They walked along Ernie's Way past a few houses before they came upon the 60 feet fence of the Albian Golf course.
"How are we getting in?" Marc asked.
"Marc, Marc, Marc," Percy said shaking his head, "why do you always ask such stupid questions?" Percy pressed his hand on the metal and spread his Ice control along the metal making it brittle. He then sent a strong pulse of his Earthquake control mana through the metal shattering the fence.
"Wow," Kristoff turning to Elsa, "can you do that?"
The ice queen shot Kristoff a glare but remained silent. Soon the entire team walked into the golf course but hid inside the tree line not wanting to draw attention in case Argo had guards watching.
"Why a golf course?" Percy asked startling everyone, "like if it was a castle of a warehouse I would get it, creepy evil dudes like that sort of stuff. But why a golf course?"
"Maybe he likes golf?" Anna replied with a shrug.
"So where is he supposed to be hiding anyway?" Asked Galen looking around, "I don't see any secret hiding places where one can put the entrance for a secret base anywhere around."
"Didn't Hermes tell you where it was?" Marc asked Percy.
The demigod shook his head, "no, he didn't say anything about that. Maybe we should just look around and hope to find something?"
"Splitting up sounds like a great idea," Galen said nodding, "we can cover more ground that way."
"But how can we call each other out if we find the base?" Kristoff asked.
"Maybe we can just shout really hard?" Galen suggested. Percy sighed and walked away from the group towards the golf course.
"Wouldn't that get the mortal's attention?"
"Maybe we could disguise it, like maybe a bird call." Percy found the perfect spot, he raised his fist high into the air and channelled Body form and Earthquake control into it.
"So what will the bird sound like?"
"How about, kaka-"
"GIGA IMPACT!"
BOOM!
Rocks were thrown to the side as everyone looked towards the source of the explosion. Percy stood in front of a massive hole he just made and when the crew looked over they found an underground tunnel leading into the golf course.
"How did you know?" Elsa asked Percy.
The demigod shrugged, "son of the earthshaker, no big deal."
"You probably alerted Argo to our location kid!" Galen shouted.
"We traveled here on a 1000 year old ship. If he had surveillance outside he probably already knows, besides we are about to blow this entire places to kingdom come, so what's the point about being stealthy?"
"I'm surprised mortals aren't already swarming us," Marc commented, "Strange, there seem to be few around."
"Yeah we noticed the same," Anna explained, "we think it might be something to do with Argo."
"You think he's kidnapping them?" Percy asked. From the corner of his eye Percy could see Elsa frown, Percy could understand why, he wasn't stupid.
"He definitely kidnapped them," Elsa spoke up, "let's get down there. We find the kidnapped people, free them and only after they are all safe we blow the place up, agreed?"
Everyone nodded in approval, "agreed," Percy said as he jumped down into the tunnel. Everyone followed suit and soon the group was going down the earthy tunnel. The surface was solid, Percy's couldn't even see cracks in the dirt. The walls of the tunnel were lined up with candlestick that didn't seem to melt and the ground lined with stone, hard stone.
"So any idea which direction we are going?" Galen asked.
"Doesn't matter, " Kristoff replied as he placed a bomb along the side of the tunnel. He then took out a watch he bought in the shop before and took off the back case. He attached a couple of wires to the battery and set the watch's internal alarm for an hour from now.
"How does the bomb work?" William asked.
"I set the alarm in the watch for 12, when it rings there is a significant drain in the battery that gives a signal through these wires," Kristoff pointed to the wires attaching the watch to the bomb, "that causes it to go off."
"Hm, crude but effective," Marc commented.
The group continued to walk ahead but the tunnel just seemed to go on forever. "So where's that reindeer of yours?" Percy asked to pass the time.
"Sven? Oh he couldn't make it, it's too hot for him," Kristoff replied.
"Then aren't you kind of powerless without him?"
The blind man shrugged, "I have more tricks up my sleeve."
Percy and the other kept up the small talk and soon the tunnel opened up to a huge room. Percy was at the lead and the moment he saw what was there inside the room and pushed everyone back hushing their protest.
"What's wrong Percy?" Elsa asked as the whole group, directed by Percy, slowly walked away from the doorway.
"There are around 50 armored bears inside that room," Percy said taking out his blades.
