GENEVA

Olivia took a step in our direction and thrusted her hand forwards. A crackling wave of purple energy was sent towards the four of us. My friends were able to dodge the attack, but I wasn't so lucky.

I was knocked to the floor, my head almost hitting the marble flooring. I landed on my side instead, making my shoulder take the brunt of the damage.

I staggered up from the ground and surveyed the fight, wanting to get back into the action as quickly as possible. Timmy and Alexander were fighting in a 2 v 3 against Ivan, Aldric, and one of the other GHOST members, while Amethyst was locked in a battle against Olivia and the other GHOST member. Meanwhile, Kai and Rose were slamming their handcuffs against the wall in an attempt to free themselves, though to minimal success.

I made the decision to help out Amethyst, who was being severely overwhelmed by Olivia and the other GHOST member. The GHOST member was short, yet stocky, and wore celestial bronze-plated armor and leggings. He carried a thin steel sword about a foot-and-a-half long, and based on his foot positioning and technique, was quite experienced with the weapon.

Still, Olivia was the more prevalent threat, so I made him my primary target.

I morphed into a cheetah and bounded towards him, catching him by surprise as I slammed him backwards, the short GHOST member skidding across the marble floor as his metallic armor screeched against the marble floor.

I turned around and averted my attention to Olivia and Amethyst. Amethyst had just sent an arrow at Olivia, who flicked it away as if it were just some mere inconvenience and sent an abundance of energy blasts towards Amethyst. The blasts were wildly inaccurate and Amethyst didn't have to do anything to dodge them, but then Olivia shot a jolt of electricity out of her fingertip which struck Amethyst in the chest and knocked her down.

I readied my daggers and Olivia pulled her katana out once more. We locked eyes as she went in for the first move, going for an overhead strike. I evaded her attack and steered narrowly clear of her second slash. She then went for a jab at my stomach after her first series of attacks, but I side-stepped her attack and countered, kicking her back with my left leg.

Angered by the result, Olivia raised her hands in an upward motion, causing me to levitate up from the ground. She pulled her hands back toward her side, pulling me closer toward her. As Olivia was about to push her hands forward to throw me into the wall, I thought of a gorilla and felt myself fall onto the ground, freed from her telekinesis as the floor rumbled on impact with my heavy gorilla feet. I had grown to about six-feet tall and had grown a large mass of fur all around my body.

I swung my arm toward Olivia's face, her barely eluding my heavy arm, but the second time around, after stumbling on my legs a good bit, Olivia was hit and flew backwards and tumbled across the floor.

I then felt a sharp pain, a laser bolt grazing the top of my shoulder as I grunted in disarray. I reverted back to my human form, clutching my arm as waves of pain spread down my left arm. I looked up to see what had attacked me and saw a pair of Aldric's drones flying around.

I got back up on my feet and pulled out my daggers, gritting my teeth. I had faced these same drones back in Maine, and in just two throws of my daggers, took them down, retrieving my weapons after the whole ordeal.

I surveyed the battle once again. Alexander, Timmy, and Amethyst were all together facing off against Ivan, Aldric, and the random GHOST member in a three-on-three. They all seemed to be faring well and likely didn't need help, so instead I turned my priorities on freeing Kai and Rose.

I recalled what Rose had begun telling Amethyst before Olivia had intervened, and ran toward the conference room. On my way there, I heard Olivia shout, "Enrico, block her off!"

She was slowly but surely making her way off the ground from the floor. Her chest plate was dented massively, and parts of her helmet were cracked, but she was still fine.

Enrico, the short, stocky GHOST member, who had been setting his sights on the three-on-three battle, turned toward me, pulling out his sword and jogging swiftly behind me. I quickly ran into the room and slammed the door behind me to buy some time, not bothering to lock it in the hurried state I was in. Olivia was recovering and Kai and Rose were locked in the cell, so I didn't have a lot of time to search for the key.

The conference room was very organized, with a large, oval-shaped wood table in the middle and a filing cabinet to the side. There was a small wooden cabinet with supplies, and the floor was made out of a gray rug.

Lying on the table was a ring attached to multiple keys of varying sizes and colors. I snatched the keys from the table and pocketed them, Enrico then bursting through the door.

Instead of going for an attack or trying to fight him, I held out the keys in front of him, dangling them from my fingertips like a hypnotist swinging a pendulum.

"Come and get it," I taunted.

Enrico furrowed his eyebrows, considering the taunt. He hesitantly swung his sword at me. I veered left of his swing and jumped onto the oval table. He brang his sword around his head and swung it toward my feet. I jumped over the sword and after landing back on the table, I launched a kick at his face. He staggered back but recovered, an annoyed expression on his face.

In anger, he raised his sword again over his head and struck it to my left, with me sidestepping the attack. He subsequently slashed right, and after I dodged again, slashed to the middle. This time, I sprung off the table to evade his attack, landing on the gray carpeting. Enrico turned in my direction, but before he could do anything, I pulled a chair out in front of me and booted it at Enrico, hitting him hard as he toppled to the ground and dropped his sword. The chair then fell on top of Enrico, further incapacitating him.

I swiftly exited the room and slammed the door behind me. The battle had taken a turn for the worst, with Amethyst and Timmy knocked down to the ground and without their weapons. Meanwhile, Alexander was fighting alone against all four GHOSTs. He was turtling behind a shield to block himself from their attacks and used his sword to get a quick slash in on them, but this cycle wouldn't hold them off forever.

