p class="MsoNormal"strongA/N: Short chapter for now, I'm still mapping the chapters out right now. The next ones will be longer, leave reviews and enjoy./strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"The monster flew back, whistling through the wind, landing hard and rolling to a stop headfirst into a tree. I don't know if he was dead or not, but he wasn't moving for now. I turned back to the di Angelo's and smiled./p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, that was cool huh? Where did Dr. Thor- "my words were interrupted as I was hit in back in of the head roughly and tumbled forward from the heavy impact. I groaned and opened my eyes, looking around for what hit me. It was a spike, the same as the one I found lodged in the door in the main hall. I looked back over to the monster, and saw he was getting to his feet, using the support of the tree./p
p class="MsoNormal""Packing quite a punch there but don't think that little hit can take out someone like me Mr. Beauvoir. I've been fighting half-bloods for over 2500 years. What makes you think that you, not even a half-blood, can hurt me?" The monster said, brushing the dust off his crumpled suit and walked towards the di Angelo siblings. It was the same suit Dr. Thorn had been wearing previously and I connected the dots that somehow Dr. Thorn had turned into this freak of a creature. He wanted them, for what I had no idea. But he wasn't going to touch a hair on their heads if I could help it./p
p class="MsoNormal"I also got to my feet, ready to face the monster head on. No blood was flowing from where I was hit, which should've broken through my skin. The monster smiled, a horrid thing to see, and gestured for me to attack him. I growled. Time to take this fucker out. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanI settled into a fighting stance and prepared to attack him. Before I could make a move, span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; background: white;"a piercing sound filled the dense and freezing woods around us. I'd heard it a few times on TV. It was the call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods./spanspan style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"br /br /span style="background: white;"The manticore froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only the swirl of snow and wind and the chopping of the helicopter blades./spanbr /br /span style="background: white;""No," the manticore said. "It cannot be—"/spanbr /br /span style="background: white;"His sentence was cut short when something shot past me like a streak of moonlight. A faintly glowing silver arrow sprouted from the monster's shoulder. He staggered back a step, growling in pain. Then he ran forward and dove towards the di Angelo siblings, but I wasn't going to have that. I jumped and rammed into him midair, throwing him off course and closer to the edge of the clearing. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; background: white;"I recovered fast, jumping on top and pinning him down, landing punch after punch on the monster's hideous face. He struggled to fend off my attacks, before he bucked to throw me off. He bounced up, backpedaling, with his face all sorts of mangled from my punches. "How are you so stro-"His voice was cut off by an arrow sprouting from his shoulder./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"He staggered backward, wailing in agony./p
p class="MsoNormal""Curse you!" Thorn cried. He unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. It almost looked like the arrows had intercepted the thorns in midair and sliced them in two, but my eyes must've been playing tricks on me. No one, not even Apollo's kids at camp, could shoot with that much accuracy./p
p class="MsoNormal"The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. I tried to swipe at him with my sword, but he wasn't as injured as he looked. He dodged my attack and slammed his tail into my shield, knocking me aside./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen, like me. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions./p
p class="MsoNormal""The Hunters!" the blonde girl gripping a baseball cap cried out./p
p class="MsoNormal"A few feet away, the punk girl that had a spear and shield started muttering./p
p class="MsoNormal"One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. She was tall and graceful with coppery colored skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so she looked like some kind of Persian princess. "Permission to kill, my lady?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I couldn't tell who she was talking to, because she kept her eyes on the manticore./p
p class="MsoNormal"The monster wailed. "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Not so," another girl said. This one was a little younger than me, maybe twelve or thirteen. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was so beautiful it made me catch my breath, but her expression was stern and dangerous. "The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at the older girl with the circlet. "Zoe, permission granted."/p
p class="MsoNormal"The manticore growled. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"He leapt towards the di Angelos, but Thalia tried to intercept them. Her heart was in the right place but she only managed to push him closer to the group of three. He flailed and managed to grab both Annabeth and Bianca who were backing up. As soon as he had his hands on them, he disappeared into what I could only describe as a rift in space, that closed right behind him./p
p class="MsoNormal"The hunters advanced on us. I watched as they approached, ready to do any sort of fighting I could against these machine gun arrow wielding girls. The one called Zoe stopped when she saw the punk girl, and basically snarled at her./p
p class="MsoNormal"She left her alone as she scanned the rest of us. I was standing a little further away from the rest of them, considering I didn't know anyone except Nico who was on the other side of the group./p
