An Ancient Position

Roy had come to the bus stop, which was not too far from camp; just over the hill and on the other side of the road. He was still dressed up in his three piece, though he ran to his cabin to get his manriki chain just in case he needed it (and from what he learned, you never knew when). Luckily, it was small enough to put in his front jacket pocket in his suit, though it did have a bit of an odd bulge in it. It was only noticeable when you actually looked at it, however. The grass was green behind him and the concrete from the side walk made his footsteps more distinct. He was sure Irene would come sooner or later, she did seem like the early time.

"Allo Roy, nice to see you here on time, lets get going shall we?" Irene spoke not a moment too soon as the bus had come and they both got on and took a seat. The Bus was cleaner than most buses she had been on, and it smelled awfully nicer as well.

Irene adjusted herself comfortably and looked at Roy happily.
"So what's the story behind the fang first of all, and then the story of the Triton please."
Irene smiled and nearly bounced on her seat in interest for his story.

"I'll tell you about my basilisk fang later. It has a long story, plus it's a bit of a personal one. I'll leave it for a time where I think is right," Roy said, nodding his head and smiling right back at Irene.

"As for the trident of the Hippopodes, it's a pretty interesting story..."


"...so my friend, Jacques, he starts the boat as I'm running to it, literally dodging arrows so close to my head I think they might have cut some hairs off. But, spoiler alert, I'm still alive, and doing well, especially with you here, gorgeous," Roy smiled and chuckled.

"I made it to the boat, and we set off back to Norway. So that's how I got the trident." Roy nodded. Out the window he noticed the museum nearing and he pulled the wire down that signaled for the bus driver to stop there when he reached it, but there was still enough time for Irene to reply. He wanted to see what she made out of his story.

"that's near unbelievable, why not just bring a shield with you? so many things could have been prevented or at the very least helped if you had come more prepared or... with someone who was more prepared, though that's quite interesting."

Irene meant it, she really did, she was smiling happily and she had giggled throught the story at things she found funny, and gave a soft 'Ha.' when she found a solution to a problem Roy had that Irene could have helped in had she been there.

With that the bus stopped and they got off the bus peacefully, Irene looked up and the sun looked like it was bout 3 in the afternoon, actually it was exactly three, the children of Apollo don't consider it a "power" per say because it was pretty useless, especially with technology now a days, but they could all tell what time it was by the sun although day light saving times tends to skrew it up for a week or so.

They walked into the museum together.

Roy made a confused face when she thought a shield would have helped. How? Even if he used it to block the arrows, it would slow him down, and the slower he got the more of a chance there was of him getting hit with an arrow. It would hardly matter what kind of armor he had. Besides, swimming with a shield would get really difficult, so he wouldn't even know how he would make it out of that freezing water alive. But he let Irene sound happy, because there was no denying that wonderful smile.

They both had a fun time in the museum. Roy returned his goods to the museum manager who adored him, bringing in artifacts and what not. Roy showed her to the vase with the drop from the River Styx, along with other things as well. He told small parts of the stories that came with the pieces, but didn't tell the whole thing. Only the important parts.

And then something came into mind which he forgot about. When he came to came, there was a poster telling the campers that Prom would be in 4 days. It had been four days...so that meant that prom was today. Should he ask Irene?

While he was thinking about it, he walked outside. He didn't think of anything romantic, really...

A small cat came up to Roy. Roy nearly tripped on it because he was lost in his thoughts. The kitten was a small tabby, with a general orange color with black spots, and a white underbelly. It looked really cute.

"Why hello there," Roy said to the kitten.

Irene had a wonderful time she had enjoyed her time with Roy immensely and had learned a few things here and there and met the manager, it was a great afternoon. She looked at Roy who seemed to be thinking about something so she decided to leave him to his thoughts for a moment as they walked out.
Roy stopped and looked down, puzzled Irene followed his gaze and to her delight there was a small calico kitten.

"Why allo little guy, how did you get here?"

Irene was very happy and started to kneel down to pick the little one up, she loved all animals with a passion and this one was no different. Until it hissed at her face at least. Taken away by the kitten's rude gesture Irene looked curiously at the little animal, she never thought that maybe she was just a little too close to the kitten.

The cat seemed to like Irene, and it came up to her and purred. It rubbed against her leg, looking for affection. It was absolutely adorable. Roy got down to pet it, but he slowly got back up and put his hand on the pocket that contained his manriki chain.

The kitten's purring became deeper. And it soon became larger. Not just a big cat, but a really big, freaking terrifying cat. As it became bigger, Roy and Irene took a couple of steps back. It was certainly one of the scariest creatures Roy had ever witnessed.

Spoiler:

A manticore. And a huge one at that. Roy retrieved the chain from his pocket, swinging it around now.

"Irene...I think we're  going to need your dog." Roy spoke. He very quickly  extended his chain to maximum length, and with a whip-like motion, brought it around the manticore's neck. The manticore flew up in the air, bringing Roy up as well. It swung it's monstrous claws at Roy, but he barely dodged them, swinging from side to side. Roy climbed higher onto the manticore, but his grip was starting to fail. He needed a bit of help for this fight.

