Callie Jackson, The Redemption

Chapter III

Noah's POV

We jogged over to the bottom of the steps. I looked over at both of them, nodded, and put my foot on the first step. We ran up, Malcolm trying to keep up with Callie and me. He was right; he wasn't as strong as we were. Tartarus gave her strength, and I trained day and what felt like night. I shook the thought out of my head. 'No." I told myself. 'He's just as strong as us. He's going to be fine.' We finally made it to the top, panting.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious? We go down the slide." Callie replied.
"How? There's no water." Malcolm said.
"We could climb the sides. It's a tube, it won't be hard." I suggested, Malcolm and I moving to the mouth of the dry slide.
"Oh move over." Callie said impatiently. "We're only in Canada right?" I gave a little nod. "Who said we don't have powers in Canada?" She opened her palms over the pipes. Nothing happened.
"There's not going to be any water in the pipes. The parks closed, remember?" Malcolm told her, moving out from behind me and to her side.
"Oh. I forgot." She jumped out the bottom of the slide and leaned over the rail on the other side. We watched her. She closed her eyes and exhaled, then opened them again. Still leaning over the metal rail, she threw her hand out and twisted. Slowly, water started to flow from her finger tips. I flew all the way across the park, and into the water system. I looked back down to the bottom of the slide. The smoke was getting thicker.
"Ok." She said behind me. "You two hurry. The water won't last long. I could only make a tiny spring." I turned around and saw the smallest bit of water sprinkle out of the pipes.
"Go on Malcolm." She said.
"But what if the water–" I stood my hand out and pushed him. She laughed, and I grinned back at her, then threw myself down the slide. The water soaked my clothes. After a couple seconds, I toppled on top of Malcolm. He gave a weird squeak sound as I landed on him, but I jumped up. I pulled him by the hand to his feet and looked around. Callie came in feet first, and slid. The smoke was thicker than ever, and soon, I couldn't see anything around me. I held up my wet shirt to block it from entering my nostrils.
"Noah?" Callie called. She let out a loud cough. She didn't get wet. She had nothing to block the smoke from getting in her airway.
"We're over here." I told her.
"Where?" She asked.
"Ok, maybe I didn't think the over here thing through." I said loudly to her. She let out a roar.
"Noah? Was that you?" She yelled.
"No that was–"
"Gods, you idiot children!" Screeched a feminine voice.
"Who?–" Malcolm yelled.
"Oh gods." Callie said in an aggravated way. I could imagine her rolling her eyes. I grinned at the thought of it. Suddenly, she screamed.
"Callie!" I screamed. I could hear her breathing hard. I ran through the toilet bowl, swinging an arm to try and hit her, but I couldn't seem to find her. Suddenly, I was lifted up off the floor by my arms, and thrown back down. I unsheathed my sword and swung. There was a muffled grunt. I had hit someone. I started to squint, to see my opponent. I could make out some figures, then bodies. I looked around. Where was the light source. Then I realized. I was the light source. My palms were glowing. I shined them around, looking for my friends. I heard Callie scream once more, and a beating sound. Then I heard a moan.
"Callie!" I yelled.
"Get Malcolm! Get out of here! He's hurt." She screamed back. I looked around for either of them. I didn't see them, but I didn't have time to. I was grabbed around my throat by a large hand and slammed into a nearby wall. My feet weren't touching the ground. I looked into the face of Chris Palmer, son of Iris. He wasn't as frightening as you would consider an enemy, with his multicolored eyes and round, baby face. He actually looked frightened himself. He was small for his age, about sixteen.
"Not as brave as we thought huh? Even the girl. She's just a show off. And that other ones a complete idiot." He snorted. I brought my knee into his groin, balled the collar of his shirt in my fist, slammed him against the wall I was just being held against. I held up my sword and brought my face closer to his.
"Don't talk about her like that." I snarled. "She's been through hell, rainbow boy. Believe me when I say she frightening when she looks into your fire and smiles." I brought my sword up to his throat. "And if you knew what's best for you, you'd come back to camp."
"Have your parents helped you any?" He growled. "Oh right, they're in denial. Master has promised us greatness, to be able to rule anything we want! Now, will little Chiron let you do that?" He quickly brought his hand up and grabbed the hilt of my sword, pulling it away from him, and throwing it away from us. He brought up his fist and punched me in the nose. I reacted by punching him back in the jaw and kicking him in the shin. He fell, and as I was running to look for Callie, he pulled out a dagger and sliced down my calf. I kicked him one more time in the stomach, and limped off.
