Chapter 5: Vigilantes and Romans
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, that honour goes with Rick Riordan. Neither do I own any of the characters mentioned later.
Top of the Empire State Building, 2 Hours Before the Attack at the Apartment: Annabeth's POV
It has to have been a half hour since the scouts had seen that small group of monsters leaving camp. They should be here within an hour if they are moving at top speed but what could they be after. It was a small enough group so they won't know where we are, but it's still unnerving to know there will be a group of monsters roaming around Manhattan. The defenses have been doubled just in case, they won't get 100 feet to this building without being decimated by arrows.
I've decided to place a small group of followers on them to see where they go, see if they have any allies in the city or if they are hunting. Either options will be useful knowledge for us, if they have allies we can eliminate them as soon as possible and if they are hunting at least we know it's a small enough pack that we can take out. Until they get here though there isn't much that we can do.
1 Hour Later
They've got to be near here, it's been a hour and a half since they left camp. Actually here's Will, he'll know. Wait, why's he so tired, it should have been a easy drive back here without complications.
"Hey Annabeth" Will shouted, "we have a surprise, that group you asked us to follow met up with someone."
"Who was it? Titan? Ally?".
"It was another beast from Tartarus but he shouldn't be back for another 1500 years or so. It's the minotaur, he's back."
Crap…the minotaur is evil, there's no other way to say it. He is extremely hard to kill and a very deadly force to fight against. He wasn't supposed to be recreated for another millennium at least, something is wrong. And what would the titans need him, one of the most feared beasts in our history for? If this is just a hunting party, they are hunting something more than just us. That beast could take out a group of demigods twice our size with the group it has with it. "Will, take your siblings and a few Ares campers and tail them, do not fight them. You will lose and I can't afford to lose any more friends to these guys so stay close enough to see but not close enough for them to smell you. Got it?"
"That's not a problem, we'll make sure we're safe. Don't worry Annabeth."
I saw him leave with about 7 other campers, 5 Apollo kids and 3 Ares. They were our best fighters in the camp before it was attacked but their numbers were decimated. Usually I could send out 15 kids on that patrol but now only 7. We have to save the others, have to.
On a Street in Downtown Manhattan: Will's POV
We had tailed the monsters for nearly a half hour after they entered the city until they finally found what they were looking for, a random apartment complex. They seemed like this was their goal since they stood around observing the building. The minotaur was obviously in charge as he set two dracaenae as guards and brought the other dozen or so monsters up the stairs with him. After a few minutes all we heard was a huge explosion and noticed a bright light from an apartment a few stories up. Fearing that the monsters were attacking demigods that were caught at home I immediately took out my bow and shot the two guards clean through the throat and sent them straight to Tartarus. It took us a few minutes to get up the stairs and easily found the apartment that was attacked as it was missing a door. There was obviously evidence of a fight; holes in the way, smashed furniture, scorch marks from the explosion, obvious minotaur horn holes in the wall. The weirdest thing was the lack of victims bodies. There was no one in the apartment mortal or monster. That's when Mitch Rawling had called me over.
"Will, there are piles of dust everywhere around here. It seems like whoever was here was able to beat off the attack. There's a pile of dust over there that's bigger than the others, must have been the big guy."
I trusted his judgement, as a child of Ares he knew what a fight scene had looked like. "Go through each of the rooms and check for anyone still here. Remember to double up with someone in case there are a few beasts still left." With a nod he had gone off to check the rooms with Jennifer, my sister. This was puzzling, no demigod could fight the minotaur and live, not in this life time however. Whoever did this had known how to take it on and had exceptional fighting skills. We have to get back to Annabeth. After 10 minutes we declared the apartment empty and headed back to base.
Empire State Building: Annabeth's POV
This was concerning. Someone or something had destroyed one of the most dangerous monsters in Greek mythology as well as a dozen other lesser monsters. Even more concerning was that he had disappeared within seconds of the attack. Will informed me that there was only one stairway up and down the building and they hadn't crossed anyone going down when they rushed to help. No one in my memory would have been able to be that fast and escape the group without anyone seeing. Someone or something is being hunted by the titans, that isn't a bad thing. It means that we aren't alone here, if we can find them then they would be a great boost to our forces. More concerning though is the information I had received when Will and the others were out following the minotaur. The remaining campers had been taken away and we don't know where to. I had been informed that the titan Prometheus and a select group of what seemed to be cyclopes and demigods had come to camp and taken them. Even if we had all went and known that this was going to happen, we are in no position to even take on that guard much less a titan. We have to find out where they are bringing them to but with our numbers we can't do a whole lot more than keep our base safe and send out some scout parties to search for other demigods that never went to camp or allies that are against the titans. Demigods are our priority though; it seems like the titan's armies are searching for them specifically. We've seen a few groups of monsters with satyrs as captive, it can only mean that they are using them to smell out demigods. I don't know why they are doing this though; they already have 25 demigod's captive unless they are trying to completely erase any form of the gods possible.
