Hey world, here is my Percabethy, Crazy planning, Action filled Christmas Short. I tried to finish this on Christmas, but I failed. (obviously) I hope you like it, even though it is a bit unrealistic because Percy vanished 3 months after the end of the Titan War which would be before Christmas, but I don't care. I hope you like it, it's a bit long, but I like to write so... Check out my version of "The Blood Of Olympus"! Yay! I hope you like it!
I am not Rick Riordan *shocker*
Last Christmas had been spent in the Underworld, but this time I was determined to make this one different. Honestly, I couldn't see how it could be worse. The Titan war was over, I had managed to not get kicked out of anymore schools, life was great. I had carefully planned out the perfect night for me and my girlfriend, Annabeth. We were going to have a laid back Christmas Eve at my mom's apartment, watch some good old fashioned Christmas movies, and exchange gifts. Nothing could mess up that plan, right? Wrong. It all started when Annabeth phoned me at 7 am on Christmas Eve.
"Hello?"
"Seaweed Brain, bad news." Forget honey or sweetie, Annabeth's nickname made it clear that she believed my IQ was around the level of the aquamarine animals my dad, Poseidon, was so famous for.
"Annabeth, it's 7 in the morning."
"Percy, I got up at 4, supervised a statue of Aphrodite they were sculpting on Olympus, went to Starbucks, and finished all my homework for break."
"Yeah, well I got up five seconds ago and managed to not fall back to sleep, which I believe is an amazing feat in itself." I couldn't actually see her, but I was pretty sure she was rolling her eyes.
"Anyway, while I was on Olympus I saw Hephaestus-" I groaned. Sure, he wasn't the worst of the Olympians, but with all due respect, that wasn't a compliment to anyone.
"-and, he issued me a quest."
"Are you kidding me? Annabeth, it's Christmas Eve!"
"Do you think I don't know that? Apparently, some monsters are terrorizing a toy factory he owns and making the toys go haywire. They were supposed to be given to some mortal orphans, but now..."
"Got it. We've got to do something about it."
"Exactly. Meet you at the corner of East 48th and Fifth Avenue?"
"I live for it." I put the phone down and reluctantly got out of bed. This was not the relaxing start to Christmas break that I wanted, but at least it was for some orphans. The cold floor shocked my feet. The orphans didn't really need Christmas presents, did they? I pinched myself, pulled on my sweatshirt and jeans, grabbed a golden ballpoint pen from my dresser, and with a hasty note to my mom and stepfather, I ran out the door.
"Why is it so cold?"
"Percy, it's midwinter, what do you expect?" Annabeth and I were standing outside Rockefeller Center as last minute shoppers hustled down Fifth to get Christmas presents. She wore a grey coat that matched her stormy eyes and her beach blonde hair flew around in the wind.
"Anyone else coming?" I asked.
"Only one." she said, fidgeting uncomfortably. "Look, Percy, it's Christmas and there weren't that many options, so-" From behind a brick building walked a stocky girl with stringy brown hair and a red bandanna, with a festive skull and crossbones on her army jacket.
"Clarisse?" Clarisse walked up behind Annabeth and grimaced.
"Chase, you didn't say Jackson would be here."
"Well, I thought telling you might affect your decision-"
"Affect-" Suddenly a giant figure came hurtling around the corner and slammed into me with the force of a tow truck. I had only experienced the feeling twice before; holding up the sky, and-
"Brother!" Tyson looked down at me with one big brown eye.
"Tyson!" cried Annabeth, looking happier to see him then I think I'd ever seen her. The big guy let go of me and hugged Annabeth too.
"Can't-breathe-"
"Oops." Tyson said, letting go quickly.
"No damage done" She wheezed, clutching her rib cage. "Spines are out of fashion anyway." He gave her a big grin.
"I thought you weren't coming"
"Boss gave me off for Christmas!" he said delightedly.
"Great." Clarisse almost smiled. A few years back Tyson had saved her life, so she had apparently decided not to beat him to pulp like she wanted to do to me.
"Well," said Annabeth, "the factory is far away and Hephaestus had said he would provide transport at 8:30, which is now..." I closed my eyes and the world went black.
I woke up on a gum covered sidewalk by a train station.
"Welcome to Elizabeth NJ, guys." said Annabeth groggily. Clarisse groaned and picked herself up off the ground. The only one who seemed unaffected was Tyson, who grinned broadly and shouted,
"Again!"
