Okay, here's another chapter of Purgatroy, I can safely say that this would have been up a good few days ago, had I not put the matter of Multi vs Pertemis up for debate in reviews. It's frustrating that I can't make a decision without worrying that I'll alienate people by not doing as they want, and so I've kind of... avoided the issue in this chapter. Not that the chapter suffers because of it (in my opinion) since Arty is missing for a good portion of it, and Purge doesn't care one way or the other.
Oh, and Purge yelling at Percy in no way means that he's losing respect for his stronger aspect. He just yells a lot. Just pointing that out 'cause I seem to remember that someone suggested that earlier in the story and I forgot to respond earlier (I think).
I hope you enjoy the chapter, and let me know through Follows, Favourites, and reviews.
Okay, I have only now discovered how to start Polls on this site. I would really appreciate it if you would vote on whether you'd prefer Pertemis or Percy/Multi. I was dumb to open it to debate, but I feel that I need to take my Readers' opinions into consideration now that I have. Hopefully this will help alleviate the annoyance I am feeling with Purgatory at the moment.
-()()()-
Aphrodite, goddess of love, was in a good mood as she went to answer the door with a smile on her face. For once, it was not due to the satisfaction that came from meeting up with one of her many lovers, but from the promise of future fun. After her discussion with her many daughters, she was confident that her plan would be a complete success and, after the plan came to fruition, their target would see what he was missing.
Her happiness was short lived, as she opened the front door of her bright pink temple. She, in her merry state, forgot to check who was seeking an audience, and so did not see the scowling girl-goddess, with a hunting knife already drawn, pacing in front of the temple. If Aphrodite had seen this, she would have climbed out a window and sought refuge elsewhere. Preferably a place packed full of males, in order to discourage the man-hating goddess from following due to her discomfort and, more importantly, the availability of witnesses.
"Hello, how can I help you today..." She asked, and trailed off, as the door swung open, with an alluring smile on her made-up face. "Oh... hello, Arty," Her smile faltered at her half-sister's expression. "H-How are things with the hunt?"
"You would know," Artemis replied, in a cold, angry tone. "I hear that you have been there recently." Artemis stepped forwards, pushing through the doorway as Aphrodite backed away from her with her gaze firmly locked on the silver blade in Artemis' hand. "When did you stop asking my permission before you spoke to members of the hunt?" The auburn-haired goddess growled. There had been many instances in the past that inspired this rule, as Aphrodite corrupted her girls. Only the oldest, or most powerful, hunters were able to resist Aphrodite when she applied her godly gifts, and Artemis had eventually grown angry enough to hurt her sister rather seriously and, as Aphrodite looked at the shorter goddess' expression, the love goddess was reminded of this experience.
"N-Now, Artemis, j-just think for a moment before you do something drastic. I didn't try to corrupt any of your girls, or anything." She swallowed audibly, in fear, and held her hands in front of her in an attempt to appease the girl-goddess. "N-No harm, no foul, right?" Aphrodite asked.
"And what do you call you and your daughters being voyeurs while Percy was bathing?" Artemis scowled.
"H-Harmless fun?" Aphrodite gulped, as Artemis' grip tightened on the knife's hilt; telling her sister, quite effectively, that this was not the correct thing to say.
"Harmless fun?" Artemis repeated, with venom.
"I don't know what you want from me!" Aphrodite exclaimed, in a confused tone.
"Apologise!" The goddess of the moon ordered, as her knife flashed, and a long, shallow cut appeared under the eye of Aphrodite, running from cheekbone to chin.
"I-I'm sorry!" The love goddess responded without hesitation, and with fear in her voice as Ichor ran down her cheek, trying to avoid any more damage being done to her beautiful face, and Artemis' eyes narrowed further. "I'm sorry for spying on Percy! I'm sorry my daughters spied on him!" She added, in a pleading tone, in an attempt to alleviate any doubt of her sincerity as Artemis was obviously contemplating doing more to the woman.
