~ ☼ ~

You'd think 22 kids wouldn't fit in a camp transport van, but somehow, Argus made it work.

The whole way down to Philadelphia was a freaking mess.

Whoever decided to pair the two of us together for this (read: Chiron, trying to be pseudo-father of the year rather than, you know, preparing us for war) was not thinking straight. Besides Michael's beef with Clarisse, there was just the obvious difference in our cabins. On a normal school bus, the two noisiest cliques would definitely be the bullies and the musical kids. Now imagine a van that was nothing but them. Oh, and Argus had the radio on, which lead to a lot of singing. The Ares Cabin did not like that.

But by and large, there had not yet been any large scale fights, just a bunch of annoyance, by the time we got to Philly. I had never been there before, but from what I knew about it, my experience going to D.C., Pittsburgh, and NYC basically gave me everything I would find there already. I really wanted to enjoy it anyway, but I just couldn't - it's not like it was Chicago, and they had some lush emo scene I could be excited about.

(For the record... I'd been listening to a little less Fall Out Boy since last summer.)

"This is good," Alec said from beside me, while we drove into the heart of industrial suburbia. "This is definitely the opposite of greenery. Maybe we'll find the sickle here."

He was right on that part. We were somewhere outside the city, and all I could see was run down storefronts, storage facilities, and buildings that looked shady enough that I wouldn't be surprised if they were fronts for drug deals. Or, you know. Titan army bases.

"It is an armory," I said. "So you might be right."

Riley, who was sitting by the window seat - it was 3 to a seat, the worst school bus seating arrangement in the world - looked too glum to agree. She had her face on her hand as she watched Philly pass by.

"Any chance I'm right, Ri?" Alec asked, noticing and trying to keep her involved.

She shrugged. "Stop asking me. We've established I don't know."

Alec didn't look at me, but I knew he felt uncomfortable. He'd already told Riley he empathized with her loss of powers several times, so I doubted he knew what else to say. Slowly, he leaned towards her, and wrapped a arm around her so as to hug her.

She ducked out of it without meeting his eyes, making his face burn. And mine, too, in second-hand embarrassment. I looked away, trying not to fall off into the aisle.

"All right, frickers," I heard Clarisse LaRue saying to her siblings at the front. "We're gonna annihilate any monsters we see, all right? We're the children of Ares - we can't let a few freaks of nature stop us. Even the ones who think they're broadway singers!"

Her siblings cheered, and she continued, "So dig down deep inside yourself. Push. Find that beast within you, and let it free. War stops for no one. You either fight, or you get fought."

I tuned her out. She sounded like a football coach.

"Hey, AJ," said Michael, tapping me on the shoulder. I turned to see him sitting with Will in the seat catty-corner from us. Will was looking at me with a forced smile on his face, while Michael looked deadly serious.

Oh no.

"There's a few things in particular we wanna take, right?" he said. "One of the biggest things is this chariot. So you're gonna hold it down until I can get there to fly it away-"

"No," said Will, looking at him disapprovingly. "We already agreed upon a plan. You're going to hold it down until Clarisse and her brother Weilong arrive. It was originally Ares' chariot, so it'll appreciate being taken by its rightful owners. We think."

"What?" I asked. I shook my head. "Why me?"

"You've been on two quests successfully," said Michael, like it was obvious. "I think you can handle it the best."

My face went red. I didn't know how to respond to this. It made me want to cry and vomit in equal measure. So I just said, "No."

Will gave me an apologetic look. "Sorry, AJ. The plan's already been thought out."

I gave a glance to the Ares kids at the front of the van. They didn't seem like they cared a lot about battle plans. But I had a feeling arguing would be pointless; besides, we were already almost there. I could feel it in the air, as the van was growing quieter. Argus turned onto a side street, and I swallowed.

"Fine," I said. "But don't blame me if something happens to it."

I hated responsibility. Last time I'd had some, I'd come back swordless and short of two campers.

~ ☼ ~

When we parked, we parked in an alley right behind the main building we were raiding. 22 kids was not exactly subtle, but then, when Clarisse held up her sword and roared like a lion, running down the block towards the warehouse, I realized we weren't going for subtle. Maybe it was the sheer amount of teenagers that would catch them off guard.

"Go," Michael said. "Riley and Brin, since you're both archers, come with me. Alec and AJ - go find the chariot. We think it'll be on the second floor."

As he turned to the other Apollo kids, telling them what to do, I looked at Alec. I could already hear monsters hissing from inside the warehouse, so Alec shrugged.

"Come on," He said. "We don't have a lot of time."

I followed him up a fire escape near the main doors where Clarisse and her posse had entered; I imagined they were the distraction, and whoever was guarding the chariot and everything else would go running into that main room to fight them. The warehouse itself was two stories tall, brick and falling apart; I was worried about our safety on the fire escape as Alec opened an unlocked window and tucked himself inside.

I followed, sucking in a breath. Don't run away, AJ. You've got Alec at your side and the literal children of the god of war on your side.

We were now in the main room too, but on a balustrade looking down on the battleground where Clarisse and her siblings were currently slashing at dracaena and other monsters I didn't recognize. Then, an alarm went off, blaring through the warehouse.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" It screamed, except it was not the computer voice of a normal alarm. It sounded like a harpy's screech.

"Di Immortales," Alec swore. "Let's go."

We ran upon the balustrade, down a hallway blindly, running into a monster along the way. It was coming out of another warehouse room, and at the sight of us, it blinked. Then it opened its mouth and bared its teeth. I was fully prepared to stab at it with Liakada, until Alec beat me to it with his knife.

