Chapter 12 : Counter Attack

You can't exactly ask a recently empowered Olympian goddess 'How've you been?' and be nonchalant about it.

"How've you been?" Percy asked.

Artemis managed a chuckle. "Your ignorance amuses me every time, Perseus."

"Uh, thank you?" Percy said.

Artemis smiled. "Walk with me." Artemis gestured to Percy to follow her as she walked into the forest. Percy followed, knowing better than to disobey a goddess. "To answer your question, I've been busy."

"Helping Olympus, I presume?"

"More or less." Artemis said. "How are you? Are you okay?"

Percy grinned. "More or less."

Artemis chuckled. "How is Thalia?" Artemis asked.

At the mention of Thalia, he tensed up. Percy would hate to be here if Artemis found out that he pissed off the person who she entrusted her Hunters with. "She's doing okay. I mean, we fought the other day but otherwise, she seemed pretty fine."

Artemis nodded. "I guess it was the correct decision to leave her in charge."

Percy nodded in agreement. "I agree." Percy said nervously.

Artemis seemed to notice as she walked in front of Percy's way. "What's wrong?"

"Um, what?"

"You're acting funny."

"No I'm not." Percy said. Artemis raised an eyebrow at him, saying that she doesn't believe him. Percy sighed. "It just feels weird."

"What is?"

"You, talking casually to me."

Artemis frowned. "What? I can't have a conversation with someone?"

Percy shrugged. "Well, you have a reputation of despising men." Percy stated. "And plus, you don't really talk to mortals casually. I'm both of those things."

The realization dawned upon Artemis's face as she smiled. "I guess you're right. I am a goddess after all."

Then, Percy's demigod sense went nuts. Something was off.

"Well, it's still not wrong for me to just have a leisure chat with you, right?" 'Artemis' said. "I'd like to be updated with those who matter to me."

Percy's hand quietly went into his pocket. He was careful not to let 'Artemis' notice. He felt the familiar touch of Riptide. "Other than that, I thought you said we weren't going to see each other for a while."

"And indeed we haven't." 'Artemis' said. "How long has it been?"

"Barely a month." Percy said.

"That's a long time then."

"Uh huh." Percy didn't buy it. Immortal's sense of time is different from mortals. A hundred years to them feels like nothing, let alone a month. "So, what are you up to now?"

"You know, I'm just trying my best to help the other Olympians." She said. "I tried my best but-" She was cut short by Percy lunging forward and trying to slice her face off. She might be an imposter, but her movements showed that she was an experienced fighter. She nimbly leaned out of the way of Percy's sword and stepped back. "That's rude."

"Who are you?" Percy growled.

"The disguise didn't fool you?" The imposter asked. "You must have a good eye."

"Not really." Percy admitted. "But I've met Artemis before and you are terrible at doing her impression."

"Aw, and I was gonna audition for the next Broadway musical." The imposter said with a fake sad smile. The smile was soon replaced with a sinister grin as her face started to melt.

It was as if there was a layer of skin on top of her body, and the skin dissolved into smoke. Her true face was now revealed. She had short black hair and wore what looked like black military jumpsuit. Her electric blue eyes reminded him of Thalia along with her black eyeliner. Percy made a mental note of the gun strapped to her side.

"Who are you?" Percy asked as he held Riptide up. Since this girl could use magic and disguise herself like that, Percy knew she was a demigod.

"Scarlet." She smirked. "Daughter of Hecate."

"You're a demigod." Percy said. "What are you trying to do?"

Scarlet took a knife out of her back pocket and spun it in her hand. "Like I'm gonna tell you up front."

Percy glared at her. "You work for the Crusaders, don't you?"

"That obvious, huh?" Scarlet said.

"Why?"

"Sheesh, what's with all the questions?" Scarlet shook her head and wagged her finger. "I'm not answering them as easily as that."

Percy made a quick lunge and struck her head, but she was quick as she blocked it with her knife. "Answer me before I kill you." Percy growled.

"I'd like to see that." Scarlet challenged. Scarlet pushed his blade away and kicked him in the chest. She rushed forward and tried to pin Percy down, but he was faster. He spun away, stood up and tried to stab at her.

Again, she was being elusive. She moved out of the way and tried kicking Percy in the face, but Percy caught her leg and tackled her to the ground. Scarlet was quick to wrap her legs around Percy's arm and locked him in an armbar, but Percy was also quick to escape and flung Scarlet away from him.

"Not bad." Scarlet said. Percy was panting. He didn't want to admit it, but Scarlet was a good fighter. The only person he knew who was this good with a dagger was Annabeth.

