Energy Unbound
Chapter 06
Coastline
"How?" Ari asked with incredulity, looking at the unassuming demigod in awe.
"Your puddle told me it could make it, but I just assumed it would be a hologram," Connor replied, and it seemed his mouth was slightly ajar as well.
Ari looked at the demigod in a new light. Even she didn't know the limits of the technology she created, it seemed. "It's amazing, Connor," she said, patting him on the back.
"Yeah," he breathed in response.
And it truly was amazing. A huge bay lay in front of them, a sandy beach stretching out over the horizon. Waves calmly lapped up and down the shore, the sun kissing the edge of a seemingly endless ocean.
One, no, two moons could be seen, just barely. They were coming up on either side of the horizon relative to the sun, but neither moved. The celestial bodies seemed frozen in time, a perpetual twilight. Dolphins played in the water a ways off the beach and seagulls circled in the deep blue sky.
What looked like a pier jutted out with a building anchored to the end. Lights were on in the building, and jovial music from the 50s wafted over to them. Ari almost lost herself in the peaceful atmosphere. She was ready to fall asleep right there on the sand, despite what she was making the necessity of sleep irrelevant.
What kept her awake was the realization that if she slept, Morpheus would know she was there and alert the Olympians. That and the wave of gasps rising up behind them.
Ari turned around and saw the demigods had followed them outside, before noticing what they had come out of. A light brown house sat on the sand, complete with a balcony and a pool. Connor had outdone himself, no question. Glancing up and down the beach, she noticed other houses, identical in design, and assumed they were the other 'rooms' of Cabin Eleven.
"Connor," Chiron spoke, barely a whisper.
"Yeah, Chiron?" he asked, not moving his eyes away from the beach.
"I was wrong." That got Connor's attention. "This is so much more than Olympus."
Connor beamed at that, but Travis looked confused. "Did I just hear correctly? Horse Butt admitted he was wrong?" he mock gasped.
Chiron sent a glare at the son of Hermes. "Yes, though you will not hear it again. Treasure it," he glowered. "And do not call me that!" he scolded.
Ari laughed, a deep hearty laugh. She needed to relax more, it seemed to do good for her. "Chiron, we're never going to let you live that down," she said.
"Nope!" both Stoll brothers agreed.
"Are you sure you're not a child of Hermes, Ari?" Chiron replied. Ari thought he was joking, and laughed, but apparently he wasn't judging by the serious look on his face, and the inquisitive stares she was getting from the Stolls.
"'Unless Hermes spent time as a woman, probably not, " she skillfully deflected, shrugging. Chiron just grunted, but the attention of Connor and Travis was off of her for the time being. Whew, that was close, she thought, wiping her forehead. I want to know for sure before I tell them, though.
Shelving that project for another day, she sighed and looked at the ocean once again. "It's so peaceful," she heard a couple campers say, and just nodded along with them. For a being such as herself, simply relaxing was never on the list. Too much work to do. Such an expansive domain to service. Maybe she could copy this... bay that Connor created, take some time off. Once she was done with the job on Terra, of course.
Travis looked down the pier and blinked several times. "Is that a Ruby's Diner?" he asked incredulously.
Connor grinned and nodded. "Yep."
The Stolls glanced at each other and then to Ari, looking like lost puppies. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, we can go get something to eat. Chiron, you coming?" she asked the centaur.
"I suppose it would not hurt," he reasoned, raising his eyebrows in interest. "Though only a lunch; you must still have room for dinner!"
That was enough for the entire Hermes cabin to let out a cheer. They moved to surround the Stoll brothers, urging them to go!
Travis grinned at Connor and they catapulted across the sand towards the pier, followed by the almost horde of campers. This left Ari and Chiron in merciful silence on the beach.
Ari suddenly started chuckling. Chiron noticed this and inquired about it. "What amuses you, My Lady?"
Ari tensed at his method of address and shot him a glare. "Chiron!" she hissed, looking around.
The centaur huffed. "I do not see why you care when we are alone."
Ari's eye twitched. "You enter precarious territory, Trainer of Heroes," she warned dangerously.
Chiron glanced sideways, worried for only a moment. With a knowing scoff, he turned back to the pier and began trotting after the Hermes campers.
Ari was left stunned for several seconds before she ran to catch up.
"Hello, welcome to Ruby's, may I take your order?"
Travis blinked at the very normal looking young woman who had walked up to their table. She had a red dress on with a white apron and was holding a pad of paper. She absently tapped the pen against her chin while swaying back and forth on her feet. This girl was full of energy and looked incredibly normal.
But.
