Son of the Moon
Chapter 23
-Percy-
Standing at the gate to camp he nervously waited for his four quest mates to show up so they could leave for the quest. The prophecy had, much to Chiron's shock and Annabeth's anger, actually stated every person who was to go on the quest. 'strongest of the daughters of grain' was a reference to Katie Gardener, the head of the Demeter cabin and the strongest of them in terms of both fighting ability and powers.
'The fiercest son of the vines' was about Dionysus son Castor. While both Castor and his brother were capable athletes and fighters Castor was far more eager in battle, fiercer than his brother who preferred working the strawberry fields.
'the daughter of King of Divines' was talking about Thalia, being the only demigoddess daughter of Zeus at the camp. He was surprised though at how eager Thalia was to go on the quest but chose not to pay too much attention to it, more focused on rescuing his mom, Bianca, and Nico.
'the daughter banished from home' was Zoe as she was banished from the garden of the Hesperides. Most of the camp was confused about that line but he steadfast refused to reveal his sister's past and her secrets. Before going to bed he had used a tracking spell to locate the 'Bane of Olympus' that was supposed to show the trail and found the spell was telling him to go to Washington D.C.
Finally Katie, Castor, Thalia, and Zoe arrived with their packs as Chiron handed Zoe the keys to the Camp's van as they loaded up. They drove for several hours before stopping at a Maryland rest stop and he redid the tracking spell to make sure that the bane of Olympus was still in D.C. which it was.
"I don't like this," Thalia grumbled after he did the spell "shouldn't we just head directly west? The prophecy says that Artemis is trapped west.".
"It's a time honored tracking spell," he said irritably "and the prophecy said that the path we would have to take would be shown by the 'bane of Olympus' and you should never TRY to fight a prophecy, it will only make things harder.".
When Thalia opened her mouth to retort Zoe glared at her and snapped "Don't challenge my brother's skills you scullion! You know nothing of the skills of a Hunter!".
Thalia turned to Zoe furiously "Oh, Scullion? You're calling me a scullion?...What the heck is a scullion?!" the daughter of Zeus ranted.
"It means a kitchen servant who does the most unimportant tasks," he said without looking up from the acorns he used for the spell "now let's go.". Scooping up the acorns he moved past his glaring sister and Thalia before getting into the shotgun seat of the van. He felt a little bit guilty about how he was treating Thalia but he wasn't sure how to act around her anymore. Ever since Bianca…left him and told him how Thalia was, apparently, falling in love with him, he had felt completely awkward whenever he was near the daughter of Zeus but didn't want to completely cut her out of his group. He had been able to notice now how her actions could be her developing a crush on him, he refused to believe it was love as his heart belonged to Bianca, but tried not to think about it too much.
After another sixty miles of driving they arrived in Washington and found themselves outside the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. As the others began going inside to look around he stiffened when he saw the manticore from the military school going towards the Museum of Natural History as he turned towards Zoe, "Keep an eye on the others," he whispered "I need to check on something." And rushed off before she could stop him.
Following Thorn to the Natural History Museum which had a sign that read 'CLOSED FOR PRIVATE EVENT' but Thorn completely ignored it, throwing off all kinds of mental warnings. Following Thorn through a chamber full of mastodons and dinosaur skeletons he heard two voices up ahead, behind a set of closed doors, as he crept along the shadows to avoid being seen.
When the two guards opened the door for Thorn he got a look into the room as he used a weak shadow travel to jump from his shadow into the one just on the other side of the door as he crouched down the moment he landed.
Looking around he saw that he was in a huge round room with a balcony ringing the second level. At least a dozen mortal guards stood on the balcony, plus two dracaena. Between the two dracaena was the traitorous son of Hermes, Luke. The son of the god of thieves looked terrible, his skin while before tan was now sickly and pale, his once blonde hair now seemed grey, he looked as if he'd aged ten years in just a few months. Even his scar looked horrible, an ugly red color that looked as if it had been reopened.
Next to Luke, sitting down so that the shadows covered him, was another man but all that could really be seen were his knuckles on the gilded arms of a throne like chair. "Well?" the man in the chair demanded, his voice resonating power.
Thorn took of his shades before giving a stiff bow and saying in a strange French accent "They are here, General." Making him want to face palm at how dramatic the manticore was.
"I know that you fool," the sitting man thundered "but where?".
