(A/N: Zeus, you really are one dumb person. Like, I am of the opinion that the PJO fandom just exists to shit on Zeus and I don't care at all. Like, I just accept that as a head canon for the fandom.
Plus shout out to AO3 user laurellins, whose fanfic "Tales from Camp Half Blood" (particularly the parts about The Sea Of Monsters, plus the stuff about Clarisse and Chris.. I'm using a basis for what goes in the first part (Sea Of Monsters) and the second part (Battle Of The Labyrinth) - mainly skipping over The Titan's Curse due to the fact that aside from the scene with the hunters at Camp Half Blood, there isn't much there I want to depict. This is a fanfic dedicated more towards the campers (through Colton and Kayla) if anything in addition to Kayla Knowles fans, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense if I added in Percy's stuff from that book into this.
Also warning, major language and rage in this chapter because.. Colton snaps and his fellow campers aren't prepared for it.)
Chapter Title: I Honestly Want To Kill Tantalus
The minute Tantalus was in Colton's view for the first time, he swore he could immediately smell trouble. Just looking at the man, he could tell that this man was bad news. In his defense, having a man in an orange jumpsuit instead of an orange t-shirt looking like he spent time in prison was not exactly a sign that someone was friendly.
Then again, those eyes.. the way they look unhinged with a wild anger and rage inside of them didn't exactly inspire much confidence either. No matter how one sliced it, this guy was a threat and Colton knew it.
Sitting down at his cabin's table with Kayla on his left, also suspicious and uneasy about the guy in the orange jumpsuit and with Clarisse on his right, with Sherman across from them, he made his opinion known immediately.
"Hey sis.. I don't exactly trust that guy in the orange jumpsuit. He gives me the creeps" Colton said, eyes full of suspicion, as he couldn't stop looking in Tantalus' direction.
Clarisse stopped eating, looked up at Tantalus for a few moments, and then turned to Colton, her brunette hair swaying in a rather Clarisse-like fashion as she did so. "Yeah, I don't blame you at all. Doesn't help that the guy is Tantalus, Chiron's replacement.." she said back to him, causing Colton's eyes to go wide. He had heard the myth and he felt sick to his stomach knowing that man was in camp with them. His other siblings must have heard her too, because he was pretty sure that every other person at the table stopped eating as there was a general cessation of eating noises around him, aside from Clarisse.
"Holy hades!" Colton hissed back, keeping his voice down, even though Kayla could still hear him. "You mean that one ancient king who cut up his own son and served his as food to the gods who then sent him to the fields of punishment is our new activities director? Are the Gods insane?"
A tug on his sleeve indicated to him that Kayla had heard that, and really did not take it well. Clarisse turned to look at Colton again. "I don't know what in hades they are even thinking, but you're right. I don't trust him either.." she replied. "Best you two keep that to yourselves."
Colton nodded, but still, it didn't seem right at all. As consolation though, the sight of Percy and Tyson getting along well, to the point that Percy made the Apollo table quiet after someone must have said something he didn't like with a fierce glare, was rather nice, in his own opinion.
Even so, it was also sad that he and Tyson had to sit by themselves. Even Sherman noticed this, and like Colton before him, didn't hesitate to express this. "Camp rules are dumb sometimes, like look after what Jackson did for Clarisse, why not let him sit over here, along with that Cyclopes?" he said, and some of his siblings just looked at him funny.
"I think his name is Tyson, Sherman, but yeah. I agree" Colton added. "He should be able to. It's because of rules that they have to be sit by themselves."
"Did the gods make these rules? Because I have to say, their thinking is a bit flawed.." Kayla said next to him, and it took everything for Sherman and Colton to not burst out laughing then and there, but seriously, she was dead on target.
"You don't know the half of it, girl.." Clarisse said, finishing off most of her meal by now. "Their flawed thinking was one of the reasons that traitor Luke left in the first place."
Colton held back his anger and simply nodded along. It was true, Luke had cited the Gods' flawed thinking in regards to the kids who had stayed at camp for years and had never been claimed yet and to the kids of minor gods who didn't have cabins as one of the reasons to why he left. Deep down inside, despite all their anger against him for betraying the Olympians, both Clarisse and Colton knew that he wasn't wrong on that part. It was the way he decided to change things is what made him a traitor.
