The Vortex

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.

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Chapter 1

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Nico and Dante walked through the hallways of Goode High School, they rounded a corner, their pace speeding up; but footsteps quieter. As they got deeper in the school's halls, it became a maze, they would turn left but end up on an identical hallway. Behind them, a soft slithering sound slides on the concrete. Nico and Dante's pace sped up even more as the slithering sound did the same, Nico and Dante's shoes making quiet squeak noises on the floor. They burst through a door, their heads searching around, looking for something, or someone..

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Solitaire sat on the library chair, his History book laying open in front of him. He closed his book and put in into the 'H' section where all the other History books are. As he was walking back into his spot, the doors burst open. He ducked down under the desks, he crept quietly under the desks. As he crawled he noticed the red and black Vans of Nico, and the solid red Converse of Dante. Solitaire realized that they were his friends, and stood up. He asks the two of them," What do you guys want now?"

Both of them share a look, as if they were having a quiet conversation. Dante glanced at Solitaire and rolled his eyes. Dante faced towards Solitaire and said," Nico's father told him that we should Goode tonight, it's not safe according to his dad."

Solitaire just nodded his head and reached down into his pocket and pulled out a silver bracelet. He wrapped it around his wrist and nodded his head, motioning Nico and Dante to lead him out. They led him to the back door of the library, leading out into the suburbs of New York City.

The slithering sounds seemed to multiply, coming from all sides. As the sounds got closer, Solitaire flicked his wrist and the bracelet elongated into a beautiful, silver scythe. The blade of the scythe glowed a bright,shining purple. Dante backed up, but Nico had some tricks as well. He threw his hand out and a solid black sword shot out the ground, and he caught it in his waiting hand. The monsters finally showed their faces, they were Dracaena, snake-women. The Dracaena closed in, but Solitaire kept them at bay with his reach on his scythe. Nico melted into a shadow, somehow. He popped out of a shadow behind a Dracaena, and assassinated it with his nightmarish black sword. Dante, still looking at the two of his friends in complete awe, managed to snap out of his gaze and pulled out two rings from his pocket and slid it upon his ring fingers. He willed it to transform, and it did. They transformed into two amazing chakrams. They were triangular, with red hexagon shapes etched into them. To make it seem like old runes almost, the shapes were glowing, a deep, blood-like red. It was almost ethereal the way they looked, like they were holographic. He threw it at a Dracaena that was about to ambush Nico. The chakram slid right through the scaly flesh of the snake-woman. The three of them managed to defeat the rest of the Dracaena, after the skirmish, they were all covered in sweat. Solitaire told them that they should keep running farther into the woods. They kept running deeper in the woods while Dante led them to a camp that should be "safe". They decided to set up a small fire and sleep for the night, they rotated watches and were safe.

Solitaire POV

I was woken up by Nico telling me it was time for my turn of watch. I easily climbed a tree to get a better viewpoint of our small encampment. I heard a rustling in on of the bushes and I turned my attention towards it. The bush was shaking and little berries were falling out. One person came out and he looked around thirteen or fourteen with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. The next person looked about the same age as the guy, and the last person to come out intrigued me. She was the youngest of the three with grey eyes and curly blonde hair. But, what startled me most were her bright, stormy grey eyes. As if they were boring into your very soul. They walked into our encampment and saw Nico and Dante lying fast asleep on the floor. The group of three saw the fire and eyed it hungrily. They walked towards it and sat down around it, the older girl pulled out a can of mace and it transformed into a long Celestial Bronze tipped spear. She looked as if she was ready to defend herself if Nico and Dante were hostile. I decided at this time I would show myself.

Narrator POV

Solitaire jumped out of the tree and landed with his open palm. His scythe was out behind his back, and his knees crunched together. The group of three looked at him in horror, seeing as his hood was down and all you could see was his hands, his scythe and his body. None of his face. The boy stepped out first and asked with a quavering voice full of fear " Wh-who are you? What do you want from us?"

Turning his head upwards so they could see his face, he said " You invaded our camp. You best leave before you do something you will regret. "

The three of them looked at each other and the oldest one said " No."

To say Solitaire was surprised would be an understatement, he simply began to dash towards the three, his scythe poised in a position to kill. Even though he wasn't going to. It was enough to get the three going, all three of them put themselves in a defensive stance. The oldest guy had his golf club in baseball bat position, the girl held out her spear, jabbing it now and then to keep Solitaire away. But the youngest girl, with blonde, curly hair, she had her knife put in a hammer grip. Solitaire knew she was only starting with the knife by the way she held it. Solitaire dashed forwards, heading for the oldest boy first. Even though the boy's reflexes were quick, Solitaire's were a million times faster. Solitaire slashed his scythe lightly at the boy, it went through his clothes and gave him a slightly large cut, even though it wasn't deep, it stung like hell. Then, Solitaire went for the girl, even though she was younger, she had a lot more power behind her strikes and her reflexes were faster than the boy's. Solitaire guessed that her dad or mom was more powerful than the boy's. Still, she went down just as easily. Both the oldest boy and girl were on the floor, the boy clutching his stomach in pain. And the girl holding her right arm as it bled freely. Solitaire didn't have the heart to attack the youngest girl, so he just knocked her out with the handle of his scythe. She hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.

