"Anyways, we both tried to look for—"

Suddenly, the lights turned off, turning the bright warehouse into a void of darkness.

I suppressed the urge to shriek and panic. I don't have a fear of the dark, but I'm not much of a fan of something or someone lurking around, waiting in the darkness.

"I can't see," I muttered.

I extended my arms around, trying to reach out and hold something for support. My skin tingled as I felt a cold metal surface. It was probably one of the pillars of the warehouse. I held onto it tightly like my life depended on it.

"Is everybody okay?" Ben asked in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered.

"Same here," Robert said. "Benjamin, do you still have the Bow?"

"It's here safe and sound," Ben said. "Does anyone have a flashlight or a phone?"

I patted around my pockets, searching for my phone. "Wait, I think I have one."

"No need. I've got it." Robert blurted, flashing a penlight to me and Ben, its light a bit dim but enough for us to see each other's faces.

"Is a blackout normal?" Ben asked.

Robert shook his head. "We have emergency lights around the place, so the lights should've come back by now. Very strange." Robert took out a phone and turned it on, his face brightly illuminated by the screen. "I'll contact security to turn them on right now." He started pressing some buttons.

While waiting for Robert, my gaze roamed on our dark surroundings, my eyes squinting in an effort to see. I couldn't see much, only the faint silhouette of storage boxes and crates and something tall standing above those crates, a statue maybe.

Wait a minute. What's a statue doing up on the crates?

The statue suddenly moved, shifting to a crouch. It reached out behind its back and produced a bow and an arrow and took aim to. ..

Oh no! Robert!

Out of reflex, I activated my mind-reading powers and tried to read its thoughts. Surprisingly, I heard a female voice coming from the crouching figure.

Target acquired.

I didn't bother to hear the rest of her thoughts as I turned to Robert, who was eyeing his phone with worry.

"No one's answering my calls," I heard him say, but I didn't have time to think about it as I quickly rushed towards Robert.

Everything seemed to slow down as the silhouetted figure released the arrow and headed towards our direction, its weird-looking tip catching my eye.

"Robert, look out!" I shouted as I pinned him down the floor.

We both landed on the floor with a thud, getting a groan from Robert and a relieved sigh from me. The arrow swiftly zipped past us.

I instantly turned to Ben, who was standing near the box of bows while holding the Bow of Artemis. He was completely frozen on his spot, his face pallid and his knuckles turning white from gripping the bow tightly as the arrow hit a spot just inches away from him.

"Are you okay?" I dared to ask.

He slowly nodded. He was about to step in to help us up when we heard a faint beeping sound coming from the bow. A small red light on its rectangular-shaped tip. So that's why the tip looked weird.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

When I realized what was going to happen, it was all too late. The arrow made its last beep and suddenly exploded, a burst too small to make a lot of damage but large enough to send Ben flying to one of the crates.

"No!" Robert and I yelled at the same time.

We both scrambled towards him. When we got to his side, he was already unconscious, his grip on the Bow of Artemis loosened. His clothes, mostly his shirt, turned dark while his face had scratches and burn marks.

Robert threw aside the bow and checked his pulse. He did so for a few seconds before sighing heavily.

"He's okay," he said, gazing at Ben in worry. "But we have to get him to a hospital quickly."

My hands trembled as I held Ben's other hand. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought of what would have happened if the explosion was much bigger.

Before I even had a chance to wipe my salty tears, I felt a swift blow of wind coming from a certain direction.

Closing in.

The figure from earlier appeared in front of us, landing gracefully on her feet. Before Robert or I could say anything, she took the Bow of Artemis and immediately ran away.

"The Bow!" Robert exclaimed.

"I'll get it," I told him. "Stay here and take care of Ben."

He nodded in response. As soon as he did so, the lights turned on all of a sudden. I took it as a sign and followed the archer.

I ran to the direction where the archer went, navigating through the maze of crates and containers along the way. Rage bubbled up inside me as I thought of the unconscious figure of Ben sprawled across the floor and used it to keep pushing myself onward.

