Chapter 10: Torture in Two Places

Percy just spent ten minutes scouting the hotel with his Eagle Vision, and it had some negative effect to the others. Kestrel was getting impatient and Grady and Katrina seemed pretty anxious.

"Why can't we just rush in, kill everyone, and take the general?" the young clone asked the former Mentor.

"Because it's best we know what we're rushing into." Percy replied. "It could either be a little camp or a fortress that just looks like a hotel. We need to find an entrance where they least expect us to use."

"Well, I suppose we can't just do this kidnapping in broad daylight, sir."

"Exactly. We find the entrance now, we get more time to plan..."

Grady sighed. "Any day now."

Kestrel looked at him funny. "You must have a queer sense of time."

"Wait...I got something..." Percy told them as he peered into the direction of...an alley? He deactivated his Eagle Vision and turned to the others.

"We can use the fire exit to get in." he said to them.

"Don't fire exits usually have alarms that go off once the doors open?" Kestrel asked.

"Well, it's either that or the rooftop then through the air vents. Either way, let's prepare for a fight."

Percy pulled out the earpiece from his arm and put it on, the HUD lighting up signaling the activation of his armor. It was hiding in the hotel room they ate MRE's in. It sprinted out of the door, then climbed the walls, and ran and jumped across rooftops until it reached its owner's current location.

"Okay, let's form a plan..." Percy said.

Bran's condition on Olympus wasn't getting any better. It just got a whole lot worse. His tattooed torso was covered all around with cuts and bruises and burns of all kinds. He felt so many of his bones break during the whole day. Unfortunately, if he was close to death, they'd heal him, then torture him again to near death. Right now, he was sharing a cell with Artemis, who had been tortured by Ares.

"I...I'm sorry." Bran muttered, struggling to apply pressure on his latest stab wound on his right pectoral while trying to prevent himself from spewing out blood to no avail. Artemis looked at him with eyes of pity.

"Don't be." the moon goddess said. "I never expected this to be possibl-"

She started coughing up ichor. Bran winced when he started hearing Apollo and Hephaestus's bloodcurdling wails of agony from being tortured by who knows what. He guessed Poseidon's trident, the Apple of Eden, or the Master Bolt, again, which was taken from Zeus.

"By the way, I've had this dream." Bran said. "A dream about my father."

Artemis perked up and looked at the oldest Jackson child with a face full of shock. "Perseus? What...is he alive? That's impossible. Then again,...his...soul never ended...up in the Underworld."

"I...think he's ali-"

The sounds of clanging metal interrupted Bran. He and Artemis turned around to see Lianna standing there with a knife in her hands. It appeared to be dripping poison. Bran slowly tried to stand up as he slowly walked to towards the daughter of Artemis, whose eyes glowed gold like the Apple of Eden rather than her original silver. She opened the cell door and was about to stab the golden haired man with it, but he quickly stopped the knife and gently kissed Lianna, obviously shocking Artemis.

Lianna quickly stabbed Bran with the knife right onto his side, causing him to tumble backwards and fall down, groaning in pain as the poison began to seep in. Artemis kneeled down to check on him and they noticed something odd.

Lianna stumbled backwards a bit, the golden glow in her eyes were flickering. She was breathing hastily.

"Wha- What is this?" she stammered, sounding like the Lianna Bran knew (and loved) but the flickering stopped and her eyes were once again glowing gold. The Apple's in control once again. She stopped moving and just stood there like a robot. Bran groaned as the poison began to seep into his body. The pain caused by the poison worsened, then healed, then worsened, then healed, again and again."

"What's going on there?!" Poseidon's voice boomed all over the place.

"N...Nothing, my lord!" Lianna called back.

"Then get my wine over here, woman!"

Artemis was livid at the way Poseidon was commanding her daughter, who mindlessly walked away. As Lianna disappeared out of sight, Artemis looked at Bran, asking,

"You and her?"

