Grant Lizewski aka Smasher.

Grant's Perspective:

I fell out my canoe into the water for a fourth time with a splash. I treaded water desperately as the other campers laughed at me.

" It's not funny", I gulped as I splashed. Tansy glowered at me and yanked me back into the canoe. " Seriously. The varsity jock can't swim or stay in a canoe". I glared at her.

" Hey, I can swim fine. Plus I'm a footballer, not a canoer. Tansy winked at me. " Sure. Michael Phelps couldn't pull off your water skills". She snorted in amusement. " Okay. I think it's time to make a hasty exit. I'm sure you don't want to be in this canoe any longer, and I just want to get away from the mocking expression, so, let's hit the road".

She rowed towards the edge of the lake and then hopped out onto the bank, with me following soon after. " Hey, where do you think you're going. The canoeing lesson isn't over for another 20 minutes". We turned to the instructor, a guy a few years older than us named Peter or something similar.

Tansy sighed. " Look, Percy. We understand you're trying your best to teach us how to row a canoe, but it's really not for us, so, we're just gonna go".

Tansy checked her watch. " Okay, I'm going to the forge. I have a package to collect. You go off and do something". Before I could object, she hurried off towards the forge. I sighed and looked around.

Since I came to Camp Half - Blood, I'd been in a rut. I was a big shot in high school, and a middle school before that, and elementary school before that. But here, I was a nobody with no friends, except an extremely stubborn girl who wanted nothing to do with me.

I sighed and decided to go back to the Bia cabin and wallow in self - pity. I passed the volleyball pit, where a bunch of demigods and satyrs were playing a heated game while some nymphs sat beside the pit and cheered. I silently cursed them.

I trudged towards the Bia cabin, which was a square stone building with a pair of stone lions perched on top. I went inside and flopped down on my bunk. I stared up at the ceiling, which was carved with an image from some Greek myth involving Bia. I thought about my mom.

Before coming here, I never really thought about my mom, probably because my dad forbade me from mentioning her. My dad didn't seem to care about any women: after all, he did go through a string of women ( all a lot younger than him ) he picked up at his dental practice. My mom was the only woman he truly cared about, though he'd never admit it. I sighed. Not that he talked to me that much any way.

I looked around the cabin. It was a body - builder's paradise. The walls were covered with shelves only holding every kind of weight imaginable. There was several weight benches at the far end of the cabin, and there was a stand for doing chin - ups and several mats to do exercises. Though, as Bia was the goddess of force, her children were naturally super - strong, but that doesn't mean they're not interested in body - building.

I closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep, but someone barged in and slammed the door behind them. I sat up groaning. " Fine. I'll go back to the canoe lake". The butch guy frowned at me. " Who the hell are you?" I looked blearily at him.

" I'm Grant Lizewski.". The guy nodded. " You must be one of the new campers. I assume you're a son of Bia." I nodded unsurely. He offered me his hand. " I'm Paul Orwell.". " So you're a son of Bia?" " Yep". " So we're half - brothers?". " So far as I know".

I looked at him. He was very broad and muscular like me, but other than that, we didn't look much alike, as he had curly ginger hair and hazel eyes. I looked around the cabin. " So, is it just you and me, or is there any other children of Bia here?". " This cabin is fairly new, so up until now it has just been me and Emma, but now you're here there's three of us".

I nodded thoughtfully. " What age are you?". " I'm fifteen, and Emma sixteen, so she's the Bia counsellor". He looked at me pityingly. " So how come you're in here all by yourself?". I shrugged. " I just haven't been enjoying myself here. I haven't made any friends and I'm terrible at all the activities". Paul raised an eyebrow at that.

" Really. What activities have you done?". I frowned at him. " Canoeing and archery, why?". He rolled his eyes at that. " Well of course you haven't enjoyed them. You haven't been doing the right activities. You should try wrestling". I perked up at that. " They have wrestling here?" Paul nodded. " It's going on in the arena right now. Emma's participating. Wanna come?". " Sure". I jumped off the bed and followed him out the door.

I had followed him around the cabin's corner towards the arena when I heard someone calling me. " Psst, Grant. Come here, I've got something to show you". Frowning, I went around to the back wall. Tansy was crouching beside the wall, holding a bunch of DVDs and a blue box. I glared at her. " What is it?". She beckoned me closer. I knelt down beside her.

She waved the DVDs in my face. " I managed to get the Pretty Little Liars season 2 box set smuggled in by some Hermes guys. Turns out they have a fully - operational black market going on here. It's great" " And...", she said, opening the box. " I got my clawed gloves".

