NGL to you guys this fic is a shameless excuse to practice writing (super defensive of each other) trio interactions. So, enjoy this mess since people wanted more and I had half of it already written. I'm taking so many liberties with the pj universe, but like I said, this is just a lil practice thing, which is why dialogue isn't stellar and ideas are stretched but whatever, I hope u guys like reading it anyways.
Danny woke to his body feeling stiflingly hot, like he had submerged himself in a tub of water that was just barely past uncomfortable and heading towards painful levels of heat. He was in human form, which was good because he would've been in trouble if he had felt this warm in his ice-based ghost form. The last thing he remembered was dodging over the giant scorpion's claw, and then hearing the whistle of the tail as it struck, almost too fast to see, and then... Nothing. He must have turned back when he passed out, but he vaguely remembered Sam and Tucker's voices, along with pain. They must have treated him, because, other than the unnaturally feverish tone his skin had, he felt fine, if a bit dizzy. He didn't hear any breathing in the room, so he opened his eyes, scanning the sterile-looking room for anyone. It was empty, and his vision blurred a little. He pulled himself up, and felt a twinge in his stomach. He paused, sitting up on the cot, and pulled a plain white shirt that wasn't his up, revealing his stomach. A freshly healed injury was there on his stomach, nothing but a puckered scar. How long had he been here? Where were Sam and Tucker? Panic edged in on him through the haze his mind was in, and he felt for his ghost powers, reassured only slightly by the cool feeling in his chest that reassured him he could access his ghost half. The ghost core in him cooled him down a bit, calming him a bit more. He slipped into invisibility, hearing male voices outside the door. They were just standing there. Guards? He narrowed his eyes distrustfully, having been in too many kidnapping situations to count. They could be holding Sam and Tucker hostage. Danny made himself unseeable and stuck his head through the door, looking at his possible guards.
One was a half-goat kid with a nervous, reedy voice. The other was a dark-haired, green-eyed teen who radiated self-assurance. Oddly enough, Green-eyes smelled like ocean spray. He didn't want to fight them. Danny retracted his head but went intangible again, passing through the opposite wall into the fading light of the evening. He was in a camp, with lots of temple-like buildings dotting the landscape. He quickly made his way around, invisible sometimes and just hidden in the shadows at other times. After wandering for a while (was that a sword-fighting ring?), he searched the largest building in the camp, finally hearing his friends speaking in a large room nearby. He appeared, solid and visible, in the hall outside the room, and pushed through the door in one lithe movement, ready to kick some ass to save his friends if necessary.
He scanned the room, which was full of odd smelling people (They looked well-trained, possibly dangerous.), a half-horse man (... Okay then.), and his two friends, unharmed and looking relatively at ease. Sam was paused mid sentence, and Tucker had been stuffing his face with crackers and Cheez-Whiz. Everyone in the room was staring at him in varying expressions of alarm, many of them startled enough to have apparently taken defensive positions. He stalked forwards through the small group, glaring at anyone who was in his way and allowing himself to drop the temperature around him a bit, clearing the path to his friends, who were looking at him amusedly. He dropped the tough guy act when he got to them, practically hovering around them, checking for injuries with a worried expression. A knot of unease loosened in his chest when he saw none.
"Are you two okay?"
His friends exchanged glances and shoved the boy down onto an empty chair between them, both looking exasperated. Sam patted Danny's shoulder reassuringly.
"We're fine, Danny. You're the one who shouldn't be wandering around looking for people. Not after you went and got hurt without us nearby."
"You were nearby! Just... Not nearby enough to get caught in the crossfire?"
Tucker, who had finished choking down the crackers and cheese, rolled his eyes at his friend.
"Yeah, you know us, we always jump into danger head first. Except for the fact that we don't."
Danny smiled weakly in return, and turned to look at the horse-guy. He leaned over a bit, and mumbled quietly to Sam.
"I don't know if you guys noticed, but... that guy is part horse."
Sam and Tucker struggled to control their expressions. In the charged silence that followed, Danny settled for staring at the people around him, blinking slowly. A few shifted uncomfortably. The half-horse man stepped forward, looking curious.
"I assume this is the friend you had with you?"
