Gods vs Goddesses (CLOSED)

I watched Luke leave with the girl covered in armor who had offered to help him hide the flag, I wondered who she was. She had dark, dark brown eyes, they looked almost black and short-ish blonde hair. Had that been an Australian accent I heard when she spoke? I didn't know, all I did know is that she looked like someone you wouldn't want to be enemy's with. How did Luke have so many cool friends? I kind of hoped he'd introduce me to her. I turned my gaze over to Roxy, she was standing alone again. The rest of my team was talking about our action plan, but I decided to slip away to go talk to her. I knew only that she was the Apollo medic... Well, I also knew she was my half sister, but other than that she was kind of a mystery to me. I felt bad for not getting to know her over last summer, I'd always thought she'd seemed really nice Damnit, Fletch, how does one avoid socializing with their half sister? I scolded myself. As I walked up to her there was a distant expression in her hazel eyes, she was looking at the ground. I'd never been good with first impressions, and I guessed last night wasn't a very good way to get onto the right foot with her. It had been a little awkward.
"Hi," I said quietly, I hadn't meant to sound so nervous. She seemed to snap back to reality, bringing her attention onto me.
"Hi," she greeted back. I smiled at her, and she returned it with a crooked one.
"How are you?" I asked.
"Oh, I'm alright," she said.
"That's good," I replied. I didn't believe her though, even I could see that there was something big bugging her.
"You ready to play?" I asked her looking around at the large groups of campers talking to each other.
"I guess so." She said, following my gaze.
"Eh, it'll be over before you know it. Time flies when you're trying to dodge swords, throwing knives and arrows, all while looking for a brightly coloured flag," I joked. She smiled and gave a little nod. "Hey," I said, "By the way, what I said last night about wanting to get to know you better, I was serious. What kind of half-brother would I be if I just ignored all of my siblings?" the guilt was eating at me. I wished so badly that I knew Roxy enough to be able to be there for her, and I regretted being that one weird kid who hung around with the Satyrs and the nymphs in the forest all day last summer. Just then, Chiron blew the conch horn to signal the start of the game, it snapped both Roxy and I back to reality and we both gave a startled jolt as it did. We looked at each other and gave an amused huff and a half smile, then turned to our teams and started the game. I figured I'd try and find Luke along the way.

I was running through the forest, half looking for the other teams flag, half looking for Luke, oh, and don't forget trying my best to dodge all of the weapons that were coming at me. Naturally, I held an arrow to my bow, ready to shoot at even the slightest move in a bush, I always got jumpy in capture the flag, my adrenalin was always sky high. I heard a twig snap behind me, I looked behind me, pulling my bow up and stepping back. Stepping back too far. I tripped on a tree root and rolled down a hill, sticks and branches poked me on my way down, I tried my best to protect my bow and the arrows I carried, but they were rolling down the hill faster than I was. I got to the bottom, landing in a pile of leaves and grass.
"Fuck!" I exclaimed. I got up rubbing the back of my head. I turned around to see a sight that surprised me: Luke struggling with a bunch of vines, only the vines were alive.
"FUCK." I screamed again, only more loudly. Luke looked at me, his green eyes reflected pain, anger and fear. I dove for my bow and grabbed as many arrows as I could. I notched an arrow to my bow and took aim, it was hard to focus while the vines were squirming. as was Luke. I closed one eye and bit my lip, a habit I'd adopted when I was really trying to focus my aim. I pulled the arrow back as far as I could and let go, with a sharp whoosh the arrow propelled from my bow into one of the vines, it let go of it's grip on Luke and started to stop squirming. I targeted the next few vines, hitting them one at a time with my arrows, they had stopped moving, but some still looked like they had a tight grip on Luke. I ran over to him, falling to my knees as I reached his side.
"Shit, dude, what happened?" I said urgently as I unsheathed my knife from my belt and started cutting the vines apart, I ripped them off of his mouth and he gasped for air, letting out pained noises. I tried to help him up but he collapsed again. I looked at the vines, and to my horror they started squirming again, I had to get Luke out of here, but I couldn't carry him up the hill, it would be too painful for him. I had no idea how to kill these vines. Maybe if I kill the tree... I thought. I looked up to the tree, only to see the terrified face of a wood nymph staring at me, her eyes, made of bark were pleading me not to, as if she knew what I was thinking. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Luke's sword lying in the grass. I jumped for it, and handed it to him.
