Percy talking
Percy thinking
Adamos talking
Adamos thinking
Chapter 42
The Percian Minor Incident
"Holy shit I didn't think I actually had C-4 in here!" I almost shouted in disbelief as I analyzed the block of clay wrapped in shiny tin foil in my hand. I thought I had given it all away along with all of the other weapons that were taken from the Lotus Casino but apparently, I was wrong and there was still some in my possession.
"It might be a good idea to run inventory on everything we've acquired in the near future." Adamos suggests. "Misplacing, let alone forgetting high yield explosives of any amount is a disastrous oversight."
"You mean everything you've stolen or made me steal?"
"As if I need to sneak around and steal." He says defensively. "What I did is was acquisition of the spoils of war. The dead and the defeated don't need such things."
"I'm pretty sure that still defines a grave robber." I retort.
"Its not grave robbing it's claiming treasure. Conquerors took treasures and tributes all the time back in the day, also stop fiddling with those wires or you'll prime the clay." Adamos says and I stop touching the multiple-colored wires attached to the bricks.
I quickly yet gently place the bricks in my back pack and stand to leave my cabin. I had gotten everything I needed and was ready to start the extermination soon enough. The entire walk back Adamos explained the process of arming the charges and setting up the detonator. I didn't have a physical detonator so I had to make a magical one instead.
The process imprinted a tattoo on the back of my right hand that looked kind of like a clock with two short hands pointing at seven and five. Adamos had warned me that it was set to respond to a certain physical action of my choice and due to some inspiration from an anime I saw I can no longer snap my fingers without setting off enough explosives to destroy an armored tank.
After what was my umpteenth trip back from camp I was fairly surprised when I got back as what was once a modest defensive position was practically a fortress. Sharpened spikes jutted out of the walls of the fort with what look like vines wrapping around them. I could feel the magic flowing through the vines and I could only imagine what they would do if something got to close. The turrets were swiveling back and forth atop the four corners of the walls with a menacing red light sweeping over terrain for anything that moved.
The numerous volunteer campers all marched around doing various tasks and making the final changes that they felt they needed.
"Yo! Percy!" I heard a voice to the side.
Standing by another entrance/exit was Lou and the rest of the infiltration group. I waved back to the group and made my way over to their position.
"Sorry I'm late." I quickly apologize. "Had to actually find what I was looking for in my cabin."
"Wait so you actually have explosives?" Probably Travis asked. I couldn't tell which twin was which and knew asking them to wear name tags wouldn't help. Knowing the Stolls they would just switch them around...or not and say they did. Instead of responding I grinned as I removed my backpack. One by one I stacked the explosive blocks in a pyramid and their eyes widened with each block.
"This is going to be amazing." Lou whispered with awe.
"Please tell me you're not some kind of terrorist?" Thalia asked as she stared at the pile, not with any kind of fear but a bit of interest.
"Not since Homeland security pardoned me last year." I waved off, earning me a look from what was obviously supposed to be a joke. "So, who's ready to get going?"
"We were ready ten minutes ago." Thalia spoke, deciding to ignore my comment on my status as a threat to national security. "Are you not going to suit up?"
"Suit up?"I blink and look around at the others. Each one of them was wearing light armor that they got from the armory. Less than what everyone else around us was wearing in terms of protection but still enough to cover their legs, forearms, and torso in hardened leather.
"I don't think I actually have any armor." I admit, now feeling under dressed at the moment. "Never actually worn any now that I think about it."
"Never?" Connor asked. "No armor at all?"
"Nope." I said with a shake of my head. "Not since my first capture the flag game. I mean I do have one spell that gives me full body protection though it's not too powerful." In all honesty this was a pretty big oversight on my part as well as Adamos'. There were plenty of instances during my quests that the presence of armor, even the minimal leather light armor would have been a boon and spared me the feelings of cracked ribs and broken bones.
"Dude that sounds super cool."
"I guess." I shrug. "Not exactly the strongest shield. Breaks after one good hit." Despite my nonchalance I could see that it didn't deter the interest of the two sons of Hermes who began to whisper to each other, and I had a faint feeling that I was going to have to answer a few things in the future.
"We have spares over there." Lou pointed to the side of the main building where a bunch of supplies were stacked onto organized piles. "Just pick one out and we can leave."
I nodded and walked over to the pile or weapons and armaments stacked into a pile. I had no idea where they came from or when someone managed to bring them into the base, but just looking at the sheer number of weapons that were accumulated kind of made me feel like my preparations were…inadequate.
"Because they were. But then again you were expecting a much smaller group to participate."
"Still can't believe the turn out." I thought as I tried on a chest piece only to put it back as it was a size too small. "Especially the Demeter cabin. I don't think I've ever seen them this excited about anything that has to do with fighting."
"I've seen one or two a generation show that level of pure aggression ever century or so, but an entire cabin is something else." Adamos comments in slight amusement as I strap on the leather greaves around my legs before going on to strapping the gauntlets to my forearms.
