Not sure why my chapters didn't upload properly over the last few days, but I think it's working now! I've updated this and A Method to the Madness, if you would be so kind to read (and review, I do love reviews ^_^ )
To WhaMrSlaMr- (Chapter 1, don't even know if you'll see this BUT) You take that back! Nico's awesome, can't believe you'd say something so BOLD on my stories! D: (But thank you for reading if you do get this far, I appreciate it! ^_^ )
Meg's wheels turned out to be bicycles. Apollo understood that cars were a dealbreaker, having crashed more than their fair share lately, but why did it have to be bicycles? Wasn't his zombie-infected, plant-smeared mortal body tortured enough? And to top it all off- the bicycles were a wonderful neon yellow. They had never looked so fearsome and awe-inspiring.
They took the side streets and pavements, using the columns of smoke on the hills to guide them. With Highway 24 closed, traffic snarled everywhere, streaming angry honks and yells and violent threats. As they passed the Rockridge BART station, they spotted the first enemy troops.
Pandai patrolled the elevated platform, with furry black ears folded around themselves like firefighter turnout coats. They held flat-head axes. Fire engines were parked along College Avenue, their lights strobing in the underpass. More pandai guarded the station doors, turning away mortals.
"This way!" Meg called, veering up the steepest hill she could find, just to annoy him, no doubt. He was forced to stand as he pedalled, the rain pushing against his face, making him blink to hold onto some semblance of vision. The ground had turned muddy under the sky's divulge, adding about ten times the amount of force needed just to cycle through the mud. Apollo pushed with all his weight, gradually making progress against the incline.
More bad news awaited them at the summit. Arrayed across the higher hills, troops marched doggedly towards Camp Jupiter. Squads of blemmyae, pandai and even six-armed Earthborn, all fighting their way through flaming trenches, staked barricades and Roman skirmishers, trying to put Apollo's archery lessons to good use.
In the early evening gloom, they could only see fragments of the battle, seeing it through the static of the rain. Judging from the mass of glittering armour and the forest of battle pennants, the main part of the emperors' army was concentrated on Highway 24, forcing its way towards the Caldecott Tunnel. Enemy catapults hurled projectiles towards the legion's positions, but most disappeared in bursts of purple light as soon as they got close- Terminus, doing his part to defend the borders.
At the base of the tunnel, lighting flashed from the legion's standard. Tendrils of electricity zig-zagged down the hillside, arcing through enemy lines and frying them to dust. The camp's ballistae launched giant flaming spears at the invaders, raking through their lines and starting more forest fires.
The enemy kept coming.
The ones making the best progress were huddled behind large armoured vehicles that crawled on six legs… no, not vehicles.
"Myrmekes." Apollo gasped, ice filtering into his blood. "Meg, those are-"
"I see them." She assured, not even slowing down. "Doesn't change anything. Come on." Apollo didn't comprehend that- they had faced a nest of those giant ants at Camp Half-Blood and barely survived. Meg had almost been pulped into larva food.
Now, they were confronting more of the overgrown insects, except these ones were trained for war. They snapped trees in half with their pincers and sprayed acid to melt the camp's defensive pickets.
"We'll never get through their lines!" Apollo protested.
"Lavinia's secret tunnel!"
"It collapsed!"
"A different one!"
"What? How many does she have?" Meg managed to shrug a shoulder, pedalling onward. Apollo following, having nothing better to do.
She led him up a dead-end street to a generator station at the base of an electrical tower. She pointed to the side of the generator, drawing his attention to metal doors set into the concrete like an entrance to a bomb shelter..
"Hold my bike!" She said, jumping off. Apollo just about caught it by the handle. She summoned a sword, slashing through the padlocked chain in a single strike. She opened the doors to reveal a dark shaft slanting downward at a precarious angle. "Perfect." She grinned. "It's big enough to ride through."
"Come again?" Apollo requested. Her response was to hop back on her bike and pedal into the tunnel, the click click click of her bike chain echoing off the concrete walls. Apollo grumbled about her definition of 'perfect' and coasted in after her.
Fun fact- they had glow-in-the-dark bikes! It did little to help navigate through the darkness, but would make them easy pickings for any lurking enemies.
Against all odds, Apollo did not wipe out and break his neck. The tunnel levelled out and then began to climb again. Somewhere overhead, an explosion shook the tunnel. Eventually, they could discern a dim square of light- an exit covered in branches.
Meg burst straight through it, Apollo wobbling after her, emerging in a landscape lit by fire and lightning and ringing with thunder and the sounds of chaos. He didn't see how it was possible, but the rain had become heavier.
Fun fact number two- they had popped out right smack dab in the middle of the battle! As soon as they appeared, they were spotted- he blamed the bikes- by a dozen large humanoids covered in shaggy blond hair. They pointed at them and began to scream. Khromandae. Apollo had to do a double take at the sight of them- he had not seen any of their kind since Dioynsus's drunken invasion of India back in the BEC. Their species had gorgeous green eyes, but that was the only flattering thing about them. Their dirty, shaggy blond pelts made them look like Muppets who had been used as dust rags. Their doglike teeth were filthy and partnered with astonishing halitosis. They were strong and aggressive and only communicated in ear-splitting shrieks.
