Joanna

It wasn't until a few minutes later when I realized I was being shaken.

"Wake up." Said a girl's voice.

I opened my eyes to see a girl of about fifteen with a silver jacket and black hair gently shaking me.

"My lady, she's awoken." She said as she looked to her right.

"Good. I would like to have a word with her." Came the voice of another girl, but this one sounded more regal and mature than a normal tween.

"In the meantime, awaken the other creature." She continued.

"Yes, mi'lady." The other girl said. She rested me against a tree nearby. After she did, she walked over to Jimmy, who was about a few yards away and had somehow lost his "lends," and kicked him in the nuts. The shock forced him awake and he screamed as he covered his "area."

"What the Hell?" He shouted. "How come Joanna got lightly shaken, but I got a shot in the nuts?"

"Silence, monster!" The girl commanded while pointing a bow at him. "You will not speak in such a way to-"

"Enough, Zoe." The younger girl said to the silver-jacketed archer. "You will bring the creature to the others to mingle. I will speak to the young woman alone."

The girl, Zoe, nodded. She and two more girls, who it turns out were behind me, grabbed Jimmy and dragged him to the right and out of my line of sight. Meanwhile, I was helped up by another pair of hands. The girl who helped me then turned to the girl in charge, bowed, and then left. In a second, the small girl and I were alone.

"Um… did I do something wrong?" I asked, nervously.

"Not a thing, young one. You did manage to kill the creature I was hunting, but in this case, I will let that go."

I raised an eyebrow when she said, "young one." I almost laughed when she finished talking.

"Young one?" I asked, smiling. "You're calling me the young one?"

"Because you're not immortal like myself." The girl quickly replied.

My smile turned into a frown as I looked at her curiously. "And who are you, then?"

"I am Artemis. Goddess of the hunt."

X

Jimmy

I sat at the campfire, grabbing my still aching crotch. This would have been less awkward if Grover, Thalia, and Nico hadn't been sitting next to me, but it just hurt so much!

"Just so you know, this isn't sexual." I said, trying to explain myself. "One of those silver-jacketed chicks just took a shot at me."

"Yeah, we saw that." Thalia said, making a fake smile and nodding. "Looked painful."

"It was." I said, letting go. The pain was still there, but it didn't hurt as bad as before.

We were silent for what seemed like a full minute before Nico finally broke the silence.

"Are you a superhero?" He asked, smiling big.

I at him, intrigued by his question. It was funny seeing him like this and not in his goth-punk phase he goes through in a year.

"Well… kinda. I'm a monster/human hybrid, but I'm also a vigilante."

Nico looked at me, confused. "What's that?"

"You ever heard of Blade?"

"No."

"The A-team?"

"No."

"Knight Rider?"

"No."

"The Green Arrow?"

"No."

"Punisher?"

"No."

"Batman?"

"No."

I stared at the ten year old, wondering how the Hell he hasn't heard of Batman yet.

"You're a very sheltered kid, aren't you?"

"I spent three years in a military school and my sister is very protective."

Silence again.

At least I wasn't the one making all the tension. Or was I? I kept forgetting these kids have never actually talked to a friendly monster before. Other than that Cyclops, who's named after a frozen food company.

"So…" Grover said cautiously. "What kind of monster are you?"

"I'm a Vok. A demon-bred warrior class made to kill vampires."

"Cool." Nico said, looking at me with amazement.

I smiled. "Thanks. Hey, do they have a card about me in that game of yours?"

Nico shook his head.

"Damn. Oh! I mean… shoot." I corrected. I really didn't want Bianca to yell at me because I accidentally taught her little brother a "new word."

"Hey, speaking of which," I continued "I've never heard of someone under fourteen playing Dungeons and Dragons."

"It's called Mytho-Magic." Nico said, annoyed.

"Oh, sorry. 'Mytho-Magic.'" I said using air quotes. "But if you like this game, you'd love Dungeons and Dragons."

"What's Dungeons and Dragons?" Nico asked.

"You've never heard of Dungeons and Dragons?" I asked, surprised. Then again, he was ten. "Well… it's a lot like World of Warcraft."

"What's that?"

"YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF WORLD OF WARCRAFT?!"

X

Joanna

(A few minutes ago…)

I looked at the girl like she was crazy. I knew about the Greek gods, but she was so…

"You think I am too young to be a goddess?" Artemis asked, almost as if she could read my mind. "I know. I am told this from time to time. It is because my hunters are around this age, so this is my way of appealing to their zone of comfort. If I wanted, I could be a middle-aged woman, or a teenager, but I prefer this form over all others."

"I thought you said it was-"

"I also prefer this form." Artemis finished.

I nodded as I thought why on earth she would choose a feeble form over her prime.

