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Wednesday, 15 DEC 2021/X793

The Hunters had broken camp as quickly as they had set it up. Percy was stood shivering in the snow, unlike the Hunters and DPDS. Bianca sat off to one side, talking with Nico. I could tell from his gloomy face that she was explaining her decision to join the Hunt.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Thalia and Grover approach Percy. They clearly wanted to know what had happened during his audience with Artemis.

After he had told them, which happened as I mentally told DPDS about what the letter had said, Grover had gone pale. "The last time the Hunters visited camp, it didn't go well."

"How'd they even show up here?" He wondered. "I mean, they just appeared out of nowhere."

"And Bianca joined them," Thalia said, disgusted. "It's all Zoë's fault. That stuck-up, no good—"

"Who can blame her?" Grover said. "Eternity with Artemis?" He heaved a big sigh.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "You satyrs. You're all in love with Artemis. Don't you get that she'll never love you back?"

"But she's so… into nature," Grover swooned.

"You're nuts," said Thalia.

"Nuts and berries," Grover said dreamily. "Yeah."

"Do you guys have any idea who these 'Independence' guys are?" Percy asked.

Grover was still too busy daydreaming, but Thalia was able to respond, "No clue. The only Spartans I've ever heard of are the ones from Ancient Greece. Those guys' armor looks way too advanced to be them, not to mention that the designs are completely off."

"Yeah, and what is this 'Fiore'? Also, what's a 'CINCFAF'? Or a kitsune for that matter?"

At the word 'kitsune', Grover snapped out of his trance instantly. "Did you say kitsune?"

"Yeah. Pyra said that she's one. What is it?"

"A kitsune is a type of yōkai, which are spiritual creatures from Japan. There's supposedly-" Grover was saying, before I cut him off.

"-two different types, zenko, and yako or nogitsune. The former is merely something that mortals came up with to explain good kitsune, because they came up with it back when people believed that there were some things that are inherently evil. The latter two are interchangeable terms for the only real kind of kitsune, and they are generally perceived as being mischievous or even malicious. The former of those is true for a majority of kitsune, with some exceptions, while the latter is only a select few." I said.

Preston then spoke up as well. "Fiore is the kingdom we come from back on our world."

"CINCFAF," Dawn started, "is an acronym. It stands for Commander in Chief of Fiore Armed Forces."

Shun then answered the other big question. "As for us being Spartans, that is simply what we call our kind of solider, well, technically sailor since we're with NAVSPECWAR, or Naval Special Warfare, and not an army variant which does not exist. Spartans are elite troops, who operate in fireteams of at most 6, and are not simply good soldiers. No, Spartans are literal super-soldiers. We hit harder, move faster, and react quicker than ANY human being has ANY right to. Our armors only enhance our abilities even further. We can easily flip a 73-ton tank. We can take out a hundred enemy combatants in a matter of a couple of minutes with no reinforcements to assist us. We are the ultimate last line of defense, and we don't win battles by staying on the defensive and potentially catching a lethal bolt of fire, but by staying on the offensive and pushing the enemy back before they can even get a chance to do any harm."

Preston chose that moment to speak up, "I believe that a son of Athena, President George Washington, said it best when he said, 'The best defense is a good offense.'"

"And what about her being a vampire?" Percy asked, pointing at me.

At that, Thalia cut off any response I could have given, "The only vampire type thing there is are empousai, and those are monsters that would want to kill us."

"Not true," I replied, "It's just that that's the only Greek thing that's like a vampire. My vampire heritage is not related to Ancient Greece. And yes, I said my vampire heritage. I'm what's called a true-born vampire, or, by some vampires, a true vampire. What that means is that I was born a vampire, as opposed to having been turned. Because I was born a vampire, I only need to drink about a cup of blood every five days or so to keep from losing my sanity and, eventually, dying."

"What about the weaknesses of vampires?" Percy asked, now simply curious. "Garlic and sunlight and all that?"

