A/N: Welcome back to another chapter. We're in for a doozy now, our star studded cast of heroes are going to have fun with aliens. Not really. Sorry to lie. Anyways they've got some real fun times ahead of them; a cyclops with a giant bow, a dragon, Lou Ellen being a fan girl, and military shenanigans with dude bros involved. Enjoy.
Spring 2011
The helicopter touched down at a makeshift landing zone only a few hours after it left the demigod haven. Dust is whipped up from the fast rotary blades, blinding the few men guiding the aircraft into a landing.
The desert heat is scorching, clouds are absent and the radiant ball of heat blasts the sand to the point it almost feels like glass. Despite the uncomfortable conditions, life flourishes in the form of a large and active camp clearly military in nature.
Light vehicles roam around makeshifts streets, ferrying supplies and troop while officers bark out orders to their subordinates. Despite originating from an organization that deals with advanced military weaponry, the troops within the camp use much more traditional arms.
Swords, spears, maces, axes, even a few light assault vehicles.
Okay, so one of those is not like the other. Anyways, you get the idea. These men operate within the demigod world.
A young man in a tank top and almost scandalously short shorts struts up to the foreign helicopter as the engine slowly dies down. His stance and attitude leave little doubt to the man's importance, after all, every boot camp needs a proper general.
The door slides open and a small gathering of volunteer godlings exit out. The general with his glorious shorts takes note of the visitors Amos informed him about. Three girls and three boys; two children of Athena, a rumored daughter of Hades, a very obvious son of Apollo, what he guesses to be a daughter of Hecate, and a young son of Ares most definitely.
Athena siblings step forward as a duo, both offering greetings to the leader of the resistance. The other guests look around nervously, except for the Ares boy, he's very excited and craving his share of blood and gore.
"Greetings, you must me the general," The boy owlface goes first, his sister continuing after, "Amos told you about us, right?"
"Correct. Welcome to The Camp, the resistances' home base during this war. Amos phoned ahead not long ago, and I'm more then thankful to get some help. Don't let the boys hear that, pride runs deep in our blood."
"Trust me, I've met with the old king," the girl states blandly, "What's the situation here? Amos gave the impression of things getting dire; a successful coup and a dead veteran General."
The new general winces at the memory. He was there when his peer was shot down; assassins dropping from the ceiling and cutting him down with shining swords. There was a lot of blood and a lot of fighting following the death, those loyal had to fight their way out while turned traitors lusted for blood.
It was one of the single most disturbing moments of his life, witnessing people he called brothers trying to slit his throat open for a corrupted revolution.
"…Yeah, something like that."
The guests shift uncomfortably, Annabeth moves the conversation along so as to avoid any more unpleasant feelings.
"My name's Annabeth, and this is my brother Samson. You might know his as The Mystic, if that helps with anything. Here's the crew we've brought along; Will Solace, best healer in Camp Half Blood. Lou Ellen, powerful witch and daughter of Hecate. Bianca Di Angelo, powerful necromancer and our source of extra troops. And here's our little… brawler, I guess. Sherman Yang, son of Ares and expert fighter."
"Wonderful to meet you all. Name's Mill, but here you'll refer to me as General Mills."
Half of the demigod entourage starts snickering, even Annabeth almost lets a snort out.
"Good to meet you… General Mills. Is there a tent or something we can go to? It's kind of hot out here!"
General Mills nods and takes his guests to the command tent. While at first he was apprehensive about the 'help' King Amos was sending to him, his nerves have been somewhat settled by the fact that at least two renown demigods are here to help.
First is one of the legendary seven, that alone would've been enough. But she also introduced The Mystic as another member of their squad. General Mills can't claim he knows much about the figurehead, but he is aware that they beat Champion Lanius and used very impressive magic during the Colosseum tournament.
With firepower and tactical planning like that, Mills is more than confident the true Gargareans will win at the end of this!
After the meet and greet outside, General Mills took the group into a tent and laid out a map with markings and other notes scribbled all over it. Battle plans, warnings and thumb tacks mark important locations, it's clear to Annabeth much time has been spent pooling over this map.
"What are we going up against here? This map is pointing out some pretty disturbing things just at a glance."
General Mills winces at Annabeth's statement. Gods, she has no idea.
"It's not pretty, and things are only getting worse by the day. At first, after the coup there was around two hundred troops left to garrison the base. However, scouts of mine have reported that an additional five hundred monsters of varying types have been spotted entering the base and cooperating with the traitors inside."
The collective breaths of all visiting demigods hitch simultaneously. Five hundred monsters is not an insignificant number, that's the size of a small army practically! A few beads of sweat drip down the side of Will's face, the healer knows his work will be cut out for him in the following days once the fighting begins.
