OMG! Look, I started another story without finishing my others! How unusual!
I am sooooo sorry for not updating. I blame school. (Don't we all?)
So I was watching Young Justice… and I got an idea for this. Amazing, right?
Anyway, this is rated T for now… unless you guys think I should raise the rating.
A warning: if graphic blood, violence, and major character death(s) (AND YES, PLURAL) bother you, turn back now.
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO/HoO. I do not own Greek/Roman mythology. And I most certainly do not own the Wolf House—that's Jack London's.
First, there was nothing.
And then Percy was just there. He couldn't explain it; he just suddenly materialized in the battlefield, surrounded by monsters of every kind.
Dracenae and empousai and Earthborn and even Lycaon's wolves were swarming him. Percy screamed as one of the wolves sank its teeth in his leg. He felt around in his pocket and pulled out Riptide. The three-foot-long bronze blade sprang to life in his hands.
"PERCY!" A girl's terse voice shouted.
Percy whirled around, momentarily distracted. A dracenae got a hit in and slashed a rip in his shirt.
Then he saw electric blue-eyed Thalia, shooting down wolves with silver arrows. At first he wondered why she was only targeting the wolves. Then he realized it was because not many of them had silver weapons, and she knew she had to use them on the monsters that could only be killed by silver.
"Get out of there!" Thalia yelled. "You'll be overwhelmed!"
"Thank you, Captain Obvious!"
"Is this really the time?"
Percy cursed under his breath, fighting his way through the sea of monsters to Thalia.
"Got a plan, Pinecone Face?" Percy hollered.
"Yeah. Regroup with the rest of them!" Thalia notched another arrow and aimed at a particularly large sandy-colored wolf. She let it fly in a graceful arc.
Percy turned to watch the wolf disintegrate. It never happened. The wolf merely howled and continued walking. As he watched, the smoking wound left by the arrow closed up.
"They're not dying!" Percy exclaimed.
"No duh! Didn't you and Hazel and Frank already free Death?"
"Well, apparently he's on coffee break!"
Percy finally made it to the rock Thalia was standing on. He clambered up, out of breath and bleeding.
"What now?" Percy asked.
Thalia stood up from her kneeling position and strapped her bow back on her back. "We run like the whole of Tartarus is chasing us."
"Actually, it seems like it is."
"Shut up, Jackson."
Percy peered into Thalia's blue orbs, and realized that she was just as scared and confused as he was. Thalia just covered that up by being terse and sarcastic.
Something was descending on them. Percy squinted.
"It's Reyna!" he cried delightedly. The raven-haired girl was riding on Skippy, shouting defiantly and throwing things at monsters below. Were they… rocks?
As Percy watched, the rock-looking things exploded, burning nearby monsters. Reyna and Skippy flew closer until they were directly above Thalia and him.
"Hop on!" Reyna screamed.
Percy heard snatches of Skippy's thoughts. Skippy was impatient to get going, apparently, but the use of certain words were not entirely necessary.
Percy jumped onto Skippy's back. He turned to Thalia. "What are you waiting for?"
"I CAN'T!" Thalia's eyes were huge with terror.
Reyna grabbed Thalia and hoisted her up. "Hang on tight," she advised the frozen daughter of Zeus.
Thalia screamed as Skippy suddenly zoomed upwards and away from the monsters. "WHY ARE YOU _ DOING THIS TO ME, YOU _s? GET ME DOWN FROM THIS _ HORSE RIGHT NOW, YOU _ HEAR ME?"
"Impressive vocabulary," he heard Reyna say once they landed.
"I try," Thalia said hoarsely. Her face was pasty white. Her freckles stood out on the bridge of her nose. Percy hadn't ever really noticed them so much before.
Reyna jumped off Skippy, who was cursing about having to dodge flaming arrows while having a screaming girl on his back. Skippy had an even better vocabulary than Thalia, it seemed to Percy. What was it with Roman horses and cussing?
"PERCY!" He heard Annabeth's voice scream. "Where were you?"
"I was a bit… busy." He jumped off too and was immediately crushed by Annabeth.
Thalia slid off Skippy shakily. "Never do that to me again."
"I'm not making any promises," Percy teased.
"Not funny."
"Where's Jason?" Reyna asked suddenly.
"Uh… around," Annabeth waved her arm vaguely.
"Gee, thanks," Reyna responded before running off.
"Wow. Jason must have a big ego," Percy remarked to Annabeth.
"How so?"
"It would give any guy a big ego if they found out a girl like Reyna was asking after them."
Annabeth glared at him.
"What?"
"What about a girl like me?" Annabeth asked.
Percy pretended to think for a minute. "Hmm, well…"
Annabeth slugged him in the arm.
"Sheesh! I was just kidding!"
She waited.
"Well, you're the reason why I have such a big head," Percy said. "It's full of hot air… maybe I should try flying sometime!"
She grinned. "You're stupid."
"Why, thank you." Percy bowed flamboyantly.
Reyna walked among the midst of chaos. The legionnaires had set up a sort of camp, you could say, in the past hour, and were organizing people on sentry duty patrols.
But where in the world was Jason Grace?
"Any casualties?" Reyna asked Centurion Frank.
Frank shook his head. "Not that we know of, so far."
"Were the Greeks accounted for?"
Frank thought about it. "I… I'm not sure."
"Who was taking account?" Reyna barked.
"Octavian."
