AN: Welcome back everyone!
I'm glad everyone enjoyed the last chapter!
As to some questions raised in the reviews, yes, Cyrus might drag other versions of himself to his universe, but will generally opt for versions that are very similar to him, with going for the radically different ones such as a version of him as a Rock Human being a last resort option. Chances are however, he isn't too aware of the Rock Humans as he only has Valentine's memories from Eyes of Heaven and such, so he's not too knowledgeable on the events of JoJolion at all.
As for Requiem Nails, there are only four haha, but I see your point. There are no Requiems to be seen here...but I might have a few ideas in store...
Oh the things I have cooked up for this story...
Right, enough talk.
Let's begin!
Disclaimer: I, Beowulf, do not own PJO or JJBA. I only own this plot, my OC, and the disappointing truth that I do not possess D4C. If I did, I'd be jumping around universes like a bunny on crack.
~Chapter 14~
Aphrodite was restless. She was currently making her way past multiple other temples on Olympus, before stopping at the one belonging to the God of War. Ares was busy sharpening a sword in his little armory, filled with every manner of weapon imaginable.
The God of War and Violence heard the door open, turning smiling hungrily as his lover entered. "Hey there babe~." He put aside his sword and moved forward to kiss her.
She allowed one kiss before stopping him with a finger on his lips. "I need a favor okay?"
He raised a scarred eyebrow at that.
"I need you to take me to visit the demigods on the quest for...Artemis." She said that last part with a bit of disdain and annoyance.
Ares suddenly went ghost white as he stepped back. "Wh-no! Hell fucking no!"
Aphrodite sighed a little in annoyance as Ares continued. "Do you have any idea who's on that quest? It's that fuckin' weird ass kid, Cyrus! You know how embarrassing that was dealing with him last time? Plus he makes my brain hurt!"
The Goddess of Love held back a laugh as a vision of the enigmatic demigod appeared in her mind, along with a shivering, twitching Ares.
"Plus, that annoying ass cousin of mine is there! Fuckin' Jackson," The War God sneered as he kept ranting. "If Uncle Poseidon hears I messed with his kid again, he'll...I don't know, but he was almost as bad as Dad the last time I messed with that water punk, but with water!" He shivered a little, remembering the pain he had suffered at the Sea God after fighting with Percy two summers ago.
The worst thing about water, is that if there was a way to get in, it would get in.
"Come on Ares, don't be such a baby," she chided teasingly as she pinched his cheek, running a hand over his chest as she tried to butter him up a bit. "You just gotta show a bit of toughness alright? Make it seem like you'll kill them if they mess up."
Ares grimaced again. "...okay okay fine. But what's in it for me?"
Aphrodite thought for a moment, before whispering in his ear.
The War God's eyes widened before burning with even brighter flames as a perverted grin made its way across his scarred face. "I'm in!"
"A gift of the Wild!"
"Yes, we got it the first time G, now stuff it!" Cyrus shouted out as he held onto Thalia's wrist as he ran. Ahead of him were Percy and Grover, followed by Zoe and Phoebe, and bringing up the rear were the two raven-heads.
They'd been at this for maybe fifteen minutes, being chased by the largest bacon in existence through the snowy mountains of New Mexico. Which was really not the way he wanted to get his bearings, but it seemed Fate had other plans for him.
A grin crossed his lips as he noticed a clearing ahead, a solid open space in the pine forest they had entered to escape the boar. Perfect for confrontation.
He felt the thrill-seeker side of him burning up in his heart as his grin widened. He turned suddenly as the rest of the group made it to the clearing, materializing the Last Word in hand.
"Alright piggy, let's do this!" He cried out in challenge as he readied a shot at the rampaging boar.
"No don't kill it!" Grover panicked, grabbing onto Cyrus's hand and making him fire a shot up into the air.
The piggy didn't like that.
It gave a porcine squeal that made a fire engine siren sound pleasant as Cyrus turned slowly to Grover, his glare saying a thousand words.
The satyr gulped a little at that. He'd really be paying for that one later.
