A Dark Cloud Over the Future Ch 16

Chapter 16: The Battle Begins
Thalia and Nico ran for the entrance they had used to make it to the Underworld. Cerberus watched them leave with one of his heads while the other two were watching souls enter the gate. They exited at the remains of the camp dining hall and ran full speed toward the bunker. They found the entrance and it opened up to reveal that all the demigods were getting ready for battle. The Apollo campers and the Hunters were loading quivers with arrows of all different kinds, but all of them deadly. Beckendorf was leading his cabin in storing the traps into the camp vans that they had managed to rebuild. The Aphrodite campers were also being productive, gathering medical supplies and storing them in first aid kits. Meanwhile, Malcolm and the rest of the Athena campers were loading city layout maps and battle plans into their bags and grabbing weapons. The only cabin that wasn’t helping was the Ares cabin who had, under Clarisse’s orders, decided not to help in the battle as long as Silena was under confinement. The Apollo campers who had taken her away had set her free of her prison, but she was placed under house arrest and wasn’t allowed to leave he cabins assigned area. This apparently still wasn’t enough for Clarisse as she still refused to fight.

“Alright, everyone get ready to move out; we are going to defend Olympus!” Thalia shouted and all the demigods raised their weapons into the air and shouted back things like For Olympus or ''For Camp Half-Blood. ''All of them piled into the vans, except Beckendorf who said he had something to take care of; one last weapon for the battle that wasn’t ready yet, but would be a big help. Nico shook his hand and Argus drove them within the city limits. Thalia and Nico walked up to the man behind the front counter who was reading a book and didn’t pay them much attention.

“600th floor please,” Thalia said. The man put down his book to look at them for only a second before bringing it back up to his face.

“There is no 600th floor,” he said and brushed them off as if they weren’t even there.

“But we need to talk to Zeus,” Nico said as he pulled out his sword and showed to the man who put his book back down and looked at the blade. He then reached under the desk and pulled out a ticket.

“First elevator on the left,” he said before returning the book to his face. Thalia, Nico, and several demigods climbed into the elevator. As they reached the top, they found Olympus to be eerily empty. As they approached the throne room, all the gods had left to fight Typhon leaving it completely unprotected. Blue lights flew across the sky and fizzled out as they reached Olympus. One of the campers said it looked like Hecate’s magic, but they weren’t sure. As they entered the throne room, they saw Hestia tending the fire. She watched us as we entered the room and we all bowed to her.

“Welcome demigods,” she said. She then looked at Thalia and her smile faded from her face for only a minute. “You see you bear the Curse of Achilles, be careful young one as power is not always the answer. Sometimes to yield if the best way to prevent the worst possible outcome. I gave up my throne to Dionysus to prevent a war among the gods so I no longer have a throne, but it was the only way to stop the gods from fighting themselves. Heed my warning,” she said and a moment later she was absorbed into the fire.

Like a bolt of lightning however, Hermes appeared on his throne and looked at the demigods that had entered the throne. Nico walked up to him and bowed.

“Hermes, we need to talk to Zeus, it’s important,” Nico said as he rose to look him in the eyes.

“I am his official messenger. May I take a message?” Hermes said in a load booming voice that seemed to match his size. Nico didn’t like the tone of his voice and motioned for Thalia to lead the others out of the throne room. She did as he asked and the two walked up to Hermes again.

“Kronos is going to attack New York, surely Athena must know this,” Nico said to him

“Don’t get me started on Athena,” he said as he started doing a bad imitation of her. “It’s a trap, it’s a diversion, he only wants up to leave Olympus.”

“And it seems to have worked,” Thalia said in a somewhat mocking voice. Hermes was annoyed at this as he looked at Thalia with small sparks of fire lit his eyes.

“Zeus has not left Olympus unprotected. The wind gods have been assigned to blow back any threat that approaches from the air. If he wants to take Olympus, he will have to travel from the ground. Do you honestly see his armies traveling up an elevator to Olympus?” Hermes asked with a bit of confidence.

