AN: Gah, There were so many grammar mistakes in the last chapter . . . My heart cried tears of blood over it. (Not really. But it did annoy me.) Clearly I either need a beta (any volunteers?) or I should actually read what I've written before I post. But anyways, here we go. I own nothing but a water bottle.
Camp Life, Chapter Seventeen
Deus Ex Machina/Fallen Warrior
This chapter, small tribute though it may be, is dedicated to the memory of Linnea Lomax. You are missed.
Hades stalks down the hallway, his war helm cradled in his arm. His fingers idly play with the eyeholes of the helm.
The hallway opens into a massive room, underground even by Underworld standards.
The room is filled with soldiers. Hades can see Heracles standing in the center, the demigod-turned-god-turned-disgraced-god almost a head taller then any of the rooms other occupants. Near him is Atalanta, beautiful and tall and fierce, her tall bow unstrung next to her. In between them stands Luke Castellan, looking uncomfortable between the two legendary warriors. It might have been the fact that they both remembered him as Jason, but he also might be uncomfortable because next to Atalanta stands the Great God Pan.
The dead god is in his satyr form, tapping a massive cudgel on his leg and whistling cheerfully. At his side is Charles Beckendorf with his arm around Silena Beauregard. They are chatting with Lee Fletcher. As Hades strides past he can hear Lee lean over and point at Methuselah and whisper, "Dudes, this guy was like a thousand years old! He's so ancient he still refers to dementors as Ringwraiths!" Past them, Albert Einstein is filling his pipe, discussing astronavigation with Amelia Earhart, still as heart-breakingly pretty as she was in life. Tiny Ts'ao Ts'ao stands next to them, looking lost in thought, while on his left the Egyptian queen Cleopatra idly examines her tan.
On a raised dais in the front of the room, Hades' destination, is a large table with a map on it. Leaning over it is a short, balding, middle-aged man in a toga. He has a serious expression on his not-quite-handsome face. He is joined by a slender young man with golden curls and a girlishly pretty face. Behind them stands a tall, clean shaven man in a German WWII uniform. An old man with a short beard is pacing nearby, muttering to himself.
Julius Caesar. Alexander the Great. The Desert Fox. Demosthenes.
Hades smirks to himself and, with a single step, appears on the dais with his generals in a flash of soul-sucking blackness. Caesar looks up and nods. Alexander grins at him, Rommel salutes stiffly, Nazi-style. Demosthenes bows, then returns to his mutterings.
William De Ropp is also standing on the dais, holding a file and adjusting his tie wearily. Hades makes a mental note to have him rest soon. Even spirits get tired.
He stands on the dais and reviews his army. Thousands of demigods, mortals, gods, and everything in between. Some of the most famous faces in history. Hades smiles to himself. He rarely lets himself get excited, but . . .
"MY BROTHERS!" He shouts. The soldiers roar back in response. "MY SISTERS!" More roars. "MY SONS! MY DAUGHTERS! MY FRIENDS!"
He pauses for the shouts to die down, then continues. "Soon, very soon, you will be released. And you will fight. Fight, because the very enemies of civilization are upon us. You must not let them win, because if they do, no one will be safe, not even the dead." He lets that sink in, although he's sure most of them already knew it anyway.
"Send them back to Tartarus, my friends! Send them back to hell! FIGHT!"
"I don't believe this," growls Thalia, pacing in front of the small area the campers had set aside as a command center. "The two people who got us into this mess are the two people we need to get us out of it. Unless Hazel can somehow learn to shadow travel in the next half hour."
Hazel shakes her head glumly.
"I could help," offers Frank. "Transform into, I dunno, a lizard or something . . ."
Thalia considers this. "Yeah . . . yeah, maybe. That's a thought - Valdez, what do you think you're doing?"
Leo froze, standing at the edge of the torchlight, holding a tray of spaghetti. "Umm . . Taking dinner to the prisoner?"
Thalia frowns at him. "You did that yesterday."
"Uh - yes? I mean, I am the cook . . ."
Reyna glares at him. "You're also helpless with pretty women."
Thalia nods decisively. "This Ana is no slouch, I'm sure she noticed last night. I don't want you in contact with her any more. Hey - You!"
She snaps her fingers at a passing Roman. "Take this tray to the prisoner!"
He blinks uneasily. "Umm . . . Yes ma'am." The grunt scurried off, looking relieved to be out of range of Thalia's electric eyes of death.
"Anyways," continues the Huntress, "The rescue mission. I think we need-"
"A helping hand?" a deep voice asks brightly.
Everyone blinks and looks around, focusing on the tall man in the colorful Hawaiian shirt.