The monster charged at them, targeting the one who had made the loud gunshot noise, making Grover stiffen and Cyrus face pale. The two split apart in an instant, diving to opposite sides as the giant swine rushed past them, effortlessly smashing into a boulder.
As Zoe and Phoebe drew back their bowstrings, Grover pleaded loudly. "Don't kill it!"
"Well, if you didn't notice G-man, it's trying to kill us!" Percy retorted with an annoyed glare at his best friend.
"Of course it is! It's wild!"
Phoebe gave the satyr a nasty glare that made him shrink. "Well what do we do? We can't just let it kill us!"
Cyrus grumbled at the handicap Grover gave as he racked his brains for a moment. "Let's see, the old goat sent us this...meaning we have to do what? Use it?...oh wonderful..."
"Fine Grover, we'll do this your way," Grover turned to thank him, before stiffening at the menacing figure of D4C hovering behind the young man, "But I won't be forgetting this..."
The young satyr gulped. He could only pray that when Cyrus got his vengeance, he'd be...slightly merciful.
During all of this, apparently the charge had dazed the boar slightly, as it hadn't been running or chasing after any of them. Which was good...until now.
It shook its massive tusk-tipped head, before giving a massive squeal that sounded more like a bellow.
"Right then," Cyrus turned to Zoe with a smirk, "would you like to do the honors?"
She scowled, before shooting off into the forest. "Run!"
And there was no need to complain against that. Percy and a panicking, bleating Grover quickly dashed off behind her, overtaking her while Phoebe ran alongside her.
Cyrus blinked at that alongside Thalia, not expecting to see them take off so fast, before scrambling to catch up as the boar finally got its crap together and began to give chase.
"You know, I'd never have expected a giant pork chop to be so speed-" "OI! Watch it or I'll turn you into pork steak!" The young Stand User yelped as he dodged a tusk that came swinging towards him.
He swore to himself as he was the last one of the group, with Percy (surprisingly) in the lead. But then again, it made sense to Cyrus because Percy was probably used to running for his life while he struggled to think of a plan.
"Can't kill it, can't stop it. Grover I'm going to go run you around Camp when we're done with this quest." Cyrus swore as he dodged another goring attempt from the boar behind him.
His musings on revenge however, were scrambled when Phoebe cried out, "Scatter!"
"Wait what?" Before he could process, the Hunters split off, with Percy and Grover scrambling in the other direction...which left him and Thalia being chased by the porcine bulldozer.
"Oh fuck me are you serious?!"
"Less talking more running Bamf-Boy!" Thalia shouted out as she grabbed his hand, dragging him along as they ran.
Cyrus absently noted, "Hey wait a second, I'm the one usually telling people to run and dragging them, it's usually me!" before shaking himself out of it and noticing a cave in the distance.
He pointed it out as the two raven-heads kept just ahead of the boar. "Look, over there!"
The two made a run for the cave, the sounds of squealing and destroyed terrain rumbling behind them as the monster chased them with single-minded determination.
Thalia stumbled over something in the snow, only to be quickly helped up by Cyrus. He quickly began to manifest D4C, overshadowing his limbs to propel him faster.
The Rib-Cage of the Saint gifted him with a healing factor, as well as relatively superhuman capabilities, but when being chased by the Ancient Greek equivalent of a bulldozer, Cyrus really didn't feel like testing his luck with just that and having to split from when he had merged with his other self fighting Ernesto.
Death by pig did not seem like a very dignified end.
His keen eye spotted exactly what Thalia had tripped over, and a plan began to fashion itself in his head.
"Those were railroad tracks Cy." She confirmed as they finally managed to gain some distance from the pig that was trying to turn them into makeshift teen shish-kebabs. Cyrus grinned as the gears in his head whirred.
"Seems like Lady Luck's smiling down on us then! If we keep going through the tunnel, chances are it'll get too small for our furry friend and it'll get stuck."
A squeal of displeasure echoed down the tunnel as Cyrus's suspicions were confirmed. His green-pink eyes glinted with amusement. "Perfect, keep moving!"
