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CHAPTER 6

Genesis (Percy) POV

The arena's full of campers when we get there. They notice us and make way. Eventually, we get pushed to the center, everyone's eyes, even the gods', riveted on us. Without hesitation, I start giving off orders.

"Alright, everyone split into eight groups! And mix the cabins up a little! You have five minutes to make the groups. Now MOVE!" The campers snap out of their shock and start grouping up. I can see the gods trying to help, in vain. It's total chaos. (No pun intended.) Finally, after several minutes of mass panic, they form make-shift groups.

"Well, that took some time." I turn towards my companions. "Alright, guys. Pick your group." Mark looks around at the assembled campers, and without thinking, just picks a group, the one that has the Stolls. I smile. He doesn't know what he's in for. Then Alex, then Jyma, then Sheyla, then Shadow, then Beam. Then, my lieutenant, Deft, picks a group. Thalia, who's in the group, looks at me quizzically.

"Aren't you picking a group?" Luckily, I have an answer ready.

"I'll be going around each group, checking on the training, making a few pointers, etc. Moving on…" I look to Xavier, the last one left. Poor kid. His group has Eric and his goons in it. Eric sneers at him, sizing him up.

"What? We're going to be trained by a 6-year old? Ha, let me laugh. What's he going to teach us? He probably just learned how to read!" His goons laugh. Xavier scowls. I just roll my eyes. I know what's coming.

"I am young, that is true; but in souls nobly born, valor does not wait for the number of years." Silence. Then, a nasal voice breaks it.

"Huh?" (Guess who?) says. "What the Hades are you talking about?"

Athena looks at Xavier with a really surprised look. Like everyone who meets him, she's probably wondering how a kid like him knows quotes like that.

"You read Corneille?" Xavier grins at her, his purplish-blue eyes full of amusement.

"Yep! I enjoy Shakespeare, Montesquieu, and Lord Tennyson, also. Although I don't mind a little Moliere once in a while. Really, I'm not picky." Athena's jaw drops to the floor, along with the Athena cabins'. The other campers and gods just look downright confused. They probably never heard of any of those before. I just laugh.

"Although he's the game and fun commander," I explain to them, "Xa- Joker loves reading. And he loves quoting the books he reads." Everyone continues looking quite stunned, until Eric speaks up.

"So what does that weird thing he says mean?" Athena rolls her eyes at him.

"It means exactly what he said. Age doesn't matter when you have worth. Of course, this is a very incomplete definition. One could take hours to-" She's interrupted by none other than me.

"Okay… I think we should start training now. Let's go!"

Everyone splits up, following their respective commanders. I watch them go, while the gods flash to they know where. Soon, I head towards the archery range, where Beam is stationed. I stay at the sidelines, hidden by the shadows, and watch as the campers shoot, with mixed results. Beam seems to have everything under control. Plus, Apollo and Artemis are there, too. Smiling at Artemis's back, I walk towards the group I think will have the most problems. Xavier's.

I spot him demonstrating a disarming technique to the campers. Quietly, I get close enough to hear what's going on.

"And then, give a slight thrust towards your adversary's hilt, like this. Now let's get into pairs so that you can practice!" As Xavier finishes his demonstration, everyone gets into groups of two, except one pompous brat and his so-called friends. Said brat sneers at my friend and opens his big arrogant mouth.

"Are you kidding me? This is way too easy! I knew you 'Chaos soldiers' were all talk! I should be the one taking charge here!" I resist the temptation to teleport right in front of his ugly face and punch his lights out. I know Xavier can handle it. But just in case things get messy, I scoot closer to the scene.

Xavier rolls his eyes.

"If you had half of a brain, you would know that to achieve great goals, you must take small steps. But obviously you don't have even half of a brain, so you don't know that."

Eric looks just like he did earlier: confused. I shake my head. Seriously, like, even I know that! Even Annabeth, who hasn't said anything, looks at Eric with scorn.

"Kid, you're making no sense."

"Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish."

"Wait, did you just call be dumb?"

Xavier just turns and gives a few pointers to a camper, completely ignoring Eric and his goons. Red-faced, Eric unsheathes his knife and lunges at Xavier.

Athena POV

I watch in disbelief as my… half brother lunges at Joker's back with a knife. I came here to watch the child who was well beyond his years. Then again, he claimed to be older than all of us… Too shocked to do anything, I only stare as the point of the knife gets closer and closer to Joker's back. Only centimeters away from the boy's heart, the knife stops. The wielder turns in surprise at the hand that is now clutching his wrist. Annoyed, Eric scowls at the hand's owner.

