Energy Unbound

Chapter 04

Inside Out

They had stepped into a giant circular room, entirely made of the same silver metal that the cabin's exterior was constructed of. A caduceus was set in the floor with a slightly darker metal, giving the impression that it was engraved. In the center of each snake that twirled around the staff was a glowing line, green for the left snake and red for the right snake. On the edge of the chamber where the walls met the floor, a ring of blue light slowly faded in and out. The chamber had three hallways leading out in compass positions, with symbols above each entryway set in the metal similar to the caduceus in the floor. The one to the left of the cabin doors had a plus, directly across displayed a smaller caduceus and the one on the right flaunted a pair of winged shoes.

The main chamber had a domed roof, but starting above the hallways a half-transparent field of lights hovered. Every so often, a burst of light would leave one of the points of light and travel to another. Given the several thousand points of light, this was happening constantly.

Once the Stoll brothers were through the double doors of the new Hermes cabin, their mouths hit the floor. Chiron merely grunted in approval.

"Woah," Travis said, looking in awe at his brother. "Connor, you designed this?"

Connor nodded, not quite believing it himself. Ari chuckled, knowing perfectly well he hadn't designed it alone. She had a complete connection to all her technology, able to command it from afar. She had nudged Connor along, insisting on this aspect or that structure. He didn't know that though.

Ari then looked at the centaur in exasperation, remembering his lack of awe. "There's no truly impressing you, is there?"

The centaur looked around the giant chamber. "Olympus is much grander than this, but nevertheless both you and Connor must be congratulated on your work," he said, and Connor beamed. "However, since you and the Stolls caused the necessity of a new cabin, no points go to Gryffindor."

"Chiron, I didn't know you kept up with modern literature!" Connor exclaimed.

He looked offended. "I am not that old."

"Yes you are," Ari and the Stolls chorused.

Chiron gained a pained look on his face. "Please, Lord Zeus, not another one."

Ari grinned at her cabin mates, who grinned right back.

Suddenly a scream came from the right hallway. Ari leapt into action, leaving her companions behind and summoning another one of her guns. Flicking the setting to something a little higher than stun, she dashed down the very long hallway until it terminated in what amounted to a large gym. A huge room lay before her, filled with nearly every kind of workout machine that existed. Two more hallways extended from either end of the gym, symbols etched above them as well. The right one had a sword, the left simply two letters; VR.

Ari had no idea where the scream had come from, until it rang out again. The VR room. Great, looks like someone doesn't understand virtual reality, she groaned, dashing across the gym at inhuman speeds. When she reached the entryway, she hesitated. Who knew what kind of program the demigods had accidentally triggered? Given their luck, it was probably 'Destroy all Demigods' set to the highest difficulty. Growling at their ineptitude, she concentrated on summoning her battle gear.

'Battle gear' for her consisted of literally every piece of clothing she wore being replaced by a skin-tight jumpsuit completely composed of Forcium. It fed off a miniature fusion reactor set in the middle of her back in order to keep moving, since it was basically a liquid metal suit. The reactor was also responsible for powering various functions of the suit. Her long crimson hair was drawn up into a ponytail, a Forcium ring materializing to hold it in place. Once she was sure it had all materialized, Ari ran into the hallway. Abruptly her vision shifted and changed, and she was standing at the top of the Coliseum, demigods in the stands rooting loudly for whoever was inside the actual arena. How she had heard only the screams of that one person was beyond her. Maybe the person was in actual danger and given that the cabin was attuned to her primarily, it would notify her if anyone was in danger within it's walls. Great, random alarms are going to be a thing now, she complained.

She needed to get down to the ground floor. Given her combat suit was linked to her thoughts, what amounted to the boots of the ensemble immediately morphed thrusters on the bottom and she shot into the air with a loud boom, scaring the crap out of the demigods in front of her that had no idea she'd arrived. It only took a couple seconds at the speeds she was going to reach the arena floor, where she was met with a gruesome sight. Two demigods lay on the ground, giant gashes across their stomachs and blood pooling around their bodies, whilst a third demigod, that wrestler girl from earlier, was engaged in combat with what looked like five hydras, each with over a hundred heads each spitting poison at her.

Ari promptly brought her palm to her face. Not hard difficulty, impossible difficulty, she internally groaned. The camp already knew about her weaponry abilities, so it's not like she was revealing anything truly new, per say, if she was going to rescue Wrestler Girl. The "slain" demigods would just have to watch from their invisible positions for a while longer. They were probably panicking, but oh well.

She fired the thrusters on her feet and flew toward the hydra. En route two sword handles had formed around her hands, and as soon as she was within striking range they activated. Glowing orange swords erupted outwards, formed completely of the same energy her gun emitted. Wrestler Girl nearly dropped her own weapon, a simple Celestial Bronze broadsword. Ari smirked at her as she flew by, then promptly cut into one of the hydra's many necks. Instead of growing two more heads, glowing orange energy rapidly spread out from the wound, cracking the skin of the hydra as it went. When the hydra was covered in these cracks, it imploded, sucking into itself with green blood spraying everywhere. When it was the size of a basketball, it exploded into golden dust. This time Wrestler Girl did drop her sword.