"Tell me something, why are you here?" The goddess asked. "I know it is not because of the manticore."

I was speechless. I knew I couldn't tell her the whole truth, but I couldn't tell her I was there because of Percy.

Artemis nodded. "I understand. Your cause is complicated. I will not push for an answer. Enough talk. Send in the half-blood." Artemis commanded.

A second later, the tent flaps opened and in walked Bianca and Percy, who were pleading with her.

"Please don't do this. Think of Nico." He said. "Camp Half-blood has all of this to offer and more."

"I'm sorry, Percy, but this is what I want." Bianca said to him in a calm tone. She looked at Artemis. "I'm ready, miss."

"Good." Artemis said. "By the end of the night, you and the vampire shall become my hunters."

"What?" Percy and I said at the same time.

"Artemis, you can't be serious!" Percy exclaimed. "She can't be a hunter. She's not a half-blood, Nymph, nor human, she's a gods forsaken monster, and she killed my friend, Anabeth."

"Sure, blame the monster." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Don't you dare use sarcasm with me!" Percy said, getting in my face. "You destroyed the helicopter that crashed on her and the manticore!"

"Enough!" Artemis yelled. "Percy Jackson, I will not have you talk to one of my future hunters in such a way."

"But I…" Percy sighed. "Yes ma'am."

"Good. Now, let us begin the initiation."

"With all due respect," I said "I really don't think you want me as a hunter."

"That's absurd." Artemis said, waving off the subject. "Your fighting skills alone far exceed even my best warrior."

"No, I don't think you understand, I-"

"Joanna Nightingale." Artemis said in a stern tone, as the air suddenly got colder. "I insist."

I wanted to object to this, but what can I say? She's a goddess. I knew I was going to regret this, but I decided to go along with this.

"So what exactly do we get out of this?" I asked, curious.

Artemis smiled. "As well as complete freedom from this world's troubles, you will receive a place at my side as well as immortality."

This caught my attention. "Immortality, you say?" I pictured myself as Frieza from Dragon Ball Z as an evil dictator commanding over vast armies. Along with my current powers, I could be invincible!

"Now, repeat after me." Artemis continued. "I pledge myself to the goddess, Artemis..."

"I pledge myself the goddess, Artemis…" Bianca and I repeated.

"To turn my back on the company of men…"

"To turn my back on the company of men…" We repeated again.

"Accept eternal maidenhood, and join the hunt."

"Accept eternal maidenhood, and join the hunt." We finished.

Artemis smiled. "You are now hunters of Artemis, congratulations."

Bianca looked over herself in amazement. "Wow. This… this feels amazing." She exclaimed.

Apparently, she must have gotten a different boon, because I felt completely normal. Of course, this is how I felt when I discovered my energy manipulation powers as well, so I guess you'd have to be human to experience it or something.

"So… that's it? Just like that?"

"Just like that." Artemis replied. "You are now to accompany your sisters and I in our coming hunts."

"Okay, first of all, there's no way in Dante I'm calling them my sisters. Second, if you don't mind, I really should get my friend and-"

"Your friend can not come with us. You know this." Artemis said sternly.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah no duh, but I kinda want to know where he's gonna go after this. He's hopeless without me."

"Very well." Artemis said. "He is outside talking with Grover, Thalia, and Nico. You may talk with him, then wait for further orders."

"Thanks." I said as I walked out of the tent.

X

Jimmy

"… and then Joanna said, 'so did Kasi drop off the three hundred dollars she owes me?'" I said, finishing my funny story as everyone laughed hysterically. "It was not a good day to be me, let's just leave it at that."

"Oh my gods, that was hilarious." Thalia said, still laughing. "And this actually happened?"

"Yeah, true story." I said. "Which is why I never take money from Kasi. Just don't tell Joanna."

"Tell me what?" Came a voice from behind me. I whirled around and saw Joanna standing behind me.

"Oh. You're back." I said, giving her a nervous smile. "We were just, um…"

"You were talking about the time Kasi tricked you with my money?"

I stared at her for a minute, surprised she even knew about that. "You, uh… you know?"

"Of course." Joanna said with a smile. "I always knew you were a good dancer."

I blushed as memories of that came back to me. "Sh-shut up." I said quietly as Thalia laughed again.

"So what did Artemis want to talk to you about?" Grover asked.

Joanna looked at Grover, then back to me nervously as if she was trying to hide something. I tried to figure out what it was she was hiding, and then it hit me.

"Oh my god, you didn't." I said, stunned.

"Jimmy…" Joanna said, trying to calm me down.

"You did! You became a hunter! Are you out of your mind?" I shouted.

Grover and Thalia's mouths dropped open when they heard this.

"You're a hunter?" Grover asked, amazed. "I thought monsters couldn't become hunters."