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Annabeth POV

"Hey Thalia?" I asked.

She looked at me and said " Yes, Annie?"

" That guy last night was really scary.." I said shivering at the memory. I was sure that Thalia thought so too, seeing as her eyes got a faraway look.

Flashback

Thalia, Luke, and I were walking towards Camp Half-Blood. As it was our third night walked without any sleep, we heard the crackling of a campfire. We walked towards a clearing and saw two people laying down, asleep. We saw the campfire that was crackling, its warmth was felt even where I was standing. Luke and Thalia eyed it hungrily because they have gone two whole days with no heat covering them. They both began to walk towards the flame, but I told them we should wait, but they ignored me completely. Then, we saw a hooded man with a huge scythe appear. You could see he was extremely fit, he carried the damn thing with ease. The scythe was at least 6 feet long, and its blade looked impossibly sharp. It seemed that it was emanating a soft purple glow. Luke approached the man and asked him who he was and what we wanted. I wanted to say we just needed to use the fire, but the man said in his deep voice "No, you invaded our camp. You best leave before you do something you regret." Luke replied with a simple no. But I could tell the answer agitated the man. Next thing I knew, Luke was on the floor clutching his stomach, that was now bleeding openly. Same with Thalia, even though I couldn't see him move, Apparently she could,and tried to fight him off, but there was nothing she could do. He was much to powerful for the both of them. He turned his attention to me, I saw his eyes, they were purple, with a glow of teal. They seemed to be almost glowing, lighting the dark night. He hesitated to attack me, but before I could react, I was on the floor cold.

Flashback End

Apparently, while I was having a flashback, we reached Camp Half-Blood. Luke and Thalia were sitting at the front of our stolen car and we parked at a sign that read "Strawberries". I heard a screaming noise from behind us and I saw flying, red-eyed, harpy things. I've seen harpies before, but these looked different. I saw Luke and Thalia turn around to see what I saw. Luke told me to run for the gate to Camp Half-Blood. Thalia on the other hand said that she would hold them. I turned around again and saw Hell hounds, Telkhines, Cyclopes, and the Furies. Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. I turned around in pure fear, but not until I saw the hooded man and his two friends.

Narrator POV

Solitaire, Nico, and Dante walked towards Camp Half-Blood. They saw a huge mob of monsters. Hell hounds, Telkhines, cyclops, and then some, even the Furies. Solitaire flicked his wrist and his beautiful scythe appeared, Nico put his hand out and his nightmarish black sword shot out of the ground and into his hand. Dante willed his two rings to transform, and his chakrams called दर्द and क्रोध. Which meant Pain and Rage. Solitaire's scythe called θάνατος, or Death. Nico's sword called άδης, or Hades. The three of them burst into battle, their skill unmatched, and their finesse unequal. All three of them together could beat The Olympians, and then some. Some would say, invincible is not possible. One mismatched gear in a gearbox, will break it. One misplaced bullet could mean the difference between life and death. But none of these rules apply to theses three. The three of them are like the three Furies, unbreakable. But the three of them apart, is even deadlier. Luke, Thalia and Annabeth could only watch in awe as the three tore apart the monster armies. Dante seemed to have this red glow, emanating rage and destruction. While Nico had darkness around him, shadows wrapped anyone around the neck who came within five feet of him. But Solitaire, he was a different story. He had no aura, no special blessing or effect on him. No, he was a simple warrior. But in those eyes, hid the most powerful weapon in the world. The Eye of the Eye, of Odin.

Okay, I have a few good reasons for my mistakes. I am so very sorry about not updating in a while.

My teacher has tests every Friday, and we check them on Monday.

My teacher for History and LA tells us to do a notebook on the chapter we read and it's almost half of your grade for that subject, granted, we don't turn them in until after we take the test for that subject.

I have just been a lazy author.

Status on Jason, Son of Fire and Water: I will update it, give me 2 or 3 weeks. It's sitting in my phone's notes and I am going to copy it to my computer. I promise I won't put it on Hiatus, but knowing that school is nowhere near over, I may or may not have too. I'll try as hard as I can to update that story. I am terribly sorry for the missing of updates.

What's up with this story being here: I put this story up because it has been in my mind for about 2-3 months. Like my favorite author says," Always put down your ideas, otherwise you might lose them without even knowing what other people thought of it." So, I put this story up. Also, reviews make me love you more and update faster! So, click that review button!

Sincerely,

Rhythm12