A/N I am back…wow third update in a very short amount of time. Anyway, I want to thank everyone who reviewed (I got seven in like four hours!)!
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or Max.
"Blackjack, down!" I sat up, and nearly fell out of the tree. Fang extended his wings and I copied him. I tapped Iggy's hand twice. It meant that he was in charge.
He flew past the tree, holding onto a terrified kid.
"Malcolm!" So that's who the boy was. He was still sitting by the dragon.
"Hey, Perce! Down Peleus." He yelled to it.
I exchanged looks with Fang. He nodded, our thoughts in sync.
"Percy!" I screamed.
He didn't jump but he looked to his left (I could just see his eyes), eyes wide and a confused look on his face.
"Jacob, run. Go to the blue house. Don't look back." He whispered to the kid, and he ran off.
"Max?" He turned to look at me and his confused look turned into one of determination. His eyes narrowed and he pulled out a…pen? "Malcolm, get Chiron." Malcolm ran off and Percy whistled a high-pitched note. A huge dog came up behind him.
"What the Hades, Percy? I was just taking Mrs. O 'Leary for a walk…" The boy talking stopped talking once he noticed us. He seemed a lot like Fang, just more…morbid looking…and younger. "What are those?" he asked, pulling out a black sword.
"I have no idea," he turned, "Annabeth!"
She came running up the hill, carrying some sort of horn. "What?" she asked breathless.
"What are those?"
She studied us for a moment. "I-I don't know."
"We are so screwed. Signal the camp. We haven't seen a monster since the war! Where is that horse?" He yelled turning around.
She blew the horn. It's sound was calming at first, but then it made more of a shrill sound.
I heard cries from far away. Annabeth pulled out a knife. Another girl in blood-red battle armor with beady pig eyes and brown hair came up to them. I hated her immediately.
"What are those?" She readied her spear.
"Wait Clarisse, Chiron is coming. He will know what to do,"
That Malcolm kid sprinted over. "He left. Needed at a school. Grover thinks he foun-"
"No time! Let's just go. Will! Ready your cabin! Jake! Steady until I tell you! Drew…just get out of here! You're not going to help anyway. Malcolm get Athena with Apollo. Nico, Annabeth, Clarisse on me! Stolls! Back us up!" He whistled the best taxicab whistle I've ever heard, and a bunch of Pegasi galloped over.
Percy started at a pure black one for a moment, and it shook its head. He then walked past the tree. He uncapped the pen and a three-foot sword sprang out.
"What the hell?" Yelled Fang. Annabeth, Nico, and Clarisse followed. He stopped and looked confused.
"Are you new at this? You're supposed to try to kill me and then I gut you with a sword. Ready to play?"
"We have no idea what you're talking about!" I screamed.
He rolled his eyes. Clarisse ran forward with her spear. A whole mess of kids that had the same blood-lust look in their eyes charged in after her.
"Time to disintegrate!"
"We don't disintegrate! Fang, U&A!" We jumped, and flapped our wings with grace. I loved the feel of the wind rushing past my face, as we soared up high.
"OZeu kai alloi theoi! They can actually fly! Archers!"
About seventy bows aimed at us. "We're humans! I swear!"
"Explain the wings!" Yelled Nico.
"Well I would, if you let us!" I exclaimed.
"Will!"
Half of the arrows shot at us, and I was unable to dodge most of them. They got tangled in my wings and some pierced my skin.
"Malcolm!"
Thwack! More arrows hit me. I shook them out of my wings.
"Blackjack!" An army of winged horses galloped over. A bunch of campers jumped on, while they were in mid-stride with no effort. It was like this is what they had trained for their whole lives. Percy stood on the back of the black one. Annabeth on another one. They flew above us; Percy dropped on Fang and Annabeth on me.
"Who are you?" She asked, while we were plummeting- she was too heavy.
"The one who's going to save the world."
"Too late, Percy already did that."
She plunged her knife in my arm. It stung so badly, worse than getting shot. Annabeth looked scared.
"Percy! There not disintegrating!"
He swore.
Angel! Come now!
"Hoo-rah!" Yelled Gazzy. They swept in, Total (our talking dog) behind.
"Shit. Porkiepie!" She pushed off of me and landed on Porkiepie's back.
We landed and started kicking some camper ass. I landed a blow on one kid's face and it snapped back. I jumped and did a split in the air, kicking two guys with swords. Total was dive bombing some other ones, bitting their ears and such. They slashed and hacked at us, got really good swipes in. Angel was making kids walk into the lake.
A pudgy dude walked out, and noticed what Angel was doing. He started pointing and laughing.
