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fireandseaweed · 7 years

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Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat || Annabeth, Celia, Caspian, Leo, Maia, Percy, Wally and Wes

Eight demigods get a mysterious invitation to a rave that doesn’t exactly go according to plan. [ @thrillofthechase, @ofastrcls, @sonoftriton, @abrakaravadra, @centurionmaiacruz, @spellbindingbeefcake, @deathkid-dropout ]

Percy had received the invitation. It had come in a thick parchment envelope, his first name written in full in neat cursive on the front of it, and inside was a single scrap of parchment with an address and a time. 1920, Second Street, 23:45. He wasn’t quite sure what it had meant, but he had slipped out of the city before curfew and driven across to the warehouse. Riptide was tucked into his back pocket and his watch that Tyson had given to him was strapped to his wrist just incase everything happened. But as his jeep slid to a halt in front of the warehouse, he couldn’t help but notice that there were a lot of other demigods here too, not exactly what he had expected. Holding his parchment between his fingers, he shrugged. “You guys all get one too?”

Celia had been quite surprised when the invitation arrived. Not only was the card completely in braille and on fancy paper, but so was the envelope, meaning she was probably not supposed to tell anyone about the affair. How she was supposed to get to the venue had been a little bit of a problem, but when Wes had seen her with her invitation, they’d approached her and offered to be her guide, which she’d gladly accepted. She’d buy them a drink as thanks later. A short while before the party (if that was what it even was) was supposed to start, they found themselves standing outside the venue waiting for some others they knew. “Did the rest bail-” she started to say, but she soon heard hurried footsteps and a familiar voice, so she cut herself off. “Percy! We did. Any idea what this is?”

Wes hadn't known what to make of their invitation. All that it read was their name, a time, and an address. Wes had become disinterested in parties a few years ago, but after having missed the Open Hearth and subsequent raid, they felt obligated to attend this mysterious event-- a sort of penance for not having been there for their best friend in a time of chaos. Of course, they had no idea whether or not Blossom had gotten a similar invitation, but they were still intent on going regardless. Thank the gods Celia had received a similar invite. Wes hated going alone to these things, and they would be lying if they weren't at least slightly cautious due to the mysterious nature of the invitations. When they arrived and the others they had known were (theoretically) coming weren't around, Celia's voice mirrored their thoughts. They were prepared to answer until she was interrupted by the approach of a stranger -- in Wes' experience -- whose name was apparently Percy. Offhandedly they wondered if he was the Percy everyone had always chattered about at Camp Half-Blood like he was some massive celebrity. Not that Wes cared either way. They didn't want to interject, however, content to listen to the pair's conversation and thankful that Celia had answered for them already.

Caspian had received the invitation that morning when he opened the front door. It lay there, mysteriously, his name written neatly on the front. His mind raced, trying to figure out who it would be from, was it from New Rome? Or was it maybe from home. He tore the package open and revealed an invitation. It took him a short while to decipher the piece of paper, but when he did, it intrigued him. Was he already well known enough to be invited to parties? The next question that crossed his mind was how he’d get to the venue. His instinct was to ask Percy if he had been invited and ask for a lift, but after being used to doing things alone for so long, Caspian felt that perhaps he should figure this one out by himself. In the past week that he’d been at camp, exploring, he’d come across the stables. Perhaps he could ask a pegasus to escort him to the venue and return without anyone knowing. This is exactly what he did. Although it wasn’t exactly legal, it felt exhilarating and he enjoyed every second of it. He arrived at the venue only to see that Percy had been invited, along with a few other demigods. He walked up to a group that seemed to be forming, “Hello.” A bright smile on his face, speaking in english so that everyone would understand.

Nodding gently, Percy smiled at Caspian, Wes and Celia. “Hey guys, Celia, Cas, and” he nodded at Wes before flipping his note over in his hands and shrugging, “I don’t know a thing about this,” he said looking at it thoughtfully, “in fact I almost didn’t come, but then again after everything that I’ve been through and done, well I realise that when you get something like this it isn’t always a good idea to ignore it.” He paused and shrugged once more, the bass rattling through the walls of the warehouse and laser blaring out of the door whenever it was opened. “I guess we should go inside maybe?”

Wally saw the invitation slipped under his apartment door. With everything that was going on, he had raced to the door, wondering who had just sent him the anonymous invite. But whoever had sent it was gone by the time he got to opening the door. Wally read over the piece of paper, realizing it was meant for him and not Z. It seemed the invite was only for himself. Wally took a good half hour wondering what to do, but decided on going. Bringing along a sword and his spellbook, the demigod wasn’t about to take any chances. He arrived at the Warehouse a while later, seeing a few other people outside what was the warehouse he was to come to. It was seeing Percy there that made him feel safe to forward. “Percy, hey!” He nodded to Caspian too, smiling. “Hey there, dude. What’s going on here?”

