Chapter 1: The Note
Ben, after a long day of training, was looking forward to resting for the night. He walked into the cabin grounds, into Cabin Three: Poseidon's Cabin. The sea breeze that seemed to always blow inside instantly calmed him down, until he saw something on his bed that looked like it was folded up. Curious, he opened it up and read the note written on it. And reread it, confused. After the third time, he decided to talk to Percy about it.
Ben found Percy hanging around the beach, staring at the night sky. He plopped down beside his half-brother, tossing the note into his lap.
"What's this?" Percy asked, picking up the note.
"Found it on my bunk," Ben replied. "I really don't like the sound of it."
Percy began reading the note aloud:
Sea spawns and Dad's other kid,
I'll keep it simple; last nights meeting was about which of you is the strongest.
As such, us gods had to chose sides. Barnacle Beard, Dionysus, and Hades stayed out, but the rest of us are split: Hestia, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, Hera, and the wife are for Jackson; Zeus and myself are for Jason; and Hephaestus and Demeter are for Steam Head. Now, the only way to settle this is for you to fight. Friday. Noon. Or be turned into rat dogs for the wife.
~Ares, God of War
"Beautiful, eh?" Ben sarcastically remarked.
"You're telling me," Percy said. "We better tell Jason."
They found Jason hanging out with Piper in Cabin One, though Ben thought there was a rule against it. They told him about the note and the fight set for Friday. Jason seemed to take it rather well until the forced fight was brought up.
"Well that's a bummer," Jason noted. "I mean, Percy and I almost killed each other in Kansas last summer, and you, Ben, knocked me out your first week here."
"Well, heck if I knew what I was doing," Ben retaliated.
"Either way, we have to do this," Percy said. "Personally, I don't want to be Aphrodite's pet. Annabeth will kill me."
Piper shook her head. "I don't like this." She pulled out her knife and looked into it. Ben always thought Katoptris was pretty cool. He changed his mind when he saw Piper's eyes grow wide as she threw her knife across the cabin. "I really don't like this."
"What's wrong?" Jason asked as he put her arms around her. "What did you see?"
"A big explosion of power, a smoke trail from Ben, you and Percy on the ground…" Everyone took a collective gulp. Ben was pretty sure that meant they were dead. He shook the thought out of his head.
"That's cool," he said, attempting to lighten the mood. "I didn't want to sleep tonight anyways." That got Percy to laugh, Jason and Piper to smile. He said goodnight to them and headed for his cabin to sleep.
