Chapter Fifteen
Anomaly
Apollo sulked in this temple.
He had had to resort to messaging Hermes several times over the past few days to deliver reams of paper to his temple up on Olympus, just so he could scratch biological and chemical formulas it took too long to magically imprint into the computer network he had installed for entertainment purposes. Hephaestus TV was good for whenever he needed to destress after a long day but absolutely terrible for anything else.
Half the time he wanted to walk into the IBM supercomputer and Mist over the mortals there to help him with these calculations but his father would hound him over the Fates would hound him and he didn't want to deal with the headache of a Master Bolt flying at him.
When another biological calculation failed him, he roared in anger, scattering hundreds of papers in fury across his desk and workstation. The gold of his temple diminished in splendor at his rage, the numerous Olympian citizens scattered outside retreating in fear at what drew the God of the Sun's fury. The marble cracked under his fist and he gazed in fascination at the ichor spilling from his knuckles.
That at least made sense, his blood carrying the genetic markers from both of his parents mixed with the essence of the divine put there by the Fates themselves at the moment of his birth. It made perfect sense, tying his form into the ball of fire keeping the earth warm and the domain of medicine along with archery as an addon. Every god and goddess along with him shared the same traits save for his domain, all bound by the same invisible strings created long ago by Ananke and Chaos and then woven together.
Unlike the three mortals Artemis vouched for without any idea what they were.
Every other human, demigods and created immortals, shared the same genetic makeup: 46 chromosomes tied into pairs. This was an inevitable fact except for the rare mutations that resulted in impairment that even stumped him in all of his knowledge. They governed everything from hair color to a liking for certain ice cream. Absolutely everything a person was born into came from this set of genetic instructions and these three absolutely shattered everything he knew and sought to understand about the human race.
He rubbed his palm into his face to wake him up, summoning the scattered papers back into his hands. This diagnostic rod gleamed bright on its pedestal and at his command, Yang's biological information popped up onto the big screen he used to entertain dates. At just a glance, she looked perfectly normal and human, with two pairs of limbs, a head, two eyes, a mouth, nose, ears, the whole shebang, except for two glaring defects that couldn't have possibly been replicated without either a mad scientist or Eros playing with humanity again.
Just like her teammates, she possessed an extra pair of chromosomes.
And they weren't tiny either.
Compared to her primary first three, this one stood right at the top with how jam-packed with genetic instructions it came with, leaking down the line into everything the other pairs defined. Over 300 million nucleotide base pairs hummed in unison in just one strand, completely dominating her makeup and guaranteeing she was unlike anything he'd ever seen.
This pair, this one entire pair, defined just one area of her body and he finally understood how and why Artemis warned her of this mortal when she normally and casually batted them aside with impunity. While a genetic trait was usually held within just one section of a chromosome, this entire pair was devoted to the generation, maintenance, and use of the strange energy system the three of them harnessed and called Aura. Hades, not even their nervous or cardiovascular systems had entire pairs controlling them. And other than this overlying system that permeated them, it didn't seem to negatively affect them, if anything, it augmented them to the point Yang could stand against Artemis for a short while.
Almost divine, he could say.
The hundreds of pages ignited under a fraction of the Sun's power, incinerating all of his notes until nothing but ashes remained. The diagnostic rod he used also disintegrated into photons. Artemis wanted them investigated and he did, going far beyond what she initially wanted from him. Genetically, they were marvelous and he'd love to strap them down to a table until he unraveled all their little secrets.
But he couldn't.
He wouldn't subject three women to his father's inquiry and subsequent wrath just to sate his own curiosity. Divinity didn't work with mortals as they'd quite literally burn as their cells were oversaturated by an energy they couldn't even comprehend. And for these three to be born with the ability to manipulate something similar to what their pantheon could… was asking for a Master Bolt to be sent down their way without so much as a question or a consensus. Just to sate his own paranoia and cling to his ridiculous notion of being the strongest. On the Council, perhaps, but Hades could smack him around with the weight of the forces he could call on.
He kept that thought private for many reasons.
Lastly, he didn't want to deal with the headache his sister could cause, not only because she could make managing the day-night cycle an immense pain but also because she employed a dozen or so professional trackers that could and would hunt his ass down for all eternity and make his nightlife incredibly daunting. He could be at a bar in LA one night and then NYC the next and they'd still hunt his ass down just for pissing off their mistress. And he did not need immortal preteens hounding him down for the next millennia and yes, Artemis would hold that over his head for that long.
