Chapter 9

Percy walked into camp grinning ear to ear he couldn't remember the last time he had felt this happy. "Percy" Piper called as she ran up the hill to meet her friend

"hey Piper" He said.

"So how … was the … date" she said in between breaths.

"It was great." He said looking up at the moon which for some reason reminded him of Diana

"...well" she said after a minute"come on give me details this is your first date since … well never mind but come on with that smile something had to have gone right.".

"To be honest the entire date was really nothing extraordinary we just had dinner and went to a movie." Percy said causing Piper to frown "but…" Percy said building the suspense and making Piper just stare at him waiting. "There was just something about her that even though we just met made me feel at home, there was no me trying to impress her or figure her out. It was like we had been going out for years she laughed at my cheese jokes, we held hands, and I walked her home simple as that."

Piper was bursting with excitement "So… is there going to be a date number 2?" she asked.

Percy just laughed "If you must know yes there will be if I can help it." Percy said pausing for a bit then said "Piper I need you to promise me something."

"Sure what is it?"

"I need you to IM your mom and make sure that this time she doesn't mess with my love life, I don't want her playing with mine or Diana's feelings and I don't want her throwing me any curve balls."

"Ok sounds reasonable." Piper said

"Help!" someone called, Percy turned, looking for who the voice belonged to, it was dark making it hard to see. His eyes fell upon a group of two or three demigods outside the camp boundaries making their way up half blood hill closely followed by a group of 4 cyclops.

"Piper go get Chiron." He yelled charging down the hill towards the young demigods"Get over the hill." Percy said as he ran past them uncapping riptide. "I'll buy you some time." as He neared the first cyclops the beast swung at Percy with his club. The son of Poseidon ducked underneath and stabbed it the back of its calf causing the monster to stumble and fall down the hill. The next one was a little smarter he swung his club low with one hand and as Percy jumped over the weapon it grabbed him right out of the air and lifted him to it's face intending to eat Percy right then and there. Percy just stabbed him in the eye killing him and he crumbled to dust dropping me on my back.

As Percy got up the other two charged him and were slain easily. He look down the hill to see the one he stabbed in the calf disintegrate into dust. Percy turned and headed back up the hill where he found Piper, Jason, and Chiron talking to the oldest of the three demigods talking who was a boy that looked to be around ten with red hair the other two were girls who were clearly twins with blond hair and brown eyes, if Percy had to guess they were maybe 6. "We have to go back and help him." the oldest cried.

"We will child we will now where did you last see him." Chiron said "It was up the road a little ways half a mile at most." Chiron looked at Jason who nodded.

"Come on Percy." Jason said running down the hill with Percy close behind.

"What's going on?" Percy asked as he caught up to him.

"Apparently there was an older fourth demigod who was traveling with them, when they got caught by large group of monsters he stayed behind to give them time."

"But didn't I just kill them?"

Jason shook his head "According to that red haired kid there were a lot more, those four were just the ones who managed to slip past h..." Jason was cut off by the sound of swords clashing. the two of them rounded the bend to see a guy in a silver cloak'wait THE guy in a silver cloak the one that Thalia calls Silver.'

Percy thought, he was doing fairly well considering how much monster dust was on the ground but if they didn't help him he was going to loose. He had an arrow sticking out of his thigh and several others in his back not to mention the many cuts on his legs and arms or the fact that the monsters had him surrounded.

As he and Jason ran towards him Percy noticed how even though he had numerous wounds he kept fighting like they weren't even slowing him down. Percy and Jason finally reached the monsters and started attacking them and Percy let his mind go on autopilot as he hacked and slashed with Jason keeping pace, the two of them were like a raging storm of death literally because Percy had summoned a mini hurricane and Jason had thunderbolts shooting off him like Zeus's master bolt.

The monsters were dead in minutes and Percy turned his attention to Silver who was leaning his shoulder against a tree for support. Percy noticed his mask had been pulled down and blood was leaking out of his mouth.

"Are the kids ok?"he asked, his question through Percy off a bit because here he was quite possible mortally wounded and his first worry was about the children. "Are the kids ok!" he asked again this time more frantically"The kids are fine." Jason said.

"Good." Silver said as he started falling Jason sprinted and managed to catch him before he hit the dirt then the two of them carried him back camp half blood.

They took him to the infirmary where Chiron upon seeing him gave Piper a list of things to grabbed such as ambrosia, nectar, and pain killers. When Piper returned Chiron set about addressing the injuries Percy had noticed earlier and several that he hadn't noticed such as the broken ankle and a deep gash in his stomach. Frank was here also which Percy thought was weird because he was supposed to be in Camp Jupiter come to think of it so was Jason.

"So Frank what brings you to our neck of the woods." He asked, Frank replied that there had been some unusual activity around here and the Romans sent him and Jason to see what was going on. The three demigods that were lead here by Silver came in a few minutes later and refused to leave his side, obviously having grown attached to him during their trip here. Chiron decided to ask them what had happen because they couldn't really get the full story while the kids were panicking when they first showed up.

