160 Crossroads(Riordan)-3

"This is unacceptable!" Oh great, she was still going on. I guess Artemis' blessings also made her hunters able to live and scream without breathing, there is no other explanation for the sheer amount of time Zoe Nightshade can go on telling us about her opinions. "We must embark at once with all the hunters in order to save our lady! Not leave it to some... some... boy!" Wow, this was the first time I heard someone put some much insult in the word 'boy'; as expected of the oldest of the Hunters alive.

"I understand your concerns Zoe." And of course Chiron was playin peacemaker to the girl with super heightened sense of self that looked down at anyone who was not a part of her little cult, this guy really needed a raise. "A prophecy has been given by the Oracle and the consequences of trying to go against it could be catastrophic." The old centaur said gently and Nightshade finally sat down after being reminded of the fact that there were powers she could not make bend over by throwing temper tantrums and her goddess' name around.

"Now, we need to form a team for this quest; which is of utmost importance. And to create a plan to complete it." Chiron said and he looked at me, reminding me that I was the one who was meant to choose the other questers so that we could risk our lives to wipe the Olympus' butt. Chaos knows they certainly can't do it by themselves. "Tell me Alpheus, do you have any idea on what to do?" And then the old centaur put me in the spotlight, which also came with the leader of the Hunters giving me a judgmental glare as a bonus.

"First of all, just call me Al." I said with a sigh before sitting up straight in my chair and looked at the gathering of councillors around the grand meeting hall that was just a pingpong table.

In a way, the resentment from the children of the 'minor' gods was not truly unwarranted. This little council of councillors was technically the ones who controlled the camp if Chiron was not available; not like the local god of wine would ever work anyway, even now he was just sitting on a comfy chair with a wine magazine rather than listen to us, and they literally all had their positions due to nepotism. It must be an especially hard pill to swallow for them when Jackson became a part of this despite being in the camp for only two summers and being younger than other councillors, just because he was the only child of Poseidon. At least with Chase people had been willing to accept her experience of being in the camp for over five years.

It still was no excuse for them being whiny bitches that decided to join the army of the guys that would enslave mankind and turn them into toys, more literally than figuratively in some cases.

"So I just want to get this clear about the prophecy before anyone says anything. I have no idea who is the 'Wrathful One' or what the 'Truth' is." I said with a sigh as I saw the disappointed look on their faces. "There is a chance that the 'Wrathful One' might be Lyssa or one of the Maniae but I hope not. None of us wants to deal with a child of the Night in a quest like this." I declared and everyone in the table nodded, even Zoe! Not to mention I really didn't want to get the attention of a Protogenoi that made Zeus of all gods crap his pants.

"The Night?" But of course our resident 'Chosen One' had no idea who we were talking about.

"Everyone, ignore Jackson's ignorance." I said with a sigh, ignoring the squawk of outrage from the son of Poseidon and the laughter from the daughter of Zeus. "The point is, we shouldn't really think too hard on the lines of the prophecy we can't figure it out. That's a fast way to piss off the prophecy and end up like that bastard Oedipus." I said and going by the look of disgust on his face, Jackson got who we were talking about this time.

"'Six shall go to west.' That sounds pretty straightforward." Beckendorf, the son of Hephaestus, said with a hand on his chin. "So does the whole hunters and campers united thing but what is the 'Bane of Olympus'?" It was a cow with the back end of a fish, a salmon steak if you will. Though it probably would be better if I kept that to myself for now.

"Didn't Artemis said she was off to hunt a terrible beast?" Thalia piped up as she looked, more like glared, at Zoe who nodded with a glare of her own.

"Yes, my lady was quite adamant on the fact that this beast was something she had to destroy. But she did not tell us what it is."

"Guess she doesn't trust you as much as you think." The daughter of Zeus snorted and one did not need to be an oracle to see that a fight would break out if I let these two keep snipping at each other.

"Doesn't matter. We'll just go towards the west and deal with whatever comes up." I said with a sigh, I had been doing that a lot in the last few days.

"The prophecy says that there will be six members for this quest with both members from the Hunt and the Camp." Chiron said as he stroked his beard. "Do you have any ideas on who to take Al?"

"The first member is obviously me." No matter how much I wish I wasn't. "Nightshade will be the second." I said with a nod towards the mentioned huntress. She would have tried to follow us even if I didn't take her anyway. "Choose one more Hunter from your group."

"Are you saying that you will take only two of the Hunt?" Zoe asked and I could see her knuckles whiten, she was not happy with that decision. "It should be the other way around with the minimum amount of campers, it's bad enough that this quest is given to a boy of a minor goddess." Oh hell no, she didn't go there.

"High words from one who is not even a demi god." I scoffed with emphasis on the last word, which both Nightshade and Chiron and even Mr D. seemed to have noticed; which caused me to smirk at the angry huntress. That's right bitch, I knew who you really were. "Not to mention I don't actually trust you to have your followers as the majority of the group, or even half of it." I said with a shrug and then turned back to Chiron, uncaring of the murderous glare directed my way.

"I want a satyr to come as well. Their obsession with nature, and therefore Artemis, will be useful for their tracking magic and they can also be useful as a medic."

"I know a satyr." Thalia piped up from her seat with a smirk on her face and I nodded at her.

"I'll also take Thalia and Jackson." And then there was a silence for a moment, followed by shouts from the rest of the councillors who either asked if I was mad for bringing two children of Big Three with extremely potent presence to monsters and the son of Ares filling in for Clarisse claiming that Jackson shouldn't be getting to go on a quest for the third time.

Morons.

"Enough!" Chiron finally raised his voice to stop them. Only slightly but even that was enough for them to stop their bickering since the old centaur was always so calm. "They do have a point though Al, taking both Thalia and Percy will get you the attention of practically every monster in the country."

"Their attention will be on us anyway." I said with a shake of my head. "We are trying to save Artemis, the greatest hunter of all the gods. This isn't some stupid fetch quest or any other sneaky quests that Olympus gives us to feign interest in us, we will be practically going towards an army cause I think we all know exactly who is behind Artemis' capture." I said and the room suddenly got colder. All of them did know after all, it was Luke and the old Titan king himself who were behind this.

"Without Artemis, the council of Olympus will not be able to decide what to do. She needs to be there for the Winter Solstice meeting or the preparations for war will be delayed by at least six months." I declared with a glare, which got the attention of the local god on us.

"Are you saying that the council of Olympus is not able to do anything on our own?" The god of madness asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes that should not belong to a man of his current stature but still did made all the other people in the room try to scoot away from the god. I on the other hand…

"Are you claiming that they can my lord?" Simply deadpanned at the god with a raised eyebrow and the glint in his eyes disappeared.

"Nope. Just wanted to make sure." And then he went back to his wine magazine like nothing happened.

"As I was saying." I continued from where I was interrupted. "This quest is not one we can actually hide from monsters or one where we can afford to fail. That's why I'm taking the two demigods with the most pure power in them with me." I explained half of my reasoning.

The other half was that Jackson's status as the Child of Prophecy practically made it impossible for the quests to actually fail. The damn bastard had plot armor and I was gonna use it for our own gain. The Fates wanted this moron to make a big decision on his sixteenth birthday, then they better make sure not to have us fail this quest.

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