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Peter
Is it wrong that I like adventure?
I know this is supposed to be some serious mission. Helping Luke get over his naptime is important to us all. I won’t rest until he does.
At the same time, I can’t help but tremble with excitement. The wind rushing all around me. The seas roaring beneath my feet. Is it so wrong that I’m enjoying the journey? Even if the circumstances are bad?
Luke had to overdo it. He’s always been like that. Even as kids, he kept me out of trouble more times than I can count. He was always there for me. Honestly, us working without that big brain of his in charge does worry me slightly.
I’m only glad that I’m not totally freezing. I don’t know what these military jackets that Olympus gave us are made of, but they do seem to be keeping me warm enough. Since we’re going to the North Pole, I really hope it stays that way.
Captain Ishmael says heartily, “I’ve got to say, lad. Your wind is making short work of our long journey. Ever since Poseidon was killed, and his trident stolen, the seas have been rough as of late.”
I grin, “Happy to help.” Then the other half of what he said hits me, “Wait...Poseidon was killed?! I didn’t know they could die!”
“Aye, it isn’t something easy to do, mind you. I can probably count the times it has happened on one hand. Poseidon left Olympus years ago over disagreements. A few months back, a demon called Legion invaded his underwater palace. We received word not long ago from the other beings down there of his demise. They are having great trouble in filling his role of calming the seas.” Ishmael explains.
“To think something that used to be so insignificant could grow to such lengths. Poseidon is a loss to the world though. He was one of the few who genuinely cared for the state of this world and all the people in it.” Gabriel says sadly. He’s sitting in a chair behind me.
We fought against Legion for a moment. I vaguely remember seeing a trident lying next to its throne. I didn’t think much of it then though. Small details aren’t really my thing. I do wonder if the reason why the Greek gods don’t usually go fight their own battles is because they are afraid of death. I guess they wouldn’t be the only ones.
I got lost in my head for a second. That’s not like me. What Carla says next brings me out of that.
“I am surprised that we’re traveling by pirate ship.” She says.
Carla’s on the deck helping check the ropes. Her pink eyes are pretty focused on the job. I know her eyes are just automatically matching the color of her thick parka, but it always amazes me how she can pull off any look.
“Incognito was our best option. Any other ship we sent was sunk. These are the best smugglers around.” Gabriel says.
“Not true, mate. One ship did make it through the blockade. The S.S. Filibuster broke right by. We saw it with our own eyes.” Ishmael says.
“That was the reinforcement ship sent back before the Hell mission. If that warship survived, luck may be on our side after all.” Gabriel says.
Captain Ishmael is looking through a telescope. He laughs, “Maybe even more than you know. I don’t see the blockade.”
Gabriel stands. I’ve never seen him look jumpy before, but he does now, “What? Check the sides of the ship.”
Carla runs to the right side, “There is ship debris over here!”
One of the crewmen goes to the other side, “Same over here, captain! Looks recent. This isn’t enemy wreckage.”
“You’re right. It’s not. They pulled their forces back. Keep watch on the waters. They brought something even worse out here.” Gabriel says.
“Worse? What could be worse than a whole fleet?” Ishmael asks.
“I don’t know. That’s what leaves me unsettled.” Gabriel says.
I increase the output of the wind shooting from my palms into the sails. I say “I’m sure it’s nothing now, Gabriel. Besides, we’ll be there in a few minutes at this rate.”
“There’s a rock up ahead, captain! We need to change course.” A crewman yells.
Gabriel pulls his bow from thin air, “That’s no rock. Peter, Carla, at my side.”
Carla runs over to him, but I say, “It’s fine! I can take care of myself.”
Whatever it was that’s ahead of the ship disappeared into the water. I increase the wind even more. I hoped we were in the clear, but we feel a jolt coming from the ship.
A crewman calls from below deck, “We have a hole down here. We’re catching wa-”
His voice cuts off. This isn’t good. Even with my wind, we aren’t moving anymore.
