Percy silently walked past the Big House, where he knew Thalia, Grover, Bianca, and the other members of the quest were preparing for their trip west. As he thought about it, he clenched his fists in anger. Annabeth was one of the people in danger, and it was his friends that were going into danger! He should've been going with them, rather than just sitting around the Camp, doing nothing.
Still, he did nothing as he walked past, resigning himself to being able to do nothing as his friends faced evil.
As he walked towards the cabins, he passed Artemis' cabin, where the Hunters were staying. As he looked at the ornately-designed but rarely-used lodge, he saw a rustle of movement in a nearby bush. His eyes narrowed as he saw Nico in the bush, before realizing why he was there in the first place. His sister, Bianca, was still fresh to this world, as was Nico himself, but she was already going on a dangerous quest. The boy had to have been scared for his sister. In that instant, Percy felt a kinship with the undeclared demigod.
Percy pulled a baseball cap – Annabeth's trusty invisibility cap – out of his pocket, donning it as he snuck closer to the cabin. Right outside it, near where Nico was hiding and eavesdropping, there were two Hunters that were talking.
"It is terrible that Phoebe has been incapacitated like this," one of the Hunters was saying. "Her hives are severe."
"Indeed. These campers are disgusting men for having done this to a sister. Lady Artemis would have told us never to trust them if she were here," the other replied.
With a start, Percy stepped backwards. They were down one person before they even started the quest? That meant his friends were in even more danger before the real danger had even come. Before long, the Hunters went back inside of the cabin, and Nico emerged from the bush, his face pale from the same conclusion Percy had arrived at.
Pulling off his cap, Percy strode toward the startled boy.
"And what do you think you were doing?" he asked Nico, who looked down at the ground.
"You heard them," Nico replied, his voice quiet and hesitant. "The quest's already down a Hunter, and they've only barely left Camp. How will Bianca be safe like this?"
Percy sighed as he placed both hands on the younger boy's shoulders. Nico looked up.
"Don't worry. I'll go after them. I'll make sure Bianca and the others are safe. Just stay here at Camp, where it is safe."
Nico nodded. Percy went.
Apart from a terrifying and potentially catastrophic run-in with Dionysus himself, Percy and Blackjack's journey was fairly uneventful. They had tracked the van that the questers were using for hours.
"Boss!" Blackjack mentally said. "They've stopped!" Percy looked down over the edge of the flying pegasus. He saw the van that the Camp had given Zoë for her quest pull into a parking space by none other than the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. He sighed, happy that they had finally stopped after hours of driving (or rather, for him, flying on the back of Blackjack).
"Take us down," Percy said. Horse and boy both descended gracefully, the Mist helping to obscure the most blatant parts of it. If anyone saw Percy coming down, they saw him in a much more mortal-friendly light. However, given the relatively early hour on a weekday, there weren't many tourists around. The two descended into the National Mall.
"Go ahead without me," Percy whispered to Blackjack. The pegasus looked at the demigod for a few moments before nodding, flapping its wings and flying away. Turning to the museum, Percy pondered what to do.
A flash of movement in the corner of his eye made him turn his head, and his eyes widened when he saw none other than Dr. Thorn, the manticore that had disappeared with Annabeth, walking in a group of armed men. They entered through a set of double-doors on the side of the Museum of Natural History on the opposite side of the Mall from the Air and Space Museum.
Percy quickly decided to follow the manticore and ran into the Museum of Natural History, ignoring the fact that the front desk was empty and that the metal detector was less reactive than a rock when he ran past. As he pulled on Annabeth's invisibility cap, he tried to judge where the doors the manticore had gone through would lead to, entering one of the auditoriums that seemed right.
The inside of the auditorium was filled with an assorted audience. There were a few dozen of a reptilian female monster that Percy had seen before. Scythian dracaenae. Additionally, there were a few mortal guards standing by, weapons ready.
The stage was where it got more interesting – and bitter.
The most prominent figure was none other than Luke Castellan himself. The traitor. Beside him was Dr. Thorn. But perhaps more importantly, there was another figure sitting, his face obscured by the darkness of the stage.
"They are here," Dr. Thorn said.
"I know that, you fool," the seated man bit out, his voice cold and as hard as steel. It was the sort of authoritative voice that would shake a soul and cause one to cower in fear. "But where?"
"In the rocket museum?"
"How many?" Luke asked. Thorn didn't respond.
"How many?" the General questioned.
"Four, General," Thorn said. "The satyr, the girl with spiky black hair and leather clothes."
"Thalia," Luke interjected.
"And two others – Hunters. One wears a silver circlet."
"That one I do know," the General murmured. "Now, my boy," he said, turning to Luke, "we must isolate this Thalia. The monster we seek will then come to her."
"The Hunters will not be easy to get rid of," Luke thought out loud. "The older one, Zoë Nightsh-"
"Do not utter that name in my presence," the General demanded. The other people in the auditorium cowered slightly. He raised a hand to silence any of Luke's apologies.
