Hey guys, new chapter, hope you enjoy it! Also, Happy New Year(bit late)! I've been reading the HOO books again to figure out how some of the characters act so they don't seem to ooc. I've put in an Avengers reference, so let's see how many of you can find it!
BJack12: Good to see you as always, man! Don't worry, we're really close to a confrontation involving Thalia.
DKay37: No worries! I've realized that the 'Jackson' was a bit OOC now that I've gone back and re-read stuff, but read on to find out!
Mika1303: Nah, I tried to show in the last chapter that the hunters wanted to him to do it as well, at least most of them. Anyway, the suspense is over! *Spreads arms dramatically* ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
le hooman: Glad you like it! I came up with the ideas for those on the spot, thought it would e cool to have them recurring through the chapter. Also, you sure you're not Apollo?
Erebus 207: Yep, Phoebe not coming back. And guess what? Read this chapter, get a main antagonist free!
TheMeister7: I'd been posting on wattpad up until about chapter eighteen I think, so I uploaded all of those here in a day. Don't worry, I'm not the flash lol!
Vaarwel!
Percy continued to slowly walk forwards, not looking back. He wanted to lead the hunters away from this. It was him the new assailant was after. Turns out he was right about the first giant being someone that hated him and Camp Jupiter.
Percy wished he wasn't right.
"Percy Jackson! I'm talking to you!" The deep voice yelled. Artemis, suddenly recognising the voice, looked up at Percy worriedly. She'd already lost one person close to her heart today, she couldn't lose someone even closer! She thought, finally properly admitting to herself that she like liked Percy.
"PERSEUS JACKSON! DON'T IGNORE ME!"
Percy sighed and turned around. "What's up, giant? Long time no see. I see you've still got the whole... Dandruff problem." He said wearily, drawing Riptide and his trident.
"Finally! I've got a bone to pick with you, son of Poseidon. Ever since that boy saved you, I've been planning in Tartarus. I met up with another giant, and together we will TAKE OVER OLYMPUS!" He boomed, chuckling slowly. The hunters looked on in horror, while Percy calmly spun his trident around, warning up.
"That's always the aim you guys have, but when was the last time you succeeded? Oh wait, never." Percy said, grinning at the thirty foot humanoid in front of him.
"Shut it, Percy Jackson. I wanted to make sure you died first, so I resurrected this bird, knowing you would be hunting with the hunters. You took it down, him? Impressive, for sea scum like you." The giant said, drawing his own weapon and flexing his muscles.
"You talk too much," Percy said quietly, beckoning Alex forward with a finger.
"Another son of that pathetic sea god, huh? Not to worry, I will give you both horrific and painful deaths. After all, I am your father's bane... POLYBOTES!" He roared.
Percy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Listen Alex, this will be hard. We both need to go all out from the start, and make sure the hunters don't get involved. They're too mentally messed up from Phoebe's death, they'll make mistakes. And against this guy, any mistake is fatal, especially for us." He said quickly, glancing worriedly at Artemis. Alex nodded solemnly, and together they charged at the giant.
Only to skid to a halt in confusion as Polybotes stepped back and pointed his trident at them, grinning widely.
Percy looked back at Artemis in confusion. Were the hunters being trapped? Nope, there was nothing around them. Artemis looked back at him and shrugged, equally as confused.
So if it wasn't the hunters being trapped, it was... Him and Alex!
Polybotes smirked. "ATTACK!" He roared.
Out of the trees, a whole army charged forth, yelling furiously. Percy cursed. The army was just too far away from the hunters for the hunters to have known and warned them. How had neither he or Alex sensed them?
No time to focus on that, he thought. Alex looked questioningly at him. "Do we have a plan of attack?"
"We do have a plan," Percy said with a grin. "Attack."
Alex rolled his eyes, and together they shot into battle. As they hacked, weaved and spun through enemies like two deadly snakes, Percy decided to pause for a bit, defending Alex's back. He took a moment to look at the massive giant that had accosted them in the first place. Polybotes was sitting back, watching them with an evil grin on his face.
