Percy PoV
"Come on Thalia you're breaking my ribs over here!" Yelling at her is not exactly my best idea, but we're about to land. I was the last one to arrive because I had to go slower than the others. Luna picked up speed, much to my displeasure, Thalia cold squeeze the life out of somebody. I could feel my ribs breaking slowly. "Thalia, you're breaking my ribs." I managed to wheeze out, but she didn't hear me.
Luna picked up even more speed as I started to see black, we landed in the campsite that was already set-up. I found myself on the ground groaning. Artemis came up and looked at me. "Well, you made it." She said with sarcasm. I groaned in response, "Thalia you can cause some serious damage." He glanced over to see her shaking. Throwing an arm around her I rubbed circles on her back, he could see an emotion flash in Artemis' eyes. It quickly vanished and she smiled at him. Standing up I nudged her with my shoulder, which got her to smile even brighter. In return it got myself to smile, her smile is so beautiful. She helped Thalia up and hugged her. I looked around, "Where's Clarisse?" Jordan shrugged, "She said she was going to get some gear, after that I don't know." Nodding I figured she was somewhere in camp. I went to check up on the rest of camp, and the forge. I decided the forge was the best of place as any to start. Seeing as I had to check up on it anyway. Once there I started peering through the veil. It was complete so I decided it was time for a meeting. "Warriors!" I called them as they all started to gather around, hunters included. I sent out a Hermes slip and waited for Hephaestus. Once he arrived I snapped my fingers and the forge appeared. The walls were marble coated with bronze. 'The Theseum' clearly in Greek was wrote above the doorway. The trim was lined with moving gears and springs, there were etchings of Hephaestus when he helped his kids fix the Argo.
Said god had a tear of pride running down his soot covered face. I smiled at Zale and the others. They were giving Hephaestus one sided hugs as they smiled at him. "Warriors, the forge is now open to you all again! Zale and the others have renovated it to dedication towards Hephaestus. I hope the inside looks as good on the inside as it does on the out!" Zale led his father inside, along the side was a canal of lava. Work benches with leather straps and bars of metals surround the empty area. In the middle was giant anvil, etched with purple runes. "Is that?" Hephaestus asked, Zale smiled. "Just like the one at the Helen's forge. The runes were done by lady Hecate herself." Hephaestus gave one bright smile, "I may have to come down here and use it sometime." I gaped at the place.
"Nice job guys, I take it you like the surprise?" Hephaestus turned to me, "Yes, today was the day I was thrown off Olympus, I mostly mope around this day, but this has encouraged me to stop that from now on." I was shocked, I didn't even know that was today. But I guess being thrown off a mountain would be etched in my brain forever as well.
"Hey Zale, have you by any chance see Clarisse?" Zale looked over at me with a confused expression, "Yeah she came by to get some armor and some weapons but, after that she didn't say where she was going." I groaned, come one now! One daughter of Ares with mostly boys cannot be that hard to find! Someone behind me cleared their throat. I was greeted by the presence of Phoebe. "My sister came by to get a bow and a quiver, she was geared to the teeth. I thought she was ready to take on the Trojan army." Weird daughters of Ares I swear. I peeked out my hearing and heard a roar. Great, what was she thinking! "Hunters, warriors, get prepared for our mission, quickly!" Everyone started dashing off as I summoned my time armor. Once everyone was ready I lead them to where I heard the sound, there was an army there, but whatever I heard all disturbances were fixed. It was a clearing in the woods with a burrow in the ground, great, I wonder what's in there.
"Okay, I want hunters in the trees spaced out, only about ten, two per tree, the others join the hunters around the edge of the forest. I'll give the order, space out evenly, Hunters target the middle. After a hundred shots join us on the ground." I informed them in a low voice, they nodded and started to divide. As they were all in their places, I saw Artemis shimmer into the hunter lines. Once I saw everyone ready, I dust on the monsters and raised my fist in the air, opening my hand everyone charged in as the time dust took effect in slowing the monsters. The warriors rammed the monsters to the center where they were getting turned into Swiss cheese, slowly carving the monsters in two we were halfway into the clearing when the hunters dropped down. The rain into the empty spots, as the gaps became smaller soon all that was left was dust. "Well that was fun!" I said, "Everyone okay?" Will looked over everyone, "We're good just some cuts and scrapes, noting fatal."
I heard a muffled sound coming from below in the burrow. I ran down there to see a fresh body on the ground, "Percy!" I whipped around to see Clarisse get dragged into a shadow. That's when I noticed for once she called me Percy. Call me stupid I know, but I am not letting her live that.