"Shoot," I said.

Alec stood there, blinking, when the thing turned into gold dust. I knew the feeling. I patted him on the shoulder.

"It's hard to adjust to being a fighter," I said. "You sure you don't want to-"

He shook his head and nodded at the door the thing had come out of. "We don't have time, AJ. Come on."

I was surprised by how tight his tone was, but then, he wasn't exactly happy when he was doing stuff like this. Which was precisely why it made no sense for him to give up being a medic. There were a few kids who I was willing to bet would be stationed by Argus and the van as medics, anyway. He could've stayed with them.

Regardless, I followed him through the doorway, up a short set of staircases, and then, in a wild stroke of luck, there it was. The chariot.

"Holy crap," I said. "We cannot be that lucky-"

Then another monster came flying down from the rafters, suddenly. I swung blindly and cut off one of its wings, but it didn't matter; it was not the only one. Like characters in a first person shooter, were suddenly surrounded by monsters. 

I wish I could tell you what they were, but I didn't pay attention enough in demonology lessons to say. And yes, those were a real thing we did at camp. I'll admit I often tuned them out because I felt like I had a head start above some other campers, because I'd been on a quest - and then two quests, last summer.

Michael had chosen me for a reason.

Using Alec's back as a starting point, I pushed myself into the throng, cutting and slashing wildly. I felt myself hitting things over and over again, until soul dust was raining down upon me like golden glitter. I stormed right up to the chariot, up on a pedestal next to other vehicles they had stolen - I saw both a boat and a scooter, surprisingly, which made me feel like I was in the bike aisle at Walmart - and passed my hand over it, hoping my godly heritage would somehow make the thing wake up. Sure enough, it glowed faintly red, but I did not move it; I had to hold it until Clarisse and Weilong arrived.

"Alec!" I exclaimed, calling back over my shoulder.

But Alec had already finished the rest of the monsters - for now - and was in the process of disappearing out that door through which we'd came. He paused, giving me an apologetic look. "I'll be right back!"

"Alec!" I exclaimed, now angry. But it was too late. He'd already disappeared - I assume, to find that stupid sickle.

"Ugh!" I exclaimed. Now I was alone. I was supposed to be alone in the first place, so I guess I was expected to handle it. I wasn't scared, as much as I was offended he'd gone without me.

I turned back to the chariot, examining it. It was plated with Celestial Bronze, a giant sun on the front. To me this seemed very frankly to be an object of Apollo, but then, like I'd seen, it had glowed red, not yellow. And when I touched it, slowly, it did not warm my hand the way Liakada did-

Suddenly, there was another screech, and there, another monster came in from some back door I hadn't seen before. This one was a harpy, which I knew about. I immediately jumped off the chariot pedestal and ran towards it, ducking when it swooped for my head. It was surprisingly hard to stab, too freaking stealthy for me, but once I finally did it, I turned, because I'd heard someone else come in.

It was Michael and our brother Aaron, a Black kid with his hair in Jean-Michael Basquiat style dreads; they were lifting the chariot between them and carting it towards the door.

"Michael!" I yelled. "What the heck!"

But he just looked up and gave me a sharp nod, like we were comrades in a much bloodier war. 

"A trophy," he said. "Since it was a Child of Apollo who found it in the first place. They need to know."

I followed them out, knowing I wouldn't be able to get the chariot from them - and wondering if I even should, because I would kind of like to show Clarisse...

"Hey!" Clarisse yelled, noticing us from the ground floor. Her and a few of her siblings were resting, having gotten everybody in the main room already. "Yew! That's ours!"

Michael just shook his head. "Finders keepers!"

"You're freaking dead!"

Clarisse snarled, immediately breaking into a march towards the main doors, to meet my brothers as they descended the fire escape. Assuming they'd killed all the monsters, I hung back, catching my breath. Then someone, running, rounded the corner, bumping right into me.

I turned immediately to find Alec, his eyes wide. Clarisse and Michael's fighting was audible still, even from here, in the dust of the small battle. Still catching my breath, I glared at Alec.

"Michael stole the chariot," I said. "It was supposed to be Clarisse's."

"Shoot," Alec said.

"That's because you-" I pointed a finger towards his chest - "Left me. I was distracted by a harpy, and Michael came right in and took it beneath my nose. If you'd stayed, you could've fought them off."

Alec's brow furrowed. "You think stopping Michael from standing up for himself is more important than getting Demeter's blessing?"

"Did you find the sickle, Alec? Did you have enough time?"

The frown on his face as he looked away awkwardly, his cheeks red, answered that for me.

I sighed, hitting the banister frustratingly, feeling just as awkward as my anger faded into angst.

"That was a declaration of war," I said. "So yeah, it is important. We kind of have to pick our battles right now."

"Sorry," he said. He looked at me, just as grumpy as I was, and I couldn't really tell if he meant the apology or not.

I didn't like that. Didn't like the distance.

I felt something cold and uncomfortable sluice through me, then I looked away, my head spinning. More Ares Cabin members were coming back from the depths of the warehouse, bringing forward weapons. I suppose nobody wanted the Walmart bike aisle scooter.

"Come on," I said. "I guess we're done here, anyway."

"Fine."

Icily silent, we walked back to the van, Clarisse and Michael's arguing a bad omen of the rest of the summer.

~ ☼ ~

A/N: Please don't tell my sister that I used Ares' 1996 B.C. Chariot to Destroy the Relationship of Cabin 7 and Cabin 5