Chapter Title: We Make A Break For It; Derailed, Part II
(A/N: As the chapter title suggests, this one pretty much centers around the entire crew of the Argo II as a whole, so a lot of things will be going on in the chapter making this one probably a very lengthy chapter. With that in mind, shoutouts here to Wattpad users -JASONSGRACE , Az56796743 , goddessofwisdom- , and Galatea-Green-31 (whose OCs Rose and Lily appeared in the first two chapters of this story and who I forgot to give a shoutout to in both chapters so massive oof on my part), imkindaboredioi , and AO3 user laurellins as their OCs all make appearances in this chapter, Either way, things are about to start heating up now! So many characters, so much action — and three other versions of the same event (two fanfics and the graphic novel, which has been mixed into the writing of the first two chapters of MOA if you know where to look) to mix into this on top of that plus my own original writing. This chapter is going to be chaos, so enjoy!)
Previously on Hearts Crossed..
Then, like a ghost, in the blink of an eye, she was gone and I looked at Kayla. I took out one of my swords and handed it to her. "Help the others to the ship.." I said, while taking out Argonaut and the other normal Greek sword I had. Thank god I had added a fifth sheath to this last night, with which to sheathe Argonaut in it.. meaning I could use the cyborg arms I had received during the quest if I needed to. "..I'll hold them off."
She quickly kissed me on the lips now after taking the sword. "Don't die, my king.." she said with a mixture of worry, concern, and seriousness in her voice.
I just gave her a smile. "Don't worry, I won't.." I said back, and we both charged into the forum. Either way, I was a bit pissed off now, because I so did not miss this — having to deal with people that now want to kill you at all.
Of all the things this incident caused, the failure to keep old tensions from reigniting themselves between Greek and Roman demigods arguably played a major role in driving the performance I would put on starting from now to a few days into August. But for now, all I could do was wonder how exactly was everyone supposed to be on the quest going to get out of this?
- — - — - — - — -
A shrill sound pierced the air. Light flashed in the corner of Annabeth's eye.
She turned in time to see an explosion blast a new crater in the forum. A burning couch tumbled through the air. Demigods scattered in panic. A chunk of debris launched from the crater blasts by in a different direction, almost striking Roma in the face and killing her as she walked into the forum alongside David.
Colton and Kayla were hurrying along towards the forum when Charis floated over towards them. "Your majesties!" the herald shouted. "Things have seem to have gone horribly wrong!"
"Yeah we noticed!" shouted Colton. "Protect the ship as best you can. Get everyone else here from our forces out and send them to Camp Half Blood too."
Kayla simply nodded as if in confirmation. "Understood, my liege.. it will be done.." Charis said before floating away. The two demigods picked up the pace, before Colton remembered something. "Hey.." he said, handing her the key to his praetor's house. "..the MG42 and the ammo bag for it are in there. Pick that up and then take it to Michael please."
"Understood.." Kayla said, kissing his cheek before darting off. Colton continued on, having further distance to go than Kayla thanks to a group of very angry lares with weapons blocking his path.
"Giants?" Annabeth reached for her dagger, which of course wasn't there. "I thought their army was defeated!"
"It isn't the giants." Reyna's eyes seethed with rage. "You've betrayed our trust. Your kind has trained their weapons on Rome."
"What? No!"
As soon as she said it, the Argo II launched a second volley. Its port ballista fired a massive spear wreathed in Greek fire, which sailed straight through the broken dome of the Senate House and exploded inside, lighting up the building like a jack-o'-lantern. If anyone had been in there...
She really did not want to finish that thought at all, for it just seemed to make her feel sick.
"Gods, no." A wave of nausea almost made Annabeth's knees buckle. "Reyna, it isn't possible. We'd never do this!"
The metal dogs ran to their mistress's side. They snarled at Annabeth but paced uncertainly, as if reluctant to attack.
"You're telling the truth," Reyna judged. "Perhaps you were not aware of this treachery, but someone must pay."
Down in the forum, chaos was spreading. Crowds were pushing and shoving. Fistfights were breaking out. Demigods were stumbling out of the forum, disoriented. Roma spotted Larry and headed over to him, about to ask whether he's okay when out of nowhere, he suddenly points at them and exclaims, "Traitors!", much to Roma's shock.
