Chaos's Horsemen

Staffs of Power

The four Horsemen gathered in the living room, crowding around the table with the unconscious guard on it. They had been sitting there, staring at the man, for thirty minutes, and Percy was getting jumpy. Although he had been blessed by Chaos, he was still part god and that meant he still had ADHD. Eventually, nearly crawling out of his skin with boredom, he suggested some practice. The others agreed, thinking that some practice would be good to keep them in shape and alert.

Before they went outside, Percy ran up to his room and grabbed the four weapons he had stolen, deciding to test out a theory. When outside, he tossed the one with the brown crystal to Allis, who caught it in surprise. The crystal started to glow, giving of a brilliant light, and drop to the ground. It touched the ground and gave a bright flash, before backing off to a steady, low glow. Allis stared at the weapon in wonder, never before had she seen something so strange.

"Think about lifting the earth, and then move the weapon," Percy called to her. She nodded, seeing what he was thinking. She imagined the feeling she had had when she directed the earth before, then she lifted the weapon. Instantly, a gigantic chunk of rock followed the weapon up, before flying towards a tree when Allis flicked the weapon towards it. She grinned at the crushed tree, cradling her new weapon in glee.

Janette and Carter stared at the weapon in disbelief, before turning towards Percy when he shouted catch. Carter caught the weapon with the red crystal, while the clear crystal one flew towards Janette. Both weapons went through the same process as Allis's, but they spewed fire and a torrent of air. Grinning, Percy spun his blue crystal staff around his body, twirling it like he had been training with it his whole life.

"Shall we have a little sparring match, powers only?" He asked with a coy grin. The other three reluctantly agreed, not sure if they could beat Percy, who had been training with his powers for years.

Percy and Carter paired together, fire against water, while Allis and Janette took stances across from each other, Air against earth. Percy made the first move, twirling his staff so that a stream of water trailed from the crystal. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the water streaming towards Carter, who quickly slashed up with his staff, causing a white ho.t blast of fire to evaporate the water. Grinning, Percy ran forward. Carter, bedazzled by the power of his new weapon, didn't see Percy until he was placing the crystal of his staff against Carter's chest. Carter looked down at the crystal, looked at Percy's maniac grin, looked at the crystal again, and gulped.

Allis made the first move against Janette. She slammed her crystal into the ground, causing a huge indent to appear, she then lifted the crystal so that a giant bolder hovered over her head. She wound back, and then made a motion similar to throwing a baseball. The bolder flew forward, going at least twenty miles an hour, straight at Janette's head. Panicking, Janette slammed the but of her staff into the ground, causing a wave of air to blast out and slice the bolder into pieces.

"Not bad, mind if I steal your idea?" Allis asked, slamming the butt of her staff into the ground. Instantly, the whole ground started to move, rippling up and down towards Janette. Going off pure instinct, Janette jumped into the air and pushed down with the staff. A stream of air shot out, propelling her straight up. As she descended, Janette flipped in the air and slashed her staff towards Allis, sending out a giant wave of air. Allis set her feet and slammed her staff into the ground, using it as an anchor to hold herself still as the blast of air hit her. She jut barely kept her hold on the staff, feeling as her hands started to slip from the staff. When it finally ended, she dropped to her knees, completely exhausted from holding on so tightly.

Percy sent a stream of water out, pushing Carter back, before flipping backwards to get out of close range. Having a genius idea, Percy manipulated the water coming out of his staff to make a layer of armor around his body. Now able to get close without being burned, Percy ran up to Carter and jumped over his head, landing rich behind him. With a slam of his staff on the ground, Percy caused a giant wave of water to tower over Carter and Percy. Carter shot a stream of fire at the wave, but it did no good because the wave was to big to be evaporated. Then, the wave crashed down.

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The guard woke up while the four were training. He got to his feet, surprised to find that he wasn't bound, and headed towards the loud crashes he heard coming from outside. He stepped out of the door, feeling his jaw drop as he saw that he had just emerged from a tent! From the size of the inside it should have been a mansion, not a tiny tent. He turned towards the crashes, and his has dropped again. All four of the Horsemen were displaying their powers in their sparring matches. He saw one slash one of the staffs used by his enemies, and out came a torrent of fire ten times as strong as any that the Otulpians could summon. Another slammed her staff into the ground, causing a gain wave of air to decimate a gain bolder summoned by another one of the four. The last was the most impressive, twirling and slashing his staff so that streams and torrents if water rushed out to attack his enemy. Then, the guard nearly fainted from the sight of the last one summoning a wave large enough to wipe out a small island. The wave crashed down on the fire user, nearly crushing him, but the water user extended a hand and caused the water to part around the fire user. These warriors were far from ordinary.

"He's awake," the air user said from the far side of the field, where she was waiting for the earth user to get back to her feet. Instantly, four staffs where pointed at him, ready to wipe him out. Suddenly terrified, the guard threw his hands into the air in surrender.

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Once they had calmed down, the Horsemen took the guard back into the house and set him down for an interrogation.

"So, what's your name?" Carter asked, calmly laying down on the couch.

The guard, still wary even if the boy was relaxing, said in a clear voice that still managed to be deep and gravelly, "My name is Nhoj, my rank is captain, and I am of the Enutpenian army. That is all I can say."

Percy grinned, remembering his time as the leader of the Greek army. He had always worried that he would be caught by Kronos army, and so he had trained himself to do just as this man was doing. Only give away simple information. "I'm not even going to try to pronounce your name, so ill call you N. So N, tell me why you wanted to kidnap us?"

"Our general told us of four warriors who would come to win us the war, he said we must capture you and bring you to him," Nhoj said, seeming terrified.

"Who's your general?" Janette asked gently, sitting on the couch next to Percy.

The general shook his head, signaling that he couldn't say.

"You say that the Otulpians stole your wife, the princess, and that is the reason for this war. Our sponsor told us that an artifact was stolen, is the artifact the princess?" Percy asked as he leaned back so that he was comfortable.

Nhoj shook his head, before seeming to debate with himself about something. Finally, he said sadly, "No, my wife was taken just recently. She was the original reason for the war, the dirty Otulpians want her because of her beauty, but they couldn't reach her unless she was unprotected. The only time that happens is during war, when every soldier is called to fight. They stole a precious jewel, said to give its holder the power of the gods, so that we would attack and leave my precious Ailuj unprotected."

"I see. Well Nhoj, we were sent to help you win the war. You really didn't need to attack us," Janette reassured the distraught man.

Nhoj looked at the four with a newfound hope, almost as if he couldn't believe that they had planned to help him originally. "Are you serious?"

"Completely," Allis said with a serious face. Nhoj looked terrified of Allis's serious face, but the others knew that she wasn't as heartless as she seemed.

"It looks like we're going to war," Percy said with forced calm.