Chapter Title: An Odd Figure Gives Us A Ride Back

June 24th, 2010

Lavinia ended up passing out prior to the Trojan Sea Monster being incinerated from the inside out by fire — the whole beast itself screaming in agony as it was burnt to a crisp. Cháris didn't set it on fire, however. Strange yellow lights begin piercing through its flesh outwards and then it instantly burst into flames. It was a ghastly sight, one that Colton and Lavinia miraculously emerged from unscathed. I found that to be an absolute miracle if I had to be honest here.

After that, we had headed back up to Tehachapi and the safehouse, where after determining that Lavinia was okay and had somehow become an honorary child of Mars, we had departed from the area. It should be worth noting that aside from the sword itself, which Percy describes later, there were a few other peculiar things in where the sword had been buried too.

The sword itself, which I'll take the time to describe here, was a Gladius sword that among other things had its blade made of Celestial Bronze reinforced with Stygian Iron. The handle, hell the whole weapon for that matter, seems to be shimmering in some sort of energy waves, as if the weapon itself had been enchanted by the gods themselves, which as much as I disliked Jupiter aka Zeus, felt very fitting for such a weapon with the reputation this particular sword had. When Colton held it in his hands for the first time taking it out of the box, it visually seemed as if that same shimmering effect spread over his entire body, making him look almost like how Percy looked on the Williamsburg Bridge last year under the Curse Of Achilles. It also made him look way more intimidating as well to say the least.

Aside from the sword, there was several other interesting items in the box as well, ones that the demigods — and mortal — we rescued from Chrysaor and his crew couldn't pass up. There was what seemed to be a yellow colored hard hat and welding goggles made out of celestial bronze, a single work glove, overalls, and a toolkit with tools that had seemingly been enchanted with magic that Dale took. The professor ended up taking a pair of red rubber gloves, an odd looking saw with blood on it that shimmered as if it too had been enchanted by magic, an odd looking sort of device that kinda looked like a flamethrower — albeit barely yet shot healing beams instead, brown pants, a white and red buttoned overcoat with the first aid symbol on both sleeves, and black boots from the box. Lastly, Leclerc ended up taking what I can only describe as an outfit and loadout perfect for espionage, including another item enchanted with magic that allowed him to disguise as anyone including me which was scary for me right now to think about, and an odd-looking sort of knife. Either way, it was a peculiar set of items to be sure.

How all of these things came to be in the box along with the Sword Of Jupiter, I had no idea.. and it was likely that I probably would never find out since I had other things to deal with currently.

The morning after brought more surprises than just from what was in the box. Colton was.. different. Physically, that is. He was now sporting what looked like a cybernetic attachment attached to his back that his armor had been seemingly modified to fit on and take off without much difficulty with this new attachment. The attachment in question, he explained, allowed him access to two more cybernetic arms with four fingered hands made out of some sort of flexible metal, easily able to grip the hilt of a sword firmly. If he had the mindset of General Grievous before now, he now also had the physical attachment to match.

It was rather strange too for me to look at, I'll be honest. Either way, he refused to explain what exactly happened last night that had granted him this new "improvement", as he put it. I didn't really ask at all, especially since that now Lavinia had woken up from her really long slumber due to passing out inside the Trojan Sea Monster — and learned exactly what had happened. Her expression resembled someone more intrigued and intimidated at the same time if anything.

Anyways, we had headed west from Tehachapi.. well, more northwestward until we had hit the coast near Crystal Cove, where Colton then got involved in an incident involving what turned out to be the descendant of the first guy who was in a mechanical crab suit hatching revenge schemes against another guy for taking credit for a creation of his — and this was literally the descendants' version of this against all odds — that of all things, turned out to have a talking dog involved in it too. A certain dog by the name of Scooby Doo, who somehow Colton already knew as if he was an old friend. Also worth mentioning was this kid named Xavier that seemed to be harboring great power, at least that's what Colton told me later — and he also already knew this kid too. I have no clue how, nor did he explain. From then, we drove up along the coast until we stopped close to Gilroy, only several dozen miles short of Camp Jupiter because the vehicle we had been using got destroyed by several Earthborn, so we were forced to take shelter in a nearby abandoned hotel for the night.

