Chapter 2: Friends, Zombies, and Wizards? (Percy)
Shadow Travel is never a pleasant experience. At best, it's cold and feels like your skin is being blown off of your face. If you do it too much, you can pass out, and if you keep going it your essence can literally fade away. Fortunately, as a son of Posiedon, I only get to enjoy the experience when tagging along with Mrs O'Leary or a child of Hades/Pluto (and I know 2). However, the experience is worse when Hades yanks you down into the Underworld mid-transit.
Mrs O'Leary skitters to a sudden stop on the black floor of the Underworld. Annabeth, Frank and I struggle to hold in our last meal while Hazel gracefully dismounts. After a brief moment, I get my bearings and see something I never really wanted to, war in the Underworld. We had left the shadow realm somewhere between Elysium and the Fields of Punishment, and there was combat visible from Punishment all the way around to the shore of the Styx.
We are quickly greeted by a group of undead soldiers, whose leader wore what looked like a civil war era Union uniform. He updated Hazel on the situation, and while it mostly just confirmed the intel from earlier, things were actually worse than we thought (what a surprise). Apparently, there was a whole army down here, whose soldiers wielded some type of energy weapon along with swords. That wasn't the big problem, though. The main issue was there seemed to be a few among the ranks, the commanders presumably, who Pluto's forces couldn't seem to get near, let alone attack.
"Any idea what they're doing down here?" Hazel asks.
"I'm afraid so my lord, they appear to be breaking out some of the dead," the leader responded.
Styx! I looked over at Annabeth, who was wearing an I hate it when I'm right expression. Of course, that was the only resource unique to the Underworld, and while the majority of the souls down here were neutral or inoffensive, one only had to look at the size of the Fields of Punishment to see how many bad apples took up residence down here. "Hey, at least it's not Tartarus" I quip, but all my attempt to lighten the mood gets me is Annabeth's death glare.
Speaking of my genius girlfriend, she immediately went to work strategizing. I could almost see the gears in her head whirring at full speed. I won't bore you with the details, but the bottom line was we needed to lock down the dead, starting with the Fields of Punishment.
After a quick jaunt across the Underworld we came upon the entrance to the Fields of Punishment, and we got our first good look at the invaders. The soldiers looked, well, human. Their armor, their movement, even their tactics seemed grounded in the real world. Well, everything except silver staffs that fired bolts of blue energy. The monsters that normally guard the worst of the dead had been reduced to piles of dust outside the gates, and soldiers were now escorting a slow but steady stream of the dead across the Underworld toward the River Styx.
While there were too many to attack head on, we happened to have a Daughter of Pluto and a Shapeshifter on our team. The ground shook, revealing scattered precious metals, before promptly swallowing nearly half of the soldiers. The rest were then terrified when a bird of prey dove in with blinding speed, knocking a few out and taking 2 up into the air above. Frank's distraction allowed Annabeth and I, along with the undead, to close the distance with the remaining soldiers.
Without their staff weapons, these soldiers weren't much to brag about, and we tore through them easily except for one small wrinkle. Riptide, my trusty magical Celestial Bronze sword, passed right through them, meaning they weren't monsters or demigods, but mortals. Fortunately I was able to commandeer one of their swords, and while a far cry from Riptide's perfect balance, it would do for now. Reinforcements, skeletons and more undead, arrived moments later to secure the gates. As much as I felt like standing and pondering the implications of mortals fighting in the Underworld, we had momentum on our side.
With the line of enemy forces broken, Hades' forces rallied, and with them we slowly pushed the enemy army back. Near the entrance to the Judgment Pavilion we encountered a particularly stubborn enemy defense. There were so many energy bolts flying past we could scarcely peak out. Fortunately, their barrage was disrupted by, of all things, a massive lightning bolt. I peaked out of cover to see the ranks on the far side of their position start falling to arrows one after the other. With their attention turned, we quickly went to work and had them cleared out in short order.
