Hello everyone! As you already can guess, my penname is Rufus T. Serenity and I have a Percy Jackson story for you all today! Despite the fact that I've been writing fan-fiction for four or so years by this point, this is my first time writing for the Percy Jackson fandom. As a result, I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave me a review telling what you thought I did well and what needs to be approved.

Now then, let me explain what this story is. This story is a crossover between the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series and the two urban fantasy novels "Dreams and Shadows" and "The Queen of the Dark Things" by C. Robert Cargill. The basic plot is this: After a chance encounter in Austin, Texas while heading to California to save Artemis and Annabeth, Percy Jackson encounters Colby Stevenson, a mortal man with insane magical power who might play as big as role in determining the course of the war between the Olympians and the Titans as him. The two heroes along with their friends and allies will have to work together, overcome their personal flaws, figure out how to work together despite quite different views of the world and the supernatural, and defeat many opponents. They will face off against monsters, titans, witches, and a force greater than any of those!

Since I'm going to assume that most of the people reading this are already familiar with the Percy Jackson series but not Cargill's books, I'll briefly explain the later but not the former. Cargill's books take place in a world that is pretty much our own except that the supernatural interacts with humanity in various ways that most people aren't aware of. The supernatural creatures live in isolated pocket of magical wilderness far away from the modern world, though many of the paranormal beings often go to the cities and other non-magical places of the earth. The mythical creatures featured mainly are of medieval European and Native American origin, although there are also pretty prominent examples of ancient Arabic and Australian mythology too. Aside from that, the most important thing to point out is that the creatures and world of Cargill's books are much darker than those of the Percy Jackson series. They are usually more savage, more tragic, and more unsettling. Despite that, for some strange reason, these books and the Percy Jackson books feel very similar to me. Both series have good characters, a riveting story, a complex backstory rooted in ancient mythology, and twenty-first century narration that is wry and witty. In fact, one friend of mine who LOVES the Percy Jackson series and has started reading "Dreams and Shadows" calls it, "Percy Jackson but for adults."

That actually leads me to my next point. Despite this chapter being rated T, the next one will be rated M. Why this chapter is rated T is because I don't there is anything too bad in this one (with one or two possible exceptions) and I want some people to see this story because it becomes harder to find under the M category.

Now let's relate how this story fits within the timelines of both properties. First, on the Percy Jackson side, the first few chapters will take place in the middle of the third book "The Titan's Curse," somewhere between when they get on Apollo's train in Washington, D.C. and when they end up in New Mexico. After that, the plot will more or less play out through the fourth and fifth books, "The Battle of the Labyrinth" and "The Last Olympian," as well as covering stuff that happens in between the books and between certain events in those books. Now, onto the other side of things, the one related to Cargill's books. At the start of this story, the first half of the first book, "Dreams and Shadows" will have occurred but the second half will not have. Then, by the point we start entering the timeline of "The Battle of the Labyrinth," the second half of the first book and a lot of the stuff that happens between that book and the second book, "The Queen of the Dark Things," will have occurred. I apologize if this is a little hard to follow but I'm sure it will make more sense as you read the story. If you are confused at any point, please just let me know, okay? I'll gladly explain anything that wasn't conveyed effectively.

But enough about this! Let's get to the story itself!

Here's the first chapter of "The Demigod and the Damned": Redheaded Horrors

The night was silent over the great expense of the vast fields in the heart of America. The winter air hung there, with the illusion of thickness thanks to the frigid temperatures. Then, a lone object, streaked across the landscape, shining like a molten comet on the earth. It was a train surrounded by a blinding golden-honey glow. The train traveled faster than any train should go, barreling down the smooth tracks. Its power moved, crackling through the earth that found snow melted as unseasonal life erupted upward. Stalks of wheat and corn and sunflowers grew at the train's touch. It left a razor slash of life and heat and furious green across the grey field behind the train.

Scarring the winter with summer, the train propelled by the sun traveled ever westward, closer to the entrance way to the realm where no life or light penetrated. California.

From a perspective unseen, beyond the Mist, beyond mortal eyes, the train was driven. Apollo guided the train with invisible hands, burning its engines white-hot and blazing. Across America's frost-tattooed map, his will ruled a line in bright red-yellow crayon.

Inside the train, inside a gate of steel-mesh curtains protecting a triple deck of cars were five young heroes, four young demigods and a satyr, tasked to find Artemis, stop a unstoppable beast from giving the Titans the edge they needed against the gods, and save a daughter of Athena. All of them were sleeping now. Zoë and Bianca, two of the hunters of Artemis, were resting in a Lexus on the top deck, no doubt dreaming of rescuing she who made them forever young; Thalia, daughter of Zeus, slept in a black Mercedes SLK. Grover the satyr was resting in the passenger's seat of a Lamborghini. They all were sleeping smoothly. Sadly, there was the fifth and final member of the party, who wasn't even suppose to be there, who could not cleave from his effort's a good night's sleep.

