Two updates in two days? Yes it is possible. I think that by now you know I'm not Rick Riordan, so I'm going to stop doing disclaimers now.

Nico

Shadow traveling halfway across the country can be very tiring. It's bad enough when it's just me who I have to shadow travel; usually the urge to take a nap is very strong. But it's worse when you have to send a grand total of fifteen people that you are taking across the country by them hugging you and you using your supernatural powers to take them from Long Island to somewhere in Nevada. So as soon as we got there, I passed out.

"Ugghh," is the super intelligent remark I made when I woke up. Everyone around me started cracking up. I glared at them. I really need to learn how to not fall asleep after using my super-awesome powers. "How long was I out?"

"A few minutes," replied Allie. "We would've woken you up sooner, but some people were getting sick." I had trouble understanding what she meant until I looked over and saw a few people who looked ready to throw up.

"Oh." I didn't need anyone to explain in greater detail. Then I examined the area. We had arrived in a dark area at the foot of a large hill. I recognized that hill from the maps that Mason and Scar showed us at camp as the hill that we would need to climb in order to attack the top secret military base. "Let's go!" I yelled.

We started hiking up the hill. We were walking, but Camille had to think that we were going too slowly and she made us run up the hill, which was really annoying considering I just passed out. During our run up the hill, I felt as if we were being followed, but I just dismissed the feeling. Recently, I felt as if I was being followed every time I left the camp's borders, but I never found anything, and now was not the time to freak out in front of everyone because of a gut feeling.

Unfortunately, my gut feeling turned out to be right. We were almost three-quarters up the hill when I turned around and saw an arrow flying towards me. It landed right next to my foot. I could tell that this was a warning shot. I knew that whoever was shooting was not trying to kill me, but to get us to surrender. Of course, surrender for us means certain execution, so that will never happen. We will fight to the death.

"Heads up," I said, "we've got company." It's funny how many movie lines that has been in, and now it had actually happened. Now we actually had enemies behind us. Unfortunately, we were being chased, but when I looked behind me I didn't see anyone. It was almost too dark to see anyone behind us, but I thought I saw a glow from a sword. Then another, and another… almost fifteen in total.

In response to my warning, everyone turned around, and most of them took out their weapons. I drew my Stygian iron sword, which was not a very common material, and prepared for battle. Jack, Char, Aria, and Phoenix drew their bows and arrows. Everyone else drew their own unique weapon: a mix of swords, spears, knives, and things I don't even know the name of. The enemy charged up the hill.

"How did they know we were coming?" wondered Scar. That is what I would have been wondering too, but something else was bugging me. How were they able to see us? They were so far behind us that the only reason that I was able to see them was because of the glow of their weapons, but there was no way I would be able to fire a semi-accurate shot at them based on the glow of their weapons, even if I was a good archer. I guess that could be answered later. I kill first and ask questions later.

The group charging towards us was at a slight disadvantage because they were charging up a hill, but we kind of did the stupid thing and stopped halfway up. That meant that the fight would occur on a weird sloped angle.

None of them were wearing armor or masks, although we weren't either, so we could see each other's faces perfectly while we were trying to stab each other to death. I went directly at the guy in the front, who was wielding a four and a half foot staff. He was tall, with an athletic complexion, and he seemed about 18. He had pale skin and messy jet black hair like me, but he had startling purple eyes which almost made me think they were fake. I would give a more detailed description, but I was kind of distracted with trying not to be killed.

We started to fight, him pushing me back every once in a while. He was one of the toughest opponents I had faced in a while; no matter what I did, he just parried everything and then he got on the offensive and I had a lot of trouble blocking his strikes until finally, I was able to push him back. I used the pause in our battle to survey the action. It didn't look like there were any casualties…yet. Arden and Garret were working together as a deadly team, but most of the other side was focused on them. Mac had given Jack, Char, and Phoenix swords that he had pulled out of nowhere and was busy saving people who were about to get the killing blow delivered to them. The other archer, Aria, was using two deadly knives. She looked like she wanted to hurl them at someone, but that could've been bad if she missed and I was glad she didn't. I couldn't tell who was winning the battle. As I looked around, I was surprised to find some familiar faces on the other side. Probably old campers who turned to the Titans.

