What is and what should never be

Chapter 4: The Parakeet God makes things complicated

I don't recommend shadow travel if you're scared of:
A) the dark
B) the cold
C) unrecognizable ghost whispering
D) going so fast you feel like your face is peeling off.
In other words it's not the best way to get to a Taco Bell or to get ice cream. We emerged out of the shadows on the roof of a building straight across from Brooklyn house, the first thing that brought us to our senses was a huge explosion from across the street, we thought was Brooklyn House was having some form of Egyptian firework display. NOPE! It took us a second to realize, but Brooklyn house was Under Attack! Charging up the road and climbing up onto the roof were hundreds of Egyptian demons, i could tell they were Egyptian because they were so odd, they all had hippo skin and wore only loincloths, armor, and brandishing weapons that were on fire! The really creepy part was the fact that they Did. Not. Have. Heads! They all had some kind of sharp weaponry Sprouting from their neck cavity, they were attacking Brooklyn house as if they were bees running into a flower garden. The demons weren't the weirdest things in Brooklyn either, it was the magicians, two the first figure I noticed was a middle aged man standing on the outstretched balcony. He was dressed very professionally in a black turtleneck, tailored jeans and a white lab coat, he also had on a pair of white hospital shoes which made me think he was a healer of some kind, he had honey colored noodle hair and piercing green eyes with a pointy nose almost like a beak, he was hurling magical light at the demons hurling them down the building as if they were bowling pins. Above two birds of prey spiraled in and out of view as if they were thinking about which of us to eat first. A young girl stood on the balcony, she had dark Arabic skin, with warm gold eyes, she wore black cargo pants a green tank top and a jean jacket, her hair was cut, black, and short like cleopatra, and she twirled a stick with fire sprouting from the end as if she practicing some kind of martial arts, the lab coat man had hordes of Ibis birds surrounding him, along with baboons, "let's go!" I commanded. Myself and Frank un-shouldered our bows and dove into action. I reached into my quiver and pulled three arrows from my back, hooked them in my bow and fired! I knocked out five demons at a time, I really liked that I was so good, Archery was my specialty of course. Myself and Frank ran along the roof while we knocked Demons out left and right, along with getting inflamed, or pecked to death by Ibises or lab coat man shouting verbal spells like Irritable bowels! Or intestinal pain! The demons who toppled off the roof were eaten by a whole pack of hungry griffins, it took a while but once we had shoved every demon back to the duat. I laced my fingers together and cracked my knuckles, "Alrighty, where's Carter and Sadie?" As if on cue, the two birds of prey who helped us in our fight took a dive onto the balcony. I suddenly realized what They were, one was a peregrine falcon with black and gold feathers, they second was a grey Egyptian kite (yes that is a kind of a bird) they took a perfect landing right on the porch of the mansion. I was suddenly full of excitement as The falcon transformed, he shifted into a regular teen boy, tall, thin and
incredibly serious he had dark skin, the color of coffee with hazelnut eyes and short black hair, he wore a white linen button down covered by a black blazer with black leather pants, and archeology boots, Carter Kane. Son of Osiris, host of Horus and Egyptian magician. The kite right next to him also shifted into a person, a light skinned teen girl, Long and lanky with sunshine blonde hair streaked with pink, she wore a black leather jacket over a blue jean shirt with black cargo pants and combat boots. Sadie Kane host of Isis and Carters little sister. "Hey Truax, how are things on your side of New York?" Carter asked with a sly smile "could be better," I smiled. Carter, Sadie and a few other friends hugged me so tight I thought I was going to faint, their had been a lot of hugging today, with everyone, I like hugs no matter who they come from. Nico, Hazel and Frank dropped from the roof to join the party, they shook hands with the magicians and than we all made our way inside.
