Energy Unbound

Chapter 03

Something Blue

"Stolls!" Ari yelled, whacking each brother upside the head and taking back her weapon. She promptly unsummoned it. "What made you think it was a good idea to fire my gun!?"

They just looked at her with giant smiles. "That. Was. AWESOME!" they yelled, seemingly uncaring about the now missing part of their cabin. Their hair was blown back, giving them a very Einstein-esque look. "What kind of gun is that? I've never seen that before, where'd you get it? Can I have one?" the brothers rapidly asked, nearly overwhelming Ari's patience.

Ari hit her face with her palm so hard it left a red mark. "No. As demonstrated by what just happened, you cannot have one," she said, glaring at both of them, "either of you."

They pouted, looking a lot like puppies. Ari lost her patience. "YOU DESTROYED A WALL OF THE CABIN!" she yelled, causing many observers to lean back slightly. This new girl was scary when mad, it seemed. Everyone in the cabin quickly ran out in order to get some distance between them and the disaster their counselors had caused. Just in time, too.

"What happened here?" Chiron asked, having galloped up with a worried look on his face. The look turned to a scowl when he noticed the missing wall.

"These two geniuses," Ari said, pointing a thumb at both Stolls, "asked to see my weapon. After fiddling with it, they fired it at MAX POWER," she screamed the last bit. "Only they aimed it at themselves without noticing. I had to point it somewhere," she finished with a shrug.

Chiron glared at the Stolls, shaking his head with disappointment. "This will take days to repair. At least nobody was hurt," he sighed in relief. "What have I told you boys about messing with objects you don't understand?" the centaur scolded.

"To not do it," the brothers mumbled.

"Exactly. Now get to the Big House, you will have to explain this to Lord Hermes."

"Yes, Chiron," the Stolls said, eyes downcast. They'd lost their lighthearted demeanor from before, all the light give from their eyes. It sickened Ari to see then like that. She had to intervene.

"Hold up, Chiron," she called out. The centaur stopped leading the brothers away and looked at her. "Yes, Ari?"

Ari concentrated on what she wanted to make. Mortals may only be baby steps into high technology, but damn if their theories aren't amazing, thought Ari with a smirk. A hum was heard, and a small ball of metal appeared in her hand. It was much larger than the comm ball, easily the size of a tennis ball, but had way less orange lines on it. She grinned, ready to show off.

"Yes, Ari?" Chiron repeated, crossing his arms in impatience. Ari noticed he was tapping his right hoof too. The crowd of demigods that had gathered watched her intently, some whispering about her, or wondering what had caused the damage to Cabin Eleven. After the blast from her gun, every cabin was up. You don't sleep through a mini earthquake, after all.

The nearly unanimous assumption was that the Stolls were responsible, but what they did was up for grabs. The few demigods that had witnessed the firing of her gun and the Hermes campers tried explaining, but were drowned out by the murmurs of 'they screwed up a prank ' or 'messing with Greek fire'. The smirk on Ari's face just grew wider.

Clearing her throat, she yelled "HEY!" at the crowd. Immediately every eye was on her again. Smiling sheepishly, she raised one hand and moved her fingers in a wave. "Hey, I'm new to camp, and this is partially my fault. The Stolls wanted to look at my weapon, I let them, they blew a hole in their cabin. Lesson learned: no weapons for the Stolls."

The crowd snickered, but a rather well built, large girl muscled her way to the front. She had light brown hair and brown eyes, but looked as if no matter who you were, wrestling matches would go in her favor. The girl spoke up with a rather deep, powerful tone.

"What kind of weapon can do this?" she asked, eyes filled with anticipation.

Ari smirked, putting the new ball on the ground. She summoned her gun, causing a wave of surprised gasps to come from her audience. Scowling, she turned the power dial down to a much safer level, then fired at the sky. Requiring much less power to fire at this lower level, the discharge was instant; a solid beam of light exited the gun barrel, streaming up into the clouds with a loud hum. The girl's eyes grew wide, a very happy look on her face, while the rest of the crowd including Chiron gaped. Even though it felt like eternity, the beam shut off after a good ten seconds of continuous firing, the capacitors in the gun completely drained.

A cheer rang out from the crowd, and a Latino kid with black hair, looking a lot like an elf complete with pointed ears yelled "Hell yes, an energy cannon!" The kid ran up to Ari and grabbed the gun from her hands, surprising her. Instead of reacting like she had with Connor, she saw the careful way the kid was examining everything, not touching the firing mechanism or anything remotely dangerous. Meh, he can have it, she thought, obviously a mechanic of some kind.

Ari turned back to the Hermes cabin, picking up the orb she'd dropped as she did so. "If you thought that was cool, watch this," she smiled over her shoulder, before double tapping the orb and throwing it at the cabin. It landed on the charred ground in front of where the wall used to be, then began to expand, the metal flowing outward like liquid. The kid who had taken her gun completely forgot about it, staring in excitement at the new thing. If Ari didn't know better, she'd assume he was her half brother.

