Chapter 3 Dinner (Or so I thought)
Percy POV
We all sit around and chat for a while, until Thalia, Jason, Nico, Hazel and my tummies start rumbling. Annabeth rolls her eyes.
"What is it with all the children of the big- I mean, you five?" She says, with a sideways glance at Isaac. "They all eat so much!"
"Yeah, but none of us eat as much a Percy!" Thalia says
"True that!" I say proudly. "Remember that time we had an eating contest. I won by a mile!"
"Well, since you guys are all so hungry, I'd better get dinner organized. Percy, come help."
"Ohhhh, but Wise Girl!" I moan. "I cooked it! Do I HAVE to help?"
"Percy cooked?" Piper asks. "Well Annabeth, this I have to see. And make sure it's not poison. I'll help serve."
"Thanks Pipes."
"So, Percy, what have you cooked?" asks Hazel
"Spaghetti and blue meatballs," I say proudly.
"Dude, you never told us, what is with your obsession with blue food?" Leo asks.
"WELL!" I say. "Let uncle Percy tell you a story. One day there was a lovely woman called Sally Jackson. She married an awful man named Gabriel, or as her son Percy liked to call him, Smelly Gabe. One day, he told them that there was no such thing as blue food. Ever since then, they have gone out of their way to eat blue food. The end."
"If he was so awful, why did your mom decide to marry him?" asks Isaac. Everybody else already knows.
"Ummm…well… it was to protect me from… some stuff," I say, trying to think on my feet, but unfortunately, I'm not Annabeth.
"Oh." He says. He must be able to read emotions well, because he doesn't press the matter.
All of a sudden there is a loud knock at the door.
"I'll get it," I say.
"Race ya, Kelp Head," Thalia says, jumping up.
I win, of course, and open the door to see Phoebe and a couple of other hunters of Artemis. Thalia squeals and goes to hug Phoebe, but she just ignores her, and instead yells,
"Monster Army! Camp-Half-Blood! NOW!"
Sure enough, in the distance, I can see a monster army marching steadily towards the house. I mentally slap myself. Even if we are grown up, five children of the big three give off a Hades of a lot of demigod smell. I usher the hunters inside and say
"You let the other know. I'll get the kids."
I run inside and yell "Kids, come downstairs NOW!"
They must've heard the urgency in my voice because as they come down the stairs, Luke is holding tightly to Zoë's hand, Sammy is holding onto Emily protectively, Diana is giving Tom a piggyback and Bianca is holding onto little Esperanza like a lifeline.
"Get in the cars, now," I say. By the time we reach the hallway, I am holding both Annabeth and Zoë's hand, and Annabeth is also holding Luke's. As we are getting in the car I swear I see Annabeth, Piper and Hazel exchange a smile, but then I blink, and it's gone.
"I'll see you at camp!" I yell to everyone, and then pull out behind Leo and Calypso, with Piper and Jason behind me, Nico and Will behind them, Hazel and Frank second last, and Isaac and Thalia at the back, probably because their car has only one demigod, compared to everyone else who has either three or four.
Thalia POV
"WHAT'S GOING ON!" yells Isaac, a look of pure terror on his face. Good. He should be terrified. It is his first monster attack and he has absolutely no idea what's going on.
"Ummm, well…" I say, stalling. He's driving. He'll probably crash the car if I tell him. "Pull over. I'm driving."
"Thals, no way am I letting you drive. Apparently we're in mortal danger of something." That's one of the reasons I love him. He's so protective of me. But now is not the time.
"Just pull over!" I snap.
His eyes widen, and he knows I mean business. As he pulls over, my special phone that Leo made for me so we can't be detected by monsters starts ringing. Of course it's Percy. Why is he so freakishly protective! It sometimes gets really annoying. I pick up anyway; otherwise he will turn back and ruin the whole plan.
"What are you doing!" he yells down the phone. "Are you crazy?!"
