Chapter Fifteen: The Storm and the Wolves

Jack woke to thunder. Without thought, the young Prime's optics traveled to Thalia. She tossed and turned in her sleep and muttered in Ancient Greek. The son of Primus tried to decipher the language but only came away with pieces: "Tartarus", "FIGHT!", and something that Jack assumed to be a curse. The young Prime growled and stood. Then, he walked to the mouth of the cave to see the sun beginning to peak over the land. To the left, in the distance, a heat mirage seemed to flicker into the form of a large cabin and fade back into the wilderness. Can the Wolf House move? Jack thought. Mom didn't say anything like that when I was a pup. Jack stopped for a moment. Pup? After a little thought, Jack shrugged it off and laughed. That's what happens when your adoptive grandmother is The She-Wolf of Rome.

While Jack mused, Thalia and Percy joined him at the mouth of the cave. Percy nodded in the direction of the Wolf House. "That's where we meet her?" Percy said as he gave a slight nervous look towards Jack. At the Roman legacy's surprised look, Percy grinned, "There are perks to being the only son of Posidaeia."

Thalia followed Percy's gaze and scratched her head in confusion. "Where?" The daughter of Zeus asked groggily. "I don't see anything."

Jack shook his head and sighed, "Of course they would make it invisible to Greek eyes." Jack raised a brow and looked at Percy. "You're Greek. How can you see it?"

Percy shrugged, "I've always been able to do things beyond 'normal' for demigods." A flash of Percy controlling the rivers in Tartarus made the demigod pale and shiver. That never happened, Percy reminded himself. It was just a dream and likely Aphrodite cursing me after I busted up her OTP to gain Thalia. "The Sea's face constantly shifts and changes." The child of The Sea sighed. "I can see the Wolf House because…" Percy finally gave up with a shrug as Arcee's pedes thudded against the dirt behind the gathering of demigods. "I don't know why I can see it; I just can."

Arcee crossed her arms and looked down at Jack. She had no frame of reference for this upcoming fight. The femme spent millennia on the learning curve to fight Cons. Arcee knew she could take them in a fight. However, wolves and mythological beasts entirely lay outside of her purview of skill. Before Arcee could ponder the brawl further, an odd sensation in her servos made Arcee stop and look at her forearms in slight worry. "What the Pit?" Arcee whispered in shock.

Percy and Thalia looked up at the odd turn of phrase but didn't question it because of all the times Percy and/or Thalia unconsciously cursed in ancient Greek. The look on Jack's face when Arcee let out the curse changed Percy's appraisal of the situation. He knew that look because he still saw it on Bianca's face before he went to sleep some nights, even two years later. Thalia threw the son of Posidaeia a worried expression. Then, she looked at Arcee and Jack.
"What is it?"

Arcee glared at the Wolf House. "I think Primus shut down my blasters."

Jack nodded, "Romans don't like anyone who fights from range," the Roman legacy explained. "It's the mark of a coward to attack from range, Arcee." To emphasize the point, Jack ejected Spark Render from his arm and took the Makashi opening stance for a moment before he felt a sheath appear on his back and slid the blade into its temporary home on his back with a slight anime flourish. Jack looked back and nodded as Percy uncapped Riptide with Thalia's spear and Aegis on her arm. "Once we start, there's no going back."

Thalia smirked as her irises arced with bolts of blue lightning. "Μολων λαβε!"

Percy laughed. "The Romans don't know who they're messing with."

Arcee transformed and revved her engine. Jack sighed and saddled on Arcee with a nervous smile and closed his optics for a moment. When Jack opened his optics again, all nerves were gone. Then, the four started running to meet Lupa and her pack head on. Something in Jack wanted to pull back and reevaluate, but he ignored that thought and jumped off Arcee as wolves the size of draft horses ran at the four.

Staggered line… Jack thought as he noted obvious holes in Lupa's formation. They outnumber us three to one.

Then, it is an even fight! Arcee responded without hesitation as she transformed to find herself locked in Human size. Instead of letting the frustration cloud her mind, Arcee refined the irritation to a deadly point in her mind and activated her blades.

Jack blinked. He definitely couldn't blame the voice in his head on sleep deprivation now. Jack put the thoughts in the back of his mind pushed emotion into a furnace in his mind. With a mighty roar, Jack became one with Spark Render. Jack flowed through sword forms like water in a riverbed. In the middle of the fight, Jack felt the urge to go to all-fours and pushed back at the instinct. This close to the Wolf House, Jack wanted to embrace the Roman wolf inside, but he kept himself in control, determined to meet Lupa as a man.

Thalia and Percy coved the flanks as Arcee and Jack went up the middle. The Greeks fought with a furious madness. With only two of them on opposite ends of the field, the duo was isolated and basically fought in their own styles. One fought with the ebb and flow of The Sea. Wait and turn the opponent's strength into his advantage. The other took the fury of a storm and gave it Human form.

