Demigods : Version 3.0 { Closed, Started }

[Lefthandofgod]

Dorofei stood alone, atop the flattened section of snow that was once part of a mountain. It wouldn't be much of a problem to dig through the snow to find the entrance of the cave. He smacked the flat of his axe against the snow, and what looked like a small explosion forced a moderate pile of snow to the side. It was easy work at first, until Dorofei felt something he hadn't felt since his mother gave him his enchanted gifts. For the first time in years, Dorofei felt a chill run down his spine. A chill from a northern wind.

Dorofei turned to face the wind and spoke in Greek. "Are you going to show yourself or are you going to play games all day?"

In a blinding flash of light, a figure emerged onto the snowy plane in front of Dorofei. He struck a giant and imposing figure. He towered several meters above Dorofei, his skin a deep a sickening blue. He would have looked like a giant that had died from exposure to the cold, were it not for the monstrously large wings that the air seemed to surge around like small typhoons contained around delicate feathers.

He spoke in a deep and booming voice. " Kneel before Boreas, mortal. The God of North Winds has graced you with his precence"

Dorofei stood motionless in the face of the god. "You chose now to speak to me? I didn't know you were so dramatic."

Boreas laughed. "You're one to talk. How much longer are you going to keep up the cave-man thing? I'm almost disappointed that I don't get to hear you stomp your way through the conversation."

"What do you want?"

"I came to give you a gift. I have for you a-"

"I don't want it. Leave me be."

Boreas gave his giant wings a single great beat, and what felt like a hurricane hit Dorofei, pinning him to his knees. His rage seemed to make his voice ring from all the mountain. "You do not dismiss me, mortal. You are my grandson and you will give me what is mine."

Dorofei laughed. "And the mighty Boreas, the Great Devourer, has to ask me nicely for his magic back."

His wings gave another mighty beat, but the giant blue god didn't move.

"You will return the enchantments that Chione stole from me!"

Dorofei lauged again. It felt almost theraputic to hold the upper hand like this. "I never could figure it out when I was a child. All those years, covering every footprint in the snow, sleeping tied to a tree branch, swimming up freezing rivers, and they always found us. We'd experience just a moment of peace, and there'd be another monster, always bigger than the last. All your hope of staying alive, every ounce of it, placed into one person. Only to watch them die, and a woman made of snow descend upon you, with magic in one hand and a life story in the other. A story about an angry, bitter old god who was mad at his daughter and punished her family."

Dorofei picked his axe up and swung it back into the ground, throwing another mound of snow towards Boreas. There was now a sizable hole leading toward the buried cave entrance. Dorofei took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air. Even now, in the blistering cold, the enchantment from his mother kept him perfectly comfortable.

"The enchantment are mine, Boreas. Killing me won't place it back in your hands, and you're not exactly known for your love of demigods. There's no one to help you. Your nothing now but a bag of air."

"You shouldn't be so foolish as to mock me, mortal. The gods hold no regard for you! With a thought, I will bring the darkest creatures ever spawned by Tartarus to kill you, and no tear will be shed on Olympus."

Boreas stretched his giant wings, and with a blinding flash and a powerful gust of wind, he was gone.


Dorofei's first instinct after meeting an angry and vengeful god was to swear, and loudly.

"FUCK! Jia! The asshole! They must be at the Chimera by know. I have to get to them quickly!"

The dig to the cave entrance went faster than he expected. There must have been less snow than anticipated.

He quickly made his way down into the cave. Soon he spotted Jia and Freya. Before he could call out to them, he saw Jia raise her sword and salute someone out of view. From the sound of it, they were other demigods, and they weren't friendly. Aching with anticipation and anxiety, Dorofei stood back; He had to find a way to contact Jia without giving his presence away to the other demigods. He knelt to the ground, and stuck his Celestial Bronze rod into the earth. Concentrating, he grew a wire-thin sliver of Magic Ice along the floor, behind Jia, and sent a thin strip of Ice up her ankle and leg. Hopefully, the sudden chill would clue her in.

