Welcome back, everybody. So, as some of you may have noticed, I've changed the name of the story from Son of the Huntress to the Forbidden Sons, the reason being that, when I first started writing this, I had only intended for there to be one book. Eli and Antonio weren't even thought of until I finished, at this point it has become about more than just Raven and Eli, and so as a result I have elected to change the name.

Chapter 12: The escape (With explosions)

Antonio:

We turned, slowly, keeping our hands held high in the air. In front of us stood a stocky, dark skinned girl with shoulder length curly hair and a mean mug that made even me want to back away. Her eyes darted back and forth between the five of us, as if daring us to make even the slightest move.

We didn't oblige her.

"On your knees," She spat "Get down, hands above your heads!"

Slowly, we sank to our knees as she listened to something for a moment in her earpiece before turning back to us, giving us a glare, not quite of disdain, but more of an issue she just didn't have the patience to deal with. I understood the feeling, right now for instance.

"I've got intruders," She spoke into her headset "Five, lock down the building and search for others, send backup to the Oval Office."

"What do we do?" Maya hissed, casting a glance over to Carter

In response, Carter slowly extended his hand out, beginning to chant something silently before she turned, catching what he was doing and closing the distance in just a few steps. She slammed her pistol into the side of Carter's face, forcing him onto the floor as she stepped back, looking around at all of us.

"Anybody else feel brave?" She growled

For some reason, my eyes locked onto a tattoo on her neck, a shield with a bloody spear crossed over it. I thought nothing of it, but I saw Reyna eyeing it was well, and she looked as if there was a plan forming inside of her head. I wasn't sure what she was thinking, but I hoped, for all our sake, it was good.

"You're a child of Mars." Reyna said, looking at her

It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact. For a moment, the woman's face became confused rather than irritated, but it eventually reverted back to the latter. She turned on Reyna, pointing her gun directly at her head.

"This is not the time to get conversational." She spat at her

"Listen to me," Reyna pleaded with her "You have to help us."

"What?" She snapped, this time completely thrown off "Help you?"

"You're a child of Mars," Reyna said again "I can see the tattoo, and I'm willing to bet you've got another one, one that looks just like this."

She reached for her sleeve, moving to lift it up before the woman's weapon was pressed against her skull. She froze, not moving a muscle as the woman tightened her grip, but she made no move to attack. Instead, she reached out and grabbed Reyna's outstretched arm, lifting her sleeve the rest of the way and revealing her SPQR tattoo. It was the only time I'd ever gotten a good look at it, and I actually made a note to count the stripes she had.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, this time her angry tone gone "This had better be good."

"This." Reyna told her, revealing the potion in her other hand "I can't explain now, seeing as you called for backup, and so we're extremely short on time."

"That won't do it for me." The girl told her, narrowing her eyes

"It's going to have to," Reyna told her "Listen, I'm one of the Praetors at Camp Jupiter now, come find me, and I promise you will have your answers, but for right now, you must let us go."

"We aren't here to hurt anybody," Sadie said, venturing bravely to get the woman's attention "We only needed this."

She seemed to consider everything for a moment, looking back and forth between Reyna's tattoo and the potion in her other hand. I heard footsteps pounding down the hallway, we had maybe thirty seconds before this entire thing was blown and we were all busted.

"I will trust you," She finally decided "I will return to Camp Jupiter, and if I find out you were lying to me, my last act before they lock me away for the rest of my life and charge me with treason will be to hunt you down and make every one of you suffer a slow and painful death."

"I suppose Mars and Ares don't differ much, do they?" I muttered, not moving a muscle

"Thank you," Reyna breathed, relief clear in her voice "And, I'm very very sorry about this."

"About what?" She asked, confused

Before the woman could react, Reyna jumped to her feet and batted her gun to the side and kicked her ankle, pushing her leg out from under her. As she fell, Reyna picked her up and slammed her down in the opposite direction, right through the coffee table, effectively knocking her unconscious.

"What was that?" I demanded "She was letting us go."

"It needs to look like we overpowered her and escaped," She snapped at me "On your feet, let's move!"