One simple fact freaked Travis out. She was inside something his brother had created. Was she real? Travis directed a raised eyebrow at his brother, who was sitting across the table from him. He only got a shrug in response. Turning back to the girl, he decided to go with the flow. "Uh… a milkshake, please? Vanilla with chocolate chips?"
The girl nodded and hastily wrote it down. "And for your meal?" she asked, looking into his eyes.
Travis was unnerved by the entirely human gaze he was under. "Um… a burger. With, uh, fries?"
She nodded again, wrote it down, and turned to Connor expectantly.
His brother fared a little better under her penetrating gaze. "Same milkshake, breaded chicken, and fries please."
The girl nodded, smiled, and wrote the last information onto her pad of paper. "Alright, well. Just let me get this back to the kitchen and your food should be done shortly!" With that she moved away, towards the kitchen, and gently entered through two small swinging doors.
The Stoll brothers snapped their eyes into one another's gazes as soon as she was out of sight. "She seemed so real!" Travis whispered.
"I know!" Connor agreed.
"Did you make her?"
Connor shook his head. "Nope. It must have been Ari."
Travis raised his eyebrows. "I thought you designed the cabin…"
Connor gave his almost twin a deadpan look. "Man, I'm smart, but not this smart! Look at all this!" he gestured around to the restaurant and the surrounding bay. "There's no way I could have created all this on my own. I'm pretty sure I felt her there along with me when I was creating the cabin," he admitted.
Travis' eyebrows shot into orbit. "She was in your head?"
"Of course not, don't be ridiculous," Ari said from Connor's left. As the Stoll brothers emulated pop rockets, she faded into view with a smirk on her face. "I wasn't in your head. I was interfaced with the cabin alongside you so that I could manage all the fine details you would never think of."
"Gods, don't DO that!" they scolded in unison, leveling unhappy glares at her face. The glares only got more intense when she laughed at them.
The brothers hadn't stopped glaring at her. "Come on guys, don't be such sore sports," she admonished.
The two brothers abruptly broke into grins, Travis calling it. "Gotcha," he said, a teasing look in his eye.
Ari narrowed her eyes at him and stuck out her tongue. Her retort was cut off by the sound of hooves. The three demigods turned their heads to see the Trainer of Heroes arriving next to their table with a dismayed look.
"I suppose it is too much to expect centaur-friendly accommodations," he grumbled.
Ari placed an elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand. "You so sure about that?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows. Unseen by everyone else, her hand did a little wave in the centaur's direction.
"What do you mean-" he asked, before he suddenly felt something missing. Glancing backwards in curiosity, he gave the three an image that rarely graced the Earth; the Trainer of Heroes with his mouth dropped open in astonishment.
"How…" he gasped out, staring at the empty space where his horse half used to be. Instead, his fore legs had changed to a human bipedal system, clad in immaculate dress slacks and sneakers. He noticed this and looked directly at Ari, who smiled.
The Stolls were rapidly swiveling their heads between the now human Chiron and the completely smug look on Ari's face.
Ari motioned to her wrist and gently tapped it, signaling for Chiron to do the same. He hesitated only a second before repeating the action. With a flare of orange light a dark metal watch appeared on his wrist. The face turned clockwise ninety degrees. The centaur-turned-human gasped as his legs morphed into his previous half horse body. He patted down his flanks in amazement and sent her a questioning look.
"Nanotechnology, Chiron," Ari said. "Millions of microscopic machines that can reform molecules."
"That's impossible," he breathed. "Only gods can transform others."
"Nope," she replied, popping the p. "Mortal science is five, ten years at max away from their first generation of nanites. My type are thousands of years ahead, of course, but modification of matter is one of the first things this technology can accomplish," Ari explained, her eyes filling with wonder as she described it. "The Age of Man is coming, Chiron, whether the Olympians know it or not."
The entire diner full of Hermes campers had stopped talking halfway through her speech, everyone staring at her with wide eyes.
Ari noticed this and waved them off. "That's not important now, though. Relax, eat, enjoy!" she announced, turning back to the table. She waved a hand over it, muttering something. With a hum, space distorted in front of her, and a huge bowl of vanilla chocolate swirl ice cream appeared.
"Yum!" she exclaimed. When she saw nobody else was doing anything but staring at her, her eyes grew dark. "Seriously. Stop looking at me."
With how fast their heads spun around, a sonic boom should have been emitted.
Travis whistled. "Scary Ari," he said.
Ari's eyebrow twitched, but that was the only indication that she heard him. "Please sit, Chiron," she dictated. "You'll have to be in human form, of course."
Chiron bowed slightly and tapped his watch. A clockwise turn later he was sitting in the seat besides Travis, marveling at the perspective change.
