Chapter 16 : Trouble in Manhattan

Book 2 : The Red Pyramid

Christmas morning was a blast! Spending the day with my mom, eating blue food and talking about my mom's plan to study and write a book. Since Gabe suddenly turned into a stone statue

(Thanks Hera!) and mom sold it.

We used the money to get me to Meriwether College and mom used it to start her study again. Yeah all was good I had everything a demigod could desire, a loving mom, blue food, christmas presents and a Egyptian Goddess in your backyard.

Okay maybe the last part was a exaggerated but nonetheless it was a bit annoying.

School had been boring this year, I met Tyson and he kept the monsters away, I hung around with him, showed him the city and brought him food since I had an unlimited credit card from Lotus Casino. Hemera helped me with studying which was surprisingly still annoying to do. Luckily she had the habit of telling me the answers before I could even think about the question.

So I was watching tv on the couch while my mom was typing away in her study room working on her story when I noticed something crawling over the floor.

A scorpion.

"What the Hades?" I mumbled as I saw a black scorpion crawling over the floor making his way to the window.

Since when do we have scorpions in Manhattan? I decided to see what it was doing. When it reached the window I saw the outside street and what I saw filled me with horror.

The entire street was filled with scorpions. Like a massive wave the crawled over the streets, all heading towards Queensboro Bridge.

Clicks, hisses and more terrifying sounds could be heard throughout the city.

"Ah rats!" A mortal shouted running away from the scorpions.

This confirmed one thing. The mist was hiding these creatures which meant something goddy (not a word but Meg loves that word) was going on here. More mortals copied the screams and ran away from the scorpions.

"Rat Plague!" someone yelled however all the mortals were ignored when they cried out. Instead of a mass panic most people started to look around in annoyance.

Just another day of a demigod.

'Follow them.' Chaos said excitedly.

This made me pause.

See the point is, Chaos had been 'Inactive' this year since I left camp, she told me she did not want to watch me go to school so she was mostly silent doing whatever she did when she was not bothering me. Aether only showed up when I threw Matt Sloan inside a trash bin after calling Tyson trash which got a good chuckle out of the immortal.

Nyx said she had to do something and that she would not be seeing me till next summer so that left Hemera who stayed and helped me through the boredom of school.

'Hey Chaos decided to take a break from doing nothing?' I asked.

'Follow the scorpions, they lead to our next adventure!' Chaos said, her voice brimming with excitement.

'Sorry but I have vacation beside it's christmas.'

'Sure let the entire west civilization die.' Chaos mumbled.

'What?'

'Yeah, if you want to help the world go follow the scorpions that will be fun.' Chaos exclaimed.

'What about mom?' I asked.

Suddenly I felt that my body lost control as I opened my mouth and I said without wanting to. "Mom I am going on a dangerous quest, see you within a few days if I survive it, you know demigod stuff, you can punish me afterward!".

Then I gained back the control over my body and I heard Chaos and Hemera snicker.

'Well you better start running.' Chaos laughed.

As I jumped out of the window I cursed.

'I hate you.'

(Later)

I followed the endless wave of scorpions through Manhattan and first it looked like they were heading in a random direction but later I learned they were going west.

Central Park to be exact. Maybe they had a meeting. A scorpion convention.

It was a bit icky to navigate through the streets with all those nasty scorpions. Lucky, for some reason the scorpions did not attack me even when I stepped on them, it was like they were in some kind of trance.

I began to run faster and then I noticed they were following a woman.

When I spotted her I quickly dove behind a stone wall. I managed to get a good look at her from a side street and saw how she looked.

She wore brown robes with gold jewelry glinting around her neck and arms. Her long black hair was cut Ancient Egyptian–style with a strange crown on top.

'Wait there's a scorpion on her head?' I asked.

'Yeah weird fashion statement.' Hemera commented.

The woman who I presumed controlled the scorpions walked into Central Park and I shadowed her watching her from the trees and bushes. Trying not to step on any of the scorpions but it was becoming hard as they swarm became more crowded.

'Stalker.' Chaos said.

'What? You wanted me to follow this weird woman.' I fired back.

'Look she is heading towards the obelisk!' Hemera said and I saw she was right.

In the middle of Central Park stood a big stone construction. Maybe Annabeth could say more about it but to me it looked like a square pillar that reached up into the sky.

At the foot of the obelisk, in the middle of the swarm were a group of people. Like they were defending the obelisk.

As I drew closer I counted three people. None of them looked happy to be there.

I closed in on the group by sneaking through the bushes with a stealth that would make Artemis jealous and observed what was going on.

Standing near the obelisk I saw a girl who looked like the combination of a Hermes kid and an Apollo kid. She had long caramel blond hair with red streaks in it and blue eyes. A mischievous, lopsided smile that would even make the Hermes cabin shiver. She wore combat boots which made me like her but she also wore some kind of linen pyjama which was totally not useful with the cold weather.

Next to her stood a african american boy with brown hair and brown eyes, holding a strange sword that was bent instead of straight. He wore the same kind of clothing as the girl next to him which made me wonder why they would choose to wear such clothes.

