So i forgot to tell you last chapter, but you can tell I'm very pro-Greek and Anti-Roman. In my opinion, the Romans just stole other nation's things, made it how they like it, and then bragged, "We created this all by ourselves! We are the greatest!" Another descritption of the war from Jason's POV, just to prove my point. :)
I tried to put some humor into this chapter, so tell me how I did :)
NOTE- I'm sorry but I forgot to include the Hunters of Artemis in this chapter or the last, so I'll go back and add someone meeting THalia in the next chapter :).
Disclaimer-
Me looking into Tartarus: I OWN U PERCABETH
*Rick comes up behind and kicks me in*: MWAHAHA I OWN THEM NOW!
IV
Jason
Jason gulped. He felt like a golf ball was stuck in his throat. They were only minutes away from Camp Half-Blood, where the Romans had invaded the camp. Archimedes's blueprints had really upgraded the Argo II, and they reached New York from Rome in just 2 hours. The ride itself… that was a completely different story. Jason hoped he didn't throw up in front of the crowd.
Jason thought about what Percy had done. Would Jason have been so selfless? He doubted it. If Piper was holding his hand, trying not to fall, chances are he would have eventually let go. But then again, Jason could fly.
The bit of jealousy that Jason felt towards Percy was completely gone. In its place, he felt ashamed at having ever feeling jealous.
Now that he thought about it, Jason wasn't so sure about breaking the news that Percy and Annabeth were gone, especially with the relationships between his camp and Percy's. The Greeks probably wouldn't like it if their enemy told them that their camp leaders had fallen into hell.
"You sure about this, Jason?" Piper was standing right next to him, eyes still red from crying.
Jason shrugged. Truth was, he was the complete opposite of sure. "I don't know. I just hope we can keep the camps from massacring each other."
Piper nodded. Nearby, Nico was staring ahead, looking for any sign of camp. Leo was up in the helm, Hazel and Frank talking nearby. Coach Hedge was downstairs watching more Chuck Norris ownage. Spirits were running low. You could feel it just by looking at the other demigods. Nobody talked a lot, and everyone always carried a weapon, like they were ready to fight off a spider woman dragging them down into Tartarus any second.
Jason took a deep breath. The familiar shore of Long Island sound was appearing in the distance
Finally, the camp came into view. Even from a mile away, the sounds of battle could be heard-Metal clanging against metal, battle cries, orders being shouted. Jason surveyed the scene. The Greeks had a phalanx on top of Half Blood hill 3 ranks deep and 20 wide, driving the Roman main line downwards. Archers behind them harassed the Roman formation. On the flanks, pegasus mounted Companion Cavalry were smashing into Camp Jupiter's flank repeatedly, causing the formation to contract, making it an easier target for the phalanx.
In the rear, a group of centaurs were in combat distracting the Roman auxiliary archers, while triarii spearmen were trying to repel them. The centaurs wore "Party Pony" slogans and carried paintball guns, slingshots, and NERF baseball bats and they were swinging them at everything in sight- even each other. The weapons made odd sounds when they made contact, like "KAPOW!" or "ZING!" or "TROLOLOLOLOLOLOL."
Peltasts were appearing out of seemingly nowhere, throwing a few javelins, and disappearing instantly. The left flank, probably the 3rd Cohort, was collapsing and the Greek right was swinging around, supported by hypaspists. A few more minutes and the Romans would be surrounded and slaughtered. Jason could tell that the Romans were getting completely destroyed. Camp Half Blood had home turf advantage, the hilltop, better equipped and trained troops, and brilliant commanders. And although the Romans outnumbered the Greeks 3:2, they simply could not get past a fresh wall of spears and get into close quarters or break through the flanks.
He had to stop this before Camp Jupiter was annihilated. "Leo! Bring us in and give me a mic!" He called out.
Leo's voice returned, "Gotcha! Make sure nobody blows us up!" The Argo II dipped sharply. Jason took Piper's hand to keep her steady. He grabbed the rail. Hazel and Frank both shrieked as they flew forwards and smashed into Jason and Piper. The 4 tumbled and landed hard on the front of the ship on top of each other. Jason realized that his lips were on Hazel's cheeck (definetly not purposly!). He panicked, shoving her off and shot up, brushing himself off. The 4 demigods stared at each other for a few seconds, and without a word, hurried back to where they were before.
"Hey! Could you be carefuly with the descent next time, Leo!?" Jason called up.