 

[Lambi]

"Fucking seriously?" Freya said when Jia stopped her and introduced herself to the hostile demigods. She wasn't going to introduce herself, though. She could leave it up to Jia to make pleasantries with the enemy. The young man did actually respond by putting the head of his war hammer onto the ground and bowing a little. "Tristan Ryder, son of Thanatos." Upon hearing that, Freya became more interested. She knew that Thanatos children could summon skeletons much like Hades children, but they needed a bone in order to do so. She took a closer look at him, and sure enough, he had a bone on his belt. It'd be easy to counter that with her own skeletons.

The young woman was next. She held her glaive much like Tristan did with his war hammer, but the other way around so as to not stick it into the ground with the pointy end of it. "Diana Zeke, daughter of Hephaestus." Now that seemed like it would make for a problematic opponent for Dorofei, since if she was able to manipulate fire like some children of Hephaestus were able to do, he would really need help. But Freya wasn't the slightest interested in making sure he had a fair fight or not. If they had to go through these two to get to the Chimera, Freya would gladly do so.

"We haven't heard your name, daughter of Hades." Tristan said with a cheeky grin. "How the fuck do you know who my father is?!" Freya said, upset that they knew about her. "A little bird told us." Diana replied, wearing the same cheeky grin as Tristan. "Doesn't fucking matter, I'm not telling my name to dead people! Because I'll make sure that you two die, if that's what I have to do to get to that Chimera!" The two of them laughed. "It doesn't matter if you won't tell us, we already know. Along with your two other partners who we know are hiding back there." The second sentence was aimed at Dorofei and Royce, the latter had followed after Dorofei into the cave. The Chimera was growing anxious with all this waiting and talking, just wanting to attack them as it showed with a roar.

 

[Pm0n3y]

It started out simple. Ambrose wanted protection from surprisingly bloodthirsty sheep. Gabriel couldn't understand why this typically herbivore species had thing for human flesh, but it was happening right before his very eyes. "I might as well accept it." As he thought, a sleep charged at him. "Just keep 'em off of Sleepy. Just keep 'em off-" With his left hand outstretched, an collection of vines thrust forth, tangling the sheep's footing, leaving it vulnerable. With his right hand, he stabbed down into its neck. Only a few shivs were needed to secure the kill.

Gabe closed the gap between himself and the Sleepling, his back facing hers. The first kill was simple enough (if only slightly jarring, the act of killing something usually so harmless). "Hehehe, counting sheep" Ambrose chuckled to herself before clutching her pendant again, back to her partner. She had put her scythe away, concentrating intently on her spell. Whenever a sheep lunged at her, or tried to take a nip, Ambrose merely dodged, leaving Gabe with skill the work until she was finished. "Somnolence." she repeated.

No poppies appeared this time, but their angel was heavy in the air. Like magic, all the sheep in the clearing dropped, some skidding to stops at the demigods' feet. This time, Ambrose followed it with another spell. "Koma."

As she chanteed, one last lunging sheep flew through the air, catching Gabe from the side. With the extra dead weight, it was more than enough to knock him off his feet and over the wall of bloodied wool. Luckily for him, it was asleep. Wriggling from under the heavy sheep, Gabriel managed to rise back to his feet, panting. "Is that it?" He asked the Sleepling.

Ambrose's eyes misted over, and her head slowly tilted back, mouth slightly open. All the sleeping sheep disintegrated one by one, collapsing into piles of ash. Small red petals floated down among them. Ambrose's eyes returned to normal, and she quickly succumbed to a coughing fit, sitting down to catch her breath. "Wooo! Yeah, out of practice." The Harvestchild approached her. "You okay?" He crouched to her side.

"I'm fine, I guess. Now demigod dreams, those're delicious" she put on a psychotic smile, but burst out coughing a few seconds later before laughing again, ruining the effect. "I just haven't done this on a big scale before. How many was that, five? You already killed most of them..." Gabe shrugged. He honestly wasn't counting. "Just doing what you asked." Eyebrow raised at her peculiar ramblings, he offered her a hand. "Need some help?" Ambrose got up and dusted smoothed her dress down, picking out all the leaves. "Thanks. You good? Wanna go again-"

There was the sound of something coming. Something bigger than a sheep. With a lot more legs. Branches and leaves cracked as a large crab crashed into the clearing. It was easily taller than either of the demigods, and about 15 feet across. Its shell looked like a boulder, and had patches of moss and plants growing out of it. Whatever it was, it looked a lot worse since it was big. "Oh..."

