The sun rose sleepily on the third day of the Horsemen's arrival, painting the sky with vibrant reds and yellows the stars that had speckled the night sky minutes ago. As the sun rose it shone through pure white sails that flapped lazily in the morning breeze, causing them to light up like they were ablaze. The Vortex floated peacefully in the bay near Camp Half Blood, the great white ship seemed almost like a giant protective barrier to the younger campers once they leaned who it belonged to, just like the two cabins at the edge of camp and the ice cottage at the edge of the forest.
A lone figure appeared on the deck of the ship, the sun throwing their shadow across the ocean. Blond hair shone red in the light, and blue-green eyes flashed as Ryan stretched his arms sleepily over his head. Smiling he turned and did a cocky kind of salute to the blazing ball of fire that began to rise over the horizon line.
"Another day, I wonder just what will happen…."
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A large black dog like creature the size of a cow padded softly into a dark and damp cave. The air was humid and the walls reeked with the undisguisable scent of rotting flesh. The monster's glowing yellow eyes scanned cave as it walked, the dark pupils tiny slits in the darkness. The beast walked with purpose through a long winding tunnel, turning at points where the path split. Eventually it came to a dark room lit only by a few candles that flicked a shadow on to the wall.
"My lord," the beast swept itself into a deep and respectful bow. However the tensions in the dog's thick muscles proved that whatever he was bowing to scared him. "It has been three days since the Horsemen's arrival in camp, is it time?"
A cloaked figure turned dramatically around, but sickly green skin was visible under the figures hood. It's mouth was stitched shut with thick black thread but the creatures voice was still heard.
"Yessss, yes let us test their strength, these assassins that Chaos loves and praises so very much."
The voice was like that of a snake's and seemed to radiate off the being itself.
"Of course, have you decided who you want to send?" The giant dog asked, its eyes seemed nervous.
"Yes. Send the ice queen after Famine, we have already discussed the other two."
"And- and what of the fourth my Lord?"
"Oh yess, how could I forget? You may take the last one."
The dog shrunk, its ears pinned back and its tail between his legs. "Bu-but master I am not strong enough to take on h-him, it is not possible."
Even with his stitched mouth the creature was still able to flash a sickening smile… like-thing. "Dogs are supposed to be loyal are they not? If you are not up to the task then I don't believe you have a rightful spot in my army."
The cold evil that radiated off the man was enough to force the large dog into submission and it nodded humbly. At least with the horsemen the beast stood a chance at quick death. The dog was all too aware at what would happen if it disobeyed its master.
"Good. Prepare the others and go, you leave at noon."
The dog bowed even deeper than before, looking up at its master with a mixture of fear and admiration.
"Yes…. My lord Lucious."
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A white fedora appeared slowly out of a small log cabin, and underneath it was Death in all her glory. Her blue eyes scanned the surrounding area with caution and suspicion, as if she was just waiting for something to pop out at her at any moment. Her tanned skin glowed in the light and her long black hair was tied back in a lazy bun with loose strands framing her face.
"Hey!"
Alice whipped around with a dagger in hand, the sharp blade inches away from…. Danny.
Alice shook herself and took a step back, "War? What are you doing here?"
Danny smiled lazily, "Looking for you of course!"
Alice cocked her head to one side, her eyes narrowed. "Why is that? I'm sure Famine has already told of my monstrous personality."
Danny laughed slightly. "Even if she did I wouldn't believe it, I've seen monstrous first hand and trust me you aren't it."
Alice still looked suspicious, "Okay… so why are you here?"
"I'm bored!"
Now she really looked confused, "And you want me to do what about it exactly?"
A sly grin spread across Danny's lips, "I have an idea. Follow me!"
Without further explanation the blond man grabbed her wrist and pulled her away towards the shore. "What are you, four?" Alice asked angrily as she was dragged across the grass.
"And what are you thirty? We have been on our guard for three days! Doing nothing but watching and waiting, I can feel my muscles deteriorating!"
"What muscles are these?"
"You shut up," Danny growled playfully. By this point they had reached the shore line. The trees had come down from the rest of the forest to grow at the edge of the beach and among those trees was the little ice cottage.
Danny confidently walked up to the door and knocked. Within a few seconds Hanna appeared, her long hair tied back in a sleek braid and a loose white shirt hung off her shoulders along with a pair of light blue jeans that were torn in a few places.
"War? What do you want?" She looked behind him to see Alice staring at the sky with her arms crossed and a sour expression on her face. "Oh it's you."
Alice rolled her eyes in response. "Don't look at me, I don't want to be here."
"Okay you two, now just hear me out. Knowing how much you despise each other you will probably like the idea." Danny said.
"What's that exactly?" Hanna looked slightly interested now.