In front of the pair stood a small woman but she looked like a gymnast. She had black hair, lamp-like yellow eyes, and wore a skin-tight leopard-print leotard and had a frightened look on her face.

Suddenly I realised who those two were, Sadie and Carter.

Memories from my old life flooded back. The interactions I had with them were spare; however the things I knew about them didn't promise anything good.

See, they were magicians. Not children of Hecate; nope. Egyptian magicians. Also, they had been the host of Egyptian Gods. I remember Carter telling me something like that.

I hadn't really thought about them, almost forgot. But now that I had seen them again I suddenly had an urge to help them.

Because, with one glance, I knew they were in trouble.

"Serqet," The small woman growled when the scorpion lady approached.

"The scorpion goddess," Carter said out loud.

Oh shit a Egyptian goddess how are you gonna fix this?' Chaos asked with a sadistic tone.

"Can you take her?" Carter asked the woman in front of them. Her expression didn't reassure me.

'Can I help since this is not my pantheon?' I silently asked Chaos.

'Yeah, the Fates made sure you are not restricted by anything or anyone.' Hemera explained as the goddess named Serqet came closer. 'So go ahead, play around if you want.'

I decided to act.

(Sadie)

Yeah the scorpion lady was scary, even I will admit it.

Carter paled visibly at the sight of the woman who was surrounded by a swarm of scorpions. The scorpion lady distracted me from opening a wait- I can't open a portal anyway since nobody told me how to do it!

It is always, Sadie. Go open a portal. Never, Sadie, do you know how to open a portal?

It had been like this since I discovered that the Egyptian Gods were real and I had the idea this thing would become a recurring theme in my life.

"Carter, Sadie," Bast said, "this is going to get ugly. Get to the museum. Find the temple. It may protect you."

This wasn't the craziest part. The craziest part was that this woman wearing a leotard, was also my cat. Or something, more like an Egyptian Goddess that possessed my cat.

Bast gave me and Carter a desperate look and my brother got ready to grab my arm and drag me to the museum (nerd) when a yell startled everyone.

A boy ran out of the bushes, he looked to be around my age and had black messy hair and sea green eyes. He had a smile on his face that told me he was a troublemaker. He wore simple jeans and an orange shirt that read something like: camp Half blood.

Again, that wasn't the crazy part.

His arms were on fire and as he ran through the swarm of Scorpions. Scorpions were set on fire and combusted into sand as he passed them and ran towards us. Even the two Goddesses looked unsure how to act. Not that it bothered the new kid.

However he smiled at us and yelled, "Trouble with the vermin?".

Selqet hissed when he reached us, burning a small proportion of her scorpion army. A very small portion mind you.

"Who the hell are you?" Carter asked dumbfounded. The new kid jogged his way over to us. Still wearing that smile.

He extends his hand ignoring both goddesses. "My name is Percy Jackson."

Carter shook his hand unsure what to say.

"Carter Kane."

"Any chance you were at the Arch last summer?" He asked.

"Yeah how so?"

"I think I met your father, then I jumped down 630 feet into the water." He said happily like it was a normal thing to say.

"Wait," Carter frowned, "weren't you the one behind that explosion."

"Hehe," Percy scratched his head. "Perhaps."

"How do you two know each other?" I asked annoyed.

"We don't." Carter said like it explained anything.

He turned towards me, "My name is Percy Jackson, what's your name?"

"Sadie Kane, again who are you?" I asked impatiently.

Bast hissed, "he should not be here." She said it like him being here was an insult, though there was also a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"Wow chill I'm just here to help!" He said and he raised his hands in the air in surrender.

"Get away demigod this is none of your business!" Selqet yelled.

"Well you try to kill my two new friends here and you just intruded my hometown so this is my business."

"Friends?" Carter said like it was a magic word, well it was for him.

Demigod I wondered, what was a demigod? My world was getting stranger with the minute.

"So what's the plan?" Percy ignored the scorpion lady and turned to face Bast.

Bast hesitated considering if she should accept the help of Percy.

"Take those two to the Metropolitan museum and get them inside the temple, they are targeted by Seth and make sure they do not fall in the hands of the House of Life."

"House of life?" Percy wondered.

"Wait we are supposed to go with this guy?" Carter asked.

"What temple?" Percy asked but was ignored.

Bast nodded at Carter, "I sense a lot of power in him and if he's willing to help us we should take it, no matter his heritage."

"What about you?" I asked worried.

"I'll be fine. I'll catch up." But when Bast looked at me, I could tell she wasn't sure. She was just buying us time.

"Go!" she ordered.

She turned around and faced the crowd of scorpions and Selquet.

However, she didn't remain like that. She grew in size, her form shimmered and a hologram like body appeared around Bast. The scorpions dashed forward and began crawling up the hologram body. Bast was crushing them with her sheer footsteps but there were way too many scorpions.

Percy grabbed me and Carter by the arms and forced us to run, "she'll be okay in the worse case scenario she will reform within a few years."

"What?" I asked.

"Oh this is going to be fun." He mumbled.

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so my country is playing today

so I decided to release this chapter as a good sign of winning

be grateful LOL

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p atreon : Moonhorse

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