Brooklyn house was as grandiose as it was powerful, but the first thing I noticed were the little penguins 🐧
Trailing around everywhere, I didn't question it "please pardon the penguins, Felix likes them," Sadie told me, I leaned over the balcony and waved to Phillip of Macedonia, the all white crocodile that lived in the swimming pool (long story) he was playing with his little friend, but to him it was his baby, a very much smaller five foot baby crocodile, that had been rescued by Carter and my friend Percy three summers ago. "Have we named him?" I asked with curiosity "his name is Splash," I could see why, the way he paddled around like a bath toy splashing everything "I would've called him, Fredrick of Sparta, but that's just me," Carter laughed and pulled me along. "So what brings you to Brooklyn house?" Carter asked me. "Have you not noticed?" I joked, "the whole country is under attack, by demons and element monsters, the end is nigh," the Kane siblings looked at each other and nodded with concern. "We know, just last week the 51st nome in Texas was overrun with cheese demons, they stopped them, but flooded Houston with fondue in the process," I tried not to laugh, but cheese demons are funny, "anything else I need to worry about?" I asked, Carter gave Sadie a should we tell her? Look before they both stood to face me. "We have something to show you and it won't be pretty," I nodded this probably won't be the worst thing I Face this week. Carter lead me over to the window and filled a bowl with oil while speaking an incantation, "show us our enemy!" He commanded, a window like screen came to life in from of us, I almost past out, not to lie. What I saw was a huge succubus party barge heading Straight for New York, the rebels were on their way, but something else was coming, the Ocean seemed to be boiling around it, and hundreds of aquatic animals surrounded the ship. They weren't dolphins, or whales they were Crocodiles! All swimming in formation, surrounding the ship at top speed, creating a rip current, trying to blow the ship off course, or at least slow it down. "Since when do crocodiles live in the ocean?!" I demanded, "those are Petscocho's. Sons and soldiers of the god Sobek," I stood their shocked. He was the god of the Nile and lord of crocodiles, every single one was sacred to him. Legends said that all the worlds waterways came from his sweat. Euw! But I was glad he was helping us, "he's on our side, why?" I asked, "the Greeks pretty much created the concept of multiple gods, at least nowadays, if Olympus falls so does every other pagan belief system, so of course the gods of Egypt will fight for Olympus." That was a bit of a relief, but I was also trying not to worry about the people who were affected negatively by the war that weren't Demigods. They were just mortals, people who had a family, a whole life ahead of them, who didn't even know that the world was going to end in two days, people who I couldn't save, because either they didn't believe me or just didn't listen. Best example: Pete Wentz of Fall out boy; I gave him the same talk I gave everyone else. Run. Get as far away from the war zone as possible, take your family and run, the whole of New York was going to be invaded by every evil you can imagine. We don't want anyone in our path. Of course he didn't listen, he definitely assumed I was just making stuff up. The last I saw him was getting his family into a car and driving to the airport. You're probably thinking We'll, that's a good thing right, fleeing the war? Nope! He was going on a family vacation to Costa Rica, for no reason. The last I saw or heard of him was that just as he was crossing the Vincent Thomas Bridge, the fire giants began their assault, along with the Frost giants and any Norse monster you could name. The fire giant king Surtur, had destroyed the bridge and the family car went right into the water. This had shocked me, I tried to warn him. Honestly I did, but he wouldn't listen to me, the worst part is he could be dead, and he just had a new baby girl, I felt terrible, but I knew I couldn't convince everyone. Another burden was the Scorpion team I also tried to warn them, of the incoming attack but of course they didn't listen, geniuses don't listen to mythical warnings, now every one of them was either missing or in a coma from an attack on LA by the ice giants. Dallon Weekes also wasn't lucky, he didn't listen to my warning and pretty much went out and got crushed by a giant. Why did this keep happening? I wanted to cry but I knew that wouldn't fix everything.
Carter and Sadie were having a meeting with all the other magicians In the library. I saw Amos Kane their uncle, Jazz Anderson, Zia Rashid Carter's girlfriend, Alyssa, Cleo, Julian, Paul, Felix and Bast the goddess of Cats. They were all gathered around a planning table, speaking in multiple incoherent tones. Lab coat man came into the room with a pen and paper, "Dakota, come join us," Carter waved me over, I came forward enough to hear the conversation "What are we going to do, it's not like eight magicians and a Cat goddess can take a whole..." Carter turned to me "how many Rebels are in the Army," he said very concerned "Last I checked their numbers were in the Thousands, but their all split into different groups, but still thousands," all the magicians looked at each other as if they were about to say We're All Going to Die! I cleared my throat "don't worry we have everyone at camp half blood and camp Jupiter on our side, I also need to recruit the Norse demigods, add you and now we have about ninety eight on our side?" I guesstimated, but very unsure. It would be even more if the Hunters would actually show up, but I do very much doubt they would, they hadn't made themselves heard from yet I doubt they even cared, also since Piper was in her mood, the Aphrodite cabin wasn't participating, so that was minus twenty, if we had either Aphrodite or the Hunters with us we would have two hundred and seventy on our side plus Valhalla, but sadly we were very short on people. "All gather your equipment," Carter commanded "we make our stand at dawn, no time to waste," everyone took off and I pulled Carter aside. "Have you heard from Horus at all?" He shrugged "he must be very busy, have you heard from Artemis yet?" "Nothing!" I exclaimed, "I haven't headed from her in a month!" I rolled my eyes back in my head, why does this parakeet make things so difficult? I thought. I found Nico, Hazel and Frank and saw Hazel whisper something in Franks ear. I waved Carter over to meet the rest of us, I thought Carter was going to explode as he watched Cute happy, pudgy Frank transform into a griffon, "he's going to fly us to Hotel Valhalla, we're going to meet Magnus there, you coming?" I asked as I mounted Frank griffon, Hazel followed behind me as did Nico, Carter pulled himself onto franks back and he tore off into the sky.