"Larry, what the fuck are you..-" she starts, only to be interrupted once more by Larry.
"Protect Rome!" he shouts. Roma and David had been among the few Romans in the first and second cohorts to place themselves on the sides of the Greeks in the discussions earlier before the Argo II came to Camp Jupiter, so in Larry's mind, that was enough to label her and David as traitors.
Anger builds in Roma's chest and she now screams. "Larry, for the sake of the gods, I've been a member of this legion for eight years, what the fuck do you think you're doing calling me a traitor, you idiot! I'm loyal to Rome, I always have been and honestly, despite whatever the fuck that idiot Leo is doing, this is no time for reverting to old habits. If you hurt me or any of the people I call friends or allies, I will hurt you, regardless of Terminus' stupid boundary rule."
This seemed to cause many Romans to stop and consider this, but when the Argo II launches another ballista bolt at New Rome, they scream out in anguish and charge. That's when Luke steps in front of Roma and David, placing himself between the mob and the two Romans. "Back off!" he says, pointing Backbiter II at them - which Kayla had managed to grab from the barracks along with the MG42 and ammo box she had gotten from the praetor's house before giving the sword to Luke - just to keep them away.
"Like she says, she's loyal to Rome.." Luke says to them. "..and so am I, to the point that I don't want to have to hurt any of you, but to protect those that I care about from my Greek family, I'll do what I must." He then turns to David and Roma and simply shouts, "GO!"
Both demigods stand still for a moment, then dash around Luke's right side and around the crowd, going further into the forum before Luke more or less manages to do the same by simply scooting himself around the crowd's left flank. In the meantime, things were degenerating further in the forum as Cato and Alec now got into hand to hand combat along with Travis and Sherman against other Romans while Chris clutched his forehead in pain, slightly bleeding after fragments of a thrown and then broken plate slashed across it. Travis and Connor were matching the now frenzied barrage of plates and other objects in kind in return, as the other members from Camp Half Blood did the best they could.
Adriana — for her part, the poor girl simply summoned chunks of earth to form a shield to defend herself, Silena, and some of the others, trying and failing to understand just how this could have happened to begin with.
"Bloodshed," Reyna said.
"We have to stop it!"
Annabeth had a horrible feeling this might be the last time Reyna and she ever acted in agreement, but together they ran down the hill.
If weapons had been allowed in the city, Annabeth's friends would have already been dead. The Roman demigods in the forum had coalesced into an angry mob. Some threw plates, food, and rocks at the Argo II, which was pointless, as most of the stuff fell back into the crowd.
Several dozen Romans had surrounded Piper and Jason, who were trying to calm them without much luck. Piper's charmspeak was useless against so many screaming, angry demigods. Jason's forehead was bleeding. His purple cloak had been ripped to shreds. He kept pleading, "I'm on your side!" but his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt didn't help matters—nor did the warship overhead, firing flaming spears into New Rome. One landed nearby and blasted a toga shop to rubble.
"Pluto's pauldrons," Reyna cursed. "Look."
Armed legionnaires were hurrying toward the forum. Two artillery crews had set up catapults just outside the Pomerian Line and were preparing to fire at the Argo II.
"That'll just make things worse," Annabeth said. As if this situation wasn't already bound to eventually get members of Colton's Monster King faction involved, she thought to herself. That was probably the last thing that this situation needed right now.
"I hate my job," Reyna growled. She rushed off toward the legionnaires, her dogs at her side.
Percy, Annabeth thought, scanning the forum desperately. Where are you?
Two Romans tried to grab her. She ducked past them, plunging into the crowd. As if the angry Romans, burning couches, and exploding buildings weren't confusing enough, hundreds of purple ghosts drifted through the forum, passing straight through the demigods' bodies and wailing incoherently. The fauns had also taken advantage of the chaos. They swarmed the dining tables, grabbing food, plates, and cups. One trotted by Annabeth with his arms full of tacos and an entire pineapple between his teeth.
