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willtemple34: Everyone always wants to see Ares get his ass whooped.

Disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry or Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I only own the OC Damian Redgrave.

Ares was waiting for them at the diner's parking lot, leaning carelessly on his bike and looking bored. Their arrival was punctuated with a sharp whistle as Ares' head snapped up like it was on a spring, his arm already extended as his shield whirled into it with a thump like a discus. The culprit was Damian, who was a little disappointed the shield hadn't smacked the God of War in the face like where he had been aiming.

"Nice throw." Ares said, smirking at Damian's annoyed look. He gave the group an appraising glance, "You didn't get yourselves killed."

"You knew it was a trap," Percy accused, a frown on his face.

Ares gave a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. Shame some of the cameras were shot out. You looked good on TV."

Damian rolled his eyes. "We got your damn shield, now hurry up with your end and get the hell out of here." He demanded, causing Annabeth and Grover to look at him with wide eyes, namely at the fact he was being rude to a god that could kill them.

Ares smirked before he grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.

"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which the demigods could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

"You're kidding." Percy said.

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to Percy.

Inside were fresh clothes for all of them, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuffed Oreos.

Percy said, "I don't want your lousy—"

"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted Percy and gave him his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."

Ares looked like he was about to disappear before Percy spoke up again. "You promised me information about my mother."

The son of the sea just gritted his teeth and reluctantly slung the backpack over his shoulder as he looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served them dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt them. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of the group.

'Oh bugger, that's going to be in the papers tomorrow.' Damian thought with a grimace. He could totally see the headline: OUTLAW KIDS BEAT UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.

"You owe me one more thing," Percy told Ares, trying to keep his voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

Percy visibly grew unsteady at the news. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

"Kept. Why?"

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."

"Nobody's controlling me."

He laughed. "Oh yeah?"

"Enough." Damian stepped in with a hard glare at his uncle on his mother's side. "You got what you wanted, you gave us what we needed, now fuck off."

Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. "We'll meet again, Damian Redgrave. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back, you as well, Percy Jackson"

He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancey Street.

"I hate him." Damian muttered but it was still loud enough for his friends to here.

"Join the club." Percy nodded in agreement,

"I swear you two are just asking for trouble," Annabeth said, shaking her head.

"Well, next time Ares better be nicer or he is going to find that shield we brought him shoved so far up his ass, you can see it coming out of his mouth." Damian said. The others couldn't tell whether he was being serious or not and by the look on his face... they did not want to know either.

"Well, if we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry." He pointed over to the diner and saw two truck drivers who they figured must have been the owners of the truck just finishing their meal and were beginning to stand up.

They ran up to the truck and began to climb in one by one. It was dark but they could just about to see with the light that was being created by the moon.

There was a single walkway going through the middle of the truck which led to some crates at the other side of the truck. Along the walkway were multiple metal cages. The scene in front of them was one of the saddest scenes Damian and the others had even seen.

Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals you'd ever behold: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some antelope that I couldn't recall the species of.

Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!

Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.

"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"

The truck began to move with the return of the drivers and it forced Grover, Annabeth and Percy to fall onto the ground while Damian managed to hold onto the side.

Everyone slowly moved to the back of the truck and sat with their backs to the crates while Damian and Grover were looking over the animals that all had sad looks on their faces.

"Water." was all the Antelope was saying as its head rested on the ground. Grover, who was closest to the antelope. opened its cage and grabbed a giant plastic jug of water that was stored at the back of the truck and poured some of the water into its bowl. The antelope quickly drank the water and Damian and Grover could both hear the Antelope saying thank you to Grover. Damian also removed the ridiculous balloon on its horn and threw it aside.

Next was the Zebra that was crying out "food," and "someone get these things of me." No doubt it was referring to the bits of chewing gum that littered its back. However, it was Percy that got up and entered the cage this time and was beginning to remove what pieces he could while Grover and Annabeth slowly picked up the bits of meat.