"Is it bad that I kinda want to watch what happens if I just point them in the direction of the nest?" I asked as I pulled the last strap on my chest piece. "I feel like that makes me a bad person."
"There's hardly a difference between that and what we're doing right now." I feel him wave the question off. "Just the location is different and they are defending. But they still signed up to do this regardless."
"I guess so." I mutter as I start twisting and stretching, trying to feel if there were any limitations in my range of motion. Nodding in satisfaction as I found I could fully move around unhindered I went back to where the others were waiting.
"Finally." Thalia huffed as I walked up. "Were you having a fashion show in there or what?"
I let out a soundless laugh at the comment. "Of course. I needed to find some armor that matched my complexion. You know how hard that can be."
"Whatever Zoolander." Thalia rolled her eyes at me but I thought I saw the faintest twitch at the corner of her mouth before she turned away to the rest of the group. "All right enough screwing around. We've already burned enough daylight."
"But what if I need to use the bathroom?" Travis asked as he raised his hand like he was in class. Next to him his brother snickered into his own hand.
"Then you can hold it and pray that you don't piss yourself." Thalia said without and hesitation, shutting up the sons of Hermes. She smirked at the two of them as she lifted up a black backpack that dully rattled with was presumably what she needed for the quest.
I grabbed my own bag which I had dropped in a pile with the others. The blue fabric standing out from the green of the standard bags that the camp provides. Then as a group we march off into the forest.
X
"What about…you can never spill any liquid you pour into a container."
"What about height?"
"Doesn't matter." Connor waves off his brother's question. "You can't spill a liquid no matter what."
"Hmm," I rub my chin, pretending to be deep in thought. "I think it's the most useless for me since I think I can already do that. Never tried though."
Our small group walked through the forest at a steady pace, avoiding the occasional ant as we made our way in deeper. Like their smaller counterparts the ants tended to march in a line, and even if we killed any that we came across there would just be another that came across the golden remains on the ground.
Better to not chance it.
"Okay my turn. What about…" I think for a moment before snapping my fingers as the idea came to me. "Super strength but only when you're carrying the groceries."
"How would that be a useless power? One trip with all the groceries." Travis said. "Carry all of them at once. I'd take it." He nodded but the other twin, Connor, didn't seem as keen.
"Wait. Is it just groceries or is this like any kind of package? Like a box of oranges or maybe a crate." Connor asked.
"Only what you carry out from the grocery store."
"So, if I were to come out with a—" Connor spoke, trying once again to out logic a simple game to pass the time, only to be interrupted by Thalia.
"You guys get over here." Thalia called out as she looked over Lou's shoulder at the map. "We're almost at the entrance."
"Finally." Travis huffed as he sped up to get a look at the map as well. "Feels like we've been walking forever."
"It's only been twenty minutes." I responded.
Connor let out a small laugh. "Like he said. Forever."
I just shrug, filling it away as a quirk that the children of Hermes might all have and jog over to the group. Lou was holding out the holographic display of the entire forest in front of her, letting us all see the lay out. Two clusters of green dots were nestled on different parts of the mountain while lines of red dots moved across the forest.
"So, the main nest is here," Lou pointed to a spot heavily concentrated with the red dots. "and we are here." She then pointed to the smaller of the clustered green dots. With a flick of her wrist the map shifted. The birds eye view disappearing and letting a horizontal map of our area take its place. "Like we said before, this thing goes down for miles so its going to take us a while."
"How long do you think it'll take?" I ask as I look over the many intricate tunnels forming directions in my head.
Lou shakes her head. "No idea. Could be hours or maybe all day. I have no idea how many of these things are down there or where they are so it's a bit iffy on the resistance front."
"Shouldn't matter." Thalia says as she glances at a watch on her wrist. "The others will hold out as long as we need them to. Which should be starting right…about…" The demigoddess snaps her fingers almost the same moment that a loud boom echoes through the forest. "Damn. Off by a second."
Barely even a moment later the ground began to shack as the sound of countless footsteps seemed to get louder by the moment. Lou had turned the map back to its overview setting and we all watched as the red dots all shifted in one unanimous movement and marched towards the larger cluster of green dots.
"Right. Now we have to move." I said as I looked at the growing number of red dots. I closed my eyes and expanded my senses through the earth bellow and felt for the opening of the ant nest. Unlike before where there seemed to be a massive construct inside the ground that was blocking my senses, I could actually feel everything clearly. It only took me a moment to locate the massive hole in the ground that led deeper into the earth.
"Over here." I motioned for them to follow as I walked over to the opening. It was expertly well hidden beneath a patch of grass and roots that made a door, and had anyone else been looking for it with just their eyes they probably have never found it.
"Oh, is it a secret tunnel? Please tell me it's a secret tunnel." Lou asked as they all gathered around me.
"You know I'm starting to notice that a lot of our stuff tends to happen underground." I comment before turning to the magic caster of the group. "You think this is going to be a pattern?"