Percy Jackson was a demigod, a son of Poseidon, destined to either save or destroy Mt. Olympus, the reign of the gods, and Western Civilization itself. As a result of this, despite only being fourteen years old, he was no stranger to rough nights' sleeps. He could have blamed it on any number of factors, he was worried about one of his closest friends (who he knew for a fact was gravely hurt if not almost dead), he was on a moving train moving at break-neck speed, or that he was sleeping in the driver's seat of a car. But he knew better. He knew it was the dreams, the dreams of demigods, filled with horrifying and confusing visions that always proved to have great and often grave importance later on. But as he slept on the train of Apollo, getting closer to finding both Artemis and Annabeth in California, he found his sleep especially restless, as the dreams seemed to be fighting for space in his head like dancers at an overcrowded nightclub.

He had already experienced a dream of himself as an ancient hero, wielding Riptide, the same sword he possessed now in its covert pocket-pen disguise, while being guided by Zoë Nightshade, who looked exactly the same as she did now. But then the dream shifted, becoming something totally alien to the Greek demigod, and it unnerved him even more.

It was dark, with only the light of the full moon out of an opened window. Outside there were only vast seemingly endless hills and valleys of desert occasionally broken up by collections of boulders. There was furniture that looked so basic that even the Greeks would have viewed it as ancient. Despite their not being much to go on, it seemed this was a time and place before the ancient Greeks that worshiped the Olympians. The air itself seemed somehow different; it felt older, thicker, flowing with more energy. There was a bed, or rather a simple mat on a dirty floor with a lone worn-out and torn quilt. There was a boy sleeping on it, who looked even dirtier and more worn out then the quilt.

It was difficult to make out in the lack of light but there was a form moving in the corner of the room. And it was only noticeable because of many jewels and bands of precious metal on his robes and hands. One ring in particular, made of silver, on his right ring finger, glowed. Due to that light alone, the tanned and wrinkly face of an old and wise seeming man with a long and neatly groomed white beard could be seen. The clothing he wore was elaborate and finely designed, the stuff of highest nobility or even royalty. His gaze was focused intently on the boy, only shifting every once and while to the window.

A shape, draped in shadow but vaguely humanoid, entered the window at the darkest of hours. The shape crept to a small pile of rations and wages left in the other corner, before making his way over to the sleeping boy. It then sucked on the boy's right thumb.

Right when the lips wrapped around the digit, the old man leapt from his hiding place. The being's eyes, like two glowing yellow wells, widened in sheer surprise. It didn't notice the old man's right hand rise with the palm opened to it before it was too late.

The ring, the one on the old man's right ring finger, suddenly started to glow more vividly, bathing the darkened room in an unnaturally orange light like a wearable sun. The shape suddenly screamed in horror as a brand was being seared into its ebony flesh.

"Stop!" The old man ordered, with the kind of authority and certainty only seen by gods. "Kneel before me, demon!" Though its face showed confusion and fear and pain, the shadowy being obeyed and got down on knees that seemed to waver in and out of solidness. "Tell me, where might I find the rest of your unholy brothers?"

The creature, the demon, shook his head, though it seemed like it was fighting the action. "I cannot tell you, for I do not know. But I know where Asmodeus is, and he is the lord of us all. He knows where to find us and his word is our law. Find him and find us all."

"Summon him."

The demon did so, and a towering shape cut from shadow at least ten feet tall with insanely broad shoulders appeared. It instantly moved to smite the old man. But then the ring glowed again and this being too had a glowing brand forced into his inky black skin. The more intimidating shape howled in pain, with it somehow overlapping with itself, sounding like it was three different but similar hellish voices shouting in near unison.

"Now, bring to me the demons under your command, so that they might build the greatest temple to God that the world has ever seen!"

Despite his eyes smoldering like molten lava pits brighter than any earthly magma, with their being a few spots on his vast shoulders that were illuminated just as intensely, Asmodeus obeyed. One by one, demons were summoned and instantly branded too. Soon there was an army of thirty-six beings that had appearances running the gambit that were united only by their general repulsiveness. The old man was unfazed, even smiling at them. The glow of the ring made his already confident face look down right invincible.

The dream then shifted, rippling like a lake's surface after a stone was thrown.

The same old man, now looking far less invincible with a grime-covered face, rushed up the steps to a structure taller than any other in sight aside from the holy temple to God Almighty that he had built with demonic aid. His face appeared to have aged, with the wrinkles far more pronounced and his beard no longer looking neatly groomed and thoroughly grey. It looked like at least a few decades had past since the previous vision. Below him, on the dirt-covered streets, the kingdom, his kingdom, was in disarray. The poor were uncared for and houses of ill repute advertised their wares in the same streets that were cast in the shadows of temples of worship long since empty and defiled.

He charged up to the palace, walking right past confused guards, and entered the throne room. There, sitting on his throne of ivory that was overlaid with the finest gold and sided by two great lion statues along the arms, was the demon Asmodeus, disguised as him.

The true king raised the silver ring, bearing his seal, and branded the demon yet again. "Expose your true form, so that all may know the demon who ruled the kingdom unjustly!" he roared, his normally clam and regal voice filled to the brim with wrath.

Despite the searing pain, the demon smirked as he said, "I think you would not like it."

"Do it now! The true king of Israel commands it! Reveal your true self, now!"

