The two demigods met at a quiet cafe in New York. It was a cold morning, wind gusting through the streets like a storm spirit. A good day for coffee.
"You're sure?" Nico asked.
Alabaster nodded grimly. "I've been around that thing for almost a year. Its aura is like a wall of ice. No mistaking it."
"You'd best recover it then." Nico scowled into the distance. "We don't need another loony swinging an immortal weapon around. Especially not that one."
"Unless its in our hands." Alabaster grinned. "Hasn't your Dad asked you to return his weapons yet?"
Nico touched the hilt of the Sword of Hades hanging at his side, a long, straight blade etched with silver designs. "He's so restricted by the ancient laws, it's nothing more than a fancy decoration in his hands. I'll return it when I'm done with it. Besides, he trusts me."
"I totally believe you." Alabaster scoffed.
"This thing might be big," Nico said. "Do you think we should ask Jordan to help?"
"Jordan won't set a foot outside his garage until his precious aircraft is fixed." Alabaster rolled his eyes. "That thing's like his vintage car."
"Technically its more than a car, if you look at it that way." Nico shrugged. "I'm going to follow the trail from my end. That sword was supposed to be under lock and guard on Olympus. Whoever took it won't have left quietly."
(Line break)
Lightning slashed across the sky, a blinding jagged streak that split the wall of storm clouds briefly before fading. Percy's eyes darkened as the light reflected in his eyes.
"A storm?" Jean asked nervously.
"Blaa-ha-ha!" Alex shook his head. "That's no ordinary storm."
"Storm spirits," Percy held up his hand, signalling their four pegasi to slow to a stop. "Monsters."
"Again?" Jean had to shout over the growing wind.
"Three half-bloods out in the open," Annabeth nudged her pegasus closer to the others so they could hear her. "Honestly I'm surprised it's been this good so far."
Percy had escorted Jean and Alex up to Ohio before the attacks became too much to bear, whereupon he'd called Annabeth, who'd been on her way back to Camp Half-Blood, to join him, and together the four of them had made it to Indiana, where they now faced their latest obstacle in the form of storm spirits.
"We're sitting ducks in the air," Annabeth swept her gaze over the ground below them, a flat, seemingly endless field of cotton plants that would provide little cover and pose an even bigger fire hazard, but it was better than letting the storm spirits knock them out of the sky. "Get to the ground," she yelled. "We'll face them there."
The four pegasi tucked their wings in and dived like swallows, landing in the middle of the cotton field. Above them, the sky darkened to ink-black. Thunder boomed as the storm spirits closed in.
"I'm calling Camp Half-Blood for an evac," Annabeth pulled out her cell phone.
"Call Camp Jupiter too," Percy told her. "Who knows, they might have a team in the area."
"Roger." Annabeth tapped the green call button, fighting the urge to swear as the line started to ring and ring.
"I thought demigods shouldn't use phones," Jean stared nervously up at the storm.
"We're already surrounded by monsters," Percy shrugged. "It can't get much worse."
The cotton plants rustled. Percy drew Riptide out, circling Blackjack around to put his sword arm outwards facing the attack.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
Karpoi emerged from the rows of plants, chubby babies with glowing green eyes, fluffy white hair and white cotton diapers. There were about a dozen of them, waddling through the crops to form a circle around them.
"Shit!" Jean backed away, drawing out her knife.
"Nasty farming humans!" one snarled. "Forced us to grow in stupid rows. We shall destroy you!"
"I'm not a farmer," Percy told them.
"I'm not even human," Alex pointed out weakly, but the Karpoi ignored him.
"Chiron, we need an extraction team," Annabeth yelled into her phone. "Right now!"
The karpoi attacked, waddling towards them on their chubby baby legs. Percy spurred Blackjack into a trot and raised his sword, letting them come to him.
The size difference was ridiculous enough to give the demigods a slight advantage, despite being outnumbered. Percy slashed one in half as it jumped at him. Blackjack kicked another away, sending it flying across the field, then brought his hooves down on a third, turning it to cotton fluff. Guido flapped a massive wing, batting three of them away as they tried to jump onto the pegasus.
More karpoi kept coming, dozens of them, an entire horizon's worth of cotton represented in the snarling, snapping creatures. It was hopeless. For every one they cut down, another took its place.
"Back off!" Annabeth brandished a pack of matches. "I'll burn this entire field to ash."
The karpoi froze.
Annabeth lit a match. "I'll do it." she threatened.