The two kept running through the tunnel...or at least Thalia kept running.
Looking to her side, her jaw dropped a little as she noticed what Cyrus was doing instead. He was grinning as he had his hands in his pockets, propelling himself and jumping off the sides of the tunnel's walls by overshadowing D4C's legs over his own. "Like what ya see Thals?" He said, winking at her as he jumped around the tunnel (1).
She shook off her disbelief and glared as she ran, "There's a giant pig trying to kill us and you're messing around?" She shouted at him, only to receive a lopsided grin in return.
"Ah c'mon Thals! This is the perfect time to mess around!" He said with a smirk, before dropping back down onto the ground to run alongside her. She had to stop herself from rolling her eyes and smiling.
As the end of the tunnel neared, they skidded to a stop as they realized exactly what was at said end.
Thalia's skin went ghost white as she stiffened up. Her breath quickened as she began to hyperventilate and her blue eyes were wide in fear. Cyrus grimaced, "So much for Lady Luck."
The end of the tunnel was on the edge of a massive drop off. The railroad tracks must have been collapsed long ago. "Wonderful..."
Cyrus looked over at Thalia, taking hold of her wrist as she tried to back away from the edge. Looking back, he used D4C's enhanced senses to heighten his hearing.
A squeal promising bloodshed came to his ears as the boar continued to bulldoze its way through the tunnel behind them, and if he were to squint behind him, he'd see the hulking figure of the beast coming through. Looking back at the drop in front of them, he grimaced as their only option presented itself in his brain. He felt the Nemean cloak on his back, and nodded resolutely.
A good plan in his mind...probably not in Thalia's. He steeled himself as he looked at Thalia, putting him between her and the cliff, and her back facing the tunnel.
"Alright Thals, here's the plan: we hold our ground against the pig."
If Thalia paled any further, she would have turned transparent as she screamed in a panic. "Are you crazy?! That pig is going to knock us off the edge! We don't survive a hundred foot drop Cy!"
"We'll be fine. Liste-" he insisted, only for her to keep rambling as her acrophobia put her between a rock and a hard place.
"I mean, you might not stay dead, but I will! Or we land on something sharp and die that way! We have to go back, m-maybe there's some way we can double around! O-or maybe you can use your Stand and knock it out! Or-"
Cyrus cut her off by cupping her cheeks, making her look at him and only him. "No time Thals, look at me! We're going to be fine. We've got thirty seconds before Mr. Piggy comes barreling through. We're going to jump off at just the right moment, and I need you to stay calm for all this. Do you trust me?"
"I-I..."
Her eyes darted from his own to behind her where the entrance of the tunnel where the snorting and squealing was starting to get louder and louder. Cyrus grimaced as his brain ran through calculations.
"Twenty seconds Thalia. I need an answer, do you trust me?" He asked again, bringing her electric blue orbs back to his of green and pink.
He grimaced inwardly as he could see the hesitation and outright worry in her eyes. Her phobia was getting the better of her, and despite his teasing over the years when they had traveled together, he knew how bad it was.
"C'mon Cy, think! We need to snap her out of i-" A sound of smashed stone greeted his ears as the war cry of the boar echoed from within the tunnel, painfully close.
"Fifteen seconds Thalia!"
Her eyes were still hesitant and panicked, with the latter part picking up as she heard the sound of the boar's rampage. He needed to do something to snap her out of it so that his (admittedly half-assed) plan would work.
His brain was not cooperating with getting that task done, so plan B.
Go with his gut and hope that she didn't kill him.
His mind unclouded, he moved forward, his lips met hers in a soft kiss.
She stiffened for a moment, but Cyrus paid it no mind. He just focused on putting as much of his pent up emotion into it. His feelings for her, how sorry he was for letting her think he was dead, as well as the hope he had that she would trust him, even in spite of all the secrets he kept from her.
As for Thalia, her fear fled the second she felt his lips on hers, giving way to shock, followed by confusion. Instead of letting her mind run wild, she opted for something different. As her confusion slipped away, she pressed back into the kiss, pouring her own emotions into it, along with her full trust. Her arms went around his neck while one of his hands slipped down to her waist.
