I hate running like this.
The heat, the rain, the blood staining the eyes red.
The howls, the roars, the claws slashing flesh, the thumping of the heart in the ears…
The screaming.
The fear of losing someone dear.
I hate that.
I never understood why,
Who are you!?
I only saw her once, and yet…
Who is the donkey boy?
Why did it feel like finding something precious again?
Wait, you play that nerd game?
And gaining the fear of losing it once more.
You found an MP3?!
That is why I let loose.
We are on our way to a safe place. You can join us.
I did not want to lose her.
I will have your back!
Not again?
ANNABETH!
I was yelling until my voice began to bleed.
DAN, YOUR THE FASTEST GET HER OUT OF HERE!
Grabbing anything I could get my hands on.
WHY DID YOU COME BACK!?
Why was my heart telling me not to let this happen?
THALIA! LOOK OUT!
Asking, 'Is there any chance to write a good ending for once?'
Annabeth, where is Thalia?
Is there a chance for me to win for once?
THERE YOU ARE!
Why?
It was their fault. If you want to blame anyone, blame the gods!
Why can't I break this cage?
Lady ^#%! You may not want to see me after what I did to #$&%*#, but please understand I'm not here for myself.
I failed to protect her.
And yet…
This boy has a destiny unlike any other, he is one of them, and we will need him to achieve wonders. So please let me help an old friend.
Why do I feel hope?
WOOF!
Dante awoke abruptly from his hammock and landed head-first into the wooden ground of the cabin. He was shirtless, still wearing cargo pants and socks, allowing a good look into the scars that had failed to heal due to his stubbornness in letting them heal naturally or refusing to see medical attention. And a third-degree burn on his left side, where his arm was.
'Ow'
'Did i oversleep again?'
…
'No'
'I had the same nightmare again….'
"Whining," a sound came from his right side and the reason he had a bruise forming on his head. A Black-furred wolf-labrador, Jet. He was found him as a pup two weeks after the "lightning thief events." "It's ok, boy, I'm up, I'm up," he told him. He started to wag his tail. Looking out the window, it was still night. "By the way, do you know what time it is?' he asked Jet. The dog tilted his head, and not a moment later, he left to grab something hidden among some dirty laundry. He returned with a pocket watch with a dragon eating its tail engraving in front.
'3:40, huh, I did not oversleep, but I still got only two hours of sleep… And now I'm wide awake.'
Dante started to look for one of the camps' shirts and his boots, placed them on, and began doing the one thing that kept his mind off things.
"Ok, let's get to the arena and do the favor the Hephaestus kids wanted to be done." to help around camp. He chained the watch, placed it in his pocket, and headed out. "Come on, Jet." Jet followed.
The night at camp half-blood tends to be some of the more bothersome times considering the hairpies, but for some reason, they avoid Dante, almost wondering 'when is he going to leave.' at least it makes his midnight walks quiet.
Once arriving at the arena, Dante pulled his watch out and clicked one of the buttons from it. There were clicking sounds as if gears were rotating until a midnight-black arm appeared, and where arm one would find the 'veins' in the arm pulsated with a low glow in both green and blue. From there, he placed it where his left arm would have been and flexed it to test the prosthetic.
"Ok, so if I understood, they wanted to get something working, a 'danger room' type of arena. If so, what are the chances I'm going to break it at this end?" Dante thought in an exasperated tone.
This wasn't the first time the Hephaestus kids asked to try to test something, to only blow up on his face and then be sore for a couple of hours. And this time, they were testing a system that simulated human and monster combat; hence, the best comparison is the concept within the X-men movies that Dante loved watching.
"Welp, let's get this over with. Jet, stay outside of the arena, alright." Dante commanded his dog.
The arena started to shift as several Bronze-looking humans, one that seemed similar to a chimera, manifested from literal dust covering the arena. 'Even how the enemies show up is the same….' Dante thought with a short sword forming on his 'left hand' and a smirk and got ready for an early/late workout.
But even some flashes only showed him mere moments of memories of what happened. But he was sure of one thing: he did not regret turning that cyclops into a red stain on the wall.
This was how he distracted himself after all this test ran till the rays of this day's dawn arose. Jet fell asleep thirty minutes in.