"Hey, we were going down. I had to make it look cool!" Leo replied. He had a wicked mischevious grin on his face.
Jason tripple facepalmed himself. *Insert oh-my-f***ing-gods meme face* "Really!? Leo?" He asked.
"I'm a level five lazer lotus, yo. Of course!"
Several dozen feet above the main action, the ship stopped and hovered. Jason had a clear view of the situation. The Romans were taking a lot of casualties, and they were losing ground rapidly. Jason could see the Ares cabin hiding in a clump of trees behind them, ready to slam into the rear of Camp Jupiter.
"STOP!" He bellowed at the top of his lungs. His voice amplified across the camp. The action and sounds stopped instantly, and everybody looked up at Jason. "There is no need to fight! We have a greater enemy- Gaea!" Jason used thoses words that the heroes used in movies. Piper nodded and said, "Yeah. Lay down your weapons and relaaaaax." Her charmspeak was so powerful, even Jason subconcoiusly took out his gladius and dropped it.
But apparently, not everybody was convinced. Somebody from the Athena cabin called out, "They blamed us for an eidolon possession! THEY invaded US! And of course, they stole the statue!"
Jason smiled. "Well, good news. We've recovered it."
The entire Greek camp let out a gasp and started muttering amongst themselves. The children of Athena were standing in shock. Jason turned to face the Romans, who were muttering, "What statue?" "They hate us for what happened thousands of years ago?" "Where's my cookie for fighting?" "Reyna said BROWNIES, not cookies. Remember?" "Oh, yeah."
"Romans, listen! As praetor of Camp Jupiter, I order you to stand down immediately." He said.
"I second that!" a female voice called out. Reyna was standing outside an officer's tent, smiling at Jason. Scipio was nowhere to be found. 10 feet in front of her was a smoking crater, but she looked unharmed except for the fact that she was covered head to toe in dirt.
The Romans, having no choice but to obey their praetors, sheathed their weapons and started taking casualty reports. Slowly, the Greeks began to break formation as well. They simplyplopped down and started chatting as if none of this had ever happened. It was funny thing how this command worked. In Camp Jupiter, you followed orders because your leader said so and you were required to listen to him by the law of Rome. At Camp Half-Blood, you followed orders because you knew it was the right thing to do. Anyone who objected to a command had every right to speak up.
Octavian was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully, someone had killed or at least wounded him.
"Camp Half Blood! Permission to land the Argo II!" Leo's voice crackled over the intercom. A girl from Hephaestus, Nyssa, Jason remembered, yelled at them, "Permission granted! Land in front of the Big House!"
Jason was glad nobody had asked where Percy and Annabeth were yet. The butterflies in the stomach calmed down a little bit. Then he remembered that they would ask as soon as they landed, and his butterflies started going insane again.
Leo landed the ship smoothly in front of the Big House (minus the fact that he almost got stuck in Thalia's tree, accidently fired a balista bolt into the sky, smashed into the Big House, and almost tipped over as he tried to land the ship). The Greeks enthusiastically went to ask them about their adventure, the statue, and all that stuff. In the back, the Romans edged forward uncertainly, not sure if they were welcome at the camp. Nobody from Camp Half Blood seemed to care. The children of Athena pushed forward hardest, demanding to see the Athena Parthenos. They stayed down in the cargo hold doing some calculations on the statue.
Jason, Leo, Piper, Hazel and Frank told the story, and everyone whooped and welcomed Nico when he showed his face. Nico was blushing and allowed himself to be carried away by the Nico Fan Club (only $19.99 a month!). Coach Hedge tried to convince everyone that he was important too, but nobody listened to him, so after about halfway through the story, he went back downstairs to watch Jackie Chan.
Although Jason was a bit disappointed in how the 12th Legion was owned big-time, but he mostly felt impressed at how well the Greeks had developed their tactics to counter any army.
Everything was going along nicely, everyone was happy and excited, until Malcolm from the Athena cabin came back up and asked Jason, "Where's Percy and Annabeth? There's no sign of them on the whole ship."
The crowd became an uproar, demanding to see their famous leaders. Everyone asked the question over and over- "yeah, we haven't seen them!" "Are they making out somewhere?" "Did you leave them behind?" "Where did they go?" "Did they die?!" "Did you let them steal our brownies?"