"Yeah, this is Danny, he's probably having a bad reaction to that nectar stuff, he isn't normally like this-"
Sam was cut off as the door opened again, this time with a bang, and a very panicked boy stood in the doorway. Danny recognized him as ocean kid from the hospital place.
"Chiron, the kid isn't in the-eeeeere he is. Oh."
"Whoops." Danny murmured.
Some of the kids in the room rolled their eyes or laughed at this exchange(although most were still focused on Danny, who was subconsciously exuding waves of cold), and Ocean Kid let himself in the room, followed by goat boy, who was bleating nervously. He walked up, shivered, and tilted his head curiously.
"Man, you're slippery. How'd you get out of the hospital?"
"I'm magic."
Danny couldn't seem to make his mouth move properly, making everything come out as a mumble instead of the sarcastic tone he wanted. He leaned over to ask Sam what was going on and why he felt like his thoughts were moving at the speed of molasses, but suddenly his eyelids weighed so much and he couldn't seem to find the will to stay awake...
"Sam, Tuck, we're safe here for now?"
His eyes closed, and he finally relaxed into sleep upon hearing Sam's and Tucker's affirmative. He trusted them completely, after all.
Percy raised both eyebrows in confusion as the kid, who had somehow managed to slip out of the windowless hospital room without using the door, blinked blearily before leaning heavily on the black-haired girl(Sam?), and starting to snore. The tense atmosphere in the room relaxed, a few chuckles erupting, and Chiron turned to Percy and Grover.
"All right, well that's the end of that. Percy, Annabeth, Grover, stay behind. Everyone else, there's a capture the flag game to prepare for, is there not?"
Everyone filed out of the room in small groups, some with weapons over their shoulders, most of them murmuring to each other and glancing back at the trio of strangers that had interrupted the Big House meeting. Annabeth stepped forwards to join the other two, shoulders set. Chiron pawed the ground with a hoof.
"Annabeth, you said he had an... Unusual reaction to the ambrosia and nectar."
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like it. It was like he was having a seizure or something."
Chiron furrowed his brow and all four of them looked at Sam and Tucker. Tucker shrugged and Sam bit her lip before speaking.
"He has weird... allergies. He reacts badly to, uh, magic stuff?"
Tucker snorted, and covered it up by eating more Cheese-Whiz-smothered crackers. Annabeth raised an eyebrow. Grover sniffed and wrinkled his nose.
"All three of them smell like death. Underneath it, those two smell like second or third generation half-bloods, but he smells like death all the way through."
He pointed at Sam and Tucker(who had paled at the death comment) first, and then a still-snoring Danny. Percy scrunched up his face.
"You think he shadow travelled out of the hospital like Nico can? Don't tell me Hades broke the oath for real?"
"If he was a son of Hades, he would be dead by now. Monsters everywhere would be able to smell him."
"Well, he smells like the Underworld. I would've thought he was a resident of it himself if he hadn't been solid. Monsters might've overlooked him."
"What, like a ghost?"
Tucker choked on his Cheeze-Whiz.
The whole camp was abuzz about the kid who took on a giant scorpion barehanded. So when Sam and Tucker finished dodging questions that hit too close to home for comfort and headed to the campfire to eat while Danny slept off the weird godly food's effects, they found themselves the recipients of multiple glances and some flat-out stares. They were at the crowded Hermes table, and after Sam glared enough at anyone who asked questions, they were left alone for the most part.
Tucker had almost just dug into his plate full of magically appearing meat, when Sam noticed everyone else scraping their plates into the fire and took the cue. She elbowed Tucker and followed the lead of the kid in front of them. Sam reflected that they were taking this rather well as she pushed some of her tofu and salad into the colored flames, but then again, they were well-adjusted to this stuff by now. Tucker followed suit, and when they sat back down, got to eat about four bites of steak before everyone went quiet and he noticed glowing over Sam and his own head. He looked at Sam, who had a shimmering purple pomegranate over her head. She looked in turn at the red-hot anvil over his head.
Sam craned to see her own symbol as it disappeared.
"Well, I guess that explains that."
Tucker raised an eyebrow.
"What just happened?"
Sam rolled her eyes.
"Those were symbols of the Greek gods. We've just been claimed or something. Weren't you listening to them explain this earlier?"
