CHAPTER ONE: TIME OUT

"Valdez, what in the world... is this?" I yelled, gripping the son of Hephaestus by the collar.

It was a sunny day in Camp Half-blood, the place for trouble-making demigods. I just got back from a stressful quest and my antique pair of sai's got shattered after countless battles with Theumessian Fox and a couple of other Greek monsters. Leo Valdez, the guy I was about to kill, offered in fixing it and replacing the rusty old metal to celestial bronze. However he tweaked it a bit and turned it to some USB device.

"Had I made it clear to you to just simply fix my sai's? Not treat it like some mechanical experiment?" I scolded.

Leo waved his arms around and started squirming. "Whoa! Whoa! Calm down! I'm getting to that!" he protested.

"What are you talking about? You turned my dad's antique item into a USB drive!" another reason for me to be enraged; it was one of my deceased father's prized possessions. No one has ever touched the sai's until I used them to stop a Minotaur named Carl.

"Just let me explain! Please!" he begged. "There are so many things that I wanna do! Create some awesome invention! Rebuild the Argo! Fix Festus! Get a girlfriend! Please! I can't die!" I groaned and released my grip from his collar. He let out a huge exhale of relief and fixed his shirt.

"Now, what you're seeing now is a disguised form of your weapon." he explained. "So I now want you to wave it like a wand."

"What?"

"Just do it." he grinned.

I felt skeptical at first, but when I followed his instructions, the USB elongated into a rod. My eyes widened in disbelief, I've never seen anything like it! The rod had an intricate design and was at least thirty inches long. I tried waving it around, and it accidentally smashed a rock. That's right; it smashed a rock... into pieces. My jaws dropped as I started at the sturdy weapon.

"Isn't it genuine?" he said, speaking like a persuading businessman. "The material is so invincible that you can hit a monster's head off!" Seriously? "But wait, there's more!" he added.

"Ah gee, what else can this do? Glow in the dark?" I smirked.

"Don't question my abilities! Now break it in half!"

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Just do it!"

I rolled my eyes, and followed what he said. Breaking the rod in half was harder than I thought. When I finally broke in half, another strange thing happened. Instead of being broken, it mechanically changed form. From a rod, it turned into my pair of sai's. However the design of my sai's is much more different. Before, it was rather simple, there wasn't that much effort put into decorating. Now, it looks more sleek, sophisticated, and... new.

One essential thing was missing though; the blades. When I was starting to wonder where they were, celestial bronze blades that were ten inches long, sprung out. I was startled at its sudden appearance.

The son of Hephaestus grinned, amused at my shocked expression."Well, the breaking it in half part may be difficult, at first." Leo admitted. "I hope you're satisfied with its brand new upgrade."

"Uhh...yeah..." i said, staring at my new dual weapon. "Thanks, Leo-san." He smiled.

I ignored his dopey grin and stared dully at my new weapon. "Uhmm, how does this go back into a USB?"

"Oh right! Uhm, just put it back into a rod, and wave it again. It'll be back in its disguised form in no time."

I did as I was told, and it turned back into a USB device again. "Thank you again, Valdez." I said, giving him a quick bow of the head.

"Uhmm... no problem." he said, sounding like he expected something else other than a thank you.

"I guess I'll be off then."

"Uh, yeah. Right! Nice doing business with ya!"

I waved goodbye and left the Hephaestus Cabin.

I decided to take stroll around the Camp. After two consecutive quests, I really needed a break. However, it was not a good time to relax; the entire camp was under distress. Gaia has gone mad, minor gods have been rebelling, and now there are threats of the titans being revived again. All these troublesome issues were starting to get the best of me; and I did not like it. I mean this year has been rather hectic for me.

I found a log, and laid there like a couch potato. I stared at the light blue sky and reminisced of the previous events of my life. Neither any of them were heartwarming nor were they pleasant. Sure, I've stopped the goddess Eris from tempting the Olympian gods, again. And sure, I maimed the Theumessian Fox. But my father's gone, and I have an archenemy named Rip.

My heart started to wrench, and my fists began to clench the moment I remembered him. I guess it became an automatic response for my body. I just could not stand douchebags like him.

He was the son of Peitho, the goddess of persuasion. Because of that, I fell for all of his stupid persuasions of him being "interested" in me, and I got betrayed by him in the process. I nearly failed my first quest, because of him. I also made him vow to never betray me. If he did, then I would kill him. So now, one of my main goals in life is to hunt him down and kill him with my own two hands. If only he swore in the name of the River Styx, it could've been way better. I thought.

"Look who's back... the hotheaded daughter of Athena." a voice said. My eyes slowly turned towards a boy named Vince Simmons. He is a son of Apollo, and we pretty much have a short history.

