[ Help them. You won't regret it ]

Athos' mind went blank. He had caught the attention of the Olympians way faster than he had expected and this was not a good sign. The Gods used demigods like pawns to do their bidding, like tools...disposable tools and he absolutely did not want to become one of their chess pieces, but he really did not have a choice right now, for a God had personally reached out to him. Ignoring such a request would lead to him being squashed by a godly fist, or burnt to a crisp in this situation as Hephaestus also ruled over the concept of Fire.

"If ye ain' gonna refund, then why ye here laddie?", Gandalf spoke, shaking Athos out of his trance.

"Ah! yes. Do you have a mask for sale by any chance?", he replied, his mind going through every single possibility. He did not want to be spotted by any of Kronos' minions and especially by the two demigods he had to save. They would be witness to his fighting prowess and he didn't want them harping about him, and how he looked if they ever reached Camp Half-Blood, as a lone demigod who knew about the Camp but still preferred to roam about in the mortal world would definitely be suspicious. He did not want Chiron chasing after him.

"Eh? A mask? Well, we don' have much of those do we....", the old man said, scratching his head.

"You don't?", Athos said, cursing inside his head. This was not good.

"Lemme check, laddie, may have some of 'em lying around. Haven't cleaned the goddamn place in months", the man replied, checking below his desk. Sounds of things getting knocked over and complaints about an aching back rang out before the old man got up from behind the counter and placed a dusty, Darth Vader mask on the counter.

"It'll be 100 dollars, laddie! I'm bein' generous", the man said, a proud look on his face.

Athos groaned, wanting to disappear right then and there. He could almost hear his father laughing in the distance. He would look so incredibly stupid wearing that, but he really didn't have the luxury of choice right now.

"Fine", he said begrudgingly.

So much for looking good.

***

As Dr Thorn walked past the mortals, he couldn't help but feel a wave of disgust wash over him. They were puny, weak and oblivious to the fact that they were puny and weak. Three qualities which he absolutely detested. He wished he could rip out their throats and gorge on their flesh, but he had orders and going against them would not be beneficial. He had enough of human flesh anyway for they had no ichor which he loved, unlike those pompous demigods.

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He looked behind him at the two kids who didn't dare meet his eyes. They were children of Hephaestus he had abducted from an orphanage. They had been abandoned by their parents, both Godly and mortal, which he found quite amusing. He snorted at the stupidity of the Gods in ignoring their offspring and having them fend for themselves. It bred resentment in demigods which made them perfect footsoldiers for their cause, which was to topple the rein of the Gods.

The spikes in his tail bristled as he thought of the Olympians. They had banished him to Persia, where he had been forced to scourge for food and eat disgusting mortals to sate his hunger. Thus, he had never fought any great heroes and was never feared nor admired in the old legends. A low growl escaped his human-looking face which was ignored by the mortals but served to terrify the half-bloods even more.

'But it would be different this time', he thought. The Titans would honour him and he would spread terror and fear among demigods and mortals alike, like how he was meant to all those centuries ago.

He made his way towards the rendezvous point, where he had to drop off the demigods. All he was supposed to do for the past few months was find young half-bloods and pass them off to the hands of the Titans where there would be groomed to fight against their negligent parents.

He made his way through an alley towards an abandoned building. It was the place where the signal would be sent. Hired mortals would take the half-bloods at that point. He had no idea why the Titans relied on mortals, but they were indeed quite gullible. A little bit of money and they would stab their friends in the back.

Just then, his instincts flared and he dashed backwards almost stabbing the demigods behind him only to see a large axe barely miss him and smash into a nearby parked car. It obliterated the mortal machine, turning it into a useless hunk of metal, but it did not stop there. It continued through the concrete and only ceased its destruction after creating a large gash of 10 metres on the pavement. He heard someone tsking in disappointment to his right and whirled around, bursting through his black suit, turning into his large, monster form. Sounds of bones cracking echoed in the abandoned street and his figure kept growing taller, stopping at 2.5 meters. Large bulging muscles rippled on his massive body and his scorpion's tail grew longer, becoming sharper and more deadly. Yellow fur covered his face and upper body while a dark, black carapace covered his partially insectoid legs. His face became feral, his nose being replaced by a snout and sharp teeth growing out from his mouth with even sharper claws replacing his hands.

"Who are you? A spawn of Hades? No, that's impossible, he couldn't have had more than two", he said, his voice now deep and animalistic, staring at the most oddly dressed half-blood he'd ever seen. The demigod wore a black and blue mortal tracksuit and had a similar black backpack, but the strangest thing was the dark, slightly terrifying mask that covered his entire head. The duality of his dressing sense made him look quite comical.

"How can you wield Stygian Iron? Are the child of some obscure underwo-

"You talk too much", the demigod interrupted him, grabbing a grey Toyota Tacoma next to him, and lifting the entire car above his head, as though it weighed nothing.

His eyes widened at the show of strength as his heart pounded with excitement.

'Finally! A worthy opponent. My legend with begin with this one', he thought to himself, readying himself for his first proper fight in decades.