Hey guys!
Chapter six of Phoenix is here, and I must admit that it's ever so slightly longer than chapter 5, coming in at around 3.7K words, as opposed to 5's 3.2K words.
In this chapter:
-Clues for the far future (including ship plans, though it's not going to be implemented until around Dark World, which is a while to go yet)
-Power. Lots of power.
-Capture The Flag (everybody's favourite)
And others!
So, without further ado, into the chapter!
That night Sol couldn't sleep.
Now, to the general mind, that would usually be a product of comprehending all the weird shit that had happened that day.
Sol didn't have a 'general mind' – this was the product of compiling all the information Jasmine, the Stolls, and the other residents of Cabin 11 had told her about the strengths and weaknesses of various campers and cabins.
The children of Aphrodite usually don't fight, she thought, but they were somewhat fired up about winning against the Hunters – maybe they'd do well as distractions?
The children of Ares, on the other hand, are brilliant at fighting – could also be distractions and attack head-on, distracting the Hunters from those who were getting the flag.
The Apollo kids can hit basically anything with a ranged weapon – sentries and guards for our flag, perhaps? They'd also work well as guards at the border. The problem of 'but arrows are really sharp and usually hurt a lot' can be negated through using blunt arrows with heavy arrowheads that could knock opponents out.
The kids of Hephaestus aren't many in number, but are pretty strong from working in the forge all day – they could be spread throughout the groups as backup or guards or something.
The Hermes cabin, though, is huge in number, and usually pretty fleet of foot as well – they could make up most of the people who were getting the flag, and be spread out similarly to the Hephaestus kids.
Thalia can summon lightning bolts, and is a pretty good fighter with her shield and spear – the former of which can and would send most people packing, and if it didn't, the spear would do the job just fine. Pair that with Thalia's 'game face', and she's basically the equivalent of Pennywise in black and white instead of white and red.
Putting her with the Hermes patrol that would steal the flag would probably be a good idea.
Percy can control water, which heals him in turn. In his first game he'd been assigned border patrol by Annabeth, before he was claimed, and had beaten the shit outta a daughter of Ares called Clarisse and two of her siblings – perhaps putting him near-ish the creek could be good?
Just in the Hunters' territory with a patrol, perhaps, so he could fall back to the creek if they got overwhelmed?
The nature spirits aren't allowed to play, and Chiron's the field medic, on-call if anyone gets severely injured.
Dionysus – or Mr. D, as the campers call him – would probably be sleeping, as he evidently doesn't give a flying fuck about whatever's going on.
Sol smiled, satisfied with her plan, and looked out the window at the full moon high in the sky – according to the Greek myths that was Selene's chariot, but by the fact that Apollo had the sun, probably meant that it was Artemis' now.
It was rather warm in Cabin 11 – Sol suspected her wings' presence had something to do with that – and everyone else was snoring.
Nico slept on Sol's right, as they had gotten spots near the boys/girls division of the cabin, while Jasmine was on her left. Both were peacefully sleeping.
Sol envied them, reflecting back on the day: the shit-show at Westover Hall, very nearly dying because of Apollo's poor decisions, very nearly drowning because of her own decision to help stop the sun god's rip-off of The Magic School Bus, the orientation film which she'd cut short and the quick impromptu tour she'd been given while Percy and Thalia argued over a simple Capture-The-Flag game (which Sol had worked out a strategy for in just under half-an-hour).
With a jolt, she realised that it had been four whole years since her dad had become Iron Man, four years since the newspapers had started on the question of Who is the Phoenix?
It had all started when she had been ten.
Gods, her life was pretty fucked up already.
As she lay there, considering what terrible life choices had been made to get her into that position, an unsupervised part of her mind wondered about someone she'd last seen about a month ago, in a way that she probably shouldn't be.
Haven't got it yet?
Don't worry; Sol hasn't either.
The next day, the most interesting thing that happened was that Sol learnt how to use a spear.
Why is that interesting?
She was pretty good with it, if she said so herself.