A statue of Terminus exploded into being, right in front of Annabeth. He yelled at her in Latin, no doubt calling her a liar and a rule breaker; but she pushed the statue over and kept running.
Finally she spotted Percy. He, Belle, and his friends, Hazel and Frank, were standing in the middle of a fountain as Percy repelled the angry Romans with blasts of water. Belle was searching the crowd anxiously, as if she was looking for Annabeth. Percy's toga was in tatters, but he looked unhurt. A flying plate now whizzed towards Hazel's head, causing Frank to shift into a bear and block it with his body. David gawks at him in shock. "Frank, what in the flying fu-" he starts.
"Percy!" Annabeth called to him.
"GET DOWN!" Percy shouts and everyone hits the deck as another explosion rocked the forum. This time the flash of light was directly overhead. One of the Roman catapults had fired, and the Argo II groaned and tilted sideways, flames bubbling over its bronze-plated hull. Debris was starting to fall off of the ship due to this now.
Annabeth noticed a figure clinging desperately to the rope ladder, trying to climb down. It was Octavian, his robes steaming and his face black with soot. Roma feels anger bubble in her chest again, as does Kayla - though the latter was more or less thinking about why couldn't Octavian be caught in the blast and vaporized.
Over by the fountain, Percy blasted the Roman mob with more water. Annabeth ran toward him, ducking a Roman fist and a flying plate of sandwiches. Belle looked relieved, and simply just gave her a quick hug once she got to them. "Thank the gods you're okay!" Belle stated.
"Annabeth!" Percy called. "What—?"
"I don't know!" she yelled.
"I'll tell you what!" cried a voice from above. Octavian had reached the bottom of the ladder. "The Greeks have fired on us! Your boy Leo has trained his weapons on Rome!"
Annabeth's chest filled with liquid hydrogen. She felt like she might shatter into a million frozen pieces. Roma, who had by this point reached the area along with David plus Luke who was right behind both of them, simply frowns - knowing that Leo didn't look like the type of guy to start World War Three.
"You're lying," she said. "Leo would never—"
"I was just there!" Octavian shrieked. "I saw it with my own eyes!"
"Where's Grace..?" David asks suspiciously, daring to step out of the fountain he had ducked into earlier, water dripping onto the ground of the cuffs of his black jeans. This caused Roma to remember that after Colton and Kayla had left earlier, Grace had decided to join Octavian and Leo since she wanted to see the Argo II for herself.
Octavian simply scoffed. "That Leo boy knocked her out! He hit her with a chair! So un-Roman-like!"
David got angry now. "And you just left her up there?!" he shouts, gritting his teeth, getting angrier by the second. Despite the fact that David is 5' 6'', Octavian still backs up when he stalks closer to him.
"W-what was I supposed to do..?" he stumbles back. "Stop!"
The Argo II returned fire. Legionnaires in the field scattered as one of their catapults was blasted to splinters. This, in turn, caused Octavian to suddenly gather his confidence again. He puffed out his chest stupidly and he stands closer to David. "Get away from me," he scowls. "..or I'll hurt you!"
"Yeah right," David scoffs. "Try me."
Another catapult flashes and David cringes away from the light, putting a hand over his eyes. Octavian takes his chance and shoves the boy backwards. David isn't expecting it and trips backwards over the fountain edge, only to be saved from hitting his head and thus his life being saved by the intervention of Lee. David's eyes open and blinks at Lee, who was holding up the boy in the midst of all of this.
"Thanks.." David said, being helped back to standing position by the Greek son of Apollo.
"Don't mention it.." Lee says back.
"You see?" Octavian screamed, not paying any attention to Lee or David now. "Romans, kill the invaders!"
Annabeth growled in frustration. There was no time for anyone to figure out the truth. The crew from Camp Half-Blood was outnumbered close to a hundred to one, and even if Octavian had managed to stage some sort of trick (which she thought likely), they'd never be able to convince the Romans before they were overrun and killed — scratch that. If Colton went on a rampage and destroyed all of them, they probably could but he had left with Kayla earlier so that was off the table, though she wouldn't be surprised if the two of them showed up soon enough. She hadn't noticed that Kayla was in the forum right now.
