The Son Of Hercules Chapter 4: We Attempt To Capture A Flag, a percy jackson and the olympians fanfic

To those of you reading this, thanks! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. It was a bit more mature than the first two, but this is a T rating, so I think it still fits and adds depth to Harper's character.

I gotta say, this chapter is longer than the rest and took me a while to write. But I'm really happy with how it turned out, I think it's the best one yet. So enjoy!

Alright it's Capture the Flag and beat up bullies time!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters (except the OC's) Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Heroes Of Olympus, or Trials Of Apollo. All of that belongs to Rick Riordan.

Now then, on with the fourth chapter. (Some classic characters finally make their appearance in this one.)

4. We Attempt To Capture A Flag

I stormed across the camp, searching for any sign of a big, stupid looking guy named Jett Atkinson.

The Nemean Lion pelt was strapped to my waist, it moved up and down as I walked quickly. I never got a good description of this idiot. I was getting even angrier, after what Harper told me, I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep it together in the face of this guy. I would probably get so mad I would destroy the entire camp.

That's very possible if you don't control it. Something inside of me said. It wasn't my voice, it was deeper, more gruff, very manly.

I didn't pay attention to who it was, I paid attention to what it said. Was I actually capable of bringing this entire camp down if I got angry enough?

You won't destroy the camp, you'll destroy him, I thought.

I was ready to face this tough guy. So tough that he can take his thugs and gang up on a five foot seven girl, throw her in a lake, and continue to pick on her, always in a crowd.

A guy so tough that he would fake caring about a girl that cared about him for weeks, convincing her he was listening to her pouring her heart out when really he was thinking dirty thoughts.

A guy so tough that he would force himself on her, at not even the age of a teenager, and grab her in ways that were far from appropriate. And when she refuses, calls her stupid for not abiding by his rules, and later calling her a freak for what happened to her eye.

Yeah, this Jett guy sure was scaring me to death.

I got desperate, if I didn't find him, I might take out my anger and punch the ground or something, and accidentally capsize this part of the camp into the lake. So I decided just to go for it, and I yelled at the top of my lungs, "JETT ATKINSON, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Everything went silent. The campers all turned and looked at me, even the birds stopped chirping. I looked around for someone to raise their hand, or talk. But nothing. Wow, this Jett guy was even more of a coward than I thought.

I was about to walk away when I heard, "who's asking?"

I looked a little to the left, straight ahead, a group of teenagers were walking toward me, the crowd parting in fright. They were all big, the four dudes were all probably six foot three, a couple of them beefy, and a couple made of pure muscle. Even the two girls were tall, one had medium length blonde hair, with a bandana tied around it, the other had a black beanie on her head, with long blonde hair coming from it, they both had on sleeveless biker vests, and fingerless gloves, I guessed they were sisters, because they both looked the same, and let me tell you, they were not pretty.

The guy in the front was obviously Jett. He was shorter than the four dudes, but a little taller than me, maybe six foot or six foot one. He had on an orange camp t-shirt and khaki shorts, he had short red hair, spiked up in the front like a fauxhawk, and a few freckles on his face. I could see why Harper thought he was handsome at one point, he looked like a high school senior, maybe the captain of the baseball team, a guy that the Aphrodite girls might squeal at.

But I knew the truth, he was a monster, and not the literal kind, the human kind. Which was sometimes worse.

They stopped about ten feet from me, he crossed his arms, and had a smug look on his face, his goons standing at his shoulder.

"So this is the toughest kid in camp, the Jett Atkinson" I said mockingly

He snorted, "And who are you? Some new kid?"

"Yeah, I got here a couple of days ago. I heard a little about you, thought I should see what the fuss is about."

He chuckled, turning to his buddies, they snickered stupidly, "Look, new guy. I know what you want. You wanna join my crew. I get it, I get it, building a rep around here is tough, and you wanna hang with the best. But you gotta work your way up the ladder, and you gotta look a little tougher. You got muscles, and that scar, but besides that, and no offense kid, you look like a gay vampire."

His squad laughed and howled, they sounded like idiots, guffawing at everything he said, he continued, "I mean you look like you would fit better in...what was that movie called? Twilight? Yeah, that's it."

Nobody else laughed besides him and his buddies. I was boiling, I hated nicknames, and being compared to vampires. But I kept a calm look on my face.

"Nah, actually I heard some interesting things about you. One of the most being that you like to assault girls."

The laughing stopped, everyone in the crowd looked at me, wide eyed.

Jett glared at me, "What the hell did you just say?"

"You heard me. You think it's funny to pick on people? You think it's funny to force yourself onto a girl half your size, tough guy?"

His buddies looked at him uneasily, they weren't used to someone standing up to their leader, the crowd surrounding us, which was probably half the camp stared in shock at me. Jett's face went red with anger, and he stormed up to me, until our faces were inches apart, his goons didn't follow.

"So I see you and cyclops have gotten close. What are you, her new boyfriend or something?"

Part of me wanted to absolutely eviscerate him for calling Harper cyclops, but I managed to keep my cool.

"No, I'm just putting an end to your sick fun, Jett."

He smirked, nodding his head. "Alright, Vampire. I give in, you win, I'll leave everyone alone."

But just as he said that, he swung his fist at my face, I didn't even flinch. His fist made full force contact against my jaw, but I didn't feel a thing, I didn't budge. He pulled his hand back in recoil and held it, wincing. "Alright, you're tougher than I thought, but now I'm gonna get serious."

He prepared to strike again, but stopped when a voice shouted, "Hey, douchebag!"

I turned to my right, It was Aiden, and he was running at Jett with his sword. I also caught a glimpse of Harper, who I guess had been watching the whole scene, but her face expressed horror as she watched Aiden.

"Aiden, NO!" I heard her shout.

"You wanna fight Matt, you're gonna fight me too!" He yelled, his sword gripped by both hands. He charged and yelled defiantly. I had to give it to him, he was brave. But there was no way he stood a chance against even one of the two girls.

Jett chuckled, "Stupid kid"

Aiden almost made it to him, but he was stopped by the two blonde girls, they smacked the sword out of his hands and pushed him to the ground, then picked him up by the arms and dragged him back to where they stood before, he kicked and struggled but they were too strong. At one point he bit one of their hands, and they punched him in the nose, blood pouring out of the right nostril a few seconds later.