Apollo was a little thankful for the rain- it may well be their first bath in decades.
Meg hopped off her bike, summoning her swords and charging the dozen hairy giants. Apollo yelped and drew his bow. He was low on arrows after the ravens, but he managed to shoot down six of the Khromandae before his dangerously reckless, idiotic little master reached them. Honestly, what was he going to do with her?
She dispatched the remaining six with a blur of her golden blades. Apollo found himself laughing- laughing- with satisfaction. It felt so good to be a decent archer again, and to watch Meg at her swordplay- what a team they made!
Being in a battle gave one tunnel vision- you'd zero in on your little area, forgetting the big picture. As Meg stabbed the last Khromanda through the chest, Apollo allowed himself to think they were winning.
With a scan of their surroundings, he realised they were encompassed by a whole lot of not winning. Gargantuan ants trampled their way closer, spewing acid to clear the hillside of skirmishers. Several steaming bodies in Roman armour sprawled into the undergrowth. Apollo did not want to think about who they might have been or how they had meet their end. He could not bring himself to.
Pandai in black Kevlar and helmets, almost invisible in the dusk, glided around on their huge ears, dropping onto unsuspecting demigods. Higher up, giant eagles fought with giant ravens. A hundred yards to Apollo's left, wolf-headed cynocephali howled as they bounded into battle, crashing into the shields of the nearest cohort (the Third?). It looked small and alone, critically undermanned in a sea of monsters.
All this was only on the hill they stood on. Fires burned across the whole western front, along the valley's borders- about half a mile of patchwork battles. Ballistae launched glowing spears from the summits. Catapults hurled boulders that shattered on impact, spraying shards of Imperial gold into enemy lines. Flaming logs rolled down the hillsides, smashing through packs of Earthborn.
For all the legion's efforts, the enemy kept advancing. On the empty eastbound lanes of Highway 24, the emperors' main columns marched towards the Caldecott Tunnel, their gold-and-purple banners raised high, batted about in the torrential rain and icy sea gusts of wind. Apollo angered at the sight of the barriers- Roman colours. Roman emperors bent on destroying the last true Roman legion.
"TESTUDO!" A centurion's shout brought his attention back to the Third Cohort. They were struggling to form a protective turtle formation as cynocephali swarmed over them in a snarling wave of fur and claws.
"Meg!" Apollo yelled, pointing to the imperilled cohort. She sprinted towards them, Apollo hot on her heels. His gaze fell on an abandoned quiver on the ground, scooping it up without losing speed. He sent a fresh volley of arrows into the pack, six, seven, eight dead. But there were still too many. Meg screamed in fury, launching herself at the nearest wolf-headed man. She was promptly surrounded but their intrusion provided the Third a few precious seconds to regroup.
"OFFENCE ROMULUS!" The centurion shouted. It was like watching a woodlouse uncurl, revealing hundreds of legs, but instead of legs, it was a bristling forest of spears, skewering the cynocephali. Apollo was so impressed, he almost got his face chewed off by a stray wolf-headed man. Centurion Larry saved him with a moment to spare, hurling his javelin. The monster fell at Apollo's feet, impaled in the middle of his back. "You made it!" Larry beamed. "Where's Reyna?"
"She's OK, she's alive." Apollo promised. "Broken leg."
"Frank wants to see you, ASAP!" Larry informed. Meg stumbled to Apollo's side, breathing hard, monster goo dripping from her swords. She managed a nod.
"Sup, Larry. How's it going?" Thunder cracked through the sky, momentarily drowning out all other noises.
"Terrible!" Larry swiped rainwater from his face. "And wet! Carl, Reza, escort these two to Praetor Zhang immediately!"
"Yessir!" Their escorts hustled them off towards the Caldecott Tunnel. Behind them, Larry called his troops back to action.
"Come on, legionnaires! We've drilled for this! We've got this!"
It took a few, wretched, storm-sodden minutes of dodging pandai, jumping fiery craters and skirting mobs of monsters, but Carl and Reza brought them safely to Frank's command post at the mouth of the Caldecott Tunnel. Above them, on the concrete terrace that stretched over the tunnel's mouth, Jacob the standard-bearer stood with the legion's standard and a couple of spotters, keeping watch on all approaches. Whenever an enemy got too close, Jacob would zap them into oblivion. Unfortunately, the eagle was being overused, its wings billowing with smoke.
When Frank saw them, a single gram of weight seemed to lift from his shoulders.
"Thank the gods! Apollo, your face looks terrible. Where's Reyna?"
"Long story." Apollo was readying a short version of events for him when Hazel materialised on a horse right next to him, giving his heart a completely unnecessary workout.
