Hello awesome people of the world! How do you do? I am doing great myself, thank you very much.

Disclaimer: PJO and HoO do not belong to me.

Leo

On the flying-chariot ride to this 'Camp Half-Blood', Leo and Piper had a lot of time to talk. But they didn't. They were still in quite a bit of shock. Coach Hedge sat at the front with this other kid he called Will, just chatting. The Will kid held the reigns of two brown horses with wings. Piper and Leo stood at the back, holding onto the railing for dear life.

"Where are we going?" Piper asked eventually, yelling to be overheard over the thrashing cold wind.

"I already told you, Camp Half-Blood," said Hedge.

"But where exactly is this camp?" Leo asked.

"Long Island, New York," Coach Hedge decided, then turned back to Will, who seemed to be pretending to listen just to be polite. "Ever notice how that cloud looks like a duck? I think it looks like a duck…" Leo and Piper were left once again in an awkward silence.

"How did you think of that electricity thing?" asked Leo. "It was really incredible."

"Thanks," said Piper uncomfortably, blushing slightly. "I just thought that a little bit of its own medicine would be enough."

"But what I don't get is why he died, or turned into dust, or whatever," said Leo. "Shouldn't electricity make him stronger?"

"Well, it isn't the volts that killed him; it was the amperage," Piper explained. "Well, I guess the volts helped a little, but you know what I mean."

"You seem smart in this field of subject," said Leo.

"I just sort of listened to the unit when they taught it to us in school," she said.

"Hmm…" Leo said, thinking. They were left in silence again, and this time no one filled the gap.

Well, until they arrived at Camp Half-Blood.

The large chariot landed right at the foot of a hill. Leo and Piper climbed out groggily, and Leo considered making a run for it. This was getting all too crazy— Greek gods? Flying horses? Evil vapour monsters? This all sounded like some drunk kidnap attempt. But where would he run? And Piper? And those wind monsters had definitely been real. What if they came after him again? Leo decided to stay put, just in case.

He climbed up the hill with Piper right behind him.

There was only one thing to say about that place.

Wow.

Freaking.

Wow.

Right down the hill sat an entire camp, bustling with teenagers and occasionally little kids. Most wore orange T-shirts like the one Will was wearing, some bore necklaces around their necks, and almost all of them had some sort of weapon at their side—even the five-year-old Leo managed to catch sight of.

A large and old building made of wood sat just down the hill, with a sign above the door that read Big House. Volleyball courts were visible to the right. A creek split the site right down the middle and an entire quarter of the camp was strawberry fields, another a thick and seemingly dangerous forest.

An amphitheatre and a climbing wall that had lava sprouting from the bottom sat to the right of the creek; an arena, an armoury and horse stables residing to the left. A beach was just visible a few miles down

It was wonderful.

Leo and Piper must have been standing at the top of that hill gaping in awe for a while, for after only seemingly moments later, Coach Hedge demanded, "Are you two cupcakes gonna stand there all day or what? Let's get a move on!" He trudged down the hill with Will, Leo and Piper following him.

"So, welcome to camp, guys," said Will. "I guess I'm going to be the one to explain this, but first of all—how old are you?"

"Fifteen," they said in unison.

"So you're late," said Will. "Don't worry. You'll be claimed today, then."

"Claimed?" asked Leo.

"When your godly parent tells the world you're their kid," explained Will. "Then you'll be separated into cabins according by your parent. Got it?"

"I—I think so," said Piper, rubbing the back of her neck nervously as some muscley guy with a long scar running down his face walked by her.

"Perfect!" said Will brightly. "So we'll have our tour, and hopefully by the time it's over we'll have our campfire."

Piper and Leo exchanged uncertain looks but followed the strange boy. "So, um, Will," said Piper just to start conversation. "Who's your godly parent?"

"Apollo," he said.

"Isn't that the guy who fell in love with a tree?" asked Leo.

"Technically he fell in love with the nymph before she was turned into a tree, but yeah. That guy."

"Oh," said Leo. "...That's cool."

There was an awkward silence for them to contemplate how stupid that sounded.

"So, just to narrow it down, which parent do you know is mortal for sure?" Will asked them both.

"My dad," said Piper. "Which means my godly parent is a girl."

"And you, Leo?"

"My mum," he said quietly.

"Cool," said Will. Leo had trouble processing this. So the guy Mom kept telling him about and repeating that one day he'd see was a god? A Greek god? A large portion of his brain kept wondering if this was just one big mental hospital, with horses with wings and the magical kids with swords as well.

Then they passed the forges. "This is where the Hephaestus cabin usually works," said Will. Leo's ears picked up at the name.

"Festus?" he asked.

Will shook his head.

"Hephaestus," he repeated.

"Oh," said Leo. "Festus," he added, savouring the name. "Festus Festus Festus. He-Festus. PPPPHHHHHHEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH—!"

"That's enough," interrupted Will, looking slightly irritated by Leo's silly manner. Pointing at something else in the distance he added, "Now, over there is the pavilion, and…" Leo blocked out his voice, and peered inside the forges.