Danny smirked, "Uno momento sil' vous plait."
He turned towards the water where the Vortex floated peacefully on the calm waves, "Oi! Conquest! Get over here I have an idea!"
A dark figure appeared on the deck of the large ship before it evaporated and a small cloud of water floated toward them. Ryan landed on the beach not three seconds later.
"What's up?" He asked, looking slightly worried.
"War is bored." Alice replied in monotone.
"Bored?"
"Yep, so I came up with an idea." Danny's child-like persona instantly changed to a devious smile. "Let's have a practice fight."
"But why would we… we should be saving our strength." Hanna said.
"Aw come on it will be fun! Besides I don't know about you but those dang demi-gods have been pestering me for the past three days about wanting to fight me, they seem to underestimate us." Danny looked directly at Ryan, meaning that he was referring to his half-brother.
Jake had been following Ryan around all day every day, challenging him to a duel at least three times in one hour. Everyone could see it was getting on Conquest's nerves.
Ryan looked thoughtful for a minute, before cracking a grin. "I don't see why not. It would be a good way to keep in shape, also we will need to learn about how each other fight if we are to fight together."
Danny grinned "We should cause a scene, attract all the campers to the field so that they can watch."
Both Alice and Hanna sighed and rolled their eyes but agreed to do it, causing War to smile even more.
"Good."
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"Shut up you twit!"
"It's not my fault you couldn't keep up you idiotic fool!"
Angry voices filled the clearing as Jessica and the other demi-gods rushed to see what the commotion was. When they got there, of course they were speechless.
Famine and Death were staring each other down from across the field. Ice spread out from the ground under Famine's feet and her eyes blazed with cold fire. Death seemed to be surrounded by a ghostly blue aura as her eyes glowed sapphire blue. Kira and Sheaka stared each other down menacingly, Sheaka's lip pulled back to show sharp white teeth.
"I have had enough of you and your goody two-shoe ways!" Death yelled "You act tough but you can barely handle the sight of blood. When will you grow up?"
"There is a difference between being necessary and being cruel! You have no right to torture people the way you do, it's just not human!" Famine shot back.
A sly smile spread across Death's lips, "That's right. And I'm not human, maybe it's time you learned that." As she spoke the blue aura surrounding her grew, filling the air around her and stretching high into the sky like wings.
Hanna looked shocked for a minute before grinning as well. The ice around her feet spread, long streams of it splintering across the grass. "Heh, fine. Let's see just what you're made of." Her long halberd appeared in her hand as she smiled at Death, whose daggers poked out between her fingers.
They were just about to lunge at each other when a loud boom filled the air. Water crashed through the trees in a large wave just as a black motorcycle rolled out from underneath the branches. War skidded to stop, just as the wave crashed to him at full force.
War drew in a shaky breath as the cold water washed over him. Conquest appeared a few feet away from him, swords in hand, with a scowl on his face. "What? Don't like water?"
In response War whipped out his guns and fired at Conquest with deadly precision. Conquest ducked just as the bullet zipped past his head. "Heh," War laughed "You're funny if you think that was painful, I've soaked in rivers of blood bigger than that."
That comment and the cold wickedness in War's voice seemed to take Conquest back for a minute, but he quickly recovered. "Oh? You're the tough guy now are you? I thought you were just the joker."
Was Conquest insane? War was nicknamed War, doesn't that give a hint about the guys personality? Jessica and the others watched in horror as the two powerhouses glared at each other for a few seconds before they lunged. Water surged around Conquest as he sent missiles of them at War, who hopped onto his motorcycle and roared away, but no before firing at the blond boy.
And this time he didn't miss.
The bullet crashed directly into Conquest's ribcage. The demi-gods gasped in shock as the blond mage doubled over and gasped in pain as he clutched his stomach.
"Not bad huh?" War smirked. He twirled one of his guns between his fingers and laughed under his breath. "You see, these bullets have little spikes on them, so when they penetrate your skin they don't just tear through it… they shred it."
He fired again at Conquest, shooting him in the leg this time causing him to drop to one knee. Amber started towards them, fear for Conquest in her eyes.
Bruce caught her wrist "Amber, what are you doing?"
"We have to stop this!" Amber looked at her cousin "At this rate Conquest could die!"
"You saw what those bullets did to him! There's no way you can stop War! Don't be suicidal! We don't owe Conquest anything!" Bruce's eyes blazed angrily.
This seemed to draw Amber back to her senses "I feel we have to help him, I don't know why… but I feel like I've met him before!"
Bruce's eyes softened "Amber…."
There was no need for Amber's concern though, for before the demi-gods eyes Conquest got off his knees and stood to his full height. Paying no mind to the campers he looked directly at War, who was smiling.