"For you? Probably." She shrugged. "I'm not going to complain if it does. Secret tunnels are cool." Lou nudged past me and slid into the darkness of the hole on her rear. The Stoll twins followed after her, using Lou's example and going down like it was a slide. Thalia just walked down like a normal person with me bringing up the rear.
The hatch closed behind us with a soft thump and we were immediately swallowed by the darkness. I mean I could see perfectly fine and but…
"Ahh! Who turned out the lights!"
"I'm blind! I'm blind!"
"Hey watch it!"
"Something wet just touched my leg!"
"Will you idiots st-OW! I swear to the gods I will throttle whoever hit me!"
"I didn't do it!/He did it!"
I reminded me of all those times in school when the teachers turned out the lights and the class went crazy for no reason, not that I wasn't a part of the madness. Between the narrow tunnel and the Stoll's acting like complete goofs there wasn't much chance of us moving without being elbowed in the process by each other or by a rock in the wall
Dodging an elbow from Thalia I crouched down and grabbed a stray pebble, the size of a lemon, and write the rune for light into the stone. Immediately the tunnel is flooded with a constant source of light, making the others stop what they were doing.
Lou had been smudged against the wall by Connor who at some point must have tripped over something while Thalia had somehow managed to grab Travis and put him into a headlock.
"Seriously?" My tone was dry as I asked, though it was mostly towards the sons of Hermes than the two girls.
"Sorry." They apologized simultaneously, though they didn't sound all that remorseful.
I shook my head as I walked forward, pushing past them to the front of the group and handing one of the Travis the glowing stone. The tunnels were a little bit smaller than I had anticipated with my head nearly scraping the ceiling at some points or even going low enough that I had to lean forward a bit to fit. I wasn't anything that would deter us from the route and at most it was an annoyance for me and Thalia who were the tallest of the group. Walking side by side wasn't an option as the walls were far to narrow and only allowed two people could walk side by side, but only if their shoulders were practically touching.
"I'll take the lead and we'll keep Lou in the middle since she has the map."
"Why do you get to lead?" Thalia asked though it seemed less challenging and more curious.
I opened my mouth but Lou spoke first, not even looking up from her map as she walked off and the rest of us trailed after her, already leaving the idea of the protection detail behind. I stepped to her side to better protect her while she read the map and the others followed behind us. "It's because Percy can see in the dark."
"Wait really?" Connor asked, now focusing on me. "Since when could you see in the dark?"
I shrugged. "Since always."
"And you didn't tell us?!" Travis butted in, looking as equally aghast as his twin. "Dude! There are so many pranks that we could have done."
"It never seemed like an important thing to bring up." I defended while silently cursing Lou in my head. I didn't really need people asking questions about my abilities and I preferred it stayed that way. The fact that nobody has really asked so far has been nothing short of a miracle.
"Wait how are you able to see in the dark?" Thalia asked, cutting to the harder questions. "That seems more like a Hades or some other underworlder kind of thing."
Lou looked away from the map and at her fellow demigoddess. "Underworlder? Is that some kind of derogatory term we're using now? Cause I feel like I should be offended."
"What would you call them then?"
"…I don't know but it's still offensive."
"Isn't your mom an Underworlder Lou?" Connor asked and I heard Lou quietly sigh, figuring the new terminology wasn't going to die any time soon. "Shouldn't you be able to see in the dark?"
"I can. Though not as well as Percy." She admitted and all eyes turned to me.
"How does that make sense?" Thalia asked me with a questioning look.
"I don't know. How do magnets work?" I shrugged, hoping that they would stop asking to much.
"It's when electrons in atoms spin in the same direction, creating a magnetic field that attract aligning atoms of a separate object, or a field created around a coil with an electric current passing through it." Thalia explained casually though she still looked like she wanted an answer for her previous question.
"I thought you never went to school?" Travis asked, confused at how she knows something so trivial yet scientific.
"I account it to demigod bullshit." Thalia waved off. "Random facts about electricity and bird species.
"Can I claim that answer as well?" I asked. "Because that's honestly the best answer I can think of."
"Not a chance Jackson." Thalia smirked. "Demigod BS is now trademarked. If you got any grievances get over it."
I opened my mouth to respond with a completely witty comeback only to close it when I felt something niggling my senses. It wasn't my normal senses but rather my divine ones that I get from my abilities.
I placed my hand against the wall as I focused on the earth around us while my other hand grabbed Lou by the shoulder and stopping her from going forward. Lou opened her mouth to ask the 'Why?' that they others seemed to be giving me but clamped it shut when I motioned to the intersection of trails in front of us. There was one hole a little to the right a few feet in front of us while another was directly to my right.
I felt the pitter-patter of numerous feet getting closer and closer by the second. My face scrunched as I tried to focus on the numbers only to remember that Ants had multiple legs rather than two like a normal person and adjusting my numbers.