"That's… disturbing. Do you have any idea where they're coming from? Another location? Maybe from those stupid Donut shops?"
Mills shakes his head, "Negative. My scouts followed the path they took, way up north to the Canadian border. Wherever they're coming from, it's somewhere outside of the Greek and Roman territories."
Samson's eyes narrow. He knows for sure now who's sending the reinforcements.
"It's the Witch in the North, she's the only one with the resources out of country to muster an army like this. How many troops are we working with in your camp?"
"I command one hundred and eighty troops. Mostly veterans from the Gaea war, but I have a significant portion of new recruits, conscripts practically. We've all got arms in some fashion, but our enemies are operating proper heavy weaponry. Guns, bombs, tanks, things we don't have."
"What about that wheel tank outside," Sherman butts in, pushing Lou away and looking at General Mills with stars in his eyes. Mills shivers just slightly, he's very creeped out by the kid.
"Isn't that thing a tank?" He points at an odd looking vehicle through an opening in the tent.
"That thing? It's a Stryker, an armored assault vehicle. Hardly a tank, but as it stands it's the heaviest thing with armor we've got. Well… old Charlie is pretty heavy too!"
Mills lets out a hearty chortle. His guests don't. They have no clue what the hell he's laughing about.
"It's because he's fat. Anyways, The Witch in the North? Fuck, that's a problem. There's been a steady stream of enemy monsters trickling down through the valleys. I lack the man power to hold them off up there and attack the base at the same time. As it stands, all I can manage is hit and run tactics every so often as they pass through, try and kill most of them so the bases garrison doesn't rise too much."
Annabeth hums and looks over the map. After a minute she points at a small note written on the map.
"This note right here. It says that overlooking the valley is a neutral cyclops. If he's neutral, is there some way we can convince him to join our side? We might be able to enlist him to block the valley or help out a small regiment fend off any arriving monsters."
"If you think you can convince him go right ahead. Old Hawkeye cut ties with us ever since the coup. Back before the coup he was our ally. He guarded the northern valley with his greatbow, and in exchange we provided him provisions. I hardly have enough to feed my own men let alone a beast like that. So he won't lift a finger until someone promises him some food, food that I can't afford."
Lou Ellen blinks a few times. She's never heard of a cyclops using a bow before. Mills seems to read her mind before she can voice her question.
"He's an old guy. Far as I know he's old enough to remember when the gods ruled Greece openly. I think he might me among the first generation of Cyclops's Poseidon fathered. He's amazingly polite and articulate, even his old age hasn't affected his skill with that bow. Saw him nail a drakon in the eye from over a mile away one time."
Bianca whistles in appreciation.
"He would be a powerful ally then. Samson, think you could go out and see if you can get him on our side?" Annabeth asks, "See if you can convince him somehow. Try showing him some magic items or something, cyclops's generally like treasures."
She turns to Bianca and Lou, "What about you guys? How many undead do you think you can summon?"
"The most I can do right now is about thirty," Bianca starts, Lou goes after her, "Twenty is my limit if I still want to use a decent amount of magic power."
Annabeth nods and continues her plan of action, "Good, you two will go with Samson and help him shore up a defensive camp out by the valley. We need to hold enemy reinforcements off until we take the base. General Mills, how many men do you think you could reasonably spare?"
"I'll give a squad but that's it. Anymore and we're screwed, but how in the world are we going to take the base with barely a hundred soldiers?"
"If we want to win, then we need to draw the enemy from the base and kill the commander while he's on the field. Samson will handle that, so all we need to do is keep the enemy at bay until the leader is dead. After that the enemy will be without a commander and should fall apart much easier. We'll shore up our numbers with some undead, however. Bianca, Lou! Between the two of you only fifty undead can be summoned. Double it, and no complaining! Nico could summon his own army and he's just one boy, the two of you are more than capable!"
The two necromancers grumble in annoyance but don't argue. It's Annabeth chase after all, arguing with her is like arguing with Athena. You'll always lose.
"I can see if maybe Ares will send some help too," Sherman starts, "I'm not good at summoning much but maybe dad will help? I could ask it as a birthday present or something?"
"If you think you can then go ahead. Will, healing duties are on your shoulders. You're the best healer I've met bar none, we need healthy troops if we're going to win!"
Will nods and does a salute, "Yes ma'am!"
"Everyone has their orders, so get to it! I hate deserts and I want to be in a nice air-conditioned cabin by the end of the week!"
The demigods immediately get started on their duties. General Mills stands by Samson and raises a slightly fearful eyebrow at Annabeth as she studies the war map.
"Holy shit… she's terrifying!"