But that wasn't all that went unnoticed for the most part. With all of the chaos going on, pretty much no one even noticed Colton now coming into the forum, except the few legionnaires and lares that had the misfortune of being in butt kicking range of the very much pissed off tank of a demigod. All were soon disarmed and down on the ground, still okay but rendered combat-ineffective through the shock of having to face an even more vicious Colton than before.
"We have to leave," she told Percy. "Now."
"Yeah.." Belle added. "No use left in staying with this crowd around."
Percy nodded grimly. "Hazel, Frank, you've got to make a choice. Are you coming?"
Hazel looked terrified, but she donned her cavalry helmet. "Of course we are. But you'll never make it to the ship unless we buy you some time."
"How?" Annabeth asked.
Hazel whistled. Instantly a blur of beige shot across the forum. A majestic horse materialized next to the fountain. He reared, whinnying and scattering the mob. Hazel climbed on his back like she'd been born to ride. Strapped to the horse's saddle was a Roman cavalry sword.
Hazel unsheathed her golden blade. "Send me an Iris-message when you're safely away, and we'll rendezvous," she said. "Arion, ride!"
The horse zipped through the crowd with incredible speed, pushing back Romans and causing mass panic. Even so, the odds were still stacked against them.
Annabeth felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe they could make it out of here alive. Then, from halfway across the forum, she heard Jason shouting.
"Romans!" he cried. "Please!"
He and Piper were being pelted with plates and stones. Jason tried to shield Piper, but a brick caught him above the eye. He crumpled, and the crowd surged forward.
"Jason! Get back!" Piper screamed. Her charmspeak rolled over the mob, making them hesitate, but Annabeth knew the effect wouldn't last. Percy, Belle, and she couldn't possibly reach them in time to help.
"Frank," Percy said, "it's up to you. Can you help them?"
Annabeth and Belle didn't understand how Frank could do that all by himself, but he swallowed nervously.
"Oh, gods," he murmured. "Okay, sure. Just get up the ropes. Now."
Percy and Annabeth lunged for the ladder. Octavian was still clinging to the bottom, but Percy yanked him off and threw him into the mob.
They began to climb as others from Camp Jupiter and Camp Half Blood swarmed towards the ladder and armed legionnaires flooded into the forum. Arrows whistled past Annabeth's head. An explosion almost knocked her off the ladder. Halfway up, she heard a roar below and glanced down.
(* "Godzilla Save The Earth Melee - Godzilla March" starts playing *)
As others from Camp Half Blood plus the four that Colton, Michael, and Lavinia had saved from Chrysaor on the quest for Argonaut and a couple other people from Camp Jupiter that hadn't turned angry at them were climbing up the ladder below her, the mob down below had now stopped dead in its tracks — and the reason why was obvious. Standing right in front of them, and in between his family, friends, and his girlfriend who was running towards the ladder, was Colton himself — who looked more than ready to continue what he had started in mowing through the majority of the Second Cohort at the War Games. By this point, his toga was a bit in tatters, exposing the fact that he had body armor on underneath it. Both of his hands were gripping swords in each of them, one that seemed to pulse with energy waves in his left hand and a Greek sword in his right hand.
"Of course.." Reyna muttered in frustration. "He has to be loyal to his family and his girl to the very end." Given what she had already heard about this man, she should have by now realized that his devotion when it came down to it was solely to Kayla, and by extension his family. Still, she had hoped that he would perhaps follow things the Roman way. Alas, that now seemed to have gone out the window.
Colton had a few cuts and bruises on his body now too, including a now clotted cut on his lower lip, but otherwise, the boy who was known as the 'Beast Of Camp Half Blood' still looked ferocious as ever. Even Reyna couldn't help but feel intimidated by the sight of the walking legend standing between the Romans and the Greeks in their camp right now. Even the scars on his body made every twitch of his muscles on his upper arm and right by his main body seemed filled with power bordering on steroids. "Give up now, traitor.." Octavian demanded, not so fazed by the intimidating presence of Colton before him, standing at the front of the crowd and hate boiling over on his lips. "..and turn your comrades over to us!"