"Three total." I muttered but the empty silence of the cave let my voice carry to their ears. "Two up front and one to the right." I turned as I told them and only just barely caught the last traces of the Stoll's disappearing into random hiding places in nooks and crannies that I never noticed. Hades, if it wasn't for the fact that I could see perfectly fine in the darkness and the slight light of the glowing stone I would have missed Travis, who was hanging from a hole in the ceiling by the tree roots, and Connor, who had somehow snuck past me and was hiding near the door, completely. "Follow the Stoll's lead and hide." Lou didn't need to be told twice before the two of us each looked for a place to hide. Thalia was the only outlier, not really looking.
"Why can't we fight them?" Thalia whispered though it was loud enough that there probably wasn't any difference between that and her regular voice.
"Just hide!" I whispered rather than answer the question.
Lou didn't protest and pressed herself against one of the walls of the tunnel and waved her hand. A faint shimmer formed around her as the Mist practically erased any indicators that she was ever there.
I pressed my will into the wall that I was still touching and forced to earth to shift, making a small indention in the wall, large enough for me to hide in.
Thalia, who didn't have any useful powers for hiding nor even bothered looking earlier, looked around frantically, her head snapping back and forth around her.
I could feel the ants getting closer and made the executive decision to grab her hand and pull her into the hole with me, the space between us almost nonexistent.
"What's the ide—" She snarled but couldn't say more as my hand was now covering her mouth. She tried to speak but I kept my hand over her mouth like an iron clamp, cutting off all noise as I shushed her. That didn't stop her from trying to set me ablaze with her eyes alone though.
"Quiet." I whispered, thankfully, causing her to stop struggling against me as I moved the earth and tree roots in front of the hole to cover us. It wasn't a perfect thing but it covered us mostly and still let us see outside in case we needed to attack.
The rapid thumping through the earth increased rapidly until I was sure that even the others could feel it just from touching the ground. Not even a moment later, what was perhaps the largest ant I had ever seen took up what little vision that Thalia and I had through the roots and dirt. It was easily almost as tall as Thalia and I at our full height, with its head barely reaching the ceiling of the tunnel. Its antennae, each as long as my arm, tapped the ground as it marched forward until it came upon the glowing stone that Travis dropped when he went into hiding.
Its mandibles were big enough to fully wrap around a full-grown man's waist, and I held no illusions that it would have any difficulty cutting a person in two if they had the misfortune to get between them.
It let out a small series of clicks and the two other ants that I sensed had made themselves known. Each was identical to the larger insect if not for the fact that they were a lot smaller. They were practically the size of medium sized dogs and easily walked underneath the big one's legs.
The tree of them surrounded the glowing stone looking between themselves and clicking indistinctly until they seemed to settle on something. The large one and one of the smaller ones turned and marched down the tunnels leaving the last one to pick up the stone in its pincers and follow after them, seemingly pleased with itself if the slight bobbing of its head meant anything. I was a few moments until the light from the stone completely faded, leaving us in pitch black.
"I think they're gone." I whispered as I peeked my head out into the tunnel. "We can step out now."
"Mmmhm." I heard a muffled sound and it took me a moment to realize that I still had my hand over Thalia's mouth. Her electric blue eyes were trying to drill a hole in my head as I covered her mouth.
"Did…did you lick my hand?" I whispered as I removed my hand and wiped the dampness on my shirt. Thalia didn't say anything but her glare seemed to sharpen. "Why would you lick my hand?" I dropped the covering that I used to hide the hole and stepped out with Thalia right after me.
"You're the one that stuck your fingers in my mouth."
"I did not!"
"Did too!"
"I just covered your—No you know what. Forget it. Its in the past." I forcibly drop the issue and wipe my hand on my shirt as I really didn't want to argue about who did what and why.
Lou, seeing that the cost was clear, dropped her invisibility with a full body shiver. "EW! Ewewewew! It was so close to touching me!"
"You okay there Lou?"
"Ugh. I think so." Lou said with disgust as she rubbed her hands against her shirt, trying to remove some hidden filth. "Gods I didn't think they would look so big and…ugh!
"Phrasing." Was quietly whispered behind me.
"You got a fear of bugs or something?" Conner asked as he and his brother came out of their hiding spots. "Can't handle the creepy crawlies?" He teased.
"I can handle insects just fine." Lou growled in indignation. "Its just…the bigger ones are more gross looking, and bigger, and…I think I overestimated how ready for this I actually am."
"Can you still go on?" I asked. "Because its only going to get worse the deeper we go." Lou hesitated before begrudgingly nodding. I wasn't convinced but if she was going to continue than I wasn't going to tell her no. I'd just have to keep an eye on her.
"Yeah. We've barely gone twenty feet and we almost got caught." Travis said. "That's some serious bad luck."
"I don't think it was bad luck." The other Stoll commented. "They seemed very particular about that glowing rock Percy made."
"You think so?" I asked as I thought about it. The magic was only a basic rune carved into the stone in order to make a light source. It was neither strong nor valuable and would most likely die out within the next few minutes without me supplying it with power. Still, the ants came to US rather quickly. I remember reading that they were attracted to magical objects if what I read meant anything, but I didn't think that it meant that they were attracted to ANY magical object. "If I made more do you think they would come?"
