Disclaimer : I do not own Percy Jackson. That's RR.

Chapter 3 : I Annoy Mars (Not The Smartest Thing To Do…)

Hazel had already left the principia when I walked up. Knowing that they would probably be at the augury, I started running. Panting and out of breath, I burst into the temple of Jupiter just in time to hear, "… be such a shame if those rumors about you actually turned out to be true…"

Hazel tensed and Percy looked about to charge the guy. I beat him to it. Storming up to him, I hissed. "Listen up, you wannabe hero. You are a legacy of Apollo. The god of truth! So quit your stupid blackmailing. Just do what you always do and murder more teddy bears."

Octavian's face had gotten red. "I am the augur!"

My face turned dismissive. "So?"

"I can have you kicked out of camp. You have no idea how much power I have."

I smiled. "Yeah? Well you have no idea how many people I know who can kick. Your. Ass."

He didn't look worried. "You had no letters of recommendation, nothing. You know no one, Feldsman and I would quite pretending if I were you."

"You're right." He smiled, thinking that he had won. "I don't need those people. I can kick your ass myself." With that, I punched him in the face.

Turning back to Hazel and Percy, the former looking like she was about to faint any second and the latter looking at me with respect, I smiled. "Come on guys."

Once we were out of the cabin, Hazel exploded. "What were you thinking?You could have broken his nose!"

I frowned. "Are you actually defending the guy, Hazel?"

"No, but…"

Percy cut in. "That was awesome! You totally showed him."

Hazel looked horrified. "If Octavian tells, you really could be kicked out of camp! You punched the augur in the face! Plus, you're still on probatio!"

"If he tells," I said.

"And what makes you think he won't?" Hazel asked, fanning her face.

"Because he's a power hungry snake."

"And that'll help you because?" Her voice trailed off.

"Because power hungry snakes cannot be humiliated. And, 'I, the all-powerful augur who wants to be praetor, got punched in the face by the newbie who just came to camp a day ago' is very humiliating."

"Still…" Hazel looked worried.

"It'll be fine. Most likely, he'll try to get me back during the war games."

"That's your idea of fine? Robbie…" She sighed. "You know what? I won't even try. Come on Percy. Let's go meet my brother."

"What, I wasn't invited?" I followed along.

"No," was my short response.

"Because I punched Octavian? Come on Hazel, he deserved it. He was blackmailing you!"

Percy nodded along. "Yeah, I mean, if he didn't do it, I would have."

She muttered, "You both are idiots." Thabkfully, she didn't say anything as I fell in step next to them.

Percy sounded curious. "So who's her brother?"

"A guy named Nico di Angelo."

"Anything else you'd like to tell me?"

"Well, he's kind of creepy. He's got the whole death vibe going on. Other than that, I don't know that much about him. He scares me."

Hazel turned around. "Nico is not scary."

I raised my eyebrows. "Really? How about those times when he just appears right behind you like a shadow?"

Hazel threw up her arms. "Ugh! You know what, just go and help Frank or something like that."

"So, you're kicking me out."

"Yes, I'm kicking you out!"

I raised my hands in surrender. "Fine, fine."

Instead of going to help Frank, I wandered around camp until after what seemed like forever, I heard the horns signaling evening muster.

Running to the barracks, I was one of the first ones there. I stood, waiting for Dakota to start roll call. As he neared the end, I could see Hazel running toward us. As Dakota called out her name, she squeaked, "Present!"

Then I saw Percy standing with Nico off to the side. When Reyna finally introduced him and Hazel stood for him, I sighed in relief. You never knew when things could go wrong.

As we ate dinner, Hazel and Frank were explaining to Percy about the eagle. Percy slurped his soda. "So you're saying that everyone thinks we're cursed."

"That's right. I mean our reputation got better when Jason was praetor, but…" Frank shrugged his shoulders.

"He disappeared." Percy finished for him.

"Yeah. I heard he was a really good leader though." Hazel added.

Alex had told me about Jason. According to her, he was annoying, uptight, and a bit too suspicious. Plus, he apparently underestimated her. Although she had grudgingly admitted that he was an okay leader.

Percy looked thoughtful. "I have a feeling that this isn't the first time I've been an underdog. It'll be fine. Maybe we can turn things around."

The horns blew once again, signaling the beginning of the war games. Everyone cheered. Well, everyone except for the Fifth Cohort. We just looked glum. Some people cheered, but only half-heartedly. Everybody hurried to get their equipment. Percy looked at the glum faces with confusion. "Wait, we're the attacking team. That's a good thing right?"

"Well, we get the elephant." Hazel started.

"But we always lose," Percy guessed.

I clapped him on the back. "Quite right, good sir. In haiku format…" I cleared my throat.

"We lose every time.

No matter if we try hard.

So there is no point."

I made a horrified face. "Gods, I'm turning into my dad."

Percy chuckled. "It's a good haiku though."

"Better than what my dad can think up of, yeah."

Hazel laughed. "Apollo is the god of poetry, Robbie. He's probably amazing at poems."

"You'd be surprised."

Frank cleared his throat. "We'd better get going, guys. War games, remember?"

"Right."

All four of us started running toward the Field of Mars. When I saw what we were supposed to attack, I stopped short. "We're attacking that?!"

Hazel sighed. "They did a good job today. That's bad."

Percy's eyes widened. "They built this today?"

Hazel smiled. "We're trained to build. We can break down the camp ad build it somewhere else if we need to. Might take a bit longer but we could still do it."

"Let's hope we never need to do that."

Hazel pointed. "The banners are in there. We have to try and get them."

"So, like capture the flag." Percy tilted his head. "I think I like capture the flag."

