Energy Unbound
Chapter 05
Reality
"Clarisse! We're not dead!" the blonde male said, trying to shake her shoulders to gain her attention. He seemed surprised for some reason when his hands connected, shoving the daughter of Ares back a few feet. He looked at his hands in awe, then turned to where an extremely attractive, slender, brown haired girl stood gaping at what had just occurred. "PIPER!" he yelled again, running to embrace her. She was shaken out of her shock and momentarily faltered before wrapping her arms around him, and planting a kiss on his lips.
Clarisse witnessed this, then turned to Ari, who was watching her with a teasing smile on her face. "What was that?" she asked, glaring.
Ari took in a deep breath, as if she was about to explain something, prompting Clarisse to groan. Rolling her eyes, the crimson haired girl nonetheless continued. "That, Daughter of Ares, was High Technology at work. Everything we just experienced was a simulation. This room," she explained, gesturing around the room they stood in, "is basically a training room. But instead of dummies or open fields, any scenario that can physically exist can be assembled. Want to sword fight someone in the Himalayas? Jump out of a plane? Take a jog through Tartarus? All possible. Just run the corresponding program."
Clarisse also crossed her arms, but had a smirk on her face. She seemed completely over her sobbing fit from earlier, though her eyes were still a little red. "If none of that was real, how come our swords actually went through the hydra? And I definitely remember being covered in green blood."
Ari sighed, running her hand through her hair. "It WAS real, but also not. Was the terrain actually made out of atoms? Yeah. Were those atoms naturally placed? No. Everything except death in this chamber is real. You may have noticed neither of your friends are currently dead," she said, nodding to the embraced couple, "The system merely shunted them to a different plane of existence. The 'Observer Mode', so to speak. They can talk to each other, interact with each other, but the rest of the simulation acts as if they don't exist."
Just as she was finished, the skinny Latino elf from earlier arrived, sweating up a storm. He had a tool belt on, and was currently resting his hands on it, thumbs looped in between his pants and the belt. "Just… a second… guys. Too much… running," he gasped, trying to breathe deeply and speak at the same time. "Room… really big," he finished, wiping sweat off his forehead.
Clarisse chuckled. "You need to attend leg days, firestarter," she said to the boy.
"What? No I don't," he scoffed, leaning back until his back cracked. "AH, yeah, that's the spot. Now, where's the girl from earlier who made all this?" he asked Clarisse.
She just smirked and pointed to Ari, who was standing behind the boy. Twirling around, his eyes lit up when he recognized her. "Star Trek girl!" he yelled, running over to her and tackling her into a hug, which surprised Ari more than the nickname. The speed he was going caused her to lose balance, and they tumbled to the floor, the boy on top of her.
"Hey, get off!" Ari said, trying to push him off of her without hurting the boy. She was consciously keeping her suit from doing it, since he'd likely be flung to the other side of the room. After a few more seconds of struggling and incessant babbling on the boy's part, she was fed up. So she directed her suit to replicate itself, wrapping around the boy at his waist and trapping his hands in itself. Then she stood up, and picked the boy up as if he weighed nothing, placing him outside of her personal space. She also glared at Clarisse, who was laughing her butt off at her predicament.
The boy was wide-eyed. "Cool! What is this stuff? Did this come from your suit? Is it fire resistant? Let's test!" he sprayed out, then seemed to concentrate. The balls of metal encasing his hands began to glow orange, but then rapidly returned to their dark gray state. They gained orange glowing lines around them, and they stopped heating up. The boy looked crestfallen, leaving Ari to wonder what exactly he did.
"Why did you call me 'Star Trek girl'?" she asked him, interrupting his incessant babbling.
"Duh! You can make energy weapons and freaking Holodecks!" he exclaimed, moving his arms like he was trying to gesture with them. Then he looked down at the metal orbs holding them to his sides and grumbled.
Ari rubbed the bridge of her nose. This guy was starting to get on her nerves, which meant he was a likely candidate for being one of the Seven. "Leo, I presume?"
"Yeah, what?" he said, before returning his attention to trying to get out of his binds.
"Your name. It's Leo, right?"
"Oh. Yeah, I'm Leo, inventor extraordinaire!" he exclaimed, again trying to gesture with his hands. Scowling down at the metal holding his hands, he asked "Hey, can you let me out of this now?"
"Promise you won't tackle me."
"I promise," he nodded.
"Alright," Ari sighed, willing the metal to return to her suit. It flowed off him like water, flying through the air until it landed with a splat against her stomach, where it melded with the rest of her suit. She chuckled at Leo's amazed expression.