The demon removed the human form like a cloak, unveiling his true form. Not what the king had seen him in before, but the form he saved only for the fires of the pit below. The king recoiled, trembling as he stared at this abomination, with its six soulless eyes staring him back. In mere seconds thousand upon thousands of infinitely more horrifying visions and images played themselves out in his mind, like he was staring into the coal-black heart of evil itself. Steeling himself, the ruler of the land ordered this demon to summon demon after demon, demanding that it be double the number Asmodeus had brought fourth before. After branding all of the foul beings with his glowing, holy seal, the king had his artisans construct a vessel. The king forced all of the demons into the vessel. Once full, it was sealed with the sign of the king, and branded with the silver ring. He then ordered his men to dump it deep into the sea where none would ever find it.

With the banishment of the over seventy demons, the kingdom once again prospered. The scars of the depraved rule of the demon disgusted as the king mostly faded, but not fully. The king looked on the horizon with a greatly relieved smile, tinged by some subtle sadness. He knew what the demon had done to him. He would have horrible nightmares of Asmodeus' true face, true faces, for the rest of his days. He took some solace in the fact that, for the rest of his reign, no other demon dared so much as set foot into Israel.

Percy Jackson bolted upright in the Lamborghini's driver's seat. He looked, and noticed that Grover was shaking his arm.

"Percy," the satyr said, "The train's stopped."

Trying to shake off his drowsiness, the brunette lazily asked, "Uh, where are we? Did the train make it west? Is it morning?"

Grover looked uneasy, worried, rubbing one of his hairy arms. "Um…to answer those questions. I don't know where we are. I don't think we made it west. And its night."

Those answered blasted the lingering laziness out of the demigod like a sandblaster. "What!? How is that possible!? We were on that train all night! Apollo said we would be across a good chuck of America by morning!"

"A-Apollo?"

"Yeah, Apollo!" Percy said, trying desperately to not take his frustrations out on Grover. The satyr was already sensitive and over-emotional at the best of times, and he didn't want to lash out because of the horrible feelings that being delayed from saving Annabeth caused. Softening his hardened expression, he asked, "Why do you ask about Apollo?"

"Oh…uh…because he's over there, seeing what's wrong with the train," He said pointing forward.

"What?"

The son of Poseidon left the car, exited the train, and looked forward, where Grover was pointing to, and was astonished. True to the satyr's words, Apollo was in fact there. He had ditched the hobo getup from his last visit, instead opting for his other seen appearance. He wore the same jeans, loafers, and sleeveless T-shirt as before. In his drowsy state, it took Percy a moment to remember that it was Apollo and not Luke. It was only a second or two but he felt his one hand curl into a fist. They looked so alike. Both were about seventeen or eighteen in appearance, while only the one trying to overthrow Olympus by aiding Titan lord Kronos actually was. The Sun God had the same sandy hair and outdoorsy good looks. The differences came in the subtleties of appearance, like a lack of scars on his face and a smile that was brighter and more playful. Or at least, it would have been more bright and playful, or a smile, normally.

"Unbelievable, this is simply unbelievable," The Sun God muttered to himself as Percy approached. Thalia, Zoë, and Bianca were already awake and standing near the Olympian. "Ugh, things never go the way you want them to. I had this whole thing planned out. I was gonna be all sneaky and incognito, like Odysseus, or James Bond, or Batman! But someone just had to go and mess with my train. And now all the mystery is spoiled! Argh, I even dressed up like a bum who honored Dionysus too much at the bar!"

In his despair, Apollo pulled his lyre out of thin air, and started another haiku poem.

"My train is so busted.

"Can't help my lil' sister.

"That really blows hard!"

The male demigod really hoped that it was the Olympian's concern over his sister that caused that last haiku's quality, because it was probably the single worst one yet!

"What's wrong with it?" Percy asked as he got next to the Olympian, talking of the train.

Apollo sighed. "I don't know. Somehow, like an hour ago, the train stopped moving. And for as awesome as I am, I can't seem to fix it." The lyre vanished into nothing. He then put a hand to his chin and pondered. Even when annoyed, in the darkness of the winter night, his face was almost blinding, with his eyes flickering like molten gold. That was added to by a devious smirk. "Um, maybe I can get Hephaestus to help by using the "gift of prophecy" to tell him the next few places Ares and Aphrodite will be meeting up?"

Any notion of delight Percy might have gotten from imagining the hated God of War getting ambushed on a date with a girl that was already married was marred by other details. "Wh-what…how, how can anyone make your train stop? You're a Olympian!"

"Maybe it was the Titans?" Thalia suggested.

"Um?" Apollo said, thinking of that possibility, "a good idea. Zeus certainty hit the jackpot with you, Thalia, sweetheart. Beauty and brains, what more could a guy want?"

The daughter of Zeus smiled a little dopily and blushed a bit, despite trying to not do so. A small part of her hated how it had to be hot god who had said that, but the larger part of her wasn't. Seeing someone who could be so intimidating and who had a Goth look be so smitten was oddly adorable in its own way. Percy had to resist the urge to mock Thalia, lest he get a fist to the face or a spear to the backside.

Besides, as odd as it was, a small part of Percy hoped it was the titans who had done this. Given his final dream, he desperately wanted to believe it wasn't that multi-headed demon. Just thinking of the word "demon" made him feel oddly uncomfortable.

"So…" Zoë asked, wanting to move on from her patron goddess' brother's flirting, "where exactly are we?"

"Austin, Texas."

"How do thy know?"

He smiled. "I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff."

