Chapter Title: We Get Drawn To A Mysterious Building Appearing Out Of Nowhere
Alternative Chapter Title: Beginning Of The Second Giant War Arc, Part Two
(A/N: This chapter - the inspirations for this one are definitely all over the place, just a fair warning here for this one. I'm changing gears here, as the TMNT inspirations mainly come from Season One, specifically Episode 13 of that season, "Notes From The Underground, Part One". References from that episode in this chapter, plus some from Season Five as well. That as well as some Scooby Doo stuff too. This arc is also inspired by the Foot Clan from TMNT.. in particular the various incarnations of these common foes of the Turtles over the years.
Shout-outs to -JASONSGRACE , Imaginebooks , Az56796743 , goddessofwisdom- , and Galatea-Green-31 here since their OCs all appear in this chapter and the next few as well. Also shout-outs to TsarinaTorment and TheTimeTraveler24 here too because the composite OC (Alice) based off of their versions of that OC character appears here too.
Anyways, enjoy the chapter!)
((Series Related Note: If you see something like "(** _ **)" at a certain point in some of these chapters coming up and in other fanfics I'm doing, it's a sign that I have some music from another fandom that I think fits really, really well with what is happening in the chapter it is placed in. Thank you for taking the time to read this message. Back to the chapter-scheduled content below.))
- — - — - — -
One small fact that I forgot to mention last time, my sister Clarisse was made an honorary daughter of Hermes too, much to Chris' pride.
Anyway.. back to what I was going to talk about this time.
- — - — - — - Switch To Third Person POV - — - — - — -
(** Please play Eerie (Score) from the original Scooby Doo Where Are You soundtrack. Music is up on YouTube courtesy of one user named "Montgomery Gator." Repeat as many times as you have to until the POV switches again.**)
Deep in the woods of Long Island only a few miles from Camp Half Blood and in between Camp and New York City, in a large clearing, the mist was amplifying itself in full force in a mysterious fashion on this night.
The mist, green as ever, condensed at a massive rate in this particular clearing, rapidly gathering in massively large quantities until it covered an area of ground about 370 yards long by 320 yards wide, almost the entire clearing. Within this mass of mist, as if by magic, the ground cracked into multiple pieces, as if an earthquake rupturing the ground decided to appear and contain itself to just that area, and then the ground sank, creating a massive hole that took up almost all of the area covered by the mist, its edges jagged yet also partially rounded like those of a circle.
The sounds of ground moving against each other could be heard a while as it sounded that something was rising up from that hole. Then, out of the hole, came the Greek-like roof of a building.
A large and tall building, to be exact. It looked like a temple mixed with that of a department store, at least on the outside. Then again, this was what could be seen as a shadow through all of the green mist as this strange, mysterious building on a mass of land that when fully risen made the gap between it and the rest of the ground on Long Island an earthen moat about 5 yards long and 8 feet deep that was hexagonal in shape, rose from base to roof about 4 stories into the air. Magically, at the entrance which looked like a typical Greek entrance to a temple, an arching stone bridge like the type used in the mid 19th Century formed to connect the building over the earthen dry moat to the rest of Long Island.
In the shadows of the night, a large, shadowy creature slipped out the front doors of the mysterious shadowy building that had rose out from below in the concealing mass of mist. It decided to take a little stroll around the area, a stroll that while innocent enough, it would have far-reaching consequences in what it unintentionally started.
- — - — - — - Switch Back To Colton's POV - — - — - — -
The morning after the end of last chapter (and the third person POV segment above)..
For some reason this morning, at least to me, the very air smelled of a fight on the horizon somewhere close. I couldn't tell you why, it just did.
I had fallen asleep and sleep well snuggling with Kayla for our first night in the Typhon Cabin. To be fair really, despite sleeping well, it still felt weird waking up that morning and not seeing anyone else other than your girlfriend in the cabin with you. Of course, it would probably take a while before it became normal, so.. I shouldn't be too concerned about it. After all, Percy has the Poseidon Cabin all to himself, as does technically a few other people, like the Victor twins in the Nike Cabin, Lou Ellen in the Hecate Cabin, Damien in the Nemesis Cabin (since Ethan went straight for the Kronos Cabin), etc. so like, me and Kayla weren't like the only ones in this situation.
But enough of that.
Moving on to what happened next now.
