Camp Half-Blood New Age Book One Chapter Six

Family Reunion

“How much farther till we are there?” Asteria asked. “Almost there, half a mile”, I replied. When we reached the alley way, we saw a glowing red line in the brick. “So what do we do?” Onyx wondered. “I’m guessing you say the word”, Asteria told me. “Alright”, I said, “xekleidóste tin elefthería”, nothing happened. “That obviously didn’t work”, Onyx chuckled. “What should we—”, I cut Asteria off and shot the wall with a beam of fire. The bricks crumpled and it opened up into a vast cavern.

“I guess that will work”, Asteria decided. The room was made entirely out of rock. In the middle of the room stood a pedestal with a basketball shaped, and sized crystal. On the inside of it, there was something floating. I walked closer to see it, “It’s a ruby.” It was in the shape of a hexagon, in the size of a tennis ball.

Right then, I turned and saw a two headed animal jumping right at me. It had a lion body and two heads. One head was a lion, and the other was a goat. It had two snakes for tails. It was about to devour me until Onyx tackled it.

“Thanks” I said. “No problem”, He grunted while wrestling it. It slashed his face with its claw and threw him against the wall. Me and Asteria both went after it. It blasted me with fire, but it did not affect me. I thrusted my sword at it, but it dodged and pounded its paw into me. “Cyrus, say the word”, Asteria reminded me. “Oh right”, I said. I walked over in front of the ball. Onyx ran back over to Asteria’s side and started fighting the monster.

“xekleidóste tin—”, I was about to say the magic word but I flew into the wall. When I looked up, I froze. Onyx vaporized the Chimera with blood dripping from his face, “Cyrus, don’t just stand there, who is that. They tried to come over and help but they ran into an invisible wall, set by a machine on the floor.

“Perseus, is that you?” It was my brother. “You know him?” Asteria questioned. Onyx looked angry, “Who is that Cyrus?” I pretended to not hear them.

“Hello little brother.” Perseus smirked. Onyx and Asteria’s jaws dropped. I started tearing “But how, when we were 10 you got stabbed, we buried you, y-you—” “Lived”, he interrupted.

“But how did you live?”

“Because I’m a demigod too.”

He looked like Hercules. He was muscular, he had a lion head hood. He had black and gold leather gauntlets, shoulder armor, boots, and black skirt. He had a black shoulder plate. He wore no breastplate, his abs showing, though not as good as mine. He had a strap over his chest, from shoulder to shoulder, clipping to his cape. He was carrying a wooden bat with celestial bronze spikes. His black wavy hair coming down his face, and his red eyes.

“What do you mean, are you a son of Helios too?” I asked.

“No, even better, I’m the son of Perses, the titan god of destruction.” We all gasped, I became a gasper. “But you're nothing like him right?” I hoped. “I work for him”, he stated.

“How could you?”

“He saved my life.”

“But he isn’t doing the right thing, and he’s using you.”

“No he isn’t, he’s showing me the way.”

“What happened to you?’

“Nothing, I just love my dad”, He swung his bat at me, and I flew into the rocks again. “I won’t fight you”, I told him. “Your bad then”, he responded. His bat transformed into a sword, and he slashed it at me, it hit my cheek and I fell to the ground. Asteria and Onyx were saying something, but I couldn’t hear them. I was groaning, “How did you do that?” He smirked, “My father is the god of destruction, I can have any weapon I want.”

He thrust his sword at me, I rolled over and shot him with fire. He fell back into the rocks, but it seemed as if the fire didn’t hurt him. Then he shot fire at me, I took control over it and thrusted it to the wall, “How did you shoot fire?” “Oh Cyrus, my father is made out of rock and lava. I have prokinesis too. Not as powerful as you, but I do.” Perseus laughed. I was getting frustrated, “You have got to be kidding me.” I ran after him but he stuck his hand up and an energy wave hit me. I fell hard into the rocks.

“You're not getting any sunlight in here Cyrus.” He chuckled.

“I hope you know, our mother is dead.”

“I know, I controlled the minotaur to kill her.”

“WHAT!”

“Brother,  you are my best friend, I want you to join me, please.” I was angry, I couldn’t believe he had killed our mother. Was this really happening? He shot another blast of force, it included wind, rocks, dirt, and somehow metal, this time I made a shield of light, it deflected off the shield and went elsewhere.

He came at me and swung his sword, I ducked and thrusted my sword at his head. He blocked and punched me, I went flying backwards into the rocks. I ran back over, dodged a punch and blasted Perseus with fire.

