Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. I'm so glad everyone's likes this! I hope you all enjoy my take on the Titan's Curse. You'll find out who's kidnapped in this chapter, and I hope you like the twist.
Chapter Two
The World Doesn't Stop Turning
I didn't know what kind of monster Dr. Thorn was yet, but he was definitely fast.
Maybe I could defend myself if I got into a fight with him. But defending the di Angelo kids was another matter. They were frightened and untrained: a.k.a liabilities. I needed help, preferably from one or both of my ultra-powerful girls. Still, right now the only thing that I could do was slow him down, delay him until Ana and Thalia arrived.
I slowed down, faking (well exaggerating, anyway) an expression of pain as I pressed a hand to my shoulder.
"What are you doing, Castellan?" hissed Dr. Thorn. "Keep moving!"
I kept shuffling forward. "It's my shoulder," I lied, faking a tone of misery, which wasn't hard. "It hurts."
"Bah! My poison causes pain. It will not kill you. Walk!"
Thorn herded us outside, and I tried to concentrate, searching for an opening to either attack or run away.
Thorn marched us into the woods. We took a snowy path dimly lit by old-fashioned lamplights. My shoulder ached. The wind blowing through my ripped clothes was so cold that I felt like an icicle.
"There is a clearing ahead," Thorn said. "We will summon your ride from there."
"What ride?" Bianca demanded. "Where are you taking us?"
"Silence, you insufferable girl!"
"Don't talk to my sister that way.'" Nico said. His voice quivered, but I was impressed that he had the bravery to say anything at all. Maybe he would last a week, after all. I'd doubted it, before.
Dr. Thorn made a growling sound that definitely wasn't human. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, but I forced myself to keep walking and pretend I was being a good little captive, instead of plotting my captor's death.
"Halt," Thorn ordered, holding up his hand.
The woods had opened up. We'd reached a cliff overlooking the sea. At least, I could hear the waves churning and I could smell the cold salty froth. But all I could see was mist and darkness.
Dr. Thorn pushed us toward the edge. I stumbled, and Bianca caught me.
"Thanks," I murmured.
"What is he?" she whispered. "How do we fight him?"
"I'm working on it."
"I'm scared," Nico mumbled. He was fiddling with something—a little metal toy soldier of some kind.
"Stop talking!" Dr. Thorn ordered us sharply. "Face me!"
We turned. I could literally just hear Ana's scathing remarks and grumbles over being told what to do in my mind.
Thorn's two-tone eyes glittered hungrily. He pulled something from under his coat. At first I thought it was a switchblade, but it was only a phone. He pressed the side button and said, "The package—it is ready to deliver."
There was a garbled reply, and I realized Thorn was in walkie-talkie mode. This seemed way too modern and creepy—a monster using a mobile phone.
I glanced behind me, wondering how far the drop was. I was wearing my shoes, so maybe I could grab the kids, jump and use the shoes to support us. On the other hand, they were delicate shoes. I had my doubts they could keep all three of us up. If it was too far down, we end up as half-blood pancakes. And Ana and Thalia would be pissed. Which is bad for everyone, believe me.
Dr. Thorn laughed. "By all means, Son of Hermes. You have those gifts your father gives in bulk. Jump! Save yourself."
"What did he call you?" Bianca muttered.
"I'll explain later," I replied. Mentally, I rolled my eyes. Did she not realize this was a life-or-death situation, and I was trying to save her and her brother? Priorities!
"You do have a plan, right?"
"Oh sure," I answered breezily. "Great one, actually."
It was a great plan, really, I defended myself mentally. Two angry daughters of the Big Three. Women scorned + superpowers and pointy objects = Very Dead Thorn Thing.
A flicker of movement behind him, and another missile whistled so close to me that it nicked my ear. Something had sprung up behind Dr. Thorn—like a catapult, but more flexible… almost like a tail. Okay, what monsters had tails? Woah, that narrows it down, my mental voice, that sounded distressingly like a mixture of my girls, scoffed sarcastically. I pulled a face in my mind as a reply.
"Unfortunately," Thorn sighed regretfully, "you are wanted alive, if possible. Otherwise you would already be dead."
"Who wants us?" Bianca demanded. "Because if you think you'll get a ransom, you're wrong. We don't have any family. Nico and I…" Her voice broke a little. "We've got no one but each other."
"Aww," Dr. Thorn said. "Do not worry, little brats. You will be meeting my employer soon enough. Then you will have a brand-new family."
"Ethan and Annabeth," I hissed. "You work for them."
In order to prevent myself from getting into the raw pain of betrayal I felt whenever I thought about them, I nurtured a constant rage instead. Much easier to think of the two as vicious, psychotic enemies who had nearly killed Ana multiple times, instead of the tiny blonde girl who'd attacked me with a hammer and I had sworn would be family, or the small ten-year-old who had been so frightened by the revelation of his heritage.
Dr. Thorn's mouth twisted with distaste when I said the names. "You have no idea what is happening, Luke Castellan. I will let the General enlighten you. You are going to do him a great service tonight. He is looking forward to meeting you."
