Battle for Two {Closed for Andy and Nevaeh}

I had pitched, no, gently placed the backpack into the Hephaestus cabin, taking the shortest of detours (to me, at least). No more weights to hold me down. It seemed I had beat Nevaeh to the arena! Well, I was a bit better than most at long distance, I supposed. Drawing my enchanted swordshorts, Hope and Fury, I stepped onto the arena field. Was she there yet? Was she -ooof!

OOC: lol, take that however you want :)

"I was fine. Thank you. Hey! How did you get here so fast? I looked behind me the whole time and there was no one.. -hey! Did you cheat?" I looked into her eyes, and she really reminded me of a child of Athena I had known. But my memory wasn't telling me any more. It was all a hazy blur. I felt angered again, at Hephaestus, at the monsters, at the fates: why was my life so screwed up?

Snapping back to my thoughts as I realized a really pretty yet familiar girl was standing in front of me, I bottled up my emotions, and choked out, "You ready?"

I was dumbfounded. "No one has ever placed that much trust into me before." I sat down, pulling Nevaeh down with me. "You know, you're right. I can't remember chunks of my years in my -uh- bad days, but I guess I felt morally obligated to reciprocate the trust. "I... I was born in Sudbury, or so my birth certificate tells me. I was an orphan from a few weeks of age. I learned from my -hem- Dad, that my birth mother was killed by a dragon. Like you, my home was destroyed. Burnt into flames. And the next 2 years, the orphanage seemed repulsed by me. I was malnourished, maltreated and felt like crap." My voice cracked. I hadn't even told my adopted parents how badly they had treated me, to the degree of which I suffered as a child. Yet here I was, spilling my life story to a girl I had only known since morning.

"They took me in, and they sent me to school. For the first year, life was good. But I was short and small. And soon, through til I was 13, I was constantly bullied. I changed schools once, but my demons continued to haunt me there." Tears formed in the corners of my eyes as I forced myself to continue, seeing concern in Nevaeh's eyes. "I snapped when I was 13. I had grown tall, taller than my bullies, but they only saw the fragile me. Hours of working hard made my punches backed by force, and I floored the next bully that tried to steal my backpack and dump my schematics into a toilet. His friends came after me, and I ran. And I skipped school for a week, pretending to be sick, and I passed my 14th birthday at home, with my parents at work, drawing weapons and moping around."

When I went back to school, they were waiting. Pig-eyed bullies, and the kid who I had beat up with one punch. I fought with a new fury, and I knocked out at least half of his gang of a dozen thugs that tried to hit me. But when one pulled a gun and another a knife, I knew I couldn't outfight bullets. I ran, and ran. There, I lost them in a junkyard. I was attacked-attacked by a large dog with glowing red eyes. I was so angry and frightened at the same time, I picked up two lead pipes, and tried to fight it. There, Hephaestus branded me as his own, and turned my crude weapons into the sharp shortswords you see here." Smiling fondly, yet ruefully at the memory I could actually recall, I went on, "I killed it. I slashed it to pieces, and there, I found the puzzle piece Hephaestus now gave me, and that's what I gave y...you. I was found a year later and brought here."

"There's the girl... a girl I can't remember well, but she was the child of Athena, and she fits somewhere into this story. And you... you remind me of her. I don't know how." Shirking my gaze from her piercing eyes, I quietly said, "I could never tell you to walk away."

I was touched with the compassion the girl was demonstrating. Never having been exposed to these kinds of people before, (except maybe my parents, but their hardworking habits made it hard for them to commit to solving my problems), I let the feeling of the hug linger on my senses. I realized she hadn't meant in a romantic way, but somewhere inside my heart, it unlocked a desperate yearning to connect with someone, and to have someone I could trust no matter what. "They shouldn't be telling you off... whoever they are, you -you're a great person."

I blushed and continued, "Thanks for telling me about your dad. I-I-I really shouldn't bottle up, huh?" Opening up was a relief, like a burden was lifted off the shoulders of a vulnerable child exposed to the harsh way much too prematurely. But losing the burden the size of Atlas's emotionally made me feel too vulnerable.

Unconsciously brushing away the tears that seemed to be forming in the farthest corners of Nevaeh's green eyes with a thumb, I laughed uncomfortably.

"Well, let's fight. Physical activity always makes me more comfortable with myself." Loosening my shortswords in my sheaths, I shot Nevaeh a questioning glance.

"Whoa!" Dodging the stroke (ahem cheap shot I may add) with an acrobatic backflip, I drew the two swords, Hope and Fury. The two swords glowed in the afternoon air, and the wrenches engraved on the sword guards glowed red, like the embers of a dying fire. The cold metal grew warm, as if welcoming themselves back into my embrace.

Parrying the next slash, I leaned backwards, and rebounded forward, reverting Fury to a backhand grip and slashing horizontally with Hope.


OOC: 4 feet is a really long sword for a female. OH NO don't hurt me, I'm not being sexist! The foils I fence with are less than 3 feet long, but they're shaped like needles and are light. For a sword with an actual tempered blade, that's heavy O.o

Nevaeh quickly blocked Hope and bent backwards a bit to advoid Fury. Nevaeh stood up straight and sent a backhand slash at Andy's head. nevaeh promised in her head not to use her powers against Andy. That would be unfair. Though, if Nevaeh started losing, she would use her powers. Hopefully Andy didn't have fire powers or something.

