Half-Blooded Harmony: The Lightning Thief

by SonicSpeedster97

All Hail the Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

After having gotten over the initial shock of their Latin teacher turning out to be a centaur, the group had a nice tour of the camp… though Percy made sure not to walk behind Chiron. He’d helped clean up after the horses that tromped down the streets for a holiday parade and he did not trust Chiron’s back-end the way he trusted his front. The girls were a bit extra cautious as they had had fairly unpleasant encounters with their own centaur back in Equestria in the form of Tirek. Still, they knew Chiron was nothing like Tirek, but that didn’t help soothe their feelings all that much.

They passed the volleyball pit and Fluttershy tried to look away and act inconspicuous as they looked, some pointing at the Minotaur horn in Percy’s hands with awe. Rarity did her best to look away as well… mostly from the satyrs because none of them were wearing pants over their shaggy hindquarters. She hadn’t been this much of a prude in Equestria, but she’d learned since coming to this world that it was unseemly to not wear anything below the waist. And either way, it was almost as if they were expecting someone in the group to do a flip or something.

They looked back at the farmhouse and saw it was actually a lot bigger than they’d realized; four stories tall with sky blue paint and white trim, like an upscale seaside resort, which this place really did feel like. Rainbow and Percy were looking at the brass eagle weather-vane at the top when something caught their eye; a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. A curtain had opened just a hair for a second, and they got the feeling they were being watched. “What’s up there?” Percy asked Chiron.

Chiron looked and his smile faded. “Just the attic.”

“Does somebody live up there or something?” asked Rainbow.

“No,” Chiron said with finality. “Not a single living thing.”

Twilight glanced at him with a strange look in her eye. “Odd choice of words,” she muttered to Spike, who nodded in agreement.

“Come along now; lots to see,” Chiron said, trying to sound upbeat but it sounded… forced. Pinkie didn’t like it.

She brightened up substantially as they passed the strawberry fields where campers were picking them by the bushel as a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe. “We sell those around New York and on Olympus.”

“Really? Why?” asked Rainbow.

“Pays our expenses, for one.” Chiron shrugged. “And they take almost no effort, especially with Mr. D; he has a sort of effect on fruit-bearing plants like these. It really works best with wine grapes, but he’s been restricted from those, so we grow these instead.”

Rarity couldn’t help but dance a bit to the music the satyr was playing, as lines of bugs fled the strawberry plants in every direction. “That’s wonderful. Do you think Grover can do that sort of work?” she asked.

“Maybe. If Mr. D doesn’t chew him out too hard.” Rainbow shrugged, which made the whole group feel glum.

“Grover won’t get in too much trouble, right?” asked Percy. “I mean… he was a good protector. Really.”

Chiron sighed as he shed his tweed jacket, draping it across his back like a saddle. “Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper, and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill.”

“Hey, he did that.” Rainbow reminded. “Seven times over, if you count us.”

“I might agree with you,” Chiron remarked. “But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I’m afraid they might not see this assignment as much of a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there’s the unfortunate… ah… fate of Percy’s mother.” The group lowered their heads at that. “And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover’s part.”

The group wanted to protest; none of that was Grover’s fault. But a feeling of guilt ate at all of them; if they hadn’t abandoned Grover at the bus station, he wouldn’t have gotten in trouble. “He’ll get a second chance, won’t he?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m afraid that was Grover’s second chance, Fluttershy.” Chiron’s wince was suddenly shared by the others. “The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He’s still so small for his age?”

“Wait, how old is he?” asked Rainbow.

“Oh, 28.” Chiron shrugged.

“What?! And he’s in sixth grade?” Percy asked in shock.

“Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy,” Chiron explained. “Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years.”

“Sounds like torture,” Rainbow remarked.

“Quite.” Chiron nodded. “At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career…”

“That’s not fair.” Percy scowled. “What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?”

Chiron looked away quickly. “Let’s move along, shall we?” He picked up the pace a bit.

“I think we can that as a yes,” Twilight noted.

Something occurred to Percy as they walked; something about Chiron’s choice of words in regards to the fate of his mother, like the idea of death was being ignored completely. “Chiron…” he started. “If the gods and Olympus and all that are real…”

“Yes, child?”

“Does that mean the Underworld is real too?” The girls stopped and looked back at Percy in surprise at that idea, as if wondering why he would ask that. But the answer became all too clear after only a few seconds of thought and glancing up at Chiron’s darkening expression.

