Percy's POV
I wasn't sure how playing a board game ended up with the camp in ruins.
Chris Rodriguez had managed to snatch a few monopoly board games from gods knows where, no one was asking, and everyone gathered into the pavilion to play.
Little did we know how devastating it would be.
The Dining Pavilion was filled with a pleasant buzz of excitement. People milled around, whispering with friends and siblings. Some were even making deals with each other before the games actually started.
Chiron was standing at the head table, a warm smile on his wrinkled face. The Battle for the Labyrinth had ended not a week prior, and many of the campers had been mourning the loss of siblings and friends, so he was probably glad that we were having fun.
I myself was hanging out with Nico and Annabeth. We were refining our plan, and making sure that there was no way that we would loose. I would sell all my properties to them if I started to loose, and they would do the same.
The sound of a hoof beating against the stone floor made us fall silent, and we turned out gaze towards Chiron. Silence filled the Pavilion as we waited for Chiron to start talking. The centaur cleared his throat.
"The rules for this came are simple. There will be six campers per game board. Anyone not playing will be a spectator. You may make deals with other players, as it is expected of some of you. I cannot say no cheating as many of you will break this rule," As he said that, his gaze landed on the Stoll twins. Both of them grinned at him innocently.
The horse man continued, "But you must make it subtle. If you are caught by Argus or myself, you will be disqualified. Now! Men, MAN YOUR STATIONS!'
There was a flurry of confusion as people rushed to one of the ten boards strewn throughout the Pavilion. Cheers rose up as people made it to one, and cries of despair as they didn't.
Nico, Annabeth and I were lucky. We managed to snag a place after a little convincing with Chiron. It was surprisingly easy to blackmail him. For a thousand year old trainer, he had a lot to hide.
The three of us faced off with Katie Gardner of the Demeter Cabin, Drew Tanaka of the Aphrodite Cabin, and Clovis Hypnos, an unclaimed. And though there were six of us, one of the spectators, Marcus Batzer, sat with us to watch our game.
We all greeted each other, competitive smiles on our faces. Nico claimed banker and the dog token. I snatched the car charm, and Annabeth grabbed the shoe. We placed the tokens on the GO square, passed out money, and decided who would go first. Then we all looked at Chiron, waiting to start. He nodded in our direction and gave a thumbs up.
The dice were rolled.
At first, everything seemed normal. I had two of the blue properties, one which had two houses on it, and a Rail Road. Nico had the whole red set, a house on each one, and two orange. Annabeth had Boardwalk, and three of the pinks. Katie had somehow managed to get the other three Rail Roads, and Park Place. Drew scored the pink, and blue properties that Annabeth and I needed, as well as the Utilities, and two green.
Clovis had passed out two minutes into the game, and was using a very uncomfortable Nico as a pillow. We'd thrown his money into free parking, which Drew ended up winning.
Nico was in jail, Annabeth was on GO, and the two other girls on their properties.
All around us, people murmured in a quiet anticipation. The atmosphere was a comfortable tense that came with friendly rivalry. Spectators wandered around, watching the games, and placing bets on who was going to win.
It was my turn, and I rolled the dice, getting a five. Moving my token forwards, I landed on Katie's dark blue property, which she had decked with hotels and houses. She smirked at me and reached out a hand.
"That will be a thousand dollars, m' boy, "She cooed sweetly.
A grimace crossed my face. I searched my money pile and pulled out two crisp monopoly dollars with a 500 printed on it and handed it to her.
A wail arose from behind me, and I turned to look at the commotion. A blond haired daughter of Athena cried as she was dragged from her seat by Harpies.
Chiron shook his head and took the crying girl from the chicken ladies. He motioned to a purple and black haired boy to take her place. Grover was at that table, a pained smile on his face. He nodded towards me before turning back to the game in front of him.
I smiled back at him and then turned around just in time to see Katie grabbing Board Walk from Annabeth.
She glanced up and saw me watching. Her eyes went wide, and she muttered something under her breath. I narrowed my eyes and poked Annabeth in the side.
She turned around to see what I wanted. Katie tried to act innocent, but Annabeth had seen her hand reaching for the property card.
"Now, that's just foul play, Katie. You should try to be more honorable than that!" The blonde huffed out.
Katie rolled her eyes, "Well, foul play is to be expected. And you should know, you never turn your back on an enemy."
Drew sighed, "I was waiting for something like this to happen." A feral grin stretched across her face, "Now its time to take things up a notch."