I dashed out of the burrow, "Hunters, Warriors go back to cap have the dragons stand guard! Do not come out for no reason what so ever!" I grabbed Artemis' hand and flashed us to Olympus, "Zeus! Council now!" I said he looked at me harshly before calling the Olympians. "We have a problem here." He said motioning me, "On our mission from lord Zeus-Which is done by the way- Clarisse La Rue tagged along for a ride, because Ares had a mission for her to save his son, needless to say we were on the same mission, but Clarisse disregarded my plan to wait." Ares smirked thinking that she saved his son.
"The boy is dead he looks like he's been dead for a day or two, Clarisse took off and got into the burrow, but was tied up and eventually taken. I want your help to find her." Everyone was murmuring at this, "She failed!?" Ares hollered, "No, and has probably paid for it with her life. She wouldn't have failed if you gave her the mission days ago." I growled out. "Probably because she sought help from you!" He countered, not even a second later arrows impaled him where it counts. "Lose the attitude, the maiden was brave enough to attempt to go in today. We were going to stake out the area for the best plan possible, but Percy acted out quickly hoping to save her life!" Artemis yelled at him, Aphrodite had a smirk on her face, 'And the wheels start turning.' She thought to herself.
I caught that smile and looked at her oddly. "We will keep looking, we shall let you know if we find her Perseus." Zeus informed him, I nodded and flashed off to my tent, to where I flopped down on the bed. Artemis arrived a few seconds later. "She'll be fine Percy. Don't worry about it, Ares was a fool to send her there. His son probably died because of him." Percy sighed, "It's not that Artemis it's just that, this time she actually called me Percy, instead of an insult like usual. I'm worried, whatever took her scared her enough to use my name." Artemis sighed as she sat down next to me.
"Don't worry Percy, She's probably fine." For some reason Percy thought otherwise. "I don't know, I get the feeling whatever took her isn't something we have faced before." I told her the truth e was I know another war is about to break out. Something is just nagging at me just like the time before the battle with Gaea.
"Get some sleep Perseus. I'll try to speed up everyone's searches." I took her advice and closed my eyes, only to toss and turn for a few minutes before actually falling asleep. I was greeted into a pure black place as the only thing I could make out was this person hidden in shadows with a cruel smile playing on is lips.
'Percy wake up.' Luna spoke to me, I groaned in response. Getting up I snapped my fingers and changed cloths, coming into my god powers have been quite nice. Once I figured out how to use them that is, I still enjoy doing things as a mortal would. It makes life more interesting, and even Artemis agreed with me to a point.
Going over to my desk to do the little work there was I noticed it was done, Artemis did it. I rolled my eyes. She just loves to annoy me. "Percy, the gods say it might take a couple of days to find her as they have only scoured a couple of states." I nodded, I just hope Clarisse isn't dead by then..
I told her about my dream, "You couldn't see him at all?" I shook my head, "Only his smile." I shivered, wondering if this is the person who took Clarisse. "Let's just deal with our current problems, How is everyone?" Artemis shook her head. "They're on edge. Last night Nico swore he saw someone moving in the shadows, like they were scouting out the camp." I pondered this, "He said he saw his presence, but couldn't exactly see him. H gave it like what he would see if his father was to use his helm of darkness. He could see an outline but not the actual person." I raised my eyebrows at that.
"That's like what I saw in my dream." Artemis seemed to have thought about this as well, "Jordan is feeling fine though, so that is what I don't understand. If it were this new enemy then she wouldn't be feeling so good." Artemis told me, I groaned, I wound up with more questions than answers.
"Wait what if the reason we can't see him is somehow tied to why Jordan won't s fine?" I questioned, she shrugged, I smacked my forehead. Why would she know you dolt? She burst into laughter. "Did you just call yourself a dolt?" I smacked my forehead again, "Shut it Mondstrahl." She just rolled her eyes at me.
"Seriously Percy, how can you not control your thoughts?" I smirked, "For the same reason Apollo can't stop referring to himself as awesome." Artemis looked at me with her head tilted to the side. "His ego?" I groaned I should have thought about that. Oh wait I did. "His inflated ego, just like my brain is inflated from Athena, it cannot control what it does sometimes."
She smiled, "An apt way to put it. But I don't think it's inflated that much." Someone cleared their throat, we turned to the door to see a smirking Jordan. "If you two are done flirting, the warriors are awaiting your orders and the hunters awaiting yours Artemis." She walked out without another word, just a smiled big enough to split the earth.
I walked out and saw the Warriors lined up, "Okay training session 12! Go get ready." The warriors groaned, while I had a smirk on my face, session twelve consisted of, five mile sprint, small break after, godly power burn, where they use their godly powers till they collapse and then more. Weapons training then at last a two mile sprint with an addition seventy pounds on them. The new guys are in for one hell of a run. While I was using my godly power to make a mental map around camp that equaled five miles everyone wait was strapped with water or music devices.
