"Parcel!" Travis screamed after him, before saying a bad word, and Parcel felt a hand grab him by the foot. Parcel wriggled and kicked, because it was Important to go into this dark place under the truck. He did not know why it was important, and a part of him found the Dark scary. The voice in the Dark should have been terrifying, like the hiss of some horrific monster who could swallow a little boy in one gulp, and the suggestion of rats sent a slight shudder down Parcel's spine. But he did not fear the voice in the Dark. He could not remember ever hearing that voice before, but just like his every instinct said to stay with his new brothers and protect them, his every instinct also said this Voice belonged to someone precious and Important. Friend.

"Hello," Parcel called, after the voice, even as Travis managed to get a good hold on his ankle in spite of his kicking. "Are you there? Hello?"

There was a soft hissing sound, almost too quiet to hear over the commotion of Parcel's own wriggling body and loud heartbeat and Travis's swearing. Then, as Parcel was being dragged backwards, away, something answered.

'Hello?'

Then Percy was in the light again, and Tavis was shaking him, or maybe just shaking, and shouting a bit. Percy didn't really listen.

"My snake!" he said, interrupting something along the lines of 'never do that again, what were you thinking, who knows what could be under there'. His new stuffie had come off from around his shoulders and was left behind under the truck. He could just see the tip of its tail, and he reached for it. Travis didn't let him close enough to grab it, holding him tightly and securely, but after a moment, he sighed, then bent and grabbed it himself. It slid out slowly, as if it were giving him trouble, and then it came out a bit more and he yelped and dropped it.

There was another snake wrapped around the stuffie. A real snake. Its head was pointed, like a viper's, and its scales a dull green mottled with darker patches. It also a long scrape across its face, brown from dried blood.

'Hello?' said a voice that had to be the snake, though it didn't open its mouth. The voice was adult and male.

"George?" said Travis, reaching for toy and snake again. He carefully picked them up together in the arm not clutching Parcel. Parcel stopped wriggling, now that he was getting what he wanted. He stared at the snake, and wondered why it made his heart clench in his chest, and tears come to his eyes. He reached for the snake, and was very annoyed that Travis wasn't instantly giving it to him.

'Child of Hermes?' answered the snake. It sounded a bit faint and unwell. 'Where…who…?'

"Hey, guys? We got company," said Connor, sounding nervous.

The growl from down the street came again, louder. There was a tremor in the earth beneath their feet, once, then again, as if something very heavy were very slowly approaching.

"Parcel," Travis whispered, very tense. He set Parcel down, then pushed both snakes, real and stuffie, into his arms. That was Right and Good, except now something scary was coming, and Parcel felt his heart thud fast and he bounced in his new shoes and he wondered if he should say 'adamas' or if he should run. He held the snakes closely, squeezing the stuffie and petting the real snake's head with his finger, though he was careful of the scrape. "Parcel, get out your cloak and cover yourself. And if…if things go wrong…you run. You just…run. Go home and wait for Percy."

Parcel wanted to argue, because he was only going to run if his brothers came with him, but his voice was a bit trapped. He could see the monster. It was HUGE, like Tyrannosaurus huge, with a serpentine viper's head over a fat, armored body and claws the size of Parcel's short sword. Without a word, Travis was suddenly throwing Parcel's cloak over him and the snake, though a moment before it had been in his pocket.

"Just…stay under that and get away from here," Travis ordered, no longer looking directly at Parcel. That wasn't the only thing Parcel was suddenly missing, as he realized when his brother said, "Adamas" and was suddenly holding the curved blade.

The ground shook, as the thing approached.

In Olympus, the gods were very slowly congregating. There were a lot of grumbles. No one seemed to be entirely sure what the meeting was about.

"Why are we here?" demanded Hecate. "I was in the middle of a very intricate spell. And why did you send Hebe to call me here? Is Hermes trying to outsource again? Where is he, anyway?"

"Hermes is why we are here," Apollo tried to explain, while Hera started shouting that there was nothing wrong with her daughter sending messages and she did a wonderful job on short notice.

"Oh, what did he do now?" demanded Aphrodite in a put upon tone. I was in the middle of arranging a very delicate love triangle between a playwright, a politician, and a barista. It's going to be epic."

"He was attacked and has yet to wake up," Apollo snapped, unreasonably annoyed considering if the situation were reversed he'd probably assume it was something Hermes had done, too.

"I'm beginning to think someone is targeting the youngest of us," said Ares, and sounding oddly serious for Ares. "D was attacked, too."

"Who would want to attack Father's children so blatantly?" Artemis demanded, sounding slightly aghast. Inadvertently, they all glanced in Hera's direction. She haughtily pretended not to notice.

