The only thing I wanted in my hand besides a sword would be a bag of lemons. With that big speech of Logan's I felt I could bear the earth on my shoulders. I followed nine of the best men and women Camp Half Blood could provide. Logan handpicked these people. Most have already proven their worth. Though I'm sure the Demeter kids were here to make us look bigger. Like the red shirts on Star Trek.
I never watched that, I'm going of what I've heard. I have too much pride to watch that.
The Flag was in sight. The two guys were just talking and leaning on their spears. They just looked at each other just jabbering.
"You catch the game?" one asked.
"Nah man I was busy doing push-ups." The other replied.
I couldn't hear them, but I imagine that is what they'd say. They're nothing if not predictable. Even though we got caught in a sneak attack by them, so I'm not one to judge.
I sprinted ahead of the group charging the guy on the right of the flag. I raised my sword jumping to strike him over his head. I yelled a war cry. As my arm arched down he turned and Spartan kicked me sending be flying back.
The brute leveled his spear point between my eyes. My eyes strained to see the tip. Just as I thought I was going to get an eyebrow piercing Sonny, with her bow hanging by her shoulder, grabbed the shaft of the spear and whipped the butt end across his face. The other came at her from the left. She thrust the butt of the spear straight at the muscular giant. He parried it with his.
She dropped the spear, grabbing and arrow with her left hand and with her shoulder she pushed the bow into her hand. She let one of her blunt arrows fly into his forehead. Both fell unconscious.
The rest of the group stopped short of the flag with gapped jaws.
"What?" She asked.
Elizabeth walked forward grabbing Sonny by the waist with both arms. "That's my little sister!" She managed to barely pick her up.
Sonny just smiled.
Logan snatched up the flag. "Patrick get ready to run." He tossed me the flag.
I caught it unprepared. "Why me?" I asked.
"Chris is one of the fastest in Hermes Cabin. You out ran him. So…" He started to walk away, and then he spun around and pointed at me. "You're our runner."
Logan grabbed a stick and started to map out the plan for the others. "We wedge in and take out La Rue, sorry about this Chris,"
"Happens all the time." He replied evenly.
"Her prep team of four and her Chariot team of two." He represented the chariot with a triangle and the bad guys with X's. He wrote in the O's to mean us. "So it'll be twelve on six, better odds then before. Adding Clarisse it'll be twelve on eight and a half." I was represented by a square. "And Patrick you grab the A.T.C, that's some French for you."
"Not really." Sonny corrected.
"And we go in make a wedge and you charge in after two minutes." He stood up proudly. "Any questions?"
I raised my hand.
"Yes, we are going to invite Paige to the victory party."
Brock raised his hand.
"No, there won't be any dubstep playing. It's going off Teddy's laptop."
Brock raised his hand again.
"There is a password that is twenty frickin' numbers long. And why would you want to change it, it's a good playlist."
He raised his hands in defense. "I want to make sure it's a good playlist."
"I looked at it. It's pretty good. I put it on Patrick's IPod. Just check it after." He put one hand on his hip and one hand on pinching the bridge of his nose. "Any questions not about the party?"
Chris raised his hand. "Uh, yeah. I don't see any Artic Monkeys here." He said raising my IPod.
I checked my pocket. "How do you know the password?"
Logan just sighed. "No more questions." He was about to turn, and then looked back. "It's Paige, I mean really?"
My cheeks began to feel hot.
"No more stupid questions?" He looked around and no one had any objections. "Good. Now, what are we doing?"
"Something about frozen monkeys." Steve intervened.
We got in our positions to flank the A.T.C. or All Terrain Chariot. It had a camouflaged hull and big all-terrain tires. I was in the head on position with Sonny and Elizabeth. I would be the front man of the group. If I was lucky they would take down the chariot crew before I could touch them.
That left the other nine for the other sides. I saw the targets. There was a stout boy with a sword and tower shield, and a taller thinner boy with a bow. The only problem was I didn't see Clarisse. I don't know if she was practicing her spear throwing or just taking a coffee break.
I saw a flash from the bush out between two big oak trees. There was then a confirming double flash. That was the signal to engage. Sonny and I would advance as Elizabeth would watch and shoot only if we had a problem. I saw my target, the stout boy sitting on the end of the chariot shining the spear. Sonny would probably take out the one loading the arrows into the build in quiver the chariot had.
