This morning, when I looked in the mirror, shockingly, I did not see the face of Rick Riordan of that of James Patterson. I think we can all conclude then that

I am not the proud owner of either the Maximum Ride novels or the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. However, I do own the crazy psychic.

One other thing, this story takes place sometime before 'The Last Olympian' and shortly after Angel is rescued from the school.

Don was having a bad day: he'd spilled his coffee on himself, got turned down by Sharon, and now this. Five delinquent punks and their mutt loitering outside the New York Public Library. A passerby had called 9-1-1 when she'd heard two of them talking about all the bombs they had created and planned on detonating at their school.

Probably just talkin' trash. Tryin' to impress some chicks. Don thought to himself as he pushed back on his desk with his hands and forced his substantial self out of his GoodWill-worthy chair. Just another sucky thing in his crappy life.

On his way out the door, he scooped up the report and glanced at the grainy photo, that had been hastily shot with a cheap cell phone: two boys stood off to the side together-one tall and fair-haired, the other shorter and also blonde-obviously planning something. A roguish grin danced on both their faces. Then there was an African-American girl with wild black hair prattling on to a clearly bored teenager with dark skin. Latino, maybe? Lastly, there was the little girl and the black puppy playing on the steps.

"DON! Get your lazy butt moving and go check up on 'em kids at the library!" The chief yelled at the top of his lungs, his meaty face sticking out of office. "Ya hear me? GET MOVING!" With that said, he Chief Lockwood slammed his office door shut with a bang, leaving Don alone with all the not-so-discreet stares of his fellow policemen.

"Stupid kids," he muttered under his breath. Then he was out the door, down the rickety elevator, and on to the busy Manhattan street.

Iggy's POV "And THEN you'll…" I zoned out, not being able to take any more that stupid Psychic prattling on and on about our "destiny". If it weren't for that stupid policeman we wouldn't be here in the first. But-OF COURSE- when whenever we try to do ANYTHING, something always goes wrong.

We were at the library to do research on some Institute Angel had said she'd heard about when she was at the school, but lately we'd been seeing a lot of erasers, so only Max went inside. It was probably about thirty minutes later when we'd noticed the policeman, well the others had, not me, 'cause you know, I'm blind. But whatever.

Anyway, when we saw him coming, Nudge ran in, got Max, and we took off. The porker of a policeman chased us for about half a block-it was obviously quite the strain. We lost him when we turned down an alley and ducked into this little shop. According to Gazzy, the sign out front said MADAME BENOIRE'S PSYCHIC EMPORIUM. FREE READINGS.

So, of course, Nudge and Angel had insisted that we all get our palms read. Right now it was Angel's turn. "…can sense you've been through something truly terrible recently." The psychic was saying.

Some words on "Madame" Benoire: think the peppy plus Luna Lovegood from 'Harry Potter' and you've got the fourteen year old psychic pinned down to a T. Yeah, you heard me, fourteen. Our "psychic extraordinaire" was a fourteen year old. Go figure.

"…but you have something much more challenging ahead. I'm sensing that very soon, you'll end up in a foreign place. A woodsy place. A…place with no mist. And something really big is going to happen there…something…hang on; I think my charka's blocked…something that will affect the whole world. I see…a bunch of glowing animals all falling down, down, down and…a…bodies…I see lots of bodies…"

I'd had enough, and judging by the scraping of feet and chairs, I think the other's had too. "Look Miss….Madame Benoire," Max began, "thanks for the…uh enlightening information but we really need to be go-"

"I see pencils!" Huh? I knew Max and Fang would be sharing their 'We need to get out of here look.' And, I wasn't disagreeing with them. "Uh…" I started.

"Pencils! No! Not pencils! Something pink…rubbery…mistakes! I see a furry mistake! I see an eraser!" Dead silence.

And then there was the freaky girl's voice calling after us as we ran like the devil was hot on our heels.

Annabeth's POV "Ready! One! Two! BOMBS AWAY!" I arrived just in time to see Conner, Travis, and some other campers from the Hermes cabin launch a volley of shaving cream bombs at the Demeter Cabin. A few days ago Louie Davis, a son of Demeter, had insulted Travis. Now you couldn't walk through the commons area unprotected or else you'd be hit with something or fall into a booby trap. In one word: mayhem.

"Alright guys! Break it up!" I called as a white and furious son of Demeter leapt on an unsuspecting child of Hermes. "I said BREAK IT UP!" The fight subsided, and I glared at them. "Cabin inspection."

The Demeter kids groaned while Hermes's hooted with laughter. "Guess who's got stable duty tonight!" One of them called as they ran off towards their own semi-clean cabin. "Just know you get whatever they get!" I yelled after them. That earned me some jeers, but I ignored them and went right on with my business. That is until I felt something wet smack into the back of my head.

Gingerly, I reached back there…shaving cream. They were gonna get it. I turned around-ignoring the somewhat-stifled snickers of the Demeter kids and the not-so-hidden ones of the Hermes-and ran right into Percy, thus getting my butt acquainted with the ground. "Whoa! Sorry, Wisegirl!" He said as he helped me up.

I wiped the dirt off my butt and replied irritably, "Whatever. Do you need something? Cause I've got someone I've gotta yell at." He grinned. "Someone's a little tetchy today. Anyway, Chiron wants all the heads of cabins at the Rec Room. Some sort of meeting." Sigh; I'd have to get whoever shot me later. Then, with one last glare at the Hermes Cabin, I stalked off after Percy.

"I would first like to start this meeting by saying that whatever is going on between the Demeter and Hermes Cabins, it needs to stop."