“I’ll go check it out.” I tell Gabriel.
“No! Leave it to the crew. They are all competent demigods in their own right.” Gabriel commands.
“Listen to yer angel, lad. Men, ready the cannons just in case. Prepare the oars. Three of ye go check in on Bill in the lower decks. Get moving ya lockjaws!” Ishmael orders.
A huge tentacle rises on the right side of the ship. Gabriel shoots it with his bow. It doesn’t seem to affect it. Instead, three more rise up beside the first.
“But Brooke is still down there!” Carla yells.
Shoot! I forgot she was taking a nap in the lower deck. I jump over the rail. Screw Gabriel’s orders. He’s too busy shooting tentacles anyways.
“Peter, stop!” I hear Gabriel say as I burst through the ship’s door.
I’m running down the stairs to the lower decks when another rumble rocks the ship. If we take any more damage, I’m not sure how long we can still float. I hear someone yell through one of the doors on my way down. It’s not the room Brooke’s in, but I check it out really quick.
One of the guys the captain sent down is in this room. A tentacle broke through the wall in here. The guy is backed into a corner. His weapon is across the room.
The tentacle extends to grab the guy, but I raise my palm. A high burst of wind shoots towards the tentacle. I overshot though. My wind pushes the tentacle into the back wall making a dent.
Dang it all. I barely even tried. I’m lucky the whole wall didn’t crumble. At least the guy is okay.
He picks up his sword and says, “Thanks for the help. Three of us split up to check the rooms for anyone else below deck. If you run to the last two decks, I’ll check the other rooms on this floor.”
“Will you be okay on your own?” I ask.
“When the tentacle busted through, it knocked me to the ground. Now that I have my weapon, I’ll be fine. Go ahead.” He says while running to the next room.
Brooke is on the second to last floor, so that works out fine. I just hope they can take care of themselves. If the ship sinks, it won’t matter what we do. We’ll all die.
I stop at the second to last floor. Water is already seeping on this floor. The lowest section has to be completely flooded.
The door leading to Brooke’s room is blocked by ship debris. I run towards the door to see if I can move any of it away. I hear a click, and a blast knocks me back to the wall.
My head is a little foggy, but I think I’m okay. Brooke is standing at the now gaping hole in the wall. She runs over to my side.
“Peter! Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were on the other side. Are you okay?” Brooke asks while putting my arm around her shoulder. She lifts me up.
I smile as always, “I’m bombing. What about you?”
She chuckles, “I’m glad we have the same humor. I’m fine. My nap ended with a jolt. Are we under attack?” She starts walking me to the stairs.
My head is seeing double now, “Sort of. Giant squid or something. It will sink the ship soon if we don’t stop it.”
“We should probably make it back up to the top deck as soon as possible then. Sounds like we’re going to be needed.” She says.
I take my arm off of her shoulder. I’m still a little shaken, but I’ll just have to grin and bear it. I’ve been working too hard to die so soon.
We run through the doors of the upper deck. Gabriel is in the air shooting and dodging tentacles. Carla has her prism knife out. It’s beginning to glow softly. The rest of the crew members are doing what they can to fight off the tentacles.
We run up to where the captain is. He’s still yelling out orders. He is also making stirring motions with his hand, but I have no idea why.
Captain Ishmael yells, “Gabriel, we might have to take the rafts at this rate. As much as I hate to say this, my old girl here might be lost.”
A tentacle flies straight towards the captain when a gunshot rings out. A streak of light tears right through the tentacle. A girl with small wings and softly glowing skin is standing at the door leading to the lower decks. What floor did she come from? She has a guy over her shoulder.
Gabriel stops fighting and stares straight at the winged girl. In disbelief, he asks, “Grace!? What are you doing here?”
She places the silver sniper she’s carrying over her shoulder and grins, “Hey Uncle! Me and Bill here were fixing the lowest deck. The patchwork is horrendous, but it will hold for now. Bill might have been knocked out by a stray board, but he’s fine.”