He shrugged.

The Atlanteans in London did not notice four figures jumping onto the rooftop of the hotel General Santos was staying in. There were two guards on the roof, not anymore thanks to a certain former assassin and his armor.

"Now what?" Grady asked quietly.

He got his answer when Percy and his armor proceeded to pry the ventilation shaft open. After ripping the grills apart, they placed it gently on the floor before slipping in, followed by the others.

"I do not like this plan." Kestrel said softly.

"Better than wearing used Atlantean armor." Katrina replied.

"Guys, shush." Percy told them. They were nearing another set of grills with light coming from them. They stop. Percy looked down to see what was going on. He saw nothing but a red carpet on the floor and two shadows of Atlantean soldiers, talking about something, judging by the way they were moving. He moved his cybernetic arm and tried to pry the grills off without making a sound, slowly. The armor helped out by preventing the grills from falling onto the hotel floor and alerting the guards.

"Alright, we'll have to do this quick or we're all dead." Percy told the three, who nodded and brandished their guns.

"How long do we got?" Kestrel asked.

"About five minutes, I suppose. This is a pretty small hotel." he replied.

"Good enough for me."

"Let's go."

The armor quickly went down and assassinated the two guards, followed by Percy, Kestrel, Grady, and Katrina. The ex Mentor took off the equipment around his body and got in his armor before picking them back up. He activated Eagle Vision, showing a gold line on the floor, with a projection of General Santos heading upstairs.

"He's upstairs. Kestrel, with me. Grady, Katrina, watch our flanks."

They nodded and followed him upstairs, and they see General Santos run inside the furthest hotel room as the guards aimed their weapons at them.

"Get him!" Percy ordered as he and Kestrel charged, Grady and Katrina laying down cover fire for them.

Percy drew his revolver and fired precise shots that dropped several guards dead, while Kestrel got up close and smacked an Atlantean with the butt of her sniper rifle and firing it at close range, penetrating another Atlantean's helmet's visor and putting them down. With the other soldiers taking cover from Grady's SMG, Percy had enough time to go after General Santos. He sprinted toward and kicked down his door, but the general already got away, without giving away his direction via a broken glass window.

"Can't run, pal." he snarled as he looked out the window. General Santos was running through the streets, so Percy jumped onto the next building's rooftop and ran after him, gunfire heading his way. He quickly ran to the edge of the building and jumped, tackling the general to the ground, but now everyone knows he's there.

"Halt!" an Atlantean soldier ordered, raising his Laser Trident and pointing it at Percy, who quickly picked General Santos up and put him between himself and the weapon like he was egging the soldier to try and shoot and risk hurting the general. What Percy didn't know was that another Atlantean soldier was aiming at him from a rooftop behind him with his own Laser Trident, but he was cut down by Kestrel, who sniped one of the other soldiers aiming at Percy with her MSR, giving him the chance to knock General Santos out and run away with him on his shoulder.

"Time to go!" Percy yelled, laser fire trailing behind him. He threw General Santos in the back of a truck and got out of his armor, quickly setting it to attack the Atlanteans chasing him from behind. Meanwhile, Kestrel, Grady, and Katrina ran out of the hotel through the fire exit, Atlanteans in hot pursuit.

"You HAD to leave us..." Kestrel snarled.

"Sorry. Just get in the truck!" Percy told them as the Atlanteans were now shooting at them, one laser grazing Grady's shoulder as they clambered into the truck, Kestrel in the driver's seat with Grady.

"Drive!" Percy ordered as his armor shot at the Atlanteans while he and Katrina kept the still unconscious General Santos inside.

Kestrel managed to hotwire the truck and drive off through the dark roads of London, but the same golden aircraft from Winchester were pursuing them, firing more golden lasers. Percy noticed they looked like the X Wings from Star Wars.

"We have to get back to the Waystation!" Grady said.

"Not with the aircraft in pursuit!" Kestrel retorted, swerving away from some people and turning left.