I grinned. Oh you have no idea.

"So real weapons are allowed?" Percy looked down at Riptide.

"Yeah." Hazel answered.

"Won't people get hurt?"

"There's medics," I said. "They have ambrosia and nectar and unicorn stuff. So people don't die."

"Well, some people still do die. Just, not a lot."

"Thanks, Hazel, for making us all feel a whole lot better." I grumbled.

"So what do we do?" Percy asked.

"We're the Fifth Cohort. We always get the worst duties. We go first and get slaughtered. I mean, it's not even really war games anymore, it's 'Beat Up the Fifth Day.'" Frank looked mad.

"Well, I mean this isn't capture the flag." I added. "In capture the flag, the whole team works together. But here, the cohort who gets the banners gets all the glory. So you'd be surprised to find out who'll stab you in the back."

Frank and Hazel looked at me in shock. "How do you…?"

"Gwen explained everything." Not really.

Then we heard Dakota's voice. "They're throwing us at the walls to soften up the defenses."

Everyone groaned.

"Maybe we'll win this time!" Gwen was always cheery and optimistic.

She assigned everyone duties. What ours was. "Just, do whatever. Show Robbie and Percy the ropes. Try to keep them alive."

Percy looked at us, "Try to keep them alive?"

"Yeah, I mean we're not going to make it. Either we're burning or we're drowning or…" He stopped. "Drowning. The cannons. You can make them explode or can do stuff with the tunnels and we can get you close and…"

Hazel punched him. "You said you wouldn't tell!"

Frank mumbled an apology and Hazel looked down. "Whatever, it's fine."

Going through the tunnels was stressful, at least for me. We could hear the cannons and the elephant and explosions, probably from the scorpions. When we finally emerged, we saw what Frank predicted. The Fifth Cohort was being beat up and the Third and Fourth Cohort weren't doing anything to stop it.

Frank took out an arrow. "Percy. Now would be a good time."

Percy concentrated.

The guards were swiveling the cannon toward us.

"Now?" I asked.

BOOM.

The cannons exploded, sending everyone flying.

Frank hurried and climbed up the wall. I followed. The First and Second Cohort got destroyed. I guess it was because they never really knew what it was like to be on the losing side, but the pride of the camp were seriously being slaughtered.

Percy was fighting like a demon and Frank was just a big ball of metal armor. I was just picking off the defenders one by one with my bow. It was complete chaos. And I liked it. Percy, Frank, and I went inside the fortress and it didn't take us long to disarm the guards, take the banners, and ride out in glory. Everything was going perfectly.

Until I saw Gwen.

The medics had put her on a stretcher. Her face was grey and there was a pilum stuck out of her armor.

"No, no, no…" I rushed over to her.

The medics were trying everything, but I could tell it was too late. They looked up at Reyna and shook their heads. I walked back to Frank and Hazel, my head down. Then I had a suspicion.

I looked over at Octavian. He looked interested and I could see a glimmer of a smirk. I remembered what he said when Gwen took me to the augury. "You'll pay for that."

Shaking with anger, I took an arrow, loaded it and fired.

"Ow!"

It was my turn to smirk as Octavian looked down at an arrow stuck in his arm. Although, when he searched for the culprit, I made sure to wipe my face clean.

Frank whispered in my ear, "Good job."

Then Gwen gasped. Her eyes snapped open. The medics looked shocked. Gwen looked around. "What's everyone looking at?"

Frank went up to her. "Just, close your eyes for a second, okay?"

"All right?" She did as he asked.

Frank pulled out the pilum as Percy and Hazel held her down. The blood stopped and the wound started healing.

Gwen looked confused. "I feel fine."

Everyone looked around, not knowing what was going on.

A voice sounded. This is only the beginning. There was an explosion at the middle of the legion and a soldier stepped out. I knew he was Mars and I felt driven to kneel but I stopped myself. The only reason Percy got on this quest was because Mars wanted him to learn respect. I have to annoy Mars. With that thought, I continued standing along with Percy.

At the same time, we said, "Ares."

There were gasps all around us and Hazel hissed at me. "Robbie! What are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"You've got spunk. Yes, my Greek form is Ares. But to the children of Rome, I'm known as Mars, patron of the empire."

"So you're a jerk in both of your aspects then." Mars looked at me, his goggles flaring. I swallowed, almost backing down.

Percy squinted. "We met… we had a fight…."

"If you had fought me, you'd be dead," Mars said studying Percy.

"You're arrogant too." I forced out. Gasps all around again. Mars glared at me, the corners of his mouth turning down. Suddenly a ball of fire landed a foot from me and Mars raised his hand, like he was about to strike me down. Finally, after a long time, he lowered his hand and settled for glaring at me.

"You're trying my patience, young demigods. Now, kneel."

I had no intention of being barbeque so I did what he asked. Percy did too, although he didn't look happy about it. Mars explained about Thanatos and the land beyond the gods. All while Percy inserted his own snarky comments, of course.

Then Mars called Frank up. Let's just say, that has to be the most embarrassing claiming I have ever seen or read about. Except for maybe my own. Because seriously, who makes a horrible haiku while quoting the Bible while having a huge dramatic light on the person? Apparently Apollo. Unfortunately, my thoughts were cut short when I saw Mars point at both me and Percy.

"Normally, there should only be three people on a quest. But these two need to be on it. They need to learn respect for Mars. And I feel like you can have another companion of your choice." Lightning flickered in the sky. "I must go. Romans, do not disappoint me!"

And he erupted into flames.

Seriously, Greek or Roman, these gods have to have their dramatic exits.

And with that exciting confrontation, I went off to bed.