Colton wasn't exactly pleased by this development. In fact, not pleased would be an understatement. He was mad, and at this point, as he banged his fist on a table for the fourth time in ten minutes — it definitely was showing. "This is bullshit.." he muttered. "The Sword Of Jupiter MUST be returned to the Romans intact, regardless of what that burning bush said." He paused for a moment before adding, "There is no room for failure."

"Yeah.. that's true.." I said back to him, as I leaned up against the wall. "But let's face facts, Colton. Our ride has been destroyed.. and unless you're willing to send Cháris back out to look for another one, it's better to keep him here — because we don't know how Gaea will react to the news that we have the sword now."

I could have said more, but at that time, this weird vision came into my head. And by 'vision', I mean voices. This conversation just played out in my head for no reason.

"Does the Princess know.. about her prophecy..?" That was obviously a woman's voice, maybe in her 30s. I wasn't quite sure.

"Yes, she does. The road to regaining all that she had lost and punishing those who made her childhood hell begins when she finds the son of magic that will come at the side of a legendary king." The other voice was much older, maybe an old man in his 70s. Again, I could only guess.

Either way, I was so confused. What the hell did that stupid vision even mean?

I was about to lose my mind over it — I really was.

At this point, someone else spoke up, a voice that I had never heard before. "Pardon me interrupting, but I do believe that I do believe that I could be of assistance."

Colton and I turned towards the shadows, me taking out my bow and nocking an arrow to it and Colton taking out one of his swords. "Who goes there..?" Colton asked grimly.

"No need to draw your weapons on me, demigods.." the voice said back, making us only further suspicious. "I come to help."

A figure now stepped out of the shadows, and to be fair, I wouldn't have blamed you for mistaking this guy to be a Roman emperor reincarnated in the flesh or some shit. Like, really.. that is what this guy looked like. He had a complexion between dark and fair, while also being short of stature, but this was concealed by how perfectly symmetrical his figure looked, and was only noticeable when you compared him to someone like Colton in terms of height, who by the way, he was about as tall as Colton. He had blonde hair and bluish grey eyes, and overall was very good-looking. How he knew both of us were demigods though, was definitely something that made both of us a little anxious to trust him at first, I will not kid around about that.

"Who even the hell are you..?" Colton asked suspiciously.

"And how the hell do you even know we're demigods..?" I asked, also in a suspicious manner.

"First of all, you can simply call me 'Mr. A'.. and second of all, I am more a clear sighted mortal if anything.." he said back. Colton looked at me as if expecting me to pick up that he was lying, but I didn't feel any sort of reaction whatsoever even though something seemed off about this guy, which was very, very unusual indeed.

Reluctantly, we both lowered our weapons. "Okay then.." Colton said to him. "We're listening. How can you help us..?"

'A' just chuckled in response. "Well I'm glad you asked.." he said back. "I can drive you all the rest of the way to Camp Jupiter, guaranteed. That's it."

"That's it..?" I asked, dumbfounded. "There's nothing we have to do in return..?"

"Nope, not at all.. not in times like these at least.." 'A' responded.

Colton and I gave each other very skeptical kind of looks, and for good reason. Because given how lucky we demigods were, there should have been no way that we were afforded such a lopsided deal for free, at a time like this. There was just no way in Hades that this was possible at all.

"Are we seriously going to trust this guy..?" I whispered to him.

"Does it look like we have a fucking choice in this..?" he said back in response.

I just shook my head no, because I knew full well that we didn't. Not when everything was at stake right now. The Romans, everyone at Camp Half Blood, the Gods.. they were all counting on us right now. So for better or worse, we had to take this deal. No questions about it at all.