"AIDEN!" Harper yelled. Her look became deadly, she pulled her two knives out of their straps and made a beeline for the two blondes, but the four big kids interfered and walked toward her. One tried to grab her but she ducked and kicked him the leg, bringing him down to one knee, and then firmly striked him on the back of the head with the handle of her knife, sending him face first into the dirt.

The other three jumped at the opening however. They kicked her to the ground but she rolled through and got back up on her feet, one of the guys drew his sword.

I know how Harper likes to fight her own battles, but four on one was stupidly unfair. I knew that I could kill them each with one punch to the gut, I wouldn't even have to go all out to break every bone in their body. I knew I wasn't actually gonna kill anyone, but maiming was in the picture.

I took a step toward them, when Jett punched me in the face a second time. Again, I felt nothing. But then he brought out his sword from his waist, a four foot long blade made of celestial bronze. Now I wasn't planning on tanking hits, I wasn't sure how good my abnormally tough skin would hold against that sword.

I noticed Harper fighting the others, parrying their attacks. She was good, really good. She even landed a couple of cuts on their arms, but it was short lived. The numbers were too much, and they disarmed her, threw her to the ground, picked her up and held her hands behind her back prisoner style.

I looked at Aiden, his nose seriously bleeding now, he had stopped struggling, the two girls held him to the ground, face first in an iron grip.

I felt my anger rise, I was about to cut loose, go on a rampage. I wouldn't need the red aura, I would demolish every single one of these jerks just the way I was within a few seconds.

I was about to make my move, when Jett swung his sword. I had been distracted, planning to go after the guys that had Harper first, then Aiden, then go after Jett. But I hadn't focused on Jett at the very moment. His sword swung down, just about to make contact with my neck. Well, I thought, guess I'll find out how tough my skin really is.

When all of a sudden his sword was stopped by another sword. The clang made my ears ring, the crowd gasped, and Jett looked at the newcomer with shock.

A boy the same height as Jett stood there, his arm outstretched and a three foot long sword in hand. He had somewhat short black hair, a little unkempt in the front, he had on a blue jacket, with an orange camp t-shirt under it, he was clad in jeans and sneakers similar to mine. I looked at his neck and saw a camp necklace, but his had six beads on them, more than a lot of people at camp. I then looked at his face. I'm attracted to girls, not guys, but that doesn't mean I can't tell when a dude is good-looking, and this guy was. He looked kind of like a bad boy skater punk, if that skater punk swam laps around a swimming pool every day and did CrossFit workouts at the gym.

I then noticed behind him a girl. She was tall, probably five-nine, and she had long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. But it wasn't a blonde that made you sick like those two girls that held Aiden, it was a natural blonde, like the sun. She was well...what's the word, hot? I mean, it didn't take a genius to recognize that she was on another level of beautiful, she was pretty tan, a little more than me, she had stormy gray eyes and wore an orange camp t-shirt, with jean shorts like Harper's. Around her neck was a camp necklace, but this one had ten beads on it, which is insane. That's more than anyone I've seen at Camp. She looked like a stereotypical California blonde girl, the ones you see on the beach or at those parties, the kind of dumb ones. But I could tell that was not the case with this...woman. I didn't want to say girl because she looked eighteen years old, her face serious, and again, crazy pretty.

But I wasn't attracted to it like that. I didn't get some immediate crush, which I got the feeling happened to quite a few guys that saw her. I also got the strange feeling that they had been shut down, because the tall, skater dude with the sword was her boyfriend.

Anyway, no. I didn't feel attracted to her like that. I mean, I recognized that she looked like a supermodel, but I wasn't feeling any butterflies or anything, not like I did with Harper.

Um, I thought, did I really just think that?

Anyway, the blonde girl pulled out a white sword and pointed it to the two girls that had Aiden and said, "Let him go, now."

To my surprise they dropped him immediately, I guess the girl was not someone to mess with.

Then the skater dude said, "You too, Jett. Drop the sword nice and easy." Then he looked at the big kids that had Harper, and shouted, "Really, you gotta go four on one just to fight Harper? You guys are cowards."

They looked furious, but they let go of Harper, and trudged off reluctantly. The two girls that once held Aiden did the same, grumbling the whole time. Who the heck were these two?

"No way, Percy. This punk called me out," Jett growled.

Wait a second, Percy? How was I so stupid, I saw it now. The black hair, the three foot long sword, the smell of the sea, this guy was Percy Jackson. And the girl, blonde hair, gray eyes, a white sword that looked like a bone. That must be Annabeth Chase.

"Then settle it during Capture the Flag. Otherwise, if you try to swing that thing again, I'll be your opponent." Percy said, with an underlying threat at the end.

Jett looked uneasy, he started sweating a little, but he didn't drop his sword.

Annabeth walked over and stood next to Percy, "Don't be an idiot, Jett. Sheath your sword, If you have a problem, it can be solved in Capture the Flag, like Percy said."

Jett looked double uneasy. He gritted his teeth, and lowered his sword, sheathing it back into it's strap on his waist. He looked at me, and pointed his finger, "tonight at Capture The Flag, you're dead meat, Vampire."

"I don't think so, tough guy. Cause tonight, I'm actually gonna hit back. And trust me, when I do, you're the one who will die." I said, glaring at him.

He gave me one last look of loathing, and took off.

Annabeth jogged over to Aiden to check on him, I saw Harper doing the same. Percy just shook his head and muttered, "That guy really gives Hermes a bad name. I feel sorry for Travis and Connor."

I had no words. The two people that I had saw in my vision, just showed up and stopped this whole fight within a minute. This was real, they were here, finally.

Standing next to Percy, I got a strange feeling. I could read people based on their expressions, but this was different. I actually felt his aura, and it was immense, almost like a god's, almost like Hera's. I could literally feel his power, his skill, his accomplishments, and it was all so overwhelming. This guy was the real deal.

"Thanks, man" I said.

He shrugged, "No problem, you didn't need saving. But I figured it was best to stop before things got out of hand."

I suspected he meant me. As in, it was best to stop before you went nuts and killed all of them.

I noticed Harper and ran to her. She and Annabeth were kneeling over Aiden, wiping his nose clean of blood.

"Is he alright?" Harper asked.