'Yeah, aside from meanings of the prophecy given by your oracle!' Percy snapped in his head, knowing better than to ever say it out loud, still mad at not getting a clear answer.

"Oh," Apollo added off-handedly while pointing, "and there's a sign saying so over there."

The demigods and satyr all turned, and true enough there was a sign saying this was Austin, Texas. They all looked at the God of Prophecy with mildly disapproving stares.

If Apollo was aware of such looks, he paid them no mind. Instead, he thought out loud again. "It might take a while for the train to get fixed…so why don't you all go into town for some fun?"

Everyone looked at each other with looking ranging from pure confusion to disbelief tinged with barely contained rage. Their close friend and a goddess, Apollo's twin sister no less, were missed and in danger and he wanted them to go sight-seeing!? But, as much as they didn't like to admit it, everyone eventually realized they couldn't go anywhere until the train was fixed.

"What do you have in mind?" Percy asked. "What's there to do in Austin, Texas?"

"Oh, there's tons of fun to be had!" Apollo replied cheerfully. "Dionysus might be the god of parties but that doesn't mean I'm against a good time. There are more bars and strip clubs than you shake a stick at!" He saw the teens' confused looks. "Oh, and don't worry—Thalia, Zoë, Bianca—there are strip clubs with the ladies in mind." He winked.

Yet again, everyone looked at everyone else who hadn't been alive since people started using AD in their date keeping. Thalia and Zoë, despite their superficial differences, one being a personification of the Gothic look and the other showing classic elegance, both were trapped in a big blush that threatened to overpower their faces. Bianca followed suit.

Fighting against the shock at the suggestion, Percy eventually forced out, "We're teens."

"So?" Apollo asked with a raised eyebrow, not getting what the problem was. Then it clicked a few seconds later. "Ooooh…that's right, you're all under-aged for that kind of stuff. All you mortals seem the same age to me." He said with no sense of apology. It was still so surreal talking to Olympians sometimes, beings with concerns and opinions and mindsets thoroughly removed from those of humanity. Not giving the matter any more thought, the Sun God added, "Okay, well, if your looking for family friendly stuff…how about the Alamo Draft House? Yeah, that'll do the trick!" He snapped his fingers.

"What is…?"

"One of the best movie theaters in the country! Go and see a double matinée!"

"Uh…"

"And don't worry about the train! In fact, here," The eighteen year old who was over four thousand years old said, waving his hand in the empty air. Amid the cold winds, five orbs of fire formed and then morphed into circular pagers the size of a human palm. They floated towards the teens. They grabbed them. They noticed the sun pattern designs made up of tiny little light blubs that currently weren't blinking. "These will teleport you back on the train, no matter where you are, when it starts moving. Oh, and here is some cash for the tickets. Make sure to hog out at the snack bar. The nachos are killer!" He waved his hand again, and roughly a thousand dollars appeared. It had originally been golden drachma, coins from ancient Greece, but he changed it before they could bring it up.

"Um…"

"Go on, go on! You crazy kids have fun! Shoo, shoo!" Apollo said with a big smile.

For the umpteenth time in a few minutes, the teens were clueless about what to do. So, they followed the god's heed. They made left the train yard of Austin and moved towards the city. Their expressions were dazed, still taking all of this in. But, out of the corner of his ocean-green eyes, Percy noticed something walking around the train yard. It was a big stray dog, with mangy fur that was thick, full, and having a salt-and-peeper color scheme. It just stared at him for a few moments, before trotting off behind a motionless train.

Paying the incident no more mind, the son of Poseidon followed the others into Austin.

Washington D.C. had been the last location the group of five had been to before entering the train of Apollo. It had the kind of winter one would imagine, white. But winters in Austin, Texas were not like that. Instead of the whiteness of snow, the primary colors present were brown and yellow. The grass was a sickly mustardy color and the trees, now leafless, were somewhere between buttery and bronzed. With it being near the end of December, the city had started a long, lingering, and earth-toned trod towards springtime. The air was chilly and crisp, but feeling warm when compared to elsewhere.

The demigods traveled through the city that felt both sleeping and stripped bare. They had been walking for several hours, unable to locate the Alamo Draft House. Due to the late hours and finding themselves in the seedier part of the city, they had not come across a single living soul to provide them with directions. Despite being partly divine, the wear and tear of the endless walking was getting to them. Grover looked at the withered up plants around him. While Grover felt bad for them in their current state, he was currently more worried about himself.

"Need…water…" The satyr groaned, "Or…a snack bar would work too!"

"Agreed," Thalia nodded with a pant, with the dark eyeliner around her stormy blue eyes starting to run down the edges thanks to the copious amount of sweat she was generating.

"Some water would be most pleasant to thy, indeed," Zoë added, with the toil of their trek seeming to weigh down her odd accent.

"Too tired to bother arguing with you about how stupid your words are!" Thalia added.

'Well, at least something good is coming out of this walk,' Percy thought to himself. He then decided that since now was as good a time as any to reveal his second dream to the others. The first dream, the one involving Zoë, was not discussed. By the time he was finished, most of those present looked at each other in sheer confusion.

"You had a dream about a creature and place that wasn't from Greece?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah. I'm assuming that's not normal."

"Don't look at me," Bianca said, "I'm still kinda in shock from the whole 'gods and monsters being real' thing."