"What's going on?" She asked. "Apollo, your face-"
"I know, I know." Apollo sighed. Arion gave him the side-eye and nickered in disbelief- this fool ain't no Apollo. "Good to see you too, cuz." Apollo grumbled. He gave them all a brief telling of what had happened. Meg helpfully chipped in with 'He was stupid' and 'He was more stupid' and 'He did good, but then he got stupid again'. It didn't help that Arion seemed to agree with her.
When Hazel heard about their encounter in the Target parking lot, she gritted her teeth.
"Lavinia. That girl, I swear. If anything happens to Reyna-"
"Let's focus on what we can control." Frank said, though he looked shaken that Reyna wouldn't be coming back to help. "Apollo, we'll buy you as much time as possible for your summoning. Terminus is doing what he can to slow the emperors down. Right now, I've got ballistae and catapults targeting the myrmekes. If we can't bring them down, we'll never stop the advance."
"The First to Fourth Cohorts are spread pretty thin across these hills." Hazel grimaced. "Arion and I have been zipping back and forth between them as needed, but-" She stopped herself from stating the obvious. We're losing ground. "Frank, if you can spare me for a minute, I'll get Apollo and Meg to Temple Hill. Tyson and Ella are waiting."
"Go." Frank nodded.
"Wait." Apollo said. "If the First to Fourth Cohorts are here, where's the Fifth?"
"Guarding New Rome. Dakota's with them. At the moment, the city is secure."
POP.
"The city is not secure!" Terminus announced. "Tarquin is attacking!"
"What?" Hazel looked personally offended. "From where?"
"Underneath!"
"The sewers." Hazel cursed something Louisa would have been proud of. "But how-?"
"Tarquin built the original cloaca maxima of Rome." Apollo reminded her. "He knows sewers."
"I know that." She exasperated. "I sealed the exits myself!"
"Well, he unsealed them!" Terminus countered. "And the Fifth Cohort needs help! Immediately!"
"Go." Frank instructed. "I'll send the Fourth to reinforce you."
"And leave you here with only three?" Hazel shook her head. "No way." Before they could argue about who was more worried again, the loudest, most bone-rattling clap of thunder yet shook the tunnel around them. As it rolled away, they could hear legionnaires cheering and banging their shields.
A pegasus swooped through the sky, its glowing green rider deflecting missiles and monsters with blasts of water and green light. The pegasus did not land, her rider leaping from her back. She fell twenty, thirty feet, straight down. Right into the thickest gathering of myrmekes. Green light rocketed through the earth, cascading through the hill like a stone falling into a lake. Ants were vaporised on the spot, their accompanying foot soldiers disappearing with them.
Screams of outrage came from other ants of the colony. They turned away from their handlers and rampaged towards this new threat.
Louisa raised her hands, snapping them down in a motion much like flourishing a bedsheet. The effect passed through the hillside, tossing ants and enemies into the air. A pegasus, the sadistic Storm, swooped in, kicking as many as she could in the head with delighted, challenging whinnies.
Hazel blinked. "Huh." She said, staring at her glowing cousin. "Maybe I will take the Fourth."
"Cool." Frank nodded, grinning as Louisa stirred up hurricanes and sent them roaring through opposing forces. The praetor turned to Terminus. "Can you open our defensive barriers here at the main gate?"
"Why would I do that?"
"We'll try the Wakanda thing."
"The what?" An explosion of green light temporarily rinsed their eyesight of all other colours. Legionnaires cheered and rallied forward.
"We'll funnel the enemy into once location." Frank explained, rubbing at his eyes. Terminus glowered.
"I do not recall any 'Wakanda thing' in the Roman military manuals. But very well."
"Frank," Hazel frowned, "you're not going to do anything stupid-"
"We'll concentrate our people here and hold the tunnel. And now Lou's here-"
"Be careful." Hazel ordered. Frank mustered yet another confident smile. This time it did not seem so false. Maybe glowing friends were something to invest in- Apollo made a mental note of it.
"Good luck, guys!" Frank smiled. "See you on the other side!" He did not wait for more protests. He marched off, shouting orders to form up the troops and send the Fourth Cohort into New Rome. Apollo recalled the hazy images he had seen from the holographic scroll- Frank ordering his workers around in the Tunnel, digging and toting urns. Ella's cryptic words about bridges and fires swam up into his head… he didn't like the thoughts they brought.
"Saddle up." Hazel said, offering him a hand. Arion whinnied delightedly as thunder burst. Rain blustered into the mouth of the tunnel, streaming down in a spiralling, vengeful whirlpool. Apollo gripped Hazel's hand and she pulled him up. Then Meg. Arion tottered disdainfully, shaking his mane. "I know." Hazel patted his neck. "You don't like carrying three. We'll just drop these two off at Temple Hill and then head straight to the city. There'll be plenty of undead for you to trample." That seemed to mollify the horse. He stared down the storm outside, raring to go.
Hazel looked back, Frank's orders echoing faintly in the Tunnel. Arion snorted, pawing the ground. "Hold on." Hazel advised. Apollo barely had time to hug her waist before her steed zoomed off, leaving his stomach on the Oakland side of the hills.