Celia figured if it was a party, it was a hell of a great distraction from the crap the Senate was throwing at all of them recently. She still hadn’t gone to talk to them about her status, which she knew was just delaying the inevitable, so this would certainly take her mind off the whole ordeal, even though she felt guilty for not dragging Puck along. “I have to admit it was a bit scary when all I got was a time and place. It’s like the movies, you know? ‘Show up or die!’” She cracked a grin, but it hid a whole lot of confusion and uncertainty. She felt around for Wes’ arm awkwardly, so she wouldn’t trip on any stairs or poke people in their calves with her cane when they walked in. “Hello!” she quipped at the new voices in the group, most of which she hadn’t heard before. The music in the background was loud, but she decided to ignore it and hopefully even lose herself in it for the night.

Caspian had been to a few parties before, but that was a story for another time. Besides, he had a few good party tricks up his sleeve. Parties normally consisted of dancing and substances that put you into a trance somehow. He felt constrained by his language and didn’t feel like talking, so instead, he agreed with Percy’s prompt, “Maybe there are more people we know inside?” He only cared if one person was there really, but at the same time, he was willing to meet new people, maybe get lost in himself. Excitement filled his body and without waiting, he boldly headed towards the door, an almost-skip in his step. He had dressed well, copying outfits he had seen off the internet and reality programmes. As he entered, the strobe lights stunned him for a second, his eyes adapting to the brightness and flashing. The venue didn’t seem too dark to him, but that could have something to do with his advanced eyesight. The music hit him and he couldn’t help but move to the beat. “Are we going to dance?” He asked to whoever had followed him in.

Caspian led the group of them inside and Percy followed after, there wasn’t even anyone on the door checking for ID and judging by the state of the warehouse, the graffiti and what looked like a bar that was selling pills, he surmised that this wasn’t the most legal rave. The music was somehow even louder in here and he could barely hear a thing that Caspian had said, shaking his head at his young relative he pointed towards the bar and ordered a beer. They handed him a bottle and he took a sip. “I wonder who it was that invited us all,” he said quietly, more to himself than to anyone else, his bottle hanging loosely from his left hand, Riptide anxiously spinning through his fingers on his right, still as a pen. “I haven’t been to anything like this in years,” he said finally, having gravitated back towards the group of them from New Rome, “hell it has been a long time since I’ve even visited Club Olympus.”

As soon as she stepped inside, Celia felt a rush of - well, something. Something good. The music blared in her ears, some thick smoke, combined with the scent of not-too-legal substances filled her nostrils and she was immediately overwhelmed, clinging onto Wes’ arm for stability, even as she felt some the bodies of the other people who entered with them slip away. Everything screamed ‘this is illegal, the Senate will skin you alive!’ at her, but Celia was enchanted by it all. She wanted to dance, but she had no idea if other people were dancing, so she just followed wherever Wes led her, which she assumed was the bar, because she was put on a chair. “Someone order me anything, I’ll pay you back,” she half-yelled at the group to make herself understood through the music. “I have no idea who, but I thank them. I think we all needed this.”

Wally walked in with the group, staying close by Percy and Caspian’s side. The blasts of music made everything feel like it was vibrating. The art on the walls told him this was the more wild side of California, something he didn’t really believe existed. “How many people know about this place?” It was more of a general question. But when he entered the building, Wally couldn’t help but smile. Thoughts of danger - a more extreme and monstrous danger, not the kind of danger that dealt with drinking and drugs, left his mind. “Well . . . where do we get drinks?” He looked over to a bar and moved. “Caspian, you ever have alcohol?”

Leo needed a distraction, the last few weeks had been a lot for him. He’d always been a pretty sensitive person and these situations were not easy for those who had a lot of emotions. To say that his curiosity was piqued when he received the invitation was an understatement. It, also, served as the perfect distraction for the night. He’d go into the rave pretty comfortably, this was certainly not his first time around an event like this. He spotted the big group of demigods after he ordered a ridiculously fruity drink and waved. So he wasn’t the only one invited, that made sense. “Hey!” He said with big grin. He came over with a joint behind his ear, his eyes a bit bloodshot. “Looks like this is a bit of a New Rome reunion, what’s up dudes?”

Caspian was half expecting Percy to pull off to the side, he didn’t seem like that sort of guy anyway. Reluctantly he changed direction too and headed towards the bar where he saw Percy order a bottle of something and considered getting something, but he had no idea what. “I don’t know.” He replied honestly, he had no idea if the stuff back home could be considered alcohol or not. “But get me something good and I’ll be able to answer that for you.” A smirk across his face, speaking in ancient Greek to Wally. “Get one for her too.” He motioned towards Celia, now speaking in english to whomever could hear him. “Hello. I am Caspian. How are you?” He held out his hand for her to shake it, not knowing that she was unable to see him.

Percy ordered several more drinks and handed them to Leo, Celia, Wes, Caspian and Wally. Taking a long drink from his beer, he did his best to stay alert, trying to enjoy the music (although it was not really his music and was much too loud) and just trying his very best to blow off some steam. Swallowing his mouthful of beer, he turned to the group and did his best to have a good time. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves and Percy couldn’t help but feel bothered about everything that was happening back home. The Bill was making their lives almost impossible and he could only see things getting worse, but right now was not the time to tackle that. “I can’t believe we all got invites,” he shouted though he doubted that anyone would have been able to properly hear them, “doesn’t anyone else think that that is a little weird?” he frowned. “Almost like they wanted us here for a reason.”