There are so many unanswered questions that I have right now and they need to be answered. Where did they bring the demigods? Who is important enough for the titans to send one of their most powerful monsters to take captive? If they were a demigod, how is a demigod that strong been able to stay hidden all this time? The most important question so far is, are we alone? Are we the only form of resistance that is willing to put up a fight and take back what is ours? If so, we are in for one heck of a war.
Mount Orthys: Kronos' POV
So that's where the Olympians were hiding out. They had hijacked a mortal's apartment to try and take themselves off the grid yet they didn't know apparently that without the barriers they were used to in Olympus, other immortals with our strength can sense where they are. The minotaur was a good asset we had, it was a shame to lose him. He was as obedient and ruthless as we could ask for yet I needed some powerful beast to go with that small group of troops to confirm that they were there. His loss wasn't unneeded though, we did have two confirmations. One, the Olympians were there, they had been residing there for at least one night which is good to know. They are likely in another position like that right now and once I can sense them I will go personally with my brothers and end this once and for all. Also, my scouts in Manhattan had noticed that the two guards outside had also been killed. The Olympians had left straight from the apartment so they hadn't killed them, that means that another body of immortals or mortals had killed them. Most likely the same troops that had released the demigods from the camp. We can confirm that they are also in Manhattan and will be dealt with shortly.
We have to start with the siege of the underworld now though. Hades has a army with him and will put up a fight but we have already captured the known entrances and sent Charon to Tartarus. All that was left to do now was storm the passages and claim the underworld as our own. Whether Hades will perish or not is up to him, he can surrender or he can stand and fight. He either dies or he becomes my slave just as the other Olympians. The weapons I had been building are almost complete. They will be used to clear the passages to the underworld as they are the biggest threat to us. Once we get to the fields of Asphodel, the skeleton army will be useless against our monsters. There will be no competition and it will be a slaughter. The date set for attack is in 2 weeks. We should have the weapons built and test readied for then, we can't have a misfire or the blast could incinerate half our forces. That would prolong the battle far longer than needed, we want it to be quick and done with. Now we wait and deal with the other problems.
Several small forces should be sent out in downtown Manhattan to try and find where these demigods are. We already have satyrs out trying to find lone demigods that have not yet be claimed. They should pick up this large group quite easily. Then we'll send out a strike force to eliminate them, maybe send out that goddess Nemesis and finally get a use out of her. So many things to do yet we have to wait for all of them. I have waited millennia for this time to come and I am growing impatient now. Something has to happen and soon.
"Brother, we have had a minor complication."
"Well it's nice to see you too Atlas, what's wrong?"
"We have gotten word from one of the demigods at Camp Jupiter that there was a small group of demigods on a quest, usually this would not concern you with this but one of them was a praetor of the legion. His name is Jason Grace and he is a son of Jupiter, supposedly he has powers that are greater than any other demigod in this generation and he was supposed to turn back to camp yesterday. He is on foot supposedly and should return within a few hours."
"How many men does he have with him?"
"The informer told me that their quests only allowed three Romans to go, on this quest it was Jason Grace, a daughter of Diana named Jessica Young, and a son of Mars named Frank Zhang." Their quest was to go and help their savour, a wolf that goes under Lupa. She needed assistance with something, I was not told of what."
"I wish to see this informer you have, perhaps I can get a little bit more out of him. Sometimes you go a little soft on those who speak highly of you Atlas."
"As you wish brother, but I will say I think he gave me all that he knows. He is in the jail at the camp."
Camp Jupiter Jail Cell
A son of Apollo, apparently he was the augur of the legion Atlas says yet the child in front of me looks nothing like a source of power. He had next to no muscle mass and his eyes betrayed his attempt at a fearless expression. He was obviously one threat away from fainting. This should be fun.
"So I hear you have broken your allegiance to your legion. That is very un-Roman like of you is it not?"
"A Roman should fight a battle he knows that he will win. This battle is going to be won, as long as they side with you my lord.". He could barely speak straight as he was so terrified, his voice was shaky and nervous.
"You flatter me, it seems like you have a tongue of gold and now I see why my brother Atlas here was keen to come tell me the news you told him. Tell me traitor, what is your name?". At the world traitor I could see him flinch as if I hit him with a whip.
