#ssssooooooooon I'll be able to sleep

[jflashandclash]

Traitors of Olympus IV: Fall of the Sun

Forty-Two: Calex

A Boycott on Falling

             All of them acted at once. Euna wrapped a vine around the avatar’s shoulder like something out of Tarzan. She swung down, taking Phobetor off guard and kicking him in the face. Quite an alright sight, if you where to ask Calex.

           Calex jumped off the avatar’s shoulder, holding his breath to see if Thalia followed through on her side of the bargain. It would be right rubbish if he made it through Tartarus and all this madness only to flatten into a Shrove Tuesday pancake.[1]

           Sure enough, as he dove towards the ground, he could see the huntress of Artemis lunging off the other shoulder. She had both her hands outstretched and—

           And her eyes were tightly shut.

           “GRACE!” Calex shouted at her.

           As he said it, a blast of air exploded out of her hands. The gust hit the mashed strawberry field and flooded up toward him. His descent slowed so, by the time he blundered to the mud, he could do a break fall without shattering his body.

           Not exactly graceful, but not dead either.

           Without losing momentum, Calex rolled into a sprint. He fumbled to withdraw his pencil pouch so he could assemble Soul Pain.

           “Did you just do that with your bloody eyes closed?!” Calex couldn’t believe he was using that tone with the Lieutenant of Artemis, but recent events left him a bit more willingness to defend his right to survive long enough to snog Merry.

           “No! Shut up!” Thalia snarled. Her face was paler than he’d seen in their entire trip through two underworlds. “Giant snake. Destruction of camp. Focus!”

           This was almost as angry as he felt when Euna explained her plan to capture Kaos while they were ascending out of Tartarus—the trial their group called The Eternity of Tortuous Stairs: The Nightmare of a Couch Potato. Then, Euna explained that she had intentionally made shorter vines to snap when he and she were falling towards oblivion, to decrease the burden of deceleration towards Kaos’ pit, and conveniently forgot to tell Calex that they were supposed to snap, leading Calex to believe they were in an uncontrolled fumble towards death.

           Now, while Calex dug his trainers into the mud, he grumbled, “Being a demigod: taking life one unnecessary heart attack at a time.”

           Calex didn’t dare look back to see how cat-avatar-Axel and Reyna faired. [2]They had other worries.

           They raced toward the cabins, where the world darkened without the proximity of the Roman field lights. Now that they were beyond the horrified mass of ghosts, he could better see how massive a problem they had there. Despite the darkness, it would be hard to miss the destruction.

           When Calex had seen Python inside of Howe Caverns, he froze up. All he could do was drag his friends to safety when they got knocked out. Then he hadn’t even seen the entirety of Python. However, after saying a quick, “How do you do?” to Kaos, the sight of Python in her whole was much easier to swallow.  

           The drakon’s body was enormous, her diamond shaped head at least twenty feet off the ground. Her serpentine form balanced atop the totaled Apollo cabin, wrapped several times around the central hearth to consume the flames, then crossed the cabins to rest atop of a pile of silver rubble. With the flick of its tail, it smashed through the walls of the Athena and Demeter cabins.

           One of its eyes was swollen shut. The other—

           Calex averted his gaze, remembering something Joey and Pax had discussed right before Joey had stabbed the drakon’s eye like the crazy hero she had been. “Don’t look it in the eye. It’ll—”

           “—paralyze you. Duh,” Thalia said, giving Calex an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.

           “We can’t let it destroy the rest of Hera’s cabin,” he said. Though he couldn’t see much of the half-wrecked structure, he hoped Joey’s statue was safely standing. If there was any hope of changing her back, he assumed the statue would have to look like a proper Greek statue instead of a post modern one.

           “Hera’s cabin isn’t really high on my to-do list right now,” Thalia snapped.

           “Right,” he said. “Let’s just crush the snake fast.”

           At Python’s tail, he could see several small forms darting around. Miranda Gardener and another one of Euna’s sisters were trying to unsuccessfully restrain the tail with a few vines.

           By the head, they could see a group of Greeks armed with scattered weapons and PJs, all ducked behind a gigantic metal shield where the Hephaestus Cabin once stood.

           The drakon snapped its jaws at the shield, hissing in frustration. Whatever the material was, it was strong enough to hold up against a direct bite, and it was large enough that Python couldn’t get his jaws around it. The drakon either was too thick to think of going around the side of the shield, or the shield was enchanted to confuse it.

           Dead ahead, the sickening greenish glow of the Cloven Terror’s eye sockets bobbed as Alabaster’s figure approached Python, far closer than Calex and Thalia.

