Wow, this took me forever to get back to. I've had…a very hectic few months. Between exams, working, getting caught up in collaborative fics, and bureaucratic stuff for the next school year, it's been insane trying to get any time or inspiration for my own fics. Oh, and computer failure, my old laptop decided to kill itself, so I had to get a new one, which took a lot longer than I hoped, and set me back a while. But at least I've gotten back into the swing of things (mostly) and we get some silly fun stuff, including new characters and old ones!

I sit on my bed, Sam and Eran snuggled up on one end, and Kai lounging over near my pillows. Will, Declan, Jean, Otis, and a willowy blond girl are scattered across the other beds. "Okay, so we're all here to-"

"You guys in here?" A head pokes inside, and it's the dark-haired, blue-eyed son of Hermes that I was looking for. "Well, that's a yes. Sorry it took so long, I was rounding up some of the others." He pushes the door all the way open and looks around as he saunters in, followed by representatives from most of the other cabins. We;ve got a pretty good turn-out, more of a variety than I was expecting.

Including, surprisingly, Chantelle DuBois from the Aphrodite Cabin. A surprise, since usually the Aphrodite Cabin stays out of games this rough. Something about not wanting to break any nails, or mess up their clothes or hair. They're such Barbies. "Hey, I heard we were going up against the Hunters this time around." She's about a year older than me, I think, and definitely not one of the ones who had it out for me last year. Besides, that was last year, and there's no way that I'm getting caught off guard again, especially not with someone hanging around me almost every hour of every day. The boys are probably going to be obsessive about it, which of course means that I'm going to have to find time to sneak off. I can't be coddled every minute of every day. It would drive me crazy!

"You heard right." Will looks her up and down suspiciously, before relaxing a little. "Let me guess, the Aphrodite Cabin has a bone to pick with them, again."

"Don't we always?" She sits down on one of the couches, followed by an Ares boy not much older than her. "This is Grayson, son of Ares. Clarisse told him to come on behalf of the Ares Cabin." Probably chosen so as not to antagonize me, or anyone overly protective of me.

I raise an eyebrow at him. I didn't really see him around last year, but he might have just gotten lost in the crowd of faces. Now that I get a good look at him, he's…really different to the three idiots from last year. He definitely looks foreign.

But as I open my mouth, he holds up his hand. "Yeah, Mum is Egyptian, but nah, I'm from New Orleans." His accent is a little surprising, but southern, definitely southern. His fingers twist into a cord hanging around his neck with all sorts of carved beads on it. "So, Hunters are comin'. I hear you plan on bringin' the winnin' streak to an end."

"Well, yeah, that's the idea." I glance once more around the room at the dozen and a half people gathered here. "Okay, so I've never actually met the Hunters before, but since they're associated with Artemis, I'm going to go ahead and assume that there's going to be a lot of bows and arrows involved."

"Yeah, but that's not all." Will grimaces. "They recruit mortals, sure, but they recruit immortals as well, and demigods on top of that. My half-sister is their leader, Thalia Grace, Artemis' lieutenant."

"And my godmother…" Right, that's going to complicate things, a lot. "Okay, so assuming that they can plow through any offensive and defensive measure we put up against them, what's the best we've got from each cabin?"

Eran grins. "Every trap you can think of from Cabin Nine. If it exists, we've made it."

"If you reqvest it, ve can spell trap de voods." The blond girl next to Will speaks up, and her words make me blink a few times as I run them through my head and interpret them. "I am Galadriel, daught'r of 'Ecate."

There's silence for a few very long seconds, before I nod. "Okay, I think I got that." Though it's kind of hard to tell with such an obviously foreign accent. Kai's is one thing, I've been slowly getting used to that, whenever it slips through. But Galadriel's is…another story entirely.

Will chuckles. "She's from Oslo, so don't feel bad if it's hard to understand her. Basically, Cabin Twenty can let their magic loose into the woods for us. I think that's a good idea." His eyes find Jean in an instant. "Think you can wrangle the Nike Cabin long enough to point them at the Hunters and let them go?"

"Think so? I know so. All ye'll 'ear from those woods are the screams o' the lassies." The daughter of victory smirks, as confident as ever.

Declan shifts from his spot and stands, unrolling a map. "If we take to the southern hills, then my cabin should be on defense, backing up Kai. We can scatter Apollo's archers into scouting parties with the Athena and Aphrodite cabins to engage the Hunters."

"Good plan." I look at the map, imagining the movements. Then, I glance hesitantly at Grayson. "You think that your cabin would agree to be part of the bulk force to draw their attention?"

He nods. "That, we can do." And judging by the way his eyes light up, he's looking forward to it.

"Good." My faith in our chances is only growing. "Then let's plan this out for anything the Hunters can throw at us."

