Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

XXXI. We See The World In Endless Sleep

(A/N: Final Chapter of relative calm here.. chaos is about to break loose next time after this!
As for some of what I showed you in Chapter Twenty Nine, in this chapter, and in chapter afterwards.. some of this was inspired by a certain season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003, Season 5: The Lost Episodes. The elemental figures in Greek Armor is actually a reference to this series in and of itself, particularly to five evil elemental brothers called the Mystic Ninjas. If you don't know what this season is all about, I suggest you get to YouTube and start searching up and watching all twelve episodes right now if you are reading this chapter right now, because believe me, it will help you understand the references certain parts of this and upcoming chapters will make.

Also, I imagine the Strawberry Buses as actual buses here.. just extra long ones.

This chapter does contain references to Morro11 's fanfic "Annabeth Chase and the Last Olympian", as well as to TMNT 2003 Season 5 Episodes 5 and 11.

Plus the usual shoutouts to -JASONSGRACE  and Imaginebooks  as usual here, plus TheTimeTraveler24 and TsarinaTorment.)

Anyways, enjoy!)
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August 15th, 2009

Much of the time spent after breakfast before we departed.. I spent with Michael. Doing what, you might ask? Well.. helping Austin and Sherman - who both decided to ditch Clarisse and join the campers going to Manhattan today - load boxes upon boxes of ammo into the back of one of the strawberry buses. I mean, lots and lots of ammo. Pretty sure we loaded enough ammo to keep me supplied for the better part of three days, possibly four. I have no clue, but I think we loaded about every round Beckendorf has ever made for me from after the Battle Of The Labyrinth to when he died. The fact that Travis and Connor had recently stolen a spare school bus on one of their recent outings this summer that hadn't brought cops up our way definitely helped, since by the time the three of us were done, the back half of the Strawberry Bus we were loading was essentially filled to the brim with ammo.

There were still enough seats on the bus that as Lee got into the driver's seat - he had recently gotten his driver's license a few months ago - the entirety of both the Apollo and Demeter Cabins, plus me, Travis (who had ditched Connor on the other bus for some reason) and Sherman could still sit on the bus.

I sat down with Kayla next to me on one side and Belle on the other, which to be honest.. felt less weird than it had been during that war game with Quintus aka Daedalus last summer.

Travis sat with Katie, and the two just held hands, not really saying a word to each other. Simply, it just was Travis being there for her, which was kinda sweet.

Sherman and Miranda sat with each other too in a separate seat, as did Austin and Caeli. We were fortunate that the Aphrodite Cabin was on a different bus, but still.. tensions were definitely high among everyone.. since one of us was likely a spy. Believe me.. the tension was so thick.

Annabeth suddenly decided to hop on this van too at the last moment, surprising Lee and the rest of us. "Did you guys really have to stuff the back full of ammo?" she asked, looking squarely at me, Sherman, Austin, and Michael respectively from the way her eyes flicked between the four of us, seemingly a little annoyed by it.

"I mean.. I'm going to need every round I can get my hands on.. if you know what I mean.." I said back, albeit a little weakly because when Annabeth gets annoyed, she can be very scary to be honest.

We all felt fear there, that much was certain enough. We didn't know if we were going to live or die.. I at least had probably a good hint about how this fight was going to go, based on my visions and Kelli's info. But even then, I wasn't sure if I was going to live enough to see it. So it was that we set out like that. "This is not how I wanted to end my summer.." Belle said anxiously next to me and Kayla.