Wow, thank you for all the positive reviews. Didn't think that this would be that popular, especially since no one has ever made a 'girl-who-lived' a Hunter of Artemis as well.
Okay, so I might have messed with the time line here. J.K. Rowling made Harry's first year in 1991 but that's too hard to coincide with Percy Jackson easily. I wanted to match everything up so I made Danielle and David born in 1992 and the attack on Godric's Hallow was on Halloween on 1993. That made Danielle joining the Hunt in the summer of 2005, making 2006 the year of the Lightning Thief and Prisoner of Azkaban. The Battle of Manhattan was in 2009, the same summer that the battle of Hogwarts would have taken place in Deathly Hallows in cannon.
Second, the blessing of Artemis and being partially immortal purged the horcrux out of Danielle's system. I never liked the main character being a horcrux so it's gone. Hecate might give her the power of Parseltongue back, maybe not, but that power is gone as well.
I got a review asking why Harry is named David here. Well, the thing is, the Potters are still alive so David grew up knowing thinking that he's the 'boy-who-lived.' He's not, but that's beside the point. James went back to his arrogant self that he was in his early years and Lily likes being to flaunt the fact that she gave birth to the 'chosen one' in the faces of all those snooty Purebloods. Yes, I realize that they are at least slightly out of character but this is Fanfiction, I can do what I want. Because of that, David is as arrogant and as conceited as Snape always thought Harry was. I don't want to associate Harry with being pampered and spoiled so I changed the name to David.
Oh, and it was Dorea and Charlus Potter that sacrificed themselves to save David and Danielle that Halloween night.
I don't own anything except for my original characters. Enjoy the story.
One Year Later (summer after Prisoner of Azkaban)
The hunt was camped right outside Yellowstone National Park and had finished a search for a stray Chimera that had somehow wondered into town. Danielle was still surprised by the usefulness of the Mist, the mortals just thought that a large bear had been the one to destroy most of a gift shop.
Camp was up and everyone was relaxing as they always did after a hard mission. She had made friends with all of the hunters, accepting quickly that she had magic. It wasn't hard since most of them were demigods and had their own unique powers. Phoebe was a daughter of Ares and was probably the strongest in the group. She knew that Jessica was a daughter of Demeter and could trip monsters by making grass grow around their legs. The fact that she herself could shoot out bolts of energy to stun or blast monsters just made her one of them.
Everyone's good mood was ruined by the appearance of one of the hunts' least favorite people. A flash of light in the nearby woods caused Artemis to leave her tent, only to groan at the sight, "Apollo, I keep telling you to leave us alone."
Apollo, who looked like a standard handsome blond guy about the age of eighteen, just stepped out of the woods and smiled with teeth that were way too white. "Oh come on Arty, you know I love to surprise you with my surprise visits."
Artemis glared at him, "if you flirt with any more of my hunters…"
Apollo didn't hear her and turned to face the new one in the group, "well, well, a magic user here? Haven't met one of them for a while."
Danielle didn't know whether to flush red with anger or shoot this guy with an arrow. But since Apollo was the god of medicine, it probably wouldn't do much. She just glared at him as he approached, "hmm, a Potter, no less."
Danielle started to growl, "what's it to you sunshine?"
Most of the hunt laughed, Zoe and Artemis trying to conceal their laughter. Apollo didn't seem offended, on the contrary, he burst out laughing as well, "you've got spunk girl. Just wanted to let you know that you couldn't find a better group here. Oh, and I know you aren't a Potter anymore."
Danielle snorted, her arms crossed, "like I wanted to be one anyway."
Apollo shrugged, "true, by the way, just so you know, everyone in Magical Britain is looking for you."
Danielle gave him a deadpanned expression, "like I care. This is my home now and I'm not leaving."
Artemis and the hunters beamed at her, Apollo shrugged, "I personally don't care about them either. Though I think that your brother might be in danger soon…oh well. Have fun girl." He then vanished in a cloud of sparkles that made everyone gag.
Artemis sighed, "just great, beware Danielle, he likes you."
Danielle shrugged while Zoe grimaced, "just don't make him recite poetry."
Later that night, Danielle couldn't sleep. Unlike demigods, she didn't get dream messages or get plagued by nightmares all the time, she just couldn't sleep. Deciding to go for a walk, she left her tent and walked to the edge of camp. Jumping up to a high branch in a tree, she just looked around the woods, now knowing how peaceful looking Zoe appeared a year ago. She could see herself living in the woods for a long time, it was peaceful.
She had been in the hunt for a year, that would make her fourteen now. Though by the use of the hunter's blessing, she still looked thirteen and would for the rest of her immortality. She was still the newest hunter, but she got along well with everyone. Her archery had improved over the months, shooting an arrow was nothing like firing a spell but she was a quick learner.
"Couldn't sleep?"
Danielle had to stop herself from falling out of the tree. Looking around, she saw lady Artemis looking up at her from the ground.
Quickly jumping down to the ground as well, she made her apologies but Artemis waved them aside, "I understand, it must be hard hearing about your parents and brother."
Danielle liked how lady Artemis had called them 'parents' not 'family.' As far as she was concerned, the Potters had ceased to be her family a long time before she was disowned, "I honestly couldn't care less about them my lady."
Artemis nodded, "I understand of course, I have met many hunters with far worse family members than yours, but they are still family and they will hold us in our thoughts."
Danielle smirked, "like Apollo?"
Artemis rolled her eyes, "yes, him." She sighed, "the Olympians are divided right now. Something important was stolen from my father Zeus and he is blaming a son of Poseidon right now. It doesn't matter that this person had never been to Mount Olympus before in his life. But even now, they are still family."
Danielle nodded, she knew the Olympians were all related in some way, but most were not full siblings. Hades, most didn't even like each other. "I hope Lord Zeus gets what he is searching for. I take it we are not looking for it?"
Artemis shook her head, seemingly lost in thought, "no, my father wants the boy, Percy Jackson or something, to be the one to give it back to him. If he doesn't though, it would mean war between my father and uncles."
Danielle shook her head as well, "we can only hope that this Percy Jackson can do it."
Two Years Later (Summer after Order of the Phoenix)
Dumbledore couldn't believe what Voldemort had done. Not only had he just walked into the Ministry to get the prophecy, but he had also revealed in front of the whole magical world that David Potter wasn't the chosen one. He had gloated that David's sister, Danielle Potter, had been the one he had attacked on that fateful Halloween night.
Dumbledore sighed, why couldn't this be easy? He had spent years training the wrong Potter and Voldemort had used complex magic to prove that he was telling the truth. The whole Ministry had to accept that David's sister was the chosen one. The worst part was that he had no idea where Danielle was, it was if she had dropped off the ends of the earth and wasn't coming back. Not that he could blame her, not after everything they had done to her, but he had to find her and train her to face Voldemort.
He was currently in a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix in Grimmauld Place. He rubbed his temples together as both Lily Potter and Molly Weasley were shrieking how they had to find the 'poor dear' that was their only hope. David was understandably in shock while Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were confused.
Dumbledore finally couldn't take it anymore, "enough! This is not the time to argue amongst ourselves! First of all, I know that what Voldemort (cue shivers) had shown everyone in the Ministry was true. Danielle is the chosen one, and we need her back."
Lily started crying harder than she had been before, "we need to find her Albus! We need my baby back!"
Dumbledore found it unlikely that Danielle would want to return but continued, "first of all, we checked with both the Magical Records office and with Gringotts and she is still alive. The problem is that we have no idea where she is."
Moody banged his staff on the floor, "and I bet you won't find her now! I should know since I trained her up a bit myself when she was younger! Fair bit of power she had too."
Dumbledore looked at him, "do you know where she might have gone Alastor?"
Moody shrugged, "hell if I know. I knew of a few places we could have checked if she vanished last week, but this is three years ago Albus! She's long gone by now."
Dumbledore had expected that, but it didn't help his headache, "we have to assume she left the country then. I have a few contacts I could use but I have no idea how valid they would be after three years."
David just snorted, "we don't that bitch! You all have me!"
James responded to that by whacking him upside the head, "don't talk like that! We need to make amends to your sister."
Dumbledore just sighed, that sounded unlikely, but they could try if they found her.
******* (Six months later)*******
It was winter. Danielle had never liked the cold, ironic since she used to live in Britain, and she was dressed in a silver parka with the other hunters somewhere in Maine. They had gotten news that a powerful monster was nearby and had been working with mortals to help Kronos. She frowned, the Titan Lord of Time sounded like trouble that needed to be stopped as soon as possible.
The hunt managed to get to what looked like a huge castle that had been turned into a military school. Danielle was confused, weren't castles native to Europe? They had never really migrated to America.
Shaking off that thought, she found their monster, a manticore. The beast was pretty much just half human and half scorpion. She gripped her bow tighter, she hated creepy crawly things, scorpions included.
Lady Artemis was about to give the signal when she paused, the rest of the hunt saw why as the manticore had somehow managed to get three hostages. One was a boy about the age of ten with pale skin, black hair and was holding what looked like playing cards. Another looked like his sister, maybe twelve or so. She was wearing what looked like a green hat along with the school uniform her brother was wearing and seemed to want to hide as much as possible.
The third person also had black hair like the other two but he seemed more angry and frustrated with the situation than scared. He wasn't wearing the school uniform but he was a demigod, and a powerful one.
The manticore led them through the woods to a cliff overlooking the ocean. Danielle couldn't hear what they were talking about but they seemed to be arguing. The hunt got close enough to help in case things got ugly, which it did. Danielle wasn't sure what happened but three others appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Two girls and a satyr pulled out weapons and started to attack while the older demigod from before pulled out a sword and tried to help.
The demigods were doing pretty well but they couldn't keep it up. Lady Artemis gave the signal and opened fire on the monster. The manticore shouted insults and started shooting poisoned spikes out of its tail at the hunters. Danielle gritted her teeth, this was not going to plan.
Out of nowhere, a mortal helicopter rose from below the cliff, ready to help the manticore. Artemis was angry, "mortals are not allowed to witness my hunt." She waved her hand and the helicopter began to dissolve, it turned into a flock of ravens that flew into the night.
The Manticore grabbed one of the girls, a blonde, and shouted out, "I'll settle for this one, until next time!"
Danielle shot out a blasting curse at the monster but that only made it stumble down the cliff instead of jumping down. She groaned as she leaned against a tree, the monster got away, kidnapped a girl, and now she would be dealing with a few very confused demigods.
The older boy started to search frantically in search of the girl, even fighting against lady Artemis in the process, "let me go! I have to find her!" he had an alarmed look on his face, "let me go! Who do you think you are?"
Danielle winced, that wasn't the right thing to say. Zoe walked up to him "let me tell you, male, if it was not for the hunt-"
She was cut off by Lady Artemis, "Zoe, the boy is hurt and doesn't mean it." She turned to the hunt in general, "let's build camp here."
Camp was built in about ten seconds, which was a pretty average time but the older guy looked shocked. Danielle smiled as she made to feed the wolves, she had always had a connection with them for some reason.
She finished and turned to the others who were talking to the newcomers. The twelve year old girl was in shock, "who are you? What is going on here?"
Artemis turned to her, "the real question here is, who are you? Who are your parents?"
The girl and her brother turned to lady Artemis, "I'm Bianca and this is Nico, we're orphans. There is a bank trust in our name but…" She faltered when it looked like none of the people listening believed her, "I'm telling the truth!"
Zoe intercepted, "you are a demigod, one of your parents was one of the Olympians."
Bianca looked like she was in denial, "Olympian…athlete?"
Zoe shook her head, "one of the gods."
Nico's eyes widened, "cool!"
Bianca glared at him, "no, not cool!"
Nico wasn't listening and was jumping up and down in excitement, "does Zeus really have a lightning bolt that does six hundred damage? Does he get extra movement points if…."
Bianca couldn't take it anymore, "Nico! This is not your stupid Mythomagic game! This is serious, there are no gods!"
Danielle snorted, "you've already met one, right Lady Artemis?"
Artemis gave a reassuring smile toward them and nodded. Bianca sat down on a rock, possibly going through mental overload.
The older girl walked up, "I'm sorry Bianca but they're telling the truth. The gods are still around; the life of a demigod is dangerous."
Bianca looked miserable by now, "dangerous, like that girl that was taken."
The guy flinched at the sound of that, Danielle figured that there was something between the two.
Even lady Artemis looked troubled, "do not despair for Annabeth, she is a strong and brave maiden. She will be found and returned."
The guy looked annoyed, "why won't you allow us to look for her?"
"She was taken, son of Poseidon. Some kind of magic is involved in this and it is not good. I do not know why or for what purpose, but your friend has vanished."
Nico started hopping up and down, "ooh, what about Dr. Thorn? That was awesome of how you shot him with arrows, is he dead?"
Danielle shook her head, "monsters can be killed but he will eventually come back. The manticore took your friend, he is weakened and injured but not defeated. That is why we keep hunting monsters…"
"Or else they will hunt you," finished the girl.
Bianca shivered, "that explains a lot. Remember Nico, those guys that tried to attack us in that alleyway?"
Nico nodded, "and that bus driver in Washington D.C. I told you there was something there, he had these big ram's horns."
