invisible string | f. zhang

xiv. the strangest reinforcements you'll ever see

Maribelle giggles.

"Actually he's more like a great-great — oh, never mind. Yeah, he's your brother."

"Thanks," Frank mumbles, "But if the legion mistakes Tyson for an enemy — "

"I've got it!" Hazel runs to the chariot and dug out the biggest Roman helmet she could find, plus an old Roman banner embroidered with SPQR. She hands them to Tyson, "Put those on, big guy. Then our friends will know you're on our team."

"Yay!" Tyson says, "I'm on your team!"

The helmet was ridiculously small, and he puts the cape on backward, like a SPQR baby bib.

"It'll do," Percy says, "Ella, just stay here. Stay safe."

"Safe," Ella repeats, "Ella likes being safe. Safety in numbers. Safety deposit boxes. Ella will go with Tyson."

"What?" Percy says, "Oh . . . fine. Whatever. Just don't get hurt. And Mrs. O'Leary — how do you feel about pulling a chariot?"

Maribelle was positive this was the strangest group of reinforcements ever. Hazel rides on Arion, who was recovered enough to carry one person at normal horse speed. Frank transforms into a bald eagle and soars above them. Tyson runs down the hill, waving his club and yelling, "Bad pony-men! BOO!" while Ella flutters around him, reciting facts from the Old Farmer's Almanac.

As for Percy and Maribelle, they ride Mrs. O'Leary into battle with a chariot full of Imperial gold equipment clanking and clink ing behind, the golden eagle standard of the Twelfth Legion raised high above them.

They skirt the perimeter of the camp and took the northernmost bridge over the Little Tiber, charging onto the Field of Mars at the western edge of the battle. A horde of Cyclopes was hammering away at the campers of the Fifth Cohort, who were trying to keep their shields locked just to stay alive.

Percy shouts, "Fifth Cohort!" and slams into the nearest Cyclops.

After the Cyclops disintegrates, Percy leaps off his hellhound and slashes wildly through the other monsters. Maribelle charges after him. She'd exchanged her knives for a sword, not wanting to get so up close and personal with the monsters. Not when there were that many of them.

Tyson charges at the Cyclops leader, Ma Gasket, her chain-mail dress spattered with mud and decorated with broken spears.

She gawks at Tyson and starts to say, "Who —?"

Tyson hits her in the head so hard, she spins in a circle and landed on her rump.

"Bad Cyclops Lady!" He bellows, "General Tyson says GO AWAY!"

He hits her again, and Ma Gasket breaks into dust.

"Fifth Cohort!" Frank bellows, "Get your Imperial gold weapons right here!"

The campers recover from their shock and mob the chariot. Percy and Maribelle did their best to hand out equipment quickly.

"Let's go, let's go!" Dakota urges, grinning like a madman as he swigged red Kool-Aid from his flask, "Our comrades need help!"

Soon the Fifth Cohort was equipped with new weapons and shields and helmets.

"Follow the eagle!" Frank orders, "To battle!"

The campers cheer. As Maribelle, Percy, and Mrs. O'Leary charged onward, the entire cohort follows — forty extremely shiny gold-plated warriors screaming for blood.

They slam into a herd of wild centaurs that were attacking the Third Cohort. When the campers of the Third saw the eagle standard, they shouted insanely and fought with renewed effort.