p class="MsoNormal""The manticore escaped with two half-bloods milady, with 3 half-bloods, a satyr, and someone I cannot determine lineage."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Some of Chiron's campers, I see." A younger girl with auburn hair said./p
p class="MsoNormal"The guy with the green eyes and black hair started yelling about rescuing Anna Beach, whatever that was. I made my way over to Nico. He looked up at me, tears streaming through his eyes./p
p class="MsoNormal""Percy, what happened to Bianca?" His question and puppy dog eyes filled me with dread. I hugged him. "I don't know Nico, I don't understand all this either. Let's just wait and see if we can go find her with these people."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I turned back to see the hunter Zoe had approached us. She was staring at me, no emotion in her face./p
p class="MsoNormal""You look familiar boy, where do I know you from?" I frowned at that./p
p class="MsoNormal""I couldn't tell you; I've never seen you or anybody here before tonight."/p
p class="MsoNormal"She frowned at me, but then turned to Nico. Her eyes softened just a little bit, seeing the state in which he was. "Who are your parents? Do you know what's going on?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Nico almost started crying again. "I'm an orphan, and that guy just took my sister away."/p
p class="MsoNormal"The two kids with black hair and the half goat guy walked up to us./p
p class="MsoNormal""You're a demigod kiddo." The punk girl said, matter of fact-ly. Nico looked up from his tear-soaked hands./p
p class="MsoNormal""What do you mean?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""You are a half-blood." Zoe said, her thick old timey accent sounded like she was reading straight from a Shakespeare novel. "One of thy parents was mortal, the other was an Olympian."/p
p class="MsoNormal""An Olympian… athlete?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""No," Zoe said. "One of the Greek gods."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Cool!" said Nico. Excitedly, seeming to forget all about his lost sister in an instant. "Who's my parent? Do I have cool powers like the old heroes? Does Zeus really have lightning bolts that do six hundred damage?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"He continued to ask questions, most of them stemming from the Mythomagic game he played religiously. I wonder if that is why he was so interested in the game. He was a demigod or something. Wait, was I not one? They said I smelled different than other half-bloods did. Why was I taking this so easily and believing the words these strangers said to me?/p
p class="MsoNormal""Hold on, how do we know any of this is real? No offense, but like they didn't exist like 5 hours ago to us." I asked, suddenly skeptical of this whole thing. I mean a bunch of girls running around in silver coats with bows and arrows and wolves and demigods of ancient times being real and not part of the myths? Seemed like a bit of a stretch for me./p
p class="MsoNormal""Boy, I am a goddess that contains power you could never dream of." The auburn, small haired girl said, while her eyes suddenly started glowing a bright white. I gulped. Well that was pretty convincing./p
p class="MsoNormal""So how do we know if we're children of gods and do they give us any powers?" I asked towards her, after taking a few steps away from her./p
p class="MsoNormal"She seemed satisfied that I backed away, and put her hand on her hip and got lost in thought./p
p class="MsoNormal"Zoe decided to answer for her. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Your powers depend on thou heritage. Some are stronger than others, just like the gods. We do not knoweth your lineage, but this demigod reeks of death. You can even see it around him." She pointed towards Nico's feet./p
p class="MsoNormal"The weeds around his feet were very slowly going yellow with decay. Hmm, so Nico was a child of someone related to death? Hades? Thanatos?/p
p class="MsoNormal"Zoe almost read my mind. "He might be a child of Hades, but that would make him a child of the big three, which is not allowed. He could belong to any of the underworld gods."/p
p class="MsoNormal"So, if Nico and Bianca were the children of gods, what exactly was I? Everyone said I wasn't one./p
p class="MsoNormal"Almost as if she was reading my mind, the goddess of the moon interrupted my thoughts./p
p class="MsoNormal""But you, emboy/em, are a different altogether. Your aura is of something I have never seen before. It glows brighter than a demigod, but it's not golden or silver like an immortals. What exactly are you?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I shrugged. "Human was my best guess until an hour ago." I didn't have an answer for her./p
p class="MsoNormal"She frowned at me, staring so hard I felt she was trying to see in between my cells. "Well, no matter. I will bring you to Olympus after we drop these demigods at their camp. Zeus has called a meeting."/p
p class="MsoNormal"The hunters groaned. It seems they were not fond of this camp./p
p class="MsoNormal""Everyone, grab someone's hand and close your eyes. This might be disorienting for those new to it. When you throw up, aim it away from me."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Everyone grabbed someone's hand, with me in between Nico and Grover, and my vision flared white. It felt like my whole body was vibrating so fast that molecules were losing their form and I was fading from existence. As soon as it started it was over, thank the lor- well I guess thank the gods now./p
p class="MsoNormal"I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it. The world was spinning, and I felt like a goddamn Beyblade. The feeling soon vanished but not before I stumbled backwards and landed on my ass./p
p class="MsoNormal"As I recovered, I noticed we were at some sort of summer camp, but it wasn't exactly all the fun and games that I've seen in those movies. But no, these fucking kids were walking around with swords and bows and goddamn wands and shit. I liked it already./p
