I'M BACK AGAIN LADDIES! Sorry for the long wait, I explain in the latest chapters of other books, read those. (Lol, too lazy for rewrite) Anyways, please review and comment on anything. Thanks! - Steven
Chapter 7: The Three Fateful Questions
Jack's POV
"Dammit." I thought when I woke up from my quick nap. "Of course something like that happened, so cliche!" I got up and looked around. We were in some kind of cave, since the floor was completely rock. It was also really dark. I lit a torch from my pack and surveyed my surroundings in the light. Pyres were standing all around the room, so I went around and lit them all, filling it with a eerie red-orange light. Once I finished, I guess the light was quite bright, (My eyes are not really sensitive to light surprisingly, being the son of Hades) because it woke up Percy. He groaned and sat up. "Where are we?" he asked me. I shrugged. "I've been looking for that." I replied. "Wake everyone else up. I'm gonna have another look around." Percy nodded and proceeded to wake everyone up while I tried to scan our surrounding for any clues for where we were. We were in a circular room in a cave, which had no exit, not even a little crack to exploit. "Well built." I thought as I examined the walls for any flaws. "Guess we'll have to bust through with brute force."
Meanwhile, Percy had woken everyone up, and they were all looking around at the room. Grover seemed a bit nervous, which made sense since we were in a place that was probably a cave. It also is pretty claustrophobic with all of us packed into this one tiny rock room. Thalia and Luke were just looking around, maybe looking for a exit. Annabeth was staring in wonder at the walls, probably looking at the workmanship, like I did. I did know that Athena had a fondness of architecture, so maybe Annabeth inherited that gene. Bianca and Nico kinda just stood there, looking at the room. I don't know why. Percy was with them, watching with a mix of sadness and happiness, maybe because it reminded him on how his life had changed in the last few days. I quickly gathered everyone one into the middle of the room to discuss strategies.
"We're gonna have to bust through these walls, with no clue on where to go or what to do." I told them. "So I'll go first. Stay behind me and do what I say. You all got that?" Everyone nodded. I smiled. "Good. Everyone search for any flaws to use to our advantage while I equip Nico and Bianca with some gear." I took off my pack and started to search for my stash of extra weapons. "So Bianca, what do you think would work out better for you? A bow or a sword?" I asked her. "Uh, I think a bow. I have decent aim. I once hit someone with a baseball from maybe a few metres away from around a corner." I nodded. "That's good." I said. I pulled out a bow and quiver, both shining bright silver. "Courtesy of the Hunters of Artemis. The quiver's magical, never runs out of arrows." I said, handing them both to Bianca. She slunged them both over her shoulder. "Now.. Nico, you think you'll be fine with a sword?" I asked him. "Yeah, it should be fine." he replied. I then raised a sword from the earth itself, crafted from the best blacksmiths of the Underworld, Hades's personal blacksmiths. I handed it to Nico, who looked shocked by the sword's entrance. I also gave him a belt and sheath for the sword, which he quickly strapped along his waist. He sheathed his sword in the leather scabbard, making him look more dangerous.
"Well, you're both good now. Let's now all go find any cracks before I bust my way out of this place." Bianca and Nico looked at each other for a brief moment, looking a bit nervous before Nico said, "We might have found a way already." "Oh really? Tell me. It's fine no secrets need to be kept here." I told them reassuringly. "When I woke up, I felt something underneath us. At first I thought it was just me, but Bianca felt it too." Nico told me. "That might be your lineage." I said. "What do you mean?" Bianca asked me. "You are the children of Hades, my siblings. We have a strong connection to the earth, and we can feel that connection sometimes. Show me where you were when you felt his feeling." They showed me, where they had been standing when they woke up, in the middle of the room underneath the floor. I bent down and put my ear to the floor. I heard a faint humming. I quickly gathered everyone around and told them about what Nico and Bianca told me. "Are you sure?" Luke said, looking skeptical. "Seems like it's only a hunch." "We have to do it Luke." Thalia replied, looking unsure but still on my side. "We have nothing else." "Well then, let's break it!" Percy said, excited. "That I shall do." I replied.
I summoned my gauntlet to my hand. "Stand back." I warned. As they stepped back, I slammed my gauntlet into the ground and unleashed its power into the floor. The room shook for a little bit until a chunk of rock broke off and fell into the hole, revealing a second floor underneath the room. "How deep is that? I can't tell, it's too dark." Grover said, peering into the hole. "I'll see." I said. I jumped in, landing on the chunk of rock that fell down. "It's a safe jump, it will be fine!" I yelled back up. One by one, everyone jumped into the hole until we were all down another floor in the cave. I lit another torch to see a large door with a side entrance next to it on the right. "This must be where we need to go." I said. "But I think one of us has to go that way." I pointed at the side entrance. "I'm pretty sure one of us has to control the challenge from the outside. If we get through it, I can meet you on the other side." "Well then, who will be doing that?" Luke asked. "Me." I replied. "None of you know how to operate the challenge, and the controls might be delicate. Besides, I won't be much help to answer questions, it's completely random on which topic will be chosen. I probably won't have any knowledge on any topics that come up. I'll control from the outside, you guys answer the questions." Everyone nodded.