"I hope you can still use this," I said. Luke swiped at the air, chopping off a piece of vine that was starting to make it's way to his face again as he did. He winced in pain, but I guessed it was bearable as he kept doing it.
"Yeah, man. I'm not useless yet," he said, his green eyes were narrowed angrily. I jumped around, scavenging for my arrows, I pulled them sharply from the vines, which wiggled in anger as I did and aimed shots at my legs and feet. I stood next to Luke and took aim, biting my lip again.

Ever been strangled before? No? Well, I can tell you that it feels worse than it looks in the movies. The vines had been so tight around my neck that even after Luke had ripped them off of me, my throat still felt like it was being constricted. I wasn't exactly sure what I had just witnessed, but either way it was fucking cool. I caught onto who Luke was the child of, he was the son of Zeus, which explained why he had been eating alone at dinner... and why he could generate electric shocks out of his arms. I looked up at him, I could feel my eyes were wide,
"Dude," I croaked, my voice sounded slightly raspy, "that was unreal." I turned my attention to the girl who was standing next to Luke, "and thanks" I said to her, she nodded at me. As I started to get up I looked at the Nymph, "and you're okay?" I asked. She nodded but didn't say anything. I cleared my throat and rubbed my neck.
"What was that?" Luke asked looking at the girl he'd called Morgan.
"I... I don't know, these things had a mind of their own, it was like that mind was separated from the Nymphs mind, they were two totally different things" Morgan said, a confused, worried look dawned on her freckled face.
"Great." I said under my breath. I went to go retrieve my arrows from the ground, or whatever was left of them.. I soon realized there was nothing left of them.
"Sorry, dude." Luke said getting up with the help of Morgan.
"S'alright," I replied hurrying over to help him too.
"We need to go tell Chiron," said Morgan, both Luke and I agreed, "but first," she continued, "we need to get Luke to the infirmary." It was a struggle to get up the steep hill holding up Luke's weight, but we did it, slowly and surely. When we exited the forest it wasn't as hard to move, there were no tree branches to dodge or sticks to trip over. We saw Chiron not too far from the edge of the forest, the three of us hobbled over to him, Luke using Morgan and I as support as we helped each other carry him army style over to the camp director.
"My, boy! What happened?" he said alarmed.
"Oh, you know, just some killer vines that wanted a kinky experience," said Luke sarcastically. Chiron gave him a weird look, but brushed his comment off and spoke again,
"Here, get on my back, I'll take you to the infirmary." Morgan and I helped Luke gently onto Chirons horse back. "Roxy!" Chiron yelled. I looked behind me to see the Apollo medic running over from the edge of the forest.
"Yes, Chiron?" she said, looking up at him. Her Hazel eyes darkened with worry when she noticed Luke "What happened?" she asked in a horrified voice.
"I'll get back to you on that," Chiron said, "for now I need you to accompany me to the infirmary with Luke, he's going to need your healing skills." Roxy straightened her back and nodded, determination to help her friend flashed in her eyes, replacing the worried look. Morgan and I watched the three of them go, unaware of what we should do, we decided we'd follow them. Morgan and I stripped off our Greek armor quickly and jogged off together towards The Big House, so that we could tell Chiron what had happened.

"Charlie?" I asked, "who's Charlie?" I had been listening to the Nymphs strange story, I knew from being around them a lot that a Nymphs tree does not simply stop listening to her. I looked around the room, first at Roxy who looked up from her clip board, then at Luke who returned my gaze, then at Morgan who looked like she had a million things going on in her head.
"We've had some trouble with this kid, Charlie," Luke told me, "He's the son of Dionysus."
"Which explains the stick he had," I said.