"Yeah buddy," I said, slowly standing up, "In a bit."
"The factory's that way." Annabeth said, checking a street map, and turning around to face us. She walked off, seemingly unaffected by the cold. Clarisse stalked off after her, muttering something about how she could be stuffing kids' heads in toilets right now. Tyson followed in hot pursuit. I sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time time today, buried my last hope of a peaceful Christmas Eve, and ran to catch up.
We walked for a while in the bitter December cold. I stood next to Annabeth, holding her hand in mine. If we weren't on a quest to stop monsters and haywire automans, with my half-brother and a bloodthirsty daughter of Ares behind us on Christmas Eve, it would have been semi-romantic. But, unfortunately there were a lot of if there weren'ts. We finally reached a fence with a large plaque reading,
Hepheastus Toys Inc.
"Yeah, this would be the place," Clarisse said, cutting through the silence and pushing open the gate. "C'mon, punks. Let's go." We followed her through the gate and into the factory. It looked no different on the outside then the ones we had passed on the way here, but the inside was a completely different story. Flying automans zoomed around the place, checking on so many different machines it would have given any engineer a heart attack. The ceilings were at least twice the size as they had looked from the outside, and made of beautiful glass and a rainbow of colors depicting a hammer. Light filtered in from above, shining on all the machines. One packaged the items, wrapping them in colorful paper and festive bows. The next attached little stickers to the gifts, each writing out a different name. I had never been in a factory before, but was pretty sure normal factories didn't have floating tools spinning around and making things, nor did the parcels come with wings that flew up to the second loft to be shipped.
"Wow." said Tyson, his mouth forming a perfect O.
"There's one thing I don't understand." said Annabeth, frowning slightly. "Where are the monsters?" A loud crash came from upstairs. I uncapped my pen, which instantly sprang into Riptide.
"I'm gonna hazard a guess and say their upstairs." Clarisse said, drawing her electric spear.
"What are we waiting for?" I asked, "Let's go."
We walked up the stairs to the loft. It was designed so that it made a ring around the perimeter, so the light could filter in to the bottom floor. At first everything looked normal, and then we saw the paint machine. An assortment of paint was spilled all over the floor, magical brushes spun drunkenly in the air, sometimes painting the toys, sometimes painting the walls. Clarisse ducked as one came flying towards her head. From inside the machine came lots of banging, and a small figure emerged. He looked kind of like your cartoon elf with pointed ears and a green pointy hat, but that was where the comparison stopped. He was fat and wore only really tight red spandex shorts with a large hairy chest that poked out over them. He had a bushy beard and was about two feet, max. I was almost tempted to laugh.
"I am Kobalos!" He yelled at the top of his tiny lungs. "Fear me, demigods!"
I raised my eyebrows Annabeth. "This is the monster?" She shrugged, bewildered.
"Don't talk among yourselves!" He screamed, the grinned. "Catch me if you can!"
"I did not come all the way from Long Island to play tag with a leprechaun on a sugar high." Clarisse growled and chased after him. Tyson looked at me for direction.
"Run after Clarisse." I said, "Annabeth and I will run the other way."
We sprinted past amazing magical contraptions when we reached the other side of the circle. Clarisse was tied up, hanging upside down from a forklift, and making rude gestures and cursing at Kobalos. He just giggled and spun around in circles. I pulled Annabeth behind a conveyor belt carting packages. She stuck her invisibility cap on her head and disappeared. A voice whispered next to me.
"Kobalos is a spirit of mischief, brother of the Kabeiroi and Kerekopes. He exists to stir up trouble and mess things up." She paused. "Kind of like you."
"Hardy har har. How do we get rid of him?" She paused again.
"He doesn't seem to be doing that much damage right now. I suggest we just wait him out until he poses a threat."
Kobalos was dancing around Clarisse's head while she thrashed around and tried to bite him. She cussed again. Kobalos laughed gleefully and cartwheeled up to her. He pointed his finger in the air and a plant popped above their heads. From the spiky green leaves to the red bulbous berries, there was no misplacing it.
"Oh look!" Kobalos shrieked in delight. "Mistletoe!" He puckered and Clarisse let out a scream so loud I could swear the windows were going to shatter.
"Time?" I asked Annabeth.
"Time." she agreed, and we sprung into battle.