I woke up to the sound of my alarm that morning, and Kayla decided to sleep in a bit. Ever since gaining the blessing of Typhon, despite being a child of the Sun, she's gradually been able to sleep in a bit more, so that's why. Anyway, I did my usual routine.. brushed my teeth, freshened myself up, grabbed my gear, slipped out of the cabin, and quietly headed up to my sniper perches along Half Blood Hill via the alternate entrance located in the tree line between the cabins and the lake. Just when I got to my usual spot..
.
.
.
.
.
.
That's when I saw it.
Two trails of mysterious footprints. Big, a good one and a half feet long in length, three-toes in a sharp triangle kind of shape and two sets of them going first to the east and then back to the west, clearly visible across the far slope of Half Blood Hill, running right to left and then left to right across it.
I was stunned. I had never seen anything like it. So what did I do?
Naturally, the only logical thing that anyone in this situation could do. I turn and ran to get Chiron, not noticing the pair of yellow eyes staring grimly at me from the still relatively dark forest as the sun rose on this early September day.
Along the way though, I saw something that I hadn't seen on the way up - a note that was nailed to the tree at the sniper perch by the amphitheater - so I took one look at it, stumbled backward, fell on my butt, and screamed for good reason.
It was just like the prophecy paper that had came in through the mysteriously opened window before the Battle of Manhattan. Same type of paper, only a different - and longer - prophecy was on it this time.
Monster King, beware.. take many as you please. Follow the tracks, and you will come across a place that feeds. The creatures below turn and shift.. and secrets will float from hollows forgotten. Former guards lie in wait.. a test of skill will beckon. The clash that begins the war looms.. and the blow will echo and reckon.
- — - — - — -
Chiron, as could be expected, immediately called an emergency meeting, even going as far as sending Argus and Annabeth to go and urgently pick up Percy from NYC. When they finally got back, we were all in the break room of the Big House for the meeting.
By we, I meant Chiron and the following camp counselors. First up was me and Kayla for the Typhon Cabin.
Then there was the Victor twins for the Nike Cabin (still in construction as of this time). Malcolm was subbing in for Annabeth until she could return with Percy, so both could represent the Athena and Poseidon cabins respectively.
Thalia was there for the Zeus Cabin since thanks to her dads' punishment on Artemis, she was able to be at camp at this time to spend some time with Luke, who was also here as head counselor for the Kronos Cabin. Clarisse was here for the Ares Cabin, as was Jake Mason for the Hephaestus Cabin, Michael for the Apollo Cabin, the Stolls for the Hermes Cabin, Katie for the Demeter Cabin, Drew Tanaka for the Aphrodite Cabin who took over after Silena like Lee before her decided to step down from her position as head counselor for Cabin Ten, Castor for the Dionysus Cabin, and Bianca for the Hades Cabin.. since Hades had Nico off doing something.
Alec was there for the Hyperion Cabin, while Cato was there for the Kratos Cabin. Similarly, Adriana was there for the Gaea Cabin and also couldn't really keep her eyes off of Luke. Butch was there for the Iris Cabin, Damien was there for the Nemesis Cabin, Paolo Montes was there for the Hebe Cabin, Lou Ellen was there for the Hecate Cabin, Clovis was there for the Hypnos Cabin, and lastly there was Chiara Benvenuti there for the Tyche Cabin.
So yeah.. a whole lot of camp counselors now. All there because being the Monster King has opened up a whole new line of shit that gets everyone dragged into it.
Though I will admit, it is honestly weird seeing Luke walking around with Backbiter once again as his sword. To explain it bluntly, one of Kronos' last gifts came to fruition when the Kronos Cabin finally was complete, as the spirit of the Titan left a new Backbiter, completely like the original, as a gift for Luke, who calls it "Backbiter II". It's touching, to say the least.
Anyways, like I said, we were all in there simply because a lot of things were deciding to come out of the woodwork, to put it bluntly.
Everyone else all stared at the prophecy paper, looking at it with a mixture of stunned, confused, and fearful faces. Added to this group was Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, who walked into the ping pong room a few minutes later. There was a very long, deathly still kind of silence that pervaded the room. It was very unnerving, to say the least.