"A wooden stake to the heart can kill us the same as it could any other creature, but it's a bit more effective on turned vampires than iron or such due to the residual life in the wood. Garlic is due to the fact that vampires have more powerful senses than a human, and it's about as effective as waving a dirty sock in someone's face. It doesn't really do much. Sunlight also won't kill a vampire, but burns like hell to the point that it can incapacitate them through pain alone. True vampires, however, don't have that particular weakness because it stems from what is effectively an extremely severe case of albinism which only affects turned vampires due to the fact that their heart has ceased beating."

"I just thought of something. Do you guys know who your godly parents are?" Grover asked.

"Athena." Shun said plainly.

"Ares." Preston said. Percy flinched at that.

"As for me,-" I started, only to be cut off as the sky began to lighten.

"About time. He's so-o-o lazy during the winter." Artemis muttered, having either knowingly or unknowingly cut me off.

"You're, um, waiting for sunrise?" Percy asked.

"For my brother. Yes." Artemis said. She then added, "It's not exactly as you think."

"Oh, okay." He started to relax, while I started to grin, knowing exactly what was coming. "So, it's not like he'll be pulling up in a—"

There was a sudden burst of light on the horizon. A blast of warmth.

"Don't look," Artemis advised. "Not until he parks." I chose to ignore this advice, and was able to get away with it due to my visor having a ludicrously high ability to polarize, or if absolutely necessary, turn off.

Just as suddenly as the light appeared, it disappeared.

Sitting in a circle of wet grass was a glowing (due to heat), convertible red Maserati Spyder. The driver then got out with a smile seemingly permanently etched into his face. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, with sandy hair and outdoorsy good looks, and was wearing jeans, loafers, and a sleeveless T-shirt.

"Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."

"He's the sun god," Percy said.

"That's not what she meant." Dawn retorted.

"Little sister!" Apollo called. If his teeth were any whiter he could've blinded us without the sun car. Well, barring those of us in Mjolnir power armor. "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!"

Artemis sighed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister."

"Hey, I was born first."

"We're twins! How many millennia do we have to argue—"

"So what's up?" he interrupted. "Got the girls with you, I see. You all need some tips on archery?"

Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."

"Sure, sis!" Then he raised his hands in a stop everything gesture. "I feel a haiku coming on."

The Hunters all groaned, bar Bianca. Apparently they'd met Apollo before.

He cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically.

"Green grass breaks through snow.

Artemis pleads for my help.

I am so cool."

He grinned at us, waiting for applause.

"That last line was only four syllables." Artemis said.

Apollo frowned. "Was it?"

"Yes. What about I am so big-headed?"

"No, no, that's six syllables. Hmm." He started muttering to himself.

Zoë Nightshade turned to us. "Lord Apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. 'Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I'd had to hear one more poem that started with, There once was a goddess from Sparta—"

"Lord Apollo, perhaps use awesome instead of cool." I suggested. "And I thank you for allowing me to stay up to date with regards to the music of this world."

Everyone turned to stare at me. After a good second of silence, Apollo said, "That actually works." He then turned to Artemis and said, "I knew there was a reason I liked this kid." Then, he turned back to me and said, "By the way, you're welcome for that last thing." Before muttering, "Dad was not happy about that."

Artemis simply groaned and said, "Pyra, in the future, please refrain from encouraging my brother."

I snapped a brief salute and said, "My apologies, Lady Artemis."

"Kill joy." Apollo muttered. He then said, "Anyways, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."

"These demigods will also need a ride," Artemis said, pointing to us. "Some of Chiron's campers, along with fireteam DPDS."

"No problem!" Apollo said. "Come here you." He then added playfully, looking right at Dawn.

She responded by sprinting at the god, and proceeded to damn near tackle him as she embraced him in a brief hug. "Hi dad."

Apollo grunted at the impact, before saying, "I'm glad to see you, too." He then checked the campers out. "Let's see… Thalia, right? I've heard all about you."

Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."

"Zeus's girl, yes? Makes you my half-sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? Glad you're back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—"

"Brother," Artemis said. "You should get going."

"Oh, right." Then he looked at Percy, and his eyes narrowed. "Percy Jackson?"

"Yeah. I mean… yes, sir." He replied.

Apollo studied him for a few seconds, but said nothing.