The threat of exposing her secret wouldn't stop her, not that he ever would.
A burst of fire sanitized everything down to the last molecule, all evidence of this Aura obliterated. He had ways of sneaking down into the Camp without drawing the eyes of the Council. Hermes, perhaps the only other god that visited could be bought with the promise of a few pranks or nights out and Hestia would never snitch on him. If anything, she'd keep his secret and then extort it to drag him off to visit his mom or kick his ass in paintball.
Yes, the goddess of the hearth was wicked at paintball, who knew?
Dionysus could be bought with non-alcoholic drinks. Seriously, humans invented drinks that tasted just like alcohol but without alcohol. It was insane, what they could invent if they really wanted to and while 'Nysus could chug down all the grape juice he wanted, he wouldn't say no to technically screwing over the rules set by their father. He would know as the God of Truth after all.
That was most of the loose ends he could primarily tie up with a plan.
Perfect time to dust off his old Fred costume.
After retrieving the napping Re'iyah from their ship and switching on the solar panels and placing the electrolysis converter unit hose into the lake she parked by, Yang took a brief moment to just sit on the ramp. Rei stretched out next to her languidly, yawning and then scratching at her thigh for attention and payback for waking her up. Weiss slumped by her a moment after, leaving behind the majority of her winter gear with the magical climate control over this Camp.
The Hunt dispersed to the basketball courts and archery range after their arrival, squaring up against another group of teens. They looked about a twinge of rage from skewering the boys but Zoë paced around them carefully to diffuse the tension. She was content to watch them from afar, glancing their way every few seconds to make sure they were settling in or weren't about to go nuclear on a poor camper aggravating them.
The other campers not about to start a war with the Hunt gave them careful glances from a distance, unable to decide how to approach and treat them. From what they saw around them, the only adult figures that remained around the camp were Chiron and Dionysus. Much different to how Beacon operated with an almost constant adult presence within their ranks though it did make her realize either this was a deranged version of a test set by their immortal parents, a rite of childhood to make it to adulthood, or they had a lower average lifespan than before she and Qrow took charge.
She still wasn't quite entirely sure why Ozpin's long tenure had an average lifespan of the low 30s but it was also marred by the disappearance of 10% of their budget to hot cocoa and the slow spread of the Council's insidious influence across their most crucial districts in return for playing the influence game of politics to keep their meddling from his little world. Ruby didn't bother with that, of course, Blake haunting their every shadow.
Just like now, the Faunus skulking away the moment they left the Big House and disappearing from their view. Without her network, the range of her information would never compete with the one on Remnant. Alone though, she'd cover only the area around their ship and one cardinal direction. The other three she'd litter with enough traps to stop an Atlesian navy. And the area around the ship would catch a deviant Neo and needed a map with warning signs. Assuming Rei didn't maul them first and that either resulted in massive amounts of Grimm saliva or the evisceration of the poor soul, depending on how big she was at the time.
The puppy whined at missing two of her packmates and robbed the shadows and corrosive emotions tainting them until she stood at Weiss' shoulders. Not large enough to crush a tank between her jaws or even eat someone whole but enough to tear limb from limb at the slightest hint of a threat. She sniffed the air a few times to catch Blake's scent, yipping at a shadow with golden eyes hiding up in the tree canopy shadowing them. A little treat dropped down and she snatched it up immediately, bounding back to her human pack and corralling them forward into the forest.
Nothing particularly suited their interests right now, Weiss forbidden from cycling her Aura on doctor's orders. Blake, watching them, only used the bare minimum, having to consciously keep the torrent within her core from rushing into her network and disrupting her control. They could teach as the famous saying went, but they had no idea how this military organization worked, and with just half an hour, they concluded they were stuck in a bizarre world where the larger world modernized forward to just behind what Remnant had but where the Greek pantheon was stuck in antiquity.
Despite all evidence they saw that Zoë was fully aware of the modern world, and so was most likely this camp, and could develop weaponry from their divine metals to match their mortal counterparts.
She'd need to requisition their forges to update their weaponry, and maybe test the rapier stowed away within the core frame of the Ruby. Neo never did reclaim it after the Invasion despite appearing every few years to throw her a curveball. The hangar did register a breach every now and then followed by an unsolvable crime she looked away from and the records never showed anything after she doctored them. She kept her distance from Beacon and she didn't obliterate a district hunting her down. Simple transaction.