"That's going to be easier said than done." Kai sits up and shuffles over towards the map, gray eyes twinkling. "But if it means taking those girls down a few pegs, I'm in."

Let's do this.

After staying up nearly till curfew with everyone in my cabin, we were forced to break up the meeting so that no one would get eaten by the patrol harpies for being out too long after dark.

Which is why, at breakfast, when every leader in our alliance sits down at the three combined tables at our end of the pavilion, the whole camp knows immediately that something is up. The air is thick with the tension preceding a serious game of capture the flag.

Except that this time, we're all on the same team.

Near the end of breakfast, but while everyone is still in the pavilion, Chiron gets up from the head table, his hooves clopping against the floor and drawing the attention of every head in the room. "As some of you already know, two nights ago, we received word that the Hunters of Artemis will be visiting the camp later today. As such, we will be holding a traditional game of Capture the Flag, campers competing against the Hunters. Those who wish to participate should speak to their cabin leaders, if they have not done so already."

"And we're already talking strategy!" Will raises his cup into the air. "This time, the Hunters are going down!"

Silence reigns in the pavilion for a very long three seconds. Then, cheers erupt all over the place, and I grin down at my plate. Looks like we've got the camp's support. Good. Because what I gathered from what we talked about last night, we're going to need it.

Once my plate is clean, I catch Kai's eye, and he glances out of the pavilion, away from all the chaos of a horde of excited demigods. Does he want to talk? Not entirely sure what it is that he wants, I get up and follow him out, the cacophony dimming with every step.

Then, the sun shines off of something on Kai's head, nearly blinding me for a second. When it dims, I squint a little. No…not on his head…in his…ear? Then it hits me. "You're…actually wearing the earrings?" I'd gotten them for him as a birthday present back in December, kind of as a gag, though I still put some effort into picking them out. Crescent moons, silver, to go with his eyes, a little girly, or so I thought when I picked them. On him…not so much. Up an inch above the tiny silver moon is a small ear cuff that twists and wraps up and around the curve of his ear.

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Yeah? They're comfortable. I'm only wearing one, though." He turns his head and brushes his hair back from his ear, revealing a small dangling fang on the other ear.

"Oh…I see." He definitely has interesting choices in accessories. "So…what did you wanna talk about?"

"…The Hunters." He glances back towards the pavilion, before heading towards the basketball court. "Come on, let's burn some energy."

I should have known that he would want to shoot some hoops.

"Alright, but I warn you, I'm not a great basketball player." Though the fact that I'm not all that tall probably has something to do with that. What I wouldn't give not to be a little taller…

"That's fine, I'll teach you." Completely undeterred, he walks up to the metal cage that holds the basketballs, shuffling them around and squeezing them until he finds one that he likes, bouncing it off the ground and onto the court.

I join him on the court, catching the ball when he tosses it to me, before bouncing it back to him off the ground. "So, is there something I should know about the Hunters?"

"Yeah, there is." Kai dribbles the ball a bit, before jumping three feet into the air and sending it soaring over my head and right into the basket. "They're dangerous."

Was that some sort of trick statement? A question in disguise? "…Aren't we all dangerous?" I grab the ball on its second bounce, mimicking Kai's dribbling movements as best I can.

Kai watches me, sinking into a defensive position. "Well, yeah, we are, but that's not what I meant." He examines my posture before shaking his head. "Move your hands further apart, it'll help you to support the ball better."

"Okay…" I shift my hands a bit, until the ball settles more comfortably in my hands. "So what makes the Hunters so dangerous?" I bounce the ball off the ground a few more times, always letting it return to the same position in my hands, before shooting it into the air.

Kai jumps up to catch the ball, dribbling it quickly as he re-balances himself. "Every time they come to the camp, they always leave with at least a couple of our campers. They come here to recruit some of the girls to be part of their group."

"So?" I don't see how that would merit a warning. Isn't it well within their rights to come and recruit from the camp? Why would Kai see fit to warn me about that?

He rolls his eyes, before dribbling again, racing towards me, weaving around and tossing the ball up and around his opposite shoulder, straight into the net in what I think should have been an impossible shot. "You're a girl, which means that you're on their recruitment list."

Oh. "So? Just because I'm on their list doesn't mean that I'm going to join them." I retrieve the ball and try to imitate what I saw Kai do with his wrists, the rolling motion as he dribbled. I'm not sure that I'm completely successful, but the change does add a little speed to my own dribbling.

"Even if your godmother is the one who asks you to join?" His silvery eyes darken to a stormy gray. "It's not passive recruitment, they're going to give you all sorts of reasons to join."

Okay…something seems really wrong here. "What's so bad about the Hunters, anyway? Apart from the fact that they haven't lost a single game of Capture the Flag?" Though, I guess, seen from the other side, that could be considered pretty impressive. Though, annoying, since we're the ones who have to manage a way to stop them.