           “Mad bloke is going to get himself killed,” Calex muttered after his quick glimpse of the helm. Although he knew how powerful the child of Hecate was after seeing the fight with Phobetor, this fight seemed a bit different in magnitude.

           As Calex finished assembling his bow, Thalia handed him one of her Artemis arrows. They closed in and Calex saw more movement that made his stomach drop.

           It was from the rickety, old cabin at the edge of the original twelve.

           If Calex counted right, there weren’t many of the original cabins left standing on this side. Poseidon’s was still fine, but Ares’ bunker and Apollo’s cabin were in shambles. Next was the shield left in Hephaestus’ place. Last was the Hermes cabin.

           And five figures were sprinting out of it towards the shelter of the Hephaestus shield.

           Calex almost choked.

           Camp Half-Blood’s three youngest campers, Harley, an energetic child of Hephaestus, the daughter of the sea storm goddess, and two tiny Hermes campers were scurrying behind a slightly taller figure. Drew Tanaka ushered them along in proper Auntie Drew fashion.

           “Oh my gods! I know you little thieves and brats can move faster than that!”

           Calex could barely hear her. But, Python definitely had.

           Calex understood the gamble. If Python was making her way down the cabins, the Hermes cabin was next in line for destruction, and they’d put their youngest in there during all the insanity earlier. But could they make the run to the safety of the Hephaestus before—

           Python’s tongue flicked out towards the children and a horrific laugh filled the air. She reared her head back to strike.

           Those children would be helpless.

           “You don’t want to smash us! We’d be icky to get off your scales or pick out of your teeth! We don’t taste good!” Drew shouted. “Harvey farts A LOT.”

           For a disorienting moment, Calex full-heartedly agreed that the running campers were quite nasty and would be difficult to pick out of scales if Calex had scales.

           Python also hesitated.

           Calex shook off the charmspeak enough to aim an arrow and fire.

           Thalia followed half a second later.

           Their arrows clinked against Python’s forehead scales and ricocheted off. Python barely seemed to notice.

           It dove at the four children and daughter of Aphrodite.

           Calex frantically snatched another arrow from Thalia’s quiver, unsure what good it would do. He’d forgotten those scales would be so thick.

           Regardless, he and Thalia took aim.

           The children screamed.

           Something hissed and gleamed through the air, intercepting Python before she could snap her jaws around the campers.

           It thunked into the drakon’s good eye.

           Python shrieked and recoiled.

           The ground rumbled as the drakon withered.

           The children and Drew raced into the shelter of the shield.

           “Nice throw, Kal—” Calex began to reflexively shout, until something glowed green by the drakon’s head and reversed spin towards the Cloven Terror. The monster—the Alabaster kind of monster, not the serpentine one—caught the discus as it went past, spinning with the weapon’s trajectory to decelerate it.

           Horror sank Calex’s stomach to think what could have happened to Kally for Alabaster to have her weapon.

           When Python made another horrific hiss, Calex could see its other eye was now tightly closed.

           “We should get to that shelter. We’re sitting ducks out here if its hide is too thick to pierce with these arrows. Let’s see how we can back them up there,” Thalia said.

           “Right!” Calex agreed.

           They continued to race towards the shelter.

           Calex’s mind raced alongside with ideas.

           When they fought Python last time, Kally had used some kind of solar explosion to ward Python off, and the drakon might have only let them go to fulfill the first part of Eris’ plan. From what he remembered of Annabeth’s monster fighting courses, it took Apollo’s full quiver of arrows to slay Python.

           Currently, the sun was down, Will—one of the most powerful children of Apollo—was probably still dead and nearby Nico’s semi-solid body, Phobetor had killed Kayla, Calex hated to know if there were any Apollo children inside the cabin when it got smashed, and he hadn’t seen Kally since they got here—what? 10-45 seconds ago?

           Had Python been methodically destroying the few campers that could put up a proper resistance?

           For the moment, Python appeared to have forgotten the Hephaestus shield. Its tongue flicked towards the Cloven Terror.  “I smell no demigod here! You have the scent of a monster and not that of the foolish Cyclops welp—”

           A burst of hope spread through Calex’s chest. Cyclops welp? Was Tyson still here somewhere?

           Whatever reason Alabaster had to keep throwing himself into the front of battles, Calex was cheered they could at least use his stupidity as a cover. He and Thalia were close enough to the shield to see several campers frantically motioning them closer.

           “—why do you help defend this camp?” Python demanded of the Cloven Terror.

           Before Calex dove behind the three-feet-thick metal shield, he caught a glimpse of Alabaster doing something he’d never seen Alabaster do: hesitate.