They meandered their way through the Camp, across strawberry fields that swayed in the nonexistent wind as Blake moved across them and a babbling brook they crossed with a few well placed glyphs. The largest source of energy sat within a horseshoe of blue cabins, broadcasting a tremendous fiery presence that crashed against her shields and lent her a familiar warmth. Blake's hackles rose at the sight of another deity within the presumed safety of the camp, circling around to the silver cabin she deemed Artemis' and alighting on the roof. A cold chill raced across her and she idly mused she probably should've messaged the goddess before using her building.
Thinking of that, the goddess probably didn't even have a scroll or pager or whatever this world had and she needed to interrogate ask Chiron or Dionysus about how people communicated here. Yang only briefly mentioned their aversion to electronics so they needed to solve that issue moving forwards if the Rose couldn't act as a roaming server for communication for their new allies. She didn't quite like these campers, their camp, or even the Hunt but Yang made a deal and she'd follow her leader, just like she followed Ruby. She'd display her displeasure with a stab to her kidneys if she did anything against the Charter, Beacon or not.
Yang took a seat near the hearth in the center of these cabins next to an eight-year-old stoking the flames, the enormous warmth emanating from her and not the fire. "Hello there." The little goddess smiled at her brightly when she gestured to her poker, taking over her role and stoking the flames.
"Not many join me by the fire." The girl curled up with her knees to her chest, amber eyes glittering with the red, orange, and yellows in front of her. "It's nice to have company."
"Does Artemis ever join you?"
"Because we both prefer our younger forms?" She looked over at her and Weiss with eyes far older than her body indicated. "She hasn't been here for at least a few decades but she says hi when she can. I'm Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth, Family, and Home. Welcome to my fire."
"I'm Yang, this is my wife Weiss," Hestia didn't so much as blink at that, smiling warmly and growing up partially. "And the cat hiding on Arty's cabin is Blake, my girlfriend." The goddess looked on over and found a black shadow waving back at her. She never noticed the warm life wrapped behind the mass of replicating shadows, a pulsating core of bright purple scarred over with red, yellow, and light blue peeking through. Her life was scarred but held together by literal fragments of her partners' life, all of them sharing pieces of themselves, Yang carrying red, purple, and blue within her and Weiss carrying red, purple, and yellow. She'd never seen such a phenomenon before.
"Hera might not like that, Goddess of Marriage and all." She drawled.
"She doesn't have to like me at all," Yang responded and Hestia had to agree with her, their home marked as five other individuals all tied together. For Yang at least, and partially with Weiss and Blake, a green thread hung limply, cut from the soul it connected it. From all of them however hung a crimson thread, thicker and stronger than the green one and tied deeper into their soul. "Weiss is fine with it. She's also her girlfriend." The white-haired woman gave her a thumbs up, possessively clinging to her arm.
"And the red and green ones you hold so dear?" She didn't look at them anymore, back to gazing into her fire. She wasn't a child anymore, a young teen rapidly growing into an adult woman before aging into an old woman with graying hair.
"Not with us anymore." Weiss shook her head, not bothering to ask how she could possibly know about two people she'd never met. Artemis managed to hold her own against Yang and Apollo was the God of Medicine after all. Even if she wanted to continue Ruby's crusade against gods, she was the equivalent of a B-rank in the middle of a nest. Any contingencies she made relied on Yang and if she was content to ally with them, she'd follow along and would cheerfully plan contingencies with Blake. "How do you know about them?"
"Human life is ever so fleeting, mere twinkles of light, just like the hearth." The flames reached over to her and licked across her palm. Her eyes glowed stronger now, matching Apollo in intensity. "All of you make their home somewhere, a family, a hearth. You've loved and lost and that leaves marks behind." A platter of fresh cookies appeared from the flames in her hands and she offered them freely. "Cookie? I find that everyone likes them and makes them feel better."
"Already better than Artemis who tried to shoot me and Apollo that flirts all the time." Yang accepted a few cookies, handing Weiss one and throwing one across to Blake. They were deliciously warm and melted in their mouths.
"Family is family." Hestia nibbled on a cookie, regressing back to a young girl and shuffling over to sit next to Yang. "You know, I almost thought you were my child for a second. The fire within you, so warm but ready to raze." The hearth roared in a pillar of fire at her words, towering over them and bathing the cabins in a dull red. Several campers scattered far from the stone inset seating, far too afraid of the inferno to stick around. "Do come around to speak with me whenever you find the time. It gets very lonely."