"The General?" I asked. Then I realized I'd said it with a French accent. "I mean… who's the General?"
Thorn didn't answer, instead looking towards the horizon and smirking in cartoon villain kind of way. "Ah, here we are. Your transportation."
I turned and saw a light in the distance, a searchlight over the sea. Then I heard the chopping of helicopter blades getting louder and closer. My heart sank.
"Where are you taking us?" Nico asked, his voice trembling.
"You should be honoured, my boy. You will have the opportunity to join a great army! Just like that silly game you play with cards and dolls."
"They're not dolls! They're figurines! And you can take your great army and—"
"Now, now," Dr. Thorn warned. "You will change your mind about joining us, my boy. And if you do not, well… there are other uses for half-bloods. We have many monstrous mouths to feed. The Great Stirring is underway."
"The Great what?" I asked. Anything to keep him stalled while I waited for my reinforcements.
"The stirring of monsters." Dr. Thorn smiled evilly. "The worst of them, the most powerful, are now waking. Monsters that have not been seen in thousands of years. They will cause death and destruction the likes of which mortals have never known. And soon we shall have the most important monster of all—the one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus!"
"Okay," Bianca whispered to me. "He's completely nuts."
"We have to jump off the cliff," I told her quietly. "Into the sea." We would be better off soaking wet with broken bones than captured by the Titans, anyway.
"Oh, super idea. You're completely nuts, too."
I never got the chance to argue with her, because just then my secret weapon arrived.
"Get away from them!" Ana called as she stepped out from the mist dramatically.
Her braided hair had come loose, so it whipped around her face. Her sea-green eyes were steely and determined, as they always were in battle. She was short, but her power radiated from her, and her athletic form, combined with her confident stance, intimidated anybody stupid enough to cross her. Her tanned skin almost glowed in the misty light. In short, she was as beautiful as any goddess.
"Anaea Jackson, the infamous daughter of Poseidon," Thorn sneered, but we had all seen his momentary horror at the sight of her before he had hidden it. I smirked in amusement.
She grinned cockily at him, Anaklusmos held in her favourite opening stance, a defensive position that easily twisted into an attacking lunge.
"And Thalia, daughter of Zeus," said girl added, stepping up beside Ana with a grin. "Bring it, asshole!"
Without giving Thorn a chance to react, they both moved.
If you've never seen Thalia run into battle, you have never been truly frightened. Her shield is modelled after one her dad Zeus uses—also called Aegis. His was a gift from Athena. Thalia's was gotten at the cost of a good man's life. The shield has the head of the gorgon Medusa moulded into the bronze, and even though it won't turn you to stone, it's so horrible, most people will panic and run at the sight of it.
Even Dr. Thorn winced and growled when he saw it.
Ana attacked from the sides while Thalia moved in with her spear.
I thought Dr. Thorn was a goner. While Ana swiped at his tail, Thalia jabbed at his head, but he snarled and swatted the spear aside. Ana was forced to back away without harming him to avoid being impaled. His hand changed into an orange paw, with enormous claws that sparked against Thalia's shield as he slashed. If it hadn't been for Aegis, Thalia would've been sliced like a loaf of bread. As it was, she managed to roll backward and land on her feet.
The sound of the helicopter was getting louder behind me, but I didn't dare look back at it.
I wanted to help, but that would interrupt the girls' rhythm, and leave the di'Angelos without a protector. I had to resort to watching for an opening, instead.
Dr. Thorn launched another volley of missiles at the girls, and this time I could see how he did it. He had a tail—a leathery, scorpionlike tail that bristled with spikes at the tip. The missiles deflected off Aegis, but the force of their impact knocked Thalia down. Ana darted in again, managing to slash his side before jumping away to avoid some more spikes, ending up beside me.
Grover sprang forward. He put his reed pipes to his lips and began to play—a frantic jig that sounded like something pirates would dance to. Grass broke through the snow. Within seconds, rope-thick weeds were wrapping around Dr. Thorn's legs, entangling him.
Dr. Thorn roared and began to change. He grew larger until he was in his true form—his face still human, but his body that of a huge lion. His leathery, spiky tail whipped deadly thorns in all directions.
"A manticore!" Ana exclaimed. "γαμώ." Ana can have a really salty mouth sometimes. Still, I had to agree with her in this case.
"Who are you people?" Bianca di Angelo demanded. "And what is that?"
"A manticore?" Nico gasped at the same time. "He's got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!"
"He also has very sharp, very real spikes that can impale you," Ana snapped at him. "Get down, both of you!"
Personally, I didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but we didn't have time to worry about it. The manticore clawed Grover's magic weeds to shreds then turned toward us with a snarl.
"Get down!" Ana ordered again, and this time I helped by pushing the di'Angelos flat into the snow.
Meanwhile, Ana summoned her own shield. She tugged at the dolphin charm hanging from her bracelet, and metal plating spiralled out into a thick bronze shield. Not a moment too soon. The thorns impacted against it with such force they dented the metal. The beautiful shield, a gift from Ana's brother, was badly damaged. I wasn't sure it would even stop a second volley. The fury on Ana's face almost made me feel bad for Thorn. Almost.