           Somehow, the Cloven Terror looked smaller than usual, though maybe that was due to his proximity to the drakon. Now that Calex had slowed his pace, he saw something else odd. The flare of the green torches along Hecate’s cabin gleamed off something spilling down the Cloven Terror’s back: rosy-gold hair.

           Calex’s stomach knotted to ice.

           That wasn’t Alabaster.

           He skidded behind the metal shield, having too much forward momentum to stop.

           Thalia rolled in half-a-second behind him. Already, the word, “Update,” was out of her mouth.

           Calex might have tripped and fallen over had a giant Hispanic not steadied him. He looked into the dark, scared eyes of Chris Rodriguez, a son of Hermes and friend of Pax’s. Clarisse La Rue lay at his feet, clutching her leg—one bent at an odd angle. For a moment, hope flooded Calex at seeing Austin, a child of Apollo, laying beside Clarisse, but the boy was out cold, the lower half of his body mangled like a building had dropped on it. Calex frowned; it probably had.

           Jake Mason, a child of Hephaestus, was putting aerospace-looking blankets around the shoulders of the four children and Drew. Nyssa and Matthias, two other children of Hephaestus, were stationed at either end of the shield wall. At the center, there was a giant wheel crank—to move the shield wall back and forth, Calex assumed, judging off the massive rollers on the bottom and the circular track on the ground. There was a ladder up the center to a small slit in the shield, where a gigantic stun-gun-thing was positioned.

            Tyson and a child of Ares, whose name Calex couldn’t remember, were positioned by the crank, ready to turn it.

           “Do we change positions now?” Tyson asked.

           “No! He’s talking to the Witchboy. Hold up!” Matthias called.

           Calex didn’t realize the shield itself had been pivoting. That would explain why Python struggled to turn the lot of them into afternoon biscuits—well—nighttime biscuits?  After being underground for what felt like days and exiting into a starless, moonless black sky, Calex could guess the time about as well as he could guess the Queen’s favorite pair of socks.[3]

           “We have to do something! That’s Kally!” Calex said, scrambling for a plan.

           “Were you going to just let him die if it was Alabaster?” Chris asked, looking pale.

           Calex was alarmed by his own, unhesitant response. “Yep.”

           Matthias nervously tapped his fingers together. “Imagine Pax’s whining though.”

           “Matt! Eyes outside!” Nyssa scolded.

           “Yea, shut up,” Thalia said, “Whoever is outside will need our help and we need to know what’s going on.”

           Clarisse growled in agreement. “We’re not sure. I think Clovis is keeping us awake. Phobetor can’t seem to keep all of the campers asleep and puppet people as sleep walkers at the same time.”

           “Clovis is napping now. I heard he’s more powerful when he’s sleeping,” Harvey, the eight-year-old, said quickly, “So he can better take on that nightmare meanie.”

           “Pipsqueak might be right,” Clarisse said, “Last we heard, the Stoll brothers, Will, Nico, Chiron, Sherman, and Pollux were in the Big House’s infirmary by Clovis. We’re not sure where everyone else is. No one was prepared for the sun to go down early.” Her voice quivered with fury. “Stupid, overgrown snake—”

           “The sun only went down a few minutes before you showed up on… um—” Chris hesitated.

           “A glowing, giant Axel,” Thalia said.

           Chris looked even paler. “That’s terrifying.”

           After helping to shove Harvey tighter into his blanket, Drew stumbled over to Calex. He prepared—unwittingly—for her to hit on him despite the circumstances, so was surprised when she clutched his shoulder. Tears rimmed her eyes. “It ate Mitchell.”

           Calex’s mouth went dry. Mitchell was one of his cabin mates, a surprisingly shy son of Aphrodite with a good heart.

           No words surfaced to comfort his crying aunt. His mind threatened to wander to the bodies lined up under tarps in Kakata. He squeezed Drew’s hand, swallowed, then walked alongside Matthias again to peak out and see if Kally was already eaten or if they could grant her any tactical advantage.

           The Cloven Terror was still at a standoff maybe ten meters from Python. The snake’s size seemed impossible next to Kally. Somehow, Python seemed even larger since Calex knew it was her and not Alabaster out there. In the distance by the Roman barracks, a glowing avatar slashed through the ranks of ghosts. Calex didn’t see Phobetor or Euna and only noticed a blur when he tried to focus on the two giants battling outside the boarder.

           “Have you no words?” Python demanded.

           Kally took a step back, one Calex recognized as a first step to winding up her discus. “I am a child of light,” her voice rang two-toned with a deeper one. It started uncertain, but continued with a scary determination. “Here to reap the scythe of the lion’s labors. And I welcome YOU with this embrace!”