"Well!" he said at last. "We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way—west. And if you miss it, you miss it."

The look Percy gave the car clearly stated that he was confused as to how our group of around 2 dozen was supposed to fit into a 2-seater car.

"Cool car," Nico said.

"Thanks, kid," Apollo said.

"But how will we all fit?"

"Oh." Apollo seemed to notice the problem for the first time. "Well, yeah. I hate to change out of sports-car mode, but I suppose…"

He took out his car keys and beeped the security alarm button. Chirp, chirp.

For a moment, the car glowed brightly again. When the glare died, the Maserati had been replaced by one of those Turtle Top shuttle buses.

"Right," he said. "Everybody in."

Zoë ordered the Hunters to start loading. She picked up her camping pack, and Apollo said, "Here, sweetheart. Let me get that."

Zoë recoiled. Her eyes flashed murderously.

"DAD!" Dawn groaned/growled.

"Brother," Artemis chided. "You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."

Apollo spread his hands. "Sorry. I forgot. Hey, sis, where are you off to, anyway?"

"Hunting," Artemis said. "It's none of your business."

"I'll find out. I see all. Know all."

Artemis snorted. "Just drop them off, Apollo. And no messing around!"

"No, no! I never mess around."

Artemis rolled her eyes, then looked at us. "I will see you by winter solstice. Zoë, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do well. Do as I would do." Then, she looked directly at me, "If my brother tries anything, you have my permission to shoot him in the foot or another such place."

Zoë straightened. "Yes, my lady."

I, on the other hand, said, "Understood, Ma'am." As I grabbed my M6H Magnum Pistol off of my thigh, ejected and inspected the mag, reinserted it, pulled the slide back, checked the internals, let the slide go, then placed it back on my thigh. One look at Apollo showed that his face had gone slightly pale at the thought of being shot in the foot.

Artemis knelt and touched the ground as if looking for tracks. When she rose, she looked troubled. "So much danger. The beast must be found."

She sprinted toward the woods and melted into the snow and shadows.

Apollo turned and grinned, jangling the car keys on his finger. "So," he said. "Who wants to drive?"

The Hunters piled into the van. They all crammed into the back, so they'd be as far away as possible from Apollo and the highly infectious males. Bianca sat with them, leaving her little brother to hang in the front with the Campers, which seemed cold, but Nico didn't seem to mind.

DPDS, meanwhile, sat in the middle, between the two groups.

"This is so cool!" Nico said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat. "Is this really the sun? I thought Helios and Selene were the sun and moon gods. How come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and Artemis?"

"Downsizing," Apollo said. "The Romans started it. They couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they laid off Helios and Selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions. My sis got the moon. I got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least I got this cool car."

"But how does it work?" Nico asked. "I thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!"

Apollo chuckled and ruffled Nico's hair. "That rumor probably got started because Artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. Seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. You want to talk astronomy? Bah, what fun is that? You want to talk about how humans think about the sun? Ah, now that's more interesting. They've got a lot riding on the sun… er, so to speak. It keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. This chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun, kid. It's as old as Western Civilization. Every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. The chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. Make sense?"

Nico shook his head. "No."

"Well then, just think of it as a really powerful, really dangerous solar car."

"Can I drive?"

"No. Too young."

"Oo! Oo!" Grover raised his hand.

"Mm, no," Apollo said. "Too furry." He looked past Percy and focused on Thalia.

"Daughter of Zeus!" he said. "Lord of the sky. Perfect."

"Oh, no." Thalia shook her head. "No, thanks."

"C'mon," Apollo said. "How old are you?"

Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."

I cocked my head at her, wondering how in Hades she could not know her age. The emotions coming from Dawn via our bond showed that she was confused as well.

Apollo tapped his finger to his lips. "You're fifteen, almost sixteen."

"How do you know that?"

"Hey, I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You'll turn sixteen in about a week."

"That's my birthday! December twenty-second."

"Which means you're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!"

Thalia shifted her feet nervously. "Uh—"

"I know what you're going to say," Apollo said. "You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."

Apollo laughed good-naturedly. No one else did.