I walked over to the side entrance and went in. I was now in a room with controls for this challenge. I pulled one lever in the middle of the control board and heard the stone door rise. I could see from my perch that everyone entered the room. I flipped some switches and lights illuminated the room. I then pressed a button and a large wheel rose from the ground. It was like a large pizza, sliced into eight sections. It had Greek lettering on each section, stating a topic. A stone pointer finished it off. Percy grabbed the wheel and spun it. It spun for a good 15 seconds before it stopped on one section. I craned my neck to see the topic. It read "Titans". "Okay." I though. "That's pretty good." Titans are pretty well known. But suddenly, the wheel's sections all became blank and it spun once more, stopping on a section, which of course was blank. The wheel retreated into the floor and a section of the wall opened up to show a question and four buttons for answers. The question was "Name the titan who now carries a large burden, which is famously known as a curse." I couldn't see the answers, they had just appeared underneath the question but they were too small to see. I knew that there were be dire consequences if they got it wrong. "Good luck." I whispered.
Percy's POV
We were so screwed, at least that's what I thought. Once I read the question, (After a little bit of difficulty) I didn't have a clue on what the answer was. I would have probably have guessed and hoped for my 25% chance for the right one. But we were a team, we think together, work together and die together. (Actually, scratch that last one) I turned to Annabeth, since she was a daughter of Athena and she reads a lot of books, so she had all the knowledge, but she barely knew anything that could help. So we were back to square one. I paced around the room, thinking about which answer it could be, when I realized that Jack was watching us right now. I looked up to see Jack looking down at me, making wild hand gestures. When he realized I saw him, he quickly pulled out a globe from his backpack and made a big show of making the letter "A" with his fingers. I didn't understand, so I brought everyone else to Jack to see if anyone could make out what he was trying to tell kept watching him while he kept making the letter "A" and showed us the globe.
After maybe another one or two minutes, Jack suddenly started to facepalm himself, buy at what I couldn't tell. He pulled out a book from his bag and showed it to us. It was an atlas. "Okay, how does an atlas help?" I asked him, hoping he could read my lips. He pointed to the question once more, then he started to point at the atlas again. "Wait, the category was Titans. One of the titans was named Atlas. I got it! When the gods defeated Kronos, Atlas had to carry the burden of the sky. It's famously known as the Titan's Curse!" Annabeth said excitedly. She ran back to the question and looked at the answers. "Yep, this one is Atlas." she said, pushing the button. A green light flashed before the question and answers were replaced.
The second question was "Name the daughter of Atlas who was imprisoned on a island." We all turned back to look at Jack, who already had some hints for us. He made the letter "C" before he started making more hand gestures. I tried to see what they meant, but they didn't make any sense. "Maybe it's an action?" Luke suggested. "Weaving?" Thalia put in. "Or it could be an object used for weaving." Grover added. "Then maybe a needle and thread?" Bianca asked. "A loom!" I said. "Someone who uses a loom that has a name that starts with C!" I ran back towards the buttons. Sadly it wasn't so easy, since all the answers started with C. Before anyone could stop me, I randomly pressed a button. The green light flashed once more and the next question was up. "Okay, that was stupid. Just like your father, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth told me. "Whatever. I got it right,so we're good. Look at the brighter things in life Wise Girl." I shot back. "Guys you can do this 's the last question?" Grover asked me. Nico started to read it before I could respond.
"Who is the exiled Hesperide, also a daughter of Atlas?" it read. I turned back to Jack once more. He seemed stumped on how he could help us. So he just pointed at me and Bianca. "What?" I mouthed at him. He mimed something, which kinda looked like he was uncapping a pen. "Oh!"I said, realizing what he wanted. I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it. The sword sprang out. Jack pulled out his own sword and pointed at the hilt. I looked at my hilt. It was glowing now, showing a trident engraved into it and a hydra with some buff dude and a girl in a white dress. Then Jack pointed to Bianca and mimed shooting an arrow. She grabbed her bow and held it up for Jack to see. Jack then pointed at Thalia and Annabeth, so I got them both to come over and analyze the situation. "That's a Greek legend of Hercules." Annabeth said. It was when he was trying to do his 12 Labors. The hydra's Ladon, guardian of the golden apple tree in the Garden of Hesperides, but there was no mention of a girl in the legend." I turned to Thalia, who looked kinda pale. "No." she muttered. "She's not one of them…" "Thalia, any clue?" I asked her. She looked up at me."Yes." she replied before running quickly towards the buttons and pressing one. The green light flashed once more before the door opened back up again. "Yes!" Nico said, pumping his fist in the air. "Now we can leave!" "Well, you did good." a voice said behind me. I turned to see that Jack was back with us. "You did good. Now we can find this palm tree." he said. He pulled out a sheet of parchment. "Got this upstairs. Come on, let's get back to the surface." We all followed Jack from what could have been our tomb to the sunlight above.
Secret Location
"I have news my lord." the dracaena messenger hissed. He waved his hand. "Continue." "The god has braved the questions and is headed for the next destination." the dracaena voice laughed. "So predictable. You may leave."The dracaena bowed and left the room. The voice stood up from his throne and walked over to a chessboard on a table. He moved a rook, killing a knight but putting his rook in danger by a bishop. "Just keep taking the bait Jack Hunter, son of Hades, god of protection. Soon, you'll be right in my hands. Once you're there, all plans fail and all hopes fall. Olympus will be shattered and you will not be able to prevent it."