"Hmph." Artemis huffed, resisting temptation to do any more damage because she knew her anger was affected by external forces at that moment, and turned on her heel; she could finish this once her emotions stabalised, to ensure she would not have any regrets. The knife fell to the floor, and stuck in the pink stone, as the silver-themed goddess crossed the threshold again. Aphrodite hastily close the door behind her, locking it a dozen times over to prevent the girl-goddess from returning.
Later that day, Ares would not understand why his girlfriend refused to open the door no matter how many times he knocked, and his frustration would lead to him picking a fight with one of his temperamental buddies.
-()_()-()_()-
"Milady?" Zoe asked, as she approached Artemis' tent, having heard the goddess yell as she walked through the camp while Thalia was leading the newer recruits in close-combat training as the girl was, arguably, the best Hunter in terms of melee as she had kept up with swordmanship more than the majority of her 'sisters'. At the same time, most of the older hunters were training with the weaponry that Percy had given them; each of them had realised the usefulness of them by this time, much to Zoe's relief after she had explained that Percy's choices were certainly wise, even if some of them appeared strange. Phoebe had backed her up, as the hunt's best tracker had rapidly fallen in love with her push-dagger, and was working up her nerve to thank Percy for the suggestion.
Oddly, Percy had not been present as the hunt trained with his weapons during the last few hours of daylight, but Zoe had assumed that this was due to what had been discussed with the Olympian council. She knew that Percy held them in low regard during the tedious meetings, after all, and may need some time to recuperate after dealing with his father and uncle.
"Milady? Is everything okay?" She asked, stood outside of the tent. When she received no response, the demititaness poked her head inside to check that nothing was wrong. "Percy?" She asked, surprised, as she found him sat on the floor in the tent and facing away from her.
"Oh, hi Zoe." Percy said in a surprised tone, as he turned suddenly and found his friend staring down at him. "What's up?"
"What's going on? Where's Lady Artemis?" She asked the sitting man, choosing to ignore the half-hearted query that Percy had directed at her awkwardly.
"She went... somewhere." Percy returned, with a helpless shrug. "To see Aphrodite, maybe?"
"Why would she be going to see Aphrodite?" Zoe asked. "They're not exactly friends." She said, in an understatement.
"I... would really rather not say." Percy said, with an apologetic grin.
"Why not?" Zoe's brow sank into a frown.
"It's embarrassing." Percy answered, as he rose to his feet and picked up the chair that had fallen alongside him. As he righted the black seat, Zoe spoke to his back.
"Since when have you been bashful?" Percy guessed that she would have an eyebrow raised, and turned to fin that he had been correct in the assumption. "How bad can it be that you're unwilling to tell me?" She was one of his closest friends, if not his closest, after all.
"Well..." Percy thought for a moment before responding. "Oh, fine. I think that you'd take it badly if I told you. Artemis already snapped at me because of it!" He complained. "And it wasn't even my fault!" He added, as an afterthought.
"Fine," Zoe replied, in an effort to find out what was going on. "Will it help if I promise not to get angry with you?"
"I guess." Percy shrugged, still uneasy at the thought of telling her. The best case scenario he could think of would be that Zoe realised it was not his fault and held a grudge against the girls that had been... perving on him. The worst case scenario was that she, without thinking, told the other hunters about it, and those that had less experience with Percy began to grow suspicious of him, and imagined that he was trying to watch them bathe. It made not sense to reach this conclusion, but Percy was sure that logic would not stop the hunters.
"Then I promise I won't get angry. Now will you tell me?" She asked of him. "Please?" The Lieutenant added, in an attempt to convince her friend.
"I sup-" Percy began, only for his eyes to widen, and for him to dart out of the tent.
'Saved by the bell, eh Boss?' Purge asked, with a snicker, as his alter aspect found the source of his sudden trepidation.
'Only you, Purge, would call this a 'bell'.' Percy returned as he stared at the hunters scrambling about, terrified.
'You're right, it's a party, not a bell.' Purge said to Percy, sending a mental grin to his dominant aspect alongside his amusement.
'Again, not the right adjective, Purge.' Percy commented, as he ran forward, promptly pulling Riptide out of his pocket. 'But, anyway, do you want to take care of some of these bastards?' He asked the sadistic aspect. Purgatory would find it far more fun than Percy would.
