The Abduction of the Poppy
Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfiction by Tohkalia and Miss-Li-ding
DISCLAIMER: I remember owning PJO. Then I woke up.
Chapter Five - Fighting Tarzan and a Side Quest
Whilst walking through the maze, Nathan wished dearly that he was in some other place. Any time where he was forced to be contained with Viv in a small space was nauseating ever since that one fateful round of spin the bottle. They had both been 11 at the time, and had been forced into a closet together for the whole night because they wouldn't kiss. From then on, he had found it hard to be close to her in any sort of confined space.
Viv cast a glance at him. "So... letting Angeline use your bag for a pillow-"
"Shut up Viv, I was just being nice." he grumbled, rubbing his arms uncomfortably. "Stop reading into every little thing."
She ignored his request. "And since when is her name Gel?"
Nathan mentally rolled his eyes. "That's the only nickname she'll let me call her."
Viv arched an eyebrow then smirked. "Oh, is that so? I'venever heard you call her Gel before."
"I called her Gel most of last year." he explained, then shoved his hands into his pockets.
"Yeah right, whatever... What the Hades? Another dead end? You're supposed to be leading us outof this maze A.S.A.P."
Nathan shrugged. "I don't want to waste my luck on a stupid maze. I'd rather save it for things... like not choosing the short straw for cleaning out the pegasi stables."
"That doesn't work anyway, I neutralise it." He knew it! She had been the reason he had been chosen for cleaning out the stables with the same chances as everyone else.
He shrugged again. "Touche."
For a while they walked silently in the maze. Every time they ran into a dead end Viv would glare at him, backtrack then choose the other fork. Nathan let her lead. He really couldn't be bothered.
Gradually Nathan became aware of a low breathing noise. At first he thought it was just in his head, but then Viv started to act like she was hearing something too. Nathan cast a glance at her. She nodded and they both sped up together. The noise got louder. Hope jumped in Nathan's chest...perhaps this was Demeter sleeping just ahead! Just as he thought the noise couldn't get any louder, it did. A sudden doubt struck his thoughts but he ignored it. They turned a corner.
Instead of a beautiful harvest goddess snoozing in the sun, around the corner was a mass of dark skin and anger.
The minotaur faced them. It snorted at the two demigods, its powerful body rippling as it flexed its muscles. Furry from the waist up the only thing that it wore was a pair of love-heart boxers.
"What is this, a rip-off of Daedalus' labyrinth?" asked Viv, activating her sword in a flash. Nathan activated his weapon. It lengthened and turned into a spear. What was with this weapon? Twenty sides to the shape and it was basically knife, sword or spear. There was probably some weird parental supervision lock on it. That sounded like something a mortal parent would do. Damn. Now he was going to have to spend time attempting to unlock it. He hated wasting time.
The minotaur raised its head and bellowed into the air, striking its chest like Tarzan. Another rip-off? What would be next, a song montage full of talking animals? A herd of stampeding wildebeest?
"So Tarzan," Viv seemed to be tuned into his wavelength, for once. "I suppose you want to eat us or something like that, wasn't that your old job in the actual labyrinth?" questioned Viv, sword in hand. The minotaur (forever to be called Tarzan in Nathan's mind) narrowed his eyes and snorted. Nathan watched with a sense of dread as it reached down and picked up its axe. Shaped like an omega, it looked worse for wear, chipped and scratched. It also looked sharp. Very sharp.
Tarzan approached them, swinging its axe around and bellowing maliciously. Nathan was suddenly glad that he had been Gel's target practice when she had been deciding on her weapons. How she, being smaller than Nathan, could swing around maces and axes with a great degree of power was still a mystery to him.
Angeline was almost as good at the axe as she was the mace, so in order to remain alive Nathan had quickly learned how to dodge. Unfortunately for Viv, she had only ascended to the level of sparring-buddy with Gel after she had taken up the mace.
The only bad thing was that Nathan had no shield. And he had only been brave enough to face Axe-Gel with a shield. Tarzan swung his axe at them horizontally. Nathan jumped back out of its sweep just in time, he felt the air part against the fabric of his T-shirt. Viv just kept jumping back whilst facing the beast, 'disengaging', as she called it with her fancy fencing terms.