Either way, both of them were brought back to the present by the sound of Percy Jackson's voice. "Your camp already has problems.. sir!"
Sherman, Colton, Kayla, and Clarisse all looked once more over to where Tantalus was.
"Either this man is brave beyond stupidity.. or completely crazy.." Sherman muttered. "..because even I wouldn't say that out loud to him, at least not at this moment."
Percy, being Percy, couldn't help himself, it seemed. There he was, in front of Tyson, arguing with Mr. D and Tantalus. To Colton, it was absolutely one of those moments where he didn't even think Jackson shouldn't have done it. To be brutally honest, he would have done the same thing.
"Oh, go sit down, Johnson.." Mr. D said back, and rolled his eyes in the process. "I believe the table that you were sitting at is yours - the one no one else wants to sit at."
Clarisse simply reached over and grabbed Colton's collar. "I see that clenched fist.. but seriously.. don't try it.." she said, causing Colton to realize his right hand had clenched into a fist as he was watching the whole thing. Because Clarisse knew full well that knowing how much Colton, despite his calm demeanor and unusual combat style, could turn into a loose cannon just as unpredictable as a Colchis Bull in mere moments when he got enraged, wanted to go over there and scream "BECAUSE OF THE RULES!" in Mr. D's face.
To be fair, Colton was honestly half expecting Percy to snap, and again, he wouldn't blame him for doing so. But just as it seemed he was going to talk back, Percy stopped himself. He huffed and turned to Tyson, saying to the Cyclopes, "Come on, Tyson."
"Oh no.. that monster stays here until we decide what to do with it.." Tantalus said before both had left, causing a stir amongst the campers.
"Him! His name is Tyson!" Percy snapped back, frustrated beyond belief now.
"What the fuck is wrong with him?" Sherman hissed. "Tyson helped us out with those Colchis Bills. Why the hades is he being treated like this?"
Clarisse's lips morphed into a scowl. For all her instincts to just let Tantalus show Jackson his place as payback for what he did to their father, Sherman was right. This was wrong, and she knew it. Listening to Percy recount the whole thing from his perspective, including Colton's near death kill shot at the last moment, only furthered her belief of this.
The final straw for the trio, aside from Kayla, was when in response to the whole thing, Tantalus started laughing. "Alright.. yeah, I feel you Colton. This guy is bad news.." Clarisse said, fists clenching out of rage right now.
"I so want to finish that fucker off now.." Sherman hissed again, fury written all over his face.
"Yeah, same.. oh, the feeling of putting a damn bullet through the man's head.. and scattering his ass for miles.. how I want that.." Colton salivated, and then he turned to Kayla. She wasn't freaked out by what he was saying or anything, but she was also glaring with a silent fury at Tantalus.
"I want to stab him repeatedly with an arrow with a broad head tip.." she said at last, anger present in her voice. Colton knew then that the four of them all felt the same way. Tantalus was a threat to the safety and lives of every camper here.
"Leave us while we decide this creature's fate.." Tantalus commanded. Percy scowled but didn't fight it, merely saying something to Tyson and Tyson saying something back before he left to sit back at his own table alone.
There was a few moments of contented whispers from the other campers, but Colton did notice how their eyes flickered towards his cabin's table. They noticed. They know we're mad. Good.
Tantalus stood up a bit later, and even though Kayla was eating her food by now, the trio of Colton, Clarisse, and Sherman hadn't stopped glaring at Tantalus, each elder Ares camper full of rage.
"Another fine meal, so I'm told.." Tantalus started, while Colton couldn't help but snort. Says you, who still can't eat a piece of food even outside of the Fields Of Punishment.
"..and here on my first day of authority I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer I hope to torture.. er, interact with each and every one of you children."
Kayla whipped her head up from her food; Colton's fists clenched very hard; Clarisse starting cracking her knuckles, and Sherman let out a very low, audible growl. All four of them couldn't help but wonder whether Tantalus had been sent to them as an agent by Kronos or Luke. But what they all knew now was that this summer, to protect their siblings and the others, they'd have to face more than just monsters and a race against time to find a cure for Thalia's dying tree. They'd have to battle Chiron's replacement as well.
