Shattered

Brian

If Brian ever found the guy who decided to place the entrance to Camp Jupiter inside a tunnel, he would make them beg for the sweet release of death.

"Oh yeah! Let's totally put it in a tunnel! We're only in California, where the temperature is only five degrees hotter than the surface of the sun! Oh what's that? The humidity? Don't you just love feeling your balls boil in your shorts?" he ranted as he walked through the dimly lit tunnel.

He really regretted walking, but it wasn't like the camp had a parking lot for his rented Prius.

Brian stopped in his tracks. "Wait just one second now."

The information the captured DGs had so kindly volunteered, indicated that this nest had a large adult population as opposed to the northeastern nest. Many of these adults even held jobs among humans, which meant that they had to have some kind of means of transport.

"If there's some kind of bus stop, I will just lose it."

He pulled his phone out from the back pocket of his shorts and checked the time.

Eleven thirty.

His timing was perfect, as was everything he did, by the time he arrived at the nest, most of the population would be eating their midday meal, leaving him free to do as he pleased.

"Speaking of lunch," he smiled. About one hundred feet away from him stood two DGs, one boy, one girl. They were each carrying a spear and shield, and were wearing some kind of goofy looking leather armor. The red head cracked his knuckles, "time to earn my Oscar."

He ran towards the DGs like a mad man, arms flailing in the air as he screamed at the top of his lungs. His screaming had startled the two DGs, but they were quick to recover, as they raised their shields and lowered their spears.

"Enchilada is after me!" he cried as he ran for cover behind the two idiots.

The girl looked at him with a confused look. "Enchilada? You mean Echidna?"

"Yeah, sure that."

The two both turned to look at him, though both still on guard.

"I mean, yeah! That horrible creature! It has eighteen arms, three heads, one of which looks like Paul Blart, and three sets of leathery wings!"

The boy frowned at him. "That doesn't sound like Echidna..."

"Well whatever it was it's gone now and it's all thanks to you," the red head said, offering them his best smile.

The two lowered their weapons, but were still on guard. "Who are you?" the girl asked.

"I am Brian Bender, son of Artemis," he said while pointing at the torn purple camp shirt he had pilfered from one of his test subjects.

That had apparently been the wrong thing to say as the two now pointed their weapons at him.

"Diana doesn't have any children. She swore to be an eternal maiden," the girl said.

"I'm adopted?" the engineer suggested, slowly backing away from the spear heads.

"Who are you really?" the boy asked, pressing his spear into Brian's stomach.

Brian let out a long exaggerated sigh. "Alright you got me," he said throwing his hands up. "My name is Brian Bender, and I'm not the adopted son of Diana, I'm the unwanted son of Apollo."

"Unwanted?" the girl repeated.

Brian scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, see my mom didn't like any of Apollo's advances, refusing him at every turn, but you know how gods can be when they don't like what they're hearing. Well, here I am unwanted by either parent."