"You want one?" Ari asked her, not even looking at the next hydra as she sliced it, causing another implosion.

"Hell yes!" she cried, watching in awe as a third hydra exploded.

"Toss me your sword!" Ari yelled, flying out of the way of a huge glob of hydra acid that hit where she'd been not a second before.

Wrestler Girl picked up her broadsword like it was a stick and tossed it, not expecting the twig of a girl to catch it at all. What a surprised look her face gained when Ari's suit seemed to shoot out like liquid and catch it, bringing it to rest on her back. Without a falter, she dispatched the remaining two hydra when she flew between them, hands outstretched. Her energy swords sliced through them at the same time, causing two perfectly timed implosions and explosions of golden dust. Turning around to look at Wrestler Girl, she plainly had a giant smirk on her face. The orange sword blades retracted, and her hands seemed to turn back to normal, despite still being encased in that strange metal.

Ari grabbed wrestler girl's broadsword from her back and had a good long look at it. The sword was rather elegant as giant monster killing devices went, patterns engraved along the blade and a boar's head at the hilt. She looked up to Wrestler Girl, nodded her approval, then closed her eyes and concentrated. She held the sword out in front of her, pouring her power into it. The metal began to heat up and liquefy, turning into a glowing hot ball of Forcium. Once the entire thing had been converted, she directed it to take it's previous shape. The ball reformed into the same sword, but the patterns and the boar's eyes glowed orange. Instead of a nose, the boar now had a button that could be pressed.

Once she was finished, she opened her eyes and looked at Wrestler Girl. The girl was crying. What. She had a huge smile on her face, so they must have been tears of joy. It was just a sword though. Not something to cry about.

"Hey, are you ok?" Ari asked, walking over to the girl to hand her new sword to her.

"I'm fine. It's just so beautiful," Wrestler Girl said, tentatively accepting the sword into her hands.

"What's your name, by the way? I didn't catch it outside the cabin," Ari asked her.

"Clarisse," she sniffed.

"Daughter of Ares?" Ari guessed.

"How'd you know?" Clarisse looked at her suspiciously.

Ari looked between Clarisse and the sword she was holding, a sarcastic look on her face. "You're crying for a sword," she pointed out.

"Oh, yeah. That obvious, huh?"

"Do you know any other demigods who'd cry over a sword?" Ari scoffed.

"No," Clarisse glared at her.

"Exactly," Ari said, grinning.

Clarisse just scowled at her before returning her attention to the sword. "What metal is this?"

"Forcium," Ari replied, "It's what all my stuff is made out of."

"Never heard of it."

"Not surprised."

Clarisse glared at her again. Ari merely stuck out her tongue. She could tell they were going to be the best of friends, especially since Clarisse chuckled shortly afterward.

"So, this thing got any tricks on it?"

"Well, the blade is now sharp enough to cut through anything living."

"What, really?" Clarisse asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, but that's not the coolest bit," Ari continued, putting her hand on the button on the boar's head. "This is," she said, pressing the button down hard.

Instantly, the blade began collapsing into the handle, ridges appearing upon the blade so that it could retract. Once it was done, a larger, longer version of Ari's energy blades grew into existence out of the hilt.

"Woah," Clarisse said.

"That," Ari explained, "is for anything that isn't living."

Clarisse looked dumbfounded. "Like what?"

"Oh, automatons, possessed furniture, possessed houses, possessed vehicles, monsters and the like."

Clarisse whistled. "Impressive." A look of bewilderment took over shortly after. "Three different kinds of possessed things?" she asked in disbelief.

"You'd be surprised what I had to kill to get to Camp," Ari chuckled.

"I'll take your word for it," Clarisse conceded.

"Oh! And immortals," Ari remembered, snapping her fingers.

Clarisse's eyes bugged. "What."

"This orange energy causes a feedback loop in anything it injures, causing their own essence to make them implode. In the case of monsters, you get basketballs that explode into golden dust. In the case of immortals, it will cause them to have a REALLY bad day."

"This is an extremely powerful weapon," Clarisse gasped in realization.

"No kidding. Think of a contortionist that recently had an enema."

"I didn't need that mental image."

Ari smirked. "Yes you did. Be mindful of what you hit with that weapon."

Clarisse nodded, her face a little pale. "I will."

"Oh, and that's not the best thing," Ari said, grabbing the sword and tossing it across the arena.

"Hey!" Clarisse said, getting ready to punch the girl.

"Look at your belt," Ari said, interrupting her.

Clarisse did so, and to her astonishment the sword handle was hanging off her belt, neither blade extended and the hilt handles retracted in, causing the sword to look like a black cylinder with a boar's head on top.

