Chapter 1: The First Step

Prologue

North America 2020

Alexis opened her eyes to darkness. Her head hurt. She tried to think back to the last time her head hurt so much, but as she looked back at her life the memories she remembered from what happened overlapped with new memories. These were a happy first year training in Camp Half-Blood before the Argo II was destroyed. Then fighting and then the combined with what she knew happened. After a few minutes the headache dissipated. She got up and put her bedroll and some other equipment into her shadow storage compartment, then put her ear to the vault door. Monsters could never stay silent, either snoring or talking or digging around. Never being quiet. She heard nothing. She spun the lock, pushed the door open, and then hid in the shadows. The hallway in front of the vault was empty. She took a few steps forward, Fluctus and Fulmus ready for any monsters that monsters that might have heard the noise. She reached the end of the hall when a grate on the ventilation shaft fell to the ground.

Alexis jumped in fright, then turned that into an attack, slamming her imperial gold covered fist into the ventilation shaft. The area where the grate fell from split off and slammed into the ground. Something rolled out from that opening, and Alexis jumped back in a boxers stance, ready for whatever fight was about to start.

The figure stood and the first things she saw was a shock of red hair. Then he turned around.

Shamus McCallin rotated his shoulder as he looked at Alexis with annoyance. A bronze sword was strapped to his back, its hilt sticking out behind his head.

“Nameless girl, I was wondering when you were going to come out of that vault. Interesting place...I could’nt get in.” He stretched.

“What the Hades are you doing here Shamus?” Alexis asked. He blinked at her in surprise.

“How did you learn my name?” He asked. She blushed, then explained how she followed him and the survivors to make sure they made it to the Romans OK. He nodded.

“Alright, anyways, I found you because my Dad helped a little. He said that your mission is two fold.”

“What does that mean?” She asked.

“Basically the whammy he put on us lets us change what we did in the past, significant changes hurt like crazy by the way, new memories overlapping the old ones. The main point is that we cannot send information we knew before the whammy to our past selves. Only new things we learn, so most of our job here is to find out who’s and where’s that can help our past selves save the day.” She thought. Made sense, as much as any of this did.

“So what part of that means we have to stick together?”

“To keep each other apprised of what our past selves are doing. If past me is going to do something that may affect past you, it would be good for you to know, the reverse is true. Also we can share information.”

“Fine. So what is our first step Time Boy?”

“A) learning your name, b) getting to the Holywood Bowl in four hours. I have a feeling our ride is going to be there. And c) Time boy?” This last was said with a pained voice.

“Ride?”

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“We need to get to New York and talk to Grover. He has information that may be relevant to us...something about a traitor from his last message to me.”

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“But I know who the traitor is, I just need to find out where he was before getting on the Argo. That way my past self could take him out and stop all this,” she waved a hand towards the front door where a pack of hell hounds were running around, sniffing at rubble. Shamus raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘I know something that you don’t.’ “What?” She asked.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Whats his name?” Shamus asked. She opened her mouth to say it...then realized that she did not know the name?

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“What happened?” Her voice started to raise with a panic tone to it. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm herself. Then opened them again.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Best I can figure is that within the last year or so Gaea pulled a whammy that took the name and appearance of the traitor from everyone. I have heard of some people who recognized him when they saw him, but afterwords were unable to recall any features to describe him. In order to get new information we need to get some protection from the spell, which means talking to the remaining gods.”

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Fine...My name is Alexis, that’s all your going to get. Lets go.” She turned to leave and heard Shamus trip over the broken ventilation shaft. The noise was loud. The front door of the bank burst open as a pack of hell hounds rushed into the building. Alexis sighed. She had a feeling this kind of thing was going to happen more often with Shamus around. She made fists with her hands and stiffened the gloves so they would be better to hit with and go to work. The dogs were quickly and easily taken care of, and by the time the clutz extracted himself from the wreckage of his hiding place, gold dust was lazily falling to the floor.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Wow...your good with those gloves...” Shamus said staring stupidly at the remains of the monsters.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“With life as it currently is, kind of have to be.” Alexis responded then, crouching down, checked the street. A cyclopes was wondering around crying out for the dogs, but otherwise the street was empty. She moved back to Shamus.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Walking to the Hollywood bowl would take more than four hours from where we are now. We need some sort of transportation that we can ditch easily.” She told him. He nodded.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Two blocks from here is an old garage full of cars. I can hot wire one of them to get us some transportation.” Sounded logical. Alexis indicated that he should lead the way. He moved to the right side of the building. There he drew his blade and made a small hole that, crouching, they could move through. The next forty minutes were uneventful, getting to the garage without incident, hot wiring the car one of those silent models that was developed before Gaea destroyed Olympus. They left the car a couple of blocks from the bowl and traveled on foot. It was disturbingly quiet to Alexis. No monsters on the entire way. She had a bad feeling about that.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">When they reached their destination her fears were confirmed.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The amphitheatre was filled with monsters - Cyclopes, hell hounds, venti, bull centaurs, and many more. This was one of the greatest gathering of monsters that Alexis had ever seen. They seemed to be under the command of one particular giant who was directing them to surround the stage. The giant was about 10 - 12 feet tall, with reddish skin and green scales on his shoulders, arms, and legs. Long braided hair hung down to his waist, and it looked like weapons were braided into it.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Well...this cannot be good,” stated Shamus glumly. Alex glanced at him, he was gripping his scythe so tightly his hands had turned white with the effort. But something was off...Her senses were telling her someone, or something, was approaching their position. She grabbed his arm with one hand and covered his mouth with the other as she pulled him into the bush, she felt the shadows flow over them, covering them from sight. Shamus stiffened, but otherwise followed her lead and did not make any sounds or move away.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Out of the forest came a group of girls in forest camouflage. They all were carrying bows with arrows notched and quivers at their hips, hoods covered their faces, but they moved silently and carefully, each of them looking in different directions and scanning to see if there were any intruders. When none were evident they lowered their hood and turned towards the forest.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">From the forest came two more girls, one looked to be ten, the other was taller and most likely older, but covered by her hood. The little girl looked around.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Good work girls...Alex, you and that...boy, can come out.” She said. The girls around her spun around looking in every direction readying their bows in surprise. Alex blinked but didn’t move.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Oh come now girl, we aren’t going to hurt you for now...and the boy has proved that he shouldn’t be killed on sight for now. I swear on the River Styx.” The girl said. That was good enough for Alex, that kind of oath was binding on everyone - including the gods. Alex let go of Shamus and stood, he was quickly behind her. He bowed.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Lady Artemis, it is nice to see you again,” he said politely, his face blank of any emotion. The little girl looked at him with an amused expression.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Nice of you to say so,” then the girl turned to Alex, who was surprised that this little girl was the goddess Artemis.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“I have heard a lot about you Alex Stone...have you discovered your ancestry yet?” Artemis asked.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“ummm...maybe?” Alex responded wittely. The goddess shrugged.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“What can you tell me of the enemy?” She asked. Alex gave a quick rundown of what she had seen. “Why are we all here?” Alex asked when she finished.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“One of Hephaestus’s children learned how to make a moving building like the labyrinth. They moved in all of their projects and use it as a mobile base of operations and a rally point. We make sure that its safe for them to arrive. This however...it might not work out,” Artemis turned towards her hunters. “Set up camp, scout out how far they go,” she turned back to Alex and Shamus. “Get some sleep you two, tonight we will start working on getting rid of these monsters.”

Chapter 2