Thalia was very, very unhappy with Percy.
She, Annabeth, and Grover were doing their best to follow the trail he'd left behind in the snow. He was clearly bleeding heavily, and shortly out of the door he'd apparently been knocked out because there were no longer footsteps but rather drag marks in the snowpack. She was pissed mostly because he'd rushed off so fast and given her no choice but to get the others - and now he was another person they'd have to take care of in addition to the di Angelos.
One of the things Chiron had emphasized specifically before they set out on this mini-quest was that they needed to stick together. They didn't know why Grover had sent the distress signal exactly, only that he had - and there was therefore a significant chance of extreme danger. Far too many demigods had charged in to dangerous situations alone and gotten themselves killed for it, even when their questmates or companions were just moments away and could have been very helpful. Percy, clearly, hadn't been listening to that advice. Now he was useless, and worse, actively making their life more difficult by giving the monster another bargaining chip - and giving Thalia and Annabeth another person to rescue.
Thalia pulled out her spear and activated Aegis, advancing cautiously as they followed Percy's trail through the forest, grateful for the red blood which made it easy to pick out. Annabeth and Grover crouched and followed behind her, both less prepared for an outright fight than she was. Percy's blood trail was fading. He'd probably woken up and also taken some ambrosia, given the shift in the trail in the snow. However, while he now left footprints instead of drag marks, it still didn't look like he was doing very well. His footsteps were uneven and swaying, still marked with a blood trail. Suddenly Grover gasped.
"He's awake, and in a lot of pain. Uh, they're by a cliff… Northeast. There!" he whispered, the empathy link helping him pinpoint Percy's location - but by the time he'd found them, Thalia had noticed the mortal helicopter approaching the bluff and figured out the same thing. She started sprinting towards the monster - she could now tell that it was a manticore, and worse, that it had the di Angelos firmly in its grasp. Percy was stumbling forwards to follow, Tyson's shield open on his arm but Riptide not visible.
Behind her, Annabeth pulled on her invisibility cap and sprinted after Thalia. Grover followed rather less eagerly but quickly gained time on them - it was quite hard to cover ground in this weather and terrain, and his goat hooves allowed him to nimbly climb towards the manticore and his captives.
Meanwhile, Percy was struggling to stand, clearly in significant pain and with blood streaming from a nasty cut along his chin, as well as dripping from his shoulder. Despite this, he staggered forwards and caught the manticore by surprise, slashing at one foreleg and forcing it to release the captive demigods. Then he got into into a defensive stance and put himself between Thorn and the di Angelos, calling over his shoulder to tell them to stay behind him. Thorn cackled and whipped another spike towards Percy, who was ready this time and smacked it aside with his shield. Thalia knew Percy preferred dodging if he could, but here that would risk the spike skewering one of the half-bloods they'd been sent to protect, which would be bad, to say the least. As Thorn began stalking towards the siblings and their beleaguered protector, Thalia knew she had to act fast.
"Hey, Frenchy!" She roared.
Thorn whirled around and was met with the strongest bolt of lightning Thalia could muster. It was a frightening bolt of blue light, jagged and phosphor-smelling, and it slammed into the manticore's flank. He staggered backwards, a large spot of singed hair smoldering just behind his left shoulder, and he mewled almost like a kitten for a second. The mortals in the helicopter flared upwards. She didn't know what they were seeing but they couldn't be happy about the weather. Any mistakes would have been lethal for them.
The storm raged on around them. Snow was blowing almost horizontally as it fell, a thick white cloud of heavy wet flakes. If she hadn't been so pumped full of adrenaline, Thalia would have found it beautiful - and fucking cold. As it was, she had to focus more on taking advantage of the opening her lightning had created.
While the manticore recovered, Thalia charged - but so did Percy, who seemed to be recovering somewhat. As she covered the thirty yards between her and the group, Percy slashed at the manticore's tail, hoping to sever it and remove the range advantage it gave the monster. Then Thalia arrived and thrust her spear repeatedly, chasing weak spots and occupying Thorn as much as she could to protect Percy and the di Angelos from his attention. She stabbed for his face, but he batted her spear to the side and swiped with a lion's paw at her chest.
His claws skittered off Aegis. Thalia's knees nearly buckled under the force of the blow and she slid several feet in the snow, but she shifted her grip and thrust underneath the shield at the now-exposed flesh of his flank where her bolt had struck him. She caught him glancingly, and as he skittered away, she bellowed and pressed home the advantage, unintentionally putting herself closer to the cliff as she chased the vulnerability. The manticore fell back under her thrusting attacks. She lunged to one side, pinching him back between her and Percy, and catching another glancing blow across his ribcage. Fortunately she kept her spear wicked sharp, and even the glancing blow she struck opened a five-inch gash along the beast's side.
Grover and Annabeth appeared behind Percy, leading Nico and Bianca to safety as quickly as they could. The helicopter spun helplessly above, fighting the massive winds rolling in off the coast and blowing up the cliff face. Unwittingly, as she circled the monster who in turn circled Percy, she was creating a line of the three of them along the cliff's edge.