Annabeth nodded, "Yeah, he got hit hard, but he'll be fine."

I knelt, "Aiden, man. What you did was either really brave, or really stupid."

He chuckled, wincing, "Let's go with a little of both."

I smiled, helping him up, I put his arm around my shoulder, before I walked to the Nemesis cabin. I turned to Percy and Annabeth.

"Hey, you two. I know this is gonna sound weird since you don't know me. But I really need to talk to you in private at some point. Maybe after Capture the Flag."

They looked confused, Percy said, "Oh-kay, we can talk now if you want? After you get him back to his cabin."

I shook my head, "Nah, I've got a lot to say, and I'll need a bunch of time. So it's better if it's after Capture the Flag."

They still looked puzzled, Annabeth studied me like I was a strange new blueprint, which was uncomfortable, her eyes were very intimidating, even more than Harper's glare. But they both eventually just nodded and walked off toward the big house.

I took Aiden and carried him back to the Nemesis cabin, Harper following me. I opened the door with my foot and gently put Aiden down on his bed. He sat up, grabbing his nose and wincing in pain.

Harper came in and shut the door behind her angrily. She turned to Aiden, "What is wrong with you? Charging out of nowhere at a guy three times your size?"

Aiden shrugged, "I wasn't gonna let Matt be the only one standing up to that jerkoff, I wanted revenge for all the stuff he's done to you too. And to me! They bully everybody, Harper."

"I know, I know, but you don't need to be so reckless."

"Don't worry, we'll get em' tonight, won't we Matt?"

I looked at Aiden, "You let me worry about that, you just play the game smart, don't focus on Jett."

Harper nodded, "Exactly. I appreciate it, Aiden, but you're too young, you need to stay out of it, for your own safety."

He huffed, "Fine"

I turned to Harper, "Are you alright? Those beefheads had to gang up on you just to stand a chance. You're wicked good with those knives."

She smirked, "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." Then she frowned, "Hey, Matt. Why did you do all of that out there?"

"Are you kidding me? After what you told me, you couldn't expect that I would just forgive the guy. No, I had to send a message."

She shifted uneasily.

"Why, did you not want me to stand up for you?" I asked.

"No, no, it's just...I didn't think you cared that much."

I was stunned. How would I not? I think now I can at least say that she's my friend. The first one I've had in a long, long time. And when she told me what Jett had done to her, I was enraged. I would be enraged in any case, really. But it was her, so it was even more amped.

"What? Of course I do. Why in the world wouldn't I care?"

Both of her eyes met mine, pure and blank. She shook her head and raised her arms by her side, "I'm not worth all of that fuss, Matt. He's not worth it either, I figured you would just leave it alone."

I stared at her in disbelief. "Look. I know that we aren't exactly that close. But I consider you my friend. The first one in a long time. And I stick up for my friends, even if it means doing something stupid."

Now it was her turn to be stunned. She looked at the ground, then said, "Oh. Um, well, alright then. If you're sure...then, Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, not until we've won Capture The Flag." I walked out of the door, and into the open again. A bunch of campers glanced at me, some in awe, some whispering to each other, a couple even clapped me on the shoulder.

I walked over to the Hephaestus cabin, and found a big kid on one of the personal forges, he was working on something, but I couldn't tell what it was. The heat made me grimace, I wasn't a huge fan. But I went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, and then cooled the flames a little. "Uh, hey..."

"I'm new to camp, my name's Matt." I said, holding out my hand.

"Oh, cool. I'm Jake" He shook it.

"Listen, can you do me a favor?" I took off the Nemean Lion pelt from my waist and held it out to him, "Can you make a shield and attach this to the exterior?"

He took it, and then looked at me, kind of confused. "Um, don't take this the wrong way...but I don't know you. And making shields is tough work. If it was for a good friend then yeah, but like you said, you're the new guy, so..."

I understood. I imagined being a camper for a few years, minding my business one day, when the new kid walks into your cabin and basically demands that you make him a shield. I cringed at my stupidity.

"Oh, yeah I get it. Well, maybe I can give you something? If I had drachmas on me I'd pay you, but I don't. So can't I give you something, like a trade?"

He considered this, "Alright. If our alliance wins capture the flag tonight, I get your rewards. Like first in line for the showers, stuff like that."

It was barely a contest, I would take a shield over that any day, I didn't like hot showers usually, so it worked for me.

"Deal," I said.

"Alright, I'll let you know when I have it done."

I nodded and left the cabin. I decided it was time to try out some of the camp activities before Capture The Flag. I realized everybody does them, and I was the only one missing out. So I did. I went around Camp, doing all kinds of stuff, one by one. I canoed with some of the other campers first, I was pretty good at it, my super strength allowing me to move very fast in the water. I tried racing with the nature spirits, I was very good at that, I outran the spirits, which was supposedly pretty hard. I then tried archery, which was awful because I sucked at it. I kept shooting arrows everywhere but the target. Chiron tried to help me, he taught me some tips, but I didn't get any better, I almost shot the horn off of a satyr, who ran away terrified. I then gave up and went to another activity, which was Pegasus riding. Again, I sucked at it. The Pegasus kept neighing and trying to buck me off. Even when some of the campers found a horse that wouldn't throw me, I couldn't steer it, or control it, so I ended up crashing in the lake. I was soaked and the Pegasus was on the shore, nickering angrily, I noticed Jett and his crew laughing at me. I was so angry I decided to take a shower, and change into dry clothes. I thought about another activity, when I finally remembered the arena. I was decent at fighting, and I could definitely use practice if I was going on a death rescue mission/punishment journey.

I entered the arena, and saw only one person in it. A tall, dark haired guy with an orange camp t-shirt on and jeans. He was swinging his three foot long celestial bronze sword at a dummy with extreme skill. It was Percy Jackson.

I walked in and started clapping slowly to let him know I was there, and that I was impressed.

He noticed me and laughed. "I appreciate it, but I'm way out of practice."

My mouth fell open, "That's out of practice?"

He shrugged, "Yeah. Living in peace for almost two years will do that to you."

"What do you mean?"