“Yes, child.” he paused as if choosing his words carefully. “There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now… until we know more… I would urge you to put that out of your mind.”

“What do you mean ‘until we know more’?” Rainbow asked.

“Come along, everyone. Let’s see the woods.” Chiron said simply as he rode ahead.

“Ugh. I’m getting really sick of all the secrets here.” Rainbow remarked as she raced after the centaur with the others.

As they moved onward through the woods, they realized how big they were. It took up at least a quarter of the valley with foliage remarkably tall and dense. “The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed,” Chiron warned.

“Wait, what? Stocked with what? And what are we supposed to be armed with?” asked Rainbow.

Chiron chuckled. “You’ll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own swords and shields?”

“Our own what-now?” asked Applejack.

“Hm. No, I don’t suppose you do.” Chiron remarked. “Mm, I think I know what sizes will fit you each. I’ll visit the armory later.”

“Wait, what kind of-? Ah, never mind.” Rainbow remarked, knowing the answer to her question would be something obvious and stupid. Instead, the tour continued; the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron and the girls were none too thrilled to see), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where they held something Chiron called sword and spear fights.

When Twilight asked, Chiron simply answered “Cabin challenges and all that. Not lethal. Usually. Oh yes, and there’s the mess hall.”

He pointed to a large outdoor pavilion framed in columns on a hill overlooking the bay with a dozen stone picnic tables. That was it; no roof, no walls. “What do we do when it rains?” asked Twilight.

Chiron looked at her as if she’d gone a little weird. “We still have to eat, don’t we?”

Twilight almost said something, but shook her head; it wasn’t worth it. Finally, they reached the cabins; arranged in a U-shape in the woods near the lake with two at the base and five down either side. And they were, without question, the most bizarre collection of buildings the group had ever seen.

Besides the fact that there were large brass numbers above each of the doors (odds on the left, evens on the right), they looked nothing alike; 9 had smokestacks like a small factory, 4 had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made of living grass, 7 looked to be made of solid gold gleaming so brightly in the sun, the group could barely look at it. The common area they faced was about the size of a soccer field, dotted with statues, fountains, flowerbeds, and a few basketball hoops. There was a massive stone-lined firepit in the center, with the hearth smoldering even on a warm day like today. A girl who looked to be about nine was tending the coals with a small stick.

But it was the cabins at the far end that drew the most attention; 1 and 2 looked like his and hers mausoleums with heavy stone columns with lightning bolts and peacock feathers featured most prominently. “Zeus and Hera?” Percy guessed.

“Correct.” Chiron nodded.

“They look empty,” Rainbow remarked.

“Many of the cabins are, though it is true. No one ever stays in 1 or 2.” Chiron nodded.

“So a cabin for each god. Okay, that makes sense.” Rainbow noted as they looked around. But what didn’t make sense was that some of the cabins would be empty. Percy stopped in front of the first on the left; Number 3. It was nowhere near as high or mighty as 1, but long, low, and solid; like it had been dredged straight from the sea-bottom.

Percy couldn’t help but peek in through the open door. “Oh, I wouldn’t do that.” Before he could pull Percy back, a gust of wind blew from inside like the sea-breeze at Montauk, washing over the girls too. Percy appeared to think the place looked lonely as Chiron placed his hand on his shoulder. “Come along, all of you.”

Most of the other cabins were crowded; 5 especially. And it was remarkably gawdy; painted with splatters of red, the roof lined with barbed wire, and a stuffed boar’s head mounted just under the number above the door, with a bunch of kids whooping it up as rock thundered from the inside.

The loudest and most vicious-looking of these kids was a girl maybe a year or two older than Percy, wearing a massive camp-shirt under a camo jacket. She zeroed in and sneered at the group as they passed, as if all of Nancy Bobofit’s negative traits had been on steroids.

The group did their best to avoid her as they looked around. “Not a lot of other centaurs.” Applejack remarked.

“No,” Chiron noted. “My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I’m afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness or at major sporting events. But you won’t see any here.”

“You said your name was Chiron,” Percy remarked. “Are you really…?”

“The Chiron from the stories?” the centaur smiled. “Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes Percy, I am.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” asked Rainbow.

