"Percy!" Called another camper he didn't know. It was the last day before the game of Capture the Flag. Only this time, Chiron had made a few adjustments to the rules. Each cabin has its' own flag. They have to work as a team to get the other cabins' flags. The cabin to have captured ALL of the flags win. You cannot capture others' flags if you do not have your own flag. Cabins with only one member – meaning only Percy and Nico, who had gotten permission to stay in Artemis' cabin when he's at camp – can team up with one other cabin.

So, naturally, he had absolutely everyone after him.

This time, it was a young boy, about the age of thirteen. He had been at camp only one year, judging by the single bead on his necklace. He was carrying some sort of staff. It was tall, about Percy's height. Starting at the bottom of the staff, there was a sort of winding vine that went all the way up the soft blue staff, little swirls coming off of it at random intervals. At the top of the staff was a highly polished sea-blue orb resting in a nest of large, multicolored scales.

"You're Percy, right?" The kid said, trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah." He responded, sure that whatever cabin this kid was from was the one trying to recruit him this time.

"Hephaestus cabin. We found this in our cabin earlier. It belongs to Poseidon." he looked to where the kid was touching the staff, and it seemed to be zapping him.

"How do you know it's Poseidon's?" He asked, thrown off guard. It was the first time someone offered him a gift to join them in Capture the Flag.

"As soon as someone touched it, the glass of water that Damien was holding literally exploded! The water then made its way over the floor and into the staff. They told me to bring it to you."

"Thank you." He took the staff from the boy's hands, a little wary of the burn marks on his left hand. "So, is this a little gift to make me join Hephaestus cabin in Capture the Flag?"

"They didn't tell me as such, no. But it would be nice if you were to help!" He smiled at Percy.

He thought about it. Annabeth and Athena cabin would need him, probably, and Annabeth herself would kill him if he went to a team other than hers…

But, on the other hand…

He had the curse of Achilles. Only Annabeth can hurt him at all, and she wouldn't.

"Oh, all right. Tell the Hephaestus cabin leader – who is it now, Sam? – that I'll join them for capture the flag."

The kid did a small fist-pump before running over to his cabin.

About three feet infront of him, Annabeth took off her invisibility cap. "You have to be kidding me! After a week of begging and begging,"

"More like threatening." he muttered.

"You decided to join the Hephaestus cabin!?"

"They gave me a cool staff." he said, motioning to the long stick that he just realized had started glowing.

"I hope you can enjoy death, Percy! Did you know that the winners didn't have to do any chores for a month? And that the other campers have to take up their chores? I bet you didn't know that!"

"If I die, that means I can hang out with Nico for eternity, right?"

"You're unbelievable!" She said, storming off.

Needless to say, Annabeth ignored him for the rest of the day. Nico, too, joined the Hephaestus cabin, and they won, much to Annabeth's anger, as Athena's cabin were the first cabin to lose their flag.

Later that night, as the campfire was battling itself for the mood of the campers, something odd happened. And when I say odd, I mean that Percy was sitting the closest to the flames, and a hand came reaching out of the flames and grabbed his shirt.

The last thing he heard from Camp Half-Blood was Annabeth, who was sitting next to me, yell my name.

He didn't get burnt or anything, nor did I die, but he was spit out of another campfire. He didn't know a lot of things right then. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know how exactly he got there, he didn't know who grabbed him, and he didn't know how he was going to get back.

There were four houses around where he was. One was immediately behind him, looking over a large ocean, with stairs leading up to the beach house. The second was a small walk to the left of that. The third was in front of where the camp fire was, a little to the left, and looked run-down. There was a sign above the door, but he couldn't read it from his location. The fourth was across from the second house, much further, and much smaller than the others.

He carefully made his way over to the ocean and touched it. It was much too warm to be a true ocean. The staff had landed with him, even though he wasn't touching it when he was tossed. He checked his pocket for Riptide, and, sure enough, it was sitting right there like it was supposed to. He walked over and picked up the staff, then poked the ocean with it. The staff glowed an odd blue, the winding trail along the staff slowly filling with some sort of dark blue color that contrasted with the lighter blue color of the staff.

Then it hit him – This staff stored water to be used. So long as this staff had water stored, he could pull from it and use the water.

Smiling like a madman, he pulled the staff from the water when it was roughly half filled, and looked around at the seemingly-empty houses. It took him a minute, but he finally came to the decision to go and check the third house.