SHIFT Chapter 1: The man,hour and table, a percy jackson and the olympians fanfic

Oh wow re-reading this its amazing how many errors you spot.

Greetings Half-Bloods! Since I have decided to reactivate this (Thank you Microzombie) I deleted the old one went through, made some drastic changes to the old draft and now its back and far better. I also haven't listed it as a crossover this time because there will be FAR TOO MANY to just list it as one.

Chapter 1: The man, the hour. And the table

You know, I've built a lot of sweet stuff in my time. I've built things that have changed the world, saved friends and loved ones and in some cases created some friends and loved ones. Not wishing to brag but for a hombre like me who always had trouble finding anything to be proud of, anything to help me find a place, it's quite an accomplishment. A few years ago if you had told me that this little Latino could have repaired and befriended a giant bronze dragon, built a magical warship for the greatest quest in history or unravelled the long lost secrets of Archimedes I would have thought you completely loco. That's what happened and look at me now still alive, still creating and hooked up to the hottest immortal girl ever to be saved from imprisonment.

But hey, I'm wandering a little here. I'm sure you could listen all day to the details of my amazingly weird life and trust me I would love to tell you them all but let's get back to the real reason for this story. It's about the mountain I built. Not a real one obviously though technically it was such a monumental development that it might as well have been. The most amazing piece of kit ever created. Something to completely change demigod life and bring Ancient Greece into the modern world, or bring the modern world into Ancient Greece depending on how you look at it. At least that's what it was supposed to be. In fact it was dangerous and terrifying and could have resulted in the deaths of the greatest heroes for millennia, myself not included. It certainly changed the lives of my friends, though not in the spectacular way I had hoped. I mean seriously? I don't care what happened in there no one should just gain an extra foot in height and be able to pick up . . . umm, sorry.

I'll start at the beginning. It was the middle of summer session at Camp Half-Blood and I had been up for two nights solid working on my latest project. I was excited because it was the first one which I had actually received licence from my dad to develop for him. Anyway I'd just put the finishing touches to it and plugged it in when I heard the conch shell for dinner. You may wonder how I could hear it from bunker nine but to tell the truth dinner is at the same time every night and I just set an alarm. I was having a mental fiesta at its completion, though honestly I hadn't held up much hope at first 'cause the first twelve times it had blown up and the other three the test objects had ended up as so much radioactive slop. Now though it worked. Yes it needed some tweaks before it could hit the Olympian entertainment market but it worked!

I stumbled into the dining pavilion that evening with two thoughts on my mind.
The first was Tacos and the second was Holy Hephaestus I did it! My hermanos could see I was excited because before I even made it to the table they called out to me and asked what was up.
"Oh man" I said sliding into the line just as we began to get dinner "you'll see but you're gonna have to wait just a little longer"
"Oh come on Leo" Harley groaned as I walked back past him to drop a fajita into the fire for dad. "You're so secretive with all your projects and the last one just turned out to be a toothbrush!"
"Hey!" I said hurt "how many toothbrushes have you had that could tell you the exact percentage of plaque on your teeth and how bad your breath smells?"
"Oh yeah and that did you a lot of good didn't it?" he scoffed.
"Umm which one of has a girlfriend?" he didn't answer. "And which one of us didn't get that kiss at the dance because his breath smelled of Big Mac?" It was a mean thing to do but if there one thing I hate more than care homes its people mocking my inventions.

Dinner came and went in a flash. I inhaled my Tacos and didn't say much. Especially when people asked me about what I'd been doing for the past month. There were only a few people I wanted to share this with right now and until the campfire started I couldn't talk to them. After Chiron dismissed us from the pavilion I bolted outside to wait for my friends. I couldn't have stood there for more than a minute but even that felt like a year. Jason and Piper came out of the pavilion talking and laughing together in that corny romantic movie way they always seemed to be when I saw them.
"Yo, love birds" I called gesturing towards them "get your butts over here. I've got something big to tell you."
They walked up to me, in no particular hurry, which gave me plenty of time to think about how weird it was to see Jason in an orange T-shirt rather than a purple one. At the end of the Giant war he opted to vacate his position of Praetor altogether and live year round at Camp Half-Blood with Piper. I didn't mind, I mean Jason was my bro we looked out for each other. But still I couldn't help feeling like he should have stayed at Camp Jupiter, he was Roman born and raised the barcode on his arm showed that true enough. He still called the Gods by their Roman names too, which made visits to Olympus difficult because every time he opened his mouth he gave them a splitting headache. See what I did there? Ah please yourselves.

