"You seriously need to carry a GPS"

Jack had the whole weekend for himself. His mother went on a business trip somewhere in Europe, he didn't know. School was cancelled for the entire week, and Jack thought hopefully it would stay like this for the rest of the week. He had the whole house to himself, he could spend the entire day lying on the sofa, his thumbs punching the A,X,Y and the maneuvers rapidly of the Xbox, while the sound of chips crunche were visible in the air and a spilled bottle of Code Red Mountain Dew might be soaking the clean laundry that his mother left for him beside the sofa.

Except that the power was down. For another four hours. And just like most kids these days, no electricity means boring. He could resort to reading a book, but he was dyslexic. He would drop it seconds after he picked it up.

After half an hour lying in his room waiting for the power to come back, his eyes fixed on the damp ceiling, he finally sprang up and replaced his "Die in Hell" t-shirt with a red long sleeved shirt, over it was a dark green coat, and even over it was a thick dark black leather jacket. In addition, he put on some gloves, and a beanie, covering his ears were Bluetooth earphones and the beanie itself, in addition, made his ears out of visible sight. He put on his Nike shoes, and added sunglasses for the finishing touch.

As he strolled down the street, a couple of minutes after his departure from home, his hands dug into the pockets on each side of his jacket. Although it is quite "illogical" to dig your hand into your pocket while you're already wearing comfy gloves, he still did it. It's his usual style. The song from his iPod bounced in his ears, and he intended to head for a cafe somewhere down the street.

Okay, so, perhaps it was not the wisest idea to fight with a manticore instead of just providing the information Lady Diane had wanted. And perhaps she was not as capable of destroying it as she has hoped. Asina had barely escaped into a shadow, appearing in a snowy alley not terribly far away. At least, she figured it wasn't. She hadn't meant to go far. It was still New Jersey, right?

Asina hissed as she stumbled out of the shadow of the alley into the bright sun which glared off the snow. It hurt her eyes almost as much as the gash in her side hurt. She kept herself standing with her spear, looking around to see if there was anywhere she could safely hide. Her heart sand when she saw someone coming. A male. Most likely a mortal. Just her luck.

Jack was not blind. Nor was he bad sighted. Nor was he someone who isn't an observer. A girl suddenly stumbled out of nowhere a few meters in front of him. Okay, maybe not nowhere. She just stumbled out from the cold and dark alleyway that Jack knew, was the residence to a bunch of hobos.

He approached the girl slowly, with his earpiece secretly plugged off. He wondered how did she end up there. "Hey, what are you doing in that alleyway?" he asked confusingly, looking into the alleyway. The light from the sun did not reach the alley, the snow covered the path in it. Then, his eyebrows raised as his eyes fixed on what the girl was using to support herself: a spear.

"Hey, why are you going around with that spear?" he asked. He had the slightest hint this girl might be a demigod, whilst it might just be a toy spear. Except the thought points to demigod. What has she been doing that caused all of these bruises?

Asina cursed in about seven languages, some epithets not heard in hundreds of years. "Really? You can see a spear? Oh what I wouldn't give for those Star Wars mind tricks... Can we just say that I'm doing a play or something? Field art. Yea verily, that." She said, sizing up the guy in front of her.

She shifted her weight and hissed again. She could feel blood trickling down her side from the slash, and she pressed a hand against it for pressure to stymy the bleeding. "This wouldn't be Hoboken, would it?"

"No. This is East 47th Street. New York. You've had quite a fight, had you?" he asked sarcastically, until now he confirmed her identity. "Which monster was it? Cyclop?" he smiled slightly. Her Greek cursing gave away her identity, because American speaking Greek mortals don't pop up out of nowhere.

"Manticore." Asina said, her voice heavy with relief. "This far east, I assume you are Greek, child." She said in Greek. Her Greek was fairly accented, not as flawless as a Greek demigod's. She squinted and looked around, wondering how long they were going to stand up in the open.

"Indeed I am" he replied in perfect Greek. "Manticore, eh? How the heck did you get in so much trouble?" he giggled sarcastically. "But anyways, Roman? I'm a Greek. Jack." he extended his hand.

Asina grunted, "Asina. Hunter of Diane. And I was tracking the manticore, but I ended up, uh, in a bit of fisticuffs with him. Knave got me with his tail. Doest thou have shelter? We're a little conspicuous here."

She also wanted something for her wound. Nature healing was not her forte, but she was skilled enough at it. Unfortunately she did not have any ambrosia or nectar with her.

"Thou? Seriously, Asina, you should keep up with English development." he laughed, before answering her quesiton. "Yes, my apartment's not far from here. A few blocks." Jack said, before turning around and gestured her to follow. "'Thou' coming?" he asked sarcastically

"Thou is a good word. And you try to keep up with all these new languages, especially one such as English, the Normans, Anglo and Saxon barbarians tainted the language quite brutally. Then it just got weird. Who would think that groovy meant anything but having grooves." Asina protested as she followed Jack, though slowly as she was still in quite a bit of pain and it hurt to walk. She kept her strength up with her spear, grunting a little as she walked.

