"Are we really doing this?" Medusa asked.
"At this point, is there any reason not to?" Daedalus countered. "They already despise us thanks to a certain someone. Can they hate us and want to kill us even more?" He offered in return.
"I suppose that's true." Medusa acknowledged. "It just feels….." She trailed off.
"Dishonorable?" Daedalus asked.
"I was thinking Petty, actually."
"That makes it easier to rationalize."
"How so?"
"Think about all the things you can buy from the money we're going to make." Daedalus responded.
Medusa perked up. "That does make me feel better."
They were hunched down, hiding as they overlooked an Amazon Distribution Center from high ground.
"I got audited by the IRS two years ago; I'm still on a monthly payment plan." She muttered.
"And I need to rebuild my workshop, along with all the other nonsense that's getting tossed in my lap." Daedalus nodded. "Besides, it's Amazon's. No one likes the Amazons."
"The company or the people."
"Both in this case."
"True."
They quickly rationalized their impending theft.
"Why am I here?" Mel asked, sitting with the two as she deadpanned at their conversation.
"It's a group effort." Daedalus stated.
"If we're going to do something stupid and asinine, it's only proper that everyone joins in." Medusa huffed as well.
Mostly, it would just make both of them feel better if there was someone else here to share in the stupidity they were about to commit to.
"And what about Tyson and Nessie?" Mel asked.
"I had Tyson take a job to help one of the Harvest Goddess's nymphs with some farm work due to being short-staffed. Then he's off to his lessons with the Forge God." Daedalus waved off. "He didn't need to be here for this. The beast is watching over him."
Mel just pursed her lips, not annoyed in the slightest. In fact, she would have been upset if they dragged Tyson along for something like this.
"Good. Tyson is a nice boy; he doesn't need to be led astray in things like this." She stated.
Still, she didn't know why she even agreed to do this.
She was feeling embarrassment for even being here.
"What's the plan?" Medusa asked.
Daedalus pointed forward. "After they finish loading the trucks, we charge in, beat everyone up, and steal the trucks, driving them away."
"....." Medusa found herself having a difficult time responding with the right words. "I feel like that's something our idiot leader would come up with."
"And how many times have his stupid plans worked?"
No one could argue with that.
"Is this even going to be worth it? What if we just steal a bunch of trash?" Medusa raised a certain logical point.
"I did investigate." Daedalus replied. "I spent all day yesterday referencing deliveries and routes to track down the warehouse where they handle more expensive stuff. Which includes stuff mortals shouldn't be touching."
They knew at this point that Amazon also handled supernatural items of various quality and quantity.
However, it was easy for Medusa to forget that he was actually intelligent when he was stuck in the same situation as her.
"...should we try praying and making an offering to the god of thieves?" Medusa suggested.
Gods sometimes blessed monsters. Given proper sacrifices or offerings, there were plenty of gods who didn't care and did it without even paying attention as long as you weren't disliked or doing something against their interests.
In fact, even if you were a monster, if it was something interesting, they'd be more than happy to have a show for their effort.
"That shouldn't be necessary—" Mel tried to interject, but Daedalus interrupted her.
"That's a good idea." He grunted. "Do you have anything worth offering?"
"I have some trophies from some monsters I've killed recently." Medusa had no qualms herself about killing her fellow monsters.
Despite what many humans or demigods think, monsters don't see themselves as one 'group.' When demigods aren't around, various monsters are more than happy to kill and devour each other just as well.
The two of them took the time to carefully put up a makeshift shrine dedicated to the God of Thieves.
They learned from Ocean Song that apparently, gods don't really care much about quickly made shrines as long as the offerings are abundant.
Once everything was set up, Daedalus began. "God of thieves, travelers, and cunning!" He invoked the domains that were relevant. "To the God, Hermes." And he finished with his name to grab his attention. "We send these offerings in hopes of receiving your blessing for the theft we are about to partake in."
Hermes, the God of Thieves, barely registered it.
He glanced at the one doing it, waved his hand, and consumed the offerings, about to give a tiny and temporary blessing for whatever it is they wanted to steal.
"Please bless us to steal three full Amazon trucks."
Hermes did a double take at the oddly specific request. Likewise, the content of it was enough to make him properly look over it this time.
The gaze of the god turned to Daedalus and Medusa.