We all jumped up and started to move, Reyna leading, just as several pairs of footsteps sounded outside the door, angry voices shouting at eachother. Suddenly, everything went quite, and I knew exactly what was about to happen. They'd heard the commotion, and were assuming we'd killed the other guard and were preparing to storm the room.

What I did next was simply the first thing that came to mind.

I grabbed Reyna by the arm and yanked her backwards, pulling her behind me and shielding her and the others from my own stupidity. Hardly registering what I was doing, I pointed at the door, calling out the only Divine Word I could remember right off the top of my head.

"Ha-di!" I yelled

Suddenly, the entire wall in front of us exploded with a force that looked as though a giant truck had just run clean through it. Between all the flying debris, parts of a bookshelf, wood, and other various things handing on the wall, I caught a glimpse of several Secret Service agents flying backwards and slamming into the wall behind them.

We took off running, bursting through the hall while chunks of the wall were still falling around us. As we rounded the corner, I heard yelling from either end, the sound of footsteps drawing nearer to us by the second.

"So, if you think I don't believe that massive explosion I just heard had nothing to do with you," I heard Eli remark "You're dumber than you think I am."

"I blew up a wall," I said back, rushing down the hall "Keep the room clear, we're coming in hot."

"Yeah, they don't take kindly to that." Amber responded

"Frank!" I heard Annabeth "Get moving, get the disruptor and get out, now!"

"Already moving." I heard Frank respond

Just as we were nearing the end of the hallway, three Secret Service guards emerged on the top of the stairs, guns drawn, raising them at us. Before I could move, Maya closed the gap, kicking one in the knee and elbowing him in the face, sending him falling back down the stairs into the two behind him. In the same motion, she hopped down the stairs, three or four at a time, not even checking to see if we were following.

Of course we were.

Just as I rounded the corner, I heard gunshots and the wall behind me kicked up some drywall as three bullet holes appeared in it. Carter turned around, chanting rapidly as a cloud of dust appeared on the stairs, and the sound of coughing and panicked voices sound from the top.

"Gas!" One yelled "Get back!"

"They're heading downstairs!" Someone else called "All units, converge on the first floor."

"Guys!" I heard Annabeth's voice "SWAT teams are arriving, there's helicopters too!"

"Getaway route marked?" I asked

"Of course!" She answered

"Then keep the motor running," I replied "We're gonna be getting out in a hurry."

"Speaking of hurry," Raven said "Hurry the hell up, this hallway is crawling with guards, we've already had to take down two."

More voices sounded behind us as we ran, and then some in front of us. Reyna turned suddenly, dragging Carter and I down a side hallway, Maya and Sadie turning behind us. We started to move when several guards appeared behind us, leveling their weapons and screaming for us to stop.

"Drowah!" Sadie yelled, sweeping her hand across the hallway

As the guards fired their weapons, the bullets bounced off of an invisible barrier in the middle of the hallway, ricocheting all around and slamming into the walls. The guards scattered for cover, no doubt seeing through the Mist that we had returned fire.

This was going to be a very interesting news story.

We rounded the final corner, spotting Amber and Eli taking down a few guards while Raven and Kayla kept watch for more. We made eye contact and Reyna held up the potion, moving towards the four of them. Without another word, they headed back into our escape room and we followed, shutting the door behind us.

"Frank, you out?" Eli asked into his wrist

"In the van, we're ready to go when you guys are." He reported

"We're coming out," I told them, looking outside "Be ready, looks like we're not getting out quietly."

Outside, there were four helicopters doing laps around the building, SWAT vans lining the streets, and military personnel already lining up on the perimeter. Before any of us could even steel our nerves, Reyna pocketed the potion and jumped right outside the window, giving the rest of us no choice but to follow closely behind her.

Raven:

Once we were outside, things had complicated a little. Immediately, two of the helicopters focused their spotlights on us, and guards began moving around the side of the house, ready to intercept us. We rushed for the gate as they fired, Sadie and Carter using the Divine Word for miss as fast as they could. I knew we didn't have time to climb the gate, and so did Eli and Antonio, but we already knew the backup plan.

"Ha-di!" We yelled in unison, pointing at the fence

One person can be powerful, but three people? You might as well have lined that whole thing with explosives. The gate blew up, fantastically I might add, sending chunks of metal, grass, and concrete flying in all directions and knocking a massive twenty or thirty foot gap in it, plenty of room for us to squeeze through.

