Will Solace was no stranger to weird things the people had done.
As a teenager, he had been the head medic for Camp Half-Blood, where demigods attracted danger like a flame attracted moths, or like candy attracted a crowd of small children.
But seeing an eighteen-year-old boy talk to a snake like it was an acquaintance made him concerned.
The boy in question had dark hair, a messenger bag slung on his shoulder, a birthmark around his eyes, and, yes, a snake on his wrist. The boy looked familiar, and although Will was racking his head, he couldn't remember where he had seen him.
"Well, my dad's doing okay, he has a new treaty in mind—" the boy said, as one word echoed in Will's head: Treaty? Is his father the leader of a nation or something?
The boy continued, now he was asking the snake about how his wife was doing, as Will's concern mounted, and he began to wonder if the kid had left the psychiatry ward.
Just as Will was wondering how to initiate conversation, the kid was waving goodbye to the snake, as the latter slithered into a clump of bushes beside the bench where the boy was sitting.
The boy zipped up his bag, and got up, before finally noticing Will.
He ambled up to him, a friendly smile on his face. "Er, hi, do you know Yamini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez?"
Will nodded, recognition hitting him. This kid was one of the interns'—Yamini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez—friends, he had seen a picture of the both of them in her locker, and they had had a perfunctory conversation about the weather.
"She's probably in the break room— on the first floor," Will said, crossing his arms.
"Okay— thank you!"
The boy jogged up to the entrance, and disappeared behind the dark glass sliding doors.
Will strolled up to the coffee cart at the corner of the street, and bought an Americano, and drained the cup in a few sips, the caffeine jolting his nervous system awake.
He checked his watch, and watched the minute-hand slowly tick its way to 12:30, as, right on time, his stomach began to grumble.
Since he had had to have an early start, he couldn't pack his lunch, and as he was considering whether to eat the cafeteria food or not, he heard a faint honk.
The driver was recognizable, his dark eyes alight with excitement.
"Hey, Nico," he said, a smile breaking across his face.
"Hey, Will," he said, exiting his car, a lunchbag in his hands.
"For you," he said, handing him the bag with a flourish.
"You got me lunch?" He asked, relief flooding through him. He hated the cafeteria food.
"Yep," His husband said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you so much." He said, opening the bag, and the faint smell of soup wafting out from one of the lunchboxes.
"No problem. I was going to work anyway, and I knew I was going to pass this place anyw—" He stopped midsentence, clutching his car keys in a white knuckled grip, his eyes widening.
"What?" He asked, frowning.
"Um... sweetheart, please tell me I'm hallucinating and that smoke isn't coming from the hospital?"
Dread filling him, Will turned around, his eyes meeting the sight of faint plumes of smoke curling from the windows of the hospital, and, in the distance, they could hear faint screaming.
"Shit—could it be a fire?"
"I don't know, but we need to get patients out!" Wil said, as the both of them ran towards the entrance and Will pushed open the door.
Staff members and patients alike were running around, trying to find shelter, and confusion and fear warred inside him, and he pulled the fire extinguisher from the wall.
"What in the world—?!" Nico asked, gently helping up an elderly woman, and leading her toward the entrance.
There was a faint boom, and a rumble, like thunder. Only this wasn't thunder.
"WHOAAAA—" Will heard somebody scream, and saw a boy fly in, like somebody had thrown him, and crumple against the wall.
"Ow," the boy said, touching the back of his head, and frowning when his fingers came back bright red.
With a jolt, Will recognized him as the boy he had spoken to less than 15 minutes ago.
The boy caught Will's eye, and yelled, "GET OUT OF HERE— WE'VE GOT THE SITUATION UNDER CONTROL— AAH—"
He was stopped midsentence, and jumped out of the way, as a stream of liquid burst into the room.
It splattered against the wall, and began eating through the cement like it was wet cardboard, as the panic mounted.
Will caught Nico's eye, like Did you see that?
Nico nodded, but jabbed his thumb towards the exit doors, and mouthed, I'll take care of evacuation.
Will nodded, and rushed toward the boy, who was crawling away from the wall, a look of sheer distaste on his face.
"Kid— what was that? Are you okay?" He asked, helping him up.
