Chapter Two -New Comings-
It took only a few hours to fly from Manhattan to Oakland, Zeus knew nothing of his travels. Hector had masked his presence from the inferior and younger God's so that he wouldn't be disturbed.
"So where to?" Hector sipped his water he'd stolen from a random lady as her kids ran around.
"We're off to Camp Jupiter," Reyna hailed a taxi and glanced back at Hector taking notice of the bottle. "Where'd you get that?"
"Found it." Hector grinned and offered it to Reyna in which she quickly declined.
A Taxi pulled up and a man inside grinned at Reyna, "Well well well."
"Mercury," Reyna nodded. "What brings you to Oakland?"
"A 'friend' dropped off the grid and I was just passing by so might as well hop in," Mercury moved his neck to look past Reyna. "Who's the kid?"
"Well seeing as he lied to me and stole that water bottle," Reyna sighed. "Might be your kid."
Mercury shook his head, "Not mine unfortunately."
He gestured for them to hop in as the doors flung open, "Camp Jupiter?"
Reyna nodded and sat down in the passenger seat before closing the door behind her. She glanced at Hector who was studying the God.
"You're new." Hector murmured to himself.
"Hector?" Reyna smacked the taxi door and he snapped out of it.
"Ah sorry!" He scrambled inside and slammed the door shut.
"Hey!" Mercury complained.
"Sorry!" Hector buckled himself in before realizing he'd dropped the water bottle. "Wait, my water!"
"Stolen water," Reyna sat back. "Let's go."
As Hector reached to open the door he was thrown back as Mercury peeled out of the airport's clogged traffic and into a black tunnel masked by the mist.
"So how's Grandfather?" Reyna spoke as they commenced in darkness.
"Who?Jupiter?" Mercury asked.
"No, Saturn." Reyna mocked him.
"He's doing somewhat fine," Mercury ignored her mockery. "Though he's worried about our friend…he hasn't shown up at all."
Hector crossed his arms and stared into the darkness, thinking, thinking of how the meeting would go and of what he'd do if they tried to betray him. Nevermind that he thought, might as well enjoy now as time goes by fast for those who are immortal.
"So Camp Jupiter is the roman equivalent of the other camp?" Hector asked.
"Camp Half-Blood?" Mercury scoffed. "It is nowhere near the puny cabins there!"
"They may be inferior in their cabins but they're personalized for each of the God's kids," Reyna grumbled. "THAT is something we roman's would've liked."
"Roman's are too complex for something so simple," Mercury's voice spoke softly in the dark. "That's why it was harder to create homes for huge legions."
Their conversation was cut short by the sudden sunlight that blinded both the passengers, when their eyes readjusted they were in the middle of an array of buildings.
Suddenly a spark and boom came about, in the middle of a cloud of dust sat a statue's head.
"Unacceptable Mercury!" The head shouted.
"Sound's much like the lemon prince," Reyna giggled. "Dismiss it Terminus,"
"Oh Reyna," Terminus frowned. "Apologies…I thought it was just another Mercury incident."
"Mercury Incident?" Hector leaned between the front row seats.
"He 'visits' his children a LOT." Reyna sighed and exited the vehicle.
Hector followed and they both waved goodbye to Mercury, he mused about how Terminus always narrated how he was doing something since he had no limbs.
"So what's with the giant head?" Hector inspected Terminus.
"This is Terminus," Reyna crossed her arms. "God Of Boundaries and a picky guard."
"I am not picky," Terminus glared at Reyna. "I'm protective of our home."
They were interrupted by the callings of Terminus, a little girl was shouting his name and rushing towards them.
"Julia you've gotten quite big!" Reyna exclaimed.
"And with that her attitude…"Terminus mumbled.
Julia ignored the remark, "Where have you been Reyna?"
"Recruiting," Reyna grinned. "Meet Hector!"
Julia inspected the toned boy, she glanced at his attire, hair, face, ears, all of the places to determine a demigod's parent.
"What's he do?" Julia sniffled.
"That's a great question!" Reyna faced Hector. "What can you do?"
Hector glared at the little girl and turned his attention back to the retired praetor.