Wally looked around, relaxing against the bar. He looked over to Percy, thanking him for the drink, though his gratitude was drowned out by the music. His eyes scanned the area, his head leaning to the side to hear what Percy had said. He took a sip of whatever it was Percy had ordered him. Not bad, he thought, tipping more back down his throat. “I don’t know, seems like it could be a monster trap. But if it is, they got their work cut out for them, dude.” Wally was wondering if he should have brought Z along. If they were about to face some monsters, Z’s powers would have come in handy.

Maia had been startled when she’d found the embossed letter with her name, time, and an address, slipped underneath her door when she’d returned to her room for the night. There was nothing else on the paper, only that. Given the current… situation, Maia thought it would be best to go straight to the Praetors and see what they wanted to do. But, since it was outside of the city, they’d believed it best if she went to go check it out on the down-low. Which was why she was now at a weird, definitely illegal rave-thing. The knife she kept holstered in her boot rubbed against her ankle as she made her way through the crowd, doing her best not to get elbowed in the face or dragged into some drug-fueled dance circle. As she walked, Maia noticed a small cluster of familiar faces. What were they doing here? Hrm. Walking over, she waved awkwardly. “Sooo… you guys got one of these things too?” She said, holding up the invitation. “I think they made a mistake with me.” Maia mumbled, gesturing to the very apparent alcohol and drug use that was going on around her.

When a drink was pushed into her hand, Celia shouted a ‘thank you’ towards the general direction of the bartender, then flashed a smile at where she assumed her friends were sitting. She had no idea who ordered it for her, but she was grateful. When there was a momentary silence ━ well, no one spoke, but the music blared on ━ she realized the introduction was directed towards her. “Nice to meet you, Caspian! I’m Celia. Little confused, but it’s alright.” She stuck out her hand, unaware that his was already hanging in the air somewhere. “Okay, but why would they bring only a few of us here? Monsters wouldn’t go all out like this, would they? Doesn’t make any sense.” At least the monsters Celia had faced were just gross, stupid and out for demigod blood. “Hey, Maia? Is that you?”

Annabeth had arrived alongside Percy though thus far— she’d kept quiet in favor of taking in the surroundings and trying to figure out exactly what is was she was getting into. At the same time, she was very much on the same wavelength as Percy, wondering exactly why they’d all gotten the same anonymous invitation to the same place. It all seemed rather strange. She’d already decided to keep herself to only a couple of drinks until she was certain there was nothing wrong with what was happening here. Perhaps she was over-paranoid, but one didn’t make it this far in the demigod world without being relatively cautious. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have some fun. Of course, Percy had already gotten her drink, knowing by now what it was she liked, and as she took a sip of it she smiled her thanks over the top of the glass at him. “At least now I know exactly who in Camp is willing to accept an entirely random invitation to the middle of nowhere,” she said to no one in particular.

It was actually starting to become a bit of fun, with Annabeth and Caspian and everyone else here, Percy found himself relax just slightly. He still didn’t trust the invitations and he couldn’t help but feel on edge. Smirking gently at Annabeth’s remark, Percy grunted with laughter and shrugged. “We’re demigods, doing reckless and impulsive things is what we are biologically programmed to do,” he smirked brightly and shrugged, “we can’t help it.” It was tragically good timing, because as soon as he finished speaking he heard the doors crash open. As monsters began to swarm the rave, screams were taken up by the other people in the rave. “Well,” Percy said with a sad sigh as he counted a manticore and two cyclops, “that was fun, knew that this was too good to be true though.” There were more monsters than Percy could count. This wasn’t going to go very well was it?

The sigh that came from Annabeth as the monsters stormed the rave was rather loud. Of course any hope of having an easy evening was over...though if she was being honest— fighting monsters wasn’t the least fun thing she could do with her time. Taking a mental note of who was present, she was fairly certain most of them, if not all, were quite able to hold their own. She hadn’t brought her drakon sword to the rave, as it was rather bulky and flashy...even for a rave. But if she hadn’t brought along a few daggers and a garrote wire….she wouldn’t be Annabeth Chase. Already she was drawing one of them, looking to the others with a good-natured challenging glance. “First one to kill five monsters gets coffee on me.”

Maia was about to reply to Celia when she heard screams. As she glanced around Maia’s eyes fell on two cyclopes and her blood froze. Oh gods. No, no, no. Angling herself in front of Celis, she drew a knife from her boot, and grasped the crystal she wore around her neck. “Celia monsters! We have a group of 3 at our 9 o’clock, 200 feet away. Manticore, 2 o’clock, far off. Maia said, her eyes flitting across the room as she grasped her knife, doing her best to figure out the best strategy for such close combat.

As the monsters stormed into the rave, Percy found himself wondering what it was exactly that the mortals were seeing right now. He wasn’t sure that it would’ve been any better than seeing all of those monsters. Pulling the lid off of Riptide, he watched as the blade sprung into existence. A second later his shield was revolving outwards from his watch, just in time because as it sprang outwards he heard a volley of spikes ricochet off of his shield. Springing in front of Celia, Maia and Annabeth. “Three cyclops, a manticore, make that five cyclops,” he lost count again. Springing forward at a cyclops, he hacked its left hand off in a shower of ichor before catching a blow with his shield. “That’s one, four to go…” he smirked brightly, feeling alive in the moment as the battle raged around him.