"Let's try this again. I'm Ari, Unclaimed," she said, offering him a shake.
Leo took it readily, pumping her hand up and down with his. "Leo, Son of Hephaestus, it's great to meet you."
Ari nodded, her face growing serious. "Leo, do you still have the gun you took from me outside the cabin?"
"What? Oh yeah, of course I do!" Leo said cheerily, reaching into his belt. He promptly pulled the gun out, even though there is no way it could have possibly fit inside.
"Seems your tool belt is a lot like this cabin," Ari noticed.
"Yeah, it can pretty much hold anything I put inside," Leo confirmed.
Ari nodded approval. "Not bad. You can keep the gun, but be very careful with it. I don't want to repair more cabins."
Leo nodded in agreement. "So what is your suit made of?"
"A metal I dubbed Forcium. The same thing makes up that gun. But if you're asking why I can shift it into different things, it's because this is the liquid form."
Leo looked like a kid in a candy store. "How does it stay liquid? Thermodynamics say it should turn solid."
"Well, 'liquid Forcium' is technically a puddle of nanites, themselves made out of the metal. I just say 'liquid' since it's easier."
Leo looked puzzled. "Nanites?"
Ari donned an offended face. "Leo Valdez, how can you call me Star Trek girl and not know what nanites are?" she scolded.
He looked down at the ground, mumbling "it never came up."
Ari simply chuckled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Nanites are microscopic machines."
Leo's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh! You mean Nanobots!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers.
"I suppose that's another term for them, yes," Ari conceded. "Jeez, do they ever come up for air?" she asked in awe, seeing Jason and Piper still lip-locked.
"Nope! Jason's a son of Zeus, Pipes is Aphrodite's, you do the math," Leo explained.
"Huh. Guess that's one bonus of being Thunderhead's kid."
Leo raised his eyebrows, a smile cracking his face. "Thunderhead?"
In response, Ari waved it off like a nickname for a god was normal. "Zeus, whatever. His title should be Drama King, but I'll settle for Thunderhead."
Leo looped an arm around her shoulders. "I've got a feeling we're gonna be good friends, Ari," he said with a chuckle.
"Careful Valdez, Calypso might get jealous," Clarisse said with a smirk.
"What? Of Ari? Nah, Cally is the only one for me," he responded, getting a lovestruck look in his eyes.
"Careful Leo, your inner girl is showing," Ari teased.
"Really? Let me get that for you," Leo replied, then lightly kissed her on the cheek.
"Leo!" Ari laughed, shoving his arm off her shoulders. He laughed as he fell to the ground, grasping his stomach, grinning like mad.
She smiled back at him, and helped him up. Once he was on his feet, she lightly punched him in the arm. "I want to meet them."
"Who?" Leo asked, confused, rubbing his arm a little.
Ari rolled her eyes. "Them, moron," she said, pointing to the couple who were still kissing somehow.
"Aye, aye, ma'am," Leo saluted, mock bowing, then walked over to his friends to wake them up.
Ari sighed. If only you were my brother, Leo Valdez, she thought, watching Piper punch him for interrupting her session with Jason, though, time will tell. Maybe you will be at some point.
Leo turned back to her, beckoning her over. She nodded, then turned to Clarisse. "It was fun fighting with you, Wrestler Girl," Ari said, grabbing Clarisse's forearm with her hand.
Clarisse did the same, though she laughed at the nickname. "Wrestler Girl. I like it. Fully expecting a duel out of you in the future, Ari," she said, slightly bowing in respect.
Ari did the same, then bade her goodbye. The daughter of Ares went off to do something, probably hang out with her siblings, and Ari walked over to Leo. Seeing her approach, Leo poked Jason and Piper in their sides. "Sparky, Pipes, this is Ari. She's the one who built this glorious room," he introduced her.
Before Ari could speak, Jason beat her to the punch. "I'm Jason, nice to meet you," the blonde haired, electric blue eyed boy said, offering a hand to her to shake.
Ari looked puzzled, since abruptly introducing herself with a handshake was her thing. Regardless, she accepted the hand. "Like Leo said, I'm Ari. Though Connor Stoll is the one who designed the cabin, I just provided the tech to do so."
"I'm sure you've already been asked this, but who's your godly parent?" Piper chimed in.
"Hey Piper, nice to meet you as well," Ari nodded to her in greeting. "As for my godly parent, I'm Unclaimed."
All three demigods looked surprised. "Percy told us that demigods are claimed when they step over the camp line at the latest, and we're supposed to be claimed by thirteen. How are you not claimed?" Jason asked.
