Percy Jackson and the Four Horsemen

Chapter 3: The Golden Apple

PREVIOUSLY ON THE FOUR HORSEMEN:

He waded into the lake, watching the small thing grow larger and larger until he heard it. The sound of fire and gears. The sound of mechanical creaks and a voice, distinctly yelling "LEO IS BACK, BABYYY!" followed by another voice yelling "WHY IS THE DRAGON FLYING STRAIGHT DOWNWARDS?"

Percy managed to make it out of the lake before Festus the dragon crashlanded into the canoe lake. Later, Leo told him that some of Festus' gears in his wings had warped due to the cold and the barriers around camp didn't help.

The lake boiled with the heat accumulated by Festus' fiery descent, and Percy quickly used his powers over water to pull out the dragon and its riders, one Leo Valdez and one Calypso.

You heard that right, the Calypso. From like the Odyssey. Yup, that one. One of the daughters of Atlas, Calypso was imprisoned on her home island of Ogygia for three thousand years after the First Titan War, only meeting 4 non-godly people in that time. One was the fabled Odysseus, master of tricks, legacy of Hermes and Athena's favoured. Another was an English pirate, Sir Francis Drake. And the second most recent, whom she had met about 3 years ago, was Percy Jackson.

While you'd think Percy'd be happy to get one of his friends back, he had had some… reservations. For one, he had a brief thing with Calypso, and seeing your ex isn't always a good thing. Secondly, he remembered Tartarus and how his girlfriend was not able to see him or physically be near him. That last part was contributed by Calypso, who had cursed Annabeth for taking Percy away from him.

And of course, Leo Valdez was the last of Calypso's encounters, and the only one to not end in a romantic conflict. Oddly enough, the only one of the four to have no romantic feelings for Calypso was the one to rescue her from her prison. Percy had tried, but the gods were pricks and forgot about their promise. Leo was determined to bring her back, being a son of Hephaestus and a massive problem-fixer.

As soon as Percy dried both Leo and Calypso off, Leo took out a pair of pliers and a screwdriver and went to work on Festus, who was lying on the shore, creaking in pain.

"Aww man, I'll need to take him to Bunker Nine now. And it's dark."

"I mean, if you're that scared of the forest, I can come along. We can drop off Calypso at the Big House where she can be reintroduced to the modern world."

"No, br- Perseus. I will come with you into the forest and into, what is it that you said, Valdez? Bunker? Yes, Bunker Nine. I need no protection from the dangers of this forest. All forests are pure and harmless."

Percy noticed the slip of Calypso's tongue but thought nothing of it.

"Not this one, Caly." Leo said. "It's filled with monsters like hellhounds and myrmekes and drakons."

"I do not like this implication of you thinking I can't handle my own, Valdez. These beasts sound like nothing compared to two of the most powerful demigods."

Percy was going to mention how a hellhound managed to rip his chest apart once and how myrmekes had invulnerable skin, but he left it.

"Fine then, the three of us are going to drop Festus off in Bunker Nine and then throw a welcome home party for us both. Mainly me."

Turns out, the fire in the palm of Leo's hand seemed to ward most monsters away. Initially, the plan was to sneak into Bunker Nine and sneak out of Bunker Nine, but sneaking was very difficult when you were a group of two demigods, one nymph and a 50-ton mechanical dragon with ruby-red searchlights for eyes who occasionally spewed fire into the sky. In other words, the sneaking plan was quickly abandoned.

Once or twice they came upon some brave monsters who dared face them. A hellhound attempted to bite through Festus' neck but was quickly dispatched with a slice from Riptide. An oddly familiar giant scorpion with a dusty package tied to its back tried to sting Festus again and was blowtorched by Leo, leaving a huge charred husk which quickly disintegrated; and a glowing gold laurel.

"That looks nice."

"I thought Daedalus would've killed them, but hey, free laurels."

"Daedalus? I thought he was dead. Odysseus said he died."

"Well, he managed to put his soul into a machine and survived until the Battle of the Labyrinth caused him to resurface and repent for his sins."

Leo, in the meanwhile, took the gold laurel and wore it.

"Looks good on me?"

"You look like a rip-off of Apollo."

Calypso giggled while Leo snorted and handed over the laurel to Calypso, who took it and wore it on her head, now completing her aesthetic of Ancient Greek fashion when combined with her chiton and plaited hair.

The next words were spoken when they passed by Zeus' Fist a few minutes later. Leo frowned, "I thought those rocks were a lot more rockier last time."

"They were. Someone cleaned it up and probably accidentally reopened camp's entrance to the Labyrinth."

"Fun."

"Why does it look like a fist?"

Percy shrugged.

Finally, the group had managed to reach Bunker Nine, a façade in the cliff of some limestone formation. Leo sent a wave of fire at it, causing the huge mechanical doors to open.

Percy never had been in Bunker Nine, because it needed a fire user to open it. And it was so cool. There were random plane parts suspended from the ceiling. A bronze exoskeleton was displayed in a small nook. Massive blueprints filled with schematics of the Argo II filled the walls, and he knew Annabeth worked on them from the small signature she had placed on the bottom corners.

Calypso seemed to be in awe too, as she still stood in the entrance, staring at the machinery and just everything that had changed in the three thousand years she had been in house arrest.

"This technology is amazing, Leo."

She went and ran her fingers through a bronze harp that had been covered by a dusty tarp. The bunker, of course, was untouched due to the lack of people who could open its doors. The harp immediately began to play a melody, something even a blemmyae could recognize as ancient. It was soft and sweet, and definitely was not modern or even medieval. Only Calypso gasped.

