Chapter 7
"You did this?" Asked Percy in amazement.
"Apparently." I said, equally amazed.
We were standing in front of the Big House at the edge of a massive crater that was about ten feet across and ten feet deep. I looked down at the crater in awe.
Yeah, I thought. I'm defiantly not a monster.
A large group of campers had gathered around the crater and were looking from the crater to me then back to the crater. I could see the fear on their faces.
Great, another reason to fear me. I thought angrily.
"Come on, we need to find Todd." I said as I walked around the crater.
"If you crashed into Percy's cabin, then that means that Todd should be around Half Blood Hill." Said Annabeth.
"Thanks." I said as I rolled my eyes. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he'd be moving away from the blast, but I let her have her moment of pride because I'm just that nice. Plus, I was scared of just how good she was with her knife.
The entire group of demigods followed me to Half Blood Hill. What we found, was disturbing.
Todd was laying at the foot of the hill, his his entire body was severally burnt and disfigured, his nose and ears were gone, along with his hair. His face was severally charred and the air smelled like burnt flesh. The worst part, was that his chest was slowly raising and falling. He was still alive.
Some of the campers threw up, while others screamed bloody murder, and one even passed out.
Annabeth composed herself and pulled a water bottle out of her backpack. She then pored the contents of the bottle on Todd's face. Although it looked like water, I doubted that it actually was.
When the liquid touched Todd's face, it began to heal. His skin wasn't as burnt now, but it was still burnt pretty badly. The liquid also wasn't able to regrow his nose, ears, or hair.
She then pored the liquid into his mouth and the rest of his body started to heal as well.
Good, whispered the voice in my head. Let him live to be a constant reminder of your power.
I shook the voice out of my head. Even if Todd did have this coming to him, no one deserved to be treated like a freak and a monster for the rest of their life.
I closed my eyes and focused on the Apollo cabin and felt a wave of warmth wash over me for the third time that day.
Opening my eyes, I looked up to see the golden cabin of Apollo. I walked up to the front door and knocked.
A tall, surfer looking boy with blond hair and bright blue eyes, just like Madison, answered the door.
"Can I help you?" He asked.
"Have you seen Madison?" I asked.
"No, why?"
"Just wondering."
"Why don't you come inside and wait for her?" He suggested to casually.
"Okay." I said hesitantly as I walked inside the cabin.
"Have a seat." He said, gesturing towards a chair.
I sat down while he pulled a chair up and straddled it. He extended his hand and I shook it.
"Will Solace, counselor of the Apollo cabin and Madison's older brother." He said.
"Jake Fuller." I said.
"So Jake, why do you want to see Madison?" He asked me, narrowing his eyes.
"She's a friend of mine and we didn't finish our conversation earlier."
"What was the conversation about?"
"Why are you so interested?"
"You didn't answer my question."
"You're suggesting things that aren't true."
"I'm suggesting nothing. Why are you starting to defend yourself?"
"Why are both of you talking about me behind my back?" Asked a voice from the doorway.
Both of us turned to see who it was, even though we already knew the answer. Standing in the doorway was a very angry looking Madison.
When neither of us offered a response, she stalked over to us and glared. After a few moments of awkward silence, I did the only sensible thing. I focused on the other side of the room and, once again, felt the warmth wash over my body. Just before I disappeared, I heard Madison and Will screamed as my body caught fire and from the doorway, I laughed.
Madison heard me and turned around to face me.
"Jake Fuller! Don't you ever scare me like that again!" She yelled at me.
"It's so much fun though." I taunted. I then focused on the ground right behind and was looking at the back of her head.
Before she could react, I grabbed her waist and focused on the pile of rocks where she found me earlier that day.
Madison started out kicking and screaming, but stopped when she felt the warmth.
"Okay," She said. "Now, I understand why you like doing that."
"Yeah. I wonder what Will's thinking right now?"
"How he's going to kill us." She offered.
I laughed and sat down and Madison did the same.