They broke apart as the sound of shattered rock greeted their ears. The boar had finally made it through, and it was unhappy with the obstacle posed by the small tunnel. Its beady little eyes fixed on the two demigods standing together, before squealing out a war cry and preparing to charge.
Not that they seemed to notice.
As they parted, breathing a little heavily with them staring into each others eyes, he gave her a smile, before glancing over as the piggy charged, its little legs moving with the speed of a bullet train.
Just as the boar would have collided, Cyrus manifested D4C behind him, making it grab ahold of his cloak and jumping off the cliff while clutching Thalia to him as close as possible.
The two disappeared, leaving only the Nemean Cloak floating in the air in front of the boar.(2)
With a squeal of surprise, the pig panicked as the cloak covered its eyes, making it thrash around during its charge until it was thrown off. That of course, was not a good idea when near a cliff.
It gave another frightened squeal as it felt gravity exact its toll, sending it plummeting down to the ground below. Dazed, it could do nothing but struggle as its heavy body worked against it, getting it stuck in the piles of snow.
The cloak floated gracefully down to the snowy ground maybe ten feet from the unfortunate swine, furling and unfurling in the breeze before Cyrus and Thalia emerged from it and it flapped its way onto the ground.
They reappeared still holding one another, with Cyrus having his hands around her waist while Thalia's arms were around his neck. The two of them were still a little out of breath from their lip-lock, both still a little lost as to what had happened.
Thalia looked up at the young man before her. His caramel-toned face was tinged with a light dusting of red as he panted, his mane of hair a bit messier from the winds and his eyes were a little unfocused. D4C hovered behind him, its gaze giving away nothing as its eyes remained apathetic.
Except...she could have sworn she saw a tinge of emotion that she couldn't pinpoint within its stare.
Thalia Grace knew a number of things about the Stand User before her. She knew that he had a massive sweet tooth, that he was incredibly smart, but tended to play more towards his goofy side, that he was stubborn and powerful and vicious and ho- where was she going with that again?
Right, she knew a lot of things. But she wanted more. She knew without a doubt that she wanted to know more about the mysterious raven-mane before her. She'd been intrigued by him way back when with his murky past and secrets, his kindness and goofiness, as well as his vicious loyalty to those he considered his own.
And he was...handsome. Outrageously so. His mane of hair and stubble on his face gave him a rugged look that could only be balanced by his almost childish demeanor when he wasn't serious about things.
Of course, she had issues with sharing her feelings, especially after he died once, filling her with so much guilt when she was stuck inside a tree. This had manifested as her intense annoyance and wailing on the poor Stand User.
That had been a bit exacerbated by her time in said tree, as her emotions had never matured properly in stasis. But she knew one thing back then: If it turned out that he was alive, she would find him, and she would never be denied.
She wanted him to be hers, and no other's, not just physically, but emotionally...which made her realize something else.
Her arms still around his neck, she moved forward, capturing his lips once again as she could feel her worries melting away and pushing one thought into the kiss. "Mine."
Cyrus, who had used his ability to warp them into the Nemean cloak as a way of hiding in between dimensions, had been bracing for a slap, or a punch, or something...but not this. He was surprised to find Thalia leaning in for a second kiss, the surprise melting away instantly as the sensation of her lips made him recall his musings after talking with the Saint.
And clearly, he wasn't the only one with those feelings.
He smiled softly into the kiss as he pushed his heart into it once again.
As the two kissed, only one thought was in Thalia's mind as she pulled the taller boy down to her, "And Zoe wanted me to swear this off? No chanc-mmm that's good..."
Razione was not in a good mood. And it was only getting fouler as he rubbed his forehead where he sat at his desk.
A Holy Nail in the hands of the Old Blood and their Boss was in the center of it.
He frowned as he scratched at his beard, looking over the papers and computer on his desk.
It had been two years since Cyrus had overthrown the old Boss and installed himself as the new leader of Passione, but just as their Squadra Esecuzioni had betrayed Passione to defeat the old Boss, the Old Blood had done the same, displeased with Cyrus's commands and actions as the Boss.
