Okay, I do have excuses but I doubt that you want to hear them. Just read and tell me what you think!

Thanks to my reviewers, all my cyber friends from Unexpected! You guys are awesome! Okay so this story wasn't as popular as I would have hoped but it got readers so I'm happy.

Waho! Here's six pages of awesomness!

Disclaimer: I own nothing PJ, but I do own a bunch of new stuff because I just had my birthday! Yeah! I've been on for a year!

****Start chapter

Ares stretched and swaggered over to the rock that Artemis had used as a lookout spot. They had both taken two three hour intervals each over the course of the night and needless to say were both very tired and cranky.

"Do you see anythin'?" Ares asked and yawned, sitting down without an invitation.

"No. Nothing all night," Artemis said wearily in reply. "I'm starting to get worried. Lamia must have told someone that we were on the island. It would be idiotic to assume that we were anywhere but the edge of the island."

"Yeah," he ran a hand through his hair, successfully making it stand on end. "You're the hunter. Do you think you could go find us some breakfast?"

Artemis yawned. "I packed some fruit bars and ambrosia but I guess it wouldn't hurt to find some fresh game while we still can." She looked around at the oil splattered floor. "Then again, if there is anything alive left." Artemis stood up and pulled her silver bow and a quiver of arrows out of her bag and Ares made himself more comfortable on the rock. "While I'm gone, would you mind putting back the tent and getting ready to leave?"

Ares groaned and rolled his eyes, reminding himself that he did NOT want to fight. Not now, at least. "Whatever you say, your Worshipfulness." Artemis just turned on her heel and stalked into the forest.

As Artemis slid deeper into the forest, her clothes began to blend with the surroundings, making her camouflage. The minutes passed slowly, every rustle in the trees to be examined at a distance. At two miles Artemis was starting to get doubtful that there was anything alive on this island besides Kronos' minions.

Suddenly a rustle in the trees stopped her in her tracks. It sounded a lot larger than an animal. Artemis stood stark still, listening attentively, hand on her bow. A twig cracked and Artemis' upper boy twisted, instinctively sending an arrow in the direction of the sound. A thump could be heard and she carefully maneuvered her way through the woods toward the sound. Coming closer, she saw that the creature that she hit was actually a huge black widow spider, one of the most poisonous in the world. What was different about it was that it was about the size of a Penske truck.

Seeing that it wasn't quite dead yet, she quickly took an arrow from the sheath and hit it again from her hiding place. The spider gave a satisfying whimper and disappeared in a breeze of dust. Artemis, now extra cautious, looked around once more.

'I'll just find something edible and get back to camp,' she thought. After creeping around for a while she found only two skinny squirrels with no meat on them, so she figured they wouldn't be worth killing.

The way back to camp was uneventful but Artemis was extra wary.

"Did you find anything?" Ares asked loudly upon her return.

"Nothing, just a widow spider."

"Well, that doesn't sound too appetizing." Ares made a face and got off the rock.

"No, it doesn't," Artemis agreed and walked over to her bag and pulling out two rations. Ares made a grimace but took the package.

"At least you remembered to pack the ambrosia."

"Yeah, well, when you finish we should head out," Artemis said and began to take down the tent. Ares peeled back the covering for the ration bar and grimaced at the brown surface.

"I don't understand why we couldn't have had Demeter or something come along," Ares complained and took a bite.

"If the Hunters can eat that for months on end, so can you," Artemis called from the inside, pulling blankets out. "We usually don't even have this much comfort."

"Good for them," Ares rolled his eyes. "Usually I'm one for discomfort but this is ridiculous."

"It's a wonder that you've made it this far," Artemis smirked and began folding the tent, pushing it into her bag. "Athena told me about the last mission you went on."

"Well, it's difficult being with someone who thinks their smarter then you all the time," Ares explained and chewed on his bar. Artemis neglected to point out that was how most woman were around men. It didn't usually take much to set him off and she didn't want to have him mad at her the whole mission.

Ares loaded his bag on his shoulder and Artemis did the same after grabbing a bar for herself. "Let's go. We don't want any more unwanted company."

"I get the feeling that we're going to get some anyway," Artemis admitted, slinging her bow over her other shoulder and reloading arrows.

"Now don't jinx us, the gods love that kind of invitation."