"My Lord, King of Titans, Master of Time, Emperor Kronos, my name is Octavian and am a legacy of Apollo. I do not believe I am a traitor for I am doing what all Romans should. Everyone of my brothers should lay down his arms and join you, if they do not then they are the traitors to themselves and their legion."
"That's enough about your loyalty, I do believe that you are here because you believe we will win. It was a smart move but now tell me, what is it about this trio that you told my brother. Leave nothing out and start from the beginning." I ordered him.
He took a deep breath and lowered his head and said something which took me aback, "I will tell you my lord but in payment I do ask one thing. Once the Olympians are destroyed and you have complete control, will you place me in charge of Camp Jupiter? I will be a loyal servant and order my legion to march where you please, slaughter who you want. That is my one request."
This startled me, I did not expect him to make a request, "I am surprised at your bravery for asking me, the Titan Lord a request. Because you have asked though, I shall accept as long as your knowledge is worthy."
"Thank you my lord. My praetor, Jason Grace, is a powerful demigod and a son of Jupiter. Some say he was the greatest demigod in our generation." He had a look of vengeance and hate as talked of this Jason, either greed of his position or what I do not know but he did not like this person, "He came to the senate one day and told the senators that the goddess Lupa had come to him asking for aid."
"Goddess, I thought she was a wolf?"
"Yes, she is wolf form lord but she is the immortal protector of Rome, a goddess to us. Jason would not tell us what she had asked of him but told us that he had needed to go on a quest. There was a uproar about this but as he talked, more people began to listen. Eventually they listened to his words and became manipulated by his voice. They eventually agreed to send him on his quest as well as two more demigods. I was the one to suggest that he bring his two friends, Jessica Young and Frank Zhang. They were both centurions and greatly skilled fighters as they were a daughter of Diana and a son or Mars. They had left a day before your attack on the camp so they do not know about it. They had said that they would be back by dinner today. That is all I know lord, I hope it pleases you."
"It is good information child of Apollo, I must ask though, why do you hate this Jason Grace so much?"
"It is a reason not worthy of your ears and I would rather not say it unless you order me to."
"Very well, go back to your cell with your fellow Romans, I may call on you later."
Back at Mount Orthys
So this Jason character, he must be captured and quickly. He is supposed to be here within a hour, that isn't much time to set a trap so we must have every monster at disposal on the perimeter. The demigods we have placed at the entrance will tell us when they get here and at the little Tiber they will either be captured or perish.
About 100 meters from the hidden entrance to New Rome: Jason Grace's POV
"Frank, Jess, do either of you recognize those to guards?" I had been watching them for a few minutes now and could not tell which cohort they were from, or if they had even been in the legion actually.
"Nope, don't know" said Frank, Jess had the same answer. If we don't recognize them then no one in the legion will, so who are they.
"You two follow me, be close and be ready to take out your weapons." As we left the cover of the bush we were hiding behind we crossed the road and walked to the two guards. As I neared them they didn't stand straight and salute as they should but stayed in a relaxed position the entire time. They were not Roman legionaries, that was for sure.
"Hello praetor, how was the quest?"
This was a very informal question and guards were not to speak unless commanded or in combat. I didn't need to play these games with these two imposters. "Which cohort are you two from and why did you not salute when I came over?"
"We are from the first cohort sir and we apologize, it has been a hot day and we did not see you until you were already here."
"You do know that I personally accept each member in the first cohort, you are not members of it so who are you?". They looked at each other and made a huge mistake. They went to their scabbards and went to take out their swords but before that happened Frank had one by his throat and Jess had her bow aimed at the others head. "Now why don't we go see who put these two imposters on guard duty, it was probably Octavian."
As we entered the tunnel something seemed off, the other end was dark and seemed partially blocked off and we couldn't see the other end of it. That was not normal nor a good sign. "What do you two think? I'm pretty sure Reyna hadn't decided to do some redecorating so this wasn't approved by the legion.". Reyna Ramirez-Arellano was a daughter of Bellona and my fellow co-praetor.
"I say we bound these two imposters and gag them in case there's something on the other side of that blockade." Said Jess. There were no arguments so we bound them with strips of some of our blankets we took with us for the quest. We stuffed some cloth in their mouths to make sure they were quiet. When we were doing so we noticed that each of them had a walkie talkie in their back pocket which was weird since demigods know that technology is dangerous for them. Although to prevent a misunderstanding, we made sure not to hurt them in case they were on our side after all. As we moved further through the tunnel everything seemed normal except for the barricade but once we got to the end we could hear a fair bit of movement on the other side. Normally we don't have guards there so I was a bit miffed about who that could be. As I started to go around the side of the barricade, I froze. There were hell hounds, dracaenae and empousa closest to us. Harpies filled the air and earthborne were seen no too far off. There seemed to be a few cyclops around also.