There has always been a desire in Leo that they would be able to stop fighting and live in peace. This desire made many people question his capabilities, especially when paired with their knowledge of him as an artist. He found it funny that so many people often forget that he was in the first cohort and has been for sixteen years. He knew that they could handle this. The amount of monsters surrounding them was concerning, but Leo pushed down any anxiety he held in his chest. He smiled at the chaos, letting it wash over him and fuel his little known powers. He visualized a circle forming around the group of demigods, its energy pushing outward away from them. His power created almost ring of distraction for the monsters; lights blinding them, extremely loud noises, anything that could disorient them. While those inside the circle could still see and hear the lights, it was far less, giving them an upper hand. Using his power like this was a game of true concentration, but Leo still took out a hidden dagger, he couldn’t let himself stand there unarmed. Even if it wasn’t likely he’d be able to control this and actually fight.

Annabeth heard Maia’s suggestion of a formation, and though she admired the Roman Legion’s organization, she didn’t quite think this the best place for them. Though the Greeks present had spent time in the Legion, she was fairly certain at least Caspian would be entirely foreign to such things, not even having been placed in a Cohort yet. Annabeth had sat down and memorized them one day, highly intrigued by the tactics of the Legion, but it was most likely she was the exception rather than the rule. Maia, of course, was an amazing Centurion, but this wasn’t a Cohort. “Not everyone knows that, Maia!” she said over the din that Leo had caused. It was rather awe inspiring to behold, and though some might think it not useful, disorientating the enemy was always a plus. Such a plus, that as Annabeth darted forwards, a dagger flashing in each hand, it was easy to stab a cyclops through the chest as it clung stupidly to its eyes— trying to block the light flooding it’s eyes that Leo had caused. A few moments later, the cyclops burst into golden dust. She moved onto the next, her movements fluid and fast, as if battle was where she belonged. Shooting Percy a little smirk before saying, “Tied for first!” Then she was calling back to her comrades once more. “Pair up! Leo, keep Celia in the center of your circle!” She didn’t want to discredit the daughter of Asteria, but in honesty— she wasn’t familiar with how comfortable the girl was with fighting after her accident years ago. Better to be safe than sorry. Annabeth could apologize for any stepped on toes or hurt feelings later.

Caspian hadn’t been worried about monsters showing up, so when they burst through the door, he wasn’t expecting it at all. As the volley of spikes came towards them, he lifted himself over the bar counter and took shelter there. The effort to get over the counter was not what he had expected, and the only thing he could blame was gravity. He wasn’t used to fighting on land but he had a few experiences. His eyes flicked over the scene in front of him, wondering what he should do. He was probably the least experienced here, but he wasn’t going to let that get to him. His eyes fell upon a sink that was behind the bar, he concentrated really hard, imagining the water erupting from them, not nothing happened. In fact, his gut didn’t feel the presence of water at all. The water must have been turned off for some reason, and now Caspian became anxious. “Percy, I don’t have a weapon!” He called out, using his hand to shield his eyes from the bright light. He turned around, looking for bottles of water instead, but alas, nothing. “We’re also kinda land-locked here. I can’t find any water!” He then started to rummage through the bars things, looking for anything that he could use to his advantage.

After a brief, very brief moment of shock, Celia sprang to her feet and took out her sword, which she was suddenly very grateful to have brought along. As Maia steadied her and gave her very precise directions, and as Annabeth yelled to keep her in the middle, she was suddenly filled with a great urge to prove herself. This was the perfect opportunity to show how much she’d learned, to show them exactly why the fifth was right to have taken her back. The music made it very, very hard to focus, especially since she mostly depended on her hearing, but the thud of the steps of the monsters (probably the cyclopes) resonated through the ground to her feet. She gritted her teeth and advanced. “I’m fine,” she shouted at Annabeth, keeping her sword close to her body like she was taught. Then when the roar of a single monster became louder than the others, his step almost right in front of her, she stabbed once - straight through its gut. After a very satisfying grunt, the familiar dust descended on her, a feeling that she probably shouldn’t have enjoyed as much as she did.

Percy whirled around Riptide flashing left and right as he parried a strike from a manticores tail before leaping over a punch that hurtled towards him from a cyclops. He heard Caspian’s shouts but he was a little busy with problems of his own. As the manticore’s tail lashed out and the spikes bounced off of his shield (Tyson had made some upgrades) Percy watched Celia dispatch a cyclops and decided to follow suit. Stepping inside of the guard of one of them, he leaped, slapped it in the face with his shield and drove the tip of Riptide into its neck, a shower of ichor covered him, but he was already back on the floor, rolling away from the manticore. “We need to move out of the middle of the warehouse,” he shouted, “we’re going to get surrounded if we’re not careful.” Pushing the monster’s back with his shield, he slowly made his way towards the door.

