Chapter 2

"You did well, my son," Hades spoke as Percy appeared on the floor of his chamber, clearly exhausted.

"They deserved the fate that was thrust upon them," Perseus started, "I only delivered it."

"Your lessons with Odysseus have made you modest, good." The lord of death observed, wearing an all too lively grin.

"Your time around me has made you childish, father," Percy discerned, wearily chuckling.

"Enough of that," Hades dismissed, "You need rest."

Persephone's eyes widened considerably, listening to Athena's plans to catch her son. The news had somehow come out, meaning a traitor was among the Underworld. This did not bode well for her husband, however if he was notified…

The goddess of springtime shook her head, clearing out all thoughts and returning focus to her father's drawling. "As a result of my brother's traitorous act, his child shall meet his doom!"

Persephone stiffened at those words, "Artemis, Athena, Ares, you three shall hunt down this atrocity, and may not return to Olympus until this feat is completed."

Athena sighed and responded, "Father, my research will be greatly interrupted by this disturbance, my sister alone should be able to find said 'Atrocity.'"

"Yes, father, I need no arrogant pig to aid me on a hunt," Artemis added indignantly.

"We are on Olympus, daughters, and on Olympus, my word is law." Zeus denied their appeals.

Artemis blew her auburn hair out of her face and Athena huffed as Zeus continued, "As for camp, Dionysus, you shall keep things as they always were, nonchalant to all things happening outside camp, understand?"

"Whatev," the indifferent god of wine murmured.

"Hades! Hades!" Persephone's wails echo around the massive stone palace, waking everyone residing there.

"What is it, love?" The estranged god asked softly.

"There is a traitor in the Underworld! We must warn Perseus!" She frenziedly replied.

Meanwhile…

Percy chased after Atalanta, his agility lesson just begun, when he heard a soothing voice call out to him, "Hello, dearie, I need to warn you of something."

Percy looked into the forest of trees and saw a lone lady, draped in a shawl, who, by Percy's standards, was very beautiful. "The Olympians are going to be coming after you, for they saw what you did last night. You must run away, child." She cautioned, the soothing tone never leaving her speech.

So Percy did run, all the way back to the palace where he climbed the wall to his room, finally exerting the dexterity Atalanta had instilled into him. That night, he wrote a note to Hades and Persephone, explaining his absence, and packed a bag, and then, under the cover of night, he left.

Unknown to him, once Percy was gone, the woman threw back her shawl and transformed back into her true form, Eris, the goddess of discord, strife, and-her personal favorite-bloodshed. She sneered and spat, "With that fool gone, there is nothing stopping my Master's power from overcoming those wretched Olympians."

Percy ran for three hours straight, getting a little over forty miles of ground covered. He stopped for the night, not bothering to create a fire which would prove cumbersome in the end. Although Percy knew he could defeat any wild animal that crossed his path, he lacked the energy to do so, the run having fatigued him.

Before sleeping, however, he adorned the new armor prototype a son of Hephaestus had made for him, which was considerably lighter than his first set. The blood red trim on the Pluton Obsidian clashed; the bright fighting with the dark for attention. The mix of deep purple dyed leather and the metallic obsidian grips his skin, as the demigod had made this type of armor specifically for Perseus, yet gave him room for his limbs to move.

An intricately designed breastplate displayed a skull breathing hellfire out of its mouth, two dark roses sticking out of its eye sockets. This signified Percy's adoptive parents, Hades and Persephone, through the roses and skull, and Percy's home with the hellfire.

The top of the breastplate converted the material into leather connecting to a hood going from the base of his neck into a triangle-like shape concealing his eyes. Two strips of leather cut in between the obsidian on both the left and right side of each arm, forming a diamond shape in the middle of his palm and on the backside, too.

He flicked his wrist, experimenting with the Stygian Iron hidden blade, concealed in the Celestial Bronze vambrace, and grinned wickedly as it ejected up to two feet farther than the tip of his middle finger. Then, he examined the dart gun on the wrist of his right hand, shooting for a tree twenty meters away. He smiled as a leaf, maybe two inches in perimeter, was blasted off of its branch.

The moonlight gleamed off of his silver pauldrons, an addition to his armor from a ghost whose shoulder had been cut off. He picked up his former attire from the bag, a black, hooded cloak, with Kevlar laced pants covered by the knee-high length of the cloak, his obsidian vambraces which covered his close-combat weapon, the hidden blade, his double knife scabbard and utility belt, the sheath which held his phalanx blade, and the black button-down, covered by his cloak.

Percy realized that this attire was perfect for agility missions and laced with Kevlar which would stop everything except heavy weapons, and decided that his prototype would only be for close-combat missions.

Besides, Percy reasoned as he donned the hooded cloak, he had his shadow armor if he ever needed to brawl.

Percy put two fingers in his mouth and let out a low, discreet whistle. Three Hellhounds leapt out of the forest in unison, tackling each other and generally just frolicking around. Percy smiled at the childish behavior of the three hounds his father had granted him on his fourteenth birthday. So Percy laid down, entirely unaware to the events tomorrow held for him.