"Callie?" I yelled. "Malcolm?" Silence. Suddenly, Callie let out a high pitched scream, and the area was lit up by flames. I saw it. Callie was crawling backwards like a crab, and Malcolm was lying in a heap on the other side with blood trickling from his mouth. Then I noticed why Callie was crawling. There was a monster. It's head was a lion, it's body a goat, and it's tail a snake. If only Malcolm was conscious, he would tell me what it was. Callie forced water at it, but it soon evaporated when the lion breathed fire. Her sea eyes were illuminated with the bright orange glow, they filled with terror. The monster had chased her into a corner, and it was growling. Smoke was coming from its nostrils. She had to get out of there. I ran towards her and picked her up by the waist, running her over to the other side. She jumped up, as did I. We jogged over towards the giant. It spat fire as we circled it. I looked over at Callie, who had pulled out her dagger. I had nothing to fight with. Suddenly, the chimera whipped around to face me, forgetting about Callie. She was now facing the snake that had tried to bite me. The monster was now bending over me, when, quite quickly, Callie threw me her dagger. She was just standing there, when a large female demigod grabbed her from behind. I stabbed the monster between the eyes, as it instantly disintegrated. (I know I suck at battle scenes in sorry) Callie ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I wrapped mine around her waist. She looked at me, breathing hard.
"Thank you." She said, wiping the blood from my face. I had forgotten Chris had punched me. My leg suddenly collapsed. She fell to the ground with me.
"You're hurt." She said, looking into my eyes. Hers filled with concern.
"I'm- I'm fine." I said. She pulled something out of her pocket and opened it.
"Here." She said "eat this." I put it in my mouth. Ambrosia. She put her hand on her chest.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Shen ignored me and bent over my leg. She started to run her thumb over my wound. I clenched my teeth and winced. But then there was no pain.
"How?" I asked. She shrugged it off.
"Percy and I can heal with water." She said. I stood up.
"We need to get Malcolm and get out of here." We walked over and put his arms over each of our shoulders.
"We're lucky he's skinny." She muttered.
"Yeah." I told her. "How do we get out of this?"
"The hole in the middle. It leads to an empty pool." She replied. She sat down.
"I'll go down, then push Malcolm, then you just slide down." She pushed herself down the hole.
"Go ahead and send him down!" She yelled up. I laid him down and pushed him. I heard her grunt, take a deep breath and yell that I could come down. I slide down the smooth plastic and landed on my butt at the bottom. Malcolm had landed right on top of Callie. She was trying to heave him off of her. I picked him up, and she got up too. She wrapped his arm over her shoulder like I had, and started walking with me.
"I'm starving." She said, holding her stomach with her open hand.
"Me too. What are we going to eat?" I asked.
"I have ten bucks in mortal money. I'll go get something." She said.
"Ok. Wait! Help me put him on my back." She let go of Malcolm and pushing him by his foot. She had pushed him so hard, she knocked me over. She burst out laughing.
"And I thought you were stronger than me!" She said through laughs. I grinned and picked Malcolm back up.
"Alright,you go get food and I'll go set up camp and heal him"
"And where are we camping, smart stuff?" She asked, smirking.
"Lets go with the woods over there. I think you'll be able to find us." I told her. We started to walk our separate ways.

I walked through the thicket of pines, adjusting Malcolm on my back. His weight wasn't helping me get through the woods quickly. I looked around. All the land was uphill. I sat Malcolm down on a patch of grass and took out the vile of nectar Callie had gave me. I screwed the top and poured some of the contents in his mouth. Then I took out the ambrosia and did the same thing.
"Hows he coming?" Someone said from beside me. I jumped back. It was Callie, squatting beside where I was just sitting. She was blowing a piece of hair out of her face and shaking a paper bag.
"Here." She said, flinging the back towards me. "And leave some for him. He'll probably be hungry." I took out a burger and sunk my teeth into it.
I'm going to look for somewhere to stay,unless you plan on sleeping on this grass, of course." She said, combing the piece of stray hair behind her ear. She stood up and walked away. I looked back at Malcolm. He was wiping his eyes.
"Huh?" He mumbled. "Where am I?"
"We're in the woods that was by the slide. Do you remember what happened to you?" I asked him.
"Just some big kid hitting me. Then I fell and hit my head. That's it." He said, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Hey guys!" Callie yelled, running out from between two trees. "There's a house up here on a hill. It's abandoned. Lets go!" She said, coming to help Malcolm. We then ran through the woods after her.