Sorry about not posting in a while, but I was hammering out some of the details on this, such as making Preston and Dawn Demigods, and taking care of a few life things. However, on the bright side, this chapter is nearly five thousand words long, so hopefully it makes up for the absence of any new chapters in a while.

New York, Long Island, Camp Half-Blood

As we got off the bus, the first thing we noticed was that frost covered the chariot track and the strawberry fields. The cabins were decorated with tiny flickering lights, like Christmas lights, except they seemed to be balls of real fire. More lights glowed in the woods, and weirdest of all, a fire flickered in the attic window of the Big House, where the Oracle dwelt, imprisoned in an old-mummified body.

"Whoa," Nico said as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?"

"Yeah," Percy said.

"Why is there lava pouring down it?"

"Little extra challenge. Come on. I'll introduce you to Chiron. Zoë, have you met—"

"I know Chiron," Zoë said stiffly. "Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me."

"I'll show you the way," Grover offered.

"We know the way."

"Oh, really, it's no trouble. It's easy to get lost here, if you don't"—he tripped over a canoe and came up still talking—"like my old daddy goat used to say! Come on!"

Zoë rolled her eyes, but evidently she figured there was no getting rid of Grover. The Hunters shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins. As Bianca di Angelo was leaving, she leaned over and whispered something in her brother's ear. She looked at him for an answer, but Nico just scowled and turned away.

"Take care, sweethearts!" Apollo called after the Hunters. He winked at me. "Watch out for those prophecies, Percy. I'll see you soon."

"What do you mean?"

Instead of answering, he hopped back in the bus, still limping from the hole in his foot. "Later, Thalia," he called. "And, uh, be good!"

He gave her a wicked smile, as if he knew something she didn't. Then he closed the doors and revved the engine. I looked at the balls of fire a bit more closely to confirm that they were indeed balls of fire as the sun chariot took off in a blast of heat. When I looked back, the lake was steaming. A red Maserati soared over the woods, glowing brighter and climbing higher until it disappeared in a ray of sunlight.

Nico was still looking grumpy. "Who's Chiron?" he asked. "I don't have his figurine."

"Our activities director," Percy said. "He's… well, you'll see."

"If those Hunter girls don't like him," Nico grumbled, "that's good enough for me. Let's go."

The Big House was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but didn't seem to catch anything on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D, the camp director, and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlor.

Chiron wore a fuzzy sweater with a hoofprint design on it, and he had a blanket on his lap that almost hid his wheelchair completely. Meanwhile, Mr. D was wearing a neon orange leopard-skin warm-up suit and purple running shoes.

He smiled when he saw the front group of Percy, Thalia and Nico. "Percy! Thalia! Ah, and this must be-"

"Nico di Angelo," Percy said. "He and his sister are half-bloods."

"And the others?" He asked, gesturing to my team's armored forms.

Mr. D spoke up this time, "Fireteam DPDS." He then pointed to each of my team as he said our names, "Pyra Demou, Dawn Sharpclaws, Shun Rylin, and Preston Quickwing. The four of them will not need to see the orientation film."

Percy and Thalia looked completely shocked, and I got the feeling that Mr. D never said anyone's name right.

Chiron breathed a sigh of relief. "You succeeded, then."

"Well…" Percy started.

His smile melted. "What's wrong? And where is Annabeth?"

"Oh, dear," Mr. D's voice turned to a bored tone, "Not another one lost."

"What do you mean?" Thalia asked. "Who else is lost?"

Just then, Grover trotted into the room, grinning like crazy. He had a black eye and red lines on his face that looked like a slap mark. "The Hunters are all moved in!"

Chiron frowned. "The Hunters, eh? I see we have much to talk about." He glanced at Nico. "Grover, perhaps you should take our young friend to the den and show him our orientation film."

"But… Oh, right. Yes, sir."

"Orientation film?" Nico asked. "Is it G or PG? 'Cause Bianca is kinda strict—"

"It's PG-13," Grover said.

"Cool!" Nico happily followed him out of the room.

"Now," Chiron said to Thalia and me, "perhaps you all should sit down and tell us the whole story."

When they were done, and after I showed Mr. D and Chiron the letter from Hera, Chiron turned to Mr. D. "We should launch a search for Annabeth immediately."

"I'll go," Thalia and Percy said at the same time.

Mr. D sniffed. "Certainly not!"

Thalia and Percy both started complaining, but Mr. D held up his hand. He had an angry purple fire in his eyes.

"From what you have told me," Mr. D said, "we have made a net positive on this escapade. We have, ah, regrettably lost Annie Bell—"

"Annabeth," Percy snapped.