Still if there was one person I'd want around it was Jason.
"Hey Leo what's up? Did your mechanical trousers steal your wallet again?"
Until he opens his mouth.
"Ha ha Jason." I said not amused in the slightest "no I actually wanted to ask if you two would like come by and see my latest project. Just finished it tonight and trust me it is awesome!"
Jason looked at me funny "is it likely to blow up?"
"NO! Well not much" I admitted sheepishly. Jason had been around for demonstrations of most of my stuff and he had seen stuff go wrong, badly.
"Aww come on Jason" Piper giggled next to him "Rumours are going round that it's going to change the way we train BIG TIME. This could be fun"
I didn't say anything when Jason looked back at me. That was one of the many rumours that had been going round but I'd done nothing to confirm or deny them. It was private and in all honesty if it worked then I was going to go private with it and modifying it for training purposes wouldn't be all that difficult.
"All right then sounds good" Jason concluded "when do you want us to…?"
"Friday evening" I said quickly because I'd just spotted the other people I wanted to see. I took off in their direction. "Oh by the way see if Thalia wants to come. This could be good for the hunters too" I called over my shoulder.
"OK" Jason yelled back.

I reached Percy and Annabeth as they were about to approached the amphitheatre. They were deep in discussion about tactics for the war games when they got home. Again it took me a few seconds to get round their clothes, or more specifically their cloaks. Praetors the pair of them, they'd moved to Camp Jupiter at the end of the giant war to attend college together and in that time they'd become head honchos, bought a house and were now engaged.
"Excuse me Sir, Ma'am?" I joked jogging up next to them and giving a mock Roman salute.
"Hey Leo what's up?" Percy asked.
"Well I know you're here on your annual 'True Home' visit and all but I was wondering if Friday night you two want to come take part in a demo of my new project?"
Annabeth of course said yes. Being the daughter of the wisdom goddess she was one of the only people outside my own cabin who understood when I explained how my stuff actually worked. Percy always had time for me. I'd never felt the same connexion with him as I had with Jason but he was still a great friend and a true leader.
"I'll see you Friday then. Also could you see if Hazel and Frank would be interested? We could do like some re-union thing you know? Jason and Piper have already said they're coming"
"I'm sure they'd love to" Annabeth said "See you there". They were back to strategy before they were even out of earshot.

This is gonna be awesome! I thought as I took my place with my siblings on the amphitheatre. If I had known how wrong I was at that moment I would have swallowed a litre of battery acid right there.

Friday; Demo day

Friday morning came and I was up before dawn making final adjustments to my project of awesomeness. I was in the bunker for an hour before Calypso bustled past claiming the noise was intolerable and she was going to do some gardening until I'd finished fiddling with my 'new toy' as she was calling it. At nine o'clock I headed into camp for breakfast and the day's activities; archery, forging, sword fighting practice, arts and crafts with molten steel and canoeing but my mind wasn't on any of them. I couldn't really focus until dinner when it wouldn't be long before my friends would come see my work in all its techy glory.

As it turned out I was in for a surprise that night.
As the campfire came to a close and everyone got up to leave Chiron approached me "Leo my lad. Percy tells me you just recently finished your project and intended to demonstrate it this evening."
"Yeah that's right. I don't suppose you'd wanna come watch as well would you?"
Chiron smiled "As a matter of fact I was just about to ask if I might be allowed to attend."
"Sure" I said delighted that even the camp director had taken an interest in my work "I'm just heading to the bunker now if you want to come with me."