"Take care of the others, it's dangerous here! We've got the situation under control!" The boy said, angrily, and— wait, was that his imagination, or did he have slitted pupils?
The kid's eyes went to the fire extinguisher in Will's eyes, and said, "Oh thank the gods—" Before snatching it from him.
"Hey—"
"THANK YOU FOR THE WEAPON," was all that was hollered at him, before the kid ran right back into battle, and through the broken plaster, Will caught sight of a scaled appendage, a loud screech, and a moving shadow.
As the last civilian ran out, Will realized that only he and Nico were left.
"That's a monster," Both of them said, in unison.
"We've gotta help," Nico said, tapping the steel chain on his wrist.
His Stygian iron sword materialized, as Will said, "I don't have my bow and arrow—"
"Don't worry, can you use your sonic whistle?"
Will clenched his fists. "Yes."
"Let's go."
The air was thick with smoke, and Will could see ribbons of purple light running along the walls.
"What the hell?" He whispered, before something smacked him in the stomach. Hard.
Eyes watering, he stumbled up, to see a shadow melt into the broken floor tiles, and, through the smoke, he could see Nico frowning.
"Oh shit—" he heard someone hiss, as somebody hauled him up.
"Ugh," he heard somebody grumble, as the air beside him shimmered, revealing a girl.
Not just a girl. The intern, Yamini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, dragging him away.
"And why do you have a sword?" She demanded of Nico, her eyes wide and mismatched behind the cracked lenses of her glasses.
"Why do you have a staff?" Nico demanded.
Yamini's eyes widened. "Wait a second— are you two from the Otherworld?"
"The what?"
There was a hiss, and a red light shimmered before them, materializing in the form of the guy.
His face was covered in soot and the tips of his hair were singed, as he wheezed, "I can't find it. I barely dodged a fireball."
Nico raised his sword, his eyes narrowing. "What are you talking about?"
Yamini clutched her staff, and said, "We don't know. We were in the breakroom when it began attacking, and we barely managed to get everyone out." The tip of her staff flared violet.
"Are you two demigods?" Nico asked.
Before Yamini could answer, a whistle cut through the air, and Will could barely catch sight of a pincer, when purple light burst above them.
A force-field formed above them, cracks spiderwebbing where the pincers met the shield.
"I guess it found us," Nico said, grimly.
●●●●
"Okay, a run-down," Yamini— or, what her boyfriend Rudy called her— Mini began, after they introduced each other.
"We have no idea what the heck that thing is, just that it breathes fire, spits poison, and has armour."
"They all do," Nico said, his gaze pinned on the creature.
"It's sensitive to sound, though," Rudy said. "I used my stones and it reared back."
"Before it smacked you and you went flying," Nico pointed out.
"We don't speak about that,"
"I can do a sonic whistle— it'll hurt it, but it'll hurt you guys too."
"We'll be fine," Mini said.
There was a roar that shook the building and stones fell on them.
More light shimmered across the walls.
"I'm barely keeping this place together," Mini grunted, her hands raised.
"We need to kill it. And now." Rudy said, his messenger bag opened, revealing gemstones.
There was a distant roar.
"Now," Mini and Nico said, in unison.
Rudy threw a handful of jewels in the direction of the sound, while Will brought his fingers to his lips, and used his sonic whistle.
Rocks fell and the monster reared back, howling in pain.
Nico melted into the shadows and reappeared right underneath the monster, and sliced off the pincers closest to him.
The monster reared once more, its screams nearly deafening.
"Its belly is unarmoured!" Rudy yelled.
With a shink, Will knew that Nico had stabbed it in the belly, and, as Nico backed away, all four of them saw the monster crumble into ashes, blown away by the wind.
Silence fell, punctuated only with the crackling of fire, until there was a loud groan, and a steel beam fell to the ground.
"Let's get out of here," Mini said, backing away to the nearest exit.
And, as they ran outside, Will heard the building collapse behind them.
●●●●
so i'm back on my bullshit,,
please note that this is definitely not my best, it's like an experimental thing to get out of writers block, so, yeah, apologies for the bad writing
idk if this is gonna be a full series or a single oneshot, so do you guys want a part two or no??
●●●●
Part 2
●●●●
59 notes
·
View notes