The crimson haired girl just shrugged. "It doesn't really bother me. I'm my own person, not just my parent's daughter," she said, dodging the question.
Jason nodded approvingly, Piper smiled and Leo clapped her on the back.
"So Jason and Piper," Ari began, getting both their attentions with a suggestive wave of her eyebrows, "That was some kiss."
Jason's cheeks grew bright red, but Piper just smiled lovingly and put her arm around her boyfriend. "It sure was, Jason," she said, her eyes seemingly changing color.
That meant she could only be one goddesses' daughter, and it confirmed what Ari had heard of them from the legend of the Seven. "Piper, you're a daughter of Aphrodite, right?"
She smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah."
"Which makes Jason a son of Zeus."
The blonde shook his head. "Jupiter, actually."
Ari's eyes widened. "You're a Roman."
Jason nodded, then pulled up his left sleeve, revealing a tattoo of the letters SPQR with what looked like a barcode below it, the figure of an eagle above.
"Senatus Populusque Romanus," Ari said, reading the acronym.
Jason looked surprised. "You speak Latin?"
"The Senate and People of Rome," she replied with a nod.
"I'm impressed," the son of Jupiter said.
"Careful Jason," Leo teased, "I don't want Ari walking off a bridge."
The mentioned girl raised her brow. "And why would I do that, Valdez?"
Piper sighed, looking disturbed. "He's referring to my charmspeak. Even though he knows I only use it maliciously versus monsters," she explained with a glare.
Ari grumbled, rolled her eyes, and punched Leo in the stomach. "Charmspeak huh? Cool ability," she continued nonchalantly, as if the firestarter was not reeling on the ground holding his abdomen.
Piper scratched the back of her head, though she smiled gratefully. Jason tightened his grip around her waist, trying to comfort her. "Yeah, it's useful. Though people are often scared of me because of it."
'Well, i'm not scared of you, if it helps," Ari offered, trying to make her feel better.
"Why not?" Piper asked, puzzled. "I may be benevolent with my power, but others aren't. The 'walking off a bridge' scenario is very possible."
Leo muttered something under his breath, possibly a person's name. It sounded a lot like 'Flew'.
Ari chuckled, ending with a smirk. "For two reasons, Piper. Like you said, you're benevolent. I've heard of the Seven's adventure, but not a single thing about you actually hurting anyone who didn't deserve it."
Piper blushed, looking down and shuffling her feet. "Thanks, I guess," she said with a smile.
"Also, I'm immune to external influences."
Jason's eyebrows perked up. "What was that?"
"Charmspeak doesn't affect me," Ari said simply.
Piper snapped her head up. "Really?" she said,curiosity on her face. "You don't mind if I test that out?"
Leo chimed in, now laying on the floor with a leg hanging over his other, bent leg. "Piper's charmspeak is absurdly powerful," he said. "Even gods themselves have been affected."
Jason and Piper nodded their agreement.
"And yet, it will not affect me. Run your test if you must," Ari said, brushing off their assumptions about her vulnerability.
"Fine then," Piper said, before her voice laced over with layers and layers of raw power. Her irises gained a myriad of colors until there was a rainbow part in them. She looked Ari straight in the eyes and said "Kiss Leo." The effect was so strong even Jason looked over to the firestarter with a lusty glance.
Ari felt the waves of power wash over her, attempting to override her will. Just for a second, a miniscule second, she allowed a tiny bit of her true form to shine through. Enough to get the message across to the daughter of Aphrodite, at least subconsciously, who was in charge. Her orange eyes were replaced by flares of light and she glared right back, sending her own wave of power outwards, negating the effect of the charmspeak. Piper shivered, and Ari knew the message was delivered. Then her eyes were back to normal, and Piper would only think it a trick of the light.
Acting like nothing had happened, Ari crossed her arms and looked down at Leo. "Well that's not fair, he is quite the looker," she said defiantly, causing him to blush.
Piper's eyes rapidly lost all colors until they settled on purple, and her mouth dropped open. Jason followed suit, while Leo merely looked impressed. "Nice job, Star Trek girl," he said with a smirk on his face.
Ari smiled back. "Don't worry Piper, I'm sure your charmspeak is as powerful as I've heard. If you ever need a friend who can't be scared of your power, feel free to hit me up," she said, nodding her head.
Piper was still aghast, but she managed to reply. "Uh... Yeah, sure, Ari. I'd love to," she stammered out.
