All rights belong to Rick Riordan

Chapter 65

I Kill Something New

(Percy)

'Why is it every time I am in this form, you drag me somewhere where it so bloody hot.' I asked Diana running my fingers under the collar of shirt to let some fresh air. The problem was that as I was unable to hide wings in any other way I was forced to wear a jacket and this being Miami, I felt like I was slowly cooking in it.

Diana meanwhile was looking at me as if to say that's not my problem before taking her parka off and throwing it in a trashcan before looking at me with a smile.

'That is so evil.' I remarked.

'No that is when I strip down to swim wear.' She whispered into my ear.

'Yeah as if you would go swimming Ariel. Although I am not stopping you if you want to, be my guest.' I told her sarcastically. As much as I tried to avoid Archery she refused to go near any large body of water.

'And what exactly would I get out of it?' She asked seductively.

'My heartfelt appreciation, along with the stares of every guy in Miami.'

'In that case, Miami would have a distinctly female population in the near future.'

'Wow suddenly I realize I got off extremely lucky with having seen you naked. If you would wipe out half a city for seeing you in a bikini.'

'That's because getting ripped apart by a cat is not as impressive sounding as a pack of dogs.'

'Have you seen my pet cat? You hit her with a full power arrow and managed to burn a bit of fur off. I am just glad she can't fly.' I questioned skeptically.

'You can always try cross-breeding her with a gryphon. Have a whole litter of armored fire breathing flying felines, there could be a market.' Diana explained and I considered the prospect terrifying.

'As if any Griffon would have the balls try besides there can only be one awesome cat, she doesn't like sharing that title.' I remarked remembering the Chimera and the stone Lion.

'That's true but back to the point of why we are here, where is the address that your brother gave you?' Diana asked causing me to suddenly rummage through my pockets frantically before finally finding it. I had almost been worried I lost it back in the confusion.

Straining against the sun I made out where we were supposed to go before asking a passing mortal if they knew where it was. After a strange glance at me and my strange choice of clothing considering, he eventually directed to take the last right at the bottom of the street. Coat aside I supposed it helped I was at least a head taller than the guy and a lot more well built.

After thanking him we followed his directions until we found ourselves in a less populated area of Miami. However by the street name we soon found ourselves simply crossing of door numbers until finally we found ourselves outside what would normally be considered a decent beach front home were it not for the overgrown weeds and the cracked paint on the walls. A battered Ford Camaro was in the driveway which reminded me briefly of Gabe's old car and its fate.

However the hunt for the place had taken longer than I would have liked as by my estimate I now had less than twenty minutes before I changed back.

'So how do you want to go about this quiet or heavy?' Diana asked.

'Quiet at first I would rather not cause a scene and terrify the girl. Besides we don't want her uncle to react, I would rather just grab her and go.'

'You're the boss for this one, after you.' Diana commented gesturing me forward towards the foot path up to the front door.

(Diana)

I was a little apprehensive as I followed Percy up the path between the overgrown lawns. Not for our sake but for that of the girl. I was very much aware of the things that we could possibly find inside after all it was an all too familiar story sadly. It was also my biggest source of disgust and that too of the majority of my hunters.

There was only one surviving member of the hunt who had come from that kind of background and Jacqueline's 'carer' was no longer in a position to do anything. Well other than cause indigestion to some mountain lions. I had chosen the more straight forward approach than Percy was choosing now.

As we approached the small raised decking at the top of the garden I was just about to follow Percy when he pitched forward noisily almost falling face first onto the damned door. At first I was confused as to what the hell until I looked down and saw his foot had snapped clean through the planks. I guess it was not designed to take half a ton of Titan (or a growing percentage of mortals).

Regardless the pair of us remained motionless for close to twenty seconds to make sure we were not detected. Which was hellish as I struggled not to laugh at the stupid shocked look on his face. Eventually though he managed to push himself backwards until his leg was straight and he was able to extract himself from the hole he had caused before stepping onto an area where the underlying joists could be seen.

'And here I was thinking that we could possibly make a stealthy hunter out of you yet.' I whispered into his ear while standing on my toes.

Percy however seemed to ignore me as he focused on the building before lifting three fingers and mimicked someone walking with his fingers and I guessed he meant there were three people inside.

Great so there was a third wheel.

Slowly Percy began to move towards the door following a structural beam that was just visible beneath the top planks before he was standing in front of the door. Before drawing a throwing knife from up his right sleeve where the pair were scabbarded against his forearm. I was about to question what use the weapon would be against mortals when instead he jammed it into the door frame alongside the lock the blade parting the rotten wood easily before pushing the latch open. Allowing the door to swing inwards thankfully quiet.

