"WHAT?! NO! I am not going to be the automaton master for THREE YEARS!" Beckendorf bellowed. Silena was keeping a very close eye on me, understandably. No need to, but I understood why she did it.
"Beckendorf, it's either you be their handler, or they go kaboom. I don't think you want to be a victim of the chunky-salsa-effect, do you?" I said patiently.
He paled. Then grumbled under his breath, "Fine." Silena rubbed his back soothinngly. I smiled at the sight.
I felt Angielem giving me a shocked look. I looked at her and mind linked with her
"What? Just because my heart was broken, doesn't mean that I don't think it's still a good sight to see. So there!
She just laughed in response. Suddenly a presence I hadn't left more than a few hours ago stepped onto my territory. Immediately, everybody tensed and turned to me for orders. "Wait here." I flashed to where Artemis was standing and growled out, "Be patient, damnit. Silena was being stubborn about what her job would be." She raised an eyebrow at my tone.
"Not having a good day?"
"No. I don't necessarily want to go into a camp full of MAN-HATING WOMEN WITH BOWS THAT CAN USE THEM EFFECTIVELY!"
She sighed. "How much more time do you need?'
I waited a couple seconds for myself to calm down, then said, "About an hour, two at most." She nodded and vanished. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair before flashing back to the meeting room. "OK, Luke, you being my second-in-command, you will be in charge while I'm gone, Zoe..." It went on like that for another fifty minutes. When we had figured it all out, I said with a tired voice, "Yay, I get to go meet the Hunters of Artemis, who hate men. Great. Somebody just fade me now." They gave me apologetic looks before I flashed to Yellowstone Park.
Take a wild guess what tried to find a new home in my head.
Yep, an arrow.
Snapping Angielem out away from my body I deflected the arrow into the ground. I took a second to send a prayer of thanks to chaos, before I looked at what was there. Artemis flashed in, looked at the arrow, pointed at me and said, "This is our new guardian." Grumbling, the Hunters reluctantly walked over to me, before telling me their names and who they were in the life they had before they became Hunters.
Reluctantly though. Good. I'm not the only one who doesn't want me to be here. I looked at Artemis and said, "So what do you want me to do?"
She held up a scroll in her hand and gave it to me. I opened it to read it.
-Make dinner (should be easy for me)
-Sharpen the arrows.
-Teach swordplay to the Hunters.
-Scout out the area around the camp for defenses.
-Clean up the camp when we move.
-Any missions that I send you on, do them efficently.
I nodded, looked up at her, and said, "Any missions at this moment in time?" She shook her head. "In that case, I'm going to go set up my tent, and start with sharpening the arrows, then make dinner. That OK with you?" She nodded. "Alrighty then. See you girls later. Don't try any pranks on me, it wouldn't end well." Pheobe raised her hand. "Yes, Phoebe?"
"Why wouldn't it end well?" she asked.
I smiled and said, "The last person that tried that, which was about sixty years ago, ended in ER for a week. And lets not forget, it was Ares." Everybodies jaws dropped. I laughed. "OK, so I need to go set up my own tent. Anybody needs me, I'll be at the top of the hill to the east." Everybody nodded. I flashed to where I had told them my tent would be, only to hear a terrified scream from the north, not very far away, that sounded like a ten year-olds voice. I flashed back to Artemis, startling the piss out of everybody there, and said, "Permission to scout a feminine scream?"
She said, "Go. And make sure she's safe."
I nodded, "I'll do my best." Then flashed to where I had heard the scream, to find a literal army of monsters there. I growled and said to a passing dracanae, "Who's your leader?"
She gulped and sad, "He isss known as the Minotaur, my lord Traitos."
I snarled. Great, he's back AGAIN! "When I kill him, I expect this army to scatter everywhere except the south. Understood?"
"Yesss, my lord."
"Good. Now take me to him." She noddded and slithered away, towards a clearing on the other side of the camp.
She pointed towards a tent in the middle of it that had two little girls in front of it, one about ten, the other fourteen. "He makesss his den in there, Lord Traitos."
"Thank you. You may go now." If she had actual legs, I wouldn't have been able to see them. I walked towards the tent.
One of the little girls, the fourteen year-old, said in a pained voice, "Are you here to save us?"
I stopped walking and knelt down to her level. "Yes, I am. What's your name?"
She smiled at me and said, in a slightly less pained voice, "My name is Katrina Jackson and thats my sister, Emily Jackson," she said, pointing at her sister.
