"Wakey wakey, sweetie."
Percy groaned and tried to hide under the blanket. "Too bright." He groans.
Seriously, the sunlight practically penetrates through his eyelids.
"No can't do, cuz. Come on. You gotta assure your kiddo that you're alive. They don't take my words and I am the God of Healing!"
…what?
Percy opens his eyes and squinted at the blonde above him. Said blonde grinned, like those of Cabin 7, but dial up by eleven.
"You're good to go." He told Percy. "Manticore poison is tricky, but fortunately you have been building up some Poison resistance so the damage is not as bad as I thought. Mind telling me what stung you before?"
"…Chimera snake tail… and scorpion pit."
"…ahaha… that explains it." He helped Percy to sit up. Did someone call an Ambulance? And why this place smells like sunshine with a mix of medicine? "Well. I think you're good enough for visitors."
He open the Ambulance backdoor and Percy almost doubled over when a black blur smashed against him.
"You're alive!"
Percy coughed, with the blonde went to admonish Nico.
Bianca enters the Ambulance, smiling when she saw Percy is awake and well, but her posture is stiff and hesitating. Percy frowned at that.
"What it is?"
"I…" She glanced behind, with one of the silver-dressed girls in parka glaring inside, "I think you were called?"
"Whoa. Hold on!" Percy's impromptu doctor raised a hand like a referee declaring a time out. "Arty want to talk? Like, now now? What is she thinking? This guy here literally just wakes up after flushing out the poison from his system! Don't get me started with how you girls call me instead of treating him yourselves!"
"This is of utmost importance, Lord Apollo." The silver girl stated. "We need this… boy…" and hoo-boy, Percy has C.C flashback here. They practically speak in the same tone. Spat out the word boy as if it were a disease. "testament of what happened."
Percy exchanged looks with the di Angelo siblings.
Well.
"Okay." He slowly pried Nico off of him and swung his legs off the bed. "Lead the way, miss."
The sooner it resolves, the sooner he can take them to the Camp. Things had gone dangerous. This is the first time he did not last a full semester, or at least, reach the School Trip, before 'withdrawing' from school altogether.
The blonde doctor—Apollo?—sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Fine. But I'll be coming and you can't stop me."
"Me too!"
The girl looks ready to pop a blood vessel, and stiffly nodded.
Percy has trouble wrapping his head that a little girl that sits like a queen inside the biggest, most decorative tent while petting a silver deer, was the goddess Artemis. He means, he had seen Dionysus and Ares. And all Big Three. Also, did Apollo the Sun God just play doctor for him? But this is just…
He still took seat across the goddess when prompted, with Nico and Bianca taking his right and left, respectively. Apollo hummed and easily summon a chair made of solid gold that stood out from the white and silver theme this tent seems to adopt. An act that makes Nico goes "Whoah".
Oh, you sweet summer child.
"Are you surprised by my age?" the goddess—Artemis, asked.
"Uh… yes?" Percy blinked. "Um, you and A—Lord Apollo are twins, aren't you?" Unless myths were mistaken. "But why do you two are so… different, age-wise? Aren't you supposed to be, well, the older twin?"
Apollo looks put out while Artemis smiling slightly.
"Hey!"
"Oh, please do ignore my baby brother." He can tell Artemis is having fun. "I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."
"…sorry? Go astray?"
"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, and insecure. Forget themselves."
"There's nothing wrong with growing up. Everyone had to grow at some point." Apollo grumbles. Still miffed at being called baby brother. "And just because they choose to fall in love, doesn't means they forget themselves. They are still themselves."
"You sound like Aphrodite." Scoffed Artemis.
"Did not. I just want you to stop poaching my daughters. The ones that join your hunt don't even acknowledge me as their father just because I am a male!"
"You flirt with my huntress."
"I never do double dipping. That form of incest is squick. I am not Father. And flirting is just a form of praise."
Percy coughed before this sibling banter can continue for… well, for how long it will take until one side admit defeat.
"Uh, so, what did you want me for?" He tried to steer back the discussion to its original purpose.
The twin blinked at him as if forgetting they had an audience (and Percy can see the resemblance).
"Ah yes." Artemis composed herself. "Perseus Jackson, I've asked you here so that you might tell me more of the manticore. Bianca has reported some of the… mmm, disturbing things the monster said. But she may not have understood them. I'd like to hear them from you."
A part of Percy was annoyed that Artemis talk as if Bianca is incapable of giving testimony. It reminds him of his first year as a demigod. Particularly the Lightning Thief Incident, where his opinion did not matter.
"He said about meeting his employees. Talking as if we were some cargo of goods. Probably annoyed with a sheer monster attack I intercept throughout the semester." Seriously. The number of monster attacks he had throughout the semester is crazy. He literally cannot go beyond three days without a monster attack. And he had to make sure no one is hurt. Or see the action.
What is this? Overcompensation for last year's peaceful school year?
"He also mentions something about the General will explain things to me," which, worries me. Does Monster have ranks? Wtf? "Then something about the Great Pot Stir—" "the Great Stirring" "Yes, that, and about 'the most important monster of all, the one that shall bring the fall of Olympus' or something along that line."
