School Dances and Stygian Spears
Percy was an idiot. They all were.
And things were going so well too.
Infiltrate school dance - check.
Actually, dance to avoid drawing suspicion - check (somehow)
Keep an eye on the Di Angelo's - Fail.
Epic, epic fail.
Percy had let himself forget what they were here for, lost as he was in talking to Annabeth and doing his best not to stare - he'd even managed a half-decent job at it, thank Poseidon.
And then it all went wrong because of course it did.
Annabeth looked over his shoulder and froze.
"They're gone."
"What?"
Percy followed her gaze. The bleachers. Bianca and Nico were no longer there.
The door next to the bleachers was wide open.
Dr. Thorn was nowhere in sight.
"We have to get Thalia and Grover!" Annabeth looked around frantically.
"Oh, where'd they dance off to? Come on!"
She tore through the crowd in a sprint.
Percy made to follow when a mob of girls got in his way, and it wasn't even the one he would have appreciated. He maneuvered around them to avoid getting a ribbon-and-lipstick treatment a bunch of other poor schmucks had failed to escape and bolted as quickly as he could, but by the time he was free, Annabeth had disappeared. He turned a full circle, looking for her or Thalia and Grover. Instead, he saw something that chilled his blood.
About fifty feet away, lying on the gym floor, was the floppy green cap Bianca di Angelo had been wearing. Near it were a few scattered trading cards.
Percy then caught a glimpse of Dr. Thorn — He was hurrying out a door at the opposite end of the gym, steering the di Angelo kids by the scruffs of their necks, like kittens. Hissing frantically, Percy stood as tall as he could, but still couldn't see Annabeth. He knew she'd be heading the other way, though, looking for Thalia and Grover.
He almost ran after her, but stalled, grimacing. The di Angelos were in danger; they could be long gone by the time Percy found his friends. There wasn't just wasn't time.
Percy took Riptide out of his pocket and ran after Dr. Thorn.
The door led into a dark hallway. Percy heard sounds of scuffling up ahead, then a painful grunt. He uncapped Riptide. The pen grew in his hands until he held a bronze Greek sword about three feet long with a leather-bound grip. The blade glowed faintly, casting a golden light on the rows of lockers.
He jogged down the corridor, but when he got to the other end, no one was there. Percy opened a door and found himself back in the main entry hall. He was completely turned around! He didn't see Dr. Thorn anywhere, but there on the opposite side of the room were the di Angelo kids. They stood frozen in horror, staring right at Percy.
Percy advanced slowly, lowering the tip of his sword.
"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."
They didn't answer. Their eyes were full of fear. What was wrong with them? Where was Dr. Thorn? Maybe he'd sensed the presence of Riptide and retreated? Monsters hated celestial bronze weapons after all.
"My name's Percy," Percy said, trying to keep his voice level. "I know you have no idea who I am, but I'm here to get you out of here and get you somewhere safe."
Bianca's eyes widened. Her fists clenched. Only too late did Percy realize what her look meant. She wasn't afraid of him. She was trying to warn him.
Percy whirled around and something went WHOOSH! Pain exploded in his shoulder. A force like a huge hand yanked him backward and slammed him to the wall.
He slashed with his sword but there was nothing to hit.
A cold laugh echoed through the hall.
"Yes, Perseus Jackson," Dr. Thorn said. His accent mangled the J in Percy's last name. "I know who you are."
Percy tried to free his shoulder. His coat and shirt were pinned to the wall by some kind of spike - a black dagger-like projectile about a foot long. It had grazed the skin of his shoulder as it passed through his clothes, and the cut burned.
He'd felt something like this before.
Poison.
Percy forced himself to concentrate — he refused to pass out.
A dark silhouette then moved toward the three of them. Dr. Thorn stepped into the dim light. He still looked human, but his face was ghoulish. He had perfect white teeth and his brown/blue eyes reflected the light of Percy's sword.
"Thank you for coming out of the gym," he said. "I hate middle-school dances."
Percy tried to swing his sword again, but Dr. Thorn was just out of reach.
WHIIIISH! A second projectile shot from somewhere behind Dr. Thorn. He didn't appear to move. It was as if someone invisible was standing behind him, throwing knives.
Next to Percy, Bianca yelped. The second thorn impaled itself into the stone wall, half an inch from her face.
"All three of you will come with me," Dr. Thorn said. "Quietly. Obediently. If you make a single noise, if you call out for help or try to fight, I will show you just how accurately I can throw."
