Chapter 34: Invading a pub and getting a ride from three wackos

Kai really wasn't kidding when he said there was a big Russian dude chasing us.

As Arthur steadied the car back onto the road, we heard audible yelling as a big, bearded man swung his axe at our car.

"Get out of my car!" The man yelled with a heavy accent.

Arthur pushed down the gas pedal as we took off, leaving the Russian dude in a big smoke cloud.

Kai breathed a sigh of relief. "That guy was definitely about to kill us."

"Why'd you steal his car and say you were getting snacks from the store?" I asked curiously.

"I actually did get snacks from the store." He showed me a few packs of Goldfish and Oreos packed away in a bag. "And honestly, the guy just left his car there. He should've known better."

I blinked. "Did you steal the snacks too?"

"Possibly. Details aren't really important."

"So, yes?"

"Essentially, yes."

I shook my head. Kai was one crazy dude.

I took a pack of Oreos as we continued our way to Yuma, eating the entire pack in the span of a minute.

For the next hour or so, we listened to the radio until I heard some strange squawking sounds.

Arthur looked into his side car window. "Crap. We have a horde of vultures tailing us."

"Lovely," I muttered. "How do we get them off our trail?"

"The old-fashioned way," Kai said. He pressed a button, opening up the sunroof. He stood on the cup holder next to Arthur and took out his bow. "We shoot them down."

He began firing at the vultures, but to no success. He wasn't that good of an archer, at least from distance, as his arrows missed the vultures and embedded themselves in the pavement.

"Seriously, dude? Aren't you a son of Apollo? You're meant to be good at archery," I asked.

Kai readied another arrow. "Yeah, but I never practice it. I just prefer swords."

I shrugged and then opened up my window. I began shooting fire spells at the vultures, knocking down all the ones on my side. Meanwhile, Arthur was going about forty miles above the speed limit in an attempt to lose the vultures.

"Slow down, dude!" Kai yelled as he missed another shot. "I'm barely keeping my balance here."

We then entered into a low tunnel, the group of vultures colliding into the low roof.

"We lost them," Arthur said, easing back on the gas pedal. Kai closed the sunroof as he sat back down in his seat.

Thankfully, we weren't stopped by any more vultures as we officially passed through the border of Arizona and entered Yuma.

The place looked like some western town from an 80's movie with dusty sand roads and old-fashioned buildings. Seriously, the place looked so old that I was sure some sheriff in a cowboy costume was going to march up to us while riding a horse.

"Dang, I wonder if Woody lives here," joked Kai.

Arthur left the car in a Walmart's parking lot as we exited the vehicle.

He closed his eyes before quickly reopening them. "The Iris pocket is a few miles west of here."

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"I sense its presence within the Mist," he answered, beginning to walk towards the left.

Arthur led us towards a two-story pub. It had a rusty, old look to it with its walls being a baby blue color. It was covered in brown marks and rust and had a white balcony on the second floor. In the front of the pub, was a small patio with rocking chairs and brown tables that were set up with chess sets. A sign on top of the roof read "Ricky's Pub".

We opened up the rusty doors, every single person turning towards us. From inside, there was a clutter of tables occupying the wide space of the pub. In the front, was a large bar with a plasma TV screen showing a football game. There were a bunch of posters hanging from the walls and for some reason, plates and silverware hanging from the ceiling as if they were magnets.

"Hey, what are you three doing here?" a man bellowed. He had brown hair and a long, flowing beard. It was so long in fact, that it reached the surface of the stool he was sitting on. He was wearing a low cut, brown buttoned shirt with baggy jeans and a belt, along with a cowboy hat.

"Not sightseeing, Lord Gandalf," Kai said.

The man laughed. "The name's Randy firstly, and secondly, what makes you think you could hurt me?"

"And also, what are y'all doing in a pub?" another man added. "You're underage as hell."

"We need to find something within this pub. If you gentlemen will let us find it, we'll get out of your way," Arthur explained.