The metal continued to flow, encasing the entire cabin. Once it was completely covered, a handprint appeared at ground level, glowing orange. The crowd looked to Ari, wondering what came next.

"Connor, put your hand on the print please," Ari told him. He looked a little wary to be near anything she created, and given he'd just helped vaporize his cabin's front wall she couldn't blame him. "Don't worry, this is Stoll-proof," she joked.

He smirked a little. "Hilarious, Ari," he said, before complying with her request. He walked up to the quivering mass of metal and placed his hand on the handprint. The metal then flowed around his hand and solidified. Naturally, he freaked.

"SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE! IT'S GOING TO EAT ME!" Connor yelled, and Travis ran to his brother trying to tug him out. Ari shook her head and began counting down, the crowd staring half at her, half at the Stolls, all in horror. When she reached zero, Connor's stance changed. "Woah," he exclaimed.

"What? What happened, bro?" Travis asked worried. Then he looked at his brother's eyes; they were glowing orange. Travis glared at Ari, then began to walk over. Connor's free hand shot out to grab him, and he shook his head at his brother.

"I'm fine, Travis. This is just a lot of information to process is all," he assured his brother.

Travis glared at Ari once more, but she just held up her thumb with a kind smile. Reasonably satisfied she wasn't trying to kill his brother, he turned back to Connor. "Information? What are you talking about?"

Connor mumbled something Ari couldn't hear.

"What are they talking about?" A young woman asked Ari. She had blonde hair and piercing gray eyes, but a kind motherly smile. Ari wasn't sure why, but she seemed highly intelligent, so she figured she would understand if told what was going on.

"Basically, Connor is fixing the cabin, and Travis flipped out because his eyes are glowing orange," Ari said, intentionally leaving out detail. Then something clicked in her head. Gray eyes, blonde hair. Let's see if this girl is who I think she is.

True to what she heard, the girl did not leave it at that. "Explain," she said.

Ari smiled widely. It was her. "The metal you see is actually a mass of nanites," she explained, gesturing to the cabin sized metal blob. "Currently Connor is engaged in a direct brain to machine interface. His mental processes have been accelerated, the extra thinking power being hosted by the nanites themselves."

The girl's jaw dropped. "Not even Hephaestus has the technology to do that. Who's your godly parent, Ari?" the girl asked.

Ari shrugged. "Unclaimed," came the simple reply.

The blonde looked a little shocked. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Eighteen."

Now she looked pissed. "You're supposed to be claimed by now," she growled, glaring at the sky.

Ari raised her brow. "What do you mean?"

"The gods swore on the Styx. Percy turned down godhood so all demigods would be claimed by the age of twelve."

Understanding dawned on Ari's face, then a look of panic briefly appeared. "Uh… Is anyone going to make a big deal out of this?"

"Of course! If nobody holds the gods to their promises nothing will happen," the young woman said as if it was obvious.

Ari ran her hand through her hair nervously. "Can you maybe… not make a big deal of it?" she asked sheepishly.

The blonde's eyes widened. "You don't want to be claimed."

"Things that are in motion would be disrupted if I was, yeah."

She narrowed her eyes at this. "What things?"

"Can't say. Not yet. Don't worry though, it's not another war. Unless I'm discovered earlier than planned."

Crossing her arms, the blonde seemed a little peeved at being unawares of current events. "Do you swear on the Styx that there is not another war?"

"I swear on the Styx that unless I am exposed earlier than planned, no war will occur," Ari said. The usual crack of thunder was heard, but she glared at the sky and the thunder cut off rapidly.

The blonde didn't seem to notice. "Good enough."

"I'm guessing you're Annabeth, daughter of Athena," Ari spit out as if out of nowhere.

"Good guess. How'd you know?" Annabeth replied, a little startled at the rapid change of topic.

Ari extended her hand. "Your reputation precedes you."

The girl raised her brow, but accepted the handshake. "My reputation?"

"You're a bit of a legend to mortals. You and the rest of the Seven. Though seven isn't really the right number, is it?" Ari asked with a wink, waving her eyebrows.

Annabeth looked shocked, complete disbelief on her face. "How did you know?"

Ari grinned. "Told Percy yet?"

Annabeth sighed. "No, not yet. Soon though."

"As for how I knew, every being gives off energy. Mortals, demigods, gods. I can see that energy, and you've got three sources."

Annabeth gasped. "Three?" she nearly squeaked in glee.

Whoops. Ari looked guiltily at her. "Uh, maybe?"

Annabeth's face beamed.

"I guess it explains why you're so against another war though."

"You're right, Percy and I have gone through too much together. We're done fighting," Annabeth said, gazing wistfully off into space.

"Going to suck in a few months anyways," Ari said with a light chuckle.

