Chapter 16: When Bears fly

[3rd Person Pov]

"Absolutely not!"

Zoë's voice rang across the destroyed rest area. She glared at each of her opponents' eyes, except for Argus because that'll take more than 5 minutes.

Percy, Annabeth, and Luna had exasperated and/or desperate looks on her face, wondering how on Gaia's name someone can be this stubborn.

"But Zoë," Annabeth spoke up, trying to reason with her for the umpteenth time "it makes sense: Five shall go west to the goddess in chain. That is what the prophecy said. We lost 2 before we began, but now it is replenished."

A fine flow of logic. An average person would normally nod and grudgingly/ungrudgingly allow the two to join in.

But sadly, Zoë Nightshade was not average. Very far from it, in fact.

"I don't care! I will not take a boy on this quest. Not, not him."

Zoë snarled at Percy as if he was the nastiest contagion she could ever think of. But Percy noticed that her brown eyes darting down to his sword─which was now back to a ballpoint pen.

That made him speak up against his better judgment. Whatever horrible past it may have had, the sword had saved his life countless times over two years. He will not let anyone treat it as a distasteful illness and get away with it.

"Why do you have a gripe against Riptide? Have you seen it before?"

"I do not have to answer any of thou questions, ever!"

Luna stepped in, not being able to keep quiet either.

"Zoë, you are being hysteric."

"I am not; and what were thee thinking, bringing a boy along just to follow on a journey thee aren't even prepared for!"

"Hey, I've been a hunter for 5 years. I'm the best one among my age group, you know that!"

Zoë shook her head.

"It is still too dangerous for thee. I stand by my case: Lady Artemis wouldn't have allowed both of these to join on a quest, so neither shall I."

Then David, who had stayed silent from this argument this entire time (A very 'un-Ares' thing to do, he thought to himself) tentatively raised his hand like he was a student in a classroom with an enraged teacher.

"Uh, I don't think she would've brought me as well, in that case─"

"Shut up."

And that was the end of his attributes in the debate.

Zoë swiped across her opponents with her eyes, but none of them had another point to raise. She let a snort of victory, it was a victory won mostly by her stubbornness than her logic, but a victory was a victory nonetheless.

"Now, go back to thou precious camp."

She waved them off like a bunch of flies and turned around.

As frustrated as they were, Percy and Luna were about to go back to Blackjack, when Annabeth grabbed both of their arms.

'Oh, no. She has the eyes.'

Percy gulped inwardly, seeing her grey eyes twinkle in an 'I-have-a-brilliant-plan' sort of way. Not that her plan had a high chance of failure rate. Quite an opposite to be clear, but the plan she comes up with those eyes usually were treacherous in one way or another.

She whispered the plan to both of them.

"Um, Zoë?"

"Yes? I-"

Zoë turned around, and for a second she looked like she was close to apologizing, but her expression quickly stiffened when she saw that Percy and Luna were still very much present.

"I have said it many times already, and I'll say it again. I will not allow-"

Percy quickly stepped in.

"We get that; it's just that we don't have a ride back."

Obviously, Zoë was having none of that nonsense.

"Thou lies are shallow as thy brains; do thee think I haven't noticed the black pegasi following us?"

"Yeah, but the thing is…he ran away during the flight out of panic."

Then Percy frowned to himself as if arguing with someone internally.

However, Zoë was too taken aback at the news to notice that; if these two trespasser's ride here was no longer present, the only way back to the camp was their van.

"How long does it take to go back, then going to D.C?"

Argus was about to answer but then saw two pairs of grey eyes giving him a 'please-help-us' look, and rolled his many eyes once more before doing several hand gestures, making Zoë yelp.

"6 hours?!"

"It's morning highway traffic, Zoë. They tend to be-"

"I know what highway traffic is, boy."

Zoë crossed her arms and stared at the demolished building of Starbucks.

The mist had worked its part well, but the mortals were still reporting the 'gas explosion' that has happened, and judging by how some of them were glancing in their direction, cops would have several questions for them when they arrive. Which means they can't wait around hours upon hours.

