Two is Company, Four is a Problem Out of Hand

PERCY POV

Inside the Garden stood two groups on individual tables. One of them consisted of two burly men arm wrestling. One of them was a familiar face wearing a leather jacket and had a crew cut and a cigar in his mouth. Ares, I muttered. I could never forget his ugly face. The one he was arm wrestling with was a man equally as ripped, if not more. He had long black hair, tied in a bun. He wore a white tank top while showing off his ripped muscles. Unlike Ares, who was struggling a little, it seemed that he was quite enjoying the arm wrestle as he smirked at his opponent.

On the other table sat one extremely beautiful woman with auburn hair and silver eyes. She wore silk clothes. Judging from her beauty, and resemblance to Artemis, she was likely my good old friend Aphrodite. The person talking to Aphrodite was paled in comparison to Aphrodite when it came to raw beauty. But while he lacked in beauty, just looking at him filled me with desire and lust. Thankfully Artemis hit me on the head, which made me stop. I am sure, if she hadn't done so I might have leapt on someone.

As soon as Artemis hit me, the gods turned their heads towards me. As soon as the god with Ares saw me, he pushed Ares' arm onto the table and jumped towards me with excitement, like how a child reacts to a new toy.

"Oh my, who do we have here? I suppose you are the hero of Olympus I have been informed of." The unknown god asked while coming closer to my face.

"Punk, why are you here ruining my match with Kartikeya?" Ares snorted, still shaking his arm around.

"Oh shush it, Ares, you haven't won against me once in the past millennia, him coming here wouldn't change the outcome one bit." The God named Kartikeya chuckled. "As you might have guessed, I am Kartikeya, Hindu god of war, and the commander of the army of the Hindu gods. As you saw, I am much stronger than this numbskull because unlike him, I fought a lot of wars with the Asura using my powers. I heard you defeated Ares as well, why don't we fight? We should, shouldn't we?"

As Kartikeya etched closer, he was pulled back by the other group. Within moments, his position was captured by Aphrodite and the other God.

"This one is interesting, you were right Aphrodite." The god pointed out. His voice was quite smooth and slender, like that of a female.

"Isn't he? I sometimes want him so bad." Aphrodite agreed.

"He doesn't have a lot of desires, but the ones he has are quite big, especially the ones he has for a woman he loves." The man winked.

Thankfully before the man or Aphrodite could embarrass me further, Artemis stepped in.

"Alright, I had enough. All of you are going to answer my questions now." Artemis ordered. Like with the previous two gods, the four this time came to order within seconds. "Oi Artemis," I murmured. "Ever considered becoming a god of ordering everyone around?"

After that was I nudged super hard.

"Alright then, so what is going on in this city? And why are all four of you in this one city?" Artemis inquired.

"Well, I was just sightseeing with my man, Kartikeya. We thought I would see the mountains or something." The unnamed god said. "By the way, we haven't met before. I am Kama, god of desires and lust." He winked.

"As for me, I was just out here on a date with 'Dite, before being interrupted by these Indians," Ares muttered, probably still furious about losing.

"So yeah, once we met Kama and Kartikeya, we decided to chat since we met after a long time, and coincidentally share domains, hehe," Aphrodite said, innocently.

"And while we were talking, things might have gotten a bit heated up…" Kartikeya added guiltily.

Annabeth who was listening from the back, facepalmed. Artemis stared at the four gods with her eyes wide open. "Are you people fucking insane? WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'HEATED UP'? YOU NEARLY DESTROYED THE WHOLE TOWN. DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH GODLY AURA AFFECTS MORTALS?" Artemis scolded.

I grabbed her quickly and made Annabeth take her away so she could cool down. Once Artemis' screaming was barely audible, I started questioning the gods. "You guys mentioned sightseeing and going on dates, right? So do you have any information about Chaos and its army?"

Aphrodite and Kama shook their heads. I couldn't have expected anything more from those two. Kartikeya was lost in thought while Ares looked up.

"Well, you know the basics, punk. Monsters are on the move. Ever since the big attack on your girlfriend's camp, they have all gone underground, some literally and some metaphorically. Hades has been keeping a close guard on the gates of hell to make sure those who come don't come out."

"Yeah, things on our end are quite similar as well," Kartikeya added. "On our side, the Asura have disappeared from the Patala-Loka. They are likely going to aid Chaos. We still have no idea why our Lord Shiva abandoned us for that Greek villain. I must say that we are lucky that he is in his much weaker form of Rudra."

Aphrodite, who was busy looking in her hand mirror looked up. "If he is we-"

Before Aphrodite could finish her question, Kartikeya cut her off. "Lord Shiva is my father. He is also the god of destruction. Even after turning into a weaker form, he is still too powerful for us to take out alone, and now he is being backed by a primordial of another civilisation."

"The war is inevitable," Ares muttered with his eyes closed. He slowly opened his eyes and continued. "I have no trust in you, punk, but the Indians seem to have belief in you. You better not let them down. Remember that in a war, what one should really fear is not a competent enemy, but an incompetent ally."

I gulped. You know stuff's bad when Ares is acting all serious and mature.

Kama, who had been sitting silently till now, started speaking in an ominous voice, "I can't help you much when it comes to these war things, but I can tell you this. You don't have a lot of desires, but those which you do have are quite strong. I haven't seen such a strong desire to protect others in centuries. As we go into war, you must remember this. You cannot save everyone."

I tried to ignore whatever he just said. "Ah yes, also, I know you guys came to search the mountains nearby but I must burst your bubble as there is nothing there." He added, returning to his old elegant voice.

Well, there goes our final lead.

"Alright then," I started. "Since we are done here, I would like you guys to get the heck out of this town. You gods have caused way too much trouble as is."

"Did someone say trouble?" I heard two voices behind my back. I turned around to see Hermes and a dude carrying a musical instrument similar to a sitar that I once saw in a music-instrument exhibition Annabeth dragged me into once upon a time.

"Yo Percy, meet my man Narada. He acts as the messenger of the Hindu gods. He isn't technically a god, but he works just fine. He was just telling me about the countless wars he has caused by either altering the messages slightly or just by straight-up aggravating war. I should totally try it too." Hermes said fervently. I let out an internal sigh. Oh great another pair of gods.

Narada just winked at me. "Well those things aside, we came here to tell you that your father may have found some leads regarding the location of the enemy."

My eyes opened up. "Well? Tell me!" I insisted.

"Hey, I wouldn't know. We were just told to tell you he knows something, best you meet them in person to know anything further. Lord Vishnu told others of my 'playful' attitude plus you can't trust anything without hearing from the main source now." Hermes stated.

"Also on that note, you four, you are required by Zeus and Lord Vishnu. They seemed to have observed your behaviours today." Hermes said, pointing towards the four gods.

"Fine, we'll come," Ares grunted.

With that, Ares and Aphrodite turned to bright light, while Kartikeya called a big peacock and Kama called an unnaturally huge parrot to fly upon.

Narada looked at me and winked "Nice to me you." He then proceeded to disappear along with Hermes.

I quickly messaged Annabeth using the phones we had taken from the doctors learning from Apollo. She messaged me that she was near the entrance of the town from where we entered. I quickly walked towards the entrance still processing everything that happened. People around me were turning back to normal since the gods had left. As I walked towards the entrance the crowd unexpectedly grew a bit. It wasn't too much to walk through so I glided through the mob. The car we came in was visible along with Artemis and Annabeth near it.

I was walking towards them when I felt something touch my back.

I heard screams, and everything went blurry…