''Course I would! Let me at 'em!' He laughed, as Percy relinquished control, and his form shrank slightly into the gaunt image of Purgatory. The enemy was far enough away that the hunt could set up at a distance behind Purge and focus on archery, and therefore Percy would not need to raze the makeshift army.
"Stay back, girlies!" Purge exclaimed, as he met the first wave; a pack of Hellhounds that would have run rampant through the camp had they appeared any nearer. Had it been Percy in control, the hybrid would have wondered how they got so close. Purge, though, was too excited to care. It had been a while since he'd been allowed to cut loose on such a large scale. "They're MINE!" He called, as he crashed into the first, sword first, and Anaklumos ran through the hound with nothing more than a whimper. As the demonic canine disintegrated, Purge took a hold of the next by the scruff of his neck.
"BAD DOGGY!" He roared, with his face inches from the doggy's, and shoved the skull down towards the floor at the same time as he brought his knee up, and it crunched into, and through, the skull to meet his hand. Then, he was engulfed in a shower of golden dust. Purgatory coughed as the dust fell away, and scrunched his nose at being covered in the stuff. "Very bad." He muttered, to the pile, before locking his eyes on the others. While most of them had scattered on instinct, one of the hounds had continued on their path,
"HEY!" Purge yelled, and took off in pursuit. "THAT IS RUDE! I'm your enemy here!" He barked at the hound, and bounded after it, briefly debating whether they had genders quickly before focusing on his target. He leapt into the air, and landed smoothly on its back, causing the monster to stumble. With a slash across the back of its neck, the hound fell to the floor and Purge was sent flying; he had not considered that the sudden stop would not decrease his own velocity. "Shit!" He exclaimed, and his face met the floor. Purgatory pushed himself back to his feet, grumbling, and cracked his neck. He noticed that he was facing the hunters, and quickly turned around.
A group of nine Cyclops was charging the aspect, and would have made an intimidating sight if Purge had any instinct of fear in battle. As it was, Purge leapt forwards with the Xyphos raised at the same time as a handful of silver arrows sprouted from the eyes of four of the monsters' number. That was disappointing, but there were still plenty for Purgatory to fight, and so the sadistic aspect continued in his path. Riptide cut through the legs of one of the grey-skinned humanoids, and Purge cackled as the thing fell to the floor before slamming his heel onto its skull and reducing it to dust. Then, the blade pierced another's chest, and Purge kicked him off the Xiphos, and moved onto another Cyclops.
This one put up a small fight, as he brought the club down in an overhead blow onto Purge, who stepped out of the way, and brought Riptide down onto the monster's elbow, severing the arm as the one-eyed man let out a yell of pain mixed with surprise in the seconds before Purge spun, and removed his head with a savage blow. It fell to the floor, and resulted in a small thud just before the rest of his body turned to dust. The next one was somehow turned around thanks to surprise, and Purge brought the simple, elegant blade down in a vertical blow from shoulder to hip; cutting through flesh and severing the spine. It fell to the floor, and Purge turned a crazed grin on the last of their number.
"I ain't gonna give ya the option to surrender, but if y' turn on the other monsters, I'll let one of them kill you." He offered, happily.
In response, the Cyclops grunted and raised his club in preparation to attack. Purge saw this, and darted forwards. As he passed the monster, Percy spun on the spot and slashed Riptide through the Cyclops' side. It gasped, and fell to its knees with a splutter. Purge did not get the chance to finish him off, as an arrow pierced him in the throat and the creature burst into golden dust.
Purge did not take the chance to catch his breath, and turned to face the horde of monsters making an assault on the hunt as a cloud of arrows were fired at him by the crowd of Empousai. His grin only grew at the sight, and Purgatory screamed at them in return.
"You think that can beat me?! I AM A DRAGOOOON!" He yelled, dragging out the final word as he sprayed fire from his mouth, and burned the arrows to ash with Percy's abilities over the destructive substance. "Hear me ROAR!" He cackled, and ran at the crowd in a sprint again, embers dancing over his teeth as he grinned. The nearest creatures faltered somewhat at the sight of the crazy aspect, and back-pedalled, causing chaos in the army behind them as a spear appeared in Purge's hand.