The next words that came out of Tantalus' mouth did not help at all. "You all look good enough to eat."
Mr. D clapped after what Tantalus had said, but the damage had been done. As Colton glanced around the Ares table, he could tell that each and every one of his siblings were thinking thoughts of bloody murder from the way rage seemed to boil over on their faces, not just Clarisse and Sherman.
"He ever tries to eat another camper, we're killing him.." said Clarisse, low enough so that Tantalus wouldn't hear. "Fair?"
Colton, Kayla, Sherman, and the rest of the Ares Cabin all turned to look at her and nodded. Even though Kayla wasn't part of the cabin, that didn't matter. She felt the same way as them, through and through. Like hell she was going to let Tantalus turn any of her new found siblings, especially the younger ones, into a stew.
"And there will be changes too!" Tantalus exclaimed. "We are reinstituting the Chariot Races!"
"Oh fuck off.." Colton heard his older sister mutter. When Kayla, Colton, and Sherman turned to look at her, the look of pure horror on her face, even for a daughter of Ares, was unmistakable and told the trio all they needed to know. A feeling of dread spread through Colton and looking at Kayla and Sherman, he could tell neither of them had a good feeling about this either. The fact that he could see Lee, the head counselor of Kayla's cabin, have his face also contort in horror from where Colton was sitting did not help matters.
"Now I know these were discontinued quite a few years back due to, uh, technical problems.." Tantalus clarified and for once in his life, Colton really did not want to know what that meant. Unfortunately for him, the Fates had other ideas.
Lee's face had morphed from horror to rage and he had leapt to his feet, slamming his fists on the table shouting, "Three deaths and twenty six mutilations!"
Colton wanted to puke, but a sniffle from next to him stopped him from doing so. He turned his head and he felt his heart break in two. Kayla was crying, obviously horrified at the reason why chariot races were discontinued. Colton didn't know why, but he honestly felt pure rage and a bloodlust unlike anything he had felt before. Before he knew what he was doing, he had gently pulled Kayla onto his lap, with her facing him so she could cry into his chest, and wrapped his arms around her back protectively, much to the surprise of everyone who wasn't looking at Tantalus to see.
Colton didn't care and didn't notice, glaring daggers at Tantalus, imagining himself putting that bullet through his head more than before. Gently petting Kayla's head, something which seemed unnatural to him due to being an Ares kid - again he didn't care - he whispered into her ear, "I swear on the River Styx that I won't let Tantalus hurt you. I swear on the River Styx that before this summer is over, I'm going to defeat the fucker for what's he doing to you, my siblings, and my fellow campers."
Clarisse didn't even try to stop him, for she could tell that right now, there was no reasoning with him. He was seeing red, and she knew it.
Multiple complaints sprung up from the various tables, with even some of Colton, Clarisse, and Sherman's younger siblings joining in.
"Yes.. yes.." Tantalus said, waving off the multiple complaints he was getting. "..but I know you all will join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition."
"I.. want.. to.. butcher.. him.. so.. bad.." Clarisse hissed. Colton didn't blame her, he wanted to as well. Probably more badly than she did.
"Golden laurels will be awarded to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days. We will release you from all regular activities in order to prepare. Oh and did I mention, the victorious teams cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win."
Colton was trying his hardest not to outright lunge like a psychopath for Tantalus at that moment. Even some of his younger siblings had gotten up from their seats and held his arms, just to hold him back.
Lee had noticed and he could tell that this was not going to end well. "There are definitely going to be some major fireworks this summer.." he muttered to Michael, who reluctantly had to agree.
Clarisse had enough. She stood up from her seat. "But sir! What about patrols? If we drop everything to ready our chariots-" she cried out, only to be interrupted by Tantalus, whose eyes couldn't help but blink upon noticing the extremely angry Colton sitting next to her, with Kayla sobbing into his chest, and a few of his siblings behind him, trying to hold him back.
