A.N. So I've been getting a lot of responses for characters! Which are all great by the way, but I do need two satyrs, and some younger Demi- gods. You can submit more than one character (it makes my life easier). So, since I miraculously don't have much homework today, I decided to start writing my story. The next chapter will probably be uploaded later next week. And you won't see your character this chapter, I wanna give you guys a taste of my writing, and so that those who haven't submitted can come up with characters!

Disclaimer: I do not own the astounding Percy Jackson series, but I do own Chance and Marina.

Chapter 1: The first step is: acceptance.

Chance P.O.V.

I always hated working on the weekends. People coming and going, stupid people asking stupid questions. Screaming children crying for attention and the latest toy, parents arguing with one another about the cost of a new computer. Then again, it could be worse. I could not have a job, and sink my foster parents into deeper debt, but I would bet that anything would beat working at Sears. On a weekend. Just before Christmas.

"Yo! Sterling!" I turned away from the shelf I was stocking to watch my boss charge at me. "What the hell do you think you are doing? I thought I told you to help on the floor!" Bright red face, angry eyes, and a furrowed eye brow, all he's missing is the steam out of his ears, Mr. Gran screeched in my face. "Well?"

"Uh… Sir. That was two hours ago. A woman complained that we were low on toilet paper, and I went into the back to get more and re-stock." My voice quivered as I feared for his reply.

"Fine." I was shocked. "I want you to finish that shelf and take a break." Mr. Gran's tone was still harsh, but he seemed less pissed. He turned around before I could thank him. I glanced at my watch: 3:15. Four more hours, four more hours. I kept chanting to myself as I stacked, staking and chant in perfect rhythm. For the next 5 minutes I attempted to look busy so that the old lady that kept walking past the aisle wouldn't try and talk to me. When I finished, I waited till she past one more time, and escaped into the break room, to clock my break. I removed my vest, and stepped out into the mall, that our store was conveniently placed in.

I watched people running in and out of stores clawing for last minute gifts. Parents coming in and out of the Disney Store with new movies for their kids; coming out of Build-A-Bear Workshop with their children's new best friends; and coming out of Children's Gap with their "little angel's" new winter coat.

It was all so amusing to me. I watched two girls my age enter the mall through the main doors on my right. They were laughing and talking about whatever their lives revolved around, and didn't even glance at the Salvation Army Santa. What they did notice, to my dismay, was me. And, of course, they made a bee line right. Towards. Me.

"Hey there." A New York accent very prominent in her voice brought me to the need to wish I wasn't where I was.

"Hi." Was my great reply.

"What's your name?" The other girl had no accent. And up close I could see similarities in their faces. Cousins.

"Why?"

"Ohh…. Playing hard to get." N.Y. answered. I didn't know their names, nor did I want to. "I like that." She gave me a sickly sweet smile, and took a seat on the bench next to me. "What are you doing out here all alone?" And there's the hand on the shoulder I was praying would never go there.

"Work break." I answered and looked away. I looked anywhere but at the girls, praying that a co- worker would come and save me. Heck, I wouldn't even mind some stranger coming to my rescue. And well, that's when I saw her.

I'm gonna pause here, and just say, that looking at this girl, right here, right now, I would never guess that she would be such a prominent part of my life. I would have never seen past her beauty. But boy was I in for a surprise. And now I continue.

The two girls tried to strike up a conversation with me, by asking questions, and coming up with answers themselves. Their voices mixed together with the buzzing of the mall, as I watched this girl. She was walking with a woman who must have been her grandmother. The girl, from what I could tell, had striking green eyes, from 5 yards away, I could see them clearly. Her hair was down and it cascaded down her shoulders in waves of auburn. Her eyes twinkled as the older woman talked. I couldn't get a clear view of her, but from what I did notice, she was shorter than Mystery Girl. The two studied the mall's diagram, devising a plan on what I assumed was a shopping escapade.

"What are you looking at?" No Accent asked while smacking my shoulder. The two glanced around furiously looking to see what had stolen my attention from them. "Her?" she pointed rudely at Mystery Girl, with a polished finger. "She is what you were looking at?"