The karpoi backed away, shaking their heads slowly.
"Fire will not help you here," one said.
"We'll see about that." Annabeth dropped the match into the nearest plant.
The karpoi howled in fury.
"Fly!" Annabeth knew that healthy plants would never burn well. Their only hope was to escape while the karpoi were distracted.
The four of them scrambled onto their mounts. The pegasi flapped their wings and took off, scattering karpoi in their wake.
"Come back!" one karpos shook his tiny fist at them. "We haven't finished killing you yet."
The wind picked up, hammering against them in waves. Storm spirits came flying in, lightning crackling within their bodies. Jean risked a glance back and almost lost balance.
"They're gaining on us!" she yelled.
Blackjack extended his wings, angling them to catch the wind in his massive wingspan. The sudden resistance caused them to slow down suddenly, a classic fighter jet manoeuvre, one that caught the pursuing storm spirits off guard. Three of them shot past the black pegasus in a blur of lightning and miniature tornadoes. Percy stuck out his sword as they went past, vaporising one of them with a wailing shriek, then Blackjack accelerated with a flap of his wings, catching up to the other two as they slowed to turn back towards the lone half-blood. Percy slashed one into vapour and Blackjack kicked the other, scattering it into the wind. A fourth spirit darted away from Percy's swinging blade, then Annabeth dropped back using the same manoeuvre and cut it in half with her drakon-bone sword.
Alex started to play his pipes, a jumpy, squealing tune that sounded twisted and lost in the wind, but their surroundings responded. Rain began to fall, a light drizzle that quickly turned into a heavy downpour.
"Really?" Jean shouted, swiping water out of her eyes. "Rain?"
"Good thinking." Percy grinned. He willed the water to gather behind him, condensing into heavy, floating globes, then released his mental tether on them, splashing the pursuing spirits with football-sized water bombs at three hundred miles an hour. Other spirits came up from above and Percy whipped rain into them, snatching them backwards like shotgun pellets.
The rain died down. Alex seemed to run out of notes to play. The land beneath them changed from fields of crops to dusty red.
"We've entered a different climate," Alex yelled. "I can't summon any more rain."
The storm was still locked around them. Even worse, amidst the wall of clouds Percy made out large creatures flying towards them, dark, winged beasts with sharp, eagle-like heads and panther bodies.
"Gryphons!" he yelled, pointing.
Lightning flashed dangerously close to them. The pegasi whinnied and swerved, almost crashing into one another.
"We need to land!" Jean shouted.
"It won't make a difference," Percy yelled back. "They can destroy us just as easily on the ground."
"Better down there than up here," Alex argued. "These winds are turning the pegasi upside down."
Do it!" Annabeth yelled.
The four of them swooped towards the ground just as another burst of lightning struck the space where they'd been.
"Chiron, we're about to die!" Annabeth yelled into her phone. Her connection was interrupted by a sudden burst of static. Annabeth swore in frustration, then a jolt of alarm went through her as a large aircraft flickered into existance above them. "Whoa!"
The pegasi swerved left and right, alarmed by the aircraft's sudden appearance.
"What is that?" Alex yelled.
"Good afternoon," a male, slightly accented voice boomed from the aircraft. "My name is Jordan van Staal and I'm your escort to Camp Jupiter."
"Jordan?" Annabeth said incredulously.
"Never heard of him," Percy shook his head.
"Blaa-ha-ha!" Alex said nervously. "There's a good reason for that."
Jordan angled the Javelin into a steep climb, straight towards the centre of the storm. "Fire at will, girls."
"Roger that," Lisa fired up the controls.
"Don't call us girls," Lanesra snapped.
Armour plates on the Javelin's belly and top unfolded, revealing an array of small cannons and machine guns. The two hunters opened fire, shooting down gryphons as they came swooping out of the storm.
"There's too many." Lisa swivelled her controls, spraying gunfire like a sprinkler, but there were dozens of gryphons and she could only target one at a time.
"Kill you all," Jordan growled, slamming a button on his console.
Missile racks unfolded out of the Javelin's sides. A dozen small rockets discharged from either side of the aircraft's flanks like a swarm of hissing, glowing wasps, disappearing into the storm. A few seconds later the explosions lit up the clouds as each rocket found its target.
Storm spirits came flying in, blasting the Javelin with bolts of lightning. Jordan's ship shuddered as the spidery blasts blew holes in the outer armour. Lisa and Lanesra managed to shoot down a few, but the storm spirits' fast, haphazard movement made them difficult targets.