Maia’s cheeks warmed in embarrassment when Annabeth called her out-- right. Greeks, different cohorts, and Leo. Mierda. Maia ducked and rolled as the monsters charged towards them, dodging the wild attacks with ease as she focused on a different plan. Analyzing the room, she saw the beady eye of a Cyclops glaring at her and fear swelled inside the pit of her stomach. Percy was right though, they needed to get out of here. “I can distract them!” She shouted. Biting her cheek, Maia grasped her crystal and focused on the anxiety and cold that bubbled inside her. It was easier to feel her powers than all the times she’d practiced, the adrenaline and fear aiding her abilities. In an instant, she vanished. Without missing a beat, Maia sprinted through the crowd and jumped up on a table, launching herself into the air and slammed her knife into that disgusting eye. The monster disintegrated into dust and she found herself falling. Letting her momentum carry her, Maia tucked and rolled when she hit the ground before popping up. “Any bright ideas on that manticore?” She shouted, hoping that the others could figure out she was talking to them.

With Percy, and everyone actually, already occupied, Caspian decided that he couldn’t wait for someone to hand him a weapon, he had to take action, by himself. Behind the bar, he had established a temporary ‘safe space’, but he wasn’t exactly being on the offence. He finally came across a copper pipe under the bar, using all his strength, the managed to break it off from it’s other connections. He was used to working with the resistance of water, making him just that much stronger when it came to being on land. Aiming at a nearby serpentine monster, he threw the pipe through the air, like a javelin, and it struck the monster in the head, leave a cloud of dust where it stood. He needed something more useful, something that had more than one use. He jumped the counter and rejoined the group, not sure what to do as he didn’t have much experience with land monsters, but ready to help when needed.

Wes couldn’t say they were surprised when a hoard of monsters burst through the doors. Okay-- maybe a bit startled, but if they had learned anything about the demigod world since they’d run straight into it, you’d best be ready for the unexpected. They had been hesitant at first to leave Celia’s side -- they’d volunteered as her guide, after all. But once Leo’s circle had been cast, they felt more confident breaking away to join the offensive. In the chaos, Wes had chosen to use their gladius rather than going immediately for their weapon of choice. With everyone dashing around, the risk was simply too great. They helped despatch a cyclops, a harpy (or at least it looked like a harpy but they hadn’t encountered one before), and another one of the serpentine monsters Caspian had impressively speared in the head. They were all moving back towards the door, but Maia was right; they had to do something about that manticore. With the way it was throwing spikes everywhere, someone was bound to get seriously injured. “I might have one,” they called out over the noise. “Cover me!” It must have looked unbelievably stupid when Wes stashed their gladius and started weaving their way through the crowd of monsters toward the manticore, but they wanted to be sure they were distanced enough from everyone else to avoid causing collateral damage. As soon as they had a clear shot, they unclasped their necklace -- the black crescent moon one that was everpresent no matter their attire -- and whipped the chain out as if they intended to throw the pendant across the room. But as soon as it hit the end of the chain, the entire item transformed into a solid black scythe of Stygian iron. “Hey fugly!” The child of Thanatos whistled to get the beast’s attention, still sprinting towards it. As soon as it rounded on them, bounding forward like they hoped it would, Wes waited to the last possible second, barely missing a fatal bite to the head, to drop and slide underneath its body like they’d done a million times in those dreaded grade school baseball games. All it took then was a long swipe of the scythe’s blade as they sprung to their feet, spilling ichor from the manticore’s underbelly like a burst balloon. The nice thing about Stygian iron was that there wouldn’t be a cloud of dust to deal with. Wes could feel their weapon absorbing the monster’s essence, hopefully preventing its regeneration for good, but who really knew for sure with these things? They were dripping ichor once the deed was done, yet didn’t seem to care as they shook out their hair and called over to the others again with a cautious half-grin on their face. “That was good, right?”

The protective circle seemed to do a lot of good, because Celia had not been caught in the crossfire of manticore spikes just yet. She was unable to find out the precise location of another monster, the music and shouts and battle sounds still messing with her ears, but she knew a lot more had joined the small group of others that were attacking them. The circle wasn’t moving, she was aware of that because she’d stabbed through it when she attacked the cyclops and felt the energy ripple, so staying inside it was probably the best option. “Cover me,” Wes shouted, and Celia recognized that opportunity for what it was: she placed her gladius back in its sheath and closed her eyes; however stupid that must’ve seemed, it was a reflex. Her fingers started tingling, and soon, the smell of smoke, combined with something like welding fumes and hot metal, the aromas of space, filled her nose, telling her that the smokescreen started to pour out from between her fingers. She knew from experience that it was black and filled with something that looked like stardust, most of which was supposed to settle in the eyes of the monsters, but it was probably going to affect all of her friends more or less ━ she hadn’t practised that enough just yet. The manticore screeched (had someone killed the bitch, finally?) and the cyclopes grunted: now every one of the monsters was supposedly equal to her, which meant she had an advantage. She unsheathed her gladius again, focused on the sounds of battle, and slowly backed away, hoping it was the right direction to get away from the center like Percy had said.