Gabriel dodges a tentacle, “No, I mean what are you doing on the ship!?”
“Ohhhhh, that! Well, I heard about your mission from the courthouse gatekeepers and decided to stow away. I figured you guys could use extra help.” She lays down Bill and aims down her sight.
“Those twins are way too talkative these days. I don’t have time to protect you as well, Grace.” Gabriel grunts.
She fires another shot from her sniper. Another tentacle falls back into the ocean. She says seriously, “I don’t need you to protect me. We can take this monster out now if we could fire something much stronger straight down through the ship. The monster’s head is right below the hull.”
There is only one thing I can think of that could do a precision shot like that through the ship. I yell out while blasting a tentacle away, “Carla, your knife!”
“It’s almost ready! I just need to know exactly where to shoot.” She says back. The knife is glowing brilliantly in a rainbow of colors.
Carla is holding one hand on ropes that are attached to the mast. The monster has been rocking the ship more violently as time goes on. That thing will flip us over at this rate.
Grace lays her rifle on deck and runs to the figurehead of the ship. She swan dives into the ocean. Gabriel looks panicked. He must really care about her. I wonder why he’s never mentioned her.
Gabriel says to himself, “Grace! Dang, it’s time to change tactics. I need to keep its attention.”
He pulls his bow made of light from both ends. It splits straight in half easily. Two swords of light are now in his hands. They are connected by a string of thin light.
He speeds through the air. I’d like to ask just how many tentacles this thing has because I watch Gabriel slice through three more of them. On the fourth, he doesn’t cut deep enough, and it is able to grab him. I blast it with a concentrated form of wind. The force of the wind is able to finish the job and frees Gabriel.
Gabriel flies close to me, “Thanks. I’m not a swordsman by trade, but I decided to learn a little after training Luke on Eden. I still have a way to go howev-.” He groans loudly. The corruption over his body is glowing red. He places one hand over his right eye. His left eye changes from grey to red.
“Gabriel?!” I yell.
He shakes his head. His eye turns back to normal, and the corruption changes back to its slightly black color. He says quietly, “I’m okay.”
Grace shoots up from the water. She lands on deck right next to Carla. Her finger points to the back-right side of the ship.
Breathing heavily, she says, “Right...there.”
Carla holds her knife with both hands in the direction Grace is pointing. A flash of colors streak from the prism knife. The ray travels straight through the ship. A loud screech can be heard coming from under the water. The tentacles surrounding the ship disappear beneath the waves.
“Is it...over?” Carla asks quietly.
Grace looks over the side of the ship, “I think so. I don’t believe we killed it since I don’t see a body floating to the surface. It probably ran off to lick its wound. Hey cap, you might want to send someone down to patch that new hole.”
“Oi lass, don’t tell me how to do my job...” Ishmael goes back over to the wheel and begins to shout orders as usual, “Alright you half-pints, change the sails, reload the cannons just in case, and uh...somebody go patch that hole down bottom.”
Grace has a smug look on her face. However, when Gabriel lands behind her, she begins to look more nervous. She tries to take a step away from him.
Gabriel says sternly, “Grace...”
She stops and swiftly turns. Grinning, Grace says apprehensively, “Oh hey, uncle. I was just about to talk to you actually. You’re looking tough as usual.”
His eyes are like daggers, “Now, why are you here? It’s too dangerous.”
She rolls her eyes, “You all might be dead by now if I wouldn’t have come. Honestly uncle, you can’t expect for me to stay cooped up at Olympus. I want to see the world.”
Gabriel scoffs, “Then see the world. Go to one of the districts that we protect not out into the frontlines. What is this really about?”
Grace balls up her fist, “I know about your mission. The one to save Luke. You tried really hard to keep me from knowing that you were leaving.”
Gabriel looks confused, “What does it matter? You don’t even know Luke.”