"Yeah that was my first clue," Luke said, "anyway, he had disappeared from camp a couple years back, and we went on a quest to find him, we were supposed to bring him back," Luke paused for a bit, he looked like he was reliving the events that had gone on at the quest. Ever since I'd learned that heroes could take quests I'd kind of always wanted one. I was one for adventure, for the adrenaline rush. I knew how dangerous it was outside of camp, the thought kind of excited me. Luke continued his story, "Turns out that he had left on his own and didn't want to come back. He had turned evil. I'm not exactly sure what drove him to it, but he's completely insane."
"And Mr. D is his father? Why didn't he do anything about it?" I asked.
"I doubt he cared too much," said Morgan from beside me. I turned to look at her. I knew what it was like to feel like your parents didn't care about you, as my mother hadn't wanted to keep me, and my father was Apollo so he couldn't exactly stay with me and be the father figure I'd always dreamed of having, but that didn't drive ME insane. Roxy had gone back to looking over Luke, but her clip board was set beside her. My attention turned to the entrance of the infirmary as I heard the clip clop sound of hooves, at first I thought it might be Casper and Leo, but as the figure of a half-man half-horse came into view I realized it was just Chiron.
"How are we feeling?" He asked turning his gaze to Luke.
"Like I was almost crushed by a tree." Luke replied.
"Ah," Chiron said shortly, "Well, maybe you can tell me what happened." Chiron broke his gaze on Luke and placed it softly on the Nymph who had been sitting quietly on the bed listening to our conversation. I had almost forgotten she was here. "And you my dear, I'd like to hear your side of the story too if you don't mind." The Nymph nodded to Chiron. Chiron turned his head back to Luke and nodded to him, telling him he could start explaining.
"What, now?" Luke asked, when Chiron said nothing Luke sighed and continued. "Well, Finn had left me to guard the flag, and I was just sitting there minding my own business when I felt something on my leg, I looked but nothing was there, so of course I decided to lay down, and that's when my face was raped by killer vines. I had been struggling with them, and trying to cut them, but then lost my sword and they tried to hold me down using a tree." Luke paused to take a breath.
"That's when I came and found him," I said, Chiron looked at me.
"you CAME and found me? More like you tripped and fell down the hill and found me!" Luke joked with a grin. I let out a sarcastic laugh.
"Hey man, I almost saved your life." I said.
"Yeah," said Morgan, "but I saved both of your asses." Chiron gave a small chuckle and looked back at Luke.
"Go on," he said, suddenly serious. How did he do that? Switch from jokey to serious?
"Fletch came and started shooting at them with his arrows and they kind of died for a bit there, it gave him enough time to get me my sword but after that they started coming again. I told Fletch to try and pin them down, but they wrapped themselves around his neck and started to choke him. Morgan came and started to try and control them, which gave me enough time to send an electric shock through the tree, which separated the Nymph from it and blew it, and the vines up." Luke finished taking a deep breath of air. Chiron pondered this for a minute, and looked at Morgan, who stood up a bit straighter.
"My dear, what did it feel like trying to control them?" Morgan explained to him what she had told us, that it felt like there were two completely different minds in these vines. A troubled look dawned on Chirons face, he needed to get everyone's story, so he turned to the wood Nymph and asked her to explain what had happened, when she had finished the room was quiet, it was eerie.
"We think it might be Charlie," said Luke finally. Chiron was quiet.
"I need to think about this," he finally said, "in the mean time keep an eye and an ear open for any other weird things, please. All of you." Chiron turned and left the room, leaving all of us alone in yet another silence.

I looked at the expression on the faces of Luke and his friends when Chiron had asked where a girl named Lily was. Luke's green eyes reflected the same as the others, a little bit of worry and confusion. now, I didn't know a lot of campers at Camp Half-Blood, but I don't think it was possible to miss Lily, she was beautiful and an amazing fighter, I'd seen her training before. I had never tried talking to Lily, like I had never really tried talking to anyone else. At least I kind of knew who this one was.
"I haven't seen her in a long time, come to think of it," said Luke as he looked up at his friends for input. Finn shook her head, as did Morgan, Roxy looked up from her other patients, also shaking her head. The look in her hazel eyes reflected more worry than confusion.