"Yes, yes," he said. "And you procured a small annoying boy to replace her, not to mention another of Athena's brats," Shun flipped Mr. D off in a way that screamed that he was simply being cheeky, much to everyone else's horror, but Mr. D only reacted with a raised eyebrow that said that he actually, very deep down, approved of the action, due to it breaking the mold. "A dragon son of Ares. A dragon daughter of Apollo. And, well, her." He said, gestured to me, which told me that someone had told him not to reveal who my godly parent was. "So I see no point risking further half-bloods on a ridiculous rescue. The possibility is very great that this Annie girl is dead."

"Annabeth may be alive," Chiron said, but I could tell he was having trouble sounding upbeat. "She's very bright. If… if our enemies have her, she will try to play for time. She may even pretend to cooperate."

"That's right," Thalia said. "Luke would want her alive."

"In which case" said Mr. D, "I'm afraid she will have to be smart enough to escape on her own."

Percy then got up from the table.

"Percy." Chiron's tone was full of warning.

"You're glad to lose another camper," Percy said. "You'd like it if we all disappeared!"

Mr. D stifled a yawn. "You have a point?"

"Yeah," He growled. "Just because you were sent here as a punishment doesn't mean you have to be a lazy jerk! This is your civilization, too. Maybe you could try helping out a little!"

For a second, there was no sound except the crackle of the fire. The light reflected in Mr. D's eyes, giving him a sinister look. He opened his mouth to say something—probably a curse that would blast Percy to smithereens—when Nico burst into the room, followed by Grover.

"SO COOL!" Nico yelled, holding his hands out to Chiron. "You're… you're a centaur!"

Chiron managed a nervous smile. "Yes, Mr. di Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer to stay in human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters."

"And, whoa!" He looked at Mr. D. "You're the wine dude? No way!"

Mr. D turned his eyes away from Percy and gave Nico a look of loathing. "The wine dude?"

"Dionysus, right? Oh, wow! I've got your figurine."

"My figurine."

"In my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you've only got like five hundred attack points, and everybody thinks you're the lamest god card, I totally think your powers are sweet!"

"Ah." Mr. D seemed truly perplexed, which probably saved Percy's life. "Well, that's… gratifying."

"Percy," Chiron said quickly, "you and Thalia go down to the cabins. Inform the campers we'll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening. Pyra, Preston, Dawn, Shun, head down and begin getting settled in your cabins."

"Capture the flag?" He asked. "But we don't have enough—"

"It is a tradition," Chiron said. "A friendly match, whenever the Hunters visit."

"Yeah," Thalia muttered. "I bet it's real friendly."

Chiron jerked his head toward Mr. D, who was still frowning as Nico talked about how many defense points all the gods had in his game. "Run along now," Chiron told them.

"Oh, right," Thalia said. "Come on, Percy."

She hauled him out of the Big House before Dionysus could remember that he wanted to kill him, while me and my team followed close behind.

"You've already got Ares on your bad side," Thalia reminded Percy as we trudged toward the cabins. "You need another immortal enemy?"

"Sorry," He said. "I couldn't help it. It's just so unfair."

She stopped by the armory and looked out across the valley, toward the top of Half-Blood Hill. A large pine tree was there, the Golden Fleece glittering in its lowest branch.

"Percy, everything is unfair," Thalia muttered. "Sometimes I wish…"

She didn't finish, but her tone was so sad I felt sorry for her. With her ragged black hair and her black punk clothes, an old wool overcoat wrapped around her, she looked like some kind of huge raven, completely out of place in the white landscape.

"We'll get Annabeth back," He promised. "I just don't know how yet."

"First I found out that Luke is lost," she said. "Now Annabeth—"

"Don't think like that."

"You're right." She straightened up. "We'll find a way."

Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops. One of them was arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second.

"I'll break that up," Thalia said. "You circulate around the cabins. Tell everybody about capture the flag tomorrow."

"All right. You should be team captain."

"No, no," she said. "You've been at camp longer. You do it."

"We can, uh… co-captain or something."

"Oh for the love of the gods, I'll be team captain." I said, highly exasperated.

"You haven't even been at camp for a day." Thalia said, "How can you come up with a strategy that would work without knowing the campers?"

"I've coordinated a defensive operation and even turned it into an offensive counterattack with 4,597,238 men and 3,724 warships under my command in an actual, full-blown war. I think I can take care of leading a dozen or so campers in a game of capture the flag."

Both of them stared at me for a good few seconds, then nodded.