The guy nodded, "that is why Grover here was in the school," he referred to the satyr, "he watches out for half-bloods like you two."
Bianca nodded, "Grover, you're a demigod?"
Grover shook his head, "ah, satyr actually." He kicked off his fake shoes to reveal his goat hooves. Bianca's face looked like she was about to faint.
The girl sighed, "Grover, put your shoes back on, you're freaking her out."
"Hey! My hooves are clean!"
The guy spoke up again, "Bianca, monsters like Dr. Thorn are only the beginning. That is why we have to take you to Camp. We can train you to defeat monsters like that."
"Camp?"
"Camp half-blood. It's where half-bloods learn to survive, you can even stay there year round if you want."
Nico smiled at that, "sweet, let's go!"
Bianca hesitated, "I don't think…"
Zoe smirked, "actually, there is another option…"
The girl growled, "no, there isn't!"
Zoe and the girl growled as they tried to glare each other down. Danielle had no idea what they were arguing about but figured it must be pretty bad.
Lady Artemis shook her head, "we've burdened these children enough. Zoe, tell everyone we will be here for a few hours. We will leave in the morning. Treat the wounded and get some hunters to retrieve our guest's belongings from the school."
Zoe nodded and left, still glaring at the girl.
"And Bianca, I would like to speak to you."
"What about me?" asked Nico.
Lady Artemis considered him, "why don't you show Grover your card game?" She turned to Grover, "as a personal favor for me."
Grover couldn't agree fast enough, "sure thing, come on Nico."
Grover and Nico left the area and started to talk about stats and hit points and a lot of other things that Danielle couldn't even begin to fathom.
Artemis turned to Danielle, "why don't you stay here with these two?" She gestured to the girl and guy, "you are probably the best when it comes down to males."
The guy looked annoyed again but it was probably directed more toward himself. Danielle nodded, "sure thing, I'll make sure they don't touch anything."
Artemis nodded with a smile and left with a still very confused Bianca.
As soon as Lady Artemis was in her tent with Bianca and the other hunters were out of out of earshot, the girl growled, "the nerve of those stupid hunters!"
The guy nodded, "I'm with you…"
"Oh, you're with me now! What happened back there? You were supposed to wait for me! If you had just waited for me! But no! You had to go off on your own, and now Annabeth is taken!"
The guy looked guilty enough but asked the girl, "why did you look like you wanted to attack that Zoe girl?"
The girl snorted, "we've met."
Danielle laughed, which got their attention, the girl was not amused, "what do you want?"
Danielle looked at the girl, she was probably fifteen or sixteen. She just looked, there was no other word for it, punk. The spiky black hair, chain jewelry, and make up, just made it work for her.
She got a good look at the guy too, her heart clenched slightly at the similiarties between him and her brother David. They both had the same messy black hair and green eyes. This guy though was more in shape, had a slight tan, and looked more mature.
Danielle walked up to them, "sorry, but I met Zoe a while back and she is probably one of the harshest against males. I'm Danielle, by the way."
The girl recovered first, "Thalia, now if you excuse me," she left the other two and started to clean her spear.
The guy shook his head, "I'm Percy, sorry but I'm dealing with something right now."
Danielle nodded, "your girlfriend?"
Percy stumbled, "girlfriend? No, we, we are just friends."
Percy and Danielle just looked at each other, he defensively, Danielle with a disbelieving and humorous look.
Finally, he sighed and bent down and picked up what looked like a baseball hat out of the snow. "Annabeth and I have been friends for a long time; she's had my back for a long time and now that she's been taken…"
Danielle nodded, she couldn't relate, but she did understand. Percy looked at her, "aren't you supposed to hate my guts on principle? You are a hunter of Artemis, right?"
Danielle laughed lightly, "I don't hate guys that much. True, a few guys probably ruined my life a few years ago but I found a new life with the hunters and I can get along with almost anyone."
Percy nodded and winced, it was then that Danielle noticed that he must still be suffering from the manticore attack. "I can heal that if you wish."
He nodded and Danielle waved her hand over his shoulder, muttering some healing spells. She had had to learn them to recover from some of her brother's bullying so she was pretty good at them.
Percy rolled his shoulder when she was done, "good as new. What was that?"
Danielle shrugged, "magic."
He seemed to accept that and they both lapsed into a peaceful silence. Thalia still looked angry, going from pacing around the wolves without fear and staring at the school. Danielle frowned slightly, it reminded her too much of Hogwarts, and the bad memories of that place. She was glad that she never had to go there again.
Nico and Grover came over, still talking about their game. Grover looked at Percy, "oh, sorry man, I forgot about your shoulder."
Percy shrugged it off, "it's fine, she healed it for me," he said, referring to Danielle.
Danielle nodded, "I learned some magic over the years."
Nico looked amazed, "can I do that?"
Danielle shook her head, "possibly, but I doubt I could teach you. I'm personally not a demigod so I'm not sure if our branches of magic are compatible."
Percy looked intrigued at that, "you're not a demigod?"
Danielle shook her head again, "no, lady Artemis doesn't care about things like that. Mortal, demigod, nymph, she'll allow anyone to join. More than I can say about that camp of yours," she smirked.
Percy grumbled while Grover nodded, they had to agree to that.
Nico meanwhile was looking through his bag that had been brought from the school. While there seemed to be some books, it was mostly filled with tiny figurines and cards for some sort of game.
Percy, looking like he needed something to distract him, commented, "big collection."
Nico nodded, looking proud of it, "I'm trying to collect them all. I've got almost all of them, even the holographic ones, well, except the really rare ones."
"You've been playing this game for long?"
"No, only this last year, before that I…" He frowned, "I can't remember, that's weird." He didn't look concerned for long, "can I see that sword of yours?"
Percy nodded and showed him his sword. A three foot long blade of celestrial bronze, "Riptide. It turns into a pen if I'm not using it."
Danielle nodded, "not bad for a son of Poseidon."
Nico agreed, "does it ever run out of ink?"
Percy looked taken aback, "well, I don't actually write…"
"Are you really a son of Poseidon?"
"Well, yeah."
"Can you surf really well then?"
Percy looked at Grover and Danielle for support, both were trying hard not to laugh.
"You know, I've never really tried."
Nico's questions never seemed to end with Percy. Did he fight a lot with Thalia since she was a daughter of Zeus? (He didn't answer that one.) If that Annabeth girl was a daughter of Athena, why didn't she know better than to get herself kidnapped? (Percy looked like he wanted to strangle him for that.) Was Annabeth his girlfriend? (He looked like he wanted to throw him to the wolves by then.)
At this point, Zoe came back, "Percy Jackson."
Danielle smiled, Zoe always tried to act as haughty as possible when there was a male around. She looked like Percy was cockroach she had to deal with for a little while; despite wanting to crush it.
"Come with me, lady Artemis would like to speak with thee."
She gave Danielle a look, as if wondering how she could deal with him for this long without losing her sanity, and they both left. Seeing that Nico was giving her the same look he gave to Percy before he questioned him, she turned around, "sorry, but I should go feed the wolves." Not caring that she had already fed them a little while ago.
She managed to find some work to do, thankfully. After restocking her arrow supply from the armory tent, she made small talk with her friend Jessica. She was the daughter of Demeter that had joined sometime in the seventies. They had both learned about the magical world early as she had a cousin who was a Muggle-born but she had never really learned about magic itself.
About an hour later, dawn was approaching and lady Artemis came up to them. Just like most of the hunt had expected, Bianca had a soft silvery glow like the rest of the hunters. Percy looked disappointed while Thalia looked downright furious and ignored Percy as much as possible. Bianca was talking to Nico, most likely explaining her choice to join the hunt. Nico looked upset but understanding at the same time. Poor kid, it would likely take a while for him to fully accept it.
Camp was taken down in a matter of seconds and the hunt gathered around Artemis as she faced east. Zoe came around to tell Danielle that they were headed to Camp Half-blood while lady Artemis was going hunting alone.
"Why? Surely there is strength in numbers?"
Zoe glanced at lady Artemis, "I do not know, but it is her wish to hunt a lone monster that could destroy Olympus. It could be that she does not want us holding her back."
Danielle didn't like it but she nodded, hopefully she could get the full story later. She faced east and waited for the sun to arrive. That only meant one thing; Apollo was going to give them a ride to camp. She had met him a few times after their first meeting and he was starting to be a lot like an annoying but cool cousin.
The sky finally began to lighten, Artemis muttered, "about time, he gets so lazy during the winter."
Danielle smiled, that would explain why the sun rose later in the winter than in the summer. Just like Persephone going down into the underworld caused the seasons.
Artemis, who was standing near Percy, seemed to know what he was thinking, "it's not what you think."
Percy seemed both relieved and confused, "so, he's not going to pull up in a…"
A blinding flash of light stopped him; Artemis groaned, "don't look, not until he parks."
The glow faded until what looked like a red sports car was visible. A perfect circle of melted snow around it where the grass was showing. Its metal so hot it glowed, it reminded Danielle of her godfather's flying motorcycle, only this was much cooler. Apollo himself simply jumped out of the car and walked up to the group. He was wearing a simple white t-shirt and loafers.
Danielle could hear Thalia mutter, "Man, Apollo is hot."
Percy didn't seem to get it, "he's the sun god."
Thalia rolled her eyes, "that's not what I meant."
"Arty! Little sister! How are you doing? We barely see each other anymore, I was getting worried." Apollo's bright smile was starting to blind the hunters and campers.
Artemis sighed, "I'm fine Apollo, and for the record, I'm not your little sister."
"I was born first."
"We are twins, and I helped our mother give birth to you! How many millennia do we have to go through…"
Apollo cut her off, "so, got the hunters here, you need some poetry classes?"
Lady Artemis looked annoyed, "I need a favor, I'm going hunting alone, I need a ride to camp for my hunters."
"Sure sis," he suddenly put up his hands to stop everything, "wait, I feel a haiku coming on."
In unison, the hunt groaned, Danielle had heard way too many of Apollo's poems.
"Green grass breaks through snow.
Artemis pleads for my help.
I am so cool."
He then held up his hands, as if waiting for applause.
"That last line only had four syllables," commented lady Artemis in a deadpan expression.
Apollo frowned, "did it? Hang on, I'm sure I'll get it."
The hunt groaned again, if Apollo didn't get it now, he would make them wait for hours.
Lady Artemis sighed again, "I am so pig-headed?" she suggested.
Apollo shook his head, "no that has six syllables." Still lost in thought.
Danielle volunteered, "how about, 'I am a doofus?"
Everyone either laughed or smiled, it was a running joke amongst the hunt that she and Apollo always had some verbal action against each other every time they met. Apollo seemed to actually consider that for a moment, "no, I can do this…I got it, 'I am so awesome.' There, that wasn't hard." No one considered his victory worth applause.
He shrugged, "oh well, my next will be better. Ah, Danielle, that was you before, right? How is one of my favorite hunters doing?"
Danielle rolled her eyes, "just fine Sunny, now get us to camp."
Apollo nodded and clapped his hands together, "perfect, now then, all aboard. I was about to roll when you called me for your hunters."
Artemis nodded, "you better take these demigods as well, some of Chiron's campers."
Apollo waved her off, "yes, yes, I got it, no problem." He looked at the hunters and campers and recognized Thalia, "ah, Thalia, daughter of Zeus, I've heard all about you."
Thalia blushed, "thank you Lord Apollo."
Apollo smiled, "good to hear you're back. It's always a shame when a pretty girl gets turned into a tree. I remember back in the day…"
Lady Artemis cleared her throat, "Apollo, maybe you should get going?"
"Right, right." He turned to Percy, "ah, Percy Jackson."
Percy looked nervous, "yeah, I mean…yes sir."
Apollo studied him for while, which seemed kind of creepy, but eventually turned away. "Well, shall we go then? Ride only heads west, miss it and you're sunk."
Nico looked hyped up again, "how are we going to fit?"
Everyone looked at his sport's car, it only had two seats. The problem was that there were about twenty passengers now. Apollo seemed to notice the problem for the first time, "ah, well, I hate to change out of the sports car model but…" He snapped his fingers and the car beeped twice, like the car alarm had set or something, but then a bright light covered it and when it faded, everyone was looking at a huge bus.
"Right, everyone in."
Everyone filed into the bus, Zoe made to grab her bag but Apollo got it first, "here you go sweetheart."
Zoe growled at him, eyes flashing dangerously before marching off to the bus.
Artemis glared at him as well, "a few rules Apollo, you do not flirt with my hunters. You do not call them 'sweetheart,' you do not even look at my hunters! Got that?"
Apollo quickly nodded, "yeah, I just forgot. Hey, where are you off to, anyway?"
Lady Artemis glanced at her brother, "hunting, none of your business."
Apollo shrugged, "I'll find out, I know all, I see all."
"Just drop them at camp Apollo. And no messing around!"
"No, no, I never mess around."
Lady Artemis rolled her eyes, "Zoe, you are in charge of the hunt. Do well, do as I would do."
Zoe nodded, "it will be done, milady."
Lady Artemis took a moment to gain the scent, and ran into the woods, vanishing into the shadows.