The hunters were looking at us, "We might join you." Artemis said, I raised my eyebrows, "Alright but if your hunters pass out I am not to blame." She glared at me while I walked to the edge of camp.
"Ready.. set.. RUN!" We took off at high speed me leading and weaving through trees and hurdling over bushes. Artemis was by me, "What are you doing?" she asked I rolled my eyes, and explained to her what session twelve consisted of. She had wide eyes, "Percy no one can handle that, they would die from exhaustion." I looked at her weirdly, "Do any of my warriors look dead to you?" Her eyes were wide, I smiled, "Oh come on Artemis your hunters can handle it." I looked over my shoulder and saw them behind the warriors by about twenty feet. Okay maybe I was wrong. The new recruits looked baffled. 'Your endurance and stamina are increased when you join.' They suddenly got huge smirks on their faces and pushed themselves harder.
After about thirty minutes everyone collapsed in the amphitheater. "So are you hunters still sure you want to train with us, because you get a five minute break then we go on to combat training." The hunters nodded, probably because they are going to do Archery training with Artemis.
Once everyone filed out we went to the arena and I enlarged it. Surprisingly the hunters joined us in this too.
Once everyone got ready I split myself into two, one for the hunters one for the warriors. "Hunters," One said, "Warriors." The other said.
Hunters:
They stepped up as I saw my other self, divide up the warriors and have them attack as a group against each water warrior. "alright, what weapon would you prefer first? Hunting knives?" They all nodded since it was the most feasible at the moment, I showed them to use a reverse hammer grip.
"Why would be use a reverse hammer grip?" Thalia asked with a raised eyebrow. I rolled my eyes, "Because , you can protect yourself with it if someone was to grab your wrist, while it is rare for this to happen, but here against the warriors, it is. Mostly skilled fighters do it, so any more questions?" All the hunters shook their heads. I went on to explaining the various ways to use it in this position , thrusts slices and parries, where you can effectively bounce the blade back and use a maneuver to land a killing blow.
Warriors:
"Alright guys, now it is going to five against one warrior, rotating each match." As they went onto switching, the new recruits were doing well. They managed to keep up with the other warriors. Nico was teamed with them and will, so they kept getting pointers on fighting as they went along.
The first one to take on all five was Will who used knives instead of a sword, it's dangerous for most, but he uses the plating on his armor to block excessive blows.
Nico was surprisingly the first to go down. "OH YEAH!" Will said, Jordan was laughing who was by Artemis' side her face unreadable.
Artemis PoV
As I watched the warriors and hunters train I was a little astounded. These men have excelled ahead of my hunters, even some of the best who have been around for hundreds of years. And the hunters are learning surprisingly fast, under Percy's tutelage. He intrigues me how he can simply be so amazingly well at teaching, even when teaching the hunters I lose patience .
He was correcting their swings my adjusting their arms. At first they didn't take that too well but he reasoned with them by saying, 'How am I supposed to train you if I cannot correct you?' They eventually got over it and ignored him touching them.
Percy PoV
"Alright! Godly powers time! I want you to use all your godly powers until you drop and then I shall douse you in Arctic water for you to keep going." The hunters gaped at him while the warriors did what they were told.
Suddenly the wall of the arena was encased in black fire. Nico huffed and sat down as un-dead warriors by the dozens started beating the tar out of each other. Vines and madness ensued upon them as sections started exploding. Hurricanes and rain pounded in the little hellfire room. Some hunters came up, "Percy, we were born mortals, we don't have powers." Percy laughed and smiled at them, he waved Artemis to come down. "Well sure you do, you have Artemis' powers over the moon, mortals adopt the traits as they are blessed by immortals."
Artemis smiled at them and gave them her entire blessing so they could join in on the mayhem. She watched with pride as the girls were throwing orbs of silver casing things to float around aimlessly, and the plants to grow even wilder.
Soon everyone was on the ground panting. Nico was sitting Indian style and watched at the un-dead started to reform and beat the crud out of each other. "What! You guys tired already?!" he complained as he waved his hand and ice cold water splashed everybody awake. I laughed at him, thought he has quite the amazing power, on the level of Olympian godly proportions. Only because he was the one to keep up the wall of hellfire as everyone's powers went rampant in it.
It takes quite a bit of power to keep it open as it's getting pounded with that kind of destruction. Clapping was heard behind everyone, "Well done, I am impressed." A dank voice said behind them. Everyone whipped around.
A/n anyone know who the mystery man is? Huh? Sorry for the delay, Writers block and some other crazy stuff. But here yah go, see ya next week! Kinda shorter than the others but sorry, I am lowering the size of them all as I just don't have as much time to write anymore. Power went out and I got yelled out multiple times for not doing squat and writing this instead because I wrote it and I was in the middle of correcting it when power went out.