After a tense minute or so, Zoë clucked her tongue out of utmost disgust and displeasure but grimly nodded.

"Very well. I will not allow my pride-" She shot Percy a dirty look. "-to damage this quest. It seems there would be no other option than you two joining on."

"Thank you, Zoë."

"Save thy gratitude. We need to move."

And they went along.

Argus said he would leave them now─he couldn't afford to be away from the camp too long─and Zoë had her suspicions about how he was going back, and if it was even slightly possible to lump Percy and Luna on him, but Argus had insisted that it was only a one-man's means of transport.

It wasn't an entirely lie either; Blackjack could only support so much on his back, and surely Argus alone was reaching his limit. Percy could definitely tell that.

"Yo, boss! This eye giant weights a lot!"

"Yeah, I know. Sorry. Thanks a ton."

"He weighs a ton!"

And with that, their telepathy was due to the distance.

The five members of the quest; Zoë, Annabeth, Percy, Luna, and David moved steadily south.

None of them talked much as they trudged along with the traffic. Zoë, their driver, was emanating an aura of anger so hard, the rest was certain that the first one who dared to open his/her mouth would experience the full backlash of a 3000-year-old huntress.

They eventually stopped at one of the big buildings lining the mall.

"Lady Artemis's tracks ended here. We need to find clues."

They all filed out of the van. Percy looked at the 'Delphi Strawberry Service' logo.

"How does camp get back the van, anyway?"

"Harpies." Annabeth answered simply.

They were about to enter the building, wondering about how to search a 'track' in a mall, when David raised an alarm.

"Guys, I have bad news. I know that car."

He was pointing at a black sedan parked only a few feet away from their van. It seemed to be empty. Zoë raised her eyebrow.

"Why should we care about something thee know?"

"Because that car belongs to Dr. Thorn-err, the Manticore."

[Line Break]

[David's Pov]

We argued again. Yeah, big surprise there.

The difference was that this time it was Zoë and Annabeth on one side and Percy and I were on the other. Luna was pulling a neutral this time, playing with her miniature metal horse thingy on the asphalt.

"We can't afford ourselves to be distracted by a beast. Our objective is to save Lady Artemis."

"But he might be hatching some other plan here. We need to put a stop to that if that is the case."

"But Percy, what if that's what he wants? I'd like to take him out as well, but if we get ambushed here, the whole quest is at stake!"

"Hey, we've fought him before. I doubt we'll lose a second time."

Both Zoë and Annabeth were skeptical of my claim. Even Percy looked unsure, but I was confident that we could beat him if we face him again.

I don't know where this sudden confidence/urge for battle was originating from, but I was itching to slash out Dr. Thorn's tail for giving me a D- on my last exam and nearly forcing me to be stuck at Westover Hall for another year.

In the end, we decided to do both. Sort of.

We would split up and look for Artemis's trail (I had no idea what that meant, but Zoë ignored my question) but if Thorn and his clique intervenes, we had full permission to engage and kill, if possible.

"Don't forget to call for backup if needed," Annabeth added.

"If the backup actually comes, that is."

Percy glanced at Zoë, but she only snorted and flipped her one-sided braid hair over her shoulder.

"Inside a mall could be 'a land without rain'. I hope thee meets thou fate here."

"Gee, thanks."

"Ok, enough!" Annabeth intervened as Zoë opened her mouth furiously.

"We'll meet back at the main hall in an hour. Break!"

"Thee is not the leader of the quest, but very well."

Zoë swiftly sprinted up the right staircase and disappeared into the history section. Annabeth went off to the ancient creatures section (why is this apart from history, I have no idea) and Percy went up the left staircase to a place labeled [The Air and Space Museum].

I turned back to see Luna. She was about to turn around.

"Where are you going?"

"I was going to set up some booby traps at the sedan?"

She gave a wicked smile, which I found myself returning.

"You go girl."

"Oh, I will."

She gave me a wink and skipped out of the mall.

Left, right, forward, and behind were all taken. And since this mall's underground is nothing but a food court and parking lot, I had only one other place to go: Up.

