CLANG
The noise ran out sharp and clear in the quiet of the forest.
We waited with bated breath to see the outcome of Apollo's arrow. A sharp clicking noise was heard as an eye slot in the door was opened and dark red eyes glinted in the sunlight let through the door.
I turned towards the two gods beside me and watched as Artemis gave a nod. We dispersed, as had been planned earlier. I ran far to the right, hiding behind the biggest bush I can find, while Artemis leapt into the trees readying herself for an assault, while Apollo stood up from our initial hiding spot and strung another arrow.
The deep ringing sound of an arrow against the door was heard again, followed by the rustling sound of the sun god hurrying away to get into position.
Finally, this time the door creaked open, and out stepped a dracaena. Holding a spear in hand with a small chest plate hanging on her shoulder.
It was almost comical how unprepared she was.
She looked down and picked up the arrow fallen against the door. Thankfully Apollo didn't use any of his gold arrows so his identity would not be found. One of our only advantages was that the enemy had no knowledge of our existence, believing the remaining gods to have faded and me to have died. Unknowing of why the gods sacrificed themselves on the battlefield that one terrible day.
The dracaena hissed behind her and she walked outside followed by a three more of her kind. They looked out about the forest, trying to find the source of the arrow, but found nothing. Turning around to return to their base, an arrow flew from a tree and embedded itself into one of the monster's head, disintegrating the beast before it had time to utter a sound.
Artemis had struck first blood.
The remaining dracaenae turned around, eyes widening in surprise and rushed towards the door. The lead monster struck her spear against the door and shouted something to someone inside.
Immediately, out of the door poured out a battalion of monsters. Cyclops, hellhounds, empousa, they were all there. I just crossed my fingers and hoped that that was all the remaining monsters guarding the door. Luckily none of them seemed to have too much armor.
To be fair though, they didn't know we even existed.
This was the cue we had been waiting for. With the appearance of the monsters, Artemis and I jumped from our hiding place, Artemis with a bow in her hand and me with my sword. She shot an arrow that struck one of the cyclops, turning it to dust.
And I threw a rock.
Hey don't blame me. I suck with projectiles. Luckily it was enough to get the monsters' attention.
With that, we both turned tail and rushed into the forest, the monsters splitting into three groups. One following Artemis, the other following me, and five monsters guarding the door. Hopefully Apollo would take them out before they could sound any alarm.
I ran through the forest, with leaves whipping towards my face, as I heard the monsters deep in pursuit behind me. I heard a whistling sound and I lunged to the right just as an arrow raced past me.
I need to finish this fast.
I dashed towards the designated location, leaping over a pile of leaves I recognized and ran ahead, hearing the snap of the bear trap Artemis built/conjured, flowed by the roar of a few monsters.
Knowing what I had to do, I made a quick turn to the foliage on my left, glancing back to make sure that the monsters were still on my tail.
Making a fast U-turn, I doubled back towards the trap and raised my arm and slashed at the monsters stuck in the traps, satisfied when I saw the burst of familiar golden dust.
Continuing my run, I lead the monsters deeper into the forest, catching a few more on bear traps and slowly thinning down my pursuers. Finally, I reached the clearing where I turned and stood waiting for the monsters to reach me. And just as they were barreling towards me, I jumped to the right, just as I had done all those years back with the minotaur. The monsters barreled past me and into the concealed hole that had been dug, falling inside and too incapacitated to climb back up.
Sadly a few monsters close to the back of the pursuing party had slowed to a stop once they had seen the monsters ahead of them fall into the pit.
They turned towards me, a total of six monsters glaring at me. I held Riptide ready in one hand and beckoned them forward in the other, smiling.
They lunged forward. I leaned to the right, avoiding a jab from a spear and jabbed my sword forward, taking out the empousa that held the spear. I ran ahead and hit the ground ahead of the monsters rolling as I slashed my sword in an arc, injuring the legs of a few monsters. I stood up and dispatched the injured monsters and leaned back as a hellhound pounced at me, no hesitation in my eye as I stabbed in the snout.
Suddenly I felt the ground give away before me as I was lifted up in the air. A cyclops had snuck up behind me and now had a hand around my neck. I switched my sword grip in reverse and stabbed the cyclops in the stomach, causing him to drop me as I turned around and finished him off.
Standing alone in the clearing, I walked back to the pit to finish off the monsters, and I arrived to see the pit full of gold dust and silver arrows.
I turned around to see Artemis leaning against a tree, her bow in her hand, with flecks of golden dust covering her.
"You took long enough" she said impassively.
"Yeah well, I wanted to take the scenic route", I said as we headed back towards the base.