Samson only nods and pats the starstruck general on the shoulder, "That she is, that she is. Got a jeep or something I can take? I don't want to walk to the cyclops."
Following Annabeth's call to action, Samson alongside Lou, Bianca and Will borrow a Humvee from the rebel camp and make their way towards the cliffs and valleys that border the northern part of the area around the base.
The trip has them swinging almost fifty miles up north, the wide berth they take around the base is a safety precaution in case the enemy launches mortars or other things at them.
About an hour into the drive Samson points out the cliffs ahead, telling his fellow passengers that to reach the cyclops they'll have to scale the rocks on foot as the pathway is too narrow for a truck.
Being the curious little bug that she is, Bianca voices a question she's had for a while to the green-eyed witch she's sitting next to.
"Hey… Lou, right? I had a quick question, why is it that you came along? Will said that every group needs a medic, and Sherman wants to punch an alien, so why are you here?"
Lou's emerald eyes look side to side suspiciously for a second, before she leans down and whispers to a confused Bianca.
"Honestly, it's because I want to see him," She points discretely at Samson, "I've heard he's a powerful wizard and I want to see if I can learn his secrets!"
"Okay… so why not ask him? Sam's really nice!"
"I can't just ask him! Witches and wizards always guard their secrets, if I want to learn from him I need to prove I'm worthy as an apprentice, and that means I need to steal knowledge from him first!"
Samson's eyebrows shoot up. She wants to steal from him to become his apprentice? What kind of sense does that make?!
Bianca shares the same feelings.
"So… to become an apprentice… you have to steal from him first?"
"Of course!"
"…Okay, doesn't make much sense but I guess I can help."
Samson coughs and gets their attention. He's had enough, no one is stealing his shit any time soon!"
"Look, I can teach you stuff if you want. I probably won't have much time but you don't have to rob me to get my attention, asking is just fine."
Lou blushes in embarrassment but secretly cheers. Now's her chance to really improve as a witch and prove to her mother she's powerful!
"Quick question though, but why learn from me? Doesn't the Hecate cabin have a library full of magic books and stuff."
"It does, but you can only learn so much from a book. No one in camp besides the Hecate campers know anything about magic, so we have to learn more by ourselves or from a teacher outside of the camp. Believe it or not you're reasonably famous to Hecate campers."
Oh? That gets Samson's attention. "Am I? Why in the world is that?"
The witch goes slack jawed in disbelief, "Do you really not know?! Samson, you're a legend! Only a few demigods can use eighth tier magic like you can, any Hecate camper would kill to get the chance to learn from you! I'm a counselor and the highest spell I can use is a sixth tier one only a few times!"
Samson is quiet for a moment as he soaks in what Lou just told him. Is he really that good as a sorcerer? Mori was his teacher after all, so that makes him more impressed that she got as strong as she did without being tutored by another being.
"Well, I did learn from your half sister actually. She's the most impressive witch I've ever met, but I'll do my best to honor her legacy I suppose. I'll teach you some tricks after we handle the cyclops."
Lou smiles and relaxes in her seat, a smile of self-gratitude plastered to her face. Will rolls his eyes and goes back to counting cacti as they pass.
A few minutes longer in the drive and Samson pulls the Humvee to a stop by a trail that leads to the top of the valley. The quadruplet exits the van and beings hiking up the sandy path.
The path wasn't to arduous, but Samson stressed safety as a single misplaced step could cause one to fall over two hundred feet to their deaths. No monsters or surprise attacks by enemy Gargareans took place during the climb, but Lou did have a scare with a rather upset rattlesnake.
She wasn't bit, thankfully, but the group kept their guards on even higher alert for the rest of the hike.
About halfway up the path a loud twang echoed out from the top of the valley. A fierce roar sounded out once, and then all was silent again.
"What-what in the world was that?" Will looks around nervously, keeping a vigilant watch for an ambush.
"I think… that was the cyclops. Mills said he uses a greatbow, so that must've been him firing it at something."
"Geez, it sounded like a cannon!"
"Well, I guess it's called a 'greatbow' for a reason! Any weapon a cyclops uses must be super-sized, they're like twice the size of people after all."
Everyone shivers at Lou's statement. A cyclops is no simple foe, and one clever and crafty enough to use a weapon is legendary just by himself.
The group continues their journey and arrives at the top of the valley that the cyclops's lookout oversees. To the group's surprise, there is an astounding amount of vegetation waiting for them as the reach the top.
Small trees and even grass grows up there, a larger hut made of hundreds of small mudbricks and thatch rests nicely in the center of the small garden. The building is built for one, but the size of it could comfortably fit over a dozen inhabitants with room to spare.
