Chapter 22

I awoke with a minor headache. It was noting big but it was annoying. It was like a bug buzzing around your ear. But I could handle a minor issue as small as a headache that was bound to leave in a few minutes.

The train had stopped. I along side the others hopped off the train and looked around. There were snowy mountains dotted with pine trees, the sun rising red between two peaks. It was a beauty to see but sadly we couldn't dwell on it.

We'd arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. The sign said 'WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO'. The air was cold and thin. The roofs of the cabins were heaped with snow, and dirty mounds of it were piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny.

I saw the other shiver but I was still as warm as always. It amazed me that my body kept an average tempt no matter where I went or what time. It was a useful ability, at least I call it one.

We walked until we were in the middle of the town. We pretty much could see everything from this one spot. There were a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store. 

"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."

'How many people can I carry when I fly?' Thaila's statement caused a thought to ring out in my mind. How many people could I lift? A important thing to test.

"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.

""Coffee is good"" Zoe and I said at the same time. We looked at each other before separating our gaze.

"And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."

Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you three go get us some food. Percy, Bianca, and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."

"Actually I rather go solo and pick up some stuff." I spoke up as the rest of them nodded. They agreed, so I began my walk outside the little town.

The snow shifted as my wings unfurled. The giant bat like wings grew to their full length. I saw all of their eyes widen when they saw me do this. 

"Since when could you do that!" Percy voiced what all the others thought.

"A while." I begin to fly before I could be bombarded by questions.

I enjoyed the the breeze and the excitement of flying before I got serious. I narrowed my eyes and looked around the town. It was peaceful, but anything I knew in this life was hardship and terror. 

I took a deep breath in from my nose. I opened my eyes as I rapidly flew towards the alleyway near the school.

My landing didn't make a sound as I stared down the six, one eyed 8 foot monsters called cyclopes. They stopped doing whatever they were doing to stare at me.

They seemed shocked that a demigod, food, would come stright at them. "Demigod-" He couldn't finish his sentence as I sent high volume wings down the alley. The winds were fast enough to make cuts in the concreate. A high powered move that was easy to catch people off guard with but not so good if they have a shield. 

The cyclopes screamed as they were cut. I dash forward with my tail and claws extended. I ran past the first cyclops as my tail pierces its stomach. 

The next cyclops, one that was a foot or two shorter than the others, got a talon to the neck and impaled with multiple claws. It was soon to fall.

The next cyclops I decided to destroy it, for no other reason than it was a monster, it was lesser. I felt angry that they thought that they could sneak up on my friends so I took it out on them.

I started with a swipe of my tail that left a gaping bleeding slice that the cyclops tried to stop the bleeding. I followed up with a kick to the knee, causing it to completely bend. I grabbed the head of the cyclops and flew my knee into its skull.

It caused the skull to cave in slightly before I put my hand around the head and pulled back. My claws raked across its head, leaving giant claw wounds on its head.

I finished it off by impaling it through the heart with my tail. The normal white scaley, snake like tail was now covered in golden dust.

I felt a laugh radiate from my throat. "heheha.... HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!" It was like being high, I felt complete zen. I wanted to do this. I wanted to slaughter. 

I heard bullets fire from where they were. Still in the best state of mind I ever been in, I unfurled my wings once more and took flight.

But time seemed to stop, birds stopped moving as sound froze. I landed on top of a nearby building and looked around, preparing for a fight.

the stench of monster that rotten away in the pits of hell hit my nose. I flinched at the smell.

"Oh how rude, Atem. Is that all you have to say to your uncle?" A deep voice sounded out.

I recognized the voice as Kronos... The man who leads Luke....

"Uncle? All I see is a waste of space that no women would ever be near. All I smell is a filthy monster that cannot handle not being in control and cries as others do his work because they are tired of his screams and tantrums.

All I feel is a ugly force of nature that can't die, not because your too strong, but because you're too much of a bitch to die. You are even uglier than that in retrospect. 

So how about you shut your fucking retarded ass up and go kill yourself. Maybe that would clean your sins because you are removing such an eyesore from this world!"

I finished my rant as the voice, Kronos, went silent. One second.... Two seconds... 10 seconds... 15 seconds....30 seconds... After a whole minute, the time veil vanished. 

'Kronos left? Is he that sensitive?' I pondered as I continued on my way back. The birds are in a different position than when they were frozen. The cars, people and sounds.

Kronos froze time around.. Me and not the surrounding didn't he.. I quicken my pace.

By the time I got there. My friends were gone. I landed in where it looked a battle had happened. I picked up a strand of brown hair and smelled it. I walked forwards then around then stood still for a bit before I picked up the scent. 

"Time to track some demigods."

I flew faster than I ever had. I didn't know if one of my friends were injured, dead, hungry? I didn't know. And the pace that they seemed to go at was astounding. The scent was fading but I kept up with it.

I saw that I was nearing what seemed to be a junk yard of all things. The smell was close by. It wasn't in the junk yard but it was nearby. It was night so I was glad that I found them.