"Too happy to care," Annabeth said, wearing a huge smile. Ari suddenly found herself in a tight hug with rapidly spewed "Thank you"s. Then the blonde rushed off, probably to find Percy. Ari smirked, congratulating herself on a job well done even if she'd revealed information too soon. From what she'd heard, Percy and Annabeth were good at keeping secrets.

"So this is fitting in, huh?" Chiron asked, approaching her with a taunting smile on his face.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "My version of it, yeah. Had to do some ad-lib since the Stolls killed their cabin."

"How long will this take? Demigods are not known for their patience," the centaur said.

Ari looked around at the crowd, and she could see the assorted kids, teenagers and young adults starting to fidget.

"Not long now," she said, and looked at her watch. "Should be about five seconds." She then started counting down on her fingers again. "Five... Four... Three... Two... One..."

On the count of zero, Connor's eyes stopped glowing and the metal mass freed his hand. He collapsed into his brother's arms, looking very tired but not much worse for wear. "Man, I've got a massive headache," he complained, looking his older brother in the eyes.

Travis laughed. "Your eyes were glowing, dude. Of course you've got a headache."

Ari walked up to them, lightly putting her hand on Travis's shoulder. "We need to stand back, guys," she warned.

"Ari's right, Travis. We gotta move," Connor said, trying to do so but only grunting miserably.

Travis looked to Ari, and silent communication seemed to occur. They both nodded their heads. Ari grabbed Connor's feet, while Travis picked his brother up by the shoulders. Together they carried him to the crowd, where a bunch of his friends began asking him questions.

"Quiet!" Ari shouted, causing the demigods to shut up. "Questions will be answered! Just watch the cabin."

"What cabin?" The wrestler girl from earlier asked. Just as Ari was about to respond, the metal blob rapidly lost cohesion with a slurping sound and melted to the ground in a giant puddle. The entirety of Cabin Eleven had disappeared, causing angry cries to ring out from the Hermes campers. Ari just watched along with Connor, since they both knew what was about to happen.

The puddle began to glow, lines forming out of the metal. And the lines were rising. It became evident that the lines were actually pieces of a cabin roof, swiftly being created as if from nothing. Following the roof was a building, much grander than the previous Cabin Eleven. The walls seemed to be made of silver metal, sparkling in the summer day. A giant caduceus, the symbol of power for Hermes, assembled itself intertwining around the caricature of a cell phone, similarly large.

The cabin kept rising, a huge wraparound porch extending out of the walls as if from nowhere. Steps materialized, leading up to the porch directly across from two silver doors that had just flowed into existence, the caduceus symbol etched on the doors, with a line down the middle where the doors met. Once the entire cabin was materialized, what little remained of the metal puddle seemed to crawl up the cabin walls and fade into the surface. The new Hermes Cabin looked like a hospital from the future, and nearly everyone was gaping at it.

"Holy shit," Wrestler Girl exclaimed. The sentiment was echoed across the entire crowd.

Ari high fived Connor, who was now able to sit up at least. "You've outdone yourself, Stoll," she smiled, clapping a friendly arm around his shoulders. He just nodded, staring at his handiwork in disbelief.

Chiron shot a look of approval at Ari, then addressed the gathered demigods. "Shall we go in?"

Nobody needed to be asked twice. There was a literal stampede as demigods rushed up the steps to enter the new cabin, with the mechanic kid at the front whooping loudly in joy. Ari heard him yell "just like Star Trek!" when the doors to the cabin slid open sideways into the walls with a hiss.

Travis looked at Ari, thanks written on his face. She shrugged again. "What can I say? When Chiron said you'd have to explain to your dad, you both looked so sad. Frankly, it was creepy. I had to do something."

Connor interrupted, a confused look on his face. "Where did everyone go?"

Ari looked around. The only people remaining were her, the Stolls, and Chiron. Everyone else had somehow gone into a cabin whose size could never hold them all. That's what he must be confused about.

"They're inside, of course," she replied, enjoying the face Connor made as his brain broke.

"But... What… Uh… How? There is no way they could fit inside."

"Connor, when you were designing the new cabin, didn't you notice that the interior was larger than the exterior?"

"Well, yeah, but I figured that was just perspective."

Ari shook her head. "Nope. The cabin is actually bigger on the inside."

Both Stolls and Chiron looked at her like she was crazy. "That's impossible," Travis said.

"When your highest level of technology is an automaton that uses clockwork, of course it is. My abilities deal with something called 'High Technology'. Nanotech, computers, quantum computing, energy weapons, force shields, advanced robotics, pocket universes. The stuff you see in mortal science fiction. I combine it with magic to create the ultimate blending of both strengths. In contrast, the highest tech the gods have is your dad's cell phone."

"Oh," the Stolls said.

"Can you walk, Connor?" Ari asked.

Getting to his feet, he nodded enthusiastically, even though everyone could see he was still worn out.

"Then let's join the others, shall we?" she said, walking up the steps. Operation: Show Off accomplished, Ari thought with a giant grin.