Bab 37: Chapter 34: My adventure blows!
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'I think it's better to wait till it's day.' Hemera suggested.
'No, we can do it under the cover of darkness.' Nyx protested.
We were approaching the island of Polyphemus but it was already night and we discussing if we should wait for day or strike now and win some time. Of course Hemera said we should do it while we had some daylight and Nyx proclaimed that the midnight was the best time to strike.
Chaos, however, ended with a winning argument.
'You can't enter the cave when it's dark, Polyphemus closes it with the boulder and only opens it at sunrise or at sunset.'
'Ha! I win!' Hemera exclaimed.
"Fine!" Nyx said out loud startling Katie who was staring at the island. It was really dark, but we could make out the fact that the island was beautiful.
"30° 31' N and 75° 12' W, This is the location of the Golden Fleece." I said.
"So are we going now or are we going to wait till dawn?" Katie asked.
"Dawn." Nyx grunted and she shadow traveled to the sleeping quarters.
Anne sailed to the far side of the island where we were out of sight and she stopped there.
"You know it would be awesome Anne could fly." Katie joked.
I thought about it for a second, theoretically if I could bring Jason onto this ship Anne could copy his flying power.
"Yeah." I said and we went silent.
"Katie, can you keep a secret?" I asked suddenly.
"Yes, Of course." Katie said.
I thought how to bring the news to her.
"It's about Meg's past, there is another reason she was chained to the hearth." I said and Katie's eyes widened.
"You know something about her past?" Katie asked, then she added quickly, "Of course, you brought her to camp didn't you?"
Well, this was unexpected, most campers didn't know that. Meg and I had faked that she was wandering around half-blood hill and I found her and brought her to camp.
"Well, it wasn't hard to figure out you two know each other longer then she stayed at camp. Meg was always with you training in the forest," Katie explained with a smile.
"You know that she snugs out of her cabin?" I asked.
Katie nodded, "Almost every week she left, of course, I would notice and I assume Nyx is in on it too" I stared at her flabbergasted.
Katie noticed my confusion and smirked, "I may not do a lot at camp but that doesn't mean I'm dumb."
"Yeah, it seems like you are a lot smarter than you pretend to be," I said with awe, Katie shrugged.
"Guess I'm just like my mother. She is one of the most powerful Olympians, yet she is always on the background, but what's up with Meg's past?"
I sighted, "Katie I'm going to reveal a big secret, and I need you to keep it a secret. If the other campers find out about this world war 3 might start."
Katie nodded, less impressed then I hoped she would be.
"I promise not to tell anyone."
I chose for a dramatic pause before saying, "Katie, the Gods have split personalities, they are Greek but they also have a Roman form. There is also a camp for Roman demigods across the country."
Katie nodded, "Well, that's just another layer of weirdness in the life of a demigod."
'Well, she took it surprisingly well.' Chaos commented.
'Yeah, I expected her to freak out.' Hemera said with awe.
"So why is it a secret?" Katie asked.
"Everytime Greek and Romans meet each other they fight each other. The American Civil War was actually a war between Greek and Roman Demigods. After that the Gods decided to separate them with the mist and all the memories of each other were erased."
Katie nodded thoughtfully, "But why don't the Romans help in the war against Kronos?"
"They do, we just don't notice it."
"So is Meg a Roman demigod?" Katie asked.
"No, she is a Greek."
Katie raised her brow, "Then what's the connection between her and Romans?"
"Triumvirate."I simply said.
"What's Triumvirate?" Katie asked.
"A powerful organization existing out of the three worst Roman emperors who made themselves Gods."
"Roman Emperors, who made themselves Gods? But how? I've never heard of them."
"It's a Shadow organization, but they are rich, they have resources that are beyond our imagination. They hide in the shadows and pull the strings on a lot of wars. They sponsor Luke. The cruise ship is paid by them."
Katie now looked genuinely afraid, "That's horrible, why haven't you told the Gods? Sure they can get rid of them."
I shook my head, "No, the moment I reveal their existence they will go out on us at full power, they have huge armies. They can't use them now without revealing their existence."
"So what's Meg's connection with Triumvirate?" Katie wondered.
