anti hero - percy jackson ²

xi. button

Dear Reader,
Never count your chickens
before they hatch
—

So far, the Death Mist camouflage plan seemed to be working out. So, naturally, Cassandra was expecting something to go wrong.

Fifty feet from the Doors of Death, she froze.

"Gods" She murmured. "They're exactly the same."

Framed in Stygian iron, the magical portal was a set of elevator doors—two panels of silver and black etched with art deco designs. Except for the fact that the colors were inverted, they looked exactly like the elevators in the Empire State Building, the entrance to Olympus.

Seeing them made her feel so homesick, she couldn't breathe. She didn't just miss Mount Olympus. She missed everything she'd left behind: New York City, Camp Half-Blood, Cape Cod.

But most of all, she longed for the people she had left behind. Courtney. Josh. Drew. Annabeth. Percy.

Her eyes burned. The Doors of Death felt like a personal insult, designed to remind her of everything she couldn't have.

After she got over her initial shock, she was able to focus on the other details: the frost spreading from the base of the Doors, the purplish glow in the air around them, and the chains that held them fast.

Cords of black iron ran down either side of the frame, like rigging lines on a suspension bridge. They were tethered to hooks embedded in the fleshy ground. The two Titans, Krios and Hyperion, stood guard at the anchor points.

As Cassandra watched, the entire frame shuddered. Black lightning flashed into the sky. The chains shook, and the Titans planted their feet on the hooks to keep them secure. The Doors slid open, revealing the gilded interior of an elevator car.

Hyperion yelled to the surrounding crowd: "Group A-22! Hurry up, you sluggards!"

A dozen Cyclopes rushed forward, waving little red tickets and shouting excitedly. They shouldn't have been able to fit inside those human-sized doors, but as the Cyclopes got close, their bodies distorted and shrank, the Doors of Death sucking them inside.

The Titan Krios jabbed his thumb against the UP button on the elevator's right side. The Doors slid close.

The frame shuddered again. Dark lightning faded.

"You must understand how it works" Bob muttered. He addressed the kitten in his palm, presumably so the other monsters wouldn't wonder who he was talking to. "Each time the Doors open, they try to teleport to a new location. Thanatos made them this way, so only he could find them. But now they are chained. The Doors cannot relocate."

"So I have to cut the chains" Cassandra whispered.

She looked at the blazing form of Hyperion. The last time she'd fought the Titan, it had taken every single ounce of her strength. And even then, she'd almost died. Now there were two Titans, and several thousand monsters for backup.

"My camouflage" She said. "Will it go away if I do something aggressive, like cutting the chains?"

"I do not know" Bob told his kitten.

"Mrow" said Small Bob.

"Bob, you'll have to distract them" Cassandra said. "I'll sneak around the Titans and cut the chains from behind."