"Well, come on then." Yang smiled at her warmly, offering her a hand she gazed at in confusion. "Just because you're the Goddess of the Hearth doesn't mean you have to sit here all the time. This is your family after all, so come on." She took her hand after a few long moments of consideration, smiling at her infuriatingly. Blake materialized from behind them before they could blink, patting the goddess on her head in the same fashion she so enjoyed. Hestia shooed the hand away, distracted enough to not notice Yang pull her up and rest her on her hip.
"You do realize I'm several millennia old?" She didn't struggle in her hold, however, settling herself in and wrapping her tiny legs around her waist. "Now mush, I have family to say hello to." Yang laughed at her antics and Blake followed suit with a smirk, sweeping Weiss's legs aside and letting her fall into her arms. "I'll give you a tour of the camp." Hestia did stare at Blake's cat ears as Yang followed her finger points, clearly amused at her features but not saying anything if the other two didn't.
They brushed over the empty dining pavilion, Hestia mentioning briefly she supplied all the food there and worked similarly to Artemis' picnic tables. A climbing wall interested them just from the sheer level of danger it posed with lava spewing across sections of it. One of them fell off and crashed onto a pad upon noticing the goddess being carried, a swarm of medics descending to practice their skills. Though seeing as they were the only other adults around her, it could've also just been their presence.
Beyond that sat a small stadium where campers trained in 1v1 matches, their presence drawing yet more attention and curious glances. After years of dealing with Ruby's infamy, they could ignore it all. They didn't like what they saw, none of the campers focused on working together as a unit. None of the dozen or so spars happening came even close to resembling unit tactics, smacking each other around and then doing so over and over. Hestia frowned at her family having to fight in general, wishing she could keep them safe forever, ushering them forward to continue on their tour.
The amphitheater was mentioned yet not visited and they passed the strawberry fields being attended to by the many sons and daughters of the harvest-related gods, most notably Dionysus and Demeter, according to their little guide. Nearing the more central part of the camp, they drew far more looks, Chiron trotting up to them from teaching archery at the range. His wheelchair was gone, a device used to hide his Faunus half it seemed, rising far taller than Yang now.
"Ah, some of Lady Artemis' new Hunters. We briefly met in the Big House earlier. I hope everything went well with Lord Apollo earlier, and I see you've found Lady Hestia as well." He bowed on his front legs.
"There's no need to bow, brother." Hestia waved him off, continuing her monologue about the many other camp features, explaining the forest they used for team-based exercises, and the forge and stables just over the ridge they could visit at any time it suited them. Zoë noticed them at the same time and excused herself from teaching some of her more novice Hunters to check on them, also similarly bowing and getting brushed off.
"You're mistaken Chiron." Yang cleared up the confusion. "We're allies to Artemis and her Hunt, nothing more."
"Forgive me then. It's not too often we have the Hunt within our borders and very rarely with adult demigods. Not wearing silver, I should've known." He chuckled gracefully at his folly.
"They're mortal." Zoë helpfully chimed in, playing with her bowstring.
"Excuse me?" Both Hestia and he did a double-take.
"Perfectly mortal, even Apollo confirmed it." Weiss supplied from Blake's shoulder, nuzzling her cheek and glaring at the little girl goddess that deposed her place. Hestia pretended not to notice, discreetly sticking her tongue out at her. Yang and Blake did notice of course but let them feud, Zoë hiding her smile behind her hand.
"Hmmm, you must be the first mortals in this camp since the Great Wars." Blake filed that information tidbit for later, resolving to disappear for a while to the mortal world and hijack a computer or something. They had to have some form of modern technology that wasn't based in archaic hell. Weiss massaged the knots in her shoulder, predicting the absence of her spy tech and information scraping robots would grate on her. The Supernova disrupted her Semblance and other cores so it left her with her other now crippled abilities so now all she had were her armada of knives.
Deadly knives but that made her a low A-rank.
"Lady Hestia, I'll leave them in your hands." He trotted away, dragging the Hunt's Lieutenant away from them. He politely ignored her protests and picked her up, dumping her back over with the rest of the Hunters.
"You three are weird," Hestia patted Yang on her head and crawled up her mount until she sat on her shoulders. "Please take me back to the hearth. I wish to hear your stories." Yang took Blake's hand and pulled them back to the circle of cabins, stepping down to the inset stone and dragging a few of the large pillows together. Hestia clambered off with the grace of a toddler, falling into the middle and taking up lots of room.
