AN: Chapter two is here :) I will update this story about once a week, although I am still trying to find a good update schedule, so it'll be most likely around Thursdays-Fridays or Saturdays for now.

Happy reading, please review. Any constructive feedback is always welcome.

Chapter 2: Restless Gods

Sam whimpered as the dream played for his eyes. He was standing at a cliff staring down an fiery river. The place reeked of death and desperation.

'Mother died and now they've gained more success with the entire unification of the demigods. It's time we teach the Olympians about their place in the world,' said a voice.

'True,' replied a rumbling voice.

'The gods will call upon their children. The most powerful ones are united as The Seven, with Perseus being their leader. If we can eliminate them, we should use the shock to our advantage and get rid of the demigods altogether,' said the soothing voice from inside a dark cave.

'I will call upon my children to gather themselves at the gates of Tartarus.'

'Call you sister as well, we could use her. We disable the Seven first then we take the Olympians,' said the female voice. 'I will have my vengeance.'

Suddenly a pair of red eyes stared back from inside the cave and Sam felt a wave of heat coming over him.

Sam shot wide awake being soaked in sweat. He laid back down and drank from a bottle of water. He rubbed his head to try and ease the headache. Pain shot down his thigh.

It was the second week of camp and it had been announced that Camp Jupiter would visit for two weeks as part of the summer solstice festivities. They would arrive in a couple of days. Sam was to be at the forges at ten, but wanted to talk to Chiron first. He walked towards the Big House wearing his cloak. Chiron and Mister D were playing a card game with Percy Jackson.

Sam waited for a second before walking up the porch of the Blue House. Percy Jackson was a legend among demigods. Sam had heard all the stories about his quests and battles. It was rumoured that Percy was invincible as long as he had Riptide in his hand. Sam watched the three and noticed a tattoo peeking from under Percy's t-shirt.

'Sam, what can we do for you today?' asked Chiron who had assumed his mortal identity of Mr. Brunner, although he had a bit more facial hair than last time Sam saw him. He dealt the cards.

'I've had a dream,' said Sam. 'About someone wanting vengeance against the Olympians.' He took a seat opposite Mister D who was sipping Diet Coke.

'Do tell,' said Mister D with a bored tone. 'It's nothing we've heard before.'

Sam told them the dream as how he had seen it. The memory of the place made him shudder.

'That was Tartarus,' said Percy. 'There are plenty of things down there that want us gone. Fallen gods, monsters, Titans. But you might be on to something.'

'Why?'

'Because I have received a similar dream.'

Percy recounted how he had also heard the voices talk, but they had been distorted as he couldn't exactly tell who they were. They had spoken about the returned being the easier targets as they had crossed the ultimate border. It wouldn't be enough, but a good first attack. He also heard them speak of a certain mother.

'Could it be Sally?' asked Chiron.

'I don't know,' replied Percy. His face became slightly distressed.

'Who is she?' asked Sam.

'My mother,' replied Percy. 'Sally Jackson.'

'Oh,' replied Sam as he touched his prosthetic which had been a gift from Hephaestus and in a perverse way from the Fates as well. 'What do we do now?'

'We will have to ask our sources to see if anything has been different,' replied Chiron. 'Percy, is Annabeth still at Camp Jupiter?'

Percy nodded. 'She'll be travelling with them to camp as she wanted to learn from them on how to build a new city out of nothing.' Percy smiled about that.

'What about those returned?' asked Sam. 'What do they mean by that?'

Chiron shook his head. 'I have no idea my child.'

Suddenly thunder rumbled through the skies and Mister D tensed up, crumpling the cards in his hand. Chiron held his breath as Percy and Sam stared at each other. The god looked at the sky and muttered something before vanishing in a ripple, leaving wine leaves in his place.

'What was that about?'

Chiron sighed as he picked up the crumpled cards. 'Something is brewing and the gods are restless.'

As the conversation fell silent, Sam left Percy and Chiron to discuss the matter among themselves. The words Chiron had spoken echoed through his mind. Restless gods meant something was coming, something big. Sam quickly walked over to Cabin 9 to meet up with George and the Hephaestus campers.

It had taken the Hephaestus quite some time to do it, but they managed to create a pathway from their cabin to Bunker 9 in which they had built their largest weapons to date. This involved catapults, trebuchets and ballistae to defend the camp with. Last time Sam had visited the cabin, they were working on a boat to defend the seaside in case of an attack.

'Sam!' called George as he appeared in the doorway.

Sam waved and walked up to the porch. George had grown over the past years, becoming taller than Sam. His unruly blond hair had been given a buzz cut. His arms had become muscular as well, but that wasn't surprising.

'Glad you could make it.'

'No problem, it got me out of Greek Mythology class. Malcolm is even scarier than Annabeth when it comes to pop quizzes.'

The boys walked into the cabin and Sam spotted the twenty campers hard at work. Swords were being forged as well as shields. Some of the older demigods were forging some different weapons such as a trident and a mace. One of them was fixing up several fire arms. The heat was becoming unbearable.

George led Sam down the winding staircase and guided him to a train track. On the rails stood a cart that was attached to a chain at both sides. One end of the chain disappeared into a tunnel while the other one was attached to a which cemented onto a block of concrete. The cart had four seats and were fitted with a three point belt.