"Why did you stop me, Annabeth?" My daughter smiles up at her…boyfriend. Ugh. I cannot believe she is dating this… conceited dog. I even preferred Barnacle Beards' son. At least he was decent, although he was too loyal for his own good.

"I couldn't let you kill a child." Joker growls at that. His purplish-blue eyes darken.

"Your age doesn't define your maturity. Plus, you would never be able to kill me in cold blood." Man, I love this kid. Eric obviously doesn't share my amusement. He turns red again, and for a moment I think he's going to attempt to attack Joker again, but my daughter strokes his shoulder lightly, calming him. I try not to hurl. I wish I could disintegrate this presumptuous demigod, but my father would not appreciate it. Like father, like son… Both stuck up, snug, and they both have an enormous ego.

That's when I notice a dark silhouette at the very back of the group. It has folded black wings and all sorts of weapons attached to it. Genesis. Really, he intrigues me. There's something about him… something that tells me I ought to know who he is.

He's looking at Eric and Annabeth, or I think he is. I can't really tell where he's looking, with his hood. Then, he walks off brusquely towards another group of campers. I watch him go. I hope the soldiers will reveal themselves soon. I hate having something just out of reach. Next meeting, I'm going to demand to know who they are, and I'm not taking no for an answer.

Mark (Flame) POV

The lunch horn blows just as I'm about to shoot a fireball. My group's supposed to train with our powers today. The ones who don't have powers practiced fighting against demigods with powers. I extinguish my hands and jog over to the mess hall in full armor, wings at full extend.

I go to the Chaos table, where all my friends are already sitting. I squeeze in between Perce and Jyma. Munching on my sandwich, I listen to Beam go on about a camper who accidentally shot another camper in the calf. Although how he managed to shoot someone behind him, I've no idea. We shared ridiculous things that happened. Xavier told us about Eric's little… outburst. We laugh and eat, enjoying the little free time we have. Towards the end of lunch, Zeus and the other gods flash in to the head table, where Chiron is.

"Campers and soldiers! 20 minutes after lunch is finished, there will be a Capture the Flag." Everyone cheers. Perce seems excited, too. "The teams will be: campers and hunters vs. Chaos soldiers! (BTW, the hunters arrived that morning)" More cheering. An Athena camper, Malcolm I think, speaks up.

"But that's unfair! There are 8000 soldiers and even if the campers and hunters team up, we're only about three hundred." Percy speaks up.

"We know, only the commanders, their lieutenants and one of their soldiers. Oh, and our… pets will be participating, also."

"But then that's like 24 to three hundred! We'll slaughter you!" An Ares camper, Clarisse, blurts out. I can't help myself. I laugh. Oh, great. Now all the eyes are on me.

"Don't be so sure, daughter of Ares." I try to get my voice to sound intimidating. I'm not so sure it works. Clarisse shrugs.

"Fine, but you're really underestimating us big time if you think you can win." The campers cheer. I smile at their enthusiasm, but a hateful voice rings out.

"Plus, I'm against you soldiers! You have no chance. I am the greatest hero ever! You'll never win against me!" I growl at my best friend's foe. He isn't much. Greasy dark hair, mismatched beady black eyes, enormous broken nose… plus an enormous ego. He isn't tall, about the same height as the girl who broke Percy's heart. He has some muscles, although they're like chopsticks compared to Percy's. I have no idea what that Annabeth girl sees in him. All I see is a huge glob of narcissism.

At my growl, the son of Zeus smirks.

"Well, it's true. And I'll prove that you're all talk during Capture the Flag!" He walks off, hand in hand with Annabeth. I can sense Percy's rage behind me. I hope he won't lose control like last time and blow up a planet. That was NOT fun. Especially since I was right behind him when he did it. Let me just say that being stuck in bed for three months is not entertaining. Anyways, back to the present.

Mostly calmed down, Percy leads us to our cabin to get ready. As I change into my Battle Armor, I notice Percy and a hologram of Chaos arguing heatedly about something. I discard it as an everyday occurrence and grab my red wristband from the table. As I'm about to secure my helm, Percy storms into his room and slams the door. I sigh. Chaos probably told him to do something he didn't want to do. Again. Knowing Perce, he'll want to be left alone for a while, so I finish putting the helm on and knock on Jyma's door. I hear a faint 'Come in!' so I do.

Jyma's putting her armor on and Sheyla's with her, of course. Those two are inseparable. I stare at Jyma. She's in her Light Cavalry Armor, a sign that she'll be riding Aeraki, her wind horse. She catches me in the middle of admiring her soft hair. Blushing furiously, I look away and fiddle with the hilt of my sword Enkav. Looking at me strangely for a while, she goes back to putting her armor on. I resume right where I left off; admiring her big eyes, her slightly upturned nose, her set mouth, her- My thoughts are cut off by a loud banging on the door.

