FicWad

Demons Within Me

Disclaimer: see previous chapters

Warnings: Blood, probably some swearing, could be possibly gore

Authors Note: Fiff... fiiff... fiffttteee.... Fiffteee three? FIFTY THREE? What are you guys doing? I don't deserve those! My story is NOTHING compared to others out there!

But you guys?

Thank you.

So Much.

This chapter is dedicated to everyone who has stuck by me so far- reviewed and told me what they thought, or just amped me up to write the next chapter. This is for all you reviewers and readers out there who are yet to review! You guys are the foundation of the fanfiction community!

(It's a double-digit now!!) Chapter 10: Storm

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"Well, now that we know we have the day off... what are we going to do, guys?" Theresa asked from between Herry and Jay in the front of the red truck.

Neil looked out the window and shuddered, "Now, I know you guys like to rough it and stuff, but there is NO possible way you are going out in THAT, is there?"

Everyone glanced out to the heavy rainfall. If the rain kept up like this for a few more hours, there could possibly be some flooding in lower areas of the city. They weren't looking forwards to helping rescue people from a giant river, especially since it would take forever to get Archie over there.

Theresa laughed though, "Oh no, Neil. Even WE aren't 'stupid' enough to go out in this weather. I do not want to get soaked."

"Yeah, but didn't Archie walk home? I hope he made it alright- I can barely see where I'm going," Herry commented, eyes glued to the road. He still hadn't been able to get his steering wheel fixed, but it was actually kinda neat to have little spots for his fingers 'carved' in the metal. Maybe he wouldn't get it fixed...

Jay nodded, "He wasn't looking too well. Let's hope he's already inside and made it before the rain really started to fall."

"Oh, I'm sure he's just snoring away without a care in the world," Atlanta muttered, glaring out the window.

She'd had plenty of fights with other guys before, why did having a fight with Archie always affect her so badly? She, yes she, ATLANTA, wanted to run up to him and apologize for what she hadn't done. Just so that they wouldn't be mad at each other. Archie was too much of a jerk to be that sensitive though, and realize that he'd hurt her feelings. Sometimes she wondered how he ever got along with any girl, but it was obvious he didn't. He couldn't get a girlfriend even if his life depended on it; he was too competitive and arrogant. But she kinda liked that about him. He was the first person ever who could almost beat her in a race, who loved to move around and go places like she did. No wonder they were such good friends.

{But best friends don't fight over stupid things like we do...}

She frowned and thought back to how Archie had stepped out of line and snapped at her. It had hurt, deep inside, like an angry wound. She had never felt like that before and it had frightened her. So, in defense, she'd snapped back at him, and that had only made him think that she was fighting him. Well, she wasn't going to go beg forgiveness from him; he'd have to apologize to HER.

Odie looked over worriedly as Atlanta 'humphed' and crossed her arms across her chest, glaring out the window and muttering something that sounded like 'Stupid, arrogant Archie...'

This was not good. Not good at all. Archie and Atlanta were like their 'super-tag-team' team. They had gotten so well at working with each other, that they didn't even stumble or flinch when one of them made a gutsy move, instead, the other would predict it and cover them. It was a hard relationship to form, and the world couldn't risk those two losing that special bond- and their friendship- over some little fight.

Herry, after some time, finally tuned on the radio to listen to some music as he slowly drove through the rain. It was a nice hip-hop song. Neil, after a short while, began 'singing' and 'dancing' along to the music as best he could, which wasn't all that great, but it lifted the sprits of the teens.

Jay flipped through numerous radio stations; everyone groaned knowing he was looking for the news of what was going on elsewhere in the city.

"Look out!" Herry suddenly shouted. He swerved the truck to the side of the road so suddenly that everyone was jerked in their seatbelts.

"What was that for?" Theresa cried in alarm. Everyone else voiced words of agreement.

Herry was already opening his door, "There's an accident, c'mon!"

Understanding now, the other five leapt out of the truck and rush to the scene. Jay was already directing Neil and Theresa to get some glow sticks from the truck to slow down or stop any oncoming traffic and for Odie to contact an ambulance on his PMR. Herry and Atlanta were already helping people out of the three cars, Herry ripping doors off and Atlanta making sure they were alright.