He remained standing there with a triumphant look on his face before I pushed past him and entered. Clearly if he wanted this done carefully he needed someone who actually could be quiet to lead the way. Directly to the right of the entrance was a small kitchen and I decided to make a quick detour.

The problem was now my bow was ruined I had nothing that could harm a mortal. Being that my knives were celestial bronze and likewise Percy's bow was a divine weapon. My own bow normally had the same limitation which was why I guessed that Artemis had released its true form. However fortunately the kitchen was the one place in a mortal home you could find a veritable supply of weaponry.

Sure enough on the third drawer I searched I found a collection of mismatched cutlery disregarding the other utensils I grabbed the four largest knives in there. Grimacing at the poor excuse for washing the occupants had done in there last attempt as half a meal appeared to still be on the blades. Running a finger along the edges I found that despite their poor hygiene at least they had the common courtesy to sharpen the things.

Turning to Percy who hadn't been able to what I was doing because my back was to him. I held the blades up one between each finger on my right hand. Sure I was restricted from interfering because of the stupid ancient laws but it was not my fault if someone should fall on a steak knife. Or worse yet I dropped one while swinging my hand in their direction.

Percy simply shook his head and pointed upwards and sure enough I could hear the faint sound of movement on the floor above. It was probably why they did not hear the commotion on the porch.

As I backtracked out of the room and back into the hallway I spied the stairs at the other end before doubling back towards the way we came in. I had no problem as I walked softly towards them. Meanwhile Percy was forced to walk agonizingly slowly, it would have been comedic, no wonder he had generally avoided the mortal world while in this form before he joined the hunt. Eventually though he seemed to realize that as long as he placed afoot on the outer edges and not the centre he was able to move relatively quickly and quietly. Which was good because otherwise we would never have made it up the stairs without him falling through them.

Regardless we eventually found ourselves outside a single door which Percy indicated the occupants were behind. The problem was the door had three locks on our side indicating that usually something or someone was locked in here and we both were guessing what it was judging by the whiteness in Percy's knuckles as he raised a hand and went to push the door open before stopping as voices were heard on the other side.

(Percy)

'How hard is it to get rid of this little bitch and make it look like an accident?' I heard a voice say from the other side of the door and I forcibly restrained myself from kicking the door down there and then.

'How am I supposed to know that? The little freak has been stuck under water for the last 2 hours and doesn't even seem to be bothered anymore. Why don't you just shoot her or push her down the stairs?' A second male voice asked. At least it meant she was still alive, thankfully her heritage protected her from these two idiots ploy.

'Because if it is not an accident people will ask questions and I won't get her mother's insurance money. This way we could just throw her in the surf and raise the alarm after a hours that she went out for a swim. We have been over this.' The first voice answered and I guessed that was her 'uncle'.

Clearly the time for tact was out of the window, I was not even going to talk to these fools I was grabbing the girl. Kicking the shit out of him and leaving, not necessarily in that order.

Taking a small step back I raised my leg against my torso before kicking straight out at the door ripping it clean off the hinges and launching it across the room, before colliding with something mid-travel with a satisfying moan of pain.

Next I simply strolled inside quickly taking note of the rooms contents. Notably the guy who was staring at me with a look of shock, the guy trying to get out from under the door and the rooms third occupant. The girl had been locked inside a makeshift frame of wood and glass which had been filled with water with several empty buckets alongside. However despite the obvious murder attempt she did not seem injured, though her expression as she tried to look at me was one of shock and amusingly for me boredom.

'Who the fuck are you and what are you doing here?' The standing guy demanded and I recognized the voice as her uncle's. In reply I crossed the room far faster than was considered human possible and punched him to the floor, where he stared up at me with wide eyes. I wanted nothing more than to simply lift my foot and bring it down on his head.

'Her real fucking uncle unlike you.'

'Fuck you she has no other family even her deadbeat dad ran away from he-.' I shouted up at me before I simply summoned Maelstrom and held it to his throat.

'Now shut up and listen or it will be your body drifting out to sea. And I assure you the sharks will eat you piece by fucking piece. We are taking her and if I find out that you did anything else to her then I will come back and finish this. Do you understand!' I shouted at him.

However I noticed him suddenly glancing to where his compatriot was. Turning around I found that despite the other guy being trapped under the door again because Diana was standing with one foot on it holding him down he still had one arm free and it was that which was causing my blood to chill. Diana from her position could not see the threat that was below her. I was about to cry out a warning when the room was filled with noise.