She'll pay for what she did to Ben.

After a few seconds of running, I finally saw the archer standing a few feet away from me while staring at the Bow of Artemis in wonder. She was wearing all-black clothes with a black mask covering her whole face except for her eyes.

When she turned around and saw me, her silver eyes widened and she started running again.

"You won't get away that easily!" I screamed at her, panting.

I tailed behind her, focusing on the Bow of Artemis she was holding in her hand. As I was staring at the wooden bow in the archer's grasp, for some reason, it suddenly looked. . . gray. More like silver, actually.

Snapping out of my reverie, the archer abruptly took a quick turn on the left. I eagerly followed her, hoping that she got herself cornered. When I got there, I was right. It was a dead-end, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Shoot," I cursed under my breath. "Where the hell did she go?"

Heart beating fast, I frantically looked around for a sign of her, but there was none. I noticed that a bunch of boxes were oddly stacked like a staircase that led up to the shelves that were full of wooden trunks, chests and more boxes of whatever museum stuff were inside them.

So she climbed up. Smart.

Instead of coming after her from above, I turned back and followed the way she probably went to while looking up for any sign of her or the bow.

There! She was quickly jumping from shelf to shelf like a grasshopper, the bow still with her. I followed her suit, my gaze never wavering from my target.

As she landed on another shelf and took a leap to another, a column of water appeared and shot towards her, pushing her to the side and falling down the floor.

Suddenly worried, I rushed to the spot where she landed and was met by a certain someone when I got there.

"Poseidon?"

He turned to me in surprise. "Amelia?"

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"I was going to ask the same thing."

My eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Athena said that you three are going to a field trip or something."

"She made up that lie," Poseidon said. "I'll explain later but now, I have to take this." He bent down and took the Bow of Artemis from the unconscious archer in front of us.

"You can't just steal that!" I snatched the bow from him, which took him by surprise. "This is museum property, plus my real dad donated this thing!"

"Your dad?" he said, his voice faraway. He then shook his head. "You don't understand, Amelia. This bow is very important. I have to get it to safety or it will be used wrongly by people like her." She pointed to the archer on the floor.

"So what if she used it? It's just a normal bow," I said. "It would just shoot arrows like any other bow out there."

He sighed. "Let me rephrase what I said. The bow's important because it has magical powers."

"What? Seriously?"

"Oh, he is serious," a female voice said.

Poseidon and I turned to the source of the voice, but we lost our balance by a quick swipe on our feet, causing us to land on our rear ends. Poseidon tried to stand up but the archer took an arrow from her quiver and pointed it at me.

Poseidon froze while I took a sharp intake of breath.

"I suggest that you stay on your place, Poseidon," she warned. "Or she will leave this place with one eye."

Reluctantly, Poseidon stayed down on the floor, staring daggers at the archer.

The archer turned to me, her eyes suddenly twinkling in amusement. "You're one stubborn girl, I admit, but you chased me like a predator would to her prey. I like that."

"You shot down my uncle, you freak!" I growled. "You'll pay for what you did!"

She laughed. "Shot him down? I just gave him a little push so that I'll be able to get the Bow from him, that's all."

"Why you—"

Poseidon cut me off. "What do you want, Artemis?"

Artemis? What a coincidence.

She looked at him in disinterest, twirling the arrow on her hand. "You know what I want," she spat, then turned to me. "Give me the Bow."

I gripped the bow tightly. "Not gonna happen."

Artemis directly pointed the arrow again to me, this time inches away from my forehead. I gasped.

"Give it to me or else. . ." She let the threat hang in the air.

Poseidon flashed me a worried look. "Give it to her, Amelia. It's not worth it."

"But you said—"

"It doesn't matter," he interrupted. "Your life matters more. Just give it to her. We'll find another way."

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Disgusting! Maybe I'll kill you Poseidon just for being a hopeless romantic."