"So, the mighty minotaur is reduced to haunting a corn maze in the middle of nowhere? Whatever happened to you being a terror of Minos, of the labyrinth? Guess you were fired," taunted Nathan, trying to stall the half-man, half-bull. Tarzan was not amused. He snorted, dragged his left hind hoof against the ground and advanced towards the demigods with a roar.
"Nathan, what are you doing? We're trying not to be killed by the raging man-beast." Viv and Nathan jumped back at another swing. "With my experience, teasing isn't the best way to go." She jumped backwards again as the minotaur swung at her again.
"Do you have a better idea?" he shouted, then stepped back as another swing from the axe came close to him. It tore his T-shirt, making more adrenaline rush through his body. Suddenly something nudged his back. Crap! He had hit the edge of the maze! Tarzan, with blood-lust clear in its eyes, raised his axe and bellowed triumphantly. Nathan realised what the minotaur was about to do: a devastating overhead cut. Ok, a minotaur in front of him, nowhere to go behind him-
"Nathan, what in Hades are you doing? We're in corn!"
Oh... right.
Nathan pushed back against the corn and suddenly fell back into the plants, scrambling backwards just in time as the axe head landed between his knees. With a small thank-you to his mother he clambered to his feet then began to push through the corn, not wanting to leave Viv by herself with a pissed off minotaur.
Every step he took felt like he was moving through sticky, thigh deep mud. He strained and moved through the stalks with excruciating difficulty until he suddenly popped back out into the maze. He hefted his spear and swung it side to side, ready to face Tarzan. It took him a few moments to realise that the minotaur wasn't around and he couldn't see any sign of it. Nor could he see any signs of Viv.
"Viv!" He shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. No reply. He shouted for her again. Again, nothing. His heart beat faster. Oh crap, what if something happened to her? She would torment him forever in Hades if he left her to die. He sent a prayer to his mother that she was alright and was still alive and kicking. With a curse he closed his eyes and spun in circles before running off, lucking his way towards where Viv was. He ran blind for quite a few minutes, then 'Thunk'!
Nathan fell backwards and landed roughly on his butt, dropping his spear in the process. He opened his eyes to find Viv mirroring his position.
"Viv!" He exclaimed, a grin on his face. She was still alive! Viv scowled at him, obviously not as happy. Without replying she scooted forward and raised her leg before whacking her heel onto his knee. It was needless to say that it hurt. Nathan rolled onto his back and grabbed his knee.
"BY THE IMMORTAL GODS THAT HURTS LIKE BEING DRAGGED TO HADES BY A HARPY!" screamed Nathan in Ancient Greek, rolling around as tears prickled the corners of his eyes.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LEFT ME LIKE THAT!" shouted Viv. She had gotten to her feet and was standing over Nathan, an ominuous shadow. "Where have you been for the past half-hour?"
Nathan had recovered enough to overcome enough of the pain to stop swearing in Ancient Greek and reply to Viv's statement.
"Half-hour? I went... five minutes most."
Viv snorted. Nathan could see now that she was holding her right arm gingerly. Blood dripped from her fingers.
"Stupid freaking magic." he grumbled under his breath. Viv rolled her eyes as he hugged his knee some more.
"Get up, you wuss. I've had to endure a similar amount of pain for the last half-hour while fighting a freaking minotaur." She gave him a look of disdain as he continued to sit on the ground. "Man up, Nathan, we've got to finish him off."
Viv grabbed Nathan by the back of his neck and proceeded to tear his head from his body. He resisted her pulling until he thought he heard something crack. Not eager for death at the hands of his sister, he stood up quickly. She released him from her grip and turned back the way she had come. Nathan picked up his spear, used it as a makeshift cane, then hobbled after her, practically hopping because of his injured knee.
"Why haven't you finished him off?" he asked. Viv was practically unstoppable when she was on a roll; she could have taken care of anything.
Viv glared at Nathan. "Tarzan's a freaking minotaur with an axe. I was focused more on staying alive as opposed to killing the beast. Plus, you have the only semi-long-range weapon. If I get too close to him, he just uses his hand-hooves."
"Why didn't he follow you?"
"He's currently trying to remove his axe from a handy rock." She smirked. Viv sounded her usual tough stuff but Nathan could tell that she was exhausted. She wasn't breathing deeply, as she always stressed him to do. Her eyes were sunken. A roar came from ahead. It sounded close. Viv flinched from the sound, Nathan watched with empathy as fear flickered over her features before they resumed their normal, uncaring appearance.
