Chapter 6: Liberation

And for once, I will focus on Elise.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Chuck asked Elise as they walked through Kansas City unnoticed, somehow. She grumbled as he had been asking that every ten seconds.

"All the other warehouses are this way, so yes." she replied again. "And you told me ten minutes ago you knew where they were."

The satyr decided to keep his mouth shut after that. That brought a sense of calmness in Elise's head. She was getting tired of his questions, and his voice in general. It was making her consider incinerating him to ashes for the entire walk.

"So..." Chuck started, making Elise groan loudly. "your dad, what's he like? I heard from Dad he's cool."

"Look, kid," the raven haired woman started. She knew Chuck was older than her in human years, but he was definitely way younger than her in everything else. "my father is gone, my brother is captured by Poseidon, and I have yet to regain contact with my mother. So, if you don't want me to murder you out of annoyance, can you PLEASE, keep quiet?" she ordered the young satyr firmly, who stiffly nodded.

"Okay, then. Hey, here we are."

The unlikely duo stopped when they saw a bunch of warehouses, with strange lights emanating from them. They even heard the blood curdling screams of deep voiced men and even animals and monsters.

"What the hell..." Elise cursed, completely astonished by the sounds coming from the warehouses.

"Oh yeah...I forgot to mention..." Chuck stammered, a little embarrassed. "Cyclopes aren't the only ones they're capturing. They like capturing all kinds of monsters for these...games."

"What games?" Elise asked.

"They hold them in San Francisco. I don't know why, but the Atlanteans like watching the people and monsters they captured fight to the death." the satyr explained.

"It's bad enough they get hard labor, but gladiator games?" Elise snarled as she continued walking towards the warehouses, with Chuck barely able to keep up with her. She stopped and hid behind a corner with Chuck when she saw a bunch of tall guys wearing blue with swords strapped on their belts. There appeared to be wild centaurs as well, securing the perimeter along with the big guys.

"Are those guys Germani?" Elise wondered.

"Yeah...why?" Chuck whispered back, still hiding with her.

"Looks like we'll have to sneak past them." she said to him.

"Or fight them." the satyr suggested, making Elise glare at him, an obvious sign she was rejecting his idea. That also made her creep away to her left, probably to try and find an open spot to sneak into. She climbed over a fence, which is when Chuck couldn't keep up with her anymore, and hid behind a crate. Elise observed everything around her. Nothing much, just Germani, demigods, Atlanteans, centaurs, and headless people with firearms and faces on their chest she recognized as blemmyae, wandering sround doing patrol duty. She noticed one patrol get dangerously close to her, so she quickly hid in the crate. As she did, the screams of the captured monsters got even louder.

The more she heard those screams, the angrier she got. When Elise noticed the patrol leaving her area, she quickly leapt out of the crate and scaled the wall before anyone noticed her. The future Mentor took time to observe the scene around her. There were about 3 warehouses protected by a small army of barbarians, soldiers, and a few monsters. All she had on her side was one caffeinated satyr.

But (hopefully), she would find allies in their prisoners once she frees them, that is, if they don't try to kill her. Elise managed to form a plan step by step within seconds:

Infiltrate all three warehouses,

kill the guards inside undetected,

cue the jailbreak to disorient the small army outside,

wipe the small army out,

and escape Kansas with whoever's left.

She knew she needed as many allies as possible to take on Poseidon in New York again. Safe to say, her plan might work, unless Chuck does something stupid, which he probably will, considering who his father is.

Elise sighed. This was going to be a long day.

Back in Winchester, the entire prison building collapsed at the missiles the Atlanteans fired. The golden aircraft pulled away from the ruins, probably to find the escaped demigods, unaware of an unnaturally shaped pile of debris forming in the middle. With the airspace clear, the pile imploded, revealing Percy, Kestrel, Grady, and an awake Katrina.

"Everybody okay?" the ex Mentor asked as he made the Fatelight shields that saved them disappear.

"A little peachy, but we're fine." Kestrel replied.

"Wha- What happened?" the daughter of Morpheus groaned as Grady helped her up.

"Let's get out of here first." Percy told the three of them.

Elise managed to enter the first warehouse through the vents. She wished she could complain about the smell, but now was definitely not the best time, even though it reeked of things she never smelled before, other than rotting corpses. She nearly vomited in the air vents after that ridiculous mission with Bran a year ago.

Anyway, Elise found an opening and observed whatever she could see. All she saw was a glass cage containing...a dracaena? From the looks of it, she was sleep deprived and put on hunger strike, clearly tortured to be aggressive and kill anything that moves in her sight.

Elise silently switched to her Fae form and, with her super heated Pivot Blade, cut the vents open. She switched back to human form and quickly moved the vent aside before peeking her head out, getting a good look of her surroundings before pulling her head back in the vent.