Annabeth and everyone else getting aboard the Argo II knew full well that knowing Colton, he had zero intention of doing that. And the reason he had zero intention of doing that was right behind him — as Kayla now grabbed onto the bottom of the rope ladder, her eyes nervously flickering back and forth between her boyfriend and the scene around her. Even with one of Colton's swords in her hand, it was safe that she was a bit unnerved by all of this.
Colton though — simply stared down Octavian with a look of pure fury on his face. If I did that, Colton thought to himself. I'd never forgive myself — so sorry pal, but no way in hell.
(* Music should be at 0:30 by this part *)
All of the noise that wasn't caused by the flames or what was going on up on the Argo II now went silent for a few moments before the sound of Colton simply just laughing in a psychotic kind of way. "Oh man.. me, surrender to you all after I kicked the asses of the best of you all while amnesiac? You can't be serious!" he howled. That's when Annabeth noticed movement inside the back of his toga on top of the body armor — and her eyes widened as two cyborg arms slid out from underneath the toga, ripping the fabric still further as they did so.
The shock was instant and apparent.
"Uh guys.." Travis stated. "..what the fuck is that..?!"
"What the hell..?" Clarisse sputtered, bewildered by what she was seeing with her own eyes.
"Umm.. this is new.." said one of the Romans nervously.
"Uh.. guys.. since when did Colton become a cyborg..?" asked Beckendorf, the son of Hephaestus also blown away by what he was even seeing.
Kayla couldn't help but simply watch, frozen with shock and surprise at the foot of the rope ladder at what her boyfriend seemingly had recently acquired.
Over a hundred pairs of eyes, except for a certain few, now went full wide as if in a horror movie as the two cyborg arms now reached up to the remaining two sheaths with swords in them on Colton's back and pulled out the Monster King sword and a sword with the blade made purely of gold it seemed like, holding them in each now. Colton's eyes lit up with a burning, intent on ass-kicking kind of fire that seemed to make him look all the more terrifying to the Romans in front of him.
To some, it was like they were looking at the human version of General Grievous in the flesh.
(* Music should be at 0:44 by this part *)
"You want to harm my friends and family, well guess what? You have to go through me first, so let's BOWL, assholes!" Colton shouted, as he now launched himself through the air, the cyborg arms now spinning the swords in their grip at rates that made it almost look like they were lightsabers being spun at rapid rates like General Grievous. Seconds later, an even loud ruckus of noise started ensuing below the Argo II as Colton started taking on basically the entirety of the legion by himself and dominating Roman after Roman in the process.
"Holy shit!" Connor shouted. "What the fuck is even happening here..?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know..?" Rose shouted back. Lily felt the same way — as did many others there.
"What in the world... ?" Annabeth couldn't even put the thought into words. She was too paralyzed at the moment by what exactly was going on below as swords, shields, helmets, armor, and bodies — without any missing body parts for Colton was holding back and trying not to kill any Romans right now — started flying all over the place in the forum. Screams, swears, and curses flew freely.
The brawl that was taking place in and of itself looked like a mixture of a General Grievous curbstomp fight from the 2003 Clone Wars microseries and from fight scenes in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Even with more and more adult Lares, adult demigods, and even angry fauns armed with weapons pilling into the forum as the seconds ticked by, no matter what the Romans did, they could not get past Colton who continued to block their way. Compared to him wiping the floor with Octavian plus the majority of the Second Cohort during the War Games, this could only be described as pure dominance. A masterpiece of combat that would make Ares, Bellona, and Mars all proud if this wasn't being fought between their children for the most part.
"Okay.. I did not see that coming," Percy stated, a few feet above her. "..I had no idea he could now do that.."
"Understatement of the day," Annabeth muttered. "Keep climbing!"
That seemed to break the spell over Kayla, who blinked — then realized what her boyfriend was doing by brawling with the Romans, and started climbing once more.
"YOU ALL WANT MORE?!" Colton shouted below, taunting the Romans while seemingly having the time of his life. "COME AND GET IT, YOU WEAKLINGS!"
