❛003❜

MYTHOLOGICALLY SPEAKING, IVY hated a lot of things. a trio of old ladies made itself into the list, now she was adding bulls, too. if fighting one wasn't enough, make it two bulls. and not just regular bulls – bronze ones the size of elephants. even if that wasn't bad enough, they had to breathe fire, too.

as soon as they exited the taxi, the grey sisters peeled out, heading back to new york, where life was safer. they didn't even wait for their extra three-drachma payment. they just left them on the side of the road, ivy with nothing but her two weapons and backpack, percy and tyson still in their burned-up tie-dyed gym clothes.

"holy fuck," said ivy, looking at the battle raging on the hill.

what worried her most weren't the bulls themselves. or the ten heroes in full battle armour who were getting their bronze-plated booties whooped. what worried her was that the bulls were ranging all over the hill, even around the back side of the pine tree. that shouldn't have been possible. the camp's magic boundaries didn't allow monsters to cross past thalia's tree. but the metal bulls were doing it anyway.

one of the heroes shouted, "border patrol, to me!" a girl's voice – gruff and familiar.

border patrol? ivy thought. the camp didn't have a border patrol.

"it's clarisse," the brunette said. "come on, we have to help her."

normally, rushing to clarisse's aid would not have been high on her to do list. still, she was in trouble. her warriors were scattered, running in panic as the bulls charged. the grass was burning in huge swathes around the pine tree. one hero screamed and waved his arms as he ran in circles, the horsehair plume on his helmet blazing like a fiery mohawk. clarisse's own armour was charred. she was fighting with a broken spear shaft, the other end embedded uselessly in the metal joint of one bull's shoulder.

percy uncapped his ballpoint pen. it shimmered, growing longer until he held the bronze sword anaklusmos in his hands. "tyson, stay here. i don't want you taking any more chances."

"no!" ivy said. "he can be useful."

he stared at her. "he's mortal. he got lucky with the dodgeballs but he can't –"

"percy, those things up there are colchis bulls, made by hephaestus himself. they're impossible to fight without medea's sunscreen spf 50,000 unless you want to burn to crisp."

"medea's what?"

ivy rummaged through her backpack. "shit, i had a bottle of the fucking sunscreen on my nightstand at home. why didn't i bring it?"

"look, i don't know what you're talking about, but i'm not going to let tyson get fried."

"percy –"

"tyson, stay back." he raised his sword. "i'm going in."

tyson tried to protest, but percy was already running up the hill towards clarisse, who was yelling at her patrol, trying to get them into phalanx formation. it was a good idea. the few who were listening lined up shoulder to shoulder, locking their shields to form an ox-hide-and-bronze wall, their spears bristling over the top like porcupine quills. ivy wondered where annabeth and gabriel were.

unfortunately, the daughter of ares could only muster six campers. the other four were still running around with their helmets on fire. ivy ran towards them, trying to help. she taunted one of the bulls into chasing her, yelling at it with charmspeak and getting him confused. the other bull charged clarisse's line.

percy was halfway up the hill – not close enough to help. clarisse hadn't even seen them yet.

the bull moved deadly fast for something so big. its metal hide gleamed in the sun. it had fist-sized rubies for eyes and horns of polished silver. when it opened its hinged mouth, a column of white-hot flame blasted out.

"hold the line!" clarisse ordered her warriors.

whatever else you could say about clarisse, she was brave. she was a big girl with cruel eyes like her father's. she looked like she was born to wear greek battle armour, but ivy didn't see how even she could stand against that bull's charge.

unfortunately, ivy lost control of the second bull. it turned, wheeling around behind clarisse on her unprotected side.

"behind you!" percy yelled. "look out!"

he shouldn't have said anything, because all he did was startle her. bull number one crashed into her shield, and the phalanx broke. clarisse went flying backwards and landed in a smouldering patch of grass. the bull charged past her, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. their shields melted right off their arms. they dropped their weapons and ran as bull number two closed in on clarisse for the kill.

percy lunged forward and grabbed clarisse by the straps of her armour. he dragged her out of the way just as bull number two freight-trained past. he gave it a good swipe with riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.

"let me go!" clarisse pummelled his hand. "percy, curse you!"

the son of poseidon dropped her in a heap next to the pine tree and turned to face the bulls. they were on the inside slope of the hill now, the valley of camp half-blood directly below them – the cabins, the training facilities, the big house – all of it at risk if these bulls got past them.

ivy was starting to panic, she shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bulls distracted.

bull number one ran a wide arc, making its way back towards percy. as it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and kept coming. bull number two turned to face me, fire sputtering from the gash in its side. ivy couldn't tell if it felt any pain, but its ruby eyes seemed to glare at the culprit of said wound like he'd just made things personal.

nobody could fight both bulls at the same time. they'd have to take down bull number two first, cut its head off before bull number one got back into range.

percy lunged but bull number two blew flames at him. he rolled aside as the air turned to pure heat. his foot caught on something – a tree root, maybe. still, he managed to slash with his sword and lop off part of the monster's snout. it galloped away, wild and disoriented. but before ivy could find a way to take that to her advantage, she saw percy's leg buckled under him.

bull number one charged straight towards him. there's no way he could crawl out of its path.

ivy shouted, "tyson, help him!"

somewhere near, towards the crest of the hill, tyson wailed, "can't – get – through!"

she was going to regret it, and annabeth was probably going to hate her. but she just couldn't let percy die.