With a spin, he launched the wooden-bronze weapon at the group, and the tip of the javelin ran through a Cyclops at the front of the group. It travelled through the creature, and pinned the Cyclops to a Giant behind him. The two were thrown backwards, and crushed a poor Hellhound that was unfortunate enough to be stood behind the massive creature. A bolt of fire followed the spear, and the loincloth of another Cyclops was suddenly alight. With a panicked yell, it spun on the spot, clawing at the fabric, and knocked several smaller monsters flying.
Then, Purge was in front of the horde, and his eyes lit up in a poisonous green glow. The monsters were suddenly moving through syrup, and unable to move fast enough to stop the sword that began to cut through them, one at a time. Purge moved in a laughing, ecstatic blur as he spun and twisted in front of the defenceless monsters as he reduced countless of them to golden dust, and ignored the fact that he was now covered in the stuff; a golden form did not suit Purge, the hunt realised, as they picked off some of the few stragglers that escaped Purge's power as he was absent-minded while focusing on the enjoyable task at hand. Along with this, the power that Percy, and by extension Purgatory, held was reinforced in their minds, as they watched him move easily through the crowd, until he disappeared into the main body of the army and they could not longer make out his form clearly, only able to judge where he was by where the monsters were dissolving. Each of them could not help but wonder how they would have fared were it to be the hunt versus the monsters, instead of Purge.
Purgatory let out a wild cry of exhilaration as he separated one of the Empousai into two equal halves with a cut that ran from scalp to crotch and spun to deal with another of the nearby monsters by driving Riptide up, through the base of the skull and into its brain in a high jump. The Lastryogian mouth fell open, as the Xiphos was yanked free as Purge fell back to the ground in a crouch, in a silent scream as he died. Purge returned the scream full force with savage glee, and his cry rang through the clearing to reach the hunters. A brief moment of panic rang through Thalia and Zoe, believing that Percy had been hit by something, before the subsequent cackles reached them, and a burst of fire eradicated a crowd of monsters nearby.
Needless to say, the monsters were regretting coming to the surface, and confronting their bane that had only recently left Tartarus. After all, each of them was glad that their home was now safe, and this violated that safety rather seriously.
One giant tried, desperately, to give an apology that leaned towards pleading for his life but found that his tongue was moving far too slowly for the words to form, and a blade made of water sliced through the air towards him and met with the thick skin of his forehead. Purge grinned, as the top of its head was cut cleanly from the rest of the large head of his opponent, and fell to the floor. The giant fell moments later, and Purge giggled at the ground shaking ever so slightly before the monster faded into dust before re-entering the fray with fire dancing in his other hand; ready to burn any of them that struck the psychotic aspect as particularly flammable.
-()-
Artemis returned to the hunt with panic in her eyes, as she was informed that there was an attack by Iris, as a favour that she was owed. The goddess of the hunt had spent a while in her chariot after her visit to Olympus, in an effort to get herself in check, and evidently her powers were focused mainly on that desire, and were fluctuating because of her stress. She had a feeling that the mortals would have to think hard to come up with a logical reason behind the moon being brighter today than any other, but was rather indifferent to that problem as she appeared in the midst of the hunt in a silver glow.
She found herself facing the hunters, and her eyes quickly found one of her Lieutenants.
"Thalia!" Artemis exclaimed. "Is everyone okay?" The goddess demanded of her half-sister.
Thalia nodded dumbly in response, and Artemis sighed in relief as she glanced around, and found that the hunter had told the truth. All of her hunters were gathered around the immediate vicinity, and looked to be uninjured. Although... now that she looked at them closely, Artemis saw that the triplets that were her nieces had fearful expressions on their faces, and were slightly green around the gills. She walked over to them, to check that she had not missed some blunt force trauma. Concussions could cause vomiting, after all, and they appeared to be one step away from that.
