Thanks for your reviews! I think the story is finally going to start coming along in this chapter, so please stick with me you guys!

Percy's POV

I was in the ocean when it happened.

The sea seemed like the only place I could escape to these days, a place to think about everything that was happening. I could breathe underwater, and will the currents to push me across the deep as I pleased. The water also cleared my mind, and allowed me to think better.

Fortunately, it also heightened my sense of hearing.

I was swimming along on the bottom of Long Island Sound, allowing the cool water to ease my troubles and relax me, when I heard commotion coming from the shore. People were running around in panic at the camp. I immediately began to swim to the surface.

No sooner had I emerged than Grover ran up to me, his eyes wild and panicky. "Get your armor!" he cried. "The borders are under attack!"

Not again, I groaned inside. This was the second time since I'd arrived at camp. The first time had been a pack of wild, hairy men with rams' horns, something that even I'd never seen in my days as a half-blood. I dreaded what was awaiting me this time.

I ran into my cabin to find Tyson already in his armor and getting me mine. "Hurry, Percy!" he said. He tossed me my other shin guard and then sprinted out the door.

I quickly donned the armor and started out the door until I realized something: my helmet was missing. Where did I put it? I searched frantically on the floor. Nothing. Then I suddenly realized I had left it in Jacob's room in the Big House on the night of Capture the Flag. I cried out in frustration and tore toward the farmhouse.

I found Mr. D on the porch, sipping Diet Coke and flipping through his wine magazine. "Do you even care that we're under attack?" I yelled at him.

He waved his hand dismissively without looking up. "So a couple of campers get maimed. It's no skin off my nose."

I just glared and ran past him. Making my way down to Jacob's old room, I quickly grabbed my helmet off the floor. I was almost out the door when suddenly I saw Jacob's old clothes folded up next to the door. It wouldn't have bothered me, except that out of the corner of my eye I saw a bit of green hanging out of one of his pants pockets. I stooped down and pulled it out. It was a green plastic card, and my eyes widened as I recognized the words printed on it: LOTUS HOTEL CASHCARD.

"Oh, no," I whispered. Then I suddenly remembered the attack and I ran out the door, pocketing the card as I went.

--

Jacob's POV

I was seriously excited.

There was no stopping me from participating in this fight, not since I had beat Percy in a sword fight last week. The last attack, I had been forced to watch from the valley as Clarisse and a few older campers took the ram-guys that were attacking the borders. But beating Percy had given me an aura of respect and admiration, and I was happy when Annabeth told me to get my armor on and get ready to fight after the horn was sounded.

Now, I was on the crest of Half-Blood Hill, watching my foes approach. They were strange women with the upper bodies of humans, and lower bodies that resembled dragons. "Dracanae," Clarisse had said with a curse when we had come up the hill. We stood with about fifteen other campers donned in the same bronze armor, including Percy, Annabeth, Tyson, and the Stoll brothers, watching as the dracanae began ascending the hill. Peleus the dragon was wrapped protectively around the tree where the Fleece sat and growling at our opponents.

Suddenly Clarisse cried, "Heroes, to arms!" With battle cries we charged down the hill to meet the snakelike women. I gripped my sword tightly, admiring the way the celestial bronze caught the sunlight. I didn't wear a shield; I found that it increased my speed and as long as I kept my head in the game, I didn't need one.

I approached the first dracanae I saw. She wielded a long poleaxe, the blade sharp enough to slice through flesh like jelly. She gave me a snarl and swung at me. I ducked and flicked the axe away with my sword. Quickly moving in, I sliced the pole in half as she came in for another swing and then gutted her. With a wail, she exploded into yellow dust.

"'Atta boy, Jacob!" called Connor from next to me. Just then, a monster came up behind him and raised her sword.

"Look out!" I shouted, pointing. He turned and barely raised his shield to block the blow. Then a couple of Apollo archers shot her in chinks in her armor and she quickly disintegrated, but not before another one came up behind Connor and engaged him again. I ran over to help him, but I was too late. The monster managed to get through his defense and jab him in the shoulder with her spear. He fell to the ground, blood gushing freely from the wound.