Then I turned back to the person who I was fighting, and this time he had a double-edged sword. Where did that come from? I wondered. Then the next onslaught came. We traded blows, neither of us able to find an advantage. I gritted my teeth, trying to find strength for this battle inside a battle when-

"Stop fighting!" I heard two voices cry out simultaneously, which was able to be heard despite the battle cries and clanging of weapons. One of the voices belonged to Mac, the other was familiar but I couldn't put a name to it.

"We're on the same side! Stop fighting!" After many desperate cries, we were all able to stop and look at the two who were calling us to stop fighting. The person who was fighting me looked angry.

"Why did you tell us to stop?" he asked. "These are our sworn enemies, are they not?"

"They're not our enemies Drake," said the boy who called them to stop. He was about 5 foot ten and slim, although he was still muscular. He had a normal skin tone, not very tanned but definitely not pale, with light green eyes and dark eyelashes. I knew I had seen him before, I just couldn't remember from where.

"How do you know?" asked the boy who I guess was Drake.

"Because," answered the second boy, "the people who we are fighting are also battling the Titans." There was some mumbling but before there could be another objection, he continued. "I know because the person I am fighting was my best friend throughout the war, and I know he would never betray the gods. This is Jackson McDonald, from Camp Half-Blood."

It was a decent speech. I almost expected applause, but most people were shocked. Then I realized where I had seen him before. His name was Damien Oblisca, but most people called him Dame. I remembered that he turned fifteen a few months ago, that was one of the few days that I was at camp. His godly parent was Lethe, the goddess of Oblivion. Her river in the underworld was able to wipe people's memories completely, it was so strong that even immortals could have their memories wiped if they weren't careful. I also vaguely remember that he and Mac were best friends since I had been at camp. My gut told me he was telling the truth.

After wasting a few precious minutes taking in his mini-speech and realizing that we were indeed on the same side, everyone started talking amongst themselves. We were wasting time though, and I had to get everyone back on track. I cleared my throat very loudly, and everyone looked at me. A few of the people I somewhat remember seeing once or twice from the other group looked at me in shock, while others were just annoyed.

"Nico?" asked a guy who looked about fifteen in complete shock. He was about 5'7 and had jet black eyes and a slightly athletic build. He also had black hair like the characters in anime shows. Not like I watch anime. Just because I watch anime and play mythomagic, it doesn't mean… oh never mind.

It took me a few seconds to process all of this before I recognized him. Maybe I'm not so good with names and faces. It's not my fault that most of the time I am underground with dead souls. Ok maybe that is my fault… Anyway his name was Ezekiel Seighart, and we all called him Zeke. His godly parent was Hecate, and he never fought with standard weapons, only magic.

"Yup, I lived," I said. "But we're wasting time. I'm sure that you guys didn't end up in the desert near Area 51 by chance, now, did you?"

"Nope," replied Dame. "We heard that the goddess Hecate was being held captive here, and we wanted to rescue her. Zeke was especially excited."

"How did you get here?" I asked. Some people still looked uncomfortable with answering my questions, since if I was lying I would have a lot of information on them. However, most people looked like they trusted me.

"We drove," said a girl. Her name was Nicole Kinjo, who was 12 years old and a daughter of Hermes. I had an idea of where they got the vehicles to transport 13 people across from who knows where. She had black hair that went down to her shoulders, and brown eyes. She was tall and skinny, and wore a gray and white striped Kangol hat. "There was an abandoned parking lot about six miles from here, so we parked there and walked. But what are you doing here?"

"We came here with the same intention as you, we just didn't know who was being held here," said Scar. Some people were silently laughing when she spoke, probably about her accent, but fortunately she didn't notice. That would've made for a bad reunion.

"Why don't we team up?" asked Mac. Most of the people there just rolled their eyes. Lynn smacked him in the back of the head. "What did I do?" he asked.

"We kind of already decided that," said Dame, smirking at his friend's stupidity.

"No one said anything," Mac tried to defend himself.

"It was a silent agreement," I said.

"Come on," Scar teased, "if Nico can realize it through his stupidity…"

"Hey!" I protested. Everyone else was cracking up at our little comedy that was completely improvised. It broke most of the tension.

"We have a plan," said Scar. Then she filled everyone from the other group in and we were ready to go.

Review review review review review review review review review review review please.

Can you list 2 or 3 gods/goddesses that you want to be rescued besides Hecate? The more votes they get (if they're not a very powerful god like the big 3, Ares, Athena... you get it), the quicker there will be an attempt to rescue them. Have a nice weekend!

-Ryan