"Yah, her? Come on, how is she prettier than us?" I to a quick glance at the girls on either side of me. I had to admit; both were very pretty, but in a way that they were trying to prove it to everyone. Including themselves.

I took another quick peek at Mystery Girl, and noticed that she was staring at our group; she noticed N.Y. had pointed at her. She mentioned something to the woman she was with, and they departed ways. The woman walked with her back to me, all I could see was her long brown hair. Mystery Girl, on the other hand, made her way towards me.

"Hey! There you are!" She smiled at me and, to mine and the cousins shock, kissed me on the cheek. "Your mom mentioned that you were working today, and I thought since I was coming to the mall today, I would stop by and say hi." She continued to smile. "Who are these two? New friends?" She turned to face the girls. "My name is Marina, I'm his best friend. Who are you two?" Her smile continued to sit on her face, while her eyes held a look that read, "Get the hell out of here". The two took the hint, and took off.

"Thank you so much." I stood up to shake her hand.

"It was no problem." Her face fell back into a normal stare. "That one girl pointed at me, and gave a look. Kinda pissed me off." She turned and left. She completely turned her back on me, and walked away. I took that moment to be a normal teenage boy. Not gonna lie. She strutted away in some dark blue skinny jeans tucked into some black boots, and a green v-neck that matched her eyes; which I noticed weren't green. They were this weird mix of blue and green.

"STERLING! GET OFF YOUR ASS AND GET BACK IN HERE!"

- 4 hours later -

My shift finally ended. It was 7:15, and I was off the hook. I walked back into the staff lounge to get my stuff to do some last minute shopping.

"Hey, Marcie, I'm off so I'm gonna get out of here." Marcie was a woman that I had worked with the past few months. She was 24, with a 2 year old son. She treated anyone like her kin.

"Alright. Oh," she stopped me. "If you wanna wait like 20 minutes, I can take you home. I don't want you walking in this weather. It's below 30, and we're just luck that it hasn't started snowing. And knowing your luck, you'd be half way home when it started to." She gave me a motherly smile.

"No thanks. I need to do some last minute shopping for Mason, Grace, and Marissa. I was gonna catch a taxi home."

"Alright. Well, be safe and I'll see you tomorrow." I waved for her as I left the store.

Walking through the mall, I found myself walking towards the back with arms full of gifts for my adoptive family; and mind full of nothingness. I wondered where Mystery Gi- Marina, had gone to; I wondered what was going to happen to me.

It was late, around 10 o'clock, so I wasn't surprised to see that the mall was completely desolate on this end. But I was shocked to hear clacking noises. No, not like high heel clacking noises. Clacking like, hooves. I turned to face the peculiar sound, and I almost crapped my pants.

Not even 100 feet away from me, was a woman in a black leather jacket, with wrinkly skin, and deep purple bags under her eyes. Oh, and in her hand was a chained leash. On the other end of said chain leash, was what scared me the most. What I originally thought was a huge guy with a face deformation, wearing a wooly blanket, was really a bull, on human legs. Yah. I know.

I dropped my bags in pure fear.

"Now honey, I know you're scared. But you need to come with us." She gave me a sickening smile, as she showed me her yellow pointed teeth. Wait, pointed? The bull man gave out a snort, and clawed the mall floor, giving a screeching noise.

"Uhh….." Was my brilliant reply.

"You can do this the easy way, Honey." And then it happed. She morphed. She busted out of her body, I guess you could say, and all of a sudden she was a winged, taloned, thing. "Or the hard way!" She dropped the chain and dove right for my head, claws out reached.

I saw my life before my eyes. Or at least I thought I did.

A slashing noise was made, and a hiss bounced off the sides of hall. I opened my eyes.

Standing in front of me was Myst- Marina. Her hair was up in a high pony tail, I could catch a glimpse of a blue streak of color in her hair. Her arms were in front of her, she was wielding a sword. She stood in a battle stance.

"YOU!" The bat lady person screamed. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes wide in fear.

"Well Alecto." Marina laughed. "I just so happened to be in town. Thought I'd lend a hand." She then glanced at the bull. "I see you've brought the Minotaur. Funny. Why do you keep regenerating, when my family always seems to send you right back to Tartarus?" The bull let out another angry snort. And charged. Right before the bull could hit her, she jumped out of the way, and brought her sword through its stomach, and it bursted into golden dust.