"I will have your attention!" boomed Zeus, literally, and the quiet hum of grumbling and rumor gathering ceased. Everyone went to their chairs. Two were noticeably empty.

"Earlier this morning," Zeus announced solemnly into the silence, "An unknown enemy started a war upon Mount Olympus."

Even the most vocal grumbler was now staring at him, wide eyed. Apollo, who had at least some idea of what had happened, felt a shiver go down his spine. He knew, of course, that someone had attacked his brothers. But somehow, he had not equated single attacks to war. Though, if someone were truly attacking gods, and successfully at that, what else could it be?

"Hermes and Dionysus were attacked when alone, on the Earthly plane, fulfilling the duties I gave them. Their bodies were found and retrieved, but they have not been revived. We do not yet know what foolish person chose to wage war on us, or how they managed to lay low two powerful gods. There is but one witness, and he will lay before us now what he knows. We will then decide how to respond to this blatant attack."

Poseidon stepped forward, after a nod from his brother. He looked mostly the same as he always did, except for the serious and grim expression on his face.

"My son, Percy, had invited me to lunch at some taco place by the beach. I don't know how he knew I was out of my realm or where to find me. Suddenly, I felt this…this coldness, against the back of my neck. It is difficult to describe. It hurt, but…not a hurt of the body. Like, like it was pulling on my godly essence. I would like to say that I turned and fought, but the shock of it…if I had been alone, I might well be in a bed alongside Hermes and Dionysus. My son saw I was distress and came to my aid. Whoever, whatever it was, it fled from him. I never even saw it and Percy…Percy said all he saw was a waiter holding a wine bottle against the back of my neck." Then, a bit sheepishly, "My son has many strengths, but seeing through the Mist has never been his strong suit."

Everyone turned to look at Hecate, at that.

"It's a passive, self-regulating enchantment," she said in a slightly annoyed tone, as if repeating something she had explained a hundred times before even though no one had actually asked the question. "I do not micromanage it and I have no idea what it was hiding."

"Why would someone powerful enough to take down gods run from a half-blood?" demanded Athena. Voices started to rise again as conversations erupted. Zeus silenced them all with another roll of thunder.

"We must find out more. We must know who the attacker is and what form of weapon they wield. We must find a cure for what ails Hermes and Dionysus. We must ensure no more gods are taken down. We must ensure the realms of Hermes and Dionysus do not fall into disarray during their ailment. And we must find out if any other, lesser gods, have been attacked."

The last statement startled most of them, who had not even considered the possibility. It was a reminder for everyone that Zeus was a formidable leader. One can question his skills as a father, or question his over the top punishments, but he was in his position for a reason.

"What I felt…it did not feel like a weapon," said Poseidon. "Something that can strike at our inner godhood…I believe Hecate is best suited to research this."

"I can go through our libraries, and try to find any records of such a thing happening before," Athena offered.

"If half-bloods truly scare this…this monster off, perhaps we should keep our children close?" said Ares. "And even if it was a fluke, we should stay in groups anyway. They're trying to pick us off one by one, when we are alone. So, we make sure we are not alone."

"When you say Hermes was attacked while fulfilling his duty…which duty did you mean?" asked Hephaestus, who had been mostly quiet during all their discussion, though that was not unusual for him.

Far below and some distance from the meeting, the Stoll brothers were questioning their every decision that had led to that point.

"Three half-bloods in one place, I knew we shouldn't have all come," Travis said, albeit softly. The monster was huge, but it was not actually attacking yet. Its serpentine head wove back and forth, and a forked tongue flicked out. The monster's body moved slowly and heavily, but its head seemed whip-fast at the end of its long neck and none of them wanted to test how close it had to be before it could strike.

"We should run," whispered Parcel, still under the cloak, as he gently stroked the snake in his hands. Unfortunately, they were somewhat backed into a corner. The reason the delivery van lay in a crumpled heap where it did was because it had been slammed hard into the building behind it. The way out was towards the monster. The monster took a few more ominous, slow steps forward.

'Rats,' mumbled the snake in Parcel's arms. Then, 'Hermes? Martha?'

Parcel did not know why that question made his heart clinch. He took a step backwards, back towards the van. Maybe, all three of them could hide under there? Did the monster already know they were there and was just really slow about coming after them? Or maybe it couldn't see well. It wasn't moving like it had seen them, even though they were right out in the open.

"Under the van," he whispered to his brothers. Travis jumped slightly, both him and Connor looking vaguely in Parcel's direction.

"Where…?" whispered Connor.