Sure, she usually preferred to fight with her fireballs and Glocks, but this was a special case, as her guns were currently at the bottom of the canoe lake after the kid teaching them had confiscated them one too many times for their liking, and apparently her bullets couldn't harm the types of monsters that usually went after demigods anyway.
They got to the point where Sol had beaten everyone at least once with it before the end of the lesson.
The second most interesting thing that happened was in Ancient Greek, of all classes.
Unlike her skill with the spear, she was no prodigy at reading the ancient script – instead, she'd read something that wasn't in Ancient Greek.
The Hermes Cabin were all crammed into the classroom used for it, and one of the children of Athena was going over everyone's handwriting.
Sol, as per usual, wasn't paying attention, and her eyes were straying from where Athena's kids had written the Ancient Greek alphabet as well as her own page.
Her eyes moved to one of the engraved stones that hung on the wall.
It was bland – an old, crumbling, grey rock like every other old, crumbling, grey rock Sol had ever seen – or would be, if not for the runes inscribed upon it.
Yet these runes shifted and convulsed, switching between the old runic script they had been written in, and the Latin script used in English.
Someone said something to her left, posed as a question.
As it garnered no response, they repeated it.
Twice.
The third time, Sol caught the words being said, but they were of no relevance to this particular spot in the story, as our beloved protagonist just straight-up blurted the first word that came to mind.
The first word she saw.
"Ragnarök!" she blurted.
"Sorry, what?" the kid who was talking to her asked. "All I asked was if you needed any help."
The heads of practically every kid in the room turned to look at her.
Solana Stark, the Phoenix, daughter of the famous Tony Stark – Iron Man – had just blurted out the name of the Norse apocalypse in a class that was meant to be going over an ancient dialect for a completely different civilisation.
"Sorry," Sol said sheepishly, "I wasn't paying attention."
Thankfully, they didn't get mad, simply smiling in sympathy.
"Yeah, that happens a lot here," they said, before turning their mind back to the work. "Anyway, do you need help?"
"Probably," the Stark heiress admitted.
"Okay, so you form your etas like this…"
Later, after the minor hiccup that occurred in Ancient Greek, it was time for Capture the Flag.
It was a 'small' game – the campers' outnumbered the Hunters', but apparently they'd won this way over forty times before, so Sol wasn't so confident in their odds of winning.
Everyone was strapping on their armour, as the campers hadn't taken any chances with their team.
Sol had attempted to give Percy and Thalia her plan, but they were hearing none of it, as they wanted to 'prove that they could work together.'
(Personally, Sol believed that the whole game was going to go to shit because of that.)
Thalia and Percy were arguing over who'd be better at offense and defence.
They seemed to come to an agreement, and Nico ran up to Percy, yelling about how awesome this was.
Jasmine walked up beside me.
"Hey, Sol," she said. Her jet-black hair was tied in a bun underneath her helmet, which Sol would admit made her look pretty awesome. Her blue-grey eyes glinted in the firelight, and her freckles looked like flecks of paint because of that same light.
"Hey, Jazz," Sol replied.
"I thought you might like something," the daughter of Hecate said, slipping one of five charm bracelets off of her left wrist.
Sol took it.
"What does it do?"
"Well, each charm enhances a different ability," she said, and pointed to a charm of a pair of converse, "this one increases your speed –" she pointed to a charm of a can of energy drink – "stamina –" a pair of glasses – "sight, which I discovered in testing also gives you better night vision –" and an arm flexing its bicep – "and this one increases your strength. Each one only lasts for around an half an hour to an hour, depending on which variant of it you twist – this bracelet is full of the hour-long variants," Jasmine added quickly after Sol gave her a questioning look.
"Okay – well, thankyou," Sol enveloped her new friend in a hug, which was somewhat hindered by the armour they both wore. "Can I keep this?"
"Of course! I can make more as well, but I've got a shitload of them hidden in a super-secret hidey-hole."
Chiron stomped his hoof on the floor of the pavilion and everyone went quiet.