As she headed for the court, Percy said, "Hey, Thalia."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about what happened at Westover. I should've waited for you guys."

'"S okay, Percy. I probably would've done the same thing." She shifted from foot to foot, like she was trying to decide whether or not to say more. "You know, you asked about my mom and I kinda snapped at you. It's just… I went back to find her after seven years, and I found out she died in Los Angeles. She, um… she was a heavy drinker, and apparently she was out driving late one night about two years ago, and…" Thalia blinked hard.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well. It's… it's not like we were ever close. I ran away when I was ten. Best two years of my life were when I was running around with Luke and Annabeth. But still—"

"That's why you had trouble with the sun van."

She gave him a wary look. "What do you mean?"

"The way you stiffened up. You must've been thinking about your mom, not wanting to get behind the wheel."

"Yeah," she muttered. "Yeah, that must've been it."

She trudged off toward the court, where the Ares camper and the Hunter were trying to kill each other with a sword and a basketball, respectively.

After we reached the cabins, Preston, Shun and Dawn peeled off to head to Cabins 5, 6, and 7, respectively, and I headed to Cabin 2. When I reached it, I could tell that it had only been cleaned recently. But when I say cleaned, I mean that it was deep cleaned from top to bottom. Opening the door, I could see that there was a central bronze brazier with an active fire in it, and a circle of white columns around it. Between the pillars were couches that looked incredibly comfortable, and had end tables on either side of them. There was a statue of Hera placed in such a way that the brazier was at the foot of it, but the statue's expression was clearly modified so that it had a much more welcoming and gentle expression. If I had to guess, it probably used to have an expression that radiated a sense of Mother knows best. Now don't cross me or I will have to step on you. Active torches and newly installed windows lined the walls, with sliders in the frames that seemed to act as the blind controls. Set into the walls on either side, was a door, and I guessed that at least one of them was a bathroom. Upon inspection, the one on the right was the bathroom and the one on the left was a full-fledged and fully stocked kitchen with an attached dining room. There was a central staircase in the back that led up to a second floor, as well as a part that led down into a basement.

On the second floor, which the cabin didn't even look like it had a second floor from the outside, was a quartet of bedrooms, one master, three guest, with a full-size bed with high quality bedframe, including storage compartments in the headrest, and drawers, as well as another storage space, built into the frame of the bed. There were also several matching dressers, a full-length mirror, a closet (walk in for the master bedroom), a small weapons rack capable of holding all of my typical armament, and an attached master bathroom for the master bedroom. The floor also had another bathroom, and both of the bathrooms connected to a pool room with two full Olympic length, but most definitely not style (they had freakin' waterfalls and such), swimming pools (one freshwater, one saltwater) and a hot tub. There was also a terrace complete with a huge rooftop garden that had to be at least 6,250,000 square meters and included a maze made of bushes that seemed to be capable of being randomized for practice exercises, several water fountains, a huge garden, an outdoor brazier in a patio area complete with a grill and outdoor dining table, another pair of large pools (yet again, one freshwater and one saltwater), and numerous trees of different types, some of which looked perfect for climbing.

Back down to the basement, it clearly took some inspiration from the second iteration of the guild hall, at least the main room did. It had all kinds of things, pool tables, air hockey tables, a stage with full lighting and a high-quality sound system, a full-blown bar (no alcohol was present, not that alcohol would really do much to me anyways), arcade machines, etc. There was also a note that said that Mr. D was not to be allowed down there, which I got a kick out of. As well as the main basement room, there were other rooms off to the sides which had, an adaptive combat arena that could change its own layout and simulate different kinds of terrain and weather conditions to the left, a weight room with all kinds of workout equipment to the right, and behind the stairs was a huge storage room with an armory that, outside of the coloration, would not be out of place aboard an Eternity class supercarrier, and a garage section that could hold 3 M510 Mammoths side by side, but the area had been marked out for only one in the middle, with spaces for other vehicles on either side of it, not to mention the landing pad area behind it, and a workshop that seemed to be for things like weapon and armor maintenance. In the celling of the storage room was a multi section door that, at its largest, could easily admit an Artic class heavy prowler. Where it opened up at, however, was beyond me.

After putting some of my clothes (Ever since I was 7, I made my own clothes myself, and by hand) and such in my room (I had chosen to take the master bedroom, because why in Hades wouldn't I. That, and as I was the only one who would be a long-term resident, it was clearly meant for me), as well as changing out of my armor and into my favorite non-combat outfit (I changed like a normal human being, and not by abusing re-quip like Erza does), which I had designed to allow myself to fight in it if I absolutely needed to, and equipping several weapons and extra mags (My sword, an MA5D, 2 M20 SMGs, a few grenades, and 6 knives), I headed back down to the main room and left the cabin. By that point, it was time for dinner.