"Girls?" She asked, as she got close enough When they did not respond, the moon-goddess frowned and continued. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"N-No," One of them, Julie, answered for herself and her sisters. "P-Percy protected e-everyone..." She answered, giving credit where credit was due, but also giving fear where it was deserved.
"I will have to thank him, in that case. Do you know how large group of monsters was?" It was logical to assume that the fight was won, since all of the hunters were standing around.
"M-Massive..." Julie answered, not knowing what else to say. "A-An army."
"An army?" Artemis asked, shocked. "Where are they then?"
Julie did not give a verbal response, and instead half-heatedly nodded to the area she and her sisters had been staring at. Artemis turned, her hand going to the hunting knife at her hip, and found what they were watching.
The ground, as far as the eye could see, was covered in golden dust, hinting at the army that had been covering it less than an hour before, but that was not what drew Artemis' eye as she looked over at the area. Purge was stood, with a grin on his face, covered head to toe in the golden dust and hand a hand on the chain that she had seen Percy use several times before and that, if she remembered correctly, was called... Krikou? Yes, she believed that was its name and, as she was watching, Purge flicked his wrist and something strange happened.
Above her head, there was a rustle in the trees, and an Empousai fell, screaming, from the greenery in an arc towards Percy's alternate aspect. Artemis caught a glimpse of a chain wrapped around the monster's donkey leg, and saw that the celestial-bronze leg was missing as she swung past with her face twisted into a scream.
Purge, his grin still burning full force, stepped out of her way as she neared him at the lowest point of her swing, and the woman-monster swung back into the air, as her captor yelled at her.
"ANSWER THE QUESTION!" Purge shrieked at her; hiding his amusement under a crazed tone.
"I don't KNOW!" The monster replied.
"BULLSHIT!"
"Thalia," Artemis stepped quickly over to the Lieutenant. "What is going on?"
"Purgatory caught one of them at the end of the battle by cutting her leg off so that she had to try to crawl away. He... interrogated her on who sent them, and is using this as a scare tactic, I believe." Thalia answered, her voice slightly unsteady but far less than the newest recruits. "But she wither can't, or won't answer. He's been doing this for nearly ten minutes now." She frowned at the unnecessary cruelty.
"Then this is needless." Artemis copied the expression, and a bow materialised in her hand. She raised the weapon, and pulled the string back before letting loose as the Empousai neared Purge's position once again. It struck the monster in her chest, and the pat-donkey woman burst into golden dust.
Purgatory's face fell, and he turned to the goddess with a pout.
"What was that for?! I was having fun!" He exclaimed, annoyed that his fun had been cut short.
"That was torture!" Artemis exclaimed
"It wasn't torture!" Purge denied. "It was a swing! Swings are fun!"
"She didn't know anything!" Artemis ignored that statement, and moved back to the argument at hand. "There was no reason to do that!"
"Hey! I just saved all of your girls' asses! I deserve a reward; if I want that reward to be a harmless bit o' torture, who're you to stop me?!" A voice spoke in his head, and Percy made him another offer. Purge spoke again before Artemis could get the chance. "Twelve!" He nodded, and a grin reappeared. "Deal!" His features shifted, and Percy was suddenly stood in front of the goddess and the hunters.
He glanced at the dust covering him with a frown, and raised his hand to summon some water and wash it away. He did so quickly, and looked at Artemis with an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry about that," He said, in a matching tone. "He's been... cooped up for a while now, and his craziness just grows when he's isolated."
"It's... not a problem." Artemis lied, through gritted teeth. She did not want to snap at Percy again, and Purge's actions were not out of character. They had not done any lasting harm, and so the moon-goddess would do her best to let it go. Forcing herself to speak again, she asked a meaningless question to help get her mind off Purgatory's rudeness. "What did you offer him to get him to be quiet?"
"Uh... I promised I'd give him some cookies." Percy answered, awkwardly. "He's... well, he's strange, but I'm sure you know that by now. You just have to know how to deal with him, and it's easy enough to calm Purge down when he's in a temper tantrum."
'Hey! I don't get temper tantrums! Why would you say that? That's just mean!'