So this is the RE to When Storms Rise. I hope you enjoy.
Set just after The Last Olympian.
Katie Gardener POV
Katie was not happy, not happy at all.
Standing in a muddy field, her jeans half caked in mud, standing before a large, decrepit building. Wilderness School, the name suited the place, it really did. In the middle of nowhere surrounded by ancient woods, thorny fields and miserable farmland the decrepit building really did seem to be in the Wilderness.
The blanket of darkness enhanced the cold and the overwhelming creepy that the entire place emanated. She shuddered and not because of the cold.
Flying here by Pegasus had only highlighted its isolation, the nearest building was ruined farmhouse two miles away.
But they were here because they had a mission. Travis stood off to her left slumped comfortably making a gold Drachma dance hypnotically along his knuckles, it glinted in the moon's half light. Lou had her eyes closed and face tightened in concentration, she was trying to do a very complex spell, well she'd actually been trying to do the spell for the last ten minutes and Katie was tempted just march up and kick down the door, to hell with stealth. She glanced at the creepy old building and decided she decided she could hold her urge for a little while longer.
And then there was Percy Jackson, he stood a little in front of them frowning at the building like it was a particularly difficult maths problem. He had a knife on his right hip but his hands were messing about with his favourite weapon, Riptide, still in pen form he flicked it against his leg. Katie knew her cousin would have felt more comfortable with Annabeth in the group but they had all been sent out chaotically and at random, their own little team had only been thrown together because they had all arrived at camp at the same time. Katie had to admit she was a little pleased at being put in the same group as Percy, he was one of the most experienced campers and almost certainly the most powerful, she decided that their groups chances of survival were exponentially better with him in the group.
All of them were dressed in dark combat trousers with heavy black combat boots. They had thick black jackets partly because it was freezing (especially three thousand feet in the air when you're flying a Pegasus) and also because they were trying to remain hidden.
Katie was reassured by the presence of her twin short swords hanging from her waist. She had the distinct feeling she was going to need them.
"Lou are you done yet?" Percy asked impatiently as he turned to Lou Ellen who opened her eyes looking a little pale.
"Look magic's not easy Ok? You want me to cast a spell that will keep the Mortals asleep while we sneak in and grab the two Demigods and their before their killed fine but give me a moment please," she closed her eyes again pointedly ignoring Percy's scowl.
Travis made his coin disappear. "Hey just say the word and I'll be in and out before anyone notices," he grinned like he'd solved all their problems.
"That's what you said at Walmart," Katie pointed out.
Travis blushed, "That was different…"
"Shut up," Lou snapped.
They fell silent and waited for another minute.
"Lou this-"
"Done!" Lou called out in sudden delight interrupting Percy.
"Finally," Travis breathed.
Percy looked them each in the eye "You all good on the plan?"
They all confirmed for the fifth time they knew what they were doing.
Travis and Percy were going to go and get the Leo kid and Katie and Lou were to go and grab Piper, they would all meet outside and the Pegasi would come and pick them up. Hedge would give them directions to the unclaimed demigods when they got inside.
Simple.
They approached the old building wearily, the closer they got the more it looked like a haunted mansion and the less it looked like a place where Katie wanted to spend her night.
The entrance was a massive set of double doors covered in a peeling green paint. The brass handles screamed in protest as Percy turned them and Katie's hands tensed by her swords.
He carefully pushed the door open and Katie was sure the creak would alert anyone inside. Percy disappeared into the shadow, if any monsters came out at them it was safer to let the one who couldn't be killed take the first hit.
When no monsters tried to part Percy's head from his shoulders they saw him appear flicking on a flashlight.
"Hey guys," Travis whispered as they entered the school. "What travels faster light or a shadow? Because when Percy switched on the flashlight he-"
"Shut up Travis!" Katie hissed.
Though she couldn't see him she felt his presence retreat a little. Travis was handy in a lot of situations but he never knew when to shut his mouth and focus.
Katie quickly found the main light switch behind a desk she bumped into on the way in, turning it on the buildings foyer was brought to life through flickering light.
Squinting in the light it took them a few seconds to take stock of their surroundings.
A double stair case lay directly in front of them, to the immediate left was an office and to the right a door that seemed to lead to the rest of the school. The ugly tiled floor was still wet from its 'clean' and the industrial lighting did too good a job of illuminating the hideous cream walls.
Resting in a chair pulled up to the side of the stairs a diminutive satyr slumped a Tom Clancy book fallen to his side and a comically large club across his lap. He was out cold.
"Maybe the spell worked a little too well," Lou Ellen let out a nervous giggle.
"You think," Percy sighed. His lips began to curl into a smile that Travis mirrored. Travis snatched a near by pen.
"Oh no, no," Katie hated being the responsible one, no doubt everyone saw her as a disapproving Mom figure instead of a heroine in her own right. She liked to have fun just like everyone else but there was a time and a place.