The Dionysus kids, Brock, and Chris came from the left while the Hephaestus kids, the Demeter kids, and Logan came from the right. Logan, Chris, and Brock lead their respective groups. Each side of the horses had two boys both with a spear without a shield and a sword and shield guy. Logan came in first attacking his spear guy. The boy jabbed but Logan parried with his sword with one hand. With the other he transformed his wristwatch in to his shield. The shield spouted spikes and spun. The chainsaw shield came down on the spear splitting it in two. He then smashed his shield into the kids head and he fell like rocks. The other put up his shield between him and Logan. That was a mistake because Steve came in and nailed him between the eyes with the butt of his sword.
On the other side Brock and Chris ran straight in. Brock sweeping the swordsman's feet and Chris cutting the spearman's spear at the tip. The both took down their enemies without much of a problem.
I was ready to charge in and take down someone. Before I was out of our cover I realized that they were both knocked out. I looked back to the two girls with bows. Sonny looked up at a tree pretending to be distracted. Lizzy just fiddled with her quiver.
"Stay by the chariot and wait." Logan instructed. "Two minutes." He reminded me.
I got to the reins ready to go. I turned my digital watch over to my palm side to keep time. The four horses had names on the back of the hook ups. The two closest to me had name tags that read War and Death. The others two's read Conquest and Famine.
Clearly it was a reference. The closest horse to my right snorted. As he did fire snorted out. He began to paw the ground with his foot. As he did I saw underneath the grass was completely dead. Magic horses, of course, their dad loves to see them win. It's like when your dad owns the sports store when you go out for football.
I checked my watch one minute left until I charge it.
The leaves rustled behind me. I saw an extremely tall, extremely beef girl in a bandana wander out of the foliage. She looked angry. But she was just being Clarisse.
"You're on my chariot." She addressed.
I sized her up. She was slower than me and didn't have her spear on her.
"You're unarmed." I said as I charged at her sword raised.
I jumped going for an over the head blow to the helmet. She didn't flinch. All she did was take a step back and bring her fist forward which caught me in the face with it. I went flying back swords the chariot.
"A girl leaves to take a leak and someone takes her chariot." She said a little aggravated.
An arrow caught her in the shoulder making her wince. We both looked in that direction. I saw Sonny standing with an arrow drawn.
"I heard a manly voice. So I knew it wasn't Patrick." She said.
"Hey," As I said that my voiced cracked adding insult to injury.
"Need any help?" She asked.
I wasn't going to let anyone show me up on this one. "I got this one."
I got up and charged Clarisse again going low. As I swung at her she grabbed my arm effortlessly and swung me by it sending me flying into a tree.
"Ok, you can help."
Sonny released another arrow but Clarisse was ready and rolled for the chariot to grab her spear. Clarisse charged in with her spear low. Sonny let and an arrow fly at her. She just deflected it with her spear.
Clarisse thrust her spear at Sonny's chest. Sonny had the spear loop in to her bow and forced the spear into the ground then span kicking her in the chest making her stagger back without her spear. She then pulled her bowstring around the spear and used it to land a blow across Clarisse's face with it. Clarisse attempted to punch Sonny. Sonny rolled passed her arm and hooked her bow over Clarisse's head hooking it around her neck. She hopped onto her back and began to choke her with her bow.
Clarisse struggled trying and failing to throw Sonny of her back. Her grip would slip. After so long Clarisse fell to her knees and passed out.
Sonny lifted Clarisse's head to unhook her bow. She was breathing heavily. She got up still panting. She tapped her wrist repetitively. I got the message. I got up slapped Death on his butt and got on the chariot that was just about to take off without me.
I shot down the woods in the chariot. There was a big opening in the line of fire that I ran through. Everyone looked at me. The enemy tried to get passed who they were fighting to try and stop me. The few that did couldn't catch up. I was a few hundred feet from the border.
Just I was sure I victory was assured I saw a pair of blurs jump passed the wheels. The Chariot stopped dead. I looked back to see Warren and Wayne holding back the chariot. "Not today Pipsqueak." He let out a big grunt. "Not even in your dreams."
Two hulking idiot were overpowering four magical war horses. Think what would Sonny do? Beat them to death. What would Logan do? Exploit a weakness. What am I going to do?
A little bit of both I guess.
They both needed to hold the chariot to stop it, and they have their arms occupied. I kicked Wayne in the head making him lose his grip. The chariot went surging forward with Warren holding on. We both rushed to the river. I grabbed the flag before we hit the bump that was the riverbed. When we hit the bump Warren smacked his head on the back of the chariot.
As I passed the river I heard cheers from one side and jeers from the other. All I cared about was the blonde girl running at me, sweeping me off my feet. It was emasculating but I loved the moment all the same.