Colton now turned back to 'A', and seemed a little bit reluctant at first, but eventually spoke. "Okay then.." he said, again a little bit reluctantly. "We accept the offer."

'A' simply grinned. "Fantastic.. you will not regret your choice.. I'll be by here first thing in the morning.." he said, before turning around and disappearing back into the darkness. I watched him leave, and then I turned to Colton again. "Are you sure we've made the right call here..?" I asked him.

He simply nodded without saying any other words. His mind definitely seemed to be somewhere else too, for that matter. To what, I had no idea — nor did I ask, for I was tired and now retired to get some sleep. It had been a long day, but tomorrow beckoned more fighting for tomorrow was when the army sent from Alaska would reach Camp Jupiter.

I only hoped that we wouldn't be too late.

- — - — - — - — -

Fortunately for us, 'A' wasn't exactly kidding around when he said that he had a vehicle. Dude just pulled up to the place the next day in a black 2007 Chevy Suburban car and just simply said to all of us, "hop in" and we did. The professor and Leclerc ended up having to sit in the back along with Cháris while Dale just sat in the floor in between me and Lavinia — while Colton as usual just took shotgun.

The ride itself was uneventful to say the least as nothing particularly interesting happened, as anxiety and fear really hung over most of us — as me, Lavinia, and probably Colton as well hoped that we weren't too late.

Nevertheless, per his word, 'A' got us close enough to Camp Jupiter that he parked the car on the opposite side of the ridge just south of camp. Colton looked rather pleased once he parked the car, as if he was pleased about for once, someone being good on his word with demigods.

The second I stepped out of the car though, the sounds of battle could plainly be evident from the other side of the hill we were at, which made my blood run cold. I looked at Colton and Lavinia, and both of them had similar looks on their faces.

"That does not sound good at all.." Colton muttered, before instantly starting to thrust his hands into the garbage bag and take out his stuff. By pure instinct, both me and Lavinia did the same, as both of us agreed completely.Hopefully, we weren't too late, I hoped. A few minutes later then, all three of us were now completely decked out in armor and weapons. Without hesitation, with the Professor, Dale, and Leclerc plus the mysterious 'A' right behind us, we all scrambled frantically up the slope of the hill. Reaching the top, all of us stared down into what could be described as a terrifying scene.

"By the gods.." 'A' muttered in disbelief.

Colton looked mad as hell, to the point that it almost looked like those blood red, dripping blood eyes were back. "So they are finally here.. good.." he spoke, after a few moments of silence from our own side as screams and the chaos of battle erupted below us. "Now.. they will learn the true meaning of pain."

That last line felt very creepy, as if he was tapping into his dark side or something. By now, Colton had finished loading the Whitworth and was fixing the bayonet to the weapon. He turned to the professor, Dale, and Leclerc. "Can I trust you three to run support for Camp Jupiter..?" he pondered.

All three of them immediately nodded. It was then that I noticed that 'A' now had a big Roman sword in his hand. And even with everything going on below, I doubt that you could blame me for wondering where exactly that came from. Because right now, it was time to save Camp Jupiter from the wrath of Gaea and I knew it.

"Now then.." Colton said calmly, yet still in such a way that it sounded creepy. "Kill them all! I will deal with the spawn of Gaea who leads this army.. myself! Forward! Charge!"

And at them we went down the hill, coming on like madmen. I soon lost track of everyone in the chaos of battle, and just as it seemed it was over, well.. I'll leave Luke to tell you what exactly occurred around then.

(A/N: And with that, we have arrived at where Luke and Percy come back into the story! Even with my new job and all, it's been fun writing out this quest and all the new threads it hints at during the course of it — as well as new some stuff that happened outside of this story and in the parts between events from past stories.. which should serve as a basis for some side stories in the future! Also, the descriptions for what the Professor, Dale, and Leclerc receive in the book are based off of the descriptions for what their costumes and some of their gear their respective classes in TF2 have. Either way, with this chapter done, it's now time for the fight you all have been waiting for!)