"'When you observe your targets, do it quickly and silently.' Aunt Zoe said." Elise muttered a little. From what she observed, there were around twelve guards but they were too concentrated on the door. Made it easier to sneak around everywhere else. Elise hopped down and landed behind the cover of some weapon racks. The dracaena noticed her, but Elise shushed her to be quiet. She knew that she had to clear the guards fast otherwise...

She didn't have time to think about it. She quickly snuck away and prepared to count down mentally.

'1' One guard assassinated and dragged behind a bunch of crates.

'3' Two guards assassinated in one go.

'4' Another guard took a crossbow bolt to the neck.

'7' Elise managed to double assassinate two guards before hacking the other with her tomahawk.

'8' Snapped a guard's neck and dumped him in a makeshift bathroom stall.

'10' Double assassinated two guards and thrown in the same stall.

'11' Crossbow bolt to the neck.

And '12' Hacked to death with a tomahawk.

The other prisoners were asleep, so only the dracaena saw everything. Elise found a key and a flare gun and opened the dracaena's cage.

"Thankssss..." she hissed, trying to sound grateful. "I'm Ssssamantha, with four ssss's. Call me Ssssam for sssshort."

That alone confused Elise. "Um...okay..."

"Your ssssmell...it's sssso familar..." Ssssam said. "The sssscent of a powerful demigod..."

"Okay, okay, Ssssam, I need you to release all the other prisoners." Elise told her, handing the dracaena the key. "Once that's done, tell them to remain quiet and undetected from the forces outside."

"What will you do?"

"Liberate the rest. If you see a red flare from the other warehouse, raise hell on the Atlanteans."

Percy led the three to an empty alley where they hid from Atlantean forces swarming the city.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Katrina groaned.

"It's a long story." Grady admitted.

"Guys, guys, focus." Percy told them. "We're not safe anymore in the city. We have to get out of here, find some other place safe."

"How in the bloody hell will we get out of here when the whole Atlantean army stationed in Winchester is looking for us?" Kestrel asked. "And what kind of safe places are there beyond the city?"

The son of Thanatos smiled. "I know a place."

Elise reached the second warehouse in record time. Same plan, though. She was now in the vents and in the process of cutting the vent off with a superheated Pivot Blade. She was close to finally cutting the vents when she heard a commotion outside.

"What the hell was that?" she muttered to herself, then she remembered...Chuck. The damn satyr must've done something...Elise mentally groaned in frustration and crawled the other way back to where she entered the vents. She peeked out of the hole she sneaked through and cauht a glimpse of Chuck being dragged in the middle of the two warehouses. Elise recognized one of the guys who caught him to be...

"Grover Underwood?" she gasped, before firing a million curses in her mind and in various languages: English, Italian, French, Fae, you name it. The old goat sold her out! She had to work quickly, so she hastily crawled back in the vents, and found an empty warehouse full of prisoners and no guards. She then jumped down and landed gracefully on the floor.

"Time to go."

Elise either unlocked or just cut the cells open. She hastily counted around three random mortals in clothes, around ten demigods in either Atlantean or Ancient Greek armor, a bunch of skinny, hungry Germani, a pair of griffins, a gang of cyclopes who look like they haven't eaten in days, and what's essentially a drakon on hunger strike.

"Okay, what do I do..." she muttered to herself when one of the Germani heard her.

"Thanks and you okay?" he asked her.

"A damn old goat sold me and my friend out." Elise growled. "On my signal, raise hell." she ordered as she managed to climb her way back to the vents. She hastily climbed her way out of the vents and saw the Atlanteans about to execute Chuck with their Laser Tridents. Elise quickly grabbed the flare gun and fired it into the air. While it (hopefully) gave the signal for Ssssam and the others to attack, the flare also gave away her position. The Atlanteans fired at her position, prompting Elise to take cover back in the vents, praying that the others saw the flare.

They did. The warehouse doors opened, and waves of prisoners exploded out of confinement, raising hell as they attacked the Atlanteans. Elise saw this and saw Chuck escaping confinement in the ensuing chaos before attacking the nearest Atlantean with his club. The lying old goat, Grover, was nowhere to be seen. Elise growled then ran towards Chuck's position, in good timing too as he almost hit Ssssam with the club, which she caught with one hand.

"What?! I was about to beat a dracaena down for the very first time." the satyr complained.

"No hitting dracaena here!" Elise ordered him. "We kill the Atlanteans, not the prisoners I just released! By the way, this is Ssssam, with four S's."

After that, she drew her tomahawk and Pivot Blade and went to work, hacking, slashing, and stabbing every single Atlantean, blemmyae, and Germanus trying to kill her. Along the way, she nearly ran into one of the Cyclopes she had freed. He was tall and beefy like his kin, and he was armed with a large metal rebar. However, something about this cyclops intrigued Elise, something about his aura seemed familar.

She didn't have time to think about that, as she ducked under a Germanus's attempt to cut her head off before pouncing on him and hacked his head with her tomahawk. Elise looked around and saw the prisoners finally having their bloodlust satisfied by killing their imprisoners. She saw the drakon chomp down on some unlucky blemmyae, the imprisoned Germani attacking the wild centaurs, Ssssam eating a Germanus, somehow, and the griffins dive bombing the soldiers, either killing them or taking their weapons and dropping them to the other prisoners.