He tapped the point of his sword, and to my surprise it transformed into a ballpoint pen. He put it in his pocket. "Well, it's a really long story." He paused and then shook his head, "Let's just say I've been around a while. I've been a part of two great prophecies, faced death so many times I consider him an old buddy, killed a mountain's worth of monsters." Then his face darkened. "I've seen so much pain, so much suffering, I've suffered personally, I've caused suffering." He said the word suffering with distaste, "So when the opportunity came to live out the rest of my life in peace with the person I love, you better believe I jumped on that. And that's how it's been for well...almost two years."

"So Annabeth's the person you love?"

He nodded, smiling widely, "Yeah. More than anything" then his face turned puzzled, "Wait, how do you know her name?"

"I've heard a lot about you guys."

"Oh, well that's cool" He said, I noted that Percy didn't seem to question me that much, or push me to reveal more, he seemed like an easy going guy. "So, you said earlier you wanted to talk about something?"

"Oh, yeah. But not right now, It has to be You, Annabeth, and Harper. And maybe Chiron too."

"Alright, so I guess you're here for some practice?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm the Son of Hercules, so I usually rely on pure strength. But I've realized lately that I'm gonna need some weapon technique."

His eyes widened, and he pointed at me, like he didn't think I was real, "Hold up, your dad is Hercules?"

"Yeah. It's unusual I know"

"No, it's...well, yeah it's unusual. But like how? I didn't think Hercules could have children, him guarding those straits and all."

"Wait, what straits?"

"Well, we were on a quest a little while back, some of my buddies and I, and we came across Hercules. I didn't get to meet him, but my friends said after he accepted godhood, his task was to guard the entrance to Ancient Greece for eternity."

I felt like I'd been smacked by the Nemean Lion. My father was on an island? Is that why he never talked to me, visited me? If he's supposed to be there for all time, then how did he get off and meet my mom?

I figured if I kept thinking about it my brain would explode. I had to focus, Capture The Flag isn't far away, and I need to train. Not just for that, but for my quest mission thing.

"That...only raises more questions to be honest" I said.

He grimaced, then said "So! you're his kid, that is pretty cool. Does that mean you're really strong? Do you rip heads off of lions?"

I almost smiled, he was trying to cheer me up, and he barely knew me. People at this camp were so nice. Well, besides Jett and his goon squad.

"Well, I'm pretty strong. And you saw the lion pelt on my waist earlier. But I'm kind of bad at swordplay."

He nodded, "Well, If you want I can help you out a little. Although I'm not sure how much help I'll be, since I haven't really trained my swordsmanship in a few months."

"Yeah, I'd like that" I said.

He nodded, smiling, "Alright well since you said you use your hands, I guess we'll have to pick out a sword for you-"

"Oh, I have a weapon, it's just concealed. Kind of like your sword pen thing."

"Oh, well...cool, let's see it."

I took off my necklace and gave the shark tooth a squeeze. It formed into a five foot long spear, with the giant shark tooth at the end of it.

Percy stared at it in awe, he looked like a kid discovering something for the first time. "Whoa. That is really cool dude. Is that a giant shark tooth?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It was a spoil of war from a monster I killed when I was little. Turned out to be a spear/necklace combination."

"Nice, man. Does it have a name?"

I wasn't expecting that question. I thought about it...no, I don't remember ever naming it. I hadn't even thought about naming it, the spear was just an essential tool that I used to survive, I didn't think I had a reason to name it.

"No, I...I never thought about it."

"Don't worry about it, weapons don't have to be called anything. I was just asking because that thing looks like it could have a million awesome names."

I was a little embarrassed, why didn't I think of it. I'd had it for years, and the thing did look really awesome. I mean, a shark tooth necklace that turns into spear. And I just called it...well, nothing.

"Well, what's your sword called?"

He pulled the pen out of his pocket, uncapped it, and it sprang into the three foot long sword. He pointed to one word inscribed on the hilt, "Anaklusmos" he said, "It means Riptide, which is what I call it. But I didn't come up with the name. I'm not that clever." He swung it once, "It's centuries old, and it was actually your father's at one point. Chiron gave it to me when I was twelve. My first year at camp."

Wow. Twelve years old? He really had been around for a while. No doubt going on some crazy adventures, making tons of friends, getting a girlfriend, eventually having everyone know who you are, consider you a hero. Why couldn't I be more like this guy?

"That's awesome. Does it ever run out of ink?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, "You know I was asked that before. I actually didn't find out it could write until a couple of years ago. I never thought about it, I was too busy using it's other end. I don't know if it ever runs out. But the ink is made of celestial bronze."

"Alright, it's official, you have the coolest weapon in the world." I said.

He laughed, "I don't know about that, your spear is pretty sick." He then pointed to it, "I could seriously come up with some names for it. Like the Ripper, or the Great White"

He looked at me, I guess expecting me to applaud and praise him for his creativity, but I just stared.

"Yeah, nevermind. Those are kind of lame" he said.

"I thought Ripper sounded pretty good"

He smiled, "Alright. Well anyway, a spear is different from a sword. They both have their pros. A spear is longer, has more range, and is heavier, so it has more force behind each blow. You mainly use them for stabs and big swipes. A sword on the other hand is shorter, better if you get in close, and lighter, so you can strike faster. Now the cons, a spear is not as good at parrying strikes as a sword. And a sword doesn't have the range that a spear does, making it frustrating when an opponent dodges."

Percy had obviously been doing this a while. The way he talked about everything, making little movements with his sword, Riptide. It looked so comfortable in his hand, he held it and swung it like it was literally a part of his arm.

He then motioned me to the middle of the arena, I followed. We ended up standing a few feet from each other, "Alright, we'll spar for a minute so I can see where you're at" he said.

"But, I haven't had any training, I can already tell you where I'm at. I suck." I protested.

"You've killed monsters with it before haven't you?"

"Well...yeah, but that doesn't-"

"You've got raw talent. And if you train raw talent, then you truly have something." He took a stance, "You've gotta start somewhere."

I couldn't argue, I had been alone for a while and never got the chance to train or practice with my spear. I may be a little late, but Percy's right. Better starting late than never.

"Alright" I took a basic stance.

He motioned his head for me to strike first, so I did. I closed the distance and stabbed at him, not trying to kill obviously, but I don't think It would have mattered at all, he parried easily and sidestepped to the right, swiping Riptide at me casually, I barely dodged.