"Bears?" Galen raised an eyebrow?
Percy nodded, "bears."
"Sigh, might as well go," Elsa said snapping her finger forming a sword made out of ice.
The group charged forward into the room and immediately the bears came into view. Every single one of them were standing on their hind legs like a man and covered from head to toe with armor designed especially for them.
Upgraded Bear,
Lv— 21
HP: 2,200/2,200
MP:0/0
Race— Bear
Str— 32
Vit-34
Dex-11
Int-1
Wis-1
Luc-0
A bear which has been enhanced through magic by one crazy Mother Fucker. They have the ability to walk on their hind legs like a man and wear armors to protect them from weapons.
Kill to gain— 350 Exp.
Percy channeled up his Giga impact and collided head on with one of the bears lifting it off it's feet with brute force and smashing it into the bear behind it causing them to both disappear into dust afterwards.
"Wow," Anna whispered in astonishment.
"I am so glad we aren't that kid's enemy anymore," Kristoff said as the rest of the crew began their attack on the bears. Galen was a beast as he used his physical size to take on the bears head on beating them with his bare fists.
Percy sliced through the armor of his opponent with Yew's Breath before cutting off it's head with Riptide. The bear disappeared into nothing leaving behind 200 $, but Percy was too busy moving to collect it.
"Come on big guy," Anna said grinning as she swung her metal bat at her bear opponent. The bear roared and blocked it with it's paw before swinging at anna who dodged at the last second. The petite girl smiled, "oh you're so going to pay for that-"
CRUNCH!
Anna was cut off mid sentence as Percy came smashing into the fight by launching his foot into the bear's chest plate breaking it into pieces and destroying the bear in the process.
"Ah...I kind of had it handled," Anna began but Percy was already moving all over the battlefield. He kicked, punched, sliced and destroyed one bear after the other. Percy had single handedly managed to kill off more than half of the bears by himself leaving everyone there confused and scared.
"Percy, remind me never to piss you off," Marc commented as the group looked around the cave.
"Guys why is there money littered all over the room?" William asked pointing at the loot Percy's kills left behind, "and where are half the bears? How did they just vanish like monsters do?"
Percy shrugged, "maybe some of them were mixed with some elements of the supernatural, Argo is crazy enough to do something like that right?"
Lie succeeded!
The group bought the lie, everyone except Elsa and Galen, and soon they turned to other tunnels leading away from the room. There were now around 10 exits from the room, not including the tunnel they came from.
"Any idea on how we move forward from here?" Elsa asked.
"We split up," Galen said, "teams of two. Each team takes three bombs each, and we meet back up outside."
"What if some of us don't make it?" William asked.
"Percy can you still do that super speed thing you do?" Galen asked the demigod.
"Yeah, but I'm not nearly that fast, I could probably check one or two tunnels, but not much."
"Good enough, but that's a last resort, so then everyone must focus on getting out in time. Now everyone pair up!"
The crew then quickly paired up with Kristoff and Anna together, obviously and Galen going with Marc. Percy however didn't want to get paired up.
"I work better alone," Percy said when it came to his turn, "I can run faster than anyone here and so cover more ground."
The group agreed with Percy, they didn't really see a problem with that, before Elsa stepped up, "actually Percy I think it would be a good idea if we paired up."
Percy raised an eyebrow, "why?"
"I know Argo," Elsa said causing Anna to sneer at the mention of the name, "he lays out traps everywhere and it's better if you're paired up with someone to help you out in case you get stuck."
"I have a third sense when it comes to danger snow queen," Percy explained remembering his Area Sense, "I got this covered."
Elsa narrowed her eyes, "and what if it's a trap you can't avoid?"
"I doubt there's anything that could not be avoided."
"Either way it's better to go together."
Percy looked like he wanted to argue but a look from Galen shut him up. So the protesting demigod got paired up with Elsa and the two ice users walked down the furthest tunnel on the left which lead them down a steep set of stairs.
"You were very brutal back there," Elsa spoke up as they walked down the stairs.
"Yeah, I know," Percy said in a low tone as he kept his head down watching where he stepped.
"It was almost like you didn't even consider them as living beings," Elsa commented narrowing her eyes.
Percy sighed, "They were the enemy Elsa. If we didn't kill them they would have killed us.."
