Magnus Chase & The Heroes of Olympos

Falafel really brings people together

"Whoa there flying axe girl!" Percy exclaimed and stared at the shiny, sharp blade of metal resting at his Adam's apple. The flying axe girl had olive skin and dark brown, almost black eyes. Really pretty Leo thought, but usually pretty girls were as dangerous as they were beautiful (Just look at Calypso, his girlfriend.). Her hair was probably brown or black, but it was hidden under some sort of camouflage green cloth wrapped around her head. She wore a nearly casual outfit. Nearly. If you looked away from her belt where another axe and a dagger was fastened and the spear at her back. Aside from the weapons, she wore a green t-shirt, jeans and a thin black cardigan. Her sneakers hovered about eight inches above the ground. Maybe an undiscovered daughter of Zeus or Jupiter? She didn't really seem like a monster, but her eyes blazed with rage. "No one threatens my Amir and gets. away. with. it." she said through clenched teeth. Leo guessed Amir was the falafel guy, and probably her boyfriend. He was hiding behind the counter of Fadlan's Falafel. The other demigods were looking at Percy and the axe girl. Percy tried not to swallow, 'cause if he did the blade would cut his skin. "Look, we-" Leo began to explain, but he was cut off by her glowing spear pointing at his heart. "Spare the excuses. I know what you are" and then she called him something that sounded like "fire yo tuna". Leo didn't know what it meant, but he knew that he didn't have any tuna to fire and that it didn't sound good. And that it was a bad sign that she called him fire something something. And that he didn't like tuna. Huh, turned out Leo knew a lot.

At the opposite side of the table Annabeth looked at the girl as if trying to remember something important. "This must be some sort of misunderstanding. We have no interest in hurting your Amir. He must be a great guy since you are willing to fight for him." she said. She was probably trying to buy them some time and make her reveal something that could help them. "I won't fight you. I'll kill you!" the axe girl said before she looked at Annabeth and an odd look of recognition went over her face like Annabeth looked like someone she knew. She hesitated for a second before she shook her head and pressed the axe blade an millimetre into Percy's skin so a little drop of blood trickled down his throat. "There's no point trying to convince me. Amir told me he saw your weapons and that he saw that fire giant (She poked Leo in his chest with the point of her spear. It hurt, sort of like Clarisse's spear) lit his hands on fire and smile hungrily at him. And for that I'll have to kill-" she was interrupted by someone shouting:

"SAM! Even though we are fast we still can't keep up with your flying!". Her head turned towards the entrance of the food court. Actually, everyone's heads turned towards the blonde boy running towards them. He wore the same green t-shirt as the girl, jeans and a gold chain with some sort of pendant around his neck. The first thing that popped into Leo's head was a young Kurt Cobain. But he also reminded him of someone else. The guy reached their table, beside him was a brown rabbit? It had one brown eye and one golden. Both of them looked shocked at Annabeth. Annabeth looked at Magnus, but a little less shocked. "Annabeth?!", "Magnus!" They said in chorus. The blonde guy looked at Percy, less excited, and said: "Hi Percy". The flying axe girl, Sam Leo guessed, took her axe away from Percy's throat and the spear away from Leo's chest and lowered herself down on the ground. The blonde guy named Magnus sat down next to Annabeth. "Long time no see! What are you doing here?" he said. Annabeth smiled and hugged him. "Just a reunion trip. Totally random that we ended up in Boston". "Random doesn't exist" a voice said. The demigods except from Annabeth and Percy looked around confused. No one had moved their mouth, so where did the voice come from. "'Sup Annabeth? Percy?" the voice said from somewhere low.

