(Animosus)
I dashed down the stairs of the porch and looked up at the hill. There was a small crowd of figures, mostly monsters by the looks of it. At the front of the group, there was a ten foot tall bare-chested man with Hawaiian floral shorts. He had a modius, a type of wheat basket on his head.
"That's Serapis!" Annabeth exclaimed her eyes widening.
I whistled. "You two already know each other? That ain't good."
Percy frowned. "You never told me about that little escapade."
"Oops," Annabeth tried to smile innocently. "Must have slipped my mind!"
"That can't get past the barrier, can they?" Jason asked.
The barrier flashed blue then shattered like glass.
"Does that answer your question?" I said as the monsters and god ran down the hill.
"What are we going to do?" Frank cried. "The camp isn't ready for an attack!"
"Annabeth?" Nota took on that commanding voice of hers. "How many creatures would you say are there?"
"Um…" she scanned the hill. "About two hundred."
Nota nodded like that cleared everything up.
"Annabeth, contact Sadie, Percy do the same for Carter." Nota ordered.
"How did yo-"
"There's no time! Tell them to get here as fast as possible, and to bring all the help they can. Chiron go contact the gods, we'll need their help too. Frank go grab all the archers. Hazel, Leo, go tell the cabins. Nico, raise an undead army, and then go someplace safe. Jason, give us aerial support. Animosus and I will hold them off until then."
They looked like they wanted to protest but Nota yelled at them again.
"Go!" she glared. "GO NOW!"
They scattered like flies.
Nota drew twin swords from the void. And I grabbed one of my battle axes.
"Now this," Nota laughed as we charged. "This is going to be FUN!"
(Percy)
"Carter!" I yelled, staring at the palm of the hand Carter put the communication device on. "Come on dude!"
The mark, an eye, glowed blue briefly, before fading. I hoped that was what it was supposed to do.
I looked at Nota and Animosus charging the monsters.
I hoped it would be enough.
(Annabeth)
"Is something wrong?" Sadie asked, her voice sounding tinny and distant over the phone.
"I wouldn't call you unless there was," I told her. "He's back."
"You don't mean-"
"Sadie! We need to go! Like, now!" a voice called in the background.
"Yeah! I know Carter!" she yelled back. "We'll be there soon, and we'll bring help."
The call ended.
(Sadie)
"Let's move people!" I yelled at the scrambling occupants of the Twenty-First Nome. "WE HAVE A JOB TO DO!"
A moment later they were gathered in front of me and Carter.
"Where are we going!?" a novice yelled. I think it was Felix.
I looked at Carter. "We're going to Long Island." He listed off a set of coordinates.
"Got it." I nodded. "Cleo keep the ankle-biters safe while we're gone!"
"Okay!" she smiled. "Good luck!"
I opened a portal and the novices streamed through. I watched, feeling a sickening dread growing in my stomach. Who knew how many were coming back.
"I don't believe in luck."
(Nota)
I was slightly surprised when the Egyptian portal opened right behind the monster I had just decapitated. Then the magicians poured out and immediately joined the fray. Soon after that, the campers from the cabins joined the fight too.
After only a few minutes, the only thing left was Serapis standing in the middle of a field made of the corpses of monsters.
I stared at him trying to anticipate any moves he might make. The other fighters surrounded him on all sides. He looked around at all the people with all different weapons, then smiled, which quite frankly freaked me out.
"You might have won this battle," he laughed a bone-chilling laugh. "But not the war."
He snapped his fingers and disappeared.
I looked around at all the gathered warriors just to find they were all looking at me or Ani.
"Well," I cleared my throat. "Why don't the campers have some R&R. Twenty-First Nome, I don't think it would be a very good idea for you to stay here any longer than you have to. If you'd follo-"
My words were cut off by a scream and a pair of hands wrapped around my neck, keeping me from drawing a breath.
"Nota!" Ani lunged forward, sword aimed for Serapis, ax lost somewhere in the carnage.
But Serapis evaporated just before Ani stabbed his mid-section.
Which meant his sword went through me instead.
I fell to my knees, vision blurring, blood flowing through my fingers where I had my hand pressed against my sternum.
"Nota!" Ani cried, falling to the blood soaked ground beside me.
He pulled my head into his lap as carefully as he could, tears falling onto my mask. He pulled it off and stroked my face.
"Nota," he sobbed. "I'm so sorry, Nota."
I tried to reach his face with my blood stained hand but it fell limply on my chest. My eyes started to flutter closed…
"No!" Ani yelled. "No Nota, Alice, you need to stay awake! You need to-"
My eyes started to close again.
"ALICE!" Ani cried again, but his voice was white noise in the background.
My eyes closed, and the world faded to black.