Thalia stares openmouthed for a moment, then drops to one knee. The others frown, puzzled, and copy her.
"Stop messing with them, Dad,"says Percy, grinning and stepping out from behind Poseidon. Annabeth follows him into the command center.
"Guys!" Hazel shouts, leaping up and hugging Percy with one arm and Annabeth with the other.
"Did you get away?" asks Grover breathlessly.
Percy pats him on the shoulder. "No, G-man, you got us. We're still back at their camp."
Thalia rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Percy and Annabeth escaped the enemy again. Big whoop."
"I helped," Poseidon says placidly.
Thalia colors. "Um . . . of course, sir . . . I mean-"
Poseidon elbows her. "Don't worry about it, Thals! I was just joshin' ya! That's what friends do!
Thalia stares at him. "Er . . . right. Friends. Yeah."
Jesse sits back against the statue and surveys the view below him. "This," he says, "is really beautiful."
Lily nods next to him. "Definitely."
They are sitting at the top of the Corvocado in Rio De Janeiro, staring down at the city below them. The Statue of Cristo Redentor towers over them. The gorgeous blue ocean sparkles in the distance.
Jesse's about to say something, but a sudden thump from behind makes them turn around.
Rust, standing and holding a squawking dracanae by the throat with his metal hand, looks back at them. He squeezes, and the snake woman dissolves, wailing piteously.
"Stop looking at me like that," he says. "And stop letting monsters sneak up on you."
He joins them near the precipice. "Whoa. That's awesome."
Lily nods in agreement. "Where is everyone?"
"Down at the beach. Well, Drew and Laurel are shopping. Something about sisterly bonding time or some shit like that. You know them."
Jesse nods. "So would you finally tell us where the next piece is? It's been days."
Lily nods. "This I'm-all-mysterious-and-awesome thing might work for Drew, but it's getting kinda old, dude."
Steven shrugs. "It's somewhere in the city. Some old rich dudes house. Hold up . . . "
He pulls out his Blackberry. "Um . . . ok. It's on Estrada Teodoro de Silva. Don't ask me where that is, I don't know. In there." He waves a hand in the vague direction of the city below. "Shouldn't be hard."
Lily frowns. "What are we waiting for, then?"
Steven grins. "Nightfall."
The door cracks open, and Ana looks up in surprise. She doesn't have a window, but she figures it's about time for dinner.
"Leo?" she asks hopefully.
The door opens, and a figure dressed in Roman armor over a purple T-shirt sets a tray of pasta on the chair, the only piece of furniture in the room.
"Mademoiselle!" he says, making a flourishing bow. "It is my utter and eternal delight to-"
Ana grins widely and gives him a hug. "Hello, Les. You're just in time- I'm really getting tired of this place."
Rust, Lily, and Jesse find the others on one of Rio's massive, sandy beaches. The area isn't crowded, it being a weekday; the few occupants are older couples, some teenagers cutting class, and a few little kids playing futból on the sand.
Steven shrugs his shirt off and joins Nico and Jacob in the surf, tackling the son of Hades to the ground and wrestling him while Jacob laughs.
Amanda and Danny are sitting with their feet in the water, talking quietly, so Jesse heads over towards them. Lily considers her options, then shrugs and body-checks the son of Aeolus, sending him sputtering into the salty warm water.
Around noon, Drew and Laurel show up with lunch: a sort of simmered fish dish with tomatoes and onions that Laurel tells them is called moqueca capixaba, and bottles of water and soda.
The grateful demigods dig in, munching away at the delicious, exotic food.
"This is awesome," says Danny, leaning back and sipping her water. "I want to live here." The others all voice their agreement.
"I don't usually like fish," says Nico, examining the cooked golden brown meat in his hand, "but this is amazing. Where'd you get it?"
The daughters of Aphrodite explain about a street vendor they saw on their way back from the shopping districts, and the demigods gradually lapse into silence, enjoying the food and the sound of the waves.
"A few more hours," says Steven, glancing at his watch. "Then we need to start planning."
The others nod determinedly.
"Look what you did!" says Leo, glaring at Thalia and gesturing at the empty cell. "You let her escape!"
"I let her?! You're the one who was trying to get laid, taking her dinner and mooning at her!"
Leo's hand heads for his tool belt. Annabeth reaches to stop him; Piper steps between the Huntress and the son of Hephaestus, glaring at Thalia.
"Guys, don't fight . . ." says Katie worriedly.
"She's right," snaps Phoebe, Thalia's second-in-command, sneering at Leo. "She would have escaped anyway if you'd been here tonight, you lovesick fool, and I bet you would have helped her-"
Piper hisses in fury, and Annabeth looks so shocked she lets go of Leo's wrist. Even Thalia looks taken back.