"I suggest you surrender before things get ugly." Percy said.

Scarlet winced. "Oh I would love to but the thing is, I'm not here to defeat you."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked. On cue, he could hear explosions and gunfire. Even worse, those sounds came from the mansion. "Y-You . . ."

"I was a distraction." Scarlet said. In a fit of rage, Percy lunged at her and tried stabbing her, but his sword went straight past her body, as if she was a ghost. "Oh, and I'm also mortal. God, I love lying to people."

Percy lunged again, but Scarlet snapped her fingers and she evaporated into smoke before fully disappearing. The last thing Percy saw was her stupid smirk, saying I've won.

He cursed and punched the ground, but he didn't have time to be upset. He went back to the mansion to see it was already surrounded at the front door by multiple vehicles and militia forces. With the amount of weaponry they had, they could easily take down this mansion without a trace.

There were no signs of his friends. That could either mean good or bad, and Percy chose to think the former.

"Ready, men!" One of the Crusaders shouted. "We're going to burn this house to the ground!"

Percy wanted to interfere, but he then saw a hail of arrows flying from the rooftop and striking multiple Crusaders down.

You'd think that if they had bulletproof technology, they would be immune to arrows.

"Arrows!" One of the Crusaders screamed as they hid behind their vehicles. Percy internally grinned. At least he knew Thalia and the Hunters were up.

Percy took his katana out. Ever since he'd started using it, he has not left home without it. You'd never know when a Crusader will jump at you.

Like right now.

So he drew his katana and went to work. He jumped from the trees onto the unsuspecting first group of Crusaders and made quick work of them. They collapsed in a matter of seconds.

"It's him! It's Jackson!" They called and all of their attention turned towards Percy.

How did they know his name?"

"Watch your fire! The commander wants him alive!" One of them said.

Percy hid behind one of the armored trucks as they opened fire. Percy could hear the rapid sound of metal against metal when the bullets hit the armored truck. Percy gritted his teeth as he summoned a hot ball of flames. He focused it to as dim as it could.

"Come out kid!" One of them called.

Percy flung the ball of flames into the air and made it so that it brightens up as fast and as bright as it could, creating his own version of a flashbang.

"Flash!" One of them shouted.

"Fire now!" Percy shouted to the mansion. A second later, another hail of arrows fired at the group of Crusaders. Since most were too dazed to react, the arrows caught the unlucky ones, reducing their numbers by a lot.

"Gah!" Percy heard them shout. "Burn the house down!"

"Look out!" Another one shouted. "Above!"

Percy looked up to see a shape in the night sky. It was too small and too dark to distinguish what it was. It looked like a . . . a hawk holding a ferret? They then dive bombed into the middle of the crowd.

Before reaching the ground, the two animals turned into fully grown humans. The ferret turned into Alex Fierro, who was holding what looked like a garrote wire and Carter with his weirdly-shaped sword.

"Heard you called for backup." Carter said as he sliced the rifle of a Crusader in half before crippling the Crusader with a slash to the leg. Percy expected Alex to struggle with just a garrote wire, but she was doing well as she moved out of the way of a baton, wrapped her garrote wire around the neck of a Crusader and yanked it as hard as she could. The Crusader dropped with a thud.

Percy himself was in a fight against multiple Crusaders. To his surprise, nobody has opened fire yet. It was probably because they wanted Percy alive, for some reason.

"Don't let them open fire!" Percy shouted at the two. Percy had fought with Carter before, but he'd never seen Alex fight until now.

Similar to Frank, Alex could transform into animals. One second she was a bear, then a cheetah, then a boar, then she transformed to what looked like a gerbil. Her skills with a garrote wire was unorthodox but deadly.

"Retreat! Retreat!" One of them shouted. Some tried getting into their vehicles while some tried to escape on foot.

"Alex! Don't let them escape!" Percy shouted. Alex nodded as she turned into a cheetah and ran after the ones who were retreating.

"Carter, giant chicken mode!" Percy said.

"That's not what it's called!" Carter argued as he channeled the powers of Horus and summoned his hawk-headed warrior avatar. He then stood inside a glowing blue avatar, standing twenty feet tall.

This made the Crusaders scramble away in fear, where they are greeted by Alex who was making quick work of the Crusaders.

Percy could hear cheering coming from the mansion. He then heard someone yell "Vive la resistance!"

Then, Carter shouted. "Three missiles inbound!"

Percy's instinct kicked in naturally. "EVERYBODY OUT OF THERE NOW!"

There was some hesitation because of confusion, but one command from Thalia and everybody rushed. "FUCKING MOVE!"