The men stared at us suspiciously. That's when the big dude came in, shoving the door open from behind the counter and pushing a waiter out of the way.

The guy had to be one of the scariest dudes I had ever seen, with a permanent scowl and dark, brutal eyes. He had spiky, ginger red hair and a neck length beard. He was a towering seven feet tall and wore a white tank top, showing his massive biceps. The dude was jacked as heck, with a six pack visible through his shirt.

"These kids causing trouble?" he asked, glaring at us.

"Apparently Ricky, they want to find something within the pub," Randy explained.

I nodded. "We're not here to hurt any of you. We just need to find this little thing."

"Then why is he carrying a sword?" Ricky asked, pointing to Kai's sword.

I looked at Kai and Arthur nervously. The Mist was definitely broken.

"Um.. what are you talking about?" Kai asked skeptically. "I'm carrying an umbrella."

Ricky gave him a strange look. "You can't fool me, kid. I'm not an idiot."

Arthur held his hands up in surrender. "We don't want to fight you."

"Too late, brat," Ricky growled. He picked up a butcher's knife off the table. "No one touches my pub."

The rest of the men picked up knives and glasses near them.

"Kill them!" Randy commanded.

A group of about three guys charged at me, their knives raised. I slipped through one of their legs. I then spun around and slashed a wide arc with my knives, making them fall to the floor.

Meanwhile, Kai was squaring off with Ricky, both locked in a sword-on-knife fight. Arthur took on a large group of guys at one time, ducking underneath their plate throws and knife slashes.

Then, a duo of buff, jacked up men ran towards me. I ducked under the first one's strike and slashed up at his armpit. I then blocked a knife strike from the second one and stabbed him in the shoulder with my other knife.

Across the room, men armed themselves with large stacks of plates and began throwing them at us, like we were in some food fight. As a large folly of plates came toward me, I lifted my hands up, levitating the plates before they could hit me. I then pushed the plates back towards them, knocking most of them down.

Kai blasted a large fireball at Ricky, who dodged it. The fireball then hit the roof of the first floor, blasting a hole into the ceiling. A small wooden table dropped down, hitting a waiter.

"You damaged my pub, you incompetent brat!" Ricky bellowed.

Kai smirked. "Whoops."

He then shot a stream of fire at the roof. Furniture from the second floor fell down. A large cabinet landed on the head of Ricky, while Randy and his other friends were crushed under the force of a piano.

"We'll get you for this!" Ricky cried.

"We'll see about that," Kai said. We ran up to the second floor and went up the staircase. When we got to the second floor, we were greeted with the mess we made.

The second floor looked like it had been hit with a tornado, with several large holes in the wooden floor and decorations scattered or destroyed. At the very end of the floor however, was the Iris pocket.

"There it is. Let's go!" I said.

We carefully weaved ourselves around the holes before reaching the pocket and jumping in, going through the entire experience again.

When we got out of the Iris pocket, we were finally in New York, a sense of relief going through me. Around us was Central Park, with dozens of trees surrounding us. We were in an empty grass spot that seemed to lead to the entrance of the park.

"Wow, it sure does feel good to be back home," Kai said, breathing in the air.

We all nodded in agreement, looking at the park in awe.

"Brings back some good memories," Arthur reminisced.

I looked at him quizzically. "Like what?"

"Every night, I would look at Central Park from the balcony on the third floor. Whenever I wanted to be alone with my thoughts, I would go there and take in the view. In fact, that was where I met Geneva."

I smiled. "Really?

"Yeah. She was fighting off a group of monsters by herself, so I helped her defeat them. From there, I let her stay at my place."

Kai patted him on the back. "Good job, Lightning Wheels. But since we're bringing back old subjects from the past, what happened between you and Ivan? The guy really seemed to hate you."

