Blue Lightning

Chapter one: Five Years of Napping Can Throw Anyone Off

"Happy Birthday, Logan!" My mom greeted as I came downstairs. Even though it was six in the morning, I was wide awake. My fifteenth birthday was here. Soon, my mom promised to take me to get my learner's permit at the DMV. When I entered the kitchen, my mom was holding a box wrapped in gift-wrap.

"Thanks, mom!" I said happily as I received the box. I savagely tore open the box and held up what was inside. It was a brown leather jacket. I grinned brightly. I felt happiness well up inside me. I tried it on and I was pleased it fit perfectly. My mom smiled too, but it was that sad smile she always got when she remembered my dad.

"You look so much like your father," she said wistfully. My smiled faded. I always wondered who my dad was, but he left my mom before I was born. She always said that he had so much responsibilities to deal with that he couldn't be around. I hugged my mom and went back upstairs to get ready for school. I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I looked in the mirror, for a moment I saw an older man with black hair and electric blue eyes like mine. Really, the only difference between us was age and the beard he had going. When I blinked, the image was gone and I saw my usual self. I shook my head and kept brushing my teeth. I knew that didn't just happen. After I was done washing up, I threw on a black shirt and jeans. I decided I would wear my new jacket, though I feared it would be ruined while I was at school.

I came back downstairs to see my mom had already left for work. She had to work two jobs to support us. We lived in a small house in the middle of the country of Tennessee. I don't know how we wound up here, though my mom told me my dad said it would be safer for us here. I had no idea what he meant and I still don't. I quickly ate some toast and walked out the door. Summit High School, the school that I go to, isn't too far from my house so I walk there every school day. I used to walk to school with my friend, Thomas, but he moved in the middle of the year. I used to write him a lot after, but recently he seemed to have dropped from the face of the earth. He never answered any of my letters or phone calls anymore. After about a ten minute walk, I finally reached my school. For some reason, I had the feeling I wouldn't be coming back.

"'Sup, loser," Butch said as he pushed me into the lockers. I sighed and opened my locker to find a really unorganized bunch of junk. I took out my Algebra text book. Math isn't my strongest subject. Heck, nothing was. My ADHD and dyslexia make sure I have a rough time trying to learn. I still manage to pull off B's and C's. Maybe even the occasional A, but not very likely. My mom says that I'm doing the best I can and it's true. She is always so understanding and she never once raised her voice at me. Even when I somehow electrocuted a bully in second grade. I closed the door to my locker. I ducked down to put my textbook in my backpack. Just in time too, a spit ball flew over my head and hit my locker's door. I heard laughter behind me and knew it was Butch and his gang. You see, Butch is not the sharpest knife in the shed. He got even worse grades than I did. What he had going for him was that he had a gang to help him pick on helpless kids. A spit ball hit me in the back of the head. I took it out of my hair and counted to ten. One... another spit ball hit me in the cheek. Two, three, four, five... Two more spitballs hit me. I flicked them away and picked up my backpack. Some of the kids around me backed up. Like somehow they knew I was getting angry. One more spitball zoomed past my head. I threw my backpack to the ground and turned to Butch.

"Shoot one more spitball at me, I dare you," I said softly. Butch hesitated a moment, then put the straw to his mouth. Before he could shoot another wad of chewed paper, I charged at him and tackled him to the ground. Now this might seem a bit harsh. He only shot a few spitballs at me right? Wrong. He had terrorized me the whole year. Insults, tripping me in the halls, picking on my friend Thomas, he even had his gang mug me for my lunch money. So all that pent up rage went right into his face each time I punched him. From the reflection on the floor, I could see arcs of electricity spark across my skin and through my hair. I grabbed onto both his shoulders. He seemed to size up and shake violently. His hair suddenly shot up like he was a hedgehog or something. I shook my fists and got up. Those punches I threw actually hurt me too. I stepped back when I realized what I had done. I had just beat a kid senseless in front of like a hundred other kids. A teacher charged over and when he saw the scene, a flicker of a smile played over his face for a second then he scowled.

"Come with me, mister," The teacher said and grabbed my arm. His grip was like iron. I couldn't free myself if I wanted, but I had no motivation to. When my mom heard about this... I didn't want to think about it. I then regarded the teacher who was almost dragging me through the hallway. He was really short, I was about as tall as he was. He had a wispy beard and he walked with a limp. There was also a baseball cap on his head. He dragged me into his classroom and locked the door.