Maia had managed to regroup with the others and watched in surprise when Wes whipped out a scythe from nowhere. ¿Qué mierda? Shaking it off, she focused on holding onto her power as she scanned the area. Aside from the panic and terror, something caught her eye—a group of people who seemed to be… making out in the corner? Startled, she faded back into the visible spectrum as she looked confused. As Maia squinted in confusion, she realized that one of the women had a very hairy looking leg? “¿Qué es estos?” She swore as she realized that a group of three empousai had taken advantage of the chaos to prey on some of the unfortunate ravers. “Empousai, 11 o clock, sucking face. Where did these monsters even come from?” She yelled as she looked around, trying to find something that might be a better weapon than her knife. Gods, she wished she’d brought her bow. Spotting a barstool next to her, she picked it up and smashed it against the side of the bar. One of the metal legs broke free and she grasped it one hand, her knife in the other.

Wes was thankful for Celia’s smokescreen. It had been the perfect cover to get them safely to the their target -- at least as safely as dashing through a throng of monsters could be. And thank the gods their father had given them the advantage of sight in the darkness. They weren’t sure if they would have been able to complete their attack without it. A few moments after they’d cleared their hair and face of ichor as best they could, they heard someone else’s words shouting about empousai. Now that was a monster Wes was familiar with. They jogged over to where the shouting woman stood. “The Underworld,” they smirked vaguely, reasoning that a bit of humor might lessen the stress. Or maybe not. It varied between listeners. Regardless, they switched back to a serious attitude the second after. “But someone had to have given them an entrance. Monsters don’t burst free like this of their own accord. And here,” they had seen the broken piece of stool she was intending to use, but Wes had their scythe now and didn’t mind offering up their gladius to the other for the fight. They knew she was a Centurion from their training drills, but her name escaped them. “You go left, I take right and meet in the middle?” They spun their scythe throughout the suggestion, loosening up their wrist for the brawl ahead.

“Keep going! We’ll try and pull them away so you can get out.” Percy shouted to Maia and the rest of the demigods. With Annabeth at his back, Percy couldn’t help but feel more comfortable then usual. They’d been fighting together for so long that it was basic instinct now. As they moved together, they cut a path through the monsters. Heading for a fire exit on the other side of the room in a hope that they could draw some away. As Wes dispatched the manticore and Celia dropped the smoke, Percy darted left and right. Using his shield as a weapon almost as much as Riptide, he slammed it into an Empousai’s front teeth and then dismembered her. As she dissolved into dust he slipped away from her and cut through a harpy’s left wing and then darted forward to knock her to the floor with his shield. In the commotion a cyclops lumbered their way. Crouching down, Percy motioned at the cyclops and held out his shield.

Taking the gladius, Maia nodded in thanks. She hadn’t expected that, but gods would a gladius do a lot more than a busted bar stool. “Sounds like a plan to me.” Maia nodded and ran towards the left. Percy seemed to have things on lock and honestly, she didn’t want to get in his way. As she ran, she focused on the crystal, now wrapped around her wrist. “Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo, por favor dame la fuerza…” She mumbled under her breath and did her best to kick her invisibility back into gear. But, she was already tired from her first use and her second attempt had mixed effects. She flickered in and out of the visible spectrum. Whatever, it would be good enough. As Maia ran towards the empousa, she watched as the demon tossed aside the blood-drained man and began to swirl the Mist around her. “I don’t know what she’s doing, but I don’t like it.” Maia yelled towards Wes, hoping that they were seeing what she was.

Wes bolted right as they'd said they would. Now that they'd been fighting for awhile, it seemed like everyone had finally gotten a grip on things -- at least in their mode of fighting. Wes had opted for a similar approach to Maia, slipping into an invisible cover. But the saw the flickering of her form to their left and frowned in silent worry. They didn't know what that crystal was for exactly, but they knew that invisibility had its limits and it was best not to push them. "Yeah, me neither," Wes called back, fading into sight. They weren't close enough to stop her yet, but they could stall her. Wes had let go of their invisibility completely in exchange for another power. They hadn't exercised this one very often, but now seemed like the appropriate situation. Drawing on the energy of the recent kill housed in their scythe, Wes focused on the corpse of the empousa's victim. Though it took a second or two, the result was no less effective when the man suddenly reached out and clamped a hand around the demon's ankle. The unexpected revival of her victim was enough of a shock that whatever she'd been doing with the Mist was temporarily ignored. Hopefully it would give Wes and Maia enough time to make their move.

Wally had, for lack of better wording, been put out for a spell. When the monsters first attacked, one of the beasts knocked themselves right over Wally, causing his forehead to meet the countertop of the bar. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that he had regained consciousness, only to see the demigods fighting off multiple different breeds of creatures. He was glad now that he’d brought his sword; pissed too for not having been able to finish his drink. Wally felt his head as he stood up, trying to be as alert as possible. From the corner of his eye, Wally saw a blurred figure heading towards him. On instinct his hand reached out, creating a solid wall of force between the two. He looked over and as his vision cleared, he could see that it was a cyclops who’d come for him. Wally exhaled shakily, running for cover with the other demigods. His eyes went alight, glowing violet as he ran through incantations in his head.