After the last robot fell, he felt relieved and hungry. "I hope the nymphs could get some smoothies ready?" Then, as he started to walk, he heard rumbling, followed by the sounds of combat. "Jet, get ready!" Jet woke up and began running alongside Dante towards the noise and running close to matching the fattest child of Hermes.
'Really, running like this. I hate it.'
As trees passed by, the sounds of combat got louder and louder. Once he arrived at the clearing, he saw several campers in greek armor and wielding weapons to fight what seemed to be a mechanical bull painted in gold and ruby gem eyes. And was reading for a charge towards of some of the campers.
Without waiting any time, Dante whistled, and Jet began to run towards the bull; once he got to a proper distance, he began to bark at the mecha ripoff.
The Colchis bull turned his attention towards Jet and began to charge toward the unmoving K-9. Once the bull was close enough, the left horn was wrapped and pulled by a green lited rope, nearly hitting Jet and guiding the bull into one of the pillars around camp. And as the bull was down, the rope retracted toward Dante into his prosthetic, and he got ready, grabbing the Ares cabin flag and readying himself for the bull to get up.
The bull got up and turned towards Dante holding the flag and swishing it, almost as if it was taunting it. The bull hoffed the ground and charged. Dante dodged at the last minute by spinning and placing a disc formed from his prosthetic on the bull's side.
The bull missing hit a storage area and seemed to get angrier as its eyes glowed and a tremendous amount of steam came from the nostrils. Finally, it got up once more and charged, but the results were the same, except that a disc was placed on the opposite side this time.
"Ok, time to finish this," Dante said as he stood in front of some weapons that were set up akin to a spiked barricaded curtsy of Jet dropping on the racks—and covered by the flag, waiting for the bull to charge once more.
And it did.
Once the bull got close, expecting Dante to spin sideways, Dante front flipped and allowing the bull to crash into the weapons, getting covered by the flag and effectually cutting its eyes, putting the beast down but not out.
"Ole," Dante said as he landed from his front flip.
Without looking at the bull, Dante snaps his left 'hand' and the discs that slid into the plating of the bull. Turn into piked balls within the bull putting out of commission.
"There is one more!"
"Where?!"Dante turned around, running in the same direction as the campers pointed. But, as he arrived, it seemed too late. The bull was destroyed, and a guy with a burnt shirt was in front. As that guy turned around...
'A cyclops?'
The cyclops turned around. They both blinked.
"Hi."
A rage overtook Dante's thoughts, he got ready to charge the cyclops, but a familiar mop of black hair stopped him in his tracks.
"WAIT! Tyson is not an enemy. You don't have to attack him." Percy jumped on Dante's run path, causing the heterochromatic teen to double-take. That was when Annabeth came into the picture. "He is right, Dante. As unbelievable it is, he is on our side."
That caused Dante to look at Tyson with a calm mind.
'He is not him; calm down.' Dante thought that. He shifted his prosthetic and began to turn it back into his pocket watch. And then proceeded to chain from his belt loop and place back in his pocket.
"So the Cyclops destroyed that thing?" came the voice of Clarisse, who wore a helmet, shield, and spear.
"Clarisse, how did those things get into camp? Isn't the barrier supposed to keep them out?" Percy asked.
"That's the problem. The tree was poisoned-WHOOSH- and he is gone," said Clarisse as Dante ran towards the camp gate faster than he ran earlier.
"What do you mean?" Annabeth asked with a worried look.
"Look, I don't know all the details except that the poison is powerful and that simple contact with it can burn your skin." Said Clarisse. "and what happened with the second Colchis Bull?"
"Dante took care of it, then Tyson took care of this one here," said Percy as he pointed towards Tyson, who rubbed his head and slight embarrassment.
"I still have to sock him for using one of dad's flags," Clarisse said exasperated. "Ok, I still have to help the rest of my cabin mates. But first, take one eye to see Chiron and tell him what has happened."
"On our way," said Annabeth in a hurry as her sight lingered a little longer in the direction Dante ran.
After a bit of a walk, they came to Chiron's residence. Percy opened the door, and they entered, and they were greeted by the sight of Chiron Packing his things.