Artemis and her hunters darted and weaved through the thick trees that made up Sierra National Forest. Their wolves had caught the scent of the boy two days earlier; he was near the entrance to Hades.

To the child's credit, he was a skilled traveler, but nowhere close to the ability of a maiden trained by Artemis. Somewhere along in the second day of their pursuit, Artemis realized that the boy would stop for a short period of time, then vanish and reappear in another area, resting afterwards.

She also could decipher the amount of distance he would go based on the length of his rest phase's extent. For example, if he rested an hour, he could shadow travel ten miles. Artemis had already ordered Zoe to pack an abundant amount of food for the trip, not knowing how long they would be hunting the son of Hades.

As they sat around the fire, Christina and Phoebe, their lead trackers, discussed their next move in regards to the demigod's progress patterns. Josephine, the newest member of the Hunt, stood a few meters away, showering an archery target with arrows. Zoe sat, staring at the fire, distraught by the fact that this boy was actually posing a problem to the revered hunters of Artemis.

"What shall we do next, milady?" She asked quietly, not wishing to alarm the other hunters.

Artemis sighed, "I suppose the only option for us it to wait for the boy to slip up somewhere, the fatigue that comes with almost constant travel finally catching up with him."

"His father is Hades, as long as he is awoken during night; the darkness should restore his strength." Zoe pointed out.

"But he is still a boy, my lieutenant, we are maidens."

Percy knew it was over when he saw the first owl. He'd put up a valiant effort, defying the gods' wills, but these were immortals he was dealing with. He knew it wasn't wise to run away from the Underworld, although he wished for no war to be waged on Hades on his behalf.

He tried to shadow travel away, but was barred by an invisible shield. He knew if he was mortal, this wouldn't be affecting him, Hell, he wouldn't even be able to lift the armor which he wore, but because he wasn't, he knew that things were about to get a lot worse.

He yelped, leaping out the way of an arrow and enveloping himself in his cloak, as a sort of protective shield. He sprung like a cat, grabbing on to the nearest branch and swinging himself up to the top of the topiary. He knew his hounds would be safe, Hades had made their fur equal to that of the Nemean Lion, to ensure their survival.

His bow would be insufficient, the hunters being trained in unseen movement and the other three being immortal, yet he knew that he would be able to defeat most of the hunters in close-combat, noticing that Diana was never able to win when he attacked her in close combat during their training spars.

He seemed to debate what to do for a second, before wrapping a rope around a rather large tree branch, dropping below the leaves and dangling upside-down, like a spider. As Percy had, planned, arrows flew out from behind the trees, taking his bait and springing his facile trap gloriously, alerting him to their position. He dropped off of his perch, shadow traveling a few feet closer to the maidens, and lunged into the trees, grabbing another girl and sending them tumbling into another clearing. He ended up on top, pinning her arms down with his knees and leaving his hands free. He tapped a silver ring on his finger, a celestial bronze shield lengthening to its full form, covering Percy's frame with ease.

He summoned a shadow mace from pieces of his armor bracing himself for the attack. A javelin flew out from the trees, followed by a blunted arrow, making Percy stagger back a few paces. Ares ran out from the protection of the trees, his impatience finally getting the better of him. His broadsword came down, cleaving a hole in the air where Percy used to be. He'd discarded his shield, instead choosing to duel with twin Falcata, offense always having been his better tactic.

"Milady, permission to disable?" A pompous voice asked from somewhere behind the trees.

Gods, Percy was getting sick of all these people hiding in the forest. "Permission granted, lieutenant." A younger voice replied.

Percy knew that an arrow would be fired after those words, so, he leapt up, swords raised ready to strike down in an arc of devastation, and struck Ares down with all his might, the god of war tumbling ungracefully backwards, slamming his head on a rock, knocking him unconscious.

He slammed the pommel of his sword into the nearest hunter's forehead, lunging forward, disarming and temporarily disabling another. He twirled and twisted, wielding his swords with far too much dexterity for an ordinary fifteen year-old. He swept the legs out from under a spear wielding hunter, slapping another down when he came face to face with Athena.

From experience, he Percy knew to be wary around gods, their tempers legendary, but the hatred and scorn in the owl goddess' eyes was terrifying. Nonetheless, he knew the only way to escape the force field was to take the goddess down, so Percy prepared himself for the fight of his life.

As it turned out, Percy had underestimated the look in Athena's eyes, realizing it was a façade to disrupt his psyche, to break his focus. Her ruse was all but tangible, having seen the terror in some the huntresses' eyes, Percy realized this.

Percy struck fast and hard, using his youth and superior agility as his greatest tactic, striking hard and quick, leaping out of the way of any counterattacks.

Athena's plan, however, involved her superior experience and the reach of her weapon. She reached out with the butt of her spear, trying to sweep the demigod's legs out from him. He leapt over the spear, grunting as a net arrow coiled around him, his last thought before blacking out, 'Dammit.'

I wanted to post two chapters for each of my stories, so I could gauge the results and decide which was more popular. Depending on that, I will focus more on one story, or the other.

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