Damian, meanwhile, was standing in front of the albino Lion and just looked at the beautiful animal in its hazel colored eyes. The lion's eyes were old as if filled with wisdom but it held so much pain and loneliness. Lions were family animals, meaning they stayed in large groups. They simply weren't meant to be left all on their own like this.

"Family..." Damian could hear the lion saying before he slowly opened the cage.

"Damian! What are you doing?!" Annabeth hissed with wide, terrified eyes upon seeing him enter the lion's cage.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Damian said, picking bits of turnip from the lion's body. "Give these to the antelope and the zebra. They should be able to since it still looks somewhat fresh."

Annabeth did so while Damian took the hamburger meat and placed it in front of the lion. The lion looked at the meat before slowly it began to eat the meat. Damian could only guess how long it had been since it had a somewhat decent meal.

He looked over to see the zebra and antelope also eating the vegetables as Damian could hear both animals giving their thanks.

"Thank you," A deep voice said, catching the son of the moon a little of guard. He turned around to see the lion staring at him with it's giant hazel eyes. "It has been a while since I've had any meat. Any longer and I probably would not have survived much longer." The lion said as it continued to at the meat in front of it.

"You're welcome." Damian said.

"Don't worry, I won't harm you or your friends. Hungry as I am, I won't eat those who've helped me."

"Thank you."

The lion then turned his head towards the crates. "You should help them, too. They need it the most."

Damian frowned but nodded, standing and making his way over. The others noticed and followed curiously. Damian soon spotted a tarp over something smal, smaller than the cages containing the lion, zebra and antelope. Curious, Damian crouched down and reached out, pausing when he heard whimpering... animal whining coming from underneath. However, it sounded pitched, high, like... like it was young.

Grabbing the tarp, Damian threw it off and his eyes widened at the sight before him and the others, who he could hear gasp.

The cage was small, small enough for animals the size of a pup... and that's what was exactly laid within the cage. Well, two wolf pups actually, no more than a few months old. Their amber eyes could be made out in the darkness, staring at Damian with fear.

One of the wolves was pitch black and melted so well into the darkness that you would not have seen the pup if it was not for the amber eyes. The pup itself was small and Damian figured he could have probably picked it up with just one hand.

His gaze turned to the other wolf pup and he had to admire how beautiful the cub was. The cub was as white as snow and looked to be only slightly smaller than the black pup. When the moonlight hit the pup, her fur was like a cross between white and silver that it sparkled a little.

"No way," Grover said, looking at the two wolf pups with wide eyes.

"What? What is it?" Damian asked, curious at what Grover was getting at.

Grover looked at him as if Christmas came early. "Damian, these aren't just regular wolves." He said, confusing Damian and the others. "These are direwolves."

"Direwolves?" Damian asked.

"They are a breed of wolves that are so rare they are hardly ever seen. Hell, most people go their whole lives without ever seeing one because they are so rare. Not even the hunters use Direwolves because there are so few left in the world."

"Why are there so few and what's the difference between them and regular wolves?" He asked to which Grover answered.

"I'm not sure. It all started when Pan disappeared. The wild places were his domain and many of the first places that got destroyed were habitats of Direwolves. Slowly they died off but there were some left the wild. But to see two like this is just incredible. But what are they doing here and how did the mortals see them?"

"You said some of the mortals can see through the mist. Maybe these truck drivers are the same. Since the pups are only small maybe they just figured they were regular wolf pups."

"Maybe," Grover said. "But the difference is the size that they grow to. While normal wolves grow to about hip level on a person, Direwolves grow to the size of a horse." He said, causing Damian's and everyone else's eyes to go wide. "They may be small now but in the future... they will be enormous. Easily the size of a full grown person."

"Damn..." Damian said with wide eyes, looking at the pups, shocked that they'll be the size of a horse at some point. However, his attention shifted to how scared they were and he lowered himself down so he was at their level, basically laying on his stomach. Slowly, to not scare them, he reached forward and opened the cage door, causing the pups to back up fearfully.