Piper takes a step toward Phoebe, who raises her fist-
"All of you stop." The voice is cold, and deadly, and Jason's.
The son of Jupiter is standing in the entrance to the cramped hallway, looking furious. Percy and Reyna flank him, glaring.
Thalia opens her mouth to say something, but the look her brother gives her stops her in her tracks.
"Leo, drop the hammer," says Reyna, a stern expression on her face. "Girl, lower those fists. I'll not have fights breaking out amongst my troops."
Thalia glowers at her. "The Huntresses are mine to command, not yours."
"No, Thalia." says Percy quietly. "If you're going to be with us, you need to be willing to accept the authority of Reyna, Jason, and myself. If you don't like it, you can leave."
The room is quiet for a moment, then Thalia pushes her way past them and leaves. Phoebe follows, still sneering, right up to the point where she runs into Poseidon, standing behind Percy and humming. The god of the sea gives her a mild look, and she falters and then hurries to the door and out.
"She'll come around," says Annabeth, sounding tired. "She just needs a moment." She pats Leo's shoulder and walks to Percy, leaning against him. He kisses her hair.
Piper hugs Leo and whispers something in his ear that seems to make him feel better. Jason slings an arm around his best friend and they all walk out together.
"Whew," says Reyna, abandoning her aloof demeanor. "That was close."
"That Phoebe chick rubs me the wrong way," says Katie Gardner darkly.
Annabeth grins. "We should stick her in a closet with Steven Rust and some blunt objects. That would cure her attitude problem real quick."
They all roar with laughter.
Ana enters her tent to find it already occupied.
"Adalina!" she exclaims, hugging her sister warmly. "¡Como estás! ¿Dónde estado?"
"Here and there," says Adalina, grinning. "I heard you got in a bit of a jam yesterday."
"Not too big a deal," Ana replies, catching Wes as he cannons into her, throwing his arms around her tightly. She ruffles his messy hair affectionately. He steps back suddenly, looking embarrassed.
Ady laughs. "He wouldn't let us in your camp for nearly twenty minutes before I finally convinced him we weren't imposters. Apparently you lost some prisoners." She grins teasingly.
"Wasn't my fault," Wes mumbles, blushing. "We think they had a god. Graytion doesn't know which one, but he says he smelled one."
"Ah, well," says Ana, stretching. "You did fine, Wes. I was afraid you would attack them for a while there."
"I almost did," the boy says darkly. "But I knew you wouldn't want me too."
Ana smiles proudly at him. "You did exactly right. Where are Hayden and Elizabeth?"
"In their tents," Wes answers. "Lycaon's wolves are guarding them."
Ana nods. "Good. Keep them there. Now - Ady, who is your friend lurking in that shadow?"
Wes starts, and Ady blinks. Then the Spanish girl grins slowly. "I guess that's why they pay you the big bucks, eh? Atash, come on out."
A young man steps from out of the far corner of the tent. About fourteen years old, maybe fifteen, he is on the short side, with dark, warm brown skin and hair as black as jet. Glittering dark eyes study Ana curiously. The boy is clad in black from head to toe, save for a silver pin on his collar.
"Ana, this is Atash. Atash, this is my favorite sister, Ana. I picked up Atash in Afghanistan when I was looking for fighters."
Ana nods, studying the boy curiously. There is something strange about him . . .
"You're a demi-Titan," she blurts when she gets it.
Atash smiles. "My father is Krios, Lord of the South." His English is barely accented.
Wes stares at him in fascination, and Ana notices the older boy seems to . . . shimmer . . . on the edges.
Ady smiles. "He'll be useful, I promise. I brought Matt and Emily with me too."
Ana considers this. "Didn't you have Octavian with you?"
Adalina shrugs. "Mother wanted him for some secret mission. I didn't exactly protest."
Ana nods in agreement. She doesn't like him either.
Ady yawns, then runs a hand through her short, boyishly-cut brown hair. "I need some sleep. We'll talk tomorrow, mi hermana. Unless you need me some more?"
Ana shakes her head briskly. "No, get some sleep, Ady. I'll talk to you tomorrow. We have things we need to discuss. I guess Leon and them are almost done?"
"Almost," Ady agrees. "They're just waiting for you now, really."
"Ok. Bring Matt and Emily and Atash with you tomorrow. It's time to steer this war to its conclusion."
The full moon is all the way over the horizon when silent, black figures slip into the quietly opened window of an old townhouse in an upscale Rio district.
Nico enters first, sliding through the window noiselessly and rolling when he hits the carpet. Lily and Jesse, both slender enough to fit through the window, follow him.
