Stubbornness seemed to be something that Will had in abundance. That was one of the most prominent observations that Ryker made about the golden haired doctor. After the others had left Will had continued to treat Ryker, taking what he called blood pressure and various other tests. Ryker was very quickly at the end of his rope, but the combined threat of Will's whistle from hell and his debt to the blond haired man prevented him from acting out. Eventually Will stepped back and nodded happily. "You are good to go." He smiled. "See? Was that so bad?"
"Yes." Ryker growled. He grabbed the dark blue shirt that had been laid out for him and pulled it over his head, wincing as his chest gave a spasm of pain. "So when are we leaving?"
"Tonight." Nico said, stepping out from the shadows at the edge of the building. Will shot Nico a questioning look and the child of Hades gave a shake of his head. "Chiron didn't give us any more information than Rachel did." Nico explained.
"So we have no idea where to go?" Will asked, sighing.
Nico patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry. Quests are usually like this."
"So what's the plan then?" Will glanced back to Ryker who was stretching warily, testing the limits of his flexibility. "Would you at least try to take it easy?"
"No." Ryker answered as he bent backwards.
Will sighed and shook his head while Nico tried to hide a very obvious smile. "Reyna wants us to ask her sister." Nico winced.
"What's so bad about….?" Will glanced back to Ryker and immediately winced like Nico. "Oh. I see. And Amazons don't allow Iris messages with non-Amazons, right?"
"Unfortunately." Nico said gloomily. "Which means we have to go to their headquarters ourselves."
"That could be… dangerous." Will admitted. He sighed and put on a bright face. "Maybe it will turn out alright. Maybe they will have some information."
"Or maybe they will kill us." Nico countered, still gloomy. He glared accusingly at Ryker as he stretched one arm across his chest. "You better be on your best behavior." He said warningly.
Ryker, who had been listening to the conversation with mild interest, raised an eyebrow but elected to say nothing. He had never heard of the Amazons. Behaving well had nothing to do with how that particular meeting would go. Just then Piper pushed into the tent and looked over the assembled demigods. "You guys hungry?" She asked brightly. "The dining hall just started serving lunch and I am starved. Besides, the senate just approved our quest. We are officially good to go."
"I am actually kind of hungry." Will admitted. He looked questioningly to Nico. "What about you?"
"Definitely." They both looked at Ryker who had just finished stretching an arm behind his back. "What about you? Hungry?"
"I'm fine." He said indifferently. "I want to-."
"You are going to eat." Will said firmly, grabbing his shoulders and spinning him towards the door. "Doctor's orders."
"Somewhat defeats the purpose of asking me to begin with, doesn't it?" Ryker asked dryly. He scowled at the amused look Piper sent them as she skipped alongside the group. "Let me go." He snarled when Will continued to steer him.
Will raised his hands, palm upwards in a gesture of peace. "Alright, alright." He muttered sourly. "Take a joke will you?"
"So Ryker, I heard you met the Roman version of my mother?" Piper asked with a look of anguish. "Please tell me she didn't say anything too bad."
"Oh. You mean Venus?" Ryker looked to her for clarification and nodded when Piper confirmed his suspicions with a look. "Yes, I met her. As for what she said, I am not truly sure if it is good or bad. She seemed to like me I suppose."
Piper groaned at the same time that Will and Nico looked at him with sympathy. "Little bit of advice," Piper informed him, "It is never a good thing if my mother likes you. She enjoys causing all the trouble she can by playing with our love lives. What did she say to you?"
"I don't actually remember." Ryker said with a careless shrug.
Piper looked at him with open-mouthed amazement and shook her head incredulously. "You would be the first." She said finally. "Everyone else she tries to play with memorizes her words by heart. It's what she calls fun."
"I'm not concerned with matters of the heart." Ryker shrugged yet again. "I am not questioning the power of it, but it is of no interest to me."
"She must really like you." Piper sighed. "You are exactly the type of demigod she loves to toy with. Especially since you don't seem to really give a hoot one way or the other."
"She is one of my least favorite gods." Nico added with a grim expression. "She… she…" He seemed to be having trouble finding words that could accurately describe how much he did in fact not like the goddess of love.
"She toys with people's heart." Will finished for him, placing a comforting arm around his shoulder. "She thinks that people's affections and desires are nothing more than things for her to manipulate as she sees fit. More often than not she does more harm than good."
"Quite the strong opinions of her." Ryker noted. "Are her children the same way?"
Piper seemed highly offended. "We most certainly are not!" She said haughtily. She then paused and sighed. "Well, most of us aren't anyway. Some of us still think playing with people's hearts is the best way to get mom to notice us."
"Blood tells I suppose." Ryker said. They walked into the dining hall and immediately the room went silent. Every eye was on them as they entered. After a beat several whispers began though the Romans watched as Ryker followed Piper to a seat and sat at the table of the Fifth Cohort. The other legionnaires of the fifth watched Ryker with a curious mixture of fear, envy, and awe. Something that Piper called a cheeseburger appeared in front of him and he took an experimental bite. "Not bad." He admitted, his eyes widening in surprise.
