A/N: Certain ancient Greek names matches words use of foul language but no foul language was intentionally used. Also if you haven't read them yet read 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Early Adventures' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief' and 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters' before reading this story. Lastly, any one who wants to do a Demigods and Olympian reads story using 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon' is allowed as long as you inform me about it.
The Hunters of Artemis Makes an Entrance
It didn't take long to find Dr. Thorn and the di Angelo kids. Dr. Thorn led the kids outside and had them stop at the cliff.
The four of us hid—well, except for Annabeth who decided to use her cap of invisibility to get close to the kids. Meanwhile we decided to wait back for the opening to attack and wait for the attack.
"Stop talking!" Dr. Thorn said. "Face me!"
The kids turned to him.
Dr. Thorn pulled something from under his coat. I couldn't make it out, but I think it's a phone. He pressed the side button and said something.
"What did he say?" I asked Grover since he had a keen sense of hearing.
Grover quivered. "The package—it is ready to deliver."
Dr. Thorn started talking loud enough Grover didn't need to tell us: "Don't try to escape, or else I would have to kill you."
Then Dr. Thorn cloack flickered and something that look like a knife whip back Bianca's head.
"Unfortunately, you are wanted alive, if possible. Otherwise you would be already be dead."
"Who wants us?" Bianca demanded. "Because if you think you'll get a ransom, you're wrong. We don't have any family. Nico and I…" Her voice broke a little. "We've got no one but each other."
"Aww," Dr. Thorn said. "Don't worry. You will be meeting my employer soon enough. Then you will have a brand new family. The General will enlighten you with the rest."
"General?" I asked.
Thorn looked toward the horizon. "Ah, here we are. Your transportation.
Sure enough there was a search light in the distance over the sea. We heard the chopping helicopter blades getting louder and closer.
"Where are you taking us?" Nico said.
"You should be honored, my boy. You will have the opportunity to join a great army! Just like that silly game you play with cards and dolls."
"They're not dolls! They're figurines! And you can take your great army and—"
"Now, now," Dr. Thorn warned. "You will change your mind about joining us, boy. And if you do not, well… there are other uses for half-bloods. We have many monstrous mouths to feed. The Great Stirring of monsters is on the way. The worst of them, the most powerful, are now walking. Monsters that have not been seen in thousands of years. They will cause death and destruction the likes of which mortals have never known. And soon we shall have the most important monster of all—the one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus.
"You're completely nuts!" Bianca yelled.
An invisible force known as Annabeth slammed into them, knocking the di Angelo's into the ground. Dr. Thorn was so shock he fired a volley of knife like missles at them and missed them.
"Let's go!" Thalia ordered.
I nodded and uncapped Riptide.
"Aegis!" Thalia yelled tapping her bracelet letting it expand into a large shield with a carving of Medusa's head on it. She also took out a Mace canister and transformed it into an electric spear.
Along with Grover, we ran into battle. Dr. Thorn winced and growl when he saw Aegis.
Thalia was the first to move in. "For Zeus!"
Thalia jabbed at Dr. Thorn's head, but he snarled and swatted the spear aside. His had changed into an orange paw with enormous claws that sparked against Thalia's shield as he slashed. If it wasn't for Aegis, Thalia would've been sliced like a loaf of bread. As it was, she manage to roll backward and land on her feet.
Dr. Thorn launched another volley of missiles at Thalia, and this time I could see how he did it. He had a tail—a leathery, scorpion like tail that bristled with spikes at the tip. The missiles deflected off Aegis, but forced of their impact knocked Thalia down
Grover sprang forward. He put his reed pipes to his lips ad began to play—a frantic jig that sounded like something pirates would dance to. Grass broke through the snow. Within seconds, rope-thick weeds were wrapping around Dr. Thorn's legs, entangling him.
I used this moment to uncapped my thermos and aimed it on the ground. I focus my power into it, getting a familiar churning feeling in my stomach before a powerful blast like jet of water fired out of it, sending me into the air. It's actually one of the reasons why I waited for Grover to use his nature magic, and well—you know what happened.
However, before I could hit him Dr. Thorn roared and quickly change. He grew anger until he was in his true form—his face still human, but his body that of a huge lion. He quickly tore apart through the weeds and knocked me out of the way, receiving some claw marks down my arms and chest, missing vital points but still stung.
That's a down side about my aerial attack that Annabeth noted for me, all though it gives me a full force attack, it leaves me open since I can't move in mid-air. If it wasn't for the fact I only shoot myself in the air long enough to take down a monster, Zeus probably would of used it as an excuse to kill me.
"A manticore!" Annabeth said, now visible as her hat of invisibility fell off when she slammed into the di Angelo kids.
"Who are you people?" Bianca di Angelo demanded. "And what is that?"
"A manticore?" Nico gasped. "He's got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!"
Okay, I had no clue what that was about. Don't get me wrong, I know what a manticore is. But I never heard it being described like that.
I didn't have the time to think as the Manticore fired another volley.
