Marcus leapt away from the tree, not needing the manic laughter behind him to tell him Elliot had landed where he had been standing a moment before.
"Ah, there you are." Aaron called out.
Marcus flicked his wrist, his watch taking blade form. Spinning, Marcus just managed to sway away from a wild swipe from Elliot, and felt his stomach churn as he saw that the ends of Elliot's fingers were tipped with claws. He's not playing with us anymore.
"We were wondering when you'd come out and play." Elliot said with a grin, swinging his leg in a roundhouse kick that Marcus managed to avoid. "I was getting bored waiting. Bored, bored, bored!"
Marcus ducked and dodged, letting Elliot expend energy while Marcus tried to get a grasp on his movements with his War Board. But the longer the fight went the more Marcus realized… he wasn't able to get a grasp on it. Elliot's moves were random, erratic. He couldn't find one strategy to overcome them, because there wasn't one. He switched his focus from Elliot's body to his eyes, to try and find any form of weakness, but what he saw there made Marcus' heart drop. Marcus switched tactics, flicking his blade around and changing it to whip form.
"Ooh, kinky." Elliot laughed maniacally. "Alicia's refused to show me a thing or two with hers, so I guess you'll do!"
Marcus kicked out, pushing off of one of Elliot's own kicks to launch himself backwards out of range as he flicked the whip to lash at Elliot's shoulder. It's like kicking cinder blocks! Marcus winced as he landed, just outside the tree line. Hippolyta's Belt is a force to be reckoned with.
"When did she choose you?" Marcus asked, putting on an air of calm and trying to still his rapidly beating heart. No wonder I couldn't read him. This is going to be a problem.
Elliot cocked his head to the side, for all the world like a bird of prey watching its next meal.
"Figured it out already? Well that sucks." Elliot sighed. "I was really hoping to keep you in suspense a bit longer. But, I guess since you were the failed choice, it would only make sense."
Elliot grinned wide, his pristine teeth at odds with his eyes. Alabaster stones beneath sickening green pools.
"Lyssa chose me not long after you flunked out." Elliot continued.
"Is that how she spins it?" Marcus warily backed up as Elliot walked free from the tree line. Just gotta last until-
"Forget about me?" Aaron's voice came from behind Marcus.
Marcus realized he'd been trapped. He'd been so wrapped up in the discovery of Elliot becoming the Champion of Madness that he hadn't realized the position he'd put himself in. Athena's going to have a field day with this lapse. He couldn't possibly keep both of them in his sight at one time. Bringing his War Board to mind, Marcus desperately scanned through possibilities, calculating strategy after strategy, but always coming to the same result.
If it came down to him versus both Elliot and Aaron, it was hopeless. He was dead. Can I even last until they get here?
"Give it up, Marcus." Aaron taunted from behind him. "As Victory's Champion, I can't be defeated. By any enemy. So why don't ya just quit already?"
Marcus froze. His War Board was showing him that all the pieces he needed had finally been revealed. He could see what was happening now. Against both Aaron and Elliot, he wouldn't have stood a chance. So why was Elliot the only one attacking? Marcus flicked his gaze toward Elliot in time to catch his warning glare at Aaron before Elliot moved his attention back to Marcus. Elliot would never look at Aaron that way. Insane or not, Aaron wouldn't stand for it. And then there was the way Aaron had been acting since he revealed himself. This entire time, Aaron's been trying to recruit us. He wants us to believe in the righteousness of his cause. He truly believes in what he's doing. This taunting, arrogant act sounds more like…
Marcus chuckled.
"And what's so funny?" Aaron scoffed.
"You can drop the act." Marcus said back, turning his back to Elliot to stare "Aaron" in the eyes. "Your accent slipped out… Billy."
"Aaron" looked at him in stunned silence for a moment, before the illusion melted away into Mist.
"Ya just had to ruin the fun." Billy sighed. "And here I was going along with the bosses orders to try and convince ya how hopeless it was to fight us. He's hell bent on recruitin' ya, hell if I know why."
"They all are." Elliot added. "But I think we'd be better off taking this piece off the board."
"Agreed." Billy said with a grin, spinning his sword around and dispelling the illusion on his knife. "We'll just tell the boss that it was an accident."
"Didn't know my own strength."
"Oops, my knife slipped."
Marcus didn't give them the chance. He flicked his wrist, summoning his wings and leaping at Billy. He cracked his whip, aiming for Billy's throat, but his eyes widened when the whip hit nothing but Mist. Dolos. More Gods damned illusions!
"You really need to give us more credit." Elliot's laugh came from right behind Marcus. Too close!