"We can lose them in the forests!"

"I have an idea!" Percy told them as they dodged more lasers and the aircraft and Atlantean trucks chased them out of the borders of London.

"ARGH!" Bran roared out in pain as he was being tortured by Lianna, who was impaling him across the body with various knives that weren't even cleaned.

"Now, what were you squabbling about?" Poseidon came into the room, in nothing but a loincloth and a bottle of wine in his hand.

"Like hell I'd tell you!" Bran yelled at the sea god, but was silenced when the daughter of Artemis smacked him across the face. Poseidon scoffed and lifted his "grandson"'s face up by the chin to force him to have eye to eye contact.

"You were squabbling about Perseus being alive, weren't you?" he scoffed. "Foolish boy, your father is dead."

What happened next was a spit wad from Bran's mouth to Poseidon's face, infuriating the latter. He impaled the blonde with his trident, stabbing him through the gut. Bran screamed in pain as the sea god tossed him aside, making him hit a wall and further his pain.

"You're pathetic. Accept it. Your father is dead, because he was weak like his mother."

Poseidon cackled and left, leaving Lianna to pull the knives out of Bran's body, the latter whispering to himself,

"I'll soon show you how wrong you really are."

Golden lasers continue to shoot down at the truck as it swerved through the roads outside of London. The truck suddenly swerves off the road and explodes, unaware that the four had jumped into the deep, dark forests beside the road with their captive. Seeing their mission fulfilled, the golden X-Wing knock offs bug out.

"Everyone okay?" Percy whispered at the others while he stared at the totaled remains of the truck.

"I'm fine." Kestrel groaned, emerging from a nearby bush.

"Where's the general?"

"We got him." they heard Grady's voice as he and Katrina got up with a slowly awakening General Santos, whom Kestrel kicks in the head to maintain his unconsciousness.

"Okay then, are we any close to the Waystation?" Percy asked.

"I think so." Katrina muttered.

"Let's call Clarisse to pick us up."

"How?"

Katrina finally got the idea when she noticed Grady looking at her, his face filled with obvious meaning.

"Oh great." the daughter of Morpheus groaned, knowing what she's supposed to do once again.

Clarisse suddenly found herself in a dark forest she seemed familiar with. She noticed Percy standing there in front of her.

"What is this, Prissy?" she asked.

"Uh, Clarisse, we kind of got stranded on the way back so we can escape the Atlantean X-Wing rip offs. So, can you pick us up?"

"Fine. Just hang tight. Any interesting landmarks?" she groaned.

"A wreckage of a truck on the side of the road. See that, we're near."

The daughter of Ares nodded. "Alright. Stay out of sight. If you hear a griffin cawing, I'm nearby."

"Got it. Thanks, Clarisse."

Percy awoke on the cold grass as Katrina pulled her hands away from his head while he sat up to look at the unconscious general.

"So, how do we get info out of him?" he asked the three.

"I could rip his mustache off." Kestrel suggested.

"I could super heat is blood then cool it down again and again." that obviously came from Grady.

"I could give him nightmares." Katrina said.

"Leave it to me. You guys can rest up." Percy told them. "Alright...let's eat up. Anyone still got MRE's?"

After what felt like an hour, Bran was thrown back into his cell with Artemis with a lot of stab wounds throughout his body.

"Are you okay?" the moon goddess asked.

"I'm fine." he groaned. "Just more wounds..."

He sat up as he tried to apply pressure on one of the more recent wounds.

"I still can't believe they made Lianna do this to you." Artemis spoke sadly. "Yet, I'm surprised you love her."

"I do." Bran sighed. "Even though she tried to kill me when we first met."

The moon goddess sighed and looked through the cell window at the stars. She couldn't see Zoe's constellation.

"So...how's Zoe? I've been told she's living with Bianca and that son of Hermes." she asked him.