"Nero, he rules over the eastside of America, Caligae, another Roman Emperor, burned down Meg's and her father's house. They fled but fell in the hands of Nero. Nero separated her from her father. When she was six, he killed her father and tried to make her join her side."
I saw tears in Katie's eyes. She tried to say something but the tears made it impossible to articulate clearly.
After a few seconds, she said, "That's horrible."
"Yes, that's why I took her to camp. Nero is furious and wants my blood and Meg's blood as well."
"Thank you for helping my sister," Katie said and suddenly hugged me.
After a minute she released me and yawned, "I'm going to catch some sleep." Katie said.
I nodded, "Yeah, I think we should enter the island at dawn, you know, so we can enter his cave."
"You say it." Katie said as she went downstairs.
(Linebreak)
We made our way over the beach without many problems; The chains were still in the cave so we had not to worry about the man eating sheep. I took the Golden Fleece from the tree, and it magically fitted into my backpack. We waited in front of the entrance, we discussed our plan before sunrise. We got onto the island before Pholymus would open it and release his sheep.
Nyx coughed before yelling,"Did someone order a painful death?"
Sounds came from the inside from the cave, "Who's there?"
"Nobody!" Nyx yelled back with a smug smile on her face.
The boulder moved and revealed a huge cyclops, Polyphemus.
"Nobody! I came for you!"Polyphemus shouted, and he looked down at us. His eye must have been really bad because he looked at me instead of Nyx. But on the flip side, the original nobody was a male and Nyx was a female.
We all stepped back, making the cyclops leave his cave.
Nyx stood on my right side and Katie was on my left, the both looked determined.
I uncapped Riptide. I only needed one sword now and took another few steps back.
Polyphemus followed and stepped forward.
"Now!" I shouted.
Shadows began to wrap rapidly around Polyphemus's right leg while vines and grass began to grow at a high pace wrapping themselves around his left leg.
"What?" Polyphemus wondered but it was too late.
Katie made a pulling motion with her hands and the vines followed her movement. His left leg suddenly jerked forward but his right leg was still trapped in Nyx's shadows.
I activated my combat avatar, Chaos hovered above me and had a sadistic smile on her face. In her right hand she held a copy of Riptide, only it was a lot larger and seemed to be made of the same substance Chaos was. I lunged forward and Chaos mimicked my movement. Now we were only a few feet smaller than the cyclops. I lunged forward while he fell on his back due to Katie´s vines pulling his left leg away.
My right fist connected with his jaw and I landed on top of him.
I grinned as I had riptide against his throat.
"There are probably a lot of reasons why I shouldn't kill you but right now I can't think of one."
And with that I pushed Riptide straight through his throat.
He let out a scream before he combusted into golden dust like monsters always do.
I deactivated my combat avatar and fell to my knees.
'That was awesome.' Chaos exclaimed.
Katie handed me some ambrosia and I gave her a grateful nod before swallowing it in one bite.
"That was…" I began but Nyx yelled. "Awesome!"
"I was about to say great team work, but awesome works too," I said smiling.
We heard a few baas's coming from the cave.
"Shit the sheep," I muttered remembering the flesh-eating sheep.
Katie smiled, "Don't worry, I poisoned the hay they were eating. If I snap my fingers the Ph levels in the hay will get so high they won't be able to move." Katie said and snapped her fingers.
Immediately it went silent.
'Poor sheep.' Hemera pouted.
I decided never to piss of Katie, who knows what she could do to a cheese burger?
We entered the cave of Polyphemus and at the end of the cave were Clarisse and Grover gagged and tied up against the wall.
They stared at us, wide-eyed.
"Don't worry, we are here to safe you!" Katie reassured them and we hurried towards them.
Katie cut open Clarisse's ropes while Nyx freed Grover.
I looked around and noticed something peculiar. The entire cave was hollowed out. Unlike last time where it was filled with all kinds of stuff now there was only hay everywhere, sleeping sheep and small packages stuck to the wall.
"What happened to this place?" I wondered out loud.
Clarisse, who was untied, now yelled, "Trap!"