She removed a pair of black leather evening gloves with bronze talons attached to each fingertip. I frowned at her. " Freddy Krueger wannabe much". She rolled her eyes at me. " I just didn't want to be a dunderhead with a sword". " Can I go now?". " Sure". She got up to leave but she dropped some DVDs. Sighing, she bent down to pick them up. Properly looking at them, I grabbed them off the ground.

" Oh my God, this is " He - Man and the Masters of the Universe". She waved dismissively at them. " Yeah. They must got into the delivery by mistake. I'll return...". " I used to watch this all the time as a kid." I neglected to mention I still watch it. " Okay. I used to watch a lot of cartoons as a kid. What's your interest in this particular one."

I glanced back and forth furtively. " Eh, no reason. But could I keep them". Tansy looked at me weirdly. " Sure. It's not like anyone else will want them." I frowned at that as she walked away. I waved it off and went back inside the cabin.

I searched the cabin for a TV set or anything to play DVDs in. I got squat. I spun around frowning, trying again to locate the machine. I remembered that I was supposed to be at the arena with Paul and, cursing, I hurried off towards the arena.

Unfortunately, I had a problem: I didn't know where the arena was, or what it looked like. I headed towards a pair of impressive looking buildings at the top of... some Greek letter the cabins were arranged into. As I approached them, I became doubtful that either of the buildings were the arena. I assumed an arena was like a sports stadium and they were too small to be sports stadiums.

I wandered around the camp for a bit, desperately searching for the arena. I circled the camp twice and still couldn't find it. I ended up wandering into the forest thinking if I couldn't see the arena in the main camp it must be in here.

I soon got lost in the woods, which were astonishingly big. I kept ending up back at a pile of rocks that looked like a pile of deer droppings at the centre of a clearing. After the sixth time I arrived back there, I slumped down on the rocks and sighed dejectedly. I looked at my surroundings, trying to tell which path lead out of the forest, but, unsurprisingly, I couldn't see any.

I had resigned myself to spending the night here when I heard growling from the edge of the clearing. I looked up to see a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring at me maliciously of the edge of the clearing. I froze in terror as a massive green dragon uncurled its serpentine body.

It slithered towards me, its forked tongue tasting the air as it did. It was 20 metres long and as thick as a bus, with a heavily - armoured emerald green hide, long white horns on its head, scimitar - like teeth and no legs whatsoever. As far as I could see, it didn't have wings. Not that it made a difference. After all, I couldn't fly.

I tried to make my body obey me, but the dragon's eyes paralysed me where I sat. I let out a high - pitched squealing sound as the dragon lifted its barbed tail over its head, getting ready to mash me while its mouth filled with fire, getting ready to cook me.

Out of all the possible scenarios in which I'd imagined I'd die in, being turning into a Happy Meal wasn't one of them. The dragon swung its tail down while a stream of fire blasted from its mouth. I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact. Instead, nothing happened.

Frowning, I opened one eye. The dragon was swinging its tail at me and blasting me with fire repeatedly, but I wasn't a Happy Meal. It gave a chagrined grunt and swung at me again, but its tail bounced off thin air in front of me. Frowning, I reached my hand out until my hand made contact with something that felt like a glass wall. It blasted me with fire again but the flames stopped about a metre away from me.

Then I realised: I was inside an invisible force - field which I must have generated. I gaped in amazement, completely forgetting about the massive dragon outside it. " Well, it did make sense. Bia is the goddess of force", I thought.

I whooped with joy and proceeded to taunt the dragon. " Little snaky not so tough after all". It growled menacingly at me. " Aaah. Are you gonna cry, little snaky? Little snaky's gonna cry". I laughed in its face, pointing at it mockingly.

I carried on for about a minute until, suddenly, all my energy vanished and my force - field collapsed, along with me. The dragon's eyes glowed even brighter with wicked glee as it opened its mouth. It was just about to incinerate me when, out of nowhere, I heard a whooshing sound and the next thing I know the dragon's on the ground with an arrow through its skull and the archer guy who rescued me from the fox, Will I think his name was, was standing in front of me.

" You've got a lot of explaining to do", he said ominously.

I sat waiting in the living room of the Big House, waiting for Chiron to come chastise me. I fidgeted in the massive puffy blue armchair standing in front of the fireplace, trying not to think about my inevitable exile to an obscure cave in Greece.

Trying to distract myself from my ominous thoughts, I examined the stuffed leopard head on the mantle. I frowned. A stuffed leopard head isn't something you'd think an ancient centaur would own. I got out of my seat and reached out to touch its snout. Unfortunately for my disposition, the leopard head chose that moment to come to life and snap at my hand.

I jumped back yelping, hiding my hand behind my back. When the leopard snarled at me, I ran/staggered out the living room, barely managing not to knock any furniture over.

