Percy: The second assault on Camp Half-Blood begins after I return

I came back to Camp Half-Blood and found most of Half-Blood Hill littered with the bodies of Prometheus soldiers and some of the fortifications had taken a noticeable beating. One or two of the watchtowers had fallen down and the portcullis guarding the gates had been blown off by something fiery in design. I called out to the Hermes kids up at the top and told them to open up the gates for me. "How do we know you're not just an illusion of Percy Jackson?" one of them asked.

"If I recall correctly, I splashed Clarisse's fact with toilet water when she wanted to give you a swirly in the bathrooms," I answered. The person who asked me the question was named Randall and it was true that I had saved him from Clarisse's brutality. "Okay you're good, welcome home Percy," Randall said. I chuckled and walked through the gate to see the rest of the damage done to Camp Half-Blood.

A few of the cabins had been scorched but not badly hit except for one and that turned out to be the Ares cabin. Just my luck to find a fireball had dropped on Clarisse's cabin while I was away I told myself. But the only thing I was really looking forward to was seeing my precious Wise Girl again and I did soon enough. Though she had a few black marks across her face and forehead with a rip on her jean leg, she looked as beautiful as ever.

"Welcome home Seaweed Brain," she said the moment she saw me. "Thanks Annabeth, I really missed Camp Half-Blood. And oh, sorry for not having the dammed lake built in time for this but I got something else that might be of help," I said. I showed her the conch horn that Eos had given me and told her that I could possibly summon reinforcements with it.

"Can you do that now, just in case Prometheus decides to launch his next assault a little sooner than we'd like?" Annabeth asked. I shrugged and said that I probably could before I decided to do it. No sooner had I finished blowing than Tyson and his entire army of Cyclops appeared in camp. "Uh, why are we here?" Tyson asked.

"Sorry to pull you out from in the ocean, I guess I need you right now big guy," I answered. "Hey, brother Percy, what do you need me and my army for?" he inquired with that big toothy grin that showed peanut butter between the cracks of his teeth. Now that was typical Tyson and I was glad to see that hadn't changed much but I had to be serious. "You see Tyson, there's this big mean Titan named Prometheus who just barely finished attempting to destroy Camp Half-Blood and we need you and our army to help him get him off our turf when he tries to attack again," I explained.

"How dare Prometheus betray the glory of Olympus!" one Cyclops shouted. "What can we do while we wait?" Tyson asked. "You can help us repair the damage Prometheus did and you can have a few of your men look out for some fireballs or some soldiers running down the hill," I answered. Tyson immediately saw to that and I was truly glad to see him working with his men to repair the worst of the damage that happened to the camp.

Some of his men even lifted a few of our fellow demigods up to the roofs of the damaged cabin to give them a nice scrubbing. And just when it seemed that our recovery was complete, fireballs appeared again and I ordered Tyson to form the Cyclopes up to protect the fortifications and the cabins. "All demigods of Camp Half-Blood, to arms!" I shouted. Now I know what you may be wondering: where the hell is Chiron during all of this?

The answer may surprise you but he was taken with Mr. D back to Olympus and was asked to watch how we performed without his leadership. In the meantime, Thalia and I made sure that the Aphrodite kids played their part and the Hypnos kids were keeping up with their little intelligence network we had them start. Thalia rallied up the cabins who were willing to fight and Annabeth placed them where they would be of most use to the cause of saving this camp. Finally, when everything had been completed, I looked back at the cabins who were not fighting but especially the Aphrodite one since they were cowering behind their doors and I felt only disgust.

They'd fight if Gabriel promised to stick his dick up their asses when this was over I thought to myself. And while looking at them as well as the cabins who rushed to arms, I climbed up the mound called Zeus' Fist and made sure they were listening to me. "Brothers and sisters of Camp Half-Blood, I see in your eyes the fear I share for what may happen to this camp. But let me tell you, I'm not about to let my fear get the better of me and I'm most definitely not going to let this camp fall into the hands of Prometheus!" I began.

The Ares cabin banged their spears against their shields repeatedly and loudly in agreement. "I might not have a talent for words but I will demand this of you: to all the cabins who will fight with me to defend the camp, have your leaders raise their flag and give their pledge. The rest of you can take a step back out of this formation and walk away when I notice you," I told them. "Zeus' powers as well as the Hunters of Artemis are devoted to you Percy," Thalia said.