Chiron stopped as if the question intrigued him. “Well, I don’t know about ‘supposed to be’,” he remarked. “The truth is, I can’t be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish; I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish… and I gave up much. But I’m still here, so I can only assume I’m still needed.”

“Yeesh, teaching for three thousand years? Lame.” Rainbow groaned.

“I really hate to agree with Rainbow, but she has a point,” Twilight remarked. “Doesn’t it ever get boring?”

“No, no,” Chiron assured. “Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring.”

“Wait, why depressing?”

Chiron seemed to turn deaf at that question again as he looked elsewhere. “Oh look, Annabeth is waiting for us.”

And sure enough, there she was at the door of the last cabin on the left; number 11. When the group reached her, she looked Percy over critically like she was still thinking about how much he drooled in his sleep. The group tried to make out the book she was reading, but the title was illegible. At first, they thought it was the dyslexia this world gave them, but it turned out that wasn’t the case. It was literally written in Ancient Greek, with pictures of statues and temples and things like that, like an architecture book.

“Annabeth,” Chiron said simply. “I have masters’ archery class at noon. Would you take the newcomers from here?”

“Yes, sir,” she remarked.

“Cabin 11.” Chiron smiled as he gestured to the building. “Make yourselves at home.”

This cabin looked fairly simple and normal compared to the others, with brown paint peeling off the wood. And when they looked inside, they saw it was packed wall-to-wall with people; way more than the total number of bunks, with sleeping bags spread all over the floor, like a gym that had been turned into a disaster evacuation center.

The door was too low for Chiron, but when the residents saw him, they all stood up and bowed in respect. “Well then,” Chiron remarked. “Good luck you lot, I’ll see you at dinner.” With that, he galloped away to the archery range.

The group looked in and saw the other residents looking them over, sizing them up. “Well? Go on.” Annabeth prompted.

They started to enter… and immediately tripped over the doorway and tumbled on top of each other, making huge fools of each other as some snickers resounded from the cabin. “Welcome to Cabin 11, new blood,” Annabeth remarked.

“Regulars or undetermined?” someone asked.

“Undetermined, each and every one,” Annabeth answered, resulting in some angry and annoyed groaning.

“Now-now folks.” one camper older than all the others stepped forward to the doorway and helped the newcomers up. “That’s what we’re here for. Welcome to Cabin 11. You can have those spots on the floor over there.”

This new guy was about nineteen, with short-cropped sandy hair and a muscular body, and a friendly smile. He made an orange tank top he appeared to have made from a camp-shirt, cutoff pants, sandals, and a leather necklace with five clay beads. Frankly, the only really unsettling thing about him was the thick white scar that extended from behind his right eye to his jaw, like a knife mark.

“This is Luke,” Annabeth said, almost like she was blushing. The group looked back at her, but her tone returned to normal instantly. “He’s your counselor for now.”

“What do you mean ‘for now’?” asked Rainbow.

“You’re undetermined,” Luke explained patiently. “They don’t know which cabins to put you guys in, so you’re here. Cabin 11 takes all the newcomers and visitors. Only natural we would; our patron Hermes is the god of travelers.”

The group weaved their way through the cramped space to their spot on the floor, which wasn’t really big and they had nothing to mark it as theirs; no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bags, no nothing, except Percy’s Minotaur horn. He considered setting it down, but then he remembered Hermes was also the god of thieves.

Rainbow looked around, studying the faces of the other campers, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning like idiots, and some eyeing the gang like they were just waiting for the perfect chance to rob them. “So how long will we be here?” she asked Luke.

“Good question,” he answered. “Until you’re determined, at least.”

“How long will that take?” Percy’s question was met with a chorus of laughter from the others as Annabeth walked over to them.

“Cmon, I’ll show you the volleyball court,” she said.

“We already saw it.” Rainbow shrugged.

“I’m not asking. Come on.” Annabeth scowled as she grabbed Percy by the wrist and dragged him out, the others quickly following to avoid the laughter.

“Ow! Okay, okay, we’re all here! Now what was that all about?” asked Percy as he shook Annabeth’s grip as the girls rallied with him a few feet from the cabin.

“You have to do better than that, Jackson.” Annabeth scowled.

“What?”

Annabeth scoffed and turned away. “I can’t believe I thought you were the one.”

“Hey, what’s your problem Annabeth?” asked Rainbow. “Just because Percy killed a Minotaur-”

“Don’t even think like that!” Annabeth barked. “Do you have any idea how many kids at this camp wish they’d had the chance you had?”