But now, it seemed they were getting bolder. Outright attacks and assassinations through Stand Users, along with using a Holy Nail to propagate a new army of said individuals. Passione had almost undisputed authority over much of Europe now. Italy was under their control.
The US however? Not so much.
And now, the Boss was there alone, with a number of Stand User assassins after him, courtesy of the Old Blood and the mysterious 'Storto.'
"Any luck on decoding this shit Razione?" The steel-plate vested man turned in his chair to look at the new entry who had called out to him in Italian. It was a tall man, with brown hair that reached past his shoulders and styled into six pig-tails and purplish-red eyes. This was one of his colleagues, even back when they had been La Squadra Esecuzioni, alongside Risotto, Pesci, Prosciutto, Ghiaccio, Formaggio, Sorbet, and Gelato (3)...at least until the latter two died at the hands of the old Boss's cruel executioners.
Even now, Razione still felt the revulsion at looking at those two psychos.
Razione gave a sigh as he closed his eyes, rubbing them slightly to alleviate the dryness in them. "Nothing Illuso. All I've got is maybe two or three names of some of the guys after the Boss right now. And that's not even counting the new task he's given us."
Illuso blinked at that, "New task? The hell are you talking about?"
"The Boss says the Old Blood have gotten ahold of a Holy Nail," Razione replied, his eyebrows furrowing, "Boss wants us to find the last one that's unaccounted for. Wherever it is. 'Leave no stone unturned and think outside the box' as it were."
"Don't mention that last part to Ghiaccio-" The pig-tailed Stand User muttered under his breath, before the words caught up to him and he paled. "You're shitting me."
Razione shook his head, and Illuso swore, "How the fuck did they find another?! The old bastard of a Boss had only two!"
"I don't know Illuso," Razione replied, sighing as he rubbed his temples, "Let's think. We have one, Cyrus destroyed another, the third is in the Old Blood's hands. The fourth is missing. We need to find the fourth."
Illuso grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm on it."
"We all have to be on it. This is serious Illuso, if the Old Blood get a force of Stand Users on their side, they could overthrow Passione and undo everything we've done to try and execute Cyrus's will." Razione retorted, his purple eyes hard and commanding.
Nodding at the logic behind it, Illuso thought for a moment before he replied. "What do you have in mind?"
"I need you to travel to Rome. Take Prosciutto and Ghiaccio with you and try to get as much information as you can find on the locations of the Holy Nails. Pesci will help me out with decoding the rest of this."
Illuso grimaced at that. Ghiaccio was...not the most stable person. "Are you sure about involving Ghiaccio?"
Razione gave him a mild glare with an undertone of 'I know what you mean, but don't say it like that'. "Why do you think I'm sending you with Prosciutto? He'll keep Ghiaccio in line."
"What about Risotto?"
"Don't worry about him. He's doing what he should."
Illuso nodded, before walking out of the room. Razione paused for a moment, before reaching for his cellphone and dialing a number.
The phone rang once before someone picked up. A deep baritone voice answered. "What is it Razione?"
"Have you made it?"
"We got here yesterday Razione, what do you need?"
"The Boss'll need help with the assassins after him. You're already in America, so I'm sending you to help him out if possible. We can't mess around when it comes to these traitors."
"...consider it done."
"And take her with you. God knows she's better with people than you are Risotto." Razione added with a miniscule smirk.
The phone cut quickly after that, and Razione spared a chuckle at knowing that the person on the other end had closed the connection as fast as possible.
Percy was at a loss for words.
His jaw was laying somewhere on the ground at this point as he gaped at the two kissing teens.
He'd been following the sounds of (unhappy) pig squeals that were echoing through the forest. So imagine his surprise when he stumbled upon Cyrus and Thalia locking lips like no tomorrow.
Now, Percy was not entirely dense, no matter what anyone said. He could see that his cousin had some form of strange attraction to the mysterious Stand-wielding demigod, and vice versa. In the back of his mind he could remember the two after Cyrus revealed the truth of his power, where he'd given her his cloak and she'd blushed.