"That's a big crab." Gabe stated the obvious. Its shell looked concrete tough, much too hard for his sword to do any damage. So in reply, he put his sword away, and a tangle of vines swirled around his right arm. "Might need two hands for this." He turned to the Sleepling. "Any ideas? Think you can put that thing to sleep?" Ambrose was hesitant to answer. "Um... I don't know... It'd be easier if I could get on its head."

"Okay." Gabe glanced between the Sleepling and the massive crustacean. It was approaching, gradually albeit slowly. The clearing made it slightly difficult for it to advance. It was still in arm's reach, however, and swung at the two with one massive claw. With quick thinking, Gabe grabbed for Ambrose and took cover behind one of the wider trees. WHAM! The claw collided with the large trunk. The canopy rustled, but tree was much too rooted to take any significant damage. "The canopy..." Gabriel looked up; he had an idea. He knelt to the Sleepling. "Get on my back. I'll get you to its head."

"What?" She didn't have time to ask what he planned, jumping on his back as the crab yanked its claw back. A vine fell from the tree. "Hold on tight." With two quick tugs on the vine, it shot straight up, bringing the Harvestchild and Ambrose with it. A few feet up, Gabe managed to find footing on a sturdy branch, one just inches out of the beast's reach. "We're gonna drop back down. Should be close enough to drop down on top of it."

"Yeah, have fun with that..." Ambrose held on even tighter to the Harvestchild. This was her first time in a tree, ever, and it was a lot taller than she thought it would be. Gabe observed the monster, waiting for the right moment to jump. Soon, it tried nipping at the two again, pointing a claw towards them. With Ambrose in tow, Gabriel jumped back down, landing on the outstretched claw, leaving the two sliding down the smooth carapace. Gabe brought his feet down and jumped once more, sailing through the air to land the two on the creature's rocky body. "I got you to the head. Do your thing." Gabe stated.

 

[NeoAC]

"All right ya'll listen up!" Brandon called the meeting of his half-brothers and sisters to order. The children of Ares had been gathered in the battle amphitheater in response to the assembly that had been called. "Ya'll heard the head honcho; we're goin' ta war!" This declaration was met with a mixture of quieted murmuring and excitement over the prospects of real fighting to do.

"Now ya'll know how this usually goes, least ya would if ya'll was payin' attention in history. Since we are the kids of war, lot of ya'll are gonna be on the front lines, out their fightin' whatever them bastards dug up from the Underworld's litter box, and sendin' it back down!" This got a few more cheers. "Some of ya though, we're gonna keep ya posted here, mannin' defenses and what not. Now I got all tha faith in tha world, that ya'll back here ain't going ta be needed, since ya'll out there are gonna whoop some ass!"

"DAMN STRAIGHT WE ARE!" came a shout in the crowd.

"Shut the hell up, Leeroy! I'm talkin' here! Dang it! Anyway, ya'll are gonna be down here ev'ry day til we get the call, trainin' and sparrin' to make sure ya'll are in top shape for this one. 'Cause this is for all the marbles, kids! Now since ya'll are probably sick hearin' me say ya'll up here, get practicin'!"

With a final cheer the Ares kids split up into sections based on their particular styles of combat and set out honing their craft as the counselor asked. Brandon meanwhile headed back towards the head offices. Right they have to give me somethin' a bit more concrete then that to tell them. Let's see if Liz and them got a plan yet.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"So much for the element of surprise." Jia mumbled under her breath. Louder, she said "what's the point of this? Why the obvious trap? What do you two get out of this? You lured us here, was it really just for a more or less fair fight? Don't you have some kind of spiel, a speech to seduce us into joining your side?" Rule of the adversarial conversation: ABA, always be asking. Provoke the other into a monologue and he'll give away information without noticing, but be careful they don't turn it around.