"Well, she's fine. Steady relationship with Uncle Luke, great teacher. She taught me how to use a bow. Aunt Bianca taught me about...well, I don't really remember, something about a card game."

Artemis managed a weak smile at the thought that her former Hunters are having a good second chance in life. Bran asked her,

"How are my father's...other friends?"

She sighed and thought about what she should say to him.

"It's complicated, that topic. They're either on Poseidon's side or against him. Whereabouts? Unknown. They could be all around the world right now."

"Has anyone ever tried contacting them?"

"No. Ancient Laws."

Bran sighed. "Of course, the oh so important Ancient Laws. I learned about those from Uncle Luke. Speaking of which, about me and Lianna..."

Percy awoke to the sound of a griffin cawing. He noticed Kestrel and Katrina fiddling around with some of General Santos's gadgets. Grady stripped said general of his armor and reduced to his light blue boxers. He was trying hard not to laugh.

"Hey guys. Sounds like Clarisse got here." he told them. "Pack up, and get the general."

They packed their things and Percy's armor slung the still unconscious General Santos its shoulder. They walked out to the road and see a shadowy figure of a human being on a lion with bird wings. The figure got closer and...it was Clarisse on a griffin, followed by Chris also on a griffin. Percy waved at them with a goofy grin on his face, but the daughter of Ares was grumbling as they landed.

"Couldn't you get a phone or something?" she asked him.

"Well do you have a phone?" Percy asked back.

"Touche."

"Alright, let's go."

Kestrel hopped on Clarisse's griffin and Percy wore his armor again. He climbed on the same Griffin while Grady and Katrina rode with Chris. His griffin picked the near nude general up with those powerful claws and they flew away back to the Waystation.

Elise and Tyson drove back to Pike National Forest. Well, Elise is the one driving while Tyson kept all the rations and carcasses intact (for Maxwell the drakon). Since the cargo was pretty heavy, they moved slowly. The cyclops was somehow having a decent time when the truck came to a screeching halt. Elise saw a woman in a black cloak limping on the road. She quickly climbed out of the truck to help her.

"Are you okay?" Elise asked, and the woman nodded in reply, until the raven haired young woman pulled the hood of the cloak. The woman is revealed to be a beautiful woman with long black hair similar to Elise, but with a clam for a hairpin, smooth suntan skin, and sea green eyes. Before Elise could say anything, Tyson pulled her out of the way and pointed his club at the cloaked woman.

"Get...away!" he demanded.

"Who's that anyway?" Elise asked.

"Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife."

Elise bawled her fist, a faint dark red glow emanating from it.

Back at the Waystation, Kestrel, Grady, and Katrina ate some fresh hot bread in silence while Percy and Clarisse interrogated General Santos in the workshop. Ten minutes later, The two walked out, pretty disappointed with themselves.

"Any luck?" Kestrel asked.

"No." Percy grumbled. "I tried everything I can think of."

"And...he didn't budge, just cursed in Portugese." Clarisse added.

"Let me try." Katrina said as she entered the room to see the tied up Atlantean general yelling at her in Portugese. Annoyed, the daughter of Morpheus put her hands on the struggling Santos's head, yelling "SLEEP!"

Instantly, he went to sleep as the others came into the room.

"Wow. Didn't know you can do that." Grady admitted, but Katrina shushed them all and closed her eyes like she was meditating. After a few seconds, General Santos was mumbling incoherent words in his sleep, while Katrina was smirking like she had won an Olympian sized lottery.

"Thank you." she whispered in the general's ear, the latter woke up like he had seen a ghost.

"What?" Santos asked.

"The secret spacehip project is in Portsmouth." Katrina told the others.

"What? No! No!" General Santos yelled out before proceeding to yell more Portugese.

"Grady, Kestrel, deal as much pain as you want on him." Percy ordered, a psychopathic smile on his face and he and Clarisse left the three to their own devices. Didn't take long to hear the Atlantean general scream in agony.