"Hey, commander! The Capture the thingy game is starting in five minutes!" It's Diabolo. I open the door; mutter a 'see you later' to the girls and follow my lieutenant to the cabin door, where Alex, Shadow, Xavier, their lieutenants, and one soldier from each section are already there. Oh, damn! I forgot to pick a soldier. I look wildly at Diabolo. He smiles reassuringly at me.

"Don't worry, commander. I asked Spathe to come.

"Thanks, man. I owe you one. And I told you to stop calling me that." He grins.

"As you wish, commander." I roll my eyes at him. Soon enough, the others come, including a grumpy-looking Percy. I shoot him a concerned look, but he just waves it away, with his 'I'll tell you later' look. Shrugging, I follow the others to the outskirts of the forest, where the campers and hunters are already assembled. Some of them nod at us as we pass, but most keep their gazes fixated on Chiron.

"I see everyone is here. Capture the Flag is simple: get the enemy's flag on your side before the opposing team does the same to you! No killing allowed, as always. Each team has ten minutes to hide their flag and to organize their lines. The gods and I will be watching. No questions? Good. Let's go, then!"

We soldiers run towards the North woods and the campers and hunters head towards Zeus's Fist. Since we've already discussed the plan, everyone goes to their stations. We'll be taking the offensive rather than the defensive. We really don't have defense. I set my hand on fire and burn my wristband. The burned metal drops on the ground and forms the shape of an enormous bear. Eidos is purely made out of the same fire that runs in my blood. He's beautiful, and we're tied together, sort of like an empathy link, but much stronger. I whisper in his ear and he lumbers towards the boundary, burning quite a lot of bushes in the process. Well, that's done. I climb a tree and lean against a branch. Teasing these campers is going to be super fun. A huge grin spreads over my face.

Artemis POV

The gods watch as each team hides their flag. The campers and hunters, the team we are for, have hidden it among the branches of a tree, whilst the soldier's was in the middle of a clearing right out in the open. I highly doubt they have left it with no defense, but the clearing seems deserted. It's hard to see through all the trees, but I think I just saw a great big shape made of fire tear through the trees just now. The nymphs are going to be traumatized. That isn't the strangest thing. On the soldier's side, I've spotted highly beautiful and majestic creatures run about. Maybe these were the pets Genesis had talked about earlier. Genesis. If he intrigued me before, now it's driving me crazy. I cannot stop thinking about my encounter with him yesterday. I try to find him in the clump of trees, but he's nowhere to be found. Instead, all I see is a group of a dozen campers trying to move quietly. They're not the best. They've barely crossed the boundary line when a figure jumps out. I can't make out who it is, but it's not Genesis. I can tell from the form that it's a girl. She wears little armor, only protected by a breastplate and a plackart (the part that protects the stomach). On her chest, over her heart, is a sun emblem. Her hood covers her face, and she wields a gleaming white sword.

Without a moment of hesitation, she lunges at the campers, although she is outnumbered 12 to 1. She quickly disarms two campers, hits another with the hilt of her sword, knocks one out, and punches one in the face. In less than twenty seconds, she's disarmed all but two of the campers. I watch in silence, observing that the girl has the speed and agility I require from my Hunters. After the remaining campers are taken care of, she quickly crosses into enemy territory and disappears into the shadows.

I look for something else to look at, scanning the soldiers' side, when a frightened scream penetrates my ears, and coming from the campers' side. As one, we (the gods) turn our heads towards the general direction and hover closer.

The closer we get, the harder it is not to laugh. Well, for me, anyways. My father's face is flushed, and he looks embarrassed and angry, and so does Athena, although she looks more ashamed than angry.

Below us, a fully armored Eric is cowering, looking up in fear at the towering figure standing above him. His right arm is bent at a strange angle, so that he is sprawled awkwardly on the ground. A few meters next to him, Annabeth is being held by the neck against a tree trunk by another figure. But then I see something wrong. I can tell Zeus wants to go help his…son, but it's against the rules and Hera reminds him of it bitterly, looking at Eric in disgust.

I swing my eyes back to the scene below. I realize Eric is lying in a puddle of blood. I recognize the first figure: Genesis. He's dressed in full armor, wings extended. He's obviously shaking from anger. In his hand is a long dagger.

And it's covered in scarlet blood.

Phew! Done. How was it? Please review ;) Have a good week!