Blake took offense to that, falling over and squishing Weiss much to her tortured screams for air. When she finally managed to throw her off, she nestled on over to the goddess and demanded a plate of cookies. Blake covered her other side, dragging a blanket over them while Yang sat at their feet, Weiss dragging her head into her lap and automatically scratching her and petting her hair.
Hestia gave out the cookies and occupied their attention for the next few hours until dusk fell, summoning up dinner when they missed the call at the pavilion. Yang shared their story, following with the truth she initially wove and told the Artemis and leaving out the whole alternate reality part of it. She never questioned Blake's ears, Weiss's family, or Yang's powers. Never asked about Ruby's rule or Pyrrha's acceptance into their circle. She simply sat there and acted the entertained child, munching on some popcorn and oohing and ahhing at the correct spots of the story.
She laughed at their antics and pranks they played on JNPR, the shenanigans they had to deal with Neo's existence. But she quickly found there was less and less of that in their lives, the only bright spots being the hilarity that was Weiss trying to get Yang to like her and then the calamity that was Blake trying to love them all
Then she cried, cried for their loss during Moonfall's fallout where Ruby was first captured and then broken, rebuilt into a Commander. Cried at their city's destruction and their attempts to rebuild their lives again. Cried until she was dry at what had to happen with Prune and the deception they played to make sure their people could lead their lives without the heavy-handed Council on their backs. And then sobbed at the Invasion that robbed them of their lives and the sacrifices each of them made to get where they were right now, two of them crippled and struggling to recover.
None of them remembered crashing on the large bean bag pillows, Hestia throwing her blanket over them. She was still there the next morning in her adult form this time, breakfast burritos warming by the ever lit fire. Blake had funnily enough passed out with a knife in her hand, Hestia expertly maneuvering it away from her despite knowing it couldn't hurt her. Weiss did what she did with any older woman she didn't immediately sleep with, cuddling into her side and latching onto her like a koala Grimm complete with sharp claws. After chastising herself for not keeping watch after that emotional outpouring, Yang woke the pair up.
After saying goodbye, they disappeared back into their ship to retrieve the go-bags Yang stored as mementos after the Invasion. Very few campers strolled about during sunrise and they scored pretty much any choice of shower stall, relishing in the hot water massaging the aches of the Invasion away for the two of them. It was heavenly for Weiss, the dull ache she never noticed in her scarred muscles fading away under the constant torrent of pressure. Screw Apollo, she could just remain here for the next few weeks.
Breakfast was the first meal they actually had with the camp, bouncing across the paths on yellow glyphs accelerated by Ruby's Semblance courtesy of Yang. They crashed into the packed dry dirt next to the pavilion, a few Hunters and sons of Apollo turning at them. Predictably the children of the sun and moon rose with the former, one for their father's rise and the other for their mistress returning. Zoë predictably sat with a cup of coffee in her hand, mimicking Blake's favorite position with her head in the crook of her elbow.
Every table had a carving associated with one of the twelve cabins they saw earlier in the middle, Artemis with a moon and Apollo with a sun. They saw a trident, a peacock, a caduceus, and a lightning bolt among them. Zoë and her second, a girl named Phoebe were the only ones awake, trading barbs with a pair of Apollo's sons. The Lieutenant enjoyed just the act of it, flipping them off with a faint smile but her partner in Phoebe genuinely didn't like them, her insults far more vulgar than Zoë and in turn devolving into a verbal spat.
Blake stepped between the pair of tables and handed each of them a knife, channeling her best Ruby and taunting them to kill each other if they wanted to. Conflict resolution involved direct confrontation and most people didn't have the guts to actually stab an ally in cold fury. And in the case of Phoebe grabbing the knife and challenging Blake, she could twist her wrist and bash her head into the table, painlessly knocking her out. Zoë even helped arrange her arms to make it seem like she was taking a nap, toasting her for solving the problem.
The son of Apollo sheepishly handed the knife back, Blake taking a seat at their table and thinking of her favorite food. A plate of fish tacos appeared and she demolished them with gusto, patting her stomach; content. Zoë's drawl reached her as she fended off a question about her ears, "You're supposed to sit at your parent's table and sacrifice a portion of your food to the gods."
