PERCY JACKSON

ONE

It wasn't until the flying corkscrews nearly beheaded me did I truly realize how messed up monsters are.

It had been almost six months since the war with the giants, and I was more than happy to be able to sit back and relax without a final 'save the world' exam. I've taken that one several times. The only down-side was that Annabeth wasn't here. She was over at Camp Jupiter, to help with rebuilding and designing the architecture, plus she was discussing peace negotiations with Reyna, the first praetor of the twelfth legion.

The second praetor was taking a part of exchange. Frank Zhang, now praetor, was here at Camp Half-Blood to help with the 'negotiations.' It was more like a constant party for Frank after being in the rule-restrictive 12 legion. He liked it here, but I could tell it was just a little too disorganized for his tastes, and Hazel wasn't there. The big guy was a great help, too. He kept the Ares cabin distracted while the rest of camp tried to rebuild after the demigod-civil war.

While everyone else slaved away, Frank changed from shape to shape in the arena with the entire Ares cabin yelling for blood and guts. It made Frank a little nervous, but seriously, it was an unfair fight. Unfair for the Ares kids. Frank was a superior fighter, hands down. No doubt, the roman aspect of Ares-Mars-was much better. I hoped now that the camps have united Mars will affect Ares in a good way.

Then again Ares might affect Mars in a bad way. This is when I tell myself to shut up.

Leo was having the time of his life: he had convinced his cabin to let him redesign the Hephaestus cabin. From what I can see coming out of it so far, it was going to be pretty wicked. Another part of his good time was Calypso. The gods had honored their promise (finally) and Calypso could leave her island whenever she wanted.

Calypso. I had a hard time even thinking about her without feeling stabs of guilt. She had nursed me back to health, and I promised that she would be released. I should have at least asked the gods if they had gotten to doing even 75% of their oath. She seems to have forgiven me, and I was happy to see that Leo had a girlfriend. The guy had been shafted a little bit before.

The monster attacks had been minimal, it was if they were afraid of demigods now that we had defeat the earth mother herself. Gaea was gone forever-or if she did come back it would not be for another 5,000 years. Annabeth put up the idea that we seal some directions on how to defeat Gaea again if she ever starts to stir again. It wasn't a bad idea.

Basically we were all kicking back after a long few months. There was only one thing that weighed on my mind. I had had a run-in with perhaps the strangest person ever. He called himself Carter Kane. At first we tried to kill each other, which is typically normal in first meetings when you are a demigod, but then we had to join forces to defeat the son of sobek: a gigantic croc that was terrorizing the locals and eat one of our pegasi. He had worked this stuff that I knew must be some kind of magic to break the seal on a necklace that gave the croc its power, which made it shrink into a baby.

I was glad to let Carter have the croc. He seemed to think it would fit right in where he cam from. I made me think I might never want to live in his house. I glanced down at my palm. Carter had left a glyph-as he called it-on my palm. He said that all I needed to do was say his name he would come with back up to help. I won't say that I'm not dying with curiosity, but I don't want anything to happen that is so bad that I need to request back up from some one I don't know, and I might not be able to trust. But, I had learned never to forget little things like magical pictures on your hand, because you never know when something like that might come in handy.

So that pretty much summarizes the worries of the last six months. Flash to present: I was standing at the base of Half-Blood Hill, watching the Hunters of Artemis argue with Calypso and Piper about men. Really, when did they stop? That's when Leo ran down the hill, yelling at us at the top his lungs and waving a screw driver, which was kind of dangerous. His hair was on fire, but I was sure that wasn't the reason he was yelling. His hair was always on fire. No, there was an army of the freakiest creatures I'd ever seen. I've been through Tartarus, so that's saying a lot.

The monsters were humanoid, with skin colors that ranged from blood-red, to purple, to midnight-black. The strangest part was their heads, which were you average tool-shed equipment like chainsaws, corkscrews and others that belonged in Leo's cabin. One of the corkscrews had wings sprouting from either side of its . . . head? It looked like something that needed learn to stay under Tartarus's skin.

In the arena, where he was still fighting the Ares cabin, Frank stopped mid-swing and narrowly avoided getting beheaded. I went straight into kill-all-the-monsters mode and uncapped Riptide, sprinting up the hill to meet the battle. But before I could even take a swing Leo yelled at me, "It's no use!" He crouched behind a weapon's rack near the arena. "They're magical or something stupid like that!"

"What?" I asked. Why was I always asking that?