That's when Damian heard their voices, their tiny voices, similar to young children.

"Where are we? I want to go home."

"Mommy, where are you? Where did you go?"

The last comment, which came from the white furred wolf, caused a tear to fall from Damian and Grover's eyes. By their voices and size, they were very young, too young to be without their mother. But there was no bigger cage containing an adult Direwolf, which could only mean one thing and that caused Damian's eyes to close in sympathy for the two pups.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked upon seeing the tears on Damian and Grover's faces.

"...They lost their mother." Damian replied. As Percy and Annabeth's looks saddened, Damian carefully inched forward and he;ld his hand out to the pups who backed up. "Sh... it's okay, little ones. I won't hurt you."

He waited, as the wolf pups stared at him warily, before the black-furred one edged forward hesitantly.

"P-Promise?" The pup asked, Damian nodding his head.

"I promise."

Now assured, the pup came forward and climbed onto Damian's hand. He brought the pup close and put his coat over the pup to warm him up. Then the white-furred pup came forward, causing Damian to do the same for her. Now he had two wolf pups snuggling into the warmth of his body.

"He's so warm." He heard the female whisper to her brother before they both drifted off to sleep, no doubt glad they had a warm body to sleep against once more.

"You seem to be quite taken with them," Annabeth said as she sat down beside Percy, watching Damian gently stroke the two wolf pups and tried to suppress a girly squeal at how cute it was watching them snuggle up to him.

"Guess it's something I inherited from my mother, caring for animals." Damian said with a light shrug. "Wolves are one of her sacred animals, plus I hear she can shift into a wolf in some of the stories."

Annabeth sent him a teasing smile. "Maybe you can do the same."

Damian snorted in amusement. "I'd give my dad a heart attack."

Feeling tired after the day's events, Damian leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, his arm around the sleeping wolf pups protectively.

Damian winced as his head hit one of the crates as the truck drove over some bumpy terrain that woke him up from his sleep. He could hear groans and guessed the other had also been woken up from the bump.

He had kept his eye closed in an attempt to go back to sleep but suddenly felt small paws push up against his chest and something wet tickling his chin.

Trying not to laugh. he opened his eyes and gazed down to see the two wolf pups licking his face, both with a happy look on their face, the opposite of what they had during the night.

"Well, you two seem happier this morning." He said as the two wolf pups continued to lick his face and snuggle up against him.

"Warm. Nice and toasty." He could hear the female pup say and the male one nodded along.

"My name's Damian, It's nice to meet you both. I hope you both slept okay," he said.

"I'm Shadow." The little black haired wolf said as he sniffed the air around him.

"I'm Luna." The little white haired wolf said as she looked at Damian with hopeful eyes.

"That's a very pretty name, Luna." He said getting a lick of appreciation from Luna and stroked Shadow's head.

"Do you know where momma is?"

Damian felt his heart clench and shake his head. "I don't. I am sorry but I don't know where she is." The little wolf whimpered slightly but Damian held her close. "Don't worry. You and Shadow don't have to be scared. You can stay at the camp where I stay at if you like. You can be safe there."

"Really?" Both Luna and Shadow asked, getting a nod from Damian and both licked his face happily getting a chuckle from the son of Artemis.

Damian closed his eyes and sent a prayer to his mom.

"Mom, if you can hear me, please can you teleport or transport these wolf pups to Camp Half-Blood. I think they lost their mother and as much as I want to keep them with me, I can't risk it since I'm on a quest. Send them to Chiron."

Damian sat there and looked at the wolf pups waiting for something to happen until they began to shine in a bright silver light.

"I'll see you both soon," Damian said to the wolf pups.

"Bye Damian," They both said before they disappeared.

"Thanks Mom." Damian smiled.

The group stood up in the truck as they began to feel the truck come to an abrupt halt and could now hear the drivers muttering to each other as they heard doors slam.

"The truck's stopped," Grover said. "They must be coming to check on the animals."

