orenda [leo valdez]

lix. Uprising of Frozen Fruit

Brandishing her sword, she walked into a clearing. She saw three figures fighting some sort of monster.

With a closer look, she realized one of the people was no other then Percy Jackson.

Kira made herself be seen.

"Kira?" Percy called, making the other two unfamiliar people glanced towards her. "Perfect timing!"

One was a small girl dressed like a traffic light, and the other with curly brown hair, skinny, and a welt on his nose, as if he was beaten up.

"I know you!" The teenager declared. Kira gave him a wary grin, not wanting to admit she had never seen him in her life before.

"Let's beat up some..." Kira glanced to Percy, not knowing what these weird monsters were. They looked like ghoulish corpses with yellow eyes. Their clothes were tattered rags, their limbs covered with gaping wounds and running sores.

"Nosoi," The dude said, filling in her blank.

"Nosoi," Kira repeated. "Let's kick some nosoi butt,"

Percy and Kira planted their feet in an identical fighting position side by side.

"You know, I keep thinking, I have now killed every single thing in Greek mythology. But the list never seems to end."

"You haven't killed me yet," The boy noted.

"Don't tempt me."

At least she now knew that he wasn't mortal.

The three nosoi shuffled forward. Their cadaverous mouths gaped. Their tongues lolled. Their eyes glistened with a film of yellow mucus.

"These creatures are not myths," The guy said. "Of course, most things in those old myths are not myths. Except for that story about how I flayed the satyr Marsyas alive. That was a total lie."

Percy glanced at him. "You did what?"

"Flayed-" Kira's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Wha-Apollo?"

Apollo was wearing a strange disguise. She hadn't seen him since Zeus blamed Gaea waking on him back six months ago.

"Long story," Percy said. "Good to see you alive, Willows,"

"Guys." The girl picked up a dead tree branch. "Could we talk about that later?"

The middle plague spirit spoke. "Apollooooo..." His voice gurgled like a seal with bronchitis. "We have coooome to—"

"Let me stop you right there." Apollo crossed his arms. "You've come to take your revenge on me, eh?" He looked at at Kira. "You see, nosoi are the spirits of disease. Once I was born, spreading illnesses became part of my job. I use plague arrows to strike down naughty populations with smallpox, athlete's foot, that sort of thing."

"Gross," The girl said.

"Somebody's got to do it!" Apollo said. "Better a god, regulated by the Council of Olympus and with the proper health permits, than a horde of uncontrolled spirits like these."

The spirit on the left gurgled. "We're trying to have a moooment here. Stop interrupting! We wish to be free, uncontroooolled—"

"Yes, I know. You'll destroy me. Then you'll spread every known malady across the world. You've been wanting to do that ever since Pandora let you out of that jar. But you can't. I will strike you down!"

Apollo looked strongly...human. Mortal. Mundane. What had happened?

The spirit on the right bared his rotten teeth. "What will you strike us down with? Where is your booow?"