"I was an exception." Joanna said, shrugging.

I grabbed Joanna's arm angrily. "Can I talk to you over here?" I asked through gritted teeth. I pulled her to a clearing where there were no hunters, demi-gods, or satyrs. "Are you out of your mind?!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Joanna said, trying to defend herself. "Artemis insisted that I'd be one of them, and she had that killer look in her eyes!"

"Joanna, you know damn well why you can't be a hunter."

"You think I hadn't thought of that?"

"If she finds out, who knows what she'd do to you!"

Joanna sighed. "Look, this is not permanent. All I gotta do is stay with them until we finish the project, then we go back to the future, I'll hide out in Myria for a while, and a few months later, everything will go back to normal."

I looked at her, thinking this over. Finally, I shook my head. "Whatever, just make sure you take care of it."

I walked away from her, angrily.

X

I walked into camp, looking for the hunter who dragged me into camp. It took a minute, but I was able to find her practicing her archery. All of the arrows on the target were in the middle of the bull's-eye.

I leaned against one of the trees next to her. "Sup?" I said.

She jumped and looked at me menacingly. "What is the meaning of-"

"Where's my "Lends?" I asked, interrupting her.

"Lends? You mean that toy thou hadst on thine head?"

"Yeah, I kinda need it." I said, aggressively.

The girl scowled at me, then looked back at the target. "I don't know where thine toy is." She said as she notched another arrow. "I think one of the other hunters took it."

At this point, I'd had it with her annoyance. I stood in front of her, blocking her view of the target. The girl lowered her bow.

"Get out of my way." She said, angrily.

"Not until you tell me where my Lends is."

"Don't thoust dare tell me what to do."

"Then don't take my stuff."

The girl was quiet for a few seconds, and then she raised her bow to my face.

"I will shoot thou." She said, gritting her teeth. "I can end thine life right now and all I have to do is let go."

I chuckled a little. "Go ahead. One of those does nothing to me."

The girl stared at me for a little bit, and then smiled. "Oh really?" She lowered her bow. "Heal this."

She shot an arrow into the middle of my foot. I screamed in pain as I jumped up and down, clutching it.

"AGH! DAMNIT! OH MY GOD!"

The girl laughed a little. "Ha! Thou may be a hybrid, but Celestial Bronze can still hurt half-breeds. Anyway, thine toy is in the armory tent. Grab it and go."

X

Joanna

A few hours later, the tents were packed up and the hunters were waking to a clearing on the cliff. I followed a few of them to the clearing and was soon followed by Jimmy, who had retrieved his Lends.

"There you are. I was beginning to worry." I said, sounding sarcastic. I noticed he had a black eye and a few spots of fresh blood, other than the ones from earlier.

"What happened to you?"

"I had to wrestle this thing out of the hands of a DBZ fan." Jimmy said, pointing to his Lends. "She tried to do the 'Over 9000' meme. I see you got your silver jacket, by the way."

About an hour ago, I had received a silver jacket from the lieutenant, Zoe Nightshade and a bow with a few arrows, complementary gifts from the hunters. I took the jacket, but refused the bow. I was always terrible at archery anyway, plus I liked my old weapon, Dante. I was wearing the jacket under my leather jacket. It didn't show as much as if I would have worn it instead of my leather jacket, but you could still tell I had it on.

"Oh, yeah." I said, looking down at it. "You know, the color scheme isn't really my style, but it's kinda snug, you know? I'm totally keeping it when we go back to Myria."

Jimmy grumbled and looked away.

"Oh stop." I said. "I told you I have it under control."

Just then, I saw a flicker of light coming from the sky that looked like it was moving.

"What is that?" Jimmy said, looking up.

The light looked like it was coming closer, and that's when I realized what it was.

"It's Apollo! Jimmy turn on the Lends!"

"I'm doing it! I'm doing it!"

Jimmy presses a button on the side of the Lends and it beeped. Just as he did, the massive fireball in the sky came to a stop on the ground in the middle of the clearing. As the smoke cleared, a cherry-red sports car was reveled. The vehicle was so hot that the snow melted within ten feet from it and it looked like it was glowing for a moment. The door opened and out from the car stepped a handsome man wearing a cool leather jacket, a pair of jeans, and sunglasses, the typical douchebag look, although I shouldn't really call him a douche because this man was…

"Apollo." Artemis called to her brother.

Apollo looked at his sister and smiled. "Hey, little sis. You rang?"

"For the last time, brother," Artemis said, pinching between her eyes, "we are twins. You were not born first."

"Yeah I was. By a few minutes."

Artemis rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I need you to take my hunters and these other… people to Camp Half-blood."