"Just like Prissy's!" Clarisse cried, overjoyed. She grabbed the cylinder and pressed the button on the boar's head. The hilt popped out of the sides of the boar's head, and the normal sword blade extended out.

"Prissy? Do you mean Percy, the son of Poseidon?" Ari clarified.

"Yeah, he has this sword that's normally a pen and can-" Clarisse began.

"Return to him when he loses it, I know," Ari interrupted, "It's called Riptide."

"How do you know about Prissy's weapon?" Clarisse asked, glaring at her suspiciously again, her body language screaming 'I will fight you'.

"The Seven are a legend among mortals and immortals alike, including Percy," Ari scoffed, eyeing the stance Wrestler Girl took.

"Oh," Clarisse said, looking a little disappointed.

Ari crossed her arms and raised her brow at this. "Did you want to fight me?"

Clarisse just glared at her.

"You DID!" Ari exclaimed with a laugh. Her face suddenly took on a dangerous look. "That would have been a very bad idea, Daughter of Ares," she said in a tone that did not sound quite human.

Despite being a little unnerved, Clarisse took the challenge. "Oh yeah? You and me, right now," she declared.

Ari eyed her with mirth in her eyes as if she were looking at a child. The daughter of Ares was beginning to get ticked off. Who did this girl think she was? Growling, Clarisse clicked the button on her sword, changing it to energy blade mode, and assumed a battle stance. The girl simply smirked and held out her hand. Clarisse jumped in shock as her sword ripped out of her hands into the waiting hand of her would-be opponent, then promptly deactivated. Grinning, she threw the blade back, only for it to disappear in midair. Clarisse felt a weight on her belt once again, and found her sword had returned to its location.

"We done?" Ari asked, tired of fooling around with the far too proud Wrestler Girl.

Clarisse just looked back and forth between her belt and Ari, fear evident on her face and mouth agape. She nodded defeat.

Ari approached her, realizing she'd not yet introduced herself. "My name is Ari. Unclaimed, before you ask," she said with a friendly smile, offering her hand for a shake.

Clarisse hesitated, but took the offered shake. "Clarisse, Daughter of Ares. But you already figured that out."

Ari nodded, then turned to look at the two demigods laying 'dead' on the ground. "Who are they?" she asked.

Clarisse turned to them, having forgotten about her slain companions whilst she conversed with Ari. Sorrow immediately washed over her face, and she ran over to them. Ari sighed, muttering "drama queen," before calmly walking to join her.

The daughter of Ares fell to her knees, fresh tears escaping her eyes. She cradled one of the demigod's heads in her arms, sobbing out something like "failure" and "not strong enough". Frankly, Ari had enough of this blubbering side of one of the strongest demigods she'd met, so once she reached Clarisse, she grabbed her arm and roughly hauled her up to a standing position.

"What are you doing?" Ari asked, an amused look on her face.

Clarisse glared at her with spite in her eyes. "They died and I couldn't save them," she said, choking on her words.

"Listen, listen!" Ari ordered, grabbing both of the sobbing demigod's shoulders and shaking her. "You did NOT fail them. This difficulty is supposed to be impossible."

"Difficulty?" Clarisse asked, "You speak as if this is a game."

Ari just smiled, prompting a confused look from her. "Where do you think we are right now, Clarisse?"

Sighing, she looked around the Coliseum, taking in her surroundings. "I don't know. One second we were in the new Hermes cabin, then we entered a room that had the letters V and R above the hallway. The next second, Jason, Piper and I were down here in the arena, fighting off hydra, with the rest of the campers arrayed on benches," she recalled. "And… then they were killed right in front of me… Couldn't do anything…" Clarisse continued to whimper.

Slap!

Clarisse stood in shock with her mouth open, tentatively touching the now red cheek where Ari had slapped her.

"Stop it. You're a daughter of Ares for crying out loud. You don't cry except for pretty swords, do you hear me?" Ari yelled.

"Doesn't change the fact that they're dead, and I failed them," she muttered.

Ari huffed. Obviously Clarisse couldn't be talked out of this slump. "Command override Ari," she said to the air. Clarisse looked at her dumbfounded until a disembodied female voice answered her, further screwing up her facial expression. Ari knew it was because the command systems were relayed through telepathy, so she snickered.

COMMAND OVERRIDE AUTHORIZED, the voice said.

Ari grinned at Clarisse's perplexed expression, then simply said "Terminate."

TERMINATING PROGRAM, it responded.

Suddenly reality seemed to waver, fading in and out of existence. A grid of glowing lines appeared, and the entirety of the Coliseum, the arena and even the sky itself seemed to dissolve into the lines. The images of her dead friends on the ground followed suit, and then with a flash reality itself disappeared. When Clarisse could open her eyes again, she saw that everyone was standing in a giant circular room, easily five times the size of the entry chamber to the cabin. And she was promptly overcome by yelling in her ears.