Elise smiled at the sight of her plan in motion. The Atlanteans were too shocked to put up a proper fight.

Her next move? Find the old satyr, and figure out what the hell he is up to, and more importantly, why he exposed Chuck in the first place. She had to know. Elise ran and fought her way around the prison site, trying to find the old Grover, but she couldn't find him right as the Atlanteans were all killed and the prisoners triumphed.

"Has anyone seen an old satyr?" Elise asked the nearest prisoners.

"Nope." one of the captured demigods replied, clutching onto the Laser Trident he took.

"What about that satyr? Can I eat him?" a cyclops asked, pointing at Chuck.

"No! No one's eating each other here!" Elise yelled at him.

"But I'm hungry..." the one eyed giant whined.

"Eat the dead Atlanteans and their rations if you must."

"And I need to go to the bathroom." the demigod said before running off to find a toilet.

As Elise watched the prisoners interact, she pulled out her PDA to try and call her mother.

"Damnit, why can't I reach her?" she cursed.

"What're you doin'?" Ssssam suddenly asked her.

"Trying to call my mother back at Terrasen." Elise replied. "No doubt she has an army that can match Poseidon's own. Only problem is why the hell I can't reach her."

"Must've been the barrier." she and Ssssam turned to a skinny looking Germanus with a sword. "Blocks all things from passing through the mesosphere. I guess radio waves are no exception."

Elise cursed in French. "Well, now what do I do? And where's that backstabbing old goat, Grover Underwood?!"

"Grover pro'ly escaped." Chuck said.

"Has anyone at least seen his daughter, Cherry?"

Everyone shrugged. Elise sighed. "Chuck, can you go to West Terrace Park with a few men? Check out the shack there. If the nymph girl isn't there, then report back here. Everyone else, rest up and bury your fallen. We'll leave Kansas afterwards and head west, and someone get that drakon under control!"

A few brave cyclopes volunteered to keep the large beast from eating its fellow prisoners. Chuck left the site with a some of the mortals to check out Grover's place. Suddenly, as she examined her gear and watched the prisoners rest up from inside one of the warehouses, Elise was approached by the same cyclops she found a little intriguing.

"You...familiar..." he claimed.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Aura...like Percy..."

Elise instantly paled. Did he know who she was?

"What are you talking about?" she lied.

"Percy Jackson...is...big brother...I protected him from bad bulls."

Suddenly, her mind went into overdrive. Elise remembered hearing that her father had a Cyclops for a cabin mate back in his Camp Half Blood days. Adding in all the stories she heard from Thalia, and Elise finally had her answer.

"You're Tyson." she said. "You're a general from Poseidon's army."

"WAS general." Tyson explained. "Ever since Percy was replaced years ago, I just left his service. How do you know Percy?"

"I..." Elise stammered, clueless whether she can trust him or not. "I'm...I'm his daughter."

There, she said it, but soft enough for only Tyson to hear.

"Whaaaat?" he asked in the manner of a comedy actor.

"It's true." Elise said. "I'm Elise, and you, I guess, are my uncle."

"I'm gonna hug you now!" Tyson cheered as he approached his apparent niece for a bone crushing hug. She quickly backed away.

"Um, not now, please." she said.

The old cyclops pouted, making Elise feel a little bad.

"Maybe when this is all over." she suggested, getting her apparent uncle's spirits back up.

"Yay!" Tyson clapped. Elise was a little embarrassed by how a grown cyclops like Tyson could be so childlike. Well, that didn't matter right now. She just rested up and faded into the realm of Morpheus.

Elise dreamed she was in a damp prison. It wasn't like any of the prisons she encountered throughout the Animus Omega simulations. There was barely any lighting, only Greek Fire torches, and now, she heard familiar grunts of pain,

Bran's grunts of pain. She knew it was all a dream, but Elise hastily ran to the source of the noise until she reached the furthest cell. The next scene terrified her.

Her older brother was covered in blood from head to toe. He was stripped of his robes, leaving him in worn out trousers. He was being stabbed repeatedly by the mind-controlled Lianna everywhere.

"NO!" she screamed.

Suddenly, the scene shook, but the stabbing continued as Elise cried out to her brother.

"BRAN!"

Something...or someone shook Elise awake. It was Ssssam.

"You okay? We heard you sssscreaming...'Blan'?" the dracaena said as Elise got up from her brief nap.

"It's nothing. Just a bad dream. What's going on?" she asked.

"Not much. But we got the drakon under control."

"That's good to hear."

Suddenly, a mortal came into the warehouse. "Hey, the satyr's back, with a nymph child. Girl around 9, I guess."

Elise sighed. Maybe she can finally get answers on what Grover's possible involvement with the Atlanteans is.