"I've talked with a lot of demigods, Percy," Grover said, "and I've never heard anything about monsters or eras before the ones of ancient Greece. This might be a first."

"For some reason, I don't think this is the kind of first that's a good thing."

There was gap of a few minutes where no one said anything after that, more or less silently agreeing with Percy's fatalistic assumption. Then, someone spoke up again.

"So, does anyone know where this Alamo Draft House even is?" Bianca asked the group.

"Don't look at me," Percy said, "I've never been to Texas before."

Sadly, the consensus of the group was the same. None of them had been to Texas before.

"Well...maybe we'll find a sign," Grover said, trying hard to remain optimistic.

No one said much of anything as they trekked through a massive, unfamiliar city. Similar to Percy, as much as he hated the walk, the satyr was almost thankful for its presence. It prevented anyone from snapping at anyone else. Between Annabeth and Artemis being taken, there had been plenty of reasons to provoke conflict. They hoped to avoid conflict.

There was piercing scream that stabbed the air for a few moments before getting muffled.

As Grover inwardly groaned about how this wasn't the kind of sign he had in mind, the group of five worked their way down a few alleyways towards the source of the sound. The Satyr's enhanced hearing allowing him to follow even the muted sounds easily.

Soon enough they reached the source of the sound, but as they approached Grover, with a manic face and hushed words, told everyone to hide, since their were monsters here. The demigods followed his advice and took cover behind some various garbage cans. From their covers of disgusting debris, they saw the sight before them, and were puzzled.

Outside of Bianca, all of those present had seen many different monsters, with the recent experience at the Air and Space Museum proving that with the Nemean Lion. They all thought nothing could be quite as scary as a beast with fur immune to all weapons. But as they looked at the creature before them, they all realized that they were wrong.

There were twelve of the unknown beings, and they were exceptionally ugly, the most unpleasant, rotten, dastardly cudgels of creatures one could witness. They were so alike, with little to no physical differences between them. They were all squat and portly, dressed from head to toe in soiled, loose fitting garments. Despite everything about these unsettling creatures, Percy couldn't help but think that these might have been the first mythical beasts he saw not wearing modern clothing of some kind, and that, strangely enough, was what made this feel especially odd. Their feet were cast in iron boots that were rusted slightly around the rivets. They looked like old men with bright red eyes. They had scraggly beards that unfurled almost to the ground from their massive overbites, with the top of the beards being reddish-brown, the middle grey, and the bottom white. Their mouths were mangled, their lips swollen, and their teeth gnarly and jagged. Five sharp, yellow talon-like claws were on display, one at the end of a finger part of a fat fist. But of greater interest was what was in their left hands, long iron pikes.

The weapons were bright red, with the blood of the family they had just murdered. A young man, equally young woman, a child no more than five years old were lying face down with giant crimson holes in their backs that leaked onto the pavement. These beasts stared at their handiwork like a starving man looking at a grand buffet.

Percy felt his left hand tighten into a fist. His rage boiled over as he used his other hand to grab his pen, ready to turn it into the sword Riptide. He knew he'd be using it soon.

Then he saw something so sickening that the fury churning his belly was threatening to escape, along with the contents in his stomach as vomit.

The dozen creatures removed the dyed red woolen caps on their heads, exposing mostly bald heads with the few bits of hair remaining showing the worst case of helmet hair ever. They brought them to the ever-growing pool of blood, soaked them in the red life-juice like they were sponges, and then placed them back on their heads carefully. They released sighs of intense relief, like they had been dying of thirst and hunger, as crimson tears seeped down the side of their faces, falling onto the tops of their long beards.

No one had been prepared for that sight, of these creatures putting human blood on their heads. It was strange and horrific, something they had no foreknowledge about. No matter how strange or savage the appearances or actions of the monsters of Greek mythology, there was usually some precedent, something to draw knowledge from. They conversed with each other in hushed tones, revealing that none of them could recall any Greek myths about creatures that put human blood on their hats and then wore them, or very many that wore hats for that matter. They returned their gaze to the twelve beasts.

They were high—punch-drunk off the fresh soaking of their caps. Tingles rippled along their malformed bodies. Their minds were barely lucid, unaware of the outside world. They were floating on electric currents, each new heartbeat the aftershocks of spent love.

A faint light coming from right next to him diverted Percy's attention from the horrible spectacle. He turned to the source. It was Thalia, who was casting electric currents of a different, far more literal kind, as blue ribbons of energy snaked around her body. Her face was absolutely livid. She appeared to have the same idea as Percy, because her collapsible spear was extended from its mace-can disguise. She was eager to fight.

Suddenly, amid the terror and desire to battle he was feeling, Percy's mind replayed something Chiron had said when the centaur came to consul him after not initially being part of this quest.

"You and Thalia are much alike. The difference is that you are less sure of yourself than Thalia. That could be good or bad. But one thing I can say: both of you together would be a dangerous thing."

Percy felt like they were about to find out, but he hoped it would only be a dangerous thing for those foul creatures.