"I don't know!" Leo answered frantically. "They have these force fields that protect them, and there are dozens more coming!"

"That's bad," I said. Unkillable tool-box headed demons? Boring.

That's when the timely corkscrew flew at my neck and almost took my head with it. Right after that, the workshop army charged it. I slashed at one with a screw driver sprouting from its shoulders, but the blow just glanced off with a flash of red. The monster plowed right by me, slamming its fist into my stomach on the way. I tried to stab another monster, and had the same thing happen.

Time to change strategy.

"Leo," I said. "I need help. They all need to be led to the canoe lake. Can you get their attention?"

He gave a crazy grin and did a mock salute. "Aye-aye, supreme commander-" Another monster flew at him, but he managed to duck just in time.

"-Leo on it," he finished. His whole body burst into flames and he ran down the hill screaming, "hey! Yeah, you! Come here you stupid overgrown metal junkyard!" That got their attention.

I ran behind, gathering my strength. The canoe lake was only a mile away. I was sure Leo could run far when he had an army of assorted tools screaming-could chain saws scream?-bloody murder behind him. I yelled at a few Apollo kids who were nocking their arrows to shoot. They would only distract the demons from my distraction.

We burst through a thin tree line, and the canoe lake opened up before us. Leo ran straight across the dock and dove into the lake. The army stopped at the beach, staring at the water defiantly. This was my chance. I raised my arms, and the familiar tugging feeling start as the force and power of the water dent to my will. The lake parted, rising into two massive walls of water. I motioned slamming my hands down and the water obeyed, crashing into the army and enveloping them. When I released it, and the lake went back into the lake, there was no sign of the monsters but Leo was dripping wet on the beach.

He grinned. "Man, that never gets old."

Chiron stepped back from Thalia's tree, wearing a deep scowl. "There is nothing wrong with the tree. By all means those monsters should not have gotten through." He faced me and Leo. "I don't know what is going on."

I scowled. "Well, there has to be some kind of reason why-"

"Yes!" A voice from no where made us all jump. A transparent man, like a ghost, appeared from thin air. He had a hawkish nose, chiseled features, a outfit that was awful. It looked like it belonged in some old corny mafia movie. "This is only a taste of what to come!" The ghost said. "You Greeks, I hate you! Part of the reason my empire fell, you know. Of course the Romans did most of the work so they are paying, too. Soon, both of your people will feel the pain of the fall, and I will rule!" He gave a megalomaniac grin and began to fade. "So ta-ta." Then he faded completely.

I looked over at Leo and Chiron, who both looked equally shocked. "I guess I'm not the only who saw that?" I asked.

Leo blinked. "Did that guy say the Romans and Greeks took down his empire?" He turned to Chiron. "Is there another empire I need to know about?" He demanded.

Chiron only shook his head. "I-I will have to think on this, children."

"Oka-a-y," I said. "Call Annabeth?"

"I don't know what they are." Annabeth said through the iris-message. "But we have been having similar attacks here. They just started and they don't seem to be stopping." She tugged her long blonde hair idly.

I suppressed my fear. When Annabeth so freely admitted she didn't know, then I knew that something rare and dangerous was going. "So there isn't anything we can do? How do we fight them? I can't just drown them all in the canoe lake."

"Well there is more," Annabeth said. She leaned closer to the misty screen like she was afraid someone on her end my be eavesdropping. "Octavian has gone missing."

I raised my eyebrows. "Am I supposed to be upset about that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Well, it is weird." She looked away from the iris-message and her face went red. "No! No don't put it there!" She turned back. "Percy I have to go, there are some imbeciles here who can't read my blueprints."

"Okay, bye." I said.

"Bye. No! Not there-" the image cut off.

I didn't think the day would get any stranger. But of course I always think these things too soon.

Yells and horns went off, and when I reached the top of Half-Blood hill, I nearly had a heart attack. We were surrounded. There was not one army, but about one hundred armies of monster charging Camp Half-Blood. Clarisse barked orders at the Aries cabin to form a line between camp and the monsters. Maybe if the monster weren't unbeatable I would have though we had no problem. But as they charged I new we were literally defenseless. There was not one weapon at camp that would help us now.

But there was an idea tugging at the back of my mind. I glanced down at my palm, where the glyph had been set by Carter Kane. I wondered if he had some way of defeating this army. He better, because right now he was our only chance of survival. I closed my eyes and imagined Carter, a dorky looking dude with curly black hair and dark skin. Maybe the magic he could use would help us.

"Carter," I whispered.