Apollo smiled and dangled his car keys, "so…who wants to drive?"
Danielle might be a hunter; she might even have magic and had seen crazy things throughout her life. She had even accepted that the magical world had lost most sense of reason. But she would never forget the stupid idea of Apollo deciding it would be a good idea to allow anyone other than him to drive his sun bus.
The only redeeming factor was that he put Thalia behind the wheel. She was the daughter of Zeus, lord of the sky; she could handle a flying bus. That turned out to be a mistake.
After sitting with her fellow hunters in the back of the bus, Apollo handed the keys to Thalia and she started the engine. Danielle had gone flying before, but that had been on a broom, many years ago at Hogwarts. She felt that this was going to be completely different.
As soon as Thalia had started up the engine, she floored the gas pedal, forcing the bus to zoom into the sky and made everyone not buckled in his or her seatbelts to fall over themselves. "Sorry! I can handle this!"
That didn't help matters, as the bus got too high into the air. She managed to make the bus plummet to the ground instead, but they came in too hot. Danielle grabbed her seatbelt for her immortal life, hoping she wouldn't get airsick. The ride was like a rollercoaster with no tracks and no way of knowing if they would land safely.
"Take the wheel!" Grover shouted to Apollo, who was trying to get to the front of the bus after zooming backwards into the back exit.
"No worries!" he yelled back. He looked plenty worried, "we just have to make it to Long Island, we just have to…whoa!"
Thalia had somehow got so low that the bus was skimming the roofs of people's houses. After setting a few on fire, she managed to pull up in time to graze a steeple on a church.
"There," yelled Apollo, "Long Island, the camp is in sight!"
"Brake!" yelled Percy.
Thalia slammed her foot on the brake pedal, which made the whole bus dip and crash into what looked like a canoe lake. The hot metal cooling in the water made a soft steam raise that covered everything. Several naiads had panicked and ran out of the lake, wicker baskets left unfinished as the bus bobbed up to the surface.
"Well," said Apollo happily and a little shakily, "you were right Thalia, you did have it under control. Now lets go out and see if we barbequed someone important, shall we?"
Danielle, like most of the hunters, walked dazedly out of the bus, trying to regain lost bearings. Once the nausea had worn off, she looked at Camp Half-blood for the first time. She had been told what it was like but this was her first time here.
The camp was huge. The Canoe Lake was off to one side while a large four-story house painted all in blue was off in the distance. There was a dining pavilion, armory, a sing-along amphitheater, and even a rock-climbing wall that was spewing real lava.
The strangest thing though was the assortment of cabins for the demigods while they were at camp. One was gold and was shining in the sunlight so it must have been Apollo's. One had grass for a roof while another was badly painted red with barbed wire around it.
Snow had been allowed to fall gently around the camp so the cabins were decorated for Christmas with little balls of light that were real flames.
Nico stumbled out of the bus, "whoa, is that a rock climbing wall?"
Percy nodded, "yeah it's…"
"Is that real lava coming out of it?"
"Yeah, just for a little extra challenge. Come on, I'll introduce you to Chiron, Zoe have you…"
Zoe cut him off, "I know Chiron, tell him we will be in cabin eight. Hunters, follow me."
They were just about to leave the area when Grover ran after them, "I'll show you the way!"
"We know the way."
"No, really." Grover fell over himself in his attempt to help, but he got up, still talking, "it's a little confusing the first time you're here. Just like my grand-daddy goat used to say."
Zoe eventually accepted his help, feeling that the only way to get rid of him would be to humor him for now. The hunters shouldered their packs and they headed off to cabin eight. Apollo yelling after them, "take care sweethearts!"
The hunters grumbled as they continued to make their way to the cabins. They still saw a large red sports car fly into the sky though.
Danielle had been told about the camp, how it was usually only for the summer with a few year-rounder's, but the place still felt empty. There were a few Ares campers having a snowball fight with a few dryads, and a few others around but that was it. She felt that the arrival of the hunt might have doubled the population of this place.
Grover was running commentary for everything at camp, which was interesting to Danielle and Bianca, but pretty much worthless to the other hunters. "I'm telling you, those dryads can throw a mean snowball. But I'm sure you know that already, you love nature, I love nature, it's like we are meant to be."
Grover winked at Zoe, which wasn't the best thing to do. Zoe glared at him and slapped him across the face so he stumbled back a little. Phoebe didn't like it when someone came on to their lieutenant so she punched him in the face for good measure. When Grover stood up, he still looked delighted to be in their presence, and after saluting them, ran off with the slap mark clearly visible along with his new black eye.
Bianca leaned close to Danielle, "that happen a lot with you guys?"
Danielle smiled, "that was pretty tame compared to what I've seen. I'm the newest, apart from you though, so I'm sure they are capable of much worse."
Bianca looked nervous but nodded.
Cabin eight looked normal on the outside but on the inside, it was decorated nicely. The cabin was big enough to house enough beds for all of the hunters and then some. There were two doors on the opposite end of the wall; one led to lady Artemis' private room if she was staying at camp while the other was a bathroom. The walls held scenes of forests, animals in movement, and featured a deer that was sacred to Artemis.
Once all of the hunters had claimed a bed, Zoe got their attention. "I am sorry for our visit here but lady Artemis insisted. I told a few of thou already but I shall do so again, lady Artemis is off hunting for a monster that is capable of bringing all of Olympus down."
A few hunters looked nervously at each other at that, "our lady has decided to hunt alone so we are here, presumably, for our own protection."
There were a few noises of protest but Zoe waved them down, "believe me, it wasn't my idea. We are here until our lady is finished so we have to make the best of it. Dinnertime is at six if my memory is correct, so you may all do whatever thy wishes until then."
The hunters, still grumbling, nodded and left the cabin after leaving their things on their bunks. Most went to the archery range but Danielle was pulled back by Miranda, daughter of Hermes who joined in the nineteen thirties. "How about some basketball?"
There were a few courts around, and Danielle had never really played, so she agreed. The hoop reminded her of Quidditch but she got over it quickly, she had never really been a fan of the game. With a nice two on two, she and Miranda against two other hunters named Crystal and Francine, they played a nice game. Training in the hunt made the ball even easier to get through the hoop and the points racked up.
They were about half an hour into the game when some son of Ares walked up to them. "Pretty good, but I'm sure I can take your interest off that game."
All four hunters turned to glare at him, "I'm sure," commented Miranda sarcastically.
"We don't need this," said Crystal, "just go back to your sword training."
"And here I thought that this was a nice camp," said Danielle, dryly.
The guy glared at them and pulled out his sword, "I'm pretty sure you said no to me."
Francine grinned, "It wasn't that hard. You're head is full of rocks."
He growled, and swiped his sword at Francine, but she somehow managed to block the blow with the basketball she was holding. She and the guy traded some blows until Thalia showed up, "alright! You there!" She pointed at the Ares camper, "leave them alone, we have capture the flag tomorrow so you guys can fight then."
Since Thalia looked ticked off about something, and she was the daughter of Zeus, the Ares guy backed off.
No one felt like basketball anymore after that, it didn't help that the ball was now full of holes made by sword slashes. Danielle sighed as she started to explore the camp. Bianca seemed to notice and decided to follow, Danielle looked at her, "bored?"
Bianca shook her head, "no, of course not. It's just a little hard to wrap my mind around this."
Danielle nodded, "I bet, I lived around magic my whole life so accepting the gods was pretty easy, but living a relatively normal life before this…"
They fell into a peaceful silence and spent the time before dinner exploring. Bianca finally braved a question, "what were your parents like?"
Danielle tightened her hand into a fist, "they…weren't the best. Imagine parents that would ignore one sibling for another until he was a lazy idiot. Then imagine those same parents disowning that ignored sibling and throwing them out of the house."
Bianca winced, "that sounds horrible."
Danielle nodded, "yeah, but, I have the hunt now. We all have some sort of sob story so that's what brings us together as a family."
Bianca smiled, "yeah, I joined to get away from Nico for a while. Don't get me wrong, I love him and everything, but he's a handful and I had to be the one to take care of him."
"And when you got an opportunity to do something just for yourself, you jumped at it?"
"Yeah, just wish I knew who my parents were."
Danielle frowned, "you don't even know your mortal parent?"
Bianca tried to concentrate, "no, everything past a year ago is blurry. Nico is the same way."
Danielle gave her a reassuring smile, "I'm sure you'll find out eventually."
Bianca smiled, "yeah."
Dinner was awesome. The hunt had a moving kitchen so it was possible to cook anything one wanted. Camp Half-blood had special plates and goblets that filled with whatever food and drink the person asked for. After giving some of their food to the gods, everyone dug in.
The Artemis table was the most rowdy that night, everyone was laughing and joking while Bianca was learning how to arm wrestle from Phoebe. She lost every time but that didn't seem to dissuade her. Looking around, Danielle saw that Nico was at the Hermes table, who were trying to teach him to play poker. Percy and Thalia however were alone at the Poseidon and Zeus tables.
Chiron the centaur stood up from the head table and welcomed the hunters of Artemis. Announced that the 'good will' capture the flag game was the next day and bade everyone for an early night.
The next morning, Danielle woke up way too early. Looking at the clock in the cabin, she saw it was only three in the morning but Zoe was wide-awake and looked panicked. She was gasping so loudly that she had awoken the entire cabin.
Phoebe, the second in charge, looked at Zoe worried, "what did you dream?"
Zoe looked like she was having a hard time getting the cabin into focus, "nightmare. Lady Artemis, captured."
That was all it took for the hunt to exchange uneasy looks. Demigod dreams were almost always prophetic, if something happened in one, than it most likely happened.
Zoe got up, "I have to see Chiron! We have to save our lady!"
No one disagreed and let her leave the cabin to the big house. Needless to say, none of them got any more sleep that night. When Zoe returned, she just said that they had to stay where they were.
Phoebe snorted, "is Chiron mad? We have to save lady Artemis."
Zoe nodded sadly, "I know. But Chiron told me that we are to remain here until lady Artemis tells us otherwise."
Danielle glared at the wall, "how can she if she is kidnapped?"
Zoe nodded again, "that is what I said. The best thing we can do is watch and wait. If the opportunity to leave arises, then we go, until then, we cannot do anything."
None of them seemed to like that, but they didn't have any other choice. One by one, everyone tried to sleep, but found it was impossible, their goddess was taken and Zeus knows what was happening to her now.
When it became light enough to go to breakfast, it was a very subdued group that sat down at the Artemis table. There were no red eyes or signs of crying but it was obvious that everyone in the hunt was depressed.
The schedule for the day was the same as the one previous. The hunt was allowed to do whatever they wanted until dinner and capture the flag that afternoon. Danielle wasn't planning on it but somehow found herself at the canoe lake that morning. The water a dark murky gray color due to the overcast sky.
A sound in the distance brought her attention but it was only Thalia, who looked tired, "why can't I find a decent place to be alone for a while?"
Danielle smiled, "sorry but I was here first."
They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a moment; Thalia finally couldn't take it anymore, "Grover told Percy and I about Zoe's dream."
Danielle rolled her eyes, "great, a stalker goat."
Thalia chuckled, "sorry, but Grover and I go way back. He was the one to bring me here, Percy too but I'm focusing on me now."
Danielle laughed, "so, Grover?"
Thalia nodded, "yeah, he brought myself, Annabeth and another friend here. Only, there were a lot of monsters after us and I kind of sacrificed myself to save them. My dad turned me into a pine tree to stop me from dying."
Danielle shook her head, "a pine tree…why not? I've heard stranger things by reading those old stories and hanging around the hunt."
Thalia chuckled again, "I came back this last summer. That was weird, one minute I'm dying, the next, I'm fine and seven years had passed."
"Definitely strange."
Their conversation was stopped when a burst of fire appeared about five feet away from them. Thalia brought out her spear but Danielle held out her hand, "wait."
The fire died away to reveal magnificent swan sized scarlet and gold bird. Danielle cursed, "of course, what else could ruin my day?"
Thalia's eyes widened, "is that…"
Danielle nodded, "yeah, a phoenix, and I only know one person that has one." She went up to the bird, "hello Fawkes, is the old man still a manipulative jerk?"
Fawkes trilled sadly and held out a letter attached to his legs.
Danielle untied the letter, "thanks, but I'm not going back."
Fakes just looked at her sadly but nodded like he understood before flashing away in another burst of flames.
Thalia looked at the letter as if it would explode, "who do you know that has a phoenix and would use it to send notes?"
Danielle shrugged, "my old school headmaster, now let's see what he wants."
Opening the letter, she read it and knew it would not be good.
Dear Ms. Potter,
I was most distressed to hear what happened to you three and a half years ago. Rest assured, the utmost care is being used to register you again in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Your parents are truly sorry for what they have done and would like to make amends. If you are wiling, please send a note via Fawkes when he comes back in a week to make arrangements to come back to Britain. There is more, but it would be better to meet face to face in case this letter is intercepted.
Awaiting your reply,
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
Danielle had to read the short letter twice to realize it was not a joke. Growling, she balled the letter and threw it into the air over the lake where a fire spell caused it to incinerate before it hit the water. "Three and a half years old man, where were you?"
