"This is crazy," Mikey said as he drove us down the NYC highway and I was impressed Chance had noticed these details on her escape. Though hers was nowhere near as dramatic as mine was and the more competive part of me realized I'd never gotten to remind of her that whenever she'd brought up being the first to escape.

"You've said that three times already, turn here," Chance said pointing and I scowled crossing my arms in the backseat. Though I understood why she got shotgun-she knew the way there and all, but Mikey's driving was crappy. He always gunned the gas and slammed on the breaks and I got car sick easy. I hoped my impending death would help me escape any rage if I threw up in the backseat of his car. I watched the NYC streets roll by, fingering the rifle in my lap, heart beating slowly even though I'd thought with my extremely possible death that it would beat even faster. I'd read once in the last Harry Potter book that when Harry knew he had to die his heart beat even harder to keep him alive. Well that book was fiction so I had no idea why I was putting so much in stock by it now that I was marching towards my own death. Maybe because it was one of the few books I'd read of that size and not Sparknoted. I glanced up at the grey felt on the top of the cab wishing I'd read more books while I'd had the chance to do it. It wasn't that I'd disliked it, just between work, school, sports and friends I'd never had any time to just sit down and read. I'd never thought about it then, I just figured I'd have more time when I was older and now about to pull up to the Hell that had been a prison for one out of seventeen years of my life my odds of doing that was highly unlikely now.

I snorted under my breath, I was about to invade a prison for demigods armed with a semi-automatic rifle, some wind and lightening powers I'd found out I had less than a day ago and I was supposed to defeat the most ruthless monsters in the world and I was thinking about how I never read many books? Dang I was lame! "Turn here," Chance said again and I was staring at massive grey stone wall lined with barbed wire, the sign was written partially in Greek I think but I understood the word beneath it; prison.  I was back where it all started and my mouth and throat got as dry as a desert. Mikey pulled over and parked the car, hands shaking on the wheel.

"It's not too late to turn back," he told me as he turned around in his seat. "You don't have to do this X." I grinned weakly at his use of my old nickname and saw pleading in his eyes and the set of his jaw, and I saw Chance had turned around too and was staring at me and she was pleading too. Her lips pressed tight together to try and hide that the lower one was trembling and for a second confusion hit me until I realized why. Mikey was right, they didn't know I was out here, I could still turn tail and run. Spend the rest of my life dodging monsters and living on the streets, moving from place to place so they couldn't track me. It wouldn't be easy, but the odds that I'd live where a lot better than if I went through with Chance's crazy plan. She knew that too, I'd never been tied to Chance with anything other than a few words said in a moment where I was staring down a monster I couldn't kill. I could have gotten up and left her alone any old time during our running across the country. I could still do that now and she'd be in this all by herself.

I shook my head, hand tighting on my gun as I unbuckled, "It is too late, I can die here fighting or I can die later running. I like fighting better," I said as I opened the door and I looked back at Chance with a grin. "Besides best friends don't let best friends do dumb shit alone."

Chance smiled weakly at me, but I saw the tension leave her shoulders a bit, her eyes where shining too, that kind of made me feel glad I'd gotten those things said before we did this. I liked seeing her this happy, I hoped I'd get to see it again. And breifly I recalled if we lived through all this I'd have to threaten her boyfriend. I added 'threaten Death' to my list of stupid things that would probably get me killed and got out of the car staring down the massive wall that had kept me in for so long. I heard Chance slam her door shut and with one last back look at Mikey I motioned for him to roll down his window.

He did and I cleared my throat surprised and scared to find I didn't have a lump in it. "When you get home you need to get your mom and dad out of there. Pack only things you can protect yourself with, find a suburban place to say, the gods will have a harder time finding you then. And...if  before you go, if you can, please..." I felt terrible as I said those words, but the more I spoke the more I figured they were true. Sooner or later my asshole immortal family would know he helped us and to get even they'd go after him and his family even though it wouldn't accomplish a damn thing. I'd wrecked my best friend's life unless this all worked and we somehow managed to overthrow the Council. I hated to ask anymore of Mikey but I wasn't able to stop myself from putting in one more request and that was when I felt the lump pop up into my throat. "Get a message to my mom, tell her I love her and that I'll do everything I can to come home."

"I will man," Mikey said his voice thick and I saw some tears glazing in his eyes but they hadn't spilled over yet. Mikey and I were like the typical guys, we cried, but not in public if it could be avoided. "When this is over and you win call me," he said with a laugh that sounded choked, and he grinned even though we both knew it was fake. "We can celebrate with pizza and Clint Eastwood movies."

"The best kind of celebration," I agreed and he drove away as I felt my own eyes get hot with tears I really didn't want to shed right now. I wasn't going to go into this crying, I was going to go in like I was ready to kick some ass. (Didn't feel ready but those assholes didn't need to know it.) "You ready?" I asked glancing over at Chance who was also starting at the huge wall.