"They won't die!"
The call of a hunting horn pierced through the woods. "Oh thank the gods!" Percy said hand to the sky. The baying of wolves echoed. Erasers? Hunting falcons flew overheard.
Girls in silvery outfit almost flew out of the woods. Bows on their back, quivers filled.
"Thalia!" Annabeth said to the girl with a circlet on her head. She wore a filthy 'Death to Barbie' shirt on. Not that I'm one to judge. She touched a bracelet and a terrifying shield magically popped out.
"Girls! Get those birds!" She screamed, her lips curving into a smile, her electric eyes sparkling. Forty arrow wounds later,
"Percy we're out of arrows!" Will yelled. There was our chance.
"Up and away, guys!"
"Not so fast!" Percy, Thalia, and Nico all yelled at the same time. It was creepy. It was as if they were related. They did look a bit alike. Fighting stopped and some of the kids laughed. They got on the flying horses again and fought us in the air. I was not pleased to learn that they could reach high altitudes also. At one point Thalia shocked us all with voltage and knocked us out of the sky. How could she do that? Was she some sorcerer or goddess or something?
They came down as well and Percy yelled, "Will, at ready!" More bows aimed at us.
"Stop this madness!"
It was Jeb.
"Who do you think you are?" Percy was freaking out. "This was supposed to end after the war!"
"I'm a friend of Chiron's"
I fluttered down. "Jeb! Why are you here?" I tried walking past the tree towards him, but I hit a wall. An invisible wall. "What is this?"
"Percy, give her permission to enter camp."
"No! How do you know my name!"
Annabeth grabbed his arm. "Percy, calm down."
"No! This part of our life was supposed to be over!"
"I know, I know! But-"
"Annabeth! Please!"
"Percy chill!" Nico put a hand on his shoulder.
He suddenly turned on me. "How do you know him?"
"He-well it's a long stor-"
"I'm her dad." Jeb broke in.
"No! You're not! Let me through! I have someone to kill!"
Percy put his hands and over his eyes. "I'm seriously considering it."
"No." Annabeth said in a stern, strong voice.
"Max." Fang whispered in my ear. "Shh…" he put his hand on my hip, just for a second and I instantly felt a hundred times better.
"Who are you anyway?" Thalia glared at Jeb. I started to like her attitude- even if she tried to fry me to a crisp.
"I am Jeb. I took part in their creation."
The camper started cheering until Nico sent icicles in one glance.
"So you're mass-producing monsters." The icicle man stated, not really asking a question.
"They aren't monsters! They are mulit-million dollar works of art!"
"Thanks for the compliment!" I yelled. A flash of anger passed through Jeb's face, though it went away just as quickly.
"Well as leader of the camp, I can't let them in. Leave now or I stick the Hellhound on you." The dog-like creature growled, as if to prove Percy's point.
"No! Like I said, I know Chiron."
"Katie! IM Chiron!" a girl ran and got a spray bottle.An image appeared in the water and she started talking to it.
After a few agonizing moments she stopped spraying. "H-he said to let them in."
Percy closed his eyes. "Will? Get some healers and take them to the infirmary. Katie? Can they have Nectar?"
She asked. "He said to take blood samples and check."
Mother bear Max came out. "Up! Up! Now!"
"No! Don't! Then we have to kill you!"
A ripple of fear crossed the faces of the kids. "The mist doesn't work on them! They will tell someone! Come down! I can't disobey Chiron!"
"Stay up there, guys. Fang and I will check this out."
"I, Perseus Jackson, allow Maximum Ride and Nick Martinez to enter camp!"
I flew through, but Fang hit the wall. An idea struck me. "His name isn't Nick! It's Fang!"
Percy said the same line again with Fang's name. He ran through. Total tried to follow us, but got too close to the tree. Peleus had a freak out and lunged.
A couple of the kids started screaming in Greek. He pulled back and Total nearly passed out.
Annabeth came over with her knife. "Will!" Fang got behind me like he would tackle me to the ground if they started shooting. Then I looked down the hill. There was a huge farmhouse- blue- with a wrap around porch. There was traces of Ancient Greek architecture everywhere. Were they supposed to look so old-fashioned? The Long Island Sound was near by. That Will kid came over.
"I promise this wont hurt too much, okay?"
He pulled out a needle. I screamed and kicked it out of his hand.
The school. Experiments. Needl- I closed my eyes and forced the memories out of my head.
You will never be able to let go of your past. You can't. It fuels your hatred. Your ability to fight back. said the Voice, in riddles as always.
Uh huh.