(Diana)

As soon as Percy had entered the room I had simply decided to neutralize the already incapacitated mortal who was conveniently half trapped below the ruined door. Judging he was going nowhere and no longer a threat I had turned my attention to Percy and his counterparts exchange.

It was not often that Percy got truly angry but when he did it rivaled my father's own outburst. Sure enough the other guy was on the receiving end immediately finding himself on the floor and before long with a four foot blade above his throat. Suddenly both had turned in my direction though one with worry and the other with a smirk. Before my world exploded into noise and pain.

(Percy)

In the space of four seconds a lot can happen. The bolt on a MAC-10 can slam back empty. A door can be reduced to little more than kindling and I could get horrible reminders of a field in Greece below the slopes of Mount Olympus. This could not be happening again I thought as I watched Diana slowly hit the floor unmoving her outfit reduced to tatters.

The culprit however seemed to look rather pleased with himself as managed to push the destroyed door of himself before pointing the gun at me nervously nevertheless managing to fit a new magazine into the receiver.

'Put the scythe down or you end up like your girly friend over there.' Now if I had been thinking normally at this point I might have questioned what he meant by scythe, but that stopped happening the moment the first round was fired. Now all I was thinking was what I was going to do to this bastard. He in my mind was a smaller less intimidating Enceladus but that did not mean I was going to make this any easier.

Casually kicking the guy beneath me unconscious I turned fully around so I was looking at him sword vs gun. I may have born the curse of Achilles at this point but I didn't need it. As soon as I noticed the guys finger moving towards the trigger I simply flipped my wings forward creating a cocoon around me the Imperial Gold easily stopping the small pieces of lead and causing them to ricochet around the room. Once the silence had returned I simply folded them to my side and regarded the guy again noticing the blood running down his gun arm and I guessed one of his own shots had bounced back and hit him.

I began to notice water pooling around my feet and I gave an offhand glance at the girl to my left who found her makeshift prison rapidly draining over floor, though she look fine for the moment at least.

'What the fuck are you?'

'Your death.' I uttered coldly pointing the blade at the guy's chest.

'Yeah well fuck you Lurch, I ain't letting your lanky ass catch me.' He declared throwing the now empty weapon at me which I casually deflected in mid air cleaving the firearm in two. However by the time I was done he had already run past Diana's body and was on his way down the stairs by the sound of it.

Giving one last look at Diana and promising to come back I took the elevator and simply jumped while folding my wings and crashed through the floor narrowly missing the escaping mortal who was forced to double back and go for the door me and Diana had entered.

I casually followed after him, he would not escape despite his futile attempt to shut the door behind himself I simply cut it in two before jumping the entirety of the porch and landing on the foot path. It was only when I heard the sound of cracking timber that I noticed that I noticed my wings had cut through the central supports of the porch causing it to collapse inwards.

The commotion was enough to warrant a cry of shock out of my quarry before he resumed his journey towards the car obviously hoping that it would help him escape. I simply let him think that instead walking so that I was standing at the road end of the driveway staring down at him as he tried to start the engine in a panic.

By the time the engine finally ticked over I was in position Maelstrom held in both hands to my right. There was little the guy could do but come straight at me but one thing was for certain the edge of the road behind me was the end of the road for him.

Finally he mashed his foot on the accelerator and aimed straight for me. I had all the time in the world to simply side-step and crouch on one knee as the car passed. I was barely even aware of the resistance as my blade cut through metal, rubber, plastic and flesh. After all the blade was placed at such a height to shear his legs off from the knee down.

It did not take long for the vehicle to immediately lose control as the driver battled shock before crashing into a telegraph pole. The sound of screaming metal and mortal in crescendo. Yet even then I was not finished as I caught the waft of gasoline before looking down and spying a trail from myself to the wreck. Obviously having sliced the fuel tank as well it was lucky it had not already exploded in my face in that case. Regardless I did not even think as I simply drew Firestorm and tapped the start of the trail with the flaming spear.

As soon as the trail was alight I simply turned around and began to walk away back towards the house before a WOOF sound could be heard behind me followed by louder screaming as the cars occupant was immolated. I almost couldn't help but smile as they finally silenced.

That lasted as long as it took to look back at the house.

(Marina)

Well how could your day be any worse. First your uncle tries to drown you in the bathtub which for some reason doesn't work. Next perhaps out of experimentation he tries again in a more elaborate method only to fail again. Don't get me wrong I had always like water because of my mum. But it was another thing altogether when someone is trying to murder you with it and you find yourself more likely to die of boredom. Sure it had been a shock when he first tried it but it was almost a big a shock when I found I could still breathe while underwater.