"Chew on this!" Small compartments opened all along the Javelin's surface. Glowing flares erupted from the openings, the sudden light blinding amidst the inky darkness of the storm. The circling spirits, caught off-guard, didn't realise what was happening until all the flares detonated like grenades, engulfing them in a flensing wave of shrapnel.
The storm died down slightly. Jordan pulled the Javelin into a horizontal position and started to descend.
"Well done, girls."
"I said-" Lanesra growled.
Lightning flared suddenly to their left, making them all jump as the cockpit lit up. A split second later there was an earsplitting CRACK and the aircraft was thrown sideways. Lisa yelled as she flew out of her seat, smacking into Lanesra's chair before hitting the windscreen.
"I told you to use the seat belt!" Jordan shouted. He floored the thrusters, sending the Javelin into a sudden burst of speed just as another giant bolt of lightning struck the space where the aircraft had been a split second ago. Lisa was thrown backwards by the sudden acceleration, hitting her head on the doorframe.
"Why do you never listen to me?" Jordan dared not slow down even though his manoeuvres were throwing Lisa around the cabin. Something was clearly coming after them and only his quick thinking and superb piloting skills prevented the unseen force from swatting them out of the air.
The wind outside changed abruptly, hammering against the ship with hurricane force. Jordan banked hard to the right, flying into the wind, then plunged the nose down and went into a steep dive as it changed again. Lisa clung to the doorframe, her body dangling in reverse gravity behind her. Blood streamed from her nose up her face.
"What's going on?" Lanersa yelled.
"Storm spirit," Jordan's sensors had picked up the monster's unmistakeable energy reading all around them. "Big one."
"Well how do we kill it?"
"A big missile," Jordan answered. "But we're too close to Percy Jackson. We have to lead it away."
The three thrusters built into the rear of the aircraft powered up in preparation for the manoeuvre. Jordan would have liked to have used all five capable of providing thrust, but the rear left vertical thruster, which served the double function of providing horizontal thrust, had been damaged beyond functioning by a lightning strike, rendering the right one useless as well due to the imbalanced thrust it would provide. The front two vertical thrusters gave a short burst, pushing the Javelin back into a horizontal position. The quad-core engine engaged, firing up to maximum capacity. The three thrusters roared as one and the Javelin shot away at top speed.
The giant storm spirit pursued, intent on capturing the small, annoying aircraft. Jordan could see it clearly now that they were out of the storm: a dark mass of storm clouds flashing with lightning, moving faster than a hurricane. A huge gaping face and hands made of smoke emerged from the storm, reaching toward the Javelin as if trying to grab and swallow it.
Despite the Javelin's speed the creature was catching up. Jordan deployed flares again, mere nuisances against a creature of that size, but it served to slow the giant storm spirit down enough for the Javelin to pull away. Jordan locked onto the target and pulled the trigger, releasing a big missile from the Javelin's underbelly.
A dull BOOM shook the air as the powerful missile detonated in the centre of the storm. The storm spirit seemed to balloon outwards slightly, then started to collapse on itself, imploding like a bubble of dry ice that had been popped.
The Javelin slowed, banked and headed back towards Percy Jackson and company. Lisa tumbled to the floor, breathing through her mouth as blood trickled from her nose.
"Lanesra, help Lisa."
The two girls shuffled out of the cockpit, Lisa leaning heavily on Lanesra's shoulder.
The Javelin closed in on the demigods' location. Seeing movement in the distance, Jordan zoomed in on them using the ship's cameras.
"Oh, shit."
"What's oh shit?" Lisa asked from the coffee room.
"They're surrounded." Jordan switched the sensors to infrared. "Twenty extra bodies. Probably hostile." He pulled his swiss army knife out of his pocket. "They're too close to Percy Jackson to use the rockets. I'm going down there."
"Well, that's over." Percy was relieved to see the storm dissipate into the horizon.
"I'm assuming this Jordan will fly us the rest of the way to Camp Jupiter?" Jean asked.
"That would be nice," Alex agreed.
Blackjack reared suddenly, almost throwing Percy off.
"Whoa!" Percy jerked the reins and Blackjack took flight, steadying himself in the air with his great wings.
Warriors sprung out of the ground all around them, leaping out of the dirt in an explosion of choking dust. There looked to be around twenty of them, clad in mismatched golden armour and carrying swords, spears and shields.
