The Abduction of the Poppy
Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfiction by Tohkalia and Miss-Li-ding
DISCLAIMER: We don't own PJO. We're too poor.
Chapter 1 - A new sister, a new weapon, and the usual mouth diarrhoea
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, it wasn't boiling, the wind was down and yet Vivian was still as sour as ever. Nathan sighed and leaned his head against the window of the taxi cab that he had been forced to share with her. They were off to another summer at their favourite summer camp, and she was already completely peeved. It all started this morning. The argument was still ringing through his ears.
"Dad, where are all my law books?" Viv had demanded.
"Oh, those old books. They had silverfish all through them. I gave them to the book society on Friday."
"You WHAT? I was going to read those while I was at camp!"
"You couldn't have read those old books, there would hardly be anything to read. They were absolutely infested."
Back in the cab, Nathan concluded that the reason Viv was so pissed was because she hadn't had the chance to get payback at their father. About thirty minutes from this episode they were packed up into the cab and off to their summer camp.
From the look on her face he concluded that she was still thinking up punishments. Nathan sighed and thought of his dad. Poor man. Viv's revenge schemes got worse with the length of time she had to plan them. She was probably planning something that would be equal to his abuse but at the same time horrible.
Almost sensing that he was looking at her, Viv turned and glared at him.
"What? I didn't take away your precious law books." Whoops, wrong thing to say.
He was about to reword his phrasing when the cab came to a halt.
"You sure this is the place?" asked the cab driver.
Viv, instantly turned into the image of politeness replied, "I certainly am." before giving the cab driver his sum in cash.
When he had been paid, both Nathan and Viv hopped out of the taxi and opened the back of the car, Nathan taking out his backpack and Vivian, her duffel bag. They closed the boot of the car before walking to the side of the road, waiting for the bright yellow car to disappear before they went towards their destination, Camp Half-Blood.
As soon as he entered under the archway, Nathan veered away from Vivian and went to his own cabin, number 19. As custom dictated, he touched the horseshoe that was nailed into the top of the door frame before walking into the familiar surroundings. He felt around for a lightswitch to his right and turned them on. Instantly the cabin erupted into bright lights. It looked like a casino, with neon lighting and heaps of games. Even the green blankets that covered each bed looked like the green velvet that covered pool tables.
He was about to dump his bag onto his usual bunk when he realised that there was someone in it. Nathan walked up to the sleeping being and looked at who dared to steal his bed. It was a girl, someone he hadn't seen around before. She was young, probably ten, maybe eleven. Maybe a wayward daughter of Hypnos? No other would be asleep on such a nice day.
He poked her in the arm. No response. Another poke. A grumble of discontent before the girl opened her eyes, then, startled, sat up.
"Umm... Yes?" She was wearing a bright orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt that was way to baggy for her. With her right hand she started rubbing away sleep in her eye.
"Sorry to be annoying but you're in my spot."
The girl stopped rubbing her eyes before her hands started to tremble. She burst into tears. "I've been through so much in this horrid country after my father died and now I'm being kicked out of my only bed!" Nathan could detect a strong British accent from her great sobs and felt sorry for her.
"Hey, it's no big deal, I'll just take this bed... Please don't cry..." Concerning female emotions, Nathan wasn't the best handler. In fact, he preferred not to handle them at all. Nathan dumped his bag onto a less favourable bed and started pulling out his sleeping bag when he realised that the girl was chuckling to herself. He stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to her.
"You did not just 'luck' to freaking find my weakness did you?" The girl, who had become dry-eyed again immediately started to tear up.
"I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know this word-"
"Bull. Crap." Nathan crossed his arms defiantly until the girl gave a defeated sigh.
"Ok, so I did 'luck' my way into finding your weakness, what ever 'luck' is. It's not even a verb idiot. I just got 'claimed' a couple of days ago. You have no idea what I've been through." She sniffed indigently and swung her legs off the bed.
"Uh, we all know what that's like. Get over it." Nathan sighed. It was going to be fruitless to try and argue with her. "So I guess you're my new sister?"
The girl snorted. "Sister? Ew. Don't get yourself flattered."
"Who is your godly parent?" he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
"I dunno, someone called Tai-chi or something..."
"One, it's Tyche. Two, she's my mom too so, that makes us siblings." He said the second point slowly, as if she couldn't understand him. "I'm Nathan Archer by the way. We also have Patricia Jacobs and Oliver Brent who aren't here at the moment. Oliver might not come this year, he's in college."
"What do you mean 'have'? I'm Eliza by the way."
"They're our siblings too. I also have a half sister, Vivian Archer, but trust me. She, and the rest of her cabin are our bane. You'd be much better off being friends with someone from Hecate's cabin or Ares. Now those are real fun people."
Before Eliza had a chance to retort, a horn blasted from the centre of camp. "What was that?" Eliza asked, scrambling to her feet and looking around with fear.
"It means that capture the flag starts in half an hour. You probably don't have any armour." The girl shook her head. "Fine then, I guess I'll take you to the armour shed."
"Armour? Aren't we just playing capture the flag?"
"We are. Exactly why we need armour. Come on," Nathan walked to the door. "we've got some fitting to do."