Trying to hit Kobalos was like trying to hit a flea with a javelin. Not that I've tried that. Thalia is lying to you. Fleas and javelins aside, the little demonic elf danced around us and before we knew it, blood was rushing to my head and I was hanging upside down from the crane.
"My saviors." Clarisse grumbled next to us. "Now what do we do?" I wasn't really thinking straight because Kobalos was dancing a little to close to my girlfriend for my taste.
"Pretty girl." Kobalos swooned, "You're much nicer than Miss Cranky, aren't you." Luckily, Tyson arrived before my head could explode. He quickly cut us down and handed us our weapons. Soon enough we had chased Kobalos down the stairs and cornered him against the wrapping machine. He swallowed quickly and I almost smiled, that is until he started grinning again. I groaned.
"Why does he always have to start smiling?" I asked exasperatedly.
"Oh little demigods!" He laughed. "I will ruin all of Hephaestus's toys! They will fart and make funny sounds, and I will be the criminal mastermind behind it all! I just have to beat you!"
"Yeah," Clarisse said, poking her spear closer to Kobalos, "you and what army?" Just then, from behind the shadows of the machines came dozens of glowing red eyes.
"Uh-oh." said Tyson, nervously backing up.
"Yep." I said, slowly retreating. "Uh-oh pretty much sums it up." There was a clattering, and out from under the contraptions came hundreds of... Snuggle-Me-Puppy toys? They were just like the ones I'd seen at Bargain Mart; adorable little mechanical puppies with over sized heads, but I was pretty sure the one I had seen at the store hadn't had glowing green eyes. Before I had time to think on it, they attacked.
"Really?" said Annabeth, "A little puppy toy doesn't scare me, Kobalos." The little puppy toy waddled up to her and its chest opened revealing a full size axe swinging back and forth.
"Okay," she said, inching away from it, "maybe it scares me a little." Rows and rows of the little puppy toys advanced on us, all with different mechanisms popping out. Switchblades, poison, and one little confused guy who spun around in circles and made duck noises. I jumped on a table and tried to take it all in. The automans were going haywire and falling from the sky like very large pieces of hail. Clarisse hastily clambered to the top of a device that was sorting the presents and began warding them off with her spear. Tyson smashed his club around, whimpering "Sorry, puppy!", and Annabeth climbed up next to me.
"What do we do?" I asked her, as the first puppy sliced off a leg of our table. She closed her eyes, thinking. I threw a present in front of us as a puppy spit acidic goo at my face. Her eyes flew open.
"Kobalos is a minor spirit," she rushed, "which means he has a small hemisphere of magic, such as the mistletoe. He's not able to control large groups of things all at once with out tecnhological aid, like a mainframe, which must have some kind of aura generated by all the superfluous magic." She groaned. "But everything here is a mixture of metal and magic! How do I... The difference! Godly magic has a certain power to it while a sprite's is run off chaos. Therefore, if you calm everything down, Kobalos's control will become unstable and the central processing unit of whatever the object is will emit a pulse, pulling and pushing like the tide. If I can override the system, the toys will stop and Kobalos will be exhausted, making him slower and enabling us to capture him and force him to relinquish his magical control over the puppies and make them normal again." I stared at her, not even trying to hide my ignorance.
"English, please?" She rolled her eyes, obviously not able to fathom how I couldn't understand such a simple paragraph. "It's a good thing your cute Seaweed Brain. What I said us that Kobalos isn't strong enough to control all the puppies by himself, so he must be using a machine. If you can calm everything down and control the puppies, I can fix them." She stared at me with her piercing grey eyes.
"Okay," I said, "Next time just say that." She ignored me, and yelled to Clarisse, who was busy running a puppy through its metal stomach with her spear.
"Hold them off," she said, eyeing the staircase. "And try to cause minimal damage."
"I'll try," she said, " but I'm not making any promises." Annabeth kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear.
"Please, Percy, try not to kill our ally while I'm gone." She leaped off table and ran off to the stairs, just as it collapsed. I found myself on my butt, surrounded by demonic puppies.
"Merry Christmas." I said, just because no one had said it all day, and began slashing with my sword.
"Minimal damage, idiot!" Yelled Clarisse, ten feet away from me in the sea of puppies.
"Look who's talking!" I yelled back over the creaking of the puppies' secret hatches opening, as Clarisse demolished an entire row with a volt of electricity from her spear.