"Well, his father's company, Markov Industries, was another tech company that specialized in helping both mortals and demigods. His father and my mother were on good terms, often partnering up on ideas and visiting each other." Arthur explained.

"Doesn't sound so bad," I commented.

"That was until about five years ago, when Ivan's father thought of the idea to create a demigod compatible phone. My mother… she thought the idea was so good, that she took it for herself, wanting to get full credit for it. After that point, our two companies had a big rivalry. Losing the phone idea really hurt Ivan's company, and after a year, their business no longer became viable, as many of their clients transferred over to us."

Kai looked stunned, his eyes wide with surprise. "Wow. Now I see why he hates you."

Arthur nodded. "But that's besides the point. What matters is that we find a way back to camp before it's too late."

"But how are we going to do that?" I asked.

Kai pulled out a golden coin. On the front of the coin was the number seven, along with a drawing of a swan. On the back was the Empire State Building.

"Amethyst gave this to me just in case we might ever need a ride," he said.

I looked at him with a confused expression. "How would a golden coin get us to camp?"

"Watch." He threw the coin at a nearby road and chanted, "Stêthi 'Ô hárma diabolês". Suddenly, a strange taxi drove up to us. It looked to be made out of smoke and was probably the weirdest taxi I had ever seen.

The back doors then opened, with three of the most horrifying people I had ever seen sticking their heads out through the front window. The three looked like nuns from a horror movie, with toothless mouths and empty eye sockets. They were all old ladies, each of them wearing rags and having unkempt, dirty hair. Their faces were extremely saggy and dry, and overall, the sight of them made me want to barf.

"Kai, who are these people?" Arthur asked.

"From what Amethyst told me, these are the three Grey Sisters, Wasp, Tempest, and Anger. They are the quickest mode of transportation to camp," Kai explained.

"I am Tempest, and I will be driving you three to camp," the one driving said.

"Why do you get to drive them? I want to drive!" one of the sisters complained.

"Oh shut up, Anger! Last time, you got to have the eye!" Tempest said.

"I've never gotten the eye!" the other one said, presumably Wasp. "Let me drive!"

As the three yabbered on, we entered the taxi. The seats were extremely lumpy, like a normal taxi, but the seatbelts were black chains.

"Really? Chains?" I asked.

Wasp nodded towards me. "We drive really fast, so we've been told to have chains for seatbelts. Now give me the eye, Tempest!"

I reluctantly strapped myself in. This had to be the strangest ride I'd ever been on.

"Shut up, Anger! And stop complaining, Wasp! We need to get these three to camp!" Tempest scolded.

"Fine," Wasp and Anger said simultaneously. Tempest put her hands on the wheel and pressed down on the gas pedal, instantly lurching me into the back of her seat.

"Holy Olympus they're fast!" Kai exclaimed.

Arthur stifled a barf. "A little too fast."

"Tempest, watch out! There's a car in the way!" Anger warned.

"I'm aware, Anger. Wait, what do you mean? There is no car-"

Anger snatched Tempest's eye. "Ha ha, sucker!"

She pushed Tempest into the shotgun seat and began driving.

Somehow, the ride got even faster.

We took a sudden turn, making me hit the door really hard. "Geez! Can you slow down?"

Wasp pointed at a Mercedes down the road. "Anger, watch out!"

Anger took another turn as I toppled into Kai and he toppled into Arthur. Before I could recover, she took another right, my body ramming into the door once again.

Tempest began messing with the wheel. "Anger, give me back the eye! I can't believe you would try and steal it from me!"

"Can you guys stop?" Kai snapped. "I paid you for a ride, not a clam-jam! Now get it together!"

"Fine," Tempest said, going back to her seat. "Anger can drive."

"Thank you," Anger said.

We continued driving, and after about ten minutes, we were dropped off near camp. The three sisters continued to squabble as they drove off into the distance.

That's when I heard battle cries. "Hold on. Is that-"

"It is," Kai said, looking horrified. "We're too late. Ares is already at camp."