"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules! The river is the boundary line. Blue team, Camp Half-Blood, shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis, red team, shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"
Jasmine slipped me another charm bracelet. "This one is full of weapons. I think you can work out which ones are which," she whispered.
Sol was about to respond when Thalia called for the blue team to follow her.
Everyone cheered and followed.
The blue team set their flag atop a rock formation that Sol had initially labelled 'Huge Pile of Shit', but Jasmine quickly corrected her with 'Zeus' Fist', as, according to her explanation, if you looked at it from the right angle it looked like a huge fist, but Chiron wouldn't let them call it anything else.
Either way, it was a good place for the flag (unless someone on the opposing team could fly), as the top boulder, where the flag was, was six metres tall and pretty hard to climb, so the flag was clearly visible, as the rules stated, and it didn't matter that the guards weren't allowed to be within ten metres of it, as the whole formation was about fifteen metres in diameter, which meant it was around forty-seven metres in circumference.
Percy put Nico, the Stolls and a son of Hephaestus called Beckendorf (Sol suspected that was really his last name) on guard duty of the flag.
"We'll send a decoy to the left," Thalia told everyone. "Silena, you lead that."
"Got it!"
"Take Laurel and Jason," Who names their kid 'Laurel'? Sol thought. "They're good runners. Make a wide arc 'round the Hunters, attract as many as you can. I'll take the main raiding party 'round to the right and catch them by surprise."
Everyone nodded, though Sol was unsure.
She raised her hand.
"Yes, Sol?" Thalia asked.
"If everyone is going to their end of the forest, who will be here in our end to stop them before they get to the flag?" Sol said. "Separate groups clustered in different areas would do well, as the Hunters would have to either split up or pay each group a separate visit to get to them all, as they wouldn't know which group actually has the flag – concentrated defence in areas where the flag isn't could confuse the Hunters and split them up."
Everyone stopped and stared.
"I know, I'm amazing," Sol said, and flicked her hair, which garnered some laughter.
"Now isn't the time for jokes," Percy said.
"You're right," Sol replied. "Now's the time for comedy – but I'm right on the plan, Aquaman. No offence Shazam, but your plan is flawed. You have no plan for defence, which could cause the flag to be stolen from us – did either of you consult the other before creating this plan?" she asked.
Both half-bloods averted their gazes, and stubbornly refused to look at either each other or Sol.
"I'm guessing no. So, new plan; Silena, was it?"
"Yes?"
"Your decoy party will still go ahead, but take a few of your siblings instead. Grumpy," she pointed to one of the Ares campers, "You take your siblings and attack the Hunters head-on."
The newly named 'Grumpy' nodded.
"Laurel and Jason, you circle the camp, stay as hidden as you can, and take the flag when the opportunity arises."
The two nodded, agreeing.
"Shazam, you're with them. Aquaman, however, pick one other who hasn't been assigned a job yet and go by the creek – the water's there, which is your element, correct?"
"Yeah…"
"Good. Use it to your advantage. The rest of us will get into groups and spread out throughout the forest. When the Hunters arrive – and they will – try to keep them there for as long as you can. Beckendorf, right? Yell if they're at the flag, and the other groups will converge on the Pile of Shit –"
"Zeus' Fist," Jasmine corrected.
"Pile of Shit," Sol repeated, "and we'll be ready to give you guys backup. If they get the flag, don't stop attacking them 'till the game is up."
There was a cheer of agreement.
"Team on three – one, two, three –"
"Team!" the campers yelled (thankfully doing so somewhat quietly) and split up to do their respective jobs.
Five minutes passed, and everyone was organised – Sol and Jasmine had gone with a couple of Apollo kids to the north of the Pile of Shit.
She grabbed the spear charm on the bracelet Jasmine had given her.
Now, how do I activate this…
The spear depicted by the charm jumped to life in her hands.
"Jaz you son of a gun," Sol muttered, causing Jasmine (who was on the other side of the clearing) to reply;
"I know, I'm amazing."
