Chapter Three

Despite all of the surprising introductions, each god, goddess, and demigod in the room remained glued to their seats, but whether or not it was by force or fear, they didn't have the current brain capacity to decipher.

Void's declaration of his top assassins certainly left Artemis jovial. She was elated to realize that her hunters were reincarnated and were doing something that was similar enough to what she had them doing. The only thing that made her uneasy was their leader. She has an internal sensor for disgusting males, after all, she has been surrounded by them all her life. She aims it towards him and sees his exterior emanating everything she hates about men, but perhaps a good man hid under all of that. Artemis left judgment until later after Percy entered her life all those years ago...

The worst part was the way they stood next to him. Bianca stood to his right, every few seconds her eyes flicked in several directions as if checking for any danger directed at him. Zoe to his left has not relaxed her muscles since entering the room and has not cleaned the blood off her hands, suggesting that she is ready to add more if needed. And neither have even given Artemis a mere look over unless it was to assess her danger to Isaiah.

"Percy, will your Captains be attending this short meeting? Might as well get all the dramatics out now while the Olympians are already about to piss themselves."

"No, they are wrapping up on systems B to K, should arrive soon if they're punctual as usual."

"Hmm, I wonder how they did that so efficiently, care to enlighten everyone buddy?" Void cheekily chimes in.

"Fuck off, your assassins were not needed. Though… they may have expedited the process in a rather strategic way, you can still go fuck yourself." At this, a rather surprising event took place, in which Lady Hestia glared at Percy for his excessive use of profanity, and he actually faltered and bowed his head in apology. Not only did this display the amount of power that Hestia still had over him, but also gave the Olympians hope that the Percy they knew was still there and left a smile on the goddess' face.

"As stated before, I do not wish to see this planet perish. Not a single person in this room would be able to take on my son's top monsters or deities, much less him. As a result, you need help from people who are light years ahead of you in the art of battle and war."

"This is why I am lending the services of two of the most powerful and skilled men in the universe. Given how powerful they are, I'd advise that none of you," multiple occupants of the room look at Zeus and Ares, "even attempt to counter them. Else, you may just not see the end of this war, and not as a result of Tartarus."

"I now open this space for questions because you all seem smothered by the amount of power standing before you. Don't withhold, I'm not gonna be here for long because I'm currently in 4,567 different places right now, but most of my presence is here."

Everyone uneasily looks at each other until Artemis speaks up, with a topic that's not necessarily relevant to the war, "How is it that two of my hunters are alive and in front of me, and presumably are immortal? I understand that you are the creator but are you allowed to bypass the ancient laws?"

"I gave life to every planet and if a life is taken, I have every right to resupply it when needed. These two were specifically reviewed by Isaiah and after all his years of service his recommendations are often adhered to."

"Well, can I ask them a question Lady Chaos?" Artemis nervously asked, worried that she may be wasting the creator's time.

"They may answer to me but they do have a primary authority that you should ask before I give my input," the Creator gestured toward her assassin.

Artemis slightly bristled at that but knew that she had to show respect to someone powerful enough to face Tartarus. "I wanted to know if after the war, or at least after their service they could be returned to me and their sisters? I'm sure that they are great assassins, but the hunt and I would be happier if they came back with me."

The mirthfulness that seemed to surround the assassin suddenly disappeared as he looked at the moon goddess. "While that sounds good for you, I'm gonna have to go with no. They are my assassins and are no longer your hunters. Their contribution to the safety of the universe is invaluable and shouldn't be wasted as hunters on A-1," Void says with clear finality in his voice.

When Artemis heard no she was already angry, when the moon goddess heard "my," she was ready to snap, but when he called her to hunt a waste, she erased the facts that Lady Chaos was present, they needed these deities to help them win the war, and that they were all far more powerful than her. She stood up bow in hand and aimed at the assassin, ready to release the might of her symbol of power.

But sudden shock was able to knock Artemis out of her anger rather quickly. The shock in the speed of her former hunters. The shock in the look of anger and danger in her former hunter's eyes. The very fact that her former hunters drew their weapons, not to support her, but instead to protect their leader. The moon goddess didn't lower her weapon but instead looked at them with a betrayed look, hurt that Zoë of all people would raise her weapon against her old mistress.

"Drop your weapon before we begin firing on you," Bianca says with two pistols similar to her leader aimed directly at Artemis' leg and heart.

"Any threat to Void will be met with lethal action," Zoë says with her longbow aimed directly at her former mistress' head.

"Even though a bow of that caliber wouldn't even pierce his skin, nobody's thinking about that right now," Percy muttered seemingly to himself.

Isaiah stood still and watched with interest, not knowing Artemis as a person, so not knowing what she was going to do in this situation. He felt kind of bad for her, it's not often that a hunter, former or not, would betray their mistress to protect a male.

Apollo knew that if Artemis attacked, she would definitely die, and he knew that would cause him to snap immediately and get killed too. "Artemis please stand down, you cannot possibly make it out of this situation alive. They made their decision, please make a smarter one."

The sun god glared at Zoë for betraying Artemis not only in public but also in an inconsiderate way. How dare she throw thousands of years of companionship away for a man she couldn't have known for more than a few years, given that she died about six years ago.

"Milady please, I do not want to hurt you but I will," Zoë sternly stated with her arrow tight against the bow. Her eyes pleaded better than her words and that finally got through to the moon goddess.

Artemis gained a slightly broken look in her eyes, the same look she had when Percy "died" in her arms almost two years prior, and her bow disappeared as she sat down dejectedly.