My friends were sitting around in camping bags. I landed, not silently, on the ground a few feet away from Percy. And I could have sworn that I saw Percy jump like 3 feet. Bianca and Grove jumped too. Only Thaila and Zoe grabbed their weapons but they put them down once they saw me.

"Hello." I said as Zoe looked irritated. 

"Where were thee?! We thought thy had died!" Zoe scolded me as the others looked around, avoiding watching the Zoe yell at me.

Out of nowhere we were hit with a blazing light from down the road. the engine was silent, which was strange since most cars were louder. But it wasn't any car. A white limo came out of the woods and Zoe and the others grabbed their sleeping bags and stepped away while I stood, staring at the limo.

The back door of the limo opened right next to Percy. Suddenly a point of a sword touched Percy's throat. I flicked my finger as the sword tilted, long enough for Percy to jump back. A man stepped out of the limo.

He was a big man with a crew cut, a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white

muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes. 

Percy hissed, "Ares."

The god looked at us before saying something. "At ease." After what you just tried to pull? Yeah I rather fist fight a bear.

He snapped his fingers, and I heard weapons fell to the ground. 'Ah so that's the power of the war god.' I wondered.

"This is a friendly meeting. Of course I'd like to take your head for a trophy," he pointed the sword at Percy. "but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"What lady?" Thalia asked.

Ares looked over at her. "Well, well. I heard you were back."

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus," Ares mused. "You're not hanging out with very good company."

"And what women did you bring that is insane enough to even closely think that YOU'RE good company?" I asked while crossing my arms across my chest. Ares looked like he would skewer me right then. He stared at me and I stared back. It kept up for a few tense seconds before he looked away.

"Someone who lost their best friend while tied up shouldn't talk to me."

"And someone with a forehead larger than Apollo's music collection shouldn't be allowed out of the cage that you were born in." I responded, not letting the talk of a dude with a 10 inch forehead effect me.

Ares practically grew red at the insult that I threw at him. "She only wants to speak with Percy. So I suggest that you lot go. Go get some tacos."

Grover managed, "the taco place is closed."

Ares snapped his fingers again. The lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The

boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN. "You were saying, goat

boy?"

"Go on," Percy reassured us. "I'll handle this."

I turned around and walked to the taco shop. 'Maybe they have some good tacos. Always heard that back city taco places have the best tacos.'

Before I could walk 5 feet away, Ares spoke. "For some reason she wants me to give you this." Ares threw me a box that I caught with one hand. It was about the size of 5 burgers long and 5 burgers tall.

'I want burgers.'

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I walked to the taco shop bathroom and stripped. The box was actually clothes. They were my size and they looked cool enough. It was a dark camo with multiple pockets and it was tight around the knees but loser around the hips. It was a perfect fit for me. The next thing that I put on was the skin tight black shirt. It wrapped around my chest perfectly. Next I put on the chain that was also in the box. It was a silver chain.

After I put on all my clothes, I looked at my self in the broken mirror that was in the room. I looked pretty good if I say so myself.

But I was forgetting something. So I put on my camo hat and grew my claws to cut my white hair to give myself a fresh fade.

After that I walked out of the bathroom to see the rest of the gang just siting at the table. They were shocked to see my new fit to say the least.

"Wow, you look amazing." Grover said while eating a stale napkin. Thaila shot me a nice. And Bianca nudged Zoe who eyes were staring at me.

Suddenly we were standing Infront of a the junk yard I saw beforehand while I was flying. Percy was standing there too, so I assumed that the meeting went well.

"What did she want with you?" Bianca asked, once Percy told them about Aphrodite. She spoke with venom that you didn't expect from a newbie hunter. In fact why wasn't Zoe acting like that to me? 

"Oh, uh, not sure," Percy said. "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. She said not to pick anything up."

Zoe narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray." I couldn't help but agree that she had led to many problems beforehand.

"For once I agree with Zoe," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."

"So, how do we get out of here?" Percy said, changing the subject.

"That way," Zoe said. "That is west."

"How can you tell?" I asked.

Zoe looked at me for 2 seconds before responding. "Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west." 

"Thanks, I'll remember that." I said.

Oh, yeah," Percy said. "The bear thing."

Zoe looked offended. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

'Ah, she fought a giant bear that's now a star.'

"You act like it was real."

"Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!"

We'd reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

"Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff… some of it looks like real gold."

I eyed the surroundings wearily. Incase something tried to sneak us.

"It is," Thalia said grimly. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods.

"Junk?" Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels. It was broken on one side, as if it had been split by an axe. "You call this junk?"

"Yes." I responded as Grover looked at me with wide eyes.

"I'll scout ahead. Don't pick anything up, it is probably cursed or something." I said as I took flight. For some reason, I had a really bad feeling about this...

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Taisho secret

Aphordite has another gift for Atem in future chapters. May just because she wants to have something to tease another goddess with.