Why would he be watching- Oh, Percy realised. The giant had never seen Alex fight, so he wanted to gauge the demigod's strength and figure out the boy's weaknesses. Percy quickly passed close by Alex's ear, whispering something as he passed.
"We're not facing him, so don't go all out. No special moves either."
Alex nodded, smirking. He'd already figured out what the giant had been doing, and had only using about a quarter of his real power for a while now. Still, he thought, it was right of Percy to make sure just in case.
Soon the boys had defeated the army. It hadn't been particularly big, only about two hundred monsters strong, and with the hunters raining down arrows from behind, the battle was over quite quickly.
As Percy disarmed and defeated the last Cyclops, Polybotes' voice boomed out. "It's been good watching you fight, Perseus Jackson. See you when I destroy that wretched Camp Jupiter."
When they all looked up, the giant was gone. Percy started to worry as he and Alex walked slowly back to the group of hunters. His worst fears had been confirmed. Man, it had just been a bad day in general.
Artemis walked up and punched him, seemingly out of concern. "Did you have to go marching into a trap like that?" She said angrily, but everyone could hear the underlying tones in her voice. Worry about him, a lot of it, and the raw emotion the hunters were all feeling after the loss of their strongest demigod fighter.
People looked at Percy to see his reaction, but none came. In fact, that punch, weak as it had been,had been enough to put Percy to sleep. The boy had just fought one of the most powerful creatures from the myths, then gone on to battle an army. No wonder.
Celyn, realising this, walked over to Alex and smacked him upside the head. He too collapsed in exhaustion, having done the exact same as Percy. Then the girls realised the problem they had.
How to get these heavy boys back to camp.
"You should've made Alex carry Percy back, then knocked him out," Grace said to Celyn, giggling.
"Well, as a healer, I don't want to see anyone in the group overextend themselves or do too much, okay?" The older hunter replied, but she too wondered how in Hades' name they were going to haul the two back.
"Put them on Oscar and Sadie's backs?" Someone said.
"No, have you seen Percy? He's got too much muscle for that, Oscar would be crushed," Artemis said, stepping forward.
"Of course you noticed that, milady," one of the hunters murmured slyly, and they all grinned, except for Thalia's group.
Their grins suddenly turned to innocent looks as the goddess in question spun around, searching through them with her piercing hunter's eyes.
"Who said that? Ah, never mind. I'll do it." She muttered, and took hold of both boys arms, and allowed Celyn to hold her shoulder. Once that was done, she flashed away, presumably back to the camp.
The hunters looked at each other, realising they were idiots. Of course, Artemis could just flash the boys back the whole time.
They started the trek back to base camp. Really, was it too much ask for Artemis to flash them all back all as well?
Three weeks later
It had been a while since Percy had faced off against Polybotes, and there was still no word from the gods, apart from Hestia, who now visited them regularly. Over the weeks, he'd told Hestia all he knew so far, but for some reason, she hadn't come to visit in the past few days. He was getting impatient with Zeus, as was his brother. They decided to go out and train together to try and relieve some of the stress.
As they left the camp, they didn't notice that Hestia had appeared in the camp fire and was beckoning them over. Someone else did, though.
"Auntie Hestia, what can I do for you?" Artemis said, walking over to the fire to greet her relative.
"I wanted to inform Percy of something, but it concerns you as well, so I'll just tell you, Artemis," Hestia said. "I've finally gotten something into my brother's thick skull, so there will be a council meeting later today to discuss Percy and Alex's banishment." The goddess of the hearth said, giving her niece a warm smile.
Artemis returned the smile, and thanked Hestia for coming to tell her and Percy. The goddess of the home smiled and nodded in goodbye, and disappeared, seeming to ripple into the flares. As the goddess left, the fire flared to around twice its normal height, which was already quite big.
Artemis left to go and find the boys, but she couldn't find them immediately, and got caught up in a conversation with a couple of the younger hunters.
Soon, a small lightning bolt appeared in front of Artemis, signifying that a council meeting had been called, and it was by Zeus. Only she could see it, since she was the only Olympian around.