"So, Chiron," Ari prompted, after loudly slurping a spoonful of deliciousness, "what do you do around here for fun?"
The grizzled centaur frowned disapprovingly. "I am the activities director, Ari. I do not normally engage in the camper's extracurricular activities."
Ari had managed to keep a straight face through his sentence, but sent the two sons of Hermes astonished looks. "Is he always like this?"
The Stolls nodded with grim set lips, though if one looked closely they could see the slight twitches in their expressions belaying their true state.
Ari turned back to Chiron and scowled. "You need to get out more, Chiron," she scolded him.
Said centaur eyed them suspiciously. "I see now that the three of you will be what finally does me in, despite my immortality," he commented.
Ari smirked at the brothers. "I bet I can give him gray hair faster than you," she challenged.
They met her gaze with determination. "You're on!"
The poor Trainer of Heroes sunk into the seat, palms hiding his face from the victorious smirks of the children in his presence. Even if Ari was what she was, she clearly never grew up. "Save me, Lord Zeus," be muttered.
Ari patted the top of the esteemed teacher's head. "There there, no need to call on old Thunderhead. You'll survive us."
The Stolls were flat out laughing, with the campers near them struggling and failing to hold in their snickering.
"Probably."
"Di Immortales," the centaur groaned.
"This is really, really good," Travis commented between sips of his milkshakes.
The waiter girl smiled at him. "I'll give your compliments to the chef."
"How's old Crateris doing these days, by the way?" Ari asked her.
The girl's eyes snapped wide open when she realized who'd spoken. "I am sorry, my Lady. I did not know you were here," she said, curtsying as best she could with a pad of paper in her hand.
Ari sighed. "Really, this Lady stuff has got to stop. I don't care if I created you guys; I'm not your overlord, or overlady, as it were," she stated, clearly complaining.
The girl looked down, ashamed. "Sorry, my L- Ari. It is a reflex we are still trying to overcome."
Travis and Connor, meanwhile, had heads snapping between the two of them like machine guns.
"What?" Ari asked them.
"Created? You… made her?" Connor asked delicately.
Ari blinked at him confused for a few moments before turning to the girl. "You haven't introduced yourself?"
The girl frowned. "They seemed freaked out enough about me existing. Didn't want to worry them, they are our customers after all."
Ari rolled her eyes and smacked each Stoll brother upside the head. "If you want to, go ahead. I'll smack them again if they make fun of you," she assured the girl.
"Thank you, my La- I mean, Ari," the girl caught herself. Her image wavered and dissolved, leaving another version of her body in its place. She smiled sadly and braced herself for rejection. "I'm Andromeda. Nice to meet you."
She was actually almost identical to the image she'd displayed before, minus some coloring differences. She looked like her previous self made out of Ari's signature metal, with dark metal for skin and orange lines for detailing. Her clothes were a slightly lighter shade of the metal. Her eyes were the most intriguing, for the facsimile of a human eye was present. Her irises contained overlapping orange patterns that shifted around at different speeds as she changed expressions. Right now they were slower, careful; reflecting her inner turmoil as she waited for the demigods' disapproval.
Travis was speechless. Connor wasn't, though with his mouth hanging open it was hard to tell.
"Dude," he breathed out, "You are so cool!"
The girl blinked. "Wait, what?" Her tone was one of complete disbelief. She'd never received quite that reaction before.
Connor was on his feet almost immediately. "What are you made of? How do all your limbs move? Do you have a brain? Ooh, can you do anything awesome?" he rapid fired while zooming around the poor girl.
She looked to her creator in a plea for assistance. "Lady Ari!" Her voice was clearly exasperated.
"Are you a computer? Ooh, can you feel emotions? How fast can you run? Can you turn your arms into swords? How cool is that! Oh wait, what about those guns Ari's so fond of?"
Ari just grinned and brought the milkshake to her lips. She never broke eye contact or stopped grinning while she drank the thing.
Connor didn't stop either. He got worse.
"Do you have girl parts? Can you have kids?" He gasped, and despite the blush spreading on his face, dove in for the kill. "Could we have kids?!"
The girl sent a final, desperately pleading look to her race's creator as her dark metal cheeks grew orange, a blush attacking her face so hard she looked like a heated stone. The only response she got was a snorted "You're on your own, kid."
"Oh Progress, give me strength," she muttered under her breath.
Nobody noticed a certain daughter of Hermes glaring at the scene with distaste. Nor did they see the calculating look she gained when she heard the metal girl's plea to her deity and the suspiciously timed eye roll of the new girl in Camp Half-Blood.