"No, I'm not. I have my reasons. Can you wait, for just a sec? We'll call you back."
"Sure," he replies shakily.
"Okay Isaac," I say, pulling back out onto the road. "Listen up. You probably won't believe me until I prove it, but all of us are demigods."
"Demi- what now's?" he splutters, a look of disbelief on his face. I sigh.
"Demigods. We are all children of the ancient Greek and Roman gods. I am a daughter of Zeus, the God of the sky, Jas-"
"Thals, this is not funny. Stop it. WHAT IS GOING ON!" he yells again.
"Demigods are a monsters favourite snack. I'll explain later, but let me finish. As I said, I am a daughter of Zeus. Jason, my brother, is a son of Jupiter, Zeus' Roman form. Percy is a son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Annabeth is a daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war strategy. Nico is a son of Hades, lord of the underworld, god of the dead. Hazel is a daughter of Pluto, Hades Roman form. Will is a son of Apollo, god of music, poetry, the sun, and etcetera. Fr-"
"What do you mean, etcetera"
"If I were to list all the things Apollo was the god of, we'd be here all week. May I continue?" He nods, solemnly. I can tell he still doesn't believe me.
"Frank is a son of Mars, Roman god of war. Leo is a son of Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and fire. Piper is a daughter of Aphrodite, goddess of love, and Calypso, well, that's complicated. She used to be a titan, then some stuff happed, and now she's not."
It's not working. He still doesn't believe me.
"If this is some sort of practical joke I swear I'll-"
"It's not. Ring Percy back and put it on speaker phone will you?"
Percy, of course, picks up right away.
"Are you okay?"
"Of course. Isaac doesn't believe me. I'm going to summon a lighting bolt to hit the road just in front of Leo and Calypso. Can you then do a crazy cool water thing?" I ask.
"Have you forgotten who you are talking to? Of course I can do a water thing!"
I roll my eyes, hang up, and summon a lightning bolt. Percy of course, has to outdo me and calls up a MEGA wave. I emerges all of our cars, but amazingly, they stay right where they are, and come out completely dry.
"Okay, ring Leo," I instruct, and, unusually he also picks up straight away.
"What did I do this time?" he asks accusingly.
"Huh?" I say, completely confused
"That was YOUR lightning bolt, right? Or was it Zeus'? Oh no, what have I done to tick him off this time?!"
"Leo, calm down. It was my lightning bolt, and I'm trying to prove to Isaac our demigodness, and here's what were gonna do. You're going to get Calypso to drive, and I'm going to ring Jason. He's going to fly over to your car, pick you up, and you're going to burst into flames. Cool?"
"Cool!"
I knew he would say that. He'll take any opportunity he gets to show off.
"Ring Jason next," I instruct. I tell Jason the plan, and while he's preparing I tell hi to give the phone to Piper.
"Hey Pipes." I say, in my sweetest voice. "Could you help me out for a sec?"
"What do you need me to do?" She sighs.
"Can you just tell Isaac to like, I don't know, take off his seatbelt?"
"Okay. Isaac, take off your seatbelt."
As if in a trance, Isaac reaches down and undo's his seatbelt. Her charmspeak is so powerful that I nearly took off my seatbelt, but I had to remind myself that she was talking to Isaac.
"Thanks Pipes, you're awesome."
"I know."
I tell Isaac to ring Frank, but before he does he asks me,
"What power was that?!"
"Oh, it's called charmspeak. She can basically make you do whatever she want's."
"And she's a daughter of the love goddess?'
"Yep."
"That makes sense."
"I know, now ring Frank."
"Hey Frank, we're trying to prove our demigodness, can you put us on to Hazel and then do some awesome transformation stuff? Thanks."
I hear Frank sigh, but he doesn't protest. He hands the phone to Hazel, rolls down the window and changes into an eagle. In midair he turns into a dragon.
"YEAH FRANK! WHOOO!" I yell.
