Chapter 2: I Walk Through Fire

Chapter 1

Sean and I Jumped into action. I reached for my jacket and put it on. The jacket was a sleeveless trench coat with four pockets, two normal pockets, and two special pockets. The special pockets are, technically, bottomless. Anything I put in them I can take out, and I can put almost anything in them. The jacket itself is made of an inferior metal of unknown origin. A gift from my father. The jacket went over my purple camp shirt and I activated my bracers. Glacius and Ignus are twin bracers that create either a gladius or a bladed shield, depending on what I need. Growlz flew onto my shoulder, his wings open so he could balance himself as I ran.

Sean unclasped his wallet chain from his belt and flicked it like a whip. The chain stopped in mid swing and transformed into a longer than average gladius that had a chain wrapped around his wrist. He dashed forward into the forge and grabbed a shield, then turned back and started to move outside but jumped back in shock. Not one to take such an obvious hint I continued to run outside to an inferno.

Flames blazed around me, Sean screamed at me to get out of the fire, and all I felt was a prickling of my skin. Then I looked up and stared dumbfounded at what I saw. Flying above the fort was a bird that was on fire, ashes floating off it, but a bird nonetheless. As it turned to make another pass at the fort the Apollo campers fired a flight of arrows towards it. The bird flapped its wings, knocking two thirds of the arrows out of the air so that they tumbled towards the ground, some hitting Venti that swarmed in an attempt to defend the bird. The remaining arrows closed in on the bird and ignited, so that only half hit the bird. It screamed in pain, and flipped about, only to be hit by boulders thrown by catapults. The bird looked like it disintegrated, but after a moment it reformed a little smaller. After it reformed it turned around and flew away.

As the bird fled, our only remaining problems were the Earthborne and Venti. Well, mostly the Earthborne. Despite lightning strikes the Venti were essentially harmless to the base. Campers from the Ninth and Eleventh Legions fought the Earthborne on the ground as the Seventh legion sought to shoot down the Venti. I did a double take, there were only six or seven Earthborne, they were getting taken down pretty quickly, but the reformed immediately. As Sean and I ran forward to join in the battle, something odd happened. The Earthborne stopped attacking, looked south, and sank down into the earth. The Venti turned around and flew off, knowing their cause was lost.

As the Venti flew off the campers came back into the fort, Apollo’s children ran to check the damaged buildings for casualties. One came towards us. Her golden eyes studied us as she approached. At five and a half feet Anna Sola was a superb Archer and healer, best at the fort, possibly in the whole camp. Grwolz landed on my shoulder, wrapped his tail loosely around my neck for balance and closed his wings. Pheonix was crying. I scratched under his chin and he growled appreciatively.

“Where were you two?” She demanded as her bow glowed and shrunk down to a bracelet on her wrist. “We come under attack and you, Sean, hide in the forge because of a little fire, while you Mark stared in shock at -” She stopped mid-sentence and stared in shock at the ground. The ground under me, as well a long stretch of ground from the front of the fort, all the way to nearly to the, surprisingly silent, Atlas. All the dirt was glassed. My clothing was untouched by fire, and I didn’t even break a sweat. Then it hit me.

I turned to Growlz. “Pheonix?”

Chapter 3