"Why? Where could she be?" I asked, looking at Chiron. Chiron returned my gaze with a grave looking one.
"I don't know," he said as he scratched his beard, squinting his eyes at the floor.
"You don't think this has anything to do with the vines... Or Charlie?" Asked Morgan.
"Wait, vines? Charlie?" Finn asked, she seemed to realize now that she had missed something big while winning the Capture the Flag match for our team.
"It's... A long story, but to sum it all up Luke and I were attacked by some killer vines, and Luke had to blow it up with his lightning powers in order to kill the vines and separate a Nymph from a tree that she was stuck in, and we think this Charlie kid is responsible." I explained looking at the light haired, dark eyed Australian, yes, I had confirmed her Australian... and badass, she was an Australian badass. Finn still looked confused, I guess I hadn't done a good job of explaining it to her.
"Oh, yeah, and who are you?" Finn asked looking at me.
"my names Fletch," I replied, "You're Finn, yeah?" She gave a nod.
"Guys!" Luke said "is this REALLY the time for introductions?"
"oops, yeah, right, missing girl." I said, getting back to business.
"So no one has seen her?" Chiron asked, there was a little more worry in his voice now. The five of us shook our heads in reply. Chiron stomped a hoof in the ground, in a seemingly stressed out fashion.
"That's the third camper missing," Chiron muttered after a long while of silent contemplation, seeming to have forgotten we were there.
"Wait," I said, "heroes are being taken from camp?" Chiron looked up at me,
"Yes," he said, "and we need to get to the bottom of it."

I looked up at Luke and stepped away from the wall I had been leaning on.
"I'll go," I volunteered, "I've spent a good amount of time in the forest with the Satyrs and the Nymphs, I know Aloe." Luke nodded.
"Cool, man." He said, he held out his hand for a broski-shake, I accepted, and moved to stand beside him. Morgan seemed to snap out of her distant gaze and looked at the two of us with a smirk.
"I'll go... You boys are going to need someone who can save your asses again when you get in trouble," she said.
"IF we get in trouble," I corrected.
"No, when is what I meant to say," she said walking beside me to punch me in the arm. ow, I thought, she hit hard. Luke, Morgan and I made our way out of the infirmary as Roxy and Finn made their way to the girls bathroom.
"Should we wait?" I asked them, seeing as Finn seemed to know the forest way better then I did.
"I think I know where Finn is talking about," said Morgan with a concentrated look on her freckled face. Luke looked at Tyler who was laying in his bed staring at the ceiling.
"Hey, Tyler." Luke called. Tyler looked up at Luke
"Yeah?" He answered.
"Can you tell Finn to come find us in the forest if she gets out in time?" Luke asked.
"Yeah." Tyler replied.
"Thanks," Luke said as he looked away, back at us. "Alright, Morgan... Lead the way." Morgan walked out of the infirmary, Luke followed her and I took up the rear. We made our way down to the forest. All of the other campers had gone back to their cabins now and were starting to get ready to relax with their siblings. We got to the forest edge and trudged through the sticks, leaves and grass. I tripped on logs, stumps and pretty much everything that stuck out of the ground, you'd think I'd be better at this since I had spent all of last summer running around with Satyrs and Nymphs. No, I was a natural born klutz with a balance problem. As you can probably guess those two things definitely don't go together like PB&J.
"You're sure you know where you're going?" I asked Morgan, we had been walking for a while.
"I said I THOUGHT I knew where I was going, what about you? Didn't you say you spent a lot of time in the forest?" She countered.
"I think I might know where Aloe is" I pondered, stopping in my tracks, Luke and Morgan stopped too. I looked around trying to remember my surroundings. This was a forest, everything looked the same! I knew she had to be somewhere around here, and knowing that she was stuck in her tree made me kind of anxious to find her.
"I know she's around here somewhere," I said. Morgan nodded.
"Yeah, I know that much," she said. Luke just looked completely confused. I guessed he didn't hang out here much.