They pad through a dark room filled with weird knick-knacks; telescopes, massive books, a music box.
They meet up with Rust, Drew and Jacob in the next rroom, this one filled with old paintings and a few busts of old bearded dudes.
Rust indicates with a nod of his head the door they have to take, and they file into the hallway as quietly as they can.
More antiques clutter the hall, many of them probably very expensive, and all of them gathering dust.
Rust pokes his head in the first door, looks around then backs out and shakes his head.
"Bathroom," he whispers.
It goes like this for another ten minutes. The owner of the townhouse is on vacation at his summer home in American Samoa, Steven had explained, so they didn't really have to creep and whisper, but they did anyway. It just felt safer.
The six finally come to the last room in the house at ten-thirty. Rust quietly slips the door open, and they enter the room-
A small, slight figure is perched upon a massive, ancient writing desk, holding a slender stone pole in his gloved hands.
"Bonjour," the man says in a soft, mocking voice. "Vous etes un peu un retard, vous le savez?"
He leaps out the open window just as Rust pulls a shotgun from under his coat and fires it at him.
Percy stares at his hand in concentration. Poseidon, having conjured a comfy beach chair out of thin air, is watching him carefully. Annabeth is too, leaning against the side of the Argo II and biting her lower lip.
"Do it again," Poseidon commands.
Percy raises the water bottle and pours it out on his outstretched hand. The cool water flows downward. He concentrates.
The water, instead of falling to the ground, surges upward and coats his hand in a shimmering, transparent glove.
"Good," says Poseidon encouragingly. "That's good, Percy. Annabeth?"
Annabeth, her face expressionless, steps forward. She raises a hammer from Leo's tool kit and smashes it down on Percy's hand.
Percy examines his hand. The watery glove seems undamaged, as though Annabeth hadn't just tried smash it into oblivion.
"Huh," he says.
Posiedon smiles proudly. "Bravo, Percy. You might finish this in a few days after all."
"Out, now," snaps Rust.
They charge out the room and down the stairs. The front door is locked, but Rust casually fires his shotgun at the doorknob, blowing it away, and body slams the massive double doors open. They company charges into the warm fresh air of the Brazilian evening.
The minute Jacob, bringing up the rear, exits the door, the monsters spring at them.
The first dracanae, apparently disguised as a normal mortal women, comes swinging straight for Rust. The Camp Armorer shoots her in the face, but the non-celestial bronze buckshot barely makes the monster wince. Steven curses and punches her in the throat, then drops his gun, grabs her head with both hands and snaps her neck with apparent ease.
As he does this, a small black car roars away from the sidewalk. They glimpse the man from upstairs in the passenger seat waving cheerfully.
Then Jesse doesn't have time to watch anymore, because the monsters are on him and his friends. He draws Cutter and tugs his shield off his back. The first dracanae comes at him with a spear in one hand and a curved, rusty blade in the other. The minute she lunges, thrusting with the spear, he sidesteps and removes her arm at the elbow. Before she can cry out in pain, he smashes her face with his shield, and she dissolves.
Sirens begin wailing in the distance, but are temporarily drowned out by the sound of an engine roaring.
A beat-up blue mini-van careens around the corner, narrowly missing the stopped cars of gawkers staring at the violent sidewalk fight in the middle of an affluent neighbourhood. The van is closely tailed by a sleek Porsche 911 Turbo in bright, garish orange. The van mows down at least ten snake-women as it slows to a stop in front of the demigods.
Danny is at the wheel of the van, and Amanda is in the back, yanking open the sliding door. Laurel, driving the Porsche, rolls down her window and sprays the dracanae with celestial bronze AK-47 fire.
"Like my wheels?" she calls mockingly at Rust as he heads for the van, covering the others' retreat with throwing knives.
"Stop stealing shit!" he yells at her as he slings a knife into the eye of a dracanae trying to impale Drew on it's trident. "We're supposed to be the good guys!"
"Whatever, dude!" she laughs, squeezing the trigger of her assualt rifle and emptying the extended magazine at the final monster.
Just then a pair of police cruisers, lights flashing, swerve around the corner. Rust half shoves Nico, the last one on the street, into the van, then taps the back of Danny's headrest. Instead of closing the door, however, he grabs the SAW M249 light machine gun Amanda hands to him and loads the chamber with an ammunition belt of bronze rounds. Pointing the weapon out the open door as the vehicle accelerates away from the curb, he fires multiple bursts of automatic fire into the windshields of the police cars.
"Are you crazy?" Nico screams, trying to yank Rust back into the car.
"Those aren't monsters!" Jesse yells in horror.