"What the he-?"

"Look out!" She dove and knocked my on my back. I watched as the bat thing's talons brushed right past her ear. "Stay here. Don't get up. Don't move." I nodded. It was the only thing I could bring myself to do.

Facing the bat thing, Marina took her stance again. One foot forward, the other back. Weight even and sword out stretched. They both charged. Talons met sword, as the two attacked. Marina dodged as the bat attacked, and took a slice at its wing, causing it to hiss as a small laceration came from the lowest part of its leathery wing. The bat took a nice scratch to Marina's upper right arm. Both were furious.

The bat dove again, and Marina ducked out of the way, and kicked it into an unmanned, closed kiosk. The kiosk collapsed, and fell on the bat. There was no movement, no noise.

Marina took a deep breath, and turned to face me. She was covered in a light coat of sweat. What hair became loose, stuck to her face.

"Here" She offered me her hand, which I took and pulled me up. "Are you ok?"

"uh…. No! Of course I'm not ok. Are you kidding me? That thing was a bat, and, and, and there was a bull that you said your family has killed before. And that thing was a bat!" I was shaking and freaking out.

She smiled. "I'm just glad you are having a normal reaction." She was going to add more, but was stopped by the knife protruding from her side. "Oh." She let out a small gasp. She turned around, and came face to face with the bat thing. She pulled out her sword again. The bat thing turned to fly away, as soon as its back was turned, Marina threw the sword. It sailed through the bat like a knife through butter, and it too, turned to golden dust.

Then she fell.

"Marina!" I turned to see the woman. Her long brown hair sailed behind her as she made a mad dash to Marina, who was on her knees, at my feet. "Gods dang it, Marina." She grumbled. She reached for something in her bag. A small cube thing, and fed it to the half conscious girl. She glanced at me, and back at her granddaughter. "Well, let's go."

I found myself dazed, and in the back of a car. The woman, whose name I hadn't caught, was talking, trying to keep Marina awake. We made our way through the bustling streets of lower Manhattan.

"Well Marina, you are as compulsive as your mother. Since I want you to not fall asleep, you can tell him." I perked up at the mention of me. Marina's voice carried over her seat to me.

"Did you ever meet your father, or mother?"

"I was raised by my mom. Never met my dad. Why?"

"Have you been diagnosed with ADD, and Dyslexia?"

"Since I was 4. Why?"

"Do you believe in Greek Mythology?"

"Greek Mythology?" She turned around in her chair with difficulty, and faced me.

"Like the Greek gods: Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Hades. The heroes: Hercules, Achilles. The monsters: The Minotaur, the furies."

"Uhh…. I do now?"

She smiled. "Good answer." She looked even paler then before. "You are the son of one of those gods. I am a daughter of one of those gods. My grandmother and I are taking you to the camp that trains people like us. Camp Half-Blood. "

"Wait, what?"

"You, Chance, are a Demi- god."

"We're here." The grandmother's voice filled the once silent car.

"When she stops. I want you to run up that hill screaming. Scream like you have never screamed before. Ask for Dan Ozuna."

"But nothing is following us, and who is Dan?"

"I know. Dan is the best healer that the Apollo cabin can offer. I'm kind of a big deal. And I'm wounded. Badly." The car came to a screeching halt, and I made a mad dash for the hill. My legs carried me as fast as they could over the hill, and what I saw took my breath away, but not enough to keep me from screaming.

"HELP! HELP! SOME ONE! PLEASE HELP!" Every person that I could see turned and looked. "I need Dan Ozuna! Marina is hurt!" I saw a blond guy jump up from wrapping up a young kid's leg, grab a bag, whistle and sprint my way. I turned to run back to the car.

Marina was in the front seat, and her grandmother was trying to get her to open her eyes. Dan was hot on my tail. I threw open Marina's door, picked her up, and carried her to a more accessible spot.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a winged beast. It followed us! As it got closer, I realized that it couldn't be that bat thing. It was bigger, and then it all went black.

Well that's the first chapter. I'm also going to make this the first thing for the actual story so that people keep reviewing. Hope you enjoyed!

REVIEW PLEASE!

-xX9Softballchick9Xx