Arriving there, we saw Apollo standing at the door, clearly bored waiting for us.
Without a word from anyone, we all entered the base.
The inside looked pretty much like any old military bases from movies, with gray steel walls and overhead lighting, dim enough to make this place look really sketchy.
We slowly moved forward, careful not to make any sound. We found a dead end with an elevator, and with no other choice, we mounted the lift, weapons at the ready.
Now I have to be honest when I say that the elevator ride was very long, and I was doing nothing but piss my pants the entire time. I mean, come on! I'm a front-line fighter. I rush out against my enemies and kill as many as I can. This stealth stuff isn't for me.
The door dinged open, and in front of us stood a cyclops carrying some kind of box. Artemis lashed out and swiftly and silently ended the monster with a slice to the throat. I caught the box and looked inside and found vials of Greek fire hidden in there.
Apollo reached inside and grabbed a few vials and I took the box and hid it in a corner. Never know how much use it can be when we're trying to escape, right?
We continued forward, moving along the corridors. Luckily it wasn't too much of a maze, so it wasn't too hard not to get lost. Whenever a door was spotted, we peaked inside. Any monster inside a room was immediately met with gold and silver arrows to their heads.
You all know the first target came the voice of Athena inside our heads, You'll have to take out their communications. Iris would never let them IM, so mortal communication is their only means of communication
We looked at each other and nodded. As much as I wanted to rush in there and break Leo out, I had to control myself. Making sure that our presence isn't known to other bases were vital, else Leo would be the only one we ever save.
Door by door we scouted out the base, looking for any clues that might give us any kind of edge. Whenever we arrived at a deserted corridor, we took out every monster in all the rooms and split up to search them. Every electronic device found was broken.
Entering one of the many rooms we had searched, I found myself looking at a drawing board. On it was a map of the world. I hoped and prayed to all remaining gods that it would be the locations of the remaining demigods, but honestly, I was clueless.
The map was…. weird. It didn't have any markings on it, but instead had writing all over it in a language I had never seen before. I shrugged and pocketed it, deciding to show it to Athena when we're back.
Checking the rest of the room, finding nothing else but a few electronics that I destroyed I went back outside. Seeing that no one had returned, I stood guard after making sure that my companions were still safe.
Moments later, Apollo reappeared from one of the doorways, followed by Artemis soon thereafter.
"Anything?" Artemis asked.
"I found a radio and a microphone sitting at one of the desks" Apollo said, "On the off chance that this is used to communicate between monster bases, I thought we could bring it back to Hephaestus and have him set up a station for us"
"Huh" I replied, stunned, "I didn't know you could think ahead that much"
Giving a half-hearted glare Apollo replied, "What about you Perce? Find anything interesting?"
I nodded, "Possibly. I got a map, but I can't decipher what's written on it"
Artemis frowned, and held out her hand. I handed her the map and she stared at it for a few seconds before her eyebrows furrowed and she thrust it back in my direction, "I don't know what it is, but it is not something we can waste time about now. I'm still slightly suspicious about why we haven't been found yet"
I shrugged and repocketed the map. "No sense thinking about any of that now huh? Let's just get on with this. I got a friend to save", a hard edge finally returning to my voice.
And so, our infiltration continued. I won't bore you with anymore details, cause for most of it, it was just kill and search.
After a point, the number of doors seemed to thin down until finally the corridor ahead of us opened up into a huge atrium. So, naturally we hid.
The large room ahead of us was ginormous. Easily about half the size of the Olympian throne room. Meaning, pretty darn huge.
And very sadly, it was absolutely filled with monsters.
"There's no way we can cross this" I whispered
"There must be some alternative way" Artemis whispered back, "Look around"
Not too long after that my eyes were drawn to a particular deformity in the ceiling.
The vents. Classic.
I silently pointed upwards to the ceiling and mouthed 'vents' to the others.
Apollo grew slightly in size until he was big enough to reach the ceiling, and slowly and quietly unscrewed the vents. He then lifted both Artemis and I into the vents, before shrinking and pulling himself in.
Huh. Gods are pretty strong.
We started crawling through the vents, hoping that it would take us where we needed to go.
I very honestly know I should've been serious during all of this, and pretty much scared, but damn! Can't lie that I didn't feel a bit like John McClane through all of this.
Hmmm right. Back to the vents. Soon enough, and painstakingly long time later, if I may add, we reached another vent in the approximate right direction we were hoping to go and hopped down.
Not knowing which was to go, we continued down one way, until we reached, you guessed it, the huge atrium again!
I really like vents.