He was pushing me back, I held the spear in my right hand and swung a couple of times in a horizontal arc, he parried the first one with no effort, and then ducked under the second one, closing the already short distance between us, and tapping the point of his sword on my chest, letting me know if this was serious, I would already be dead.

"Use both hands when swinging like that, gives you more power and better control." He said.

I took his advice, grabbed the handle with my left hand, and swung again, he parried it like last time, but I could tell he was using more effort to block now.

"Good, way better" He said in between strikes.

I brought the spear above my head and swung down in an arc, he rolled out of the way, and when my spear made contact with the ground, it cracked the floor, leaving a small crater.

But Percy didn't register it, or just didn't think it was worth stopping for. He swung at me again, this time I parried, I then stabbed and lunged a few times, he blocked and dodged.

This went on for a few minutes. I was trying, using a lot of my strength in the swings, which if it were any other person defending, they would have been sent twenty feet into the wall. But Percy blocked and parried with ease, not even breaking a sweat. He must've had some level of superhuman strength, because there is no way that any regular person would be standing up right from my strikes, let alone just toying with me.

I wasn't angry at this. I knew I had raw power and super strength is literally one of my abilities. But I also knew that I had not trained in swordsmanship, or in this case, spearsmanship, until today. And Percy had, for years, on top of fighting ten times more monsters and opponents.

I was suddenly glad that he was a part of my mission.

And Annabeth too. She intimidated Jett's two thug girls in an instant, and she had ten beads on her necklace. That's ten summers at this place. And if she was eighteen, she's been here since she was little.

Finally I almost got him, but of course he moved out of the way and tapped my chest again with Riptide. I was panting, and sweating, while he looked like he'd just taken a stroll in the park.

"You're a fast learner...Matt, right?"

"Yeah"

"Well, you catch on quick. If you keep training, you'll be pretty tough to beat."

"Thanks...So, um, I gotta ask, who taught you?"

His face darkened a little, "A guy named Luke Castellan. He was good, really good. But, um...he's no longer around."

I nodded, regretting I asked, "Oh, sorry man."

He shook his head, "Oh no, it's fine. He was...complicated. He had his issues, but he was a hero at the end. He died in the second titan war a few years ago."

I nodded. Wow, maybe Percy didn't have it so great after all.

I wanted to change the subject, "So um, you and Annabeth are senior counselors?"

His face lit up a little, "Yeah. It's pretty cool. We're basically in charge of campers, under Chiron of course. But we're in New Rome now, so we don't have much time to spend at camp, and when we do, it's not really as campers, so Chiron figured he would just make us senior counselors for the summer. Apparently when your eighteen, it's an option."

So they were eighteen.

"Did you guys meet here? You and Annabeth I mean." I couldn't believe how much I was talking. This was so unlike me, to actually trigger the conversations. But Percy was cool, and if he was gonna be a part of my mission, I should get to know him a little.

He nodded, "Yeah. I first came here when I was twelve with my best friend Grover-"

"Yeah, he talked about you when he was escorting me."

He smiled, "Grover's the man. He was honestly my first real friend, and the first person from this world that I met. Anyway, he took me to camp, well actually my mom did, then she got captured by Hades and I fought the Minotaur-"

He noticed my face, I was trying to keep up, but he was talking too fast.

"Oh, my bad. It's a long story. But yeah, I met her after I got to camp, we went on our first quest together. Me, her, and Grover. At first we annoyed each other, and couldn't finish a conversation without getting into an argument. But we put our differences aside and became friends." He grinned, and his eyes turned wistful, "Man, that first quest is so nostalgic. We were just twelve. It's so crazy to think about it."

I agreed. I had fought that shark at the age of seven, the demon birds at eight, and the Chimera at thirteen. But I had never been on a full blown quest, and the thought of going on one at just twelve...yeah, it was crazy to think about.

"Anyway" He continued, "Around thirteen years old, I started to develop some, more than friendship feelings for Annabeth. Then I met this other girl named Rachel, who's actually now our Oracle, and I kind of liked her too. For a little while I was confused. And like I mentioned earlier, Luke Castellan...well, him and Annabeth were close. She ran away from home at seven years old, and he rescued her, and protected her. He was basically an older brother to her, but that's not how Annabeth saw it. She had a crush on him for a long time, but he turned evil, and sided with Kronos."

I couldn't believe he was telling me all of this. I mean, I said I wanted to get to know him, but I didn't expect him to be so open. We had just met a couple of hours ago, and here he was telling the story of his romantic life.

"So obviously, our relationships were complicated. I liked both Rachel and Annabeth, and she seemed to like me and Luke. Well, when the Battle Of Manhattan happened, I realized just how much I cared for her. Luke sacrificed himself to defeat Kronos, and the gods offered me immortality, but I turned them down partly so I wouldn't have to leave Annabeth, and partly because I wanted them to start claiming their children, and give more credit to the minor gods. So, after that, when we were back at camp, we kissed, and started dating. Then there was another great prophecy, I lost my memory for a while, but got it back, then we fell in Tartarus, and we defeated Gaea, and moved to New Rome and started going to college there and we just finished our freshman year..."

I was trying to keep up. Turning down immortality? Falling in Tartarus? Defeating Gaea?

"Dude, it sounds like you guys have beaten the video game of a demigod's life" I said.

He laughed, "Yeah it's a lot, I know. But the point is it's finally in the past. And I can live a somewhat normal life"

I grimaced mentally. I felt guilty, because I knew that he and Annabeth were involved in my mission, and all they were trying to do was avoid another mission.

"Look, man. That may not be the case in the upcoming two weeks," I said.

He furrowed his eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you later, I gotta go capture a flag and beat up Jett Atkinson."

He seemed to somewhat forget what I had said, and smiled a little, "Good luck man. And don't pummel Jett too hard," He waved.

I waved back half heartedly, I hated that because of me, the two people that seemed to deserve a peaceful life the most, were now gonna be dragged back into another dangerous mission.

I ran off, getting ready for Capture the Flag.

About an hour later, our team was walking toward the starting positions.

In that hour, I had went back to Jake from the Hephaestus cabin and retrieved my new shield, which was round and silver, like a giant pizza, but on the outside, it was wrapped with the Nemean Lion pelt. It looked awesome, and I wished I had a hundred golden drachmas to pay him.

