Perseus had been training along with his allies and he had gathered a nice group of people on his side. So naturally it was time to gather those allies and begin planning and preparing for the seemingly inevitable showdown with MacGonagall and his men. The way Perseus saw it, he and his allies were given super powers. Why not use them to become vigilantes and work together to make the world a better place. It seemed like a natural progression and although he was a lot less restrained and refined about it William did basically the same thing.
Everyone gathered at Perseus’ house for the meeting to plan. Hector, Jaclyn, June, Victor, and Perseus all sat in a circle in the living room with drinks and snacks set out for everyone. Perseus was the first to open up and start talking. “Alright everyone, welcome back to my home, our base of operations as it were. As you can see we have gained a new member. This is June, she's paired with Hecate. This makes her a good sparring partner for Jaclyn. June, this is Hector. He has Hermes. His sister Jaclyn who has Nyx. And last but not least by bestie Victor who is for some reason immune to the effects of The Vail.”
June waved nervously. “Hi everyone. Sorry if I'm kinda awkward. It's just normally two people go on a few dates before someone brings them home to meet friends and family.” Perseus leaned over and whispered “You could have just played it cool like we are just friends or acquaintances. You didn't have to be so awkward and give away the fact we are kind of dating.” June then gained a shocked “oh no” sort of expression as her body did a light jump. “Hehe, whoops” she whispered back.
Hector chuckled. “Well this is certainly an interesting dynamic. Percy might as well be sitting in a room if his exes, considering both myself and my sister have made unsuccessful passes at him. Now he brings in a new girl he's met and started trying to date recently. How has Neptuna been handling this? Hermes always puts in his two cents with every guy I date.” Jaclyn nodded. “Nyx is also extremely vocal about my choice in a partner.” Perseus sighed. “I'm going to be blunt, she's not exactly approving of June. I'm hoping she'll warm up if things get serious. For now things are new and casual. We don't even know if we are compatible yet.”
Hector nodded. “Still feeling it out. Too bad Ginger probably isn't immune like Victor here. It would have been hilarious to have her here too.” Perseus rolls his eyes. “You just love mild drama don't you? Can we please focus on trying to come up with a plan to fight MacGonagall and his men? Who knows who he has on his payroll. He's already sent one Armatus user after me.” Hector chuckles. “Alright alright. Excuse me for wanting my daily sip of tea before this room gets stuffy and serious.”
Perseus takes a big breath. “Let's start with what we know so far. Gregory MacGonagall, the leader of a local branch of the Mafia, is using a Deus Armatus to boost his production of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms to levels that would normally be beyond anything such a relatively small operation would be capable of. His weapon, Demeter or I guess Ceres, takes the form of two farming sickles with water and earth powers. In addition to boosting plant growth and potentially controlling plants, it can create water and rocks for attacks. He has a literal small army of mundane goons who although unpowered can potentially cause problems in a number of ways.”
Perseus took a brief pause to breath before continuing. “He has hired at least one Armatus user as a mercenary and could potentially have the knowledge and resources to hire others as well as highly skilled unpowered mercenaries. The one he sent after me was Apollo. Two wrist mounted crossbows that have fire and light powers. He is skilled but underestimated me in our fight, giving me the upper hand. MacGonagall owns several buildings all around the three cities and a percentage of the cops on his payroll. There is a risk of legal troubles finding us should he ever learn our identities.”
June makes a face. “You gave your full legal name to a guy just the other day.” Perseus bluntly replied “Minato fought me as an honorable warrior, I doubt he'll sell me out.” Victor then added his own interjection. “How did Apollo find you if they don't already know who you are?” Perseus shrugged. “An image from a security camera and minions on patrol. That, or Apollo saw me during that day in the wearhouse and was able to identify me on his own later.”