"I'm sure Apollo won't mind." Yang leaned over to stare up at the sky and didn't see a large solar flare on its way to smite them. Besides, what was the point of separating kids by their godly parent? It only enforced the divide among them and from what she saw walking around the camp yesterday, it wasn't out of the norm. Genetically similar children trained with genetically similar siblings. There were no unit tactics and nothing breaching the divide caused by someone's asinine planning. Not even mentioning that not all gods had the same amount of children, leading to equity issues for resources. "See? No solar flare."
"That's because you actually flirted with him. Try that with a table of a god you haven't met." Zoë watched in amazement as a clone of Yang formed behind her and sat at the table next to them, instantly getting turned into a bouquet of wheat courtesy of Demeter. Yang simply chalked it up to the goddess having a cranky day, unworried at the potential fallout waiting for them yet made a careful note to not rush blindly into situations involving them without picking Zoë's mind first. They were far more powerful than Ozpin and Salem ever gave them reason to think. "So it appears. Maybe I should've sacrificed some wheat first then?" Zoë just shook her head, warning her of doing the same.
Blake eventually moved over to Arty's table after rebuffing the third question about her ears with a hand sign, sliding in next to Blake and stealing her coffee. She sighed and another one appeared in front of her, "Will you join us for the capture-the-flag game after this?"
"No," Yang clamped a hand over Weiss before she could respond. "But we'll be watching. I need to confirm a few things and then speak to Chiron after that. I'm not too happy with what I've seen." If this was the best this Pantheon could scrounge up for a war then they stood little chance against a properly organized military that worked together. And she'd beat them into shape just to keep Apollo and Artemis off her back until Weiss and Blake got better to the point of self-sufficiency.
"We'll still win regardless." Zoë smiled smugly, slumping slightly as the caffeine kicked in and she relaxed. Chiron eventually trotted up to them and gave everyone a loud good morning to further wake them up, Dionysus appearing in a haze of grapes that irritated Blake's nose. The rest of the camp and Hunt trudged in in varying states of awakeness. The table two spots over absolutely overflowed with campers, some were completely empty and others had just one or two. It made less than zero sense. For Neo's sake, even Arty's table was full, Weiss sliding onto her lap and Blake pulling Zoë onto hers to make room. Neither of them cared too much, Blake getting a cute teen on her lap and Zoë making room for her sisters.
After Chiron announced the game start, just over a dozen campers and the Hunt marched over to the fenced-in forest to prepare, the former getting decked out in armor and swords and spears. The three of them moved over to Chiron, also now dressed in armor and helmet as he explained the rules of the game. The campers went off to the west while the Hunt went off to the east with Chiron pacing around the creek they deemed the boundary. "Here to watch the festivities? You're in for a treat."
"These are children playing at war, Director." It was a controlled exercise, true, and good to get them in the correct mindset. Yet pitched battles across a controlled section of a forest were idyllic dreams left to rookies. With the small forces each side had, it was a guerilla skirmish decided by whichever side ambushed the other successfully or dismantled the ambush. "Real battle isn't this pretty."
"No, it isn't, you're right. They're young Miss Yang and this is meant for them to relax."
"But there's something on the horizon, isn't there?" Weiss interjected, catching his solemn expression after.
"Blake," she turned to Yang, a cruel grin on her face at the expected request. "Go and steal their flags." Yang pressed a glyph to her back and she disappeared into the shadows on the canopy.
"There's a lesson you're trying to teach here." Chiron stared out across the creek boundary as several campers fell to arrows from the trees. Far fewer Hunters fell in skirmishes on the ground but neither side gained any ground. For the Hunt, this was a distraction to absorb the main assault from the campers. For the campers, it was the same, to draw out their ranged fighters and find their traps.
"I told Zoë I wouldn't join their side and the campers wouldn't think of us joining them as we're adults and mortals so I'm teaching them all the value of intelligence." Gossip was a very important tool in Blake's arsenal after all. "Going into any mission or battle with assumptions or false info is worse than no information and has cost me more lives than I can count. Adapting to new info such as an unknown third-party assassin should make them think twice. Any repetitive training exercise doesn't properly teach."
His smile matched Blake's while the screams of agony and surprise echoed around both sides of the forest somehow. A camper managed to stumble into the river waters after avoiding a barrage of knives while a Hunter fell from the trees next to her, both of them meeting the other's gaze and resolving to fight together. The first part of the lesson was complete, now she just needed to find Blake before she accidentally maimed them. "I may have to borrow you for future activities, will you be staying long?"
For now.