Finally, a voice broke the silence. "So.. I'm confused..? What's going on here? What's the deal with the whole Monster King dude?" Cato asked, obviously confused as hell since he hadn't heard all that much about me being the Monster King up till now. Cue Annabeth and Grover providing an explanation that brought all the other new head counselors aside from Cato who weren't all that in the know about the story that was me and Kayla being the Monster King and Queen up to speed with it.
"Oh.." Cato said once it was done. "Got it now."
Chiron turned to me. "These tracks you see.. these are very unusual.. I do not believe I have seen any tracks quite like these before.." he told me, before a very familiar voice interrupted the conversation.
"Pardon me if I am intruding on this, young master.. but I do believe I can be of assistance to you on this matter."
We all turned around towards the doorway. There, once again controlling his flames intensely so as to not burn down the Big House even as he rested one of his flaming hands on the doorway to the room, was none other than Cháris.
"Who even is this guy?" Alec said from his spot on the far side of the ping pong table from where I was.
"Cháris, one of the heralds of the Monster King and Queen, aka me and Colton.. and elemental user of fire.." Kayla replied. Cháris simply bowed in front of us.
"At your service, dear friends and fellow campers of the two me and my brothers serve faithfully.." he said in a very friendly tone. "..so, could you please repeat exactly what it is that you have seen, my king?"
So despite the fact that he already broken the part about trying to be less formal with me and Kayla, I preceded to tell Cháris about the strange footprints in the ground on Half Blood Hill and show him the prophecy paper. Before I was finished with it though, I simply whispered in his ear, "This isn't the only one though. I'll show you the other one later." He simply nodded and said nothing, face having morphed into one of recognition and concern. It seemed like he knew exactly what had made those tracks.
"It seems that other pieces of the past are emerging in this country after years of being hidden.." he said, quite concerned. "These tracks were made by Akuma, a Japanese ushi-oni that is the guardian of Ναός της Φυλής, the Tribe Temple, also the Temple that was used as the center of operations of the legendary Tengu Clan, a clan of monsters, ninja warriors, and clear sighted mortals whose clan symbol is that of an arrow piercing through a heart. At the time we were all forced into hibernation due to the loss of the last Monster King, had operations in San Francisco, Sydney in Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Israel, India, Egypt, Ukraine, Greece, France, and Italy, just to name a few."
We all looked at him, completely confused. "That's.. a.. Japanese monster.." I told him, having read up on lots of mythological monsters other than Greek in some of my spare time in the past. "What the hell.. is a Japanese monster.. doing in the role given to a Greek demigod?" I asked him.
"There are other Pantheons that exist out there right now.." Cháris said, and I think everyone else's brains just broke at that one. Didn't see that coming. "..and the Monster King's domain doesn't just cover Greek monsters. It covers monsters from every pantheon and religion all over the globe. So, we have many connections in multiple other pantheons, as well as enemies that aren't the deities of those pantheons as well. I apologize for not conveying this information to you before, my lord and lady."
"Cháris.." I said to him, a little bit miffed. Kayla put her hand on my shoulder, and that helped calm me down. I put two and two together, and pretty sure.. I was half ready to smack the herald into the damn wall. "..you do realize that what you just said here, cannot under any circumstances be shared to our enemies, got it?"
He nodded after gulping. "I understand, young master.." he said, before politely taking a few steps back. I turned to face the others.
"I absolutely apologize for having to drag you all into this.. not that it seems fate is giving me much of a choice right now.." I said, and Clarisse simply nodded.
Percy looked like he was still trying to process what he had just heard. I wouldn't blame him if he did think that this was very confusing.
"We know where the tracks are.." Annabeth said. "We follow them to the source, we find the temple."
"Agreed.." Luke responded. "But, it's up to Colton who goes.. since clearly, the first part of the prophecy is his choice."
He was right.
It was my choice, and man.. did I feel very, very nervous.
I took a few minutes to think it over, and then I spoke.
- — - — - — - Switch Back To Third Person POV - — - — - — -
"I can't believe Colton didn't really choose us to go!" Katie complained to Silena as the two walked back to their cabins after the meeting. Katie was extra miffed since the boy she was starting to realize she had feelings for, Travis Stoll.. Colton had selected to come from the Hermes Cabin, in addition to Connor and Chris. Percy and Annabeth were no-brainers, though Colton did pick Malcolm Pace from the Athena Cabin as well. Kayla obviously would be by his side as would Cháris, who volunteered to be of assistance in what to many, including Katie, saw as his attempt to make up for his mistake, and also, others would be assisting them too, including Clarisse and Michael, who were starting to make up with each other for their feud, along with Luke, Thalia, and Ethan. Cato and Clove would go too, as would Beckendorf who had refused to retake as spot of head counselor of the Hephaestus Cabin for now as well as Austin M., Lee, Will, Sherman and lastly Alec.
