After breakfast, we all left to go to training. As usual, I had to wrangle up the new kids who wander off with the herd of experienced demigods. I must admit seeing some of them get caught by Clarisse was hilarious.

I stood at the base of the rock wall holding only a rope. The slightly calmer group of kids were in front of me. There were five of them in total, standing in a line awkwardly. The age range was bigger than usual, at least for demigods. My personal favorite was a six-year-old maniac named Bell, who I had guessed was bound for the Hecate cabin based on the way she occasionally phased through objects. The rest of the group were in their teens, with Peter and a girl being the oldest at sixteen years old. The girl seemed to be friends with Peter. She had curly brown hair and a sardonic smile that would go well with anyone in the Hermes cabin.

Smiling unnervingly at all the newcomers I walked down the line, slowing to a stop at a confident but visibly nervous thirteen-year-old. 

 Before starting I asked her, "What was your name again?"

 Her confidence was waning, but she replied evenly. "I'm Leila Sky."  

Holding the rope out with a grin in my voice I asked her again, "Okay ready for anything?"

She nodded taking the rope. "Well Leila, I want you to climb this thing and tie the rope for the rest of your training team to use." Walking back and sitting on the grass I motion at the bewildered girl. "Well go on."

She slipped the rope onto her shoulder and put on a work face. The rest of the team looked uneasy, especially another thirteen-year-old who I swore looked like her twin, and Peter. About a third of the way up, Leila got to the 90-degree turn cliff I'd had the Hephaestus cabin install. After a moment, she started to climb upside down. Drops of sweat rained down from her face.

Rummaging through my pocket I took out a smaller version of a walkie talkie. "Hey, Nyssa, can you press the button now?" There was no reply, but I looked up to watch the show. A good handhold popped out of the wall Leila was on and she grabbed it in relief. Then I started counting down under my breath. After a moment, all the rest of the rocks on the wall receded into the obstacle. Leila was left hanging on in terror. "A little help?" she screamed, and her team scrambled into action.

This is where I get to see the fun part. 

One of them ran to find a ladder though I knew there would be none around. The maybe twin came up and confronted me. "Hey why are you so cool with this? She's about to die!" I waved him off and continued watching them run around. 

Peter looked like he was in a crisis.  The girl then tapped his shoulder and whispered. Then she pointed up at the Leila and to him. He seemed to be angry and I heard a whispered shout of "MJ!"

I could practically feel her sigh from here. MJ crossed her hands and stepped into Peter's shadow. Then in a normal tone again she said, "You owe me big time Parker." 

I nearly choke on air as I saw her dissolve into the shadows. Hades had another kid? Peter freaked out and looked around wildly. MJ appeared on the rock wall hanging onto the bar. She grabbed Leila's hand and dissipated again. 

Time skip~~~

"Okay guys, this is going to be your last obstacle for the summer. Some of you leave after, so enjoy it." I was still training the group. They seemed to have bonded pretty well over the following months. Normally demigods aren't taught in the same group the whole day, much less with the same teacher. Chiron asked me to train them separately. Even being a daughter to a Thief god I still have yet to find why. 

The demigods were all claimed on the day of the rock climbing fiasco. MJ was the daughter of Hades and fit the description. And I quote her on this, "Likes to draw people in crisis". I find that hilarious and asked her to draw Clarisse next time she was pranked by Connor. 

Bell was, as I predicted the daughter of Hecate. She was welcomed into the cabin with open arms. At age 6 she's the youngest at camper so far. After joining the Hecate cabin they taught her how to control her phasing. 

Leila and the twin, Luka are legacy of Aphrodite. How their parent survived out in the world was a mystery. They didn't seem to have any powers. Even so, they did have the love goddess' tendencies. Also much to the other campers jealously they didn't have Dyslexia. That just made me think of Frank. 

Finally, Peter was a son of Hephaestus. which freaked him out for some reason. He was always jumpy and I don't think it was just from ADHD. Other than that he could be so smart but so dumb. Especially when he asked me to hose down the cabin roof. He had just finished fixing it. So of course I complied to hose down the roof with him on it. I'm surprised he didn't slip.

I stood at the end of the lawn clad in nothing but a blue sweatshirt and fiddling with a remote. I glanced back quickly. The group looked slightly confused at what I was doing. Turning around I start my small speech, "It's time you guys actually fight me instead of sparring with each other." 

All they did was glance at each other still quite confused. "You aren't armed though." Luka spoke up. I snorted which made them flinch. Now keep in mind up until now I acted like a civilized un-Hermes cabin child. That was so they could learn stuff. Unlike when Travis and Connor who made newbies go through pranks and chores. 

I thought now was a time to finally unleash the power of destruction. Motion for them to start I hopped back a little more. Leila dashed for me first with her spear. Halfway across the field she "accidentally" tripped and was stuck to the ground. Luka was right behind her and fell in an awkward position. 

"Watch out, I might have added a few things to make this fun." I said taking out the remote. Let's see how much of this they can take.

Peter made eye contact with me then I saw something click. He took a moment to unstrapped his armor. His team looked at him incredulously as he walked right past them saying, "Just take your armor off it's magnetic." Bell instead decided to phase past the hidden trap to engage me.

Lashing out she tried to hit me with her short sword. I leaned back and threw a conveniently placed chicken egg at her. Comically she dropped her sword and caught the egg then stopped a moment to give me a look that could only mean one thing. 

Just saying run for your life if a child of Hecate wants to curse you. So of course instead I waved bye to her as another trap sprung and she fell into a dirt pit. 

Then I turned to engage Peter. I was met with a net in my face. I hit the ground and hear everyone gather around me. Peter turned to his group and said, "You owe me your desserts now." 