 

[Lambi]

"We have our motive." Tyler replied to Jia. "It doesn't matter if we tell you or not, but we've seen enough movies to know to shut up. So, nice try there, child of Athena, but we're not spilling any beans. Someone is dying here today, and in case it's us, there's no way we're going to give up our motive." He gave a sly grin.

"You came here for a fight, didn't you? Then a fight is what you'll get." Diana said after Tyler was done. He summoned a skeleton that headed for Dorofei and Royce, while he himself went after Jia. Diana followed after him, and Freya went straight for the Chimera, who was glad that the fighting had finally started.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"As you wish." Jia said as the two Demigods charged her. She moved, twisting like a reed around the thrust of the woman's glaive and kicked off the ground, her foot catching the hammer and deflecting it as she rose. She twisted as she came over, landing behind them and rising to her feet, a smile on her face. She slid the Rose back into the sheath and slipped her gloves on, then moved in.

Battle principle: Polearms and blunt weapons require feet to fight. The skilled warrior needs only an inch to punch.

She pressed close to them, focusing on the man first. A heavy uppercut strike went wide, then she was inside his reach, delivering a machine gun barrage of punches to his chest and face. Tyler staggered back under the volley, dropping his hammer and engaging her in hand to hand - the man seemed to be a bit of a boxer. She bobbed her head, twisting around one punch before another clippef the side of her head, sending stars into her eyes and tearing her cheek along the bone. She stumbled backwards, and Diana moved to make a killing shot, a fast thrust to pierce her heart. Again she bent, but he enemy followed her movement and the blade sliced through her bodysuit, slicing into the flesh of her side, scraping along ribs.

Pain is nothing. She ignored the lance that it sent into her mind, ignored the wet feeling in her clothes, and just focused on the fight. Her leg came over and around, her foot landing atop the glaive and forcing it to the ground. Two more steps along it and she was at the girl, her foot coming up to put the tip of her boot into Diana's chin, sending her sprawling and unarmed to the ground. She turned and brought her hand up to parry a haymaker punch from Tyler, the sheer power of it sending a chill down her spine.

"YAH!" She bellowed as she twisted with the force of the impact, turning his power against him as she returned it with a punch of her own that slammed into his left ribs, a sharp crack filling the cave as a rib snapped like kindling. His guard wavered and she was on him with the barrage again, punch after punch raining down on his face and chest until his face was bloody, the consistency of hamburger. He made another swing at her, half blind, and she caught his wrist, twisting and flinging him into the cave wall. He struck hard and dropped.

"That it?" She panted.

"Not quite." She spun on her heel at the voice and narrowly saved her own life as the hammer slammed down, mercifully avoiding stoving her skull in, instead striking her right arm. A crack filled the cave again, and her arm went into a shape it was never meant to go.

"Aaaaargh!" She screamed. She brought her leg around, barely able to think through her pain, and swept the legs out from under the Thanatos child. She scrambled to her feet, only for Jia to twist and deliver a kick to the side of her knee.

This time it was Diana's turn to scream as a limb went a way it wasn't made to.

 

[Lefthandofgod]

Dorofei always wondered why someone would send a skeleton to fight. They were, essentially, brittle frames carrying heavy things designed to break bones. As the skeletal warrior ambled it's way over to two experienced fighters with a wealth of combat knowledge.

Royce idly fiddled with his flamethrower. "So, should I take the skeleton, or..?"

There was a crashing sound as Jia's judo throw sent a man twice her size into the wall. He took a moment to appreciate her perfect technique and posture...

Royce snapped his fingers in Dorofei's face a few times. Dorofei jerked back to attention.

"Oh! No, I take skeleton. You take nap, leetle fire man."

"....Dorofei, if you keep doing that voice, I'm blocking TF2 on the camp's servers."

"Oh fine then, I'll just speak in Greek, but the Skeleton is mine."

He ran to intercept the shambling skeleton, sending a wide swing across with his axe. The skeleton parried with it's blade, its bones cracking under the force of Dorofei's swing. He let his momentum bring him forward, falling into a tackle the buckled the skeletons legs. He now had the skeleton pinned down beneath him, the sword arm thrashing madly as it slammed the pommel of its sword into Dorofei's head.