Vivian was just about to start struggling through reading one of the cabin's copies of United States Supreme Court Records, Annotated Volume 18 when the conch horn for capture the flag sounded.
"Come on!" She shouted, memorising her page number before slamming the book closed. Bloody hell. Chiron just had to blow the conch at that exact moment, didn't he? And as much as she hated reading (stupid dyslexia), she hated randomly (maybe not so randomly, especially if they were on the Athena cabin's side again) running around and whapping people with her sword. Lame, lame, lame... She muttered the last words out loud.
Her brother and head of the cabin, Jacob, sympathised with her. "Stupid game, I mean, we were on the winning side last time, there isn't much reason for us to fight."
Vivian nodded but slowly got to her feet. "The only ones who sit out are Aphrodite-spawn. We must not sink to their level." She looked at Jacob as she said this. He blushed.
"Hey, Cat is different-"
"That's what they all say. Come on lover-boy." To the rest of the cabin she proclaimed, "We're on Ares', Hephaestus', Dionysus', Thanatos', Poseidon's, Demeter's, Iris' and Apollo's side tonight. And sadly, Aphrodite's."
The whole cabin simultaneously rolled their eyes. "Hopefully the prospect of us beating them up will encourage them to participate today."
"Or discourage them." said another of the cabin.
"Let's go team Nemesis!" called Jacob. The cabin cheered heartily. Viv scowled. Of course he got the credit for pumping them up.
The cabins on their side for capture the flag gathered around the battle-plan that Ares had drawn up. "Oi, listen up!" bellowed the Ares cabin leader. "Poseidon cabin!" He pointed at a small group of teenagers, about five of them. "You guys spread out along the stream. Guard the edges well against blue-teamers that might sneak in around the sides."
They nodded and muttered amongst themselves. The Ares leader continued, "Apollo will line up at the back of the defense group and shoot."
There was a muffled 'yes!' from their general direction. "Switch to swords if you see anyone getting close. The main attack teams will be these following people." He read out a list of names. "Divide yourself into two groups. There must be an equal number of Ares and Hephaestus in each team, and at least two Nyx. Nemesis-"
At this Viv and everyone else in Nemesis straightened up, "will lead the defense, which is the rest of you."
Viv shrugged. Not too bad a position, it had certain qualities to it. Though she still thought that this whole thing was lame. The rest of the Nemesis cabin gave muffled agreeing sounds.
The Ares leader continued "All right then, let's go throttle some blue-team!" Everyone cheered at this and, as it was a certain custom, Viv cheered too. "Let's go meet the other team, when I blow the trumpet," he held up said trumpet that came with an added bonus of transforming into a halberd every time he pushed a little button on its side. "move into your positions."
Viv mentally groaned. The blonde Aphrodite-spawn was still nattering at her. "...and, like, it was SO COOL! I wanted the Hephaestus cabin to make me one, but they were like, sorry, we can't, like, give it to you, for, like, free, you have to pay us. So I was like- hey, before I forget, why's your sword, like, a ruler?"
Ugh. Just because they were on the same team for capture the flag didn't mean that girl could spew word vomit all over her. Viv shifted her grip on the shield before it registered that the Aphrodite-spawn (Zara? Sarah?) had asked her a question. She shrugged and looked at her sword, a celestial bronze one. It was plain and unadorned apart from her initials and scales, a symbol of Nemesis, etched on the ebony pommel, and the ruler-like markings on the blade.
"Symbolic, I guess? You know how Nemesis is sorta the goddess of proportion and stuff..." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chiron lifting the conch to his lips and Sara preparing for another question.
Chiron blew the conch. Saved! Viv lifted her sword and braced herself for the impact of the blues. Sara shrieked and ran to the relative safety of her brothers and sisters.
Block, strike, parry, prise de fer, parry, double feint, strike, disengage, twist...Viv's opponent's sword clattered to the ground and she smacked him in the head with her pommel. She looked around. Jacob was fighting an Athena girl and losing. Viv crept up behind her. The Athena girl saw, and tried to retreat, but she fell with a swift blow to the temple.
"You've neglected training haven't you?" she snorted, annoyed that her brother had allowed himself to fall in his skill.
"Hey, I don't have a dad who can afford to give me sabre lessons every week." Jacob replied before running off to go and defend against some other blue-teamers. Viv was about to do likewise when she saw a small party from the Hermes and Hecate cabins sneak back to their side. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw some red fabric being carried away. The Flag! Viv raced after them, keeping her sword in the en guarde position.
Nathan stood at his post, bored out of his mind. Sure, the work was taxing, and it got harder and harder the further the distance, but thankfully the Hecate and Hermes kids were returning, so it was getting easier. Eliza was about five metres behind him, doing the same thing he was. It would have been a lot easier if the other three in his cabin were there, but they were AWOL. Then suddenly, his luck was cut off.
"What the Hades?" Nathan unsheathed his hastily chosen sword from his side. Ok now, they were definitely close by now... So whoever had stopped the decoy was near by too.
Suddenly, Viv broke from the shadows of the trees.
