Damian stepped out of the shower for the second time that day. It had taken nearly an hour for all of his wounds to heal. He was just glad that he hadn't come across any hikers on the way back. With all the blood and dirt caked on him, he was sure he looked like something out of a zombie movie.

He did end up buying a jacket at a convenience store, which thankfully the clerk was so busy watching something on his phone that he barely paid attention to Damian. When he got home and in the shower, Damian noticed something interesting. There were small golden bits mixed in with his blood. It was like someone had injected superfine glitter into his veins. He chalked it up to another demigod thing that happened when he got his spark.

He had noticed more of that recently, beyond the physical change to his body. He had undergone some notable mental changes. Before this he had only been in one or two fights his whole life, he hadn't even gone hunting or fishing before. But now… now he had killed five monsters in one day, with skills he didn't have before, and it didn't even bother him. He went into those fights willingly and with the intent to kill. Then when he was injured by the chimera, the injuries barely fazed him, though that he might be able to chalk that up to adrenaline.

Damian was concerned that he might end up becoming a violent person, who used fists just as readily as words. He was worried that he might end up hurting his loved one. But still, that didn't feel quite right. He had always heard that those kinds of people felt angry all the time, and he didn't feel angry. Just resolved. He didn't want violence, but he would use it if it meant survival.

Damian decided to shelve the line of thought for now. He hadn't even come to grips that he wasn't human anymore, let alone what that might be doing to his psyche. First he'd have to stay alive, and to do that, he needed to learn to protect himself.

"Your friend texted you back while you were in the shower." Crow said as he came into his bedroom. He was relieved to see that Crow no longer visibly seemed upset about not sensing the chimera.

"Oh, cool. Let's see what he said." Damian took a moment to read the message, "Okay, he said we could stop by his studio after I get off work. I'm glad he was able to see me so soon."

"Where did you meet this guy anyways?"

"Seán? I've known him for years, we met when I tried larping for the first time. They usually pair up newbies with more experienced members in the local group. We had a lot of fun, and he invited me to his DnD group. We've been friends ever since."

"And what is this larping thing? Does it have to do with him teaching you to fight?"

"Kinda, larping stands for live action roleplay. It's like a mock battle game. Seán got into it because he's a HEMA instructor, and he wanted to test out his skills in a battlefield environment."

"And HEMA is?"

"Historical European martial arts. It's a bunch of people trying to recreate lost martial arts."

"You're involved in a lot of things that have acronyms." Crow observed.

"Yeah, my guess is that it's a nerd thing. Anyways even if he doesn't know how the Greeks fought, he should be able to teach me how to use my weapons properly, and not just react on instinct. There's just one thing though."

"What is it?"

"Seán is one of my best friends. I don't want to lie to him or even mislead him as to why I need to learn to fight. I want to tell him the truth, especially in case I end up losing, dissolve into motes of light, and no one else knows what happened to "

"So tell him." Crow said matter-of-factly.

"What? There's no rules against telling normal people about it? There's always rules about these things."

"Damian you're working towards becoming a god, if you become the new Ares, then the only ones that you have to listen to are Zeus and Hera. The only potential problems are that it might be hard to convince him, and if you do convince him that it's all real, he may be in danger."

Damian considered Crow's words. Gods kind of where the ultimate authorities on these kinds of things weren't they? One day, if he survived all this, he'd have man authority higher than a king, higher than an emperor. It was just another thing to mull over later. Then Damian latched on to another important tidbit.

"Wait, why would Seán be in danger from just knowing?"

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"You know the phrase 'Ignorance is bliss'? Well that applies to the supernatural as well. Once you learn about what's actually out there you can unlearn it. And there are certain creatures out there that will hunt you down if they realize that you can see them."

"That seems really dangerous. I don't know if it'd be worth it to tell him then. I'd rather not be the one to cause my friend's untimely death."

"I'd say give him the choice. That way it's up to him whether he stays in ignorance or sees the world for what it actually is. Plus you'd still have to convince him."

"That's actually sound advice. I shouldn't make my friends' decisions for them. But how would I convince him it's real if he does agree."

"That could be tricky." Crow said contemplating, "If this was one of two millennia ago you wouldn't have to do any convincing, people just took what we are as fact. But with the progress of science, they began to believe the supernatural was impossible. And the power of belief is a strong thing, strong enough to separate us. You'll just have to find a way to convince him without a shadow of a doubt."

"Yeah, I'll think about it. But for now I need to go to work."

Crow hopped up on Damian's shoulder as he left the room. Damian turned to look at him."

"You know one of these days I'll be the one explaining things to you. I just need to get you to start playing video games."

•

Damian's job was pretty uneventful so far that night. Unlike yesterday it was relatively calm in the club. It still stunned him all that had gone down in the last twenty-four hours, it seemed like so much longer. But for the next two days the club would be closed for cleaning, then Damian could work what he planned to do next.

Crow was enjoying himself though. When they first arrived he flew around everywhere exploring the club. Damian was afraid he might knock something over, but Crow assured him that unless something was sufficiently magical, he couldn't affect it.