Apparently the three demigods had been captured by a group of monsters in Illinois which is where they met and were rescued by Silver. Over the next day and a half they ran into around 15 other groups but Silver managed to either kill the monsters or escape them by using something called mist travel before they got ambushed the last time and he sent them on a head"Well that explains a few things." Chiron said

"Like what?" Percy asked looking at him.

"Well first his body seems to be completely drained of all energy if he was mist traveling as much as they said I'm surprised he hadn't burned himself out yet."

"What is mist travel." Jason said "Mist travel is like shadow travel but although all demigods can learn to use it most don't because of the amount of energy needed to use it." Chiron explain "It also explains the strange activity we've been noticing" Frank said. "Me and Jason were sent here because the some of factions I was talking about have started collapsing."

"You mean they start fighting amongst themselves or something?" Percy asked.

"No I mean all of the sudden areas that extremely active with monsters will go silent and when we go in to investigate we find that the entire faction has been kill virtually overnight." Frank said walking over to a map of the U.S. that happened to be in the infirmary and drawing a line "This line represents the most recent of these reports is of factions near camp half blood like whatever it is was making a beeline straight for it and from their story they would have been running right along this path at the same time..." Frank was cut off when Jason accidentally knocked a pouch that belong to Connor Stoll off a table releasing some kind of gas making us all gag and run outside into the moonlight dragging Silver who was still unconscious on his cot outside where he stayed for the rest of the night

.

-

Artemis woke up in her palace and she couldn't help but smile as she remembered her date with Percy. As she stretched Artemis realized she had fallen asleep in her cloths from the date. She quickly took a shower and got dressed before flashing to camp it was about 5:00 AM so she suspected her hunters to still be asleep but when she went into her cabin she only found 2 of them there. One of them being Melissa and another hunter named Jackie both of whom had joined in the last two years and were between 6-8 years old.

Puzzled Artemis started walking to the big house intending to ask Chiron if he knew what happened to them, Artemis noticed there seemed to be a lot of activity at the infirmary so she headed that way "Hello Artemis." Percy said as he caught up to her. She could tell had just woken up because his hair was still flat on one side of his head 'he looks so cute' she thought.

"So did anything interesting happen while I was gone yesterday." she said referring to their date.

"Ya a couple things happened." he said

"Like what?"

"Well first I had a great first date with this amazing girl."'He thinks I'm amazing' she thought" And then when I got back me and Piper found three demigods getting chased by some cyclops. Then after we rescued them me and Jason had to go help their friend who had stopped the bulk of the monsters a mile down the road."

"Well you sure had a busy night." The goddess replied.

"You don't even know the half of it." Percy Laughed "Their friend that we saved was that Silver guy that saved Thalia back at the warehouse he in the infirm...oww!" Percy said as he walked into the pole that helped work as a doorway to the infirmary tent. Artemis stifled a laugh and walked in.

The hunters were all standing the back asking Chiron a million questions like "Who is he?" or "Why is here?"

"One at a time." Chiron said "I'll do my best to answer your questions and Atlanta could you change his bandages." Atlanta nodded and went to the side of his bed with fresh bandages in hand.

Just as she was about to remove them he grabbed her hand and screamed "BOOO!"

"AHHHHHHHHHH" Atlanta scream getting the attention of everyone in the tent, Silver released her hand laughing hysterically and so was Percy.

"I'm sorry" he said sitting up "I just couldn't resist the opportunity was just too perfect". The hunters were angry at first by calmed down a bit when they saw that Atlanta was fine.

"You shouldn't get up." Chiron said "You were badly injured."

"I've had worse." he said standing up"How long have I been here?"

"Just since last night." Percy said.

"That's good." he said to himself, he looked up a Chiron and for the first time Artemis noticed that his mask and hood were off and his shirt had been removed to treat his wounds, but was still wearing his sunglasses and cloak. He had pitch black hair mixed with auburn, he also had a scar that started at his hairline went straight down over his left eye before ending at his chin. "Thank you for the help but now I must leave." he said pulling his hood and mask back on.

"But what about your injuries."Atlanta said in response he pulled out one of his throwing knives and cut the bandages away reveal a six pack and numerous wounds that I could tell were bad when he got them but they looked weeks old not hours.

"I think I'm good."he said before trying to walk past the Goddess but she didn't let him."Please let me go if I'm found here by Mr D. I'm as good as dead."

"Why?" Artemis demand narrowing her eyes. "What crime have you committed against the gods."

"None." he responded

"Then why would you be as good as dead."She questioned.

He seemed to struggle with himself then said"because I'm an illegal born, now let me pass or you sentence me to death."I moved stunned by what I had heard.

"Ok I'll bite." Percy said "What is an illegal born?"