Percy Jackson, The Missing Hero.

18. Nico has a Strange Definition of 'Party'.

"I hate to break it to you," Percy withdrew his lighter and flicked it, grinning when it transformed into Stormbringer. "But your information might be outdated. Camp is closed today. And Percy Jackson isn't the only one who can kill you."

A lie through and through, but he didn't need anyone adding up the simple facts that he had been claimed by Poseidon, liked the colour blue and could kill Kronos. He was honestly surprised that certain members of the Athena Cabin hadn't worked it out yet. He didn't need to give them any more clues if he could help it.

"You lie." Kronos snarled.

Percy spun Stormbringer, a bright flash of gold. "Wanna bet?"

"You're going up against him?" Apollo sounded worried once more. "I'm the only god here. At least give me time to go to Olympus and back to get someone else."

"I've done it before." Percy pointed out. "And last time the only god I had was Hades and he was fighting on the streets. The rest of you were taking on Typhon."

"Nobody is battle-ready," Nico argued, gesturing down to Camp where people were running around like headless chickens. "You're only in a t-shirt and jeans underneath that cloak."

"Easily solved." Percy grinned, reaching up to fish his necklace from beneath his shirt. He'd long since swapped his Camp beads onto a much longer leather necklace that he could hide beneath his shirt since an unfortunate incident on a miscellaneous planet had led to one of the natives grabbing his original necklace and twisting until he was asphyxiated. The new necklace held some additions, sometimes including the signet ring Hades had given him - but that was firmly on his hand that day. One of the additions was an amulet that they all had, enchanted long ago by Alabaster.

"I thought you would have gotten rid of those." Nico murmured, gesturing to Percy's Camp beads.

"I couldn't bring myself to." Percy shook his head. He very nearly had, but couldn't bring himself to when it actually came down to it. They were representative of the good and bad times he'd had at camp before Nathan's arrival, and it felt like a dishonour to throw away the beads that were marked with the names of the dead. He'd kept them as a reminder of the place and the people he had once called home and family, unwilling to part with the small but persisting thought that one day he could return and call them that once more.

He pressed the amulet between his thumb and forefinger, the double-sided trident imprinting onto them before it grew hot and Percy knew to release it.

It dropped back onto his chest, making contact with his t-shirt. The cloth rippled silver before transforming, much like everything else on his body, until he stood there, resplendent in full armour.

"Gods of Olympus," Nico whispered in shock, eyes lighting up. "I want one."

"Handy, right?" Percy laughed.

"I don't want to sound too much like my dear Hephaestus, but what is that made out of?" Apollo tapped one of Percy's vambraces, metal gleaming against the black leather beneath it. "It's shiny, I like it."

"Magpie." Nico snorted.

"Elysian Silver," Percy responded. "It's found in Chaos's realm and several planets in the surrounding systems. Ignis forged the armour and Incantationem did a bit of 'hocus pocus' to give it the ability to transform."

"We came as fast as possible." Luke halted beside him. Percy glanced behind him to find Solani, Angelus, Dove, Ignis, Saccharo, and Medicus stood, all armed to the teeth.

It was at that moment that he wished, not for the first time since their arrival, that Chaos had not split their numbers.

"Great." Percy glanced back at the waiting army, all of whom were growing visibly impatient. Kronus had taken to striding up and down the front line, barking words of what were supposed to be encouragement but just sounded like threats to send the monsters back to Tartarus himself if they failed. Cheery. "Reckon we can take them?"