Reyna stood at the back of it all, frozen by fear at what she was watching with her own eyes. She'll admit, she definitely underestimated how far Colton would go to protect his family, the Greek part of it at that. She had a hard time believing that the entire legion — even without the help of Terminus and with the help of adult reservists, lares, and some of the fauns — couldn't even get past the angry, four sword wielding demigod standing between the legion and the cast of characters making its way onto the Argo II.
"Come on, fools!" shouted Octavian, standing off to the side like the coward he was and urging the Romans on into the face of the monstrous human buzz-saw blocking the way for the mob. Blood dripped from his forehead from a scrape he had acquired near the start of the brawl between the legion and Colton. "Get them!"
"Hard to do so, augur.." shouted a legionnaire. "This guy is just too strong!"
Gwen likewise was watching the brawl from a distance. She had heard the commotion, saw Leo firing, grabbed a sword in anger and came running — but once she caught sight of the meat-grinder taking place in the forum, she dropped her sword in fear. The sight of Colton looking absolutely full on enraged, literally mowing his way through fauns, lares, and demigods alike without even breaking a sweat or showing any signs of slowing down even as he just for the most part stayed in the same area and acted as a one man chokepoint that the legion couldn't overcome — it was a sight that was being burned into her skull. She dropped to her knees, scared now because of the sight she was looking at. How are we supposed to win against that?
Without Colton to distract the Romans, Annabeth and the others never would have made it up the ladder; but finally they climbed past a row of broken aerial oars and onto the deck. The rigging was on fire. The foresail was ripped down the middle, and the ship listed badly to starboard. Debris was falling off the ship from time to time. Everyone else that was on the ladder behind and below Annabeth was now making it on as fast as they could behind her.
There was no sign of Coach Hedge, but Leo stood amidships, calmly reloading the ballista. Annabeth's gut twisted with horror. Grace* lay unconscious on the deck by Leo's feet, a broken chair lying next to her.
"Leo!" she screamed. "What are you doing?"
"Destroy them..." He faced Annabeth. His eyes were glazed, almost golden. His movements were like a robot's. "Destroy them all." Annabeth froze with fear, for it reminded her to a degree of when Kronos was possessing Luke.
Leo turned back to the ballista, but then Percy tackled him. Leo's head hit the deck hard, and his eyes rolled up so that only the whites showed. He was unconscious, but also unable to do any more damage, much to the fury of the Eidolon inside the boy. With that done, Beckendorf now sped up the process of people getting on the Argo II, reaching out and pulling people up onto the ship as fast as he could. Roma was the first on, and she immediately set about unloading the ballista carefully.
"Mind giving me a hand here, La Rue..?" Beckendorf hollered, and Clarisse — who was about to take her frustration out on Leo for wrecking things — simply sighed and came running over to help.
"Sure.. like old times, huh..?" she replied somewhat nostalgically, and the two of them now sped up the process even faster.
"I really don't miss this at all.." Beckendorf grunted.
"Neither do I.." Clarisse said back.
Even as Romans, Lares, and Fauns were being flung and knocked down left and right all over the place from the multi-armed and dangerous opponent they currently faced, others now screamed and scattered as a full-sized dragon charged through the forum—a beast even scarier than the bronze dragon figurehead on the Argo II, though right now, Colton seemed to be even giving this a run for its money on being the scariest thing in this situation. Even so, the dragon had rough gray skin like a Komodo lizard's and leathery bat wings. Arrows and rocks bounced harmlessly off its hide as it lumbered toward Piper and Jason, grabbed them with its front claws, and vaulted into the air.
"Is that..?" Annabeth asked, stunned by what she was seeing.
"Yeah, that's Frank.." Luke replied, currently helping Ethan and Chris hold down Leo — both of whom were amazed when the dragon came into view.
"He has a few special talents.." Percy added.
"No kidding.." Annabeth simply said back.
The gray dragon now soared into view. It circled the ship once and landed at the bow, depositing Jason and Piper, who both collapsed.
"Go!" Percy yelled. "Get us out of here!"
With a shock, Annabeth realized he was talking to her.