Perseus sighed as he smacked a bit. “So any ideas on how to approach this and go after MacGonagall?” Jaclyn shifted in her seat before speaking. “Well we could just hit his warehouses and greenhouses until he comes after us himself. We'd have to work our way through his goons but I doubt we'll be able to just roll up to his home address and start blasting.” June looked to Jaclyn. “Why can't we just roll up on his house? Is his address not public record?” Jaclyn shook her head. “I mean we could probably find it with a bit of digging but he knows we exist and are a potential threat. So even if we tracked him down and came to his house he'd have home field advantage. Man like him wouldn't leave his home undefended.”
Perseus sighed. “So our best bet is to smoke him out? I guess it beats staying on the defensive. It'll probably be quicker too. But that doesn't exactly fix the risk of legal problems because he has the cops and maybe even the mayors in his pocket. Only person in a position of power he wouldn't have any influence over is Mister Olympic up in his tower. That man probably owns most of what MacGonagall doesn't in this three city area. Dude built a tower where the three cities meet so he could look over them from above like some kind of god. Guy is eccentric and definitely has an ego.”
Victor cleared his throat. “Is there any chance Mister Olympic is a holder like yourselves.” Perseus considered it for a moment. “I wouldn't be surprised if he is or used to be considering all the occult artifacts. He has all kinds of weird crap. From the alleged tip of the spear of Longinus to a strange metal muzzle like something an insane asylum would use back in the day. Straight up Hannibal Lecter stuff.” Hector shakes his head. “That man has plenty of power and money, the last thing he needs is power from an actual mythological god. If he's a holder, MacGonagall is the least of our problems.”
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Perseus sighs. “Alright, well let's focus on the problem that's in front of us first. I'm thinking since there are four of us we can hit an area in groups of two. One warrior, one mage. Or maybe stick in a group because splitting up is usually a bad idea.” Hector nods. “Yeah, I've seen enough movies to know splitting rarely ends well. So if Victor isn't going to get part of the attack, why is he here?” Perseus shifted. “I wanted the ability to receive input from everyone who's in the know. Although he might not be able to join us in combat, I value his opinion.”
Hector nodded. “I guess it is valuable to have as much feedback as possible. Now that we have a plan of action, when are we going to go and start things?” Perseus stood up. “We should probably all train and practice together a bit more before we run up and create problems. Our advantage will be in numbers and tactics. However our number advantage might not even exist depending on if and how many holders are on the payroll.”
Jaclyn pointed out. “I can't be too many, there are so few of us and I highly doubt that all of them live here and not all of them would be willing to throw down for cash.” Perseus hums as he puts his hand on his chin. “Better safe than sorry either way. We should work on our ability to fight together more. We can do teams of two swapping members two v two.” Everyone grabbed their snacks and drinks before loading up in Perseus’ vehicle and going to the opening in the woods Perseus likes to use for training.
Once in the opening, everyone starts doing stretches. Hector then goes “So what'll it be for the first teams? Guys versus girls? Family versus the new couple? Some secret third option?” Perseus laughed. “I think Jaclyn could learn a thing or two from June since both of their weapons are more like caster focuses.” Hector nods as everyone takes positions. Perseus and Hector on one side and June and Jaclyn on the other with Victor standing in the distance as a referee.
Victor put a hand in the air. “Are you guys sure this is okay? Percy’s trident looks really sharp.” Perseus nods. “Our weapons can't cut or kill unless we want them to. They'll act more like blunt objects or foam weapons if we want them too.” Victor does a nod then drops his hand. “Fight.” the moment he said the word the two teams went after each other. Perseus started off strong, going after Jaclyn at high speed. Meanwhile Hector started moving at a speed that was hard for Victor to keep track of. It must have been somewhat hard for June to track as well as she almost didn't turn around fast enough to mount a defense.
June grumbled as a magic barrier blocked Hector and Jaclyn caught the trident between the candle stands of Nyx to block Perseus. “They went into a flanking maneuver right off the bat.” Hector backed off and used his speed to his advantage to move around and keep June's attention on him, unable to land a single hit. Perseus was forced to back away by Jaclyn who increased the intensity of the dark fire on the candles in a sort of burst. “Well it's certainly hot like normal fire.” Jaclyn then retorts “Hitting on me in front of your new girlfriend? That's hardly proper~” in a flirty and teasing tone.