"Percy!" Annabeth shouted from the loft above, "Remember what I said!" I waded through rows of minuscule metal monsters, dodging and trying not to destroy too many of them. I found myself back to back with Tyson and Clarisse, in the middle of the factory.
"Oh, gods." I said. We were cutting through them as fast as possible, but more poured out from the conveyor belts and behind machines. Every nook and cranny seemed to contain some. Contain...
"Guys," I said, ducking a flying javelin and a volley of Nerf bullets, "We need to trap them."
"Ya' think?" asked Clarisse, "But in case you haven't noticed they cover the whole floor!"
"How?" questioned Tyson, his big brown eye tearing up, "No more killing Snuggle Puppies!"
"Yeah," I said absently, thinking of a way. Contain... Whole floor... "I've got it!" I shouted suddenly, cursing myself for being so stupid. "The trap is built in. They can't climb the stairs to get to the loft, so we have to, and we're safe!"
"I don't think so!" Kobalos screamed from the middle of the hoard. He was riding on a clipboard that was being pulled by two puppies. The scene would have been comical, except for the toy's glowing red eyes, the hatchets popping out of their stomachs, and Kobalos's disinterest in wearing a shirt. He closed his eyes in deep concentration and with a loud POP! the stairs disappeared.
"Wow!" He said, surprised at his own power, "I could be a magician! Now, to make you pesky demigods disappear!"
"Percy," said Clarisse anxiously, "A plan would be great right around now!" I looked around. There was no other way up to the stairs except...
"Guys," I whispered so Kobalos couldn't hear, "on 'three', run to the machine flying packages up to the second floor."
"My minions will destroy you!" Kobalos yelled, distinctly closer.
"Three!" We ran to the machine and I was almost positive my plan wouldn't work. But I didn't see that we had any other choice. I scrambled up to the top of the contraption, where presents were shooting out of the top, sprouting wings, and flying to the second floor. Clarisse and Tyson looked up at me expectantly. I gulped. This was the tallest machine in the factory, about fifteen feet high, and another fifteen to the loft.
"Okay guys," I said, forcing myself to stay put, "If I don't die, follow my lead." I waited for a few seconds. FWOOM! A blue striped present shot up like a cannon. I barely had time to grab onto the sides when white wings shot out and it flew up. My fingers were slipping, I was losing my hold... I leaped wildly and grabbed onto it and hugged it to my chest. It's wings were fluttering, I was falling, and then suddenly a boost of energy seemed to come to it and it flew up to the second floor. I jumped onto a conveyor belt as the present zoomed into a large sack waiting to be shipped. I walked up behind Annabeth who had gathered a collection of motley tools to override the system. She jumped.
"Hey," I said, "We trapped them." Clarisse and Tyson dropped down from their presents, Tyson seemed to have grabbed two, and the fluttered, beaten, into the sack.
"Any second now," she said, tapping her finger against her jeans. ADHD demigods may be excellent in battle, but we stink at waiting. Kobalos was trapped for now, but it was only a matter of time until he figured out how to get to the top. It was either we got to him, or he got to us. Suddenly I felt a tugging in my gut, a pull and then a push. Annabeth quickly ran to the source; the paint machine.
"Of course," she said running her hands over the control panel. She typed in a few keys, running her fingers over the screen, and the sounds of clatter below stopped. She sighed in relief, and I hugged her.
"You did it."
"Of course I did." I smiled, and Clarisse did too, her joyfulness probably having to do with her nest statement.
"Let's go find that leprechaun."
We fashioned a makeshift rope out of ribbon, and when we got down Kobalos was running around, kicking the toys and cussing. "Not fair!" he shrieked. Tyson eyed him warily.
"What do we do with him?" asked Annabeth, "He's not the worst monster we've met."
"I say we send him back to Tartarus." Clarisse said, fidgeting with the end of her spear.
"Funny leprechaun." said Tyson sadly. I could see why the big guy was upset. In his tight little spandex and hat, Kobalos just looked like a little grumpy elf.
I approached him with caution, but he was to busy moping to notice me.
"Kobalos," I said, "We're going to make a deal." Kobalos looked up at us and starting howling.
"Don't send me to Tartarus!" he sobbed pitifully, blowing his nose on his hat. "It might take me years to reform!"