Thalia tried to protest, but Apollo was absolutely not going to take "no" for an answer. He hit a button on the dashboard, and a sign popped up along the top of the windshield. I was pretty sure it said WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER.

"Take it away!" Apollo told Thalia. "You're gonna be a natural!"

"Speed equals heat," Apollo advised. "So start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up."

Thalia gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles turned white. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked her.

"Nothing," she said shakily. "N-nothing is wrong."

She pulled back on the wheel. It tilted, and the bus lurched upward so fast Percy fell back and crashed against Grover.

"Ow" Grover said.

"Sorry."

"Slower!" Apollo said.

"Sorry!" Thalia said. "I've got it under control!"

"Thalia," Percy said, "lighten up on the accelerator."

"I've got it, Percy," she said, gritting her teeth. But she kept it floored.

"Loosen up," He told her.

"I'm loose!" Thalia said. She was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood.

"We need to veer south for Long Island," Apollo said. "Hang a left."

Thalia jerked the wheel and again threw Percy into Grover, who yelped.

"The other left," Apollo suggested.

"Ah…" Apollo said, and I could tell he was forcing himself to sound calm. "A little lower, sweetheart. Cape Cod is freezing over."

Thalia tilted the wheel. Her face was chalk white, her forehead beaded with sweat. I then put the pieces together, she was afraid of heights. The irony was not lost on me.

The bus pitched down, and somebody screamed. I'm pretty sure it was Percy. Now we were heading straight toward the Atlantic Ocean at a thousand miles an hour, the New England coastline off to our right. And it was getting hot in the bus. I could handle the heat, and so could everyone else in Mjolnir power armor, but most everyone else probably couldn't.

Apollo had been thrown somewhere in the back of the bus, but he started climbing up the rows of seats.

"Take the wheel!" Grover begged him.

"No worries," Apollo said. He looked plenty worried. "She just has to learn to— WHOA!"

I saw what he was seeing. Down below us was a little snow-covered New England town. At least, it used to be snow-covered. As I watched, the snow melted off the trees and the roofs and the lawns. The white steeple on a church turned brown and started to smolder. Little plumes of smoke, like birthday candles, were popping up all over the town. Trees and rooftops were catching fire. In that instant, I started using ice and snow magic to counter the effects that Thalia's driving were having, both in the bus and on the town. I recovered the town in snow, cooled the air around the town, which put out the fires that had sprung up, and began regulating the temperature in the bus to make it more bearable, all in the same moment.

"Pull up!" Percy yelled.

There was a wild light in Thalia's eyes. She yanked back on the wheel, and Percy held on this time. As we zoomed up, I quit using my magic to maintain the snow and temperature in the small town, letting nature take over.

"There!" Apollo pointed. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, dear. 'Dead' is only an expression."

Thalia was thundering toward the coastline of northern Long Island. There was Camp Half-Blood: the valley, the woods, the beach. I could see the dining pavilion and cabins and the amphitheater.

"I'm under control," Thalia muttered. "I'm under control."

We were only a few hundred yards away now.

"Brake," Apollo said.

"I can do this."

"BRAKE!"

Thalia slammed her foot on the brake, and the sun bus pitched forward at a forty-five-degree angle, slamming into the Camp Half-Blood canoe lake with a huge FLOOOOOOSH! Steam billowed up, sending several frightened naiads scrambling out of the water with half-woven wicker baskets.

The bus bobbed to the surface, along with a couple of capsized, half-melted canoes.

"Well," said Apollo with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"

"Hey, Lord Apollo." I spoke up.

"Yeah."

"Remember what Lady Artemis said?"

"Yeah, I remember. 'No messing around!'"

"She also gave me permission to shoot you if you did." At that, his face paled considerably.

"Ah, crap."

All I did was, in an instant, draw my M6H, aim up, and pull the trigger. The M225 12.7x40mm Semi-Armor-Piercing High-Explosive round streaked out of the barrel at 427 meters per second, and faster than anyone could react, the round slammed itself into Apollo's left foot. The god nearly screamed in pain, but held it in, and just said, with pain clearly evident in his voice, "I suppose I had that coming."

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