I had met up with our team and Chiron, Percy, and Annabeth explained the rules to both, and wished us good luck. We had been walking for a few minutes into the forest, it was almost sunset, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to see it, yet again, with the trees blocking me and the task of the game, and the task of decking Jett in the face.

We were almost to the starting positions, we all walked in a somewhat straight line. Kids had their shields and swords, some had spears, some had magic items, like jars with a green substance inside. I didn't know what that stuff was, but I was glad our team had some of it.

One of Jett's thugs was on our team, since the Hephaestus cabin had allied with the Apollo cabin, and one of Jett's buddies was in the Hephaestus cabin. He didn't look happy about it, he kept glaring at me.

I turned my eyes back in front of me, when in my peripheral vision, I noticed Harper walking beside me, staring at my necklace.

I had to say something, "Alright, are you gonna tell me why you keep staring at my necklace?"

She looked away quickly, her ears turning slightly red, "I wasn't staring-"

"C'mon Harper. I let it slide the first few times, but just now you were literally staring at it like it's some new animal species."

"It's just a cool necklace that's all" She said. She wasn't a good liar.

"I know. But there's more to it than that"

She shook her head furiously, "No there's not. I just like it, nothing more."

"No way. There's a reason. Just tell me, I won't say anything-"

"It's nothing, Matt!" She said annoyed, raising her voice, "Okay, it's nothing. Even if there was more, I don't have to tell you everything about me."

I regretted what I said next immediately after I had said it, "Like what happened to your eye?"

I had said it a little louder than I had meant, and got a few turned heads, and some muttering. Harper glared at me, and said, "when that becomes your business, Shark Boy, then I'll tell you."

"Harper, I didn't mean-"

"Don't sweat it. Just focus on the game"

She walked a little faster, and left me a few feet behind.

I cursed myself, why can't I be a smooth talker like Percy? Why can't I control myself? I was being annoying, pressing her about the necklace. But I felt I had some obligation, it was bugging me, what was it about my necklace that made her stare at it?

I shook those thoughts out of my head. We were coming up on the starting positions.

We all stood in place in front of our flag. It was on a hill, making it a little harder to reach if you were coming at it from the front. We had assigned two guards to it, and the rest of us knew our jobs, I was supposed to try and Capture the other teams flag, along with Harper and a few others.

We stood there, waiting. I felt adrenaline run through me, a shiver of excitement, the breeze blew by us briefly, and then after a minute or so, we heard the conch horn, it's sound echoing through the forest, ringing in our ears.

We immediately sprang into action. A bunch of us running like it was the end of the world, our group split up from the rest of the group, and kept running at full speed, jumping over rocks and stumps, dodging branches and at one point leaping over a stream, we felt great, I know I did, letting it all out, using some but not all of my super strength in my legs to enhance my speed, I was probably going about forty miles an hour, when a dude behind me yelled "SLOW DOWN MAN!"

It was one of our group, I looked back and saw him motioning me to come back to them, they were a good ways behind me, and I knew I had gone a little overboard with the running. Probably better to not use any extra strength in the future.

I slowed, and saw Harper looking at me like, what the heck was that all about? I just shrugged, and she responded by rolling her eyes.

In our group there was Me, Harper, a couple of Apollo kids, one Hephaestus girl (not Jett's thug), and a boy from the Athena cabin.

We were pretty solid, we ran close together after my running incident, hearing sounds of yells and swords clashing, a couple of explosions from what I guessed was inside of those jars I mentioned.

Everything was going to plan, until the steel boars attacked.

There were six of them, all twice as big as a regular wild boar, and all made of metal. They snorted fire out of their noses, and charged at us.

I was caught off guard, trying to think about where the heck these came from. Monsters weren't allowed in the game, Chiron said. But he also said that you can use whatever weapons, inventions, and magical items you liked. So I guess these were created by the Hephaestus cabin. But then I remembered that the Hephaestus cabin was on our team, and then it hit me.

Jett.

One of his thugs is in the Hephaestus Cabin, and that guy had made these to attack us, his team. And there were six of them. The guy was a jerk, but I had to give it to him, he was pretty clever.

I had barely registered the fact that they had charged, until one of the boars knocked a shield out of one of our group's hand and dragged him away, creaking loudly. I heard screaming, and I was about to bolt after him, when one of the Apollo guys said, "He's my brother, I'll take care of it." He ran off after them, his bow drawn. I didn't know what good a bow and arrow would do against that thing, but maybe he had celestial bronze arrows or something.

The rest of them attacked us all at once. The one coming at me tried to go for my leg, but I grabbed it by it's snout and swung it like they do in the Olympics where they throw the weights. It went flying thirty feet and slammed into a tree, going through it like a hot knife to butter. The boar skidded across the grass and came to a stop, creaking loudly. The tree fell slowly to the ground and made a loud crash when it made contact.

I turned and saw Harper slashing at another boar with deadly accuracy, she had sliced off one of it's legs, oil sprayed everywhere and electricity crackled. She didn't need any help, but then the boar opened it's mouth and a pillar of fire erupted from it, heading directly at Harper.

I was about to jump in and help, when she rolled out of the way and closed the distance on the boar, stabbing it in the side, causing it to creak and even more oil to spray everywhere. She brought down both knives on the boar's face, and the machine moved no more.

I stood there, dumbfounded.

She turned to me, and shouted "Don't just stand there, we need to help them!"

I saw the two other kids struggling with their boars, the boy from Athena, I'm pretty sure his name was Cole, was scraped up, and the girl from Hephaestus whose name I'm pretty sure was Tori, had singed hair from the fire breath.

I moved fast, I jumped on a rock and used it as a springboard, as soon as I pushed off, I saw the rock crumble and turn to pebbles, the force of my liftoff sending them flying. I shot in the air like an arrow at a hundred miles an hour, and tackled the boar on Cole, we both went tumbling down the hill and eventually landed in a stream. I groaned, I felt the water against my jeans and my combat armor. I hated moving around in wet clothes, but I had no choice.

I saw the boar getting up, it seemed to be fine in the water, but it had a huge dent in it's side from where I tackled it at the speed of a muscle car. It creaked, which I guess was supposed to be an angry squeal. It charged me, but I was ready, I reared my fist back and punched it in the snout with about half my strength, and even that was a little overboard. The boar crumpled into an unkempt ball of metal and went skidding back hundreds of feet. It finally stopped and then started steaming. Then it caught on fire, and then it exploded, leaving nothing but smoke and a few small pieces of shrapnel.