I stumbled into the hallway. While stumbling around, my foot caught on a loose floorboard and I went crashing to the floor, whacking my face off the banister.

I rolled over, groaning and pinching my nose to stop the waterfall of blood coming from it. I looked just in time to see a vase plummeting towards me down the stairwell. I just managed to dodge it before it hit the floor and shattered. I covered my eyes, which meant I got a handful of shards.

I jumped to my feet. " I'm not staying in this death house. Not for an ancient centaur, not for some overrated camp counsellors, for anybody", I yelled at the empty house. I scrambled out the door without a second thought.

I banged my head on a wooden beam on the porch and tumbled down the steps. I got to my feet cursing and rubbing my head. I stormed away from the house, muttering darkly under my breath.

" Mr. Lizewski, are you going some where?" I spun around to see Chiron approaching me in his centaur form. I nodded. " Yeah. As far away from that house as possible. The whole thing is a health and safety hazard. I mean, what kind of disturbed person has a living leopard head in their living room". Thunder rumbled angrily in the sky. I gave the sky a strange look, as the sky was as blue as robin's eggs today.

" It means the gods are angry with you", Chiron supplied. " Okay. Any, as I was saying, what kind of disturbed...". " Dionysus, god of wine and director of this camp", Chiron said sharply. I frowned at him for a second.

" Ooooh. The gods are angry because I insulted one of them. It all makes sense now". Chiron barely managed to not roll his eyes. " Anyway, we have a matter to discuss. Why were you in the woods? It specifically states in the orientation film that the forest and you shouldn't enter without an experienced camper". " Orientation film? What orientation film?".

Chiron gritted his teeth and decided to skip over that remark. " What. Were you doing. In. The forest?". " I was... looking for the arena". Chiron blazed bright red and his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets. " The... arena?", Chiron said in a dangerously quiet voice. " Yeah".

Chiron turned stark white as he grabbed his bow from his back. I backed away with my hands up as he nocked an arrow. " Whoa, whoa. Calm down. I'm sorry I didn't know where the arena was".

Chiron released the arrow and I was barely able to throw up a force - field in time. " I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU DEMIGODS. THREE THOUSAND YEARS STUCK TEACHING YOU SIMPLETONS AND WHAT DO I GET? A FEW TRUE HEROES, A LOT OF SEMI - DIVINE CANNON FODDER AND SO MUCH BITCHING. WELL, I'M NOT TAKING IT ANY MORE".

He released arrow after arrow, not pausing to even take a breath. I felt my energy sapping at an alarming rate; after all, I'd used my powers a lot within the space of a couple of hours. Not wanting to get skewered when my force - field collapsed without my intention for it to do so, I dropped it and bolted.

The other campers gave me questioning looks as I ran by. Unfortunately, Chiron was a good shot. Well, that's what 3,000 years as an archery teacher does to you.

I paid absolutely no attention to where I was going: as long I was getting as far away as possible from that crazy centaur. I think I was running past the forge when I slammed into Tansy and that dark - haired guy in the trench coat. We all toppled to the ground like a ton of bricks and we squirmed on the ground like a beached octopus before we managed to disentangle ourselves from each other.

We all staggered to our feet. " I'm getting out of this godforsaken camp", we said in unison. I gaped at the other two. " Whoa, jinx and idiots much". The trench coat guy glared at me with his brilliant green eyes.

" You know nothing about jinxes", he said vehemently.

I frowned at him. " What happened to you?". Trench coat glared at me. " You two?" Tansy sighed. I noticed the claws on her gloves were all gnarled. " Well, I'd decided to test my gloves out, some I went to the arena for practice. Of course, no one wanted to spar with me, so, I had to use a dummy. The minute I hit the dummy's shield, the claws bend. I wasn't happy with the quality of the product, so I go to take it up with the guys at the forge.

The guys at the forge, particularly Nyssa, the one I asked to do it for me, had the nerve to deny that there were any problems with the claws. I showed her the bends in the claws, proving my point. And she just shrugged at me. Shrugged at me!

I was a little offended, so I told she could take overly high testosterone level and go jump in the canoe lake. Next thing I know, I'm sitting on my bottom outside the forge with a migraine and a giant red lump on my forehead." I looked at her forehead. All I could see was a small scratch.

" Next a couple of camp counsellors come up to me and started hurling abuse at me. After a couple of minutes of that, I told them where to go and finally managed to get them to eff off.

" Let me guess; Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase?" Tansy nodded. " Yeah. I guess I was too dazed to recognise them from around camp and my canoe lesson. Thanks Paris". She smiled brightly at me, and I immediately felt jealous.

