Camp Half-Blood Heroes

Aj arose to a sudden slam, and slashing above deck. No. Not above. Right outside their door. He knew something had gone terribly wrong. He rolled onto his back immediately, quickly reaching for the side table, needing to find his weapon but finding nothing. Aj sat up quickly, and pulled himself out of the bed, climbing to his brothers top bunk only to run smack into his brothers bowed head as he made his way up, and to fall softly, and somehow quietly onto the bottom bunk. His brother leaned over the side, and nodded for him to scoot over. “Im coming down.” He said. Aj nodded, and moved to the side, watching as Percy climbed swiftly over the metal frame of the bunkbed, and swung onto the lower bunk next to Aj. “Trouble.” Aj said, his eyes fierce, and his senses alert. Percy nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I know. Annabeths outside the cabin door. Don’t ask me how I know I just do. Somethings going on and I don’t know what.” Percy said, his eyes traveling wearily around the room, until they came to rest on Aj, scanning him for something, then a look of disappointment crossed his features. “Where’s your sword?” His brother asked him quietly. Aj frowned, and shook his head. “Don’t know. Fell out somewhere.” Percy nodded, and sighed. “You’ll have to make do for now. C’mon. Lets get closer to the door, and listen in.” Aj nodded, and hopped off the bed, making not a single sound, and swiftly following his brother, leaning against one side of the door, while his brother leaned against the other. Both boys leaned their heads towards the door, trying to get a better idea on what was happening outside.“Come sweet girls. Feed me and I shall reward you handsomely.” A deep voice echoed threw the air outside the cabin door. Handsomely. Suddenly Aj’s mind started rushing. Mr. Hodnik, hour 2, Greek mythology, beast, preys on only men. Aj stopped, and went wideyed, knowing immediately what it was. “S-sybaris.” Aj muttered out quickly under his breath, his voice cracking in fear. Percy looked over at his brother suddenly, moving his head away from the door to see his brothers troubled expression. “Sybaris. It’s a Sybaris. It preys only on guys.” Aj said, a lump suddenly forming at the back of his throat. Percy’s eyes went wide, and he became seemingly pale all of a sudden. Percy squatted down, leaning against the cabin wall, adjacent to the door, and stared off into space, his hand on his head. Aj watched him quietly, knowing better than to interrupt him from his thoughts. “Alright.” Percy nodded. “Heres the plan-“ Percy was cut off by the screetching voice of the man eater outside. “Daughter of Artemis eh?” The creature said, its voice sounding amused. Aj went wide eyed, his hand quickly extending towards the doorknob, his brother intercepting his reach, and grabbing onto his wrist, staring into Aj’s eyes with a fierce, stern look in his own. “Caly.” Aj said shakily. Percy nodded. “I know, Aj listen to me. If we go out there now we wont be helping, only making it worse. We’re guys, and sons of Poseidon. We don’t belong in the air, and if we go out on the deck exposed, we’ll be quickly distracted.” Percy said quietly, his voice taking on a leaderly tone. Suddenly Aj remembered where he was, and the horrible, sick feeling in his stomach began again. Percy noticed his brothers discomfort, and nodded. “We have to wait. I have a plan. Just listen to me.” Aj nodded lamely, and squatted down next to his brother, the sudden pain in his stomach firing up, being nearly too much for him, leaning up against the wall for support, and listening to his brother.

“Alright.” Percy said, nodding at his brother. Aj looked into his brothers eyes, to find a look of weariness, and knew quickly if they messed up, it was easily possible neither of them would return from the quest alive. Dead on the first day. Gotta be a new record. Aj thought to himself sarcastically. Percy’s fist opened up, and he held up three fingers. Aj nodded, and watched closely, as his brother mouthed the count off. Aj got his hand on the door knob, and readied himself, his makeshift weapon in his other hand. 3…2….1….Aj opened the door, and lept into the fight, quickly tucking and rolling, narrowily avoiding the swift slashing of Annabeths daggers, and quickly took in his surroundings, finding Caly standing with her eyes closed near the other end of the ship. Aj got up quickly, and saw from the corner of his eye, Piper, and Annabeth fighting alongside the guys, who were looking weak, and well…scared crapless. Aj didn’t blame them at all. He took in his brother running their way, and saw him narrowly avoid a swipe from the creatures woman-like “claws”. Aj just thought they were fingernails. Aj wasn’t sure if the thing was a guy or a girl, but if it was a guy…he’d had a serious man-icure. Aj lept over a gust of…smoke? Well whatever it was, he hadn’t liked the looks of it. He lept quickly over the looming gas, and quickly dashed his way to Caly. When he got to her her eyes were still closed, and she seemed to be in some sort of trance. Aj didn’t know if he’d be able to get her attention quickly enough so she could move herself, but he didn’t have the time to risk it, so he carefully, and gently picked her up bridal style, getting a good firm grip on her, before bounding over the fog again, and setting her down in the safety of the cabin, before running back out, and scaling the half-wall of the ship to join the fight. “Ah, sons of Poseidon. You join us. I haven’t had fresh ocean creature in a while. You shall make for a fine entre.” The creature said, cackling once more. Aj wished so badly it would just stop and choke up like the bad guys did in those funny movies he watched, but no, life is never that funny, or easy. Tough nuggets. Aj ran towards the monster, ducking swiftly as it aimed a claw at his face, then getting up again, only to be stabbed in the back by the creatures claws he’d narrowly avoided before, falling forwards in excrutiating pain towards the deck he’d climbed up from. He landed harshly on his stomach, the wind getting knocked out of him. He lay there for a few minutes as the fight rushed on, and weakly opened his eyes, a new type of pain soaring threw his veins, all throughout his body. Aj moved his hands slowly to his side, and mustering up all the strength he could, attempted to push himself up off the ground, with no futher luck. Suddenly, small slinder arms were around him, turning him over, and helping him up. He turned to tell his savior thank you, before planning on quickly rejoining the fight, only stopping, shocked to realize it was Andria. “Andria.” He said, his voice cracking as he winced in pain. She frowned, but seemed to grin aswell. “Aj. Looked like you needed help.” She said with a wink. “H-how, b-but..!” He spluttered out lamely, trying to figure out how his friend could have found her way aboard. “No time for explanations now. We’ve got a monster to kill.” She said. Aj straightened up, and nodded quickly, feeling another sudden pain jab at his thighs. He quickly fell to his knee’s, Andria at his side in a flash. He winced as he pulled the blades out of his legs. He heard Andria gasp, and felt her fingers tracing the spot where his usual leather bracelets lay on his wrist. She pressed down suddenly, causing Aj to wince, and open his eyes, finding two bloodied blades retracting into his favorite, childhood bracelets. “H-how..” Andria shook her head at him, and worriedly wiped the blood off of his face. He wasn’t sure how it had gotten there, but when she removed her hand, her fingers were red. “We have to help them.” Aj said, standing up, Andria keeping an arm on him as if he were going to collapse again, which was understandable, since he did have a record of blacking out, and falling down. He looked to his friend, and she nodded swiftly. Realizing his makeshift weapon was nowhere in sight, Aj looked at the blades extened outwards once more, and grinned. “This’ll be fun.” He said softly, taking off quickly, charging back towards the fight.