We doubled back and kept going the other way until we reached a series of stairs. Going down, we were met with a few monsters on the way, but they were quickly dispatched. Exiting the stairwell, we were met with a blast of cold air that had me chattering my teeth.
Stepping into the cold, we were met with the same corridors we had been in; however, these were bigger. Following the path, we stopped at a turn and peeked over the side and were met with a sight we were yet to see.
Standing against the wall, facing us were two large hyperborean giants. And between them, a door.
I stared at the door, knowing in my gut what was behind it. I turned back towards the twin gods, "This might be it"
They nodded and got into position, with me standing up front and the two gods behind me with their bows drawn.
We leapt out of hiding, and charged the giants, arrows bursting forth from the twins.
I charged one of the giants, that bellowed at us and snarled as the arrows seemed to bother it. Stepping forward one of them blew its icy breath in my direction and I leapt to the side to avoid becoming a Percicle.
"Watch the breath" I yelled out, knowing that the gods probably already knew as I slashed at the giant's foot. It roared I anger as it tried to swat me. As it did, I grabbed onto the giant's hand and was lifted up into the air.
I know. Stupid right?
It raised its hand and gave me a confused look and tried to swat me with it's other hand, which I jabbed at every time it came too close. The giant was staring to look really annoyed, and so I swung myself from the hand and with Riptide, I stabbed the giant in its chest and sled downwards, creating a big cut in its chest. I landed on the ground to see ice blocks falling around me as the monster froze and crumbled.
I turned beside me to see a particularly well-placed golden arrow lodge itself in the other giant's eye, while Artemis jumped all the way to its head and stabbed it in the forehead, causing the giant to go still and crumble, similar to mine.
Apollo stared at me, "You do know how stupid you looked hanging there right?"
I groaned and walked to the door as I heard the god behind me chuckle.
I reached the door and tried to force it open, but it wouldn't budge. I frowned, scolding myself for thinking that it would be that easy.
"There must be some kind of control panel nearby" Artemis said
"Over there", Apollo said as he pointed towards a door that we had missed while rushing the giants. Walking towards it, we opened it to find telkhines sitting in chairs facing a bunch of computer screens. They jumped up in alarm from their chairs and rushed backwards, clearly having no weapons to try and fight us. They glared at me in hatred as I quickly slashed them up.
Yeah telkhines don't really like me. Or it could be because I just killed them. Who knows?
I walked towards the control panel, but however not being able to make out heads or tails of anything.
Artemis walked up to the panel and looked at it for a second and then looked back at me as if I was stupid.
She pointed at a switch that said CELL DOOR.
Did I mention that I have ADHD?
She shook her head and flipped the switch. Outside the control room, the opening of the cell door was heard and I rushed outside to see it. As I got close to the door I felt the absolutely freezing cold emanating from there. I felt immobilized by it and felt the energy leave my body. I slumped down and crawled backwards until I found the warm source of Apollo.
Praise be the sun god.
I stood back up shakily as Apollo blasted me with some warmth from his very hot (temperature wise) self.
"That….was bad" I mumbled, slowly beginning to feel my limbs again.
"Hmmm, let me get Arty to check the panel" Apollo replied.
He walked back inside, partly supporting me until I was able to walk normally again. By the time we reached the panel, my limbs seemed to work normally, thanks to Apollo's help.
"It's too cold in there" I said, "There any way to turn down the AC in there?"
Artemis looked down at the panels, studying the nobs and switches on the board. Finally, she found the right switch and turned the nob all the way down to 0.
The three of us walked back outside, waiting for a small amount of time a safe distance away to make sure what happened to me wouldn't be repeated.
After about five minutes or so, we headed inside the cell. It would look like just about any other cell I could think of, except it was still covered in ice.
And in the middle of the cell, chained in an X, was Leo Valdez.
To say the least, he didn't look good. Clearly unconscious, his head was slumped forward on his very malnutrition chest. His arms looked skinny and hung limply from the chains. His hair was unkept and long, hiding his elfish ears. Torn rags that were once clothes covered his body, not completely being able to hide the few scars that lay on his back.
I wasted no time in running and slicing the chains down with my sword. It took a few tries to break through the celestial bronze, but I was furiously hacking at it, thinking of nothing other than saving my friend.
The chains finally gave away, and Apollo rushed forward to catch him before he could hit the floor.
He carried him outside and laid the son of Hephaestus on the floor. Artemis uncapped a small bottle of nectar and dribbled it into his mouth. She stepped aside and allowed the god od healing to crouch beside him as he lay his hands on the barely moving chest. A warm glow emitted from Apollo's hands as he worked his godly healing on the frail demigod.