Annabeth didn’t need to ask to know that the shield was meant for her. In fact, she didn’t even wonder for the slightest second as to what Percy might be doing— she’d realized what was happening from the second he’d begun to lower himself towards the ground, and started picking up speed as she sprinted towards him. Soon she was upon Percy, and without hesitation she launched herself onto his proffered shield, using it as a means of catapulting herself even further into the air than any normal jump would have carried her. For a moment it seemed as if time had slowed, and the vital points of the monsters closest to her became glaringly obvious to her trained eye. With all the commotion on the floor, they wouldn’t be expecting death from above. Many seemed to forget that in addition to being a daughter of wisdom, she was also a daughter of battle. The sentiment was proven as she landed on the shoulders of a cyclops, stabbing it directly in the eye with one of her daggers. Before the monster could disintegrate into golden dust, she launched herself into the air once more, flipping off of his shoulders to once again take to the skies. As she righted out of the manuvoer, she let a dagger fly, and it found it’s mark in the jugular of a harpy, as if a magnet had drawn it there. As she drew closer to the floor, she unraveled the garrote wire from her wrist where it had been disguised as a stylish bracelet, hooking it across the neck of an empousa directly below her. Gravity did the rest of the work as Annabeth landed effortlessly back on the floor, though the fire-breathing goat lady was dragged to the ground by the neck, strangled until she too burst into golden dust. With a smirk towards Percy she chimed out, “I think it’s only fair that you get something like a third of the credit for those kills. But there’s still time for someone to win a coffee from me.”

Ducking underneath a swipe from a harpy that had swooped low at him, Percy’s sword cut through it like it was little more than butter and it soon dissolved into nothing more than a pile of golden dust. Weaving through monsters, Percy noticed a puddle in the corner of the warehouse and pulled the water from it towards him, hardening it into a hundred spikes that cut through three monsters as they weren’t there. “Even without your meager bonus points, I think that just put me ahead by one,” he replied with a bright smirk. The water now diluted heavily with monster ichor, Percy hurled the puddle towards Caspian, hoping that he’d be able to use it to protect himself. He’d been keeping half an eye on his nephew, he didn’t want anything to happen to the kid. But he knew that he could handle himself. Dodging backwards, Percy and Annabeth cut their way towards the fire exit, as Annabeth garotted the empousai, Percy kicked off of the wall of the warehouse and brought his shield slamming down into the front teeth of a hellhound, which probably hurt him more than the monster. Killing anything that looked like Mrs O’Leary had never been harder but he knew that the more of them he was able to take care of, the less of them his team would have to look out for and right now he was determined to show the Romans exactly what it was that they were missing out on. “That’s two now, you’ve got to catch up Annabeth!” he was all but crowing now as he ducked, weaved and rolled between the monsters. Fighting like a demon as he sliced through whatever crossed his path, the fire exit almost in sight now. The group were moving towards the exit which was good as they could plan their escape soon, or deal with what was left of the monsters.

Leo had seen many fights in his life, especially growing up as he did. It took quite a bit to impress him at this point. And yet, Percy and Annabeth did. He wasn’t exactly surprised, considering they did save the world… A few times. Still the grace and trust they showed was something that Leo didn’t see often. They would be a good example of trust for the Legion, he thought, then grimaced. He wasn’t apart of the Legion anymore, the Greeks had been barred from it. The Legion didn’t deserve to see or understand the way those two fought together. Leo attempted to stay in the middle of the group, hoping to lend his powers to them still. He kept the ring up, the lights were proving to blind the monsters relatively well, but added another element to the chaos. Barstools and other large objects began to move, slowly at first, into a position that would end up tripping those who weren’t looking down. Leo was rather thankful that he had endlessly practiced his powers when he was younger, as he was able to direct the objects to certain monsters, rather than randomly.

Maia continued on her pursuit of the empousa, gladius poised at the ready to slice through the monster. But, she faltered as she took in what appeared out of the Mist that swirled around the empousa. No, no, no. What the actual… How in the name of all that was holy did a hydra get in here? “No mames… ¿Qué chingados?” She swore loudly. If it was a figment of the Mist, she had to get to the empousa. But, in the few seconds that she’d taken her eyes off the weird succubus thing, it had darted away. “Is this really there? Anyone?” She asked, backing away as the hydra’s heads began to hiss and snarl.

Celia was vaguely aware of the fact that the room had grown a bit hotter when Maia screamed about empousai entering the building. Great. Her smokescreen was already dispatched, and it would take some time before she gained enough power to do it again, just in case it had faded, so she was back to hand-to-hand combat, with fiery vampire goat ladies this time. She seemed to be left alone, the sounds of combat distant through the weird circle of protection, but she couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. There was a distinct hissing noise to her left, multiple ones, in fact, and all her demigod senses screamed ‘hydra’. But she hadn’t heard its footsteps, and hydras weren’t supposed to just materialize in front of her. She was aware of Maia swearing pretty close to her, so she shouted. “Maia! I think it’s fake! I didn’t hear it coming! If it’s a hydra, it can’t just materialize!” Yeah, Celia probably looked like an idiot just standing there with her sword, like she was in the eye of a hurricane of monsters, but she was going to help in any way she could, even if it wasn’t much.