"Do you know what you've done?" the teacher scolded as he paced to his desk.

"Nearly kill a kid?" I asked. The teacher gave me a long glare and sat at his desk. He opened the window to let the autumn sunlight in. He then brought out a strange looking device and turned it on. Almost immediately, a stream of water shot out of it and made a rainbow with the sunlight. The teacher took out a gold coin and flicked it into the rainbow. Instead of going right through, it disappeared. "Did it just-"

"Quiet!" the teacher interrupted me. I looked on his desk to find out his name was Mr. Locrus. "Chiron. Camp-Half Blood," Mr. Locrus commanded. I thought he was crazy, until the rainbow shivered and it showed a man in a wheelchair reading a book. The building he was in seemed homely, yet creepy at the same time. "Chiron," Mr. Locrus said. The man in the wheelchair jumped and looked at us.

"Ah, Locrus, how goes the search?" The man, I assumed was Chiron, asked. Mr. Locrus jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at me.

"Found one, sir. Very powerful," Mr. Locrus said. Chiron nodded, but before he could say anything, a loud knock came from the door like someone was trying to break it down. Mr. Locrus stood up and picked up a baseball bat. He turned toward me and whispered, "Go to New York and find Camp- Half Blood. You'll be safe there. If I don't catch up, don't wait for me," I just absently nodded. I had no clue what was happening. Mr. Locrus took off his shoes and to my surprise, he had hooves. He also took off his hat and revealed horns. He walked out the door and almost immediately I heard arguing. Then a bleat like a goat was out there and then fighting. I looked around for an exit. I saw a window that I could fit right through. I quickly walked over and broke right through the glass with my foot. I slid through, cutting my hand painfully on the broken glass and started running. I didn't know where I was going, but I just ran.

Soon, I made it back to my house almost subconsciously. The door slammed open as I walk through. "Mom!" I called into the empty house. When there was no answer I went from room to room. There was no one in the house besides me. A thrill of fear ran through me as I ran up into my room. I quickly closed the door behind me and started packing my backpack. The only thought that ran through my mind was to get to this Camp Half-Blood. I would've missed the sword hilt on my bed if I hadn't sat on it when I took a small break. I quickly stood up and picked up the hilt. It glowed bronze in the sunlight that came through my window. The only mark on it was a carving of a lightning bolt. There wasn't even a sign where the blade had been. It seemed to calm me down to some extent, even though I could barely fight a mosquito with it. I pocketed it in my leather jacket's inner pocket and kept packing until my backpack was full of food, several water bottles, and a change of clothes. I called my mom's cell phone. No answer. I called my mom's work phone. No answer either. I called my mom's boss. He picked up. "Where's my mom?" I asked shakily.

"Oh no," my mom's boss said, "Uh... you might want to come down here yourself, kid..."

"She's dead, isn't she?" I asked, my voice hardening.

"It was a freak accident," my mom's boss said. I hung up after that and sat on my bed. Surprisingly, no tears came to my eyes. I felt only emptiness. Somehow, I knew all along this would happen. Thunder boomed in the distance, though the sky was clear of all clouds. I quickly shouldered my backpack and ran out the back door. As I walked around to the front of the house, I heard the door being ripped off the hinges and thrown to the ground. I waited a few seconds, then ran down the road, going north.

After several days of traveling, I just couldn't travel any further. I fell to my knees somewhere in a forest at who knows where. I hit the soft dirt with my fist and groaned. Everything seemed to hurt. All the cuts, bruises, and scrapes... I could feel them all. Suddenly, a bright light shined in front of me. It was like nothing I have ever seen. A woman stood in front of me. She seemed to have a certain glow about her that radiated energy. She had storm-gray eyes and long, brown hair. She was wearing what seemed to be business suit and spectacles. She held up an Ipad and was looking intently at it.

"Ah, Logan, son of Zeus himself," She said. I couldn't find anything to say, but my mouth was trying to work in words. "Don't strain yourself, demigod," the woman said as she looked at me with interest, "You are Olympus's most valuable... chess piece we could say. You are like the queen, get and powerful... yet have a great weakness. Arrogance,"

"So... you're calling me a girl?" I asked. Not the smartest thing I've ever said.