"You DID NOT seriously try and luck that DECOY!" Vivian was rushing towards him. For one who claimed to be above such games, Viv took them way too seriously. Ok, according to the Athena kids he was supposed to stand his ground and keep all intruders from coming closer in. That should be easy.
He willed for Viv to trip on some roots but... nothing. Oh. Crap. Ok. No skill with the sword. No luck working. Time to get backup.
"Get up Eliza, find some freaking backup!" His sister nodded before taking off to try and find some other defenders. When she was gone he turned again to his attacker. "Viv, why do you have to neutralise my luck?"
"It's my duty." she smirked, before proceeding to beat him up.
Nathan woke up in the infirmary with a huge headache. Ow ow ow ow... It felt like a gang of dwarves was tunneling through his skull using some very blunt pickaxes.
What had happened?... Oh right. He remembered. Viv had happened. Ugh. Did she have to knock him out? A vague recollection of their taxi trip floated into his brain. "What? I didn't take away your precious law books." Bloody Nemesis and their bloody revenge. He groaned into his pillow. The dwarves had started tunneling again.
A rustle sounded over to his right. "So, Sleeping Ugly awakes, huh?"
Nathan groaned again. "Go away, Gel."
The speaker was a daughter of Nyx called Angeline Lim, whose tongue was sharper than any sword in the armoury. Unless, of course, you were her friend, and then she'd only be sharper than mostswords in the armoury. "Glad to know you love me so much. Oh, by the way, there's some ambrosia on your bedside table."
Nathan reached up and shoved it into his mouth. Mmmm. It tasted like his dad's homemade pepperoni pizza. He could feel the painful lump on his head fading away.
"Tell me when you've finished your private moment with the ambrosia, will you?" drawled Angeline.
Nathan licked his lips, expecting them to be covered in pizza sauce. "All done. So what brings you here?"
"Doing what I'm meant to do." The lights in the room flickered then brightened again. She winced. "You know, Instant Peruvian Darkness in demigod form."
"But why in the infirmary?" Using his elbows Nathan sat up on the bed a little more. His vision swum for a moment before the ambrosia kicked in. "Ah... Much better... Less dwarves..." Angeline gave him a strange look until she attributed the phrase to his general character.
"Just because I can really. I mean, I kind of feel responsible for your situation, being on the blue-team and for being shut up in the infirmary with most of the Aphrodite-spawn." Nathan looked around him to find that she was indeed, correct. "Also because I tried to keep the darkness on for a bit too long." She winced and patted her abdomen.
So thatwas why it seemed a bit dark...
"Ah, so you wanted to ruin all the fun I would have with all the ladies..."
Angeline rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, Nathan."
"You're the second person who's told me that today. Plus, I'm very lucky with the ladies." He waggled his eyebrows accordingly.
"Pfft, yeah right. I happen to know that your sister scares away all your dates. She believes that using your demigod powers to attract mortals is unmoral or something like that." Angeline watched with interest as Nathan coloured a bright cherry red before turning away.
"Shuddup Nyx-chick."
"You brought it up oar-boy."
"Ah, a feud. How interesting." The air around him seemed to drop to some degree as the new voice entered the conversation. Slowly Nathan turned around to find that it was in fact, Viv, the one who got him in here in the first place.
"So did the decoy work?" Viv's eyes narrowed. Crap. He had to get a filter on this head-mouth thing.
"Not really, red team won." Viv handed Nathan a keychain, one he hadn't seen before. "You got a delivery, and for some reason I was chosen to be the most trustworthy to give it to you, or something." It was a mini Magic-8Ball attached to a keychain. A little note covered in plastic hung next to it.
"Um... thanks?"
Viv snorted "It's not from me. It's from your mom. It arrived at the Big House after I handed your ass to you in capture the flag. Chiron gave it to me afterwards, seeing as I was kind of responsible for you being unable to get it yourself."
"Just kind of?" he snorted, but he wasn't interested in her reply. Instead, he read the note, handily in Ancient Greek.
Dear Nathan,
Shake three times and say 'Weapon' for turning on and off. Don't shake it too much.
- Tyche.
Nathan shrugged his shoulders, trying to act nonchalant even though inside he was bursting with joy. A gift from his mom! He shook the ball three times and said, "Weapon." The little white shape inside turned. He had just enough time to see it said 'knife' when, it turned into a knife, made of celestial bronze. Everyone was silent for a second.
"That is pretty cool." said Angeline, "Can it turn into a mace?" The mace had, after many, many years of experimentation been discovered to be the weapon she had the most skill in, mostly because she liked smashing stuff to little bits. Little, tiny bits.
"I have no idea." Nathan shook the knife three times and said "Weapon." The knife changed back into its keychain form again. "Thanks Mom."
All was quiet again until Viv sighed.
"Well, I suppose I should go back and continue reading my law book. Delivering this to you has taken a lot of my time you know. You now owe me approximately," she glanced at her watch, "10 minutes of your time to deliver something for me."
Nathan meekly nodded his head. He had found out long ago how adept she was at keeping her promises. Viv turned on her heel and left, leaving Angeline, himself, and several unconscious Aphrodite girls alone in the infirmary.
Thanks for reading! Please review!