They got in and George pushed on a button. The winch started unwinding while the cart started moving. With a sudden jerk, the cart sped along the track. Sam tried to breathe in, but the air around moved to too fast. George looked at him with a grin. Moments later the cart slowed down and they undid their belts. As they got out, Sam punched George on the shoulder.

'Could've warned me, jerk.'

'And ruin the surprise? No thanks.' George laughed.

Sam turned away and watched several Athena campers walking around on catwalks suspended from the ceiling of Bunker 9, with the remaining Hephaestus campers doing work on their new project.

Bunker 9 was a large hangar with catwalks spanning the entire length and width of the building. Massive chains and pulleys hung from the ceiling. Light fixtures beamed down fluorescent light upon the concrete floor. Large metal objects laid on the side of the central place.

Sam recognized one of them to be a large sword. George continued to walk towards a large metal figure standing in the middle of the hangar. It reminded Sam of an automaton. Sparks flew from its arm when an Hephaestus camper started welding. Getting closer Sam spotted Leo Valdez standing at a table looking at several blue prints with him sat Nyssa.

'I'm telling you Leo, the controls have to be changed. There aren't many of us who can move this thing even with the differentials doing most of the lifting.'

'But how will it look? These things are not exactly manoeuvrable power houses, they are used for intimidation,' replied Leo as he started playing around with a pencil.

'Focus Leo, we need to figure this out before the Romans show up, as we want to wow them. Screw their haughty attitude, we will have mechas!'

'Hi guys,' said George to break the tension. 'Sam's here.'

Sam gave them a small wave. 'Did you say mechas?' He barely concealed the excitement in his voice.

'I did,' replied Nyssa with a grin. The daughter of the blacksmith wiped her brow with a red cloth she then tied around her arm.

'So this is the latest, Big Weaponry project you've been working on?' asked Sam as he stared at the mecha. The machine stood roughly twelve feet tall.

'Yes,' replied Leo. 'It's Nyssa and George's design with some help from dad.'

'And you need my help for some reason.'

Nyssa stared at her siblings before looking at Sam. 'The leg dad gave you might help us with the design for the pilot and how we can get it easier to control.'

'What do you want me to do?'

'We thought you might be a test pilot for that one,' said George pointing at the mecha in front of him. 'If we can trim it down to an easier design, we could make several more by the end of the summer. Even if we couldn't make them into fighting bots, we could use them for the heavy construction around New Athens.'

'You're so on,' said Sam. 'Leo, you'll have to ask Suzan though, 'cause I normally have other things to attend to.'

'Deal.'

'When do we get started?'

It wasn't until after lunch that both George and Sam got out of cabin 9. For most of the time, the three mechanics had examined his prosthetic leg, with Joanna, an Athena camper taking notes and offering advice. Sam had drawn on a blank piece of paper while imagining himself walking around in the mecha.

'Can we meet up, let's say, at two the day after tomorrow? That'll leave us with some time to design and implement the controls,' said George as the friends had arrived at cabin 20. Sam had to gear up for his live dummy training.

'Sure, I'll square it with whoever it needs squaring with.'

George said goodbye and left him standing on the porch. Sam walked into the cabin and found Suzan and Mia sitting at the large table. Suzan motioned him to come closer.

'How is your magic training going? I haven't seen you try new things lately,' she said doodling in a notebook.

'I was thinking about trying some more advanced enchanting stuff,' said Sam. 'If Mia's up for it, we could practice wind magic together? And if you could help me out with the Mist that'd be cool too.'

'It's your third year at camp, right?' asked Suzan.

'Yeah, but you know that, so why…?'

'She's trying to create a training schedule for all of us,' interrupted Mia with a groan. 'Like we need more scheduling.' She threw several pieces of paper on the table.

'I just want to see that you get better at using magic,' retorted Suzan with a stare.

'Like we all want,' said Mia. 'But do you really need to try and regulate everything? It's like Lou never left. Remember the year he got here?'

'Don't drag me into this, I've got dummy duty in ten, so I'll leave you to it.'

Sam left his sisters bickering as he went to get changed into some armour. Mia did have a point, he thought as he entered his room. Lou and John had left at the end of his second year at camp. John just wanted to take a break from it all, last time he had spoken to John he was on his way to become a fisherman in Alaska. Lou went to live with Charlotte in New Rome. Last he had heard, she was teaching chemistry and magic to their Roman siblings.

He placed a helmet on his head and grabbed the nearest axe before heading back down. Before he left, Sam took another look at the table to see Suzan in deep concentration.

The son of Hecate walked up to the group of demigods standing in the middle of the arena. It was a sword class. He spotted Mike and Halley standing a bit farther from the group. The Ares siblings were his co-dummies for today.

'Hey, Mike.'

'Sam meet Halley, Halley meet Sam.'

Sam shook hands with the daughter of Ares who had shoulder long hair and wore a full Greek armour.

'So, this is the guy who took a seat on Ares' throne and lived to tell the tale?' Halley smiled.

'Aren't you the daughter of Ares who socked two campers the moment she walked across the border?'

'True.'

'Now class, you'll pair up and engage against a live dummy,' said Percy Jackson with a grin.

The dummies geared up and brandished their weapons. Sam pointed his weapon at the daughter and niece of Poseidon who both showed him new weaponry.