Bonds

Knight's Apprenticeship

Knight didn't dare to blink as his brother stared him down.

For the second he did so Jack would strike; launching one of the thousands of copies of Babylon out of thin air. Knight clenched his teeth and tightened his grip on his weapon, Shatter, preparing himself to-

The air above Jack's right shoulder shimmered with a golden light, and from it rocketed the Celestial Bronze chain weapon. The spiked ball was a blur with only a few links separating it from its trailing blade, making it look comparable to a bronze comet in the dim light of Tartarus. It was certainly an imposing sight, but Knight was more than used to it by now.

3...2...1...

The son of Kronos swung his weapon with all of his seven-year-old might and willed it to increase its weight at the apex of the swing; something that had taken him hours to master the timing. The flat of the Imperial Gold blade met the spike-covered Celestial Bronze ball with a mighty clang and for the briefest of moments that only he seemed to notice, sparks arced between to two divine metals. Then the force of his swing overwhelmed the projectile's, and the vinculum was sent flying up into the wilds of Tartarus.

"Homerun!" Jack shouted, throwing his fists in the air. "That has to be a homerun!"

Knight quickly reduced the weight of Shatter before it had the chance to pull him to the ground. "I think you're right, Jack!" he shouted back with a smile that matched his brother's.

As was sometimes the case living in Tartarus, Dr. Thorn had been devoured by some larger creature during the night and it would take a few days to a week to reform. During that time, he and his siblings were given a few hours of free time during the day. It was one of their favorite events to happen, with Grandma May calling it something of a holiday, and they each got to spend their time playing and helping their grandmother with various tasks.

And today their grandmother had taught them a new game called baseball; a simple game that would further improve their skills while still being a great deal of fun for him and his brother. The rules were simple, Jack would fire off one of his weapons at him, and he would try to hit it back with Shatter. If he managed to miss three of Jack's weapons in a row he lost, but if he hit three in a row he won. Grandma May had told them there were more rules, but they required more people to play for those to work. More than even if Queen joined in, but she was sitting near the cave entrance with a hellhound pup in her lap.

"Grandma! Do you think that was a homerun?" he called out to the woman sitting beside his sister.

She looked up from her work patching holes in their clothes and nodded. "If you can't see it anymore, then it is a homer."

Knight beamed at his brother who beamed back. "So, what would happen now if we had enough people?"

Grandma May set aside one of Queen's tunics and smiled. "You, and everyone else on a base, would run around all the way to home, earning your team a point for each person. Your father used to like baseball." She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. "I think I can even remember your father playing T-ball when he was younger." Tears began to roll down her cheeks. "The- the neighbors would take him. Get him out of the house. A-away from me."

Knight looked to Jack and then to Queen. Sometimes Grandma May got upset when she talked about their father, breaking down into tears that broke their hearts. They didn't know the whole story, but over the years they gathered bits and pieces that he managed to put together a pretty good idea of what happened. Apparently, Grandma May had been cursed by one of the gods. A curse that prevented her from being a good mother. Eventually though, their father grew up and went off to find a way to break the curse. He was successful in the end, but by then they had been born and it was too late for them to become a family again. And she regretted it.