"Annoying *THUD* bastard *THUD*"

He reached his shield arm up, striking the edge into the skeleton's face, biting into the cheek bone. He shifted his weight, forcing the shield deeper into its skull. Magic Ice began to spread from the shield onto the skeleton. Thrashing joints one by one began to freeze as it tried in vain to scrape the growing wave of Magic Ice off its face.

Then the arms froze. Then its hands. The skeleton was once again entombed.

 

[SkyeNeko]

Ambrose tried to concentrate, but this was gonna be a tough one to crack. She twisted the gold chain over her wrist for safety, her spell mutterings constantly being interrupted by THIS FUCKING CRAB. As soon as she finished one sentence, it would ram into a tree, and she would have to grab onto its shell to keep from being flung off. Gabriel on the other hand was being a real trooper. Just do your thing Ambrose, not like you haven't DONE THIS BEFORE ON TOP OF A CRAB "Hey, since you control plants and stuff, maybe could you make its shell fall off, or hold it down with a TREE??" She grabbed onto a small hand hold in the rock, placing her other hand on top of where she assumed the crab's brain was. Okay, Okay, concentrate, concentrate, poppies, sleep, dreams, bed... "Somno-SHIT" Something like a blow to the head made her grip slip, and Ambrose scrambled for another hold. This was a lot harder than she thought. Dream eating was not ALL that it was cracked up to be. It got harder the more powerful or sentient a monster was, the further its brain was from where you were standing, the more awake it was... and this one was going to be a doozy.

"Bad news, plant man, crabs' brains aren't up here..." she made a downward motion with her thumb, quickly grabbing back onto the crab. "It's like, right above its mouth. below these." She kicked one of its eyes in frustration, causing it to rear up and wave its pincers around, trying to dislodge the pesky demigods.

 

[Pm0n3y]

Gabriel held on with but some effort. The whole ordeal was fairly exhilarating, yet the Harvestchild's plain face would've made the situation seem annoyingly trivial. He let out a bit of sigh as the monstrous land crustacean shook back and forth in attempts to jostle the two demigods loose. "...Maybe could you make its shell fall off, or hold it down with a TREE??" The Sleeping called out from her handhold, making Gabriel think. "Could I take control of a whole tree?" He pondered on the possibility. He could conjure vines from a canopy, or shape something small with relative ease, but he never thought of controlling anything bigger. "Well, stranger things have happened today." As he considered the idea, Ambrose revealed another revelation.

"...Crabs' brains aren't up here..." She pointed out. Gabe sighed again. "Wonderf-whoa-" The crab reared and caught him off guard, causing him to tumble backwards off of its craggy carapace. He was airborne for only a second, falling head over heels before landing flat on his butt. He scrambled to his feet, narrowly missing being stepped on by one of its hind legs. "Time to tie you up." He turned his attention towards the closest tree, an massive, elderly Redwood. He thrust towards it, arms outstretched. He clenched up a bit, and the tree rumbled a bit in reply.

The rumbling quickly began to grow, and soon some massive roots of the tree blasted and stretched out towards the crab. Straining, he used the roots to the best of his ability, using the roots to entangle the crab's legs. He managed to hold it down with what he had, but it was clear it wouldn't be enough. He ran over to a tree on the opposite side of the crab, and repeated the process. Then he did it with another tree, and another tree. In time, the crab was completely immobile, pincers included. It could barely even struggle as the Harvestchild approached it, and punched the other eye. Now exhausted by the overexertion, he looked up towards the crab's rocky top, and called out. "Hey...ya wanna...try this again?" He told the Sleepling through heavy breaths before collapsing where he stood.

 

[Lambi]

While Jia took out the two Demigods and Dorofei handled the skeleton, Freya was busy fighting the Chimera. It had always been an odd creature, with two heads, one of a goat and the other of a lion, a lion's body and a snake for a tail. But none of that mattered to Freya as she held her shield up and her sword aimed directly at the Chimera. The snake hissed at her, the lion roared and the goat bleated. It swiped at her with its paw, which got blocked by her shield. The cave was just big enough for the Chimera to move almost freely in it.