"Let's just continue walking," Luke suggested. Morgan and I agreed and we kept on going forward. Time was ticking by as we searched half-blindly for Aloes tree, I was looking down at my feet as I walked, trying not to trip over anything when I made contact with something that felt like a wall. I fell on my ass with an 'oof!' and rubbed the top of my head. I realized I had gone off course and separated from Luke and Morgan a bit, they hadn't noticed, I saw them walking forward. I looked up at what had hit me and to my unexpected surprise, what greeted me was a panicked looking Nymph stuck in her tree.
"Aloe!" I said excitedly, "Hey! Luke, Morgan! I found Aloe!" I yelled out to them, they both turned and gave me a confused look, but came rushing over.
"How'd you find her?" Luke asked.
"Oh, y'know, it kid of just hit me," I replied with a sly grin at my own joke.
"You ran into her, didn't you?" Morgan said, looking down at me sitting on the cold forest ground with one eyebrow raised.
"Smartass," I muttered playfully. Morgan grinned, holding out a hand to help me up, Luke also held his out, I took both and they hoisted me up easily.
"Right," I said turning to Luke, dusting the dirt and sticks off of my butt. "Work your electric magic and get her out of there." Luke looked at me, then looked at the trapped Wood Nymph.
"Yeah, okay, stand back," he said, both Morgan and I gave him a large amount of room. As much as Luke's powers was one of the coolest things I had seen in my life I definitely didn't want to be anywhere near the receiving end of the blast. Luke's arms started to generate sparks and when the voltage was high enough, he grabbed the tree, it made a large BOOM and Luke was thrown from the tree, colliding with both Morgan and I who had been standing next to each other. The three of us groaned and picked ourselves up. I rubbed my head and my eyes focused on the Wood Nymph that was standing in front of us, she smiled at Luke gratefully.
"Aloe!" I said, "are you okay?"
"yes, I'm fine, Fletch." Aloe replied in her sing-songy light voice. Her voice always put me in a good, peaceful mood.
"What happened to you?" Asked Luke as he caught his breath. Aloe told us the same thing Jasmine had said, she had come to stand beside me.
"Can you show us where Lin is?" Asked Morgan.
"Of course I can!" Aloe said, tugging at my sleeve and skipping off through the tree's. Luke, Morgan and I jogged after her. She was definitely much more graceful in the forest than any of us were. We reached Lin's tree shortly, Luke leaned against a different tree.
"Alright, give me a minute," he said.
"No problem, dude." I said, sitting down in a patch of lush, green grass. Just then, I heard the rustling of leaves from behind me, I jumped up and my hand instinctively went to grab my knife, but it relaxed as I realized it was just Finn coming into view, she had a new set of clothes on, these weren't charred or singed off.
"Scare you?" She asked with a smirk.
"Yeah, well, usually when you make noises in the bushes behind someone they get kind of jumpy." I said, sitting back down.
"I see you found your Nymphs alright," Finn said looking at Aloe, and then at Lin.
"Yeah, the first one was kind of an accident, Fletch ran head first into her." Luke said. Finn looked down at me with her black eyes.
"So that's what that giant bruise on your forehead is from, eh?" She patted my head like a dog and sat down next to me. "So? What are we waiting for?" She asked.
"For Luke to blow Lin out of her tree." I replied. Luke was getting into his stance. Finn nodded, watching him. As Luke touched the tree with the right amount of electric charge, there was another big BOOM, it kind of sounded like we were setting off fireworks... And from my seat, it looked like it too. Lin fell from her tree and Luke managed to land on his feet, although he did fumble with himself for a while before he steadied.
"Lin!" yelled Aloe, she knelt down beside her friend and helped her onto her feet.
"I'm okay, Aloe." Lin replied, touching her friends shoulder. She turned her attention to Luke. "Thank you so much." she said, touching his arm for a minute.
"Not a problem," Luke replied. Again, we got the same story from Lin as we had from Aloe and Jasmine.
"I think Chiron might want to speak with you two," Morgan said, "if you don't mind coming up to camp with us." The two Nymphs nodded and followed us back to camp. This time, Finn lead the way as she knew the quickest and easiest routes to travel to get in and out of the forest. I cannot tell you how thankful I was that she did.