Percy didn't know what kind of monster Dr. Thorn was, but he was fast.
Maybe he could have defended myself if he could get his shield activated. All that it would take was a touch of his wrist-watch, but defending the Di Angelo kids was another matter. But needed help, and there was only one way he could think of getting it.
He closed his eyes.
"What are you doing, Jackson?" hissed Dr. Thorn. "Keep moving!"
Percy opened his eyes again and kept shuffling forward.
"It's my shoulder," he lied, trying to sound miserable, which wasn't hard.
"It burns."
"Bah! My poison causes pain; it will not kill you. Walk!"
Thorn herded them outside, and Percy tried to concentrate. He pictured Grover's face. He focused on his feelings of fear and danger. Last summer, Grover had created an empathy link between the two of them; he'd sent Percy visions in Percy's dreams to let Percy know when he was in trouble. As far as Percy knew, they were still linked, but he'd never tried to contact Grover before. He didn't even know if it would work while Grover was awake.
'Hey, Grover! ' he thought as loudly as he could. 'Thorn's kidnapping us! He's a poisonous spike-throwing maniac! Help! '
Thorn inched them into the woods. They took a snowy path dimly lit by old-fashioned lamp-lights.
Percy's shoulder ached. The wind blowing through his ripped clothes was so cold that he felt like a popsicle.
"There is a clearing ahead," Thorn said. "We will summon your ride."
"What ride?!" Bianca demanded. "Where are you taking us?!"
"Silence, you insufferable girl!"
"Don't talk to my sister that way!'" Nico answered back. His voice quivered, but Percy was impressed that he had the guts to say anything at all.
Dr. Thorn made a growling sound that definitely wasn't human. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Percy's neck, but he forced himself to keep walking and pretend that he was being a good little captive. Meanwhile, he projected his thoughts like crazy — anything to get Grover's attention: 'Grover! Apples! Tin cans! Get out here and bring some heavily armed friends! with you! '
"Halt," Thorn said.
The woods had opened up. They'd reached a cliff overlooking the sea. At least, Percy sensed the sea was down there, hundreds of feet below. He could hear the waves churning and he could smell the cold salty froth. But all he could see was mist and darkness.
Dr. Thorn pushed them toward the edge. Percy stumbled, but Bianca caught him.
"Thanks," he murmured.
"What is he?" she whispered. "How do we fight him?"
"I . . . I'm working on it."
"I'm scared," Nico mumbled. He was fiddling with something — a little metal toy soldier of some kind.
"Stop talking!" Dr. Thorn said. "Face me!"
Haltingly, they turned as demanded.
Thorn's two-tone eyes glittered hungrily. He pulled something from under his coat. At first Percy thought it was a switch-blade, but it was only a phone. He pressed the side button and said, "The package — it is ready to deliver."
There was a garbled reply, and Percy realized Thorn was in walkie-talkie mode. This seemed way too modern and creepy — a monster using a mobile phone.
Percy glanced behind him, wondering how far the drop was.
Dr. Thorn laughed, "By all means, Son of Poseidon. Jump! There is the sea — save yourself!"
"What did he call you?" Bianca muttered.
"I'll explain later," Percy mumbled back.
"You do have a plan, right?"
"Working on it!" he hissed under his breath. 'Grover!' Percy thought desperately. 'Come to me! '
Maybe Percy could get both the Di Angelos to jump with him into the ocean? If they survived the fall, Percy could use the water to protect them all. He'd done things like that before. If his dad was in a good mood, and listening, he might even help. Maybe.
"I would kill you before you ever reached the water," Dr. Thorn said, as if reading Percy's thoughts. "You do not realize who I am, do you?"
A flicker of movement behind him, and another missile whistled so close to Percy that it nicked his ear. Something had sprung up behind Dr. Thorn-like a catapult, but more flexible . . . almost like a tail.
"Unfortunately," Thorn said, "you are wanted alive, if possible. Otherwise you would already be dead."
"Who wants us?" Bianca demanded. "Because if you think you'll get a ransom, you're wrong. We don't have any family. Nico and I. . . ." Her voice broke a little. "We've got no one but each other."
"Aww," Dr. Thorn said, faux sympathy plastered on his face. "Do not worry, little brats. You will be meeting my employer soon enough. Then you will have a brand-new family."
"Luke," Percy said, teeth gritting. "You work for Luke."
Dr. Thorn's mouth twisted with distaste when Percy said the name of his old enemy — a former friend who'd tried to kill him several times.