I heard a thwack and a yelp, and Grover landed next to me with a thud.
"Yield!" the monster roared.
"Never!" Thalia yelled from across the field. She charged the monster, and for a second, I thought she would run him through. But then there was a thunderous noise and a blaze of light from behind us. The helicopter appeared out of the mist, hovering just beyond the cliffs. It was a sleek black military-style gunship, with attachments on the sides that looked like laser-guided rockets. The helicopter had to be manned by mortals, but what was it doing here? How could mortals be working with a monster? The searchlights blinded Thalia, and the manticore swatted her away with its' tail. Her shield flew off into the snow. Her spear flew in the other direction.
"No!" Ana and I ran out to help her. I parried away a spike just before it would've hit her chest while Ana raised her shield over us, but I knew that it wouldn't be enough.
Dr. Thorn laughed. "Now do you see how hopeless it is? Yield, little heroes."
We were trapped between a monster and a fully armed helicopter. We were beyond screwed.
Then I heard a clear, piercing sound: the call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods. That's when I realized just how much worse everything had gotten.
The manticore froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only the swirl of snow and wind and the chopping of the helicopter blades.
"No," Dr. Thorn breathed, looking horrified. If this was what I suspected it was, I couldn't blame him for the horror. In fact, I shared it. "It cannot be—"
His sentence was cut short when something shot past me like a streak of moonlight. A glowing silver arrow sprouted from Dr. Thorn's shoulder.
He staggered backward, wailing in agony.
"Curse you!" Thorn cried. He unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. It almost looked like the arrows had intercepted the thorns in mid-air and sliced them in two, and it confirmed my suspicions. I only knew about one group that could shoot with that much accuracy.
The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. Ana tried to swipe at him with her sword, but he wasn't as injured as he looked. He dodged her attack and slammed his tail into her shield, knocking heraside, though she quickly jumped back to her feet.
Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen, like me. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions.
"The Hunters of Artemis," Ana gasped at my side. I was more than a little concerned by the admiration in her voice. Ana didn't admire people lightly, and she'd never mentioned an interest in the Hunters to me.
Next to me, Thalia muttered, "Oh, wonderful."
One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. She was tall and graceful with coppery coloured skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so she looked like some kind of Persian princess. It was Zoe Nightshade, the Lieutenant of the Hunters. "Permission to kill, my lady?"
I scanned the group, searching for Artemis. Ana was panting lightly at my side.
The monster wailed. "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."
"Not so," another girl said. This one was a little younger than me, maybe twelve or thirteen. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was so beautiful it made me catch my breath, but her expression was stern and dangerous. Artemis, the Olympian goddess of the hunt, the moon, and chastity. "The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at Zoe. "Zoe, permission granted."
The manticore growled. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"
He lunged at the two di'Angelos, untrained and defenceless.
"No!" Ana and I both called. Time seemed to slow down, like it often did in the middle of a battle.
I somehow ended up in front of the siblings, deflecting a spike but losing my balance and falling over in the process.
When I looked up, Ana was standing over me, Anaklusmos raised defiantly. Thorn lunged into her, pushed by the impact from a dozen arrows. He grabbed Ana as he staggered forward, and, before I could do anything, the two of them had tumbled over the side of the cliff, Ana letting out an instinctual scream in the process.
"NO!" I bellowed. I hurled myself after her, but Thalia and Grover both grabbed my ankles to stop me. And our enemies weren't done with us. There was a snap-snap-snap from the helicopter—the sound of gunfire.
Most of the Hunters scattered as tiny holes appeared in the snow at their feet, but Artemis just looked up calmly at the helicopter.
"Mortals," she announced, "are not allowed to witness my hunt."
She thrust out her hand, and the helicopter exploded into dust—no, not dust. The black metal dissolved into a flock of birds—ravens, which scattered into the night.
The Hunters advanced on us.
Zoe stopped short when she saw Thalia, who was still gripping my left ankle to restrain me. "You," she said with distaste.
"Zoe Nightshade." Thalia's voice trembled with anger. "Perfect timing, as usual."
Zoe scanned the rest of us. "Four half-bloods and a satyr, my lady."
"Yes," Artemis acknowledged. "Some of Chiron's campers, I see."
I barely noticed, too busy trying to get out to Thalia and Grover's tight grips so I could jump after Ana.
Artemis turned toward me. "I'm sorry, Luke Castellan, but your friend is beyond help." She almost sounded compassionate, but I couldn't bring myself to care.
I tried to struggle to my feet, but a couple of the girls helped my friends to hold me down.
"You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs," the goddess said strictly.
"She's not dead," I groaned. "She can't be dead. She's Ana, she can't be dead."
It wasn't possible. Anaea Jackson was the strongest, kindest, most determined person I had ever met. She was sarcastic and beautiful and compassionate. She was not dead. The world would have stopped moving if she had died, surely?
"She's not dead," Grover agreed. I turned to him hopefully, suddenly remembering their empathy-bond, forged last summer when Grover was kidnapped. He would know, right?
"She's alive," he continued. "I swear on the Styx, Luke. Ana is alive."