It all started when I got back from my first quest. I was sleeping soundly in the Athena Cabin, until I woke up from a vexing noise from outside. I stormed outside to see this psychopath singing about lovesick nonsense. According to other campers, he's been trying to write a great song. So far, he's been singing about girlfriends, partying, and guys having fun. I felt so exasperated that I went back into my cabin, grabbed one of my sai's, and aimed it at his acoustic guitar.

Thanks to ADHD, he noticed the incoming sai and dodged it. He got pissed and asked who interrupted his "masterpiece". When I admitted that it was me, we started arguing. I told him the cold truth that his music was interrupting a lot of campers, but he went all defensive. Soon enough, all the yelling turned into real combat. Before we could create further ruckus and damage Chiron, the camp director, stopped the fight and gave us cleaning duty at the Big House. We were never good terms, since then.

Here he was, standing in front of me. His hands were crossed, and he carried his guitar on his back. His somber emerald eyes were fixated upon my intense grey eyes, and a smirk formed in his lips. He stood there, expecting me to say something. I sighed. "What do you want, Simmons?" I asked, sheepishly.

"Ohh, I'm wondering how your quest went." he asked, casually. I rolled my eyes. I already knew he was finding a way to get back at me.

"Ask winter. He'll spill." I turned my back towards him, trying to make myself sleep.

Even with my back turned, I knew right away that an expression of mockery splashed across his idiotic face. "Exactly. He won't say anything! You know what that means?"

I sighed. "Oh boy, what?"

"You failed!"

"What makes you so sure?"

"Well, where's Sophie?" My eyes then tightened more. Sophie, who was the daughter of Demeter, was one of my companions on the second quest I took. Where was she? I have no idea.

Nobody knows. As far as I knew, she got raped by Nessus the centaur, who was another traitor (This incident gives me another good reason to not like horses or centaurs). But because of carelessness, Sophie is nowhere to be found.

I turned away from Vince and said, "I asked you a question."

"Well I answered you with a question!" he defended.

"Is that even possible?"

"Arrrgh! The point is that you failed the quest! Because of that, one of your comrades is missing!"

He was now getting on my nerves. "How is that my fault?"

"You're the only half-blood who doesn't even put minimum effort to work!" For your information, I was the one who comes up with the battle plans and trapped the fox, lame brain! I thought while scrunching up my nose, obviously irritated with his bratty behaviour. I hate it when people do not see the efforts I try to bring in something.

I stood from the log and marched towards him. "What's your problem, anyway? Why are you even here?"

"Don't play dumb with me, hello kitty! We know who's at fault." Was he trying to blame Sophie's disappearance on me?

I finally gave up. "You're still on to that music issue?"

"What do you think? You've got a lot nerve to be such a rude mouth!"

"I was only telling the truth! You're only singing nonsense!"

"My music is not nonsense!"

"Tell that to Beethoven!"

"Just apologize!"

"Then why didn't you start with that in the first place, you idiot?"

Then he was lost for words. He started stammering then he grumbled in frustration. "You're the idiot! You should mind your own business and be considerate of others!"

I could feel my face burn with anger. I jabbed my pointer finger at him. "You're one to talk! You should be more considerate when people are sleeping!"

The argument went on and on and on. This guy just won't accept criticism like a mature musician would, and he had to mention the quest I was in to make me feel bad! He was just so irritating! I wanted to punch him, kill him, bury him, bring him back to life, then drown him, and feed him to some Nemean Lion! He went on and on about how incredible his music is, and he always disregards my simple favours and criticism! I can't believe I was actually putting up with this jerk!

Eventually, he said the most hurtful words in ancient history. "Gods,woman! You are the most ignorant useless half-blood I have ever met!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "I guess we all now know why RIP BETRAYED US ALL!" That statement felt like a punch in the gut.

I looked down and tried my very best not to cry. I fell silent for a while, as those painful words sunk into my heart. I was beginning to think whether I should kill him with my new weapon or not.

"Oh, now you won't say anything? Good! Then that means-"

"WILL YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF?" Lucius Winter yelled. Even though I was staring at the ground, I was able to recognize his pissed-as-hell footsteps when he entered the scene.

"All of your pointless shouting interrupted not only me and the Hypnos Cabin, but the entire camp! GODS WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU, PEOPLE? Can't you see what everyone is going through? Can't you see the situation at hand? This is no time to act immaturely! Especially you, Vince! You should know that by now! And Eve, QUIT BEING SO FREAKING DIFFICULT!! I know you're going through a rough time, but that doesn't give you an excuse to act like a child! Eve, are you even listening?"

Simmon's words were slowly sinking into me, that I looked like some little child being scolded by an adult. As much as I wanted to defend myself, I somehow couldn't. Those words really hurt me.

"Eve? Did you understand what I just said?" Lucius called out, again.

I gave emo kid a cold gaze. "Yeah." I said, turning to Vince. "I understood perfectly. My apologies." after that, I ran off.