Dumbledore had ignored her for her whole life, now he wanted to apologize? He could have tried harder to keep her in Hogwarts, he could have forced her parents to spend time with her, or at least remind them they had two children. No, Danielle was done with him and his stupid rules.
She was so lost in thought, she forgot about Thalia's presence, "don't like this old man?"
Danielle shook her head and closed her eyes, "too close to my parents. They want me back huh? Too little, too late. I have a new family now and I'm never going back."
She turned around and headed to the sword arena, she had an idea for a new spell and needed to work it out before she met something big that needed to be torn to pieces, like Dumbledore for instance.
Later that afternoon was the capture the flag game between the hunters and the campers. The Artemis table had been subdued for the whole day but now it felt real resentment toward the camp. Zoe was glaring at Chiron, as if disbelieving that she was being forced to do this. Percy was also glaring at the hunters for some reason but Danielle had some resentment at a senile old man to burn off.
She had spent most of the afternoon trying to perfect her new spell but it just fizzled out every time she activated it. She would have to work out the bugs before a major battle.
The capture the flag game would be held in the woods beside the camp. About thirteen or fourteen hunters and the same number of campers so they were evenly matched, at least through numbers. According to Zoe, the hunt hadn't lost a game of capture the flag in centuries and it wasn't going to be broken now.
The hunt was dressed in red armor, the campers were dressed in blue, and even though it was the last thing they wanted to do, they didn't have a choice. Zoe sighed and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath.
"Okay, here is the plan. Bianca, you guard the flag. Half of you prepare traps to distract or disable the campers, the other half are with me to get the flag. Jessica, use grass or plants to slow or trip them, whatever. Danielle, use stunners to knock them out, I take it that it leaves a headache for the victim."
Danielle grinned and nodded, "on it." Jessica also looked psyched; this was an excellent distraction from their problems.
When both sides were ready, Chiron banged his hooves against the floor of the pavilion, "Heroes! You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team- Camp Half-blood- gets the west woods. Hunters of Artemis-red team-get the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions."
Zoe led the hunters forward and they dived into the woods. Danielle felt that if the campers wanted to win, they wouldn't use the woods. The hunt spent most of their time in woods just like these, knowing all the tricks made this a no brainer. After about ten minutes of setting up traps and finalizing plans, the conch horn blew to start the game.
Danielle was part of the defensive team, so she was given orders to shoot any campers on sight. She was forced to use either blunt arrows that would not kill but leave some nasty bruises, and stunners. Jumping up into a tree near the creak, she summoned her bow and waited for the campers to show up.
It wasn't until about ten minutes after the game started that the first campers started to appear. She frowned, she didn't know if a stunner could get past Greek armor but it would be better to know now rather than later, and she still had her bow.
Nodding to Crystal in the tree next to her, their plan started. The group of campers that had appeared was only about four strong so it wasn't too much trouble. Waving her hand in their direction, she used some wandless silencing charms on them. Smirking, she saw that one camper tried to say something but found that they couldn't make a sound.
Two more hunters, Selene and Jessica, landed in front of them silently and took them out with no problem, as the campers were panicking after finding out they couldn't talk. Selene and Jessica saluted Danielle before jumping up to their previous hiding spots.
A larger group of campers came through the trees, led by Thalia, appeared about thirty to forty meters to the left of the first group that had come through. Knowing that the same trick wouldn't work twice, the hunters had to fight them head on. Thalia turned and spotted the unconscious bodies of her fellow campers. Realizing that she would just fight harder now, the three hunters closest to the group dropped from the trees, hunting knives flashing in the sunlight.
Thalia's group was the biggest squad of campers to come through but several others tried to run past the creek. The hunters in the trees started firing blunt arrows and even the occasional fart arrow.
Thalia was somehow still fighting and had gotten the furthest past the hunters but had gotten distracted by something, "Percy! What are you doing?"
Looking around, Percy had somehow gotten their flag and was running toward the creek. The only reason the campers hadn't won already was that another hunter, Gertrude, had shot a zip line and had tripped Percy, causing him to fall into the snow.
Danielle saw her chance and fired one of her own fart arrows at Thalia's feet, releasing a cloud of smoke that smelled of sulfur. Thalia coughed, "no fair, fart arrows are un-sportsman like!"
Danielle mentally shrugged, not like she cared. Unfortunately, Percy got up and started running again. Getting everyone's attention, they all started to aim solely at Percy, Danielle even started shooting stunners at him but it wasn't enough. Crystal even slashed at him with her knife but he blocked it and kept running.
The hunt then started cheering when Zoe came out of nowhere; flag in hand, running toward the creek. Several campers tried to catch up to her but she was too fast. Like a cheetah, she jumped over the creek and slammed into Percy for good measure. A conch shell blasted in the distance and Chiron walked into the scene.
"The hunters win! For the fifty-sixth time in a row," he didn't sound happy about it but it was understandable since his campers had lost.
As the hunt gathered around Zoe, Thalia stormed up to Percy, "PERCY! What in the name of the gods WERE YOU THINKING!"
A few hunters smiled at the sight of a guy being yelled out.
Percy glared at her, "I got their flag, Thalia! I saw a chance and I took it!" He brandished the flag he was still holding under her nose.
"I almost had it! I got to their base and I saw it was gone! If you hadn't have butted in, we would've won!"
Danielle and a few other hunters snorted, in her dreams.
Percy wouldn't back down though, "you had too many on you!"
"Oh, so it's my fault?"
"I didn't say that."
"Augh!" Thalia was so angry that she pushed Percy away; unfortunately, she lost some control of her lightning powers and sent a shock through Percy, sending him flying about ten feet away. A few hunters sniggered.
Percy got up quickly and everyone could see the burned mark on his clothes. Thalia looked pale, "Percy, I, I didn't mean to…"
Percy glared at her and his eyes flashed. Next second, a large wave of water crashed into Thalia, soaking her from head to foot. "Yeah, me either."
Chiron stepped forward, "enough!"
Neither Percy nor Thalia seemed to hear him as Thalia brought out her spear, making it pulse with electricity, "you want some seaweed brain!"
Percy flinched a little at the name but recovered quickly, "bring it on, Pinecone Face!" He raised his sword but was slammed with a huge bolt of electricity, sending him flying again.
"Thalia! That is enough!" yelled out Chiron.
Percy stood up and made the whole creek rise into a big tidal wave, ready to slam into the daughter of Zeus.
"Percy!" Chiron pleaded.
Suddenly, the water crashed onto the ground again, Percy's eyes in shock. Thalia, surprised, turned and everyone saw a sight that was both creepy and strange.
Chiron muttered, "impossible, she hasn't left the attic in years."
A figure was walking through the woods, a shriveled up mummy in a tie-dye shirt and what was probably hippie love beads. Everyone just stared at the sight, as the mummy seemed to look at Percy for a moment before focusing on Zoe.
In a voice that reminded everyone of hissing snakes, the mummy spewed out a little green smoke as it spoke, "I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python."
The mummy walked closer to Zoe, "Approach Seeker, and ask."
Zoe gulped, whether in shock or fear, no one knew, "what must I do to help my goddess?"
More green smoke spewed out of the oracle's mouth, the smoke started to make the ghostly image of a mountain. A girl that was definitely Artemis was standing on the summit but she seemed to be chained and was in obvious pain, even if she was locked in a pose that suggested that she was ready for an attack. The Oracle spoke again:
Six shall go west to the goddess in chains,
One shall be lost in the land without rain,
The bane of Olympus shows the trail,
Campers and hunters combined prevail,
The Titan's curse must one withstand,
And one shall perish by a parent's hand.
The green smoke started to coil and re-entered the mummy's mouth like a giant snake. The Oracle then sat down, like she would sit by the creek for the next hundred years.
After the stunned silence, Chiron called an immediate council meeting. Percy and Grover were given the duty to return the oracle to the attic, which neither seemed enthusiastic to do so, and everyone that was not a councilor was forced to go through the day's activities.
Zoe dragged Bianca with her to the meeting while Phoebe, as second in command, took the opportunity to assign them activities, mostly to get their minds off of their goddess.
The rest of the day was tense for the hunters, knowing that lady Artemis was in danger and not doing anything was hard, especially for them. The only good thing was that most of the campers were counselors at the meeting so the hunters had most of the camp to themselves until it was over.
The meeting only lasted about an hour and seeing that Zoe and Bianca were free, the hunt gathered around her in the Artemis cabin. Zoe looked annoyed, "the good news is that four of us are allowed to go and rescue lady Artemis. The bad news is that Thalia and that irritating satyr are coming as well. Chiron wished it was even between campers and hunters but I was able to talk them down."
The hunt nodded and Zoe continued, "I am going, naturally, I also wish for Bianca and Phoebe to come. The only thing I want to do not know is who would be the fourth?"
The hunters looked at each other, Francine spoke, "we should ask ourselves, who would be the most use on a quest to rescue our lady?"
Zoe nodded, "indeed, Phoebe is our best tracker and this is a perfect opportunity for Bianca to prove herself."
Bianca looked at all the hunters, "what about Danielle?"
Danielle's eyes widened, "I am sure that there are other, more experienced hunters that would be of more use."
Zoe seemed to like the idea though, "but, thou can do magic. Thy powers are truly versatile and would do a lot of good in many situations."
The other hunters were warming up to the idea as well. Danielle glared lightly at Bianca before conceding, "very well, anything to help our goddess."
Zoe nodded, "excellent, we leave at sunrise tomorrow. Oh yes, Phoebe, I was able to get thou that t-shirt thou were looking at."
Phoebe grinned as she took the silver t-shirt Zoe handed her that read ARTEMIS THE MOON GODDESS, FALL HUNTING TOUR 2002. It had a list of various national parks underneath.
Zoe sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "we should prepare for our journey, pack anything that might be needed."
The rest of the day was spent in a flurry of excitement as the ones going on the quest picked up Ambrosia, nectar and various other things that might come in handy. Danielle spent the day going over all the spells she knew, hoping that one would be useful while searching.
The next morning, everyone was up before dawn. Zoe, Phoebe, Danielle and Bianca showered and got dressed, while going over last minute provisions. The quiet morning was broken by multiple grunts of discomfort. Looking around, everyone saw that Phoebe was wearing the silver t-shirt from yesterday and scratching like crazy.
Zoe looked concerned, "Phoebe, are thou alright?"
Phoebe was going crazy, "what is wrong with this shirt? It itches like crazy and is starting to burn!" Finally ripping off the shirt, it was revealed that she was covered in hives and painful looking welts.
Bianca looked sick, "what is that?"
Zoe looked at Crystal and Danielle, their two top healers, "thou can heal her, right?"
The two hunters looked at each other, they nodded, "everyone out, we have some work to do."
It didn't take long for everyone to be convinced to leave and the two girls got to work. As a daughter of Apollo, Crystal was used to healing magic and Danielle's healing spells could heal all but the most serious wounds. Getting Phoebe to corporate was hard, but they managed to get her to lie mostly still on her bed.
Crystal started chanting in ancient Greek while Danielle pulled out her wand and started reciting healing spells. The combination of Greek and Latin was strange but it did have some affect. The welts started to vanish but the hives refused to leave. Taking a break after half an hour, Crystal looked at the abandoned t-shirt; she was outraged at what she saw.
"Centaur's blood! This whole shirt is covered in it!"
Danielle was tired as well but at least Phoebe was sleeping now, "I take it that's bad?"
Crystal nodded angrily, "it's like acid! It burns the skin like crazy, we're just lucky that it this batch was diluted enough to just highly irritate the skin and not kill her. Must have been some sort of prank."
Danielle nodded and sat down, "well, she's not going anywhere like this. Even with both of us combined, it would take about a week until she's up to moving around again. And that's if we both combined our powers for days, and we don't have that kind of time."
Crystal nodded and sat down as well, "you will have to just save lady Artemis without her. I'll take care of her in the meantime, you go tell Zoe and Bianca."
Feeling bad that she couldn't fully heal Phoebe, Danielle left the cabin and made her way around camp. It was only now just starting to get light. Finding Zoe and Bianca at the dining pavilion, she sat down next to them, "centaur's blood. We tried everything but she won't be moving again for a while."
Zoe nodded, like she had figured it out herself, "yes, I was just telling Bianca. We also decided to not pick someone else for this quest."
Danielle frowned in confusion, "why? We need as many people as possible to save lady Artemis."
Zoe sighed, "it's just…it's just a feeling. Like we are not supposed to choose someone else. I do not want to ask Chiron for a camper and I do not want to risk another hunter."
Danielle didn't really know what to make of demigod feelings and intuitions but had learned to trust them, "alright, but we should go soon."
Bianca hesitated, "Zoe, you should tell her and Thalia about that dream you had…"
Zoe shook her head, "no, it would not help."
"But if your dream was right, about the General…"
"Enough!" snapped Zoe, she looked scared and worried, "let's go to Chiron and get out of here, dawn is breaking."
All three hunters started to run toward the big house but Zoe stopped at something, frowning and going for her bow.
"Come on, the lights in the big house are on," shouted Bianca.
Zoe glanced at the same spot again and ran off as well.
