Chapter 7: The Lock-down

Preparations to a battle to come

Nico pulled Reyna against the wall as he saw someone walking toward them. They had been roaming the streets and buildings in the hope that they would find some useful information about the enemy's troops, but so far they had nothing. As far as nobody knew that they were here, it actually didn't matter much.

When Nico was certain that the person was away, he released his grip on Reyna and released a breath he didn't know he was holding. Both looked around them, searching for anything useful. Reyna gestured him to follow her, before she ran off into a building. Nico frowned, not knowing what she was planning, but followed her anyway.

It was deserted building, similar to the one where they had stayed for the last couple of days. Because of that, it was easy for Reyna to barge in and run upstairs. The railings of the stairs were covered with dust, indicating just how long it had been since someone had lived there. What surprised Nico though, was that there were much more stairs than he had thought the building would have. Now he knew why Reyna had chosen this building.

When they reached the final floor, Nico saw that there were only two rooms they could go in. Knowing that there were far more other buildings to their right, Nico entered - or rather barged in the room at their right. He smirked when he saw the large window, that gave the two the opportunity to look at the majority of the right side - for them anyway - of the island.

His attention went to a flatter area, barely visible between the large amount of buildings, which was about a mile from them away. It was crowded with people, or soldiers there. From experience, Nico knew one thing for sure: the better secured a place is, the more importance the place held. He glanced at Reyna, who was also looking at the place. They locked eyes with each other and made a silent conversation with each other, which led to a unanimous agreement.

Let's see what's there.

"Where is the rest? Somebody contacted Praetor Zhang yet? I want visual, people!", Annabeth shouted to the other demigods. Most of them were unable to answer though; they were either severely injured or dead. After the massive bombardment throughout the city, people came back from the field with grave burn-wounds and there were still more incoming.

A son of Hermes - she guessed, because of his appearance and how fast he was - ran toward her in response. He took a moment to control his breathing, before reporting: "Around 340 troops are still missing and we still haven't heard from the Praetor yet. We've made a map upstairs", Annabeth nodded and followed him upstairs.

In the Command Center, there were countless demigods running around. In the middle of the room was a small group hovering over the wooden table. Annabeth walked toward them and saw what they were looking at - even if she already had a good guess what it was beforehand: a giant map of San Francisco (plus some lines and dots).

Matt - an undetermined 17 year old demigod with brown hair and green eyes - noticed her first and bowed his head slightly in respect. Annabeth nodded back and took a good look at the map. Her lips pursed into a thin line as she realized that they were in a great crisis. The entire southern area had either been destroyed or taken over, just like the eastern one, which made her frown. Where are you, Frank?, she thought in frustration. At least Reyna had IM-ed them by the time she could. It has been days since she last heard of Frank.

She sighed and turned her attention to the map again. There was a black circle around Treasure Island, indicating that Reyna and Nico were there. She had said that they wouldn't be able to help them before Nico had recovered his powers though, so that option was off. With low numbers and no reinforcements, they were running out of options. There was only one thing they could do.

She turned to the rest, who were waiting for her to speak up, and took a deep breath. "Send 7 scout-groups of 3 people into the field to find the others. We need all of our men together in here if we were to win this war. Each scout-group should contain at least one child of Apollo to take care of the wounded and I want every group back before sunset otherwise you're on your own, understood?", a few nodded in response and started working on it.

"The Hecate group will take care of the emergency borders so no one can enter this area. Take some Hephaestus and Vulcan kids with you if you need help with the mechanisms. Don't activate it before sunset, when the scout-groups are still out in the open. I want as many troops inside as possible. We don't call this the Western Stronghold for nothing.

Meanwhile, take care of the wounded and take those dead bodies out of here. We don't want any sickness to spread in this building. Also, search for water and food, since we'll need it.

Tonight, the Western Stronghold is under a lock-down."

"... and this where the Specialized Troops that will help against the monsters train", the man whose name Percy had forgotten said as he showed him an area the size of a soccer field. It was similar to the training grounds at Camp Half-Blood, but at the same time completely different. The Camp didn't have an area with concrete walls, floor and ceiling after all. It made everything look so... cold.

The fact that everyone was staring at him in silence, also didn't help his impression of this place. That was until a man around his 40's came forward with his arms crossed. His heavy muscles were clearly visible, which made Percy feel very self-conscious. He wore armor that wasn't far from the one Percy had, so it wasn't hard to guess that this man was one of those Specialized Troops, that had been giving the demigods a very hard time during this war. The man gave Percy nod and Percy did the same.