"You have no idea what is happening, Perseus Jackson. I will let the General enlighten you. You are going to do him a great service tonight. He is looking forward to meeting you."
"The General?" Percy asked. Then he realized he'd said it with a French accent. "I mean . . . who's the General?"
Thorn looked toward the horizon.
"Ah, here we are. Your transportation."
Percy turned and saw a light in the distance, a searchlight over the sea. Then he heard the chopping of helicopter blades getting louder and closer.
"Where are you taking us?" Nico demanded, tone teary.
"You should be honored, my boy. You will have the opportunity to join a great army! Just like that silly game you play with cards and dolls."
"They're not dolls!" Nico snapped, anger overtaking his fear for a moment. "They're figurines! And you can take your 'great army' and—"
Now, now," Dr. Thorn warned. "You will change your mind about joining us, my boy. And if you do not, well. . . . there are other uses for half-bloods. We have many monstrous mouths to feed. The Great Stirring is underway."
The Great what?" Percy asked. Anything to keep him talking while he tried to figure out a plan.
"The stirring of monsters." Dr. Thorn smiled evilly. "The worst of them, the most powerful, are now waking. Monsters that have not been seen in thousands of years. They will cause death and destruction the likes of which mortals have never known. And soon we shall have the most important monster of them all - one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus!"
"O-kay," Bianca whispered to Percy. "He's completely nuts."
"We have to jump off the cliff," Percy told her quietly. "Into the sea."
She looked at him like he was crazy, which, okay, was pretty fair given what he'd just said.
"Oh, super idea. You're completely nuts, too, then."
Percy never got the chance to argue with her, because just then an invisible force slammed into him.
Looking back on it, Annabeth's move was brilliant. Wearing her cap of invisibility, she plowed into the di Angelos and Percy, knocking them to the ground. For a split second, Dr. Thorn was taken by surprise, so his first volley of missiles zipped harmlessly over their heads. This gave Grover and Thalia a chance to advance from behind — Thalia wielding her magic shield, Aegis.
Thalia running into battle was terrifying - and Percy had been charged by the freaking Minotaur when he had been twelve. She used a huge spear that expanded from this collapsible Mace canister she carried in her pocket, but that wasn't the scary part. Her shield was modeled after one her dad, Zeus, used — also called Aegis — a gift from Athena. The shield had the head of the gorgon Medusa molded into the bronze, and even though it wouldn't turn you to stone, it was so horrible most people would panic and run at the sight of it.
Even Dr. Thorn winced and growled when he saw it.
Thalia moved in with her spear.
"For Zeus!"
Percy thought Dr. Thorn was a goner for sure as Thalia jabbed at his head, but he snarled and swatted the spear aside. His hand changed into an orange paw, with enormous claws that sparked against Thalia's shield as he slashed. If it hadn't been for Aegis, Thalia would've been sliced like a loaf of bread. As it was, she managed to roll backward and land on her feet.
He moved to charge, snarling and looking like that special kind of anger all monsters got when pesky demigods had the audacity to not die when they were attacked, but he didn't make it two steps before a loud, surprisingly powerful voice echoed over them from nowhere at all.
"Depulso!"
A bolt of purple light materialized about six feet to Dr.Thorn's right and hurtled towards him like a basketball lobbed at full force. It looked like he managed to catch sight of it near the end, but he didn't have a chance in hades of moving out of the way before it slammed into his side dead on.
There was a band like a gunshot and a gust of air that blew his hair out of his eyes, and then they all watched in disbelief as Dr.Thorn went flying, blasted away some thirty feet in a rising arc that ended with him crashing back on to the ground with an explosion of scattered snow and wind and a roared greek curse so vile Percy's mom would have fed him a bar soap if he ever dared mouth it in front of her.
"What?" Thalia was on her feet in a second, staring at him wide-eyed, and he shook his head.
"Not me."
"No, it was me."
The air beside him shimmered, and Percy almost forgot the burning cut on his shoulder as Luna Lovegood materialized in front of him, dotty getup and all, her star-framed sunglasses on top of her head and her arm still outstretched and crackling with purple light.
Somewhere behind him, he heard Nico Di Angelo leap to his feet.
"Luna!" He cried in relief
"Hello, Nico. Bianca. Exciting dance, no?" She smiled at them warmly and spoke with the same energy as someone meeting their friends on a street and not in the midst of a battle for their lives. Then her eyes rounded on Percy, cloudy grey and assessing. "And I don't know who you are."
What the Hades?
Before Percy could answer her - Because what else was he going to do? - Dr. Thorn leaped back onto his feet and bellowed in fury.