"Many things however why don't we continue this excursion." Hector walked past Reyna and outside of the array of buildings towards the borders of New Rome.
"This is New Rome," Reyna walked proudly next to him. "It holds the families of older Demigod's."
As they neared the border Hector could see the rest of the camp, it was a lovely sight. He squinted his eyes and pointed at two figures riding horseback in the distance.
"And they are?" He asked.
"The Praetors," Reyna stopped at the border with Hector. "Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque."
There they waited until the two dismounted their horses about 5 feet away, the two Romans did not have any caution whatsoever seeing Reyna was with someone.
"Hey Reyna!" Frank greeted her ignoring Hector.
"What's up lovebirds?" Reyna smiled and Frank blushed as Hazel rushed to hug Reyna.
"It's good to see you again!" Hazel let go and grinned.
"And to you," Reyna nodded. "How's the rebuilding process?"
"It's coming along," Hazel nodded. "We're adding a few courses for training and new stables."
"And some new ranges!" Frank added.
The two focused their attention on Hector, "Who's the pretty boy?"
"The new unclaimed," Reyna jokingly bowed at Him. "Hector Olyos."
He nodded at Frank and smiled at Hazel without acknowledging Reyna's introduction. Frank felt a vein pop in his forehead as jealousy coursed through him.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you," Hazel greeted him. "Join us for supper, you as well Reyna."
"I can't," Reyna shook her head. "I've got to go and meet up with my sister but for sure tomorrow."
Hazel nodded and Reyna took off after saying her goodbyes, then the three headed off towards the main Camp. Hector rode with Frank who made sure to make it a bumpy ride, the massive boy was still bothered by Hector's smile.
"So what's with her?" Hector asked Hazel.
"Reyna?She's the daughter of Bellona," She responded over the sounds of hoofs stomping in dirt. "Goddess of War."
"That's interesting," He responded loudly. "That explains why she's so robotic in her jokes!"
They rode silently after that one, as they neared the Camp there could be cheers heard from the Mess Hall. They dismounted just outside of it, the cheers and laughter from the inside surrounded them as they entered.
"LEGIONS!" Frank boomed as Hazel signaled for their attention.
"OORA!" The crowd responded.
"Welcome our newest addition," Hazel spoke loudly. "Recruited by Reyna herself…Hector Olyos!"
The camp erupted in cheers as Fauns,Ghosts, and Campers all greeted the fresh meat.
"Quiet down!" Frank slammed the bottom of his spear in the ground.
The excitement died down and Frank took the initiative.
"Tomorrow as you know holds the War Games," Frank spoke and the crowd shouted another 'OORA!'. "With that comes a new goal, instead of flags…it will be a single camper."
The crowd murmured, "One of us?" "Is he serious?"
"One of the teams already has their camper," Frank grinned and faced Hector. "HECTOR!"
—-
Hector had slept horribly in his new barrack, he had been assigned to the First Legion. They were sitting inside the fort, the walls looming over them as the rest of their team consisting of the Second,Third,Fourth, and Fifth Legion rushed around preparing. The attackers had the majority due to Frank's jealousy and wanting of Hector to fail.
"How'd you sleep buddy?" A voice came from atop the dirt in front of his trench.
"Like a Harpy in a cage," Hector grimaced. "I'll manage though."
"Good," The girl grinned. "I'm Melissa by the way."
"Hector," He shook her hand as she dropped into the trench. "I'm guessing you're a part of the front line?"
"You guessed right," Melissa grinned. "Nothing like pride and glory."
"Yeah," He shrugged. "But I like relaxing better."
"Live a little," Melissa looked at the walls. "There's nothing like living a bit even if it's dangerous."
The horns sounded and Hector waved goodbye as he sprinted to the main tent surrounded by giant catapults and ballistas. He sat behind the defensive line, the defenders there focused their weapons on the top of the wall.
"So what happens now?" Hector asked a random boy.
"That." The boy responded as a few figures appeared on the wall.
The ground began shaking as the wall and gates began to be pounded from the exterior side. Hector grimaced, "Those definitely won't hold long."
"Faith in Roman tech my friend," The boy grinned. "I'm Russell Enos."