"This is general Collingan and the commander of these troops. He'll give you the rest of the information you'll need", the man-without-name said, before leaving Percy behind with the general.

A silence befell the two. Percy took the opportunity to take a good look around him again. It amazed him how advanced everything looked. Leo would've loved it here, he thought sadly, he could have spiced things up a little.

"Follow me", Percy's attention went back to the general before him. His neutral expression gave nothing away, but Percy could still guess that the general didn't like him that much. The feeling was mutual. The history between the two sides had been much too bloody to ignore. Even so, at least they knew how it was like to fight in a war, in contrast to those ministers.

So, he followed him.

They walked to the other side of the area. The walk was longer than Percy had expected it to be, but he didn't mind it that much. After all, this way he could check the area out longer. He watched as two men sparred against each other in something that seemed like a boxing ring, until one won by disarming his opponent and pointing his sword against the other's throat. Percy frowned. There were a lot of openings in that fight.

Collingan followed Percy's stare and sighed. "The government can give us as much money as they want, but that doesn't take away our lack of good trainers. Because of that, the level of our soldiers is not high enough in this war most of the time", he said as if reading Percy's thoughts.

Percy nodded thoughtfully. "That's... understandable. In other circumstances I wouldn't think that as a bad thing, though."

The general laughed halfheartedly at Percy's comment. "In other circumstances, yes. Our numbers are to be reckoned with though, so our troops aren't completely useless."

When they arrived at a door, Collingan opened it and walked in. Percy followed him inside and was met with a lot of flat-screens, computers and other electronics. Percy raised an eyebrow and gave the general a questioning glare, who just smiled. "We use these to communicate with other sectors and secure the building."

"As if having all this underground is not secure enough", Percy muttered before looking at the projected map on the table. "Is there any information about when the monsters will attack?"

"You already know where they'll probably attack?", Percy nodded and the general sighed. "Nobody knows, actually. They are too unpredictable for that. I have a question concerning that, by the way."

Percy frowned and looked at the general expectantly. "What is it?"

"Do you know why they attack? I mean, most of us think that you demigods attract them, but I honestly don't believe that. Maybe in small numbers, but it's not logical to attack as an army for a simple attraction."

Percy smiled. Finally someone who understands. He figured it wouldn't be bad to tell Collingan the truth. "Monsters are in fact attracted to us because of our scent, but when they form an army, there's a lot more to take into consideration. Most of the time, they have a personal vendetta against some demigods or gods, or just want to kill. And there you also have the one who leads the army, who always wants to either take over the world or wants to kill as many people as possible." He rolled his eyes at the thought of Kronos, Ares, Gaea, Tartarus, Polybotes, Hyperion and about every other God/Titan/Primordial he had fought.

Collingan eyes the son of Poseidon curiously. "You sound like you have lots of experience..."

He gave the general a bitter smile. "Even before this war, there have been two others where I've fought in, but those were hidden from human's eyes. You can choose not to believe me, but it's the truth."

The general nodded thoughtfully, as if accepting Percy's words. "So, what now?"

He grinned. "Let me train your troops until the monsters arrive."

[A/N]: Yes... I know... I'm late and I'm sorry :$ I just haven't had ANY inspiration AT ALL and just couldn't write! So, my days have been filled with reading fanfics and going to school... Last week, I was away, so I hadn't had the time as well.. -_- I just wanted to make a proper chapter for you all to read, because I don't like shitty chappies xD

But it's my Christmas vacation now! So I hope to get in the game again ;) Writing is too much fun to just abandon after all ;D So, I hope you liked this chapter and please leave a review while you're at it :) Though I do admit that this chapter was more like a filler chapter...

To awesomeness: Haha indeed ;) And I believe it's Chronos, not Cronus ;P I think xD Anyway, I do have an idea about where and when your characters will show up, so don't worry :D They'll be in the story shortly :) I hope you liked the chapter!

To 8EternallyMortal8: Poor Percy indeed... I hope I've made up with him by making the general nice xD As for the Nico and Reyna parts, they'll be interesting soon enough ;) Hope you liked this chapter! ;)

To Di Blythe: Haha it's alright ;) Here is the update as your birthday present ;D Hope you liked it SGG xD But that "Just... Anny"-part was.. uhm... just don't haha xD lolzzz ;) xxxoxo

'Till next time ^^ (and I hope that will be soon)

Xx Anny