"It's the rabbit! It talks!" Piper almost shouted when she understood who had talked. The rabbit jumped onto the table. "It's the rabbit! Ten points to you, chica bonita" it said. Many people had called Piper a pretty girl before, but a rabbit? That was new. Piper looked sceptically at the rabbit and moved a couple of inches away from it, closer to Leo. Hazel and Frank looked at the rabbit like it was some sort of mythical, magical creature. Which it probably was. "How can it talk?" Frank said with wonder. Percy splashed some water on his cut to heal it. He leaned forwards over the table and said: "No biggie. It's just Alex". The rabbit Alex frowned and karate kicked Percy in the face. "Ow!" Percy rubbed his cheek. Magnus, Sam and Annabeth hid a laugh. "JUST me? How dare you!" Alex said before jumping over the dressing towards Magnus. Jason coughed and examined Magnus chewing falafels. "Annabeth, who are these people, and rabbit? And how do you know them?" he asked. Annabeth tugged a lock of golden hair behind her ear, "Well, this is my cousin Magnus. Alex is his friend and you are Sam? (She looked at Sam who nodded). They're-"

"Dead". She was cut off by Nico who had appeared behind her with a Happy Meal from McDonald's in his hands. "That's a dead Kurt Cobain imitator and a talking dead karate rabbit" he said while looking suspiciously at the dead duo in front of him. Frank, Hazel, Piper, Jason and Leo all gasped, "How?" "They can't be!" "Talking dead karate rabbit?". Jason, Frank and Piper drew their weapons and pointed them against Magnus, Alex and Sam. "Hey hey hey! I really don't feel like being killed right now" Magnus said calmly and gestured for them to put their weapons down again. They didn't. Meanwhile Alex made her way to the edge of the table. "Look, there's a perfectly good explanation for how we are dead and still here". Nico looked even more suspicious, but he was curious. "How can it possibly be a perfectly good explanation for that?" he asked while placing his Happy Meal on the table beside him. Alex coughed, "First of all Magnus is not a Kurt Cobain imitator, he just has middle-parted blonde hair that he refuses to let me cut anymore. Second, I'm not a talking dead karate rabbit. That just sounds weird". Alex was now sitting at the edge. It/he/she, Nico didn't know, jumped from the table and grew? Grew into a human with short, choppy green hair with black roots. A human with green denim shorts, baby pink t-shirt and rose high tops. Alex turned around to face the others and pushed back a pair of hot pink sunglasses, eyes the same colours as the rabbit. "I'm Alex Fierro for your service! Actually, no. I'm not gonna serve you. Anyways, I'm a she today. Pronouns are she/her/hers". She must be gender fluid, Nico thought.

Frank stared at Alex with amazement. "You're a shapeshifter! Like me! Are you a descendant of Pericylmenus too?" he said, eager to get to know this fellow shapeshifter. Alex nodded, "Ten points to you, I'm a shapeshifter, but I'm not a descendant of Perry-whatever-you-called-him. No idea who that is". Frank looked puzzled. As far as he knew it was only descendants of Periclymenus who could shapeshift like that. So who was she? Nico coughed to get Alex's attention back. "You still haven't told us your reason for being dead" he stated. Alex looked at Magnus and Sam. Sam nodded, Magnus put another falafel in his mouth. How many falafels could that guy eat?! Alex cleared her throat, "It's easy! We're einherjar from Valhalla". Frank and the other demigods (except for Percy and Annabeth) exchanged inquiring glances. Valhalla? What is that? Leo looked like the machinery in is head suddenly clicked (Author: Look what I did there?). "Valhalla? Like Thor and Odin and those". Magnus swallowed another (hopefully his last, that guy is going explode soon) falafel and announced: "Yup, Valhalla. Like Thor and Odin and those. But the Marvel version is terribly wrong". Silence. Magnus looked pleased, that kind of pleased when you know something others don't. He added: "We're Norse demigods".

Authors note: Sorry for posting so late, but I've had Hela (hehe) lots of homework and school stuff to do plus I've been to Romania so I've had no time to write. And sadly it will stay that way for a couple of weeks now. You'll have to get yourselves a ton of patience while I'll work my best to get new parts of the story published.