Gabriel: My departure from Camp to find someone from my past
"Hera, you lied to me! You told me my cousin was dead but she lives in torment at Hyperion's former home! She lives you goddamn bitch!" I shouted, cursing at the statue of Hera in her Cabin. When the statue did not respond (I knew Hera would be using it to communicate with me if she wanted to), I shouted for Hera's name to get her attention.
I was so blinded by anger at that moment that just the right course of actions could trigger my rage. Sure enough, my anger was triggered when the statue started talking behind my back. "I warned you that following this vision would do you no good. I'm sorry I lied to you and I'm sorry for what I've done but I assure you that it was all done for a reason," she said.
Blinded by anger, I turned my sword on the statue at that point and demolished the entire upper half of it. The head of the statue fell and broke in two with one piece turning to powder but enough of a mouth on the other for her to continue using it if she wished. "You will pay for that, brother or not, in full someday!" she shouted before she went out. "No Hera, I will not pay for breaking a statue; you will pay for all the evil you have done to me someday," I told her.
Rage still consuming my heart, I smashed the last half of the marble head of the statue under my foot until it was also powder. The desecration of Hera's image had been completed and now, I could continue with my other work. "Let that be a small sample of my revenge for you to taste at this moment," I said more to myself than anybody else. Suddenly, my rage lifted over me and I saw that Annabeth was looking at me like she had seen a ghost.
Considering what I had done, she might as well have been seeing a ghost. "You desecrated… Hera's image of all goddesses?" she asked. I think it was rhetorical but I decided to answer it like it wasn't anyway. "I did and I will accept the consequences in time just not when I can still take even more drastic action against her," I answered.
"What more could you do?" she asked. "Challenge the goddess to a showdown of skill-against-skill alone. The part that would be best about is declaring it in a very brief amount of time like a half an hour or so. Because then she'll have to take drastic measures if she wants to cheat," I answered.
"You can't win even if she had no time to cheat off of Ares! You're a mortal and she's a goddesses," Annabeth exclaimed. "That's precisely what Tethys said before I ripped her head from her shoulders," I replied. She paled and I knew I had surprised her with how violently Tethys had met her end.
The worst part was how open and calm I had been about exchanging how Tethys had been killed by my hand. I am usually very secretive about that since Poseidon kind of wanted it confidential. "Annabeth, I'm mounting an expedition to find my cousin. Keep going with the preparations and don't wait for my return in case Prometheus decides to move before that's possible," I told her. It's not that I didn't care about the Camp (I cared for it deeply), it was just I had to find my cousin and I had to know more about my past and find out what was true and the gods had been keeping away from me.
"I'm sorry Annabeth but in order to effectively lead you and the other demigods, I have to get this over with. Would you rather have me with a cool head on my shoulder or one that has multiple thoughts racing across its mind?" I said to her. "Would you like a ceremony to bid you farewell or do you want a quick, confidential leave of absence?" Annabeth asked. "Quick one will be easier and I'll just take a few hundred bucks; I hate eating that healthy organic crap you guys have here," I answered.
She giggled in agreement and it was not long before I was parting from Camp Half-Blood. Now I know I have not been there as long as I have been on Olympus training but one vast difference between them made it hard for me to leave. Unlike Olympus, Camp Half-Blood had comforts and love that I had never known in my entire life except when I was with Eos. Leaving it behind was like abandoning some part of myself and expecting to get over it within the hour.
It was not long before the Half-Blood Hill was walked over and I was on my way back to the dangerous world of monsters, magic, and mortals. I called the nearest bus station from a payphone and asked when the next bus was due for Cleveland, Ohio where Hyperion's fortress had been when I last saw it two days ago. The thing about it was that it almost always changed location and I had heard from Hermes that it was due to move to Corpus Christi Texas in another week or so. "By the way, Hera's pissed about your desecration of her image at Camp Half-Blood but I think it was cool," he added before I told him to go back and tell her to suck it.
"As you wish but don't get mad at me when you hear from her in person about that comment. I mean I admire your courage but normally I don't make these sorts of runs since they're too uncouth and uncivilized," Hermes replied. "Oh don't worry Hermes, I hope she comes to me responding to my comment in the only way she can respond to anything," I told him. He shrugged and vanished in an instant, his sandals flying him across the world at the speed of sound.