With a battle cry and the crackling of electricity, Thalia leapt out from behind her cover and charged at the beasts bathing their heads in blood. They looked at her surprised, wondering if they were all seeing the same thing. As she was running towards them, Thalia called down a blast of lightning, which struck several of the creatures at once. The darkened alley was awash with a pure white light that briefly blinded all but Thalia. Amid the confusion, the daughter of Zeus charged to the closet of the redheaded horrors and impaled him with her spear. She had counted on the creature turning into dust after contact with the celestial bronze, allowing her to continue right onto the next one.

But that plan was derailed the moment she found that her spear was still in the first foe's flesh. Her previously rage-fueled and battle-ready expression morphed into raw confusion. She had never encountered any monster that didn't turn to dust after contact with celestial bronze. The Goth's confusion escalated and took on new features as a thick bright red liquid started to pour out of the wound and left an eerie crimson color to the faint glow of the weapon. Slowly, she realized what it was.

Blood! Somehow this monster bled!

Even though the one she had impaled had died, Thalia felt little closure as the blood flowed. She was so in shock, she almost forgot about the nine other creatures around her. Several had bad burns from the lightning strike while another two had been killed by it. The daughter of Zeus only remembered them when one thrust his iron pike at her. Acting with enchanted relaxes she raised her spear just in time to clash with the pike, creating a shower of sparks. She attempted to force the other weapon away but its wielder was stronger, with it feeling like she was trying to push against a car compressor.

The creatures were about to swarm her when all of a sudden arrows started to bombard them. Bianca and Zoë' rained down cover fire from their cover while Percy and Grover retrieved Thalia. Her allies only now had their eyesight recover enough to truly help. The young man and satyr got back to the others right as they stopped firing their arrows. The main reason for this was because, while they were successfully piercing the creatures' hides, they weren't killing them. The worst they had done was impaling one in the left eye. While he howled in pain and the blood flowed down his cheek like a thick ruby tear stream, he didn't go down. The shaft was still lodged in his eye, but he didn't remove it. These creatures must have had insanely high pain tolerance.

Similar to Thalia moments ago, all of the demigods and satyr recoiled at the sight of blood. Monsters weren't supposed to bled.

Normally these capable creatures would have swarmed them, but they paused too. They also realized something about their opponents. Slowly, it all clicked, made sense to them. These were human that could see them, that could call down the elements to come to their aid, and had weapons designed to take down things aside from other humans.

"Demigods…" One of them said, presenting those foul teeth and breath that smelled like a burning dumpster, like fire and soot passed over swelling rot and rancid produce. The other eight followed suit. Any lingering effects of their blood-high were obliterated. Their expressions were now overflowing with the lust for bloodshed and the hunger for sadism.

"This will be a day to remember, boys!" A second one said, as the others cheered.

"Oh, what a boon you shall be!" Another echoed, with him sounding on the edge of ecstasy, "Your deaths will be slow. We will get every. Last. Drop! With your semi-divine blood, we shall not need blood for decades! No more animal or human blood for us!"

"You use animal blood?" Grover asked in shock. "That's horrible!"

The four demigods looked at the satyr in disbelief, as did the crimson-capped creatures.

"Hey, Dietrich," one of the dark creatures asked the companion closest to him, snapping out of it first, "is a satyr's blood more like a human's or a animal's?"

"Good question, Axel. I don't actually know," answered Dietrich, pondering it for a moment or two before raising his pike, "but I know a way to find out!"

"Run!" Percy screamed. He and the others darted away as quickly as they could.

The chase was on. The iron-boots of the creatures clanked and clanged on the ground. The demigods darted down alleyways, climbed over obstacles, and kept a good pace. As young and as athletic as they were, the semi-mortals were only delaying the inevitable.

They didn't know that these were redcaps, and redcaps are simply impossible to outrun.

The redcaps knew this, and they savored the looks of fear and terror that would appear on these demigods' faces when they realized that fact.

Soon the demigods were realizing how bad the situation they were in was. They were in an unknown city, in the middle of the night, with weapons that didn't kill these creatures easily, and they had no knowledge of what these things were to begin with. Plus, on top of all of that, they'd been tired and thirsty before this chase started. Things looked bleak.

"If anyone has any ideas, now would be a really good time to share them!" Bianca said.

"I've got one!" Thalia remarked as she brought her hand towards her charm bracelet, "Percy, stay with me! Everyone else, keep going!" With that, she tapped her bracelet and out came Aegis, her shield. The bronze weapon was decorated with an image of Medusa's head that could scare the daylights out of moral and monster alike.

And the reaction of the redcaps proved to do just that. They recoiled in sheer horror at the sight, with several of them covering their eyes with their hands; accidently creating small cuts as their curved, yellow talons scraped against their cheek flesh. The sight was oddly cathartic to the two demigods. The redcaps even screamed. None of them dared so much as take another step. They stayed that way for a good ten seconds.

Then, a few of them looked at the terrifying piece of metal anew, with disbelieving eyes. One of them, with his eyes partially shielded, took a tentative step forward. Nothing. He took much wide step, acting as if he was forcing his way through an active wind tunnel. Nothing. He took several more equally wide steps and still nothing negative occurred. Some of the others looked at him and realized the same thing. This shield did nothing. It was a scare tactic and nothing more. Looking at each other, they grinned and advanced.

Thalia and Percy once again were stunned. They had never met anyone or anything that got over Aegis like this! The only thing that snapped the two teens out of it was all of the horrors running to them at full speed.

