Camp Half-Blood

We Meet the Triplets of Ketchup

It's not like we WANTED to go to Burger King. No. We would have probably gone to somewhere like Hardy's if we'd been given a choice. But we hadn't. Stepping into Burger King I noticed that Kaire seemed less stressed out. She'd put her earphones in and was happily tapping along to the music that I'm pretty sure the whole world could hear. It sounded like some kind of Korean pop. Not my first pick for music but, hey, everyone's different.  Skye tried to hold the door open for her but she just shoved him into the restaurant and walked in. There were 3 check out lines and since there were 6 of us we split up into groups of 2. John and Dale walked to the second line while Skye followed Kaire to the first. Joanna and I stayed in the third line and waited. When we got to the counter (Oddly enough, we all got there at the same time) I noticed just how much the workers looked alike. They were all rather large, with beefy arms and wide shoulders, misshapen looking heads, and nameplates. The worker at Kaire's side had a nameplate that read Ronald, while the worker's at John's spot said Mick and the one at my spot's said Donald. Ronald Mick Donald. Odd how that worked out. I looked up at the worker ready to order when I noticed something annoying. He only had one eye. So did the other 2. Dale cursed in Greek so I figured she'd noticed it to. I glanced over at Kaire and saw her looking at one then the others.

"Ronald, Mick, and Donald? In Burger King? Seriously? " She said, looking at them.

"Uh.... Kaire..." Joanna warned.

"Don't make fun. Our Mother named us." Mick said sadly.

"Why are you working in Burger King?"  Kaire asked ignoring our warning looks.

"More tasty hero's to eat." He answered.

"Eat us? Why would you eat us?" She asked.

"Flesh and blood good. Better than mortal's" Donald said seriously.

"EW..." Kaire gagged. "How are you going to eat us with so many people around? You could get fired."

"Mist. It help us." Donald answered.

Ronald slammed his hand down on the table and it started to steam.

"We will eat you all. Thank you for all coming at the same time.  It will be a feast." He said.

Kaire backed up quickly as he jumped over the counter followed by his brothers.

"Dale..." She said uncertainly. "I've never tried to shot a moving target before!"

She had her bow in hand and an arrow notched on the string, 

"Just aim for the eye." Dale called back, her own bow out, with John right behind her with his sword.

Joanna had her dagger drawn and I unsheathed my sword. Ronald lunged at Kaire and then hollered in pain. Skye had managed to stab him in the arm. Gold blood dripped from the wound onto the ground. Dale had hit Mick in the leg and he was slowing down as she fired more arrows at him. Donald's hands were flaming like Ronald's had been a second ago and he was glaring right at me. The smoke from his hands curled up the the vent and the fire alarm started to ring. People started screaming and heading towards the exits. I'm not really sure what they were seeing but  at least no one was going to get hurt. No one but us, that is. Joanna ran at Donald and he swung his flaming fist at her. She tried to duck but he grazed her side sending her flying towards the wall with a cry of pain. She hit the wall pretty hard and blacked out. Then he turned to me and his hands turned to big balls of fire. 

"Taste good cooked." He said and launched them at me. "With ketchup."

I was so dead. I felt the heat hit first then waited for the pain to come. When it didn't, I risked opening my eyes. I was fine. Other than my hair. It was steaming at the tips. I looked around and found that I was in a flaming ring of fire. I could see Dale, John, Skye, and Kaire, all still fighting and Joanna passed out on the floor by the wall.

"Why you no dead?" Donald asked in confusion.

"I'm not  sure, Bud. Glad I'm not though. YOU won't be so lucky."  I said getting a crazy idea.

I concentrated hard on what I wanted and felt a tug in my gut.  The flames around me gathered into a ball and shot towards Donald. I knew it wouldn't hurt him but I was hoping it would at least distract him. Thankfully it worked great and I was able to run towards him and stab him in the eye. I could hear fire trucks on their way here as he burst into gold dust and I noticed that my fire ball had caught onto tables and chairs. We'd have to get out fast. Dale and John had already killed Mick and were looking at me with an expression of disbelief and awe. Kaire and Skye were doing a great job working together to kill Ronald and a second later Kaire got him in the eye and he dissolved. Joanna was awake and crawling towards the fire exit cradling her arm, tears running down her face. I could tell she was in serious pain. I ran over to her and looked at her arm. It was burnt pretty badly as well as her side and leg.

"Let's get you out of here then deal with those." I said picking her up and pushing open the fire exit. "Come on guys. Let's leave."

We walked to the nearest building, a hotel, and walked into the lobby. Dale took Joanna away from me telling me she needed to treat her wounds and have her change clothes. She walked into the girl's bathroom dragging Kaire along with her. That left us 3 guys to just kind of sit around and wait. We headed over to the couches and made ourselves comfortable, ignoring the looks we got from the hotel clerk. 

"Dude, that was not exprected. You like, shot fire at that guy" Skye said laying down on his couch.

"Yeah. I've heard that every once in a while a child of Hephaestus has the ability to control fire but I've never tried before. You and Kaire were doing pretty well together. You make a good team." I said trying to change the subject. 

I wasn't really sure I was comfortable with the whole controlling fire thing.  For now it was pretty cool I guess.

"I was surprised she let you help." John put in propping his feet on the coffee table. 

"I KNOW! I was too! Usually she would've punched me or something." He admitted.

"You LIKE her don't you?" I teased.

Skye blushed. "Yeah... maybe I do."

"But she's so mean to you!" I pointed out. 

"Dale's not exactly very kind to John but he likes HER." He shot back. 

"Wait. John. You like Dale!?" I asked shocked.

It was his turn to blush. "NO!" He protested but I could tell he was lying. 

"I feel like the only sane person here." I sighed.

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Hey guys!

It's punchodex. Yes. I know this is TheBatman's account but a sister can make some changes right? OK so anyways. I know I don't usually do this at the end of a chapter but I felt like I need to let you know why there aren't that many chapters being written and apologize. If you really want to know I'm trying to study for midterm exams and also trying to write at the same time. Try juggling that and the upcoming holiday and you will sort of get why I'm so busy. So sorry I haven't been as active. No worries though. I will try to continue writing as much as I can without failing exams. :) Thank you guys so so so much for all the love you've been giving this book! <3 You're mostly the reason I keep writing it! :) Alrighty, that's all. Enjoy your upcoming holiday! Hopefully I'll have a few more chapters up before then but no promises! ;) ^_^

punchodex (Kaire)