“My father is tireless, therefore, I cannot get tired.” I said. “You don’t have to be tired to die”, he said, panting. I ran at him and swung my sword, he blocked it and stabbed me in the gut. I winced, I fell, He swung again but I dodged it, I stabbed him in his gut. Then he took my sword and slit my neck with it. I dodged another swing and grabbed his arm. I pulled back until he let go. He dropped both the swords and I threw him to the wall. I grabbed my sword and threw it at him. He forced it to the right with rocks.

I missed my brother, and when I found out he was alive, he tried to kill me. I ran at him and punched at him, he dodged and my hand hit the wall. I turned around and ducked a sword swing. I forced a giant emerald stem out the ground and slammed him to the wall. I still didn’t know how I could do that.

Something screeched behind me. When I turned around, I saw a harpy flying right at me. Right before it clawed my face up, it got pierced by a sword and thrusted to the wall, it vaporized. It was Perseus who just killed it. He probably wanted to be the one to kill me.

“Why did you save me?” I wandered.

“Because I don’t actually want you to die”, his reply made my whole body light on fire like the human torch, “Whoa, calm down Cyrus.”

“I am calm, but why did you just do all of that?”

“The truth is, I didn’t send that minotaur. That was just a regular stray minotaur, I only said I sent it to seem powerful.”

“I don’t get it, Perseus.”

“My father, he said if I don’t bring you to him, he will kill you. I really didn’t want you dead, so I came here to get you, and the antikathistó.”

“It makes so much sense, you were just trying to protect me like a good big brother.”

“Yes, but I don't know what to do.”

“Come with us, let’s defeat your father, and you can come back with us to camp half-blood.”

“You know what, that is what I’m going to do. Eléftheros.” The invisible wall came down and my friends could come out. “Thank you”, I said to Perseus. I walked over to the antikathistó, “xekleidóste tin elefthería”. The cavern started to light up, flashes of energy spun around the room. When the light cleared, the crystal ball was turning to water. I went and grabbed the ruby.

Asteria ran and gave me a hug, “I’m so glad you’re ok.” I hugged tighter, “You too.” We let go, I stared into her eyes, and she started leaning in— “HOUNDS FROM THE UNDERWORLD”, Perseus interrupted a great moment about to happen. Perseus summoned a ball of energy in his hand, he threw it at the hounds, when it hit the ground it exploded. Three of them vaporized, the other two kept coming. One bit my arm, I punched off then shot both of them with light. They both vaporized.

I walked over to Asteria, “Can you—” “Yeah”, Asteria took the ruby and put it in her space storage.

“Ok, let’s hurry and leave”, Onyx rushed. We left the cavern and ran to a different alley. It was night outside. “Ok, now let’s go get revenge on my father”, Perseus pleaded. I looked around and saw a building that read Franklin Residences, “Let’s go stay at that hotel for the night. They agreed, and we walked to the hotel.

I couldn’t sleep that night either. I felt like a monster would jump out of nowhere, and attack us. I wanted to talk with Perseus, but he was sleeping. That night, Asteria was sleeping too. And Onyx was as well. I was the only one awake.

I heard a creaking noise outside the suite. I went out there to check it out. When I got out there was no one there. I tried to go back inside, but something grabbed me by my leg. Then I was hit in my face with a paw and banged my head on the floor. I tried to stand up but whatever was holding onto me, was holding on tight.

I tried to grab my sword but then the secret force grabbed onto my arm. When I looked at my arm, there were webs on it. I looked at my feet, there were webs on it. What was happening? I made my hand light on fire, in hopes to free my arm. It worked, so I grabbed my sword and cut the webs on my feet. When I stood up, The webs came back, this time, I was wrapped fully in webs. A lady started coming out of the shadows. Then the rest of her body came, it was a spider body. She was kind of like a centaur, only instead of a horse body, she had the body of a purple spider.

“Hello, little boy, I’m Arachne”, her voice was raspy and scratchy, “I was ordered by Hecate to come and get you, lucky for you, you have to be alive.” I had no clue who she was, “I don’t care.” She gave me a death stare, “Don’t make me have to—”, She vaporized. When the ashes fell, the man that stood behind her held a sword of ice.

“Hi, I’m Theseus”, he said. He looked about my age, about my size, muscles and everything. He had black hair like mine, about the same length, and he had deep blue eyes. He wore black leggings with lines of ice down them. He wore black gauntlets with ice spikes. He had a shoulder of Ice spikes going down. He wore a leather breastplate. On each little square of his 6 pack, were a small line of ice. On each side of his chest, three lines of ice went down, kind of like slash marks. He looked kind of like Perseus, and me.