Caspian stayed with the crowd, not sure what to do. He could throw a few punches but that wouldn’t do anything against a monster. He considered summoning a storm, but being so far from the ocean, he had no idea what kind of impact it would have or if it would help his friends or rather just harm them. At the mention of a hydra, his mind was thrown back to when he had been surfing with Percy. He was filled with hope and knew that they’d be able to get out of this somehow. “If we could get outside, I may be able to help!” He called out to whomever was listening, although he was certain everyone was too busy to hear him and who was he to suggest anything anyway, he had just got to camp. He brushed the sweat from his brow, and that’s when he had the idea. It was gross, it was unhygienic, but hey, it was a matter of life and death. He concentrated on all the water that was around him in the form of sweat and imagined it forming into a spear-like icicle. He had power when it came to shaping and control small amounts of water, but don’t ask him to pull a hydra backwards through the ocean. Once the icicle had formed, he sent it flying through the air and through monsters, striking them in their weak spots and turning them into dust. It wasn’t long though before the icicle would be useless and he’d no longer have a weapon.

As Cas sent the icicle spinning through the monsters, it eventually boomeranged towards Percy and Annabeth. Catching the strangely smelling water with his mind, Percy wrapped it round him for a moment as he used it to dispatch of a telekhine that snapped and growled at him. As it dissolved into a patch of golden dust, Percy watched as the majority of the monsters followed them towards the fire exit. Leaping through it, he pulled Annabeth through it and slammed it shut. Holding it there for a moment. He was almost thrown off of the door as the monsters slammed into it after them, but he was able to drive a spare pipe through the handle to prevent it from opening again before running to the main doors with Annabeth, grasping either side he drove it open and shouted to the main group. “Come on, everybody out!”

To be honest, Annabeth was somewhat miffed when Percy had pulled her from the fray. There was little place the daughter of Athena felt more at home and more alive than on a battlefield, even if it was meant to be a rave. “Hey! I was still killing things!” she said in protest. Though before she’d even said the words, she knew Percy had made the right choice. They needed to get everyone out of her safely. After her and Percy’s combo move, she’d gone off into the thick of the monsters, slashing through more flesh and bone than she could keep track of. But now after following Percy around to the main doors, she cupped her hands around her mouth as she yelled in a way that would easily carry across the din of everything. “To me! Come on! Let’s move!” The monsters still seemed rather preoccupied with getting through the fire escape door, not yet realizing that the majority of their prey were escaping a different way.

This situation was one of the worst Caspian had ever been in. His sweat-cicle had finally shattered and with no weapon, he was forced to stand there, dodging monster attacks. He watched at Percy and Annabeth left the building, his heart dropping for a moment, wondering if they’d come back. Surely they would? He moved closer to the centre of the circle that the demigods had formed and kept an open eye, scanning for a weapon and trying to think of a way out. It wasn’t until Percy opened the main doors that Caspian felt some hope of truly making it out alive. With Annabeth and Percy calling to them, he urged the group to move towards the door. “Friends! Let us go to the doors!” His english broken but clear, hoping that everyone would understand him.

Wes and Maia had slain the empousai and their Mist-made hydra just as they had set out to do. The lives of a few unfortunate ravers were spared; however, it looked like the monsters were still coming, and they couldn’t fight the beasts off all night. Multiple shouts urging them to exit had made it through the sounds of battle. Wes missed the first call, but the second caught their ear from across the room. After finishing off the hellhound in their path, the child of Thanatos retracted their weapon to its dormant form and clasped the chain around their neck. They darted toward the others, utilizing their invisibility once more to avoid conflict along the way. But before they arrived at the door, they made one last stop in the circle to fulfill the duty they had offered earlier that night. “If I wound your pride at all, sorry in advance.” Without room for question or comment, the Wes swept Celia up into their arms princess-style and extended their power to her until they reached the doors and they set her back down again. The exertion was starting to hit hard, leaving them a little dizzy where they stood, but there was surely enough strength in them to make an escape with the group. They just hoped the others would catch up before the monsters did.

Having been in his own fight against a shadow cat, Wally had just a nice place for the blade of his sword: right along the belly of the feline monster. A low hiss escaped it’s maw as it made one last attempt to bite off Wally’s face. The purple cat slumped down onto him, leaving him stuck under the African cat. Wally rubbed the sweat off his brow and tried to steady his breathing. Slowly, Wally was able to push the deceased off of him and go to his feet. He snapped his fingers, putting the sword away into his back pocket. “Fuck, this is getting old, ya know?” Speaking to nobody in particular, Wally made his way out of the warehouse, sliding his back against a wall and resting.

Stepping through the door, Percy raised his shield and drove monsters away from the remaining escaping demigods. Holding the line until the last moment, he did everything in his power to drive off the monsters that were coming in from the direction that they’d locked them out of. “Everyone out!” he shouted before shattering the pipes filled with water around him. As he and the remaining monsters were drenched, he wiped up a slight storm to drive the monsters back, forcing the water to spiral and shards of ice to cut into anything that came near, as he stepped out of the warehouse, he slammed the door shut and froze the water in place, giving them time to escape. “Well, everyone needs to get back to the city now before more of those monsters show up, we can work out who invited us all to this death trap later on.”

#f&gwriting #para #eat sleep rave repeat #P; wally #p: wes #p: annabeth #p: celia #p: caspian #p: leo #p: maia #chatzy para

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