"Only one way to find out." Thalia suggested.
Everyone else was okay with trying it but Lou needed more convincing, and only agreed to it when I made the little hole in the wall big enough for three people to fit so she could join Thalia and I. Once more I grabbed a stone off the ground and carved the rune into its surface. As soon as I pumped power into the rune and the stone began to glow, I chucked it down the hall. We all went back into our hiding spaces, with Thalia threatening the concept of personal space since we had three people now even if I did make it bigger. Not that she seemed to mind as she was staring intently at the glowing stone. Almost as quickly as last time a different team of ants wandered down our tunnel and greedily grabbed the stone off the floor before turning back and returning into the catacombs.
"So. New rule of thumb, no using magic items down here." I comment as I remove myself once again from the hole in the wall I made. "Although I guess because our weapons are concealed, they don't count." I add as my hand trace Riptide through the fabric of my pants.
"Yes. Please don't." Lou asked in an off put voice. "One close encounter is good enough for me. I don't want to be swarmed."
"Having second thoughts?" I asked.
"No! That treasure is just waiting for me and I intend to find it. It will be mine!" Lou spoke back with ferocity before she tapered off a bit. "But…I'd rather not reenact the Alien movies if I can help it."
"Is that the movie with the monster wearing dreadlocks?" Thalia asked.
"Nah." Travis shook his head. "You're thinking of Predator. Alien is the one with the black monster with the mouth tongue."
"We should totally have a movie night one of these days. Get a bunch of those Alien movies." Connor suggested with a grin. "We could get popcorn and actual soda and candy and—"
"Guys." I interrupted. "I think we're getting off track."
"Right. Right, right." Thalia said a little awkwardly. "If we can't have a light source than how are we going to get around these tunnels let alone fight? Because I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not comfortable in the slightest with walking around blind even if two of you can see. And that map of yours is barely a light source at all." Thalia tacked on that last comment almost like an afterthought, though I found myself nodding along with the Stoll's. There was no telling what would happen down here in these tunnels. Thalia then turns to Lou. "Is there anything you can do to help?"
"I mean…there is one thing." Lou thinks aloud. She presses her hands in the shape of a steeple, the top of her fingers touching each other. "An enchantment around the eyes to grant dark vision."
"You're calling it dark vision?" Thalia asks in a bemused voice.
"Screw off it sounds better than night vision. At least nothing is green unless it's supposed to be." Lou retorted. "Now as I was saying. I can enchant your eyes so that you can see in the dark…but there's a catch. You can't turn it off so long as you have it."
"That doesn't sound too bad." Connor shrugged.
"Yeah. Not so bad down here. Talk to me again when you get outside and feel like you're staring into the sun nonstop."
"Can't you just put it on a timer." He asked.
"No, you can't just put it on a timer." Lou retorts before looking thoughtful. "Or at least I don't think so? I may have skimmed over that part."
"Lou." I say her name with a long-suffering sigh, though she at least had the decency to look sheepish and promise to look into it later.
"Look, I know how to remove it so it's not really a problem." Lou explains. "I just zap your eyes and then do it again when it's all done and we're peachy."
The twins look between each other, seemingly having a silent conversation between each other on who would go first, but it was Thalia who volunteered with barely any hesitation.
"I'll go first." She steps forward, probably measuring the distance with where Lou's voice is coming from as despite standing right in front of the young sorceress, she is looking in the wrong direction. "It'll be better than bumbling in the dark. So, what do you need to do? Hocus Pocus? Bibbity bobitty boo? Abracadabra?"
Lou gave the daughter of Zeus one of the most deadpan stares that I have ever seen as she continues to speak. A stare that I have seen numerous times and have been the cause of a few of them. Then without any warning, at least for the others since they couldn't see but I could have seen from a mile away, Lou slaps Thalia across the face, leaving a large glowing hand print across her cheek. "Alakazam." She says dryly.
"Ahh, fucking bitch." Thalia rubs her face while glaring at Lou. The magical handprint on her face fades away while her blue eyes briefly glow. Then as if a switch was flipped her scowl fades away and she starts to study her hands before moving on to her surroundings. "Oh, hey. I can actually see. Not as impressive as I imagined. Kinda warm around the eyes though"
"Its dark vision, not a Kamehameha." Lou retorts only to whisper in a low enough voice that I barely hear. "It shouldn't feel warm."
"Oh, I want night vision next."
"No do me!"
Both Stoll twins stepped forward, wanting to experience the magic. I guess that it must be different than whatever magic that they have been taught, er, actually, have they been taught any magic? I think I saw a class for some kind of magical lessons in the camp schedule but I didn't look into it since I didn't need it. I should probably look into it to see if there's anything worth learning.