“What, to get killed?” asked Percy.

“No, to fight the Minotaur, bonehead!” Annabeth rebuked. “What do you think we train here for; fun?”

Percy just shook his head. “Look, if that thing I fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories…”

“It was.”

“Then there’s only one.”

“There is.”

“And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the Labyrinth, so…”

“Monsters don’t die, Percy.” Annabeth countered. “They can be killed, but they don’t die.”

“Oh well, that clears everything up just fine,” Rainbow remarked sarcastically.

“They don’t have souls like us.” Annabeth specified. “You can dispel them for a while, maybe even a whole lifetime if you’re lucky. But they’re primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes, eventually they reform.”

That instantly made a look of dread cross Percy’s face. “You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-”

“The Fur… I mean, your math teacher.” Annabeth nodded. “That’s right, she’s still out there. You just made her really, really angry.”

“Wait-wait-wait, how did you know about Mrs. Dodds?” asked Twilight.

“Percy talks in his sleep.” Annabeth shrugged simply.

Percy stepped forward now. “You almost called her something. A Fury? They’re Hades’ torturers, right?”

Annabeth’s eyes went wide with fear as she looked around at the ground, as if she was expecting it to open up and swallow her. “You shouldn’t call them by name, even here,” she warned. “We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all.”

“Look, is there anything you can say without it thundering?” Percy asked seriously. “Why do we have to stay in Cabin 11 anyway? Why is everyone so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there.” He pointed to the first few cabins near the water.

Annabeth turned pale. “You don’t choose your cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or… your parent.” She stared at Percy as if expecting him to get it.

“My mom is Sally Jackson,” he said. “She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to.”

“I’m sorry about your mom, Percy. But I’m not talking about her; I’m talking about your dad.”

“He died before I was born; I never knew him,” Percy assured.

Annabeth just sighed as if she’d had this conversation before. “Your father’s not dead, Percy.”

“How can you say that? You know him?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then how can you say-”

“Because I know you. All of you.” Annabeth assured, pointing around at Percy and the girls. “You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t one of us.”

“You don’t know anything about us.” Rainbow reminded.

“No?” Annabeth asked with a raised eyebrow. “I bet you moved around a lot from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them,”

Percy was surprised. “How-”

“Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Percy asked indignantly, trying to hide his embarrassment.

“Taken together, it’s almost a sure sign,” Annabeth answered. “The letters float off the page when you read, right? That’s because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD – you’re impulsive, can’t sit still in the classroom. That’s your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they’d keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that’s because you see too much Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal’s. Of course, the teachers want you medicated; most of them are monsters. They don’t want you seeing them for what they are.”

“You sound like you’re talking from experience.” Rarity remarked.

“Most of the kids here do.” Annabeth shrugged. “If you guys weren’t like us, you couldn’t have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar.”

“The what and what?” asked Rainbow.

“The food and drink we were giving you as you healed,” Annabeth answered. “That stuff would’ve killed a normal kid; turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you’d be dead. Face it; you’re half-bloods.”

This was almost too much for the girls to take in; they knew there was a reason they had been given these attributes in this world, but they didn’t realize it was because this world had somehow turned them not just into humans but half-bloods?

It was then that a husky voice called over. “Well, well, well. A whole gaggle of newbies.”

It was the big girl from the ugly red cabin, marching over with three other girls, each one looking ready to rumble in their camo jackets. “Clarisse.” Annabeth sighed in annoyance. “Why don’t you go polish your spear or something?”

“Sure, Miss Princess,” Clarisse remarked. “So I can run you through with it Friday night.”

“Erre es korakas!” Annabeth scowled, though somehow Percy and the girls knew it meant “Go to the crows” in Greek… which they doubted was flattering. “You don’t stand a chance.”

“We’ll pulverize you.” Clarisse scowled, her eye twitching as if she wasn’t sure she could follow through with that promise. She glanced over at Percy and the others. “Who’re the little runts?”

“Percy Jackson, girls, meet Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares.” Annabeth sighed.

“Like… the war god?” asked Percy.

“You got a problem with that?” asked Clarisse.

“Nah, actually it answers something,” Rainbow remarked. “Explains the smell.”

“Y’know, it really does,” Percy smirked as the two chuckled.

“Oh, they’re askin’ for it now, ain’t they?” Applejack asked Annabeth.