"No," she answered shaking her head her brutally cut hair swaying a bit.

"Why'd you do this?" I asked grabbing a stubby end of carrot colored hair. "Cut your hair I mean."

"Oh," she said turning a bit red grabbing at the hair too. "The night of the party when we'd found the Fates...well before that I'd seen Thantos making out with Persephone, and I thought..." she trailed off voice getting tight but she did't need to say it. I knew what it was, she'd thought he didn't love her anymore, or maybe that he never had and was just using her. "Anyways, when we got back I was so upset and I was in the bathroom," she didn't use the word crying either, but I heard it too. I remembered that all too well and I knew quickly that was just like when I saw my mom cry. It was something I never ever wanted to see again. "I just kind of looked in the mirror at one point, thinking how stupid I was for falling for everything..and I saw my hair. He'd always said it was something he really liked and I couldn't look at it anymore when I remembered that."

"Oh," I said getting that same enraged feeling I did like when I saw her crying the first time. "If anything like that ever happens again tell me and I'll fry his sorry ass okay? Peopl don't hurt my friends and get away without an injury or two." Chance laughed and to add to the already emotional day she hugged me. Arms boney and and warm as they wrapped around my middle and squeezed. "This is a much better hug," I commented as I returned the gesture and laughed again though nothing really seemed funny anymore. "Love you Little Red, thanks for not letting me get eaten by the lizard."

"Love you too idiot, thanks for not walking out on me," she said letting me go and I saw a few tears before she wiped at them with her dirty sleeve. "I know I'm not the easiest person to work with."

"That is the understatement of the century," I commented and she scowled but it turned into a smile again.

"Yeah it is and you still stuck with me instead of running off on your own to be smart and avoid trouble. You ran into it with me; why?"

"I already told you, best friends don't let best friends do dumb shit alone,"  I stared at the wall again and held out my hand to her. "Come on let's get over this thing and get started with our sucide mission."

She nodded and grabbed my gun checking to make sure the safety was on and said, "Don't fly me into any barbed wire or other massive structures this time okay?"

"I'll do my best," I promised and I grabbed her under her armpits and reached out to the cool soft feeling of the air around me and thought the simple command of up and we shot up in the air like a bullet and I was thrilled it was morning. I was sure the snake ladies weren't patrolling the walls just now, if memory served we didn't go out into the yard until about noonish when the sun was at it's hottest.

Not the most pleasant memories of my time here, but I tossed them into the back of my mind, I couldn't dwell on what I'd done here in the past. It was what I was doing now that mattered. We need to go down, I thought and instantly the cool bobbing around feeling blew away and I was weightless as we dropped towards the sun-baked ground willing us to stop a bit and then drop in a sickening motion that was like stop-and-go traffic.

We plopped onto the ground finally my stomach rolling and Chance with a slightly approving look on her face. "Not bad," she commented as she stared at the massive steel doors before us.

"Tell that to my stomach," I said as I burped feeling a hot, sticky and bad tasting thing come up my throat.

"Now is not the time to throw up," Chance said I nodded weakly staring at the massive doors. Last time I'd gotten them open because a hellhound slammed into it. I didn't have that now and I didn't have the key either.

"No it's not," I agreed staring at the door still. "How do we get in? The way I opened it last time won't work."

"It won't," she agreed, lips pursed, eyes narrowed as she thought about the problem.

"Any ideas?"

"One, but it's bold," she admitted fiddling with the ends of her hair like she always did when she was nervous.

"Great! My favorite sort of plan," I said fingering the gun we needed to take action now. They weren't expecting us to come  yet, but they'd noticed the presence of two demigods sooner or later and I was sure it was probably sooner.

"Blast it open with the lighting trick and some wind, I think I can make the guards do what I did with the hounds. Knock them out and make them sleepwalk."

"That was you?" I said recalling how the monster dogs had torn themselves apart. "Nice!"

"Thanks, if we can get them to start killing each other I might be able to take this," she said fishing a little black key I recognized very well from her pocket. "And start freeing the others and getting them to help us. I'm guessing they've got their powers now too."

"Good plan let's do it, stay close." I warned and I reached out to both things inside me. The cool soft air, and the heat that was behind my sternum and I allowed myself to feel every angry emotion I had in me. Anger at the gods, anger at what they did to mortals, to their kids, even to each other and I exploded. White light crashed into my vision, hungry winds like a tornado ripped away all sound and tore at my clothes.

The metal creaked and it in a bang like a cannon it fell and dust went up everywhere. First step open door was checked off the list. Now came the hard part, I stepped inside feeling a bit enthralled by how powerful I felt and scared as I heard the banshee scream just like she'd done when I'd escaped.  The sound of a bass band, elephants, a car crash and a tone deaf choir all mixing together along with the roars from monsters and  over the noie I saw a group in orange like a herd of human cattle. We'd come right in time for breakfast.