Everyone at the table looked at her in confusion. Malice danced in her eyes, as she fixated them on Annabeth. The blonde shuddered under the heated gaze.
"You want to give me all your money, don't you sweetie. Payment for stealing the object of my affection."
Annabeth stiffened, her eyes glazed over. She scooped her money up, reaching a hand out to give it to Drew. I snatched the wad of paper bills and glared at Drew.
"That's just cheating!" I growled out, "Your disqualified."
Drew glared at me, "It's not cheating. It's foul play."
Nico tried to calm us down, but Clovis grumbled something and pulled Nico down to be a pillow. The son of Hades squeaked as he fell.
That was when all hell broke loose.
As Nico fell, he grabbed the board and dragged it down with him, scattering all the pieces. Katie let out a yelp when the board corner flew up and hit her in the face. Paper cards went flying, crisp monopoly dollars fluttered around, little green houses and red hotels tumbled, bouncing off the bench.
The commotion ended up tipping the table over. I fell face first into the gray stones that lined the pavilion floor and tumbled a few feet, and ended up crashing into another table. It shifted a few meters, and disrupted the game board that was on it.
Pain lanced through my body, and I tried to sit up. When my vision stopped being blurry, I looked around me. Utter chaos had erupted throughout the dining hall.
Almost all of the picnic benches had been knocked over and were being used a shields. Random articles of clothing, shoes, and weapons were flying around. I got clocked in the head with a sneaker.
When I sat up again, my leg was pinned under a table. Marcus was passed out next to me with a large bump forming above his left eyebrow.
The pavilion was a mess, but the chaos had moved out of the area. Chiron, who should have been diffusing the fights, was wrapped up in vines and magic string. His eyes were full of an angry fury I had never seen in the Centaur.
Mr. D, as uncaring and oblivious as ever, was relaxing on the big house porch, sipping on a coca-cola. He seemed completely unaware of the chaos.
As for the campers, well...
Hecate kids were zooming around on various magically charmed flying devices, cursing campers and otherwise making things worse.
Hespheates kids were fiddling with whatever was in reach, making bombs and nets that would dispose of their enemy.
The various Athena kids were just trying to defend their cabin from attack. However there were a few that were decked in full battle armor, bashing Ares and Apollo kids with leather shields.
Ares kids were embracing their war like personas, throwing punches and kicks at whoever was in range, not caring if the person was just trying to run away.
Apollo's kids were fighting on the basketball court and in the volleyball pit. I'm not entirely sure what they were trying to do. But they were also singing songs that cursed others.
Aphrodite children were tossing clothes and makeup around. Horrified screams echoed from their cabin and the bathrooms.
As for the Hermes kids, they were using the commotion to turn the cabins into an art museum. I couldn't tell if the Demeter kids were trying to stop them, or help them, considering that plants were bombarding the semicircle.
I swayed to my feet and tries to say something when another sneaker nailed me in the back of the head.
I mean seriously, was it target Percy with sneakers day!
I ran after Jessica Dickerson for the sneaker attacks and battled it out with her and her twin Charlie. They were both daughters of Hecate.
They cursed me to have cat ears and a dragon tail. One from each of them.
Then I ran into Travis and Conner. They dyed my hair orange. Of course they ended up with matching bruises for doing that.
When it all ended, the camp was in need of serious repairs.
Now, I would have expected this kind of damage from an invasion. But what the camp ended up looking like was not the camp I knew.
The dining pavilion was in shambles. There was one of the basketball hoops dangling precariously over the edge of the chasm Nico has opened a year prior. The Golden Fleece was covering a sleeping Clovis, who had it wrapped around him like a cocoon.
The big house was painted neon green with YOLO SUCKERS! written in red on the front. Grape vines had barricaded the door and windows so that no one could get in. The deck was a pile of splinters, and the other basketball hoop was buried underneath it.
The hill where the Golden Fleece was supposed to be was covered in various bones and spray paint cans. I suppose that was Nico's doing.
The volleyball pit was a tattered mess of Apollo campers and mattresses (how those ended up there, I have no clue). The sand had decided to deposit itself on the Zeus cabin, making the pristine cabin look gritty and scratched.
The beach was covered in pizza and monopoly pieces. Where the pizza came from and why the monopoly games were out there, again I have no clue.