When we arrived several people were already there. Annabeth and Percy were waiting and so was Thalia daughter of Zeus and Lieutenant of Artemis. She was difficult to miss, dark makeup, black leather, silver camo, glowing skin. I'd had a major crush on her once for about five minutes when we met her for the first time, fighting some were-wolf dudes beneath the fortress of wind or whatever it was. Then she'd rejected me and I'd moved on. I did that a lot, then I met Calypso. Speaking of which she was there too talking to Annabeth who crouched next to her as she tended her Moonlace.
"Hey guys" I yelled as I got closer "I'll get us inside, it's cold out here. We'll wait for the others in the hangar."
I moved past them and ignited a fire in my hand pressing it against a recess in the limestone. As always the fire spread across the cliff face then the huge doors swung open silently and I led them inside. The doors began to swing shut behind us but I pressed a button and stopped it short just before it closed entirely leaving enough room for a couple of people to squeeze through.

"Make yourselves at home guys as soon as the others are here I'll show you Mount Vedie"
"Mount what?" Annabeth looked up from the work bench where she was examining one of the many blueprints I'd left lying around.
"All in good time my dear praetor. Anyone want a coke?" I moved to the fridge I had installed against the hangar wall and pulled out a couple of six packs. I set them on the nearby counter and closed it again, popping the top on one and taking a swig.
"Got any cherry ones?" Percy asked.
"Sure" I tossed him one "Anyone else?"
I nearly crapped myself when a cold quiet voice spoke next to me "I'll have one"
"MADRE DI DIOS!" I feel backwards landing on my rear the coke can flew from my hand to sail through the air and whack me on the head. I looked around for the speaker but there was no-one new in the hangar.
Then Nico Di Angelo stepped from the deep shadows in the bunker wall, he chuckled coldly "sorry didn't mean to startle you" everyone began laughing.
"Nico" I said angrily rubbing my head and my rear, both hurt, "Don't do that you could give a guy a heart attack".
Percy stopped laughing long enough to speak "what's happening Nico? I wondered if you'd show up."
"Yes well I would have missed it but I overheard gossip from the Hephaestus campers about Leo being hyper more hyper than usual. I saw him head this way with Chiron and curiosity got the better of me so I invited myself." He looked at me as he said that last bit and I got the feeling he wasn't thrilled about not being told.

"I didn't invite you because I couldn't find you" I said defensively "you're hardly ever at camp and when you are you're never anywhere to be found!"
The other reason was that he still creeped me out big time but I didn't say that out loud. He took a can of Coke zero and sat against one wall watching us all quietly. Eventually Jason and Piper arrived with Hazel and Frank in tow.
"Evening all" Hazel said in her heavy New Orleans accent "it's been too long." Annabeth leaped up from the couch where she and Percy had been chilling and hugged her. Nico usually did his best to avoid physical contact with anyone but he went up and hugged his half-sister tightly as well. He acted so strange it was easy for me to forget that he was the youngest person there.
"What's up?" Frank said giving Percy, Jason and me a fist bump.
Chiron who had been in deep conversation with Thalia since they had arrived turned to me. "Well, now that we're all here it seems your moment has come Leo my boy."
"Right. Follow us" I suddenly felt nervous. I took Calypso's hand and together we led them to a lift. We shot up to the upper catwalk and made our way deeper into the facility.
"You've been doing some digging" hazel observed as we walked past some of the open tunnels.
"Yeah" I answered "some of them lead to empty caves but some of them had rooms in them" I pointed to an open tunnel leading off of the catwalk on the other side of the hangar. "That leads to some command centre or other" I pointed to another well-lit one "and that one leads to the archives"
"Archives?" Annabeth asked, interested.
"Yeah all the blueprint's, manuals, scrolls and stuff are in there."
"Oh you'll have to show me later" typical Annabeth if there's books she's happy.

Finally we came to a tunnel near the rear of the hanger, blocked by a heavy steel door and retinal scanner. Call me paranoid but there are still far too many people who would do the wrong kind of things with my stuff. We all halted by the door and I couldn't help it; I had to go for a bit of cinematic drama. The occasion demanded it and the opportunity couldn't be ignored. I let go of Calypso's hand to use the scanner.
"Ladies and gentlemen" I announced as it scanned my eye "welcome too . . ."
Pause for effect. The door swung open "Mount Vedie!"