"Well, you can use whichever you prefer, really." he replied, turning around a corner. He pulled off the other earpiece that he forgot to remove and stuffed them in his pockets, then turned to her. "So, how long have you been a Hunter? And no matter how old you are, don't call me child. Your age basically stops when you're immortal." he grunted, remembering her calling him "child" earlier in Greek.

"Since the third century." Asina said, "Uh, I feel dizzy. My head is spinning. She said, slipping into Latin. She stumbled a little, looking down at her feet, then the gash in her side that had soaked half her shirt. It was hard to keep standing, but she held herself up with the silver tipped spear.

"Woah you're bleeding a lot." Jack immediately ran to her side and helped her balance. The side of her shirt was soaking. A lot. "Come on we're almost there." he led her through a door. The apartment building was relatively nice. Power was back. He punched the button and the elevator opened quickly with a Ding!

The Hunter wasn't entirely comfortable leaving against a male, not as if she hated men, but years of isolation from them made it awkward. Still, she did lean on him as he helped her to the apartment. "His tail got me. Need bandages."

The elevator moved at surprising speed, because barely a few seconds later, the elevator stopped and the door gently opened with a Ding! The two of them made their way across a long hallway until Jack pulled Asina around a corner and came to a halt before a sole room. He plugged the key in and turned it. The sound of unlocking bounced in his head and he led her in, closing the door behind him. The apartment was of medium size, with 6 doors to each room.

"Make yourself home." he said, then darted away to find a medkit.

Asina dropped herself onto the couch, groaning. She dropped her spear, allowing it to turn back into the small leather purse. Her bag had been lost in the fight. "Hope you don't mind blood on ye sof."

"No I don't." he replied as he returned moments later, a square medkit held firmly in his hand. He unlocked the latch. He pulled out bandages, along with a bottle of salt water to prevent the infection. "Here. I suppose you don't need help?"

Asina looked at the selection of bandages and grabbed the largest one, then pulled her shirt up almost halfway, putting the bandage against her gash and pressing tightly. "This is about all I can do on my own with it in this location. How far are we from Hoboken? The Hunters are in Hoboken. Are there any women around? A mother perhaps?"

"I do not know. You are in New York, so its probably a few miles, I'm not sure." Then, closing the medkit, he stood up and put it on the table. "And I don't know any Hunter." He flicked on the lights, which was something he forgot the moment they entered. "So, who's your godly parent? Hermes? It is not that easy to go from NJ to Ny, you know."

"Pluto. As such, I can shadow travel. Through the darkness. Over a thousand leagues, but beyond anfew hundred my aim kind of...stops." Asina said, looking down at her side instead of at the male. "Didn't go a thousand leagues from Hoboken I don't think." She closed her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. "I don't think I can shadow travel right now. It would take too much energy."

"Big Three? Cool, I'm stuck with a minor god as a father. No offense, dad, if you're listening."

"Well, you seriously need to carry a GPS." he said. "But for now, rest. Your effort would kill you." He said, then landed on the sofa. "If you need me ask me. I'll be right here playing GTA V." As he said that, he picked up the controller, scrolled through a stack of games.

Asina rolled her eyes at the male as he grabbed the controller for the... Whatever thing that was. "Lady Diane was right, men are oblivious." She muttered. "Could I get you to help me with this wound, since it is at an angle and location that all I can do myself is press a bandage against it?"

Turning his head toward her, he dropped the controller and moved next to her. "Well, you didn't tell me that you couldn't handle it yourself, but yeah, I can help you with that."

As he said so he grabbed the bottle of salt water. He soaked it onto a towel that he left on top of the laundry. He helped her decontaminate the wound, then putting the long bandage that he has cut off on the gash, and finished the bandaging.

"Done. Do you need anything else? Food, perhaps?" he asked, standing up and throwing the blood stained towel on top of the laundry stack. Jack stuffed the salt water bottle and bandage back in the medkit, before sliding it into a counter by the TV. "And you might want to change to something else, because your shirt is soaking. You're gonna get the cold. My mom's your size. Her room's over there." his fingers pointed to the room to the left of the main door.

Asina felt self conscious as Jack helped bandage her. It was very awkward, having a man dress her wounds. It hadn't been done in a very long time. The last time was young Edward, the dashing son of Apollo. Her heart gave a momentary ache, but she let that go as he finished and started talking again. "Food would be good. And, yes, a change. Thank you." She said, standing up a little uneasily.

She wasn't used to actual buildings, but went to the older lady's room and managed to find a T-shirt and a sweater before she headed to the bathroom to wash up a little. It was about five or ten minutes total before she came out wearing a dark green fluffy sweater.

After five to ten minutes in the kitchen digging up anything left that remained. He wasn't a cook. He went out to have dinner outside last night, alone. Now he couldn't repeat it, because Asina was here, and going on the streets is risky.

"Here we go." he said, as he returned five to ten minutes later, holding two dishes in each hand. Both of them had thick layers of meat, vegetables and tomatos, whilst his had lots of chilli on it. "Sorry, I'm not a cook, and this might be the only thing I can make."