AN: Hey all. So, as stated in the description of this story, this was started in the one-shots story I have. However, because I then realized how much I liked these characters, they have their own story. Some of it is already told, but this is going to give the whole story as best as I can tell it. There are four main characters and you'll see things from each point of view. The first name said in the chapter is going to be the person whose view you're reading, unless stated otherwise.

If you came here from the One-Shots, then you should know that I am expanding on the chapters posted before. This one has a little more in the first part. Anyway, I encourage you to read through them again to at least refresh your memory. Ria was created as a result from request by Perseus Jackson007, and was the first character to catch my interest enough to have a second story for.

Enjoy!

Marianne—ugh did she hate that name—Dagris, Ria for short and because her name was so awful, looked around at her cabin with nothing short of despair. She had to stay with these idiots instead of the smart kids? The Athena cabin had been so cool! And she really loved being able to talk to Malcolm and some of the others about battle strategy. Now she was stuck amongst the rowdy and troublesome Hermes kids. Sure, they were strategically valuable when it came to battles, war, and war preparations. But living with them?

"I'll get you a welcome pack, that'll give you a spare shirt at least. Just tell Cassie what you don't have and she'll make sure you get everything that you need." The leader of the Hermes Cabin, Connor, stayed by the stairs.

"Cassie?"

"Me," One of the girls waved, "I"m Cassie."

"Ria," She answered, critically examining the girl who was coming toward her. She could easily overpower this Cassie, her left arm didn't seem to move. She could take advantage of the favoring of her right side and get a blow with her current weapon of a sledgehammer and the girl would be incapacitated.

Cassie gave a warm smile, "The only bunks taken are the ones that actually have pillows on them, so take your pick from the others."

Ria sighed and tossed her stuff onto a bunk, "When can I get out of this place and into a cooler cabin?"

"Considering we're the only ones with AC aside from the Hepheastus cabin, I'm pretty sure we are the cooler cabin," Cassie responded easily, "I understand your eagerness to be in a cabin that is geared more toward your own academic prowess and inclinations toward battle, however until you're claimed, you'll be staying here. It isn't so bad, and since you're over thirteen you shouldn't have to wait long before getting claimed. Until then, you have a place here."

Ria leaned her hammer against the bunk, "So you're the intelligence of the cabin?"

"I wouldn't say that." She tugged on her ponytail, "I'm more of a…mother hen with a high IQ. Besides, I have to be more intelligent in how I battle my opponents since my arm can become useless at any given time. Nerve damage. Don't think I didn't see you notice it."

Ria flinched, "Right." Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"That's Alice, and that's Julie. Watch your stuff around them, they will try to take it and frankly, I don't have time to return every little thing that gets stolen. You had the tour?"

Ria nodded a little, now unsure of her own assessment.

"Good. Let's find you an opponent." Cassie strapped on a belt with twin scabbards, strangely short and thin for swords, but too long to be for knives. Cassie noticed the quizzical glance and drew one of them. "Skeans, Irish blades. Long story. Let's go."

Ria hurried to grab her sledgehammer and followed. "Um…"

"I think Jamie might be good," Cassie said, more to herself than anyone else. "He's probably already at the arena."

Ria followed Cassie back to the arena she had been shown earlier.

One demigod was there, fighting a dummy half-heartedly.

The dummy squeaked and hid behind her shield as the other demigod struck at her.

Ria wasn't impressed.

Until that same, lazy demigod suddenly stepped with high speed and managed to dodge to another side of his opponent and remove the shield from her arm, disarm her, and give her three blows with the practice sword in the space of what felt like a second.

The demigod scoffed slightly. "Put your shield on correctly next time, and don't think that hiding behind a shield will do you any good." The voice was distinctly male.

"That's Jamie, he's one of our best fighters," Cassie explained in a whisper.

Ria grinned. Not bad at all. She could really grow to like it here.

—~~—

Ria's claiming had been…bloody, to say the least. Lots of monsters.

But being claimed by Mars, at the Greek camp and receiving her spiked Hammer, an imperial gold weapon with a spike jutting out one face, perfectly flat on the other—maximum damage ability—was a little bit of a roller coaster. She thought for sure that she would be in the Athena cabin. Had even silently picked out her bunk.

Now she was sitting in the Aphrodite cabin, having to get her hair cut and styled because of some nasty stuff that got in it.

"Can I dye it?" Lacy asked, "I'm really good."

"No."

"Oh come on! You're going over to Camp Jupiter next week, they're no fun there. You might need something to brighten your day. You aren't too scared, are you?"

"Battle tactics are my life, your tactic is weak." Ria did find herself at least looking at the available colors, "I better still be able to get my hair out of my way."

Lacy examined her hair, "Not going to lie, it might be best if you get a pixie cut. Otherwise it's going to look a little…lopsided."

Ria curled her lip, "Great."

"But, on the bright side, I can make it short enough where shouldn't be in your way. And you can use headbands too." Lacy was going for positive.

Vince, Ria's half-brother on the Greek side, nudged her, "You have to say it's okay."

Ria groaned, "Fine, go ahead and do color too. Might serve as a tactical advantage if my hair is a distracting color."

"Sweet! You have coloring that works fantastically with any other color."

"Fine, just hurry. I have battle practice and I'm totally going to crush it." And them.

Lacy worked quickly, and got Ria out of the frilly cabin within half an hour.