Chiron eventually gave up in his lackluster attempts to get Ari and the Stolls off his back. The brothers were bad enough on their own, but with this new divine being added in?
He'd be lucky if he survived the week.
The old centaur trainer's eyes flew open. "Di Immortales," he cursed under his breath. "Ari, Connor, Travis; the weekly game of Capture the Flag is tonight," he spoke up.
Ari was about to take a bite of ice cream when his voice broke through her thoughts. Ignoring the Stoll's whooping with joy and fist bumping each other, she gently placed the spoon, ice cream still on it, back into her bowl before glancing sideways at Chiron. "Capture the Flag?" she inquired.
"We have an annual game of Capture the Flag every Friday," Chiron answered. "There are two teams. The winning cabins from the prior match usually make alliances with children of the God or Goddess of their choice by trading camp chore duties or shower schedules-"
Ari cut him off by way of spluttered protest. "I'm sorry what? Chores? Time schedules for Showers?!"
"Thank you!" Travis exclaimed.
"Someone else who thinks it's crazy!" Connor chimed in.
The millennia old Trainer of Heroes was taken aback at their reaction. "There are duties that must be tended to, Ari, and everyone must do their fair share. The communal showers are also simply not large enough to house all the campers at the same time." He was admonishing someone far above his station, yes, but she had basically commanded him to do so. Not that deities made sense normally.
Ari glared sideways at him, clearly unimpressed. "Chiron, this is a camp for the children of beings capable of moulding reality to their whim, something which most of the mentioned kids can do themselves, and you have it running like a normal summer camp?!" Her shriek brought pain to the old centaur's ears.
He hesitated too long to reply. "No," Ari declared, almost growling. "Things around here are definitely going to change."
Chiron had no choice. He could only follow her directive. "Yes, My Lady." He said it softly so only she could hear, but bowed his head to her just in case she didn't. For everyone else's ears he spoke louder. "You make excellent points, Ari. I will have to consider your words."
She huffed. Her scowl went away to be replaced by a satisfied grin. His new Lady continued eating her ice cream, ignoring the completely astounded faces of the Hermes brothers sitting on the other side of their table.
"Connor?" Travis asked.
"Yeah, bro?" Connor replied.
"I think Ari just got Chiron to change his mind," the first brother continued.
The two abruptly collapsed forwards onto the table and kowtowed to the deity, unknowingly of course. "We are not worthy!" they decried. "We are in the presence of greatness!"
Ari smirked, shaking her spoon at the two of them. "And don't you forget it."
After their lunch the foursome took a short stroll on the beach outside. Chiron had not yet gone back to his centaur form. He was marvelling at the experience of the ocean waves washing over his bare feet.
The Stoll brothers were hanging on Ari's every breath. She couldn't get rid of them. Ironically they now worshipped her as a goddess of pranking and adult manipulation. She wasn't actually sure what she'd done to earn their devotion, but she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to tease them about it.
"So you worship me, huh?" Ari asked for the tenth time.
Even after this many times, the kneeling and kowtowing act they did, completely ignoring the sand on them, was entertaining. "We are not worthy!"
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh come on you two. Get up. This is embarrassing." She strode forward and yanked the two brothers up by their arms. She then began to drag them towards the waiting Chiron, who was observing her misery with a barely concealed smirk.
"Oh laugh it up, old man," she fired off, pushing past the human form centaur and striding up the beach towards where Travis' house… cabin… room thing sat.
She was still dragging the Stolls when she opened the screen door with her foot and shoved them inside. "Behave!" Ari commanded. She slammed the door in their faces and turned around, heading back to Chiron.
His smirk had turned into a full on grin.
"What?" she demanded.
"If I did not know better," Chiron said teasingly, "I would assume you were their older sister."
Ari rolled her eyes and turned around. "Whatever you want to believe, Horse Butt." She tapped a few times on her gauntlet. "See you in the eating pavilion."
Space warped around her for a moment, and before the ancient Centaur's widened eyes, she disappeared. He cursed in his head.
Worse than her now being able to escape supervision at any time she wished, she had won that round of verbal fencing.
That rankled Chiron's flanks something bad.
A/N: Okay. I'm keeping this short and... uh... perhaps not sweet, but short.
1: I am not dead.
2: This story is not dead.
3: I have about... 7? 8? chapters written already, waiting to be posted by me.
4: Here's the difficult part; I have two (one, now) chapters to post (write for CH7) before them. I've had a Mount Everest-sized Writer's Block for a very long time on these two chapters (6 and 7). Even now I'm not very happy with 6, but it's done and that's that.
So yeah. 7 will be here... whenever. After that posting should pick up speed.