Chapter 15: Using Our Heads

Chapter 14

The rod began to glow a cherry red, like a piece of metal when you leave it in the fire for just the right amount of time. Steve dropped it because the heat became to great, I caught it just before it hit the ground. Our refrigerator shield sighed (I think it was in relief) and then cracked from the strain of holding back the lightning.

“What kind of diversion?” Alex asked while we stared in fascination at the still glowing rod.

“Umm,” Steve began, then shook his head to clear his thoughts. “This rod needs to be tossed into the center circles, the outside source of Godly power from it should disrupt the ritual.”

“Should?” I asked.

“Point out any time in history where a mortal gained powers over the Mist and tried to steal the powers of the Gods using a ritual nobody knows about, and I will tell you if it definitely works or not.” He snapped.

“Fair enough,” I replied. I wasn’t going to argue that point, I didn’t even remember what happened the day before I met these two.

“Okay, so if I need to throw this,” I lifted the glowing rod to indicate I was talking about it, “over there,” I nodded my head towards Caligula, “we should find out if that is going to work at all.” I reached down with my free hand and grabbed a part of some castoff from the junk yard and threw it over my head. We all watched as it flew through the air, and just as it was about to cross the boundary line of the magic circle a loud SNAP rung through the air. A lightning bolt slammed into the fragment I had tossed and sent it flying.

“Let’s all try it at the same time.” I suggested. We each picked up a fragment and threw them at the circle. Similar results this time also, but the third passed through the boundary line and had almost hit the ground.

“It’s almost as if Caligula is directing the lightning blasts himself...” Steve muttered.

“English?” Alex asked.

“He has to identify what is going to be blasted by the lightning, that’s why it takes so long for him to shoot down what we are throwing at him. Why -” Steve explained before I interrupted him.

“Alex go left, Steve go right. Grab what you can and start throwing it into the circle. It doesn’t matter what you throw or where you throw it, just find cover and throw. If we distract him enough I can get this in there.”

Alex nodded, grabbed some metal doodads and dashed to what looked like a giant fallen arm for cover, throwing her doodads every few feet. One nearly touched some runes before Caligula blasted it out of his circle. Steve sighed and did the same thing, finding a half buried automaton to use as cover.

“I know you are there Son of Vulcan,” Caligula yelled out, blasting flying objects out of the sky as my friends threw them. “Why is it that you work with Greeks now? We Romans conquered Greece long ago, I would have thought you Demigods would have killed each other off by now. Do you betray your kind to join inferior creatures?”

The Anger started to rise up again but I pushed it back down, I reached into my pocket and coaxed Growlz out. The rod popped, and in my hand was a fancy looking golden helm, wreathed in fire and embossed with the symbol of the symbol of the rising sun. Caligula continued to yell a bunch of stuff, but I wasn’t paying attention. I explained what was happening to Growlz and he caught on to my plan pretty quickly and set off, crawling through piles of debris to stay hidden.

“You don’t get it Caligula. You never will. Friends and Family, those are the things worth fighting for. Power comes from those around us as well as ourselves. My friends know this, my family knows this. You do not.” With that last rather corny statement I started chucking debris as well. Caligula was hard pressed to stop all of what we were throwing at him, some started landing on the runes, rubbing them out. Unfortunately it appeared that it was after the point where these runes mattered. The only thing influenced was the speed of his retaliations.

Then from a fourth direction burning debris started flying also. The first set landing on the runes, and close to Caligula, before he noticed. I stopped throwing at this point and stayed silent.

“Impossible, there are only three of you!” Caligula roared out in denial.

“True enough dirt brain.” My voice came from the fourth direction. With that confirmation Caligula turned his back to me and did his best to block the debris from the new direction and my friends. With his back turned I lifted the Flaming Sun Helm and took aim. He hit one of Steve's projectiles and turned to Alex, hit one of her projectiles, and turned his back to me completely. I threw the helm and it flew through the air. Caligula shot down another piece of debris from Steve and turned to Alex. The helm flew past the outer barrier and that barrier shattered like glass.

Caligula stiffened and started to turn. I vaulted over the refrigerator and got a good view of the front where the lightning had been pounding it. A circle melted through the front showing electrical fires inside. My feet hit the ground and I sprinted for the circle, trying to distract him from the projectile. He finished his turn and saw me, not bothering to look up. My shield expanded from my bracer and I lifted it up to guard myself. He extended his arm to point at me and blue light began to form on the end of his index finger. Then the helm pierced the second circle, again to the sound of shattering glass.

The next moment the world went white.

Chapter 16