Shopping with demons (private)

Jack looked up in horror at the creature, whom had shifted into something even more hideous (Actually it wasn't hideous originally, but you get the point. Do you?). Out of the two legs it had, one was of a donkey and one was made out of bronze, presumably Celestial bronze. Her hair turned to fire. Oh great...How could the Fates create such an ugly thing? And he couldn't believe he was making out with that thing 10 minutes ago. He was determined to lick the soap when he got home. Soaps with extreme chemicals. Unless he wanted to have nightmares tonight.

And judging by her statement, she just single-handedly slaughtered a bunch of mortal security guards? Duh, their fault. It was their fault that they were easily seduced. It was their fault that now they're dead. Not his concerns. After all, they'd punched, kicked and broke his arm anyway. Jack felt it was a necessity that they earn it.

He ran toward Arian's side and ducked behind the fountain. "I left my sword at the store! Can you make a diversion?" he asked, gripping his hand on the fountain. He lost his bloody weapon. How nice. Maybe the guards had confiscated it, or Makayla destroyed it to ensure that Jack didn't have anything to use against her. Goddamit. He couldn't accept that he lost his dad's gift. But he had to have hopes. He had to. In a mandatorily and obligatorily way.

Arian glanced at Jack; they had little time and she needed a hand here. But with only his powers, he'd wear himself out quickly, which could mean his death.

"I'll do my best," she said. "Go!"

With that, she aimed another bubble gum arrow at the demon.

He nodded, before standing up and bolted to the right as the empousa slashed her fist at him, missing by an inch. He ducked, as she slammed down on the floor, creating a huge ripple. The floor cracked, and Jack leaped. He ducked down the chair as the empousa lifted the chair and tossed it at him. He rolled into the shop, avoiding the chair that flew straight through it, knocking over at least ten shelves before coming to a halt. Then Arian got her attention again, which gave him enough time to ran back to the dressing room.

The guards were all slaughtered, exactly like he predicted. They lay on the floor, blood oozing out from the torn gashes in their chests. It didn't sicken him like it did to others. The sword was held in the hands of a security guard, who had a gigantic abnormal gash on his chest. He pulled the sword out of his hand, and ran back to where Arian was "holding the fort". He quickly ran around, until he was right next to Arian again.

"All right, genious. What do we do now? We surely can't simply battle it till death."

"It's our only option," Arian mouthed as the empousa approached, her feet taken in bubble gum. "Land as many hits as you can, and don't get charmspoken again," she added with a stern look, then fired a net arrow at the demon. It wrapped itself around her form and she fell backwards, still surrounded by the gum.

"Go to the crows, child of Apollo!" Makayla hissed. A moment later, a blast was heard. When the smoke cleared, the area around the empousa was squeaky clean, the remnants of the net smoldering behind her. Then the demon charged.

"Split!" Arian shouted and sprinted to the right, hoping Jack would go to the left. She grabbed an arrow at random - boxing arrow - ....why not? - and notched it, aiming for the demon's head.

"Got it!" he remarked, before leaping to the side as the empousa smashed down the fountain, splitting it in two and water splashed everywhere. In the midst of the chaos, Jack grabbed an earphone from a dead mortal and plugged it in his ear, right before the empousa attempted to charmspeak him. Music was booming. Oh Apollo. The song "Bad Blood" was in progress, which annoys him and prompted him to quickly went through YouTube. The empousa charged at him, and Careless Whisper played seconds before the demon pushed him through two walls of a store, his sword blocking her. But the pain was tremendous. Now it knew Charmspeak was futile, it must've resorted to violence. The demon bashed through the second wall and toppled him over, sending him landing face first on the floor of an electronics store.

"F-cking hell!" he complained, staggering on the floor and looked behind the creature to find Arian.

Arian's boxing glove arrow missed, but the taser arrow didn't. The demigod was astonished at how fast the creature was, how strong. It seemed like a miracle that they were still alive.

The taser arrow gave them a few moments, but Arian was too slow. The empousa had already recovered when she fired her next arrows and caught them right out of the air.

Sweating, the daughter of Apollo pulled her wet hair back.

Makayla was standing over Jack, licking her claws. Her fiery hair was sending shadows across the walls of the deserted mall.

"Lunch time!" The empousa purred, and lashed at his throat.

He barely managed to block her attack, holding it with her sword, but he felt she was gonna overpower him sooner or later. Jack pushed back to hold her at bay, long enough for Arian to kill her somehow. Was he going to become the diversion?

Nah.

He kicked a box behind the empousa. It immediately caused a chain reaction, that knocked off the entire shelf full of 45 inch TVs. The boxes tumbled down, as Jack rolls aside with his sword, while the empousa was pinned down for 5 seconds with the TV boxes. Then he got back up.

Careless Whispers played in his ears. The music was gentle, and romantic, which was entirely opposite to what was happening now. Violent. Wow. Feel the irony, he thought.