"It's nothing personal Artemis, I wouldn't have allowed her to kill you anyway, it would haunt her for the rest of her life. I understand that they were your hunters, but when I said 'my' assassins, I meant that they work under me in the same way that the girl next to your throne works for you. Besides, I could never replace you in Zoë's life, especially all those late-night 'talks' y'all had. Only a woman can truly understand how to work another woman," and at this, Zoë slugged him with her bow. And to everyone's surprise, even Artemis cracked a smile at his antics.

"Are there any other questions and they do not have to pertain to the war, though that should be the, most pressing matter…" Lady Chaos was becoming a little impatient, but she blamed it on her assassin, as she always does.

"Considering that the monsters will arrive in about 3 hours, how can we defeat them if the captains are showing up 'soon'? That means the troops may take even longer to show up, then we will get attacked and the war is-" Annabeth was going to continue to ramble, but Percy got really mad, really fast.

"If you're so fucking worried then why don't you do something about it, hmm? Don't give me a look, you said that my troops are gonna take a while to show up and you're correct as usual, but where did that baseline analysis get you, huh? Maybe instead of sitting there complaining, why do you make use of your resources to ensure the survival of the campers who look up to you to be a hero to save them!" Percy had ice crawling up his arms at that point and realized that he would kill the Olympians and their children so he calmed down, but only enough to make sure he didn't explode.

"That's a great segway into the next steps!" Isaiah says cheerily even though the tension in the room is tangible enough that one can feel it. "We here can handle the monsters right now. Once they are dealt with, we will begin training the campers to be at the same level as entry-level soldiers in Frost's army. This will guarantee that each camper above the age of 12 will be able to take on at least a few hundred monsters single-handedly. As a full group, the army of monsters wouldn't even have a chance."

With a clear air of authority that the room's occupants have only seen on the battlefield, Percy continues, "That does not exclude the children, they will be trained by Chaotica's best medics and be able to jump in and out of a battlefield unscathed. The training of the campers as a whole will be done by my captains. I will be training a select few campers who are of a higher caliber than the others. If you do not understand, pay attention. Each Olympian God and Goddess has the ability to give birth to a child that can grow to be as powerful as them in their prime. Yes, that means stronger than you weaklings are right now, and while not all of you currently have one, the ones that are here will be trained by me and Void personally."

"I will only be taking two because my task is not to train the campers, but instead to train the hunters… well more like Bianca and Zoë will train them because I'm knee-deep in what this planet calls 'paperwork.'" Lady Chaos gives Isaiah a look for getting off-task. "Anyway, the campers will be divided up when the captains arrive. The hunters, including Artemis, will be coming with me along with," he lifts his right arm, and a screen projects from it with a list, "Thalia Grace and Alíra Valentina."

At this Zeus and Aphrodite's heads shot up, surprised that the assassin would be training their strongest child and that the child mentioned was their strongest child. The king wondered if Thalia was the strongest after the passing of her brother Jason Grace or if he'd been underestimating his daughter this whole time. Piper McLean was never one for attention but did feel hurt that her little sister was the strongest and not her.

"Ahm, not to be rude to Alíra, that's my little princess after all, but I thought that Piper was my strongest child. Or is it more that she got more training than the rest of my children?" Aphrodite inquired.

"You're smarter than the people in this room give you credit for, yes it is due to the lack of training, but I can promise you that once she finishes her training, she will make sure that you and your children get the respect that you all deserve." Void clearly has respect for the love goddess, although not many occupants of the room understand why.

"By the end of the summer, the campers should be ready to participate in a full-fledged war but do not fear that aspect because it is our goal to ensure that no camper dies in battle. Do not worry about how that will happen, just know that you will owe us if this goal is met." Percy says, not leaving any room for comments about what he meant by "owe."

The Olympians clearly had a bunch of questions, but for once in their lives, they were the ones who were too scared to ask. Annabeth kept opening her mouth, but nothing came out, she was still too shell-shocked by Percy's outburst against her.

"Okay Olympians, this is where I take my leave, I wish you luck in the war and hope that everyone makes it out fine. Zoë, I trust you to ensure that these two," she points to her commander and assassin, "do not unjustly kill any campers because you know they work on a kill first, ask later basis. Goodbye Olympians." Lady Chaos then dissolved into a swirling vortex leaving Percy and the assassins behind.

As the Creator's overwhelming presence left the room, the gods found themselves able to move and breathe again. Which of course meant that the room devolved into disorder between the questions being asked, demands being made, and whimpering from any male that accidentally looked at the female assassins.

After getting annoyed at the noise, Void brought everyone to attention, but not by calling for them like a normal person. No, he pulled an AA-12 from seemingly out of nowhere and emptied the entire clip into the ceiling.

"Now that I have your attention," he receives a bunch of dirty looks as people's ears are still ringing from the sound, "we must address the small army of monsters heading toward your pitiful camp, and discuss war strategy!"

Annabeth, who used that break to recover from Percy's berating, insists, "The army should almost be at the Camp by now! You have to get there quick, then we can talk about how to handle the war!"

"Calm down blondie, we'll just have to do both," Zoë says with a smirk.

Grover, who started this whole shindig started to get annoyed at the way Annabeth was spoken to and asked, "And just how are you gonna do that huh? Duplicate yourselves and fly off into battle?"

"Oh Grover, you never change. Always says exactly what a person's gonna do right before they do it," Percy says as he splits into two. And when it says split in two, there was a literal split as if he were cut from the forehead to the genitals. Then both halves began to regenerate until there were two identical copies of him there.

Everyone started looking around as each disciple of Chaos split into two, one looked ready to fight while the other remained ready for a business meeting.