Before anyone could say anything, "Pony!" exclaimed Tyson, making Percy wince as he yelled right next to his ear.
That got Chiron's attention, and he turned to them. "My young cyclops, I'm a Centaur, not a pony."
"What is going on, Chiron? Why are you packing?" Asked Annabeth.
Chiron explained that after what happened, someone needed to take the blame for poisoning the tree and then put him under suspicion. So as punishment, he was pretty much fired, and someone else would take his place.
"Anyone with common sense would have blamed Dionysus since he was the more obvious choice due to his dislike for the camp and lack of concern for any campers." Said Percy.
"Even if Dionysus wasn't to blame, it would still at least give him some sort of comeuppance." Said Annabeth
"While I agree with you, it wasn't our power to choose. Well, I must be off. I'll be visiting some of my fellow kin. I hope your stay this summer will be good." Chiron said with a sad tone.
After saying their goodbyes (Tyson seems sadder about the whole thing), Chiron left. Annabeth and Tyson were in tears, while Percy only had a low expression.
"Should we tell Dante?" Percy asked in a low voice. Wondering how he would react to the news.
"There is no need. I think Dante will find out soon." Annabeth said as she tried to dry her tears.
At Thalia's Tree
Dante was near losing his mind.
Seeing the damage to Thalia's resting place was enough to push the self-control he holds on to every day to be lost. And it sucked to be any other tree nearby.
Just letting loose for a single second was all he needed to return to control.
And after seeing the damage to the punched-down tree, he clenched his bloody fist and started to count.
'Breath in for 3"
'Hold for 7.'
'Out for 5.'
"Well, you will be on a nymph's bad side for punching that tree," Dante sapping back to reality. He turned around and saw Chiron with his luggage.
"Chiron, I'm sorry, I just couldnt contain it," Dante, ashamed as he jumped a bit, seeing Jet licking his right hand.
"I understand. I don't blame you. If anything, this was the better option. You were barely holding on to calm, but it is better to just let it out in it." Said Chiron while pulling out a bandage and holding out his hand.
Dante gave him his hand and asked, "You were blamed?" as Chiron wrapped the bloodied knuckles.
"Yes," Chiron said simply.
"Who is replacing you?"
"Tantalus."
"The cannibal!?"
"The same one."
"Tsk, it seems I'm going vegetarian every time I step into the camp now…" said Dante in a depressed tone.
This caused Chiron to smirk. "As long you don't get on his bad side, you should be fine, Dante."
As Chiron finished wrapping Dante's hand, "I had a word with the gods, and they have agreed on a new way for you to receive quests. So if they need you, they will come to her instead of me being a middle man."
"You say that as if a new quest is waiting for me at the big house," said Dante as he petted jet to put the dog at ease.
"..."
"Wait, there is!?"
"Yes, she has a new quest for you," said Chiron
"I see. I will talk to her," Dante said as he got back up and started to walk away.
As he grabbed his luggage, Chiron began walking."Teach, this is not a goodbye. It's a see you later," said Dante as he waved his hand without looking back.
"I certainly hope so," said Chiron as he kept walking, not without putting prayer on behalf of the knight
The day seemed to be full of bad news today, from Thalia's tree being poisoned, monsters coming to the camp, Chiron being fired from his position, and then getting a maniac instead.
Percy was looking forward to training with Dante. But he had to say one thing, training with him was blander than expected.
Dante asked Percy To battle some automatons; he said, "it's to test the new function the Hephaestus kids have been working on." After a couple of rounds, the training went from sword fighting to showing off his water abilities.
As Sundown came, Percy walked back to his cabin, the son of Poseidon honestly had nothing better to do. He had a lot of time to think about what he heard while walking back.
He did ask Dante about the dog.
"I found Jet after you left Percy. If anything, he helps a lot."
"On what?"
"On just the simple things Percy, that is all anyone can do. For now, let's call if for the day I got an idea on what to do now."
Still, the dream Percy had about Grover. He is definitely in some kind of trouble and needs to find a way to get to him. Dante may help him since he traveled with Grover back to the camp.
Then he saw Annabeth walking nearby, a seemingly distant look in her grey eyes. Percy walked to wail at her, but the daughter of Athena noticed him first.