Tucker shrugged.
"There were snacks. So which gods?"
"Hephaestus and Persephone."
Annabeth's clear voice cut in. Tucker's face showed no comprehension, while Sam snapped her fingers in understanding and grinned wickedly.
"Persephone! Goddess of the spring and the underworld."
"Figures you'd get her. Who's Hefastus or whoever?"
"God of the forge. Like an old timey inventor and tool/weapon creator."
"Sweet. Wait, so, how're we magic if our parents are our parents? Cause I'm pretty sure There isn't a god living in my house disguised as mom or dad."
"It means our grandparents or great-grandparents were the ones who got it on with a god. I mean, I wouldn't put it past my grandma."
Annabeth frowned.
"I don't actually know how your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents managed to stay alive with godly blood. Every monster in 2000 feet would've been able to smell them, even if they weren't one of the Big Three. Maybe if outside forces were responsible... Are you both from the same place?"
"Yeah, we live in Amity Park. It's kind of haunted. By ghosts."
"Dismissing how weird that is, that still doesn't explain it. Ghosts are non-physical entities, they couldn't scare away monsters, though I suppose the death smell could cover up the demigod blood..."
Sam and Tucker exchanged glances.
"Well, our ghosts are... a little different."
Sam shrugged with finality in her voice. Before Annabeth had a chance to question them further, a horn call echoed through the camp. Percy ran up, holding two sets of armor.
"Hey, Capture the Flag is about to start, so Chiron sent me over to get you guys set up. You'll need this stuff."
Tucker looked at him incredulously even as he obliged and put on the armor.
"Why would we need armor for capture the flag?"
"Well, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to fight any of the monsters in the woods without armor."
He laughed at their expressions.
"Don't worry, you guys are on our team. Just follow everyone else's lead and you'll be fine. We should probably get you weapons..."
"We'd be more useful with our own."
"Well, as much as I'd love to see the looks on the other teams faces when we pit swords against weird green guns, that may be considered some bizarre form of cheating. Let's just check out the weapons shed to see if you find anything you like."
"Weapons shed?"
Sam grinned.
Danny woke up up for the second time that day in the same hospital room. Goat-boy was in the room this time, reading something while chewing absentmindedly on an apple core. Danny managed to sit up silently before the other teen noticed and jumped, bleating. The halfa gave him a sheepish grin. After taking a few deep breaths, the curly-haired boy calmed down enough to speak without stuttering.
"You're awake! You, uh, fell asleep at the meeting after you showed up, so we moved you back here to sleep and I'm sure you must have questions-"
"Actually, it's fine. I get it, y'know magic and stuff, it's fine. I'm sure I'll hear more about it in detail from Sam later but right now I'd really just like to see where Sam and Tucker are? I mean we are in this new place so I'd just like to make sure they're still good. Not that I doubt you guys or anything, but from the five minutes I was actually conscious, there was a pretty cult-ish vibe going around."
Grover looked slightly offended.
"They're playing capture the flag right now. I can take you to go watch but you probably shouldn't participate since you just healed."
Danny stood up, and wobbled a little, before steadying himself.
"Great. Let's go."
It took them all of ten minutes to get deep into the surrounding forest and meet up with that centaur guy(Chiron?), to spectate. Chiron smiled welcomingly at Danny when he saw him, saying something about 'good to see you awake', and Danny nodded, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. Then he craned his neck to look for Sam and Tuck.
In the mass of fighting, armor-adorned warriors(wasn't this a strategy game?), he picked his friends out in about two and a half seconds. Of course, this might have been because they were wearing their normal clothes in the midst of the rest of the orange t-shirt clad teens, but he liked to think he was just good at spotting them. Sam was wielding a double-sided axe with relative ease, and Tucker was mainly her defense with a round copper shield that he would occasionally ram into an opposing team member, and a bronze dagger he seemed reluctant to use.
He was extremely tense for the first five minutes he watched, but Sam and Tucker kept up great with everyone else, even if they were using completely different tactics and Tuck was a bit clumsy. Once he realized they weren't in any real danger, he relaxed a bit, enjoying watching both his friends kick butt, and the priceless expression on somebody's face when they got hit in the face with a shield or backhanded with the flat of an axe. Their forms may not have been perfect, but all three of them had asked for training from Danny's mom, and she was all to happy to oblige when they explained it was to defend themselves from ghosts(technically not a lie). They had also gotten instruction on how to use various ecto weapons, the whole nine yards. Helpful.
