Percy
Usually I would be excited to be here in Rome, especially with Annabeth, but considering the circumstances we were in, things weren't so great. It was likely in a couple of days that this place would be demolished as if it hadn't ever been here.
Me and Annabeth held hands as we navigated through the city, with the place looking entirely different than I had imagined in my head, and Annabeth commenting on the architecture. At one point, I saw a Lar glaring us from the window of an apartment. A different time, there had been a white-robed woman, who might've been a nymph or a goddess, holding a dangerous knife.
We stopped occasionally to ask for directions, but I quickly found out that people in Italy speak Italian, something I didn't do. Also, they use euros, another thing I had nothing of. I was seriously regretting not having done some research on this place like Annabeth had done, especially when we walked past a tourist shop that sold sodas. Blue ones too.
However, Annabeth had found a solution by bringing out Daedalus's laptop and typing in some kind of command which made a plastic card eject from a slot on the side.
"It's an international credit card. Only for emergencies" She explained
Needless to say, the sodas helped with the hot weather and the exhaustion. Finally, we arrived at the Tiber River, where the shore was edged with a stone embankment. The river was wide and caramel-colored, with a few tall tress hanging over the banks.
"This is definitely it. I recognize it from the map. But, what do we do now?" Annabeth asked
I wasn't sure either. All I knew was that I didn't want to leave her yet. When the time did come though, I would be stuck without anything to do.
"You will fall alone" Xander said in my head
I scowled and quietly said, "Shut up"
Annabeth turned, looking somewhat offended. "Excuse me?"
"Not you" I apologized quickly before I faced the wrath of my girlfriend. "Voices in my head..."
"Xander? I hear him too. But to be honest, he's all bark and no bite" Annabeth shrugged
On cue, the ground shook and a crevice opened up a few feet in front of us. Two pairs of hands gripped the edges and pulled skeleton warriors up. They wore red togas and a helmet that looked similar to Hades's.
"All bark no bite" Xander recited. "I'm simply giving you the chance to impress me, and prove you even have the slightest ability to defeat me"
I quickly uncapped Riptide and Annabeth pulled out her dagger as the skeleton warriors began to slowly approach. I examined the posture of the warriors, but I saw no weakness, as if they had been sword training for thousands of years - which was likely the case.
Knowing Annabeth was more important, to me and in general, I lunged forward towards the center of the two skeletons and swung my sword in a warning position. The skeleton on the right dodged while the one on the left hit me with the hilt of their blade, causing me to stumble back.
"How about I take one and you take the other" Annabeth suggested like it was the most obvious thing in the world
"Right," I grunted, "good idea"
The skeletons charged forward and so did we, our blades clashing against each others. Though dead, the skeleton was extremely strong, and I was unable to push against their blade.
"You will feel the might of a Vibranium blade today, son of Poseidon" Xander said
I backed up but the skeleton quickly reacted and stretched out their foot, causing me to trip and fall backwards. It pounced on me like a wild jaguar that hadn't eaten in weeks, and quickly tried to behead me.
Before I was left headless, something wrapped around the skeleton's waist - a golden chain that burnt with a light fire - and tugged it back, sending it flying through the air until it landed on its back about ten feet away from me.
Standing up, I took in the figure that stood an equidistant-distance away from me and the skeleton - a tall boy wearing red armor that completely covered their body. The cape on their back was long and nearly touched the ground, but clearly looked like it didn't get in the way during combat. Their helmet had a golden lion design on the face, and was slightly cut off by the dark visor that acted like sunglasses, leaving the eyes and the face inside the mask hidden. Attached to their wrist was the golden chain that they had used to pull the skeleton off of me - burnt with a bright red flame.
By the time I came out of my trance looking at the figure, I noticed that the skeleton had melted in a white puddle, except for their sword that looked unaffected by the fire.
Over on my left, Annabeth was catching her breath and in front of her was the exact same thing, a silver blade on top of a white puddle, except there was a glowing silver arrow piercing the ground - similar to the ones the hunters of Artemis used.
In the distance, a silhouette approached until the figure was made clear by the bright sunlight - a girl with nearly identical armor to that of the guy, except it was blue and featured a golden falcon design on the helmet.
"Are you two alright?" asked the man as he approached
"Thanks to you, I guess" I answered
Annabeth jogged over to my side just as the girl made it to the two of us. Up close, I could tell just how intricate and complex their armor was.
"It's not unlike Xander's warriors to attack innocent civilians" The girl said
I waved Riptide. "I don't think we're exactly innocent civ-"
"Demigods, I know" The girl shrugged and removed her mask, revealing short blonde hair that reached her shoulders and light blue eyes. "You must be the famed Percy Jackson"
Annabeth narrowed her eyes, almost defensively, but then proudly confirmed, "Yeah, he is"
The girl chuckled at her countenance. "And don't let me forget, Olympus's architect. Quite the duo to run into"
"Right. And who are you two?" Annabeth inquired
"How about we discuss this elsewhere. Xander will be listening" She suggested
We sat around a table in a nearby cafe, where the waiter had given us a strange look when we asked for the usual tourist food, but I think it was because of the armor our new "friends" were wearing.