Once the mysterious soldiers had been cleared out, the source of the arrows became apparent. A group of Artermis' hunters, led by daughter of Zeus and punk queen Thalia Grace along with…Reyna? That's still weird to process. The former praetor and daughter of Bellona did look happy to see us, but remained mostly quiet. "Fancy seeing you here again, Seaweed Brain," Thalia quipped. "Right back atcha, Pinecone face," I replied, and she pulled Annabeth and I into a hug. The Romans were all business, however, and we all realized reunions could wait.
With the regrouped forces of Hades at our back, we quickly secured the entrance to Elysium. However, once we neared Hades palace, we encountered a slight problem. As we peer down from a vantage point, we can see an individual with pale skin, white robes, and a glowing wooden staff standing behind a ring of troops. "They have wizards? That doesn't seem fair," I quip. Unfortunately, I was more right than I realized. Frank pointed me toward the path to Hades palace, which looked like it had been blocked by a huge rockslide. "There must be more of Hades' forces behind there, but if his powers are being blocked there's no way to get past those rocks," Annabeth observes.
Hazel concentrates and tries to disrupt the rock wall, and while they do seem to buckle and shake, they remain mostly held in place. Then it hits me. "Styx! The wizard must be holding up the barricade. Hazel, can you?``,''No `` she replies, "whatever that thing is, it's powerful. I don't have enough left to overpower him after...(gesturing back to all of the soldiers swallowed by the ground)".
"Mind if I try?" Reyna asks, as she steps forward with an arrow ready. After taking a moment to aim, she lets the arrow fly. It glides down, the tip following a near perfect arc, right up until it hits a blue barrier and bounces off harmlessly. "Styx!" Reyna curses. Fortunately, the wizard didn't seem to notice (though the soldiers seemed a little spooked), so Annabeth quickly put a plan together.
Moments later, Annabeth and I are down on the ground with the rest of Hades' forces, waiting for our cue to move in. That cue then arrives in the form of Frank flying above the group of soldiers as, of all things, a dragon. A bolt of lightning then bounces off the shield, revealing it doesn't extend to all of the soldiers, so we pounce, closing the distance quickly under arrow and dragon cover and quickly eliminating all of the soldiers. It was at this point that the wizard finally turned his attention to us and realized all of his backup was gone. Before we could close in and test the shield, however, the wizard gestured his glowing staff toward us. An invisible force hurled us along with the forward ranks of Hades' army into the air and back about 20 feet. I landed hard, and as I recovered I looked up to see the rock wall finally begin to collapse. Arrows pinged off of the wizards shield, and after locating the source, he fired a column of flames from his staff, immolating the whole area. My heart leapt up into my throat for a moment before spotting Hazel and the hunters scurrying away mostly unharmed, though Reyna's jacket had been burned a bit.
We quickly tried to advance, but the wizard expanded the shield. No matter what we tried, we couldn't dent it or get through it, and as it expanded it started pushing us back down the path we came. As we struggled, I turned to Annabeth. "Any ideas?" I asked. "I'm working on it," she replied. It seemed like there was nothing we could do, but then I spotted something. With the rock wall down, the rest of Hades forces were now streaming through, and the shield was being attacked from both sides. However, above and behind the rock wall, I saw 4 shapes and a large contraption of some sort. 3 of the shapes stepped back, and the 4th fired a flaming projectile from the device. It soared through the air, and as it came in contact with the top of the shield, it exploded into a shower of flaming Celestial Bronze.
The shield seemed to flicker, then blink out entirely. Thalia was quick to capitalize, and she called a lighting bolt down that nailed the wizard and damaged the staff. We charged in, and once we got close enough Annabeth threw her Celestial Bronze dagger, which embedded itself in the wizard's face. The glow from the damaged staff faded, and he finally collapsed. Hades' forces started regrouping, and the people on the hill walked down to us. As they got closer, Annabeth and I recognized them, and we smiled. Leo Valdez was beaming "Of course I knew that was gonna work Pipes. C'mon, when have my ideas ever backfired?". "Do you really want to know the answer to that?" Piper McLean curtly responded. The other 2, Nico di Angelo and Will Solace were quiet but smiling. "Sorry we're late, Nico's back door into the underworld dropped us right in front of an immovable wall," Will explained. Nico punched him in the arm, and they both smiled.