The squad cars, their drivers incapacitated, crash into the builidings on the side of the street. Rust smiles, observing his handiwork.
"These are celestial bronze rounds," he says. "If they weren't monsters, it wouldn't have hurt them!"
Nico and Jesse exchange startled looks. Another police car draws level with them as they race through downtown Rio, and they get a clear look at a snarling humanoid with clay-like face before the chatter of Rust's weapon blows its head away.
"Shit," says Nico, looking worried. "We're in trouble."
Steven grins and fires out the door again. "Trouble's my middle name!"
At ten o'clock the next morning Ana meets her comrades in a small clearing outside her pavilion (Graytion is too tall to fit inside).
Wes is at her side, yawning, while Lester hums cheerfully next to him. Hayden and Elizabeth trail behind, looking despondent. Graytion, the Bane of Hades, stomps overhead.
On the other side Adalina stands with her hands resting on her slim hips. At her right side is Atash, looking slightly tired in the daylight. On her left stands a tall boy with bright blue eyes and a happy smile, and next to him a tall girl leaning on an old World War II rifle with a wicked-looking bayonet.
Ana crosses the clearing and hugs the tall boy, her brother, Matt. "It's good to see you, Matty," she says, grinning up at him. He smiles and replies in sign language to her.
"He says he's happy to see you too," translates Ady, watching them. Even though Matt had been mute for as long as Ana had known him, she had never mastered sign language like Ady had.
She pats him on the cheek and lets him greet Wes and Les as she stands before Emily. The Swedish girl smiles cheekily at her and hugs her. Emily had been one of her lesser-known siblings until recently, when the girl had moved to Chelsea. Within several months the sounds of Stockholm were almost gone from the blonde girl's voice and she cheered for the Blues just as much as every other girl at the pub.
"How's Greece?" she asks.
Emily grins and shrugs. "You know how it is, love. I never get to see the snows in Södermalm whether I'm here or England or the middle of bloody buttfuck nowhere."
Ana laughs and promises to talk more with her sister later, then gets everybodies attention.
"Okay, everybody," she says, looking around at her siblings. "We have a war to plan. Let's get to it."
"Follow him," Nico orders Danny, pointing out the black four-seater car several blocks in front of them. Danny nods and deftly threads the needle between a garbage truck and a bus and slams the pedal to the floor.
A police car, driven by the enemy, rams the back of the van. Rust curses and points his M249 out the back window and fires for almost twenty seconds, turning the car into scrap, then begins reloading the weapon. Another car bumps the opposite side of the vehicle.
Ahead of them Laurel, with Drew in the passenger seat, accelerates towards the thiefs' car. The AK-47 fire has stopped, which leads Jesse to believe Laurel has run out of bullets.
The small black car suddenly swerves into an alley, and Laurel, missing the turn, overshoots and continues down the avenue, pursued by police cars.
"Fuck me," Rust snarls, finally finished reloading his gun. "Head for the alley, Danny!"
"Roger," she calls back and swerves into the narrow space. The car, a small Citroën, is abandoned. A shadow is creeping up the wall, disappearing from view.
The driver of the car stands in the middle of the alley, a massive mountain of a man with a cruel sneer.
"I am the great Kahn," he rasps. "Never defeated, never caught by-"
"Suprise, motherfucker," snarls Nico, shattering the windshield of the van with a swipe of his blade, leaping out and sliding off the hood. His blow brutally decapitates the bodyguard.
"Who was that guy?" Lily asks, sparing the body a glance as they hurry to the wall where the French thief escaped.
"No idea," shrugs Jacob. Amanda chuckles.
"Okay, split up everybody," Steven orders. "Stay close and holler if you see him. Take him down or not, I don't care. Just get the Doorway piece."
They part ways as the rain begins to fall.
"More. Harder. There you go - Yes."
"Phrasing, Percy."
"Sorry, Dad."
Annabeth, looking a bit nervous, fires another crossbow bolt at Percy. The quarrels don't have arrowheads, but they could still seriously hurt, even maim the Praetor, without the watery breastplate covering his chest.
The strain of holding the shield is starting to lessen. The water is only an eighth of an inch thick, but stopping the bolts slamming into him barely a ripple. He grins under his breath.
It's no curse of Achilles, but it'll do.
The rain heavily obscures Lily and Jacob's vision as they race through a series of small alleys. People stare out their back doors and windows as they race past.
A dark figure flits between shadows fifty feet ahead of them.
"There," Jacob shouts. "You go straight, I'll go left. We'll cut him off."
"'kay," Lily replies, sprinting as fast as she can. She loosens her dirk, a weapon from Steven's collection back at El Palacio del Cielo, in it's sheath. Jacob disappears down the left alley.