p class="MsoNormal"I could get used to this. But the Fates, curse their fucked souls, had different plans for me./p
p class="MsoNormal"The monster flew back, whistling through the wind, landing hard and rolling to a stop headfirst into a tree. I don't know if he was dead or not, but he wasn't moving for now. I turned back to the di Angelo's and smiled./p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, that was cool huh? Where did Dr. Thor- "my words were interrupted as I was hit in back in of the head roughly and tumbled forward from the heavy impact. I groaned and opened my eyes, looking around for what hit me. It was a spike, the same as the one I found lodged in the door in the main hall. I looked back over to the monster, and saw he was getting to his feet, using the support of the tree./p
p class="MsoNormal""Packing quite a punch there but don't think that little hit can take out someone like me Mr. Beauvoir. I've been fighting half-bloods for over 2500 years. What makes you think that you, not even a half-blood, can hurt me?" The monster said, brushing the dust off his crumpled suit and walked towards the di Angelo siblings. It was the same suit Dr. Thorn had been wearing previously and I connected the dots that somehow Dr. Thorn had turned into this freak of a creature. He wanted them, for what I had no idea. But he wasn't going to touch a hair on their heads if I could help it./p
p class="MsoNormal"I also got to my feet, ready to face the monster head on. No blood was flowing from where I was hit, which should've broken through my skin. The monster smiled, a horrid thing to see, and gestured for me to attack him. I growled. Time to take this fucker out. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanI settled into a fighting stance and prepared to attack him. Before I could make a move, span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; background: white;"a piercing sound filled the dense and freezing woods around us. I'd heard it a few times on TV. It was the call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods./spanspan style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"br /br /span style="background: white;"The manticore froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only the swirl of snow and wind and the chopping of the helicopter blades./spanbr /br /span style="background: white;""No," the manticore said. "It cannot be—"/spanbr /br /span style="background: white;"His sentence was cut short when something shot past me like a streak of moonlight. A faintly glowing silver arrow sprouted from the monster's shoulder. He staggered back a step, growling in pain. Then he ran forward and dove towards the di Angelo siblings, but I wasn't going to have that. I jumped and rammed into him midair, throwing him off course and closer to the edge of the clearing. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; background: white;"I recovered fast, jumping on top and pinning him down, landing punch after punch on the monster's hideous face. He struggled to fend off my attacks, before he bucked to throw me off. He bounced up, backpedaling, with his face all sorts of mangled from my punches. "How are you so stro-"His voice was cut off by an arrow sprouting from his shoulder./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"He staggered backward, wailing in agony./p
p class="MsoNormal""Curse you!" Thorn cried. He unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. It almost looked like the arrows had intercepted the thorns in midair and sliced them in two, but my eyes must've been playing tricks on me. No one, not even Apollo's kids at camp, could shoot with that much accuracy./p
p class="MsoNormal"The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. I tried to swipe at him with my sword, but he wasn't as injured as he looked. He dodged my attack and slammed his tail into my shield, knocking me aside./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen, like me. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions./p
p class="MsoNormal""The Hunters!" the blonde girl gripping a baseball cap cried out./p
p class="MsoNormal"A few feet away, the punk girl that had a spear and shield started muttering./p
p class="MsoNormal"One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. She was tall and graceful with coppery colored skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so she looked like some kind of Persian princess. "Permission to kill, my lady?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I couldn't tell who she was talking to, because she kept her eyes on the manticore./p
p class="MsoNormal"The monster wailed. "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Not so," another girl said. This one was a little younger than me, maybe twelve or thirteen. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was so beautiful it made me catch my breath, but her expression was stern and dangerous. "The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at the older girl with the circlet. "Zoe, permission granted."/p
p class="MsoNormal"The manticore growled. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"He leapt towards the di Angelos, but Thalia tried to intercept them. Her heart was in the right place but she only managed to push him closer to the group of three. He flailed and managed to grab both Annabeth and Bianca who were backing up. As soon as he had his hands on them, he disappeared into what I could only describe as a rift in space, that closed right behind him./p
p class="MsoNormal"The hunters advanced on us. I watched as they approached, ready to do any sort of fighting I could against these machine gun arrow wielding girls. The one called Zoe stopped when she saw the punk girl, and basically snarled at her./p
p class="MsoNormal"She left her alone as she scanned the rest of us. I was standing a little further away from the rest of them, considering I didn't know anyone except Nico who was on the other side of the group./p