"C-come on now Nate." She mumbled, activating her sword and holding it in her uninjured left hand. Nathan shrugged when he saw her do it. She wasn't as good with her left-hand, far from it, but recently she had began to practise with it. Apparently right-handers sucked against left-handers in fencing. Viv, being Viv, liked being able to surprise people with her abilities as well as pwn them.
Viv took a deep breath and moved herself into the 'en guarde' position. Nathan put weight on his sore knee, adjusted to the pain then took away his spear as a support and brandished it as a weapon.
The ground trembled underfoot, becoming bigger with each footstep Tarzan made. Then, suddenly, the beast was in front of them.
The minotaur was bleeding badly from both legs and the left side of his face boasted a deep scar, forcing it to squint at them with one, good eye. Nathan briefly wondered how long Viv had had to fight with her wounded arm. Then the minotaur charged at them.
Tarzan ran straight to Viv, hatred visible in its eye and swung a side cut at her. Instead of dodging backwards as Nathan did she darted forward. She dodged under the axe before trying to run her blade through he minotaur by a lunge. The minotaur, expecting this move jumped backwards just enough to be out of range of her range.
Viv tsked before deactivating her blade and rolling between the minotaur's legs. Nathan gaped in wonder. This exchange took less then half a minute. She was fighting him like a pro-
"Don't just stand there Nathan fight the bloody thing!" Nathan closed his mouth and moved into a more offensive position. Tarzan, seeming to notice Nathan rushed towards him. Nathan copied Viv's action and ran towards the monster as it raised its blade for an upper-hand-cut. He wasn't fast enough to dodge under the blade. Nathan paused for a moment, then jumped to the side as the blade fell into the hard ground where he had been only moments before.
Tarzan yanked at the handle of the axe. It refused to move. Taking this small moment of good luck, Nathan shifted his grip on the spear and sprinted towards Tarzan. Out of the corner of his eye Nathan could see Viv doing likewise.
The siblings reached the minotaur at the same time. Just as the minotaur pried its axe from the ground they stabbed the monster through its upper torso. It felt like pushing a knife through cold butter; there was some resistance, but not a great deal.
The minotaur roared in fury, clutching at its chest before dissipating into a fine, shimmering dust. All that was left was the minotaur's axe, which abruptly fell over on its side.
All of the adrenaline rushed out of Nathan's system. His hurt knee started to throb, uncomfortable from the withdrawal of the pain-reducing hormone. He focused on breathing for a few seconds, then straightened himself up and leaned against his spear. Viv recovered much faster, she walked over to the axe, nursing her wounded arm and kicked it half-heartedly. She was silent for a few moments. In those moments Nathan got a vibe of what she was going to say-
"So... Auxo says there's a 'fun' maze eh? Just going to go into it and battle the minotaur... for fun?"
"Hey!" protested Nathan. "I didn't know there was going to be a monster waiting to eat us in it!" He hobbled over to the axe and picked it up with a grunt. In his hand it changed to a handily compact screwdriver. The tip was engraved with an omega. The handle was loose around the blade and the metal of the blade was rusted, chipped and scratched. In short, it looked pretty crappy.
Nathan offered it to Viv. After eyeing him for a few seconds she snatched it from his hands. She switched her sword to its ruler form before angrily shoving both items into her pocket.
"I'm going to eat your freaking ambrosia." she smiled, a hint of a smirk in it. Nathan shrugged and deactivated his spear, spinning the keychain around his finger before putting it into his shorts' pocket.
"Come on then, let's see if Angeline has woken up."
Viv never wanted to ever see another minotaur ever again; for that matter, she didn't want to see that stupid Tarzan movie again either. She would burn all pages that had a picture of a minotaur in it and all who mentioned or made her watch Tarzan would be punished.
Sure, she had only had to fight the minotaur half an hour, a short time in the long run, but it had been a long half-hour. Viv glanced nervously at Nathan. It had been annoying how much she had relied on him, on others. When he had gone she had found herself unprepared to fight the monster. She shuddered as she remembered those first few minutes, waiting for Nathan to pop out of the corn and help her. The moment she realised that she was on her own had been the moment the minotaur had sliced her arm with its still wickedly sharp blade, relatively early in the fight.