"In the rocket museum!" Thorn said quickly.
"The Air and Space Museum." He muttered irritably which only got worse when he realized Luke had said the exact same thing at the same time.
"How many?" the 'General' asked, both he and Thorn ignoring Luke's correction, much to the traitor's obvious irritation.
"Five, General," Thorn stated "the Daughter of Demeter Katie Gardener, the son of Dionysus Castor, the daughter of Zeus with the horrible shield, Thalia, and two others. One is the son of Artemis while the other is a huntress who wears a silver circlet…".
"That one I know." The General growled, giving him an idea of who it might be hidden in the shadows.
Everyone of the Titan loyalist in the room shifted uncomfortable for a few moments before Luke turned to the General, still hidden in the shadows and pleaded "Let me take them, we have more than enough…".
"Patience," the General chastised "They'll have their hands full already. I've sent a little…playmate, to keep them occupied.".
"But…" Luke tried to protest.
"We cannot risk you, my boy." The general said, as if talking to a whiny toddler.
"Yes, boy," Thorn sneered "you are much too fragile to risk. Let me finish them off General.".
"No!" the general thundered, rising from his chair to reveal his face for the first time. The man wore an expensive brow silk suit, like one would see on Wall Street. His skin was light brown and his dark hair was slicked-back. But even with his suit and hair nobody would mistake this man for a business broker; the General had a brutal face, riddled with scars, huge shoulders, and hands that looked like they could snap a flagpole in half. "You have already failed me, Thorn." The General growled after standing.
"But…General…" Thorn tried to plead before being cut off.
"NO EXCUSES!" the general roared "You were given orders to capture the entire group as WELL as the son of Artemis. Instead you only bring me two and allow the Moon Child to KILL YOU!".
Shaking his head the General turned towards Luke, dismissing the manticore as unimportant "Now my boy, the first thing we must do is isolate that Half-Blood Thalia. The Monster we seek will come to her as she is the oldest child of the eldest gods.".
"The hunters will be difficult to dispose of," Luke warned "even if it was just their lieutenant but that they have Perseus as well…".
Waving off Luke's warnings the General turned towards the bottom floor "Let me show you, my boy, how we will bring the Hunters, especially their precious prince, down.". Pointing to one of the guards he called out "Do you have the teeth?", when the guard nodded with a ceramic pot the General ordered "Plant them!".
In the center of the room was a big circle of dirt, where he assumed a dinosaur exhibit was supposed to go. He watched as the guard took the sharp white teeth out of the pot and pushed them into the soil before smoothing the dirt over while the general smiled coldly. When the guard finished he stepped back and saluted the General, "Excellent! Water them, and we will let them scent their prey." The General crowed.
Stiffening, he wondered what exactly was being created before he watched as the guard picked up a little tin watering can and poured out a dark red liquid that sent shivers down his spine. As the soil began to bubble his eyes widened as the General exclaimed "Behold Luke! The ultimate killing machines!".
In each spot where a tooth had been planted a creature, one of the general's ultimate killing machines, was struggling out of the dirt before the first one said…"mew?". It was a kitten, a little orange tabby with stripes like a tiger and bigger than normal teeth. Then another appeared, and another, until there were a dozen kitten rolling around happily in the dirt.
Everyone stared in disbelief, some clearly trying hard not to laugh, before the general roared "What is this?! Cute cuddly kittens?! Where did you find those teeth?!".
The guard who had planted them cowered in fear "F-from the exhibit sir! Just like you said, the saber-toothed tiger…".
"I said the tyrannosaurus you idiot!" the general yelled angrily "Gather up those…those…infernal fuzzy little beasts and take them outside, and never let me see your face again!".
The terrified guard dropped the watering can and gathered up the kittens before rushing out of the room. Quickly the general sent another guard to get the correct teeth before he jumped off the railing to land on the marble twenty feet down with enough force to crack it. "Dinosaur teeth, ha!" the general sneered as he grabbed the teeth "those foolish mortals don't even known when they have dragon teeth in their possession. And not just any dragon teeth. These come from the ancient Sybaris Herself!".
Paling at what he realized was about to happen he saw the General push the twelve teeth into the soil before watering the soil…as a skeletal hand burst forth from the soil.
"Sparti." He breathed in horror as he saw the demonic warriors clamber out from the dirt.