"It's not that Percy, I can see something is going on with you, something has changed. The last person I saw being that ruthless was 'The Agent,' the world's top assassin. I didn't like working with him, his methods were....absolute and the way he killed was like watching a storm pick up houses. He didn't have pity or remorse, a quality I find inside of you Percy."
Percy chuckled, "so I'm as good as the best assassin in the world huh?"
Elsa narrowed her eyes, "I'm serious Jackson. What the hell is wrong with you? Last year when we fought you had the chance to kill me, to kill all of us, but you didn't. You were more focused on getting away then fighting. You could have done the same here, just bind all those bears using your blue ribbons or even freeze them solid. But you didn't you wanted a fight. You're more ruthless now."
"And why is that a bad thing?" Percy asked.
"Because Argo has a tendency of using transformed humans as bodyguards. The last base I was in had humans transformed into sharks which Argo used to monitor the base."
Percy stopped walking. He began to wonder whether he had just slaughtered innocent people back there, 'no,' he told himself, 'no the info box would have told me so, it said Race-Bear, not human.'
"They weren't human," Percy replied as he began walking again.
"How do you know?"
"I have the powers of an informant remember? I know when a man is a man and when a bear is a bear."
"And if you're wrong?"
"I'm not."
"But if you are?"
Percy snapped, "you know what you are starting to get on my nerves Ice Queen! Why the hell do you care anyway?"
"Because I'm standing in front of a 13 year old boy who just said that he was okay with killing people!"
Percy shook his head, "you know for a hired gun inside the Abyss you sure have a strong moral code."
Elsa narrowed her eyes, "you're 13 and you're telling me you don't have a moral code?"
Percy laughed, "if you knew what type of life I lived, the type of life any demigod lives you would know that our moral compass is broken from birth. We have monsters chasing us since we are kids. The safest place for us isn't home, no if we stay with our mortal parent there's a good chance they might end up as lunch for some monster. So we leave, we go to a fucking camp in the middle of nowhere where we finally get to be with others like us and we get a family. And then some crazy motherfucker comes in and steals Zeus's Lightning bolt or poisons our guardian tree basically making the rest of our summer shitty as well.
"We aren't meant to be normal humans Elsa, so don't expect me to act like one. We are warriors, not civilians. We are the children of gods, beings that can destroy mountains or cause tsunamis with a simple thought, we aren't meant to be normal. I live in a world where my enemy will kill and eat me if I don't fight back, so yeah, I'm not wasting energy by keeping the bad guys alive. Plus you know, they were just bears! Stupid bears!"
Elsa looked at Percy as cold fury built up in her, she took a deep breath and then let it out, "Let me tell you a story Percy. It begins in my hometown, a small miserable place that I barely remember. It was always cold there, I hated the cold. But I had my sister, Anna. Our parents died when we were young, we didn't have anyone else to go to. We moved from foster home to foster home. Anna was always loved by any family that picked us up, the only reason they even chose me was because Anna insisted we were a package deal. But even then I got us kicked out, it was always my fault. But one day we found someone, a man who seemed to care more about me that Anna. Argo seemed like the foster parent that Anna and I dreamed about. He cared for us both, me more than Anna, and some part of me liked that. But after a week staying there, that fairy tale was shattered.
"He took us when we were asleep. We woke up strapped to a table next to each other with something being pumped into us. He stood over there watching us with his sadistic smile, the table was freezing, but his smile was colder. He stroked my cheek and said , 'I know you don't like the cold my ice princess, but don't worry. The cold will never bother you again.' I don't remember what he did, all i remember was pain, unbearable pain. Anna went through it too, but after a day she stopped and was taken outside the lab. I thought she died, but only later did I find out she got lucky. She didn't have the signs of gaining any new powers, but I did.
"It was a week before the pain stopped when Argo finally released me. He smiled and spent the month training me, teaching me to use my powers. And for that month I grew attached, he promised never to cause that kind of pain to me and I loved him for it. He trained me to be a weapon, to be ruthless, cold and emotionless. He used me as a weapon to kill people, to kill innocent people. I once froze an entire family of a man who crossed Argo and I smiled as he broke the ice into pieces killing them all. I was his prized possession, but one day, one day he messed up.