"Connor!" I said. The dracanae noticed me and sneered. "Goodbye, little one!" she hissed, raising her javelin.

I dodged the blow and knocked the javelin out of her hands. Then I raised my sword and quickly maimed her. She vaporized before she could utter a sound.

I bent down and examined Connor. His wound was deep and wide, and he was barely breathing. I burned with rage at the monsters that had done this to him. Connor and Travis had become my good friends over the last couple of weeks. I was one of the only ones who could tell them apart. I couldn't stand seeing him hurt like this.

What happened next I could never explain; it was like a dam suddenly broke inside me, releasing a flood of energy that filled me with power. With a cry, I raised my sword, and lightning tore down from the heavens and struck the tip. It broke into individual tendrils of electricity that struck each of the remaining monsters, destroying them instantly. When the energy faded from me, there were clumps of yellow powder all over the hill and a bunch of bronze-clad warriors staring at me in awe.

I didn't know what to say, because I was just as surprised as they were. Then suddenly something flashed above my head. I looked up. Swirling above me was a strange symbol: a golden storm cloud with a lightning bolt generating from it. As I watched, the symbol faded just as quickly as it had come.

"It is determined," said Chiron's voice from the crest of the hill. He was standing there with all the other campers behind him. One by one, each of them kneeled, looking up at me with awe and amazement, even Percy.

Then Chiron said the last thing I expected. "He is the son of the Lord of the Sky. The final quest member has been found. Hail, Jacob Spark, son of Zeus."

--

After that, the campers were a mass of confusion. Everyone was walking up, congratulating me, accusing me, or just continuing to stare at me unwaveringly. Everyone wanted to talk to me, but unfortunately we had wounded to tend to.

While the Apollo campers began examining the hurt campers, Chiron led me away toward the Big House. I resisted at first, because I wanted to make sure Connor was alright, but the lightning stunt had taken all the energy out of me, and in the end I just followed him.

One by one, the members of the new quest began filing in behind us: Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and that mortal girl that stayed in Percy's cabin. That surprised me, because as far as I knew she had never left cabin three since camp started.

We met Mr. D on the porch, flipping through a wine magazine like he didn't even care that we'd just been attacked. He looked up dully at us and said sarcastically, "Well, if it isn't the hero of the day."

"Now, Mr. D," said Chiron, "That's no way to talk to your new brother."

Dionysus just grunted and went back to his magazine. We all sat down at the table and stared at our feet in an uncomfortable silence. Finally, Tyson looked up, suddenly excited. "Is this the quiet mouse game?" he said. "I like quiet mouse." Then he suddenly clamped his hand over his mouth in horror.

As shocked an confused as I was, I had to suppress a smile. I saw the others trying not to laugh too, except Percy, who just glared at me. Then Chiron said, "Well, Jacob, we have to talk about this. I have many questions, such as-"

"How can you be a son of Zeus?" interrupted Percy angrily. "How did you find this camp in the first place? And maybe you could tell me why I found THIS-" he pulled a green plastic card out of his pocket that I recognized all too well, "in the pocket of your old clothes!"

I sensed surprise from everyone around the table. "Perhaps it would be wise," said Chiron, "If you told us your background, Jacob."

I sighed. I had been reluctant to share my past with anyone while I was at camp, because it was sort of personal and not something I shared with everyone. But I felt like it needed to be done. I sighed. "Okay, hear goes," I said. Everyone listened patiently.

"I was born in Los Angeles fourteen years ago. Like I told Percy, the only thing I ever knew about my mom was that she was an artist. She tried her best to take care of me after my dad…Zeus, I guess…left her. After she died, when I was two, I was put into an orphanage, where I grew up. It was nice enough, but I felt out of place, because I had dyslexia and ADHD and I made terrible grades. When I was four, I got in a fight with another kid at the orphanage. I punched him, and he said it felt like a shock was going through his body. That's when I gave myself the last name Spark.