The reunion was cut short again by the realization that whoever these enemies were, their last line of defense was now gone. With a massive army of skeletons and undead at our backs, our motley crew of badass heroes set about running the mysterious enemy out of the Underworld, quickly pushing them back to the shore of the River Styx. After an exhausting running battle, we had finally caught up to what looked like the last group of freed souls. The soldiers were escorting them to a silver platform of some kind near the river. A line of soldiers took cover and fired back, forcing us to duck and wait. When I popped back up I saw soldiers standing with the last few souls on the platform.
Then I saw them.
My eyes locked onto 2 of the captives, both were tall, muscular, and had blond hair, but one was younger and wore a purple T-shirt, and the other had a scar running down his face. "Jason?" Piper asked, but before we could react a series of rings emerged from the platform, encasing the group, before they vanished in a flash of white light. I looked at my friends, and they all looked like you'd expect considering we'd just seen a ghost. After a few seconds, there was almost an unspoken agreement reached between us, and we turned our sights back to the soldiers.
Reyna, Thalia, and Frank all took aim with arrows, Leo deployed a small bronze device which worked like a concussion grenade, and I, well, I realized that the mass of soldiers had their backs to a very nasty body of water. I reached out, commanding the ancient river, and doused all of the remaining soldiers. The column of water carried some of the soldiers back into the river, and the ones that remained didn't last long covered in Styx water.
We ran up to the now deserted ring platform. "This must be how they were bypassing Charon and the river," Annabeth deduced. "It must lead somewhere, presumably outside the Underworld,". Piper then questioned "but how did they activate it?". We examined both the platform and the remaining soldiers, and Leo quickly found something on one of the bodies. "Hey guys, this looks like a controller of some kind. I can't tell exactly what it does, but it's worth a shot right?"
Will, who had been helping an injured huntress, perked up when he realized what Leo was suggesting. "Wait, you guys aren't seriously following them, right? You have no idea what could be waiting on the other side. Those rings could kill you for all you know!". After a moment of silence, Thalia was the one to respond. "I don't care if it leads to Mount Everest or Tartarus, those assholes have my little brother!". I looked around at the group. We all knew Jason, some better than others, and when he died it hit all of us like a ton of bricks, or worse. The looks on my friends' faces communicated one thing, we were not going to let this stand.
"She's right, we're going after him, we have to," Nico added. Will looked almost betrayed for a moment, but he quickly realized there was no changing our minds. "Then I'm coming with you," Will declared.
"Will, they need you here," Nico gestured to the group of wounded hunters.
"I'm not letting you go on another life threatening quest by yourself,".
"I'm not by myself. Besides, he…helped me through some tough crap, I owe him this,".
Will hesitated for a moment, but finally relented. "If you die over there di Angelo, I'm going to kill you, understand?" he said. Nico walked over, and Will pulled him into a hug. They stood like that for a moment, then Nico joined the rest of us on the platform. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little awkward when I found out that a) Nico liked boys and b) he'd had a crush on me for years. But looking at how he and Will interacted, it was love, simple as that. Will was the only one I'd ever seen really break Nico's dark, dangerous persona, and Nico had just convinced him to stay behind. I wanted to reassure him, but fortunately Hazel beat me to the punch.
With our party assembled, Leo declared "alrighty guys, gonna hit the button," and activated the wrist device. The platform hummed to life, and the rings quickly appeared around us. I caught Will looking right at me right before everything disappeared in a flash of light.
When the flash disappeared, the rings retreated into the platform, but our surroundings had completely changed. We were at the entrance to a large cave, and the air was brisk, especially compared to the Underworld. We looked around, and while I couldn't see anyone else, I could hear voices coming from deeper into the cave. We moved in quickly but cautiously, and noticed lights along the cave's ceiling. After a few minutes of this, the talking grew loud enough it was evident it was from around the next bend. We stopped and listened for a moment. Whoever they were, they were talking in perfect English (#6 on the list of most confusing things today so far). While I couldn't make out much, it looked like Thalia and Reyna were having more luck. Even so, it sounded like the soldiers were taking orders from a female voice, someone they referred to as Orici.