I smiled at her and was about to release her when I realized what her last name was. "Uh... Would you mind if I asked who your mom was? And if a man that smelled like salt-water met you somewhere?"
She frowned. "The man sounds like the one who came and got us from the Lotus Casino, at least that's what I think he called it." I gave a groan and dropped my head into my hands.
"OK, so that guy was-"
"Poseidon, we know. He also told us about another child of his named Percy. Is that you?" I grinned and nodded. "Sweet! We have a brother, Emily!" She got a smile in response.
I smiled at the two of them before standing up and summoning Angielem and making Riptide and Maelstrom combine into a shield and combining my three shields (don't ask how, but I got Krios's shield too the last time I went down to Tartaurus) into one. Then I caused Angielem to turn into a sword. Unsurprisingly, she looked a lot like Riptide. I snapped my finngers and armor that resembled that of a Daedra from Skyrim appeared on my body, including the helmet. Only difference was mine was white and black instead of red and black. I spun the shield onto my arm before shouting out, "Hey, Beef-brain! Miss me?" I was met with a roar of hatred. "Huh. I guess he remembers me. Oh well." I jumped out of the way as the Minotaur charged out with an axe in his hands.
I smirked. It's been a while since I got into a fight to the death.
Well, dissolve, anyway.
"Wow. I didn't know you liked me that way. Too bad you've officially pissed me off." I was a little busy with Minotaur trying to decapitate me. While I wouldn't die, reforming still hurts like Tartaurus on a bad day.
And I know what a bad day in Tartaurus is like.
I stepped to one side of the minotaur as he charged me again. As he passed I swung Angielem, who was giggling in glee, at his arm and horn. Both fell to the ground before the arm dissolved. I spun and sliced his other arm and horn off before reversing the strike and slicing off his head. I looked down at the two horns to see them change into a pair of hunting knives with spikes in the pommels. I picked them up and manifested sheathes for them. Sheathing them, I reverted Riptide and Maelstrom back to their original forms and drawing them. I swung at the chains on my sisters, destroying them instantly. My sisters stood up and smiled at me. I smiled back before looking at Riptide and Maelstrom. I looked back at them before asking, "Would either of you mind having a sword? Obviously not these ones, because for Anaklusmos, it has some sentimental value to me. And Maelstrom... Well, let's just say I have some memories connected to it too." They looked at each other before looking back at me and nodding. I smiled and manifested swords that would be the right size for them, no matter how old they were. Katrina's was named Hurricane, while Emily's was named Tsunami. I smiled and took their hands before saying, "OK, girls. I'm going to do something that might upset your stomachs, OK?" They both nodded. I smiled and flashed us to Artemis's camp in a flash of fire and the sound of swords clashing.
Once again, I was met with arrrows before Artemis shouted to hold their fire. She walked up to me with a raised eyebrow. I raised my hand before saying, "Could you take care of them for a while? I have some questions for my dad." She nodded. "Thanks, Artemis. Phoebe, I swear if you shoot one more arrow at me, you will not like the repercussions."
Artemis narrowed her eyes at me. "Are you threatening one of my Hunters, Traitos?"
I glared at her. "I've recieved far too many threats in my existence to threaten someone else without reason. What I just said was simply a warning. Now, if that'll be all, I need to go talk to my dad."
I flashed to Poseidon before she could respond.
He looked up, saw my face, and sighed. "You met your sisters didn't you? Well, actually, technically they're your cousins, since Sally's sister was the one who gave birth to them, and they're from my Roman side, but they're technically your half-sisters too. Wow. Talk about confusing."
"No kidding!" A now familiar and welcome voice came from inside the house. Athena walked out in an apron. She smiled when she saw me. I couldn't help but smile back. About 150 years ago they had gotten married and Amphitrite faded. "I take it he found his cousins/half-sisters?" Poseidon nodded. "Good."
I just shook my head. "OK, you answered all of my questions except one. Why?"
He understood that I meant why he had kept them hidden from me.
"You would most likely have been destroying the earth to find them." I blushed, it was true. I would have.
"OK, now that I have been properly embarassed-wait is that cookies I smell?
Athena laughed. "Like father like son." she said, ignoring the indignant responses she got from both me and my dad. "come on, There are some for you too, Percy." I grinned and walked after her.
About an hour later of talking with my dad and Athena and eating blue cookies, I sighed and stood up. "Sorry guys, but I still need to head back to the hunters. Love you guys." They smiled and nodded. I grinned before flashing to the camp.
