AN: Sorry, My apologies for not updating. I have been busy. Enough said and on to the overdue chapter.
WAIT! There is still disclaimer! I do not own anything except the plot! Not even Percy, nor the plays, nor the songs.
Chapter 12: Renovation and Game One
Percy's POV
Camp Half Blood
The next day, the Olympians and the rest of the demigods made their way to Camp Half-Blood to begin the competition. We immediately made our way to the amphitheatre for the opening meeting.
"Welcome all; it has been a great honour for me to be the Royals' competition MC for the rest of the summer. I, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, is also the Oracle of Delphi, is it my honour to present you Zeus, the King of gods and the Lord of the skies, for the first opening speech," said Rachel.
Everyone applauded as Zeus steps onto the podium
"Hello everyone, I want announce that today the 10th Royal Competition after 2000 years as officially begun. Presenting my daughter, Princess of the Sky, Princess Thalia Grace. Next Poseidon's son, Prince of the Sea, Prince Peresus Jackson. And last but not least Hades' son, the Prince of the Dead, Prince Nico di Angelo. Those are our lucky contestants for this generation to compete in this competition on behalf of their parents."
Everyone applauded as we stepped forward when our name was called out.
"To start off, this camp must be renovated, so it can be able to occupy more audiences for the rest of the games. Therefore the first task for the Royals is to split the camper into three teams with one Royal as their leaders to renovate a part of camp. This is only a practice round to bond with your teammates. Royals choose carefully which ever cabins you choose will stick to you for the rest of the competition. This renovation will begin tomorrow for two week. Royals please decide your teammate and report to me now."
I looked for the Stoll Brothers and Michael Yew and caught their glances. I raised my eyebrows in question and they nodded in response.
Going to Zeus I said, "Lord Zeus, I have decided, Lord Apollo and Lord Hermes will be my allies."
"Very well and the best of luck to you, though I will always hope that my daughter will beat you," Zeus said.
"I am confident that I can beat the hot head of hers. No offence my lord, it is true."
I quickly turn my back to find my dad in case Zeus wanted to blow me up. Just when I located my dad, Zeus spoke again.
"The Royals have decided that my cabin will ally with Lady Demeter's and Lady Athena's. Lord Poseidon's will ally with Lord Apollo's and Lord Hermes's, while as Lord Hades' will all with Lord Ares', Lord Hephaestus' and Lord Dionysus'. Lady Aphrodite's has decided not to participate with the competition but will help in preparing each around of races. Early tomorrow morning all Royals will need to talk to the oracle for their location of renovation. Now I will pass this back to the oracle to end this meeting."
~PJ~
I really wanted to sleep in for once, but NO. Why do the Royals have to wake up at 5 in the morning just for the locations? The oracle even has the nerve to threaten not to tell us the locations if we were one millisecond late for the meeting.
Sleepy, I walked to the Big House to meet the oracle. Of course, I was the earliest one, for my dad has always told me to be 10 minutes early for every appointment. I sat at the porch for a minute or two when the Oracle arrived.
"Why Prince Peresus-"
"Please call me, Percy or Prince Percy if you must."
"Very well, Percy. I would have never thought that you would be up so early. I thought that no one would be earlier than me," said Rachel.
"Well it is quite normal for me because I have to patrol the sea every day in the early morning."
"Since that you are the earliest of the three for coming and it is a first come first serve bases, you may choose first. First choice: Stock the forest with monster, clean and decorate the beach. Also the beach will need stages and seats. Second choice: Expand, decorate and renew the weapons for the amphitheatre and arena. The expansions for both places must be triple its size. Option three: Expand, decorate and stock food for the big house and dining hall. The expansion is also triple in size. Well Prince your choice?"
"I would like choice one which is the forest and the beach."
"Thank you and you may go now. Remember you can start renovation anytime you want for the next two weeks. I wish you the best of luck," said Rachel. "Also all the equipment and material for building the beach will be available as soon as you tell Lord Hermes to start shipping them. However, the monsters you will need to start ordering them directly from the Triple G Ranch and get them shipped on time. I am sure Lord Hermes will ship them for you once you have placed in the orders. There will probably be around 2 to 3 games involving these monsters so order appropriately."
"Thank you, I will try my best."