"Listen up." I said, cutting through his cries. "Sit down and get a hold of yourself. We're not going to kill you."
"You're not?" Kobalos sniffed, sitting on a shut down Snuggle-Me-Puppy.
"No. You're going to fix all these toys and help us wrap them. Then, you're going to come with us to the orphanage where you will dress up as an elf for the little children. Then, you will work as a servant for Hephaestus, no pranks or mischief allowed."
"That's not fair!" Kobalos whined.
"Or," Clarisse said, who had been promised the right to blackmail him in exchange for her cooperation, "We can go with Plan B." She drew her spear and stroked the tip of it thoughtfully.
"Fine, I'll do it!" Kobalos screamed and dejectedly went around, tinkering with the puppies. The factory was in havoc, everything completely destroyed. But, in a few short hours we had proceeded to messily wrap all the fixed Snuggle-Me-Puppies and pile them in the corner. We tied Kobalos's wrist to Tyson's in case he tried to get away, a wind picked up, and all went black.
We woke up on the doorstep of my apartment. It took me a second to realize that someone else was there. Hephaestus looked down on me, his eyes twinkling on his scarred face. Wondering if it was disrespectful to be sitting in the presence of a god, I hastily got up.
"Well done heroes." He said, shaking hands with every one of us in turn. He wore overalls and a ski jacket, his features disfigured from when Queen Hera had thrown him off Mount Olympus, but he had smile lines and eyes that crinkled merrily. Kobalos was sitting atop the mountain of presents in an elf costume, kicking them dejectedly. "I will be making my way to the orphanage shortly, and I am sure the children will appreciate my new elf." Kobalos crossed his arms and huffed. "You have performed excellently, and for a noble cause." His eyes clouded. "I just wish you had more time to relax before... Never mind. Merry Christmas, I hope to see you... soon." He said soon as if it meant long, but he smiled and with a poof he was gone.
"That was weird." said Annabeth
"Tell me about it." I replied, Hephaestus's ominous warning echoing in my ears.
"We can worry about it inside." Clarisse said, "It's freezing." Tyson nodded, shivering. Snow had begun to lightly fall on the ground, and already it was getting dark. We shuffled inside. Clarisse shook the snow out of her bandana.
"Well," she said, "I'm gonna take the next subway, maybe I can get to Long Island before the campfire." She sounded doubtful. She made towards the door, but I grabbed her arm.
"Wait," I said, "It's Christmas Eve. Stay a while." I might of imagined it, but she seemed grateful as she stepped back inside and took off her jacket. We made our way to the apartment where Mom and Paul were drinking hot cocoa in the kitchen. She seemed a bit surprised to see us shivering in the doorway, but she was pretty accustomed to seeing strange people in the doorway, and she recovered quickly. Halfway through "Elf" the doorbell rang, and four gold parcels appeared on our doorstep. I didn't need to read the card to see they were from Olympus. The note read
To the Heroes who Saved Christmas-
Thank you for returning the presents to the children at the orphanage and stopping the army of toys.
The children were quite happy with their presents. Merry Christmas,
-Hephaestus Toys Inc.
Tyson gleefully ripped open his box to find a Snuggle-Me-Puppy, which quacked and ran around in circles, much to his delight. Clarisse received a celestial bronze weaponry care set, which apparently pleased her because she spent the next hour sharpening her spear which created a delightful imitation of an angry cat being dragged across a chalkboard. Annabeth got a book the size of toolbox which read the intriguing title of 'The Evolution of Pillared Architecture'. I opened my present to reveal a small fountain of water and a note with a gold drachma inside. The note read three simple words:
Keep In Touch
If it was irony or foreshadowing, I didn't care. I put down the Iris fountain and took Annabeth's hand. She cocked her head to the side.
"Follow me." We walked to the terrace, which was already covered in a fine layer of snow. It was cold, but I felt warm.
"Your mom's expanded her garden." she noted, taking in the small pine trees and bushes that bloomed on the ground.
"Look up." I said, pointing to the plant hanging above the entrance. From the spiky green leaves to the red bulbous berries, there was no misplacing it. I pulled her closer and she smiled.
"I love you, Seaweed Brain."
"You too, Wise Girl." We kissed and every care in the world melted away. I pressed my hands against her curls and held her tighter. When I finally came up for air, she was grinning like Kobalos.
"Merry Christmas." she said, and kissed me again.