One: Kalypso

An Argonaut Crushes My Chem Partner

Everything was fantastic in detention until a Renaissance biker gang showed up and Kally was set on fire.

Kally couldn't be certain they were members of a biker gang, but they certainly looked like it. She'd had so little sleep in the past month, she wouldn't be shocked if she'd passed on the lab desk—beside the Bunsen burner—and dreamed the two boys into the hallway. With all the nightmares she'd been having, the stress was probably getting to her.

Before she saw the boys in the hallway, Kally was redoing a D lab paper for Mr. Paine's chemistry class. Yea, that was his name and he'd earned it. Mr. Paine was "gracious" enough to let her have a partner, some cheerleader that transferred in a week ago. Kally thought improving a test score with someone else who failed the test was a little counterintuitive but she was too shy to point that out to Mr. Paine.

"Watch it, graphite brain!" Tabby? Tami? Tuba? snapped when Kally almost spilled some of the alkaline salts.

Kally jumped and reflexively pushed her writing journal and messenger bag further away from the cheerleader. Tammi struck her as the kind of person that would accidentally knock the Bunsen burner onto Kally's stuff, because Tammi was having a bad day.

"Ms. Cassand and Tammi, focus on your experiment. Your mothers wouldn't like another call from me," Mr. Paine growled from the front. Really, the words seemed to float from behind a folded copy of Reader's Digest. The middle aged man crouched behind the magazine and desk like he was a general calling orders from a fortification.

Kally frowned. Her mother wouldn't notice another call from Mr. Paine. The only one who ever noticed when her grades were slipping was her best friend, Merry, and she was absent today. That might have been normal for any other kid to skip a test day, but not Merry. Had she been around, Tammi might have thought twice about picking on Kally.

She wondered if Mr. Paine had heard anything about Merry. When Kally glanced up again, she expected him to be glowering from behind his barricade. Instead, he sat up, alert. His eyes narrowed towards the open door. One of his callused hands rested atop the gilded Argonaut statue he kept on his desk.

That's when she saw the two boys in the hall. They were carrying a guitar case and a lacrosse bag. The one with the guitar case looked old enough to be a senior. He was tall with bronze skin, short cropped black hair, and the wisps of a goatee. He wore jeans, a military surplus jacket, and a tight T-shirt that read Ares checks his closet for me before he can sleep at night. White paint, like war paint, streaked his face.

Kally felt her jaw drop. He had a machete in his other hand.

Lacrosse Boy looked closer to Kally's age. He was paler than the other. His jagged raven hair flowed wildly about his wicked smile. Though she couldn't tell from this distance, one eye looked lighter than the other. He wore a leather duster jacket and a pair of combat boots that might have once been black. Kally briefly remembered her priest describing Satan as a handsome, dark man that knocked on lady's doors at night in the Medieval Era. She trembled. Though likely not Satan, these two definitely looked like something from Dice & Drakens or Mythomagic… if those characters had hopped out of the game to attack a Virginia high school.

In his other hand, the Lacrosse boy held a golden apple. He waved it at her.

Once they had the teacher's attention, they turned to walk down the hallway.

Mr. Paine stood. Hesitantly, he released his statue. "Girls," his voice was tight. "Stay here. I'm going to lock the door behind me. If I don't come back in five minutes, leave through the window."

Kally wanted to protest. That was not the procedure for a lockdown; they had plenty of practice drills since they lived so close to the Capitol. But Mr. Paine was a teacher. He was supposed to know what was best, right?

He riffled in his desk until he withdrew a folded fishing pole. A fishing pole? Kally wasn't a weapons expert, but—in the battle of machete versus stick—she was putting her snack money on something sharp and pointy.

Tammi flinched.

Their teacher stepped to the door. He pulled a mirror from his pocket and angled the reflective glass to glance down the hall. His precision made it look routine. Kally had to wonder how often Mr. Paine chased random vagabonds through the school with random fishing poles. She hoped he wasn't going to get himself killed.

Before she could protest, he darted out and the door thumped after him.

Tammi freaked out, but not in the way Kally expected. She whirled on her, scowling. "Styx," she snarled like a curse. "Were those demigods your friends?"

"What—no!"