Just then Ari heard an angry cry from the direction of the Hermes campers. "Sorry guys, gotta go. Those who live in this cabin probably want to know where their stuff went when Connor remodeled it," she said hastily, dashing off before they could reply.
As she approached the group of people, most with blonde hair and elvish features, she spotted the legs of a horse. Good. Chiron, and therefore the Stolls, have arrived. When she was just a few feet away, she shouted to get their attention.
"Hey guys!" Ari said, waving to the Stolls. They waved back, Chiron nodding to her, before a young girl, barely fifteen if that and clearly a child of Hermes, broke from the heated argument she was in with Connor and approached her. Her face did not convey a friendly demeanor.
"Where is our stuff, newbie?" the girl asked, poking Ari in the chest with every word she said.
On the last word, Ari got tired of the girl's antics, forcefully grabbing her hand to stop the assault. "Whoever you are, know this; treating me incorrectly will end up working out very badly for you," she growled, glaring at the girl. The girl struggled against her grip, but Ari was extremely strong. After trying twice more, she gave up and hung her head.
Ari shifted her glare to Travis, motioning to the girl in her grip with her head. He seemingly got the message, because he came over and put his hands on her shoulders, whispering something in her ear. The girl nodded, and her arm slumped. Ari let her go, then turned slightly to address the rest of Cabin Eleven.
"Connor, why don't you show us where the bedrooms are?" she asked, putting a look in her eyes that clearly said I'm not asking.
Connor visibly gulped, but managed to comply without shaking in his voice. "Sure thing, Ari!" he said, then addressed the group of demigods. "As I was trying to tell Mira here, each person now has their own apartment to themselves. They're in the Cabin Hall, the one that has dad's symbol of power above it," he explained.
Mira. So that's her name. Going to have a talk with her later on, Ari thought, writing the equivalent of a mental sticky note to remind herself.
"Let's go," Travis said, turning around with his brother and heading towards the hallway entrance. The campers of Cabin Eleven followed suit, Chiron and Ari behind them.
The centaur was sending sideways glances at Ari, and it was getting on her nerves. Finally, when they had crossed the gym, her patience ran out. "Whatever you want to ask, Chiron, just go ahead. The looks are getting annoying."
"Why put such effort into a new Hermes cabin? Why include all these areas when the camp is more than sufficient?" Chiron said under his breath.
So that was it. His pride was wounded by what she had given out. Hmph. "Cabin Eleven has always had the short end of the stick from what I've heard. Housing all the unclaimed and those who don't have a cabin, resulting in generally very cramped quarters. That's not okay. They deserve better," Ari said, gesturing around her, "So I gave them better."
Chiron narrowed his eyes at her. "There's more to it than that," he said suspiciously.
"Maybe yes, maybe no. You'll have to wait and see," Ari shrugged with a smile.
The centaur grunted in return. "As you wish, My Lady."
Ari glared at him, hastily glancing at the campers to see if anyone heard that. Luckily it seemed nobody did, so she let out a breath she'd been holding in. "I told you not to call me that," she hissed at the centaur.
"My mistake," Chiron said though his grin clearly told another story.
"A mistake, sure," Ari muttered, "And I'm the Queen of Norway."
"Are you?" Chiron asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ari rolled her eyes. "No, of course not. Much too public," she scoffed.
Chiron let out a knowing "Mmmhmm," but was unable to say any more as they had arrived at the main chamber. And Connor was asking Ari something.
"Say that again, Connor?" she asked.
"I said, can you introduce people to the new rooms?" Connor repeated.
"Oh, yeah, sure!" Ari said, turning right and walking to the hallway with a caduceus above it. The campers of Cabin Eleven followed.
The hallway contained doors on both sides, placed just about the width of a person from each other in the walls. Each door had a different symbol etched in the metal, a black rectangle on the left side and a hand-sized square of slightly darker silver metal on the right. As the group walked past, names flashed into existence on the black rectangles, revealing them to be some sort of name tag.
She turned around and began taking backwards like a tour guide. "Right, well, each of these doors leads to a bedroom, and each bedroom is assigned to a camper. Only the camper themselves, the cabin counselors, or myself can go in without permission from the room's owner," Ari explained.
"Why can you go in?" Mira asked, crossing her arms.
Ari just smiled sweetly at her, though internally she was irritated. "This entire cabin is basically made out of my own technology, thus I have control over it. Even if that wasn't the case, what if something goes wrong with any of the tech in your room? I'm literally the only one who understands it, so if I can't save you, you're out of luck," she explained with victory in her eyes.
Mira just grumbled in response and turned away.