She stomps her foot, “Yes, I do! We fought together in the training simulator! He helped me...and treated me like I was normal.”
Normal? I heard that half angels are really resented on Olympus. That must be what she is. Of course, Luke didn’t care about that. He values people in a vastly different way. I mean look at me for example. The biggest goof up of them all. Yet he somehow sees the best.
Brooke pops up behind Grace, “It’s true, Gabriel. We did fight alongside her in the simulator. She is a strong wa-”
Gabriel’s fierce stare turns to Brooke, “Stay out of this, Brooke.”
Brooke shirks back down. Gabriel is really mad about this. I have a feeling the conversation would have kept going a while longer if Captain Ishmael wouldn’t have stepped in.
“Oi Gabriel, look up ahead.” The captain is pointing straight in front of the ship.
There are two things up ahead. The Filibuster is grounded in the ice to our left. The ship is a warship ten times larger than ours. To our right is a base carved into the ice. Giant gatling guns are constantly firing from it to the ground below.
That must be where we are supposed to go. Sail the waters? Check. Save the base, destroy the enemy, and rescue Luke? In progress buddy, in progress. Wait just a little while longer.
Ishmael continues, “We need to split paths for now. The ship is too damaged to make it to the base and set sail later. If you two angels can carry your demigods to the base, we can sail to the Filibuster. Maybe we can get both ships in working order.”
Gabriel sighs while staring towards the base, “It’s a gamble. There’s no telling that those guns won’t target us as we make our descent. They shoot things automatically and are active. Still, we will need a way out of here.”
Honestly, I’m raring for it. I’ve been ready to get into the war action for a while now. It looks like that base needs us anyways, and things seem safe enough here now.
“I think I can make it there with my wind, but it’s your choice, Gabriel.” I say.
Gabriel grits his teeth, “Alright, we’ll go. Brooke with Grace. Carla you’re with me. Peter, you might have to be ready to blow bullets away in front of us.”
I’m not even sure if it is possible for me to deflect bullets especially while flying. Then again, there was a time I didn’t know I could fly. As they say, only one way to find out. I plan on giving this mission my all after all.
Gabriel lifts up Carla while Grace does the same with Brooke. I face both my palms towards the ground. With the combined force from my hands and feet, I blast myself up.
The deck on the boat splinters slightly, and Captain Ishmael yells, “Hey! Watch it, kid.”
I chuckle awkwardly without meaning to and yell back, “Sorry about that, captain!”
A hole used to blast through the soles of my shoes when I used my feet before. It was a little embarrassing to tell my friends that I was walking around Hell with holes in my shoes though, so I never mentioned it. My father, Zephyrus, gave me some sturdier shoes with tiny holes in the bottom. It’s a little cold using them here, but it is much better than having one large hole blown out the bottom.
Now that I’m in the air, flying is a little easier. I don’t have to propel wind from my hands. My feet are fine enough. I’m shooting towards the base as fast as possible. If I can reach it before the guns aim at us, then maybe I can tell them to hold fire.
Gabriel shouts behind me, but I can’t hear anything clearly from this far ahead. I look back towards the front and think I understand now. All four of the giant guns are focused right on me. They rev up but suddenly change direction.
They shoot out towards the right of me. I watch five winged creatures tumble to the ground. I’m not even sure what they were. Harpies maybe? I know Hell has beasts at their command, but I’ve only ever seen hellhounds and Cerberus.
Whatever the case, the main guns turn their attention back towards the front of the base. They completely ignored me and Gabriel. Did they mean to save us? It’s almost like they have a mind of their own.
I land on the roof of the base. Some girl with a prosthetic hand is up here pointing in what seems like random directions. She has a toolbelt where half of it is filled with medical equipment and the other half with tools. Her hair is singed, and she looks tired.
Without even turning to look, she says, “You’re lucky. If Gabriel were not right behind you, I would have blown you from the sky.”