"Pleasure to have you here Russ," Hector grinned. "Hopefully Roman tech will hold against its own people."
"It will…for some time." Russ fired a ballista and it impaled itself next to a figure. "Might wanna grab a sword though."
"I always carry a blade," Hector brought out his curved stygian blade. "Trust only in combat."
Russ smiled, "Trust only in combat…I like that."
Russ seemed no older than 13 and yet had a love of battle. He fired away for around 20 minutes until finally the cracked walls and splintered gate doors broke open.
"How about we ditch this post?" Russ glanced at him. "They gotta take you back to their post to win anyways."
Hector nodded excitedly, he craved the adrenaline and speed of battle. The two hopped over the trenches as Roman soldiers shouted from behind in protest. The first group of enemies dressed in silver armor rushed the two. Quickly Russ unsheathed his short sword and parried a spear, after he smacked the helmet of the attacker who fell writhing in pain.
Hector dodged a sword swing going towards the right diagonally and kicked the holder away before parrying another. He could see all of the blades in slow motion, or in real time but they were slow to his divine eyes. Using his dagger he smacked the returning attacker and tossed it to his other hand before smacking the current one.
The two campers fought furiously, covering each other as new attackers came. But as quickly as they came they fell, Russ grinned like a mad man as he disarmed and hurt his fellow Roman's.
Hector enjoyed battle but the face of Russ was still a disturbing sight.
Then Frank came, he plunged his bone spear into the ground and an undead Roman rose with a spear and shield. The undead pursued Russ as he baited it away from Frank and Hector, the two surrounded by the ensuing battle.
"Let's do this Olyos," Frank sheathed his spear and took out his bow. "Hazel is mine."
"Always will be Zhang." Hector grinned and charged.
Frank launched a flurry of arrows at Hector who inhumanely dodged them in a quick manner, this put a surprised but funny look on Frank's face. He launched another flurry in which Hector struck half of them down and rolled under the rest. Continuing his path towards Frank who angrily threw his bow down and unsheathed his spear before charging. The two clashed in between the blazing fires, they swung and parried furiously ignoring the fires that surrounded them. Frank thrusted his spear towards Hector's stomach in which Hector jabbed it down with his elbow as he dodged. Quickly he kicked Frank in his chest which had no effect on the absolute hulk of a teenager.
"That's all?" Frank grinned.
Hector dropped onto one hand and swung his feet under Frank's legs in which the bulky boy fell onto his side, groaning in pain. Quickly the two recovered, Hector pursuing his target and slashing with the flat side of his blade at Frank's body. Frank narrowly blocking them with the long shaft of his spear. Frank slipped into a trench and fell on his back, Hector jumped and tried to stab into Frank's chest with his hilt, unfortunately Frank rolled to the side and recovered.
They both stood and began to throw a flurry of strikes and swings with their weapons. Russ who had decapitated the undead now joined the worried crowd outside of the giant surrendering firewall.
"Sweet!" Russ gushed with happiness as he watched the two battle through the flames. It reminded the young boy of the battle between Anakin and Obi Wan.
Soon Frank backed up enough to be under the falling path of a burning tower, in which Hector noticed and grabbed Frank's spear allowing it to pierce his shoulder. He winced in pain as golden ichor slowly trickled out of the wound, he pulled the bulky boy towards him and the tower fell creating dust and smoke.
The two coughed and recovered, the God in disguise clutched his wound to hide it. He would quickly heal, but for now he had to hide it.
"Good look Olyos," Frank coughed. "But how do we get out?"
The two inspected the flaming circle, the Legions looking towards them nervously as some campers tried to extinguish the flames with buckets but to no avail.
"Frank!" Hazel cried from outside the circle.
The two climbed out of the trench as the fire burned towards them.
"We were too focused." Hector frowned.
"Good fight though." Frank grinned.
"Yeah that's true." He smiled.
The two began to accept their fate before they were doused with a large wave of water.
"Really Frank?" A voice came from the crowd as the mist settled. "How many times is that now?"
Frank Opened his eyes and they lit up with a smile, "PERCY!"
(A/N- Chapters a tad shorter but it's really cold so it'll have to do lol, enjoy and leave reviews if you want to see any older characters through the story.)