"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.

She had it easy with her invisibility hat, while Damian, Percy and Grover hid behind the crates.

The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.

"Man!" One of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.

"You hot, big boy?" He mocked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.

The lion roared in indignation. "I swear, I'm going to eat you!"

Damian had to stifle a laugh.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he yawned.

Grover tensed, for a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.

The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at Percy.

There was no sound, but as clear as day, he heard it say: Free me, lord. Please.

Percy was too stunned to react.

Not wanting to see this cruel treatment of animals any longer, Damian stepped out of cover, gaining the attention of the two truckers.

"Hey." Damian greeted casually before he elbowed one right in the face, While Annabeth knocked out the other one.

Looking sympathetically at the abused animals, the blonde said, "This transport business can't be legal."

"No kidding," Grover said.

"It's not, they're animal smugglers." The lion said.

"The lion says these guys are animal smugglers." Damian told his friends.

That's right, the zebra's voice said in Percy's mind.

"We've got to free them!" Grover said.

Damian dragged the two smugglers to the side as the others began to unlock the cages of the animals. Damian tied the two up and as the Lion exited his cage he had a hungry look on his face.

"As much as I want to let you, it's best you don't," Damian said while the lion look liked it shrugged.

"I don't eat junk food anyway." The lion said causing both Damian and Grover to snort with laughter.

"I'm going to place a sanctuary sanctum on them so they can go straight to safety. We don't want them getting recaptured or getting in any more harm's way. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live," Grover said.

"Good thinking," Damian said as he walked up to the lion and patted its head. The lion didn't seem to mind since it already knew that Damian was a friend and being the son of Artemis, the lion naturally felt at ease around him.

Once that was done, they pushed the truck doors wide open. As soon as they did the lion, the antelope and the zebra all burst out of the truck and ran off down the streets of Las Vegas.

"Well, if a lion running down the street of Vegas does not make the news then who knows what will," Damian said making the others chuckle. They could hear scream and shouts of terror from the people just walking by. They doubted meeting a lion was on the to-do list that day.

They stepped out of the truck and put their hands in front of them to stop the sun from blinding them from how bright it was. It was warm as well. So much so that they all took their jackets off.

"Geez, uncle Apollo, turn the heat down." Damian said. As if hearing him, the sun brightened a little more intensely, causing Damian to glare directly at the sun. "Asshole."

"We may need to find a new way of getting to LA since we have knocked out our drivers." Percy said.

"True. We have six days left until the solstice right?" Damian asked.

"That's right," Annabeth said. "We are making good time."

"So where in Vegas have we even ended up exactly?" Percy asked, getting shrugs from the others.

"Not like I have ever been here Percy," Damian said getting a sheepish smile from the boy.

"We may as well take a look around while we're here," Annabeth said as the group began to walk around Vegas. leaving the truck behind which was beginning to draw attention by the people passing by.

They passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. They passed the miniature pyramids, a pirate ship, and the miniature version of the Statue of Liberty. Each time they went passed a casino they had to drag Annabeth away as she was admiring and gossiping about its architecture.

Damian also wanted to head inside and maybe do a bit of gambling since he has beaten his dad, Lady and Trish at poker but the idea was quickly shot down by Annabeth who simply told him he was not old enough.

As time went by, the group eventually found themselves lost and found themselves at the far end of Vegas.

"Great, where have we ended up?" Percy asked.

"You guess is as good as mine." Damian said as he leaned against a nearby wall.

"We could go over there and ask for directions. Maybe a cab too since we need to find some way to get to LA," Annabeth said as she pointed to a building behind them.

The boy all looked in the direction she was pointing in and the first thing they saw was the giant flashing letters on entrance of the building with what looked like giant flashing lotus above it.

They looked at the name and all said it aloud.

"Welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino."

We've finally reached Vegas and the hotel, where Damian will meet a certain pair of siblings. Do remember to vote on the poll for the pairing option.