Percy flowed with the push and pull of The Sea as he fought, charging forward for a quick strike and retreating in moves reminiscent of hit and run tactics. Then, Percy pulled back triple his usual length of retreat and surged forward in a flash. Heavy strikes slammed into multiple wolves. Then, Percy focused his battle anger into the ground and roared as the ground heaved and tossed around him. The wolves in range of the quake screamed at the show of power and retreated into the woods as they whimpered in terror at the sight of the son of Posidaeia. "That's right! Run!"

Thalia hit her sector of wolves with everything she had. The daughter of Zeus never stopped as she fought. Blitzkrieg hits would send the wolves back for a few seconds. Then, Thalia would hit again. As she fought, a thunderhead gathered above the young warrior. The building wind helped Thalia push more deeply into the wolf-held lines with every successive attack. When Thalia could see Percy in the distance again, she smiled and tried to broadcast a message to him. One final push, Percy, do you think you can pull up a Hurricane Special with my help? Even as Thalia sent the message, she could feel the spear and shield turn to blocks of solid concrete on her arm and in her hand as battle fury left her.

The Son of The Sea breathed heavily and felt his limbs turn to lead as the quake faded with his stores of adrenaline. I've never drawn on my powers so deeply. Percy thought in slight fear of his own strength in that moment as he passed out.

"(You are Greek; but you, like your mother, bear a heart much older, boy.)" Lupa growled at him. Then, The Wolf of Rome walked in the woods unseen and went to check on the daughter of Zeus. Before she could, a stranger walked up to her with blades drawn. Lupa cocked her head to the side in curiosity when she noticed a few oddities about the warrior. The being appeared to be a female automaton of Lord Vulcan's construction. Upon closer inspection, the being bore the mark of War in her eyes, a mark no machine could ever have. Lupa also took note of the blades which seemed to be part of the warrior's outer forearms. You may put those away, Lupa said as gently as she could manage. You smell of Jack's Father and his mother, June. The she-wolf quirked an eyebrow. Are you Jack's sister?

Arcee's cheeks ignited like a furnace with Energon blue. "My relationship to Jack is noneof your business, Lady Lupa!" Arcee growled as the femme lowered her stance in preparation to attack The Wolf Goddess.

Lupa lowered herself closer to the ground with a wolfish grin. A wolf will show her fangs for one of two situations: her cubs are in danger or her mate.

Arcee didn't move from her stance in front of Thalia and presumably Jack. The femme hated being unmasked so fragging easily! Usually, only Jack could see through her mask so quickly, mostly because she felt safe to remove it around him. Arcee's processor spun as she searched for an answer. "Is this what you train Romans to do, read people and disarm them with psychology?"

Lupa smiled as she saw the grass rustle just behind the female Cybertronian. Almost quicker than the eye could see, Jack rushed Lupa with Spark Render at the ready. Lupa caught the blade in her jaws and flung Jack away with such strength the son of Primus lost his grip on the hilt and hit the grass behind Lupa hard with an undignified tumble. Jack growled in his throat and scrambled to his feet.

With a blank expression, Jack turned towards Lupa and readjusted his stance. Then, Jack focused on the little bundle of muted emotions in the back of his mind the young Prime had not noticed until now and called to her. Arcee, pincer maneuver, she is only one wolf, and she cannot attack us both at once.

Instead of a verbal or mental answer, Arcee rushed Lupa and began striking. Lupa may have been a goddess, but she appeared to limit herself in the name of honor and fairness. As such, a few strikes caught the she-wolf on her snout. This only seemed to anger the goddess instead of truly hurt her. However, before Lupa could act on that aggression, the blade of Spark Render pressed hard against her neck.

"We win, Lady Lupa," Jack walked over to retrieve Percy and Thalia only to see the pair start to rouse under their own power. "The Greeks fought until they passed out which means they pass your test and can enter New Rome as honorary Romans."

Lupa laughed and walked up to the group with a broad smile across her wolfish face. You still do not understand what it means to pass my test, young pup. Lupa walked over to Percy and Thalia before she nipped them both in the arm one at a time. From the bite on Percy's arm, the sign of a trident sprouted. Then, from the bite on Thalia's arm, the sign of Jove: eagle with his wings outstretched formed itself on Thalia's arm. Anyone who faces my trial and conquers it earns the right to name themselves Roman.

Jack stared in shock as he watched Apollo's lyre burn itself into his flesh. Jack expected the Roman Mark to hurt, but either he unconsciously turned off his pain receptors or had a high pain tolerance because the brand only felt like a mild sunburn to the son of Primus. When Arcee began to feel the Mark burn into her metal flesh however, Jack grit his teeth and swallowed the blinding pain. Compared to Tailgate, this is nothing. Jack wanted to blink because of the strangeness of the thought, but he couldn't make his body to anything until Arcee's pain faded to a dull sting on her right arm. Only then, Jack could open his eyes and see the cause of Arcee's direct and his proxy agony. There, in the red-hot metal that still cooled on Arcee's arm, the sign of the Hearth marked Arcee as a champion of Vesta.

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