Then everything went wrong.
A bugle call sounded from somewhere in the forest further down the bluff, and Thalia couldn't help it - she turned to look. In this momentary lapse, Thorn spun, lashing out at Percy and sending him spinning into the snowbank, perilously close to being sent off the cliff and dashed upon the rocks below. The manticore continued his spin and lashed out with what remained of his tail to smack Thalia in the same direction, skittering and falling onto her stomach as she lost her balance in the foot-deep snow.
Holy shit, they were high up. Suddenly it registered with Thalia as she lay on her stomach, head dangling over a small drop just feet from the cliff, that she was more than two hundred feet above sea level and atop a very slippery, snow-covered and uncertain cliff face. Below raged the realm of her uncle, who was not likely to be terribly sympathetic about the intrusion onto his domain. Shit.
Thalia froze, and the mortal helicopter dipped lower, a few experimental gunshots plunging into the snow by her.
Fortunately for her, Thorn was looking for the source of the bugle call. "Curse you Hunters!" he roared, until a silver arrow sprouted from his left foreleg and his roar choked itself in shock. He staggered back, twisting around as another appeared in his hock. Then, he caught sight of Percy, who was kneeling and supporting himself with his shield as he clutched at broken ribs.
Thorn took one staggering step forwards, then another. More arrows took flight towards the manticore, but fell short as he made his way incessantly towards the son of the sea god fighting to his feet. Thalia was locked in place, eyes flickering between the monster approaching her friend and the cliff face which could drop out from beneath her at any moment. The Hunters were beginning to stream out of the forest in the hopes of closing the distance, getting a clearer shot where they didn't risk missing and putting an arrow into Thalia or the di Angelos, who despite the help of Grover and Annabeth were still perilously close to the fighting. Worse, they were still being pinned down behind some rocks by the helicopter's gunfire.
"Those blasted Hunters… when the Great Stirring finishes, when the General arrives…" Thorn panted, and Thalia wished she could bring herself to speak. The cliff face below her taunted her. Percy staggered to his feet and screamed her name, as though he were begging her to move, but she couldn't. She felt like she'd already fallen off the cliff. Her stomach dropped out from under her. Her heart pounded in her throat and she looked back up at Percy, whose arms barely moved, whose blood covered practically the entire bluff - and she leapt into action, lunging to her feet in front of him and bringing up Aegis just in time to protect both of them from a monstrous slash of the manticore's claws. The Hunters were fanning out to surround the fight even as it unfolded.
"We shall bring Olympus to its knees, with or without those brats," Thorn finished.
"Hunters! Fire!"
Thalia blanched as more than a dozen arrows loosed themselves directly at her, and she dove to the side. Percy had no such ability, given his injuries, and simply crumpled downwards. Thorn did the same, avoiding most of the arrows, and gripped Percy by the shoulders, backhanding him once across the face and knocking him out completely.
"You're not who I came here for, but I'll take you if I must!" Thorn shouted at the demigod, heaving him to his feet.
Suddenly Annabeth gave a great cry and launched herself onto the back of the manticore, wrapping her arms around his throat and pulling him away from Percy's crippled form. Another order was given to the Hunters to fire, but Thalia couldn't let them shoot Annabeth. She screamed incoherently and a blast of electricity, more powerful even than the one she had opened the fight with, rocketed across the sky and leapt from arrow to arrow, incinerating them in midair. The manticore staggered, swiping at his back feebly in an attempt to remove Annabeth, and spun around - right into another arrow, this one from Artemis herself. As it plunged through his chest, he staggered backwards off the cliff.
"NO!" Thalia screamed, launching herself to the edge of the cliff and peering over it, willing the wind to hold her steady on the edge. She was too late - the manticore and her best friend were already gone. She couldn't see anything except frothing surf crushing the rocky shoreline and tears filling her eyes.
Annabeth was gone. Perhaps forever.
She whirled around and stormed towards the huntresses, only to find herself staring down the Goddess of the Hunt herself, a twenty-something girl with developed muscles and silver fire in her eyes. "Calm yourself, maiden," urged the goddess softly, "Your friend may yet survive."
Thalia really, really wanted to punch Artemis.
Instead, she took a deep breath. "How can you tell?"
"Can you not sense it? I can feel magic has been done. I do not know where they have been taken - but she is not dead," Artemis reassured Thalia, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "Now come, we must care for the others."
Thalia blinked. Then, suddenly, a gunshot cracked in her eardrums, and she spun. Hovering above them, some two hundred feet off the cliff, was the black mortal helicopter. A rifle barked as it flung bullets at them, each shot creating a surprising flash in the darkness of the storm. The helicopter blades generated circles of sparks, static electricity building up along the blade's length and discharging at the tips.
