"Remembering is painful, it's difficult, but it can be inspiring and can it give wisdom" - Paul Greengrass

I stood there, motionless, in the trees. The silhouettes of Percy, Annabeth, Justin, and my half-brother, Rem. The light from the shroud, my shroud, which was burning, gave a dim glow where I was...

Wait, where exactly am I, you may ask, along with the classic "who the Hades are you?", or in Rem's case, "Oh my gods! Smokes, is that you?" Yeah. It was me. At least, me minus my left arm

Well, lets paint this picture from the start. My name is actually not Smokes, it's Jordan. Jordan Korovick. I'm a Demigod, a son of Dionysus. I was born in Detroit, but I never knew my mom. She went off the deep end and shot herself when I was three weeks old. Now, fast forward 17 years, and our story begins.

"Smokes! Wake up!"

Ah, Justin. The walking alarm clock.

"Smokes!"

"Shut up, I heard you the first time idiot!"

Still half asleep, I slowly sat up. Opening my eyes I saw I was still in one piece, a miracle considering I'm homeless in Detroit.

"Any food left?" I asked Justin, who was digging through our pack of weapons.

"No."

"Why?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I ate it." He said, head in the weapons backpack

"Fat ass." I huffed.

We knew it was a joke, as we're both basically sticks. Standing up, I rolled my excuse of a bed into my pack. Checking around the dumpster for anything, I saw something odd.

"Hey Justin"

"Yeah?"

"Check this out!"

I pulled out a small brick of bullets, but they were glowing faintly. Justin took one look at them and immediately said

"Those are Russian 7.62x39 AKM rounds! They look like the same ones we found two weeks ago."

"It amazes me how you immediately know what things are. Specifically weapons."

He just shrugged and shoved them in his backpack after loading the AKM with a few of the rounds. In case you're wondering, yes we openly carry our weapons. The only reason we can is because Justin knew the police chief. In a good way.

We were both about to leave the alley we were sleeping in when a van pulled up. I couldnt read what it said because of my dyslexia. So normally, when a van pulls up to you in Detroit, you have three options. All of them are not good.

Option 1: Pedophiles

Option 2: Gang members

Option 3: Bothered

Needless to say, we booked it out of there. Weaving through Alleys and other dirty and grimy areas, we finally stopped. Catching our breath, Justin and I examined our surroundings. We were in some warehouse, obviously abandoned. What was weird about it was the fact that there was still old machinery in it, and I was checking it out already. There were dried stains on some of them, and it looked like blood.

"Well," Justin started to say when a voice behind us yelled "There they are!"

"Justin." I said in a hushed tone

"Yeah?"

"Pass me the Glock out of the pack."

"Which one?"

"The bronze one!"

As he pulled it out and passed it to me, I heard footsteps running toward us. Thankfully, this warehouse was enormous. I whipped around and pointed the gun at the person who was running at us. I didn't expect to see a teenager with a sword. As soon as he saw the gun though, he stopped dead in his tracks, and said "Chill, chill! I'm here to help you guys!"

"Bullshit!" Justin yelled "what's your gang sign?"

"What?"

"I said what's your gang sign?"

"I'm not in a gang!" The guy exclaimed. "Look, do you want a permanent shelter or no?"

Justin and I looked at each other. As I put the Glock down I replied "Sure, but where. Justin and I have been all over Detroit. Nowhere is permanent."

"Follow me back to the van." The guy said.

"By the way, I'm Percy."

"Ok," I said "I'm Smokes, and this is Justin, and what's up with the sword bro?"

"Oh yeah, well, let me put it to you this way... the Greek gods are real, and-."

"Well that would explain the sword. But what does that have to do with is?" I said

"You're not fazed at all about the Greek gods stuff?" Percy asked

"No. I'm just really open to stuff. Plus it would explain the Minotaur that attacked us two weeks ago." I stated

"Wait, the Minotaur? I thought It'd take longer for it to reform." Percy said "and how the heck did you kill it?"

"We found some glowing bronze bullets in a crate near some warehouse, and shot the piece of shit eight times in the chest with the AKM." Justin said, matter of factly

"Oh"

As we reached the van, I saw a blonde girl in the front seat. She was beautiful, but I kept my distance. She gave an aura that was basically saying "I'm way smarter than I look." And one look at those calculating stormy grey eyes and the aura had some backup, but Percy just sat in the drivers seat and kissed her on the cheek.

"Hey Wise Girl." Percy said.

"Hey Percy." The girl said. "Chiron is waiting for us at camp." She turned around to us and back to Percy. "These guys look like they've been through a war!"

"Relax Annabeth," Percy said "they were homeless, and Chiron said these guys are pretty important."

"I'd just like to know where the heck it is where going?" Justin butted in.

"Long Island, New York." Annabeth said. "And no, its not going to take long to get there."

"How? This van looks like it's max speed is -3 miles." I said.

Percy sighed. "Watch."

He pressed a button on the dashboard. Nothing happened.

"Ok, what did that do?" I asked

Percy just looked miffed now.

"Look outside."

We were definitely somewhere else. Somewhere I vaguely remember.