Percy could hear the whooshing sound of missiles coming towards them. "Can you stop them?" Percy asked Carter.

"Not unless you want me to die." Carter managed.

"Percy!" Thalia called while running towards him. "Throw me up!"

Percy didn't hesitate. As Thalia reached him, Percy braced himself and his hand. Thalia jumped and planted one leg on his hands as Percy used all his might to toss Thalia as high as he could.

Thalia went up in the air and nocked an arrow with three on standby. Then she fired three arrows in quick succession. Percy later noticed that the arrows she fired were imbued with lightning. Sparks of electricity shoot out the arrows as they fly through the night sky.

When both projectiles collided, they exploded midair, sending a light shockwave all the way to the ground.

There was a brief moment of awe and excitement before it was interrupted by Thalia going "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Fortunately, Alex caught her as he transformed into a dragon and landed safely back down.

"Thanks." Thalia murmured.

"Nice job." Percy grinned. "Didn't know you could make a lightning arrow."

Thalia just shrugged. Percy turned towards Alex. "Are there any that have managed to escape?"

"A few." Alex admitted. "But without vehicles I doubt they'll get very far."

Percy stared at the vehicles that they had left behind. "An eye for an eye?" Percy asked Thalia.

Thalia's eyes widened and she grinned. "Eye for an eye." Thalia said. "Resistance members get ready! We're attacking tonight!"

The Resistance cheered as they prepared for an ambush.

Line Break

"Do you know how to drive these things?" Alex asked.

"That really doesn't matter." Percy said. "As long as we can make it go forward and ram it into the nearest Crusader building we can find."

"So you're okay with a dozen or more people jumping out of a moving vehicle that is moving headfirst into a building." Alex pointed out.

"Come on, we've jumped out of more dangerous things." Percy said. "I jumped off of a flying pig once."

Alex looked like he wanted to ask something, but decided against it. "I've seen weirder things."

Thalia then walked over to where Alex and Percy were. "ETA on time of departure?"

"We can roll out as soon as he can find where the on button is on this thing." Alex said.

"You're not helping." Percy rolled his eyes.

Thalia groaned as she turned on the ignition without any help. Percy and Alex looked at each other. "Can you drive?" Both of them asked Thalia at the same time.

Line Break

"Wait, so did you see Artemis or did you not?" Thalia asked when Percy told them about his encounter in the forest. They were inside the armored truck and were waiting to arrive at their destination. Thalia was on the wheel while Percy was in the passenger's seat.

"No, I didn't." Percy said. "It was someone who pretended to be Artemis."

Everyone's expression was obvious. They were worried and confused. "Mortals usually don't know what gods look like." Reyna said. "So this person must have met Artemis before."

"So there's a mole in our midst." Piper said worryingly.

Percy shook his head. "Not likely." Percy said. "That person knew Artemis left Thalia in charge of the Hunt. That's something that not even all of us knew."

Thalia nodded. "As far as I know, only us and the rest of the Hunt knew about it. And a handful of demigods."

"And here's the kicker." Percy said. "She's mortal."

They stared at Percy for a moment.

"She's what?" Thalia asked. "You're kidding."

"I tried stabbing her with Riptide, but the blade went through her." Percy said, remembering that moment. "It was weird, since she admitted that she was a daughter of Hecate."

"Maybe she could see through the Mist?" Rachel offered.

"Doesn't explain why she could use magic." Percy said. "Maybe a magician?" He looked at Carter.

Carter had a thoughtful look in his expression. "Maybe. But I haven't heard of any magicians that use daggers." Carter said. "But what you explain doesn't seem like any type of magic I know of."

"Let's save those questions for later." Thalia said. "We're almost there."

Thanks to Carter's hawk vision and scouting ,they knew where the enemy base was and considering that they had just attacked, they wouldn't expect a counter attack like this.

Percy looked outside the windshield window. The campsite looked similar to what he and Reyna found days ago, only ten times larger. The perimeter of their base was walled up with metal fences with armed patrols along the way.

There were several watchtowers scattered around the campsite, each equipped with a searchlight and a few armed Crusaders. It basically looked like a military base.

Our vehicles screeched into a halt. They haven't noticed them yet, but it was only a matter of time.

Thalia whistled. "That's a lot of people."

"Yeah. But we're gonna make it count." Percy said. "You guys ready?"

Everyone looked determined and ready. "We're behind you." Piper said.

Percy nodded. "Hit it." He told Thalia.

Thalia smirked as she floored the pedal and they drove head first straight into the first watchtower.