"Dad's invisibility cloak," Travis explained.

"Seriously?" Connor said. "And it couldn't have fit all of us?"

"I…don't know?" said Travis. "I just wanted to get the kid to be safe."

Suddenly, the monster's snake head whipped back, it's eyes trained in their direction. It definitely knew they were there. It opened its mouth, revealing wicked long fangs, its crest rising, and then with a sudden twist of it's head, a glob of spit struck the pavement just to the left of Connor. The spit sizzled and started to melt a hole in the concrete.

"Run?" asked Connor.

"Run," agreed Travis. "Get gone, kid."

Except there was nowhere to run. Parcel bounced on his feet, eyes going from his brothers, to the monster, to the sizzling spot on the concrete. He could go back under the delivery van where it was dark and maybe safe, but maybe not. His brothers expertly held their short swords, faces pale but determined. Another glob of spit splattered just where Travis had been standing, except he'd danced agilely away.

"The body is slow, if we can just get past it," shouted Connor.

"The head's too fast," Travis answered. "If we could get into one of the buildings…"

"I could go up close and stab it," said Parcel, which had Travis giving a loud shriek he'd later deny to his dying breath.

"Parcel, I told you to get gone."

"I need my sword back."

"It's called a harpe, and no."

"Then take the cloak and you do it," said Parcel. Travis hesitated at that.

"I'll take the snakes and hide under the van," said Parcel. "Then you can be invisible and stab it."

"He's got a point," said Connor. The ground shook. The monster was coming closer. Soon, it wouldn't need to spit; it'd be close enough to use its fangs. They looked super venomous. Or maybe they were filled with acid, too.

"Maybe.." said Travis.

"Too late! Move!" shouted Connor, and he pushed wildly, trying to get both boys when he could only see one.

A glob of acid hit Parcel with shocking accuracy considering he was supposedly invisible, right in the face, and he fell back from the force of it.

It didn't burn. It rolled down the cloak and dripped onto the concrete, and the concrete, where it finally started to smoke.

"Hey, the cloak is acid proof!" Parcel said happily, sitting up, only to be globbed by another round of spit.

"This is not the way to find that out!" Travis shouted, sounding rather panicked for someone who had survived to college age and had a lot of experience fighting for his life.

"Under the van, give us the acid proof invisibility cloak, and we kill the monster, got it?" Connor said, because there was no time for a new plan. Parcel nodded, not that his brothers could know that, and moved towards the van.

Before he could get there, the ground shook so much it threw him off his feet. It threw Connor too, though Travis managed to stay upright. Which was just as well, because suddenly the monster's viper head was striking for him, and he was able to leap backwards, putting himself just out of reach. He swung his harpe as he fell back, but it missed.

Parcel got to his feet, saw the viper head rearing back for another go, was certain he was about to see one of his brothers die, felt his heart beating hard in his chest, felt the smaller snake as it slowly wound its body off the stuffie and around his arm. He felt frozen and helpless and terrified and a thousand bad feelings.

There was a flash of light, light so bright he had to squeeze his eyes closed. For a moment he thought maybe the viper head had gotten him, maybe dying was a bright light, maybe…

He blinked his eyes open and he was not dead, and Travis was not dead, and Connor was not dead, and the large man standing between them and staring at the monster with a somewhat bemused expression was not dead either. The monster was shaking its head, clearly just as startled by the bright light.

"Off with you," the man ordered gruffly towards the monster, and he took something from his pocket and threw it. It was some kind of ball that bounced once, twice, then made a soft 'pfft' noise when it bonked the monster's foot. Half a second later, there was an explosion of gold dust, and when the dust cleared, the monster was gone.

"Wow," said Connor, getting up off the ground. "That is the most literal example of deus ex machina that I've ever known."

"You are one of Hermes' brats, all right," muttered the new man who had thrown the ball. He was already turning away from them, moving in a practiced, but lopsided sort of way, leaning on a cane as he walked to the van. "No respect."

"Thank you very much, Lord Hephaestus," said Travis. Then, "Do you know what happened to our dad?"

"That's what I'm here to find out," answered Hephaestus. He ripped open one of the bashed-in doors and started poking around inside the van's front seats. "Hermes disabled my feed, so I have to do this the old-fashioned way." When he finally stepped away from the van, he was holding a USB in his hand.

"But…he's still alive…right?" asked Connor. Then, after a moment, "Sir."

"He isn't faded, and that's all I know. I fix machines, not people. Look away, if you want to keep your eyesight." Which was all the warning they got before another bright flash of light came from where the man was standing. When they were able to look again, he was gone.