A decent-sized force of 21 demigods and a herald who knew way more than had first appeared, investigating the temple that this prophecy was centered around.
And somehow, Katie Gardner was miffed that she didn't get to go.
"He's the Monster King.." Silena said back to her. "Of course he's going to leave some of us behind. It's because he cares about us.. that's why he only chose those of us who are likely to come back."
It may seem harsh, but then again, the Aphrodite and Demeter Cabins hadn't really produced strong fighters combat-wise. Katie and Miranda were getting there as was Silena, but on the whole, that was it for now.
"Besides.. the Athena Cabin is still pouring out over those boxes of records he brought back from the castle.. at least Chiron is still putting in something worthwhile as he finishes his recovery.." Silena continued, pointing out the fact that the Athena Cabin had basically become the spearhead of the effort of Camp Half Blood to help Colton - and themselves - understand what it was that Colton and Kayla were King and Queen of.. the Gods' explanation had helped a bit, as to an extent Cháris' confession earlier, but that was all that they knew about what Typhon had entrusted Colton and Kayla with.
"She's right.." Alice said, the daughter of Apollo walking over to them. "..the Athena Cabin is working overtime analyzing all of it. Even Victoria and Caeli have volunteered to help them out with it."
The multiple boxes from the castle contained treasure troves of information from the past about the history of this title, and with the help of Chiron who could move his hurt legs now but not too much - which meant not galloping for a few more weeks, they were putting together a profile of what it was they all were dealing with.
Hopefully, the trip to the temple and the successful fulfilling of this prophecy would provide them with more data to work with. The more, the better if they were going to really have a chance of understanding the Monster King perfectly.
- — - — - — - Switch Back To Colton's POV - — - — - — -
(** Music here from the "Arriving At The Scene" score from the original Scooby Doo Where Are You cartoon, on YouTube courtesy of again Montgomery Gator. Repeat as many times as you have to.**)
There was a rather large barrier of mist that we had to past through following the tracks right before we reached the place when we had set out about a couple hours later, in such a way that it almost felt like another magical layer like the boundary at camp.
We all came over this rise after passing through it, and that's when we all laid eyes on it in the clearing in front of us. Kayla and I were at the front alongside Percy and Annabeth, so we four saw it first before everyone else.
The building was a weird one, that one was for sure as we came upon it, following the tracks. It was made mostly with design elements from Ancient Greece mixed in with a few elements that could have come from Japan in the same time period, plus some Roman and Gothic stuff her and there, but the mixture of these styles was in such a way it seemed to absolutely fucking blend so seamlessly it was as if somebody was worshiping a hybrid mostly Greek/Japanese religion.
And honestly, putting it that way, the thought of such a religion sounds gross in my own mouth. It really, really does sound gross to me.
The only other thing about this that makes this even remotely normal is that it is just a single building, but moving on from that is where we go from normal to a sense of architecture so carefully crafted it is making Annabeth and Malcolm's heads spin in circles right now just from looking at it. Like, I'm not kidding. They figuratively look like it right now.
It was in a large hexagonal type shape from what we could see, at least for the main shape of the building. Past the bridge and the moat, a tapered set of four stone stairs the length of the building at the bottom and becoming narrower and narrower in length on up to the porch, was what the furthest point of the building towards us consisted of.
The outer part of the temple consisted of a polished marble floor leading up to the medium sized double lintel with Gothic arch at the top type doorway fitted with what seemed to be ancient Japanese type doors - I don't really know how else to describe doors with what looked like nose rings attached to them.