Freya quickly moved to the Chimera's side and sliced it with her sword, making the Chimera roar in pain and spit acid from the snake's mouth. Freya jumped out of the way of the acid and ran around it to give it a stab here and there. The Chimera was annoyed at the way she fought and in an attempt to trip her, put the snake tail down in front of her legs. However, that just gave her the chance to slice the tail off. The snake part wriggled around before stopping as it died.

The Chimera both roared and bleated in pain at having its tail cut off like that and jumped at Freya. "Wrong move, ************." Freya said with a grin as she used the shadows around to teleport behind the Chimera as it landed and slice at its hind legs. It was enough to slow the Chimera down, but it still had a fighting chance. It turned around to give her another swipe, and while she blocked it again, it threw her against the cave wall, apparently using more strength now than before. Thankfully, wearing full armor made sure she was mostly unhurt. Just sore from the impact and even more into the fight. "You sure put up a fight, but you're going down!"

They both ran towards one another and as the Chimera swiped again, Freya jumped up and plunged her sword into the goat head. "Two out of three. Not bad." Still sporting her grin, she yanked her sword out and ran down the back of the Chimera, who turned back towards her, clawing and swiping furiously. She just barely managed to block the swipes. The Chimera roared at her and once she pushed the swipes back, she gave it a roar of her own. It was more of an angry yell, but she tried.

Again the Chimera attempted to pounce her, but she was prepared. "Game over." she said as she dodged under the Chimera and stabbed it straight in the heart. She let go of the sword and watched as the Chimera slumped over, showing signs of being in pain before stopping. Freya walked over to it, kicking it over from its side onto its back and took her sword out. She put it back into its sheath and walked towards the others. "The Chimera's dead, so that's out mission." She looked at what Jia had done to the two Demigods, who were both in really bad shapes. "I see you kept them alive." Freya said and chuckled. "Well, guess who's coming back with us for interrogation. Dorofei, help me with taking deathboy over there. I'll take the blacksmith's daughter." She slumped Diana over her shoulder and started to head out of the cave.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Despite the incredible irritation of passing through the Labyrinth the first time the return trip was almost trivially easy and fast, and the trio plus their two captives were soon returning to the camp, to find the place a bustle as they readied for war.

"Looks like team two had news. Let's get these two to Chiron." She presented herself at his office. The Centaur nodded to them as they entered, and Jia relayed the tale of what had taken place.

After the two Demigod prisoners were secured and taken away, she continued. "Obviously it was a trap, but I'm not certain as to why. My guess would be they expected to be able to take us alive and convert us to their cause by some means, or maybe just killing a few Demigods was enough. I feel like there's something I'm missing."

She hissed as the healer working on her arm began the process of knitting the bone back together, the razor-sharp sensation of needles moving around inside of her arm as the shattered bone reformed.

After it was done she raised her arm. "That's always fun."

 

[blaze96]

Elizabeth was in the office with Chiron when the other team had returned and she was the one who spoke first.

"Which leaves us with another question to add to the pile of things we don't know. We are blind and on the defensive, and outside of what I recovered from the warehouse we don't have much in the way of information." Chiron was the next one to speak.

"I don't like the situation either Elizabeth, but it happens to be where we are for now. Once we have readied ourselves and have the path to Olympus properly defended we will look about changing this situation, but for the moment we need to get caught up to our enemies. Good work all of you. Take a moment to rest and do what you need to, but don't expect a lot of time. Chances are we will be needing everyone soon enough." With that Elizabeth walked over to Jia.

"I'd like to speak to you myself, if it isn't too much trouble. I'm not a child of Athena, so I'd like if you could look over the information we recovered and also fill me into what exactly would cause a child of Athena to not only keep information in a warehouse near the camp but also to so readily abandon it."