Yeah, there had been attraction, for sure.
But this? This was...huh?!
The boar was literally shuffling and struggling to break out from the snow crater it had put itself in, a literal monster about ten feet away from them...and they were making out like the world was ending!
He opened and closed his mouth as he tried to process. Meanwhile, his traitorous brain quietly replaced Cyrus and Thalia with himself and Annabeth, before he blushed and shook his head violently to remove that thought.
Looking away, Percy glanced behind him and had to bite his lip to keep a laugh from slipping out.
Behind him, the two hunters gaped in a strange fusion of disbelief and disgust.
Zoe stared/scowled in shock as her face colored red in embarrassment before turning slightly green with disgust. He guffawed mentally at the expression on her face. Oh he would have paid to have that picture framed in his cabin.
Phoebe was much the same, red in embarrassment at having caught the two teens essentially making out mere ten feet from certain death.
Percy chuckled under his breath as he turned away from the two appalled hunters. Now that he thought of it, they were a good fit together.
They were both tough, ferocious, and quite frankly, terrifying when their tempers were lost. They both adored Annabeth like a little sister, and Percy had to admit...they were very good at poking fun at him. But even as they were similar, they were also different in the perfect way.
Thalia was rash and aggressive, while Cyrus was relatively goofy and laidback. Both were pretty smart, but whereas Thalia was more instinct, Cyrus was much more strategic and prone to trickery and showboating. Thalia wore her emotions on her sleeves (mostly) while Cyrus played close to his chest.
Speaking of playing things close to his chest, Percy was suddenly reminded of his talk with Apollo and Cyrus's secretive nature...which then reminded him of Apollo's advice regarding Nereus and getting information out of him.
...But at the same time, if he spoke and brought it up, chances are he'd either be electrocuted or smashed into a pile of broken bones by light blue/pink fists.
In fact he dreaded whoever decided to snap them out of their kissing fervor.
"I DID IT! I WON THE BET!"
"I'll schedule your funeral now G-man."
Cyrus and Thalia broke apart and looked over to the source of the shout, their faces burning red in embarrassment as they realized they had an audience.
Percy gulped a little, stomping mercilessly down on that tiny part of his brain that thought now would be a good time to tease them. Which would be detrimental to his...you know, being alive.
Especially now that he saw the gears clink together in Thalia's mind as her eyes narrowed menacingly. "Grover...?" She gritted her teeth a little as she slipped out of Cyrus's arms.
The satyr paled as he realized who was headed for him, looking around for help from the rest of the group.
He found exactly zero of that. "Traitors!"
Stumbling back a little, he waved his hands trying to placate the unhappy demigoddess. "U-uh! Listen Thalia! Just...I-I can explain! It's a funny story too hahahaha!" He chuckled weakly, his voice dying slowly as she approached.
Thalia grabbed the bleating Grover by the collar, pulling him in and growling in his face as her eyes sparked. "I'll ask this once goat-boy. What. Bet?"
Meanwhile in Camp HalfBlood, a certain blonde felt a sense of impending doom and pain ghost across her soul, before shaking it off and getting back to interrogating people as to where her invisibility cap went. Currently, the Stolls were on her list...
Back with our group, Cyrus winced a little as Grover's eyes rolled up into his head and he passed out on the spot from the embarrassed fury radiating off of the daughter of Zeus. He didn't blame him, Thalia was definitely a scary woman, especially at this moment. Granted, Cyrus thought Grover would have been desensitized to this sort of thing, considering his many adventures that he'd had during the Stand User's absence. But then again, Cyrus didn't really have room to judge.
Having the memories of the Eyes of Heaven battles, as well as every Joestar's Final battles via Valentine, combined with his own dealings with Stand Users and monsters, tended to distort one's ideas of fears, life and death. Hell, with D4C he'd pretty much lost his fears over death after his...he forgot the number of times he technically died, but that wasn't the point. The point was death didn't scare him much anymore. Not to mention his time in Passione with la Squadra...