The bizzare thing about them was their appearance. They looked like humans crossed with dolphins. Some of them had dolphin snouts. Others had flippers instead of hands. With a scowl, Percy remembered where he'd seen them before.
The last warrior to emerge was fully human, a tall man carrying a long Imperial gold sword. Unlike the rest of his brethren he was wearing a full set of armour. His visor was a golden full-face mask shaped like a gorgon's head; curved tusks, features pinched into a snarl, golden snake hair curling around the face.
"Chrysaor."
"We meet again, brother." The golden warrior's eyes glittered under his helmet. He glanced at the small group of demigods. "No friends to help you this time."
I'll kick your head in! Blackjack whinnied.
"I'd like to see you try," Chrysaor snarled at him, raising his sword.
Percy blinked. "You can hear…oh, of course you can."
He'd forgotten that Chrysaor, his half-brother, was also the brother of Pegasus, the immortal winged horse.
"Surrender," Chrysaor took a step forward. His dolphin men levelled their spears.
"Fat chance." Percy raised his sword.
"Take her," Chrysaor ordered.
The dolphin men charged. The three pegasi took flight, rising above the crowd of swords and spears.
"If you can't beat them, leave them!" Percy quipped.
The dolphin men started drawing out bows and arrows.
"Aww, nuts." Percy groaned. "Look out!"
"Fly!" Annabeth cried, but it was too late. The dolphin men released their bows.
The pegasi screamed as the arrows tore into their exposed wings and undersides. Chrysaor smirked in triumph as he saw the winged horses wobble in the air. His men drew back to fire a second volley.
A sudden roaring filled the air. Chrysaor yelled as a great rush of wind blew him off his feet, sending him and his dolphin men tumbling facefirst into the dusty ground. All the arrows were blown off course as the Javelin materialised above their heads.
"Bastaard!" Jordan shouted, cranking up the Javelin's fore thrusters. "I'll blow you so hard!"
"Your English sucks!" Lisa yelled at him from the coffee room.
"Damn it," Jordan winced. "That sounded so wrong."
"Whoa!" Jean gasped as the engines' powerful draft blew the pegasi away.
Ooowwww, Blackjack whinnied. My wings. My belly. They're shredded.
"You'll live," Percy clung onto the pegasus's mane for dear life. "Get a hold of yourself!"
"Glide! Glide!" Annabeth shouted as Guido tumbled head-over-hooves through the air like a horse-sized dust devil.
The threat of the arrows averted, Jordan angled the engines' draft away from them, then opened fire on Chrysaor's men with his big machine gun.
"Die, you bastards!" he yelled in Dutch.
Bullets churned the ground into dust. Chrysaor growled as he saw his men cut down like corn.
"This isn't over." he spat at the cigar-shaped aircraft. He stabbed his sword into the dirt and the ground opened up, swallowing him and his men whole.
"Alright," Percy's head was spinning and he fought not to throw up as Blackjack finally righted himself. He pointed towards the floating aircraft, trying to squint through his double vision. "Everyone aboard."
(Line break)
The tall boy backed into the alley, ignoring the fetid stench of mildew and garbage that poured out of it. Despite the situation he wore a confident smile that only wavered slightly when he stepped backwards into a freezing puddle.
Five laistrygonian giants blocked the entrance to the alley, three-metre tall humanoids bulky with muscle, carrying lengths of steel rods the size of telephone poles.
"The sword," one of them rumbled. "Give it to us. Now."
"Oh I'll give it to you, all right." In his hands the boy held a metre-long sword, the metal dulled by lack of care. "Come and get it." He shifted into a swordfighting stance.
The laistrygonians stepped forward. The boy cracked his neck.
"You won't be needing any swords." A new voice echoed through the alley, loud and powerful as if it'd come from a boom box. A figure stepped out from behind a dumpster, glowing green eyes flashing in the gloom.
Alabaster Torrington smiled as he came into the light, cracking his knuckles like a street fighter. "I've been waiting for you."
"Who—?" one giant asked.
"Kill him!" said another.
Twin beams of green energy blasted out of Alabaster's palms, cutting the giants in half like laser beams. The telephone poles they were carrying dropped to the ground in a deafening series of clangs as they crumbled into powder.
"Great." Alabaster dusted his hands off, turning to the boy. His expression was grim. "Now tell me where you got that sword."
Aaaaand here it is, my new story! How exciting. As always, I hope you like it!