My Brother and I Start

a Tiny Little Late Night Riot

After my test I got my things and moved into the Ares cabin. When I opened the door, my ears were immediately bombarded with blaring hard core rock music. I had to cover my ears just to keep my head from exploding. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse the door busted open knocking me onto the floor. I got back up and in walked a guy seemingly in his late teens. He had short stocky red hair like a soldier, and he towered over me by a good foot and a half.

"Hey, I'm Jack," for some reason things felt awkward, "I'm the new Ares kid."

"They told me you were coming.'Sup, I'm Ryan Red the head Ares councilor, but everyone around here just calls me Red." he said shaking my hand.

"That name sounds familiar," could they be related, "Do you know Samuel Red?" he nodded.

"Yeah, he's my cousin. When I go down south to visit, I hang out with him. We have fun. You know cousin stuff. Do you know him?"

"Not really," I shrugged, "I got into a fight with him before I came here."

"Really?" he asked intrigued, "what for?"

"He was picking on my kid brother so I had to set straight." he nodded again.

"Can't say I blame you. Kid hasn't been the same since his step father introduced him to alcohol. Sammy's got a lot of problems, go easy next time you see him." At that moment the dinner bell sounded and Red told everyone to move out. Then he caught up with me, and sat down

"By the way, I forgot to ask," he said when they brought out the BBQ. " Who's your brother? Oh just say what kind of drink you want and it'll appear. Follow me to the fire." It turns out we have to sacrifice a portion of our food to the gods out of respect. " So, who's your brother?"

"His name is Jason and I haven't seen him since I woke up." Red's face was scrunched up in concentration, and was silent for about 30 seconds before he spoke again.

"What's your last name?"

"Myrmidon." His face lit up with surprise

"Whoa, you're Jason's older brother?" I nodded. "I guess that kind of talent runs in the family." now it was my turn to be confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Well two months ago, a couple of Hermes' kids were patrolling Half- Blood Hill, when out of nowhere this twelve year old kid shows up carrying another guy on his shoulder. You. And he starts screaming for somebody to help him. We get them inside and take the unconscious, injured guy to the infirmary. For the first few days, we let him stay with you, but then we needed him to be claimed so we took him to the arena to be tested. And he just thrashes the guy we sent to fight him, an Athena camper who's been here for three years, and he gets claimed by Ares." This caught me by surprise. Jason was here at camp somewhere.

"Wait, where is he then?" I asked

"I'm getting to that. So, anyway he gets claimed by Ares and everyone congratulated him. But he just went back to the infirmary for the next week, before he started getting involved in camp activities, and two days ago he got a quest and he left yesterday. At first he didn't want to go, because he wanted to be here when you woke up, but Chiron, the centaur, convinced him."

"Do you know when he'll be back?

"No, but he should be on his way back now. From what I've heard, the quest isn't hard." Then Chiron called the room to silence.

"Before we go to the sing-along, I have a few announcements. First, congratulations to all the new campers who got claimed today." The room erupted in applause and cheers. " Next, I am pleased to inform all of you that the yearly annual Greek and Roman games will start next month. Let me finish, Let me finish," he said because the room had once again erupted into applause and cheers along with a few "get some"s and "hell yeahs". "Currently, the Romans hold the trophy," there were instant and ear deafening boos all around, "So, in order to make sure we have the best competitors this year we will be having preliminary qualifying events starting tomorrow. Good luck." and with that we were dismissed to the sing-along. But I stopped when I saw three people walking towards us as we were heading to the amphitheater. One was a girl with reddish brown hair and light brown eyes, and another on the left was a boy with grayish black hair and dark eyes. I didn't care about either one of them, because walking up the middle with a few scrapes and bruises my brother. Jason.

We decided to sneak away into the arena to catch up. Jason re accounted the story on how we ended up at camp again. Then I asked the burning questioning that had troubled me since the second I got here.

"So... about Uncle Greg. Is... Is he you know?" I couldn't even bring myself to say the word. I looked back at Jason, but he wouldn't look me in the eye. And I knew the truth. "H-How did it happen. I cant remember anything from after I walked in the house." he sighed heavily.

