As soon as the Champion left, Percy Jackson looked around and immediately saw a familiar face.

"Carter!" He greeted excitedly, happy to see someone he knew.

"Hey Percy!" He waved back, "I thought this was a tournament of heroes, what are you doing here?"

"That's funny," he replied, "Come up with that all by yourself?"

The grasped each other's hands in a greeting, and he noticed the girl behind him observing him.

"You're Percy?" The girl, Sadie wondered, "Your Annabeth's boyfriend?"

Percy blinked, and furrowed his brow. "You've met Annabeth? When? How?"

Carter looked as confused as he did, clearly not knowing the connection between this Annabeth person.

"Long story, but ohmygods!" She said, "This is just crazy right? I mean, bugger all explanation that was! A tournament of heroes? I don't remember signing up for this."

"Well, he said we could go home anytime we wanted to," Carter argued.

"He said this was for fun anyway," Percy added, "I wouldn't mind being a champion of heroes. Sounds awesome!"

"Yeah, but," Sadie wondered, "Look at all these kids. That bloke mentioned the multiverse. Do you really think that this is all some game being set up here?"

Percy shrugged. "Clearly you've never met any of the gods I know. They send me and my friends on their errands all the time. It's ridiculous."

"Yeah Sadie," Carter agreed, "It's like Thoth or Neith getting picky. It could be harmless."

Sadie huffed in disgust.

"Boys," she muttered as she walked off, "Always an ego to stroke."

The boys shrugged and went on with their own conversation, catching up on old times.

Well, less "catching up" admittedly and more gossiping about what the big prize was going to be.

A few minutes later, the Champions booming voice echoed through the room.

"Times up!" He announced, "Round one begins...

Now."

A flash of lightning enveloped Percy, zapping him to a new room. This one was dark all around, aside from the single light above him that lit up a large area around him. There was a grate in the floor that ran around him in a ring. Across from him was another young boy with dark hair and green eyes. Except he was dressed in formal wear, like royalty, though Percy couldn't even guess where.

Oh right, he remembered, this must be that Alek kid. Didn't the Champion say he was a prince or a pilot or something?

That wasn't the bad news though. The bad news was what he was standing on. Under his boots stood a mechanized monster on two legs, with three separate guns on its sides and head. The thing looked like it was taken out of a steampunk Star Wars battle.

And it was facing Percy with its guns ready.

"Brawl!" The Champion announced. "Percy Jackson versus Aleksander Ferdinand! Defeat your opponent!"

"Fight!"

As soon as he said the word, Alek hopped in into the hatch of his mech and started it up.

Percy pulled out his ballpoint pen and uncapped it, revealing the magic celestial bronze sword; Riptide.

He muttered a curse under his breath. "What am I supposed to do with this?" He wondered.

The first thing he was going to do when he got back home was talk to the Hephaestus cabin into making him a celestial bronze mech-suit.

The walker stormed him, forcing him to roll out of the way of its war path. The guns went off, spraying the ground with fat bullets. The main gun, the tank head or whatever it's called, swerved around to face him, and fired.

The explosion rocked his world. It didn't hit him, but it was close enough to make him half deaf and send him sprawling through the air.

He landed with his face in the grate ring. That's when he heard it, the key to his salvation.

Water. Under the grates. Running water.

"Are you all right?" The speaker in the walker blared. "That was meant to be a warning shot. You can surrender if you'd like."

Percy summoned the water to run up his arms and heal his burns. Some water even splashed in his ear to return his hearing. Percy stood back up and faced the Prince.

"Surrender this!" He grunted, raising his arms and swiping them across the air.

In response, water roared up through the grates and assaulted the walker's legs. The walker stumbled, though it seemed to somehow catch itself from falling. It stood firm as the water rushed past its legs.

Percy raised his arms again, focusing on creating a storm. Soon enough, a hurricane gathered around the walker, pelting the chassis with water. Then, when Percy was fully convinced it was thoroughly soaked, he pulled his arms back, and the water yanked out from within the walker, causing it to fall forward.

It slammed against the ground with a violent crash, and for a moment Percy wondered if he'd gone too far.

Then, to dispel his worries, the hatch popped open and the boy climbed out.

"Not one of mine anyways," he huffed out, in a German accent, "Sorry about the gunfire, it kind of did that on its own. It usually takes a full team to operate one of those."

He stood up and dusted himself off.

"How about we finish the fight as Swordsmen, ya?" He drew out his rapier, and took a stance at Percy.

"Uh, sure," Percy readied his sword with two hands, "Whatever you say Hans."

"Alek."

"Right."

Alek lunged towards him, almost stabbing Percy square in the chest if he had not waved Riptide to block it. Percy swung his sword in retaliation, and Alek did perhaps the strangest thing Percy has ever seen.

He leaned back.

Just enough for the sword to miss, and he straightened back up again. Percy blinked. Monsters and demigods have a tendency to block attacks, or just take the hit and heal their wounds with their magic. Demigods dodge of course, but not like this.

Percy swung his sword again, and again, and each time, Alek just bobbed and weaved, occasionally hopping back a step. Finally, Percy got the idea to disarm him, like he'd been taught at his first year in camp.

Their swords clashed, and Percy slapped the flat of his blade against his, forcing him to let go. The rapier clanged against the floor and Alek was left defenseless.

Percy held his sword to him in victory.

"I surrender," Alek said joyfully, "That was rather fun. Much better than practicing with Count Volger."

Percy didn't lower his sword away from him.

"Uh, alright," Alek said, "You win, Mr. uh... Jackson, was it? You can lower the blade now."

He didn't move.

"I'm sorry," he added, "about the guns. I didn't know they would fire on their own like that. Now could you please lower your blade?"

Percy let out a deep breath and recapped Riptide.

"I'm sorry," he finally said, "I don't know what came over me just then. I just felt like..."

"You had to win?" Alek guessed, "at any cost?"

"Yeah. I'm not usually this intense, I swear."

"It's forgiven, I'm just glad Deryn wasn't here to see this. She would have never let forget-"

"VICTOR!" The Champion's voice boomed around them, "Percy Jackson!"

Suddenly, lightning struck Alek and made him disappear right before his eyes. And Percy became a little more worried about what he's gotten himself into.