They all laughed.
Sol activated the glasses, energy drink and converse charms.
Sure, the enhanced sight wasn't exactly necessary, but Sol didn't actually have heightened night-vision, only the ability to see and zoom in on anything within a five-hundred-metre radius.
The extra stamina she was thankful for, as she couldn't survive forever on just adrenaline, and the speed was nice, as, while she wasn't the fittest person in the world (that title would go to Captain Icicle), her powers gave her amazing speed.
Her wings were hidden, as she was planning to get them to pop out at the worst possible moment for the attackers.
Then they came.
It was four Hunters against four campers, which meant one camper to one Hunter.
Since they were actively trying not to kill the Hunters, the Hunters were lucky.
The first one that came at Sol was wielding a pair of hunting knives, both blades being about as long as Sol's forearms, wielding them like Ahsoka wielded her lightsabres in Star Wars, one in a backhand grip, the other in a forward grip.
Sol gladly met her with the spear, bringing the shaft of it up to block the blades (Jasmine had assured her that the handles of each weapon were reinforced with mortal steel) before bringing the handle of it down upon her head.
The Hunter nimbly dodged it, and attempted to deliver a roundhouse kick to Sol's ribs, which she dodged, which was followed up by the Hunter pouncing on her, which caused the Hunter's fist to connect with Sol's jaw.
Sol could taste blood in her mouth, but didn't show any sign of it, instead heating up the blade of her spear and bringing it around towards the Hunter, who not-so-wisely tried to grab the spear's shaft, and failed to do so miserably, instead catching the blade on her hand, which both drew blood and instantly cauterized the wound, creating a third degree burn on the girl's left hand.
Her eyes widened in pain as she moved her hand away from the spear and began to back away.
Sol let her, picking up the single hunting knife she'd left behind.
Can I add this to the bracelet? She wondered, touching the hilt of it to the weapons bracelet.
It disappeared from her hand.
I guess that worked…
She turned and noticed that the two Apollo campers had been bending light to temporarily blind their opponents, and Jasmine had just teleported behind the Hunter she was fighting and knocked her out.
There was a yell from the south.
They were attacking the flag.
Sol dove from the air on the Hunters' side of the forest, and down through the tree cover, folding her wings as she went.
The Hunters' leader was nearly at the border creek.
Percy… was nowhere to be seen.
The camper he'd picked to join him raised their sword, but the Hunter bolted straight through the river.
Or, she would've, had Sol not been in the way.
They barrelled into each other, sending them both back down on the blue team's side of the river: Sol had saved the game.
Unfortunately, the girl was good with improvising. She grabbed the flag and slammed the end of it into Sol's stomach, winding her.
Sol recoiled, but she spread her wings out, forming a sort of feathery and fleshy wall between the Hunter and the other side of the river.
The scent of woodsmoke edged up the nostrils of most of everyone in the immediate area.
"What art thou doing?!" the Hunter yelled furiously.
Sol raised an eyebrow.
"Shakespeare in the park?" she asked, quoting her father. "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"
That just infuriated the already-furious Hunter more, and she raised the flag like a weapon.
Sol activated the spear charm in response.
They stood there for a few seconds before the Hunter ran out of patience.
"Out of thy path!" she yelled, and ran towards Sol, who flapped her wings and dashed towards her in response.
The Hunter used Sol's head as a step.
Sol grabbed the Hunter's foot and turned mid-air.
There was a call of "No!" from the Hunters' side, the voice of which sounded suspiciously like Percy.
Sol and the Hunter ended up in a heap, but unfortunately, that heap was on the other side of the river.
Cheering came from the Hunters as both sides converged on the creek. Chiron trotted out of the woods, looking grim, with the Stoll brothers on his back, who seemed like they'd taken quite a beating.
"The Hunters win!" Chiron announced with the lack of enthusiasm expected from someone like Mr D or General 'Asshat' Ross. "For the fifty-sixth time in a row," he muttered.