"After you walked in the door I sat there for a few minutes thinking about all of the times with mom, but then I heard you scream and I got out of the car to see what was going on, but before I could to the door the apartment exploded with you and Uncle Greg still inside. Then you flew through the window, still slightly on fire. I put out the flames, but you were still unconscious and Uncle Greg... he..." Jason started breaking down, "he never came out. I don't any mortal who could survive that. Do you think he might still be alive?"

Jason almost never cries, and never cry. So that means that this is the crucial point. It was time to perform my duties as the older brother. I didn't want to get his hopes, but at the same time I didn't want to completely destroy them either so I decided to use an old espionage trick. Distraction method. I could feel an evil grin spread across my face.

"So I hear you totally thrashed the warrior sent to fight you for your test." I said. He looked up and smiled and I knew my efforts had succeeded.

" Yeah, I did. It was almost too easy. What about you?" I told him everything that happened to me since I woke up. He seemed a bit jealous when I got to the part about the sword. "He GAVE you a freaking magical sword!" Okay so maybe more than a bit. He calmed down when I told him it was my birthright as the first born son. His eyes bulged when I told him about the vision.

"No way. That happened to you too?"

"Yeah. You can do it too or whatever it is."

"Yeah, right before I was about to fight him I get this splitting headache, and the next thing I knew I was watching the fight in full color on paper view. And afterwards I knew all the guy's moves and I just destroyed him." he finished. Or so I thought. "How long did your fight last?"

"What?"

"How long did your fight last?" He repeated.

"A little under three minutes. Why?"

"Oh. Well it's just that mine lasted a solid 2 minutes. So I was thinking that maybe..." he trailed off.

"You're seriously implying that you're...better than me are you?"

"Well if the shoe fits." was all he said.

"What do you say to finding out for sure right here. Right now." I suggested.

"Sometimes it's like you can read my mind." he answered grinning mischievously. He ran over to the sword rack and grabbed a 3 footer, and I pulled out Wrath and changed it to sword form.

"Rules?" I asked.

"There are none except for no fatal blows. We can always heal minor scrapes and bruises later. Ready?" he asked.

"Ding. Ding." I replied. And then the headache struck. I knew Jason was having one right now also. It lasted longer than I thought it would. Probably because the future said this match would end in a draw.

" Not if I can help it." I whispered.

I charged toward Jason at full speed and front flipped over his blade as he swung it hard toward the midsection of my body. My momentum carried me forward and I tucked my shoulder and rolled on the ground to avoid damage. I instinctively brought Wrath up to block a downward strike toward my head. I countered with a sweep, but he jumped to dodge it. It continued like that for five solid minutes. Slash. Parry. Block. Duck. Elbow. Kick. Parry. Repeat. Neither one of us gained the upper hand. I was pretty sure it wasn't going to change any time soon, when I got my second headache of the night. We were going to have serious company in about 60 seconds.

"Jason, stop," he stopped when he saw I was serious.

"What's up?"

"Somebody must've spread the word that the Myrmidon brothers were sparring, because loads of people are about to see just how good we are."

"What do you mean. Are they going to try jump us?" Just then an arrow appeared out of nowhere, but I deflected it off my blade. "Does that answer your question?" I asked. Then dozens of people in armor stormed in looking for a fight.

"You take half and I'll take half. Understood?" I nodded. "Good, time to live up to your name War Machine."

30 minutes later, It was a massacre. There were campers on the ground, groaning in pain. There were campers in the stands sitting out, and the rest who had decided to test the skills of the Myrmidon brothers, were still in the middle of the arena fighting. But there were only a handful of campers left still fighting. I was in the middle of flipping a guy over my shoulder, when a conch horn sounded. I dropped him.

"I suppose you all had fun." said a guy at the entrance. He had jet black hair. He was wearing a black leather jacket, with a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and blue jeans. He walked up to Jason and I.

"You guys did this?" he asked. We nodded. "Nice work, although I would have preferred you to do it when it was allowed." He stuck out his hand to shake.

"Hi, I'm Percy Jackson. Head Councilor of camp half blood."