Marcus felt a crushing weight hit him in the back, launching him through the air faster than even his leap had been and sending him crashing through the doorway of the cabin, knocking the door off its hinges. With a groan, he did a quick mental check as he rolled to a stop and tried to regain his breath. Nothing broken… Just a lot of pain.
He opened his eyes to see the malicious grin of Billy right above him, and rolled just in time to avoid his plunging dagger in the dim interior of the cabin. He tried to regain his feet but had to roll again as Billy seemed to walk out of thin air and stab down at him again.
Every time he tried to stand, Billy was there, his grin and dagger flashing as they dogged Marcus around the cabin. Have to get up. Have to move. If I don't…!
Marcus lashed out with his foot, aiming for the grinning teeth above him. He felt his foot fly straight through Mist, but that was exactly what he had hoped for. Marcus used his momentum to launch himself to his feet. A slow clap behind him announced Elliot as he slowly walked into the main room of the cabin, blocking Marcus' main form of escape.
"I gotta say, even I'm impressed, Marcus." Elliot said with a laugh. "Caught off guard, alone, facing a Champion and the New Olympian's Master of the Mist, and you've survived this long."
"Master of the Mist?" Marcus scoffed, swinging his whip around him in a wide circle as he turned to face Elliot, confirming that, at least for the time being, Billy wasn't in arms reach. "No shortage of confidence here, huh?"
"Seems well earned, considering I've had you fightin' shadows this whole time." Billy shot back, appearing to stand beside Elliot.
"Ladies, ladies, you're both pretty." Elliot shook his head and shrugged dramatically. "Now see what you've done? You've gone and hurt the kid's feelings."
"I'm devastated." Marcus answered sarcastically.
"Ya will be by the time we're done with you." Billy promised, seeming to melt into thin air.
Shit.
"Well, guess playtime's come to an end, Marcy Marcus." Elliot grinned as he cracked his knuckles. "Don't worry, you won't be lonely in the Underworld. I'll be sending my roommate to keep you company soon. It'll be like old times!"
"You mean the time we kicked your ass?"
Marcus grinned. He'd recognize that voice anywhere.
He heard a soothing melody played over lyre strings as his pain faded to a distant memory. Elliot staggered forward as, at that moment, a shaft of silver moonlight pierced him from behind. Marcus took the opportunity without hesitation, running forward and leaping through the open doorway, rolling down the steps to land on the grass in front of the cabin and ending directly at the feet of Maddie and Chastity, shoulder to shoulder. With a glance, he saw Phillip standing at the tree line, with Joel charging his way.
"See? Told you he'd do something stupid." Chastity said to Maddie.
"Wouldn't be Marcus if he didn't." Maddie giggled in response.
Marcus was about to comment that now didn't exactly seem the appropriate time for banter when Elliot burst out of the doorway. For a moment he seemed like he was intent on fighting, his eyes shifting between Marcus' group, a rabid animal picking its next meal. At the last moment, he shifted, his form melting in on itself, just as another of Phillip's arrows pierced the night, right where Elliot's eyes had been a moment before. Where Elliot had stood a moment before, a crow hopped now. With a derisive caw and flap of it's wings, the crow took to the sky, attempting to fly into the distance.
Oh no you don't! Marcus leapt up, his wings launching him skyward, the crow almost in arms reach. Marcus cracked his whip, launching it at the crow before him. But suddenly where that had been one crow there seemed to be twelve. Then forty. Then the sky blackened as the air above the party seemed to churn and shake with crow after crow, each dive towards the party before flying off again.
"What the fuck is happening?!" Chastity called out.
"It's Billy!" Marcus replied over the cacophony of caws that filled the air. "Bastard is using the Mist to cover their escape! We need-"
But as fast as the sky had filled, it emptied again. Not a crow remained in sight, just a speck in the distance. Too far… Dammit. Marcus' eyes scanned the cabin and clearing on the side of the mountain, trying to determine where Billy had gone to, but he needn't have bothered. Where there had been nothing but grass in front of the cabin before, Jason stood. Or more appropriately, knelt, as he pinned Billy to the ground, his own knife at Billy's throat.
"How's that for 'Master of the Mist'?" Jason said, out of breath.
—-
"So what do we do with him?"
Marcus pondered Joel's question as he looked at Billy. Jason had summoned a length of rope from the Mist that now bound Billy to the porch of the cabin. Marcus stood outside while the rest of his group searched the interior of the cabin, allowing his mind to puzzle over the possibilities he saw on his War Board.