Thalia, Grover and Chiron met them on top of Half-blood hill with some blond surfer guy. The only thing strange about the new guy was that he had hundreds of eyes on his body. On his arms, legs, even the back of his neck.
Chiron smiled as they approached, "ah, good." He did a head count, "there is one missing."
Zoe glared at him, "thy campers poisoned Phoebe with thy t-shirt."
Chiron looked troubled, "I did not know, but the prophecy stated that six would go west, not five."
Zoe crossed her arms, "I refuse to allow another camper to come, and I also got the feeling that I should not allow another hunter to come. This group will suffice."
Chiron still looked unsure but conceded, "very well, Argus here has allowed you to take the camp van." The blond surfer guy nodded and gave them a thumbs-up.
Thalia looked at Grover, "you can see which path for us to take, right?"
Grover, who had been staring at the hunters, had to shake himself. "Huh? Oh, yeah. I got the acorns."
Danielle mouthed the word 'acorns' and looked at him, expectantly. Grover shrugged and threw some acorns on the ground while saying something in ancient Greek. The pattern the acorns fell in didn't make sense to her but Grover nodded, like some sort of secret was revealed.
"Alright, according to this, we have to go south first, to…" He frowned, "to Washington D.C.?"
Thalia raised an eyebrow, "you sure?"
Chiron studied the acorns as well, "yes, it does say that. I don't know as much woodland magic as I like to admit, but it does say that is your first stopping point."
Zoe nodded, "very well, I will drive."
Thalia glared at her, "hang on, I look closer to driving age than you, I should drive."
Zoe gave her a look that clearly said, 'NO!' and got into the driver's seat of the van. Bianca and Danielle shrugged at each other and got into the back with Grover while Thalia got shotgun. Danielle had to admire the normalness of the van, aside from Apollo's flying sun bus and the Knight Bus in Britain, this was the first real mortal vehicle she got to travel in. It was also the first that didn't make her want to lose her lunch.
It turned out that Zoe was a good driver, but also liked to go on the fast side. Danielle couldn't help but stare at the signs of consumerism as they got onto the highway. The magical world had nothing like this and the hunt didn't really spend a lot of time on normal mortal roads. It was strange seeing the lighted signs for Starbucks and McDonalds as they drove past them.
Thalia kept giving Zoe glares but she seemed to either ignore them, or had become immune. Grover pulled out his reed pipes and started to lightly play a few bars of something to get everyone's spirits up.
Danielle now had plenty of time to think about things. Dumbledore had contacted her about something important, not just about her parents wanting to apologize to her. Well, she wasn't going to forgive them anytime soon but the implied threat to the magical world was there. She mentally snorted, she knew Dumbledore. He would preach about forgiveness and giving people second chances but he wouldn't enter the fight himself unless he had no other choice.
The only thing she could think of was that Voldemort had come back, which sounded likely if that cursed diary she had faced in her second year was any indication. She would have to ask Hades about that if she had the opportunity.
She still didn't know what to do about her parents. Even if they were sorry and wanted her back, she couldn't just leave the hunt and go back to Britain. She had a new life and was thriving in this different environment. She would also have to deal with the fact that she was thirteen forever, which alone would be a headache to explain. Knowing Dumbledore, he would automatically assume the worst and claim that it was dark magic, not even considering the possibility that there were gods and goddesses out there.
Next to her, Bianca was nervous and was checking and double checking all of her things. Danielle had to say, she looked good as a hunter. She didn't hide her face behind her hair or her hat anymore and looked much healthier, like she had been working out. Danielle smirked, that was the immortality for you.
They didn't stop until they reached a rest stop in Maryland. After parking the car, Zoe and Thalia led the way into a nearby convenience store. After picking up some essentials, aka, candy bars, they were making their way to back to the van. "So, we're on the right track for lady Artemis, right Grover?" asked Bianca.
Grover nodded, "the acorns never lie."
They were walking out of the store now, "you sure Grover?" asked Thalia.
"Well…ninety-five percent sure, okay, maybe about eighty-five percent."
Bianca looked as skeptical as Danielle did, "and you did this with acorns?"
Grover looked hurt, "it's a time honored tracking spell, I think I did it right."
Bianca looked distant, "D.C. is about sixty miles from here. Nico and I…" she frowned, "we used to live there…that's strange, I can't remember."
Zoe looked troubled, "I dislike this, we should head straight west, like in the prophecy. Danielle, I doubt that you know of a tracking spell of your own?"
Danielle shook her head, "I know of one but I would have to put the first part of the spell on the person or item I want to track. Good for finding lost items but bad for trying to find a lost goddess."
Zoe nodded, like she had expected that, "very well, but I still dislike this."
Thalia snorted, "Like your tracking skills are any better."
Zoe went up into Thalia's face; "you challenge my skills as a hunter, you scullion? You know nothing about being a hunter!"
Thalia's face started to turn red, "Scullion? You're calling me a scullion? What the heck is a scullion?"
Danielle, who had learned a lot about old English words and phrases from being around Zoe for a while, told her, "Essentially, she called you a poor maid that lived in the time of the renaissance."
Thalia looked confused, like she didn't know how to react to that, so she grabbed Grover and stomped off to the van in a huff. Bianca and Danielle looked at each other and at Zoe. They were both very curious by now, "why does Thalia hate you so much?"
Zoe rolled her eyes as she made her way to the van, "it is a long story, one that we do not have the time for."
That didn't settle their curiosity but they didn't push the issue and in a moment, they were on the road and on their way to D.C. again.
About an hour later, Zoe parked on the curb in downtown D.C. and everyone got out. Grover looked around at the big buildings, "it's one of these buildings here, the clue we need to find."
Zoe looked skeptical but agreed to follow him. Thalia had no problem with following Grover and ran after him, Bianca and Danielle bringing up the rear. Bianca told her about some of the buildings and what they had been when she had lived there, but apparently a lot had changed. According to her, some buildings had different stores since the last time she had been there while some new ones had been built where old buildings had been.
Danielle smiled as she looked around, they were at the capital of America, she toyed with the idea that she should dislike the place due to her British background. She mentally shrugged; the American capital was Philadelphia during the American Revolution, not D.C.
Grover led them to a big square building next to the mall that said, NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUESEUM. Thalia looked at him, "the Smithsonian?"
Grover shrugged, "hey, I'm just reading the acorns, they led us here. Besides, there is a monster scent here, maybe lady Artemis stopped here before she was godnapped?"
No one had a better idea and the place didn't seem to be busy so they walked in. School was out and it was freezing outside, so they had the place mostly to themselves. Altering the Mist so they didn't have to pay admission, they started looking at the various exhibits. The place had three stories, with huge spacecrafts hanging on wires from the ceiling while various other ships and planes were on display.
Zoe grinned at the mention of the space program dedicated to colonizing the moon. For some reason, it kept breaking down, it was not like a certain moon goddess disliked the idea of mortals on her property and had cursed the program or anything like that.
After searching for about half an hour, and Danielle wondering if Apollo had blessed the Apollo shuttles or not, they hadn't found anything. Grover frowned, "I know I smelled a monster, but I don't see one here."
Ready to leave and try the acorn trick again, they started to leave but a sudden blur ran into Thalia as she was walking down the stairs. Bows out, all three hunters had taken aim at the newcomer, only to find that it was Percy. Grover bleated in surprise but Percy had gone cross-eyed, trying to keep the arrows on him in focus.
Zoe growled and didn't put down her bow, "You! How dare you show thy face here!"
Grover sighed in relief, "Percy, thank goodness." Zoe turned to glare at him and he backtracked, "uh, I mean, you shouldn't be here."
Percy was still panting, "Luke, he's here!"
Thalia was alert instantly, all anger forgotten, "what! Where?" she started fingering her bracelet that held her shield.
Percy managed to get out his story, "followed you guys here, saw doctor Thorn, the manticore from before. Tailed him and saw Luke and some guy calling himself the General."
Zoe looked stunned at the mention of the General, "the General is here? That is impossible! You lie!"
Percy didn't back down, "why would I lie? And there are these skeleton warriors."
"What!" yelled Thalia, "how many?"
"About a dozen, and that's not all, the General said something about a 'playmate' to keep us occupied, a monster!"
Grover looked worried and told Percy that they had been tracking down the scent of the monster that Artemis was hunting.
Bianca looked at Zoe, "Zoe, if the General is here…"
Zoe looked scared, "no, it's impossible. Percy must have seen some Iris message, or had a hallucination or something."
Danielle didn't know what they were talking about but figured that then wasn't the time as she glanced at the ground floor, "uh, guys."
No one paid her any attention as they continued to argue, "hallucinations don't break marble floors!"
Zoe took a deep breath, as if trying to calm herself, "if Percy is right about the skeleton warriors, they are the worst…we need to leave, now!"
"Good idea," said Percy.
Zoe glared at him, "I was not including thee, boy!"
Danielle's eyes widened as she continued to look at the ground floor, "guys."
Thalia walked up to Zoe, "who are you to decide something like that? You are not the leader on this quest, Zoe. I don't care how old you are! You are still a whining little brat!"
"GUYS!"
"WHAT!"
Danielle pointed to the bottom of the stairs where they saw the monster. Everyone backed up as one little boy yelled out, "kitty!"
The beast that was currently bounding up the ramp toward them was no kitty. The huge claws, the fangs, and the fact it was as big as a pick-up truck squashed that hope.
Thalia looked faint, "the Nemean Lion, don't move."
The lion gave a huge roar that parted everyone's hair; fangs gleaming.
"Separate on my mark," said Zoe, "try to keep it distracted."
"Until when?" Grover whimpered.
"Until I think of a way to kill it. Go!"
Percy uncapped Riptide while Grover started playing on his reed pipes. Danielle, Zoe, and Bianca jumped onto the Apollo capsule and started raining arrows, all shattering harmlessly on the lion's fur.
Danielle fired a few reductor curses as well but they just bounced off, just like the arrows. "Wasn't the lion's fur impenetrable from any weapon back in the old stories?" She remembered that Heracles had strangled the beast to death with his bare hands.
Zoe grunted in response and fired arrows at it's eyes, "indeed, but what other choice is there?"
The lion swiped at the capsule, forcing all three of them to fall off. Grover started playing more urgently while Thalia blocked its path with her shield, Aegis. Seeing the head of Medusa on the shield caused the lion to recoil.
"Hi-yah!" Thalia yelled. "Back!"
Danielle shook off the daze she got when she fell off the capsule and saw the lion. It was crouching; it's leg muscles tensing. It didn't take a genius to see that it was about to pounce.
Percy apparently saw it too as he yelled out, "Hey!" and charged the beast. Danielle's eyes widened, a sword would do as much good as an arrow.
Concentrating, she managed to focus on Percy and levitated him away just as Percy's sword clanged pointlessly on the lion's metallic fur.
Percy gave her a look of thanks but the lion focused on him and he had no way to escape. He was backed against the railing and the only way to go would be to jump.
Percy looked at Danielle and they both understood the plan he had in mind. The lion lunged at him and as soon as both he and the lion had dropped onto an old-fashioned silver airplane, he floated out of the lion's reach and back behind the railing.
Danielle panted; levitating someone big across even that small a distance was tiring. Zoe and Bianca recovered by then and were shooting arrows at the lion on the airplane. The lion roared again, exposing its maw, a pink tongue and throat.
Percy managed to get Zoe's attention, "Zoe! Target the mouth!"
The lion's weight on the airplane was getting too much for the cords holding it and a few snapped. The lion managed to jump off and landed on a giant model of the Earth on the ground floor.
"Grover!" yelled Percy. "Clear the area!"
Groups of kids were yelling while running in circles. Grover managed to shepherd them away from the lion just as the rest of the cords on the airplane snapped, causing it to crash onto the floor. Thalia dropped from the first floor to the ground one while Percy ran down the stairs to join her. The lion regarded them closely, as if trying to figure out which one to kill first.
Zoe, Danielle, and Bianca, still on the first floor, tried to shoot an arrow, but couldn't get a good angle.
"No clear shot!" yelled Zoe, "Get it to open its mouth more!"
The lion snarled on the top of the globe.
Danielle was frustrated, there was no good shot and the lion was apparently smart enough not to open its mouth too often. It even narrowed its eyes to tiny slits so they couldn't even use that.
Percy apparently got an idea, "Thalia, keep it occupied." He then ran into the gift shop.
"This is no time for souvenirs, boy!" yelled out Zoe as Thalia held out her shield and sent an arc of lightning, zapping the lion's tail. The beast roared and tried to lunge but kept stopping when it saw the horrible face on her shield.
The hunters fired arrow after arrow but it was no good. Danielle just hoped that Percy had a plan. The lion snapped at Thalia, swiping her with its claws but she kept jabbing it with her spear. The lion was winning though; Thalia was being backed into a corner.
"Percy!" she called, "whatever you're going to do…"
The lion roared again and swatted her like a cat toy. She slammed into a Titan rocket and slid down onto the floor.
"Hey!" yelled Percy. He was back; in one hand he held Riptide while in the other was about a dozen packages wrapped in silver cellophane. He threw Riptide like a throwing knife, which bounced off the lion's fur but it was enough to get its attention.
