Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything *sad face*

Chapter 9: The News

Chiron awoke to the sound of screaming campers as the harsh smell of grenades entered the old centaur's nostrils. The centaur immediately ran outside to see what was happening, only to feel his blood run cold as he approached the cabin area to find absolute chaos. Military men were forcibly pulling campers out of his or her cabin. All of them were unconscious on the floor where the men put them down. Chiron's shock and fear was quickly replaced by anger at the men. How dare they harm his students in their only safe home while they couldn't properly defend themselves? How dare they do it while the demigods were under his and Dionysus' protection?

Chiron let out an enraged roar, much like that of an angry animal's, as he charged at the nearest man. Chiron didn't let his logical side tell him to think this out, and rammed his head into the man's chest. He would later deny finally understanding why his brothers in the Party Ponies would do this brutal attacking for fun whenever they got together. At the moment, he was filled with adrenaline as he protected the demigods on the ground with everything in him. Chiron went on a rampage, galloping around head-butting everything hostile until one of the men successfully knocked Chiron down. The last thing the centaur saw was one of the soldier's faces as they checked to make sure he wouldn't attack again before he closed his eyes.

When Chiron awoke again, he was still in the same place as he was when he went down. Alarmed, the centaur looked around to find the camp empty.

He had failed. The demigods were long gone by now.

A feeling of dread filled Chiron deep in his stomach, as his mind tried to process what this meant. Chiron slowly got to his feet, and looked around again. He had to tell the Gods, they had to know there was nothing left. So with that final thought, Chiron took off running without a single thought.

-Line Break-

The Olympians were each sitting in their respective thrones, thinking about Zeus' compromise of only two demigods being saved. For some, it was an obvious choice. Zeus didn't have to worry about any of his children, Poseidon only had Percy to be concerned about, Hera only had to worry about Leo Valdez if Hephaestus didn't choose the boy, and Artemis didn't have any connections to camp besides her Hunters and none of them were captured. Others had a more important decision. Hermes couldn't decide which of his children would be best at breaking out of a prison with the help of his other children, Athena was debating between two of her brainchildren as she tried to make the most logical choice, and Aphrodite didn't want any of her children to go through the horrors of a prison fashion budget. For the most part, though, each deity had chosen at least one child.

The gods also had their whole rescue plan set-up, all they needed was the right time, and for the choices to be made. Of course, that all changed when Chiron burst through the throne room doors with a wild look in his eyes as he stared at everyone present. The centaur looked like he had run straight from his bed to Olympus, with his pajamas on, and an assortment of curlers everywhere. It would have been a comical sight for just about anyone if it weren't for the seriousness in Chiron's expression as the centaur trotted over to the center of the throne room, bowing deeply.

"My lord," Chiron said to Zeus, still bowing.

Zeus raised a single eyebrow at Chiron before acknowledging Chiron with a head nod and saying, "Chiron. What brings you here at this time? Is there a problem?"

The centaur shuffled around a little nervously before saying, "Yes, my lord, there has been an attack on Camp Half Blood. All the Demigods are gone."

Many of the deities present looked shocked, while some had an angry look on their faces.

"What! What happened, Chiron?" Apollo asked. He seemed upset that he hadn't seen it happening.

Chiron moved around nervously again before speaking, "I awoke when the attack first started. I don't know how the men got inside, as they were all mortal. I tried to fight them off, but they overtook me. I was knocked unconscious and when I woke again, the camp was empty."

The gods looked at each other in silent shock. The choice would be a lot harder now that all of their children were at risk. Some of the Olympians with the hardest choice stole glances at Zeus, hoping the God might change his decision now that there was less chance to save the remaining demigods. They had no such luck, though, as they saw Zeus staring ahead with a stoic expression on his face. They had a hard choice ahead of them, and every immortal could feel the pressure.

-Line Break/ BONUS-

Arianna Mathis was a reporter at heart. She always looked for the biggest stories and secrets, and fished out the truth, even if her technique was sometimes slightly illegal. Arianna had a reputation for her stories that she posted on her web sight under the alias Dorothy Swan, as she was known for having accurate news and getting the story first. Because of this reputation, Arianna was always looking out for the next story, no matter how small it was. With this in mind, it really wasn't a surprise that Arianna was going crazy over the new virus. She wanted to know everything there was to know, so Arianna was getting slightly frustrated when she would always come in with dead-ends on the infected. She was also getting dead-ends from the initials DPA on the side of a truck she noticed carrying away another positive.

The initials had been her first lead in a long time, so Arianna started looking for it everywhere. She even used her slightly illegal sources and nothing came up. So when Arianna happened to look out of her window one night to see a van with the DPA logo on the side driving past her room, Arianna didn't think twice about jumping out of the window with her emergency reporters bag firmly in her grip. Arianna followed the van's tracks all the way to Long Island and waited in the bushes for about an hour when she found the van parked on the side of a hill.

Arianna's breath caught in her throat when she saw the first man in military fatigues carrying a teenage girl down the hill and towards the van. Arianna seized the moment to snap a couple photos of the man and the van, along with the other kids being carried away and put inside the van.

She stayed hidden in the bushes for a long time, thinking over what she had just found. Arianna was so lost in her thoughts, that she didn't notice how long she had been hidden until she heard the sound of a horse interrupting her thoughts. Intrigued, Arianna turned with her camera out and already taking pictures in enough time to capture a picture of the frantic face of a half-human half-horse man galloping away from Long Island.

Arianna stared at the retreating form in shock, before she looked over at the hill the creature had no doubt come from. She stared at it, contemplating whether or not she should go up before finally gaining enough courage from the thoughts of all the fame she could get from this story. Arianna started her trek up the hill and when she reached the top, and looked around the only thing Arianna could manage to do was whisper, "Holy crap."

A/N: So I'm back from camping! It was awesome, and now you have a new chapter. I decided to include Arianna because I wanted this to be longer. Also, I seriously need you guys to help choose which demigods will be freed. I found a little loophole that can get more than two demigods from the same parent be rescued if you can't decide.

Review Replies:

Blackcurse11: Thank you. I don't even know why Zeus chose two, it's just easier for me, I guess. No harm can really happen to Jason or Thalia since their both protected. I'm glad you enjoy the mortal's reactions as much as I like to write them.

Alicia Mirza: Hi! If Percy's 3, I don't know whose 5. I think Jason may actually be closer to sixteen than you think, or at least my version is. Nico's young and Thalia's immortal. Don't worry, Percy should be fine right now...I think. You can choose who Hermes or Athena choose, but, yeah, it's difficult. I agree with you about mortals, we can be so stupid sometimes *sigh*. Yeah, the god's children are complicated, I like to think there's a lot more than any of the demigods ever realized, so there's a lot on here. There was the next chapter and thank you. :D

BYE!