The helicopter disappeared into a flock of starlings just as suddenly as it had reappeared. "Mortals are not allowed to witness my hunt," Artemis said coldly, "nor to fire upon my Hunters."
Shaken from her inaction, Thalia dashed to where Percy lay unmoving in the snow. Grover was already kneeling by his side, having rolled him over, and was trickling nectar into the unconscious demigod's mouth. Thalia dropped to her knees on the other side of Percy and dug out her own water bottle of nectar, rubbing some into the gaping wound in his shoulder. She could see the remnants of some ambrosia poultice he had made up quickly - but it was clearly made as an afterthought in a hurry. He hadn't even packed it in particularly well. The shoulder wound knit itself further closed slowly. Grover felt his forehead and swore. "He's had almost too much, he's burning up! No more, Thalia." She nodded stiffly and sat back on her heels. Godly foods were dangerous for the mortal half of demigods. Percy had been reckless. He often was.
Thalia couldn't help but wonder whether he understood the 'demi' part of 'demigod.'
Artemis walked up next to them, silent as a church mouse, and spoke. "He will survive. Bianca, Thalia. Come with me. Laurel, see to the boy's wounds."
Bianca stood stock still, frozen by shock. Beside her, Nico began babbling. "No way! Was that a manticore? Oh my God, they have like five thousand attack power! I even have his figurine!" When Artemis turned her gaze on him, though, he silenced himself, and almost in exchange, Bianca came back into action.
"Who… who are you? What was that?" She stammered out a few more questions, grabbing Nico by the shoulders and pulling him closer as though to protect him.
Artemis paused, uncertain, before stepping forwards. "A better question for you to ask, my dear, might be, 'Who am I?' That was a manticore, sent here to kill or kidnap you. I am the Greek Goddess Artemis, and these are my huntresses. This boy here, he is from a group sent to help you. So... who are you?"
Bianca looked stupefied, and then attempted a laugh. "If this is a prank, this isn't funny. Where did that helicopter go? What do you mean, 'Who am I?'" Thalia tuned out this conversation as it continued, returning her attention to Percy just as his eyes flitted open. He began to force himself upright and winced immediately, collapsing back down. Thalia noticed a whole new wound, a massive gash crossing his abdomen along the line from his right shoulder to his left hip. Clearly the manticore had managed to get a pretty good slash in at some point during the fight when Thalia hadn't been looking.
"Bout time I was the one getting saved," he joked weakly. Thalia smacked him on the shoulder and he crumpled a bit. Instantly, she felt awful, but he grinned weakly up at her. "Hey, it's payback for this summer, I guess. Hey, G-man."
Grover looked on the verge of tears. Instead, he busied himself packing healing herbs into all the various wounds on Percy's body, almost oblivious to everything else. "That was stupid, Percy… you should have waited for us, we could have helped you."
Percy grimaced. Grover was right, of course, but… "I couldn't afford to wait, and let Thorn get away with the kids." It was then that he noticed something. "Hey," he coughed, "Where's Annabeth?"
Grover and Thalia exchanged a glance. Obviously this didn't do anything to reassure Percy, because he hauled himself upwards despite the obvious pain he was in.
"Guys. Where's Annabeth?"
The ground began to shake slightly and Thalia shook her head. "We'll talk about it later, Percy - you need to get these cuts looked at. Annabeth is okay, we think, but she got transported somewhere magically or something. That's what Artemis thinks."
"Artemis? What-" But Percy was cut off when the Huntress, Laurel, arrived with a stretcher. She glanced over Thalia and, satisfied she was unhurt, lifted Percy onto the stretcher. Grover grabbed the other end and the two of them shuffled off after the other Hunters, who were walking towards a mysteriously erected tent camp. Nico bounced along after his sister, who herself was matching strides with Artemis at the head of the group of huntresses.
"Hey, Nico!" Thalia called. "Come over here for a bit." She didn't really know why she did it, except that she knew he was going to be annoying to Artemis and Bianca, and Bianca didn't really need that right now. Nico looked uncertain, but when both Bianca and Artemis gestured for him to go, he trotted over, looking slightly defeated.
"Hey! What's your name? Thalia, right? Are you a goddess or something? I mean, you can summon lightning! And who's the guy? He's pretty badass but also stupid, I mean, why would he just run out like that? And that girl, why did she jump off the cliff? That seems stupid."
Thalia had never been more conflicted about whether or not to strangle someone before. Eventually, she decided on the diplomatic approach.
"Hey, Nico? Why don't you sit down?" She gestured to a spot on a log by the hunter's campfire. "We've got some, uh… big things to talk about."
"Okay." He seemed much calmer now, after only a second or two, and Thalia blinked gratefully at that. "So, uh, what's going on?"
Thalia sighed, and launched into the usual explanation.
Rewrite 6/5/2023. Added about 700 words, fleshed out the fight a little. Nothing big. No major plot changes or anything, just cleaning up. Pushed the story over the 60k word mark with this and last chapter's edits.