When I battled Jessica and Charlie, I had made a swamp out of the tree line. The two girls had covered the forest in bright pink and yellow streamers and rope. The nymphs were gawking at what had happened to the beautiful forest.
The arena smelled like melting cheese and plastic. Practice dummies were hanging over the sides, some fussed together, others tied by rope. The rest of the dummies were smouldering at the foot of the lava mountain.
Pegasi roamed free around the demolished stables, which had a smoking Thalia on top.
The cabins weren't even spared. Most of them were indistinguishable. They all were fluorescent colors like green and yellow, and covered in vines. The Demeter cabin in particular was crumbling into a pile of dust.
My cabin had a giant oak tree protruding from the roof. The Athena cabin lay untouched, except for 'noobs' scrawled on the door.
The area around the hearth wasn't even spared. Various makeup kits and expensive shoes lined the grass.
Even the campers weren't spared.
Most of the campers had bruises forming from the all out war. Various people had animal appendages. And most had a new hair color.
After walking around looking for someone I knew, I found Nico passed out against the arena with a partially melted dummy in his lap. He was drenched in pink paint. A large purple bruise was forming on his cheek.
I knelt next to him, "You ok, man?"
He moaned in pain in response.
I sighed and joined him in leaning against the stone wall. Katie limped by, and I couldn't help but snicker at her appearance. The brunette glared at me.
Her long hair was sticking up like an angry porcupine. She had a black eye, her clothes were shredded, and fluorescent pink streamers grew from the back of her knees.
She called out to me, "You don't look much better Jackson. What, with the bright jelly bean orange hair and cat ears. It's almost pitiful."
I growled softly. Jessica and Charlie would pay later.
Katie walked off, and Annabeth joined the two of us.
Her normally golden curled hair purple and brown low-lights. Her face was smudged with something that looked like it could be chocolate or something else. Her camp shirt had green stains.
"What happened?" She asked. Her gray eyes looked up at the sky, "It was all normal. All I remember was feeling you poke me in the side and then waking up in the bathrooms covered in books and hammers."
All I could do was shrug. I honestly was just as confused as her.
"Chiron is going to be furious when he gets untangled from those restraints. I'm all for hiding in the woods. You with me?"
I sighed, "As long as we take Nico with us."
The blonde girl nodded. We hauled the young son of Hades to his feet and dragged him into the forest.
All around us, Nymphs gave us dirty looks and sniffed at our appearance. We stumbled across Grover, who was passed out in a puddle of water moaning about food.
Finally, we reached Zeus' Fist, and we relaxed against the boulder. I tried not to think about the labyrinth that had been connected to it.
Chiron still ended up finding us about an hour later and ordered us to help put the camp back together. I restored the lake and tree line to its former glory. I also helped Juniper remove the streamers from the trees.
When I was done with that, I trudged back to camp. Annabeth had been tasked with fixing the pavilion. It looked normal, except for the giant chasm, which Nico had to fix. And the son of Hades was currently sleeping in the Big House.
After a couple of hours of hard work, the camp was back to semi- normality. There were still some odd colored cabins. And the beach was hard to clean up. Hundreds of years from now, people would still be finding monopoly pieces in the sand.
The campers were still a mess however. Most were covered in the remains of food and paint. And there weren't enough showers for everyone to wash themselves off.
This caused a water balloon fight. However, this one was carefully watched by Chiron, and with the threat of no dessert for the rest of the year as well as dish-washing duty, it was contained to the lake.
When everything was clean, we all headed to the pavilion to eat dinner. People still had side effects from curses and spells.
Katie, for example, had knee streamers for the next month. And Clarisse had bunny ears.
That day, Camp Half-Blood learned that even the smallest things could end in disaster. We also learned that demigods shouldn't play board games. Chiron banned Monopoly from camp ground. The punishment for being caught with it was stable duty for a month.
Monopoly hasn't been the same since.
That is all for this. I hope y'all liked it.
This is a list of the main characters and what they ended up with.
Percy- orange hair, cat ears, and a dragon tail
Nico- covered in pink paint, and green dyed hair
Clarisse- Bunny ears and tail
Will- lemurs tail and nose, and bear paws for hands
Annabeth- purple and brown streaks in her hair
Katie- streamers grew from her knees for weeks
Conner - Marbled hair and he spoke backwards for a week
Travis - bull horns and a squirrel tail
Thalia- scorch marks on her arms, legs, and neck, as well as mouse whiskers
Thank you for reading. Tell me what you think!
~Bittersweet Treats
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