A stroll on the beach

It was a nice day, the sky was blue, puffy little clouds raced earnestly towards whatever destination nobody knew, the sea was calm with lapping waves crashing into the rock outcropping in the distance, and two boys, both 18 years old, were walking along the beach.

One had a cigarette like item in his mouth that emitted a bit of smoke. He had had his hands shoved into his pockets and was wearing an unbuttoned white dress shirt and loose black tie with black slacks. He core no undershirt underneath the dress shirt, after all, it was too warm for that. A bunch of bandages that wrapped tightly around his body were visible and they were quite clearly supporting the boy's right shoulder. He had an black medical eye patch covering his left eye and had a bored expression while he strode along the beach. As he walked, the powerful repeating crossbow that was slung over his back rattled slightly.

The other boy was dressed in similar attire but his shirt was buttoned up and the tie had the logo of the Colossus foundation on it. He was clearly bored as well, almost as much as his companion and he carried himself as such. On his back was a magnificent Katana, 6 feet long and razor edged. It was so long it couldn't use a standard sheath, instead having a strip of laquered wood to cover the edge and quick release belts along the length to keep it from falling out.

These two boys were Etrius Beecher Johnson and Sage Evanson.

"So man, how come you're back here at camp?" Asked Etrius as he looked out to sea.

Somewhere around the southers tip of the African Continent, the Shinjuku Coalition was massing for an attack to retake the continent from the Zulu Army faction that had wiped out 40% of half bloods living on the continent. He wanted to be out there, commanding the battle or at least doing something. Unfortunately he had been too close to an explosion on his last mission and in addition to getting shrapnel in his shoulder, he also had his eye put out though that was replaced by a transplant from Loyd. Luckily by some magical property of loyd's healing factor, the eye changed color as soon as it was put in so Etrius didn't actually have a case of heterochromia.

Sage let out a slightly depressed sigh. "I got married about a week ago. That means I'm off the combat roster for about two months."

Etrius's eyebrows raised a little. "You tied the knot? How come I wasn't invited? We're friends aren't we?"

"Course we are. But the wife wanted a quiet civil ceremony. Sam and Annie witnessed it. Ask them for pictures or something."

"You're taking married life pretty well." Etrius complimented. "When I first found out, you were a wreck. Something happen?"

"Nah." Sage waved off. "Thinking about it is actually a lot worse that it is. Once I got over it, it's actually pretty nice. I actually seem to have a purpose now, I'm actually working to support my family and stuff instead of blowing it all or whatever."

"Hn. Seems nice. How come you're here instead of in Italy?"

"Need to visit every once in a while man. Besides, it's nice to hang around with carefree kids. Once I get back to Italy it's gonna be politics and all sorts of stuff all over again."

"I hear that."