Percy didn't know what his expression is like, but the implication is terrifying.
The twins also don't look good, what with them turning slightly pale as they had a mental debate.
"I am afraid this is what it sounds like." Artemis traced the pattern of her bow—when did she grab it? Things are stirring that I have not hunted in millennia. Prey so old I have nearly forgotten."
"Maybe that was just a bluff." Apollo offered, a weak smile on his lips. "I mean. What kind of dumbass spills their plan to the enemy? Even for a monster, that was just dumb."
"No. He was not. You know this better than anyone, Apollo. I've been too slow to see the signs. I must hunt this monster."
The girl in circlet looks ready to cry, but nodded her head. "We will leave right away, my lady."
"No, Zoë. I must do this alone. This task is too dangerous even for the Hunters."
"What about me?" Apollo interjects. "I'm a god. It cannot be too dangerous for me, can it?"
"Apollo."
"No." The god shook his head. "I'm coming. Like hell I let you go into a dangerous mission alone. What if something goes wrong?"
"I don't like agreeing with males, but Lord Apollo is correct. At least take me with you."
Artemis raised her hands.
"No means no." She spoke firmly, leaving no room for argument. "I must go hunt this monster alone. I will be back with it by the time the Winter Solstice rolls in. In the meantime, Perseus, Zoë, I want to take the hunters to the Camp Half-Blood and stay there until I return. Brother, assist them."
"What?" Zoë blurted out. "But, Artemis, we hate that place. The last time we stayed there—"
"Yes, I know," Artemis said. "But I'm sure Dionysus will not hold a grudge just because of a little, ah, misunderstanding. It's your right to use Cabin Eight whenever you are in need. Besides, I hear they rebuilt the cabins you burned down."
Zoë muttered something about foolish campers.
Percy blinked in disbelief. Did he hear it right? Burned down Cabin?
Nico tugged his sleeve and ask, "What they are talking about?"
"I don't know."
"And now there is one last decision to make." Artemis turned to Bianca. "Have you made up your mind, my girl?"
Bianca hesitated. "I'm still thinking about it."
"Wait," I said. "Thinking about what?"
"They… they've invited me to join the Hunt."
So that's why she looks so conflicted!
"Cool" Nico exclaimed. "Are we joining the hunt then?"
"No." Zoë denied. "Only your sister. Boys have no place in the Hunt."
His smile turned into a frown. "But then…"
Percy's head spun. Bianca is considering joining the Huntress? What about Nico then? She cannot be that heartless to leave her brother alone, right?
"Let me get some facts straight. What, exactly, the Hunt is? Aside from all-female group thingy."
Artemis concedes the question. "My Hunters are my maidservants, my companions, my sisters-in-arms. They follow me to adventures, hunting monsters across the state. They are girls of all kinds of heritage, be it half-bloods, nymphs, or even mortals, who swore their loyalty to me, to forswear romantic love forever. To never grow up, never get married. To be a maiden eternally. Once they swear loyalty to me, they are indeed immortal… unless they fall in battle, which is unlikely. Or break their oath."
"Immortal." Percy's mind caught that particular world. "So they just, stop growing? Eternally middle schooler, forever?"
"Yes."
"Essentially, if Bianca agrees, she would stay forever twelve, even fifty years later, while her brother is an old geezer with white hair?" Percy shook his head. "That… that almost like the Lotus Casino. The world goes on its own but she—you—whatever—stay the same? Out of time."
He feels the siblings stiffen beside him.
Huh.
Wonder why.
"I think." Bianca suddenly has a death grip on Percy's arm. "I choose the camp."
Artemis has a sad pitying look in her eyes, while Zoë glared at Percy—as if he was the source of all of her problems.
"A pity then. You would've made wonderful sister-in-arm." She sighed. "But if you change your mind, you can ask Zoë what you must do."
Turning to Apollo, she told him, "Deliver my girls and the demigods safely. And do not flirt with my hunters."
Apollo looks at her.
"You sure I cannot come…?"
"Yes brother, I am very sure. I must do this alone."
He sighed. His brightness dimmed ever so slightly. Like the sun being covered in clouds. "Promise you will return by the Winter Solstice."
"I promise."
"Well," Apollo turned to them with a smile that Percy could spot as fake a miles away, "you hear my sis. Next stop: Camp Half-Blood!"
That sounds good but one problem
"Uh. Question," Percy raised his hand. "How we are gonna fit into an Ambulance? Pretty sure it can only take half of us, at most, if we squished together."
He cannot believe the Sun Chariot is an Ambulance of all things.
Apollo grins. "Good question." He took out the car keys and beeped the security alarm button. In bright light, the car transforms into those small buses schools use to deliver players to basketball games.
"Ta da!"
Oh, cool.
Though Percy could've sworn for a moment that he saw the vehicle take the appearance of a golden, well-decorated chariot drawn by four radiant horses with fiery, golden manes.
He did remember Helios was depicted of rode a chariot drawn by four horses.
Does Apollo have a different chariot or was it the same Sun chariot?
Maybe he should start connecting with his immortal sister. Rhode is married to Helios, right?
