The Three Lives Of Luke Castellan

Chapter 2: Part One: Adam

One - Adam

When Athena asks the Hunters of Artemis to help in a quest to find a lost family heirloom, the last place Thalia Grace expects to find it is at Kennedy Children's Hospital.

Then again, she also doesn't expect to find it in the possession of a monster or for her ass to get handed to her quite so well by said monster.

"I think I saw this on an episode of Buffy once," Thalia grunts, hauling herself to her feet despite her body's protests of pain. "Except I don't think she got her butt kicked this badly."

Beside her, Ariel, daughter of Demeter, looks at her with glazed amber eyes. The monster of the week had thrown her pretty hard against the wall right after it had trounced Thalia, and if the look in her eyes is any indication, she probably has a concussion. Good thing they're at a hospital, seeing as though their resident daughter of Apollo had to go and get herself buried under rubble two blocks back.

"What are you talking about? Who's Buffy?" Ariel asks and Thalia is more horrified by this than the fact that her small group of Hunters is getting thrown around the Kennedy Children's Hospital rooftop by a vicious monster with a magical item that makes it frickin' invisible and thus extremely hard to slay. "Is she a new Hunter?"

"Oh my god, I am so old!" Thalia howls, wanting to kick something. Preferably invisible monster ass.

It never fails to frustrate her every time one of her pop culture references falls on deaf ears, and she's reminded by the blank stares and snickers from the other Hunters that the things she grew up with are now outdated relics from the twenty-first century - that she's an outdated relic. She swore she would never become like Zoë Nightshade, with her "thees" and "thous," but Thalia's just as bad with her allusions to television series that aren't even airing on TV Land any more.

Thalia hasn't changed much in the one hundred and sixteen years since the Battle of New York with her short hair, piercings, dark clothes, and attitude to match. The years flew by at a maniac pace with hunts, another Great Prophecy, and recruiting taking up most of her time, and she barely noticed their passing. Before she knew it, Percy was sick and then dead, and Annabeth with her wrinkles and white hair lasted a few more years before following after him. Nico had died a hero's death long before either of them, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare had disappeared after the power of the Oracle had been passed on to the next girl. Grover and Tyson were still around - at least, she thought they were - but Thalia was the last of her generation and would be until the end of time.

Unless, of course, she got herself killed by some uppity monster that likes to torture and suck the life out of sick kids, which was starting to look more and more like a possibility.

"THALIA!" Mara screeches as she's grabbed by her ankle and hoisted into the air. "DO SOMETHING!"

Thalia grabs her bow off her back and notches an arrow, aiming for the space right beside Mara's kicking right leg. She prays for a quick blessing from Artemis and launches her arrow. A terrible yowl erupts as the arrow sinks into invisible flesh and the monster drops Mara to the floor. Another arrow is launched across the room, knocking the magical heirloom off the monsters head - it's a faded and familiar Yankees cap.

The Hunters get one look at the monster - something big, dark, and butt ugly - before it crashes through the ceiling and disappears down into the hospital.

"After it!" Thalia commands, pulling Ariel to her feet. "Split up, it should be easy to spot now! Corner it and kill it if you can!"

The girls who haven't been hurled into walls are already jumping through the hole in the ceiling and Thalia hurries after them, but not before she scoops up the Yankee cap and tucks it into the pocket of her jeans. She is going to have a very long talk with very sharp objects involved with whatever blasted Jackson-Chase descendent let this out of their possession.