Kally had never seen those boys in her life. Though the other students often called her a freak and teased her for being into tabletop games, it wasn't like she knew every person who looked like a Dice & Drakins player. And demigods? What was Tammi talking about?

"You're going to try something, aren't you?" Tammi persisted. The taller girl took a step closer to Kally, who reflexively stepped back. Tammi huffed in irritation. "I just found this school! You even have a division one cheerleading squad—"

"There's competition for cheerleading?" Kally asked, confused.

"Of course there is! And I'm not planning on missing it. Plus, The Champ Knights have great school spirit and really hot football players! So, I suggest you find a way to get expelled before I expel you." For a moment, Kally thought the girl's dark eyes had shimmered to a deep crimson.

"E—Excuse me?" Eloquent, Kally knew, but she could feel her heartbeat thumping in her arteries. She'd never felt physically threatened by another student before. Now, she really wished Mr. Paine would storm back in the room with his crazy fishing pole and yell at them to get back to failing their test.

"Don't play dumb with me half-blood. I know Python wants you alive, but I don't answer to him." Tammi's rage leached the color from her face, paling her to printing-paper-white. "Were those boys your back up? You're going to need them."

A jiggling came from the doorknob. Kally didn't have to time to glance over before Tammi lunged at her. One foot made a distinct clack.

Kally stumbled backwards, toward the front of the room. The beautiful cheerleader had melted into something that belonged in a Creepypasta, between Slenderman and Ticci Toby. Her hair flickered to a red. Her canine teeth elongated into two white blades atop her lips. Another clack. From under Tammi's skirt, a prosthetic bronze limb clanked beside an—an equestrian leg? Kally guaranteed those didn't come from the Spook and Fright Halloween store.

"Come here so we can make this quick. I don't want your blood ruining my skirt," Tammi growled.

Frantic, Kally fumbled along Mr. Paine's desk for something to throw. The Argonaut's sword tip bit her palm. As she threw the bust, the metal smoothed. An acrimonious reek stung the air. Smoke smoldered from the gold. In a flash, the metal spun into a perfect, golden Frisbee.

From there, everything happened too fast.

Tammi hissed and ducked. The metal discus stuck harmlessly into the motivational poster behind her, cutting Wittgenstein's quote "If a lion could speak, we couldn't understand him" in half.

The classroom door slammed open. A black cylinder rolled into the room before popping into a bright light. Bang!

Both Tammi and Kally shrieked and covered their eyes.

The fire alarm screamed.

"Pax Extraction Team to the rescue!" a male bellowed like the jingle of a furniture commercial.

Someone grabbed Kally's arm. She thrashed, terrified it was the monster. Lights danced in her eyes and her ears buzzed. Whoever this was lifted her like a stack of books with barely a grunt. When her vision started to clear, she could see the guitar case boy with the Ares shirt. He had picked her up bridal style. There was no guitar case, but now weapons covered him like lights on a very bright Christmas tree: daggers, knives, and other blades popped out of straps all over his body. The hilt of a hoplite sword dug pins into her side as he sprinted to the window.

Kally felt like an idiotic damsel. Relief flushed her when he set her on the counter beside the window. A foot away, the discus still stuck out from the poster. She jerked it free.

"Axel!" he shouted and pointed to himself. Well, it didn't sound like a shout to Kally, but she could tell it was from the tremor of his mouth. He must have blown things up a lot to know she'd be deaf. Then she noticed his giant red headphones that read Hephaestus Headphones: Hammering Your Ears.

Over his shoulder, Kally could see Tammi circling the Lacrosse boy. He twirled two bronze daggers between them. Under his long coat, he wore a bronze breastplate.

Tammi had a confident smile now that she had blinked away her blindness. "You're cute demigod. You can lower those weapons. I'd much rather kiss and make up."

"Are you trying to charm talk me baby?" The Lacrosse boy gave her a brilliant smile, tilting one dagger towards his ear. "Can't hear you over the sound of Orpheus metal!"

Tammi's hand lashed out. She snagged the yellow wire dangling down to his belt and pulled. His headphones tore off.

A thunk sounded beside Kally and she felt a burst of cool, autumn air. Axel had kicked open the window. Upon hearing the Lacrosse kid grunt in panic, he glanced over. "Ajax!" Axel snarled, "Stop telling people our weakness while we're still fighting them!"