It was just like his Mom's machinery back in Houston. Hammers and other tools strewn nearly everywhere, complex and dangerous looking machines lying around, blueprints covering nearly every available space on the wall. It was one big giant mess.

Leo loved it.

He couldn't help it—he walked inside. Everything was so perfect he was afraid to touch anything. No one was inside—probably getting prepared for that camp sing-a-long or whatever Will was talking about.

In an instant Leo knew what he would do. He shrugged off his knapsack from his shoulders and pulled out Chime. She had stopped working ever since she had been used to redirect Dylan's lightning, but maybe here with all these complex tools he could maybe fix her. Leo hoped so.

"What are you doing?" Will asked from the doorway, peering inside with Piper, taking in everything. Leo reached out and grabbed a screwdriver and yanked off Chime's metal coat. He laid the pieces to the side, doing the same thing with her cage. Soon only a jumble of wires and other confusing looking machinery sat before him.

Will began to step inside to stop Leo, but Piper held him back. "This is when the good part starts," she told him in an excited whisper.

Leo wasn't even quite sure what he was doing. He grabbed another jumble of wires, generators, small batteries and other confusing things and sort of pieced everything together. He had never worked with this much of a variety of instruments—some things he couldn't even give a name to.

It took him five minutes to finish up Chime, give or take a few seconds. He carefully placed the interior back inside the cage, and layered Chime's metal skin over top again. He pulled out the remote and carefully reached under Chime's stomach and turned her on. He took a few cautious steps back and flicked the control on the remote that told Chime to go up.

Nothing happened.

Then she twitched. Leo broke out into an enthusiastic grin.

She had never worked better. Now there were no glitches or bugs at all. She glided smoothly through the air with hardly any wavering. She barely flailed her wings as she flew. Leo swung her through the air toward Piper and Will, but at the last second swerved her away from their faces.

Will was shocked. "I'm stunned," he said, as if it wasn't clear enough already. "That's Hephaestus camper worthy."

Piper turned toward him. "What did you say?" she demanded.

"Hit the deck!" Leo yelled, Chime racing toward the door. Piper and Will understood and dropped to the floor right before the 15 mph bird flew above their heads. Chime flew out into the fading dusk, performing loop-the-loops at incredible speeds. A few campers stopped what they were doing to watch.

Leo spotted a bow and arrow target a few hundred meters away. His tongue sticking out in concentration, he shot Chime toward the black dot in the center, racing her faster and faster until she was past 30 mph.

Thunk! Chime hit the bull's-eye, but instead of just vibrating on the spot she tore the middle section of the two-inch thick target right off, still attached to her beak. Chime flew back to Leo without wavering, and Leo took off the bulky cardboard from her beak once she had landed at his feet. A few people started clapping.

"Way to go," said Piper, joining him and stroking Chime's crest feathers as if she could actually feel them. She looked up at Leo with a proud smile on her face, but soon after that her expression turned to horror. She took a few cautious steps back, her hands out in front of her as if to protect heself.

"What?" Leo asked, looking around. "What is it? Is there something on my face?" He looked up and saw a flaming hammer flying above his head.

"Whoa!" he yelled, falling back to get away. He stood back up and tried to move away, but the hammer just followed him. Realizing it won't leave him, Leo pointed at it and asked the Apollo camper, "Does this usually happen? Like, do demigods get seriously messed up halos follow them on a daily basis or something?"

"That isn't a halo," said Will. "You're being claimed."

Leo got claimed! *everyone gasps*

GO TO MY POLL. NOW.

-o-O-o-

And now to answer some reviews! (I'll do this every so often, like every third or second chapter or something.)

ThatOneFangirl5 (a.k.a. TooLazyToLogin): Yay! You logged in! I personally find Piper and Leo good as friends and siblings and sometimes their couple fluff is cute. And, I agree, they're epic. And thank you for your "good at updating" comment! I hope it stays like this!

SeaGreenAthena: What does "mo" mean? (What!? Definitely my favourite [story] at the what!?)

Guest: Yes! Airbenders, unite! *high-fives myself, looks around, and begins to cry* NO MORE AIRBENDERS! WAAHHH!

Gabsters: Yes! Sokka is the best character! But air is the best element! *does awesome airbending move*

darkdaughterhades: I don't think much of firebenders. (...But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked... and such.)

CrazyChick: THE CLASS ALL DIED. (Haha, just kidding.)

Alyss369: Thank you! That warmed my heart!

SeaGreenAthena (again), [a different] Guest, [another] Guest, samm10, and everyone else with this freaking question: Let me just start off by saying... WOW people want Romans in this story. Like, everyone keeps asking me if the Romans are going to be in here or not. Let me just say (if everything goes according to the plan), YES Romans will be in this story, near the middle/end. Unless I get some random inspiration that makes it otherwise, of course.

-o-O-o-

I will now use my awesome Avatar powers to force you to review and vote at my poll if you haven't already!