I've just realized -- after going through my book at least six times to figure out what I wanted to do for this chapter -- a few things... I forgot about the security guard from chapter 20 (you know, the one that almost shot a bullet through the portal...potentially injuring a certain person's mate), and I didn't even realize that I could've been plot-building with outside events such as Hydra, or other bad guys...I could've even just used a damn monster POV just for the sake of including their thought process. 
The second thing was that I've been really inconsistent with the POV itself. I do most of the chapters in the third person because I don't like putting myself in everyone's shoes when writing a character, but I've been writing Percy, a few others, and sometimes Annabeth's POV's in 1st person...-_-

Anyways I guess tell me what you think about that...I'll take any criticism and comments about anything really...as long as it is intended to help. 

------------1st POV (Unknown)--------------

Daniel had said to come to a range right? I was sure that I had read the card he gave me right and was at the correct place, but I didn't see anything resembling a place for a gun range...not to mention it was in the middle of the freaking city. I guess I was thinking maybe he'd send me another text or even call me to ask where I was and that they were actually trying to meet me at a bar or a normal range of sorts...not an abandoned warehouse. 

I decided to wait for a few more minutes, just to make sure that I wouldn't miss any cars or texts that came by to see if I recognized any of them. That Daniel was actually intending on this being the meeting spot and was just late or something, but no one came and there wasn't a single car that passed by. In fact there wasn't a person in sight or any lights on anywhere when I got out of my car and made my way over to the giant building. 

You know, life has a strange way of keeping a person on their toes, and I couldn't help but keep myself on high alert as I headed inside and as soon as I got past the giant doors out they shut behind me...big surprise! I wanted to roll my eyes at that but there was the issue of why that had happened, and what else could be in the warehouse as it is. It was still dark and I had no way of getting to anything resembling a lightswitch. 

It seemed that I didn't need to pull out my phone for the flashlight after all as the main over-head lights came on at that moment. It took a moment for me to get used to the sudden flare of light but one I did I saw something that I didn't think would be in a place like this. 

There was a lone podium under a reddish light with a tablet on it's face. 

That wasn't creepy at all. I still haven't seen Daniel or anyone that seemed to look like one of his friends and yet nothing else was happening...nothing bad anyways so far. I walked up to the podium carefully and cursed myself for not bringing any sort of weapon along with me on this sudden scare-house of an invitation. The screen turned on as soon as my reflection floated up the screen and I saw the same strange octopus that was on the card Daniel gave me. 

"Hey Daniel what is this?" I yelled out into the room looking for anything that might seem like it was being used for monitoring something, or someone. "I thought this was a strange place to meet at first but now I'm just creeped out man." Nothing answered. 

I waited for a few more minutes for anything to happen before just accepting my fate, if this was some sort of test I was dam determined to pass it and find out what was actually going on since there was clearly something off about this entire thing. Though the strangest thing happened when I touched the thing. It seemed to send an electric shock throughout my entire body. I instantly recoiled and stepped out of the strange area. 

"What the fuck was that?" I yelled into the strangely dark room. Wait when did it get this dark? I swear that those outside lights were on just earlier and this lone red one at the center wasn't the only thing around. Though strangely I was able to see everything in a strange green tint. I took a step back as my skin started to tingle all over, something else was happening to me and I didn't want to know what. 

I ran over to the tablet and picked it up, ignoring the now increasing sensation of an electrical current traveling through my arms. I could literally see the skin falling off to reveal some sort of white something underneath and I quickly tapped the screen of the tablet and opened it... nothing once again. It still had the standard applications that you would see on any normal manufactured tablet and I didn't understand. 

The humming under my skin was turning into a strange buzzing in my ears now, it was like going underwater or changing altitudes too quickly for my senses to catch up, but it didn't give me a clue as to what was happening.

"Come on," I frantically searched through all of the applications on the thing and finally I found something out of place. It was a video, with the cover being that of a scientist. 

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"Roughly Four and a half thousand years ago the Ancient Egyptians found a stone inscribed with ruby text. The texts through-out the period are rather hard to follow at times as many of their scientists didn't record as many of the results becoming of their secret projects but we believe that one from this specific case has been found.

"The text received speaks of a magnificent bejeweled plate of which the speaker and a few others came across. They say that one of their colleges, upon touching the object, had felt a shock from the gods as a warning to show that this was a sacred item and should anything befall it their entire kingdom would be endangered. It goes on to explain the effects that came afterwards some emerging even an hour after contact. 

"It says in the script that the subject was tied to an observation pole in order to not anger the gods and risk their wrath should whatever it was get out and potentially damage any sacred item it came across in a rampage. They describe the fist symptom as the skin falling off and turning to ash as a white armor like plating replaced it. The head and neck extended and morphed into that of a snake and smoke occasionally exiting the nostrils. The hands and feet grew larger, less human with claws said to easily break through some of the strongest armor. And along with spines and a piercing gaze like that of Bastet its giant scaly tail was tipped with a purplish blade leaking the energy of  Osiris. 

"The creature was then recorded to have eaten three other people and destroy the entire west side of a city under the light of the red sun before it was put down by a 'giant arrows of fire and light.'  The tablet was then taken somewhere far from the city and buried at the bottom of a giant pit, never to be seen again...till today. Recently a group of archeologists found an ancient tablet like the one belonging to this legend and were able to safely transport it to the Americas for study without incident. However we were able to recover the artifact mid transit and the people involved in its discovery have sadly never been seen again. 

"Now there were several tests we had to do just to see if it would work according to the legend but none of the standard trials worked, so instead of waiting for the next red sun we opted to make our own red sun. The radiation and light effect were all trials in their own right but we finally got the stone to reveal its nature. Turns out that under the right amount of radiation and light the rubies seem to glow with a strange energy, of which is then transferred into whatever host that comes in contact with the artifact. 

"Sadly the effect only has a long term effect on those of the human species and physiology, we tried actual monkeys and apes but they all just disintegrated upon contact. We assume that the tablet may be sentient; however, without proof none of those claims are justified. And even after getting thousands of people with varying conditions of health and psychological stability we were finally able to get a host to last through the first transformation. However their mind was no longer able to sustain the apparent pain and the promptly disintegrated on the spot before we could get any samples of blood or scales. 

"We believe that genetics has to be involved in the process however at the time of recording we are no closer to understanding this necessity than we are to understanding the apparent energy in this and a few of the other artifacts currently in our possession." 

A loud roar interrupted the silent night of South-West New York. 

It's a bit of a short chapter, sorry it's taken so long. I didn't realize how hard it would be to balance work life, home life, and writing life along with trying to keep the little free time i have to do what i want to do. Hell I still have yet to even write a chapter of the series I want to be publishing on Patreon, something that I'm hoping will be able to not only support me but also last for a few hundred chapters, maybe even multiple books!

Anyways I kinda dipped into my Short-Story writing style for this bit, if any of you remember that security guy from...a while ago in the museum. Well here ya go! Hopefully this adds to the future battle I want to take place later on to end the climax, or falling action of this FanFicton. 

I'm trying not to spread myself too much when it comes to new characters and developments as it'll only be harder to fix later on when I actually fix the story. 

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time!