Moments later, Apollo stepped back from Leo, gobbling up a piece of ambrosia to retain his energy, as Leo's eyes slowly fluttered open.
He groaned as he blinked his unfocused eyes, clearly trying to understand what was going on around him. I can't really blame him though. He's been in prison for over seven years now. Anything but his cell was probably unexperienced for him.
"P-Percy?" he asked softly.
I smiled, "Yeah it's me man"
However, instead of relief on his face, I saw a frown, "So this is your new trick huh? Well it won't work on me!" he started shouting towards the ceiling, "You can't hurt me anymore you giant freak. Much less by showing me my dead friend…."
He was cut off as Apollo lurched towards him and slammed his hand over Leo's mouth to keep him quiet, muffling the noises coming from Leo.
Artemis was glaring at him with a clear message to shut up. Looking at the terrifying goddess in front of him he shut up.
I knelt down in front of him, "Leo, this isn't a dream" I said softly, "Look, there's too much to explain right now, and not much time to do it. I promise that we're real, and we're here to get you out"
Leo stared at me for a second and shook his head, "I can't know that. For all I know it's just that bastard getting in my head again"
"Leo look at me", I said with a hard tone in my voice, "I swear on the River Styx that it really is me. You have nothing to worry about"
I saw his eyes soften, and all of a sudden, he grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. I felt tears leak down onto my back as I hugged the only demigod I had seen in seven years. It was too saddening to see what had happened to the fun loving and chirpy guy I knew.
I helped him up and saw him glance towards the twins. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a minute, "Wait have I met you two before?" until suddenly his eyes widened, "Oh crap. Lady Artemis, Lord Apollo"
"Leo Valdez" Artemis said, "It is good to see that you are fine. But introductions can come later. We need to get out of here as soon as we can"
We nodded and stood up, helping a very week Leo back to his feet. Apollo handed him the canteen on nectar and Leo downed it all in one gulp. I was scared for a minute, afraid of what the overdose of nectar would do to him until I remembered that he too was made immortal.
He seemed to regain much of his energy, enough to walk by himself. Surprising what some good nectar can do to you.
Leo gave a small grin, "Haven't felt this good in ages. That freaking cold kept me practically paralyzed. Couldn't even form some fire in there. Probably why they kept me in those conditions in the first place"
"Who were you talking to before?" I asked, "The one you were shouting at when you thought it was all a dream"
His eyes darkened suddenly until he spat out, "My jailer. That bastard Mimas"
Apollo's eyes widened in understanding, "The anti-Hephaestus. A jailer perfectly tailored for the prisoner"
Leo nodded, "Forget about him for now. Let's just get the hell outta this place"
We started to head on back, until Artemis stopped in front of the control panels from earlier, "We can't leave this intact. They might use it somehow to communicate"
Apollo nodded and reached inside his bag and retrieved a vial of Greek fire and tossed it inside the room. Immediately the familiar green fire roared to life and consumed everything in the room.
As soon as the Greek fire touched the panels however, the screech of an alarm was heard.
Stupid, stupid! Of course, they'd have an alarm system connected to the controls of the cell of the only damn prisoner in this entire fortress!
Wasting no more time, we dashed towards the exit and rushed up the stairs, the continuous wailing of the siren blaring in our ears. As soon as we reached the top of the stairs, we were swarmed by monsters.
We jumped into action, Riptide springing to life in my arms as I jumped into the monsters, my sword a deadly arc to any in my way. Besides me I saw Artemis lashing out with her hunting knives and Apollo with a flaming sword in his hands. I ever surprisingly saw Leo with his hands on fire, keeping monsters away from him, and disintegrating the few that got too close to him.
We worked our way through the swarm of monsters and continued our run towards the exit. Groups of monsters would keep intercepting us, forcing us to fight our way through, slowing us down. Without knowing, there seemed to be a sudden change in scenery around us. Instead of the constrained corridors we were in the large atrium from before.
"So, Leo" boomed a voice, "You've finally managed to escape is it?"
I turned towards the direction of Leo's murderous gaze and saw the giant looming in front of me. He stood tall, like every other giant I had seen, with a cold smirk on his face.
Mimas gave a gruesome smile, "And you've brought some friends for me to play with"
Ummm. Don't know what to say. Guess I'll just say I'm sorry I was gone for so long? Tried to make this chapter longer to make up for it. Anyway, I'm back now, and hopefully this chapter can get me back to my writing. As I said earlier I have the general idea of the story in my head, and a ending to work towards, but it's gonna take me some time to work out the specifics, but I'll try to at least upload sooner. Anyway, how was the chapter? It was my first attempt at any sort of action, so let me know what you thought of it. Guess I'll see you guys next time!