I decided that I can no longer fall back asleep and I didn't want to walk around by myself so I decided to 'torture' my teammates.
I quickly walked to the Apollo cabin and focus on the beach that is behind the cabin. I pulled gallons and gallons of water and wrapped around the cabin. The water formed a dome shape over the cabin. Once I was satisfied, I walked through the water and snuck into the cabin without a squeak of sound.
"RISE AND SHINE!" I yelled at the top of my lungs and made sure that the water surrounding the cabin was making it sound proof. I didn't want to wake up the whole camp for a couple reasons.
All the child of Apollo groaned. "Hey, I thought your children of Apollo? Isn't your dad god of the sun? AREN'T YOU GUYS SUPPOSE TO BE UP WHEN THE SUN IS UP?"
"We're tired, it is not even five a.m. yet, there is still one more minute," said Michael.
I decided I need physical force, so I walked up to Michael and started shaking him like there was no tomorrow.
"Ok, ok I am up," said Michael in a panicked voice, but once I let him go he fell right back to sleep.
"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS? CHILDREN OF MORPHEUS? Don't say I didn't warn you."
I thought about bubbles of water floating in mid-air and stopping just right above everyone's head. Of course the water obeyed.
"THREE, TWO, ONE AND NOW!"
And all the bubbles of water went splash.
"AHHHHH… WHAT IN THE HADES," yelled most of the campers.
"I SAID WAKE UP! You have half an hour to get ready, and get in the mess hall. Regular clothing, not battle armour. Be late and you wake up every day with cold water in your face." I said harshly.
While I walked out of the cabin I heard people hurrying to get ready. Some of them even fell of their beds at my threat. I smirked.
BANG!
I whipped around and saw a bunk bed turned over on the floor.
"Sorry! I accidently knocked it over…" whimpered on of the campers.
"Wow you must be strong to accidently knock it over. You are lucky that I put up a sound proof barrier around your cabin." I smirked at the camper's squeamishness. "Relax, gods. You guys are easily frightened. You should know by now I don't exactly threaten people. It was just to make you guys wake up."
I waved my hand and everyone and the bed were dry.
"Now that you guys aren't wet I expect that you will be on time and ready to go in half an hour in the mess hall. No more noise, the camp is sleeping and I am bringing down the sound proof barrier. I want to get a head start on renovations."
Once I was finally out of the Apollo cabin I commanded the water to move towards the Hermes cabin.
The demigods in the Hermes cabin were even harder to wake up. I swear they are in comma. So I just repeated what I did to the Apollo's cabin, but this time when everyone was awake and up and running they just kept slipping and falling on the ground because so much water blobs splashed people who were sleeping on the floor. I ended up drying them before more bunk beds starts falling.
~PJ~
Mess Hall at 5:30am...
"Ok! I got first pick for our renovation site; we are to stock the forest with monsters and to clean, decorate and put stages and seats on the beach." I told my group. "Apollo cabin you are to IM Triple G Ranch and order all sorts of monsters, all billings will be directed to Camp Half Blood. Rachel told me that there will be around 2 to 3 games involved with the monsters in the forest so order appropriately. The rest of us will start cleaning the beach. Michael once you have ordered report to me with what you have ordered. All clear?"
"Yes, Prince!"
"Then let's get to work!"
So the for rest of the morning half of us spent dealing with monsters and the other half cleaning the beach. But the time noon came around the monster order was placed and the beach was litter free.
I assemble my group and told them to have a two hour long lunch break and to meet me at my cabin by 2pm.
After I ate at my lonely table I decided to have a look around camp to see how the other groups are doing. Just as I left my table I saw Annabeth walking out of the mess hall too, so I ran to catch up to her.
"Hey Annabeth, wait up."
"Oh, hey Prince Percy. I can't I have to go or else Princess Thalia will be pissed."
"Oh, I see. Well I can walk with you there."
"Sure,"
"So, do you know which part of camp you guys are renovating yet?"
"Nope. Thalia hasn't told us yet. Why?"
"Oh, nothing, just wondering if you guys have started to renovate yet."
"Nope, which part are you guys doing?"
"The beach and stocking up the forest with monsters."
"I see, well I will see you soon Percy," said Annabeth so she could go into the Zeus' cabin to have a meeting with Thalia.