"Let me show you how we will deal with the Hunters. Do you have the teeth?" the General asked.
"Y-yes," one of the mortal guards shakily said, holding up a dozen large and pointy teeth in his arms.
The General rose to his feet, the ground cracking slightly under his steps. He took each of the teeth, and after one of the dracaenae brought out a pot of soil, planted them all.
"These mortals are fools. They had no idea what they had here," the General explained as he took a jug of liquid from another dracaena. "Dinosaur teeth – ha! These are not dinosaur teeth, but rather dragon teeth!" He watered – if that was the correct word to use for the dark red liquid that came out of the jug – the soil and stepped back.
"Rise!" he cried. A skeletal hand jumped out of the soil, and within seconds, a full skeleton had pulled itself out of the soil. Within a minute, twelve skeletons had climbed out, their bodies quickly forming a type of flesh that covered their skeletal forms. At first glance, they seemed like regular mortal soldiers complete with fatigues, but upon closer examination, their skin was a dullish grey, their eyes an unnatural yellow, and they were slightly transparent, as if a thick sort of jelly that could be seen through under the right light.
"Bring the scent," the General commanded. A dracaena rushed from the back of the auditorium, clutching a silvery, silky scarf in one hand. A weight dropped in Percy's stomach. It looked like a Hunter's scarf, and as the dracaena made her way closer to the stage, he pieced together what was going on. The scarf had the scent of Hunters on it, and as Hunters, both Zoë Nightshade and Bianca di Angelo would smell like Hunters. Then the skeletons would track and hunt them.
Percy barged forward, virtually tackling the dracaena into the seats of the auditorium as he snatched the scarf out of her hand.
"What is this?" the General boomed, shaking the room slightly.
"An intruder!" Dr. Thorn yelled, looking around.
"It has to be Percy Jackson!" Luke cried out.
"An intruder shrouded in darkness," the General growled, his eyes burning. "Seal the doors!"
Percy saw the mortal guards move to the exits of the auditorium and sprinted towards the nearest one. As he turned, he felt part of his sleeve be torn off. Looking back quickly, he saw one of the skeletons standing where he had been, a piece of fabric from his sleeve in its hands. It sniffed the fabric, before handing it to the other skeletons that had moved up to the first skeleton's location.
Without another glance, Percy barreled out of the auditorium, out of the Museum of Natural History, and across the National Mall.
He ran into the Air and Space Museum, dodging the admissions desk and taking off his cap once he was inside. Turning the corner, he ran straight into someone and fell over.
"Percy?" Thalia's voice floated over, and he opened his eyes to see his friend on the floor with him. Right behind where she had been walking, Grover, Zoë and Bianca were looking at Percy with no small amount of surprise.
"Guys, there's something I need to tell you all about now," Percy hurriedly said, before delving into an explanation of the myriad of events he had just witnessed.
Percy ignored the Zoë's, Bianca's, and Thalia's pointed glares, preferring to look at the non-judgmental sly grin that Grover had instead as he hurriedly explained what he had just seen.
"I swear, that's wha-" Percy cut off at the sound of a roar, and the group of five turned to face an approaching, towering monster. It somehow had fit itself in, and its gold fur gleamed under the lights of the National Air and Space Museum. Its growling fangs were shiny, like stainless steel, yet there was a small stream of saliva that dripped down its chin as it cruelly eyed each of the demigods (and satyr) with an intelligence that belied its barbaric animal form.
"The Nemean Lion," Zoë quietly gasped, instinctively pulling back her bow, already loaded, and firing. The arrow zipped through the air and landed straight in-between the two eyes of the Nemean Lion but crumpled on impact and fell off with no damage done to the monster's pristine gold fur. If anything, it seemed to be silently laughing at the Hunter's 'feeble' attempt to kill it.
"Split!" Thalia yelled, and each person ran off in a different direction, trying to give the group as a whole more opportunities to attack from each side while distracting the Nemean Lion's attention into multiple angles.
The tactic, while a valiant attempt to destroy the beast, was ineffective, as both Zoë and Bianca wasted arrows against the Lion that merely broke on its invulnerable pelt while Thalia, Percy, and Grover spent their time dodging the monster's swipes and lunges.
Falling backwards after narrowly missing a swipe from one of the Nemean Lion's deadly looking claws, Percy's head turned sideways, where he eyed the food court of the National Air and Space Museum. More importantly, he eyed a certain food, though calling it that, even mentally, nearly made Percy gag. Looking around, he saw the tell-tale signs of the museum's bathrooms, and soon enough, a plan formed in his head.
Sliding on the floor of the museum, Percy stopped himself by Zoë, temporarily halting the Hunter's arrow-fire as he looked at her face-to-face.
"Can you throw?" Percy bluntly asked, ignoring the indignant look on the woman's face.
"Excuse me? Of course – every Hunter has only the greatest accura-" she cut off as Percy thrust an armload of silver wrapped packages into the Hunter's hands and ran off before she could spurt out a reply.
"Just throw when I say!" Percy yelled behind him, not caring enough to wait for or listen to a reply.