"Well, then of course the Greeks weren't accounted for," Reyna growled harshly. "Why don't you do a head count for them?"
"Oh—okay." Frank scurried off.
Reyna sighed heavily and continued walking. Sometimes being praetor just downright sucked.
And guess where she found the son of Jupiter?
That's right. With a certain daughter of Venus—sorry, Aphrodite.
Piper was cracking up at something funny that Jason had apparently said. Jason was grinning, as though this weren't war and he was just chilling out with her.
"Hello," Reyna said pleasantly, coming to a halt.
"Hi," Piper said back, waving. Her smile faded instantly. For a daughter of Venus—Reyna was sick of using the Greek names—she sure sucked at hiding her emotions.
"So sorry to interrupt you two," Reyna said through a fake grin, "but I kind of need Jason with the Graeci and Hunters. We're sort of kind of maybe trying to do something that might be just a teensy bit—just a smidgeon—more important than… whatever incredibly super-duper uber-uber-UBER important thing you were doing."
"Is 'uber' even a word?" Piper inquired.
Reyna ignored her. "So, Jason, are you coming to talk strategy with the big kids, or do you want to hang around playing hide 'n' seek with Miss McLean here?"
Jason snorted. "Do I have a choice? No. I'm coming." He cast Piper a look that said, Sorry, I have no idea what her deal is.
"Come on." Reyna grabbed him by the shirt collar and started dragging him back to where Thalia and Percy and Annabeth were.
"What's wrong with you?" hissed Jason in her ear. "And let go of me, I'm perfectly capable of walking."
Reyna released his shirt collar. "No comment."
"You owe me an explanation, at least."
"You have duties, Jason. We all do. Trust me, I wish it were different, but that's how it is."
"Duty doesn't involve excessive use of sarcasm and a plastic grin," Jason said sourly.
"You know what I think?" Reyna snapped.
"I know what I think." He smirked. "I think you like me, and you're too stubborn to admit it."
"You're a conceited, useless, stupid PRETTY BOY with no personality!" yelled Reyna. "What would I like about THAT?"
"Strike that," Jason said, his smirk widening. "I think you're head-over-heels in love with me."
Reyna stomped her foot. "Would you SHUT UP for one second?"
Jason finally went silent.
"Listen, Grace," she said in a low voice. "This is WAR. Some of us are going to die today."
"Hopefully not me," he interjected.
She glared mutinously at him. "I'm not sure I second that right now. Now, can I finish?"
"Yes, you may," Jason said haughtily.
She ignored his stupid grin. "Today might be your last day alive. It might be my last day alive."
"Your point?"
Reyna took in a deep breath. "I think that if today's all we got, we'd better make the best of it." She looked up at him.
What came next was completely unexpected.
Thalia didn't mean to walk in on her little brother during such a bad moment. But then again, Annabeth and Percy had been wondering what was taking so long.
"You should go check," Percy told her.
"Why me?" Thalia asked.
Annabeth sighed and said, "Well, if there's a problem, Reyna wouldn't listen to me."
It was true; Reyna didn't exactly get along well with Annabeth, especially after she'd wrecked her home twice (first time: the island, second time: burning down the principia, but that's another story).
"Or me," Percy admitted. Even though Reyna and Percy were of equal rank in the Roman camp, Reyna still didn't exactly listen to Percy either.
"So it's gotta be me," Thalia said resignedly. "Fine."
Then she'd set off in search of Reyna.
When she found her, she'd also found Jason.
Reyna had her foot planted on his chest, and he was flat on his back lying on the ground.
"Say sorry!" Reyna shouted.
"I'm—not!" Jason puffed, trying uselessly to stand back up.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Thalia yelled. "What the Hades is going on here?"
"Stop using my dad's name as a cuss word!" a boy's voice shouted crossly.
Thalia turned to see Nico DiAngelo.
"Glad you could make it to the party, Dead Boy," she said. "Now, uh, help me break this up!"
Nico hung back. "I dunno," he said, with a slight smile on his lips. "They look pretty cozy to me."
"That's my little brother, bonehead!" Thalia shook her head. "Never mind, I'll do it myself."
"Say you're sorry!" Reyna screamed again.
"I'm—not—sorry!"
"Reyna," Thalia said.
The dark-haired girl didn't move her gaze from Jason. "What?" she snapped.
"Can you, like, let my little brother go?"
"Make him apologize, first," Reyna growled.
Thalia sighed. "What did you do this time, Jason?"
Jason stayed silent sullenly and stopped wriggling. He lay there, panting.
"He tried to kiss me," Reyna informed her.
"You what?" Thalia raised an eyebrow.
"She likes me," Jason said from the ground.
Reyna ground her heel into his ribs and he squeaked. "Do not!"
"You're just saying that!"
Thalia rolled her eyes. "Okay, that's enough, Reyna. Percy and Annabeth were wondering what happened to you two. Now, let's get going—we've got a war to plan!"
At the mention of war, all the fire seemed to deflate from Reyna. "Right," she muttered. "War." She stepped off of Jason, looking tired and… old.
Jason coughed and stood up, brushing dirt from his shirt. "Great. More death."
Nico eyed him. "That's not something to joke about."
"Don't I know it."
Well, that's all for now. I'll start on the next chapter, but... let's see. What would be awesome is if I got at least seven reviews for this chapter. If you can take the time to Story Alert it or Favorite it, you can take the time to write a quick review!
Anyway, thanks. Till next time!