War of the Gods: Game Changer

Chapter 2: The New Kid

PERCY

I was walking to the edge of camp when I first heard the sounds of the battle. I ran to the top of Half-Blood Hill, where Thalia's tree marked the border of the camp. Looking down into the surrounding woods, I saw a single human battling a Cyclops. Or at least I thought he was a human. He was well over seven feet tall, taller than any mortal or demigod than I had ever met. I watched in shock as he punched the Cyclops into a nearby tree.

"That's one strong demigod," I murmured. I watched as the Cyclops attacked him with the trunk of the tree it had crashed into. Should I have helped? Probably. But then again, he seemed to be doing fairly well on his own. I watched as he produced a pair of odd glass-like swords. Despite their fragile appearance, they seemed to work well as he sliced through the Cyclops's neck, turning it to dust. The guy stood there for a moment before walking up to the arch, which he crossed after staring at it in confusion for several minutes.

I went down the hill, interested in this new camper. He had crossed the border, so he wasn't a mortal or a monster. He didn't look like a god either, so I decided that he must be a demigod. His blades interested me. They weren't Celestial Bronze, which was what most demigods used in their weapons, or Stygian Iron, which the kids of Underworld gods unusually used, or even Imperial Gold, which was what the Roman demigods at Camp Jupiter used. Whatever they were made of, it was something I had never seen before, and that made me uneasy.

. . . . .

"I'm Percy Jackson," I introduced myself, offering my hand. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

"Camp Half-Blood?" he asked, looking down at my orange camp shirt which had those exact words in bold letters across it. "That's the name of this place?" He took my hand and gave it a firm shake.

"Of course," I answered. "Didn't you read the arch?"

He looked at me in confusion. "Sure," he said, his tone sounding somewhat sarcastic. "Of course I read the Ancient Greek on the arch."

I looked back at him in equal confusion. The way he said it, you would think he hadn't been able to read the words on the arch. All demigods' brains were wired for Ancient Greek, and we usually find it easier to read then English. The Roman demigods are wired more for Latin then Greek, but they could still decipher Ancient Greek given a little time. "Come on then," I said, pushing those thoughts to the side. "I'll show you around camp. We get new arrivals all the time these days."

"That's cool and all," he said, "but what exactly is this place? And what was with the Cyclops outside?"

"I assumed from your weapons and how you handled yourself out there that you must already know," I told him. "To put it simply, Camp Half-Blood is home to the children of the Greek gods and mortals. We are half mortal, half immortal. Hence the term 'half-blood'. We are also called demigods."

"So I'm a…"

"Demigod, yes." I stood there for a moment, thinking about this strange new demigod. "This is where we live and where we train how to protect ourselves against monsters like that Cyclops you encountered." Looking at him, a thought suddenly came to me. "How old are you?" I inquired.

"Seventeen," he answered. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Usually demigods have already reached camp and been claimed by they are your age. It's part of the agreement we made with the gods not long ago. But I'm sure you'll be claimed soon."

"How will I know when I've been 'claimed'?" he asked.

"Usually some glowing symbol representing your godly parent will appear above your head," I answered. "Come on, I'll show you around the camp. Trust me, you'll love it here."

. . . . .

JAMES

As we walked into the camp, I tried to make sense of the situation. Greek gods? Demigods? Give me a good vampire and a wooden stake any day. Exorcising demons was a lot simpler than all this craziness. How could I be the child of a Greek god? Sure, I never knew my father, but there was nothing divine about him. And did this mean I would have to become a pagan? I wasn't exactly the most devout worshipper, but I had always been a Christian. It's kind of hard not to be when you've seen what holy water or blessed silver can do.

And yet here I was, in a camp full of Greek demigods after just fighting a Cyclops. But Greek gods? Sure, the Cyclopes were new, but they was far from the first monsters I had faced. I had faced all sorts of demonic beings in the past, both disguised inside human skin and not. Maybe the Cyclopes were some kind of mutation brought about by possession by a particularly nasty sort of demon. I tried to think that, to categorize this into something I knew, and understood, but it just didn't fit into what I knew of the world.

How would my family not know about this? The Killers of Devils had been facing demonic entities that had made their way to our world for hundreds of years now. Shouldn't someone have known about all this? Gods and half-gods and all this crazy mythology stuff? It didn't make sense.

I examined my newfound companion, in his orange t-shirt and jeans. He wasn't overly muscled, but he had the build which one would find only on professional athletes and experienced warriors. I knew because I, and much of my extended family, had that same build. I had looked into his eyes, and they weren't a liar's eyes, at least as far as I could tell. I wasn't always right, but I could usually know a liar when I saw one. No, he wasn't making this up. He was a leader, but he wasn't a politician.

My thoughts drifted off as I caught the first sight of the other campers. We came across an arena, where boys and girls everywhere between children barely thirteen years old to legal adults were battling each other and whacking at dummies. All of them wore armor and wielded weapons of some strange, slightly glowing metal.