Reaching a nice median distance between being close to the Nemean Lion to have its attention and being far away enough to not be shish-kabobed by its claws, Percy took a deep breath and concentrated his powers, willing the hydrokinetic powers to do their fullest for him.
A slow mass of water washed over the floor the museum, moving ever closer to the Nemean Lion from its back. However, still being annoyed by the Hunters' constant, if ineffectual, arrows, the would-be ancient Greek Lion failed to notice the rapidly increasing collection of moisture behind it.
Thalia's eyes widened as she saw the water gathering just behind the Nemean Lion, and she quickly glanced backwards at Percy. Making eye contact, Percy nodded, and Thalia blinked once before nodding her own affirmative, realizing his plan as she saw, behind even Percy, the Hunter Zoë and her own payload of death.
"Now!" Percy yelled, just as the Nemean Lion itself roared out of frustration from not being able to smash any of the puny demigods in front of it. The silver packages shot like bullets from Zoë, who rapidly threw each after the other in a seemingly straight line. Each package, consisting only of the finest, high-quality astronaut food on the planet, landed nicely in the Nemean Lion's open and roaring mouth. It stopped as it felt the sudden weight in its mouth, and in the worst decision it had made since the turn of the millennium, it decided to tilt its head back and swallow. Upon doing so, the Nemean Lion's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as they widened, and it yelled – no, screamed – in pain and confusion at the treasonous pain that threatened its stomach.
Percy could almost sympathize, but as a general life rule, he had already decided that it was better to a demigod's longevity to always go for the kill, so he instantly willed the water, which had been gathering as close as the Lion's feet, upwards, encompassing each square inch of the outside of the monster's fur and even going inside of the Lion's open mouth.
Thalia, already clued in to the three-step plan that Percy had crafted on the fly, grunted as she launched one of the strongest electric arcs she could at the drenched Nemean Lion. The electricity arced all around it, its movement aided by the conductive water that lead the electricity to every nook and cranny of the monster's body that the wily liquid had found. Eventually, the electricity arced into the Nemean Lion's mouth, consuming it from the inside out, and without the protection of its invulnerable fur pelt on its inside, the monster dissolved, leaving behind only its gold fur pelt as a trophy to its killer.
Thalia walked up to the garment, eyeing it as she picked it up. For a moment, it seemed as if she would sling it around herself, but instead she turned around and reached out to Percy.
"I think this should be yours," Thalia said, still breathing heavily after the exertion of such a powerful attack. "You did the most today, and I don't think we would've won against it had you not come." Percy's eyes widened at the fur pelt she was basically handing him. He began to raise his arms to deny it, but Thalia stepped in closer, nearly putting the pelt – and herself – into her arms. They came close, and he could feel her heavy breath on his face as they neared each other…
"The Nemean Lion's pelt is the trophy of heroes," Zoë's voice came from the back. Percy turned around, and Thalia took the chance to leave the pelt in his outstretched arms before backing away. Momentarily wincing at the loss of warmth from his friend, he turned to fully face the approaching Hunter.
"I- I don't want it." Percy turned back to Thalia. "Do you, I don't know, what to share it, or something?" Thalia smiled in humor at the thought.
"I really don't think fur is my style."
Zoë cut in again. "This is your kill, Perseus, regardless of what we did. It was your plan that ultimately took down the Nemean Lion when we could not. This," she gestured at the pelt, "is rightfully yours."
"Right," Percy whispered under his own breath. "Well," he said, speaking up, "I guess I'll just offer it to my dad later."
Zoë looked shocked at the proclamation. It was, after all, the Nemean Lion's pelt. It wasn't exactly a trophy of triumph one came across every day.
"But, why?" Zoë blurted out, curious.
"Because I'm not Hercules. I'm not going to follow in his footsteps." Zoë looked even more shocked at Percy's words, and said nothing as the son of Poseidon threw the pelt into his pack. Thalia looked mightily impressed by Percy's words, nodding in approval at her friend while he just shyly grinned in response.
Their tranquility was broken when a shot rang out, and Percy turned to see sickly-gray security guards, who flickered between being barely human to being a skeleton courtesy of the Mist, running towards them. Each member of the Party retreated through the doors of the National Air and Space Museum, and as they ran, Percy looked back to make sure everyone had made it out alive.
His eyes connected with Thalia, who was at the back of the pack. She was occasionally flinging back an electric arc or two to slow or destroy the monsters chasing them, but she too was running her hardest to get out of there. Their eyes connected, and she nodded.
Percy immediately got the idea, bursting a nearby water hydrant and drenching their nearest pursuers with water. He turned before seeing Thalia shoot another lightning attack, but he could already imagine it anyway.
They were in tune enough to coordinate at that level in battle. That was just how it was. Water and lightning. They really shouldn't have mixed, and as parents and science teachers everywhere could attest to telling children as advice, it was a largely forbidden venture to mix such things together.
But like their combination attacks, they were stronger as one.
Revised: 4-15-18, 5-21-18