artemis ; pjo

OverWorld

I followed Ben, against my best interest.

We ducked through alleyways and backyards. We snuck around market stands and small groups of people. Finally we arrived at a run down abandoned building. It looked like it was about to crumble to dust. Ben walked over to the beaten up door, and opened it.

"After you" he said in a mocking tone.

"If you're the nicest person here, I'd like to see the meanest" I said loud enough for him to hear.

I walked in carefully, scared that the room was going to cave in on me.

"It's safe" Ben said, seeing my cautious behavior.

I straightened my back and walked towards the back of the building. I turned a dusty corner and saw a cute little work bench. There were ancient tools and tons of ancient machinery. It was cool, but even close to as awesome Leo's workshop was.

"Nice" I said, trying not to sound impressed.

"Thanks"

I walked around and looked at his projects. I eyed them critically, even though I really liked them. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Ben staring at me. I'm not are if he was seeking approval of his machines or if he was checking me out (the horror), but it made me uncomfortable.

"So," I said trying to break the silence, "How old are you?"

"Sixteen, you?"

"Fourteen, almost fifteen. Do you live here?"

"Nope, I live in the center of town. I just found this place and decided to make it a workshop"

"Okay. So what about getting me to the surface?"

"Right. Okay, step over here" Ben said, pointing to a pressure plate.

I stepped on it. It made a weird clicking noise and I started to smell smoke. I started to make gagging noises and I started hacking.

"Sorry about that. It's suppose to happen. Now let's get you out of here"

"Sounds like you're eager to get rid of me" I said, cocking my head to the side.

"I-I uh, no not a-at all. It's just that someone might see y-you" Ben stuttered, suddenly flustered. He quickly became beet red. Ben turned around and flicked a few switches. "Alright in 30 seconds you'll be gone"

"Sounds like you do this a lot"

"We've had about 7 OverWorlders to ever come here. In the past decade there's been 3. You OverWorlders sure are clumsy"

I huffed and bit my lip to not bark back an insult. I wasn't sure what game this guy was playing, but I didn't like it. One minuet he was blushing and all sweet, wanting to help me, and the next he's bragging about his Agarthan peoples.
I saw red flash five times on the control board and then I shot up into the air.

"Bye" Ben's voice faded into the distance below me.

This has officially been the shortest day trip ever, I thought.