"Impudent half-blood wretch!"
And while all of them tensed, Luna just frowned and crossed her arms, looking like a put-out schoolteacher.
"That's rude."
The sound of the helicopter was getting louder behind Percy, but he couldn't help rounding on the girl and helping - that was her issue with all of this?
Then he promptly had to duck as Dr.Thorn threw himself into action. He launched another volley of missiles at Thalia, and this time Percy could see how he did it. He had a tail - a leathery, scorpion-like tail that bristled with spikes at the tip.
The missiles deflected off Aegis, but the force of their impact knocked Thalia down. Grover sprang forward. He put his reed pipes to his lips and began to play — a frantic jig that sounded like something pirates would dance to. Grass broke through the snow. Within seconds, rope-thick weeds were wrapping around Dr. Thorn's legs, entangling him.
Dr. Thorn roared and began to change. He grew larger until he was in his true form-his face still human, but his body that of a huge lion. His leathery, spiky tail whipped deadly thorns in all directions.
"A manticore!" Annabeth said, now visible. Her magical New York Yankees cap had come off when she'd plowed into them.
"Oh dear." Luna frowned. "I'd hoped for a sphinx. I've been dying for a good riddle."
And yeah, Percy wasn't even going to try and unpack that.
"Who are you people?!" Bianca di Angelo demanded. "And what is that?!"
"A manticore!" Nico gasped, awed. "He's got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!"
Percy didn't know what Nico was talking about, but he didn't have time to worry about any of that. The manticore clawed Grover's magic weeds to shreds then turned toward us with a snarl.
"Get down!" Annabeth pushed the di Angelos flat into the snow.
At the last second, Percy remembered his own shield. He hit his wristwatch, and metal plating spiraled out into a thick bronze shield - but it didn't have to.
"Protego!"
Percy heard several dull thuds, and when he looked he saw a shimmering curved dome of blue light surrounding all six of them, Luna Lovegood standing in front of them with both hands outstretched.
"Sorceress!" the monster roared.
"Almost!" Luna agreed, and her hand dropped. The dome followed suit, dissolving into blue light, and Dr.Thorn must have taken that as some kind of weakness, because his tail bristled and rose in clear threat and he bellowed again.
"Yield."
"Never!" Thalia yelled from across the field.
"No thank you." Luna agreed, far more primly and with surreal politeness. One of her hands rose to the necklace of bottle caps and corkscrews on her neck and pulled a seemingly unordinary cap off in one sharp movement. Luna held it out in front of her, balanced on the end of one thumb like a coin before flicking it up into the air.
There was a flare of white-purple light and a sound like an off-pitch whistle, and the cap morphed and elongated in mid-air almost faster than Per. By the time it dropped back into Luna's waiting grip, it was in the form of a spear, five feet long and blacker than night.
Something about the dark, smoky metal seemed familiar in a viscerally unpleasant way, but he didn't have time to put his finger on it. By some unspoken agreement, both girls charged the monster, and for a second, Percy thought they would run him through. But then there was a thunderous noise and a blaze of light from behind them.
The helicopter appeared out of the mist, hovering just beyond the cliffs. It was a sleek black military-style gunship, with attachments on the sides that looked like laser-guided rockets. The helicopter had to be manned by mortals, but what was it doing here? How could mortals be working with a monster? The searchlights blinded Thalia, and the manticore swung with its tail. It would have slammed into her side and batted her away, Luna's spear flashed far faster than it should have, and the beast howled as the tip of the appendage was sliced clean off.
"No!"
A massive paw descended on her head, but the blond girl ducked beneath the blow and rolled back, somehow maintaining her grip on it before she regained her balance with a half-crouch and jabbed at the manticore's chest.
He backed up and swung again, but Thalia charged him from the side and he was forced to abort the motion, tripping back as both of them herded him in.
That was about the point Percy suddenly remembered that - hey, he was a demigod too - and ran out to help.
He slid against the snow and parried away a spike aimed just below Thatlia's guard just before it would've hit her chest. He raised his shield over them, but he knew it was too mangled - it wouldn't be enough.
And just as soon as he thought it, Dr.Thorn got a lucky hit in. Luna raised her spear to parry, but the manticore stunned them all by leaping back and swiping at her full force with the entire length of his tail.
"Prot-!" She tried to start, but it was too late. The swipe shattered through the faint shimmer of blue that sprung up between them and caught her in the side dead to rights. The sheer impact of it flung her towards Percy and Thalia like a ragdoll, and he had to drop Riptide to the snow to avoid skewering her as she hit him at an angle and nearly bowled all three of them over.