I ran as fast as I could toward the cell and began inserting each key into the door, fumbling with the keys as I was in a panicked state. When I finally got the right key inserted, I opened up the cell door and walked in, a sense of relief going through Kai and Rose's faces.

"Use the red key to free us!" Rose said hurriedly.

Doing as she said, I used the key she had described and unshackled her and Kai.

Kai stretched his arms and grinned, attempting to crack his neck but failing both times. "Freedom at last. These fools will rue the day they imprisoned me!"

He ran past me and boosted himself into the air using his firepower, springing a good eight feet above everyone. From there he sent a stream of pulsing fire down at Olivia and the others GHOSTs, making each of them back off from Alexander as parts of the floor were lit aflame.

Rose quickly followed after Kai and joined him in battle, raising her hands as books from the shelves around us levitated around her. She sent them flying directly at the unnamed GHOST member, adding more chaos to the damage Kai had already wreaked as books flew everywhere. The GHOST member stood no chance as he crumpled to the floor, a book hitting him directly in the face and knocking off his helmet.

The tide of the battle had now completely turned in our favor. Alexander grinned at the sight of Kai and Rose's appearance and tossed Kai his celestial sword, Scorcher. The boys high-fived each other and clashed their swords together, their version of a toast or something. I exited the cell and helped Timmy off the ground, handing his sword to him since it had landed a little ways away from him. He thanked me and jumped into action along Alexander, Kai, and Rose. Amethyst had gotten off the ground and gave Rose her daggers, retrieving her bow and arrows as well.

With all of us reunited, it was now a six-on-three battle, odds that Olivia, Ivan, and Aldric didn't like as they slowly retreated back from us. They inched towards the staircase that went up to the rooftop of the facility, holding their weapons up in defense. There was no doubt that they would try and flee from the scene.

"It looks like you've won this battle, but don't get too excited," Olivia sneered. "We'll be back, and believe me, you won't get the best of us."

With that, the three scurried up the stairs. Kai tried bombing after them, but I said, "Stop, Kai. We already got what we wanted. You guys are free, we have our weapons back, and we've scared off the GHOSTs. Our mission is done. Now we just need to find and defeat Erebos and free Hecate."

Kai reluctantly nodded, pausing his motion. "Fine."

"Now where do we go from here?" Rose asked.

It was a good question. If we traveled back down the stairs, we would risk being seen by the other GHOST members who would just be finishing lunch and would just get captured. I didn't like our chances in a six-on-fifty, so traveling back down the path we just used wouldn't turn out well.

Amethyst held up a walkie-talkie, the one Oman had given her, and spoke into it. "Hey, Oman, we saved Kai and Rose. Come get us near the rooftop of the tower. Don't worry, most of the snipers are gone, so it should be safe to fly to us, but be careful."

We went up the stairs and onto the roof, awaiting the BBB. The roof had a large platform with a launchpad meant for a helicopter to land on. There were some pipes and a tall metallic pillar on the rooftop, along with some white borders that encased the area of the roof. In the distance, I could see a helicopter flying away from the tower, the one that Ivan, Aldric, and Olivia took from the launchpad to escape the facility.

We waited for a minute or so when we saw the BBB flying towards us. Oman flew above the launchpad and steadily landed onto it, opening up the entrance into the ship. We speedily entered as Oman shut the doors to the ship and readied it for take off. We headed into Oman's cabin and sat down at the couch area, ready to discuss what our next course of action would be. Once we were sitting, Oman flew the ship upwards from the helipad as we began to soar over the clouds.

"Now that we've got Kai and Rose and gotten our loot back, we should be heading to Athens, right?" I asked.

Kai and Rose shared an apprehensive look. "Well, not exactly," Rose responded.

Amethyst furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"When we were in the cage, we overheard a conversation between two GHOST members," Kai explained. "One of them brought up how there was a major weapon raid the GHOSTs were doing in Rome to further protect Athens Tower, and that, if Rose and I were to escape, they couldn't let us get the weapons or else the whole operation would be jeopardized. Something about how the weapons stored in Rome could easily defeat the Ourae and take down Erebos' blockade. They also mentioned the supplier, whoever that is."

Timmy popped his knuckles nervously, the sound emanating off the walls of Oman's cabins. "I don't know, Kai. This sounds a little too good to be true."

"How?" Rose asked. "It sounds logical to me."

"Well, doesn't it seem a bit convenient that the two GHOST members conversing were right next to the both of you, as if they wanted you to hear what they were saying? Something seems fishy here. Erebos wouldn't make this sort of maneuver, being as smart as he is."

Amethyst shook her head. "That sounds too elaborate, Timmy. I think you're being a little paranoid."

"Yeah," Alexander agreed. "I know Erebos is smart, but I don't think he has this all mapped out. Plus, Epimetheus said we needed to wait for a signal before going to Athens and we have yet to come across that signal. What if going to Rome has something to do with the signal?"

Timmy thought for a moment before saying quietly, "I suppose so."

"Then it's decided," Amethyst announced. "We'll go to Rome and retrieve the weapons from there. I'll go ahead and inform Oman."

She walked over to Oman and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and said, "Buckle up, kiddos. We're flyin' to Rome!"