"I must say that took me a while to recover from. You have certainly perfected the art of killing, I would expect no less. However you know you can't kill me that easily." The bullets lodged in Conquest's body melted out and fell to the ground.
The campers all looked on in wonder. Could these assassins, along with everything else, regenerate?
"You recovered even faster than expected." War said in an approving tone "Most impressive, for the youngest you can certainly hold your own."
Conquest smiled, "You have no idea." He lunged at War with water swirling around him and the two assassins crashed into battle, bullets flying and water swirling.
Across the field Famine and Death were locked in an intense fight, Famine had her halberd inches from Death's face, who only managed to block it by crossing her arms. The blades cut easily through the woman's tanned skin and dark blood began to swell and drip down to the ground where it pooled around their feet. Death didn't let it affect her though and with a small smirk she shoved Famine back, the auburn haired girl digging the end of her halberd into the ground to keep her from skidding too far.
"Nice try, but slit wrists really has no effect on me." Death laughed, insanity gathering at the edges of her eyes as she flicked her wrists and sent droplets of blood around her. "Now it's my turn."
Daggers flew from her fingers, glowing with a strange blue aura. Famine hit several of them away but the last flew past her halberd and sliced through her shoulder. She didn't even flinch though and simply pulled out the knife and tossed it away with a flick of her hand. "Gonna hafta try harder if you really want to hurt me." She spat.
"Okay then." Blue flames burst from her back that tore at the ground and ripped through the air. Famine braced herself before springing into the air, a kind of strange force keeping her levitated in the sky for a moment before she dived at Death and sliced through the flames in a series of slashes. She landed a few feet from the glowing girl and spun her halberd so fast in her hands hat it repelled the fire Death had sent at her before she drove the end of her weapon into the ground and ice burst from its tip and gabbed at Death. The dark haired girl easily avoided it and the two were at it again, slicing and stabbing whenever they could find an opening.
The four assassins continued on like this for what seemed like hours. They slashed and ripped at each other but never seemed to make much progress. Finally after a while they seemed to be tiring out. Their attacks came slower and with less force, before they finally broke.
Famine dropped to one knee, using her halberd to support herself from falling over completely. Death soon followed, lying face down on grass as her chest rose and fell heavily. War was leaning heavily on one foot, the other picked up like it was broken and Conquest was doubled over and bracing his hands on his knees as his swords fell to the ground.
The campers all watched in amazement as the four assassins were left breathless and exhausted after battling each other for so long. Jessica took a cautious step forward before a loud rumbled and a bright flash filled the clearing. Out of the light appeared four figures, and they did not look friendly.
A large black bull with glowing red eyes and thick, pointed horns snorted and stomped his foot. Next to it was a white and blue bird the size of a car with black eyes and a hooked beak. Next to that was a strange looking horse with weeds and kelp draped along its body. Jagged teeth poked out from underneath its black gums and its bony body was dripping with water. The fourth creature was a large black and red dog with long, reinforced claws and razor sharp teeth.
The dog was the one to step and speak. "Heh, we were sent here to kill you, and yet it looks like you have already done that for us."
The horsemen shifted, turning to look at the new comers. Famine just tilted her head and Death propped herself up on her elbows as War and Conquest got to their feet.
"I take it Lucious sent you?" War asked, eyes narrowed.
"Oh yes, we were told to be prepared for one hell of a fight, but it looks like we just missed it." The dog snarled.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Death piped up from her spot in the grass.
"For once I actually agree with the psychopath." Famine agreed "What makes you think this will be easy?"
The dog laughed "How naïve! Look at you! Your all practically dead already!"
"I don't see any blood." Conquest pointed out as he picked up his swords.
"Doesn't matter, you four are exhausted form healing yourselves and now don't stand a chance against us."
"Not so much actually." War said looking bored, "In fact I would say it's the other way around."
The dog looked taken by surprise now, but he tried to shake it off. "What are you talking about?" he growled.
War smirked, "Well you see, I got bored waiting for Lucious to attempt to kill us, so I came up with a little game."
"A what?" The dog asked, his eyes wide.
"You see I figured that Lucious is more likely to attack us when he thinks we are in the worst position, so I thought if we all acted like we were extremely tired and pretended to fight each other we could draw you four out of your hiding places." War's eyes went from the horse to the bull to the bird and finally rested on the dog. "You fell for our plan perfectly."
As if on cue the other horsemen began to move. Famine got to her feet as Death picked herself up off the ground and the two joined War and Conquest facing the four monsters. Famine inspected the large white bird with interest as Death and the giant bull had a staring contest. The horse bared its teeth menacingly at Conquest who simply crossed his arms indifferently and War walked up to the giant dog until he was only a few feet from its muzzle.
"Now, let's play."