Irene spared no moments, her brain began to work as quick as lightning:

Species: Manticore
Main Worry: Poison spikes
Secondary worry: Claws

With that Irene knew that first thing's first. Get Gyzmo. She rose her whistle and blew one loud ring for as long as she could. Gyzmo would be here in moments, for now she knew she had to get that tail down and keep it down.

Irene took her flail out and looked around for anything that could help her get to Roy. Irene saw a trashcan lid on the side of the road and a pipe. Nothing useful really, but it would have to do she looked up at Roy barely holding on as was climbing the creature almost in the perfect aim for the spike to shoot out at him.

Irene threw the pipe first to distract it right at it mouth, it was a plastic pipe so it did no damage only annoy it. She got to the trashcan and planned on getting to Roy hoping she could keep him safe long enough for him to choke the beast.

A claw passed her face leaving the smallest cut on her shoulder and she fell to the ground. She threw her flail to the side of the building hoping it had gotten stuck deep enough to swing off it so she could pull the Manticore down to the ground; make it an even fight.

She tugged on her flail handle and proved strong, she took a few steps and another bearly-there clawing at her shoulder, knowing that the next time she wouldn't be so lucky and propelled herself to the tail and caught hold, unfortunately, Irene had made a poor jump and had grabbed the very edge of the tail just before it became poison filled spikes. Her flail was still caught on the building and she was being flung around on the tail trying not to touch the spikes as she moved up to it's back and wrapped her leg around the rear to block a few spikes.

"ANY DAY NOW ROY" Irene yelled as a spike grazed Irene's bun and went right above her head.

Lovely. Now the girl Roy liked was going to die due to poison. She didn't looked hit, but damn, she sure knew how to get herself into bad situations. Roy was in the very small blind spot of the beast's tail range, just below it's right front shoulder. He was generally safe here: his head couldn't bend around in that direction, and his large paws couldn't really reach him, save for the manticore's back ones, but if they did strike, it would bring the manticore upside down due to it being in the air. If only he had brought his xiphos...

So Roy did what any sane demigod would do in a situation where their romantic interest was hanging off a deadly poisonous tail of a manticore, now ten feet into the air. Roy used his strength to get up on the creature's neck, and aiming through the flailing of the beast, brought his tanned fists up, and gorilla smashed its skull with all his might. It plummeted to the ground, bringing up some debris as it smashed into the concrete floor. It was dazed, or perhaps dead, but Roy spent no time on making sure it was dead by using the chain that was still on it, and pulling on it as hard as he could, trying to strangle it.

"I know this a bad time to ask," Roy hollered back to Irene as well as he could through gritted teeth. "How about we go to prom together?"

He knew it wasn't quite romantic, but he knew he might as well bring it up now rather than later; there was no point in wasting time. Besides, this was about as romantic as it was going to get at the last minute.

Irene had been thrown off the rear end of the unholy brute the moment Roy threw a punch and screamed as she hit the concrete.
Dazed for a second Irene replied:
"If we survive this Roy, I'll go with you anywhere you want"

Thankfully she wasn't so high in the air or it would have been a lot worse, she rose only to be slapped down by a flailing hind paw that was thrashing about as Roy strangled the last bit of life.

Caught between the claws Irene saw the tail slam down a little to close to her face and she pulled it so it aimed the other way when she realized, poison is poison. She moved the struggling tail just barely enough to aim at it's underbelly as it shot a large spike. A loud roar came from above her.
Roy must have choked it in time thank the- OH GODS
Suddenly Irene was under the weight of not only a paw but the whole forearm of the beast. The fur smelled awful, thanks to Roy the carcass quickly evaporated and left a dusty residue and a single spike that had been left over on the trash can lid.
She stood up and saw Gyzmo racing in from the shadow of the museum.
A little late buddy, thank you though.
She patted his head and looked over to Roy. Still shocked, but she managed a smile and eventually a laugh that this had actually happened as she pulled out her flail from the busted wall.

Roy smiled and let out a breath as he ran a hand through his ruffled hair. He always felt good, bringing a monster down like that. It was accomplishing.

But there was something that bothered Roy. He liked working alone when it came to fights, really. While Irene came in handy, he didn't like worrying for her in the middle of a battle. He knew it would only make him worse as he was taught with the German military, but Irene was Irene. Still, Irene or not, the extra worry he had seemed like it would slow him down in one situation or another.

Roy walked over to Irene, where near her was the single spike. He picked it up, and after a hug and a kiss on the cheek, he gave her the spike.

"You deserve it. C'mon, let's go get ready for prom. The offspring of Hephaestus are sure to have some clothes for us; it is a steam punk slash Victorian styled prom," Roy said, smiling and walking down back to the bus stop.

Taking the spike gladly, she wondered what medicines she could make with this poison, she wasn't good at making medicines but she figured one of the Apollo kids would be.

Irene and Roy were not at the bus and had gotten on, they were in transit.
"Thank you Roy, for everything if you would like, we could meet at prom to give each other a little bit of surprise"

Irene and Roy laughed and talked for most of the bus ride home, once they got to the camp they gave each other a big hug and quickly walked off to their cabins.

"See you at prom Roy." Irene gave Roy a quick kiss on the cheek and departed.