They looked at their shoes like naughty children as her lips twisted into a stubborn frown.
"What?" Percy said shrugging his shoulders trying to look innocent.
"We weren't gonna do anything stupid." Travis rallied to Percy's defence.
"How have you survived this long?" Katie breathed in exasperation.
Unfortunately she hadn't noticed Lou rolling her eyes and muttering a counter to her spell and awoke the slumbering Satyr.
Percy opened his mouth, no doubt to deliver reply, but he was foiled when a club smashed on his head. The clubs shattered splintering in a hundred directions but its noise was drowned out by the screaming Satyr. Lou was now ducking away as he turned his wrath up on her.
"Woah!" Percy, completely unaffected by Hedge's attack, tried to grab him but he moved like a rabbit in spring.
Katie raised her hand a potted plant on a nearby window sill, a combination of roots and vines flung themselves at Hedge tangling his legs causing him to trip. Percy was on him in a second.
"Calm down!" Travis had his hands up to the restrained Satyr who wriggled desperately against Percy's grip, his voice was tight and his body tense for the second Hedge broke free from Percy.
"Attackers!" He screamed. "Damn when are those reinforcements?"
"We are the reinforcements," Lou said in her best 'not panicking voice.'
Katie glanced nervously towards the stairs sure someone was going to come down to find out about the noise but Lou's spell seemed to be holding up.
Hedge settled a little, he looked them over with a critical eye. He fake cleared his throat and shrugged Percy off and straightened his gym clothes. "Yes, yes I know that…I was just expecting someone…taller."
Travis snorted. "You're one to talk," he muttered.
Hedge's eyes narrowed. "What was that?"
The son of Hermes cast an uncaring eye at the Satyr. Katie's adrenalin began to leave her system and she stepped between the two.
"Look you asked for help, we're allies in this," Katie reasoned glaring at both of them. She may not possess the amazing charm and good looks of the Aphrodite Cabin or the brains of the Athena children but she was a daughter of an elder goddess and that demanded respect in its own right.
"I suppose we have to work together," Hedge grumbled. "I assume you know who we're after?"
"Piper McLean and Leo Valdez, yeah we've got names," Percy said.
Hedge examined him critically. "You broke my club, I take it you're Percy Jackson?" Percy nodded a smile tugging at his lips, he clearly enjoyed being recognised.
"You don't look so tough," Hedge decided and the smile fell from Percy's face and Katie looked away to hide her own burgeoning smile.
Lou interceded before an argument could break out, "so can you show us their rooms? I'll have to wake them from the spell but if the boys go after the Leo kid and carry him hear me and Katie can go and wake Piper, bring her here then we wake Leo and leave via Pegasi, capiche?" She looked a little red in the face after her rapid fire monologue.
"What do I do?" Hedge asked.
"You can guard the entrance!" Katie probably sounded a little eager but she didn't want the Satyr going through the school with them, he seemed more of a liability than help.
He didn't seem to take offence to this though and he happily gave them the room numbers they were staying in and then assumed an extremely vigilant stance that Katie was sure would last three seconds.
"Let's have some fun," Percy rubbed his hands together.
~(#)~
Katie and Lou followed Hedge's directions, going left towards the girl's dorm while Travis and Percy headed right. She felt uneasy about splitting the group but she knew that this way it would be done faster. Besides Percy and Travis could take care of themselves.
So why did she feel so uneasy?
Part of it, she reasoned, was the building. It had been designed to feel haunted. With every gust of wind the windows rattle and they couldn't go two steps without the floor creaking violently.
Despite the sleep spell they creeped along the corridors.
"How long does the spell hold?"
"Long enough," Lou answered.
Lou was an odd girl. At fifteen she was the oldest in the Hecate cabin but that was more due to their casualties in the war. No one had wanted to kill other Demigods but when you were fighting through legions of monsters good intentions go out the window very quickly. Still Lou seemed a kind hearted, if reserved, girl. Her raven black hair was streaked with purple and her eyes were a startling violet with flecks of gold.
Besides their short exchange the two girls remained in silence for the rest of the walk to Pipers room.
Rattling the door knob Katie found it was locked.
"Fucking Stoll's," Katie muttered and Lou gave her a funny look. "Sorry," she smiled, "reflex."
Lou grinned in returned and muttered something under her breath. There was a sharp clack.
Katie raised an impressed eyebrow.
"After you," Lou said, clearly trying to look casual.
Entering as quietly as possible her hands fell to her sides where her short swords rested within reassuringly easy reach.
"Wake her up quick," Katie whispered. She knew she didn't have to but her instincts were ringing alarm bells.
Relax, we're almost done.
She heard the sound of a human body smashing into a wall.
"Now!" Katie practically yelled, all pretence of stealth gone.
"Ok," Lou said her hands moving uncontrollably.
Another thud and a series of shouts.
Piper awoke. "Wha-?"
"No time!" Lou grabbed her arm as Katie ran back to the boys.