They began the trek to the middle of the island. The ground was mushy and gross, the mud clinging to their boots. It almost felt like quicksand, only stickier. Webs were everywhere and three times the size that they should be. Artemis figured that the webs were made by some more of the very same spider that she ran into this morning. All the trees in the area were a sickly sort of brownish yellow, up to the point that Demeter would have hurled in disgust.

"It looks as though all the bad things that happen to nature increase tenfold here," Artemis commented as she saw an oil slick in a random spot appear. They avoided the spot and continued on.

"It also seems as though wearing white was a poor choice in clothing," Ares sneered. Artemis said nothing and stopped suddenly. "What is it?"

"Sush!" she told him, holding out her arm. She put a hand on her bow and un slung it. Artemis heard a familiar rustling in the brush and quickly sent out an arrow.

"What do you think it is?" Ares asked as they made their way to where she heard the noise.

"Oh," she said as they reached the animal. "It's just another one of those stupid widow spiders."

"It's huge," commented Ares as he saw for the first time how large the spider actually was. "For a spider I mean."

"Yes, it is. Not normal at all. I wonder if they were expecting Athena, it seems as though the spiders are the only ones guarding the base," Artemis pondered as they once again trudged through the jungle.

"Well, we know that's not true because it's Kronos and he'll be extra prepared. We just need to keep our eyes and ears open." Ares pulled out his own weapon and added it to his holster on his leg. It was made for easy access and not directly noticeable at first glance.

After ten minutes Artemis paused. "It's strange that we haven't encountered anything yet. I'm starting to wonder if we're in the right place. We might be fooled by a distracter charm."

"I don't think so," Ares disagreed. "We would have known if we were being fooled by unnatural means."

Then out of a tree came the twin giant brothers Otus and Ephialtes. "Speaking of unnatural…" Artemis growled. Ares glared daggers at them, moving his hand to his holster, ready and itching for a fight.

"Ares! Artemis! Looking lovely as usual," Otus sneered.

"Thanks," Ares grinned. Otus chortled.

"Ah, Ares we should have killed you while you were still in that jar," Ephialtes said, reaching down to his belt for his sword. "We won't let your pretty little girlfriend distract us this time. That's why I assume you're here Arty babe?" he now addressed Artemis. "Because you decided bad boys were more fun than remaining chaste?"

"Well even if that was why we're both here it would be more fun than being with stinky old giants! It was fun killing you the first time. I'll be happy to do it again right now to save time."

"Let's do it together," Ares suggested, drawing out his weapon. "I haven't properly thanked them for my imprisonment."

"Hey, it was no problem, really," Ephialtes sneered. "Once we disarm you our leader wants to see you, we've been waiting all night for you two to show up."

"And I've been waiting all century for you to show up so I can have my way with you right in front of your father's arrogant nose," Otus taunted Artemis. She glared.

"Well, I'm not going to let that happen." Ares took a step forward. "None of it. You too were the stupidest captors I've ever had. You couldn't even keep a guy in a jar for very long. Thirteen months? For a god? That's like waiting on line for Soarin' at Disney World."

"Well," Ephialtes sighed. "I suppose if you want to do it the hard way."

Ares grinned. "You bet."

Artemis' arrow started the fight. It hit Otus in the shoulder and he groaned softly before pulling it out and snapping it in two. Ares charged over to Ephialtes and slugged him hard in the face. Ares kept on hitting the giant until he was weak enough to drop his weapon, which Ares kicked aside. Ephialtes coughed out green blood and kicked Ares right in the groin. Ares just grinned, for he was ALWAYS protected.

Soon, Ares and Ephialtes were in a fist fight, rolling all around kicking and punching in no strategic way. Ares knew that he needed something sharp to be able to send the giant back to Tartarus. His weapon was long lost amongst the mud during the fight and it was impossible to see anything with the hooded trees and the dark sky.

Meanwhile Artemis and Otus were in the middle of a sword fight, arrows long forgotten. Artemis was quite skillful with a sword, but as was Otus.

"But babe, if you had just picked me you wouldn't need to be hanging around with this loser!" Otus taunted feinting to the right but Artemis caught him. Their medal clashed as Artemis artfully maneuvered her weapon with a grace that only comes after centuries of training.