           “What trickery is this?!” the drakon demanded. “A child of Apollo—”

           Calex balked as Kally wound up and lobbed her discus at the drakon. That girl had more bollux than an unneutered bulldog.

           “Holy spirit of Ares,” Matthias muttered. “That’s not Ajax’s meep-squeak, not-girlfriend, right?”

           Kally’s discus slammed into Python’s busted eyelid. It hissed in fury, though didn’t look further injured.

           They needed to act now.

           Calex put two fingers to his mouth to make a piercing whistle. The chances were low but he should have been around—

           The drakon snapped downward towards his mate.

           A rainbow blur blasted between the drakon’s open jaws as they crushed into the ground.

           Calex whooped in excitement.  

           “What is that?” Nyssa asked from the other side of the shield.

           “The best damn unicorn you’ll ever set eyes on!” Calex cheered.

           A crimson and black blur galloped to a sudden stop about five meters from their hiding spot. Atop a magnificent stallion with a gold and silver horn sputtering rainbow sparks, Kally sat upright, her helm focused on the incoming green glow that hissed behind Python’s head.

           Her discus spun back towards them and Kally snapped her hand out to catch it.

           Calex thought he heard something crack, but couldn’t be certain when Vinyl took off back towards Python. The drakon had dislodged its jaws from the dirt and flicked its tongue towards Kally.

           Python lunged again.

           The unicorn and rider darted under the giant snake. From its blur, a golden discus spun out again.

           Once again, the hit seemed to only annoy the drakon as it withered in anger.

           “We need to help her find an opening,” Calex said. His eyes flashed around their shield and what they had. “Clarisse, you defeated a drakon before, right?”

           “I electrocuted it from the inside of its eye socket,” she growled. “If you didn’t notice, I don’t have an electric spear.”

           Calex pointed at the giant stun-gun thing mounted at the top of the shield. “It’s broken, innit?”

           Jake frowned. “Python knocked out our backup power and our backup, backup power. We’re working on getting it back online, but we would need a lot of electricity to…”

           Thalia grabbed his shoulder, giving him a grin. “How much electricity is a lot?”

           Jake’s mouth hung open then crooked into a grin.

           “You still need to find a way to pierce the hide,” Clarisse reminded, scowling.

           The hope in Jake’s eyes crushed. “The first time we tried, when Python knocked over Ares’ cabin, the prongs just bounced off.”

           Calex thought it over. After the stunt he pulled with Kaos and climbing all those stairs, his body felt weak and shaky. An image flashed in his mind: the black, metal arrow he’d almost shot Axel and Thalia with. He’d been scared to shoot them. The two dumb blokes were so naturally compatible, the strength it took to force disinterest or dislike had been horrible. But, to enhance some of Python’s utter disgust with Apollo children? An arrow like that would be easy, right? He thought about Thanatos and Kaos and his confidence grew.

            “I can make arrows,” Calex said, “that can piece into anyone’s heart. Even a primordial god’s.”

           Thalia’s face went red with rage, but she nodded to affirm this. Her hand reflexively clutched at her chest, where his golden arrow had struck her.

           Their shield wall rocked when Python smashed into it.

           Vinyl shrieked in pain.

           “That’s cool and all,” Matthias said. He’d abandoned his post by the outside of the shield, hands already fumbling with some wires on the ground. No one needed to direct his siblings. Harvey had already thrown off his shock blanket to help him and Jake and Nyssa scrambled over half a second later. “But, can we attach cables to said arrows?” Matthias asked.

           Calex already had a hand on the ladder to the turret. He gave Thalia a grin as the sparks erupted at her fingertips. “Let’s find out.”

 Hey guys! I’m getting this out before midnight this time XD Still haven’t had a chance to do proper edits on these (I’ll hope to get back to more edits later!) but, I hope you enjoyed regardless!

I’m enjoying Vinyl as a battle unicorn. What do you guys think?

Stay tuned next week for Kally’s chapter: I Get to be Python’s Piñata, where I feel like the writing gets a bit smoother for the ending XD

 Footnotes:

[1] A celebration preceding Ash Wednesday where you consume pancakes.

[2] Mel betanote: “Is she going to ride him into battle? That sounds so wrong but I meant it entirely in the form of battle!!!!”

Jack, “( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”

[3] Apparently I didn’t think Calex was British enough in this chapter.

#Heroes of Olympus #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #Traitors of Olypmus #PJO #HOO #fanfiction #ssssooooooooon I'll be able to sleep #I'm so excited......