Chapter 3: I Join a Quest

Chapter 2

Considering everything that had happened to me in the bast two minutes, I think that I answered pretty well when I said, “I the hell am me.”

He apperantly didn’t think it was that amusing. He stepped towards me, hands still burning in that strange purple fire.

“Steve, help me first, kill annoyance later. I don’t think he is going to attack us after helping deal with the Minotaur.” The girl said. Her voice sounded annoyed. We both turned toward her and noticed that she was having trouble standing. Probably had something to do with the fact her toes were pointing in the wrong way.

Steve grunted, put the fires out, and jogged over to her. When he reached her, he helped her to the ground and examined the foot. The girl looked over to me and started studying me with her black eyes.

“Where did you learn to fight like that?” She asked me as Steve twisted her foot back into the correct position. He reached into his bag and pulled out a little cube like the one Growlz had given me. As she chewed Steve turned around.

“What do you mean ‘fight like that,’ Alex?” He then began to study me.

“Wait, purple shirt, and...is that a tattoo?” He asked me. I looked down. Sure enough, on my right forearm was a tattoo. A hammer standing on four letters S.P.Q.R. followed by a bar code looking 17 lines. Odd how I hadn’t noticed that.

“So I do.” I responded, still not sure of what was happening. When did I get a tattoo? And why a bar code? Weird. Then he grabbed my arm, and without thinking I grabbed his wrist and used some sort of kung-fu ninja move to spin him around so that his hand was behind his back and he was facing Alex. Ignus was out in gladius mode and I was holding it as his neck before I realized what I was doing. He grunted.

“Golden weapon too. Looks like your Roman.” If he was surprised by my move, or hurting from the hold I had on him, he gave no indication. Alex was getting up at this point.

“You can let me go, I mean you no harm,” he said. I was not so inclined to believe someone who I had met only moments before and could throw purple fire. Especially when I couldn’t remember anything specific about my life. Alex stood up fully and I got a good look at her. The bronze arm thing was gone, but a black coat had taken its place, along with an over the shoulder backpack that had a baseball bat holder along with it. She was thin, and had black eyes that matched her black hair, combat boots over her tight, you guessed it, black jeans. This was a girl who apparently loved black clothing. Must go with her eyes or something.

“Stand down soldier. Who are you?” She said after her giant sword turned into a decently sized bat and she slid it into its holder. I figured that Steve would have tried to barbecue me by now if he really meant to hurt me, so I let him go and put the weapon away.

“That, darlin, is a wonderful question. I honestly have no idea.” I replied. They both looked kind of surprised at that response. Must have been the ‘darlin’ I threw in there.

“Second one in a week...” Steve muttered. I guess it wasn’t the ‘darlin’ bit. Alex continued to look at me for a few more seconds, then she started yelling.

“Attention!” And to my surprise, my feet snapped together, my back went stiff and my fist slammed my chest in a fist to heart salute. “Name and Rank soldier,” was her follow up. I wanted to tell her that we had gone over that part already, but my mouth had other, apperantly smarter, ideas.

“Mark ‘The Jabberwokk’ Uwriy. Centurion of the Ninth Legion.” I reported in a crisp, no nonsense voice. I had no idea I had one of those. Must not get used often. Then my eyes widened, along with Steves, as I realized what I had just said. I knew my own name.

“The Jabberwokk huh...” Alex mused. “I guess we shall figure that part out later. What are you doing here Mark?” She looked at me in a way that felt like she was trying to see all the way down into my soul.

“Up until a few minutes ago, I was sleeping. Then I was fighting Bull man foo, and after he bull slapped me, I was wondering where all the pretty birdies came from. Then Mr. Purple Flame over here tried to make a steak while the cow was still moo-ing, which I salute you for sir. That is all I know Ms...?” She looked at me with a kind of odd look on her face. Steve meanwhile was flipping between amusement and offense. Alex shook her head.

“My name is Alex Bellona, daughter of Ares,” at my blank look at the gods name she thought for a second. Then she said, “you probably know him as Mars. Mr. Purple Fire here, as you called him,” she was smiling at that name, while Steve was mortified, “his name is Steven Smithson. Son of...” she thought for a second.

“Hecate to the Greeks. You probably know her as Trivia,” Steve filled in. Alex shot him an annoyed look.

“Anyways,” she continued, “I want to know what your doing here, specifically. This is not a normal subway, and that train should not have come here. It was filled with mortals.” That confused me. A train, that should not have come to a subway station? And what did she mean by this is not a normal subway? Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I asked her.

“Well, at the moment, we are directly under Olympus. How far down, I cannot really say. The only place in the earth at the moment that is safe for our kind. We,” she indicated Steve and herself, “are on a quest from the oracle to recover something that was stolen from my father. Magic boy over here is passingly good at tracking spells, but it brought us here, which I am betting is not where we are supposed to be.”

“Well, that might not be the case Alex. Look at his arm.” Steve responded. Alex walked up calmly and reached out her hand. She held it, waiting for me to cooperate. I figured, why not, she is cute, so I reached out my arm and handed it to her. Her hand was rough, probably calluses from working with swords for a long time. She examined the tattoo.

“A hammer...’A due shall leave the shores of the sound; and with the lost hammer they shall be bound; to search for the missing shield of war; in the buried paths of yore’” she quoted. The quote didn’t seem complete to me, but I was guessing that the “missing hammer” it was talking about was me. A hammer on the coat and on my arm? Not a coincidence.

“I guess that I am this ‘missing hammer’?” I asked. Steve nodded.

“Seems like it. You must be a child of Vulcan.” That name struck a bell. Many bells in fact. I suddenly had a feeling that this was the case.

“Yes, I think I am.” Growlz confirmed this for me.

“So, now that we have that settled, I guess...its quest time?”Chapter 4