"Celestial Bronze," Percy said, answering my voiceless question. "Almost everything metal in camp is made from it. It is extremely rare and can only be mined from Mount Olympus, but it is one of the only materials that can harm monsters."

"What about my swords?" I asked. "They don't look anything like that."

"I did say one of the only materials, didn't I?" he asked. "You're swords are certainly unusual, but it wouldn't be the first time we found out about other metals that work. I have this friend who is a son of Hades, and he has a sword made of Stygian Iron, which is a lot like Celestial Bronze, but for Underworld types. Also, the Roman demigods use Imperial Gold instead of Celestial Bronze."

"There are Roman demigods too!" This was getting a bit too much. "Are there Egyptian or Norse demigods as well?"

A dark look crossed his face for a moment before the smile returned. "No, as far as we are aware there are no Egyptian or Norse demigods, or gods, or any of that."

"Good."

We continued through the camp, Percy showing me all the cool stuff around camp. Not everything was my taste, but there were some fairly cool stuff. The arts and crafts were not really my style, but the lava-dumping rock wall, the stables filled with winged horses, and the fully-stocked armory all looked promising. There was also an open-air dining pavilion and a fire pit where they held stereotypical summer camp campfire meetings, complete with campfire songs.

"And at the end of our tour we have the cabins, where everyone sleeps, one for each of the Olympians as well as ones for the lesser gods," Percy told me, gesturing at the collection of twenty odd-looking buildings we were standing before. "Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Dionysus, Hermes, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Artemis, Hades, Iris, Hypnos, Nemesis, Nike, Hebe, Tyche, and Hecate," he told me, naming them one-by-one. "Though the Hera and Artemis cabins are just honorary, and the Zeus and Hades cabins are rarely occupied."

I looked at the different cabins, noticing their differences. Some of them were fairly simple, while others were more dramatic. The one Percy had pointed out as Demeter's was covered with plant life, while Hade's cabin looked(somewhat appropriately, I guess) like a portal to the Underworld. I hoped I wasn't a Hades kid. I would probably spend all my nights clutching a vial of holy water and drawing devil's traps on the walls.

With the tour over, Percy grabbed one of the campers by the arm. "Go tell Chiron that we've got a new camper," he told him before sending him off.

"Who is Chiron?" I asked.

"He's our activities coordinator," Percy answered. "He usually runs the camp, even though Mr. D is technically the camp director."

"Mr. D?" I questioned.

"Dionysus," he answered. "Greek god of wine, parties, etc."

"Your camp director is the god of wine?" I laughed. "Your parties must get pretty wild here."

"We don't drink wine," he told me. "Mr. D actually can't drink wine. It's a long story."

"Okay then," I responded. "When will I get 'claimed', or whatever?"

"If it hasn't happened yet then it will probably happen at the campfire tonight."

"What do I do until then?" I asked.

"Go have some fun!" he answered, laughing. "You're taller than any demigod I've ever seen. Go see if you can teach those Apollo kids in the basketball courts a lesson."

. . . . .

PERCY

I watched for a minute and laughed as James blocked the shots of the usually perfectly accurate Apollo campers. I then made my way back to the Big House, to meet with Chiron. I needed to talk to him about James and his strange choice of weapons. Instead of Chiron, I found Mr. D, drinking out of a can of Cola.

"Where's Chiron?" I asked him.

"Out." He answered simply.

"Out?"

"Out."

I sighed, annoyed. Mr. D was never enjoyable company even on the best of days. "Would you happen to know where he went?"

"Not a clue."

"Hey!" shouted someone from behind me. Turning around, I saw that it was Leo, counselor of the Hephaestus cabin, a good friend and one of the people that had helped take down Gaea.

"Leo!" I called back. "How's it going?"

"I heard about the new camper," he told me. "The huge one that's embarrassing all the Apollo kids."

"You saw him?"

"Yah. Are we sure he isn't part giant or something? That guy is massive!"

"That's not the only unusual thing about him," I told him. "I was going to speak to Chiron about it, but he's not here. Do you have any idea where he is?"

"I'm sorry, man," he responded, shrugging as he fidgeted with some nuts and bolts from his magical tool belt. "I've got no idea. Do you want me to find the others so that we can talk about this together?"

"No," I answered. "We'll wait until Chiron returns. We need to talk to him about this."

"Alright, man," he responded, turning around. "If you want to watch the new guy mess with the Apollo kids some more, I'll be there, laughing right along with everyone else."

I waved him off, deep in my own thoughts. This new camper was different, and it wasn't just his weapons or his height. He felt wrong. I couldn't help but remember my dark thoughts from earlier that day. I was getting the feeling that this James was the beginning of something more. Something far worse, and far stranger, than anything we had ever faced before.