Fortunately, most injuries were minor and there were only small cuts and bruises. One man, unfortunately, was unconscious. With step-by-step instructions from the person on the other end of the call, Odie helped direct them to rolling the man on his side and Odie stayed with him to make sure he didn't die while the others finished up with the crash site.

It was then that they found the young woman, who had been thrown form her car. She had broken her arm and it was lying in a very abnormal position and as Jay and Herry went to pick her up, she woke up and started screaming. With Odie's directions, once again, Herry had to hold her down until she calmed down, but there was nothing they could do until the paramedics arrived.

Finally they heard the familiar alarm of the white truck as it came to the accident, slowed by Neil and his bright fire stick. Everyone was checked over and all of them were taken back to the hospital to do check-up's. The woman with the broken arm and the unconscious man were lifted into stretchers and carried away.

A policeman, now that they had arrived, interviewed the kids and asked what they knew. They told him as much as they could and he nodded slowly as they took turns explaining. He also informed them that everyone was going to be fine, save for bumps and bruising. Finally, he dismissed them and grinned.

"Bless you kids; you're making our jobs so much easier. I bet that the man (the unconscious one) could 'a easily died if you hadn't helped out. Thanks a bunch, you're real heroes." He trotted over to help redirect traffic.

"You have no idea," Atlanta said out loud to the group. They ginned and laughed, not caring that they were soaking wet.

"Man, lucky for those guys we left school late," Neil commented as they loaded back into the truck. The blonde smirked and nudged Odie in the ribs with a grin, causing the younger to laugh.

"Now, you guys had better get my truck too wet," Herry called back, looking into the review mirror briefly as he drove around the wreckage.

"Too late, buddy!" Odie snickered. Neil squirmed in his seat, making squeaky noises with his wet clothes against the material of the car seat. He and Neil only began to laugh harder.

"Oh great," Jay murmured out of the corner of his mouth to Theresa, "once they start, they won't stop."

Theresa giggled and Jay's eyes widened, "Not you too!" he cried in mock desperation. Now he had Theresa AND Herry laughing.

Usually, Atlanta would poke fun at Archie at a time like this, but her frien- currently EXfriend- wasn't around right now. She missed him, she realized, it would've been nice to laugh with him. They'd driven the others crazy once or twice with their uncontrollable fits of laugher.

Sighing, she realized that she couldn't really take being angry with him right now. She'd get an apology out of him, even if she had to throttle it out, but she'd get one and give one back. Something definitely was going on with Archie, and it had to do with why he had snapped at her. She was going to find out what was wrong and help 'make it better' like when he had done that for her. Like when Jay had died, and he had comforted her, or when he had brought her out of the trances with DJ Panic and Arachne.

She wondered briefly how he was right now, he'd probably gotten soaked, but lucky him he didn't have to worry about getting sick. Without thinking, she had already pulled out her PMR and was calling him.

Strange, there was no signal. Even if he'd been sleeping, there should've been a signal and all it would do would be to ring and, maybe, if he woke up, he'd answer. Or maybe he was turning off his PMR just because he didn't want to talk to her? She felt a tightening in her chest, like when he'd snapped at her, and it panicked her. She had no idea what was happening. Maybe she was sick? That was it. She'd go see Chiron tomorrow before school. She'd go over when Archie left to train in the morning. She'd get a check-over from Chiron and then go poke fun at Archie while he trained.

"Archie's not answering me," she said to the others. There were looks between everyone; something had to be wrong if Archie wasn't answering Atlanta. Odie pulled out his PMR and called Archie. He shook his head and closed the device when he got no signal. Jay tried and didn't get anything.

"Could you check for Archie's GPS location? His PMR probably just got soaked by the rain, but we need to be sure, just in case," Jay said, casting a worried glance at Atlanta since she'd be the most worried. She didn't meet his gaze, but he could still tell she was worried. Call it, Leader's Intuition, or even 'Common Sense' if you will.

"I can't... Wait!," Odie was pressing numerous buttons on his PMR, but then he shook his head and sat back into his seat, "Sorry, nothing."

Jay and Theresa exchanged a glance and then looked to Herry.

"I know, I know. I'm going as fast as I can in this weather, but it's really hard," he replied.

The many-times descendant of Hercules stepped down on the gas pedal and they could hear the engine rev from the sudden increase in work it needed to do against the harsh storm outside.

"Well, assuming the worst, who can we think of that would be out to get us, or Archie, for that matter?" Theresa said slowly.