Just in time for her to meet the rest of her cabin at the Arena.

She couldn't wait for a real fight.

—~~—

Ria played with her earring, "See them yet?"

"Just spotted them," Cassie replied, waving from her spot on top of the bench. Then she hopped down. "They're on their way over. Got your bags?"

"Yeah. Why did we fly again?"

"We had to leave after the vans had, you because you were in the infirmary after fracturing your leg, me because I had to finish judging a competition. We both had to get here, and here we are." Cassie lifted her bag and put it on her left shoulder, then slid her right arm into the strap.

Favoring her left arm again, Ria noted, definitely sure that she could use it to a distinct advantage. Not that she needed to destroy the girl.

Not yet.

"How are your dreams?" Cassie asked, peeking through the crowd.

Ria sighed, "Fine."

Cassie nodded, then frowned, "Someone's behind us. Been following us since the layover in Texas. Don't look. We'll take care of it outside. The Romans have our weapons."

Ria nodded. That was one good thing about Cassie, she had a weirdo-radar. Like a sixth sense.

The romans reached them, introducing themselves as Andy Gallus (son of Ceres), Shelly McClintick (daughter of Apollo), and Jade Karrington (daughter of Mercury) all of the third cohort.

Cassie was friendly, but curt, and quickly moved everyone toward the exit, "We should get moving. I don't like being exposed and weaponless."

Andy nodded sharply, understanding the nod to the side that Cassie gave.

Ria started thinking about strategy for fighting this stalker. Grab her hammer, confront person/monster, attack, give the others time to grab their weapons. She was the youngest, but that would also make her less likely to be a threat in an enemy's mind, if that enemy wasn't a monster. She was also fast and strong. She was fairly certain she could take out an enemy on her own.

They got to the van, and Jade and Andy hopped into the front seats while Shelly handed Ria and Cassie their weapons.

Ria picked up her bag again.

Shelly got into the van.

That's when it blew up.

Ria and Cassie got pushed back by the blast, but they didn't have any time to think.

The person following them attacked.

Ria blocked his first blow, which would have hurt Cassie badly, and slid her hammer along the blade of his sword, and then twisted herself so that she could crush his wrist.

Elbow to the stomach, duck out of the way, turn to—

Ria fell to the ground, having tripped over the curb.

Cassie slid in with her tiny swords or knives or whatever they were, cutting the guy's other arm, then she did this spinning jump onto the hood of the car, sheathed her knives, and then leapt, using all of her weight behind her fist and knocked him on in the head. Following through with a kick to the head, to fully knock him out.

"Ria, get up." Cassie pulled her up with her good arm, "We have to get the others out of the van."

Ria cursed and they hurried to get the other demigods out or at least make sure that they were okay.

Cassie treated the cuts and burns as best she could, "We need to move. The police will think we caused this. Andy? You okay to drag that jerk?"

Andy nodded, and grabbed the guy.

"Ria, help Shelly. I've got Jade."

Ria put her arm around Shelly, supporting the older girl. How did the guy plant a bomb as well as follow them through airport? "Cassie—"

"I know. Couldn't have been in two places at once," Cassie interrupted, "We're still in trouble. Just keep moving. Andy, burner phone?"

He paused to pull it out and toss it to her.

"What are you doing? Cell phones are dangerous," Ria hissed.

"We need help. I'm calling Rome." Cassie glanced around, "There, head for that van."

"The minivan?"

"Yes."

Ria shook her head, she was starting to think it would be easier to fight whatever was about to happen.

They got to the van and Cassie managed to pick the lock, open it and unlock the other doors, "Get it. I've got to hotwire it."

"How do you know how to do that?"

"It's pretty much a crime to be a daughter of Hermes and not be able to pick locks and hotwire cars," Cassie replied distracted.

Ria helped Shelly and Jade into the van, then helped Andy haul their attacker into the van as well. It made sense now, to have gotten into the van, that she knew that Cassie could hotwire it. Their escape would be easier and they wouldn't be trying to run with four injured people.

"Frank, it's Cassie Dellaro. There was an incident. We've stolen a van and are—" The van lurched forward as Cassie whipped out of the parking space, "en route, but we could definitely use backup. Andy probably has a concussion, Shelly has some bad burns, as does Jade, who also has a pretty bad concussion. We have a prisoner."

Ria shook her head, their situation sounded crazy. There wasn't a plan she could make for this. It wasn't like fighting. She was running from the fight.

Not that her first fight since getting her new weapon had been especially grand. She had tripped, an eventuality she hadn't accounted for, and a mistake she wouldn't make again. Besides, her move of crushing the guy's wrist had allowed the older girl to knock him out without risk of getting stabbed. Cassie wasn't especially strong, and it had provided the proper distraction for her to calculate the exact way to knock the guy out.

It was strategically sound.

Though Ria really hated that she hadn't been the one to take the guy out.

"You have a cut on your leg." Cassie was driving with ferocity

"It'll heal," Ria grumbled, running a hand through her pixie cut. She didn't want to admit that she had made a mistake, tripping. She also didn't want to admit that she loved the way Lacy had done her hair. It looked like fire. The edges of her hair were red, then they became orange and gave way to yellow. And whatever that hair stuff was that she had been instructed to use left her hair all soft and fluffy.

Andy frowned out the back window, "Here's hoping Rome is fast in responding."