“Yup.” Annabeth nodded as Clarisse growled.

“We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy.” she snarled.

“It’s Percy.”

“Whatever. Cmon, I’ll show ya.”

“Clarisse cmon-” Annabeth tried to say.

“Stay outta this, wise girl.” Annabeth looked hurt by that but she stayed out of it. Percy and Rainbow didn’t care; they knew they were the new guys. They had to earn their own reps here.

“Hang onto this for me, will ya?” Percy asked as he handed Annabeth his minotaur horn.

“Alright, let’s dance,” Rainbow smirked… only for Clarisse to grab them both by the necks and drag them to a cinder-block building they both immediately knew was the bathroom. Percy and Rainbow were punching and kicking to no effect against Clarisse’s iron grip as she dragged them both into the girls’ bathroom.

“Hey, what happened to ladies’ privacy?” asked Rainbow.

“Like I give a damn about that.” Clarisse smiled madly as she tossed Rainbow to her friends.

“She’s right; if I had a drachma for every time she went streaking around the cabin, I could probably bribe a quest out of Chiron.” one of them remarked.

“Ugh. Okay, spare me the official count. Seriously.” Rainbow remarked; just the image of Clarisse naked was enough to disgust her.

Speaking of Clarisse, she dragged Percy into the bathroom… which looked about the same as any usual public bathroom. Rainbow knew she and Percy were thinking the same thing; “If this place is owned by the gods, you’d think they could afford classier johns.” Still, somehow the strength Percy had in his fight with the Minotaur wasn’t with him, no matter how hard he tried to find it.

“Like he’s Big Three material.” Clarisse laughed to her friends as she shoved Percy down in front of a toilet and started shoving his face toward the water.

“Really? A swirly? How cliché are you?” Rainbow asked seriously.

“Don’t give her any better ideas!” Percy snapped back at her as he resisted Clarisse’s strength, focusing on one thought; there was no way he was going in that water. Then it happened; the plumbing started to rumble and the pipes shuddered.

Clarisse loosened her grip on Percy’s hair just before water shot out of the toilet, arced over Percy’s head, and the next thing he knew, he was sitting on the bathroom floor with Clarisse screaming behind him; water was gushing from the toilet like a fire hose and hitting Clarisse in the face so hard, it forced her back into a shower stall.

“What in the-?” Rainbow was released and quickly raced to take cover on the far end of the bathroom as Clarisse’s friends went to try and take Percy down, only for more toilets to explode and send six more jets of water blasting at them. The showerheads started acting up too and finally, with the combined water of all the fixtures, the girls in camouflage were sprayed clean out of the bathroom, floating in the water like pieces of trash being washed away.

Once they were out the door, the water shut off and Percy appeared to relax. The whole bathroom had been flooded though, and Rainbow hadn’t been spared the onslaught. Neither had Annabeth and the other girls who had followed them in; they were all dripping wet but they were just standing there in shock, looking at Percy – standing dry as a bone in a clear spot on the floor.

“How did you…?” Annabeth started to ask.

“I have no idea,” Percy responded simply.

That was as good of an answer as any of the others could devise as they made their way to the door, seeing Clarisse and her friends sprawled out in the mud, soaked through the skin and stinking of sewage. “You are dead, new blood. You are totally dead.” Clarisse snarled.

Percy probably should’ve let it go, but he couldn’t help it. “You wanna gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth.”

She did the exact opposite; if anything, her mouth looked to be foaming with rage as her friends had to hold her back, dragging her back to their cabin as the onlookers made way to avoid her feet. The group looked at Annabeth, who was looking at them with either disgust or anger for dousing her. “What?” Percy demanded finally. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking…” Annabeth said as she looked around at the girls, confident that they all had similar powers to Rainbow Dash’s speed. “that I want you guys on my team for capture the flag on Friday.”

Author's Note:

And so the hints of the group's powers have started to appear. The question is what to make of them?

Comments

[cogz 1]

Speaking of Clarisse, she dragged Percy into the bathroom… which looked about the same as any usual public bathroom. Rainbow knew she and Percy were thinking the same thing; “ If this place is owned by the gods, you’d think they could afford classier johns. ” Still, somehow the strength Percy had in his fight with the Minotaur wasn’t with him, no matter how hard he tried to find it.

Because then it was raining, and now it isn't.