She ran for the helm. She made the mistake of glancing over the rail and saw that even with Colton just dominating opponent after opponent, armed legionnaires were closing ranks in the forum, preparing flaming arrows. Hazel spurred Arion, and they raced out of the city with a mob chasing after them. More catapults were being wheeled into range. All along the Pomerian Line, the statues of Terminus were glowing purple, as if building up energy for some kind of attack. It was just about this time that the last person to get on the Argo II that was on the rope ladder, Kayla, made it onboard the ship. She wanted to see how Colton was doing, but there were other things that needed to be done onboard, so she set about doing them, praying to Apollo and Ares that her boyfriend would come out of this alive.
Annabeth looked over the controls. She cursed Leo for making them so complicated. No time for fancy maneuvers, but she did know one basic command: Up. In the chaos of it all, she paid little attention to how exactly Colton was going to make it out of this one.
She grabbed the aviation throttle and yanked it straight back. The ship groaned. The bow tilted up at a horrifying angle. Time seemed to slow down now, even if she didn't realize it — for Colton had caught a glimpse of the actions of the ship and knew it was time to go. The debris falling from the Argo II because of Annabeth's actions gave him a tricky, albeit doable escape route from this brawl and he didn't waste any time in taking it. Deploying a new spell with a simple phrase in his head — Time Quasar — which had the effect of slowing everything except the chanter to basically the speed of snails for at least a minute and 30 seconds, he grabbed Octavian's leg and flung him at a row of charging Romans, knowing that there would be no time for them to get out of the way.
Looks like the bus is leaving, Colton thought to himself. Time to make an exit, stage right.
Sheathing his swords in the sheathes and putting up the cyborg arms which now folded back into his ripped toga, he now said another phrase in his mind as he turned to the nearest building — Agility Excel — and then with one leap due to instant jump boost for 50 seconds, he leapt to the top of the building.
Terminus, by now, had finished charging up and fired at the Argo II, but much to the God's surprise and then worry, the attack bounced off a shield made of fire that had appeared out of nowhere a few feet in front of the Argo II, generated by Charis who had appeared out of a ball of fire mere moments earlier before the statues of Terminus were then hit by dark energy that seemed to sap him of power needed to attack the Argo II.
"Ugghh.. I hate black magic!" the god shouted.
Thank you heralds, Colton thought to himself shortly before he made his next move. Though earlier could have been nice.
"Everyone hang on!" Annabeth shouted.
As eyes slowly looked up while affected by the first spell, Colton took his time and used the slowed nature of time temporarily to his advantage, using the debris falling from the Argo II to gain elevation at a fast rate. Kayla had just glanced over at Leo once more when a hand suddenly gripped the railing next to her from outside the ship. It took her a few seconds due to time being slowed, but she was able to reach out, grab onto the hand, and pull her boyfriend onto the Argo II where both of them collapsed onto the deck in each others' arms just as the time spell wore off, the mooring lines snapped, Octavian took out the row of Romans he was flung into like a bowling ball and the Argo II shot into the clouds.
"Graeci scum!" Octavian cursed as the Argo II made its escape. "You escaped this time. But this won't be the end."
Just to keep himself and Kayla from flying off due to the sudden speed, Colton instantly unsheathed one of his swords and stabbed it into the deck of the Argo II and clung on it for dear life while also holding onto Kayla for dear life. All the while, one thought had rung through Colton's mind.
I hate Eidolons so much now.
For the Romans still remaining in Camp Jupiter and particularly around the forum, as the black magic wore off of Terminus and Octavian stood there seething in anger, the rest of them had to take a moment to process what exactly had just happened. For many of them, they left that brawl with a sense of doubt about the coming conflict. Many of them were already wondering, had we made a mistake in attacking them even with them attacking us? Were they telling the truth after all?
Unfortunately for Camp Jupiter, Octavian and his supporters did not feel such a sense of doubt. And as Reyna watched and sighed, Octavian began whipping the camp into preparations to go after the Argo II. But if there was one thing she was sure of, it was that unless the legion could figure out how to deal with Colton Reynolds, this was going to be a very one sided fight.
- - - - - - - -
— This Grace is an OC created by imkindaboredioi .
(A/N: And that's that for this chapter! Colton really has become General Grievous, it seems! And either way, seems that the rivalry between Colton and Octavian is now about to get messy! Should be fun to write! Either way, see you in the next chapter!)