But yeah, at this moment Thalia was definitely up there in terms of scary. "But damn if it isn't a turn o- no, stop it!" Cyrus shook his head of those thoughts, grumbling quietly.
Phoebe, having recovered from her embarrassed shock, scowled as the satyr passed out. "Now one of our trackers is knocked out, along with one of our best ways of harnessing the boar."
Thalia gave her a glare while Zoe recovered as well, sniffing in the standard 'higher-than-thou' attitude she tended to have. "Excellent work from thou," She spoke in a very oddly sarcastic manner, "This must be from that horrendous romance thou have with Khan. I can't believe thou even kissed him! It must have been so painfully awful."
Cyrus snapped up at that with a gasp and a pout. "How dare! I'll have you know that I am a great kisser. Right Thals? How do you rate it?" He said as he glanced over at Thalia.
Her eyes glazed over slightly as she felt her lips, "Mmm five st-." She stopped herself, blushing fiercely. "Shut it you!"
The Stand User chuckled as he walked over to pick up his cloak, refastening it to him before looking up at the sky to gauge the time. While absently noting that he should really get a watch, he grimaced faintly as Phoebe told everyone what he was realizing.
"It's been two days since we set out, so we have four days to find Lady Artemis."
"And we're in New Mexico," Percy interjected helpfully, scrunching up his nose a little as he tried to recall. "Think the sign said something like Crapcourt or something?"
Cyrus stifled a laugh at that, "It was Cloudcroft Sharkbait. Why would a town ever call themselves that?" Percy reddened a little and scowled at him, but was starting to smile a bit at the light ribbing.
"Well, four days to find our way west. How are we gonna get there?" Thalia asked outright, earning a grin from Cyrus as he noticed Grover slowly coming to.
Walking over to the reawakening satyr, he hoisted Grover to his hooves, "Well that, is where what Grover was talking about comes in. Quite nice of Grover's idol to lend us some help."
"What Grover was talking about? That whole 'Gift of the Wild' thing right?" Percy asked again, before tilting his head in confusion. "Wait, Grover's idol?"
"Of course! The God of the Wild was sending us a gift Sharkbait. No one else could send the Erymanthian Boar to us like that." Cyrus smirked a little as Grover tried using him as a human shield from Thalia.
The boar in question was finally recovering from its dazed state as Grover slowly made his way over to it, pulling out his reed pipes. Meanwhile, Percy still looked at Cyrus in confusion.
"Wait so who sent this again?"
Cyrus stared at him for a solid minute, silently smashing his head against the rocky cliff to his right. "Annie, why'd you pick an idiot?"
"Think it through Lobster Head. Who would Grover give his left leg to find? The one that all satyrs have been searching for so long for?"
Percy scowled at the nickname but thought for a moment, before his eyes widened. "Wait you mean..."
"And the penny dropped. Yeah, just before the boar showed up, us four," he gestured to himself, the Hunters, and Grover, "felt the presence of Pan. Now c'mon, let's get going."
AN: Phew, all done! This took a bit longer, but I'll just give the excuse of College starting up for this one haha.
Bit more of a look into Passione in this chapter. Oh the things I have planned for you and the Old Blood...
Things are heating up too! :D
Notes:
(1) Similar to how Jotaro was jumping around the classroom during his battle against Kakyoin.
(2) This is similar to how Valentine manages to hide inside of the American flag when fighting Diego and Wekapipo. Also known as the 'Hiding in another Dimension' move in All-Star Battle.
(3) So, I've opted to remove Melone from La Squadra and replace him with Razione, bc personally I never particularly liked Melone as a character or as a Stand User. I understand his whole specialty was using his Stand to make remote-control drones to commit assassinations, but it just seemed so bad in comparison to the rest of the team. I mean, requiring a woman to make your Stand work? Come on. Not to mention he gave off serious creeper-rapist vibes, not someone that Cyrus would want to associate with.
Alright, that does it for the notes!
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed making/struggling with it.
Remember to leave solid reviews if you would be so kind. The criticism and feedback sustain my mind.
Cheers!
Beowulf