"This can't be the first time you have ever eaten a cheeseburger." Piper said disbelievingly.
"It is." Ryker answered after he quickly finished the burger. He glared at his plate until the invisible servants put a second one on his plate. Before tearing into that one he paused to glare at the demigods around him. "What?" he asked defensively, hunching over his burger as though to protect it.
"Dude you have, like, no manners whatsoever." One of the other demigods told him. Ryker slowly turned to glare at the newcomer.
"Come again?" Ryker asked through narrowed eyes.
"Never mind." He muttered, leaning away from the son of Cybele.
"He is right though." Percy laughed as he sat down opposite of Ryker. Annabeth sat down beside him, laughing as well. "You looked like some kind of wild animal eating that burger. No one will take it from you, I promise."
Ryker scowled. "Do you have to critique everything I do?" He asked.
"No, but if we are going on a quest you better get used to it." Annabeth said cheerfully. "Also, I am making it my personal mission to teach you manners."
Ryker tore into his second burger without answering her. The second one disappeared as fast as the first. He instinctively wanted to eat the burger quickly. He had spent too much time fighting the beasts of the forest for his meals to let easy food get away from him. He didn't know or trust the demigods around him hardly at all. For all he knew they could be plotting to steal the burger from him at any time. Unlikely, as it seemed that there was an infinite amount of food being served by wind spirits, but Ryker had learned that it was better to be safe than sorry.
"So, tonight then?" Percy asked once the interest of watching Ryker eat had worn off.
"Looks like." Piper nodded. "Speaking of which, where is Hazel?"
"She's in Pluto's Shrine." Annabeth told her. "Since Pluto is the god of caves, well, she thought that maybe he might be able to help."
"No luck I'm guessing?" Percy asked with a miserable sigh.
"Not so far." Annabeth confirmed. "She'll be there when we leave though. Who knows? Maybe she will get lucky and we won't have to go visit the Amazons. I still don't know what Reyna expect us to find there."
"Apparently the Amazons have information that the camps just don't have." Piper sighed. "Since they deal all over, occasionally they deal in more than just drachma. Apparently a good secret can get you some very good merchandise."
"All of you keep speaking about these Amazons as though it is some sort of death sentence to go see them." Ryker observed, brushing the crumbs from his burger onto the floor. He rolled his shoulders and suddenly began to wonder where his claws had gotten off to. He also needed a bow. The Bow of Artemis was something he considered to be a last ditch effort. Aside from that, he only had ten shots left. And his gift from Mars only had two uses left. He made a mental note to have the Romans search their armory for a bow that was to his liking. If they, like the Greeks, didn't have one then he would be forced to make his own. Since his mother had taken the Blessing of Pan from him, he would undoubtedly have to make it the old fashioned way. Which would take a long time at best. He was about to ask Percy where his weapons were when he realized that everyone was looking at him. "What?" He asked.
"Did you hear a single word I just said?" Nico asked, annoyed.
"No." Ryker answered. "I was just wondering where my claws were. Also, I need to check the Roman armory for a bow. Hopefully they have one that I like."
"We'll ask." Percy promised. "No guarantees though. Jason told me about that spear thrower you called a bow. We have longbows here, but I'm not sure any of them are the size you prefer."
"Pity." Ryker sighed. He glanced back at Nico and raised his eyebrow. "You said something?"
Nico sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Okay, let's try this again. Paying attention this time?" Nico asked. Ryker nodded in response. "Good. The reason that we don't like the idea of going to the Amazons too much is because they, uh, they don't like us very much."
"Demigods?" Ryker asked.
"Men." Nico corrected. "They are notoriously misanthropic."
"It's not that they don't like men." Piper added fairly. "More of… they think that men should be seen and not heard. They are a female dominated society. Last time any of us went there we had to escape or they would have killed them. On top of that they are notoriously strong as warriors."
That did it. Ryker's interest was piqued. He let the corners of his mouth curl into a very small smile and he chuckled softly. The others were immediately wary, glancing at each other with something verging on concern. "Now I am very interested." Ryker told them.
"What about that warning sounded like a challenge?" Percy wondered. "Because I didn't hear one there and you clearly did. Please, enlighten me."
"Strong fighters?" Ryker repeated. "I want to see how strong."
"Again, that was a warning." Percy placed heavy stress upon the word. "Not a challenge. If you do something stupid they'll try to kill us. Again. Hylla just got over her desire to kill me. I would really rather not have anything remind her of that."
"Besides, we need them for information." Will reminded Ryker. "If you go there and cause trouble they aren't going to want to help us. You want to get back to your home, right? Well if you go causing us more trouble with the Amazons it will take even longer."
Ryker scowled immediately. "Fine." He said through gritted teeth. "I'll let them be. For now."
Percy and Annabeth put their heads in their hands simultaneously. "He's insane." Annabeth said finally. "He's insane. There's no other explanation."