"How? This song is the one I was sung to every night by Atlas. What magic is this, Valdez?"

Leo raised his hands and shrugged. "Hey, man, half the things in here weren't even made in the last century. I barely know, like ten percent of the inventions here."

Percy piped up. "On another note, Atlas can sing? The only vocalizing I've heard him do is scream in agony under the sky." He went up to finger the once-gray streak of hair while Calypso winced.

"He was a good father, Perseus. From what Valdez has told me, the gods are much worse parents than the Titans, save Kronos."

"…actually, you're not wrong."

"Why is Percy on first name basis and not me, Caly?"

"He hates the name Perseus and you hate the name Valdez."

"Everyone who calls me 'Valdez' end up trying to kill me or send me to Ogygia."

"It's good that you did come to Ogygia, Valdez. People would have thought you didn't have a heart otherwise."

As the bickering between Leo and Calypso continued, something caught the attention of Percy's eyes. As Leo had said, Bunker Nine couldn't have been opened by anyone due to the lack of pyrokinetics, and a thick layer of dust had covered everything… well, almost everything.

"Leo, why is there no dust on that pillar over there?"

Chiron was accompanied by the Hecate head counselor, Lou Ellen Blackstone, and Argus, head of camp's security. He cantered over to the trio who had discovered the illusion.

"Leo, Percy, Calypso. What exactly is so bad about a pillar not having any dust on it?"

Calypso shrugged, used to having stuff magically dust-free thanks to her wind servants. Leo and Percy on the other hand, they had good instincts and both of them knew that something was wrong.

"Nevertheless, you three, I have brought the Hecate counselor, Lou Ellen Blackstone, as you have asked. Argus is here for your safety. Unfortunately, Lord Dionysus requires my services for learning archery…" He sighed through his nose. "…which I believe is to impress a nymph."

Percy made a cough that sounded suspiciously like "prick".

"Take care, children. Hopefully, this will all turn out to be nothing."

Chiron galloped away, leaving the three demigods, one hundred-eyed dude and a former immortal.

Lou shuffled her feet. "Um, so why did you guys need me here?"

Percy looked at Calypso for help, who just shrugged and said "You're the one who asked for her."

"You did?"

"Um, yeah, we just aren't that good with magic."

"Isn't Leo Valdez a child of the tinkerer god?"

"Only my friends call me 'Leo Valdez, child of the tinkerer god'. You could call me 'babe', though."

Calypso smacked him on the shoulder, berating him. Meanwhile, Lou shuffled just a bit further away from Leo.

"Anyway, could you just, I dunno, check this pillar or something."

Lou sighed. "What am I checking for again?"

Percy shrugged. "No clue."

"If this is how you S-tier heroes operate, I am shocked that Olympus has survived that long."

"Don't diss the people, diss the process." Leo said.

"What?"

Calypso spoke. "Ignore him, Lou."

Lou went to the dust-free pillar before immediately withdrawing her hand while wincing.

"Oh wow, that is….that's a lot of power."

"….it's a rock."

"It is."

Lou looked around the room to see blank expressions on everyone's faces. She turned to Argus for support just to see the dude had fallen asleep. Typical.

"It's hardened Mist. The pillar is made out of hardened Mist."

"Isn't that just ice?"

"Mist with a capital 'M', Leo. Her mother's domain."

"Oh, that one."

"This must be the work of an immensely powerful magician. Only one witch has ever been able to solidify the Mist, and that power was cultivated from immense hatred of the gods and her husband, Minos."

"Pasiphae."

"Yes, her."

"Oh, she was a bitch."

"Language." Calypso chided.

"But she tried to kill meee!"

"A lot of people have tried to kill you."

"And they're all bitches."

Calypso sighed.

Lou Ellen continued. "Anyway… um, yeah. The person who created this must've had a huge amount of negativity to have solidified the Mist."

"So how do we destroy it?"

"I… don't know, exactly? Mother wasn't generous enough to lend me the gift of immense knowledge in the art of the Mist."

"I heard that you could convert us all into pigs if you had a single pig ball."

Lou blushed. "Yeah, but… I'm not powerful enough to move hardened Mist. And even if I was, this wasn't an outburst of power. The Mist was solidified with a physical barrier to keep it from sublimating."

Percy asked, "What?"

Leo said, "There's something at camp which can unlock this hardened Mist."

"And it's probably in the possession of a demigod who hates something with an immense passion."

Percy was about to make a sarcastic comment when the quick swish of a sword came from the entrance. Suddenly, the industrial lights fixed to the ceiling of Bunker Nine were snuffed out by an overpowering darkness. The feeling was suffocating, reminding Percy of his time in the quicksand in Alaska, one of the only things to have made the veteran him afraid. An unfamiliar voice spoke out.

"Guess you found me out, Perseus Jackson. But, you are still too late. I will find the Four, and when I do, you will die, along with the rest of the world."

Leo sent a blaze of fire at the source of the voice, illuminating the room with the orange glow of flames. The oppressive darkness left the room, as the lights turned back on. The entrance of Bunker Nine was empty, except for the pile of golden dust that lay on the spot where Argus was sleeping, on the top of which lay a golden apple charm.

A/N:- And so the thread of plot begins to unravel, and maybe you can correlate the title now to the plot. And to those of you worried about Argus, I consider him to be a "monster", and therefore sent to Tartarus, and therefore golden dust. Don't worry, he'll be back.

-Scythe7137