"Let's see one of these 'rooms', shall we?" Chiron cut in.
"Okay. Although calling them 'rooms' is a little disingenuous," Ari chuckled in response.
Connor laughed knowingly, but everyone else looked at them like they were crazy.
Ari sighed, shaking her head. "Look, let's just go into one, you'll see what I mean," she said. Spinning around in the middle of the hallway, she pointed at random doors. "Eenie, meenie, money, moe." Finally she picked one that had an hourglass engraved in it. "This one," Ari said, approaching the door. She looked down and read off the name on the doors nametag. "Hey, who's Luke Castellan?"
Instantly the din of chatting teens went dead. Hearing the sudden silence behind her, Ari turned around and was dumbfounded by the mixed looks of dread, sorrow and pain on everyone's faces.
"What? Did I say their name wrong?" she asked.
Travis shook his head, but it was Connor who responded. "Luke... Luke is..," he choked, correcting himself, "Was our cabin counselor... before."
"Before what?" Ari pressed.
"The Second Titan War," Chiron said, since nobody else seemed to want to reply.
Ari wracked her brain, trying to remember the tale she'd heard. Wasn't there some demigod who'd hosted Kronos? "Uh, this Luke guy... By any chance, was he the one who betrayed Olympus?" she asked.
She received so many glares that if looks could kill and she was mortal, she'd have multiple ghosts in line for the Underworld.
"Luke died a hero. He saved everyone in the end," Travis scowled.
Touchy subject much? Ari thought. "Sorry to assume then." But if he's dead, why does he have a room? Ari pondered to herself. Did her tech know something she didn't?
"Well, uh, we can always see another room if that'd be better," Ari offered.
"Good idea," Mira growled.
Ari ignored her tone, given that she deserved it, and looked for another door. She found one with a laughing mask on it, the nametag reading 'Travis Stoll'. "Hey Travis, how about yours?"
Travis nodded, but didn't speak to her.
Ari raised her eyebrows at this, but merely turned back to the door and placed her hand on the metal plate to the right of it. The plate momentarily displayed a glowing copy of her handprint before fading, and the door opened sideways with a hiss.
Inside the door was a large room, white carpeting on the floor and light brown walls. In the middle of the room was a large couch shaped like a U, wrapping around what looked like a dark metal cube with some room between the couch and the cube, enough to walk through. The open end of the couch faced the left wall, which had a pitch black rectangle set inside it, looking an awful lot like a TV. Directly on the other side of the room from the entryway was a hallway, leading into what looked like a bathroom, with a doorframe on the left side. From their position outside the entry door, nobody could see what room that was, but Ari guessed it to be the bedroom. The right wall of the main room was missing, with a counter standing waist high in place of it. On the other side of the counter was a fridge, but more of that area couldn't be seen.
"Woah," Travis said.
Ari sighed and pulled him inside. The rest of the campers followed, but Chiron had to bend down to get through the door. Once inside, the high height of the ceiling accommodated him fine.
She dragged Travis into the middle of the main room, which was clearly a living room, before letting go of his hand and hopping onto the couch. It seemed the counter they'd seen from the doorway was actually a dividing island, separating a kitchen suite from the rest of the living room. Ari whistled, a look of approval on her face. Travis was looking around, his jaw hanging open. The look was repeated by most of the other campers, including that irritating Mira.
"Connor, you design this yourself?" Ari asked, seeing he wasn't staring in awe.
Connor nodded. "Yeah, mine's the same. Figured my bro would need help," he snickered.
Gesturing to the gaping Stoll brother, she smirked. "He certainly seems impressed by it."
"Well, provided your silver pool thing wasn't lying, there's something that might even impress you," Connor said.
Ari was interested. It would have to be pretty spectacular to impress her. "Alright, I'll humor you. Show me," she teased.
Connor smirked, then offered his hand out and bowed like a gentleman. "If the lady so desires," he said with a fake accent.
Ari rolled her eyes and smacked his hand away. "Show me," she ordered.
"Yes ma'am," Connor teased, earning a punch in the shoulder. He grunted and took it, a mischievous glint in his eyes, before turning to the gaping campers and raising his voice. "Hey guys, I've got something to show you!" he yelled, before grabbing Ari's hand and rushing over to a door she hadn't noticed. It looked an awful lot like a sliding door that mortals used, and Connor pushed it open in exactly the same way, revealing a scene that made Ari's jaw drop for the first time in a long time.
Travis walked up behind them. "Okay, I know you said the cabin was bigger on the inside, but this is ridiculous!"