Kudos to ME! for figuring out what to do. There might be random Taylor Swift references throughout the chapter because I can't see her, so I have a swifty fever. Also no shout outs because no one answered my question :(, so if you answer it, I'll give a shout out next chapter.
Connor's P.O.V.
Uhg, why is this happening. Wolf is sick and I have no idea what to do! Why did Cadmus program history and battle strategies into me, but not how to heal a sick animal? And it's not like I could take him to a vet!
"Connor? Is everything alright?" I heard a musical sounding voice. It wasn't M'gann, she sounds too energetic and Artemis is more gruff sounding. "Riptide? What is it?" "Oh, you looked like you needed help." I sighed. She did have a wolf as well, so she might be able to help. "Yeah, Wolf is sick, and I don't know what to do." She laughed. "Okay, budge over, I'll see what I can do."
She looked over wolf.
"He has mutation sickness, I've seen it before. I'm gonna guess he wasn't always this big?" She looked at me expectantly. "No, we found him in a jungle, he had been mutated by a weird brain dude. He had been wearing a collar." "Okay, well, come with me, I'll see if you have what I need to make the medicine." "How do you know what to do?" "Well, my people get something very similar, and they're treated the same. It's not deadly, just annoying. It's kind of like our version of the common cold, but a lot harder to treat."
We went to the kitchen and Riptide opened the fridge. "What's Wolf's favorite food?" "Why?" "Because the stuff is awful, so the food will help it go down." "Um, nachos." "Great, can you make them?" She looked up at me. I had seen M'gann do it before, and she taught me. "Um, yeah." "Great, you do that, and I'll get started on the medicine." She pulled out some herds from her utility belt and started crushing them up. She added a little water, and when the nachos were done, added it in. "Here, give this to him, and he'll be better in a couple of hours, just don't eat any or you'll vomit up everything." I thanked her and went off to help Wolf, and Riptide was right: He was right as rain an two hours.
M'gann's P.O.V.
I was so upset. I had tried making cookies so many times, but they're always burnt. It was so annoying!
"M'gann! Is everything alright?" A musical voice asked. "Huh? Oh, it's you Riptide. Every thing's fine, it's just...." I gestured at the cookies. There was a very large pile of burnt ones.
She laughed. "I might be able to help you with that. What recipe were you using?"
I blushed. "Um, I was making it up as I went along." Riptide smiled. "That's okay for when you're better at baking and cooking, but if you're still starting out, it's always a good idea to use a recipe." (And you know, not do it at 4:00 in the morning with the lights off. I may or may not have almost burned my house down trying to boil water for a cake. It also turns out that I DIDN'T EVEN NEED THE WATER!)
"Come on. I'll help you." She said and started to grab some ingredients. "Didn't you just say to use a recipe?" I asked when I saw she didn't pull one out. "It's kind of a mix between two recipes: my adoptive mom's blue cookies and my grandfather figures cookies."
"Now come on and help me out."
We spent the next hour or so making cookies, and they turned out great. She didn't tell me exactly why they were blue, but that was fine. They were so delicious.
Artemis's P.O.V
I shot arrow after arrow at the dummy, picturing it as my family. One shot for my father, another for my sister. "AHG!" In rage and frustration, I punched the wall. Why did I have to get stuck with the assassin family?
"Artemis? You good?" I sighed. It was the new girl. She seemed nice, but from experience, that doesn't ever matter. "Everything is fine." I said sharply.
She looked around. "Family issues?" She asked. "Yeah, how did you...?" "Know? Well, for starters, I looked into all of you before I agreed to join, so I do know who your family is, but I'm not going to judge you! I know what it's like, but even if I didn't know, my family sucks possibly even more than yours: I know what a room looks like after aggressively taking you anger at them out on dummies'."
I stared at her. "You know? And your not scared, angry or going to tell the others?" She laughed. "No. If I judged people based on their family, I'd probably kill myself. I mean, I'm cousins with Hitler, my dad, uncle and a few of my cousins are major playboy's, and most of my family has tried to kill me at some point or other, so I know where you're coming from."
"Has you family ever threatened to take over the world and kill a whole bunch of people including you and your friends?" I asked. She stared right at me. "Yes." I stared. "I can't say anything else, but they've stopped that for the most part."
I didn't know how to respond, so I asked "do you wanna spare?" She smiled. "Best idea I've heard all day."
We went to the sparing area and spared for another hour, and by the time we were done, I was sweaty and aching, but felt a lot better. Who knew my new team mate would be in the same boat as me?
Wally's P.O.V.