p class="MsoNormal""The manticore escaped with two half-bloods milady, with 3 half-bloods, a satyr, and someone I cannot determine lineage."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Some of Chiron's campers, I see." A younger girl with auburn hair said./p
p class="MsoNormal"The guy with the green eyes and black hair started yelling about rescuing Anna Beach, whatever that was. I made my way over to Nico. He looked up at me, tears streaming through his eyes./p
p class="MsoNormal""Percy, what happened to Bianca?" His question and puppy dog eyes filled me with dread. I hugged him. "I don't know Nico, I don't understand all this either. Let's just wait and see if we can go find her with these people."/p
p class="MsoNormal"I turned back to see the hunter Zoe had approached us. She was staring at me, no emotion in her face./p
p class="MsoNormal""You look familiar boy, where do I know you from?" I frowned at that./p
p class="MsoNormal""I couldn't tell you; I've never seen you or anybody here before tonight."/p
p class="MsoNormal"She frowned at me, but then turned to Nico. Her eyes softened just a little bit, seeing the state in which he was. "Who are your parents? Do you know what's going on?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Nico almost started crying again. "I'm an orphan, and that guy just took my sister away."/p
p class="MsoNormal"The two kids with black hair and the half goat guy walked up to us./p
p class="MsoNormal""You're a demigod kiddo." The punk girl said, matter of fact-ly. Nico looked up from his tear-soaked hands./p
p class="MsoNormal""What do you mean?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""You are a half-blood." Zoe said, her thick old timey accent sounded like she was reading straight from a Shakespeare novel. "One of thy parents was mortal, the other was an Olympian."/p
p class="MsoNormal""An Olympian… athlete?"/p
p class="MsoNormal""No," Zoe said. "One of the Greek gods."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Cool!" said Nico. Excitedly, seeming to forget all about his lost sister in an instant. "Who's my parent? Do I have cool powers like the old heroes? Does Zeus really have lightning bolts that do six hundred damage?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"He continued to ask questions, most of them stemming from the Mythomagic game he played religiously. I wonder if that is why he was so interested in the game. He was a demigod or something. Wait, was I not one? They said I smelled different than other half-bloods did. Why was I taking this so easily and believing the words these strangers said to me?/p
p class="MsoNormal""Hold on, how do we know any of this is real? No offense, but like they didn't exist like 5 hours ago to us." I asked, suddenly skeptical of this whole thing. I mean a bunch of girls running around in silver coats with bows and arrows and wolves and demigods of ancient times being real and not part of the myths? Seemed like a bit of a stretch for me./p
p class="MsoNormal""Boy, I am a goddess that contains power you could never dream of." The auburn, small haired girl said, while her eyes suddenly started glowing a bright white. I gulped. Well that was pretty convincing./p
p class="MsoNormal""So how do we know if we're children of gods and do they give us any powers?" I asked towards her, after taking a few steps away from her./p
p class="MsoNormal"She seemed satisfied that I backed away, and put her hand on her hip and got lost in thought./p
p class="MsoNormal"Zoe decided to answer for her. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Your powers depend on thou heritage. Some are stronger than others, just like the gods. We do not knoweth your lineage, but this demigod reeks of death. You can even see it around him." She pointed towards Nico's feet./p
p class="MsoNormal"The weeds around his feet were very slowly going yellow with decay. Hmm, so Nico was a child of someone related to death? Hades? Thanatos?/p
p class="MsoNormal"Zoe almost read my mind. "He might be a child of Hades, but that would make him a child of the big three, which is not allowed. He could belong to any of the underworld gods."/p
p class="MsoNormal"So, if Nico and Bianca were the children of gods, what exactly was I? Everyone said I wasn't one./p
p class="MsoNormal"Almost as if she was reading my mind, the goddess of the moon interrupted my thoughts./p
p class="MsoNormal""But you, emboy/em, are a different altogether. Your aura is of something I have never seen before. It glows brighter than a demigod, but it's not golden or silver like an immortals. What exactly are you?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"I shrugged. "Human was my best guess until an hour ago." I didn't have an answer for her./p
p class="MsoNormal"She frowned at me, staring so hard I felt she was trying to see in between my cells. "Well, no matter. I will bring you to Olympus after we drop these demigods at their camp. Zeus has called a meeting."/p
p class="MsoNormal"The hunters groaned. It seems they were not fond of this camp./p
p class="MsoNormal""Everyone, grab someone's hand and close your eyes. This might be disorienting for those new to it. When you throw up, aim it away from me."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Everyone grabbed someone's hand, with me in between Nico and Grover, and my vision flared white. It felt like my whole body was vibrating so fast that molecules were losing their form and I was fading from existence. As soon as it started it was over, thank the lor- well I guess thank the gods now./p
p class="MsoNormal"I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it. The world was spinning, and I felt like a goddamn Beyblade. The feeling soon vanished but not before I stumbled backwards and landed on my ass./p
p class="MsoNormal"As I recovered, I noticed we were at some sort of summer camp, but it wasn't exactly all the fun and games that I've seen in those movies. But no, these fucking kids were walking around with swords and bows and goddamn wands and shit. I liked it already./p
p class="MsoNormal"I could get used to this. But the Fates, curse their fucked souls, had different plans for me./p