I was surprised at my strength. What the heck would have happened if I went all out? Or used the red aura?

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of loud creak squealing. I turned to my right and saw a boar tumble down the hill, a knife in it's side. I then saw Harper at the top of the hill, she threw her other knife with incredible accuracy and pierced the face of the boar, and it stopped creaking.

What happened next surprised, and impressed me. Harper raised her hands, she had on black leather gloves. She pushed her thumbs into her palms, and almost instantaneously, the knives began to struggle on the boars, as if trying to get out. And after a few seconds, they did, and went soaring back into Harper's hands.

My mouth widened in awe. That was really cool. It was like she used the force from Star Wars to call her knives back to her.

"How did you do that?" I shouted.

She looked at me, and shouted back, "It's a mix of magic and magnetism. Magic because it allows the thin magnets in these gloves to attract celestial bronze"

"That is insanely cool, Harper"

She didn't smile, she just motioned for me to get up there, "Come on, we need to finish them off"

I figured I would at least get a smug I know, but I guess it would take time. I don't understand how girls think.

I ran up the hill quickly and saw Cole and Tori finishing off a boar, and the Apollo brothers coming back from their fight. The older one carried the younger one in his arms, he was bleeding. The older one carrying him was limping, and wincing.

He gently set him down against a tree, the kid was conscious, but barely. The older brother was breathing heavily, but managed, "I got the boar, I got it...but Tommy here, needs some nectar or ambrosia quick."

Harper pulled out a small canteen and handed it to him. He muttered a thanks and made his brother drink it. Tommy perked up, but winced in pain and slumped back down.

"He's done. You should stay here with him, keep an eye out. Cole and Tori should go with Harper and I forward, we're still gonna get that flag" I said.

The older brother looked at me, "Hold up, who made you leader?"

"I never said I was, I'm just saying that the nectar will take a little while to heal, and he needs to rest. He can't defend himself, so he needs someone to defend him. I figured you would want to."

He was a little taken back, "Um, yeah...I'll keep an eye out."

"Alright, you guys follow me, we'll keep going and get that flag." I said, shocked at my sudden confidence.

Even Harper seemed impressed at my sudden leadership, she didn't ask any questions, and we jogged forward.

We kept going through the forest, Harper beside me, Cole and Tori keeping up behind us.

"So, what exactly is the plan here?" Harper asked, her voice low.

"We keep going until we see the flag, then we hide, scout, and figure out the best course of action."

She raised her eyebrows, "Wow, Shark Boy. Are you sure you aren't a Son of Athena?"

"Shut up"

She chuckled, which was good to hear.

We jogged in silence for a few minutes, occasionally interrupted by the sound of battle. At one point, we were attacked by two members from the other team. They ran at us, swords drawn, but I didn't even need to do anything, Tori and Cole disarmed one of the guys and forced him to surrender, while Harper caught the other guy mid run and judo flipped him to the ground, she put one of her knives at his cheek, and he raised his hands in submission.

We moved on, passing trees and rocks and more streams, until eventually finding ourselves running up a hill, not too steep, but steep enough to make you work. I felt fine, my legs weren't tired, and I had a feeling that the flag was at the top. But I could hear Cole and Tori panting heavily behind me, even Harper was breathing a little hard.

I almost called for a break, when I saw the flag at the top of the hill, surrounded by two guards, no doubt a part of Jett's gang. They were about a hundred feet from us, I motioned for everybody to stop with my hand, and directed we crouch behind a boulder a few feet from us.

We knelt behind the large rock, and I said, "The flag's up there, guarded by two big guys, no doubt Jett's goons. Anybody got any ideas on how we should approach this?"

Tori spoke up, "I say we just charge them head on, I mean, there's four of us and only two of them"

Then Cole chimed in, "But what if there are more? What if their strategy is to appear weak in numbers, but there's actually more of them hiding in the trees or bushes?"

Harper snorted, "This is Jett we're talking about. That guy couldn't come up with a strategy to give water to a man in the desert."

I snickered, then said, "Maybe we should sneak around the side, then see for sure if there's any hiding out there."

They considered this, then nodded.

"Alright then, let's-"

I was interrupted by four figures jumping down from the trees, they each landed on top of us, even I was knocked to the ground. I recognized the attackers, it was Jett's gang. The two beefy guys were on top of me and Cole, and the ugly blondes were on Harper and Tori.

I sprung up and tossed the two hundred and fifty pound guy like it was nothing.

He got up, grinned stupidly and pointed to my right.

I looked at the ground and saw one of the jars with the green stuff in it, it was too late. It exploded right next to me, causing me to stumble, but I didn't feel any pain. He threw two more at me and they each exploded beside my face. Each one with more power than a grenade, I felt the heat of the blast, they blew my head to the side, but I didn't feel any pain.

I began to charge at him, and he looked nervous, he yelled, "A LITTLE HELP HERE!"

The other three each pulled out two jars, lit them, and threw the at me, the beefy guy in front of me did the same, and they all exploded at once, right on top of me. I could say yes, I felt some pain now. I was blown face first into the dirt, and I felt a slight burning on my back and a throbbing in my chest.

The beefy guy took this opportunity and place large handcuffs on me. Not the modern police kind, but the old style ones, the kind that cover your whole forearm. He was tightening them furiously, but I didn't feel any pressure. Until I tried to break them open, they wouldn't budge.

He picked me up and grabbed my neck, "It's made of celestial bronze, punk." He growled, "not even you can shatter it."

The other three picked up Harper, Cole and Tori. They didn't have cuffs on, but they had weapons at their throat. We moved along, trudging up the hill with them constantly telling us to go faster, or they would just shove us and chuckle.

Eventually we made it to the top, and we were ten feet in front of the flag, the two guards standing there, smirking.

I heard rustling in the bushes behind them, and I saw Jett, emerging from the green, a smug smile on his freckled face. He had on a breastplate, shin guards, and combat boots, with his sword on his waist, no helmet. He casually walked to us, and stopped directly in front of the flag, facing me.

He pointed to Cole and Tori, "get rid of them" he ordered the two thugs.

