Artemis Meets The Demigods

Reeling In

             Annabeth felt hollow. Deserted. Unbalanced. Like she had just lost a half of herself. Which in a way, she had. Percy had been one half of her and she had been his. They complemented each other. Inseparable. But now, Percy was gone. Even though that was the thought reverberating through her mind, she realized some thing else. Artemis was gone too. She had not known him much, but somehow she had grown fond of him. She had begun to understand him. His obsession with acquiring knowledge. She had come to know that he had the same degree of passion toward information as any other Athena child. And suddenly, Bam. Gone. And Butler had just vanished. What was she to do? She had all these thoughts swirling around her brain as she sat huddled near Hestia's fireplace in the dining pavilion. Holly and Foaly had come there a few minutes earlier and had sat with her there. They said nothing. For they knew that no matter what a person says, it won't hurt any less. But the thing was, Holly and Foaly were one step ahead of her. They knew for a fact that Artemis was not dead. And neither was Percy. But they had to let the charade go on. Annabeth had done nothing for the whole day. The previous day, the day when the message had appeared, she had not slept. She just sat there and stared into space. Holly and Foaly had succeeded in contacting Artemis without tipping off the entire Camp. So Annabeth was the only one who got a shock, when something reached out of the fireplace and pulled them in, one by one.

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Fowl Manor

                 The Manor stood deserted in the gloomy night but inside were a lot of drama. The goblins, a hellhound and the dracnae along with a few mesmerized pixies sat in the wine cellar, chugging the contents of the barrels stocked inside. Just as he was finishing his third pint, goblin Ness' ears picked up some sound. This goblin was smarter, relatively speaking of course, than his brethren. He sensed danger. 

" Hey you two hear that?" he enquired his buddies. The two goblins did not even look up from their goblets as they replied in unison.

" Nah."

Now, Ness was quite sure he had heard something. His ears, he believed, were sharper than the rest. And it was part true. If they had been as good as he had believed he would have heard the conversation going on in the hall. But sadly for him and his pointy ears, they failed him. And so when the smoke came through the ventilator, he rolled his eyes and muttered " Told you so." before joining his friends in the land of the unconscious.

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                Artemis pulled Percy with him through the fireplace only to find Butler staring at them in astonishment. Usually, the fireplace would not be lit, but the monsters apparently decided to warm themselves up. Lucky for Artemis or he would have been forced to come out of the barn fireplace, which was on 24/7, and then travelled a kilometer to reach the Manor. As soon as he dragged Percy through the fireplace, he collapsed on the floor, exhausted. but Percy was in no way exhausted so proceeded to cut Butler's ropes using Riptide. Butler immediately strode toward the wine cellar, pressed the door keypad and said " D. Butler, command 23, initiate lockdown, section 5."  Command 23 was used to close a section of the house in case of a siege, thus locking the intruders in one part of the house. In this case, to close Section 5, the wine cellar. After that, he ran up to Artemis' laboratory, where he plucked a syringe and a vial before heading back to the hall. Quickly kneeling next to Artemis, he injected him with adrenaline from the vial. Artemis awoke with a jerk. Then realizing he had pulled through, sank to the floor. Percy was the first to speak.

" Will he be OK?"

Butler nodded. " Yes. The adrenaline should help him."

" Don't you have questions for him? Cause I do."

" Of course I do. But he won't be answering any of those any time soon. To him, the reveal is everything. He holds it above anything."

Percy gave Artemis a weird look. " He holds it above food? That's just sad."

Artemis chose this time to wake up from his power nap. " Yes, I do hold it above food. But that is not important. We must kill those monsters. Any idea how?" The last part was directed at Percy who frowned trying to remember anything that might help. The monsters in there could be defeated with weapons but it would be tough and the outcome could not be predicted. Better to use some stealth method. As he tried to concentrate, his ADHD directed his thoughts to Annabeth. How would she be feeling now, thinking Percy was dead? He had to do something about that. His mind wandered further to the Titan war and suddenly it hit him.

" Perfume!" he exclaimed. Artemis and Butler looked serious. If it were anyone else they would be on the floor, laughing. But these two had learnt long ago that even small things that are seemingly insignificant, can have a greater value. Artemis waved his hand in a 'go on' gesture.

" Givenchy. The Aphrodite cabin once mentioned that the perfume is toxic to monsters." 

Artemis gave a thin smile. Funny how the monsters could be weak against perfume. He headed upstairs towards his mother's old stash of make up. She wore it minimally, but she was a big fan of Givenchy. Just as he was connecting a few bottles to the ventilator system that led into the wine cellar, Butler and Percy joined him. One push of a button later, the CCTV footage showed most of the monsters disintegrate, while the goblins and pixies just slumped, unconscious. All that was left now was to get a few friends back here. He strode to the fireplace, willed his hands to catch fire, reached in, searched until he found Hestia's fireplace, before pulling three people into the room. Annabeth, Holly and Foaly. Holly and Foaly had been contemplating ways of communication, when Artemis had simply phoned them a minute ago when Butler was closing the wine cellar, using his ring communicator. Holly apparently, in the stress of things, had forgotten about it. He had told them to make sure they were at the fireplace along with Annabeth. And they had succeeded. As soon as Annabeth shook the stars from her eyes, she was up and brandishing her knife. When she saw the trio, her hand went slack, the knife falling to the ground. She stared at Percy, then pounced.