I pushed a button on one of the main elevators and went up to the observatory platform.

Good news: The view was absolutely fabulous.

Bad news: No Thorn or Artemis.

I still had no idea what 'Artemis's trail' was supposed to be. Did I have to search the floor for a strand of godly auburn hair or something? I had a sneaking suspicion that if I really did that, she would turn me into a fawn even though it was in good meaning.

Greek gods were like that in the myths too; not very rational beings to be honest, or forgiving, or just for that matter. That was the exact reason why I liked Greek Mythology; their gods were not 'I'm the all-powerful all-good guy. I'm here to save all your souls', mostly because that was a straight-up lie.

If someone was all-powerful and all-good, the world wouldn't be filled with so many shmucks; like those kids at Westover Hall, or machete and his former poker friends.

But then I remembered the unclaimed kids at Camp Half-Blood. Their sullen and depressed faces, some were even envious of us-of me, for being claimed of my godly parent even before I set foot in camp.

That made an uncomfortable lump in my throat.

Sure, I liked the Greek gods in their imperfection, but that was only as a story element. If they were real as humans were, shouldn't they be better than us? At least have some courtesy to acknowledge your children?

Then I also remembered that, if the demigod was a child of a lesser god, they would be stuck at Hermes cabin anyway. It made the lump even more uncomfortable. '

I couldn't tell which would be worse:
Not knowing your parent, or being told that your parent isn't important enough.

I might've spent all hour brooding over that depressing idea if it were not for my stomach grumbling out loud for food.

"Maybe I should check the underground…"

I searched my pockets around for my wallet; it had some change in it for me to buy myself a late breakfast, which was good enough. They were allowances that ma would wire me through the strict guidelines of Westover Hall.

Thinking about ma brought down the mood again, but then I saw something that chilled my bones.

At the parking lot, Luna was struggling next to the black sedan while two buff guys in large coats were trying to her into a large sack.

As I watched, one finally managed to put her arms behind her back and shove her headfirst into it, and closed the lid tight, before hoisting upon his shoulder and marching back into the mall.

I bolted to the elevator and slammed down on the 1st floor.

My heart was racing. I wanted to bang my head against the elevator wall, but that might cause the emergency breaks to activate.

What was I thinking? How could I let some ten-year-old kid go mess up the ride of a pseudo-terrorist, knowing full well that he wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone in their way?

The elevator was painfully slow, and my mind kept making up images of the sack being thrown over the river or dragged along the floor by a car, or other horrible ways of execution.

Thankfully, I wasn't late.

When the elevator door opened with a pleasant 'ding!' I saw the pair of buff dudes behind a water fountain. One had the same sack I just saw on his shoulder, and they were making their way to the history section, growling at the kids who glanced at them.

"Hey!"

I shouted like an idiot and ran at them, clicking on the lighter which became a black sword in my hand.

The one holding the sack growled like a bear and shoved the sack to his peer.

"Half-blood! Go get the hunter to the general, Oreius! I'll deal with that one!"

"Hehe! Hehe!"

The other dude laughed like a maniac, but held the sack tightly and ran off, pushing aside tourists without care. I tried to follow him, but the one left behind roared and ripped his coat apart…to reveal an enormous chest with thick brown fur.

He had claws instead of fingernails, feet like paws of a bear, and his nose was snout-like and his teeth were all pointed canines.

"A bear guy?"

The bear guy growled and extended a pair of owl-like wings, which were also covered with brown furry feathers.

"A bear guy with wings?"

He flew up and landed right in front of my face.

"My name is Agrius," The bear guy with wings growled.

A set of bronze claws covered over his already long claws, making it an even fiercer weapon.

"And we have a bone to pick with Artemis and her hunters; both figuratively, and literally. If you'd interfere, I'll gladly have you for a meal!"

He lunged at me with his extended claws.

As far as I remember, in the original myths Argus and Oreius were turned into an owl at the end when Ares took pity on them...again, not entirely sure. It was written in the fandom wiki too, so...anyway that's why I gave the bear twins a set of wings.

I can't believe that these two didn't make a return when they had a clear history with the hunters.

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