Son Of The Cup Bearer {Percy Jackson x Ejen Ali}

Uh Oh, The Geese Came

Ali had barely spent two minutes in the forges when the geese came. 

He was leading Khai to the forges, on the way telling him about how the children of Hephaestus usually dwindled there and about them being the craftsmen of the camp. For once, he actually felt like he knew something. 

That was until they were outside the forges when Ali realised he was technically talking to a son of Vulcan (literally Hephaestus) - he would already know all these stuff. If Khai was exasperated, he didn't show it. The glowing orange light from the forges instead made his face seem to glow with happiness, like he was happy to have such a talkative moron with him. 

"Thanks for accompanying me here, Ali," Khai said. "I should introduce you to my siblings- uh, if you haven't known them." He adjusted his spectacles nervously. Like how Viktor would bleat when nervous, Khai would simply adjust his spectacles, despite them already balanced perfectly on his nose.

"Actually, I haven't been here long myself," Ali admitted.

Khai's smile literally made him happier himself. The next few minutes followed with Ali being introduced to the other children of Hephaestus. He could barely remember their names, but it didn't matter. He liked making friends, as long as they were alright with his presence around.

All of them seemed to have a few features in common: black sooty clothes, rough, muscular greasy hands (even the girls), and the unmistakable smell of machine oil. 

Looking at Khai, he realised how different he seemed to be with his counterpart siblings. He was extremely skinny and clean compared to them. And every time they moved between workbenches and fires, he kept a lot to himself, as if careful not to get any grease or machine oil on him. Ali was doing the same, but he rather thought this behaviour was rather odd for children of Hephaestus (or Vulcan, whatever). 

"Been working on anything, Khai?" asked a boy of about sixteen excitedly.

The boy's smile was so infectious that Ali couldn't help smiling too. He may be around teenage age, older than Ali, heck, but he had an excited aura around him that could only be found around a child.

"You bet," Khai said proudly. "I've-"

But he barely continued his sentence when there was a loud honk.

The entire forge froze. Ali could tell from the look on everyone's face that this was something unusual - something that even Camp Jupiter had never encountered.

"What is-" said a girl. 

Then the ground shuddered as a large bronze shape landed near the cabins. 

A couple of younger kids squeaked and hid further within the forge. The remaining ones held an expression of alarm. 

Khai was the first to unfreeze. "The camp is under attack! I have to find the praetors!"

"We're coming with you," the excited, though now extremely grim, boy said. He hefted a rather heavy looking hammer up and yelled to the entire cabin, "For Hephaestus!"

The others cried back in reply. Together, with Ali stumbling confused amongst them, they made their way back to the cabins, where a bloody fight had already started out.

Many cabins were on fire. Campers yelled, some with armoured and armed, some not at all, and disappeared through the fighting crowd. Flashes of silver were Hunters of both Artemis and Diana weaving in between the crowd, shooting arrows of silver at- oh, gods.

Three large bronze geese were destroying the camp. As Ali watched, one of them farted a large column of orange flame from its- you know what, Ali's not going to specify, but it's somewhere at its bottom. The fire was so extreme several cabins caught fire in one shot, and the heat itself, even from twenty feet away, nearly made Ali pass out. 

Amongst their number was a woman in a dark suit with dark hair and a man sixteen feet tall with a bald head. They were fighting with combat, though the woman - was Ali's eyes playing tricks on him again? - occasionally summoned the help of a lightning or two to stun her enemies.

"Campers!" yelled two women. One was flying on a pegasus (yep, they exist), while the other was directly in front of Ali. 

The one in front of Ali was wearing a purple shirt with blonde hair, with a man in a similar purple shirt by her side. Apparently she was well recognised at Camp-Half Blood, because the campers momentarily stopped their attacking.

"Legion!" cried the one circling above them. "Turtle shell formation! Pila! Oppugnare!"

Almost as if programmed upon command, about ten purple shirted campers gathered in front of a goose. In unison, they whipped out their shields, forming a shell that protected them from all sides. Above, left, right and all. Then golden spears bristled out of the remaining tiny holes and they charged the forty feet tall bronze goose.

The bronze goose wasn't pleased, because it show a beam of pure red laser at the turtle shell formation from its eyes. Luckily, the shields held and it was deflected towards somewhere else in the heavens. 

"Greeks!" the blonde girl shouted. "Attack the woman and the giant!"

Ali then noticed he was rooted to the spot. He wasn't helping. He quickly fumbled for his beige yoyo, but before he could help with either campers or Hunters, a shout rang clear from a woman - the woman who's being cornered by Camp Half-Blood campers.

"The boy's there!" she yelled. "Chines, get him!" 

It was only too late he realised by boy she meant him, and that when she said chines, she meant geese.

The goose which had shot laser beams turned its attention away from the legion throwing spears harmlessly off its bronze skin towards Ali. Its glowing red eyes seemed to fix Ali to the spot. 

Then he was pushed aside just as two beams of laser scorched the spot he was only a moment ago. As Ali stumbled upright again, Khai, Roza and Moon were surrounding him. They were protecting him.

"We have to go, quick," Roza commanded. Her golden sniper was in her hands, and she looked ready to strike. "Into the woods."

"Woods?" Moon choked. She looked nauseated. 

"No time, go!" 

She pushed them by their backs until they could run by themselves. As they ran past the arena, the ground trembled beneath them, as if three giant geese were hot on their heels (which they were). Ali dare not look back in case he froze, like he did just now.

They had just arrived at the edge of the camp's woods when Roza decided to turn back. She aimed at the bronze automatons and let loose fine streaks of gold; but like everything, it bounced off the geese's hides, and only made them angrier. 

Suddenly two of the automatons tripped and crashed into the ground, causing a mini earthquake. There was only one left. Roza could either protect her friends from a close distance or keep it away - but which should she do?

"Keep it away," said a gentle voice.

She turned to see Iman, the Lieutenant of Diana and Alicia, a Hunter of Artemis by her side. Their jackets were black with soot and so were their faces, but they still held an aura of power.

"Keep it away, we'll make sure they're safe," the Lieutenant of Diana promised.

Roza glanced at the bronze goose getting closer and closer. Fifty feet, forty feet.

"Fine, I'll cover your back," Roza said.

Iman nodded. "Senatus Populusque Romanus." And disappeared into the woods with her comrade, Alicia.