Catch Fire || P. Jackson

𝟏.𝟎𝟔

𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐆𝐎𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓 of camp, the Fifth Cohort formed two lines behind their centurions, Dakota and Gwen. Lea, dressed in all red with a white cross plastered on her chest plate, had disappeared ahead of them to lead her cohort.

They marched north, skirting the edge of the city, and headed to the Field of Mars—the largest, flattest part of the valley. The grass was cropped short by all the unicorns, bulls, and homeless fauns that grazed here. The earth was pitted with explosion craters and scarred with trenches from past games.

At the north end of the field stood their target. The engineers had built a stone fortress with an iron portcullis, guard towers, scorpion ballistae, water cannons, and no doubt many other nasty surprises for the defenders to use.

"They did a good job today," Austin noted, poking Lea's shoulder. "What's your bet for today?"

She hummed, hoisting her medic bag higher on her shoulder. "I think it's an offensive win today."

"You're betting against me?" The dark-skinned boy gasped, clutching a hand to his armoured chest. "Do you have no faith in me?"

Lea shrugged, flicking his arm. "In you? Yeah, no chance. In my cohort, I have utmost faith... but my gut is telling me something is weird today."

"My gut." He mimicked. "You mean Apollo's prophecy seeing DNA."

"You're just jealous cause all you can do is mess with locks."

"No need to be mean!"

"Be safe." Lea pointed a finger at him. "If you get hurt I'm gonna leave you there."

"That's bullying."

"Watch me." With that, Lea disappeared into the crowd. Octavian and Austin took the lead in all war games, while Lea was left to patrol, taking care of injured demigods.

She was surrounded by the sounds of battle—kids shouting, Hannibal the elephant bellowing with glee, scorpion bolts exploding, and water cannons firing. It was rather boring. Most demigods refused medical attention until after the game's completion, so Lea just aimlessly wandered. Occasionally, she would pass by another medic: either her half-sibling or a child of Asclepius, which made them her nieces and nephews which was a weird thought.

Lea had found herself sitting on an unoccupied battlement wall. Her legs swung gently through the air as she watched the games around her. If Jason had been there, he would've scolded her for not joining in on the fun, but she found nothing fun without him.

A defender appeared on the wall beside her almost sending Lea plummetting. "Hey!" he shouted to his buddies. "Check it out! More victims!"

Scrambling out of the way, Lea peered over the edge where she could see Frank, Hazel and Percy bunched together. They just seemed to be standing there. Do something, she screamed in her mind.

More kids came across the battlements to laugh at them. A few ran to the nearest water cannon and swung the barrel toward Frank. Percy raised his hand. Near Lea, somebody yelled, "Open wide, losers!"

KA-BOOM!

The cannon exploded in a starburst of blue, green, and white. Defenders screamed as a watery shock wave flattened them against the battlements. Kids toppled over the walls but were snatched by giant eagles and carried to safety. Then, the entire eastern wall shuddered as the explosion backed up through the pipelines. One after another, the water cannons on the battlements exploded. The scorpions' fires were doused. Defenders scattered in confusion or were tossed through the air, giving the rescue eagles quite a workout.