He recognized them, peering into their essence. That, and Daedalus had been coming to camp to help train some of the kids, so the name had made a resurgence among the gods, if barely.
And Medusa, as famous as she is, recognized her.
Hermes was surprised that someone like Daedalus apparently wanted to knock over some Amazon trucks, but he shrugged. He was the god of thieves, not the god of good life choices.
Then his gaze landed on the last member there.
Daedalus and Medusa were oblivious to the god's gaze, but one person there wasn't.
Hermes looked at Mel, and she looked back.
Mel awkwardly turned her head to look away.
Hermes decided to pretend he saw nothing before giving his blessing and abruptly pulling his gaze away.
"Alright, I think it worked." Daedalus said firmly as the offerings disappeared.
Mel decidedly stayed quiet.
"What's the plan? Just charge in headfirst? Or do you want to sneak in first before chaos ensues?"
Daedalus nodded. "May as well."
"Anything we should be cautious about?" Medusa asked as the ground shook slightly; she had taken out a very heavy sword as it hit the ground with a loud thump.
Daedalus blinked. "What is that monstrosity?" He questioned, pointing to her sword.
Medusa huffed. "The idiot told me to start using it. He said I needed to, and I quote, 'Learn to use something heavy as if it's light. Then I can learn to use something light as if it's heavy," when he was critiquing my skills with my sword whip.
Daedalus opened his mouth to respond but ended up silently just furrowing his brow, going deep into thought.
Because the more he thought about it, the more it didn't sound stupid and seemingly had some wisdom to it.
"...how heavy is it?"
"About six hundred pounds." Medusa said dryly. "Would you believe me if I said I've started being able to lift it and swing it with practice?"
Daedalus just shook his head.
He didn't want to give credit to their stupid leader. Instead, he just mentally filed it away as a quirk of her being a monster and training.
"I heard rumors that this facility is defended, but nothing beyond that. I expect many Amazons to appear once we make noise." Daedalus stated.
"If I get my head cut off, I'm not responsible for who gets turned to stone." Medusa warned.
"Noted." He stood up. "Let's go."
He pulled out his own sword and charged recklessly.
Which could essentially be their sect motto.
Medusa sighed, dragging her massive heavy sword as she chased after him.
Lastly, Mel also let out a very reluctant and long sigh; knowing she had already been dragged into this, she resigned herself and followed after them too.
[Line Break]
They charged at the facility.
There was a wall that separated them from the inside.
Medusa ran up and used her massive sword, swinging it at the stone barricade, and shattered it with ease.
Daedalus looked surprised, and his opinion of the monstrosity in her hands had changed slightly.
The staff were taken aback by the sudden intrusion, doubly so because of the screaming they did while running around with swords.
The staff of Amazon here weren't regular mortals. Many of them pulled out their own weapons once they realized what was happening, and a fight ensued.
Daedalus, with his centuries of experience, easily dealt with a few muscled thugs that ended up in relationships with Amazonian women and thus obtained jobs as workers.
Medusa…after she used her massive sword like a club and smacked a man running at her with a spiked mace, sending him through the stone way a distance away, many people second-guessed getting close to her.
Mel had strolled in casually, albeit lacking the same enthusiasm.
She raised her hand and blasted a man that was running at her with a sword.
Another tried to jump at her, and she flicked her hand, sending him flying away before shooting a few more blasts of magic at some mortals who thought she was an easy target.
Daedalus, after dealing with a few of the workers, quickly got serious as a heavy sword strike nearly took him by surprise before he blocked it.
A woman with impressive muscles had arrived, engaging him.
She had enough experience to go a few rounds with the ancient demigods, but Daedalus was far from a normal swordsman.
He quickly defeated her before moving towards the trucks.
He was about to open the door before another Amazon hit the side of the trunk, denting it. He followed the origin and saw Medusa had smacked her.
He really was now reconsidering her weapon.
"Get the truck started." Medusa called out as more people began running out of the warehouse.
Thirty to forty Amazonians roared with fury as they found out that their base was under attack.
"Oh shit." Daedalus whispered, finding the key and starting the truck quickly. He smacked the side of it. "Ready to go, get your own trucks!" He shouted.
Medusa, who was doing her best to block the faster Amazonians, hissed under her breath and swung her sword down at the ground to crater it and knock away everyone else.