"One night, a bunch of kids were talking about me behind my back. They said I was never going to amount to anything and that I would live in the streets for the rest of my life." I tried not to let my voice break.

"That night I ran. I knew I didn't belong at that orphanage. I decided to run away to Denver, where all the runaway kids went. It started out good. I made it all the way to Vegas. But then I found this…hotel."

"The Lotus Hotel and Casino," Annabeth said, going misty-eyed.

I nodded, wondering how in the world she could have possibly known that. "The hotel was amazing. They had everything I could ever dream of, and it was all free. I planned to stay there for the rest of my life. But after a while, I realized I couldn't. I kept thinking about the outside world, and I sort began to miss a life that wasn't so perfect.

"So, a few weeks ago, I left. I can't explain why I did it. It was almost like this voice was calling me away, telling me I had to get out. So I walked out the front doors, and there I was in Las Vegas again."

"I started to make for Denver. But then I met this guy on the street one day. He bought me a hamburger and told me about a summer camp for kids like me. He said I ought to go there, and for some reason, I listened to him. He got me a ride to New York- although I don't really remember what it was- and then I was headed for here. Camp Half-Blood.

"You just walked out of the Lotus Hotel?" said Grover in awe. "How? It was so…amazing."

"Children of the Big Three have a stronger resistance to those kind of things than other mortals or half-bloods," Chiron explained. "They can turn away from it easier."

Annabeth nodded. "That would explain why Percy was the first one to know something was up with the hotel. And why Bianca wasn't really surprised that that subway station hadn't been there when she and Nico lived in DC."

"Wait," I said. "You guys have been to that hotel?"

"Years ago," said Grover, "When we went on our first quest together."

"Which brings us to a pretty big question-" said Percy. They all looked at me, and I knew they were all thinking the same thing.

"Jacob, when were you born?" Chiron asked.

I was quiet for a minute, struggling to remember. Then, "1928."

Everyone gasped, even Mr. D. "You do realize that means you've been alive for eighty years?" Annabeth said.

"Well, yeah, but…I mean, I've never really thought about it." It was just dawning on me how long I had been around. It's the twenty-first century!

"It's your Big Three resistance," said Chiron, reading my mind. "That's why you weren't surprised until now by your age."

"This is so crazy," I said. "How could I have lived for eighty years as a fourteen-year-old?"

"The Lotus Hotel is magic," Percy answered. "You go in there, and you never age unless you leave."

We were quiet while I took in this news. Then Chiron said, "This man who told you about Camp Half-Blood…do you remember what he looked like?"

"I couldn't tell you," I said. "He wore a hood all the time. I thought I saw his face once, but…" I shook my head. "I really can't remember."

"It's all right, child," Chiron assured me. "What happened after that?"

"I headed for this place," I said, "But it wasn't easy. Monsters attacked me the entire way there. The night I came here, I had just escaped a pack of hellhounds. I managed to make it over the property line. Then I saw you guys coming towards me and…I blacked out."

"So you had no idea you were a half-blood?" asked Grover. I shook my head.

"Enough chat," said Chiron. "We must concentrate on the matter at hand. We have all the members of our quest present, aside from Nico, who I have spoken to."

"You've talked to Nico?" asked Percy surprised.

Chiron nodded. "He has said he'll be arriving at camp first thing tomorrow. You all have until then to prepare for this quest. Remember, now, that this is the most important quest in the last century. The quest specifically mentions that someone will be lost, but we don't know how many will come back. I suggest you all make your farewells before leaving." With that, he rose. "Jacob, may I speak with you privately?" he said.

I nodded. "Okay," I said.

"The rest of you, begin preparing," said Chiron. "You leave tomorrow for Mount Tam."

He got up and went inside the Big House. As I followed him, I thought I heard Mr. D say, "Well, this ought to be fun."