Danielle jumped off her ledge and landed next to Percy. He grabbed one of the cellophane-wrapped packages and threw it into the lion's maw.
The lion's eyes widened and gagged like a cat with a hairball. Danielle, curious, looked and saw that Percy had grabbed what appeared to be space food packets.
"Zoe! Get ready!" Danielle yelled as the lion roared again, only to get another packet in its mouth.
Grover was playing a new song now on his pipes.
The lion had managed to choke down the packet and looked at Percy with pure hate.
"Snack time!" Percy yelled. He then threw more packets and Danielle helped by using a duplicating charm. The lion kept getting more packets in its mouth and the more it gagged.
The lion reared up on its back legs, trying to get away.
"Now!" Danielle yelled as she summoned her own bow.
Zoe and Bianca fired and arrows filled the lion's maw- three, six, nine. The lion thrashed wildly, turned, and fell backward. And then it was still.
Danielle sighed in relief but it was short lived when alarms wailed throughout the museum. People were flocking to the exits. Security guards were running around in a panic with no idea what was going on.
Grover helped Thalia, who looked dazed but fine. Zoe and Bianca dropped down next to Percy and Danielle.
Zoe looked at Percy, "that was…an interesting strategy."
Percy looked back defensively, "hey, it worked."
Zoe didn't say anything.
The lion seemed to be melting, dissolving into golden dust, until there was nothing left but its fur coat, which shrunk as well until it was the size of a normal lion's pelt.
"Take it," Zoe told Percy.
Percy stared at her, "what, the lion's fur? Isn't that, like, an animal rights violation or something?"
"It is a spoil of war, it is rightly thine."
"You guys killed it."
Zoe shook her head, almost smiling, "I think thy ice-cream sandwich did that. Fair is fair Percy Jackson. Take the fur."
Percy shrugged and picked up the fur. As he held it, it shifted until he was holding a coat- a full-length golden-brown duster.
"Not exactly my style," he muttered, putting the coat on anyway.
"We have to get out of here," said Grover, "the security guards won't stay confused for long."
They looked and saw that the security guards were running in all directions but completely ignored them. Running into walls and even each other.
"You did that?" Percy asked.
Grover nodded, a little embarrassed, "a minor confusion song. I played some Barry Manilow. It works every time but will only last a few more seconds."
"The security guards are not our biggest worry," said Zoe, "look."
They looked through the glass walls of the museum and what looked like a group of men were headed past the lawn outside and toward the front doors. Gray men in gray camouflage outfits. Danielle had never seen an inferi, but even from this distance she could tell that they were skeletons made to look like people. They were also staring at Percy.
"Go," said Percy. "They'll be hunting me. I'll go distract them."
Danielle snorted as Zoe shook her head, "No, we go together."
Percy stared at her, "but, you said-"
"You are a part of this quest now," she said grudgingly, "I don't like it, but there is no changing fate. You are the sixth quest member. And we are not leaving anyone behind."
"We can talk about this later," said Thalia, looking nervously out the window, "right now we should get back to the van and get somewhere safe."
Everyone nodded and managed to slip out a side exit onto the street next to the museum. They saw emergency vehicles screeching to a halt in front of the building but they ignored them and walked as quickly as possible without drawing attention.
No one said a word as they ran the last half block to the van. The van was able to hold about eight or nine people so they still had room, even with Percy. Zoe started the van quickly and they quickly tried to drive out of the city.
"Where are we going now?" asked Bianca.
"The prophecy told us to go west, so we should just start going in that direction," said Danielle.
Thalia nodded, "Artemis was being held on some sort of mountain but there are a lot of them out west, this will be hard."
No one could say anything but the sudden sound of helicopter blades got their attention. They were just crossing the Potomac River when Percy looked out the back and saw that the helicopter was coming for them. It looked the same as the one from the school.
"They know the van, we have to ditch it," said Percy.
Zoe swerved into the fast lane but the helicopter was gaining.
"Maybe the military will shoot it down," said Grover, hopefully.
"They probably think it's one of theirs," said Percy, "how could the General be working with Mortals anyway?"
"Mercenaries," said Zoe distastefully, "some Mortals will work for anyone who pays enough. Sometimes they are worse than monsters."
"But won't they wonder about all the monsters around and get suspicious?" asked Percy.
Danielle shook her head, "I doubt it. Even if they can see through the Mist they could still be willing to work for them. Money is a great motivator and will get Mortals to lose their inhibitions about who they work with."
The helicopter kept coming for them, making much better time down the highway than they were.
Thalia closed her eyes in a silent prayer, "hey Dad, we could use some lightning right about now."
The clouds stayed cold and snowy, no sign of a thunderstorm anywhere.
"There!" yelled out Bianca as she pointed to a car park. "That parking lot!"
"We'll be trapped," warned Zoe.
Bianca shook her head, "trust me."
Zoe shot across two lanes of traffic and entered the off ramp for the car park. Parking, Danielle saw that it was for an underground subway system.
The helicopter was still coming for them, "let's go south," said Bianca, "Alexandria."
"Anything," said Thalia.
They purchased tickets and within minutes they were on a southbound train, riding away from D.C. The train came above ground and they saw the helicopter hovering the car park but weren't following them.
"Nice job Bianca," said Grover, wiping his forehead, "thinking of the subway."
Bianca looked pleased, "yeah, well, when Nico and I came last summer before we went to Westover Hall I remember we were really surprised it was here. It wasn't here when we lived here."
Grover frowned, "new? That station looked really old."
Bianca shrugged, "I guess, but when we lived here, there was no subway."
Thalia became alert, "wait, no subway at all?"
Danielle also looked confused, "this whole thing must be decades old at least."
"Bianca," said Zoe, "how long ago…" she never finished as the sound of helicopter blades was heard again, and getting louder.
"We need to change trains," said Percy. "Next station."
Over the next half hour, they changed trains twice at random stations, only thinking of getting to safety. None of them relaxed until the sound of the helicopter blades disappeared entirely.
Eventually, the train forced everyone to get out and they found it was the end of the line. Danielle stared at the dirty overturned boxcars; the warehouses, snow everywhere and some homeless guy warming himself with a trash can fire. It also seemed much colder and Danielle was glad she had her hunt parka on. If there was anything she hated more than creepy crawly things, it was the cold.
They must have looked pretty pathetic since the homeless guy offered to share his fire. He gave them all a toothless grin, "y'all need to get warmed up, come on over here!"
They all moved over to the fire, Thalia shivering, "well, t-th-this is j-just g-great."
"My hooves are cold," moaned Grover.
"Feet," corrected Percy for the homeless guy.
"Maybe we should contact camp," Bianca suggested.
"No," said Zoe, who didn't look that thrilled about sharing a homeless guy's fire, "Chiron cannot help us any further. We must find our own path."
Danielle closed her eyes and concentrated on the feeling of being warm. She was exhausted, physically, mentally, and magically, but she had the strength to cast a silent warming charm on them all, even the homeless guy.
The guy smiled, "You know, you are never completely without friends," he grinned at them, which looked terrifying without teeth, "looking for a ride west are ya?"
"Yes, sir," said Percy, "you know of one?"
The guy nodded, his face was grimy and his beard was tangled but he seemed to be a nice guy. Suddenly, everyone noticed a nice train on the nearby track. It was obviously a cargo train but it was full of brand new cars. The logo stated it was a SUN WEST LINE train.
"That's…convenient," said Thalia, "thanks, uh…?"
Looking around, the guy was gone, even his trash can fire was taken, leaving it as empty and lifeless as if he had never been there.
For once, Zoe and Thalia didn't have to fight over which one was driving as they both got their own cars. An hour after their talk with the homeless guy, they were headed west and everyone had crashed in their own car. Zoe and Bianca chose a Lexus on the top level of the train and Danielle knew nothing about cars so she crashed in the back seat while the other two hunters took the driver's seat and shotgun.
Thalia had grabbed a black Mercedes SLK and had hot-wired the radio to pick any good stations from D.C. Grover was playing racecar driver with a Lamborghini while Percy was car jumping between all of them, trying to find someone to talk to.
Danielle was lying down, taking the entire back seat of the Lexus, and was trying to recover from the magical fatigue she had from using so much magic. Levitating Percy twice, using a duplication charm, warming charms on the lot of them, and even some to keep up with the others so she was tired.
Zoe was talking to Bianca, "The Mountain of Despair, that is the only place I can think of for lady Artemis to go in search of this monster. It is due west and with the Titans returning…it is the only place that makes sense."
Bianca looked nervous, "what is the Mountain of Despair?"
Danielle perked at that as Zoe explained, "also known as Mount. Othrys, the headquarters of the Titans during the first war against the gods. Monsters are attracted to its lingering effects, a perfect place for a monster that is capable of destroying Mount Olympus would go."
Danielle sat up, "and as the heart of the west moves, so too has Mount. Othrys, where would it be now?"
Zoe looked disgruntled, like she didn't want to be having this conversation, "near San Francisco. A bad place for demigods."
Danielle cracked her neck, "good thing not all of us are demigods then. But what is this monster that could destroy Olympus and even the gods?"
Zoe shook her head, "I do not know. I have traveled with lady Artemis for many years and I have never heard of one monster being able to do this. There are several that come to mind but they are huge, the gods would know where they were right away."
Bianca looked nervous, "we'll find lady Artemis."
The other two smiled at her optimism but Grover interrupted them, apparently he had gotten tired of playing racecar driver. "Hello ladies, I'm sure I can cheer you up with some music," he held out his reed pipes.
Zoe glared at him but he played anyway. Zoe's glare intensified, "what will it take for thou to leave?"
Grover winked at her and played a different tune. The music must have been contaminated by woodland magic however as poison ivy started to grow from the air conditioner. Grover smiled sheepishly, "I can fix that."
Before Zoe or Bianca could do anything, Danielle let out a pulse of magic and Grover was knocked on his furry butt a few feet away. He just smiled again and ran back to the lower levels, probably to Percy or Thalia.
Danielle groaned as she lied down, a little green, willing her magic to recover. Bianca had to smile at what Danielle did, "that was impressive."
Zoe nodded, happy to be on a subject that didn't include anything to do with the mission, "indeed, I believe thou did the same when we first met."
Danielle nodded tiredly, "yeah, it takes a while for my magic to recharge though. I used a lot of it today so I can't use a lot right now."
"Yeah, a shame when that happens isn't it?" asked someone outside the car. They looked and it was the same homeless guy they had met before, "powers always take a while to recharge but at least yours are so helpful."
Danielle tried to remember the various things she knew about this god, as she was sure it was a god, then remembered the name on the side of the train, "Apollo?"
The guy laughed, "seems as if not all magicals in Britain are brain dead or inbred. I'm in disguise right now though so call me Fred."
Bianca looked at him disbelievingly, "a god named Fred?"
Apollo shook his head, "Percy said the same thing just a little while ago. I just spoke with him. And what is wrong with the name Fred?"
Bianca shook her head, "nothing," she said quickly.
Apollo's disguise looked like it could use some updating. His ratted jeans were so faded they were almost white. While his jacket was full of holes that were leaking stuffing so he looked like a teddy bear that had been run over by a truck.
Zoe didn't look happy, "Apollo, why are thou here?"
Apollo sighed and sat down in a car opposite them, "I wanted to help you find my sister. Sure we fight all the time but what siblings don't?" He looked uneasy, "not all of us have horrible siblings Danielle, I'm forbidden from truly helping thanks to those pesky ancient laws but I can show my appreciation in small ways."
Danielle nodded, though it gave her a headache, "like giving us this train as a ride west."
Apollo nodded and continued, "even as the god of prophecy and the sun, I don't know exactly where Artemis is. She's…clouded from me, and I don't like it."
All three hunters looked at each other. Zoe responded, "It does look like a Titan is holding our lady. I just wish it wasn't one I am thinking of…" she trailed off.
Danielle and Bianca looked at each other, neither one having any idea of whom she was talking about.
Apollo stood up, "this train is going to get you across a good chunk of the country. I also think that you could use a good night's sleep after your day."
Zoe glared at him, "I am doing well, thank you."
Bianca looked tired but nodded with her.
Apollo smiled as he looked at Danielle, who was already asleep. "Looks like one of you was tired."
Zoe and Bianca looked and saw that their red headed companion was sawing logs. "I don't believe this," Zoe muttered as she face palmed.
Apollo looked at her, still smiling, "she's been using magic for hours, I think you can cut her some slack. Levitating Percy alone was tiring but she also used a warming charm on all of you since the day started."
Bianca looked surprised, "I was wondering why I was so warm all day."
Zoe conceded defeat, "I suppose we could all use sleep."
Bianca didn't need any more prompting and relaxed in her seat, Zoe staying awake to keep watch.
When the train finally came to a stop later, they found themselves on the outskirts of a small ski town in New Mexico. The sign nearby said that the town's name was Cloudcroft but Danielle didn't really care. She had seen tons of small towns and cities like this one in the hunt. The air was cold and there was snow everywhere. She shivered, what was with all the cold? Since they were in the mountains, there were pine trees in a nearby valley that were so thick they blocked out the sun.
