Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Nineteen: We Barely Escape Alive

"No way," whispered Phillip.

"Mierda," whispered Reyna.

The new guy, I was assuming he was another Titan Army officer, spoke again. "Well shit, Pete. I was gonna throw you a bone, but damn...you shoulda kept your mouth shut, bro." Pete didn't answer. The other officer looked at the rest of us now.

"Woah, Phillip? Reyna? Fancy seeing you guys here! Looks like we also have Short Stack and Robocop here, too," he chuckled, pointing to me and David.

I stepped forward. "Who are you?" I asked.

"Oh, sure." he said. He took off his helmet. He was a guy about my age, with curly brown hair and a wide smile. "Name's Barry." he said cheerfully. He looked at Phillip and Reyna. "Right, guys?"

"He disappeared from Camp Jupiter six months ago." said Reyna with astonishment. "We thought you had died!"

"Yeah, well." he shrugged. "Y'all gave the praetorship to Jason, and that kinda stung, so I decided to be in charge somewhere else."

"You were out of line," snarled Phillip.

Barry sneered at him. "Shut up, dude. You were still probatio when I left. I'll still whoop your ass any day."

"Bet," said Phillip in a low voice.

"Whatever," shrugged Barry. "I'm not here to rehash the past, I'm here to tell you that I'm taking him," he said pointing to Pete, "And the rest of you with me back to the Titan Base, so we can have ourselves a little Q and A, what do you say?"

"Yeah, or how 'bout I stick my Q up your A?" threatened David. Barry just gave him a confused look.

"Yeah, keep working on those threats, pal." he said.

"We're not going anywhere with you," said Reyna, purple cloak billowing in the wind. "And Pete is coming with us. You'd just execute him."

Barry rolled his eyes. "Probably. I mean he did tell you guys when we planned to attack the Greeks."

I flicked my wrist, and my sword slid out of my arm and locked in place. "No one is going anywhere with you." I growled.

Barry sighed. "Okay, let's try this, then." he said. He stuck his fingers into his mouth and whistled, and suddenly, scores of monsters emerged on top of the rocks surrounding us. I counted dozens of dracaena, hellhounds, blue ice giants at least ten feet tall, hyperboreans, I think they were called, and other dog-faced, seal-like monsters I didn't know the name of. They had us entirely surrounded. We all slowly drew our weapons and formed a tight circle.

"Okay," began Barry. "Now how about you come with us, and I'll tell the higher-ups to be extra--" He stopped suddenly as Phillip smacked Gerry's hindquarters, and Gerry shot into the sky like a bullet with Pete on his back. He soon disappeared into the sky and out of sight.

"Aw, damn it to...!" exclaimed Barry, exasperated. He turned back to the rest of us. "Whatever, this is your last chance to come with me, or I promise, it's gonna get ugly." his expression was fierce now.

"Bring it on, cabrón," replied Reyna.

Barry just sighed. "Your funeral," he muttered.

He lowered his helmet over his eyes and raised his sword. That's when all hell broke loose.

The monster army surged forward, and we ran to meet them. I squared off with one of the dog-faced monsters. He had the body of a seal, but the face of a snarling doberman, I knew that this was a sea demon, called a Telekhine. The telekhine swung his sword at me, I ducked and raked mine up across his chest and neck. He disintegrated almost immediately.