She turns to look at me. She has some sort of goggles covering her eyes. The eye pieces have long adjustable lenses. I get it now. She must use that thing to see far and is directing the turrets somehow at enemies.
Gabriel, Grace, and the rest land right behind me. Gabriel looks slightly relieved. He walks up to me.
He says, “Be more careful. You were so focused on moving ahead that you didn’t see those harpies coming straight towards you.” Well, I was right about them being harpies though.
The girl with the weird goggles turns to Gabriel, “I thought it was you. Who are these people with you? Actually, better question, what are you doing here? This place is doomed.” She turns to the guns, “Automatic.”
The guns begin to move on their own. Lindsey leads us under the alcove to inside the building. It looks like a makeshift lab in here.
“I’ll explain later, Lindsey. How many troops would you say are still alive?” Gabriel asks.
Lindsey scoffs, “Alive? Forty. Able to fight? If we are lucky, five. Three are attending to the wounded. One is doing me a favor. So really, it’s just me. The rest are dead, Gabriel.”
A groan comes from the corner, “I can still fight. Any of us that can still stand will fight to the last man.”
I didn’t notice her sitting in a chair across the room. Maybe because she already looks dead. Blood is seeping from her side. She’s applying pressure as best as she can.
Lindsey rushes to the girl’s side, “General Iona! Why didn’t you say that you were injured this badly? I could have treated you!”
“Keeping those mindless demon henchmen out of here is more important than the life of one person.” The general coughs.
Lindsey’s headset glows red. She turns to face outside. She focuses her right eyepiece.
With a commanding voice, she says, “All guns, fire on right flank then return to normal position.” She faces the general again, “Dang you, Iona. I’m not losing more people.”
Lindsey places her hand on Iona’s side. Her hand glows, and I think I see the wound heal. Lindsey drops to one knee for a second but quickly raises herself.
The door leading deeper into the base opens. A thin guy with a scowl on his face walks through. He has a lab coat and square rimmed glasses on.
He says in an irritated tone, “I brought the sample you requested. I hope it’s worth it.”
Without a breath, she moves towards the guy and takes a vial from him. I don’t know who she is, but she seems incredible. The way she handles pressure, her quick thinking, and abilities. It really doesn’t surprise me that she has held the enemy off on her own so far.
“Yes Cal, it is very worth it. Based on the data you sent me, I believe it wil-” her headpiece goes haywire, “Oh no.” She faces towards the balcony.
Gabriel moves towards the door outside. All he says is, “Giants.”
“And the biggest mass of demigods that they’ve sent yet. They’re throwing everything they have at us.” Lindsey shudders.
I move towards the window. My whole body feels frozen. I can usually shake things off, but I don’t even think I can form words right now.
Seven giant humans are leading a terrifying army of demigods. Most of the giants have to be taller than twenty feet, but one is noticeably larger than the rest. He yells across the frozen tundra. If an army that size reaches this fort, we will die.
“We have to retreat for now. We’ll abandon the base.” Gabriel says.
“No! I will not abandon these people!” Lindsey says defiantly.
“Gabriel is right! We don’t have a choice! We’re both the head scientists of our regions. If we are killed, all of our research will be for nothing.” Cal says. His voice is paralyzed with fear.
Gabriel places his hand on Lindsey’s shoulder, “The base is lost. Let’s go.”
Lindsey pulls off her goggles. Her amber colored eyes are filled with determination, “No! Give me a minute. I’ll come up with something. Sixty seconds. If I can’t come up with a plan by then, we’ll go.” She pleads.
Cal starts, “There is no hope. We should cut our losses.”
“Shut up, Cal. As commander of this base, I’m in charge. Gabriel, I ask you to give her time. She’s kept us safe so far. I believe in her.” General Iona says.
Gabriel looks around the room. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know anything about these people or the situation. I just know it doesn’t look good. If I were Luke, would I be able to help? Could I make a plan?
Gabriel’s eyes narrow, “Lindsey...sixty seconds. Our fates are in your hands.”