 

[Pm0n3y]

"Hey...ya wanna...try this again?" Gabe huffed out from his position on the forest floor. Knowing a cue when she sees one, Ambrose proceeded down, it being ten times easier to do so as the massive crustacean's limbs were firmly entangled. Gabriel managed to sit up during the process, looking on as the Sleepling began her mantra. "Somnolence." She concluded the chant with her signature word, and the expected mist rose around the crab. Gabriel didn?t really know what else she did while the crab drifted into unconsciousness, but figured the whole ?dream eating? comment as just her playing up her abilities.

As soon as she completed her process, she brought forth her scythe, successfully embedding the curved blade right between the crustacean?s eyes. Gabe let out a bit of relieved sigh at the small victory. "Do you never not sigh?" Ambrose asked. He sighed again, more habitually than purposely. "...S'been a long day, Ammy." He laid back into the forest floor. "Imma sigh if I want to."

"Yeah, okay, i'm just saying. It probably isn't good for your breathing habits or something." She replied, taking a seat next to him. As the crab began fading into ash, some familiar faces stepped into the clearing with prisoners in tow. The way they dismissively stepped past the massive dissolving monster, one would think this was just another everyday occurrence for the campers. It most likely was. Seems like Team B finally arrived back at camp. Refreshed, Gabe stood to his feet. "Ya did good, Sleepy." He told her, tussling her hair. "But I think i'm done for the day." With his free hand, he pointed towards the entanglement he created, making sure to put it all back the way he found it. And with that done, he quietly headed back into camp.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Jia tugged her sleeve back down and leaned on one arm, her brow furrowed. "There are a couple possibilities, but I can only see one that makes any real sense - our enemy wanted us to find that data. The question is why? That's where we get into the complicated areas and start our best Vizzini impressions. He had to know anything we learned would be regarded with intense suspicion and we would assume it to be planted lies, and hence would have our eyes on the opposite of what he was pointing at and so on and so forth. It's essentially a shell game."

She leaned forward. "In a street shell game the secret is to have the pebble in your hand the whole time. If it looks like he's threatening Olympus, the simplistic look suggests he's after the Underworld, and distracts us from his real target of Posiedon." She shrigged. "Just speaking metaphorically here. But then we get into the problem that he might have guessed we'd puece that together and go for one of the original two, and on and on it goes."

"This whole venture at the Chimera seems designed specifically to kill a few Demigod warriors. I think that's our coherent useful data. The worst thing we can do right now is divide our strength. Draw back all Demigods, call in any favors we have, and wait for our enemy to make their move, and when they do we intercept them. Combine the team you took to the warehouse and the team I took to the mountain and we can handle just about anything."

 

[blaze96]

"Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of guessing what target is the pebble in this case. We have to defend the camp and Olympus, losing either would probably end up being catastrophic. He knows that and so do we, so we need to focus on keeping what we have. I'm also not a fan of following the circular logic of he knows he'll do x so we'll do y but he knows we'll do y so we'll do z, repeat until you run out of ideas. So I guess for the moment we hunker down as much as we can, look for any further traitors or plants, and maybe organize a small team who can try and find the pebble as it were. At least that is my suggestion." Elizabeth said, to some extent just thinking out loud.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"Any threat to the Gods is a threat that can't be stopped by planting bodies in front of it, Demigods are no. If whatever is coming plans to attack Olympus we have to stop them before they acquire whatever means they require to launch an attack. If they become strong enough to attack Olympus our valor won't stop them.

But if we have to defend both then we should abandon the camp, move all our people into the Empire State Building. We may have to leave some stuff behind, but the camp is ultimately the people in it, not the cabins and forges and so on."

 

[Pm0n3y]

"Even then, what little information we have leaves us at an impasse. We've yet to learn of our enemies next move." Chiron intervened betwixt the two. "Take the captured to the holding pens with the others. We have potential leverage with our returning campers. We will question them tomorrow." His stern expression warmed as he considered the briefing over. "I am very proud of you all. Rest for now, as you've all deserved it. Tomorrow will be an early morning and a long day for us all." He smiled as he lead the group out into the evening skies of camp.

[hr]

The Next Day, 6:00 AM...

As morning bells for breakfast stirred most from sleep, a group of campers met up at the camp's entrance, conversing and fixing their armors and weapons before vanishing into the wilds for their usual sentry duties. Young campers were stirred awake by their respective counselors, leading them to the mess hall or restroom for their morning rituals. Some rituals more literal than others.