Only the Artemis table seemed like it was having a good time at dinner that night, but I could tell that the rest of DPDS was content. The food was good, and the only thing that even remotely ruined it for me was having to drink blood (I was working on trying free myself from that requirement, and would likely be able to finally pull it off in a couple of months), which I got from my personal stores (a silver colored Brightsteel box that was about ten thousand times bigger on the inside than the outside, and now sat in the fridge in Cabin 2). After I finished off my cup of blood (I drank blood every day I could as a somewhat paranoid precaution), I drank exclusively lemonade (the somewhat acidic properties of lemon juice helped deal with the coppery taste of blood) that night as all present ate barbecue, pizza, and the occasional other odd food item.

The Hunters, meanwhile, drank and ate and laughed like one big happy family. Zoë sat at the head like she was the mama. She didn't laugh as much as the others, but she did smile from time to time. Her silver lieutenant's band glittered in the dark braids of her hair. She absolutely looked a lot nicer when she smiled. Bianca di Angelo seemed to be having a great time. She was trying to learn how to arm wrestle from the big girl who'd picked a fight with the Ares kid on the basketball court. The bigger girl was beating her every time, but Bianca didn't seem to mind.

When we'd finished eating, Chiron made the customary toast to the gods and formally welcomed the Hunters of Artemis and Fireteam DPDS. The clapping was pretty halfhearted for the Hunters, except for from my team, but my team got a much better reception from the campers. Then he announced the "good will" capture-the-flag game for tomorrow night, which got an even better reception.

Thursday, 16 DEC 2021/X793

The next night after dinner, it was finally time for capture the flag. It was going to be a small game: only thirteen Hunters, including Bianca di Angelo, and only 5 more campers.

Zoë Nightshade looked pretty upset. She kept glancing resentfully at Chiron, like she couldn't believe he was making her do this. The other Hunters didn't look very happy, either. Unlike last night, they weren't laughing or joking around. They just huddled together in the dining pavilion, whispering nervously to each other as they strapped on their armor. Some of them even looked like they'd been crying.

On our team, we had Fireteam DPDS, Percy, Thalia, Beckendorf and two other Hephaestus kids, three others from the Ares cabin, the Stoll brothers and Nico from Hermes cabin, and three Aphrodite kids. It was weird that the Aphrodite cabin wanted to play. One would have expected them to sit on the sidelines, chat, and check their reflections in the river and stuff, but when they heard we were fighting the Hunters, they were raring to go.

"I'll show them 'love is worthless,'" Silena Beauregard grumbled as she strapped on her armor. "I'll pulverize them!"

"I'll take the offense," Thalia volunteered. "You take defense." She added, looking at Percy.

"No. That won't work for my plan." I said, cutting off any response Percy could have given. Once again, I was clad in my NOBLE variant Mjolnir power armor.

"What?"

"My plan revolves around a strong defense and an offensive with the precision of a scalpel. In other words, one singular person will be all the offensive we have." I explained, making sure the entire team could hear me, while the Hunters couldn't. "Shun will be coordinating our defensive actions, Dawn will provide cover fire where necessary, Preston and Beckendorf will guard the flag directly. Selina, Zara, and Kayden from Cabin 10 will guard our left flank, John and Carly from Cabin 9 will guard the right flank, and Thalia, Percy, Connor and Travis from Cabins 1, 3, and 11, will take the middle. Nico." I said, getting the boy's attention. "You're our info runner, keep everyone as up to date as possible on the situation in other locations." The boy simply nodded. "Arthur, Ben, and Lana from Cabin 5 will fill any gaps in our defenses. I have the best balance of strength, speed, and skill, so I'll be our offensive. Copy?"

"Assuming you can actually outrun and beat some of the Hunters, it's a sound strategy." Beckendorf commented, and everyone else seemed to agree, except for Thalia and Percy.

"You just want all the-" Thalia began, but was cut off.

"No, I don't. Quite frankly, I don't give two shits about glory and all that crap. After we're done here, you and I can go down to the arena and go at it if you really want to, but I'm not doing this for glory. Never have, never will." I said. Percy's eyes said that he wanted to argue as well, but that he had no arguments to use.

Nico then ran up to Percy and started a conversation, and not long afterwards, Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor.

"Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team— Camp Half-Blood—shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis—red team—shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"

We set our flag at the top of something the other campers called Zeus's Fist. It's this cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods that, if you look at it just the right way, looks like a huge fist sticking out of the ground. If you look at it from any other side, it, after thinking about it, looks like a pile of enormous deer droppings, but apparently Chiron wouldn't let them call the place the Poop Pile (because of course some people would want to call it that), especially after it had been named for Zeus, who doesn't have much of a sense of humor.

Anyway, it was a decent place to set the flag. The top boulder was twenty feet tall and hard to climb if you weren't a physically augmented super soldier, so the flag was clearly visible, like the rules said it had to be, and it didn't matter that the guards weren't allowed to stand within ten yards of it.

Everyone then left to get to their positions, with me starting only a handful of yards from the creek. When the horn sounded, an arrow instantly whizzed by my head from behind and impacted a Hunter who had just emerged from the trees on the other side, striking them right in the head, and hard, resulting in a disoriented Hunter. Meanwhile, I had already reached a speed of 60 kilometers per hour and crossed the creek into the Hunters' side. I sidestepped trees constantly, and at one point was just jumping between trees while ten feet above the ground with only one foot landing on a tree at a time. At 32 seconds in, I had already reached their flag, and saw that they had left only one guard, Bianca.

"Sorry!" I said, as I proceeded to shoulder check her… …with the force of a semi-truck. With that in mind, it wasn't surprising that the blow knocked her off of her feet, onto her ass, and unconscious all in one go. I didn't even stop, simply turned, grabbed their flag, and turned around, hardly breaking stride at all. I encountered no resistance as I ran back to the creek, the Hunters' flag in hand. As I approached, however, I noticed our flag moving towards me. It seemed that the Hunters had broken through the defenses in mass, and since Preston couldn't use any firearms and had to hold back, he would have only been able to do so much. It didn't matter, however, because I activated my thruster pack, and crossed the last couple of yards between me and the creek in seconds, while the Hunter with our flag, Zoë, was still at least 80 yards out.

The campers began cheering so loudly that the sound actually caused my armor's audio dampeners to kick in, as both sides, including a newly recovered Bianca, converged on the creek. Chiron appeared out of the woods with a proud expression on his face, and two heavily beat up Stolls on his back. Conner even had two arrows in his helmet in such a way that they looked like antennae. That sight actually forced me to stifle a chuckle.

"Camp Half-Blood wins!" Chiron announced, pride clearly evident in his voice. Then he added under his breath, "Finally breaking the Hunters winning streak of 55 consecutive wins."

The Hunters looked downcast, and I handed the flag, now a white flag with a hearth, and flames shaped like a peacock on it, to Shun, and approached the Hunters, simultaneously ignoring the argument breaking out between Percy and Thalia.

"Don't worry about your loss. You couldn't have expected us to only send one person out and for said person to shoulder check your guard at 60 kilometers an hour with a half-ton suit of power armor." I said as I extended my hand for a handshake, "Good game today."

Zoë looked at me, before finally accepting my handshake, and replying with, "Indeed. T'was a good game." She then looked over my shoulder and gasped, as did everyone else who looked that way.

I turned, and was greeted with the sight of something shrouded in a murky green mist approaching.

"This is impossible," Chiron said. He sounded so nervous, I honestly thought that he was at risk of pissing himself. "It… she has never left the attic. Never."

And yet, the withered mummy that held the Oracle shuffled forward until she stood in the center of the group. Mist curled around our feet, turning the snow a sickly shade of green.

No one dared to move. Then her voice hissed inside my head, completely bypassing my mental barriers. Apparently everyone could hear it, because several clutched their hands over the ears, myself included, though I was trying to do so through my helmet, which was completely stupid, but it was on instinct.

I am the spirit of Delphi, the voice said. Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.

The Oracle regarded Percy with its cold, dead eyes. Then she turned unmistakably toward Zoë Nightshade. Approach, Seeker, and ask.

Zoë swallowed. "What must I do to help my goddess?"

The Oracle's mouth opened, and green mist poured out. I saw the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain. The Oracle spoke:

Six shall go west to the goddess in chains,

One shall be lost in the land without rain,

The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

The king, thought dead, who ruled the sky,

Shall be revealed, and continue to fly,

The Titan's curse must one withstand,

And one shall perish by a parent's hand.

Then, as we were watching, the mist swirled and retreated like a great green serpent into the mummy's mouth. The Oracle sat down on a rock and became as still as she'd been in the attic, as if she might sit by this creek for a hundred years.

Dun dun dun… Cliffhanger.