Eventually one of my uncles 'friends' had come around and I had finally learned why he trying to get rid of me. Money… the bastard was trying to kill his own family for my mum's life insurance. It had been bad enough that when mum had died and I had to come here as the only family I had left. Sure the two from our occasional trips down the coast had never really seemed to get along but I never thought he was like this and would try to kill me. The only company I had really had for the last few weeks since the funeral had been a pet clown fish my mum had given me before her last trip but he flushed it down the toilet as punishment for me doing nothing wrong.

And so I had resigned myself to my watery prison and whatever plans the two could think up to get rid of me. That had all shattered alongside most of my bedroom door when two intruders had broken in and much to my satisfaction though it was difficult to see from my location punched my uncle to the floor.

However it had seemed my rescue was short lived when the other guy had managed to draw a gun I had seen earlier and shoot the female newcomer. Then he had tried to do the same to the large man who had entered and I suddenly found my prison shattering around me though I could have sworn I saw a glint of gold around the guy getting shot before I was suddenly forced to turn my attention o not getting cut to pieces by the shattered glass all around me. By the time I was sure was safe I found myself alone well except for the woman dead body and my unconscious uncle. Of the other two all I could see was a faint trace of blood where the shooter had been and a large hole in the floor as if someone had jumped through the floor which the water had flowed out through.

I decided to turn my attention to the woman in the hope maybe there was something I could do to help. It was only when I got close that I realized she was much younger than I thought she had been. She looked to be barely older than a high school senior if that. The strange thing was though it looked like she had indeed been shot there was no sign of any blood on or around her. Hell her clothes had what looked like gunshot holes in them but other than that nothing.

Still I assumed she was dead until I noticed her brow furrowing and I caught a faint movement in her chest. How was that even possible, she must have been hit at least a dozen times by the look of her clothes but here she was merely unconscious.

'Excuse me miss are you ok? I called out to her gently touching her shoulders and it seemed I was at least partially successful as her eye lids moved a little.

However my words had an unintended side effect they woke up the rooms other unconscious occupant as my uncle struggled to rise to his feet before looking around the scene of devastation around us before focusing on me.

'This all your fault you little bitch, I should have just listened to him and shot you when I had the chance and buried your body.' He muttered hysterically.

'Please you have to help me, or he will kill both of us.' I pleaded only for her eyes to slowly open and I was astounded by the fact they appeared to be silver. Was that even possible?

'Close your eyes little one.' She whispered and I did as she asked. I had no idea who these people were other than the fact they were apparently bulletproof and had come to rescue me. Which was good enough in my book to give them a little trust.

Despite doing as she asked it still felt like someone was shining a torch on the other side of my eyelids before the light disappeared and I risked opening them only to find the woman now standing in front of me with outfit now intact including a matching silver jacket she had not been wearing previously.

Turning from the strange teenager to my uncle who had covered his eyes with his arms I noticed he had managed to find a knife and was holding it nervously in front of him as he looked at her in terror.

'You must be some kind of monster no one could survive that I saw you die.' He said hysterically and I almost had to agree with him. However the older girl simply laughed before producing a trio of blades in one hand that matched the one he held as if from the same set.

'Be careful who you call monsters mortal before one of them bites back. Now as for you little friends attempt to kill me it would never have worked. Immortals cannot be harmed by mortal weaponry and vice-versa. Which puts you at a disadvantage.' She said waving the blades between her fingers. 'Now stand aside before you join your friend. I don't imagine my guardian is taking it well what he did to me.' She explained pointing to the hole with her free hand. Suddenly there was the sound of a car accident outside. I had no idea what she was on about with the whole immortal/mortal thing but I guessed it was important.

My uncle nervously glanced between me, the other girl and the door way as if weighing his options.

'Well guess what girly if I supposedly can't hurt you I guess I am screwed then aren't I when her uncle gets back. So I might as well get rid of her then.' He declared before suddenly lunging at me, I didn't even get time to respond before I suddenly found myself on the floor in a growing pool of blood. The thing was other than where I had banged my head I felt no pain other than as if something had fallen on me before it was suddenly removed and I found myself looking up at the silver eyed girl.

'I'm sorry but we are leaving.' She said caringly before lifting me up by one hand. As soon as she had done so I looked down and found my uncle flat on his back with a knife impaled through his throat, heart and stomach in a vertical line.

'Don't worry about him my uncle will take good care of him. He will get to see what it is like to hell have a real uncle from hell. Now come on we need to get out of here before the police arrive.' Sure enough as soon as she had finished an explosion could be heard from outside. Causing the girl to lift in eyebrow curiously.

'I don't even know who or what you are?' I asked stubbornly.