The shadow seems to hesitate for a second, then it stops. "Non, ne le faites pas! Stop! Elle est seulment une fille-"
A second shadow detatches from the wall and hurdles towards her.
Octavian is on her before she can think. His knife is everywhere, flashing downward, cutting her flesh. She screams, struggling to bring her dirk to bear, as he drags her down into the mud.
Rust and Nico hear Lily's screams and immediatly stop. Steven simply leaps into the air, floating over the network of alleys, and the son of Hades disappears in a black flash.
"This way!" Amanda roars, swerving sharply in the muddy street and charging towards Lily. Jesse and Danny follow her, running faster then they ever have in their lives.
Lily tries to stab him but he reaches down and savagely bites her wrist. She tries to punch him but his knife cuts her bicep wide open. She tries to kick, but the strength steadily drains from her body.
A blackness rises up to meet her.
Nico finds Lily laying in the street, unmoving, covered in mud and blood. Octavian stands over her arguing with the thief.
Nico doesn't stop to think, he simply hurls his sword at Octavian and charges.
Octavian throws himself to the ground, avoiding Nico's sword. The Frenchman turns and tries to run, only to find Rust blocking his way. He tries to say something, spreading his hands and offering up the Doorway piece.
As Nico slams Octavian to the ground, Jacob sprints into view down the street, pursued by at least five hellhounds. Rust turns toward him, then looks at the pleading thief, hesitating - but he never gets a chance to make a decision. As one of the hellhound snaps enourmous jaws at the Roman's heels, a rifle fires, and Danny stalks into view, accompanied by Jesse and Amanda. Danny's M16 fires again, and the hellhounds begin dropping.
A howl is torn from Octavian's throat as Nico breaks his left arm, then a whimper as the right snaps. Nico gets to his feet and steps away, wary, but all the fight seems gone from the former augury. He simply lays in the mud, whimpering.
Rust takes one look at Lily and turns to the man who stole the Doorway piece. He grabs the blubbering man by the throat, lifts him off his feet, and sticks his metal hand through the man's chest. His fingers penetrate the back, then his wrist, and the man dies hanging on Rust's arm.
Rust wrenches the body off of him calmly, as though he hadn't just stabbed a man with his arm. He bends down over Lily's body, covered in stab wounds, ignoring the baying of hellhounds rising out over the city. He puts his fingers on the side of her neck and waits intently for a second, then shakes his head slowly.
Steven stands, walks over to Octavian, draws a handgun from under his coat, and executes the Legacy of Apollo. Then he walks back to Lily's body and crouches down again.
Nico sits down in the mud and stares at his hands. Amanda, tears mingling with the raindrops on her face, embraces Jesse, crying into his shoulder. Jacob collapses against the wall, staring numbly. Steven closes Lily's eyes gently. Danny, limbs shaking slightly, begins wrapping a bandage around Jacobs leg, where a hellhound manged to reach him.
They sit silently in the rain for a moment.
Then Steven rises slowly and picks Lily's body up in his arms. "Lets get ready to move," he says, his voice hoarse. "I can hear a lot of hellhounds out there. And we need to find Laurel and Drew."
After a moment everyone gets to their feet and they troop out down the misty alley.
" . . . I don't get it."
"Unsuprising."
"Don't be an asshole."
"Well, he is getting help from a god. It's like getting trained by fucking Gandalf or Dumbledore or something."
"I guess. And they have super cryptic ways of doing things all the time."
"Right, exactly. It's like some wax on, wax off shit-"
"The power he knows not-"
"Yeah, dude. He's gonna kill Gaea by waving his arms at them. You remember Manhatten, on that bridge, and he killed the Minotaur, like five hundred monsters, then knocked Kronos off his horse or whatever?"
"Off his My Little Pony?"
"Right, right. It's probably - HOLY SHIT!"
"What the fuck?!"
"How the hell did he-"
"That rock exploded! It was like a hundred yards away!"
"Jesus . . . "
"Percy's a badass."
"Yeah, no shit."
"Well, I mean, he was before, but . . ."
"Yeah."
"If I was a chick, I would totally bone him."
". . . Maybe you should keep that to yourself, dear brother."
They traverse three or so blocks before Drew and Laurel, sans police cars, show up. Their pride and elation at their little adventure through the Rio streets vanishes at the sight of Steven carrying Lily's body, wrapped in soft silk sheet they'd stolen from a posh home strangely located near the slums.
A moment later Nico, who seems to have better control of himself than the others, ascends a parking garage and takes a look out over the city. When he returns he grimly reports that monsters of all kinds are massing around their position.
