WHO: Xander Christopoulos, Rob Strange, and eventually Penelope Phillips WHAT: Xander's angry at his dad for destroying his home, and they have powers. You know, usual family stuff. Only very violent. And highly publicized. (SO EVERYBODY CAN LEARN ABOUT IT BY WATCHING THE NEWS) WHERE: The streets of New York City. WHEN: Right now. WARNINGS: Violence. Probably language.
Xander had done a lot of stupid things in his life, most of which led to regret of some kind. There were the big regrets, like letting the Resistance manipulate him to the point that he lost his guardians, his home, and eventually his sister. There were the little ones, like missing the signs of he and his girlfriend drifting apart until they were dating in name only, and then not even that. He wasn't sure where Rob fit in that list of regrets; was Rob even a regret that was his to bear? It should have been his mother's burden to bear with his father--his real father, not the sperm donor determined to make his and Percy's life as difficult as possible. In a perfect world he would still be living with his parents with Elena to speak to about the best way to deal with Rob. He wouldn't have been alone, the bastard kid thrown into a family of misfits who all hated each other. But that was the hero's life, right? They all had their crosses to bare. At least he didn't have that Achilles heel thing to worry about--the curse of the Styx had washed away with his memories when he searched for Camp Jupiter.
He did know that not responding to his friends or his brother (as weird as it was to call Topher that) after alerting them to the state of Camp Half-Blood probably wasn't the smartest move. Nor was taking off before any of them got there; the camp was a wreck, and Poseidon's cabin in particular was reduced to rubble. The people he'd tried to fight off hadn't stayed long enough after that for it to matter, and now? Now Xander was just driven by anger. It was time to finish this. One way or another, Xander was determined to find Rob Strange and end whatever anger they had with each other. Preferably with the destruction of the god of war.
It had taken him days to track him down (how in Hades did you track down a god, anyway? Xander was almost sure that Rob had wanted to be found), and how poetic that it would be right outside of the Empire State Building, home of Mt. Olympus itself. It only further fueled Xander's belief that this was planned. This should have driven him away, forced him to reconsider his life choices. Unfortunately, his rage was boiling over, and only some of it was Rob's presence; most of it was the son of Poseidon throwing in the towel of his cursed life and taking it into his own hands.
"You and me have some issues to work out," He yelled down the sidewalk to the fire-eyed god. The ground beneath Xander began to rumble, lowly at first before beginning to escalate in its earthquake status--the anger was getting the best of the demigod, and it didn't stop even as people around them screamed and ran for cover.