Danielle and everyone else pulled their parkas and jackets tighter and made their ways for Main Street. As they walked, Percy was talking to Grover about something Apollo told him.
"Apparently, we have to find this guy named Nereus. Apollo told me he lives in San Francisco."
Grover looked uneasy as he responded, "that's good, I guess. But we've got to get there first."
Danielle turned to see Zoe, she had said something about the Mountain of Despair, and how it was in San Francisco now that the heart of the west was in America. She also remembered that Nereus was the guy that the original Perseus had gotten the location for the lair of Medusa.
Trying to find a new way west was difficult. Once at the center of the town, all they saw was a school, a bunch of tourist shops and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.
"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No car rental. No way out."
Danielle and Bianca looked at each other, it looked like they were trapped.
"There's a coffee shop!" said Grover.
"Yes," said Zoe. "Coffee is good."
"And pastries," said Grover dreamily. "And wax paper."
He got a few weird looks but Thalia sighed. "Fine. How about you two get us some food. Percy, Bianca, Danielle and I will check in the grocery store. Maybe they can give us directions."
No one had a better idea so they separated with the understanding of meeting in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes.
Inside the store, they discovered some valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and there was no easy way in or out unless you had your own car.
"You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk said doubtfully. "That's at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."
The clerk looked so lonely that Percy bought a rubber rat. Danielle tried not to look at it. She had used pieces of rats in potions and had never really liked them. It didn't help that her parent's old secret keeper had been a rat animagus.
Standing on the porch of the store, they tried to think of another option.
"Wonderful," Thalia grumbled. "I'm going to walk down the street. See if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion."
"But the clerk said-"
"I know," she told Percy. "I'm checking anyway. Any of you want to come?"
Danielle looked at Bianca, who nodded. She looked fine with Percy, "sure."
It was obvious that Thalia had just wanted to keep moving. Being a demigod meant that they were all impulsive and had problems keeping still.
They visited shop after shop but no one inside of any of them had any other advice. It turned out that cars were pretty rare and no one was inclined to lend theirs to a group of teenagers, especially ones that were from out of town when there was no guarantee that they would get them back.
After the fifth shop had led nowhere, Thalia stomped off outside to a wall and rested her head against the wood, eyes closed. Danielle couldn't think of anything she could do. They needed a ride west and no magical transportation was around.
"Any bright ideas?"
Danielle saw that Thalia looked frustrated at the situation. She shook her head, "no. Every magical form of transport I know of wouldn't work. I've never apperated before and this is a bad time to start."
"Apperate?"
"Vanish and reappear somewhere else. Useful but I've never tried it and it can go wrong in horrible ways."
Thalia looked ready to try anything. "How bad?"
Danielle grimaced, "I could leave half of you behind."
Thalia flinched and shook her head, "no, that's out."
Danielle nodded, "there are other ways but I've either never tried them or you need special permission to use them. I'm sorry but I'm stumped."
Thalia smiled, "I suppose you can't just hop on your witch broom and fly us there?"
Danielle rolled her eyes, "I COULD, but I left my broom at home in Britain." She sighed, "not like it was mine anyway, I had to sneak it out without my parents noticing."
They lapsed into silence and made their way back to the others. Danielle broke the silence, "what about you? You are a daughter of Zeus, can't you just fly us there?"
Thalia flinched much harder than the last time as she tried to find an answer. "To be honest, I've never tried. Not even sure if I could."
Danielle nodded but made a mental note to ask her why she flinched later.
They lapsed back into silence as they started to make their way to the others in the distance. Zoe and Grover had large cups of coffee along with a bag that probably held pastries for them.
As they got closer, a sudden gust of warm air blasted through the town. That made no sense, it was winter. The air suddenly freshened and smelled of wildflowers and sunshine.
Both girls started running as Grover dropped his cup, coffee steaming against the snow. The birds that decorated the cup peeled off the cup and flew away, a real flock of doves. The rubber rat that Percy had left on the railing of the store squeaked and ran off.
Grover collapsed into the snow with his coffee.
"Hey!" yelled Thalia as she and Danielle got there, "what's wrong with Grover?"
Grover was moaning, his eyes were shut but were fluttering underneath his eyelids, like he was dreaming.
"I don't know," said Percy. "He just collapsed."
"Uuuuuhhhhhh," Grover groaned.
"Well, get him up!" Thalia said. She had her spear in hand. She looked around, as if she were being followed. "We have to get out of here."
Danielle was on the case and muttered, "locomotor Grover." Grover hovered a few inches off the ground. "There, he'll follow us now as we run."
Everyone nodded and ran to the edge of town. They almost made it when the bushes on either side of the road rustled and two skeleton warriors, the same ones that were at the Smithsonian, stepped out. Instead of gray camouflage, they were wearing blue New Mexico State Police uniforms, but they had the same gray skin and yellow eyes. They drew their handguns.
Thalia tapped her bracelet and Aegis spiraled to life on her arm, but the warriors didn't flinch.
Percy nervously drew Riptide, as if wondering what a sword could do against guns.
Danielle moved Grover off to the side and drew her bow with Zoe and Bianca.
"Back up," said Thalia.
They started to, but two more bushes rustled, two more skeleton warriors appeared behind them. They were surrounded.
One of them reached into a pocket of its uniform and pulled out a cell phone and spoke into it.
Danielle didn't need any more prompting. She knew exactly what it was doing, it was calling for reinforcements. She pointed at the phone and shot a reducto at it, causing the phone to shatter.
"It's near," Grover moaned.
"It's here," said Percy.
Grover started to wake up, canceling the levitation charm. "No, the gift, the gift from the wild."
No one had a clue what he was talking about but he was in no shape to fight.
"We'll have to take them one-on-one," said Thalia. "Four of them, five of us. Just get their minds off Grover."
"Agreed," said Zoe.
"The Wild!" Grover moaned.
Another warm breeze blew throughout town but they ignored it, focusing on the skeletons.
Percy charged first and one of the skeletons fired. Everyone tensed but Percy somehow managed to deflect the bullet with Riptide and continued to swing the sword. The skeleton drew a police baton but the bronze blade cleanly detached the skeleton's arms from its body. Percy continued and managed to cut the skeleton in half by the waist.
The bones unknit and fell to the ground, but they immediately started to move and form back together, reassembling themselves. A second skeleton attacked Percy but he knocked the gun into the snow.
He was doing well, Zoe not wanting to get involved yet made Bianca and Danielle hold back, letting Percy fight his own fight. Thalia was not nearly as composed and was ready to fry a skeleton with lightning at any moment. Grover was still mumbling about the wild and looked like he was in a daze, ready to hug a tree.
Gunfire brought everyone's attention back to Percy to find that he had been shot in the back.
"Percy!" Thalia screamed.
Percy stumbled, but the Namean lion fur coat he was wearing was bullet proof so he was fine.
Zoe nodded and everyone who was able to fight, and wasn't Grover, started attacking as well. Thalia charged the second skeleton with her spear. Zoe, Bianca and Danielle started firing arrows at the skeletons but they weren't having any affect. They would just go right through the bones or rattle them slightly.
Danielle glared at the skeletons; arrows weren't working so she needed to try something else. Remembering that inferi hated fire, she came up with a plan.
She vanished her bow and was about to pull out her wand when a skeleton lunged for Bianca. Bianca looked surprised but brought out her hunting knife and stabbed it into the warrior's chest. Everyone expected it to not do anything; instead, the skeleton burst into flames and turned to ash, which blew away with the same warm breeze.
Everyone stared at her, she looked stunned as well. Zoe looked at her, "how did you do that?"
Bianca shook her head, "I don't know."
"Well, do it again!"
She tried, but the skeletons were wary of her now and backed out of range.
"Plan?" asked Percy as he held his sword out ready to attack.
Danielle smiled and held out her wand. Zoe backed up, she had seen that Danielle only brought out her wand if she needed focus or was about to do something big.
"Back up!"
Danielle took the front and flicked her wand, "you might want to get behind me."
Thalia, Percy, and Bianca did so and Danielle took in a deep breath. Flicking her wand she said, "lux gladius!" there was a flash of something at the tip of her wand and everyone held their breath, but it fizzled out before it could form anything.
Danielle got frustrated, "why won't this work?" Shaking her head, she seemed to settle for something else, "okay then, incedio vebero!"
Zoe apparently knew enough Latin to know what she had said but still seemed awed when a tongue of flame, about ten feet long, erupted out of the wand tip. Danielle was smiling like a maniac as she brandished her whip, "who wants this?"
The skeletons seemed too stunned to do anything but one was smart enough to get away while Danielle wrapped the whip around the two remaining ones, their clothes and bones burning.
Everyone backed up as they saw the horror of the two skeletons roasting before turning to dust. The last skeleton looked worried and was about to retreat to attack another day when there was a loud "RREEEEEET!"
"A gift," Grover muttered.
The gift became clear when a huge wild boar came out of nowhere, trampling the last skeleton so hard its bones crashed a good fifty feet away.
The boar was humongous. It was thirty feet tall for starters and had tusks the size of canoes. Coarse brown hair covered its back while the snotty pink snout was taking in air, and their scents.
Then the boar turned on them.
Thalia raised her spear while Danielle raised her fire whip.
"Don't kill it!" yelled Grover.
The boar pawed the ground, ready to charge.
"That's the Erymanthian Boar," said Zoe, trying to stay calm. "I don't think we can kill it."
"It's a gift," said Grover. "A blessing from the Wild!"
The boar said, "REEEEEEET!" and swung its tusks. Zoe, Bianca, and Danielle had to jump out of the way, Danielle letting her whip fade in the process. Percy had to dive and pinned Grover to the ground to make sure the stupid satyr didn't go flying into a mountain.
"Yeah, I feel blessed," Percy said sarcastically. "Scatter!"
The boar seemed confused when everyone ran in different directions.
"It wants to kill us!" yelled Thalia.
"Of course it does," said Grover as if it was obvious. "It's wild."
"Then how is that a blessing?" asked Bianca.
It seemed like a fair question but the boar seemed offended and charged her. Bianca was nimble enough to jump out of the way but the boar kept going and smashed right through the WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT sign.
Danielle really didn't want to have to fight this thing. She remembered that Heracles had fought this thing once, but it had destroyed several villages in the process before he could subdue it.
"Keep moving!" shouted Zoe. She went one way, Danielle and Bianca went another. Grover played some notes on his reed pipes while dancing but the boar didn't seem impressed and tried to gouge him with its tusks.
The boar finally turned toward Thalia and Percy and Thalia made the mistake of raising Aegis. The Medusa head on the shield made the boar go berserk and charged them; Thalia and Percy turned and ran for it.
When the three hunt members and Grover reunited after separating, they could see the trail of destruction the boar caused at it chased after those two. Percy and Thalia were only alive because they were running uphill and could run between the trees while the boar had to plow right through them.
"You don't see that everyday," Danielle commented. A huge, ten-ton pig tank, chasing two demigods up a mountain.
"We have to help them," said Bianca.
Zoe nodded, "indeed, it should not be too hard to follow the carnage."
The four of them ran after their quest members and the pig, dodging broken tree limbs in the process. They found an old mine tunnel at the top of the hill and followed after it.
There was a loud, "REEEEEET!" up ahead that sounded distant so they were headed in the right direction. When the tunnel opened, they saw what had happened. Percy and Thalia were about seventy feet below them at the bottom of a huge valley. The bridge that connected the two mountains was broken and the boar was stuck in the snow. Percy and Thalia must have jumped, using Aegis as a snowboard, while the boar free fell when the bridge couldn't hold its weight. It didn't look hurt but wasn't going to be moving any time soon.
Grover leaned down, "heellllooo!"
Percy and Thalia looked up, and Percy waved at them, "down here!"
A few minutes later, the gang was back together and watched the boar struggle in the snow.
"A blessing of the Wild," said Grover, sounding more agitated now that the Wild induced trance had worn off.
Zoe nodded, "I agree, we must use it."
Danielle shook her head, "I was afraid you were going to say that."
"Hold up," said Thalia. With all the pine needles stuck to her hair, she looked like she had lost a fight with a Christmas tree. "Explain to me why you think this pig is a blessing."
Grover looked over, distracted. "It's our ride west. Do you have any idea how fast this pig can travel?"
"Fun," said Percy, "like…pig cowboys."
Danielle was sure she was not going to like this but she couldn't really complain. Like it or not, the pig was a blessing and the gods didn't like it if a hero didn't use their blessings.
Grover nodded at Percy's comment, "we should get on board now. I wish…I wish I had some more time to look around. But it's gone now."
Percy looked confused, "what's gone?"
Grover wouldn't answer his question and looked back at the boar, which was starting to free itself from the snow. He pulled out his pipes and played a snappy tune and threw an apple at the boar, which hovered in front of its nose. It strained to get it and managed to get more unstuck.
"Automatic steering," said Thalia, "nice."
She trudged off behind Grover and jumped on board. Danielle, resigned, walked off to the boar at well.
"Wait a second," said Percy, clearly trying to figure something out. "Do you three know what Grover meant? This…wild blessing?"
Zoe looked at him as if he was an idiot, "of course. Did you not feel it in that wind? It was so strong...it was as if I was in his presence again."