" Wait. You're one of the guys who rescued me and Tansy". Paris rolled his eyes. " Yes, I was one of the guys who rescued you". " Cool. So, what happened to you?". Paris shrugged. " Same old, same old. The people at this camp have always rankled me. I've always wanted to leave but I couldn't muster the courage to so, I stayed, until now. I'm leaving tonight".

I beamed at him. " Great. Let's go Tansy". Tansy gingerly linked arms with me. " Wait, wait, wait. You can't leave now. You can't just walk out in the middle of a summer day without a quest". I frowned at that. " Great. We'll just get a quest. How do you get one?"

Paris looked behind me. " You won't be getting one any time soon". He nodded at the space behind me. I turned to see Chiron charging towards us, shooting arrows and making campers scatter before him.

" Okay. Paris, are you 100% sure you want to leave tonight? Because, judging by current proceedings, we won't make to tonight". Paris sniffed. " I don't have leave with you".

At that moment, Chiron reared over us, fully prepared to turn us into one massive pile of gore with his hooves. We were all stunned into inaction. That moment seemed to last forever, which was good as it took almost all of that moment for Tansy and Paris to recover.

" Paris, get us out of here", Tansy whispered. Just Chiron's hooves were coming down on us, we were wrapped in a circle of glowing green symbols and teleported away by Paris.

I stood in the hallway of my family's mansion outside Wisconsin, peering through the crack of space between the door and the wall into the kitchen, watching a tall broad bald man ( my dad ) arguing with a young blond in a cocktail dress, one of his many girlfriends. Things started to get heated, with my dad hitting her across the face.

A young dark - haired woman suddenly appeared in the room as I watched. She leered at me, her pale green eyes sparkling with insane glee.

The scene changed. This time, I was a few years older, probably in sixth grade at the time. I was sitting in the Jacuzzi in the back garden of my house, holding a glass of champagne. Sitting across from me was a young red - haired freckle - faced woman, smiling and holding a champagne glass also. She started inched along the edge of the Jacuzzi towards me, but then my dad staggered out of the house with a vodka bottle in his hand and a furious expression on his face.

He struck the girl across the face then grabbed me by the ear and pulled me into the house. Just before the door closed, I saw the dark - haired woman again, laughing nastily at me.

I woke up with a start. I was lying on a bedroll in a dark and extremely rocky cave, with Paris and Tansy asleep beside me and no clue where I was. I stood up and banged my head on the low ceiling. I cursed loudly and woke up the others.

Tansy looked around in confusion. " How did we get here? Where is here?". She rifled through the over - stuffed duffel bag sitting in the centre of the cave. She took out what looked out a roll of bandages and my He - Man DVDs. She held up the items.

" Why are these here. I mean, bandages are a good idea, but seriously, DVDs. It's not like there's a DVD player in here." Paris took the roll of bandages.

" That's my Rasaderm". " Your Rasa What!?" Paris rolled his eyes. " It's a synthetic material I created. It's kind of like a second skin, which can be altered to fit the individual who needs it. It can cover the mouth, eyes, ears, skin and nose without hindering breathing or the senses". He frowned. " It's odd that the spell would bring it".

" Spell? What spell? Last thing I remember is Chiron about to squash us with his hooves. How did we get here?".

Paris hung his head. " I used a teleportation spell I was working on. It is supposed to transport all those within the magical circle to a safe place, bringing items necessary for survival with them. Obviously it didn't work perfectly"

I picked up one of the DVDs. I turned it over in my hands. " Where are we? Did we get away from the camp?" " Let's find out", Tansy replied. Careful not to stand up straight, we half - crawled/half - walked out of the cave.

We emerged from underneath a ratty old billboard advertising some new soft drink with a picture of people doing flips and running up walls in the middle of nowhere. Tansy looked wistfully at the sign. She sighed. " Ever since I first saw the Matrix, I've wanted to do stuff like that. I nodded sympathetically, though I had no interest in learning martial arts and/or parkour.

I glanced at the DVD in my hand, then looked back at the billboard. An idea popped into my head. " Guys, we're away from the camp right?". They looked at me uneasily, then nodded.

" Paris and I have special powers, and Tansy has martial artist aspirations, which could become actual martial arts with practice." She scowled at me. " So, I was thinking...". I paused dramatically. " We could become superheroes!". They gave me condescending looks.

" Really, Grant?", Paris asked. " No, I'm serious. First order of business, names. I'll be..." I looked around, looking for inspiration. I focused on the billboard. " Smasher". Tansy raised an eyebrow. " Smasher?"

" Yeah, you know... I smash things". Tansy and Paris looked at each other, and burst out laughing.