"I wouldn't have picked you if the Underworld froze up! I intend to remain true to my vows!"

"Oh sure," Otus rolled his eyes and jabbed lazily at her leg. "It's highly impossible to do so. Gods can never come through! They just think they're so cool with their awesome powers," he jeered and Artemis yelled in rage. "You know, I never knew what I ever saw in you, you look like a little kid."

"Yes? Well looks can be deceiving!" she called and hooked her sword around his and pulling, causing it to fling over to where Ares and the other giant were brawling. Using his stunned surprise to her advantage she sunk the blade into the exposed part in his armor between helmet and chest plate. He let out a surprised grunt and howled loudly before crumbling into dust.

Ephialtes looked over just when his twin crumbled apart. He screamed in an animalistic way and forcefully pushed Ares aside. He untangled himself and picked up his brothers fallen sword.

"You will pay for this!" he charged at Artemis and she held up her sword defensively. Ares, meanwhile found his small blade in the mud after fumbling and flung it hard at the giants lower exposed back. He stopped in his tracks, twisting and pulling the blade from his back. He glared murderously at the god, who smirked.

"You'll both pay for this! When I come back I will find you both and make you wish you had never laid eyes on us!" he cried before slowly falling apart.

"Don't worry, we already do. You're uglier then Kronos in a thousand pieces!" shouted Artemis as his dust scattered in the wind.

Ares and Artemis stared at one another and they smiled. Artemis walked over to Ares and offered him a hand up. He took it and began to brush himself off. Artemis was about to compliment him when she noticed a tear in his pant leg. Golden ichors dripped out from the opening and Artemis gasped.

"You're hurt!"

Ares waved a hand. "I'm the war god. I get hurt all the time."

"Yeah but really! Let me patch it up! It looks really bad." Ares raised an eyebrow at her sudden concern but shrugged and sat down on a nearby misshapen rock to stick out the wounded leg.

"Go right ahead." Artemis rolled her eyes but bent down and pulled out a piece of cloth from her bag. She began to wind it around the slit after first applying it with some water.

"Do you want some ambrosia?" she asked and started to reach in her bag for the box of ambrosia.

"Naw," he answered. "Mind as well save it for later, who knows if we'll get hurt again." Artemis nodded and stood up, looking less and less like a child to Ares. He stood too, towering over her. "We'd better head out." Artemis nodded and walked away. Ares watched her and stifled a laugh when he saw a blotch of mud covering her lower back. She turned around.

"Well? Are you coming or not?" she asked and Ares tried to look as innocent as possible.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

****Section break

The base was surprisingly small, but they figured that it ran underground as well. It was well hidden by bushes but looked somewhat like a factory. Two empousae guarded the obvious front door. They were in their normal scary selves and looked really bored. Ares and Artemis were crouched down behind a series of bushes trying to think of a plan.

"C'mon let's go," Ares began to stand up. Artemis grabbed him by the elbow and forced him down again.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. "You can't just barge in there! We need to think of a plan."

Ares groaned. "Aw man I hate plans. This reminds me of the Athena thing, always needed a plan. Have you got one?" he challenged.

Artemis pondered for a moment, looking around for another entrance. "Yes actually," she said after a moment. "There's a section of ground over there that looks different from all the other sections. See?" Artemis pointed at a part and Ares saw that the growth there looked greener and more alive than anything they had seen so far. He nodded. "I think that might be a sort of elevator that will open up with tons of reinforcements if we go for the empousae. If we can take them out from a distance and find out a way to go down there it might be easier than if we walk through their front door." Ares agreed reluctantly.

"How are we going to get them?" Ares asked without thinking. Artemis smiled and pulled out her bow.

"Easy." She loaded two arrows in a row and angled them at the two guards. She let them go and they both hit their targets, which disappeared. "Well, that gets rid of them, but how do we get there without being noticed? It seems almost too easy."

"Yeah." Ares agreed and looked around. "Do ya want me ta make a diversion?"

"No, I don't think that's necessary." Artemis squinted. "I think I might know a way. It would have been easier to do it in the dark but we'll just have to make do with what we have. The sections of trees are closer to the building on either side. But over there is a shadow, so we'll go that way." The duo stealthily crept up to the side and got as close as they could.