Somethings groans from inside the hut, followed by the shuffling of a very large thing with heavy footsteps. The demigods tense, ready for a battle, but don't draw their weapons. They need to win the monster over to their side, pointing weapons at him won't help that at all.
The nearly twenty foot door opens up and reveals a massive one-eyed beast wearing homemade fur clothes and a really awesome Stetson cowboy hat.
Samson is surprised to see a cyclops this tall, most only get to be around ten feet or so! Will feels disappointed as his first thought was that the monster looks surprisingly cool despite the outdated style.
Bianca is scared slightly, but the revolver she uses has helped immensely with her confidence in self defense ever since Samson said she could have it. Lou Ellen, however, is just scared. She remembers seeing demigods devoured by cyclops's before, and those monsters were half the height of this one!
Collectively the warning senses of all demigods alarm at once, but the twenty foot monster does nothing but stare at the frozen demigods lazily.
He yawns once and scratches his bottom. He grunts at the intruders and grabs his massive bow, a weapon that's over half his height, and marches towards the edge of his property that overlooks the entire sandy valley.
The monsters grabs a tree-sized arrow and loads it into his bow. He pulls back and releases, launching the huge projectile so far and fast that even Will has trouble tracking its movement.
A previously unseen harpy flying in between the hills of the valley squawks once and puffs instantly into feathers and dust as the cyclops's arrow smashes into it. The giants grunts and sits down on the crash with a heavy thud.
After a second of looking over the valley the monster sighs and faces the demigods, a look of annoyance on his face.
"New bloods, huh? No, don't look like the soldiers down at the base. Camp Half Blood, then. Well, you'll find no quest to be had here. I don't fight godlings or eat them anymore, them days are behind me. This land is peaceful and it's inhabitants are kind, hurry home and leave me be."
The monster talks with an amazing amount of articulation that Samson thought it was a Titan in disguise for a second. The single eye of course crushes that theory as quickly as it was formed.
"S-sorry to bother you…"
"Borges."
"-Borges, sorry to bother you like this, but we need your help. A powerful and evil witch controls the Gargarean base and she's been sending dozens of monsters through this valley. If left out of control the whole region could fall under enemy control! You're an amazing archer and your help could repel the invaders until the base comes under our control again!"
Borges grunts and grabs a felled tree and starts tearing the branches off, "I see. Afraid I'll have to decline. I don't fight wars no more, them days are in the past. I only hunt them harpies because they don't shut up and keep bothering me. Find someone else to fight your battles, now head on home. A large group of monsters is coming and you might be able to escape before they catch you."
Wills eyes widen and he races to the edge and looks out into the valley. Sure enough a large dust cloud is kicked up as what must be over fifty monsters of various horrifying types stampedes through the valley.
"Samson, there's a whole regiment down there! Giants, Hydra's, Harpies, even a Drakon! They're barely a mile away and closing in fast, we have minutes at most!"
Samson runs up to the cyclops and starts pleading with him, begging for the assistance that would save their lives.
"Borges, you have to help! We don't have enough time to reach our car before they get us!"
The monster grunts and looks away, pretending to be busy with making more arrows, "…It's no use. I'm not good for fighting anymore, never was and never will be. Just do your best, godlings always make it through in the end. You're heroes after all, ain't that what you're supposed to be?"
Samson curses and extends his spear into its' full-length form. Borges looks at the spear in shock, causing Samson to flinch from the odd look the monster is giving his newest weapon.
"That spear… I know that spear…"
"You do? I recovered it from a Drakon not too long ago, as far as I know it's called the Dragonslayer spear."
"Aye, I know that much! I made it after all, what kind of dragon slayer doesn't recognize his own work?!"
"Y-you made this?! That… makes sense, actually. Cyclops's are related to storms, at least in ancient times they were."
"Hmm, I made that spear for a Son of Zeus way back in the dark ages, back when dragons were everywhere. You got this from a Drakon, you said? What did the beast look like?"
"Super huge, long as a football field and had hundreds of weapons lodged into his back."
Borges closes his eye and inhales deeply, "…I see… so that's what did him in."
The cyclops is silent for a moment. Will uses his bow and starts raining arrows down on the impending herd of monsters, scoring good kills but not fast enough to kill them all before they can overrun the demigod's position.
"…Borges… I'm sorry your friend died, but he got his vengeance in the end. I killed the Drakon with this very spear, I avenged him. If it'll make you help… then I'll gladly return your friend's weapon to you."
The cyclops is still silent, thoughts and emotions racing through his ancient head. After a few tense moments he opens his eye and meets the gaze of the Son of Athena.
"Demigod, I have made my decision."