His focus shifted from the fight to an uncomfortable feeling in the back of his throat that made his neck hairs stand on edge and his teeth grind. Something was wrong. It wasn't his ghost sense, like normal, but he knew in his gut that something was about to take a turn for the worst. He stood up, opened his mouth to say something, but then he heard screaming as the game took an unexpected and undesired turn.
Grover turned around to tell Danny to go to the camp to get help.
But he was already gone.
Sam relished the feeling of physical wrath, as she didn't get to participate in it full fledged like this very often. Of course, they were both pulling their punches, as there was a huge difference between fragile(if well trained) human teens and the durability of an ectoplasmic ghost. She had just gotten into the swing of things when everything went to hell.
She was first alerted to the problem by screams, and then she turned and saw it with her own eyes- a wave of scorpions about the size of her hand, hundreds of them crawling towards the teens.
If there was one thing she knew after that one vacation in Texas, it was that baby scorpions held way more poison in them than adults. And unless the giant scorpion that Danny had fought earlier hadn't been a mother, and this was a completely unrelated event, they were in trouble.
Her yell for retreat was joined by several others, and both teams started dragging unconscious members away, the ones who were the least hurt going forwards to stall for time. It was, Sam had to admit, an excellent system they obviously knew how to do properly. But it wouldn't be enough to get away with no casualties, so she readied the double-sided axe and ran forward, slicing.
The axe lasted around five minutes, which was better than Sam expected, but against so many there was only so much a practice weapon like this could take. As soon as the brittle wood snapped in her hands, she reached for the cylinder on her belt and pressed the release and safety on it, allowing two bright green energy rods to form on either side, reminiscent of a double-sided light saber. This had been a personal present from Mrs. Fenton, and she was gonna put it to use.
She only vaguely heard the kid fighting next to her mutter something about Star Wars before she charged forwards again, finding purchase in the heads of the scorpions and feeling pretty invincible as she smacked the buggers away like she was golfing or something. The world around her briefly became and adrenalin filled blur, and then Tucker was at her side and yelling that they were retreating and everyone else was running and they were running and-
The temperature dropped like winter had come early.
Tuck turned around in sync with her, both of them grinning despite themselves, and watched as a familiar feeling of cold swept down on them. The ice spread along the ground like a wave untouched by physics, sweeping over the scorpion masses and freezing them in place. The wave of ice spread until it had encompassed every one of the anthropods. As they were the only ones who had stopped while still in the crowd of scorpions, the ice surrounded them in a circle but ebbed into frost and then nothing on the ground where they stood. Now that the general panic was over and everyone could see the scorpions had been neutralized, Danny's best friends were scanning their surroundings for the boy.
Sam felt a woosh of cold air behind her, and years of ghost hunting startled her into swinging the saber around with her body.
"Woah! Easy, Sam, it's just me."
Her wrist was gripped by an cold-but-not-full-ghost-cold hand, and she relaxed, smiling a bit as she flicked the safety back on, turning the saber back into a silver cylinder with buttons on it.
Phantom tried to be discreet about hovering around them looking for injuries, but he was called Clueless for a reason, and his friends exchanged glances.
"We're fine, we're fine. You feeling any better?"
"Yeah," he leaned in like he was telling a secret. "I think whatever magic junk you guys gave me is like drugs for ghosts cause I am really buzzed right now."
Tucker's laughter was interrupted by the situation they had been doing their best to ignore.
"Uh, guys?"
They turned to see Percy and Annabeth having arrived, holding the flag and staring at the scene in front of them. Percy rolled his eyes cajolingly.
"We can't leave these people alone for two minutes."
Annabeth was staring at Phantom, her face pale and frightened.
"Sam, Tucker... Get away from the dragur, now."
/uses a mythical creature of Norse mythology in a Greek mythology camp
this is fine.
anyways I get the feeling Annabeths done loads of research on stuff so whatever she knows about other mythologies.
As always, if you want to critique me or tell me what needs work or really even if u just want to, feel free to review!