She gasped in pain as they dropped, and Percy's blood went cold when he got a good look at her - there were half a dozen spikes embedded up the length of her arm and torso, one of them dangerously digging into the flesh right below her ribs. There was a patch of crimson already spreading down the side of her vest and along the inside of her chest.
Blood, his brain helpfully provided. And if every one of those was poisoned with the same crippling venom Thorn had used on him...
This was bad. This was really, really bad.
"Oh, I do love the smell of Demigod blood." Dr. Thorn laughed when he detected the wound, monstrous eyes gleaming.
"You sick freak." Thalia snarled, rising to her feet, and holding her crackling spear at the ready, but Percy could see the way her gait was unsteady - the tolls from the earlier hits she'd taken were finally piling up, and Dr. Thorn knew it too by the way he laughed again.
"Such false pride, daughter of Zeus. Do you not see how hopeless it is? Yield, little heroes."
Percy wanted to scream. His shield was busted, one of them was down, and they were trapped between a monster and a fully armed helicopter. They had no chance.
But then a clear piercing sound cut through the air. It was the call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods.
The manticore froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only the swirl of snow and wind and the chopping of the helicopter blades.
No," Dr. Thorn said. "It cannot be—"
His sentence was cut short when something shot past Percy like a streak of moonlight. A glowing silver arrow sprouted from Dr. Thorn's shoulder.
He staggered backward, wailing in agony.
"Curse you!" Thorn cried. He unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. It almost looked like the arrows had intercepted the thorns in mid-air and sliced them in two, but Percy's eyes must've been playing tricks on him — no one, not even Apollo's kids at camp, could shoot with that much accuracy.
The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. Percy tried to swipe at him with his sword, but the manticore wasn't as injured as he looked. He dodged Percy's attack and slammed his tail into Percy's shield, knocking him aside.
A troop of archers poured out from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was maybe ten; the oldest like sixteen. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions.
"The Hunters!" Annabeth cried.
Next to Percy, Thalia muttered, "Oh, wonderful."
He didn't have time to ask her what she meant.
One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. She was tall and graceful with coppery-colored skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair - she looked like some kind of Persian princess.
"Permission to kill, my lady?"
Percy couldn't tell who she was talking to because she kept her eyes on the manticore.
The monster wailed, "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws!"
"Not so," another girl said. This one was a little younger than Percy, maybe twelve or thirteen. She had auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was you but her expression was stern and her eyes were downright steely.
"The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at the older girl with the circlet. "Zoë, permission granted."
The manticore growled, "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"
He lunged at Thalia and Percy, knowing they were weak and dazed and helpless with Luna down beside them.
"NO!" Annabeth yelled, and Percy's heart leaped straight into his mouth as she ran straight towards the charging manticore.
"Get back, half-blood!" the girl with the circlet said. "Get out of the line of fire!"
But Annabeth leaped onto the monster's back and drove her knife into his mane. The manticore howled, twirling in circles with his tail flailing as the daughter of Athena hung on for dear life.
"Fire!" Zoë ordered.
"No!" Percy cried. "Annabeth-!"
But the Hunters let their arrows fly. The first caught the manticore in the neck, just under her arm; another hit his chest. The manticore staggered backward, wailing, "This is not the end, Huntress! You shall pay!"
And before anyone could react, the monster, with Annabeth still clinging to him, leaped over the cliff and tumbled into the darkness.
"NO!" Percy shot to his feet and bolted, but a loud, near-deafening crack echoed behind him and had him stumbling and nearly falling face-first into the snow.
When he turned around, feet still carrying him forward even as his instincts demanded he understand what the hell that sound was (an exceptionally stupid thing to do when running towards the edge of a cliff) Luna was gone.
"Where-?!"
Thalia's roar of surprise was cut short when another crack sounded, and Dr.Thorn and Annabeth appeared right in front of him, the still-bleeding Luna somehow on top of both. Before he could do much more than roar in surprise, the girl was yanking Annabeth off of him and leaping well clear of the firing zone.
"HOW IN TARTARUS-?!"
"Fire!"
His confused howl was cut off as another half-dozen arrows were fired into his torso. Percy's desperate confusion and relief were momentarily overshadowed by a flare of vicious satisfaction when he saw that one of them had been lodged into his eye, black blood flowing from the wound.