Before I could turn around and warn the others one of them spotted me and all hell broke loose. "Frank, get beside me and Jess behind, we have to get out of here right away!" I yelled at them. Those guards must have been told to warn these guys that we were coming when we passed through the gate using those walkie talkies.
Third Person
With a rush, all the monsters had charged towards the trio. There was no command, no order just a shout saying they were there and than a charge to either wipe out or detain the demigods. Hell hounds had gotten to them first but as they approached one or two at a time they were dashed to pieces by Jason's and Frank's swords which were imperial gold gladius. As soon as one of the hounds got close one of their swords would flicker out and slice it into dust. As Jason and Frank took care of the monsters running towards them, Jessica used her uncanny skill with a bow and started taking out the aerial threats, the harpies. The first wave of hell hounds proved no threat at all to the three well trained demigods. The slaughter of the first few had the entire mass stop and waver for a second. Frank and Jason took this time to charge, it seemed like a stupid thing to do but it was drilled into them from training. When a enemy stops and wonders your capabilities that is when you charge to show them that you are not afraid no matter the number you are against. Jason went to the left and Frank went to the right and every monster they came up to turned into a pile of dust. A few monsters started to back up to avoid the attention of these to demigods as they seemed to be unbeatable but this didn't last forever. After a minute or so the monsters began to press forward again and that is when the two demigods retreated back to the barricade knowing that the narrow side opening was their best bet to stay alive. Both of them were covered in dust from the enemies they had slain and Jessica had now started to climb the barricade to shoot at the ground threat now that she had taken out the harpies above.
A group of dracaenae, the snake like women from Tartarus, moved in a shield wall formation with empousa behind them yelling orders. This was a formation that the Romans had practised against many times yet it was different when it was with a cohort as opposed to just the three of them. Jessica immediately aimed for the empousa and killed the vampire like demons silencing all orders and when the dracaenae halted waiting for the next command, that's when Frank Zhang attacked. When he got in a battle, sometimes he would gain a Mars blessing. A red aura came over him and he was untouchable in combat. He ran towards the shield wall and his scream had frightened the monsters behind it. He ran into a dracaenae and threw her to the ground immediately stabbing left and right turning the monsters either side of him to dust. With that he leapt back to avoid a spear stabbed his was and slashed through it as if it was made of butter. He stabbed the monster who tried to impale him and then felt someone behind him knowing Jason ad followed. Jason had no blessing but his combat skill with a sword was unrivalled. He slashed and stabbed at any dracaenae that came within reach. With them on a slaughter and Jessica keeping the reinforcements at bay with her arrows they had turned every single dracaenae in the wave into dust.
Then a group of cyclops had come forward to end this once and for all. They stood 8 feet tall and had bodies a professional wrestler would be jealous of. There were 5 of them and they marched in a slight V formation with the point facing towards the trio.
"Guys, get back in the tunnel and be ready to cover me okay?" Jason said to them. They listened to him right away not questioning him. They were trained since young to listen to their commander no matter what. This is when Jason Grace proved to all present that he was a son of Jupiter. He raised his sword and at the same moment lightening had struck down where he was. His sword seemed to absorb the electricity and when he raised it towards the incoming threat he shot it out vaporizing 3 of the cyclops. Using the air current, he pushed himself up in the air onto one of the beasts and plunged his sword into its one eye. Seeing his brethren fall, the fifth cyclops halted as did all the other monsters. With this Jason had retreated into the cave. When he had reached his friends they had decided to hold their ground halfway in the tunnel and that's when the monsters overcame their shock and charged forward chasing after him. Once they were 20 feet away Jason looked to Jess and told her to blow the ceiling. (The Roman army equipped their archers with imperial gold tipped arrows as the main firing source but also 2 explosive arrows for variety) She raised her bow and loosed the arrows. The concussion from the explosion blasted them back and the roof had collapsed and destroyed every monster that was caught under it. They looked at each other in silence, finally Jason stood up, "I don't know what just happened but we have to go. We will come back for our brothers but we need more force. Let's go."
Let me know if you like where the story is going so far. I'm going to start to introduce some more characters in different ways and I you have any suggestions let me know. Thank you for reading!
-Alternativewriter