"You can count on the minds of the Athena cabin, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said after her. "The souls of Hades are yours to command through me," Nico shouted. "My fellow troops will show them no mercy!" Clarisse declared. "Hermes' children lend their speed and agility to the common cause, Percy Jackson," Connor and Travis Stoll agreed.

I heard the vows of the Apollo, Hecate, Morpheus, Nemesis, and Nike cabins before I was content. It made for a total of more than three thousand demigods and I knew that if we could hold the enemy at the gates, we stood a chance until Gabriel returned. Especially with the aid of the Cyclops who gave us an additional four thousand troops to rely upon, totaling to almost eight thousand troops fighting with me. But we still had to stand our ground against one hundred and forty thousand enemy soldiers.

Then I had a few ideas for how we could handle that extremity much better than we normally would. First, I called all catapults from all sides of the camp to the front and had several Cyclopes manning and reloading them each time they were fired. It would make for a more effective and quicker delivery of blows to Prometheus' army. Next, I had the minor cabins in the front so as to have the first chance to prove themselves plus see how they held up having to rely solely on the phalanx formation.

Lastly, I had all cannons and large crossbows called over to the front of the camp since we knew for certain that Prometheus would not be surrounding the camp. He was overconfident and we wanted to make him pay for that dearly. To conclude things, I had myself at the front and though unfinished, I decided to break the dam on the lake I had created and release the water upon the enemy soldiers. The Cyclopes who were not manning the catapults or the crossbows were also stationed at the front gates to shield the walls from the fireballs since they were immune to fire.

I even gave the approval for them to catch the balls and throw them back at the enemy. To the cabins that were not doing something (like even the Hypnos camp was) and were cowering away from the battle… I turned to them one more time and showed my disgust through what I said next. "You cowards stay here unless you get a change of mind but in the meantime, watch us fight this battle and watch us win it!" I shouted to them.

Then I charged for the gates as they were about to be pulverized by the enemy unless the Cyclopes stepped in. And that they did precisely since they acted as living shields while I connected my mind to the water in that artificial lake, which amounted to hundreds if not thousands of tons of water. Once I was telepathically connected, I told the water to break through the dam and let itself loose upon the enemy troops. It fought hard and long while the Cyclopes kept up their defense but I knew the dam had broken once I saw the water rushing from the right flank of the enemy.

As I had promised it would, it swept away a total of fifty thousand troops before the last drop was finished although it didn't get any of their catapults, thus keeping the fireballs in the picture. So I told the Cyclopes to direct their deflections at the catapults themselves and see to it that they were out of the picture before they could be allowed to do anything else. They did as they were instructed and they killed an additional ten thousand in that process. In gratitude, I told them to go all out and their catapulting brothers would give them cover fire as they went berserk on Prometheus' troops.

"Children of Apollo and Hunters of Artemis, concentrate your fire on the soldiers closest to the Camp walls. Annabeth, direct some manpower at Prometheus while I go see what Thalia can do to help besides gather our infantry into the phalanx," I ordered. "Sure thing, General Jackson!" she replied back to me. To my surprise, Thalia was finished with the formations and was also seeking to do something else while they waited to play their part.

"Thalia, is there anything you want to do now that the troops are assembled?" I asked. "Yeah, how about letting me at Prometheus himself? He's gonna start killing off the Cyclopes if we don't do something soon," Thalia asked. As if to help me find an answer to her question, we heard a Cyclops roar in pain before falling down forward onto more soldiers.

"Hope you mean just to distract him and not fight him head on. Go ahead and get out there but try not to get yourself killed at least until Gabriel comes back," I answered her. "Don't worry, I already have a plan in mind for how to deal with him," she replied to me. Then she told the soldiers along the wall to make away for her to start her little plan to fight Prometheus.

"Hey Prometheus, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" she asked before using the air to levitate herself off the ground. "Oh you wish to meet your doom at my hands, do you Ms. Grace? Very well, I accept your challenge!" Prometheus answered. Then I noticed that he flew after her so that they could have their duel in the sky before she started raining down lightning on him.

I shook my head as I resumed my duties as a general of Camp Half-Blood's army. The catapults kept going and forty thousand more men lied dead by the time we ran out. But it wasn't just the catapults, there was also help from the Cyclopes of course. I knew now that the final fight to hold the fort until Gabriel returned was at last underway.