Ryan, the guy, continued to wear his helmet as if he was accustomed to having it on all the time, while Chloe, the girl, looked absolutely relived to have taken it off. They were both two years older then we were, at eighteen.
"So are you guys also demigods?" I asked
Chloe nodded her head. "I'm a daughter of Selene"
"The moon goddess" Annabeth said. "That's not common"
"And Ryan's a son of Ares" Chloe answered for him. "He doesn't like to talk if you can't tell"
"I talk when I need to" Ryan retorted
Annabeth raised her eyebrow. "You didn't think it was a good time to when you were asked a question?"
"Don't mind him, he's just grumpy all the time" Chloe said. "But we do have some things to talk about..."
"You mentioned Xander. You know about him?" I replied
"More than know him" Ryan said and finally removed his helmet - his hair dark black and his eyes the same color. But his most distinctive feature was the scar that went across his right eye
"You see, usually we're tasked with hunting down monsters," Chloe added, "and we recently found out about Xander. Yesterday, we found him and challenged him, but his army of skeletons overpowered us and we were forced to retreat"
I figured that by the look on Ryan's face and the freshness of the scar, that the wound must've been caused by that very fight.
"Xander's a coward" Ryan stated. "He hides behind his army and spells, but when it comes down to it, he's nothing in a real fight"
"You said you saw him yesterday. Did you guys see the lamp?" Annabeth questioned
Chloe frowned. "Lamp... Hera never said anything about a lamp"
"Hera?" I said. "You guys work for her too?"
"Yeah, we didn't exactly have anywhere else to go" Chloe pushed her index fingers against each other. "But what do you mean too?"
"Well, we do know someone else who works for her" Annabeth said
"Does he wear green armor?" Ryan asked
I shook my head. "It's white, but now that I think about it, you guys do have similar armor, except he wears a mask and a hood instead of a helmet"
Chloe's eyes widened a bit. "Sounds like you're talking about The Fist of Selene, but Hera never said that he worked for her..."
Narrator / Elsewhere / Meanwhile
Fate has just played their most recent card, and the meeting between two groups of heroes is unfolding. However, smoothness isn't something someone should expect when it comes to these kinds of interactions.
Some might be friendly, but others get off to a more rocky start. Sometimes literally.
"It's taken us some time, but we finally found you"
"Hera send you after me?" Layton asked
"No, but we figured we would eventually get tasked with that, all things considered"
Before Layton stood a boy wearing green armor that completely hid the body beneath, and a helmet with the depiction of a golden bear's face. Their green cape nearly touched the ground, but could swiftly and gracefully move around in combat. On the other hand, Layton's armor was more agile and weighed less, but wasn't nearly as protective.
"Stand down Victor" Layton warned
"You know me?" The boy asked
The helmet on their face hid the identity of the stranger, but Layton using his detective skills figured out who it was almost instantly.
"I know of you. But you're without your two friends, meaning you can't beat me" Layton said
"You're just a lowly assassin" Victor replied. "And I know just how to deal with those"
Rocks levitated off the ground around Layton and cracked into sharp teardrop-shaped bullets that rapidly shot at the enemy, however they casually walked through the attack. Next, a column of fire shot from Layton's palm, but that too was quickly proven ineffective against the seemingly invisible green armor of the enemy.
Overcome with a sense of cockiness, Victor lunged and swung his fist forward, but his wrist was caught, and Layton used that momentum to spin and throw him against the wall of the cave they were in.
"I can't harm you, but good luck touching me" Layton taunted
Victor growled. "We'll see about that"
The cave shook and rocks from the ground and ceiling jumped up/down at the collision of their fists - both their gloves being made of the same incredibly strong material. Victor swung his other fist forward but Layton dodged nonchalantly, the wind breezing intensely at the sudden moment. The very technique that caused his hair and eyes to appear silver was the same that allowed one to move without too much thought.
Victor caught Layton off guard and swiped his left fist with enough force to cause him to hit the ground and roll out of the cave they were in. The bright sunlight caused Layton to wince a bit as he got up.
Four vines erupted from Layton's side and held him in place by gripping his wrists and legs.
"You must be a son of Demeter" Layton figured as Victor entered the sunlight
"What's your point?" Victor asked
"Nothing... just don't have good experiences with children of Demeter" Layton chuckled. "Which also means I've learn how to deal with them"
The ground shook as lightning circulated the white-armored combatant. The vines were ripped from the ground and a jolt of electricity hit Victor, causing him to have a one second seizure. However, one second in this fight was way too much...