She glanced down, when had she drawn her swords? It didn't matter she kept running.
She heard herself telling Lou to meet her by the Pegasi and was even aware of the scowl that overcame her face but she was too busy running towards the fight.
"A fight!" The Satyr yelled with glee and she saw him barrelling up the stairs.
"Go with Lou!" her voice was filled with strength she didn't know she had.
Not glancing back to see if they were following what she'd said Katie arrived at the fight as Percy was being thrown into a window.
What had thrown him into it was by far the oddest monster Katie had ever fought. It seemed to sometimes to be a pale face lady or forty or so years and sometimes a smoky incorporeal formless shadow.
Travis had retreated into the open doorway and was grasping at his bloodied arm an unconscious body she assumed was Leo was laid half in the hallway. She focused on Travis's wound for a second and wished she hadn't. It seemed to have been torn by teeth.
The ghost, turned on Katie as Percy tried to stand. While he'd been thrown at the window he been spread so had also hit the sides. Still, the wind seemed to be knocked from him and Travis looked like he was struggling to stand much less fight.
She was on her own for the moment.
The ghost charged and Katie braced herself.
~(#)~
Despite what people thought of her, Katie was a good fighter. Sure she couldn't compare to people like Percy or Clarisse but she could hold her own. She favoured two short swords because they didn't tangle with each other as longer blades would yet she could still get round an opponent's shield which tended to provide good protection against her right hand but could lead to more clumsy opponents tangling themselves trying to bring it round to their right in order to defend against her strikes on their more vulnerable flank. Better balanced and more skilled fighters could get around this but her unique style still tended to throw many people off balance.
Unfortunately Katie liked two things when she fought, space and a solid opponent and when denied both these things she struggled.
Space was vital for Katie because a lack of shield meant she was trading protection for manoeuvrability. Nowhere to manoeuvre meant all she was doing was losing protection.
The monster screech seeped into her bones making her shiver with fear but she held her nerve and tried to lash out as it approached keeping its talons from her face, giving herself room to think of the myth this creature may have come from.
And then she was going to kill it.
Unfortunately the ghost woman didn't seem to be in favour of her plan and she phased past Katie's swords and then solidified and tried to rake her talons across her face.
Lunging backwards she somehow regained her balance. The creature had to solidify fully when it attacked so Katie tried to bring her swords down on the ghosts head but it was already fading back to a mist.
Groaning Percy stood and picked up his sword.
"Ugh, I hate ghosts," he muttered while twisting knots out of his back.
The monster hissed in frustration.
In its moment of distraction Katie lunged, high and low, but it faded, solidified and tried to claw her face again.
Instinctively Katie raised her sword arm, she stopped the talons mangling her face but her left arm took the brunt of the hit.
Crying out she dropped one sword and retreated clutching at her arm.
The ghost cried out in glee, forgetting Percy, it dived at Katie.
Percy had been four meters away when he'd stood up, too far away to help. She was on her own.
Facing the ghost with only one short sword she switched into more of a fencers stance, allowing her injured arm to stay back. Her blood felt like it was burning and sweat ran into her eyes.
The monster slashed at her again and again, Katie fended her blows off desperately. Suddenly it turned into missed and flew through her. Katie felt as though she was breathing glass and she wretched against the pain.
Doubled over she sensed the monster behind her. She tried to turn but all her focus was on the pain in her throat.
She closed her eyes and waited for death.
"Oh no you don't," she felt a hand, wet and sticky with blood dragging her, with relative ease, to the floor.
Travis was kneeling beside her as Percy parried the blow and advanced, trying to push the monster away from the two injured Demigods.
She glanced at Travis who looked pale and sickly, blood oozed from his wound. He still had a stupid grin on his face.
"You owe me," he forced out.
Standing Katie helped him to his feet.
She turned just in time to see Percy thrown against the wall his sword falling from his grasp as the ghost lifted him from his feet, pressed him against the wall and began to choke him with strength that it shouldn't have.
While the choking didn't seem to be having any apparent effect Percy's legs kicked uselessly and he didn't look like he was going to be able to escape by himself.
"Anytime now," he called.
The ghost flung him to floor with a great crash.
It turned to them with hungry eyes. Both Katie and Travis were injured and in no shape to fight this thing.
Katie wished she hadn't sent Lou away.
"You ready?" She asked Travis, who looked extremely prepared for fainting and not much else.
Still he nodded.
She was about to say on three but the ghost lacked her patience and it through itself off of them.
Katie raised her sword certain it would do nothing when the strangest thing happened.
The ghost froze. Its face spasmed, contorting into with effort. Katie noticed the blue energy that seemed to restrain it like chains. It looked like it was trying to turn to mist but the chains must have stopped it.
A sword punched through its stomach, as it dissolved it revealed, Percy looking a little red in the face and behind him Lou Ellen looking pale.
"Guys," she called, "we need to leave now."
So what do you think?