"But-" Conner began.

"They-" Katie said at exactly the same moment. Both were cut off by a glare from Chiron though. After a few moments, they all sheepishly muttered something that sound like "sure", "whatever" and "fine" under their breaths.

The Centaur clopped his hooves. "Okay, now that we've gotten that out the way, we can move onto the matter at hand." Whispers flitted through the crowd. "What matter?" asked Michael Yew from the Apollo Cabin. "Yeah." Echoed a few others. "What matter?"

"Chiron raised his arms for silence. The Lady Artemis has contacted me to inform me that the Hunters will be staying at Camp Half-Blood for a period of time." This time, he couldn't control the raised voices and cries of "What?", "Here?", and "Not them!"

This went on for about half a minute until Nico stood up on his chair and yelled, "Everybody, quit yelling! Did you here me? BE QUIET!"

Silence.

"Thank you," he said as he sat down and turned his gaze to Chiron. "Now, can you tell us why they have to stay here?"

"Lady Artemis didn't elaborate, but she told me she was hunting something she'd rather hunt alone." It was quiet for a few moments until Pollux asked, "How long will they be here?"

"That, my boy, I don't know. But," he gazed so sternly at us all that I felt as if I'd done something horribly wrong. "But, no matter how long they stay and no matter how much they aggravate you-"

"But what if-"

"Travis, it would be wise of you not to interrupt me." Chiron replied in a steely tone. "Right. Sorry." Was the sheepish answer.

"As I was saying, no matter how the aggravate you, you are not-UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES-allowed to in any way, shape, or form injure, insult, tease…"

"Notice how he didn't say 'prank'!" I heard Conner murmur to his brother.

"PRANK," Chiron continued, glaring at the brothers. "or make them in any way feel uncomfortable. Am I clear?"

"What if we-"

"No, Travis."

"Shoot." He muttered under his breath. "Now if there aren't any more questions, I'd like you to gather your siblings and relate to them all I have just told you. Have a good night." And with that, Chiron turned and trotted off towards Mr. D. and their waiting game of Pinochle.

Max's POV "Max, are you sure this is a good idea?" Nudge asked for what felt like the millionth time. "I mean, normally it would be perfect, but now? In the middle of New York City? There's like thousands of people here. Probably more like a million! And what if someone saw us! Than we'd get that fatty policeman called on us again! Which reminds me, what do think that Madame Ben-Wa meant going to a foreign place and the animals and stuff? Did she mean…"

I pressed my fingers to my temples. Nudge: ya gotta love, but at the same time you just wanna duck tape her mouth shut. "Nudge, look, it's getting late and I think we should do this okay? We need to get out of New York, and the erasers won't think to look for us in a car. About the crazy psychic, who knows? Let's just not worry about it. She was probably a phony anyway; they always are."

I started to walk away, but Nudge called out, "But what about the erasers? And the 'furry mistake'? She had to be talking about Ari."

I froze. Ari. My half-brother. Who had been eraserfied. "Sorry, Max, I-"

"It's not you, okay? Just don't worry about it. Fang, come on!" He followed me across the street and into an alley. "Okay, Fang, let's do it."

Our plan was simple: We found a car parked in a nearby alley. Fang would keep lookout while I hot-wired it and then I would drive us to somewhere nearby, but out of the City.

"Fang, is the coast clear?" I asked a few minutes later. I had successfully hot-wired the car and now I was itching to go. "Fang! Did you here me! Is the coast clear?" I whisper-yelled. Ugh. Why wasn't he answering?

I hopped out of the car and strode out of the alley. Now where was Fang? I spotted him leaning up against the wall about ten feet away. In front of him were two girls laughing hysterically at something he must have said.

"Excuse me," I said, striding towards them. Fang jumped, making me grin inside. "Nick weren't you supposed to come get me?"

"Uh…" he blushed. But before he could say anything, the two girls, in unison, flipped their hair over their shoulders and sauntered off. "Well?" I asked, tapping my foot.

"They cornered me and couldn't very well not talk to them!"

"Yeah. Whatever, Romeo. C'mon we've got go."

"I think I'm gonna be sick!" Gazzy yelled as he threw open his window and leaned his head. Unfortunately, two seconds later, I had to swerve to avoid a tree and hit a rock instead. The force of the bump slammed his window closed, nearly catching his nose in it.

The Gasman howled in pain and Angel reached over to comfort him. "Sorry," I told him. "The tree was in the way. Iggy coughed and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'Your brain's in the way.'

"What!" I yelled at him. "Would you like to drive this thing?" That turned out to be the wrong thing to say. "Really! You're gonna let me drive! HA! I knew it! I knew someday you'd come to your senses! That someday you'd se-"

"Ig! I was JOKING."

His face fell. "Ugh! I knew it was to good to be true."

"Look, Ig, I'm sorry but-"

"Max! Watch out!" Nudge suddenly screamed. It was nearly dark and I'd been glancing back at Iggy. But I turned around just in time to see the person. Right before we hit them.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one screaming as I slammed on the breaks. We screeched to a halt, all of us just sitting in the car shaking. "I think we should check to see if…" Fang trailed off.

But, he unbuckled himself, leaned over and unbuckled me, and pried my hands off the steering wheel. "C'mon. We gotta look." Woodenly, I opened my door, mentally bracing myself for the mangled corpse I was expecting to see. But before I was even fully out of the Mini Cooper, I felt a blinding pain in the back of my head and then everything went dark.

Duh duh duh. Don't worry, it will all make sense soon. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! :D