Poseidon cleared his throat. "Come on, Amelia. Just hand it over to her."

"No! This bow belonged to my dad," I stated, my tone firm. "I won't hand it easily."

"I don't care about your dad or whatever," she said, my insistence getting on her nerves. "Give me the Bow and get this over with!"

I deeply exhaled before hesitantly handing the Bow of Artemis over. She gladly took it from my hand and mocked a salute.

"Pleasure doing business with you two," she said. "I hope I could stay longer but my master has orders."

She ran towards the elevator that Robert, Ben and I took when we came down here. Poseidon quickly stood up and ran after her.

"Not so fast!" He sent a barrage of water spheres to her direction.

She looked behind her and started dodging Poseidon's attack. She evaded every single one of them like a ballerina: graceful and elegant. She jumped, cartwheeled, twirled around, and did other stunts to avoid getting hit.

It continued like this until Poseidon threw the final ball of water and suddenly collapsed.

"Poseidon!" I rushed to his side and helped him stand up.

He looked at me with sunken eyes. "So. . . thirsty," he moaned, his lips cracked and dry. "Need. . . water."

"Keep it together, Poseidon," I pleaded, shaking his body to keep him awake. "Please, don't pass out now."

His mouth parted to speak, but he couldn't utter a word. Instead, he weakly pointed a finger behind me before really passing out. Confused, I turned behind me and looked at what he was pointing.

Artemis had already entered the elevator and pressed a button on the side. The doors slowly closed, but not before she took her bow and arrow from behind her and aimed it towards us. The arrow hit the floor a few feet away, emitting a faint red light.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Nonono! Not again!" I started dragging Poseidon by his shoulders to a safe distance, but we didn't get far. "Poseidon, wake up!" I slapped his cheeks lightly. "The arrow's gonna blow up! Come on!"

But he didn't move a muscle. I tried to pull him up but he was too heavy for me. I was counting the arrow's beeps and it was almost done on its last ones.

Six. Five.

What should I do, what should I do. . .

Four. Three.

As I held Poseidon close to me, I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.

I'll stay with him to shield him from the bomb. I won't let it hurt him.

Two. One.

BOOM!

I heard the explosion loud and clear, but felt nothing. When I opened my eyes one at a time, they widened in shock and I let out a small gasp.

A dome-like structure surrounded me and Poseidon. It almost looked invisible if it weren't for the glass-like shimmer it created.

It didn't take long before the barrier slowly ceased, and with it, my strength. I tried my best not to let my body sag over the floor beside Poseidon.

A second later, Poseidon fluttered his eyes open, coughing.

"A-Amelia?" he said. "What happened?"

I breathed out a sigh of relief. "You're awake!"

"Did I just pass out?" he asked.

I nodded. "You suddenly did when you were attacking Artemis."

He tried to stand but fell as soon as he did. "Where is she? Where's the bow?"

"She got away," I said. "and left us something to be busy with." I told him about the arrow and the barrier I conjured.

After I finished, I sighed. "I'm sorry we didn't get it. I feel useless that I wasn't able to help you fight Artemis."

Poseidon weakly smiled. "You just saved my life, Amelia. You did more than I could."

He coughed again. I gazed at him in concern.

"You're completely dehydrated," I said. "How come you got parched by using your powers?"

"Not important." He forced the words from his throat. "Follow Artemis."

"She already got a head start. I'll never catch her in time."

He shook his head lightly. "Zeus and Athena. Both here too."

"Really? Where?"

"Busy fighting the others." He lifted a shaky finger, pointing it up. "Help them."

I searched his ocean blue eyes. "But what about you? I can't just leave you like this."

He reached his hand to my face, my skin tingling from his touch. "I'll be fine. Now go."

I held his hand and squeezed it gently. "I'll come back for you. Just keep it together, okay?"

Smiling, Poseidon nodded and then closed his eyes.

Looking at him one last time, I stood up and headed for the elevator.

It's time for payback.