"They have an army out there," he finishes, running a hand through his thick shaggy hair to get the rain out of it. "We need to get the fuck out of here."
Steven nods in agreement. Hoisting Lily's body, ignoring Jacob's offers to take her, he tells Jesse and Amanda to get them a vehicle.
It takes them less time than you would think to find and appropriate a massive, old gas-guzzling SUV in a poorer section of Rio de Janeiro at two o'clock in the morning, but even Rust looks somewhat nervous as dracanae archers begin taking potshots at them from the roof of a nearby building.
The group piles into the vehicle. Amanda doesn't wait for them to get seated before stomping on the gas. For the better part of two hours, they race through the streets of Rio, avoiding monsters and policemen and crashing.
Finally they get out of the city, to a large, forested hill several miles outside the outskirts of civilization. Steven tells Amanda to head up there, and at the top they all get out and look around.
A mistake.
The rain has let up, and the skyscrapers of Rio are visible in the early morning mist. The full moon peaks out from the clouds, giving them a good look at the monsters swarming the hills.
"Oh godsdamnit," whispers Rust, staring at the thousands of enemies heading slowly but steadily in their direction. The road they had traveled up is blocked.
Nico stares at the oncoming monsters. "Guys," he says numbly, "Guys, I don't have enough strength to shadow travel us. I can't even go five feet."
Jesse slowly looks at the tightly wrapped body of their friend, then at Amanda, who looks very scared, then back at Lily.
"Well, we got all the pieces," says Laurel, in a fake attempt at cheer. "At least we got something done."
The others just stare at the incoming monsters, loosening their weapons, except for Rust, who looks down at the three pieces of the Doorway lying in the grass in front of him.
"Um . . . guys?"
"What's up, fellas?" Katie asks when she finds Travis and Connor sitting on the deck of the Argo II.
"Watching Percy," says Travis, kissing her cheek as she sits down next to him.
"That's creepy. What's he doing?"
"Watch."
Katie frowns down at the small figures of Annabeth, Percy and the slightly larger form of Poseidon. As she watches, Percy runs forward and leaps almost thirty feet in the air, and lands on his feet. She blinks.
"How the hell did he do that?"
"I have no idea. Two days ago he started blowing up rocks from like fifty feet away. I have no idea how. Some water thing. We think his old man is telling him the tricks of the trade."
"Damn."
Connor nods. "Yeah, it's not unusual for Percy to be awesome, but this is something else."
Katie shrugs. "Boys, the way I see it, we're going to need all the help we can get."
Hades is lounging on his throne, idly eating grapes with Persephone, when he hears his son's prayers.
He leaps from his throne, shouting for De Ropp, who appears almost instantly. With his right-hand man and his wife hurrying behind him, he heads to the wing of his palace where the army is quartered.
"You, you, you, and you," he snarls, not bothering to see who he'd pointed at, "Follow me." In the center of the common room that connects the dorms, he concentrates on the Doorway, millions of miles above, grabs it's power and yanks, connecting it to the Underworld.
"Time to see if this thing actually works," he says, grinning unpleasantly.
Rust picks up the doorway pieces and just kind of throws them into the air. Instead of falling to the ground, they hover in the air. The two grey bars elongate and lengthen, becoming the doorframe, and the teardrop-shaped piece floats over them. For a moment nothing happens, then the air inside the Doorway warps and twists.
Out steps a tall, muscular man with shoulder length blonde hair, blue eyes, and a charming grin. Clad in Greek amor, he carries a small spear in one hand and a round shield in the other. He stares at the nervous demigods curiously.
"Achilles," whispers Rust, looking impressed.
Several more people begin to step out the portal, and Steven and Nico begin naming them. Perseus and Theseus follow Achilles, Mark Twain and Winston Churchill after them. A spry brunette he names Amelia Earhart, and folllowing her a grandmotherly woman Nico, voice quavering, calls Baba Yaga. The final hero exiting the Doorway is a tall, bearded man with a pleased grin on his face.
"Alright, lads," the man says in an Australian his hands and skipping over to them. He is clad in a pair of blue jeans, a gray long sleeved shirt, a black vest and a black wide-brimmed hat. A nineteenth century six-gun and an ammunition belt are strapped around his waist. He would look fearsome if he hadn't been skipping, and if his voice hadn't been much higher than normal for a man of his size. "Where's your little bugbear- Oh, there they are. Crikey."
"And this is Ned Kelly," Nico finishes.
"That's a lot of them," says Amelia Earhart, peering down the hillside.
"We've got about a minute," warns Jesse, watching the enemy's progress.