"Oh, hey there, Percy," she said and not all that cheerfully.
"Hi, Annabeth." Percy said, "man, what a rough day."
"Yeah, really rough," she said before noticing something. "speaking of which, you look roughed up yourself. What happened?"
"I was training with Dante." the moment he first said it, her expression seemed to say, 'wait, what now.'
"You trained with Dante?" she asked in disbelief. "How did you get him to train you!?"
The son of Poseidon Shrugged. "I just asked him."
"You… just asked him," she said like she couldn't believe it was just that simple.
"Well, I, that's great. I'm sure that he is a great teacher."
"It was blander than expected. I just fought automatons and showed him my water abilities." Said Percy while sighing
"Oh, That seems to be the norm with him. Well, good luck with that."
"Yeah."
Deciding not to make this any more awkward, Percy decided to tuck in for the night.
"Well, see you tomorrow, Annabeth."
"Good night, Percy."
It has been several days since then, and the more time Percy spent with Dante showed how orthodox of a fighter he could be.
From fighting with a clean hand to water manipulation, the latter thew Percy for a loop. In Dante's own words.
"What I understand is that as long you have a water source near you, you can control it. That will come in handy, from finding pipelines to using the water itself as a weapon."
"Like how I did with Clarisse?"
"Yes and no, What you did with Clarisse was more of lashing out. If you have finer control over it, you might as well be a water-bender!" Dante said with stars in his eyes.
"Water-blender?"
"Oh, I will just ignore what you said. The point is that your training will be for throwing people off. In other words, the water will be your riptide 2.0."
"What?"
"So your training will be to follow these stances."
The training was more akin to a yoga class. Each stance was challenging but not uncomfortable. And when it came to actual fighting, Dante activated the automatons. While he joined every once in a while, it was mainly showing him how to use the same stances to fight, and the more Percy did it, the more it felt like second nature so that he couldn't be mad. If anything else, he was glad he was learning this but did not know why.
And the news of Percy being trained by Dante spread like wildfire. Each day more and more campers came to see the training that the Son of Poseidon received from The Knight of Olympus. And some of the Aphrodite cabin gave Dante pillow eyes, but if Dante noticed or not, Percy did not know.
And it had to be said, Camp-half blood was not impressed by Chiron's replacement. The moment he arrived, he made it clear that he had a worse opinion of camp half-blood than Dionysus, which is probably why the two seemed to get along like 'old men in a home.' A perfect way to describe their relationship, according to Dante.
Dante had to leave for a quest, but he did leave Jet behind. And Percy could swear that the dog was a human in animal form. So every time Percy went to the arena, the automatons would activate, and Jet was watching like always and would bark every time he did not do one of the stances Dante taught him.
So much for a teacher pet.
Currently, there was a Chariot race where all campers had to make their own chariots to compete against each other. But was interrupted by the stymphalian birds. And more evidence of his personal theory of Jet.
The mutt was carrying Chiron's Portable Stereo and playing 'some choice music,' throwing the birds into disarray. Standing next to Annabeth was covering the dog's ears.
The Apollo Cabin used their Archery skills to take out the birds. The threat had passed.
Annabeth paused the music and noticed Percy and Tyson running towards her, "Good work Annabeth."
"Oh, it was nothing really. I am a child of Athena, after all. However, I have to thank him for bringing the stereo to me." said Annabeth as she scratched Jet's ear.
"Good doggy," said Tyson while petting Jet.
"Of course," Said Percy staring at the dog, and he could tell the dog was egging him on.
"And we have a winner!" exclaimed a familiar voice, and the three of them turned to see Tantalus holding up Clarisse's hand, "Here is our chariot champion!"
" Is this guy brain dead or something!? The race stopped, and the chariots were in a wreck! So what is the point of proclaiming a winner!?" Annabeth yelled.\
Percy covered his ears and got suddenly got nauseous and grabbed his head.
"Percy!" Tyson said, bringing a very angry Annabeth to quiet down and look at Percy.
"Percy, what is wrong?" Annabeth asked a bit too fast.
As Percy came back, "It was Grover. He needs help more now than ever."