It was at this point that I noticed that there was a faint blue-green light being cast on the cave wall by something in the next chamber. Just as I was about to ask for suggestions for what to do next, I saw Frank shapeshift into a small mouse and scurry quietly around the corner. The voices began to quiet, and I noticed a plop sound, almost like something being dropped into water, happening at rapid, regular intervals. Moments later, Frank returned. "The soldiers are leaving through what looks like a portal of some kind, I caught a glimpse of one of their captives being taken with them, and there's no other way out of there," he reported. "How many are left?" Annabeth asked. "The last few soldiers are leaving right now, in a second it'll only be the woman left, who I'm assuming is their leader,".
Annabeth quickly set about putting together a plan, but moments later Thalia charged forward. I called her name but she didn't seem to react, and disappeared around the corner. Annabeth cursed and we quickly followed her. When we rounded the corner, Thalia had her spear leveled at the woman. After seeing the rest of the army, this woman seemed out of place as the one leading it. Sure she wore similarish looking armor (though more revealing), but she was definitely human, with dark hair, brown eyes, and slightly tan skin. She seemed completely normal, apart from being very pretty (don't tell Annabeth I said that).
"Where are you taking those people?" Thalia asked. "Somewhere where their gifts will be used to bring enlightenment," the woman answered. " What do you imagine you're going to do with that?" she asked, gesturing at Thalia's spear. Thalia tried to step forward, but she was somehow frozen in place. I tried to move forward to help, but I couldn't. It felt like there were suddenly invisible ropes tied around my body. I looked back and saw everyone else similarly stuck. Great.
Then, an invisible vice tightened around my neck and lifted me and everyone else a foot off the ground. I instinctively tried to remove the grip from my neck, but there was nothing there. A hot religious leader with the power of force choke, GREAT!
The woman walked between us, examining the 9 helpless demigods floating around her. No matter how much I struggled, there was nothing to struggle against. I felt around, trying to find a hidden reservoir of water, but there was nothing close enough. I managed to turn my head and make eye contact with Annabeth. While I knew she was probably trying to find a way out of this, I could tell she hadn't found it yet. "You are strong, imbued with power from the higher beings of this universe,". She stopped and looked right at me, and I could feel something in my head, like someone trying to force their way inside my skull. I gritted my teeth and resisted, but the force was strong. I didn't know if I could keep it up forever, but it suddenly relented as the woman looked away. Leo manages to force out a question "What do you want with us? To hang on your wall, trust me we wouldn't look good like that,".
The woman responded "The Ancients were wise to keep this little discovery hidden, but they were too proud to destroy it, now it will be their undoing,". She then walked toward the gate, and in horror I noticed that Hazel and Frank were floating along with her. "No, no!" Reyna managed to scream as she struggled with renewed vigor, but it was no use. A button on a nearby control panel was pressed by an invisible hand, causing the nearby display to change. The woman moved Frank and Hazel through the portal, then followed herself.
The moment the woman entered the portal, her control lifted, and we all crumpled to the ground, trying to catch our breath. Annabeth and Leo quickly examined the console. "Can you read any of this?", "Me, I was about to ask you!" they exchanged. While the language and general layout was unfamiliar, there was something at the center of the display, it looked almost like a series of numbers, a countdown I quickly realized.
"Is that a…" Nico asked, and I nodded. Before we could talk or really do anything organized though, I looked back to see Thalia, Reyna, and Piper all run through the portal. I looked back to see Annabeth wearing a resigned expression. "This is a stupid plan, you know that right?" she asked. "Yep, so you know we've got to do it," I replied. I turned to Nico and saw a look of fear on his face, but before I could do anything he turned around and ran through the portal, followed closely by Leo.
Annabeth and I stood in front of the portal, and as the countdown neared its end we could see the lights in the room around the portal start to dim. I turned to her "If anything happens.." ,"No! We're going to get them back Seaweed Brain, whatever it takes,". With that, I grabbed her hand, and we jumped through the portal.