So, I continued to walk towards the amphitheatre to see if there is any group demolishing it to expand it. Once I was there I saw Nico's group there with the blue print of the amphitheatre. Oh, so they decided to do this option. That means the big house and mess hall will be done by Thalia's group.
At two I got back to my cabin where all of my group are there waiting for me.
"Wow, you guys are actually earlier than me this time! Good news, I have been walking around and I have noticed that we are ahead of everyone else. Keep it up."
I told them about which group had what part of camp to renovate and what I saw.
So for the next two weeks we shipped monsters after monsters with the help of Hermes into the forest. And we spent a lot of time on building a very high tech stage with comfy theater seats all around. The stage consist of a HD mega big screen, curtains, big spot lights, and waterproof high tech cameras, all of which can retract into the stage itself so all that is left is a podium. In addition to those stuff there is a digital chart that will record the amount points each Royal gain in every race we participate in. The more points you gain the better. Without any decorations the stage looks like an outdoor theater, and with decorations it looks like a ceremonial theatre and stage. All in all we had a very tiring two weeks.
Of course we aren't the only ones suffering, the other two groups had two buildings to rebuild, but we all pulled through and these new buildings looks very nice, sturdy, and grand.
The camp now can fit a lot more audience and is prepared for the grand games that are going to be held.
~PJ~
At the beach, day after the renovations are all done…
"Ahh, now that the camp is all built up and can hold more audience, the first race will now begin. Silena please roll in the contest draw ball. In this ball all the races or games that the Royals must compete in is all inside on slips of paper. After every race ends one will be drawn to determine which race will go next," said Rachel. She stuck her hands into the ball and dug around and grabbed a slip of paper. "First race of the 10th Royal Competition will be… *drum roll*… Power Display. How fitting. In Power Display the Royals must perform showing their most stunning side of their domain, and their personality. This is not a group performance since, the Royals must be able to show us that they can hold themselves as persuasive and powerful leaders that people will want to follow and present themselves adequately. This presentation will be in the order from Prince Nico being first then Prince Perseus and last Princess Thalia. They will present tomorrow starting at noon here on the beach on the stage."
Dang, I only have one day to think up of a routine to do! Who will choreography this, surely I can't think up of a one that fast! Michael will probably have a good shot at this since he is so good at theater related things like music.
We were dismissed to get prepare for tomorrow's showing, so the second I got out of my seat I grab Michael and dragged him into my cabin.
"Ok, I need help; I can't think up of a grand routine by myself, any ideas?"
"The most important thing is to figure out how you can create music because a good routine must have some sort of sound and not to mention you are the best musician in Olympus."
"Music? How? I could play an instrument but there wouldn't be any physical movement."
"Can't you manipulate the water to play the piano for you? Like make a figure out of water and tell it what to press."
"I could try, but that will surely take up a lot of focus. It might actually work if I use the song I know most. Lets try."
~PJ~
At the beach at noon...
Thank gods I am not up first, I feel sorry for Nico. I have never been this nervous before in all my prince-y years. Everyone except Nico and his preparation team has already settled down in these new comfy seats. Everyone except the royals and their prep team have Greek snacks out as if they are actually going to watch a movie.
"Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls, and of course Gods and Goddesses, we are starting the first round of races today! Power Display! First up is Prince Nico di Angelo so let's not wait any longer and welcome Prince Nico!~" Said Rachel in a cheerful voice. Because of the new sound system we got for the beach her voice literally vibrated through us.
All of a sudden there was a dark cloud obscuring the stage then was shattered by many tiny diamonds raining down on it. When everything disappeared a band played by dead soldiers appeared below the stage with Nico on the stage. Nico was kneeling in front of a highly decorated coffin holding a tiny vial in one of his hands. His other hand was inside the coffin as if petting what was inside.
Immediately, the cameras trained on to Nico's face showing us his face up close in one of the TV screens hanging on the stage frame and slow sorrow music began.
Nico's voice started weaving and combining with the music.
How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death: O, how may I
Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favour can I do to thee,
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
To sunder his that was thine enemy?
Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love!
(Nico opens the tiny vial and drinks it down)
O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
(V, iii, 88-121 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare)
Nico gave a kiss and dropped dead.