"I've seen more," says Achilles dismissively. Amelia rolls her eyes at him.
"Right," says Ned Kelly, clapping his hands again, "Anybody got a plan?"
"Kill 'em all," says Churchill, taking a swig from a small metal canteen. "Fuck 'em bloody, really."
"Nice imagery there."
"Thanks, young fella."
"Sounds good to me, chaps," says Ned, and draws his pistol. Baba Yaga cackles.
Tony shifts his feet again and stares out from the entrance of the Caldecott Tunnel.
Guard duty sucks.
Ever since Octavian, the traitor, had disappeared while he was guarding the cells, he'd been given shit jobs like this, for fucking probatios and rookies. It was awful. Nothing ever happens on guard duty.
At least Hank, the Commander of his Cohort, had stepped up for him when Octavian had escaped or whatever, though that had just gotten him assigned to guard duty too.
After a while he just can't stand the boredom.
"Hey," Tony says.
"Yeah?" Hank asks, leaning on his spear.
"You ever wonder why we're here?"
"It's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it," answers Hank wisely, "Why are we here? I mean . . . are we the product of some cosmic coincidence, or . . . is there really a God up there, watching everything, with a plan for us and stuff . . .? I don't know, man. But it keeps me up at night."
There is a long, pregnant pause.
". . . What? I meant, what are we doing out here in the middle of an empty valley watching over this little tunnel!"
"Oh . . . uh . . . yeah."
"What was all that stuff about God?"
Hank considers this for a moment.
Tony tries to hide a grin. "You wanna talk about it?"
Hank opens his mouth, but at that very moment a white van slowly pulls up to the entrance of the tunnel. It's sides are heavily dented and scraped, and copiously burned in some places, and the engine seems to be wheezing noticably. The two guards stare at it, then exchange glances.
The drivers door opens, and a punk girl with dyed black hair, gages, and snakebite piercings in her lower lip steps out and struts over to them, tossing a head at them. The two Romans recoil in shock.
The head is that of a hydra, and a very large one. Hank and Tony relax slightly. More kids begin to pile out of the van.
"Don't worry, dudes," the girl says grinning. "You had a little lizard infestation, but we took care of it. Where's the chow?"
Leon stacks the final piece of stone atop his pile and smiles in satisfaction. "Done!" he bellows, brushing his hands off.
Hippolytus examines their handiwork, then nods his approval. "Tell Mother," he instructs in his quite voice. "And Ana."
Leon nods happily and leaps down the the ground, to be closer to Gaea. Closing his eyes, he concentrates.
With a rustling noise, an earthen figure rises from the ground; that of a beautiful middle-aged woman, naked, with long flowing hair.
"Mother!" Leon shouts joyfully, throwing his hands in the air. "We're done!"
The figure smiles.
WELL DONE, MY SONS. YOU HAVE PLEASED ME.
Leon claps and Hippolytus bows nervously.
AS SOON AS THE APOLLO RISES TOMORROW, YOU SHALL BEGIN. DO NOT FAIL THIS TIME.
The Giants simply nod.
THIS WAR SHALL NOT LAST LONG. THE GODS ARE WEAKER THAN EVER. THE DEMIGODS ARE RABBLE BENEATH YOUR FEET. AND ZEUS WILL NOT DARE BREAK THE OLD LAWS. HE IS TOO PROUD AND TOO BLIND.
Gaea's avatar smiles.
ONCE MOUNT OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, YOU MAY KILL THEM ALL.
End of Part Two
There we are, lads and lasses. I used gags from two beloved internet series, A Very Potter Sequel and Red vs. Blue. I only do this to show my love for them, not to imitate or take credit for their awesome shit.
You can send virtual flowers to Lily's virtual funeral by reviewing. Or be a heartless jerk and don't, that's ok too.
On a minor note, I have always imagined William De Ropp, Hades's assistant, as looking a lot like Gary Oldman in Batman. As far as Achilles goes, I'm using Brad Pitt's version from Troy. As far as my main man Poseidon goes, He has some personality in the books, yes; But I love imagining him as this goofy but superpowerful older guy, a lot like Isshin Kurosaki from the Bleach manga, if anybody is familiar with that.
Part Three will be about three to four chapters long, but that may change. I really have no fucking idea. Check muy profile for updates and more info.
Later dudes!
Next Time: Percy, Jason, Thalia, Annabeth, and Reyna lead the Greek-Roman-Huntress Army against the Giants as Gaea initiates her plan, despairing of ever receiving reinforcements from Steven Rust and Hades. Little do they know, that help is closer then they think. In the midst of the fighting, Leo comes face to face with an old enemy, and Jason gets help from an unexpected Olympian.