"What do you call that trick?" She asked me.
"I don't really know. Why do I even need a name for it?"
"You have to name it!"
"Okay, fine. How about fire-porting?"
"You're kidding, right?"
"You're not making it easy, are you? Flame jumping, will that work?"
She looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"What?" I asked defensively. "I like it! 'Flame jumping.' It has a nice ring to it."
"You're an idiot." She said as she laughed. "So what exactly happened earlier?"
I then explained how the three kids tried to kill me with armor that made them invisible and how I disfigured Todd.
"Wow." She said. "That's a lot of power."
"I know, I'm kinda scared of it." I said.
We both sat there for a few minutes without saying anything. Then the conch sounded for lunch.
I offered my hand to Madison and flame jumped us to the mess hall.
About halfway through lunch, Chiron stomped his hoof on a table and everyone grew quiet.
"Heroes," He said. "tonight, we shall have a game of capture the flag!"
The entire mess hall cheered.
"Also," He said, as he looked directly at me. "I need to talk to you, Jake."
Sheepishly, I stood up and walked over to him.
"Yeah, Chiron?" I asked.
"I just wanted you to know that the three boys who attacked you earlier today have been kicked out of camp. The camps borders will no longer allow them to enter."
"Wow, that's awesome, but I've got a feeling that more people are going to try and get rid of me."
"I pray that you're wrong, Jake. I'd rather not have any more cases like Todd."
"Sorry about that by the way."
"It's perfectly fine. Just... don't use your powers to much tonight."
I walked away, chuckling.
Needless to say, I wasn't a fan of armor.
It was bulky, awkward, restricting, and there were straps in a rather uncomfortable place.
The Hermes cabin joined up with the Apollo cabin, the Aries cabin, which never happens, the Zeus cabin and some of the minor god cabins.
The Zeus kid, Jason, was going to provide a major distraction while I flame jumped two other kids behind enemy lines, get the flag, and then flame jump back.
When the game started, Jason led most of our team into a head on charge, leaving some behind to guard the flag.
Everyone decided that I should take Zach and Madison behind enemy lines.
"An archer and two swordsmen is a perfect team." Jason had said. "The three of you will be awesome."
Zach and Madison each grabbed one of my shoulders and I flame jumped us behind the line.
The second I finished the jump, I collapsed. Zach reacted quickly and caught me.
"You alright?" He said nervously.
"Yeah," I moaned. "I don't know why that happened."
"Maybe you can only take one person when you jump." Madison offered.
"I think that's probably it." Said Zach. "Which means that you're not jumping us back."
I didn't protest. I was way to tired to argue at the moment.
After a few minutes, I regained my strengths and stood up.
Breathing in deeply through my nose, I picked up our scents, Madison's lavender and Zach, who smelled like the burgers he'd had earlier that night. I also smelt a large group of demigods and a hint of fresh blood. I also smelt a much smaller group, farther in the woods. In this group, there were two scents, much stronger than the rest, salt water and death.
"We need to go that way." I said, pointing in the direction of the smaller group.
"Why go that way?" Asked Zach.
"Because that's where the flag is." I said as I started to walk in that direction.
The walk was rather short. It only took about fifteen minutes before we found a clearing with a flag in the center and multiple demigods standing around it.
"We need a plan." I whispered.
"I can make a distraction." Zach offered. "I'll get them to chase me then the two of you can get the flag and get out."
"I can't think of anything better, so let's go with that." I said.
Zach slowly moved around to the other side of the clearing and jumped out of his hiding place, into the open.
The guards reacted and moved to engage him, but Zach knocked one of them out and ran. Most of the guards chased him, but about five remained.
Out of the five I recognized Percy and the pail boy from my first day.
"Can you take them out from here?" I asked Madison.
"Not a problem." She said as she pulled a blunt arrow from the quiver on her back. She nocked the arrow and shot it at one of the guards' head, knocking him out. The other guards reacted to what was going on and ran towards us.