Unfortunately, the guards were already getting close, and nearly surrounding us. We turned, panicked, unsure of what to do, all of us trying our best to come up with some sort of plan to improvise our way out of this.

And that's when my brother came to the rescue.

His eyes grew dark and cold, the same way they'd been in Bob's store, and I saw just the smallest glint of gold as he stomped his foot on the ground.

All around us, time began to slow down. The guards looked like they were trying to run through water, and the helicopter blades were slowed down to the point I could actually see all four of them. Without another word, he looked up in the sky, an evil grin coming to his face.

"Hu-Ai!" He yelled, extending his hand upwards

Suddenly, time sped back up, and the two helicopters froze in mid air, standing still for just a second before they began plummeting to the earth, spinning as they did so.

They fell on either side of us, right in front of the guards that were pursuing us, exploding on impact, sending shrapnel every which way and no doubt killing more than a few and injuring even more. Suddenly, Eli's eyes were no longer dark and cold, and he simply looked around at the damage, completely appalled at what he'd just done.

I was in shock at what I'd just witnessed, but, before I could fully register it, I saw the van pulling up in front of the hole out of the corner of my eye. It came to a halt, and Amber grabbed my shirt, dragging me along as we made a break for the van.

We jumped inside, barely even closing the door before Leo peeled off, tearing down the street faster than I even thought Camp Half-Blood vans could go, and, within moments, we were two blocks down the road. We saw a few SWAT vans loading up to give chase, but, in the chaos of what'd just happened, they were still scrambling to help the wounded, leaving us with a wide open berth to escape.

"We've got to change the plate," Annabeth told him "Find somewhere we can park."

"No time," I told her, grabbing a screwdriver "Keep driving, Frank, Carter, hold my legs."

They nodded as I threw the van doors open, laying down and inching my way out. I felt Carter's hands close around one my ankles and Frank's around the other, gripping tight and making sure I wasn't going anywhere.

Just as I went to work, Leo jumped onto the ramp and entered onto the highway, almost causing me to drop the screwdriver. Regardless, I pulled one screw, and then the other, snatching up the plate before it could fall. I handed it back to Antonio, who already had the original plate in his hand and passed it up to me. As quickly as I could, I screwed it in, thankful that there was nobody behind us at the time, given the extremely late hour.

Frank and Carter pulled me back in as Reyna and Sadie reached up, shutting the doors behind me.

All was quiet, nobody daring to utter a word for the next few minutes as we removed our ski masks, not wanting to test our luck. After five minutes had passed, we all looked out the back window, noticing a Police car behind us, right on our tail, no doubt running the plates.

Everybody held their breaths, waiting for him to flick his lights on. Thirty seconds passed, then a minute, then two, nothing.

Finally, he backed away and switched lanes, passing us. For another moment, there was silence, and then, all at once, everybody in the van started cheering, laughing, hugging eachother, hardly daring to believe what we'd actually just pulled off.

Everyone except for two people.

Eli and myself.

I don't know about him, but my mind was still stuck on one, particular detail of the night.

Without warning, I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, slamming him into the side of the van, causing the festive mood to end immediately. Everybody froze, eyeing the two of us, wondering what was coming next.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded

"What the hell was what?" He spat back

"Freezing time, bringing two helicopters out of the sky, killing Zeus knows how many people!" I screamed at him "Ring a fucking bell?"

"I don't know what happened," He told me "It's fuzzy, like I blacked out but not all the way, when I came back around, I saw the flames and the wreckage."

"What did you see in that coffin?" I demanded "You haven't been right since then, and now this?"

"Don't worry about what I saw in that coffin." He told me

"Eli, I saw your eyes turn gold!" I screamed at him "You may not think there's anything wrong with you, but there is!"

"There isn't!" He raged, pushing me off of him "Put your hands on me again, I swear to-"

That was as far as he got before a massive, shrieking roar sounded from outside the van, causing everybody to tense up, knowing it couldn't be anything good.

Before any of us could react, something slammed into the side of the van, causing it to lift into the air and tumble right off the side of the highway, crashing down into the creek some twenty five feet below.