Between this and the stairs - as well as just the edges of the temple in general - was about a between 5 to 10 yard gap where a double colonnade, a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature - superstructure of moldings and bands lying horizontally above columns - and also in this case by alternating Roman and Gothic arches, to the rest of the structure. The peculiar thing about this was that there were three sets of alternating arches, as the columns were of the Doric style, where a concavely curved neck sits at the top of the column, separate from each other by a very durable material used as the floor for the second and third floors, about at least three quarters of a foot thick. A large and gently curved roof sat on top of the structure, mostly likely made out of planks and tree bark reinforced by other materials, while in some areas of the second and third levels, which had a single layer of colonnade on the outside followed by a layer of engaged columns - columns embedded in a wall and partly projecting from the wall's surface, there were some Gothic type stained glass windows in the wall between the engaged columns. A layer of engaged columns did exist on the ground level, though it was behind two sets of colonnades instead of one.
Torches lit from the sides of the columns illuminated the building on the ground level, glowing brightly even as it was still late afternoon.
All in all, it was a insanely complex and neatly constructed building that greeted us. Even I was taken aback by it.
(** Music ends here **)
"What the absolute fuck is this?" Michael muttered. "Why does it look like a Frankenstein-like mosh pit of style designs?"
"I.. don't.. really know.." Chris said in response.
"So this is the Tribe Temple.." Luke said, observing the building. "Pretty sure this definitely was not what I was expecting."
"The Tengu Clan were fans of mixing different styles together back in the day.." Cháris said calmly.
I turned to look at him. "Seriously?" I asked.
He just nodded.
Annabeth and Malcolm groaned.
The fact that there was a layer of normal white mist that hovered close to the ground - not enough to obscure the moat and bridge from view, but enough to add a sort of Scooby Doo type creepy atmosphere to what awaited us, despite the fact that the sun was out today - did not help matters.
"This place.. looks.. absolutely nutty.." Clarisse said.
"Agreed.." Sherman chimed in.
I didn't like it at all either, but the prophecy stated that we would "come across a place that feeds" - to which I might add that none of us, except possibly Cháris who wasn't talking much up till now, knew exactly what it meant by that - so this had to be it. We were now two lines through it, so we had to enter to complete the rest.
I took a step forward. "Either way.. this is the place that feeds according to the prophecy apparently.. so we go in.." I said to them, moving towards the entrance of the place, with the footsteps of Kayla and Michael right behind me.
- — - — - — -
The minute we opened the doors, a swarm of bats exited the building, snuffing out some of the torches around us from the dense amount of air they made with their wings. We all ducked our heads, all except Cháris that is. He was unscathed when it was over, however.
"Bats.. yuck.." Kayla muttered.
"What's with the Scooby Doo references on this place?" Cato said.
I didn't like it at all either, as I have said before. But still, we had to go into this place. Strangely, as if the bats weren't enough when it came to this place, the torches that they had sniffed out relit all by themselves.
Some of us - I was not among them - were definitely shivering because of that. "Are there ghosts here? What the hell?" Percy asked.
"These are magical torches.." Cháris explained. "They relight themselves after a short while if extinguished."
"Well.. that's.. nice to know.." Lee replied, still obviously on edge from everything about this place. I took a step inside, and the interior of the place was also a fusion of styles, except in this case it seemed to be more of a Gothic and ancient Japan type of fusion.
The place seemed deserted, though a set of muddy tracks lead on through the main hall of the place towards a wide set of stairs that obviously went down to the basement. "The Tengu Clan's operations usually occurred in vast underground complexes" Cháris muttered. "This temple was no exception. It was usually guarded by elite warriors, who in times past, were guardians of the Monster King whenever he came to Japan."
"So what exactly went on when it comes to this floor as well above us?" Malcolm asked, as he looked around with his flashlight shining into the dark spots that the torches inside the temple here didn't illuminate. There was also a marble staircase that led up to the second floor, further highlighting the need for the question.
"Mostly worship occurred on this floor.. though there were a couple of offices devoted to finances and other things that would fall under the scope of the Athena Cabin.." Cháris replied. "..usually in such temples, these offices dealt with more local affairs, such as donations from civilians that came to the temple. The real goodies are on the upper floors, and some underground as well. Upper offices were also guarded by elite warriors, but these dealt more with clan activities, regional policy - for the clan operated more with regional branches than as a centralized national force, though they could do so when needed - the whole nine yards of valuables. They usually kept the more highly sensitive of these documents plus valuable weapons and what not below the temple."