Mel had tossed out a few spells; a handful of Amazonians had been swept up in abrupt and intense winds, being sent flying all over the place.
She finished by putting up a large barrier so both she and Medusa had time to get to their own trucks.
All in all, things were going well for them.
Too well.
The ground shook, then rumbled.
A very large metallic hand broke through the ground, grabbing hold of anything as if to pull itself free.
A second hand broke through, and it grabbed hold of the truck that Medusa was trying to get into, smashing the back of it.
Medusa quickly got out of the way as the large hand gripped the back of the truck's trailer and tossed it backwards through the air.
She watched as the massive eighteen-wheeler had cleared the entire facility and went soaring to the horizon.
"...I want to go back to my garden." Medusa said softly as the giant fully revealed itself from below.
A large, titanic bronze and steel giant.
"Is that Talos!?" Daedalus blurted out. "Wait, it's half made of other metals; it's a prototype."
It swept its hand out as Mel jumped to the side, and the second truck went rolling away at a mere gesturing, turning into a projectile that tore through the facility and cleared the back side, disappearing from view.
"DOES THAT MAKE IT ANY LESS WORSE!?" Medusa snapped back.
"...I suppose it doesn't." Daedalus returned to focus as his mouth dried and shifted gears on the truck. "Get on!"
Medusa had grabbed onto the truck that nearly lost its traction with how hard Daedalus hit the gas.
Mel quickly, albeit gracefully, landed on the back with her own look of disbelief. "Why is something like that here?!"
Medusa pulled herself up onto the top of the truck. "Because my life is torture."
They held on tight as Daedalus rammed through the gate entrance, slowly gaining some distance from the giant.
However, once the giant finally seemed to become free from wherever it was being held underground, its eyes locked onto the trio, and with long strides, it started walking towards them.
Then slowly, its speed picked up, and then it started running.
Daedalus's eyes dilated as he saw it out of the side mirror.
He would admit it was one of the most terrifying sights he'd ever seen.
A massive bronze and steel giant the size of a small skyscraper, running after them with sword in hand.
The giant caught up quickly, swinging its sword.
Daedalus swerved as best as he could, nearly flipping the truck as Medusa and Mel lost their footing and almost went flying off the side before grabbing on tightly.
The sword had sundered the road, leaving hundreds of feet of sunken asphalt.
Daedalus was very happy that he decided to time this for so early in the morning that there were very few mortals on the road.
However, the giant recovered quickly and was about to swing its huge sword at them again.
Mel regained her footing and threw her hands up. A large, complex, and powerful shield sprang into existence as the giant's huge sword collided with it.
Mel, genuinely surprised at the strength of the giant, let out a grunt as the shield held for a few more moments, and the giant's sword was deflected backwards as she made the shield burst.
It was the most amount of power she could put out without 'revealing' herself, yet the Giant had nearly forced her to that state.
The giant had stumbled backward, falling down.
Mel took that opportunity to cast several more spells; the ground beneath its feet opened up, swallowing it so it couldn't get back up.
It tried to jerk free, but Mel grit her teeth and held it there, letting it sink deeper and deeper as she hardened the earth around it.
Seeing as it couldn't free itself, the giant shifted its hand on its sword and threw it.
Mel's eyes widened as the sword accurately came right at them, the shadow of it blocking out the morning sun.
"Q#^%@#^@#$" Medusa blurted out something unintelligible as she jumped up and swung her own sword at it.
Logically, Medusa knew that the moment she made contact with the sword, it should have utterly obliterated her from the sheer force. But she did what she was taught, using her 'Qi' erupted with as much power as she could.
The massive bronze sword that was even bigger than the truck they were on collided with her own sword and was deflected to the side, narrowly missing them as it impaled itself into the ground with a powerful shockwave.
Medusa landed back on the truck as the giant finally started to disappear from view.
"...How did you do that?" Mel questioned.
"I could give an answer, but I feel like that would be giving the idiot credit, and I don't want to do that." Medusa said quietly.
Mel just nodded, understanding her stance.
"I had a thought." Mel spoke up again.
"What?" Medusa answered.
"How are we supposed to get this truck up the mountain?" she asked.
[Line Break]
A/N
The Sword Heart sect striking with righteous theft at the nefarious Amazon Sect.
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