"Curse you, Hunters!" Dr.Thorn snarled and backed away, falling over his own feet in his haste to escape. "Curse you, Goddess! May Lord Kronos destroy you all!"
"Perhaps he will." The young girl from before stepped forward, eyes cold and dangerous - Percy almost stepped back when they flickered to him and his friends. "But you won't live to see it. Zoe-"
And then Luna drove her spear clean through the back of Dr.Thorn's skull with such force that the tip erupted out of his snarling mouth.
Maybe it was just Percy's imagination, but he thought that the manticore's sole remaining eye widened in shock half a second before he erupted into gold dust that was quickly scattered into the wind.
Luna stumbled slightly as the counterweight that she'd been balancing her spear against vanished, before turning her head to face Zoe, who'd already notched an arrow and was looking at her with the same stunned surprise as everybody else.
"I was here first." Luna looked at her very seriously. "Stealing a kill without permission isn't okay."
Zoe's eyes flickered and grew wider in disbelief, and Percy didn't blame her - he'd known the girl for all of five minutes and he was already starting to suspect that was the default response to speaking to her.
Then Luna's spear dropped from her hand, and the girl collapsed to her knees, he suddenly remembered she was bleeding from upwards of six different projectile wounds.
He started to run towards her, but this was about the point where they all remembered that there were more enemies and they weren't done with them.
There was a snap-snap-snap from the helicopter — the sound of gunfire.
Most of the Hunters scattered as tiny holes appeared in the snow at their feet, but the girl with auburn hair just looked up calmly at the helicopter.
"Mortals," she announced, "are not allowed to witness my hunt."
She thrust out her hand, and the helicopter exploded into dust — no, not dust. The black metal dissolved into a flock of birds — ravens — which scattered into the night.
And somehow, that was that.
The next thing Percy knew, the Hunters were advancing on their battered group.
The one called Zoë stopped short when she saw Thalia.
"You," she said with distaste.
"Zoë Nightshade." Thalia's voice trembled with anger. "Perfect timing, as usual."
Zoë scanned the rest of them.
"Six half-bloods and a satyr, my lady."
"Yes," the younger girl said. "Some of Chiron's campers, I see. And wounded too."
A loud wretch caught his attention, and he panicked when he caught sight of Annabeth hurling, her face green.
"Annabeth."
He moved to run to her side, but something in the little girl's haze stopped him. There was something unsettling about the way her eyes roved over them - as if she was taking them in and dismissing them all at once.
"And who are you supposed to be" He demanded, and suddenly Zoë stepped forward as if to smack him.
"No," the other girl ordered. "I sense no disrespect, Zoë. He is simply troubled. He does not understand." The young girl looked at Percy, her eyes colder and brighter than the winter moon. "I am Artemis," she said. "Goddess of the Hunt."
...
After seeing Dr. Thorn turn into a monster and plummet off the edge of a cliff with Annabeth and somehow get saved by the kid they were supposed to be here to protect, you'd think nothing else could shock Percy. But when this twelve-year-old girl told him she was the goddess Artemis, he could only say something really intelligent like, "Um . . . okay."
"That's wonderful!"
For the fourth time that night, all of them snapped to Luna, who'd somehow managed to get back on her feet and stumble towards them.
"Luna!" Bianca's eyes went wide at the sight of her as if finally registering the wounds that absolutely littered the other girl's body. "Luna, you're hurt!"
The blonde girl waved the comment away and ended up stumbling again. "I'm okay, Bianca."
She was not okay. She was very not okay.
Her clothes were torn and ragged, her shades were gone, her yellow shirt was basically orange from the amount of blood that had seeped into it and her skin was pale and clammy, so much so that her hair was matted and stuck to her forehead.
And despite all that, the girl was smiling like Christmas had come early.
"I've wanted to meet you for so long! There are so many things I wanted to ask you - so many creatures I wanted to learn about, but Father said I had to wait!" She beamed at Artemis (Who was a goddess, a hysterical part of Percy's mind was screaming) "I-"
She cut herself off and looked down at her torso.
"Oh dear. I don't think I have time. Does anyone have any Ambrosia? I gave my last to square to this nice hellhound a few days ago and I haven't had a chance to get any more."
There was a long, incredulous pause where even Artemis seemed at a loss for words, and Luna frowned dejectedly.
"That's a shame. I think I'm going to have to pass out now." She turned to Percy one last time, and gave a final smile. "Don't worry about your friend. Apparition gets everyone a bit sick the first time."
And then her eyes rolled back into her head, and she dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
...
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