Perseus responded by launching a wave of water and ice at Jaclyn like an anime air slash. “If you are trying to get an emotional response out of me to throw me off my game, it'll take more than that.” Jaclyn created a wall of black fire to stop the water slash. “Oh, so you are saying it'll take more than some light teasing to get you hard~?” Neptuna speaks into Perseus' mind. “She might not be affecting you, but she sure is pissing me off.”
Perseus does his best to focus on the fight, ignoring Jaclyn's teasing as he goes in at an arc to attack her from the side. Meanwhile Hector keeps kiting Jade, rushing in to make an attack only to back out right away. He even managed to get a few hits on her with Jade struggling to retaliate and hit him back. Jaclyn panicked a bit and swung to the side before Perseus got in range causing a pillar of black flames to rise at his feet and forcing him back.
Jaclyn took the opportunity to launch herself at Hector to try and tackle or attack him. “Tag ‘n switch.” She says to Jade who turns around to face Perseus. “Don't think I'll hold back just because we've been on a date together.” She aims her hand at him and starts shooting fire bolts at his feet as repressive fire. Perseus is forced to zig-zag his way to her. When he gets to her he spins a bit for momentum to swing the flat of his weapon at her. “But you already are.” The weapon impacts her and sends her backwards. “Because I know full well you can do a lot more than simply fire projectiles.”
June struggles to stay on her feet, once she is stable she goes on the offensive. Once Perseus is in range she creates a pillar of flame at his feet followed by a bolt of lightning fired into the pillar forcing Perseus back. Meanwhile Jaclyn is having much better luck fighting Hector then she was fighting Perseus because she understands how he fights better. Creating short arcing walks of fire to prevent his kiting tactics.
The tides had turned and suddenly Perseus and Hector found themselves in the defense. Now they were being pushed back and doing their best to keep up. Perseus pulled out of melee for once and let June zone him for a while with ranged attacks. “Hector, to me. I've got an idea. Remember that thing we did in the hospital?” Hector understood exactly what Perseus was going for and moved at high speed behind him. “Make it count.”
When Hector put his hand on Perseus' shoulder he started giving off white energy that seemed to feed into Perseus' blue energy, causing it to increase. Perseus twirled his trident and slammed it into the ground as his energy reached unprecedented levels. Suddenly dark clouds started to form over the two girl's heads who were too awestruck to attempt a counter attack. Then Perseus shouted out “Avalanche Cascade!” And some energy shot from his trident into the clouds before it started to hail ice spikes around the area forcing the women to dodge and block the deadly weather.
Perseus then took the opportunity to rush in at June and knock her into her butt while Hector did the same to Jaclyn. Perseus swirled his trident and the effect ended, the dark clouds fading as quickly as they were summoned. He then offered June a hand so he could help her up. Victor stood in stunned silence before going. “Holy crap you changed the weather!” He then cleared his throat. “Match end, the guys win I guess.” The group then started walking out of the clearing and to the car.
June chuckled. “I didn't expect something like that. I didn't even know we could give our energy to another Armatus.” Perseus nodded. “I found that out by boosting Hector’s healing ability in the hospital. He uhhh… I'll leave that to him to explain.” Hector rubbed the back of his neck. “I wanted a chance to say goodbye to Grandma.” Was all he needed to say. The group packs out and leaves to return to Perseus' house to snack, eat, and recover after the hard day of training.
Persus groaned when he sat down. “I know I said we'd do multiple rounds with different teams but just one fight is exhausting enough. We can do that another day. For now we can all rest. Feel free to stay or go home, I can set up areas if you just want to crash here.” June laughed. “As tired as I am, it's far too soon for me to spend the night.” The group continued to casually hang out for a bit more when there was an unexpected knock at the door.