Chapter 7 - Story Time
As they pulled onto the beach of Long Island Sound just on the outskirts of Camp, Arc glanced down at the clock which read Five to Five in the morning. He looked up out of the windscreen again, noticing through the corner of his eye Thalia turn to him, looking him up and down, finally speaking up. "huh, didn't really have you figured for a rocker."
Arc looked at her, eyebrow raised. "You kidding, my whole glove box and CD player is filled with the stuff, Green Day, AC/DC, Rush, Foo Fighters, Avenged Sevenfold you name it."
Arc drove slowly along the beach, eventually driving past all the cabins, probably waking everyone up by the deep gurgling of the Mustangs V8. He pulled up outside the Big House and told the others in the back they had arrived. As He and Thalia were getting out there was a flash in the sky, and a streak of fire heading towards the camp. They all watched as Arc raised the water in the lake to make a landing platform for the fire ball to land on. Percy rubbed his eyes thinking he was clearly imagining things, but the others faces told him otherwise.
"Well, Apollo and The Hunters are here." Arc informed dryly. They walked towards the lake as Apollo touched down on the barrier of water that was created. Apollo was in his 18 year old body form, the first time Arc had met the god of the Sun he looked exactly the same, as he did now. He obviously preferred to look like an 18 year old other than a 3000 year old. To be honest, anyone would. Apollo looked at everyone and gave them a wicked grin, Thalia in particular. His teeth were so white and gleaming, you could tell he was god of the sun.
"Arc, good to see you again, you have grown up a lot from the last time I saw you." Apollo smiled, the mischevous glint returning to his eyes as he recalled their first encounter.
"Hey Apollo, thanks for bringing The Hunters, I couldn't have lasted five minutes taking them here." Arc grinned, showing some form of emotion that hadn't been released in a long time, whilst staring straight at Zoƫ as she glared at the demigod. "and yes, seven years go quite quick for you gods, but damn they dragged on for me. Its good to see you too, man."
Thalia, Grover, Nico and Percy stood there gawking at Arc, baffled at the scene unfolding infront of them.
"Oh yeah, where are my manners, Apollo these are-" he was about to introduce them, that being a stupid idea because he was a god, he already knew them.
"Percy Jackson, your brother, Grover Underwood the Satyr, Protector and Searcher, Nico Di Angelo, cant see his path yet. And. My, my Thalia Grace Daughter of Zeus, good to have you back. I hated the fact you became a tree." Through the corner of his eye Arc could see Thalia starting to blush. He felt something bubbling inside, but quenched it instantly. Was he seriously getting Jealous!?
After a while of talking Apollo looked to the sky, said his goodbyes to the Hunters and Demigods and clicked his fingers. The little van that looked like a small bus, turned into a flaming yellow coloured Maserati. He got in his car and told us all to look away. no body argued. The car glowed into a burning hot ball of fire and gas, which started to make the water platform, sizzle and evaporate from underneath Apollo. Apollo was taking on his true godly form, it was dangerous for a mortal to witness it as they could have their brains fried, that was definitely something outside the area of healing expertise for anyone in the Apollo cabin, probably Apollo himself. He took off, streaking like a shooting star in the night sky, ready to start the day, the sun now peaking on the horizon.
Thalia let out a huge sigh and said, "Wow." Arc resisted the urge to roll his eyes and released the water making the platform, landing in the water with a hiss, as the hot steamy water, hit the cold water of the lake.
Grover offered to take the Hunters to their cabin and didn't take no for an answer. Nico said his goodbyes to his sister and came back over to where everyone was standing, waiting to visit Chiron. They walked back to the Big house in silence and noticed that most of the campers were out of their cabins looking around at what all the fuss was about. A few wandered around outside the big house, looking at the Mustang parked up, looking confused and talking in hushed tones. Others were walking to the arena, possibly to train, or just to hang around on a winters day.
There wasn't many campers dotted around camp, Arc scanned the surroundings and counted at least twenty roaming and possibly more in their cabins. Percy explained that most of the campers were not so noticeable with their scent, so they could live normal lives going to school and coming to camp for just the Summer. But there was others, like Annabeth, who didn't have homes to go to so they stayed at camp year round, with the others that preferred to stay year round.
"What about you then, being the son of Poseidon and all, do you stay year round?" Arc asked his brother. Percy shook his head, before answering.
"I live with my mum and step father, I called him smelly Gabe because he always smelt like a sewer. But my mother left him and I live with her and go to school until the summer season for camp." He explained.
"Must be nice being able to go to school, Poseidon taught me the basics really at my Camp Half Blood, I never got the choice to live a normal life and go to school." Arc explained, saying Poseidons name with distaste and a hint of genuine sadness in his voice.