Percy still looked confused, "who?"
Zoe gave an exasperated sigh, "the Lord of the Wild, of course. Just for a moment, in the arrival of the Boar, I felt the presence of Pan."
Danielle sighed, "sure, why not? We get help from the one god that had vanished for over two thousand years." She jumped on the boar behind Thalia and made herself comfortable. When that was impossible on the boar's hairy back, she used a cushioning charm that would make it a little more tolerable.
Zoe, Bianca and Percy jumped up as well and in no time the boar got free of the snow. Grover played the tune from before again and the apple drifted off in front of the boar. The boar, desperate to get the apple, ran to catch up. With the woodland magic in place, the boar ran down the mountain and headed west, still trying to get the fruit in front of it.
The ride was bumpy, but with the cushioning charm in place, it could have been much worse. It was better than that horrible ride from the sun bus anyway and only slightly better than the Knight Bus.
The boar headed west, past the town and left the mountains behind. The snow and trees gave way to shrubs and seemingly endless desert. The flat lands were so surreal to Danielle that she had to stare. She had lived in Britain for most of her life and it was so green all over the place that even her time in the Hunt hadn't prepared her for all the sand of the desert.
By sunset, the boar had traveled a good portion of their distance before it finally stopped. The boar ripped apart a saguaro cactus and chewed it all, even the needles, and drank a large amount of muddy water.
"This is as far as he's going, we should get off now," said Grover, "while he's eating."
No one argued and slipped off the boar. After the boar was done with its third saguaro and had another large drink of muddy water, it squealed and belched before running east again.
"It must prefer the mountains," Percy guessed.
"I don't blame it," said Thalia. "Look."
On the other side of an old road that was half-buried in sand was a group of buildings too small to be a town. There was a boarded up house, a taco shop that Danielle was sure had seen better days, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILACLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked against the door. Beyond the buildings was what looked like a series of rolling hills, and then it was revealed that they were just huge piles of cars, broken appliances, and scrap metal. A huge junkyard that seemed to stretch forever.
"Whoa," said Percy. Danielle had to agree, the junkyard was pretty big.
"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"
Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and did what he did back at camp. He threw the acorns into the sand and played his pipes. The acorns rearranged themselves into a new pattern.
Grover looked concerned, "that's us," he said. "Those six nuts there."
"Which one is me?" asked Percy.
Danielle rolled her eyes while Zoe said, "the little deformed one?"
"Oh, shut up."
"That cluster there," said Grover, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."
"A monster?" Thalia asked.
Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge…"
He pointed straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked strange and unnatural.
Nobody wanted to chance the junkyard during the night so camp was made to try in the morning.
Zoe, Bianca and Danielle all pulled out enough sleeping bags for everyone out of their backpacks. The magic in the bags allowing them the extra space.
The air got cold fast so Grover and Percy collected some firewood from the ruined house and Danielle set the wood on fire with a mild spell to create a campfire. They were soon as comfortable as they could be in a ghost town in the middle of nowhere.
"The stars are out," said Zoe as they relaxed. They looked up and saw she was right; there were millions of them.
"Amazing," said Bianca, "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."
Danielle smiled, "I've lived in the country side in Wales before joining the Hunt. I've stargazed all my life but this is still incredible."
"This is nothing," said Zoe. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."
"You talk like you're not human," said Percy, idly.
Zoe raised an eyebrow, "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"
"For you," Thalia corrected her. "Not thee."
Danielle laughed, better people than Thalia had tried to teach Zoe modern English.
Zoe looked confused, "but you use you for the beginning of a sentence."
"And for the end," Thalia said. "No thou. No thee. Just you."
Zoe threw her hands up in exasperation. "I hate this language, it changes too often."
Danielle laughed even harder at that, "Zoe, no one has said thee or thou in several hundred years."
Zoe glared at her but Danielle just smiled sweetly back.
Grover sighed. He was still looking up at the stars like he was thinking of the light pollution problem. "If only Pan were here, he would set things right."
Zoe nodded sadly.
"Maybe it was the coffee," Grover said. "I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe if I drank more coffee…"
Everyone looked at him sadly. No one thought that coffee was the key to finding out what had happened in Cloudcroft but they didn't have the heart to tell him that.
"Grover, do you really think it was Pan?" asked Percy. "I mean, I know you want it to be."
"He sent us help," Grover insisted. "I don't know how or why. But it was his presence. After this quest is done, I'm going back to New Mexico and drinking a lot of coffee. It's the best lead we've gotten in two thousand years. I was so close."
Danielle nodded along with what Grover was saying. "It was the Wild, no doubt about that." She looked at Grover, "He is the god of the Wild. New Mexico must have a wild spot, untouched by humans. Find that, and you might find Pan."
Grover smiled and nodded, already thinking of places in New Mexico that wasn't tainted by humans.
"What I want to know," said Thalia, looking at Bianca, "is how you destroyed one of the zombies. If we could all fight them, not just you and Danielle, then we could finish the rest off."
Bianca shook her head. "I don't know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames."
"Maybe there's something special about your knife," Percy suggested.
"It is the same as mine," Zoe said. "Celestrial bronze, yes. But mine did not affect the warriors that way."
"Maybe you have to hit the skeleton in a certain spot," Percy guessed. "Not like Danielle had to worry about that."
Danielle smiled and blushed, "I might have overdone it."
Bianca laughed, "maybe a little, but that was still awesome. You made a whip out of fire, no one else can do that."
Danielle shrugged, "I guess. Took a lot of magic though but all I was thinking was getting us out of there safely."
"What was that spell you tried first?" Thalia asked. "The one that fizzled out so you had to use a whip made of fire."
Danielle looked down, "I was trying to make a sword of light, but it failed. I thought it would look cool."
Percy nodded, "that would look cool. But if Bianca could remember how she destroyed one, we wouldn't need magic to defeat them."
Bianca looked uncomfortable with everyone paying attention to her.
"Never mind," Zoe told her. "We will find the answer. In the meantime, we should plan our next move. When we get through the junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road, we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."
Both Percy and Grover looked ready to object for some reason but Bianca beat them to it.
"No!" she said. "Not there!"
She looked completely freaked out.
Zoe frowned, "why?"
Bianca took a shaky breath. "I…I think we stayed there for a while. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember…"
Both Percy and Grover looked at her, concerned, then their eyes lit up like they realized something.
"Bianca," Percy said slowly. "That hotel you stayed at, was it possibly the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"
Bianca's eyes widened, "how could you know that?"
"Wait," said Thalia. "What is the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"
"A couple of years ago," said Percy, "Grover, Annabeth and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed there for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."
Both Zoe and Danielle looked at each other.
"No," said Bianca. "No, that's not possible."
"You said that somebody came and got you out," said Percy.
"Yes."
"What did he look like? What did he say?"
"I…I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this."
Zoe sat forward, concerned. "You said that Washington D.C. had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway being there."
"Yes, but-"
"Bianca," Zoe said, "can you tell me the name of the President of the Untied States right now?"
"Don't be silly," Bianca said. "George W. Bush."
"And the President before that?" Zoe asked.
Bianca thought for a while, "Roosevelt."
Danielle was no expert on American history, but she knew that the last president was Bill Clinton.
Zoe swallowed, "Theodore or Franklin?"
"Franklin," said Bianca. "FDR."
"Like FDR drive?" asked Percy. They ignored him.
Danielle took over, "Bianca," she said slowly. "Franklin Roosevelt was the American president during the early days of World War Two. That was almost seventy years ago."
"That's…that's impossible," said Bianca, "I'm…I'm not that old."
She stared at her hands, as if to make sure that they were still young.
Thalia looked at her sadly. Since she had been a pine tree for a while, she must know what it was like to miss a big gap in time like that. "It's okay, Bianca. The important thing is that you and Nico are safe. You're out now."
"But how?" asked Percy. "We were only there for an hour and we barely escaped. How could you have escaped after being there for so long?"
"I told you," said Bianca, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. "A man came to us and told us it was time to leave. And-"
"But who? Why would he do it?"
Before Bianca could answer, there was a sudden flash that blinded everyone. Headlights from a car had come out of nowhere from the road. Everyone grabbed their sleeping bags and got out their weapons; ready to face the deathly white Limo that had appeared out of nowhere that had stopped in front of them.
They got as far as the back door of the limo when it opened and a sword was pointed at Percy's throat.
Everyone immediately got their weapons ready. The owner of the sword got out of the car while Percy backed up, careful to keep the sword from taking his head off.
"Not so fast now, are you, punk?" said the man, smiling hatefully.
He was a big man with a crew cut, a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt and combat boots. His wraparound shades hid his eyes but there was no denying the power behind them.
Danielle was starting to get angry for no reason, as if the man was responsible. She suddenly remembered David, pushing her around and making sure she had no friends. Ronald spreading rumors that made her sound mentally unbalanced and dangerous. Lily and James disowning her and taking away everything that was hers. Dumbledore for never having time for her but always plenty of time for everyone else, even if she had a valid complaint or theory she wanted to talk to him about.
She wanted to kick something. She wanted to make arrows fly through the heads of her enemies! She wanted to burn their ashes to dust!
"Ares," Percy growled.
The war god turned to the others, "at ease, people."
He snapped his fingers and all of their weapons fell to the ground.
"This is a friendly meeting," said Ares as he dug his sword a little deeper into Percy's neck. "Of course, I'd like to take your head as a trophy, but someone wants to talk to you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."
"What lady?" asked Thalia.
Ares looked over at her, "well, well, well, I heard you were back."
He lowered the sword and pushed Percy away from him.
"Thalia, daughter of Zeus." Ares mused, "You're not hanging with very good company."
"What's your business Ares?" Thalia asked, "who's in the car?"
Danielle shook her head to get the images of violence out of her mind, "Aphrodite," she spat. "Goddess of love and beauty no doubt."
Ares simply gave a grunt, "not bad girly. But I doubt she would want to meet any of you, particularly you three." He referred to the three Hunters. "Why don't you get some tacos while you wait? Only take Percy a few minutes."
"We will not leave him alone with thee, Lord Ares," Zoe said.
"Besides," said Grover, "the taco place is closed."
Ares snapped his fingers and the lights of the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The boards in front of the door flew off and the closed sign switched to open. "You were saying, goat boy?"
"Go on," said Percy, though he sounded slightly nervous, "I'll handle this."
"You heard the boy," said Ares. "He's big and strong. He's got things under control."
It was the last thing they wanted to do, but everyone reluctantly shuffled off to the taco place, leaving Percy at the mercy of the god of war and the goddess of love. Danielle wasn't sure which one was worse.
As soon as they were through the doors, Danielle sat down out of frustration, trying to get rid of the feelings of rage.
Zoe sat down next to her, "rage aura is a specialty of Lord Ares. It always hits those unused to the effects the hardest, especially if they have a lot of pent up anger."
Danielle nodded and tried to force herself to relax. She just had to remind herself that all of the people she hated were a whole ocean away; they couldn't find her even if they wanted to.
"Sorry, but I do have a lot of anger right now."
Zoe nodded and waited for the others to get back. Looking up, Danielle saw that they somehow got the food they asked for, even if there were no employees. The whole place looked like it had come from a horror movie, but that made sense since the war god brought the place back. She was sure that Lady Hestia or even Lady Hera would have done a better job.
Bianca sat down next to her with enough food for the both of them. "Did you have a bad time with Lord Ares' powers as well?"
Bianca nodded slowly, "yeah, but it wasn't as bad as you apparently. I was kind of freaking out about my past to really notice."
Danielle nodded and grabbed a taco off the tray, wondering how the god of war could have summoned the food but gave up, figuring that it was just a god thing.
Thalia hadn't taken the exchange between herself and Ares well, "ugh, that guy is infuriating! How could anyone deal with him?"
Grover just nodded as he ate the napkins, "apparently Aphrodite, but no one knows how."
Thalia nodded, "who knows what she is spewing into Percy's head right now."
Zoe nodded as well, "indeed, the goddess of love has always been devious."
Danielle smiled, "like that girl that didn't want to fall in love even though Aphrodite wanted her to so she got protection from Lady Artemis?"
Zoe nodded, wrinkling her nose, "yes, and Aphrodite made her fell in love with a bear instead. I do not blame Lady Artemis for leaving her behind. She and the bear got along too well."
Thalia smirked, "I keep forgetting how old you are Zoe, you saw that whole thing, didn't you?"
"Yes, and it is an image that is burned into my brain, thank you." Zoe looked quite disgusted by that imagery.
"Ares and Aphrodite are perfect for each other then," muttered Danielle. "Both mess with your emotions and make you think and do things you wouldn't otherwise do."
They all nodded and finished their food in silence. When they were done they looked out the window and saw Percy talking to Ares again. Ares seemed to be threatening him again, and then he snapped his fingers and everyone suddenly felt like they just did a three hundred-sixty degree spin. When the world came into focus again, all they could see were the mountains of junk around them. Ares had transported them into the junkyard.
Okay, well that's the end of the first part of Titans Curse. I might post the next part in either a few days, or a week, depending on the reviews. Thank you for reading. Peace out!