Jimmy's eyes widened. "Oh my god! We're going to Camp Half-blood!" After he said that, he began laughing and giggling like a little girl while waving his hands ridiculously. In fact, he did it so much that I punched him into the snow.

"Down, boy." I said.

When we loaded onto the bus, Apollo's car which was turned into a bus, Apollo said a few things to Percy and his friends, including Zoe, Nico, and Bianca. The rest of the hunters loaded onto the bus when he stopped Jimmy and I.

"Wait a minute." Apollo said as he held out a hand to us. I was afraid he was going to leave us here or tell us when we were going to die, but instead, he looked off into the distance and said, "I feel a haiku coming on."

Everyone groaned when he said this. I, however, was intrigued. I mean it wasn't every day that the god of music and poetry tells a haiku.

"Birds fly in the sky, over my car so high up, I look good in these shades."

"Um… that was six syllables." I said, not trying to be rude.

Apollo looked at me. "Oh yeah. Hang on, let me think…"

There was silence for a few seconds, but then Jimmy spoke up.

"I am so awesome?"

Apollo smiled and snapped his fingers. "That's it. Nice work, bro."

Jimmy smiled when he said this. Apollo walked into the bus, followed by Jimmy who said something like, "I got complemented by a god." I, however, was looking at Apollo and thinking how on earth the god of poetry sucked at haikus.

Once we were loaded onto the bus, I sat with the other hunters, who were talking to each other about various things, like their bows, or the manticore, or monsters they've hunted… at least until Jimmy wanted to sit next to me.

"Shove off, creep. This is our side of the bus." One of them said.

"Heh, 'our side.' That's cute." Jimmy said with a smile that immediately turned into a frown. "Seriously, though, I want to sit there."

"Well it's taken." She said back to him.

"By who?"

"By me." The girl said as she sat in the seat next to me.

Jimmy scowled at the hunter, then walked toward the newly open seat. "Fine, then this one's mine."

"Nuh uh! This is mine!" Said another hunter as she moved to that seat.

"Fine, then I'll get yours." Jimmy said, aggravated, but as soon as he took a step in that direction, another hunter took the empty seat. Jimmy stomped his foot. "What the Hell?" He shouted.

"Jimmy, just sit in the front." I said, getting annoyed.

"No! This is the only chance I'm gonna get to sit in a god's bus and I wanna feel all of the bumps!"

The hunter leaned over to me and whispered, "This is why I joined. Men are so arrogant."

"What was that? What did you say?" Jimmy roared.

As soon as he finished his sentence, the bus's engine sprang to life. I looked past the huntress next to me and looked at Jimmy.

"Um, Jimmy? Maybe you should sit down now?"

"Screw that." Jimmy said, waving me off. "I can handle some bumps and air turbulence."

"Hey, isn't that Thalia at the wheel?" A random hunter asked. Before there could be a reaction, the bus lurched foreword, sending Jimmy into the back wall as soon as we took off.

I could feel the bus's speed and the heat from the engine. What was Apollo thinking, putting Thalia in the driver's seat? She could get us killed! I pulled myself out of my seat and slowly made my way to the front using the chairs as steps in a ladder. The force was so intense, it felt like doing pull-ups on Jupiter, but eventually, I made it to the front. Apollo was trying to give advice to Thalia, but she was still screwing up. That's when I grabbed the wheel.

"Give me the wheel!" I shouted as I steered against her.

"No! I can do this!" Thalia shouted as she tried to fight me. Thalia may have only one sixth of my strength, but she was wrestling the wheel from me like she had Jimmy's strength.

"Stop! Stop!" Apollo shouted. "You're gonna crash! Look out!"

Thalia and I looked up and saw Camp Half-blood's lake right in front of us. I couldn't see its features, we were going so fast, but the lake was closing in three… two…

"HIT THE BRAKES!" Apollo and I shouted at the same time. Thalia slammed the breaks, making Apollo's car stop right on top of the lake. Unfortunately, this also sent Jimmy, who was in the back of the bus, off of the back wall and through the front windshield. He soared through the air, skipped twice on the lake, then crashed into a tree, making it knock over. Forest and water nymphs scattered when this happened.

Thalia, Apollo, and I looked straight ahead of ourselves like we just beat Death. After a minute, I finally spoke.

"Um… sorry about your windshield." I said.

"Oh, um… it's fine. It'll repair itself." Apollo said, still looking straight ahead. "Hey, is your friend going to be okay?"

"Oh… yeah." I said, still in a daze. "He's been through worse. Trust me."

"Okay, good." Apollo said. He patted a hand on Thalia's shoulder. "Nice driving, kid."

Thalia didn't respond. She just stared straight through the broken windshield, but she nodded a little in response.

"Hey." Jimmy said through a broken tree and a pile of dirt over his head. "No rush or anything, but can someone please dig me up?"