The response was exactly the one I had hoped for; a long awed intake of breath.
"Welcome to the modern world. Whoa, mind the cables as you step in" I warned them stepping over a length of cable that was as thick as my torso. The chamber was a round room 50 feet high and riddled with a mass of wires, monitors, drives and celestial bronze. On a raised catwalk stood the control panel and beyond that with wires flowing from its belly and out of its top was the core of VEDIE.
"By all the gods" Annabeth exclaimed scaling the steps to the suspended platform "What is this?"
I could see on the faces of all that they wanted an explanation but there was work for me to do so I said "Calypso why don't you lay it out for them while I take care of the setup?"
She looked at me, irritated for a moment then turned to the assembled group. Slowly and clearly as though she was a tour guide at a museum she began to explain. I should have devoted all my attention to what I was doing but I couldn't help listening to her musical voice as she spoke.
"MT VEDIE stands for Magic and Technology, Virtual Environment Digital Imagination Engine. A unique fusion of modern mortal electronics, Hephaestus grade engineering and a touch of enchantment this machine can take any digitally programmed environment, modify it, give it life and then allow you to interface with it in full sensory simulation. We developed it under licence from Hephaestus, it could revolutionise not only the entertainment industry but also education and hero training. You are the first people other than us to see it."

When she finished the only sound was made by me as I madly scrambled around doing some last minute wiring. Curious I glanced over the edge to look. Chiron and Annabeth seemed to have understood they nodded slowly whispering and pointing to various pieces of the machine as if theorising how each component worked. Thalia looked thoughtful, Nico looked detached so as ever I had no idea what the guy was thinking and Frank, Hazel and Piper were now talking to calypso about what I had no idea. Jason and Percy though being "average teenage males" when it came to technical stuff looked at each other, then Percy asked no-one in particular "So it's like the matrix then?"
I burst out laughing, everyone turned to look at me "yeah dude except you don't get used as the batteries". Looking around to make sure there was nothing else left to do I said "Ok if you make your way onto the central platform I can show you where the magic happens."
Chiron looked dubious "those steep steel stairs may prove troublesome for my hooves".
"Way ahead of ya old timer" I called and lowered a pneumatic lift, he stepped onto it, Calypso followed and I brought them up to join me in the control booth.

The others stood on the large circular platform the other side of the glass screen. I pulled the central lever on the console and VEDIE sprang to life with a hum of electronics and the grinding of bronze gears. Lights flickered on across the various consoles.
"Ok" I said into the mike, my voice blasting around the chamber "Who wants to go first?"
Annabeth immediately yelled "YES!" after a few moments I heard seven more consents, first Percy then the rest followed more slowly. I punched in eight players, which was good because that was the maximum I could, and the centre of the platform spiralled open. From the core of the machine rose eight interface pods slotting into place with mechanical thunks. They swung open releasing their pressure seals with a hiss.
I grinned to myself but Percy began poking fun "seriously dude? Next thing Mr spock is going to turn up!" I did my best to ignore him.
"If you would care to leave all personal electronic devices, snacks and beverages in the care of my good friend Beaufort" on cue the flying table helicoptered onto the platform and landed next to Nico "We can begin."

I watched Annabeth take out the phone she wasn't supposed to have and put it on the table, Hazel took out what looked to be an e-book device and Nico went ahead and piled an electronics store on the table. I was a bit more than surprised to see him take out a phone, a black ipod, a charger, a camera and an old portable games console and stack them on the table.
"Dude how are you still alive?" I asked examining the stuff Beaufort brought me as I put it in a security box under the control console.
"I guess monsters don't like the taste of the dead very much" He mused.
oookay I thought not an entirely unexpected answer coming from that guy.

Beaufort hovered back over and Jason, Piper, Percy and Nico placed their now empty coke cans on him. Then all eight of them approached the pods.
"Biometric encoder ready" I told them checking my screens "go ahead and place your thumb on the panel next to your pod." They all did so and the action was quickly followed by eight simultaneous involuntary flinches as the pods pricked them to sample their DNA. Again I had to try not to laugh as several of them glared at me.
"What?" I asked around my smile "now you can be encoded. Go ahead and climb in."
Frank hesitated "is this safe? I've seen the matrix and I don't fancy dying of cardiac arrest if I catch a bullet or something."
I was getting impatient, the suspense was killing me "no its fine. I've tested it myself died no less than forty seven times and I'm still alive and kicking. And I'm going to be over there kicking your fat ass Zhang if you don't get in that pod!"
"Fine" he grunted squeezing into a pod that was barley big enough for his bulky frame.