"I hope you have an idea, Percy!" Thalia said with considerable alarm in her voice.

Percy looked around, desperate to find anything that might give them an advantage. His ocean-green darted around ceaselessly until they focused on a target; a fire hydrant. An idea formed in his mind. Pointing at the red object, he shouted, "Hit it with your spear!"

Not having time to ask why, Thalia drew her spear and smashed the fire hydrant into pieces. Water blasted its way out of it as a massive geyser in the middle of a city. Focusing on the spray, Percy channeled it in a grand arcing motion straight over his and Thalia's heads. From there, the water slammed into to the charging redcaps, blasting them off their feet. They hovered about two feet off the ground, trapped in a swirling vortex of water that formed a more or less straight tunnel. They fought futility against constantly moving currents that lifted them off the ground, but every attempt to breech the water resulted in it repairing itself before anything more could be done. As much as Percy would have had liked to keep things this way, he doubted he would have the energy to do so, or that the water would keep coming. With that mind, he froze the water, raised it to ten feet into the air, and then hurled it down at the ground with violent force.

The sound of the collision was akin to many cannon blasts experienced up-close. Jagged shards of ice, some as big as swords, impaled the various kinds of trash and walls around. Percy didn't know if it was more dumb luck or his water powers that spared he and Thalia. He didn't have time to dwell on it, as some of the redcaps started to stir. They were obviously banged up pretty badly, some had broken limbs and others had icicles still impaling them in places. Three of them didn't get back up or move at all. As good as it felt to cut the numbers of these foul fiends by half, it was a pyrrhic victory. The ones remaining weren't nearly injured enough to attempt finishing them off without backup.

He and Thalia ran off. Their breathes were starting to get more labored, more draining. Both of them had used their demigod powers, and that was starting to make them tire. They quickly caught up with the others, who had apparently not been too far away, most likely wanting to see if their help was needed. United, they once again ran in desperation.

After running for what had to be a solid ten minutes, the demigods finally had to stop. They were in an alleyway that only had one feature to differentiate it from the rest of them, there was a guy puking in it. Some unfortunate soul was empting his stomach near trashcans next to a particularly unpleasant looking building near the alleyway's back; a single light that flashed on and off above him revealed his presence to the demigods.

"Okay…okay…I-I think it's all gone. I think it-" He said to himself, with occasional hiccups serving as misplaced commas. He burped slightly. "-I think-" He felt his insides roiling, his gut muttering as loudly as he. He burped again. Then he vomited again, puking up a mess of booze and cheese. "Oh. Lasagna was a mistake." He vomited again. Struggling to get away from his mess, he made it a few feet away before collapsing.

Ignoring him, the teens were torn about what to do. Thalia and Zoë wanted to fight them, saying that their numbers were cut in half and they were all injured. Grover and Bianca wanted to avoid them, citing that they didn't even know what these beasts were. Percy was caught somewhere in the middle, torn about what the right call was.

Then they heard the clang-cling of metal boots on pavement and concrete. That made their choice for them, further enforced by six squat and yet intimidating shadows at the entrance to the alleyway thanks to the streetlights behind them giving them added menace. The redcaps were there, all looking even more eager for the kill. Their pikes were raised and their pace of approach was full sprint. Their red eyes were squinted, focusing upon their targets like the dreaded furies of Hades themselves.

Percy glared back just as harshly and revealed Riptide in its true form, a medium length xiphos made of celestial bronze that had been washed in the golden ichor of Ares himself. Thalia extended her spear and equipped Aegis, with her stare, mirroring that of the King of Olympus, rivaling that of her shield's legendary frightfulness. Both Bianca and Zoë primed their bows of Artemis. Grover cowered and prayed to the Fates for a miracle.

And for whatever seemingly limitless cruelty the Fates possess, they seemed to listen.

"Now, I'm gonna enjoy gutting ya like…" One of the redcaps gloated sadistically, before stopping midsentence, trailing off into worry. His expression promptly changed. "Oh no…" All of the fire and brimstone in his eyes vanished and was replaced by raw fear.

"Oh, w-what is all this then?" The drunken man at the back of the alleyway muttered.

As quick as a flash, the redcaps stopped dead in their tracks, grinding to a screeching halt. Their iron boots literally left a piercing screeching sound and sparks on the ground. The frightening faces of the five redcaps were awash with absolute fright.

The teens saw this and were profoundly confused, so they turned towards the source.

The man who was drunk and sitting on his backside in a dirty alleyway was tiring to sit up. He had done so five times beforehand, aggressively rocking himself upright, before managing to succeed the sixth time. He propped himself up on wobbly arms.

Percy looked at the others, seeing if the Mist was playing any tricks on his eyes. Their expressions told him that it wasn't. This drunk who could barely stand was what scared the redcaps so much, what scared the same horrifying creatures that had withstood the power of the offspring of both Poseidon and Zeus? The man walked towards them, and as he did the group of five each looked over this seemingly ordinary but puzzling presence.

He looked grizzled and tired, well past his prime despite barely being over twenty. His face was that of a world-weary twenty-one going on forty-five. The top of his head was a tangled mop of greasy red hair that grew in long shaggy tufts. It actually grew longer than he liked, but not long enough to remind him to bother getting it cut. Underneath this carroty top was a scrawny excuse of a young man, with a gangly, frail, and freckled frame that drooped and bowed as he walked forward. The unimposing nature of his physique was enhanced by a twitchiness that randomly rippled along the feeble form, seeming to go back and fourth between a perpetual nervous tick and a muscular defect.