I quickly hit the button on my wrist watch. A four foot shield spiraled out just in time to take the full blunt of the attack. The force left a dent in the metal. The beautiful shield, a gift from my brother, was badly damaged. I wasn't sure it would even stop a second volley. I tried to get up, but I winced in pain from the claw marks on my chest and arms. It didn't help that my clothes were ripped from the claws as well.
I heard a thwack and a yelp, and Grover landed next to me with a thud.
"Yield!" the monster roared.
"Never!" Thalia yelled from across the field. She charged the monster, and for a second, it seemed she would run him through. But there was a thunderous noise and a blaze of light behind us. The helicopter appeared out of the mist, hovering just beyond the cliffs. It was a sleek black military-style gunship, with attachments on the sides that looked like laser-guided rockets. The helicopter had to be manned by mortals, but what was it doing here? How could mortals be working for monsters? The searchlights blinded Thalia, and the manticore swatted her away with its tail. She landed next to me. Her shield flew off into the snow. Her spear flew in the other direction.
"That's enough!" I yelled. I wasn't sure how it was possible but I imagined my hurricane wall forming and with a churning of my stomach, the snow around us swirled into mini storm.
Dr. Thorn laughed. "Give up, hero! That won't protect you forever."
I was about to respond when I heard a clear, piercing sound: the call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods.
The manticore froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only a swirl of snow and wind and the chopping of the helicopter blades.
"No," Dr. Thorn said. "It cannot be—"
His sentence was cut short when something shot past me like a streak of moonlight. A glowing silver arrow sprouted from Dr. Thorn's shoulder.
He staggered backward, wailing in agony.
Thorn then unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. Every arrow intercepted the thorns and sliced them in two. No one in camp could shoot that well, but there was one group I know that does.
The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy.
I didn't let down my hurricane shield which is hard to do when my own clothes was ripped and I can feel the icy cold wind on my body.
Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen, like me. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expression.
"The Hunters," Annabeth cried.
"Oh wonderful," Thalia muttered.
I don't blame her.
One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. I recognized her as the girl that both saved and sort of threatened my life seven years ago and saw her again three years ago when the hunters came to visit. She was tall and graceful with coppery colored skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so looked like some of Persian princess. "Permission to kill, my lady?"
She kept her eyes on the manticore, but I had a strong feeling that I know who she was talking to.
The monster wailed. "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."
"Not so," another girl said. This girl looked a little younger than me, maybe twelve or thirteen. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was so beautiful it made me catch my breath, but her expression was stern and dangerous. "The hunting of all wild beast is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at the older girl with the circlet. "Zoë, permission granted."
The manticore growled. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"
He charged at the di Angelo kids who were the only ones who weren't trained for fighting monsters yet nor was protected by my Hurricane.
"No!" Annabeth yelled, as she charged at the monster.
"Get back, half-blood!" the girl with the circlet said. "Get out of the line of fire!"
But Annabeth leaped onto the monster's back in order to protect the di Angelos and drove her knife into his mane. The manticore howled, turning circles with his tail flailing as Annabeth hung on for dear life.
"Fire!" Zoë ordered.
"No!" I screamed. I wasn't worried about the hunters hitting Annabeth, I was worried that the Manticore would try to do with her on it.
But the Hunters let their arrows fly. The first caught the manticore in the neck. Another hit his chest. The manticore staggered backward, wailing, "This is not the end, Huntress! You shall pay!"
And before anyone could react, the monster, with Annabeth still on his back, leaped over the cliff and tumbled into the darkness.
"Annabeth!" I yelled.
I released the Hurricane and tried to run, but I realized the combination of coldness on my wounds and using my power affected me than I realize as I collapsed.
There was a snap-snap-snap from the helicopter—the sound of gunfire.
Most of the Hunters scattered as tiny holes appeared in the snow at their feet, but the girl with auburn hair just looked up at the helicopter.
"Mortals," she announced, "are not allowed to witness my hunt."
She thrust her hand, and the helicopter dissolved into a flock of ravens, which scattered into the night.
The Hunters advanced on us.
Zoë, the leader who I had an unpleasant encounters in the past stopped short when she saw Thalia. "You," she said with distaste.
I forgot that Thalia and Luke encountered the hunters before I met Zoë.
"Zoë Nightshade." Thalia's voice trembled with anger. "Perfect timing, as usual."
Zoë scanned the rest of us. "Four half-bloods and a satyr, my lady."
"Yes," the younger girl said. "Some of Chiron's campers, I see."
I tried not to listen as I closed my eyes, trying to sense Annabeth. If she fell into the sea, maybe I can sense her. However, I couldn't sense Annabeth's presence.
The auburn girl turned toward me. "I'm sorry, Percy Jackson, but it seems the Manticore took your friend away."
I didn't want to admit it but she was right.
"Yes… Lady Artemis—" I reluctantly said.
A/N: I know many of you probably not like me having the Manticore take off with Annabeth, and I'm sorry.