The sound of two consecutive yelps and slaps brought me from my thoughts just in time to see Lou slap the Stoll twins like they were a part of the Three Stooges, her hand slapping them across their faces in one wide motion. "Now you can see." I could hear the smirk in her voice.
"I can see." The Stolls take the entire thing in stride, not even caring that they were just slapped. "My sight has been restored!"
"Blessed be we brother!"
"Truly a miracle has fallen onto us."
"Hey Abbot, Costello. Quit hamming it up. We have things to do." Thalia ordered, having gotten over the magic already.
""Yes ma'am!""
It takes me a moment to focus but, in a moment, I realize that she is right. My internal clock says that we have been inside these tunnels for a little over fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes that the other group has been defending themselves while we have barely made it more than thirty feet in.
"Alright Sabrina, get behind me and water boy. Travis and Connor will watch our backs and keep an eye on any tunnels we don't find incase of an ambush." Thalia orders, getting us into position. She stood just a bit in front of me, probably because she had her shield and not knowing that I have one as well on account of how I haven't shown it to her yet.
It's a good formation. The kind I would have suggested we take as well, but she only spoke a second faster.
With Thalia leading the way we steadily marched forward and farther into the caves. Occasionally Lou would call out different directions, causing us to either change our heading or stop and circle back because we passed where we needed to go. I, myself kept a hand to the walls of the tunnel at all times as a precaution. I could feel the movement of the numerous ants all around us as their steps made subtle vibrations through the earth. My range was limited though, far less than if I was underwater and far less precise but it didn't keep me from warning our group of any incoming ants and digging a hole in the wall for us to hide in.
Despite the run ins we didn't have much in the way of confrontations. I could feel the numerous vibrations all above us and for a moment I had to wonder how the other group was doing.
X
Annabeth had lived in this camp for most of her known life, long enough that she was eventually made the cabin head, a position usually reserved for the demigods who were in high school or heading off to college. She had trained tirelessly to be the best knife user in the camp, read every book on monsters that she could get her hands on, and developed hundreds of plans for capture the flag that she could think of.
This however had to be a first.
Removed from the command position by the Demeter cabin leader, Katie Gardner, and reduced to a supply girl no less than five minutes into the siege defense.
Thank the gods that her siblings weren't here to see just how low she had fallen.
The box in her arms rattled as the celestial bronze bullets rolled into each other. Her legs were starting to burn as she climbed the steps and made it to the top of the tower and loaded the band of bullets into the enchanted turret that had stopped firing into the swarm. If it weren't for the fact that she knew that the used celestial bronze bullets would return to Mount Olympus sooner or later than she would have been a bit worried with the amount of ammo they were going through.
Annabeth looked over the rest of the defensive positions from her perch above. The Demeter cabin held each line with ferocity as they pushed back the waves of ants no matter how many continued to swarm. Never once did the line falter nor did their weapons remain clean. They rip and tore as if they were the Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae.
She could practically hear the heavy metal music.
…
No wait. Someone brought their boombox and they actually were playing heavy metal music.
"Annabeth! We need more hands on the western wall!" Beckendorf ordered from atop the central tower where he was crafting explosives by hand and throwing them into the swarm. "The Southern line were too enthusiastic and killed too many! They've pushed to far and now the ants are swarming the western group! Grab some grenades and start throwing!"
Annabeth let out a sigh as she raced down the steps, a bit of insect guts hitting her in the chest plate and hair as one of the younger Demeter campers, a girl probably no older than ten, ripped a pincer out of one of the monsters and used it to stab another through its head.
At least she's no longer an errand girl.
X
They were probably fine.
"We're coming up to a large pocket up ahead." Lou spoke up as me marched down the tunnel. "Can you feel anything inside?"
I extended my senses into the upcoming room as soon as Lou asked. The entire area mapped out in my head as I focused on the first area, we've come across that wasn't a tunnel. The area was quite large, half the length of a football field and almost just as wide. There were no vibrations inside the room so nothing was in there moving, a fact that I explained to the group once I pulled myself back to my normal senses.
"Weird that there's a space with nothing in it." Thalia rubbed her chin as she continued forward. "Aren't ants supposed to be super organized or something?"
"Maybe they just have spares." I commented from right behind her. "The ants have obviously been expanding for a long time, who knows how far these tunnels go."
"Maybe they use it for food storage." Connor suggested from the back. "Or maybe it's the treasure room."
"Not likely." Lou responded with a shake of her head as we entered into the room. The ground bare of anything except thick tree roots and the occasional rock. "Celestial bronze is a divine metal so it's easily enchanted. I asked Chiron when I first got to camp and according to him all of the camps equipment is marked in order to prevent stealing or items going missing."
"Real stellar job on that front." Travis let out a bark of a laugh as sarcasm practically dripped off his words. "I only had to share a shield twice this week."
"You had to share a shield?" Thalia said with a tease as she turned back to face the son of Hermes. "Can't you bring your own~"
"Fuck you. Not all of us have cheat codes for weapons." The twin snapped back with no real bite.
"You're just jealous."
