Speed Demons

Part 29

Percy

"He's an argr," Halfborn Gunderson told me neutrally. I had been at the shack with Keith, in the middle of our second chess match in a row, when Samirah called me. Supposedly, Floor 19 had a new resident. I bid goodbye to my brother and run directly to Boston. Well, I had flown the White Lion and hidden it in Valhalla's makeshift hanger, but you get the idea.

"An argr?" Magnus asked, "I've never heard that word before."

"It's an incredibly outdated term from the Viking age," I explained. "It translates to 'unmanly'. It's not always an insult, but it vaguely describes someone who identifies with a different gender than they were born with."

Just then, a cheetah rushed down the hallway, knocking us off of our feet. Without a word, I shot after it. I caught up with it easily, tackling it to the ground. 'This must be the new arrival,' I thought. The feline studied me closely. I stood up, and we looked at each other.

He looked at me curiously, morphing into a human before my eyes. He had a mop of green hair, and a pink and green checkered, sleeveless cardigan over a white dress shirt.  They had two different coloured eyes, one brown and the other an amber colour. "How'd you catch me?"

I ignored the question. "You a son of Loki?"

"Daughter," she corrected. "Unless I tell you otherwise."

I bowed my head lightly. "My apologies," I said. My nonchalant response seemed to surprise her. "What's got you in a hurry?" The others had caught up by now.

"When I got here, I thought-, nothing," she brushed off hardly, obviously lying. "Who are you?"

I stood up straighter. Maybe subconsciously, she did the same. "Perseus Achilles Jackson, Percy for short," I replied. "Basket case extraordinaire. And you are?"

"Alex Fierro," she replied. "I don't have some self-deprecative nickname."

I chuckled and gestured to the other residents of Floor 19, who were watching our conversation with rapt attention. "Over there is Magnus Chase. He's the little one with the floating sword. That's Halfborn Gunderson, a berserker from the Viking age." Each person gave their greetings as they were introduced. "That's TJ. He fought in the civil war, hence the uniform. And this is Mallory Keen. She's nice once you get over the fact that she's a terrible person."

"Shut up, Percy," Mallory said. I shrugged and held up my hands in defence.

My phone rang. "One moment please, everyone." I ran off to my room. I wasn't technically an einherjar, but I was given a room just like everyone else. It was small, just the way I liked it, and a door opened to a massive forge. I answered my phone, it was Katie. "Hello?"

"Percy, where are you?" She asked immediately. "Keith said you went to" I cut her off.

"I'm in Boston," I told her. "I wasn't planning on staying the night, but I'll need to stay until 7-ish, and I have to be back here by dawn."

"Percy..." she warned, trailing off.

"I'll do my best to stay safe," I promised. TJ poked his head in.

"Alright," she said, "I've decided. I'm stealing you. I'll be at your cabin by 7:30. Don't be late." Then she hung up the phone.

I sighed wistfully, a hand on my chest. "I love that girl,"

"Percy," TJ said, a smile on his face. "the battle is about to start."

"'Kay," I said, putting my phone away. "What day is today?"

"It's Thursday."

"I hate Thursdays."

Typically, the daily battles were everyone against everyone, the last man standing is the winner. However, on Thursdays, a couple of enormous dragons were thrown into the mix. They were terrifying.