Chapter 2. The lightning Thief

Hours later found Percy gazing at the boundary of Camp Half-Blood, a cross between apathy and a frown on his face.

"Mr. Jackson, greetings." A strong voice rang out. Percy's head snapped towards its source. A centaur was walking towards him with a welcoming expression on his bearded face. Chiron, the camp director of Camp Half-Blood. "Your… employer informed us of your coming. Welcome to Camp Half…"

"Mr. Chiron." Percy interrupted. "I am not here by choice, I am being paid to find information on Zeus's missing bolt. I don't care for this, I don't care for you, and I don't care for any demigod here. If they get in the way they will be hurt, or be dead."

"I can't let you threaten other campers like that Percy." Chiron said firmly.

Percy just shrugged, stepping through the barrier and taking in the camp before him. He glanced around without interest, these demigods typically would go their whole lives without a quest or without an end goal for their training. And most would die before they got to be too old.

Chiron continued to watch for a moment, a concerned look on his face. He started making his way back to the long house, pondering the behavior of his newest camper. The moment his gaze left Percy, a group began their approach towards Percy.

"Hey you, you new to camp? Good, because we have a little… tradition that we have for newbies." The girl in the front of the group said, a smirk on her face.

The others in her group began to swarm Percy, two grabbing him by his arms. They didn't seem concerned by the lack of resistance from their intended victim. Which quickly changed into looks of confusion and then of pain as their breath began to fog with each exhale. Their skin started to pale as their core temperatures began to plummet. The others looked on with great concern, backing away when they started to realize that Percy was the one freezing their siblings.

"I will say this only once. If you fuck with me, you won't live long enough to properly regret it." Percy said, thawing out the two flanking him and then lifting them into the air. Percy dimly noted that lifting these two up felt a lot like when he would practice this with water balloons years ago. Jolting out of his brief trip down memory lane he released his two demonstration 'volunteers'. They ran the fastest in their flight from him, the rest not far behind.

"Pricks." Percy muttered, making his way to where he saw a number of buildings gathered.

All around him he saw campers going about their various training, and while he could see the merits of each exercise he also could easily identify those who he could easily remove. Sword fighting on rope bridges to improve footwork, archery which was self-explanatory, and spear work. Percy had been taught how to contend with most weapons with his kukri long knives, but that was only if they managed to get past his powers.

When he finally reached the cabins he saw them arranged in an odd 'U' shape. The sea stone one was clearly the cabin for children of Poseidon. Entering the cabin he saw that it was quite barren. No one was going to come through here, so he could easily plan the situation. Percy took a seat and stared at the walls, slipping into deep thought on how he would proceed. His adoptive brother/employer had taught Percy some degree of politics as part of his curriculum in youth. Percy could use this to figure out what the situation was.

But before he could get too deep into his thoughts his phone rang out. Fishing the small device from his pocket he flicked it open and pressed it to his ear, never looking away from the same spot on the wall.

"Hello Mike." Percy said. Mike was the only person who could contact Percy.

"Hello Percy. I see you made it to camp safely." Mike said, causing Percy to narrow his eyes. Their organization could easily use a great many devices as means of surveillance.

"Traffic cams?" Percy guessed.

"Nope. ATM, near the gift shop next to the fishing hole." Mike answered. Percy nodded in acceptance, their techs had been working on getting into ATM cams for the last few months.

"What do you want Mike?" Percy asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Your thoughts on the situation. I managed to prove to Zeus that you didn't take the bolt, so you're out of danger there. But where do you intend to begin your search?" Mike asked in return, he already had some suspects but he wanted to truly make Percy a great operative.

"I've already started to eliminate Olympians as suspects. Zeus himself, Dionysus, Artemis, Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena and Demeter are out as they have nothing to gain. And in Zeus's case he is too vain, he wouldn't falsely hide his symbol of power for the sake of starting a war. Poseidon is unlikely as he has no interest in starting fights like this. Doubly so for Hades, he gains nothing except more work from any war. Hephaestus is possible out of resentment for Zeus, but again his interests don't lie in that direction. He probably spends more time in his workshop than anywhere else. Hera and Hermes are possible suspects, and for each their own good reasons. Hera is incredibly petty in regards to her attempts to punish Zeus, taking away his bolt is just like taking Thor's hammer. A bit of a un-masculation, but even she can recognize that this situation could easily spiral right out of control. Hermes is the god of both thieves and mischief, so this could easily be just a big prank on his part. But that is unlikely since again, he would know that this situation could get out of hand very easily. Which leaves one god with not only motive, but also the means and opportunity. But you already knew I had come to this conclusion before you even called, didn't you?" Percy asked with a smirk.

"Naturally, I did teach you after all. Ares is the only person who stands to gain anything from a conflict like this. Apollo owes me a favor, I'm going to go plan this out. Zeus still doesn't like you so if I play this even remotely wrong it could end very badly for us both." Mike said. Percy nodded, he figured Mike had a plan. He always did.

"What do you want me to do about this now?" Percy asked.

"I want you to head to Ares's palace. It's located in the Intrepid Military Museum. I will make sure that your gear is there" Mike said.

"My full set?" Percy asked.

"Naturally." Was all Mike said before he hung up.

Percy snapped the phone shut and pondered. He would leave early tomorrow morning, ocean travel could get him there in about two hours. But for now, he needed food and sleep. Walking back outside he was greeted by a number of stares. He ignored them all, his concerns were much grander than whatever rumors these people wanted to start about him. It was about dinner time now anyway, and all of the campers were making their way to the fire pit. Sitting alone at the Poseidon table was a bit new for Percy, his organization didn't segregate based on godly parentage.

He tuned out Chiron's speech, he didn't care. He noticed a blond from the Athena table looking at him, a satyr from the tree line did the same. It didn't matter, if they turned hostile then he would too. And he would do it much better. He didn't get up to do the food sacrifice, instead he simply flicked a portion of meat with some rice and gravy into the fire. More stares, more not caring. Instead he planned his journey tomorrow, he knew little of Perris Island's set-up. But it should still be the same basic concept as any other installation.

"Here's to tomorrow." Percy said as he dug in.