Disclaimer: You all know I don't own anything...sniffles.
Chapter 8: A Compromise
A small squadron of men sat underneath a canopy of trees in Long Island Sound. They wore dark clothes to fit into the surrounding night as they stared determinedly at the hill less then a mile away. The men knew what was over the hill; in fact, they could see proof of it on top of the hill. For on top of the hill, was a large pine cone tree, and on the pine cone tree was a glittering fleece hanging by a branch. What's more, directly underneath the glittering fleece was a dragon-like creature. This was not an ordinary hill, and the men knew that. The adolescents on the other side of the hill were not normal either, and the men had to keep reminding themselves of that. None of them were exactly comfortable with what they were doing, but orders were orders, and there was no refusing an order. Especially when they came directly from the lips of the Secretary of Defense. Still, the men didn't like this, and it was obvious.
They shuffled around awkwardly, fiddling around with everything they could find. Basically, they were not acting the party they should with the roles they had. What were those roles, some may ask? They were a special operations team from the newly formed division of the United States Army. The special division called the DPA, or, as others liked to call it, the division of men who quite possibly have the worst job in the world when it came to protecting the citizens, but the name was too long, so they were just the DPA.
They were camping out at the base of the abnormal hill and it's abnormal occupants because they were scheduled for a surprise attack at the stroke of midnight. Exactly five minutes away. Within them were eleven males: One commander, three lieutenants, six privates, and a demigod. That's right, a demigod. One of the main reasons the men was so skittish. They had been reassured too many times to count that the demigod had absolutely no idea about the significance of the hill to the reason he was with them in the first place, but the men didn't know what to expect. They all saw the video in the forest clearing, and they'd seen some of the tests the demigods took. It was frightening to say the least, but they were ready.
With a wave forward from the commander, the men slowly approached the hill, making their way to the top as fast as they could. When they reached the top, one of the lieutenants poked the demigod with his gun, urging them to move forward. The demigod hesitantly moved forward and uttered something under his breath, before nodding towards the men. One of the privates moved up towards the demigod and grabbed their arm, holding the boy back as the others nodded back to the half-blood. They continued up the hill, sighing in relief when they all made it halfway down.
The view that greeted the men was awe-inspiring. A little mini-Greece lay out before them. It had a U-shaped cabin area on one side, and various training stations on the other. A two-story blue house was directly in the middle. On the other side of the cabins was a strawberry patch, and a beach was behind the house. To top it all off, the whole area was surrounded by a forest on both sides, although the one by the training area seemed slightly more used.
The men took a moment to look around, before they approached the cabin areas, one man standing in front of each occupied cabin. They looked toward the commander, who nodded at them, swiping his hand down in a 'go forward', motion. Each man threw his' cabin door open, dropping a small grenade in and waiting for it to go off before they stepped inside.
-Line Break-
Zeus sat on his throne, begrudgingly thinking over his decision to not help the demigods. Jason was next in line for the prophecy since Chiron had already informed Zeus that he hadn't been able to contact Percy Jackson. Along with every single camper that wasn't year-round and all the Satyr guides he had sent out. Basically, everyone was gone in Camp Half Blood. Camp Jupiter, on the other hand, had everyone since the campers hardly ever leave.
"Ha! I told you it was beneficial, Zeus. You Greeks have no idea how to properly prepare for war. It's amazing you even lasted as long as you did," Jupiter said rather smugly.
Zeus groaned at the sound of his Roman counterpart in his head, "Oh will you just shut up!"
The Roman didn't reply, so Zeus kept up with his thought process. He wondered what would happen to the prophecy if Jackson still happened to be alive. Would Olympus raze without the prophecy child there to stop it? Everyone seemed to believe the demigods were still alive, wherever they were. Zeus already knew the other gods were trying to sneak behind his back and find out where his/her children is, so that they can be broken free. It amused Zeus to think that the Olympians actually thought they were being stealth, when they all met at Athena's every Tuesday night. Speaking of which, they were in one of those meetings right now.
Zeus casually strolled into Athena's palace and into the meeting room. All the occupants hastily stood up at the sight of him, trying to hide their plans like a teenager did when their parents walked in on them not doing what they were asked to do.
"It's no use, I know what's going on," Zeus said.
The other Olympians sighed, thinking Zeus was going to stop them from fulfilling their plans. He did the exact opposite, however.
"I will allow you all to follow through with this, under one condition," Zeus said, sternly. Then he paused. What was he doing?
The guilty looking gods' faces lit up when they heard the sentence. Immediately they looked at him pleadingly, wanting to know how they could save their children.
"You may only rescue two of your choice. The rest will have to be saved by their freed siblings. No exceptions!" Zeus said, before he turned to leave.
The Olympians stared dumbstruck at the place Zeus had previously occupied. Their children would be free…Well, only two, but still. The gods and goddesses flashed out one by one, as they thought about whom they would save. None of them knew the choice would be drastically changed in the morning thanks to a distressed Centaur galloping all the way to Olympus, still wearing his pajamas, curlers placed on his tail and hair.
A/N: Well, this is pitifully short. Sorry. I know basically nothing about war tactics and commanding positions, so, again, sorry. Feel free to correct me about everything, I don't mind. Also, this chapter sort of wrote itself, so I don't have a say on how it went, okay? Please keep that in mind for following chapters too. On a totally different note, I'm going Camping! See you guys next week, maybe. BYE
Review Replies (Only after last chapter):
Blackcurse11: Congratulations, you're the 10th reviewer! You will notice there's just a line of your reviews for every chapter I post. Thanks for the support! Anyway, yeah, I actually like writing all the mortal stuff, and their paranioa, so you'll see more of that most likely. Sorry :P.
Alicia Mirza: For the 3A part, I was messing around with the numbers for the system a lot because I didn't know how long the ratings should be, so that happened. Oops, I'll change it later. Glad you like the chapter, and yeah, Luke's horrible. For the other demigods, yes there are Romans, but in the books Percy said there was an influx in new campers, so there a lot of unclaimed ones out there, so yeah. I say yeah a lot...Anyway, I'm glad you find this interesting, this has been a plot I've been thinking of for like three years.
BookFreak: Don't worry, you'll get more information. When I first thought of this story, HoO hadn't come out yet, so I will try and include more Romans...oops too much information. Oh well.