"What are you talking about?" Isaac asks.
"Ohhhh. Right, forgot about the mist. See that bird up there? Its actually Frank, and he's actually a dragon." I say, laughing at the look on Isaac's face. "Hazel, can you thin the mist around Isaac? He can't see any of this." I say into the phone. As she does his eyes widen, and I know he's seeing Frank in his dragon form. When Frank lands, he turns into a gorilla, then runs back to the car. He is like the exact opposite of Leo. Hates showing off unless it's absolutely necessary.
"I thought you said he was the son of the war god!" Isaac said.
"He is," I say, dumbfounded.
"What does transformation have to do with war?"
"It's complicated," I reply. "I'll explain later."
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a speck of gold flames contrasting to the dark night sky.
"Aaaand if you look to your left, you will see my flying brother and his best friend Leo the lighthouse," I say in my best tour guide voice. His mouth is opening and closing like a fish, and for the first time since I've know him, Isaac is lost for words. I smile to myself and say "And we're not even done yet!"
"Hazel, you still there?" I say into the phone.
"Yeah, what do you want me to do?" she asks worriedly.
"All I need is for you to summon a few gold bars just in front of our car? Thanks!" I say, and hang up before she can protest. Sure enough, a few seconds later, they appear.
"That just leaves one," I say. I can see Isaac's brow furrow as he does the math in his head
"As I said, Calypso isn't really a demigod, and don't talk to Annabeth or Will about powers. They are preeeety touchy. Although Will does kind of have a superpower if you consider his healing, but that's a story for another time. Now, do you believe me about our demigodness, or does Nico have to summon the dead?"
Isaac's eyes widen.
"I'll take that as a summon the dead. Can you ring Nico? Thanks."
"I'm not summoning the dead. Nu uh. No way," Nico says as he answers the phone.
"That's no way to speak to your older cousin Nico." I reply "Can you put me onto Will?"
"Sure."
"Hey Will, can you convince Nico to summon at least one dead person? I'll promise never to hit you with another lightning bolt ever again?!"
"Um, that's actually surprisingly tempting. I've been hit with one of those things waaaay to many times. I'll see what I can do."
"Yes!" I yell as Isaac hangs up. Sure enough, in about 3-seconds-flat a small, dead, zombie type thing pops up on the road in front of us.
"What IS that thing," Isaac yells, disgusted.
"Oh, you know, just a dead person."
"Riiiiiight,"
"Oh would you look at that. We're here!" I say, motioning in front of us.
Percy POV
"Get into the boundaries!" I yell at Annabeth and the kids, pulling out Riptide. "I'll hold them off!"
"There's too many of them!" Annabeth yells back. "Just come inside the boundaries and we'll work it out later!"
As I turn around, the camp is dark and lifeless. That's not right. I heard Annabeth call Chiron. He at least should be waiting for us. I turn back around and see the monster army getting closer. Annabeth's right. There's too many of them. Everyone else is inside the boarder, motioning for me to come inside. I'll find out what's going on with the camp, at least. As I step inside, still clutching Riptide, the camp comes to life.
"SURPRISE!" Everyone yells.
Half-blood-hill erupts with sound and colour. I can see all the cabins decorated with streamers, and Thalia's pine tree is covered with balloons and Happy Birthday Percy signs. I catch sight of the big house, and see it has been decorated with a massive We Love You Seaweed Brain sign. Thalia catches me staring at it and smiles.
"I wanted to make it say Kelp Head You Suck, but Annabeth wouldn't let me," she teases.
"H- how did you get Mr. D to agree to this?" I ask. "And Chiron? Shouldn't all the campers be asleep?"
"Don't worry about it," Thalia says. "I'm sure Annabeth can tell you all the details tomorrow."
"One more thing, Sparky. How did you get the monsters?"
"It was all a trick of the mist," she replies mysteriously.
"HAZEL!" I yell, and storm off to find her, and presumably soak her in water.