A voice interrupted her thoughts. "I'm sorry." mumbled Nathan. Really, was it below him to allow silence for contemplation?
"If you were sorry you'd leave me in peace." she huffed, walking faster even though she was exhausted. "We'd better be heading the right way."
"I'm lucking you at every fork." he replied. Ah, so that's why she had been feeling sick every time she had to make a decision. "How are you... I mean, fighting the minotaur must have been hard for half an hour and while wounded-"
"Don't remind me Nathaniel." she snapped. "You should count yourself lucky that I'm putting your disappearance down to magic."
"You bet I do. I just worry about you... you are technically my little sister." Oh no. He did not just call her his little sister.
"I believe I am the elder in our weird version of a family. You traded your birthday date for mine because you wanted to have the later birthday party if I remember correctly." Nathan's face turned red.
"Yeah but I did say technically-"
"Doesn't matter, I am officially older than you on the records. I don't care if you were born first. I get the right to call you 'little' whilst you must call me 'older'."
The birthday swap was just another oddity. The fact that they were two demigod children with different godly parents while having the same mortal parent was the more apparent one. Both Viv and Nathan had realised this some time ago when they were young. In turn, they had asked their father. Both siblings would forever remember the look on their father's face during 'The Talk'... which didn't answer their question of how he managed to knock up two goddesses, one after another, judging by the 9 month span between their birthdays. Needless to say, it became a semi-taboo topic in their household.
Nathan was too slow to reply to Viv's statement. As he walked down the path, Angeline appeared ahead.
"Nathan! Viv!" She ran towards them, a happy smile plastered across her face. She looked like she was going to hug Viv (even though Gel's hatred for unwanted physical contact had been made clear on many occasions) when she slowed down, raising a hand to her mouth. "Viv, your arm-"
"Minor injury." she shrugged. But damn did it sting. "You can still hug hephalump over there though, he's only got a sore knee." Ah... an interesting reaction from Angeline. She looked away from Nathan and snorted.
"Yeah, 'cause I totally want to hug him, all sweaty and stuff." Viv deduced that Angeline was in the 'denial' stage. Nathan sighed in acceptance.
"Oh right, before I forget; the little boy wants to know if you've had fun." The little bastard! "We've got to go see him, otherwise he said something about stealing our bags." Angeline turned around and started to lead the way. Nathan and Viv followed behind.
"What was that Viv? Why'd you tell her to hug me?" hissed Nathan. Viv smirked. She had been waiting for him to say something.
"I thought she'd want to hug you. After all, she was your first friend at Camp Half-Blood. I mean, she is one of your closest friends, maybe something more?" Viv did enjoy watching Nathan's blush-fest.
"Shut up. I knew you had ulterior motives." he grumbled under his breath.
"Come on guys, we're almost there!" called Angeline.
"We're coming!" replied Viv who walked faster, eager to eat Nathan's ambrosia.
The boy was still at his stall, calmly playing solitaire with himself.
His trivial activity really did piss Viv off. He cut her off before she had a chance to berate him.
"So did you two have fun? Looks like it from your wounds. Couples these days are so energetic and violent-"
"WE ARE NOT A COUPLE!" both Viv and Nathan shouted in unison. The boy, eyes still shaded under his cap paused his game for a moment.
"Oh that's right. Sorry about that. You would notbelieve how many times I've had to say that. Lead arrows of indifference for Vivian and Nathan Archer; special request from the parents. They aren't one for incest..." Viv slammed the minotaur's axe in screwdriver form down on the boy's card game.
"We had fun all right. Sorry that your little monster didn't eat us in there. He shouldn't be needing a feed for a while." she snarled, expecting a surprised reaction from the kid. The boy was silent and still. He paused for a second then placed his cards onto the table. His whole body started to shake. For a second Viv felt a flutter of sympathy, maybe she had been too harsh; he seemed to be crying.
Then he began to chuckle louder.
"Oh, now that creature is one of my favourite crack pairings. Poseidon always has the best ideas-" Viv couldn't take it any more.
"Who do you think you are?" asked Viv, very pissed off. She did not fight a minotaur just so a little boy could laugh about it.
