They got his drink. Nick had managed to hold off trying it until Jack had taken a shower.

Alex stood on his porch, sipping water while Nick poured shot after shot for himself and Jack.

I should probably get Vladimir. He thought.

Yes. Ruby replied.

Vladimir is the 20-year-old son of Mercury who had decided to stay at camp to help defend and counsel after the last Camp Director died.

He is also Russian, which is why Alex debated whether he would stop Nick and Jack from drinking or if he would join them. Alex sighed.

Only one way to find out.

He went back inside and found Ruby lying on his bed, covering her head, and picked her up and took her outside.

"You know what you need to do for me." He whispered in her ear.

Ruby took off towards the Big House, flying as fast as she could away from the noise that Jack and Nick were making.

Alex sighed and went back inside his cabin, remembering that some people in the Aphrodite cabin would be out looking for someone to spend the night with.

Alex shuddered at the thought.

Once inside, he closed the door, sighing wearily as he stumbled to his bed.

Nick laughed along with Jack as they set the empty bottle of Vodka on the table.

"He's going to absolutely kill us," Nick said first, filling the empty container with Kool-Aid.

Alex chuckled as he imagined the look on the grizzled man's face when he found out he'd been pranked.

Jack and Alex spent the next couple of minutes preparing the room so it looked like they had a wild party, while Nick continued to fill up the bottle with the kid's juice.

When Vladimir finally came, all three of the boys were spread all throughout the room, seemingly passed out.

Vladimir took a careful step into the cabin of the least forgiving god as not the wake up the three boys. He spotted the bottle in the hand of the boy closest to him, and he carefully reached out to take it.

This had better be worth it, he thought to himself grumpily, having being woken by a scaley little demon jumping on his face.

The same one lying on… Alex? He thought with a puzzled look on his face.

He mentally shrugged as he took a swig out of the bottle, preparing for the smooth liquid to wash his dry throat. However, when the flavor hit his tongue, he realized something terrible.

"You little shits!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, screaming at the three boys who had started laughing their heads off in front of him.

He flung the almost-full bottle at the one who had held the glass when he first came in, who unfortunately dodged to the right.

"Clean this up or you'll have kitchen duty for the rest of the year!" he shouted as he left the cabin, slamming the door in his wake.

The three boys howled in laughter, even as he was long gone.

Alex snapped his fingers, wiping a tear from his eye as the mess melted into the shadows.

"Now we have to really get to bed, I've got an ass-whooping to administer tomorrow," Alex said as he curled up under his covers.

"Dream on," Nick replied already dozing off under his pink covers.

Soon, Jack was left sitting on his bed while the other two were asleep.

Ruby curled up in his lap, looking for attention.

Jack let out a little chuckle as he started to pet her head, slowly letting her fall asleep before laying on his back himself and slowly passing out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Final battle~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The stadiums were abuzz with excitement when all of the contestants entered. Standing apart from each other in a circle was Kyria, Alex, Michael Lodato, who was staring at Alex, Michael Sanders, chatting with Nick, Cyra, and finally Nick. After about half an hour, Chiron stood at his podium and cleared his throat. The stands immediately quieted down as he prepared to speak.

"Instead of this being a one-on-one or a two-on-two, this year it's going to be a free-for-all. It begins… Now!"

Everyone immediately sprung into action, picking out a target for themselves.

Nick and Alex jumped towards each other at the same time, their weapons causing sparks to fly as they traded blows.

Michael Sanders sprung at Michael Lodato, causing the latter to rapidly defend himself from the flurry of attacks that came withs Michael's surprise attack.

Cyra, seeing that Kyria was the only person left to fight, immediately fitted an arrow onto her bow and flung it at Kyria.

Expecting this, she used her telekinesis to push the arrow off-course and started flinging fireballs at Cyra, causing her to leap away from the red flames. Cyra fitted another arrow on her bowstring as she went in for her next attack.

Michael Lodato was having a hard time keeping up with Michael's attacks at first, but as time went on he could block easier and slowly began pushing for the offensive.

Eventually, Michael Sanders was soon trying his best to keep himself from loosing, taking small hits along his arms and face in order to block the more fatal cuts. The son of Timorous began using his powers to try and slow the son of Hermes down a little, hoping that the added fear and pressure from his powers would cause him to falter. It worked, and Michael Lodato soon overstepped in a thrust, giving Michael Sander an opening in which he could stab at the younger Michael's exposed stomach.

Alex and Nick were having the most impressive and noisy battle, with words almost as sharp as their weapons being flung at each other. Each time their weapons crossed, they would spit insults at each other before spinning away and preparing for their next attack.

While Alex swung his blade horizontally, Nick used the flat end of his blade to deflect the blade towards the ground while continuing his banter.

"My grandmother swings harder than that! Put some backbone into it!"

Once the attack had been deflected, he barely waisted a second before swinging the blade straight down towards Alex, seemingly attempting to cleave him into two.

"What's wrong?" Alex taunted. "Can't find anyone to 'ax' out?"

Nich growled in annoyance as he kicked off of the ground and flung himself to the side in order to miss a swing from Alex.

"I swear to the gods of Olympus I will-"

BRING! BRING!

Alex held out his hand as he pulled a phone from his pocket.

"I could swear this thing was silence-"

Alex's voice cut off as soon as he was who it was from, his hands trembling.

Nick wasn't sure what stopped him from attacking right then. Maybe the way Alex looked at his phone, the trembling hands, or the way he could almost hear him going pleasenopleasenopleaseno under his breath, but he put his weapon in the dirt and looked around, catching his breath.

"Hello?" Alex asked, his voice almost hitching on the word.

"Is this Mr. Kukucka?" a lady asked from the other side of the call.

"Yes, how may I help you?" He responded, his mind running wild with the possibilities.

"This is the Bellevue Hospital Center, and… It's about your brother…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A/N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This maybe be three weeks or so late, but better late than never, right?

Ooooh boy, this next part is one my most and least favorites, and you'll soon find out why.

My other story is out! The introduction is horrible, but the rest of the book is going to be less so, but it probably won't update until this one is finished.

I had to take the hiatus to replan the "Arcs," so to speak, and some of the stuff in between.

See ya soon,

DragonsHero2