The 5 demigods froze. In the back, Nico tried to edge his way into the shadow of the Big House, but the Nico Fan Club (join now for $4.00 discosunt!) were crowed around him, barely giving him any room to even breathe. Piper discreetly nudged Jason. Tell them, her expression said. Jason shook his head. Piper gave him the look that said, Do it now or I'll charmspeak you to strip right now! Jason quickly looked away. He cleared his throat, choosing his words carefully. "Well… T-They were um…. They were dragged down into T-Tartarus," he stuttered.
Everyone quieted immediately. Some of the older campers from Camp Half Blood, demigods who probably knew Percy and/or Annabeth well, had looks of pure shock and terror written on their face. "My god..." someone muttered. A few of the older girls who probably were their friends broke down into their boyfriends' shirts.
Everyone started peppering the 5 demigods, "What do you mean they fell into Tartarus!" "You mean you left them to die!?" "Why didn't you save them!" "So they're dead?" "Thank god they didn't steal my brownies!"
Jason didn't know what to say. Fortunately, Nico saved him. From somewhere in the crowd, he yelled over the uproar, "Guys! They're not dead! I can feel it! LISTEN!" The crowd went silent again and looked at him. Nico seemed to melt into the ground from the attention he was getting. Looking closely, Jason was pretty sure he WAS. Some people breathed a sigh of relief. Others looked skeptical. Hazel took the opportunity to speak up. "They're going to close the Doors of Death from Tartarus. We have to get to Epirus to help them!" she said.
Jason followed up, "We're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to save them." Everyone nodded. "We're in," the Ares cabin cheered and raised their spears up high. Slowly, more and more people raised their weapons and yelling. Soon, everyone from both camps had their weapons raised up high.
Jason pointed to Malcolm, "Start organizing the navy. Leave some of the newer recruits to defend the camp." Malcolm nodded and went back downstairs, already shouting orders at his brethren. Coach Hedge was going crazy, yelling "LET'S DO THIS! TIME TO BLOW STUFF UP! GOAT-FU FOR THE WIN!" and swinging his cudgel and everything in sight. Unfortunatly, that included Jason. Hegde delivered a harsh blow to his stomach before a few Greeks could tackle him to the ground.
Reyna was organizing the Romans, deep in conversation with the centurions. The Athena cabin was already drawing routes and trading some numbers, while the Hephaestus was telling everybody to start loading up.
Jason smiled at the sight. He felt a twinge of hope, that the quest would go right for once. That Percy and Annabeth could be saved.
A/N
*******READ!****** The "We were going down, i had to make it look cool" and "i'm a level five lazer lotus yo" are Birgirpall references. Search him on Youtube, watch a video called "Powerswitch" (Language in there, so careful). HIS VIDEOS ARE ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS!
PLEASE LETS HIT 55 REVIEWS FOR 2 UPDATES ON TUESDAY! :DDD
Ok expect update on... Monday? Maybe if we can hit 55 reviews early, than Sunday :) Remember, ^^^^
Sorry about that military rant about phalanxes and cavalry and all that. I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to military tactics, weapons and such. So, my plan for this book is 5-6 Argo II chapters and then 1-2 Percabeth chapters. Sorry for the lack of Tartarus, but I just can't think about of anything interesting that could happen down there. However, the last few chapters will be mostly from Percy or Annabeth's point of view. The end will be kind of sad (no spoilers :P), but I hope you like it nonetheless.
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Here's a rundown of the terms I used in the rant-
Companion Cavalry were famous Macedonian elite lancers with a brutal charge. Alexander used them in wedge formation for enormous affect against the Persian light infantry armies.
Triarii were wealthy Roman soldiers that could afford good equipment. They usually carried spears and acted as the anti-cavalry section of the Roman legion (though ordinarly legionaries could usually hold their own against cavarly).
Peltats were just guys that slinged rocks and hurled javelins at the enemy.
Hypaspists are elite Greek foot infantry trained with the spear, instead of with the pike. They usually covered the flanks of a Greek force.
I hoped you like the humor in this chapter :D.
I'm not expecting more than 150 reviews by the time I finish this story, since there are dozens of other much better authors out there that will probably be writing HoO Fan fictions, but I would really appreciate if you dropped a rating.
Peace out and see you in the next chapter.
Quote of the Chapter- Whoever said nothing is impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
Song of the chapter- Ezio's Family from the Assassin's Creed II Soundtrack.
Entertainment of the chapter- Mass Effect