"You can't tell?" The boy stood up from his chair and took off his hat. Viv reluctantly noted that he looked really cute, the same way a puppy did; dark brown hair, a button nose and big, kaleidoscope eyes. Wings sprouted out of his back with a flutter. They were out of proportion, small and delicate. They were purely for decoration, there was no way they could support him.
"I am Eros, personification of love. Known by the Romans as Cupid, but seeing as you are Greeks, call me Eros." The demigods were silent for a while. Viv wasn't sure how to respond then, a memory clicked in her brain.
"You caused Helen to fall in love with that snobbish shepherd!" she pointed a finger at the god.
He shrugged. "Aphrodite made me, and he was a prince-" he replied in a bratty voice.
"She was just out to smite Nemesis for having a daughter prettier than her own!"
"Hey, its not my fault-" he pouted and tried to give her puppy dog eyes. It didn't work.
"She was my mother's first born-"
"Shut up Viv! Honestly, hold your tongue! You don't need to hold every grudge ever made by your mother or by someone you know." Nathan stepped between her and the stall. Viv huffed angrily and looked away. Stupid Nathan making stupid sense. The need for revenge inside of her died down. She glared at Nathan. The one thing she hated with absolute fury (well, one of the things she hated with absolute fury) was when he neutralised her vengeance. Eros rolled his eyes and ruffled his feathers before making his wings disappear.
"I will ignore meany-girl and her mean words. You are looking for Demeter right?" Nathan nodded hastily. Viv ignored the boy, stepping away from the stall. "Well, I'll tell you a secret if you gimme something in return." Eros replied in a sweet voice to Nathan before turning to Viv and sticking out his tongue.
"What do you want us to do?" asked Angeline, stepping forward so she could stand next to Viv.
Eros pouted and crossed his arms. "Mommy took away my bow and arrows. 'Cause they're my source of power, I'm stuck in this form. Psyche, for some reason, doesn't like me in this form." Right... This kid was married. Hard to remember when he acted like his mother hadn't let him buy a new toy from the mall.
"So what are we supposed to do?" asked Viv, reaching down and picking up Nathan's bag where it lay on the ground. Her arm had started to hurt again now that she wasn't focused entirely on killing the brat.
"So you're accepting?" asked Eros, beaming as brightly as the sun. Viv shrugged then searched through Nathan's bag, grabbing his bag of ambrosia. She took out a square and put it into her mouth. Yum... home-made Russian fudge flavour. "Well, you'll need to go to Aphrodite's penthouse, get past her security systems, steal my bow and arrow then get back here."
"Why can't you get it?" grumbled Viv, breaking another ambrosia square in half before putting it into her mouth. Ah... that hit the spot. The cut on her arm started to tingle as it healed. Hopefully that would be enough ambrosia to heal it. No need to burn up now, was there?
"She'd double the time. I can't spend an extra two days without my bow and arrow!" Wait a second. His punishment... was two days without his symbols? Viv cast a look at Angeline and at Nathan. They shared her look of indignation. For mortals and demigods, two days could be a comparatively long time, but for one of the millennia-old gods? Viv zipped up the ambrosia and put it back into Nathan's bag. She unceremoniously dumped it onto the ground. The demigods stayed quiet for a moment.
Nathan threw his hands up. "What the Hades. We'll do it." Angeline and Viv glared daggers at him. "I mean, he'll give us information right? Plus, it's always good to get in favour with someone." Ah... Viv could see his ulterior motives.
"This wouldn't happen to be because he is the personification of somethingin particular?" hissed Viv, arching her eyebrow.
"Nope. I just like cashing in on favours. As do you, except with revenge. Don't think I didn't notice you trying to pack up this morning without my help."
Eros butted back into the conversation, eager to be the center of attention. "As you have accepted I'll send you to her penthouse." He reached into his pants' pocket and pulled out a key card. Catching Viv off guard, he gave it to her although she had just been verbally abusing him before. "That's the key card. Please don't lose it or steal it. Aphrodite will kill me if I lose that card or gave it away to some demigods." Viv shrugged but before she had a chance to put it in her pocket, Eros spoke again, taking her attention. "All right, three to the Century Handelton it is!" He eyed them all for a moment. "And maybe a special as well..." Before anyone could ask what he meant, his body started to glow. Viv closed her eyes as a smell of roses and chocolate grew stronger until it was suddenly cut off by the smell of car gas.
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