"Well, that's a hard question, Cronus!" Odie said wryly.

Everyone nodded slowly, hoping it wouldn't be the God of Time. If it was... Archie could be in big trouble.

But wait, hadn't Chiron been talking about something else? Why Archie was 'in trouble' with the gods?

"Tulais..." Atlanta said quietly, "he was best friends with Achilles. He might've mistaken Archie for Achilles! What if Archie ran into him?"

Neil burst out laughing and slapped his knee, "Mistaken HIM for Achilles? Dude, he looks NOTHING like Achilles! Besides, Achilles was a lot easier on the eyes than Archie is. Chiron told us that this Tulais guy is some big purple wolf, kinda hard not to miss, even in the city," he answered smartly.

Atlanta glared and punched at the blonde across Odie.

"Hey! Hey! Watch the hair!" Neil cried as he did his best to dodge.

"Neil, that was mean," Atlanta hissed, "take it back."

"What? You do have to admit Archie sure isn't the 'handsomest' guy around, even though his ancestor was supposed to be the most eye-catching warrior in that big battle he fought in," Neil argued.

"Well, Archie may not be 'traditionally' handsome, but he's a really... great guy," Theresa said, trying to calm everyone down. She looked through the review mirror at Atlanta who was still scowling angrily at the blonde. But she turned away and glared out the window.

"Archie would've called if he got into any real trouble, right?" Jay said in as light a tone as he could, to try and ease the sudden tension.

{But what if Tulais does have Archie, Jay? What if I never get to speak to him again? What if he dies being angry at me? What if he's hurt right now, alone, in the rain? What if it's Cronus who has him? What if he's being tortured? All it would take would be a blow to the ankle and he could be dead! What if I never get to talk to him again? What if the last things I said to him were those angry words we exchanged in our little fight? No, no, please don't let him be dead- be hurt! Just that the GPS and his PMR got soaked in the rain, he's asleep right now and waiting for us to get home. I'll go talk to him later and he'll apologize and then we'll laugh at how stupid we were, I'll give him a hug and his stupid manly macho-ness will get in the way and he'll awkwardly hug me back. We'll go out boarding, eat lunch at some fast-food restaurant and drop by the drive-in like we sometimes do, before Jay calls us back because it's getting too late. Everything's alright.}

Atlanta let out a long sigh, Archie was perfectly fine, curled up in bed.

She felt her cheeks heat up when she wondered how he looked when he slept, or if he took his shirt off or even if he slept in his boxers. She shifted further towards the window to hide the blush on her tan cheeks. She leaned her forehead on the window to help cool herself off.

Why was she thinking so... oddly of Archie all of a sudden? When had their 'relationship' changed? They'd known each other for over six months now, but it seemed like they'd always been together, going off and doing crazy things together. One time, she still smiled and giggled at the memory; they'd decided to try and go hiking and ended up getting completely lost for one weekend, worrying the others terribly. Fortunately, the nights had been warm and they'd just stayed put for the day that the rescuers were out looking for them. After that, Jay wouldn't allow them to go out anywhere without their GPS locater on, so that Odie would be able to find them when they were needed.

She understood why the others sometimes thought she and Archie were dating, they did spend a lot more time with each other than they did with everyone else, and their outings did seem a lot like dates, but they weren't... or were they? She recalled looking at the photographs only a few hours ago, and noticing that Archie had been blushing in them. Maybe he... was that why he hung out with her all the time? He like-liked her? She didn't return those feelings... or did she?

Was she, Atlanta, falling in love with Archie?

Suddenly there was the sound of crunching metal and the front of the truck shuddered, the engine dieing and the lights going out.

"Whoa!" Herry yowled. Theresa screamed and jay grabbed her tightly.

Atlanta squinted out the window into the dark morning, looking through the rain on the window. There was something big; they had hit some sort of animal...

Then she gasped in horror, it was a giant wolf. A giant purple wolf, with horns. As it scrambled away from the truck, limping slightly, she nearly screamed out loud.

It had Archie. That THING had Archie in its mouth!

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So, was that a good chapter? Some more Atlanta-contemplating-her-relationship-with-Archie, and I drove you insane by prolonging any scene with Archie and Tulais, eh? Well, you're STILL going to have to wait to find out if the group will be able to get Archie back or not, and if Tulais will be friend or foe.

Review and I'll update sooner ;D

Demenior