"PERSEUS JACKSON!" Thalia yelled, storming towards Percy. She smelt of rotten eggs and blue sparks flicked around on her armour, a testament of how angry she was.
Everyone cringed and backed away, creating a path for the daughter of Zeus.
Well, everyone except Sol, who wasn't in Thalia's path anyway as she had retreated to the back of the crowd.
"What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?!" she bellowed.
Percy balled his fists. "I got the flag, Thalia!" He shook it in her face. "I saw a chance and took it!"
"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone! If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."
"You had too many on you!" Percy yelled back.
"Stop," Sol murmured.
"Oh, so it's my fault?" Thalia said mockingly.
"Stop," Sol said. Her hair was going from black to brown, and her eyes from green to grey.
"I didn't say that!"
Thalia yelled in rage and pushed Percy into the water.
"Stop," Sol repeated, a little louder. Her hair was turning red now, and her eyes from grey to orange. No-one noticed though.
You're all on your own. Nobody cares. Leave. Fly. Go.
Thalia turned pale, and a few campers gasped while a couple of Hunters stifled laughter.
"Sorry!" Thalia said hurriedly. "I didn't mean to –"
A wave erupted from the river, blasting into Thalia and dousing her from head to toe.
Percy stood. "Yeah," he growled. "I didn't mean to either."
Thalia was breathing heavily.
Fire coursed through Sol's veins, threatening to break free and loose itself on all those here.
Control it. Don't let it out. Don't hurt anyone else.
"Enough!" Chiron ordered.
Thalia held out her spear. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?"
"Bring it on, Pinecone Face!" Percy retorted, raising Riptide.
A bolt of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like it was a lightning rod and was redirected at Percy's chest, sending him further offshore and onto his arse.
A burning smell filled the clearing, much too strong to be Percy's clothes.
"Thalia!" Chiron yelled. "That is enough!"
Don't let it out, don't let it out-
Percy stood, and the river rose with him.
Let it out.
"STOP!" Sol roared.
Everyone turned to look at her.
Her eyes were edging on gold, as her hair was a violently bright shade of orange. Fire danced under her skin, bursting out of her finger tips.
The water in the creek instantly turned to steam, and everyone, campers and Hunters alike, backed away, forming a path for her.
"That is enough," she growled in a voice that was barely recognisable as her own.
Thalia didn't back down, instead raising her spear again to call down another bolt.
Electricity and fire are both plasmas, Sol reminded herself. They both contain massive amounts of heat…
Heat. I can work with that.
The lightning crashed into her. Electricity wasn't pleasant, but she focused on the heat it was creating, squashing that. In theory, it would disperse the electricity.
In theory, it would work.
In practise, it didn't.
So, Sol retaliated, firing back a few fireballs. Granted, they weren't nearly as powerful as the fireball she'd fired at the wormhole Loki had opened above New York, but they were still pretty powerful.
Thalia was about to fire back when she spotted something behind Sol, and instantly (well, nearly instantly) dropped her spear.
The power encircling Sol flared as she turned, but it instantly dissipated as soon as she noticed what they'd seen.
Someone (or something – you never knew in these situations) was approaching, shrouded in murky green mist.
oOoOooOoOoOOo
I said there'd be clues for a ship. I didn't say I'd tell you who it was, though.
I was analyzing Thalia's plan as I wrote this, and noticed that there were many flaws in it, hence Sol pointing them out and creating a new plan that actually got them closer to winning, no matter that Percy disobeyed it.
The quest and the prophecy will be delivered in the next chappie, and I might even get the quest-goers to the Air-and-Space Museum in it if I'm feeling nice.
But, yes, there was four years between Iron Man 1 and Avengers (I looked it up), which is a testament to how kinda-screwed-up Sol's life is, both currently and previously (and it's gonna get even more screwed up later).
So, there it is.
So, review please?
What you liked, what you didn't like, how I could improve, mechanics that you might like to 'borrow' for your own stories, etc., it's all going to be appreciated!
-Wolf