OMG! I will never be able to top that! How the hell did Nico learn to act like THAT? He choked at the right places, had tears appearing near the end and his eyes actually look like he was looking at his dead wife. His voices was clear but filled with sorrow, he memorized all the lines perfectly and kept the right pace. WOW!
Puff, the cloud of black appeared and this time it rained ruby. Now Nico was standing on a make shift balcony with a crystal dagger stained red in front of him hanging in mid air pointing to a door.
This time a more upbeat music played, but it sounded as if it was getting out of control.
Nico's voice sounded very tired like he can't keep up with the music.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
(A bell rings.)
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.
(II, i, 33-64 Macbeth by William Shakespeare)
Seriously! How good can he get? I have studied these plays in depth too but I never can memorize a monologue or a soliloquy completely! Especially two with convincing actions! What does he have that makes him so good?
Nico recites two more soliloquies, one from Hamlet when Hamlet has internal struggles to decided whether or not to kill himself, "To be, or not to be..." And another one from Othello when Othello kills his wife, "It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul,..."
Once he performed all four monologues / soliloquies the whole audience was gaping at him. As the last puff of black cloud disappeared at the end of his last soliloquy he was in the center of the stage which he took a bow and walked off stage as if that was a piece of cake.
I am seriously in deep trouble. I can't top that! Not to mention I am next to perform. Oh I am screwed.
"Wow that was Prince Nico with his Shakespearean plays! Now let's welcome Prince Percy Jackson for his performance!"
Drastic times means drastic decisions, I just hope my new plan can be pulled off. I tried something similar in Atlantis for fun, but I can't do this for long. I just hope I can pull some attention after Nico's performance.
I got to the back of the stage and used water for the transformation just like what Nico with black cloud and gems.
Once my water dispersed into tiny droplets, all of the stage that was left was the floor part, everything else was retracted. At the front of the stage, there is a whole orchestra of water instruments. Lucky I know how to play each and every instrument and know which part of an instrument makes the sound or else I won't be able to replicate them all using only water. By manipulating the surface tension of the water in the instruments and forcing the water molecules in the air to push the air molecules into the water instruments I can create music or by manipulating which keys to press, etc.
The song I picked yesterday was FantasMic, a Disney song, I know, but it is so upbeat and I knew it since 12 years old so I thought I could do it well. Not to mention it is my favourite piece to play.
As the music starts, I start dancing with it, shooting up streams of water in the ocean creating a mega display fountain in accordance to the music. At the height of the song I got onto a stream of water and started dancing on that while shooting out water out of my hands every time there was a drum beat. As I danced I got the instruments to dance along with me, smaller ones around the audience and on the stage for the bigger instruments. Then I created droplets of water and sent them towards the spectators. These droplets pulses and spins along with the music creating different shapes and with every spin it would catch the light at a different angle sending different colours into the audience. Every time the trumpets blare the droplets will shatter and create more and more droplets until they get so fine it became a mist at the end of the song.
At last note of the song I landed back on the stage, summoned the mist into a big dolphin and blasted the entire orchestra of water instruments and the dolphin in to the audience, drowsing them into wetness. With a sweep of a bow the audience was dry again and I walked off the stage.
OMG, I can sleep for a week. Luckily, I could pull energy from so many different sources or I couldn't have possibly pulled this off. Still my performance is only one quarter in length compared to Nico's. Though I still think I did a pretty good job in controlling that amount of water that precisely.
The second I sat down Michael immediately started whispering.
"Wow Percy! I thought you said you can't pull that off! You made a flippen whole orchestra with water! Your performance might be short but you definitely made a show out of what you have."
"Yeah well, if Nico could memorize so many lines I needed a whole orchestra."
"I feel sorry for Princess Thalia, she got a lot to top and she can't do what you guys have done or else she won't be credited much for it."
"Well, her trouble for being last."
"Excellent job Prince Percy! Let's welcome the final contestant Prince Thalia Grace!" said the enthusiastic Rachel.
A flash of blinding lightning which left us a bit blinded appeared signaling her beginning. She must have blinded many people with lightning because she perfectly timed her appearance so just when we started regaining our sight she started her routine.
She lightly got swept into the wind and landed on a fluffy cloud with her guitar and started playing. She was drifting back and forth and got to the point to start sing, which she did in a loud clear strong hammering voice.