"NO!" Arian shouted as the empousa lashed out, then closed her eyes, her arms across her chest. The glow started slowly, then the intensity increased tenfold as veils of blinding solar energy radiated from Arian's body. The first one hit the TVs, vaporizing them in a matter of seconds. But the empousa was still alive.

"Jack, out of the way!" She growled as she strode forward, surrounded by an almost physical orange glow, mouthing a string of cuss words in Italian.

Jack quickly noticed that (maybe not) she was in wrath mode. She growled, and that was probably a sign to being in a wrath. So yeah, he did the natural thing. He moved to the side and let her...do whatever she does when she's in wrath mode. Shooting solar rays that would fry something instantaneously? Yeah, she just did that to the TV.

He leaned against the wall, grasping his arm, thinking about nectar, raising his good hand, his left hand, to defend in case. Just in case. Besides, he wasn't in a shape to fight now. Especially when his right arm was his good arm. Dammit.

Makayla grinned, but her eyes had widened slightly. She glided around on her mismatched legs, her fangs gleaming hungrily.

"That is quite impressive, did your--"

"VAFFANCULO!"

The deflagration of solar energy hit the demon like water from a hose. Arian roared as her world narrowed down to a blur of bright orange, the plasma undulating like ropes.

When she stopped, there was no trace of Makayla, or of half the shop behind her. Everything was singed black.
Arian dropped to her knees, trembling, her skin wet with perspiration. Little stars danced in her vision, then the floor suddenly hit her face and she breathed, very slowly, coughing up dust particles.

The shop exploded, and he pulled his jacket up to block the conflagration. He briefly heard a horrifying shriek that could have driven him insane. When he looked from his jacket, half of the store was wiped away from existence. His jacket caught fire, which prompted him to pull it off and toss it aside. His skin was overed in dust and ash. His hair was messy.

And Arian collapsed to his horror.

Jack yelled "ARIAN!", as he moved by her side and knelt down. Her clothes were steaming, but somehow he could still put his hand on her shoulder. "Come on. We've killed enough people today. Don't be on the casualties list." he nudged.

"...brosia...," Arian whispered, then coughed hard. She knew she was on the verge of passing out, and part of her welcomed it. It was like falling asleep, and she could honestly use a little nap right now. The floor wasn't even that uncomfortable....

Ambrosia? He didn't have ambrosia. But he thought it was best he checked. He dropped the backpack and rummaged through its contents until he grabbed hold of a pack of ambrosia, and a canteen of nectar. He leaned down and gave Arian a gulp of the nectar, then grabbed her by her shoulders and lifted her up, carrying her away through the rubble. Officials were coming to investigate. Sirens blared in all four directions. Cars were stopping outside of the mall, and various emergency workers, comprising of police officers and firefighters rushed out. They passed the old clothing store, and he lay Arian against a wall, looking through the ruins, until he spotted Arian's bag, and carried his friend outside.

Jack quickly ran toward an ambulance, and nudged one of them to help him. The man quickly gestured toward his workers and they followed.

"What happened?" two of them asked in unison.

"Explosion." Jack lied. His tone gave no traces of lying, probably because it was an explosion after all. "Can you take her to the hospital?" he asked, coughing from all the smoke.

"Yes. You coming, kiddo?" the other offered. "You look like you need bruises healed."

Jack gripped his hand, and found that his bone was already broken when the security officers attacked him in the first place. Then a few almost fractured ribs in addition, after being hurled through four to three layers of wall. He needed some medical attention.

"Okay." he nodded, climbing in the ambulance and sat, holding his broken arm, waiting for the vehicle to move.

When Arian woke up, a smell of chemicals and disinfectants was floating through the air. She frowned, sniffed and opened her eyes. She was lying in a bed, in clothes that weren't hers, her arm all cabled up to a machine.

"Jack?" She croaked, sitting up slowly. The sun was shining through a window, so she must be in some kind of hospital.

Jack woke up. He had been sleeping in the chair by the bedside for some time now. His hand was in a sling, his burns bandaged. This wouldn't be necessary once he gets back to Camp and get some nectar, ambrosia. Right now, he wasn't intending to tell his mom what happened. She would be like 'are you okay, are you hurt, did that thing hurt you?' et cetera. it was simply annoying. Best he turned a blind eye for now.

Then a voice, slightly croaking, came from the bed, and he saw Arian waking up from her coma/sleep. He sighed in relief. "I'm here." he replied.

She looked up at him, he was all blurry. "The girl... Makayla...," she managed to whisper. "She is dead, right?" Last thing she needed in her state was an angry magic demon bursting into her room.

"Yeah." he shrugged. "You killed her--in a fiery explosion that also scorched me--but I'm fine. You went cold, so I brought you to the hospital." he recounted. "Anyway: you feeling fine yet?"