Chapter 4: Day POV
As June and I led the group of prisoners toward a more private room, I dug a little deeper into June's account of what happened exactly.
"They're teenagers like us, June," I murmured to her. "And they don't look threatening at all. You sure you're catching bad guys out there or delinquents from Lake?"
"Trust me," she said. "There's something very...off about them."
She turned her head a little to glare at me. "Don't you think I'd know if I was detaining ordinary people with no reason? And they came here in an Antarctican warship, in case I forgot to mention it."
"Oh, you mentioned it already," I held up two fingers. "Twice, actually."
"Do you trust my judgement or not, Commander?" June snapped.
I kept my mouth shut at that one. We came to a split in the hallway, one path leading left and the other straight ahead. I peeled off and led the group to the left, and I didn't even realize that June had gone straight. I stopped in my tracks and shouted back for her.
"Ms. Iparis?" I said loudly over the heads of the prisoners. They all turned around.
June came back around the corner and followed us. "Where do you think you're taking them, exactly?" She sounded mad.
"I'm not going to interrogate them, June," I stated. "I don't believe we're dealing with criminals here, Ms. Iparis."
"You can't be serious," she shook her head.
"We'll talk this out, like civil people."
"The Elector made you a commander, Day! Are you just going to throw that power of yours away? The least you can do is make sure they're not dangerous, and you can't do that by having a slow chat with tea," June hissed.
I was starting to get angry. "I am in command here," I reminded her. "My station, my rules. And I'll deal with these prisoners myself."
June was stunned into silence. But she steeled herself and turned to walk back the way we came, never uttering a sound except the noise of her shoes clacking against the tiles. Always something with that one, I thought to myself. The squadron of soldiers fidgeted uncomfortably, but the "prisoners" were all containing their laughs.
"You are relieved of duty for now," I nodded to Captain Wright. "Take your men and leave, please."
"But, the prisoners-" he began to say.
"Captain," I repeated. "You are relieved of duty."
"Yes, sir."
The soldiers saluted once more and retreated back in the same direction as June. I let out a shaky breath, and motioned for the group of teenagers to follow me.
"Come," I said.
The blonde girl looked amused. "So you're not interrogating us?"
"No," I replied. "If they told you horrible things about me, they just wanted to scare you. I've never interrogated a prisoner, criminal or otherwise."
One of them let out a grunt of approval behind me. "We're heading to the floor lounge," I informed them. "I figure we can settle our differences there."
When we arrived at the lounge, I took a seat on a wooden chair nearest to the alarm. I might have been friendly, but it didn't mean I was stupid. The group tentatively sat down on the various chairs and couches in the circle surrounding the simulated fire pit in the middle. June was right about one thing; they were an odd group.
"Why are you being suspiciously nice to us?" The blonde guy said.
"What, you want him to be your executioner or something?" the dark-haired girl next to him said. She had strange eyes, like they were shifting colors constantly.
"I am nice," I said. "You just haven't given me a reason to be anything else yet."
"With all due respect Commander," the green-eyed boy said, "I don't think you should put us in jail. I mean we may have crossed into your territory, but we sure as hell weren't flying to bomb you guys or anything like that."
"You came here in an Antarctican warship," I began. "Or so I'm told by my partner."
"Real sweetheart, that one is," the color changing-eyed girl snorted.
"And you're basically college students," I continued. "Antarctica is on the bottom of the planet, and yet you seven claim to have departed from Long Island in New York?"
"It's not an Antarctican warship," the curly-haired one said. "It's a working replica of the original Argo warship that the Greek hero Jason sailed with on his adventures. We came from a place called Camp Half-Blood where ancient Greek stuff is basically our reality. Also the reason you see it differently than us is because of the Mist, which alters your perception of the world to what you humans want to see it as, and we're also half god half human teenagers. We flew here on our ship, the Argo II, to come see the University Annabeth has been crazy about recently, and we were just going to stop by to check it out on our way to visit our other Roman buddies in Camp Jupiter, blah, blah, blah. I'm Leo, by the way. Leo Valdez."
The rest of them just glared daggers at Leo Valdez, furious.
"How could you just say all that like it's casual coffee conversation material?" one growled angrily.
"You know that he's mortal and shouldn't know these things, right?" another exclaimed.
"Everyone calm down," I ordered. They shut up. "It's a lot to take in, Leo Valdez. It'd be crazy for me to believe even one of the things you claim."
Their heads drooped in disappointment.
"But I do believe you."
The blonde girl looked up. "What?"
"I thought I was going crazy these last few months," I admitted. "I've been seeing all these horrible monster things everywhere, but no one would have believed me if I told them. I haven't even told Agent Iparis, my partner."
"You can see through the Mist?" the blonde girl murmured.
"If that's what you call it, then yes," I replied. "I think you guys might be able to help me; I have enough nightmares on my own, I don't need these crazy bastards terrorizing my life too."