I soon arrived at the bus station due to carry me to Cleveland for the four days they said I would be on it. In the meantime, I decided to read the Aeneid by Publius Virgilius Maro a.k.a. Virgil. Then it struck me that Bryan was on a similar sort of journey and I decided to see if I could use my telepathic connection with him to call him and say howdy. Yo Bryan, what up man? I asked telepathically.
At first, I heard no response then I heard him say hello back and ask how I was. On my way to find someone I had once assumed dead but have now been informed is still alive. Remember how I told you about my cousin and how I thought she was dead? I asked him telepathically. Yeah, it was the most difficult thing for you to ever tell me; is she the one who's still alive when you had assumed her dead? he answered.
I told him she was and he replied that he wished me luck in finding her. Prometheus has already been kind enough to have Thalia tell me where I can find her. I'll be heading to Cleveland, Ohio via bus right now I told him. Be careful, when a Titan tells you something of that sort then there's a good reason as to why Brian said.
At that point, I assured him that I was aware of that and he then decided to tell me he had to leave. We're approaching some heavy weather and may have to settle on a nearby island before we continue our journey. That's assuming there are any islands nearby, of course he added. I wish you luck on finding a place for your people, you truly deserve it after all you've been through; where are you now? I asked.
We're far beyond the shores of Florida, past Cuba and nearing the end of the Caribbean he answered. That surprised me and I wished him luck just before he disconnected from communications with me. After that take of leave, my first clue that I was even headed in the right direction was when the bus was stopped by a big man (about six feet and seven inches tall) that wielded a huge spear in a bus stop. I realized immediately this was a champion of the gods from Japan named Sakon Shima and it was apparent that he noticed me as well since he winked at me before deciding he would just take the next bus.
That can't be right, he died at Sekigahara fighting the samurai commanded by Tokugawa Ieyasu! If he's alive right now that means the Titans know I'm coming or worse, this is Hera's response to my desecration to her image I thought to myself. "Ladies and gentleman, this is where we stop to refuel the bus and keep in mind this baby has been running without a stop for a solid two days so it will be at least two hours before we're ready to keep going and another half hour before we're back on the road," the driver announced on the speakers. Oh shit, now I have to run a gauntlet with Sakon and see if he's really after me or if I'm just using him as an excuse to surprise or scare myself I told myself.
Carefully, as Perseus had taught it, I walked in the thick of the line in the hopes he didn't dare attack innocent people. Surprisingly, the strategy proved effective until the crowd began to split up and I was left in the open. It was at that point that Sakon began marching toward me and I knew I would have to meet him in combat if that was what he was here for. As I thought, he was indeed here to kill me and started out by jabbing the head of his spear at me and shouting that he would kill me in the name of his mistress.
"Uh, just who the hell is your mistress anyway?" I asked. "Why, I think you'd know who she is considering that you desecrated her image in your anger. Now, quit talking and let us see who is the greater warrior between the second in command to Mitsunari Ishida of Japan and the demigod son of Kronos himself," Sakon answered. If there's anything I remembered learning from Perseus that I could immediately remembered, it's that warriors like Sakon were only defeated through superior skill and one or both of two other things.
The first thing was to have a group of warriors that were also highly skilled to fight as a unison with you. Whether you had that or not, the second thing was a quick-thinking brain that exploited their past deeds and used their pride against them. "So Sakon, tell me. What was it like at the Battle of Sekigahara, I heard you fought with honor there and I wanted to just confirm those rumors," I asked.
When he moved to speak, I struck and I struck with the powers of the Sky Sword and calling a lightning bolt to immobilize him. After that, I noticed a peal bracelet that he had on and I knew it for a clue instantly. I snatched it through the use of telekinesis and took it with me because I knew that Hera used to use it as a means of finding me whenever I was gone too long. It glowed more brightly with each inch you came closer to your destination and I told it that I was looking for my cousin at Hyperion's fortress.
Immediately it began to glow with a brightness that told me that I was more than a fourth of the way there. That was a good sign and I made sure to hold on to it as tightly as I could. For one, the light of it would disturb the other passengers at night and for another, I didn't want to fight mortals as it was forbidden for Olympian champions to do so unless there was just no choice. And I didn't want to give myself an excuse to harm innocent mortals who were just a little upset about their sleep being disrupted by a bright light.