"Your damn fucking right I am." He ranted. "I want an ugly face shield too. I'd keep the Aphrodite girls off my back. You know how often I have to beat them away with a stick?"
"It'd be less often if you didn't prank them so often." I said with a chuckle.
"Good sir." Travis looked at me in faux disbelief, his hand over his heart. "Would you ask a dog not to fetch a ball? A bear not to shit in the woods? A fish not to swim?"
"I'm pretty sure I can do that."
"To ask me not to prank would be a crime!" He continued as if I had said nothing. "A crime I say!"
"What's a crime is that we haven't found anything of value." Lou gripes as she flicks the map, searching through different areas. "You promised me treasure Percy. I want my treasure!"
Lou had raised her voice enough that I was already turning to tell her to be quiet only to stop when I heard a large squelch and saw a large gunk of something had landed in her hair. Lou's face had gone ashen white as whatever liquid it was coated in dripped down to her face and probably onto her clothes.
Instinctively I looked up to the source had to force my mouth shut. I didn't trust myself to not blurt out something stupid and cause a panic, not with what sat above us.
It figures that we would somehow find our way into some sort of ant den.
All along the ceiling were countless ants all hanging there like bats. They greatly resembled the ants we saw on our way here except for the fact that the bronze color that normally made up the ant's exoskeleton was instead a stark white. They were to developed to be larvae as they actually had legs but they weren't fully grown.
"They are in the pupa stage. Changing from larva to ants. They'll shed their skins and come out as baby ants once they are done."
I internally cussed up a storm as I looked at the sheer numbers that surrounded us. When I searched the room earlier, I was focused on finding anything that was moving, the slight vibrations of steps that they would leave behind. I never even considered that they would have a room that they apparently slept in.
No! Stop kicking yourself and focus. Nothing you can change now.
I tried to school my features as best as possible as I looked between the others for support. The constipated looks I was getting were not inspiring any sort of confidence that I was pulling it off.
"P-Percy." Lou's voice trembled as she spoke. A fragile, twitchy smile on her ashen white face seemed just one mishap from being broken. There, on the top of her head was a small dead pupa about the size of a rat. Directly above where Lou was standing was a small cocoon of insect fleshiness that seemed to drip with some kind of gross looking fluid. "W-What's, um, we're not under the stream, are we? A piece moss made it down here. Right?"
"Y-Yeah." I tried to muster as much calm as I could into my voice as I reached up to the slimy little corpse on her head. "Just…just let me get that for you."
That proved to be my second mistake in this little adventure as once my hand was close enough that I could almost touch it, the pupa decided that was the moment that it wasn't quite as dead as I had thought.
"Skreeeak! Skreak skreak skreaak!"
"Oh gods! Oh gods! Fuck! Fuck FUCK!"
Lou thrashed around, almost violently clawing at her head. Dozens of wet squelches fall around us and I snapped my attention to the ceiling, a cold pit formed in my stomach. The swarm above us was practically writhing above us in response to the screams and shrieks.
"Lou calm down!" I shouted not seeing how it could get any worse since she was already screaming her own head off.
"Get! Off!" Lou practically rips the thing off her own head, tearing a few bundles of her dark, curly hair with it, and throw a it blindly. She would have hit me or Thalia if we hadn't moved to the side, letting it fly by us and hit the ground with a wet noise. Lou's hand lit up as a spell circle formed.
"Lou! Calm down!"
"Wait! Stop!"
"έκρηξη!"
She didn't listen to anything we said and fired off a bolt of purple energy at the pupa, causing it to explode with a loud crack! It was like a gunshot echoed off the walls. The insects above us began to struggle aggressively against their cocoons, forcing them open and ejecting themselves right on top of us.
Lou just began to freak out even more as a large portion fell mostly towards her as she seemed to gather more and more magic to power her spells. Her preferred method of attack was only attracting them to her the more she used it, and the more that attacked the more she fired.
It was a damn cycle.
"Stop firing damn it." Connor shouted as his hammer came down and crushed a pupa into squishy goop.
Travis swung his own mallet like he was teeing off for golf and practically painted a wall in pupa guts. "You're gonna hit someone!"
I drew my sword and tried to reach out to Lou but the mass of pupa kept tripping me up every step of the way. There was nowhere I could move without either having to step and nearly slip on the ones on the ground or duck from the ones falling from above. Thalia was stabbing with her spear behind me as electricity seemed to flow around her in violent yet semi controlled arcs, frying and killing any insect that came close like a human bug zapper.
The numbers around us grew more and more with each passing moment and it seemed Lou still had enough sanity and instinct to know where she needed to aim to hurt the most enemies. Sadly, she wasn't nearly put together enough to realize that shooting at the ceiling wasn't a good idea.
"εκραγεί!"
A purple orb of light formed in her hands, growing quickly to the size of a soft ball. The glow illuminated the entire room and forced everyone else to look away as their enchanted vision didn't react well to the sudden brightness. She then released the orb and it flew to the ceiling where it exploded like a damn ki blast from Dragon Ball.
