We're lagging behind, but we'll get there... eventually...


Perseus woke up in a sitting position, a terrible headache, and a very sore neck. He tried to sit up, but heard the clinking of metal, and a resisting force. Chains. He growled lowly. 'Wonderful.'

He looked around the room that he currently occupied. Nothing. Dark rocks created the walls, and the only light in the room was a small pool of flowing lava. Or, was it magma, since they were still inside the volcano? Who knew? The long shadows played tricks with the demigod's eyes, but he finally spotted a pair of closed doors at one end of the room. The chair he was in was a crudely shaped piece of rock. and was not at all comfortable. The jagged edges poked into his skin, but not enough to draw blood.

That didn't mean they weren't annoying, though.

He looked for anything else, but the room seemed pretty empty other than that. He had chains around his legs, too, at least from what he could hear. He snorted. They were chained to each other. What, did they run out of metal or something? He stood up slowly, careful to not aggravate his neck. It would be of no use to fall. He slowly made his way over to the lava, or magma, or whatever it was.

The heat was slowly increasing in the enclosed room. He could definitely feel it with the metal, and knew that if he stayed here much longer it would start to burn him. What was this place, a torture chamber or something? He could see how it would work. Put the metal on their skin, let it heat up a bit, walk in, get your answers... or they would roast. He hummed in appreciation. Effective.

He was now next to the pool of molten rocks and minerals. He tapped it lightly with his toe. It burned, but more like a warm shower than something that was supposedly hotter than fire. He submerged his foot. It still felt... nice, almost. He supposed his godly parentage helped with this. Were all demigods this resistant? He wished he knew who his father was, something he had been thinking about heavily for the past few months. Hades, it was all he was thinking about after the death of Augustus...

The death of Augustus... was Riptide still with him? He concentrated, focusing on the bond he held with the pin. Yes. He felt the weight in his hair, now. He hoped he still had hair left after what he was about to do. Perseus "Apollyon" Jackson, in what was probably not his greatest moment, jumped into a pile of molten rock. It was warmer near the bottom, but that was where he had to be. He sunk like a stone, the weight of his rocky chair no doubt helping.

And then... yes. The chains started to melt. It was only taking a few minutes. Perseus didn't know if it was safe to breath, or open his eyes, so he kept everything closed and didn't breathe. Then... enough weakness. He flexed and pulled, and the chains quickly snapped. He smiled, but the action made his face hurt a bit more than everything already did. He bent down and slipped his feet out of their chains, careful to not lose his hold on the metal. He would need some weapons if he wanted to escape, and he didn't quite feel like staining Anaklusmos a deeper shade of red at the moment. Red-hot chains definitely weren't the worst of weapons.

He floated up to the top of the magma. He tossed the chains over the side as soon as his head poked out, and they sent sparkling bits of magma around the room. The air sizzled against his skin as he got out of his lava bath. He smirked. 'Bet Agrippa never had baths that hot.' He smirked to himself. Dripping molten rock, more of the room was now lit up, and he saw his clothes laying discarded in a corner of the room, by the door.

He picked up his pants, relieved to see that they didn't burst into fire on contact with his skin, but his shirt was so torn and tattered that it wasn't worth putting on. He saw the bits of blood all over the cloth, and smirked. Even if they had ambushed him, he had given them a Hades of a fight. His bag wasn't here, though... Unsurprising. No way they'd let him just have his stuff like that.

He stalked over to the doors, and pulled on them gently. Locked. He stepped back and investigated them. Stone, too, although not the same type as the rest of the chamber. He held his ear to it, and tapped on it. It seemed pretty dense, dense enough that he probably wouldn't be able to punch though it. Oh well... the only thing left to do, then, was wait.

It only took a few minutes. He was hiding the outside the edge of the doors. He didn't want to get smacked if they were tossed open. Going unconscious once was plenty enough for him, thank you very much. He started hearing voices outside the room. "-es, my Lord. It should be sufficiently warm enough in there to begin information extraction." The sentence finished as the two got to the doors. Hestia's champion heard multiple locks click. Had they been carved directly into the stone, or was it made of multiple materials?

"Good." The second being's voice held... power. Or confidence, at least. Not like the first man's. The doors weren't flung open, as Perseus had expected, but rather, pushed open gently. "Wakey, wakey, little Greeky... He's not here." He whipped around to face his collaborator, and found him, eyes wide, with a chain wrapped around his throat. Behind him, the "Greeky" he had come to torture...

"Woke up a little while ago, thank you. I was definitely sleepy, needed a good nap." The other being looked at him, trying to discern if Perseus was joking or not, and then leaned back and laughed.

"Good, good! It's never fun if they break too early." Perseus' eyes narrowed.

"You're going to tell me where my bag is, or I'm going to crush your friends throat." The aforementioned "friend" was shaking in his sandals. The other man smirked.

"No need to waste your strength, I'll do it for you." The trapped man managed to wheeze out a quick, weak, "No..." before the man flicked his wrist and the prisoner's head blew off, and his lifeless corpse dropped to the floor. Perseus' eyes widened now, and he spat out a bit of blood as the resistance on his chains disappeared.

"What the Hades...?" The man, retracting his arm, laughed.

"Guess you don't know everything, after all. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Titan of the East, and the Lord of Heavenly Light."

Perseus clenched his jaw, but his legs felt slightly weak. Out of everything he had expected, it wasn't this... 'Well... shit.'