"You best be glad that I assume you are exhausted and can't think straight or I would take you to be a fool," the woman said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Who are you?" I asked, standing up.

"Athena, my champion," Athena said, "Now rest, you shall be unleashed at the proper time," Suddenly, the whole world seemed to flip and everything went dark.

A second later, my vision came back and I yelped like a surprised dog. Around me was what seemed to once be a camp, but it was all in ruin. Smoke billowed in the wind, the buildings were shattered, and all was silent. I noticed my exhaustion was gone and my strength returned. I didn't feel hungry or thirsty either. I hiked around the ruins in a stupor. What happened? How did I get here? Where am I? Those were a few of the many thought swirling around in my head. I soon sat down on a rock that was on the beach near the camp. I skipped flat stones over the water as I waited for something to happen. Soon, I heard the nervous bleat of what sounded like a goat over to my left and went to check it out. What I saw would get me put into the crazy house. I saw a guy getting chased by what seemed to be a cyclops. Except, the guy was only half a guy from the waist up. His bottom half was like that of a goat, hooves and all. He stumbled over something and fell to the ground. He looked up at the cyclops and bleated, "No, please!" That's when I stepped out.

"Hey, one eye!" I shouted and chucked a rock at hit. The rock hit it on the head and it turned to snarl at me. It didn't bother to say anything, but it charged right towards me. I jumped out of the way at the last second and the stupid thing hit a tree.

"Come here, little demigod! I just want to eat you!" the cyclops roared.

"Of course you do," I replied and let my instincts kick in. I quickly took out the sword hilt and held it up. Arcs of blue electricity dance around my hands. I imagined shooting a blast of the blue electricity into the hilt. It swirled around my hand for a second, then shot up into the hilt. It shuddered and suddenly, a blade quickly slide out of it. I stepped back in surprise. The cyclops charged at me again. I jumped to the left and swung my sword. It hit the cyclops in the chest. The cyclops instantly disintegrated on touch. I stood there stunned while the half goat and half man quickly got up. He looked at me like I was a ghost or some thing.

"You're- You're a hero," he stammered quietly.

"And you're... a satyr if I'm not mistaken," I said as the blade slid back into the hilt. I had recalled that word from my Greek mythology lessons from school. They were the only things that really interested me.

"I thought all the heroes were dead or gone! You're like a blessing!" The satyr ran around me and started to play horribly on his reed pipes.

"Dead or gone?" I asked as I stopped him by pulling him by his arm, "What do you mean? Just a few days ago, this other satyr I met told me to go to Camp Half-Blood to meet other heroes. What happened?"

"That's impossible," the satyr said, shocked, "This camp was wiped out five years ago along with all its heroes. You're the last one that I know of, other than those Hunters of Artemis, but they aren't doing so well themselves,"

I took a second to ingest what this creature told me, "What should I call you?" was all that I could manage to ask.

"Billy," The satyr said with a half smile. It took me a minute to get the joke.

"Oh, I see," I laughed, "Billy. Like how there are billy goats and you're half goat," The satyr frowned.

"No," he said, "That's what I was named,"

"Oh," I looked around, "So, if I understood correctly, this camp was wiped out five years ago? Then why did that other satyr say to come here?"

"What happened during your travels?" Billy asked, "Maybe we can find some explanation from what happened to you," I nodded and told Billy all that happened, even the thing with Athena. When I was done, Billy was shaking his head, "I see what she did. I wonder why she chose you,"

"She did say something about me being the son of Zeus," I explained. Billy's eyes widened and his face grew pale.

"No wonder," he said, then mumbled, "Athena, that's really cliche,"

"What do you mean?" I asked. Billy got up and started to pace back and forth.

"It all started with that son of Hades, Baron. He was shunned from the camp when he attacked another camper. He promised revenge. As you can see, he was serious," Billy explained.

"How could he do this?" I asked, "He is just one demigod,"

"He had a whole army of monsters and undead," Billy said, "It was a wonder we held out as long as we could..." Billy trailed off then got a smile on his face that I didn't like. It was the same face my friend Brandon would get when he had an idea for a prank. Billy turned to me, "Help me clean up this camp. It's about time you got some training,"