'My name is Artemis goddess of the Hunt.'

'Of course you are and the other one was Hercules.' I said sarcastically, she didn't seem bothered by my sceptism of her identity but I could tell I had hit a note with the other name.

'No he is far greater than that low life will ever be. Besides you would not want that fool as an uncle.'

'Wait my uncle? That guy is my uncle? Then do you know my dad?' I asked upbeat it couldn't be possible she always told me my dad had died, washed overboard during a storm.

'Yes though it is not my place to reveal his identity, now come on.' She said simply making her way towards the door.

(Artemis)

I was starting to wish I was an alcoholic that way I could chalk the pain going through my head as being the result of a bad hangover. Instead of being as a result of being possessed, manhandled by my boyfriend and machine gunned all within the space of a few hours.

'I' had let my guard down again and were it not for the sake that I was immortal and it had been a mortal weapon I would have seriously been in trouble. I was however concerned about the sake of my child but I was unable to focus on that while I had my new charge in tow.

Speaking of her. I could see she had a fair few similarities between her father and uncle. Most notably the black hair and familiar eye color. If I had to guess I would say she was around 14 at the most which was far too young to witness what I had just been forced to do to her uncle. Especially as most of her clothes were stained in blood from his suicidal attack. However as soon as I had mentioned her father she had immediately turned perky and interested before I had shut her down.

Percy could deal with that, I was in no mood to answer questions. Besides I still had to deal with Thalia upon our return as Diana prompted from the back of my mind. How good it didn't feel to be sharing one body again.

Regardless I lead the way through the house until I found myself on the now ruined porch and I had to wonder what the rest of the neighborhood must be thinking now. Gunshots, destruction of property, car crashes and fireballs… just another day in Miami folks. It was only when I navigated the debris leading the girl along that I was able to see what had happened.

Well it was hard to miss really when you think about it.

Percy standing with his wings besides him bloody sword in one hand, flaming spear in the other backlit by a blazing fire. It would have looked cool in a movie I guess were it not for the dark golden glow his eyes had taken and the sinister smile on his face.

It made him look like he wanted to do nothing more than just carry on killing.

It was obvious the other mortal was dead I could just about make out a charring figure in the driver's seat of the vehicle. Well he had gotten over his fear of killing a mortal but at what cost.

I heard the girl utter a small moan of terror before hiding me carefully peering around me and I honestly could not blame her.

'Perseus calm down.' I said commandingly causing the figure to note my presence. It was only when he looked at me directly that I realized what was wrong. How could I have missed it? I suppose I had contributed it due to the fact he had naturally golden eyes but this was different. It was of a different shade and was one I knew all too well. For the first time since Typhon had initially appeared two and a half millennia ago I felt true terror.

They had not been destroyed, they had merely changed host.

AN. Well you were not expecting that cliff hanger were you?

I know a number of you have been expressing disappointment recently about Percy seemingly be abused by Artemis/Diana. here's the thing who really expects a 3000 year old goddess to bend over backwards to accommodate an 18 year old who has taken a few too many blows to the head over the course of his life. yes she makes fun out of him but frankly who wouldn't he is so laid back he simply takes it on the chin. relationships are about pushing boundaries and he is giving her some huge boundaries to play with.

She knows full well what he can do if he puts his mind to it. which is the main cause for her terror at the end of this chapter. he is essentially now the most powerful character in this fanfiction universe with the exception of the protogenoi. he has flaws that bring him back down to earth which some reader seem to assume makes him a pussy. last I checked he was not the one making the hunters dinner, doing the washing and preparing baths and being treated like generally a slave (cough).

he is there purely for there protection anything else is up to him to allow, which he does for the most part. if he just told them to get lost it would only result in them hating him more. instead he gains respect by simply taking it on the chin as long as they do not get out of line and take it too far.

alternatively I can have him as a bland superpowered hero who saves the day everyday with no source of amusement at all. as for him being commanding in the books more so than this one. here is the key difference in them he is constantly in danger in the middle of two wars with the survival of the world at stake. here the only enemies he has are those of his own making. the point is everything else has been dealt with for the most part. the last battle this story had was at camp half blood and guess who was in charge he was so calm down.

it is part of the reason I want to do a cross over as it will allow me to get back to basics but I cant do it until these chapters are done otherwise spoilers abound everywhere.

in other news in regards to the Wattpad crew I give up keep the damned thing. you have like 12 views and only half the story so what is the bloody point of copying it.

thank you to Fantomfaire for recommending Marina's name, I do use suggestions so if anyone has anything I will seriously consider it.

So as always Please read and review

RIP the real Titan (2005-2014)