I din't have an arrow shot at me this time.
Instead a knife was coming straight for my throat.
I flicked my hand up, causing my twin swords to flash out of their sheathes and protect me. No, I don't need to touch a sword to use it. Comes with the god of swords bit. They spun before sliding back into their sheathes. I didn't do that with old Beef-brain because I wanted to actually fight someone this time. "Thank you for not trying to shoot me with an arrow, Phoebe." I said. "Sword fighting training, ladies." They gave rather loud protests, before I slammed Maelstrom into my shield, causing a giant ringing that made them cover their ears and stop yelling. "That is one of my jobs. If you don't like it, take it up with Lady Artemis." They sighed and nodded in response. "Good. Now, let's-OW! Damnit, Zeus! USE THE IM!" They gave me quizzical looks just before a mist appeared right next to me, with Zeus's face in it, with a black look on his face. "Oh, boy. I know that look. Who do you need me to kill?" They gave me shocked looks.
Zeus glared at me for a moment, but I could tell that he wasn't actually mad at me. "I don't actually need you to kill any one this time. You're getting some more domains."
I groaned. "Anoother one? I don't have enough?"
"Chaos doesn't seem to think so." I growled. I was quite happy with my current domains, thank you. "You have to fight a couple Titans for them, but he wants you to get the domains of constellations and light, as well as the senses. Not to mention he's making you the Hidden Spirit."
I was confused. What was a Hidden Spirit? He noticed my confusion. "The Hidden Spirit is the spirit of a river in Tartaurus that no one has been able to find in a long time. You need to go fight the according beings for said domains, then go to Tartaurus to get the titles of Hidden Spirit." I sighed and nodded my head.
I swiped my hand through the mist before turning to Artemis. "You get that?" She nodded. "Good. I apparently need to kill Krios, Hyperion again, and then go to Tartaurus."
She frowned. It was actually kind of cute.
Wait, WHAT?!
"What about the senses? Don't you need to defeat a Titan for that too?"
I shook my head, "No, because there wasn't such a thing before, I got it as soon as Zeus said that I got that domain. I am not going to be very pleasant to be around though."
I heard Phoebe murmur something along the lines, "You were before?" I turned and looked at her, telling her silently that I had heard her. She flinched.
I turned back to Artemis before bowing and flashing away again.
I appeared directly in front of Krios and Hyperion on Mount Orthrys.
They looked at me took out their spears and charged me. I sprang out of the way before seeing Hyperion had grown wings. I spun out of the way of Krios's spear before ramming my shield into his chest then decapitating him. Immediately he reformed, bowed to me, and stepped out of the fight.
You see, about 10 years after making me a god, we had agreed that we should let the Titans free.
Of couse, I had to threaten to assassinate all of them first, but we did agree to let them go. I jumped over Hyperions spear before saying, "Nice wings, Hyperion." He smiled at me before acknowledging the compliment with a nod. Me and the Titans had gotten pretty close since I had freed them from their prisons. "How'd you get them?"
He shrugged. "Lelantos got pissed off with me and challenged me to a duel. He lost." I winced. I spun and drove my sword into his arm, before kicking him in the face and slicing his head off as well. Immediately he reformed and held out a hand for me to shake. "Congratulations, Perseus. You just gained both of our domains, but different in a way, since your not a Titan."
I grinned andd shook his hand. "Thanks, Hype." He glared at me. He hated that nickname. "Well, I got to go to Tartaurus now. Guss it is time to check on him as well. You hear about why I'm going doown there?"
He nodded. "Go. We'll keep an eye on your charges."
I smiled at him. "Thanks, Flashy." He glared at me and gave mme a shooing gesture. Immediately I flashed to Tartaurus, startling the Primordial. I smirked at him.
He relaxed and greeted me with a nod. "Here to claim your title as Hidden Spirit?" I nodded. "Then follow me. Word of warning, this could hurt a little." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Medusa still wants your head, as does everybody else down here, with the exception of me and Iapetus."
Before you ask, Kronos faded when I gained his domain with a smile on his face. Taraurus had told me that his last words were, "My powers go to the worthiest of heroes." Honestly, when I heard that, it kind of shocked me. I hadthought he would have hated me. Obviously not though.
We walked about three miles, but to us it felt more like a few yards.
When we got there... Wel, I am not ashamed to admit that I was terrified out of my mind.
Because standing on the banks...
Was Ouranos, Primordial of the Sky.
Father of Kronos, and apparently not very happy with me.