The net, on the other hand, had a mind of its own. It floated back up and I sped out finally taking out my sword. "You're going to need a lot more than a net to stop me. Next time don't keep your unfinished projects near Nyssa, I tend to ask favors." 

Peter groaned as his only weapon was useless. No matter how much I pressured him he never sprung a punch. He would use the net and only the net. Not even throwing Clarisse at him during capture the flag stopped him. 

Bell was out of the pit and on my tail. I could hear chanting in Greek. The twins were trying to flank me from either side. I knew that they couldn't outrun me for various reasons. To give them a chance I turned around and face them. Bell was still chanting and I had a slim idea of what she was planning based on the words I caught. 

The twins didn't have charmspeak and were only fairly good at swords play so I pressed my advantage. I took out my sword for the first time and  threw it at Bell. It caused her to lose concentration. The spell went awry hitting the ground closer to her and the twins. A flash-bang blinded them.

I knew that Peter would have figure something out by now so I flipped around expecting something to come flying again. What I didn't anticipate was Bell to shout, "Now MJ!" I saw MJ appear in front of  me. Shoot. Bell was using the mist the whole time. 

MJ held her hand out and I froze. What did she do?  The team cheered and I sighed internally. Training with Nico helped MJ out a lot. She could command the undead like Nico but she specialized in souls. I was guessing she took control of mine. Not creepy at all. 

Peter walked over and held my own sword to my neck. "Do you yield?" "No." He pressed the sword a little closer. "Do. You. Yield." Again I said no.

MJ started looking visibly tired and Peter didn't look willing enough to draw blood from his teacher. I tested my soul's restraints and saw I could move my fingers again. Pushing them against my pocket I grinned like a maniac. Peter noticed and dropped the sword and tackled me. He swiftly put me in a chokehold but the damage was done. 

They were going to see the true maniacal power of the Hermes Cabin. All of the traps sprung at once. Fire was set in a ring around the field closing in, the anti-magic trap pits opened and Bell fell in. MJ fell victim to a greased bowl unable to climb or get out. Leila got hit by a hamster charm. Luka was trapped by an excited Mrs. O'Leary. Peter was hit by shrinking slime, a gift I got from Travis. 

"So Peter this is you speaking for the group. Do you yield?" I looked down at Peter. "No." 

"Well, I just came up with a brilliant idea then. You don't have to yield and I can leave here without bothering you."

"Fine."

I then proceeded to walk out of the field. Climbing a tree I waited to see what they would do in a life and death situation. Okay maybe that was a little mean but they really didn't want to give up. 

~~~~~

Peter was about one foot but the only one able to help anyone. So as I suspected he started with the easiest problem. Leila running around as a hamster. 

He grabbed her and calmed her down by and I quote "You're a hamster, not a gerbil stop freaking out!" How that worked I have no idea but it was something to save for research later. Aka dig up some secrets and gain blackmail property.

Peter walked over to one of the pits and kneeled. "Bell? Are you in this one?" 

"No, and I would like it if you got me out of this one." Came a reply from a hole a few meters away.

Peter then gently placed Leila at the edge of Bell's chasm. Hampster-Leila gave what I can describe as a rodent's version dirty look. Eyes wide and teeth set in a sneering smile. In response, the Hephaestus child took her and shouted to Bell, "Catch!" 

"Wait what?" Bell screamed as Peter yeeted the Gerbil down. "She's going to turn back before I catch her you know!"

"Crap." Was all I heard from the teen. Shifting positions I felt bad. Sending Leila off with a few broken bones wasn't nice even for me. I pressed the remote and all the pits quickly filled with water. Much better.

"Thanks, Lyla!" Peter shouted as he walked to the next problem. Mrs. O'Leary was obediently sitting on Luka. To stop the hellhound from her task was practically asking to get mauled. Instead, Peter grabbed his shed armor and waved it around enticing the dog. "Come on Mrs. O'Leary, please? You know you want to." She started getting up so I decided to make things a little more difficult.

"Percy wouldn't like that Mrs. O'Leary." I shouted. She immediately sat causing Luka to let out a groan of pain. Peter gave me an exasperated expression from across the field. "Oh, and Peter watch out the fire ring is getting closer and MJ is in a greased bowl." At that, everyone screamed and Peter looked around desperately. 

"Hey, Luka mind if I save you later?"

"Yeah, it's fine to save MJ. I can deal with being crushed." Luka said in a monotone voice.

"Ok, thanks," Peter said and placed his armor on the visible part of the demigod's hand. He rushed over to the scene of MJ screaming at the stupid bowl. He saw a slight effort of summoning bones most only small bumps in the ground. "MJ? Do you think you can get out if I toss in my net? It floats."

"What do you think?" MJ asked, "Obviously no."

"Wait what?" Peter asked confused. From my view, I could see MJ lathered in oil. In frustration, she scooped a hand of grease from the bottom of the bowl and lobbed over the side. 

"Eww MJ!" 

"Well sorry." She said obviously not sorry, "Figure something out you're supposed to be good at that stuff."  The ring of fire was only a couple yards away from them at this point. I felt like I might have to intervene. Bummer. However, I saw Peter start to drag his net over. 

"I'll hang onto it and you can help me float then I'll grab you." This surprised me. Peter was smarter than I normally gave him credit for. They carried out the plan with MJ slipping a couple times from his grasp. Despite only being a foot he managed to get MJ out of the death trap. They tumbled to the ground and ran towards Luka. 

I took out several coins and spray bottle hanging from the tree. This was getting to the point where I needed to show my cabin how well everything was playing out. I misted the air in front of me and stated, "Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show my cabin this scene."  Then I threw the drachmas in and they dissolved.