"The fact that there aren't any windows will help us," Ares supplied. "I'll go first." He ran from out of the bushes over to where the building was covered in shade. Then, when no alarms were set off, Artemis went. They slid along the side of the building to the front where the guards were stationed, now was empty. When they walked in the indented space they saw that zigzagging laser alarms were set along the yard so if they had set even a foot on the grass they would have been found.

They found a console on the side where the alarms would be turned off. It also had the controls to the elevator in the ground. First Ares hotwired the machine to turn off all of the lasers, then once he got into the system he was able to lower the grass.

Now, able to move about, they jogged to the healthy section and waited until it lowered. All nerves were on high when they dipped below and when they reached the ground, the Olympians were greeted with a smell. "Monsters," Ares grumbled.

They stepped off and hit over near a secluded area on the side. It was a dimly lit long corridor with casual doors and indents for chairs and supply closets. Ares dipped his head closer to Artemis.

"Now what?" he whispered. She stood up on her tiptoes to reach his ear.

"We wait for two more empoesae because they have armor. No wait, just one for me. I'll get a map of the ground and meet you back here. You be sure to stay out of trouble. I'll try to find the control room so we can blow it up together." Although Ares wasn't thrilled on the thought of not coming with her, he stayed put.

Soon a single empoesae strolled down the corridor, looking at something in her hands. Artemis raised her bow and shot an arrow when she got close enough. A strangled yelp followed and she faded, leaving her costume. Artemis dragged the belongings over to where they were. She began to pull on the outfit as Ares rifted through the files.

"Looks like you won't need to find a map, there's one right here," he showed her. Artemis glanced over while putting on a helmet.

"That's good, save on time. Where's the armory?"

"Why?" Ares asked, sifting through the levels.

"I need to get you an outfit too before we look for the control room."

"It's on level five and right now we're on level seven. Looks like they go down instead of up," Ares commented, handing her the map which she tucked into a pocket.

"Yeah well, everything about gramps was backwards," she shrugged and took off down the corridor.

There were occasional torches of Greek fire but besides that there wasn't really anything to light the place. It would have been insanely creepy for anyone other than a god. It was the kind of place that you only see in scary movies.

Escalators were the way to get from one floor to the next, which was odd. But the fifth level came fast and no one asked any questions. The armory was at the middle end of the floor and none of the strangely ancient Greek creatures gave her a second glance. The armory was lined with rows and rows of celestial bronze coverings. Artemis figured that it must be a major export to Kronos for war materials. Getting rid of this place would be doing everyone a favor.

Quickly choosing a suit and stuffing it into her ridiculously full never ending bag, she gave the clerk there the excuse that a fellow half giant was playing in a volcano and needed a new suit. Surprisingly she agreed and Artemis was sent on her way. The way back was also uneventful but there was a sort of sun- before- the- storm feel to it all.

"Quick change into this," she hissed to Ares when she returned to the seventh level. He did without any problems and they set out on their way.

"The control room is all the way on ground floor. I don't know how we're going to get there without a permit." Ares told Artemis.

"Leave that to me, I'm sure I'll think of something."

Now a full grown 'half- giant' and 'empoesae' together got some funny looks but they just glared at the questioners until they went away. They took it slow, casually poking their heads in random doors asking for people and looking busy and inconspicuous.

After a while they made their way to the control room. It wasn't very large but it was filled with metal cables and electronics that kept the whole building running.

"Do you have the Greek fire?" Ares asked.

"Yes. Do you think our contact is in the building?" Artemis asked worriedly as she pulled jars of fire out of the bag.

"Well he isn't for very much longer," Ares answered almost solemnly as he taped them to the sides. "If he doesn't get out of here in fifteen minutes he's gonna be star dust."

Artemis nodded sadly and slung her bag back on her shoulder. "Okay, timers are all set, let's get going."

It took them almost ten of their minutes to get out of the structure. They quickly got to the surface and broke into a swift run just as the whole configuration erupted in green flames. When they were out of the way of the debris they slowed to a jog.

"Wow we did it!" Ares exclaimed. "All too easy."

"Not quite," said a young voice from the shadows.

****end chapter.

Oh god that took me all day! Wow, I just decided that I would finish this sucker up but then came time for bed so hopefully I'll have this done by tomorrow. I just want to get this finished so if the qualities bad it's because I don't want this hanging over me like a conscience.

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