Here we go.
I flicked the switch locking them all into the same digital vector. One world for all of them would be quite enough for a first run. Minecraft should be safe enough as long as I loaded it on peaceful mode though the blocky nature of it might be a little weird for their first time.
"Ok" I announced into the mike "We are locked and ready to sync. Prepare for the weirdest experience of your life."
I pushed the button. Gears whirred and VEDIE's electro-magical core began to pulse brightly. A progress bar appeared on my screen:

NERUAL LINKS DETECTED,
IMPULSE READERS AT 100% AND HOLDING

ESTABLISHING VEDIE LIVE CONNECTION 10%, 15%, 20%

Chiron and Calypso were watching me intently, so it wasn't until I looked up that anyone noticed Beaufort still sitting on the central platform.
"HEY BEUFORT" I shouted "YOU'LL THROW OFF THE CALIBRATION!"
I shouldn't have said anything. And I don't mean that in a mild regret at being angry kind of way. I really wish I'd just left him there. Beaufort heard me and scrambled off the platform. Unfortunately as he did so he lost some of the empty cans . . . and one of them wasn't that empty.

Just my luck, building the greatest games console ever what to I forget? Basic insulation. Every component that might allow a signal to escape and attract monsters was shielded with celestial bronze. Unfortunately it didn't protect against diet coke. I should have killed the power but that would probably have killed all eight of my friends. As the coke spilled on the unprotected workings a surge shot up into the control panel.
"Hijo de Puta!" I swore as sparks erupted from my console and a seriously emphatic message appeared on screen:

SURGE PROTECTOR OVERLOAD
CATASTROPHIC ERROR
SUGGESTED COURSE OF ACTION: PRAY

At that moment I hated my own sense of humour. Seconds later eight agonised screams erupted from the pods.
"Valdez" Chiron gripped my shoulder so hard it bruised; he wasn't bothering to hide his fear "Get them out of there now!"
I desperately hit everything on the control panel trying to elicit some response.
"Nothing's working" I cried desperately. I turned to Calypso hoping for a calming influence to help me think. She wasn't there. "Calypso?" She had vaulted the railings and was trying to pull the plug on the system but the moment she grabbed the wire a blast of electricity threw her backward.
"Calypso!" I cried but I couldn't move, I had to stop eight deaths and I was running out of time!

Then just as quickly as it had come it died. The only noise was the gentle beep of the any still functional electrical equipment and the fizzle of sparks from the wrecked console. On the network overview console, this was on a separate connection and luckily hadn't fried, another message flashed up. One that I had certainly never programmed into the system:

DLC INSTALLATION COMPLETE,
LOADING IN PROGRESS PLEASE WAIT . . .

DLC I thought, confused. Downloadable content?

Calypso, the ends of her hair singed and smoking had picked herself up from the floor and shakily moved over to the pods.
She glanced in each one then said "I do not think they are dead" I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank the Gods" Chiron breathed.
"They're gone"
"WHAT?!" exclaimed the old centaur.
"The pods are all empty" Calypso told him quietly afraid of the anger in his eyes. He turned to stare down at me and I could feel his eyes boring into me. A cold feeling spread along the length of my spine but all I could do was stare at the message on the screen.
I flinched when he spoke "What has happened Leo?"
I couldn't say anything DLC I kept thinking that's impossible.
"VALDEZ!" Chiron snapped.
"I don't know" I told him "Let me see if I can . . ."
Then message changed:

LOADING COMPLETE,
SCANNING FOR HALF-BLOOD BIOMETRICS . . .

But if the pods are empty then . . . ?
The giant monitor the wall behind us lit up and eight picture-in-picture windows divided it up. Seven were black except for the words SIGNAL DETECTED, STANDING BY on them but the first window in the top left screen said SESSION IN PROGRESS. DO YOU WISH TO SPECTATE?
"Leo" Chiron said not taking his eyes from the monitor. "I pray that doesn't mean what I think it does."
So do I.
Hesitantly I hit yes on my console. The window enlarged to fill the screen and images began to appear.
"Chiron you can stop praying now. It didn't work."