'O.' Chaos said unimpressed.
"Trap?" Katie asked.
"I suppose it is." A male voice behind us said, We all turned around and saw three men enter the cave.
The man in the middle, he seemed to be around 30 but I knew he wasn't, was casually walking, looking around like he was inside a store, deciding what to buy.
He wore an expensive purple Italian suit and a grey shirt that could barely contain his belly. Yet he had golden chains hanging around his belly, maybe to make up for the ugliness.
He had a haggard face that was completed by a weak chin and a mouth stuck in a permanent sneer.
Nero.
On his left and right side were two seven feet tall Germani. Both were had blond hair and had snake shaped tattoos.
"Nero." I hissed.
He laughed, "Yes, I must say I'm quite disappointed in you. I thought the Demigod who Kronos feared and discovered Triumvirate would be," he rubbed his chin, "More impressive."
I was about to say something but Nero wasn't finished, "But in the end, you are just a teenager that pushes buttons everywhere and has no idea what he's doing."
His words did hurt, like almost physically and I remembered Meg telling me how good of a speaker he was.
"Percy, who is this?" Clarisse asked not impressed.
"Nero, a roman dickhead. I tell you two later about it, just roll with it. And if we can kill him in the process that would be great." I grunted not looking away from Nero.
Nero laughed, "Kill me, Percy, I am a god!"
"Percy, what's the plan?" Grover asked afraid.
"Kill him?" Nyx suggested helpfully.
Nero even har der laughed which began to annoy me.
"Stop laughing, we outnumber you!" Katie yelled angrily.
Nero stopped abruptly.
"Give us the Fleece Percy, and I let you and your friends go." He said seriously.
"Never!" Clarisse shouted and then looked at me, "You have the fleece?" She whispered and I nodded.
"We rather fight you." Nyx said smirking.
Nero smirked and took out a silver device from his pocket. It had around the size of a tv remote, but it was silver and had multiple buttons on it.
"This entire island is stuffed with C-4 and Greek Fire, if I press this button the entire island will explode, I won't die but all of you will. Sadly the Fleece would be lost too."
We all stepped back with fear for the detonator.
Everyone except Nyx.
"Well, I think you are lying, I have no idea what C-4 is but I don't care." She sneered, and she summoned two black daggers in her hand.
'Nyx don't!' I mentally cried out but she wouldn't budge.
Nero snickered, "Okay, I get it, you want proof." and he pressed a golden button.
A loud bang followed and the entire cave shook, above us multiple explosions went off and the roof burst open. I was afraid that Nero decided to explode the entire island but I saw only the roof in the middle of the cave was blown to shreds. Large chunks of rocks rained down in the middle of the cave but we were all at a safe distance.
Nyx stepped back, clearly shocked, "He isn't lying." She said unnecessarily.
In the middle of the cave was a pile of rocks that were once part of the roof. Now there was a huge hole in the roof.
I heard the sounds of a helicopter and I looked up to see one hovering above the hole.
It was a large black helicopter that had several guns sticking out of it and on the side was written in gold, Mil Mi-24 and the logo of Triumvirate Holdings was next to it.
A golden triangle in a field of purple.
Underneath is was a huge cage, hanging on a rope, inside it was a Chimera. The helicopter lowered the cage til it reached the bottom where Nero stepped forward and opened the cage.
The Chimera jumped out of it and landed next to Nero where the lion head licked his face.
Like Nero had prepared it, or maybe he did, human mercenaries came through the entrance. They looked like they were out to kill a terrorist, fully equipped with automatic guns and heavy armor.
At Least 12 of them entered the cave and stopped next to Nero where they raised their guns at us.
'This is so exciting!' Chaos exclaimed.
Nero laughed, but none of us raised our hands to surrender.
"Now Percy," Nero said and he raised his detonator, "You still want to fight me?"
"We can take them," Nyx said but I heard she was scared too.
Nero wiggled with the detonator, "I know, there's a small chance you might win but Triumvirate always has a back up plan. If you don't surrender now I press this button and I blow up the entire island."
He hovered his thumb over one of the buttons.
"So what will it be?" Nero asked with a smug smile.
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