The goddess excused herself, realising she hadn't told Percy what was going on. Ah well, she thought. He was smart, he'd figure it out.
As she grew to the appropriate size for her throne and sat down, one of the last to arrive, she noticed Zeus rub his temples with his thumbs. She almost laughed. Hestia must have been doing a dam good job of annoying the king of the gods.
Zeus made a clap of thunder to quieten all the chatting Olympians and call the place to order, so to speak.
"We're here to discuss Percy Jackson." The sky god said sombrely. Ares' head immediately dropped into his hands helplessly.
"CAN'T THE BOY JUST F* DIE?" The war god started to yell, Zeus summoning another thunderclap.
"Only your two fellow Olympians, Apollo and Artemis, have known the whereabouts of the Poseidon brothers since their banishment," Zeus boomed. "Athena and I were only told a few weeks ago, by Lady Hestia. Apparently they have been travelling with the hunters of Artemis. We talked, and decided that the boys couldn't have been traitors, otherwise the hunters would be long dead. The campers must just have been mistaken, especially my children."
Everyone on the council who was just finding out now looked at Artemis with different emotions displayed on their godly features. On the faces belonging to gods like Poseidon and Hermes, there was happiness and gratefulness written all over. However, for the gods like Ares and Hera, there was sudden anger and a little hate. One emotion overwrote them all, though.
Shock, just plain shock that not only had Artemis allowed two boys into her hunt, they weren't dead yet.
"Now," Zeus said, "Hestia has brought it to my attention that there will be a new war with the giants. Not as big as the last one, seeing as there are only two of them, but we must be wary." He explained, making eye contact with them all, one by one, as he spoke.
"It's a pity that most of our intelligence has been gained for us by the Jackson boy himself, but we now know that one of our enemies is Polybotes, and he will soon attack Camp Jupiter." Zeus said, shaking his head.
"We have decided to send the Greek campers there, along with the hunters, to help defend the place against the incoming assault." Athena said, taking over the talking for the strategic part. "Ares, you should change into Mars and go and warn the Romans. Dionysus will warn the Greek campers, but due to his, well, less than average battle skills, he will not go with them." She said, nodding at the war god and rolling her eyes at the snoring god of wine.
"Artemis, you will take the hunters there too." She said, looking with narrowed eyes at the goddess of the hunt. " But there lies the only problem with my plan, though, and that is of the two male demigods travelling with the hunt, Perseus Jackson and Alexander Hart." Athena said, looking back to the king of the gods again.
"Right," Zeus agreed. "They would be good assets in this war, but obviously, we have banished them. I think we should bring them back to fight for us again, but then vote around banishing them again afterwards. What do you say?"
Every god raised their symbol of power. The gods supporting Percy knew that if they could get Percy back, there was a chance he wouldn't be banished again. But Poseidon spoke up.
"If my boys have been deemed innocent, then why would the be banished again?" He asked, rather aggressively, and the other Olympians who had supported Percy nodded as well.
"Shut up, Poseidon." Zeus and Athena said in unison. The gods that favoured Percy all stood up ready for a confrontation, but...
"Right! Council dismissed!" Zeus shouted, using another thunderclap to call them to order. Honestly, Artemis thought, the mortals would probably be preparing for the mother of all storms after hearing so many.
"Ares, Dionysus, Artemis, you have your instructions. Please follow them as quickly as possible." Zeus said, and then rolled his eyes as he had to explain Dionysus' orders again. Couldn't his son just stay awake at a meeting for once in his life?
Artemis and Hestia flashed down to the hunters' camp, Hestia appearing as an eight year old next to the fire as she used to do in Camp Half-Blood.
Percy and Alex were just walking back into the camp, and Artemis explained what was going on to them quickly, then turned to her hunters while Hestia fleshed out the explanation to them.
"Hunters, get ready to move out! Destination is Camp Jupiter. I'll explain on the way."
Percy was almost jumping for joy. He couldn't wait to see his old friends again, the rest of the Seven, well apart from Leo and Annabeth of course, Reyna, Nico, and all the Romans. He almost mist travelled straight there immediately.
"Let's go!"