It was obvious from a cursory search that the cabin had been empty for some time. Marcus could guess at a few timetables that made sense, knowing what they did of Aaron's plan, and none of them looked good. Reckless as he might be, though, he wouldn't lead his group on another wild chase without some sort of proof that where they were headed was the right direction. It could save us time to move immediately. Or it could set us off in the wrong direction. We need to find Aaron and the rest of the N.O. leaders…
Chastity walked out of the cabin and met Marcus' eye, and he could tell she was thinking the exact same thing he was. If the worst case scenario had happened…
"Something to say, slut?" Billy taunted Chastity as she seemed to stop right by him.
The Chastity Billy had known would have lashed out. She would have torn him to shreds with her words, emasculated him with a simple turn of phrase. But the woman who gazed down at him now just seemed to pity a man whose first attempt to break down a woman was such a pitiful one.
"Tell us where they went, Billy." Marcus ordered.
"Up your ass." Billy scoffed.
"Super mature, this one." Phillip said.
"I hear children of Dolos mature slowly." Chastity "whispered".
"Hey!" Jason replied.
"Don't lump us in together, just 'cause ya got lucky one time." Billy threw at Jason. "Even a bitch can get a lucky hit in."
"Colorful vocabulary too." Joel nudged Phillip with a grin. Phil sighed in response.
"We're wasting time." Marcus scowled. "We have to end this before-"
"Before nothing." Billy spat at Marcus' feet. "You don't know dick, because if you did know dick, I'd be a dead dick, and considering I ain't dead, you don't know dick. Ya dick."
"Five dicks in one go. I don't know whether to be impressed, insulted, or disgusted." Joel chuckled.
"That's not that hard." Chastity piped in.
"Yeah from what I heard, you would say that." Billy taunted.
Phillip's eyes turned to stone, and Marcus thought he'd have to hold him back until Chastity laid a calming hand on his arm. Maddie chose that moment to walk from the cabin.
"Nothing. I can't find a single trace of where they've gone." She reported.
Which leaves us back at square one. Marcus sighed. I might have to use that after all…
Marcus glanced at Billy, gauging how long he could put off using his last resort, when he noticed that Billy was keeping his eyes firmly planted on the ground. Or at least, he was trying to. He would keep glancing up at Maddie, taking furtive glances as she was discussing her findings with the rest of the group. Marcus waited for Maddie to look his way and met her eye.
In a glance he relayed his plan. A plan that was simple, but effective.
You can't be serious. Maddie's eyes replied.
He's got a thing for you.
You can't be serious.
Mads, we need what he knows. And he won't exactly talk to me.
You haven't even tried!
Neither have you.
Marcus… You know how… How I… Maddie's feet shifted nervously. It made him ache to hold her and tell her she didn't have to do what he was asking, but he knew they were losing precious time. They had to know where the N.O.s had gone. When they had gone. How much time they had left to prepare.
Instead, he walked over, purposefully laying his hand on top of her head. He had to hope that she would know what he was asking her to do. The part he wanted her to play. She glanced up at him once, her eyes meeting his and he tried to convey his confidence in her. His care for her. His trust in her. He saw her register his eyes before they turned hard and she roughly brushed his hand away.
"Well? What now, oh great leader?" Maddie asked harshly. "This was your plan. And now it's… it's… shit! It's all shit. And obviously Billy doesn't know di…. anything, or he would have told us already! You going to hurt him, like you did Hunter?!"
Phil raised an eyebrow, as much at Maddie's outburst as at her cursing. Jason and Joel swapped shocked glances, but Chastity looked at Marcus, who met her eyes with a warning glance. Don't look at me like that, we need to use every trick we have.
Marcus turned his face away from Maddie, catching Billy's attempt to feign indifference but being unable to take his eyes off what was happening. "Mads… You know I wouldn't do any of this if I didn't have a-"
"You do have a choice!" Maddie cut him off. "You can choose to be better!"
Maddie stormed over to Billy, taking a piece of cloth from her pocket and wetting it from her water skin, brushing away some of the dirt from his cheek. Marcus thought Billy was about to jump out of his skin.
Marcus quickly turned to his group, hiding the small smile that came to his face, and purposefully choose to walk to Chastity and take her hand as he led her back to the tree line.
"Fine.. Fine!" Marcus spat over his shoulder. "We'll scan the surrounding forest. Maybe there's something that could give us some idea which direction we need to be going."
Chastity staggered after Marcus for a moment, caught off guard by his sudden shift, before meeting his stride and whispering out of the side of her mouth.
"He better be as big an idiot as you seem to think he is. Her acting is terrible."
Marcus winked at her as they entered the tree line, the rest of their group rushing to follow and leaving Maddie alone with the prisoner who couldn't take his eyes off her.