remained of the Chimera. The lion's head turned to him and sent a column of flame towards Matt, who countered with a stream of white fire from his fist.
The resulting explosion threw Matt backwards, his sword was lost as he was flung out of the hole in the wall. Clothes on fire, he plummeted toward the ground below.
There you go, hope you enjoyed.
Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite, or follows this story. And I see you people next time.