"Including that.. creature?" Ethan asked, referring to the guardian of the temple. "Correct.. as I was a frequent visitor to this temple in the past, I will stay on this floor and watch over the staircase should the creature appear again to bring it over to your cause, young masters.." Cháris said, bowing before me and Kayla before taking his place by the staircase.
I turned to the others. "Luke, Thalia, Clarisse, Chris, Ethan, you all got lookout duty. Cato, Alec, Sherman, Austin, Will and Clove, you all stay in here to back them or Cháris up if required.." I said to them. "Malcolm, Lee and Beckendorf, you all check out the offices on the ground floor as well as any other rooms you all come across. The rest of us will check out the offices upstairs."
"Right" Luke said.
"You got it brother.." Sherman remarked.
I turned to Percy, Annabeth, Kayla, Michael, Travis, and Connor. "Alright.. let's get to work."
- — - — - — -
(** Music here is from the "Searching For Clues score from the original Scooby Doo Where Are You cartoon, on YouTube also because of user Montgomery Gator, minus the segment between 1:47 and 2:11 in the video. Repeat as many times as you need to before the part that tells you to stop.**)
The upper floors had fewer torches in the hallways than had been present downstairs, making it even more creepy. There seemed to be multiple offices on both sides of the twin staircases that led up from the first to the second floor, and then from the second to the third floor, so like downstairs, the seven of us split up. Percy, Annabeth, and the Stolls would cover the right side, while me, Kayla, and Michael covered the left.
"Dude.. this is so creepy as shit man.." Michael muttered, his flashlight moving along the hallway floor. I will admit, for a temple that seemed so deserted, the place was remarkably still clean as a whistle. "Like.. normally, we can't even go into most places without running into a monster.. it's like something straight out of a horror movie."
I had to agree, but then again, this was even better than the time I had in the labyrinth when I got sent down there last summer. "Fair.." I replied back. "But either way.. this is basically an once in a lifetime opportunity we have here. No monsters to have to deal with, a building to explore.. it's like we're robbing a bank and nobody knows we are even here."
"I don't like the metaphor, but I get what you mean.." Kayla added. "He's right. We most likely will have little chance of having such an opportunity like this again."
Soon, we had entered one of the offices, and we were looking around all over it. "What exactly are we looking for?" Michael asked.
"Anything that might be important, whether related to me and Kayla as the Monster King and Queen or to what exactly here could be valuable to us going forward.." I replied, looking around the desk.
"How exactly am I supposed to know which stuff is important if most of this is in ancient Japanese?" Michael groaned.
"Cháris can probably translate, or at least find someone to help us out with that.." Kayla replied.
Michael groaned again in frustration. "I hate this so much.." he grumbled. "Why couldn't they have written this all in Ancient Greek?"
"It's a different ancient civilization, Michael.." Kayla responded, a little annoyed with her half-sibling.
"Right.. right.." Michael said.
A few moments of silence passed between the three of us before Michael suddenly called out, "Holy shit.. look at this!"
(** Music ends here **)
- — - — - — - Switch To Third Person POV - — - — - — -
Near the tip of Long Island, to the east of Camp Half Blood - the temple had been to the west of it - two figures sat on sandy thrones on a private beach. A closer look at these two figures made it clear that they were ones that had been in the area before last summer.
They were Porphyrion and Periboia.
"The tides seem anxious.. father.." Periboia muttered. "Perhaps a sign of what is to come."
"Perhaps.." Porphyrion replied to his daughter. "..though it could be that you are just on edge after all since we felt what happened in Manhattan."
Periboia nodded, but the daughter of the former King Of The Giants seemed still lost in thought, as if she was constantly thinking about something.
She was shaken from her thoughts as a third human figure, that of Enceladus, came running up, panting and out of breath. "My lord.." he said, kneeling at their thrones. "..I have received word from some of our limited amount of followers. The Tribe Temple of the Tengu Clan has risen on Long Island. Those cursed brats from Camp Half Blood are already at it."
Porphyrion cursed under his breath. "Drat!" he exclaimed. "Now they are likely to gather information, weapons, and supplies from it."
An evil thought arose in his head. "No matter.." he said. "Tonight, we will confront those pesky brats and show the new king who the real owner of the power is supposed to be."
Enceladus and Periboia both paled, precisely because they had sensed all the blessings Colton had gotten on Olympus, as Porphyrion stared out into space, a wicked malicious grin on his face.
To be continued..