"Ah the hero of the day.. brave Clarisse who single handedly bested the bronze bulls."
Colton snapped. "I'M SORRY! SINGLE-HANDEDLY?!" he roared, catching everyone by surprise. "MY SISTER GOT ONE OF THEM, I GOT THE OTHER!"
"What he said. I didn't -" Clarisse started again, but was once more interrupted by Tantalus.
"Not to worry my dear," Tantalus said, "this is summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"
Easy for you to say when you're an ignorant piece of shit that for all we know might be an agent sent by Kronos, Colton thought angrily to himself. Words couldn't describe how enraged he was right now, yet somehow it seemed not enough for him to go over there and kill Tantalus with his own bare hands right now.
"But the tree-" Clarisse tried once more, and was again ignored. "Before we proceed to the campfire.. there remains one slight housekeeping issue."
Colton sighed in frustration, and as did Clarisse, Percy, Annabeth, and Sherman, as did a lot of the other campers, because they all knew full well what that meant. Tyson.
"Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase deemed fit to bring that thing here" Tantalus said gesturing to Tyson, causing Michael to explode and yell, "HE HAS A NAME, YOU KNOW!"
Clarisse sighed. Just her luck that her younger sibling and the raging bull of the Apollo Cabin were both equally pissed off now. Just my damn luck.
"Now, of course," Tantalus said, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity-"
Nyssa opened her mouth to complain, but Clarisse didn't hear it, because at that moment, Colton snapped again, albeit in a way that left the entire area in silence.
"You can go fuck yourself if you think that is true, you son stew boiling piece of shit.. considering you've been in the underworld for thousands of years.." he said audibly, and no one ever thought to yell out "language!" in response. Clarisse was left looking at her younger sibling in shock. What the hell was up with him? He had never acted like this before.
In his defense, Colton barely understood - or more accurately, was at a lost to explain - what was going on inside of him either.
Tantalus continued on, seemingly ignorant of the fact that he had multiple campers in two different cabins who really, REALLY wanted to kill him now.
"Now normally I would release the beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks.."
Clarisse was about ready to launch herself and strangle Tantalus at this point, but like Colton, somehow couldn't bring herself to do it. The tension at the tables among many of the elder campers was morphing into pure rage now, and the others, especially the new and younger campers, trembled at what was happening.
"Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes cabin possibly?" Tantalus asked.
At that moment, Colton felt the same exact way Luke had felt about the gods before he decided to work for Kronos. That they were cold, heartless people.. well mainly Zeus.
"Come on.." Tantalus goaded, enjoying himself all the while, much to the continually growing fury of many of the campers, "the monster may be able to do some menial chores. Where should we kennel this beast?"
That's when Tyson's head lit up with the symbol of Poseidon over it. Colton couldn't help but lay off the rage long enough to smile. Poseidon.. you are one awesome father.
He had to admit, out of the big three, Poseidon was probably the most based of all of them. If he had been King, imagine how different things would be. But still, there was no time for what ifs right now.. and Colton knew it.
Because right now, he and the other elder campers at Camp Half Blood had three tasks in front of them. One is to find a cure to heal Thalia's dying tree. Two is to protect their siblings and themselves from both the monsters and Tantalus. Three - and the hardest task of it all - would be to get Chiron back, which was easier said than done.
But deep down inside, all of them - the Camp Counselors and Colton among others - were swearing themselves to achieving these tasks on the River Styx and they would all gladly rot in Tartarus if they failed.
Because failure was not an option.
(A/N: This chapter.. dear god. Colton is really going through some things.. a sign of things to come maybe.
Feeling like setting him up as an overpowered hero of the other Gods outside of the Big Three (as a counter to Jason and Percy) along with Kayla and maybe doing something where the three guys collide with Carter and Magnus down the road, plus Aru from the non-canonical Pandava Quintet series and Zane from the Storm Runner Trilogy and everyone is dragged in for the ride when these heroes collide with each other.
I mean, am setting him and Kayla up as overpowered heroes by the end of this that will be built upon in HOO and TOA, but not sure for the heroes crossover thing. Time will tell probably.
Anyway, hope you enjoy and see you in the next chapter!)