The Lacrosse boy whimpered. Tammi hissed something rated a little less than PG to him. To Kally's disgust and horror, his daggers dipped. It was almost like the noxious sweetness of the monster's voice weighed them to the floor.

Tammi took the opportunity. In the manner of a gross donkey Nosferatu, she lunged for his neck. Lacrosse boy stood, paralyzed, listing his head slightly in confusion.

Axel blurred in the room's florescent lighting. He jammed his arm in the way of the other boy's neck. Tammi's fangs sunk down. Blood splattered from his army jacket. His other hand had clasped a stainless steel sword, something she might see in an anime, from his back. He slashed the blade clean through Tammi's neck.

Dust exploded through the room then roared in a hot vortex back to Tammi's body. She gargled a laugh, "Steel? You think steel will work?!"

Her face had crumbled, but so had the blade. Black dust piled back to her like the image was playing in reverse. The inside of Tammi's throat throbbed as she spoke, repiecing together arteries and muscles.

Axel didn't stop. He shoved Lacrosse boy back toward Kally, ripping another blade—a knife—from his belt. He did a double strike, dashing apart her jaw again, then her arm. His knife bent with the second swipe.

Lacrosse boy staggered, clutching at his head. He coughed out some of the thick dust that was spinning in the air with each of Axel's hits. Kally had to wonder, if those dust pieces are Tammi, are we breathing monster dust? Is it cancerous?

Blearily, Lacrosse Boy glanced at Kally, "Your discus…" he said, "throw it."

Her discus? Kally hadn't realized she'd been standing there, stupidly, with a perfect weapon. And next up on our Youtube channel: Kalypso Cassand does absolutely nothing! She wanted Lacrosse boy to throw the weapon. She didn't trust her aim. More likely than not, she'd knock Axel in the head and give him an Olympic sized concussion. But Lacrosse boy was still shaking his head groggily and Axel was running out of weapons. Each blade broke on or shortly after contact.

The gold hummed in her hands, feeling natural and light. It looked like it should be heavy, but she hefted her arm up effortlessly. She threw the discus.

The metal spit smoke again, mixing with the black sand as it spun. Tammi didn't think another attack would come from their direction. She didn't duck.

Her entire body exploded into the black dust, powdering Axel. Instead of swirling like before, it settled in a thin film over his hair and jacket.

He recoiled in disgust, shuddering. "Eugh," he shook his arms away from his body, "That never stops being gross."

"She seemed pretty half-assed, didn't she?' Lacrosse Boy asked after fully gaining his composure. He slid his daggers into leather sheathes along his utility belt. "Get it? Because she had a donkey leg?"

From Axel's patient stare, Kally guessed this was normal. Instead of giving a real response, he picked up the discus and handed it to her. "We've got minutes before the fire trucks show up," Axel stated, tugging his headphones off. He frowned, sizing Kally up.

Today was a laundry day, so Kally knew she didn't look like much: exercise shorts, lime green sneakers and an OBX sweatshirt, all fashionably accented in monster residue. The layers of her hair had tumbled from her hair tie, spraying her face with strawberry blond splashes. She squirmed under his examination, thinking about how his hands had blurred like a hurricane while slashing Tammi to—well—dust. If that had really happened, she wondered if she'd burst into black sand under his attacks.

"Again, we're the Pax Extraction Team," he said, "and, if you wanna live through the night, you're going to want to come with us."

Author's Note: Hey guys! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed :D

I'm in the process of editing Whispers of a Snake so the chapters might be a little disjointed for a bit. For those of you who have already read it—there are no major plot changes! Just smoothing everything out. For those of you who are new, welcome! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and will continue the rest of the series.

The Traitors of Olympus series (this series) takes places after Heroes of Olympus and before Trials of Apollo. It is not canon to Trials of Apollo, since I plotted out the series and wrote Whispers of a Snake and Blood of a Mayan before I read The Hidden Oracle .However, you will still see Riordan's beloved original characters in here, as canon as possible to Heroes of Olympus! I hope you enjoy and that you can take this adventure with me, Kally, and the Pax brothers! :D