The Lightning Thief (Argo/hbh's Version)

LUKE, YOU HAVE DOOR PROBLEMS

Heja's POV
Everything was silent again and I was about to fall asleep when the door to the room barged open. Luke scrambled inside. "GET UP, EVERYBODY, EMERGENCY." He screamed as we saw a shadow move behind him. He turned around, slashed his sword Backbiter at whatever was behind him and turned back. I didn't know what he yelled but I assumed it was something that could very easily be considered an emergency. We got up so quickly I saw Anathea unstable on her feet. Dizzy I assumed. I grabbed my knives, Anathea and Margo grabbed their sword and shield. "OKAY SO I DID NOT LOCK THE DOOR." Luke yelled as we got ready for whatever was about to face us. Anathea quickly signed that to me.

"FUCK YOU LUKE." I yelled at him in a fit of rage as I realized it was a mechanical bull charging at us. I was about to throw one of my throwing knives in it to give it this like system error but I got distracted by something glinstering on its head. First I brushed it off as a horn but now.. it looks curvy. And it has something on it, like a handle. A long one. Like a.. a..

A scythe?

I dunno, it was too fast. In an instinct I threw my knife at the mechanic eye. It dodged. "What the-" I ran forward to retrieve it. "Heja no!" Anathea yelled. I ran out into the living room and straight at a mechanical bull charging at me from the side. I jumped and rolled forward, the bull only barely missing me. In an instinct I grabbed, and I felt the hilt of my knife in my fingers as I stood up again. I noticed Anathea desperately trying to get my attention. She pointed to her ears. It was then I realized I wasn't wearing my hearing aids. I quickly ran back to the room as I took the batteries out of the charger and all of that stuff. As soon as I could hear again I heard the grunts of dodging and metal against metal. 

I ran back in the living room and saw a scene that exactly matched the sounds I heard earlier. I looked around. Balcony. "Guys, balcony!" I yelled.

Margo now flooded into the living room. At that point it began to get quite cramped, let me tell you that.

HEJA YOU COULD'VE DIED! I heard.. who did I hear? Margo or Anathea.. what did Margo say again about the telepathy link? Something about.. about the person you're closest to. Oh well, too late.

I was in thoughts a bit to long and snapped up to see the bull charging at me once again. "HEJA NO!" Anathea yelled and she ran forward and slashed the mechanical bull in the eye. How she did it, I've got no fucking idea but as I saw the bull turn around in pain I also saw the sharp part of the scythe advance to Anathea...

That selfless little bitch. She knew this'd happen.

The next few seconds were a blur. The mechanical bull turned, but still had power so it fell over. In the motion it slashed Anathea with the the gods may know how it got there scythe that was on its back before continuing to crash through the window and fall to its high likely death.

As the dust flew down Luke walked to the balcony to confirm the monster's death. "It's not dead." Luke said. "It fled."

I could hear the faint sounds of the bull running away. Then I remembered my friend.

Anathea was laying on the ground, a bloody side and her eyes only half open. "Unconscious." Margo said as she kneeled down next to me. "She's lucky no organs are hit." Margo added.

All I could think: oh fuck oh fuck oh motherfucking fuck. Was this how Anathea felt when I was on the ground, a spear giving me the iconic Luke-scar? No she didn't. I bet she wasn't not sure of what to do. Or maybe she wasn't? The longer I thought about it the more I realized how little I actually know about Anathea.

Of course, i knew her for half my life, she was often at my house before yancy's but what exactly do I know apart from her outside? I knew nothing of her home situation, only knew the outside shell of her personality and now I realize I barely know how she thinks while she somehow always manages to read my mind and predict me... (leaving out the telepathy of course)

I snap up out of my thoughts by Margo trying to get my attention. "Heja. Heja!" "Yea?" I said quickly. "She's waking up."

I looked down to see Anathea's eyes opening. "Anathea you stupid bitch." Was the first thing I said. I'm assuming Anathea understood what I mean and let out a half-hearted smile. "I just tried to protect you..." She then lifted her left hand, which was also bloody. "I hold my sword in my left hand." She said. "The wound opened."

"Seriously?" I said. "Your godsdamn side is open and you think about your hand?!" Anathea looked down. "Oh." She let out. "Aren't you feeling pain or something that'd make you aware?" I asked. "I do.." Anathea answered.

I was really confused. How could she acknowledge pain but completely ignore the fact it's because she's wounded? She just.. examined the already known wound on her hand...

"We gotta get you patched up." Luke interrupted us. "I.. yea, you're right." I said. Margo pulled out the emergency supplies. As we pulled up Anathea's shirt I saw waaaaay more signs of wounds and fresh bruises and cuts than I was fine with but for some reason we decided to ignore it so I went with it. Maybe a lot of campers get frequently injured because of training? I thought. Hello? Anathea isn't a veteran camper! She hasn't done enough training to end up with bruises like these! But they ignored it. So I did as well.

With a quick prayer to Apollo we hoped Anathea'd be good to go until we could at least give her proper care.

"Guys was it just me or did you saw something attached to the bull as well?" I said when everyone had relatively calmed down. "Yeah, like a scythe or something." Margo said. "Is that maybe the weapon we have to retrieve?" All eyes went to Luke. "What?" He said. Then he probably reconsidered his options and status and said: "Yea, probably. I mean were in the location we had to go to as good as we could and I don't think it's a coincidence and that it's just a weapon. It sent out an aura of power. I could feel it, you too?" I nodded. "You're right. I felt it too."

"So if we track the bull down and then get the weapon our quest is basically done?" Anathea said. "I don't see why not." Margo said. Anathea already got up. "Well then there's no time to waste." She said. I saw her face twist. Or well not really twist, but it was the facial expression she always had when there was pain present. It wasn't really a nasty expression. More like 'oh hey you're present as well hi there'. I mightn't know Anathea from the inside very well but that was one thing I was sure off.

"Let's go." I said as we walked away. Out of the hotel, tracing the bull. The path it left behind seemed easy to spot. Cracked tiles on tbe street, a messed up tree here and there. Every few steps or so I kept looking back at Anathea, checking if she was okay and didn't need our support to move around. I guess she didn't because she kept the same stoic face all the way.

Honestly, if it weren't for our situation I would've found this beautiful. The rising sun slowly warming us, the cool but not uncomfortable air surrounding us... It felt nice, that for sure. We traced the bull for a long time.

Time skip bc idk how and where and when and idk lol

We very quickly were already outside the city. Luke used a bit of his powers to make us travel faster so I'm not entirely sure how exactly we got there but at some point we were outside of florida again, in the exact the middle of nowhere again. A forest this time, a couple hundred meters away from us we heard the sounds of a highway. 

A couple less hundred meters of us away we could for the second time see the clear path of destruction the bull was leaving behind. All we had to do was follow it, and hoping to catch up with it...

It took hours. Literal hours. It didn't really help Anathea was limping and a bit slower. I saw the gazes Luke sent at Anathea. Then at me and back at Anathea, as if looking for me at confirmation to look at Anathea like that. I was a bit too tired to react but I guess Luke thought I had permission because he kept doing it over and over again.

When the sun was going down and we could all feel a storm about the drop from the heavens we saw the bull. It was in an open spot, and the bull was resting. We looked at each other.

This was our chance.

Our chance to end this godsdamn quest and go back to camp.