“Yes,” Nico said, but the comment seemed to shake Hermes’ confidence. “If it means destroying Olympus, he would do whatever it takes. Is there anything useful you can tell us?”

Hermes once again had an angry expression on his face as if Nico even suggesting he could be wrong was an insult. However, he didn’t make a move to destroy them. Instead, he pulled a sticky note from his pocket and read it again.

“There is a note from Athena here. It says Plan 23 and that Malcolm would know what that means,” Hermes said as he crumpled the paper in his hands and shook it as the stick strip wouldn’t let go of his hand. “She also said that you should find a way to defend the rivers. That is my last message; I have to return to the battle.”

A second later, Hermes disappeared and only the demigods were left in the throne room.

“Hey guys, you might want to see this,” Connor said as he ran back into the room. He pointed to the balcony and instantly Thalia shied away. Nico on the other hand walked over to one of the tourist binoculars set up around Olympus. Nico looked through and saw that everything had stopped moving; the cars, the people, everything had stopped moving.

“Alright everyone,” Nico told them. “Kronos is here. We need to get down there and defend the city. Malcolm, Hermes told us that we should use Plan 23 and that you would know what that means.”

Malcolm nodded and followed the rest of his cabin down the stairs. As he reached the front of the Empire State Building, e walked up to a statue of William Seward.

“Daedalus Twenty-Three,” Malcolm said. “Defend New York.”

The statue started to creek and move and rose from his seat. It started walking down the street and activated another statue.

“What are they doing?” Thalia asked as she watched them walk down the street.

“Plan 23 was in the laptop Daedalus gave us. He made an army of automatons and placed them all around New York. They will keep activating each other and defend the island,” Malcolm explained as more statues started rising from their pedestals.

“At least now we have a small army to help, but what are we going to do about the rivers?” Thalia asked to Nico.

“Don’t worry, I got it covered. But for now, you need to figure out how to spread our forces.” Nico told her as he jumped on a skeletal horse and headed for the rivers. Thalia took up arms and gathered all the cabins together.

“Alright, Athena’s cabin members; head for the 59th street bridge. Michael, take your cabin to the Williamsburg Bridge and defend it there. Katie, take the Demeter cabin to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Do whatever you have to no matter what it takes. Jake, take the Hephaestus cabin and take Pollox with you to the Holland Tunnel. Aphrodite cabin, head for the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and do what you can. The Hunters can cover the Lincoln Tunnel and I’ll go where ever I am needed. Malcolm, you stay with me, you will be our strategist. If anyone has a cell phone, call Malcolm and he will direct our forces. If you don’t, find one and call him, then get rid of it so monsters won't be able to find you,” Thalia told all of them. She had wished the Ares cabin were helping as they were still short on demigods and the extra forces would have been helpful. However, she didn’t have time to worry about that as the roars of monsters could be heard all around the city. “What’s that sound,” Thalia asked.

“Here, I may be able to help,” Malcolm said as he pulled out a shield. “This is something Beckendorf made from one of the designs on Annabeth’s laptop.”

He pulled out a shield that looked more like a mirror or magnifying glass. However, as he positioned it on the ground, Thalia could see the enemy forces marching toward the entrances to the city. From what they could see, the main battle force was around the 59th Street Bridge and she could see the Apollo cabin was already there.

“Malcolm, check the rivers. I don’t know what Nico’s plan was, but I want to make sure he is ok,” Thalia said with a bit of concern on her face. Malcolm did as requested and looked at the rivers, but he didn’t believe what he saw. On the banks of the river, Nico was on the ground, possibly unconscious as he wasn’t moving. However, what Malcolm couldn’t believe was what was in the water. As ferry boats crossed the river, they were blasted out of the water by old sailing ships and submarines under the control of dead soldiers. Even if the ships were out of date by a few hundred years, they were still war ships and out gunned the ferries and were out of range of and enemy fire. But the power required to raise them from the deep must have really taken it out of Nico.

“Malcolm,” Thalia said. “Keep giving orders. Keep me posted and I’ll go help Nico before something else finds him.”

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive  20:44, September 11, 2011 (UTC)