Kai grits his teeth. "Socializing outside of the Hunters would be very hard, especially since they have their own little rules about even talking to guys. And they only visit camp once every few years at most." He surges forward, stealing the ball from my grasp, before dribbling it a moment, and twirling it on the tips of his fingers. "You would leave here, and probably never see any of us again. And even if you did, you wouldn't be able to talk to us. It's a girls' club, and they hate boys. That's the bottom line."

Now…I think I understand the warning. Joining them would mean that I'd lose Sam, Kai, Eran, Caiden, Will, basically all of my friends. That's not a very reassuring thought. "Well, I hadn't planned on joining them, anyway. I mean, why would I be helping with planning the game against them if I was gonna join them?"

"Won't stop them from trying to recruit you." Kai's face is so sour that I almost wonder if he swallowed a whole lemon.

"Hey kid, mind playing me one on one?" A female voice calls out to us, turning my head from the court to see a girl a bit older than Will, with choppy pitch black hair, electric blue eyes, a silver circlet around her head, and silvery camo pants with a black punk-rock style on top of that. And she's staring right at Kai.

I'm not entirely sure who this girl is, but judging by the way that Kai is looking at her, it can't possibly be good. Or, at least, it's not someone that he's particularly eager to see. "Fine, get on the court." He eyes me. "Sit this out. This one's personal." Not an enemy, then, since Kai isn't moving to attack, but...I'm not entirely sure if this is a friend, either.

"Okay…?" In the end, I just honestly have no idea who this girl is or what's going on, or if she's some kind of dangerous. "Do I need to go get help?"

"No, I can handle this." His gaze is fixed on the girl as she settles herself on the court across from him.

She looks confident, to say the least. And there's something about her that's kind of…familiar. "Alright." I settle myself on the grass next to the court so that I can watch in relative comfort.

What rings strange to me is that the two of them are…not quite glaring at each other, but there's definitely some kind of tension between them, though not quite like the tension there usually is between Will and Kai. The boys, I've gotten used to ignoring when they start glaring daggers at each other. But there's something in the air now that really sets me off.

The way she takes off across the court only intensifies that feeling. And despite the fact that she looks only a couple of years older than Kai, at the most, she's clearly had a lot of physical training. At least, the way that she springs forward and scoops the ball away from Kai indicates that. "Try again, kid!" She jumps high into the air, nearly eight feet, and shoots the ball far over Kai's head.

But, not to be completely outdone by her, Kai dashes back to the net, grabbing the ball and sinking low to the ground as he takes off across the court as she touches back down. He's agile and fast, and it's a bit of a thrill to see him racing past her, his eyes constantly darting around, and keeping an eye on her shadow as he presses forward." Don't underestimate me, Hunter."

I blink at his words. Hunter? Then, my eyes turn back to the girl racing after Kai. Does he mean…one of the Hunters of Artemis? But I thought that they weren't supposed to arrive until later today. Did they arrive early?

With a sudden snap of his wrist, Kai sends the ball flying, slamming it against the backboard of the net, and straight into the basket. The girl grins at the move. "Nice job. You practice a lot, don't you?" But as Kai ignores the jab, getting back into position as she grabs the ball out from under the net, she frowns. "Come on, you're giving boys a bad name."

Kai's brow furrows under dark bangs. "You really believe that I care what you think?"

"No, but it's fun to tease you. You're as sensitive as Nico." Now THAT makes my own eyebrows knit together. She knows Nico? Though, I suppose that if she's a Hunter, that would only be expected. Nico is a pretty important person at camp, so she would have to be new in order to not know him.

Kai looks about ready to bite her. "Are you trying to pick a fight with me?" Yeah…he's definitely on the sensitive side.

"No." She twirls the ball around on a single finger, here piercing blue eyes sliding over to pin me in place. "I just wanted to see who my goddaughter is hanging out with these days. I never expected it to be a son of Hades."

"Goddaughter?" Wait a minute. "Thalia?" I knew her name, of course, and that she was a daughter of Zeus, and a Hunter, but I'd never actually seen her before. At least, not as far as I can remember. Maybe when I was a baby, but I would have been way too young to remember that. But it certainly explains why she looks familiar. She looks like Will and Jason.

"That's right." Her silver circlet glimmers in the sunlight as she turns to face me. "Thalia Grace, Lieutenant to the Lady Artemis, and the leader of her Hunters." She tosses the ball to me, letting me catch it easily. "It's nice to finally meet you, Mini Jackson."

"Mini Jackson?" My eye twitches in irritation. Did she REALLY just call me that!? Just what kind of godmother is she supposed to be? Definitely not a fairy, that's what. Because no fairy would be caught dead in punk-rock clothes that look like they belong to the nineties.