~lol sorry! I'm not an experct swords person so i don't know how long it should be xD also,, I don't know a lot of sword termonolgy so yeah xD I don't fence =[~

The exhilaration of battle ran through my blood. Twirling the blades like a deadly fan scything through the air, I advanced through Nevaeh's offense. Although her lithe blade gave her more reach, my experience, skill, and perfect match with my twin swords gave me a near-impenetrable defense, as long as I had the stamina and reflexes to match. Sparks dancing between the clashing metal, I pushed forward. I had a strength advantage, and I seemed to have the upper hand.

OOC: lol it's k. I get to do a lot of things people i know tend to envy me for :) i'm thinking for the fight, andy will start winning but nevaeh would somehow distract him and disarm him. and andy's emotional turmoil makes him easily distracted.

~Sounds like a good idea, sure. I think I blinded the whole sight with a picture O.o. I hate the stupid boys in my class. Eh, I should put that in the rant section xD~

Staggering from the well thought-out blow, I shakily leapt backwards, and reverted both swords into a backhand grip. I had clearly underestimated the child of Antheia, and wasn't going to make that mistake twice.

This stance, fluctuating and unpredictable, gave no quarter for the enemy to make sneaky moves, as the attacks would be more offense, less defence. But the vulnerable nature of the stance meant I could not afford to lose focus for one second at all. If the enemy were to be able to sneak under my guard of lethal scything blades, I'd be in trouble. The metal in my hands seemed to push away the pounding headache. Enchantments.

With a silent thanks to Hephaestus, forger of the blades, I pressed forward with a shout, twirling like a hurricane of muscle and metal.

OOC: You can't kill him that fast! lol And you're pretty, don't let stupid kids in your class or whatever bring you down. :3

Nevaeh staggered backwards once more from Andy's strengh. She always hated how boys were stronger. Nevaeh soon lost her footing and fell back on her but. Hm, attack from the ground. Nevaeh lurched forward and grabbed Andy's foot, pulling it forward. Hopefully Andy wouldn't kick her in the face. Nevaeh's temper wasn't one to mess with. Nevaeh gritted her teeth.

~Thanks =] and lol, Nevaeh wasn't killing him. hat was a move I learned in Krav maga xD Yeah, i know how to kick people's butt's xD Lol, but now I'm curious, what do you look like?~

I slashed wildly at her hand, leaving a tiny gash, and then hopped backwards, resting, and letting herself pick herself off the ground. "You okay?" I asked. Uh oh. She looked angry. I probably had to win this one, and quickly. I began to press forward again.\

OOC: i'm on reveal yourself. you just gotta find me :L

•••I found the picture in the reveal yourself thingy. I feel weird now looking at th pictures >.>" xD Lol, you have nice hair...xD••• ps sorry about the spelling mistakes. On my iPod.

She was angry, no doubt about that. She didn't like losing, that was also for sure. But this was my first fight in Camp Half Blood, and I was determined to win, if only to gain some respect for myself, which I had only ever received grudgingly. This wasn't going the way I wanted it to. Well, I was winning, but not really in that sense.

I felt torn. Should I press forward and double my efforts to win? I didn't want to lose someone I had trusted because she was mad. Softening my stance and my grip, I pressed forward yet again, but not so aggressively.

OOC: thanks, hey. you're the second person to have said that about me xDD

~Lol, really? xD well it's true xD~

Bending like a reed in the wind, I swatted her sword away, and aimed a strike at her side. Because Hope wasn't made to kill humans, it wouldn't cut through, distributing force over a larger area, thus probably leaving a bruise on her ribs. Giving a semi-powered tap, I counted that as a point for me, as I leapt back to guard against any retaliation.

I smirked, amused, when the grass effectually immobilised me. A good power to have, nature. Straining against my bonds, I soon realized this grass had about a hundred times the tensile strength of regular grass. I could manipulate the various metal particles under the soil to kill the roots of the grass where they grew, but that would take insane concentration. Besides, Nevaeh looked really tired from our ongoing battle. I took a deep breath. I had never done this before.

"Nevaeh... -draw?"

Immobilised fully by the grass snaking around his body, I could only watch as her sword left a brutal gash into his side. It was bleeding profusely, staining the ground red. I only had one more trick to play if I was not going to overexert myself to destroy the grass.

Preparing myself for pain, I pulled all the heat stored in Rage's crescent pommel (surprise, surprise!) and concentrated all of it into my injury. It wasn't some apollo healing trick. The searing heat closed the wound with sheer temperature alone, stemming the blood but burning the flesh slightly. Howling in pain, I used that sharp focus brought by the will for the pain to end, I swept the grass, burning the roots.

Unfortunately, the grass was enchanted and soon grew back. My eyes widened and I skipped backwards a step. Sadly, the effort was enormous, and I collapsed to a knee, using a sword to keep me up, and weakly blocking Nevaeh's next strike.

I hadn't thought that Nevaeh would collapse. My arms were completely useless, along with my legs. The flash-healing had taken more from me than I had originally thought. As my eyes dimmed as I saw Nevaeh fall to the floor. This was my fault. I should have known that she was connected to her enchanted grass.

Uh oh. She was going into what I perceived as god-given ability overuse. It had once happened to me when I attempted to shift an entire kilometer of cable out of the earth. Obviously, I had failed because my powers were crap, but I also knocked myself out for 3 days. Gritting my teeth, I crawled over to her with one arm, and biting back profanity, I crawled over to her violently shaking body, and touched her sword with my hand. Out of desperation, I closed my eyes, reaching into her body using the biometal as a conduit, and started siphoning heat from her cells to prevent destructive cellular deterioration from overheat.

Cooling her body temperature to normal, her sword grew white hot, and my senses fell from me as I dropped into unconsciousness...