I didn't wait for the snake ladies to lunge and sink their fangs into me, I fired and the one nearest me turned into a pile of yellow dust. Her shreik of pain lost in the banshee's howl and for a moment everything and everyone froze. The guards stared at their fallen sister stunned that she was no longer there. The other demigods stared at me, eyes wide with something I dared to call hope and just like that I cleared the chamber of the empty bullet and shattered the moment.

That's when it all turned to chaos; they all forgot their prisoners, not that I blamed them, what could they do in chains? They went directly for the current hated pain in their tails-me.

The first one came darting at me like the Roadrunner, greasy black hair flying as she slithered across the floor, arms outstretched, bronze talons lengthening ready to claw my face off. I put a bullet between her eyes and she turned into dust but I had no time to be happy about that shocked look that crossed her face before she died. Another one was already on me and I barely had time to move my gun to block her claws as she tackled both of of us to the cement floor. Stars danced in my eyes, vision went doubled and my head throbbed as I saw her long fangs near my eyes, spit flying from her mouth and I hoped it wasn't poison.

"Welcome back Xander!" she growled slamming her tail onto me and my legs screamed in pain. Damn this bitch needed to learn when to put the fork down and when it was better to go for the salad! "Too bad you won't get a cell this time!" Her arm drew back and her talons shined in the dim light overhead.

No, I thought reaching into the power I now had, surprised I was still able to get it. Blasting down the door I was sure would've taken a lot out of me, but maybe this had a lot of time to make up for being suppressed for seventeen years.

 White light filled the room and the monster was blast back as hot, burning lightening arched out of my mouth tasting oddly like tinfoil. Okay seemed this stuff could escape from more than one place, I sat up still tasting tinfoil as I fired my gun at the next monster that came me way, blasting wind at the others joining the fight to keep them away while I took them down. Chance hurry up! I thought angrily as I planed a bullet on the next one, hands shaking as I got a bit close to an inmate, the bullet cutting through their hair and I saw their face turn to the color mine did whenever I died. "Sorry!" I exclaimed as I heard the flap of wings and instantly reacted will the winds to do only one thing-keep that thing away from me. What I got was a gale force wind about two feet wide slamming into the Furies and sending them all into a desperate attempt to stay in control.

Their grey bat-like wings flapped around a bit before snapping in two and they howled in pain and rage and I couldn't stop the smile that came to my face when I saw their bodies smash against the ground and break into a pile of broken bones, grey wings and green blood. Part of me wished they hadn't died that fast, they didn't deserve it, but it was one less thing to deal with, if everything went right today they'd get what was coming to them.

I turned around, gun up, waiting for the next threat, I'd taken out the snake-ladies and the Furies, the dogs had been taken care of at Mikey's so those were not going to burst through the wreckage of the door and try to kill me anytime soon. What had I forgotten about the monsters that guarded this place?  I went over the list in my head, Furies, snake-ladies, banshees, hellhounds, my train of thought stopped and the terrible screaming around me drove the point home. I'd forgotten about the banshee! It could be anywhere and fighting something like that up close-!

The horrible screamed stopped and I grinned, okay Chance got it, now we just had to get these kids-. "LOOK OUT!" someone shouted and I looked up realizing I had not forgotten only one monster, but two. The chicks with mismatched legs who had me by all my limbs, hair on fire, teeth sharpened, grins all evil and I knew I was fucked no matter how much I struggled. Their grip was like steel, I couldn't break it. I felt their lips brush my neck and it felt like they seriously needed to learn about chapstick and breath mints.

I shivered and heard a voice that scared me when  I was here and it still did now. I looked up from my demon captors and the half black stallion half stereotype gym coach with an amused grin I wanted punch off his face. "Brave coming back here Shannon, I'll kill you quickly for that, but your incredible stupidity will be why you died." Saying so he grabbed something from his side that I hadn't noticed before and now that I saw it, I wished I hadn't. It was a sword like the ones I'd seen in history books. He was going to kill me the Spartan way, great. He drew his arm back and I closed my eyes ready for death to come and take me for real this time. I waited for pain, I'd tried and Chance...she'd still get away. I was sure of that, with my dramatic entrance there is no way she'd been noticed.

I waited, and nothing happened, no, I take that back, something did happen, but it wasn't anywhere near what I thought it was going to be. I was blown backward, slamming into the wall, seeing double but I still saw what it was.  A prisoner had broken from the cluster, shackle free and some part of me knew he was the one had broken the pipes in the walls and blasting the Warden, behind him I saw Chance, hair a wild mess, blood streaming out of her ears, eyes glowing purple as the monsters that two seconds ago where holding me, were now tearing each other apart.

I grinned, phase one of this sucide mission was going very well.

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Another long chapter! Thoughts? Was Xander's entrance dramatic enough for you? Or their goodbyes  (sort of goodbyes)? I'd love to hear what you think so please don't forget to COMMENT and VOTE if you enjoyed this chapter! Two more left guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!  =D= =D =D Are you as excited as me!?