"Oh trust me, school is over rated for a demigod, Poseidon was doing you a favour." Thalia explained, biting into an apple she'd picked up from the petrol station earlier yesterday. She made them all jump, she was so quiet that everyone had forgot she was walking next to Arc, just the sound of an apple being bitten into every so often. Nico looked reasonably uncomfortable on the topic of school, He was just saved along with his sister from a Manticore attack.
"Yeah, believe me when I say this, but I have been kicked out from 5 different schools. You got it easy." Percy stated, looking at his brother with envy. Arc grew quiet on the subject. He thought to himself, what if he did go to normal school and someone angered him? The Ares side of his life would come out, and that would be a very bad situation to try and resolve and clean up.
They reached the porch where they saw, Mr D and Chiron, in wheelchair form, playing their card game. Arc wandered over to his car, looking around in the engine bay, looking over if anything needed doing to the car. The others approached the two and Chiron lifted his head and smiled thankful to see everyone was alive.
"Ah, hello you must be Nico, Percy where is his sister?" Chiron wondered, scanning the surroundings for the sister.
"Joined The Hunters, they are here too by the way." Percy responded looking quite depressed. Chiron's smile wavered slightly and looked over everyone. Concern crossing his features.
"and where is Annabe-" he stopped mid sentence of her name and his face went slack, he must of guessed by the expression on Percy and Thalia's face along with the single tear, that drifted down the side of Thalia's cheek. He came to the conclusion that something bad had happened to her. Percy told them everything that transpired.
"No matter, we lost one and gained two more, even if the other joined The Hunters." Mr D chimed in, Percy was glaring at him, ready to snap. At that point Grover came back, with cuts and red marks that looked like hand prints on his face. Grover was actually smiling at the fact his face was beaten up.
"Grover, please would you take Mr Di Angelo to see the introductory video." Chiron looked at Grover and he didn't argue. He took Nico into the Big House and sat down at the computer in the corner.
Percy was still giving Mr D a look that would kill, if they could. "How can you say something like that, Annabeth didn't deserve what happened to her, she deserved something better than going down with-" Percy cut himself off before he said something he would regret.
He knew he had to be strong in this situation, not just for himself but for Annabeth too, hoping that she was okay wherever she was. "You would just love it if every camper here disappeared or dropped dead wouldn't you?!" Percy was starting to ball his fists. "You were sent here to be punished and for you to be taught a lesson, you are here to look after us not to play cards and read a stupid wine magazine day in day out! This isn't your punishment, this is ours!" Percy was really starting to lose his temper now, and any second now Mr D wasn't going to stay in his 'Calm State' for much longer.
Mr D looked up from the cards in his hands, looked Percy dead in the eyes and mused. " Perry Johnson, It would help a lot if you all did that, but I don't like to report on the events to Zeus. To much paperwork. But turning the god of the seas son into a Dolphin, well that's a whole different story."
Mr D was about to stand up when Nico and Grover came back. "Your Chiron the Centaur, the one who trained Hercules!" Nico said pointing at Chiron.
"Yes, but I prefer to stay in my wheelchair for first encounters if that's okay." Chiron said forcing a smile on his face.
"And you, Your the Wine Dude!" Nico said still pointing his finger, now at Mr D.
Mr D forgot what he was about to do, partially with the help of The Mist from Arc, who was climbing the steps after locking the car. Mr D looked at Nico with a stern and somewhat surprised look on his face, "The wine dude?"
Nico nodded his head vigorously, "Yeah, Dionysus, you have 400 attack points 200 more if you attack first!" Nico exclaimed.
Mr D looking rather confused, " I beg your pardon?" Nico started to go over something about a game called Mythomagic, he brought out Mr D's action figure from his bag along with the card with details on and started telling Mr D about the game.
Chiron took this as an opportunity and said, "Percy why don't you Thalia and Arc go around to all the cabins and tell them about Capture the Flag tonight after dinner, Camp VS Hunters." Chiron gave him a look that meant no arguing or else. As Thalia and Percy started down the stairs, Arc rubbed the back of his neck rather sheepishly while he approached Chiron.
"Uh Chiron, is it okay if I skip out on Capture the Flag, for well, forever?" Chiron looked quite puzzled on the question Arc presented.
"What on earth for?" Thalia and Percy looked back to where he was talking with Chiron.
"Well, for a start I don't have a sword, and any sword I craft or get given feels so wrong in my hands. Riptide for example felt extremely off in my hands. Plus I prefer to do hand to hand combat and as much as I hate the Hunters I'm not hitting a girl, or shooting them either." Arc explained, turning one of the rings into a knuckle dusters and the other the Desert Eagle from earlier.
Chiron slowly nodded his head in agreement, "Yes I can see why that would be a big problem. Very well, if you are as good as a child of Apollo, you can prove your skill by being medic." Arc nodded and smiled, a genuine smile that hadn't come across his face since he was seven. He was happy to accept the new role to play and wandered down the steps to join his two new friends and walked to the cabins, ready for a tour.