Gabriel was up, but he wasn't entirely rested. His night was filled with restlessness, repeated awakenings from numerous night terrors. And as the sun rose into that warm morning, it was fair that the Harvestchild was a bit more crass than usual. The lack of sleep (on top of many other mental transgressions) did not make the boy a happy camper. As Rosa guided the younger Demeter kids out, she paused at the threshold of the cabin, noticing Gabriel still mingling around his quarters. "Are you getting breakfast?" She asked. He gazed towards her, his expression grim yet plain. He didn't answer her. Instead, he proceeded out, trudging over to the mess hall on his own terms.

As he made his way over, an announcement projected from the camp loudspeakers. "Will campers Brandon, Jia, Dorofei, and Elizabeth report to Chiron at the holding pens after breakfast. I repeat..." He repeated the message a second time, just to make sure the point got across.

[hr]

Meanwhile, at the cusp of the Underworld...

It was a wait that Ayane felt lasted an eternity. Her mortal form may have been devoured by a pack of artificially influenced devil dogs, her soul still remained. Well, not in the mortal realm, at least. Instead she waited at the river Styx with an perpetually voluminous amount of fellow souls. The souls of those dying everyday. Pushing the line forward ever so sluggishly. Sometimes, from their place in line, they could spot the activity at the front of the line, and only look on in envy as a dozen or so souls wailed their way onto Charon's dinky little dinghy. And the line moved forward yet again. Ayane made a loud sigh. "Can we hurry this up?!" A soul called out. "Yeah! We don't got all day!" A fellow soul retorted, getting a chuckle or two from some others. "Oh, wait." It was funny because they actually did have all day.

Though, in time the girl got her chance to cross the wide, murky river, she and some others herded onto this little rowboat, to send them just that much closer to oblivion. Across the Styx, one other overseer called out in a loud voice: "Alright souls and soulettes, please keep a single file as you choose your final destination!" Beyond the overseer, were two paths. "If you want to wander the fields of worry-free mediocrity, take the "E-Z Death" path! It will take you to the Plains of Asphodel!" Then he pointed to the other path. "If you think you have a chance at Elysium, then you'll wanna take the "Final Judgement" path! You will be literally judged, so make sure you've had a wonderful life! If not, you'll get sent straight to the Fields of Punishment, you the rest of your daaaaays!"

Ayane, a warrior through and through, opted for the "Final Judgement" path. She felt she lived a pretty righteous life, her path to Elysium should be a cakewalk.

 

[Lambi]

Freya woke up with a yawn and rubbed her eyes, then headed for a quick shower before putting on a fresh set of clothes and heading to the mess hall. She heard the announcement along with all the other campers, but as she wasn't mentioned, she just kept on going to the mess hall to eat. She was glad she wasn't called up to Chiron. Probably some kind of boring meeting. She had noticed how everything had been bustling yesterday, and wondered just what was going on. If they were to go and fight, then she would be at the front of the lines. No one was stealing her glory for battle.

But for now, it was enough for her to get some breakfast. No one fights on an empty stomach. Orange juice, toast, eggs and some bacon. A simple breakfast, but a good one. She sat down and started to eat when she saw Gabe entering the mess hall. Once he'd gotten breakfast himself, she went over to him, not giving him a choice as she grabbed his arm, dragged him over to where her own breakfast was and had him sit down by her before she sat down herself.

"Seems we both got out of our missions unharmed. We went over to the mountains and I kicked the ass out of that Chimera. How did your mission go?" she asked him, genuinely curious about it, though she didn't miss a chance to gloat over her victory over the Chimera.

 

[blaze96]

Elizabeth had been up for the final watch of the night with a couple others, the hope was that it would make sure nobody sneaked out of the cabin. She simply got out of bed at the call and walked to Chiron's office after showering and changing her clothes. She also stopped by the mess hall and grabbed a piece of toast being prepared. She entered with a bite of toast in her mouth and swallowed before speaking.

"So what re we doing today?" she asked.