Now he watched as Crow was dancing to the music on top of a table. Damian couldn't help but smile, it was utterly adorable. Suddenly Crow froze, he turned towards Damian and flew right at him. Damian caught him as Crow crashed into his chest.

"Woah what's up?" Damian said, concern evident.

"Danger!" Crow said, while flattening himself against Damian's chest like he was giving him a hug. "No time to explain, just pretend you don't see the creature."

Damian was confused for a moment, but then he remembered his earlier conversation with Crow. "Got it." He said. Then to his surprise, Crow slid into his chest, like a ghost walking through a door.

To say the least, Damian was surprised. For one, he didn't know Crow could do that, and two, he wondered what could scare Crow like that. He had been with Damian through all his other fights, why hide now, what kind of monsters was on its way?

Then the door opened and a man walked in. He was tall and broad shouldered, with dark hair and dark eyes. He wore a nice but inexpensive suit underneath a trench coat, from which he pulled a badge to show Joe who was working security inside the club. Damian filed all these things in his head, but these weren't what had his main attention, no that was the giant wasp sitting on the man's shoulder.

The thing was the size of a cat, and was looking around the room with an intelligence no insect should possess. Remembering Crow's advice, Damian stopped looking at it and went back to serving customers. He kept watching them from his periphery though, as Joe led them back to to the office that had his manager Mr. Wheeler.

A few minutes passed and nothing else happened, Damian continued working, then Joe came out and led John to the office. A couple of minutes later John came out alone, but headed straight for Damian. He felt his heartbeat quickening.

"Boss man needs to see you Damian." John told him when he reached the bar.

"I saw the cop, what's this all about?"

"Nothing too serious, some kind of bad guy got away nearby last night and they wanted to know if whoever was closing last night saw them."

"Got it." Damian said, keeping a straight face but panicking on the inside. "They called you because you were supposed to close, but you had a date instead, so they need me instead."

"Got it in one. Date went great by the way, we got coffee this morning, I even got her to agree to a second one. But yeah just a quick chat with the guy in case you saw something important. Did you see anything?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary." Damian lied, "unless you think the dumpster roaches are important."

"Ha," John chuckled, "I doubt that's what they're looking for. But you should probably head back now, don't want to keep the guy waiting, he has this creepy air about him."

"Will do." Damian said, and headed towards the office. Reaching the door, he stopped and took a breath before entering. "High school theater class don't fail me now."

He opened the door and entered. Looking around the room he saw Mr. Wheeler behind his desk, the cop with his pet monster standing next to him. Joe was standing by the door, and nodded to Damian when he looked over, Damian nodded back. He went over to the desk and sat in the chair in front of it.

"John said you wanted to see me boss."

"Yes, did He tell you why?"

"Yeah something about an escaped criminal?"

"Good, we won't have to go over it again. Yes this is detective Francis Bolt, he just needs to ask you a couple of questions, then you can head back out." He turned to the other man, "Go ahead detective."

The man stepped forward, "So Mr. …"

"Grey, Damian Grey." He filled in the question, trying his hardest to maintain eye contact with the man, and not look at the bug.

"Mr. Grey, last night around midnight, a suspect fled from police near here, they lost track of him near this area. Did you happen to see anything out of the ordinary when you were closing up last night, any strange persons?"

"We always get one or two drunks in the area as the bars and clubs close." Damian said, sticking to half truths instead of straight up lies. He figured it would make his deception more convincing.

"We couldn't find any footage of him escaping down the street, so we believe he went down the alleys, did you see anything back there?"

"There's always something back there. Drunk idiots use the place to get sick, get frisky, take a piss, or other, less things."

The detective showed a look of distaste. "Yes, but what did you see last night?"

"Same as usual, I was only out there a little while, as I'm not a fan of the smell, the only person I saw was a dude who I was pretty sure was drunk." He said, omitting the part where he found out he was wrong.

"I see."

The detective pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. He handed it to Damian, who suppressed a shudder at how close the wasp was to him. It was a police sketch of a man who was remarkably similar to the man who he had gotten his spark from.

"Did the man look like this?"

"Maybe, the alley isn't well lit, and like I said, I try not to be out there long." Damian responded, still telling partial truths.

"Hmm," the detective seemed to be thinking something over, "Mr. Wheeler, do you happen to have a security camera that looks over the alley? None of your neighbors said they had one when we asked."

It took all of Damian's willpower to stay relaxed, and not freeze up, they did have a camera back there. If Mr. Wheeler showed it to him, Damian would have to run or fight, and he didn't like the size of the stinger he had seen in the wasp.

"We did," Mr. Wheeler said, "but one of the aforementioned 'drunk idiots' chucked a beer bottle at it and wrecked it. The security company we use won't be out here to replace it until next week."

"A shame. Well thanks for you help gentlemen, Mr. Grey, if you remember anything else please give me a call." He handed Damian a card and took the sketch back.

"Joe will show you out." Mr. Wheeler said to the detective, "and you head back to the bar Damian."

The three of them left the office and headed to their respective destinations. Damian got to the bar first, and watched the man and his creepy crawly leave. After they left he sighed in relief.

"I wonder if I can summon a giant can of bug spray?"