(Before I start this, there will be mentions of abuse here and in other chapters. I will let you know when this is happening, so if you don't feel comfortable with this, feel free to skip it. Also, I know that there are a lot of these where Wally's dad abuses him, but this is just going to be a really good bonding moment for the to of them, and helps Percy out by locking in to her protective nature. This also may be slightly confusing, but Sally was already married to Gabe when Percy arrived, and he was much worse to this Percy than the actual one. She also met Medusa in the third book, which is how he abused her more."
I was in the med bay, quickly trying to bandage up a nasty cut my dad had given me, when Riptide walked in. She stopped when she saw me. "Wally? What in the seven hells happened to you?" (She read Dante Alighieri's "Inferno" for a school assignment. Just clarifying.)
"It's nothing." I said, rather quickly. She took my hands, kneeling in front of me. "Wally, from experience, it's never nothing. Please tell me. I know you don't know me that well, but if somethings wrong, I can help."
I started crying, and she quickly sat next to me, pulling me into a hug. I sobbed into her sleeve. She was in normal clothes, but wearing a pair of Rob's glasses, but I found it kind of weird since it was so hot. (Outfit above, minus the bags though)
"It's alright, it's okay. I'm here." She whispered holding me tight. "My, my dad. He beats me. He say's it's all my fault, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong." I said, while continuing to sob.
"My adoptive dad used to do the same to me. It's never you're fault." She said, rubbing circles into my back. "Stay at the mountain for a bit, then, when everything is sorted out, go stay with your uncle. He'll never hurt you again, I promise." I thanked her, and she smiled. "Is there anything you'll need from you're house?" "Um, yeah, let me make yo a list." I wrote one down, and she left, I presume for the Zeta tubes.
Percy's P.O.V.
After I left, I used a translation app on my phone to help me translate the list, before Zeta tubing to Wally's house.
I crawled through his window, simmering with rage. His dad better hope he's not here, or he'll wish he had never hurt Wally. I remember when Gabe started abusing me. He would through random beer bottles, which gave me so many scares, I started wearing long sleeves. He would beat me until I couldn't breath, and was covered in blood. When Annabeth found out, I had to hold her back from murdering him, but after he was petrified, I began to realize it wasn't my fault. Annie helped me out though, and I stopped wearing long sleeves at camp, since most of them had the scares. Even though they all betrayed me, I still miss the place.
I put everything Wally asked for into his backpack, when I noticed a hidden stuffy, that looked like he slept with every night, so I added that as well.
I was about to leave, when his dad came up. "Oy, you're not my son! Where is he you bitch!" "I looked at him with such hatred. "Somewhere you'll never see him again." "He's my son, and he need to face his punishment!" He said, raising his arm to slap me. At that, I snapped. I lunged at him, beating him so bad, he looked almost as bad as I did coming out from, down there. The only thing that held me back was the promise I made, no killing, and the fact that death was not good enough for him. I left him on the ground after a few more kicks for good measure, and making sure he was still alive.
Back at the mountain I gave Wally his stuff. "Thanks, um, did you run into him." "I looked at him and just said. "He'll never hurt you again. He'll know I'll come back if he does, and anyways, he'll be in a body cast for a good long while." And he just stared at me before rapping me in a hug. "Thank so much."
Robin's P.O.V.
This was so frustrating! I couldn't find anything on Riptide! I slammed my fist down in frustration.
"Should I be flattered or insulted by what you're doing. I mean, I'm impresses you couldn't find anything, but a little insulted you trust me so little." I spun around, caught. "Um, I don't know what you're talking about?" I said. She laughed. "It's fine. I looked into all of you before I joined up. But before you ask, no, I don't know who you are. I already know you're a good guy." "How?" I asked. She blanched for about five seconds. "I used to live in Gotham." She said. That wasn't a lie but it wasn't the full truth, but I decided not to push her.
"Do you miss it?" I asked. "The muggings? The supervillains? Not being able to walk around at night for fear of being killed?" she asked. I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, more than anything. I used to have a brother when I was there, so I miss it and him at the same time." She looked so sad, I decided not to ask.
"I had a sister too. She left quite a few years ago." "Raven, right. I remember her. You two always stuck together, like there was a rope tying you together." I stared. "Yeah, how did you-" "Guess? It was pretty obvious. I'm surprised no one else got it. You argued like crazy, but still stuck together. Not to mention you were way to young to be boyfriend and girlfriend."
We chatted some more about Gotham, and then left, because it was a school night.
There. I finally got a chapter out. I hoped you enjoyed it, I wanted to get some bonding time in there. Please remember to comment and vote.
Peace out demi-gods and superheroes!
-Artemis