There's a fire starting in my heart
Reaching a fever pitch, it's bringing me out the dark
Finally I can see you crystal clear
Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your ship bare
Once the drums were supposed to enter the songs she literally flashed webs of lightning around her to create the booming sound aka thunder to replace the drums. So every beat seemed to make her in the center of an elaborate sparking electrical spider web.
See how I'll leave, with every piece of you
Don't underestimate the things I will do
There's a fire starting in my heart
Reaching a fever pitch
And it's bringing me out the dark
The scars of your love remind me of us
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
The scars of your love, they leave me breathless
I can't help feeling
She turned on the constant electrical web and started manipulate it to create different designs and every time a drum was to beat, it seemed as if the web was struck. So it would expand and shrink back the normal size.
We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
And you played it to the beat
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
Baby, I have no story to be told
But I've heard one of you
And I'm gonna make your head burn
Think of me in the depths of your despair
Making a home down there
As mine sure won't be shared
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
The scars of your love remind me of us
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
The scars of your love, they leave me breathless
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
I can't help feeling
We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
And you played it to the beat
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
We could have had it all
Rolling in the deep
You had my heart inside of your hand
But you played it with a beating
Throw your soul through every open door
Count your blessings to find what you look for
Turn my sorrow into treasured gold
You pay me back in kind and reap just what you sow
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
We could have had it all
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
It all, it all, it all
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
And you played it to the beat
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
But you played it
You played it
You played it
You played it to the beat.
(Adele - Rolling In The Deep)
At her last note she created a ball of electricity which exploded into a large eagle flapping its wings that dispersed like a firework explosion.
Thalia landed gently back on stage, bowed and walked off the stage.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was our last contestant. Judges! Please quickly decide and forward the scores to me!" said Rachel.
My hands were sweating and I started to panic. What happens if the gods didn't like it? I can't screw up on the first race! I think I started shaking too because Michael started patting my shoulders.
"Percy you did great. Chill, no need to panic."
"All right Ladies and Gentlemen, the judges have decided. In third place gaining one point, we have our electrifying pulses of Princess Thalia Grace."
Everyone applauded and Thalia got on to the stage which now have the winner's podium. She got on to the third step, the lowest. She definitely didn't look that happy.
"In second place, gainning two points we have our symphonic and dazzling dancer, Prince Peresus Jackson."
So, second place not bad seeing as I knew I can't beat Nico. Once I stepped on to the second position, Rachel announced the obvious winner.
"Winning the Power Display, by using tragic plays shown with perfect acting skills and elaborate props, we present to you Prince Nico di Angelo! He gaining three points!"
Everyone clapped their hands like mad even Zeus, I think even he has to admit Nico did an excellent job.
The Big Three got up and walked on to the stage followed by three demigods of Aphrodite carrying the gold silver bronze metals. The Chosen one obviously carried the gold which meant she followed Hades up the stage.
"Excellent performance if I say so myself Peresus. I told you music will one day be of importance, now you just showed everyone you can play a whole orchestra all at one go. Good job," said my father.
"Thanks, Dad."
Then he got the silver medal and hung it on my neck.
"I am so going to show your two mothers the video of your routine. They will be proud of you Peresus."
I took a look at the medal once we can all get back into our seats. The front of the medal shows lightning striking down the middle causing the water to splash upwards. At the base of the water was a pile of diamonds. I flipped to see what the medal looks like in the back and saw that it shows the omega symbol with a laurel wreath surrounding it.
"Before we party, we have to draw for the next race. Silena please bring the draw ball." She putted her hand in, did some mixing and drew a slip of paper out. "The next competition we have will be... Power Help! In this race the Royals will have to use their power and skills, whatever those may be to help out in any camp activities, solve campers' problems or anything that would need their help. This competition is to show us the personality of each Royal, their willingness to help and their ability to problem solve. The Judges will be monitoring them the whole day starting at 8am and their decision will be announced at 9pm. This will be conducted the day after tomorrow. Good Luck and let's party!"
More party? Great... At least there aren't any minor goddesses around. Oh! I can dance with Annabeth than! Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
AN: Please Review. I may update fast, I might take a while, but I will try. Reviews are always something to encourage me to continue to keep writing.
BTW If anyone wants to Beta this story just PM me.
Let us remember the soldiers that die for our peace, have a sombre Remembrance Day.