The insects were practically liquified from the force of the blast and I even felt the force roll through my body and forced me to step back. The ceiling cracked and large chunks began to rain down on us as cracks spread across the ceiling.
"Lou!" I cried out as I tried to reach out to her but a strong grip on my shirt pulled me back as a large stone fell right where I was standing.
"We gotta move!" Thalia ordered as she practically shoved me forward and deeper into the tunnels. I looked back for a brief moment to see that Lou had disappeared from that spot, but that brief look was all I got before Thalia practically dragged me away.
I wanted to stay and look. To make sure that the others were fine but my own instincts were screaming at me to run as fast as I could.
Stale air filled my lungs as I pushed my legs harder and harder with each step. I had no idea how fast we were running or for how long but it almost felt like a blink in time before we tumbled out of the large room and into an empty tunnel.
"Fuck!" I cursed, ignoring the burning in my lungs and limbs as I practically pressed myself to a wall and pushed my senses as far as I could.
"Per—Shh!" I cut Thalia off as I tried to feel through the earth. I listened in for the faintest of sensations; breathing, heartbeat, footsteps. Anything that could help me find the others. For what felt like an eternity but weas probably less than a minute I searched through the entire area until suddenly I felt a little movement at the farthest end. It wasn't much but it was still movement.
A moment later there were two more sources of movement around the first, seemingly helping it get back up and move around more. I let out a sigh of relief as I stood up and gave Thalia a thumbs up, making her let out her own sigh.
"Well, that was a cluster fuck." The demigoddess groaned as she dusted herself off. "You think you can use your earth powers to get us back to them?"
"Not unless you want it to collapse more." I saw the questioning look that she was giving me and explained as I continued to look into the stone around us. "I don't have that fine enough of control to move all of this."
"Then can't you make a tunnel around us like you made that hole?"
I shook my head. "The entire place is built like a deathtrap. Its structurally sound but the moment you destroy a tunnel the surrounding area will cave in and trap you."
"Well, that's annoying." She tsked and I agreed with her whole heartedly. If we had bee back near the entrance where we were surrounded by open dirt, we could have tunneled around but at the moment Thalia and I were surrounded by tunnels. Trying to go around would only force us to take another route which could lead to anywhere. It was best that we stick with our appointed route and hope to find our way out after we were done. "The others will just have to go back to the main group. No point in getting lost after we leave."
"So, I guess it's just the two of us." I shrugged as I pulled myself from the wall.
Thalia sent me a cocky smirk as she took out a small mace bottle, which transformed into a spear. "Just try to keep up Jackson. I don't want to have to save your ass again." She walked off and I couldn't help but feel a little indignant.
"My ass? We'll see who saves who." I said with challenge as I sped up my pace to catch up. I didn't need someone saving me when I could save myself. We'd see who saved who by the end of this.
A/N: Yeah this is incredibly late. When I first started writing this it was just before my family went on vacation in Hawaii in for a week so I didn't touch it. I then returned with a full body sun burn so I couldn't really do much. By then college started and I was focusing on classes and my job.
It's been hectic.
But I have been writing and rewriting so I managed to get this out. Yay! Also I have a ton of story ideas in my head that I've been doing snippets of so that took some time. Anyways stay sexy you beasts.
Reviews:
James Bellmonte: I named her Persephone because it can still be shortened to Percy, but there is no set name for fem Percy so on the chance she makes a return it can change based on who is talking about her. Also no Adamos isn't related to the Japanese emperors.
Castercane: I mentioned it when Percy went to Atlantis. Its why Poseidon wasn't present when Percy visited. Papaseidon was delivering Tyson to the cyclops forges. We'll see him again.
Demi-Wizard48: Like most people and I'm not sure that's the exact process of the exile. Other than Lupa and maybe Minerva, none of the roman gods know Adamos had a hand in the fall of Rome. And Lupa will never speak of why she knows.
SentinalSlice: It will.
Celestiana: It will be a thing and as for the gender swap tendencies it will be something, he will become comfortable with against his will. As for the personality change its mostly because on Circe's island, they help you reach your full female potential and consequently making Percy a bit more aware of him/herself.
Happyraincloud: In games and stories you always hear about how the hero loots dungeons and finds treasures, that all based off of Adamos' personal quirk. He isn't a thief who steal from people's homes or their wallets but he is definitely a grave robber and lives by the spoils of war concept. Whether that's from a mere bet or a fight to the death, it all circumstantial.
: At the time of capture Adamos was comparable to Zeus but with more versatility. Even he couldn't fight multiple gods at once and there were a few other things going on that helped in his capture. As for the relationship with Artemis it's platonic for Adamos, not sexual or romantic. In the myths Artemis has been friends with men before. As for why, he's known her since birth so he's got special friendship.
Bleachspam1: It's a slow burn in terms of escalation.
Wreathr: There are others that will show up and as for Percy's index it should be on my personal page.