“Thanks, I’m Cyrus, who are you?” I asked. “You’re welcome, I’m your fraternal twin”, he responded. Okay, I’ve had it with these surprises, “What?”

“We are four days apart, I’m the fifth of June, you’re the first.”

“I don’t remember you.”

“I was stolen at birth.”

“I actually think I remember my mother saying something about you.”

“Yeah, I heard that Perseus found you, and left with you. Perses told me to come take you, but I want to be with you two, so I came to join you.”

“That’s awesome”, I gave him a hug.

He smiled, “I’m glad I get to meet you.”

“So, who’s your dad?”

“I’m the son of Boreas, god of the north wind. You know, ice and all that.”

“That’s cool—” I was interrupted by the loud roar outside the window. When we looked over, we saw it had three rows of sharp teeth. It had the head and body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and the wings of a dragon. It was about 15 feet tall, and 25 feet long. It was a manticore.

We went after. When we got close to the window, it struck fast with its tail. Its tail broke through the window and stuck Theseus, he passed out. It went after me but I dodged. I tried to attack it, but it was too quick. It stuck its claw in my gut, then got me with its scorpion tail. I passed out.

When I came to, I was in the air, getting held tight by the manticore’s paw. It was dark, and it was raining. The manticore was flying higher and higher into the sky. I looked over, Theseus was in the manticore’s other paw. He was still passed out, “THESEUS WAKE UP”. He was still out, “THESEUS”. He started blinking. He made a sword of ice. We were very far up. “THESEUS DON’T CUT IT, YOU’LL FALL TO THE GROUND AND DIE”, I decide. It started thundering. Theseus dropped his ice sword, “OKAY GOT IT, WHAT DO WE DO?” I tried to think of a plan. I started thinking, well I can fly, what could he do? I can’t hold him while I fly, he’ll burn. “CYRUS, I WAS TRYING TO THINK OF A WAY TO GET YOU DOWN, I CAN FLY”, he told me. Well that was perfect. I yelled back to him, “WELL THAT’S GREAT, I CAN FLY TOO. HOW ABOUT WE CUT OUT OF THE PAW, THEN WE FLY AS FAST AS WE CAN TO THE GROUND, AND BE READY, IT WILL PROBABLY TRY TO ATTACK US”.

The manticore started to squeeze tighter, it was hard to wiggle my arm out. When my arm came out, I burned the creature and it let go. I started falling. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Theseus put his hands on the claw, ice froze around it, then he hit it with his fist. The paw shattered. He started falling.

I let myself fall a little before flying, to feel the wind in my hair. “THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!”, I yelled to Theseus. “IT REALLY IS”, he agreed. We were still quite a few feet off the ground.

I heard some flapping in the wind, it was getting louder and louder. The manticore was coming. I was just about to start flying when its paw grabbed onto me. “CYRUS!” Theseus cried out. I tried to break free but it was holding on too tight. My vision was starting to go wavy. My limbs were numbing. I could hardly breath, luckily, the manticore breathed fire on me. It gave me a little strength. I pushed open the manticore’s grip and broke free. I flew over to Theseus.

“How did you do that, even Hercules had trouble freeing from a manticore's grip, they are really strong.” Theseus explained. I didn’t actually know but I assumed, “Whenever I’m touched with fire, or sunlight, I kind of have super strength. My father had enhanced abilities, so I guess I inherited that power from him.” I said. He nodded.

We stopped flying for a second. I looked up, “Should we fight the manticore?” “Well I guess so.” He said. “OH MY GOSH!”, I pointed to a plane heading right for the manticore. “I’ll distract the manticore, while you figure out how to save those people.” Theseus decided. I flew up to the plane. It was flying really fast, I got in front of it. I was ready to push the nose of the plane and stop it from hitting the manticore.

I looked at the manticore, he swiped at Theseus and Theseus went falling. The beast noticed I was there, it thrusted its tail at me, I dodged it and cut it with my sword. It breathed fire at me right before the plane came. As soon as I turned around, the plane was coming right at me.

I didn’t have enough time, the plane ran right into me. That was the most pain I had ever felt. It launched me and I was falling. I couldn’t fly, I couldn’t do anything. I was in too much pain.

My eyes started closing, but right before they shut, I saw the plane explode, bodies falling from the sky. Children. Babies. Parents. Families. Celebrities. They were all dead. I had failed.