"i, ivy fitzgerald, give you permission to enter camp!"

thunder shook the hillside. suddenly tyson was there, barrelling towards percy, yelling, "percy needs help!"

he dived between the black haired boy and the bull just as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm.

the blast swirled around the cyclops like a red tornado. ivy could only see the black silhouette of his body. she knew he was going to come out completely unscarred.

just like she predicted, when the fire died tyson was still standing there, completely unharmed. not even his grungy clothes were scorched. the bull must've been surprised, because before it could unleash a second blast, tyson balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face. "bad cow!"

his fists made a crater where the bronze bull's snout used to be. two small columns of flame shot out of its ears. tyson hit it again, and the bronze crumpled under his hands like aluminium foil. the bull's face now looked like a sock puppet pulled inside out.

"down!" tyson yelled.

the bull staggered and fell on its back. its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places.

ivy ran towards percy to check on him.

seeing his messed up ankle, she gave him some olympian nectar to drink from her canteen, and immediately he started to heal.

"the other bull?" percy asked.

ivy pointed down the hill. clarisse had taken care of bad cow number two. she'd impaled it through the back leg with a celestial bronze spear. now, with its snout half gone and a huge gash in its side, it was trying to run in slow motion, going in circles like some kind of merry-go-round animal.

clarisse pulled off her helmet and marched towards them. a strand of her stringy brown hair was smouldering, but she didn't seem to notice. "you – ruin – everything!" she yelled at percy. "i had it under control!"

of course she wouldn't even say thank you. ivy grumbled, "nice to see you, too."

"argh!" clarisse screamed. "don't ever, ever try saving me again!"

"clarisse," ivy said, "where's annabeth and gabriel?"

clarisse scoffed. "gabriel got injured on his way here, annabeth's healing him. now, prissy if you ever–"

"your soldier need medical assistance," ivy interrupted. she got the information she need now dealing with clarisse isn't her priority.

that sobered her up. even clarisse cared about the soldiers under her command.

"i'll be back," she growled, then trudged off to assess the damage.

percy stared at tyson. "you didn't die."

tyson looked down like he was embarrassed. "i am sorry. came to help. disobeyed you."

"that's on me," ivy said. "i had no choice. you would've died if it wasn't for me letting tyson through the boundary line."

"let him cross the boundary line?" percy asked. "but –"

"percy, have you ever really looked at tyson? in the face... ignore the mist, and actually look at him."

percy looked tyson in the face. his face forming from concentration to realization in seconds.

"tyson," he stammered. "you're a..."

"cyclops," said a voice from behind them. it was annabeth, looking at the cyclops resentfully. "a baby, by the looks of him. probably why he couldn't get past the boundary line as easily as the bulls. tyson's one of the homeless orphans."

"one of the what?" percy asked, unbothered by annabeth's attitude.

"they're in almost all the big cities," annabeth said distastefully. "they're ... mistakes, percy. children of nature spirits and gods ... well, one god in particular, usually ... and they don't always come out right. no one wants them. they get tossed aside. they grow up wild on the streets. i don't know how this one found you, but he obviously likes you...."

annabeth looked as happy as ivy had predicted she would be. which is not happy at all.

ivy sighed. "we should take him to chiron, he would know what to do."

"but the fire. how –" the son of poseidon said.

"he's a cyclops." ivy paused, the memories of what they did suddenly fresh on her mind. "they have to be immune to fire to work the forges of the gods. that's what i was trying to tell you."

the whole side of the hill was burning. wounded heroes needed attention. and there were still two banged-up bronze bulls to dispose of, which ivy didn't figure would fit in our normal recycling bins.

clarisse came back over and wiped the soot off her forehead. "jackson, if you can stand, get up. we need to carry the wounded back to the big house, let tantalus know what's happened."

"tantalus?" ivy asked.

annabeth kicked the grass, looking gloomily at the floor. "the activities director."

"chiron is the activities director. and where's argus? he's head of security. he should be here," percy had his eyebrows furrowed.

clarisse made a sour face. "argus got fired. you two have been gone too long. things are changing."

"but chiron... he's trained kids to fight monsters for over three thousand years. he can't just be gone. what happened?"

"that happened," clarisse snapped.

she pointed to thalia's tree.

every camper knew the story behind the tree. six years ago, grover, annabeth and two other demigods named thalia and luke had come to camp half-blood chased by an army of monsters. when they got cornered on top of this hill, thalia, a daughter of zeus, had made her last stand here to give her friends time to reach safety. as she was dying, her father zeus took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. the pine had been here ever since, strong and healthy.

but now, its needles were yellow. a huge pile of dead ones littered the base of the tree. in the centre of the trunk, a metre from the ground, was a puncture mark the size of a bullet hole, oozing green sap.

a sliver of ice ran through her chest. now ivy understood why the camp was in danger. the magical borders were failing because thalia's tree was dying.

someone had poisoned it.

a speaks!

i didn't realize how short rick made the chapters for som huh

i watched black widow yesterday and now i made a whole timeline for a pjo/marvel fanfic🧍🏽‍♀️and my ideas are great dude but liKe i gotta finish w ivy firsttt. besides it wouldn't be like the same daughter of tony stark we always see. (no shade to those stories i eat that shit up)

thoughts???