I quickly grabbed Madison and flame jumped us to the other side of the clearing.
Madison nocked another blunt arrow and hit one of the remaining guards in the head, knocking him out as well. Then she repeated the process and took out a third guard before they even realized that they were in danger.
Only Percy and the pail kid remained, but before Madison could shoot them down, the pail kid grabbed Percy and they disappeared.
"What the hell just happened?" I asked after a long pause.
"I have no idea." Madison admitted.
I sniffed the air and couldn't pick up any scent other than our own and the kids that Madison had knocked out. It was like the two of them had vanished.
"I'm going to check it out." I said.
"Be careful, Jake." She said, looking me in the eyes.
"No promises." I said jokingly.
She rolled her eyes and I stepped out into the clearing with my sword drawn.
I slowly moved towards the flag while scanning the area. I couldn't see any thing, but I knew that something was wrong.
I got about ten feet from the flag when the two of them reappeared. They charged me, weapons drawn and started slashing at me furiously. I managed to perry their attacks and put some space between us.
We all took a quick breather.
"How did y'all do that?" I asked.
"Nico can disappear into the shadows." Said Percy. "It's a pretty useful trick."
"You're telling me." I mumbled.
Percy then swung at my leg and I blocked his attack. In the split second that he took to recover, I slashed at his chest. He jumped back and away from my attack and quickly took up a defensive possession.
I looked at Percy and matched his possession. He started to move in for an attack, but his eyes widened and he jumped to the side just as an arrow whizzed past my head and passed through the air where Percy had been standing seconds ago.
I looked behind me and saw Madison notching another arrow just as the pail boy, Nico, appeared behind her and put his sword to her throat.
For a second, I went into panic mode, but Madison stomped on his foot, got free of his grasp, and kicked him in the groin.
He dropped his sword and let out a quiet, high pitched, groan before falling to the ground.
I turned my attention back to Percy. He was in an offensive stance and was about to charge me. I prepared to do the same.
As he ran towards me, I ran towards him. We met in the middle and locked swords. Rather than allowing him to get the upper hand, I flame jumped behind him.
He was extremely confused and looked around the clearing, trying to find me. When he did, he slashed at my mid section. I blocked the attack and swung at his shoulder. He parried my attack and sent my sword flying through the air.
Before I could flame jump my sword back into my hand, he placed his sword tip on my throat.
"Not bad, Jake." He said as he lowered his sword.
"Caught you off guard with my flame jump, didn't I?" I said tauntingly.
"Is that what you call it? Nico has something like that called 'shadow traveling.' I think that it works the same way as your flame jump does." He said.
"Wait! Y'all just went from trying to kill each other, to idle small talk in a matter of seconds." Said Madison as she walked up.
"Yep." I said. "He won and I lost. It's that simple."
She just rolled her eyes and leaned against a tree.
Percy then pulled some rope from a bag laying on the ground.
"What's that for?" I asked.
"You're still an enemy. I have to restrain you." He said simply.
"You're not coming anywhere near me with that rope." I said.
I've never been so wrong in my life. In a matter of minutes. Percy and Nico and both of us tied to a tree and as much as I hate to admit it, they were really good at tying knots.
Madison and I sat there for about twenty minuets before a conch shell blew in the distance.
"What does that mean?" Asked Madison.
"It means that we just won." Said Nico excitedly.
A/N: Do you ever have one of those weeks where you get slammed with crap from everything you're involve in? Well I just had two... And they sucked.
But that's enough about me. Let's talk about Jake.
I felt like he was a tad bit overpowered, so I gave him some limitations. That's why he almost passed out when he "flame jumped" Zach and Madison behind enemy lines.
And what do you guys think about me calling it "flame jumping?"
Personally, I think it sounds kinda stupid... but I couldn't think of anything else, plus it's kinda starting to grow on me.
Again, let me know what you think about the story and how Jake and Madison's relationship should be.
