Chapter 1: Memories Burn

Index

Mark

The hammer rose and fell in a simple and rhythmic pattern. Relaxing as it was engaging. The hammer slammed against the piece of metal, further shaping it into what I was transforming it into. Memories are like the hammer, the metal like a person. For the past five months, I had no memory. I could not remember the twenty odd years of my life. But recently enough that all changed.

Caligula, the man who stole my memory by using the strange power he had over the mist, has been trying to steal the powers of the Gods. My friends and I had confronted him a couple of months ago, when he tried to invade the underworld to steal more power. We stopped that plan. Since then, however, memories of my past have been returning to me.

The hammer rose and fell again.

Not all of them though. Bits and pieces, here and there. Things that I had done in the past with others. People who I know are friends and comrades, but I cannot remember their faces or names. They just show up as dark blurs in my memories.

The hammer rose and fell.

All except one. Kevin Strike. A son of Mercury who helped me in the early days of camp. My first friend. He wore the first piece of combat armor I had ever made. A wonderful piece of work, weighed as much as a feather but was able to take a point blank shot from a Sherman tank without a scratch - yes, we tested it and no I don’t remember how. We went on a quest to save some city in Nevada I don’t remember. It was Kevin, myself, and another person who I cannot quite remember.

The hammer rose and fell.

He was tall, taller than most anyways, probably six foot five or something along that. He was a child of Mars, if the red on the shadow meant anything. Every time I saw him in the memory the word ‘Faux’ flashed in my mind. Anyways, we were on the quest when we came under attack from a Hydra, the monster that was attacking the city we were sent to save. Kevin had dipped his sword in oil and set it on fire so that he could defeat the Hydra, and we were down to the last head. Then something went wrong.

The hammer rose and fell. The sword was done, I tossed it aside and picked up another piece of metal.

The Hydra got a hold of Kevin, the armor should have stopped the teeth from piecing Kevin, but for some reason it did not. He was sliced in half, the armor links falling off like golden coins. Faux finished off the monster, picking up Kevins blade and slicing off the last head, but we were too late. The city, and Kevin, were gone.

The hammer rose and fell.

The entire way home Faux ridiculed me, said it was my fault that Kevin had died. He became to confident in the fight, believing that his armor was invincible. He was reckless because of me and that killed him. Three nights of that. By the time we reached Lupa with Kevins body I nearly believed him. Then came the investigation.

The hammer rose and fell.

Sean Viator, a name but no face, and Anna Sola, also a name with no face, had come to my defence, assuring Lupa and my cabin mates that the armor was indeed nigh indestructible. They told of the tests I had done to prove its worth before I had given it to Kevin. The corpse still had some links, and when tested it was revealed that the magic had left the metal. We found out that someone else had tried the armor on at some point during the quest, and since the armor had been intended for Kevin, and the person did not ask permission to wear the armor, the magic was disrupted and attempting to repair itself when the Hydra had found us.

The hammer rose and fell.

I was still devastated. My friend had died because something I had made had failed. It took a whole year and another friends need to bring me out of my depression. But the event still had an impact on me. Faux still blamed me for Kevins death, and while I accepted that it was not my fault he had died, a small part of me still took the blame to heart. More memories come, but nothing complete. Nothing substantial.

Another sword complete.

The door to the forge opened and Alex walked in, a worried look on her face. She flinched at the heat of the forge. She took a couple of steps inside and then looked around.

“Mark, you in here?” She asked. I put the hammer back on its shelf and tossed the completed sword in the pile. She walked over to the workstation I was at.

“What are you doing in here?” She asked, then she saw the swords. “Are we going to war?”

“No, I was just letting off some steam. Whats up?” She looked at me again, more concern etched across her face.

“The hunters are back again.” She started, “with the launch of Argo II approaching Thalia wants to try and convince Jason that some hunters should come along as part of the crew. Chiron wants more than just you to blow off some steam, however, so we have a capture the flag game coming up. Jason wants you to join us.”

The Preator asks me to join in the capture the flag game. I Grabbed my jacket and put it on, then I grabbed my fedora and put that on also. The Fedora was a gift from the Aphrodite cabin for knocking Drew down a couple of pegs, I could throw the hat at a target and the rim would become encased in Celestial Bronze blades so that it sliced the target, then the hat returns to me.

Chapter 2