"Max! Calm down," Fang whispered. "Do you guys have anything else?"
"A knife?" Annabeth said.
"Perfect." It looked like we got a paper cut. They tested the blood with a machine, that had a little plaque that read: Courtesy of Hephaestus Cabin.
Some pieces of paper came out and a kid ran up to Will and studied the sheets. "No nectar, or ambrosia."
"Then how did the our weapons hurt them?"
"I-I don't know…it might be the fact that they are not 100% human…"
Two boys with equally mischievous grins walked over to the flock.
"Travis, Connor!" someone yelled.
"Oh, god." I said and started up the hill to beat the pulp out of them.
"It's gods!" the entire camp chorused back.
I rolled my eyes, thinking, there's only one god, what's wrong with these people! Whatever.
When I got there I snarled, "What'cha doing?"
They turned on me. "Don't mess with us."
"I've messed with far worse." I stuck my chin up in defiance.
They smirked. "We'll see."
"Come on guys," I pulled them to the border and this time Nico let us in.
They saw what was below the hill, and some kids smiled at us.
"It's amazing the first time," Annabeth whispered, looking wistfully at the valley. She looked close to tears. Percy put a supportive arm around her, like thinking about this was really hard.
"Uh, Will? Our cuts and stuff are already healed."
He looked at us, all healed. And unlike every other person who has met us, he wasn't surprised, "Okay, let's give you a tour of camp then." he replied with a reassuring smile.
"Campers!" They started saying even more stuff in Greek to them.
"Ooh, I got to take over advanced archery for Chiron. Nico! Can you show these guys around?"
"Why can't Annabeth?" He said, like he really didn't want to. "I only give tours of the Underworld!" Underworld?
"Hey, it's no problem Nico, I'll take it."
"Grover!" I looked at his…whoa! He didn't have legs he- had the lower body of a… donkey?
"So the School got you too. What are you mixed with donkey?" I asked.
He put his hand over his heart. "I am half goat! Or a satyr. You're lucky I am one of the nice ones. Why do you have wings?"
"You're not surprised? How did you get goat legs? Itex, the School, or the Institute?"
"Uh, my mama goat. Let's just take the tour and I'll explain everything."
Camp Half-Blood was awesome. Grover told us about how the gods are real and still alive and that they sire heroes all the time. The reason for this camp was to train and protect those heroes. The actual training portion was cool. The camp had a rock-climbing wall that spewed lava and smashed together if you take to long to get to the top. Then we saw the cabins. There was construction being done on some, and they were starting to form an , the last letter in the Greek alphabet. Or so I was told.
"What's the deal with the big pine?" Gazzy asked.
Grover's happy expression changed to dark. "Well…about twenty years ago…I found Thalia, Annabeth- who was seven, and L-Luke. Thalia is a daughter of Zeus, very powerful- with a crazy strong scent- only one that monsters can smell and come for her. You see, before this summer, the Big Three- Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades- Percy and Nico's dads- weren't allowed to have children. They all swore on the River Styx that they wouldn't sire anymore demigod heroes- they were too powerful. But Zeus couldn't resist. He sired Thalia. Hades found out and sent an army of monsters to kill her. We were racing to camp, the one place she would be safe. I took some wrong turns and the monsters caught up. We were right there." He pointed towards the top of the hill. "She made us go ahead. She took on the whole army herself. She was killed."
"How was she killed if she's still here?"
He gave a small smile. "Her father felt pity and turned her into that pine tree right there. Then we named it Thalia's pine. And the hill Half-Blood Hill. It protected the camp for a while. Her soul made up the barrier that held out mortals and monsters. But the summer after Percy came to camp- I'll have him tell his story- someone poisoned the tree. It was Luke. The Titan king was controlling him. The border started to fail. And I got kidnapped- sort of… When Percy and Annabeth came to rescue me, we found the Golden Fleece. It healed the tree. But it worked too well. Thalia sprang out just as she was before she was killed."
"Wow…" I said. That story was really…I don't know how to describe how I felt about that. Grover's eyes shown with tears. "I'm sorry. Are all of the stories like that?"
He nodded. "Wait 'till you hear Percy's. Let's go see him." He closed his eyes and concentrated. "He's coming."
Percy came over instantly. "So you want to hear my story? Here it goes... Wait, we should probably sit first."
A/N I was going to have Percy explain his story to them and all this other stuff, but I just noticed that it was twelve pages so I stopped writing. Also, the reason that Percy, Thalia, and Nico were torturing the flock, was that they never got back for what they have lost.
Was the chapter horrible? Tell me!