"NO!" I yelled, but it was too late.

They turned Cole and Tori to the downward slope of the hill, and pushed them, they tumbled and skidded down for a few seconds, until finally stopping at the bottom, not moving, curled in a fetal position.

I turned back to Jett, glaring at him with hatred.

"So Vampire, Cyclops," He said, "Glad you could make it."

"Coward!" Harper spat at him, "You had to handcuff Matt and ambush us just to stand a chance!"

He turned and stepped toward her until they were face to face, "It's called strategy. You're just mad because you're about to see your boyfriend get his ass kicked."

"You were her boyfriend once, Jett." I said, "But you took advantage of her. You pretended to care when she was pouring her heart out to you. Was that your strategy? Faking sympathy for a girl just so you could touch her and do dirty things?"

He shrugged, "Call it strategy if you want. All I remember is seeing the new camper, all hot and sexy with her goth-emo look. And she was depressed, so sad all the time. Something about her dead father and missing brother-"

"SHUT UP!" Harper screamed, "SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

He smacked her in the face, the recoil sending her head to the side. After I saw that, I was contemplating on whether I should kill this guy. I am not joking. I was legitimately debating on whether I should kill him. Maybe put my spear through his heart, or punch his head clean off of his shoulders.

I gritted my teeth, steam threatening to pour out.

He yelled, "DON"T EVER TALK TO ME LIKE THAT YOU FREAK!" then he smacked her again. My insides were raging, the blood heating up like it never had before, my organs were about to explode, the steam threatening to emerge was like a freight train, but I fought it with every fiber of my being. If I lost that much control, I would kill him. And it would be brutal.

Harper turned back, blood coming from her lip, she said, "You're not worthy to speak about them, scum." Then she growled, "make them let me go so I can kill you."

But he was too much of a coward, he just smirked. "Oh yeah, I remember it all, Vampire." he turned toward me, "Should I tell you about some of the deepest secrets that were shared to me?"

"NO!" Harper shrieked, "STOP!"

"Let's see, oh yeah. So she's got this brother, he's her hero, but one day he goes missing, into the night, captured, and she tries to rescue him, but she fails."

"STOP!" Harper screamed again, tears running down her face now. "PLEASE JETT!"

"And then about a year or so later, some random demigod breaks in her house, and kills her father in cold blood. And she saw the whole thing happen in front of her." He laughed, then pointed at Harper, "She is one damaged chick. But it's the damaged ones that make the best love."

Harper was full on sobbing now, and I had hit my limit of how much more I could take. Her cries and sobs echoed in my head, and for a few seconds I saw nothing but red. Something snapped, and I couldn't hold back my rage. I let it loose, all of it, in a primal, brutal shout. I broke open my celestial bronze handcuffs with ease, and then came the red aura. It glowed around me like a giant forest fire, it was larger than it had ever been, the shockwave of it sent the guy holding me sprawling down the hill. Steam emerged from my mouth and the pores all over my body, billowing like crazy everywhere and floating into the sky. I didn't feel pain, no throbbing, anything. I noticed my muscles had grew a little, and my skin was slightly red. Then I looked forward, and all I saw was Jett, and all I felt was pure, absolute hate.

I walked slowly toward him, he was terrified, laying on the ground on his butt, his face displayed pure terror. I had no idea what my face looked like, but my skin was red and steam was billowing from my face and mouth, so I probably looked pretty scary.

I got to him and grabbed him by the throat, picking him up, careful to use barely any strength at all so I wouldn't kill him. He choked and gurgled, trying to get air, he punched my arm, but I felt nothing. In fact, he yelled in pain when his skin touch mine.

That gave me an idea.

I slammed him on the ground as gently as I could, which still created a crater and caused blood to trickle from his mouth. I took my hand and ripped his breastplate clean off, and slung the remains behind me. I then ripped his shirt off and place my forearm on his chest, he screamed in agony and begged me to stop. I could hear the sizzling of his skin, and I smelled burning flesh.

I took it off and saw a huge red welt on his chest, some of the skin melting off. I knew it wouldn't kill him, but he would get a second or third degree burn for sure.

I then punched him with hardly any strength. It created another crater in the ground. I knew I was losing control, the only reason he was surviving is because he's a demigod. Any regular person would have died from the slam.

I punched him a couple more times, he was really bleeding now, the ground cracked and shook with each blow, I then stuck my forearm on his chest again, and he didn't even have the energy to howl in pain, but I heard more sizzling.

I then registered another voice yelling in my ear to stop. Someone was shaking my left arm, trying to get my attention.

I turned and saw Harper. Her face was covered in tears and black eyeliner was dripping down her cheeks. Her lip quivered as she continued to shake me, I saw that she still had on the gloves, otherwise her hands would have been burned from touching me.

Her face looked desperate, and so sad, she was pleading with me to stop, that I was gonna kill him if I didn't. I stared into her good and bad eye, and I broke. I felt the immense strength fade, my skin color return, the red aura go away, the steam stop billowing, in an instant, I was back to normal. I noticed that my shirt had burned off, and most of my jeans, but thankfully the part that covered my area was still there. It looked like I had on Annabeth's jean shorts.

Jett was a burned and bloody mess.

"Harper...I-"

Then the pain hit.

It was way, way, way worse than the cut on my cheek that the Chimera gave me. I felt like I was being pulled apart by two airplanes, my skin being burned and then peeled off, my bones were on fire, throbbing with intensity like never before, my stomach felt like someone had put a flamethrower in it, and left it on.

I screamed in agony, and couldn't control myself, I couldn't feel my limbs, I was completely engulfed in the pain.

I would have fallen face first in the ground, but Harper caught me, and cradled my shoulders. I could hear her calling for help.

I no longer had the strength to scream, it was like the ability left me, and I just trembled with my mouth open, no sound coming out.

Harper yelled louder, and I heard other voices, faint, but they were there. As soon as I saw more figures surround me, I blacked out.

It was completely black, like a dark corridor that never ended. I floated there, not even aware that this was a vision until a voice said-

"So, Son of Hercules. You've finally tapped into your true power." I saw Malachi, the god killer standing in front of me.

"Y-you" I managed.

"Yes, I'm glad you finally gave in to your rage. I was beginning to worry that there would be nobody to challenge me."