As he got closer, the demigods got a better look at this odd man's facial features. Like his body, this man's face was gaunt, almost sickly looking. There was a field of red-brown stubble, almost thick enough to distract from his pointy chin. Almost. His eyes were sunken with deep and dark circles pooling beneath them. And his nose was a tad too, for lack of a better word, cartoonish to seem real. It was the kind of face people laughed at.

But despite his comical appearance, the dour expression and grim countenance kept him from crossing into the realms of looking goofy or creepy—leaving him merely awkward and gawky. The true effect of his face, though, was the total result, greater than the sum of its parts. Sullen and beaten, tired and drained, his overall demeanor was that of tool worn all the way down. He had the look of a man who just didn't give a crap anymore.

He stopped when he got a pace or two behind the demigods. His eyes surrounded by skin like shadow surveyed the situation. He went back and forth between the humans and the redcaps several times. Nothing held his gaze for more than a few seconds aside from Grover, who started to shake ever so slightly at the greater attention he was receiving.

The mysterious young man turned to Percy, who happened to be the closet person to him. "You're all human, at least partially, aren't you? And you all can see the redcaps too?" He asked cautiously, with an undercurrent of unconcern.

The son of Poseidon reeled back in sheer surprise. There were several reasons for this reaction. Firstly, here was a rogue demigod (he assumed he was one) who had survived into young adulthood outside of Camp Half-Blood. This was something unheard of to him. Secondly, if he wasn't a demigod, that meant he was somehow mortal who could see through the Mist and that was even more unlikely. The only other mortal he knew of who could do that was his own mother, a lover of his Olympian father. Thirdly, he seemed to know what these creatures were, despite none of the other demigods having a single clue. And finally, and most importantly, he seemed unfazed by any of it. Fighting against his own shock, Percy eventually nodded his head.

Without saying a word, the redheaded man took a few paces, until he was between the teens who couldn't have been more confused and the redcaps who couldn't have been more terrified. Once he was there, he just stood there for a solid ten seconds. In that time, the twitching of his body seemed to slacken considerably. It was still present, but it wasn't quite as noticeable. He then inhaled deeply as his lips unleashed a crisp 'tsk'. "So…how can I help you!?" he asked, with a sudden jolly tone that felt so artificial.

"D-don't interfere! They are ours to hunt and drain!"

"Are they now?" he asked with a raised eyebrow as he leaned back to look at them. "That's most interesting. Because, unless I'm going blind, I don't see 'property of the Limestone Kingdom's shit-stains' written on them? Let me guess, it's in the fine print?"

Percy and the others were amazed at how causally, how flippantly, this man was handling himself. Despite them seeing how strong and vicious these creatures were, he didn't seem to care. Some of the group of five couldn't help but wonder how much of that was the booze talking, which cast a thick odor almost as powerful as the stench of the redcaps.

"S-Stay…stay away, Colby!" The leading redcap said, trying to sound scary but still coming across as scared. "These demigods are ours! We need their precious blood!"

"Yeah…about that," The haggard looking men, Colby apparently, said with a drawl, "see, I'm not cool with that. You redcaps disgust me, and well, I kinda hate your guts. You'll have to look elsewhere. Why don't you go and find a dead cat somewhere?" He crossed his arms while flashing a smirk he knew really twisted the redcaps' insides.

"Why don't you go and fornicate with your human boy-toy's ass!?"

Colby's expression darkened, the redcap was worried about what line he just crossed. "I'm not going to ask nicely again. Leave now, or it will be extremely painful for you." He ordered, his voice no longer seemed drunk or sarcastic, he sounded powerful, serious.

The redcaps balked at the shift, then the lead one got cocky again as he flashed a smirk of his own, with his looking like a collection of jagged tombstones worn down by decay. "You're buffing, wish boy! No matter what your power, you wouldn't kill any of us! Even you can't take on the entire Limestone Kingdom by yourself! If you disbelieved any of us, the fairy court would hunt you down and hang you up by your entrails!"

"Sadly your correct, Dietrich," Colby admitted with a sigh of disappointment. Dietrich gloated over his victory…until the human smirked back, "But who said anything about killing any of you?"

Some of the redcaps' red eyes widened as they realized what Colby had in mind. The others were ignorant of the world of hurt that was about to be unleashed upon them.

The twenty-one year old spoke his next words confidently, like he was reciting them from a page he had committed to memory, "Lord, bow down thy heavens and descend. Touch the mountains and they shall smoke. Send forth lightning, and thou shalt scatter them. Shoot out thy arrows, and thou shalt trouble them. Put forth thy hand from on high, take me out, and deliver me from many waters. From the hand of strange children!"

Instantly, the redcaps recoiled in horror so serve and so consuming that it made their earlier panic at seeing Aegis look like they had seen a spider before quickly killing it. They grabbed their ears to block out the sound, but the words passed through unblocked. Their clawed hands did nothing but tear out pieces of their faces.

Colby then yelled, repeating himself, "Lord! Bow down thy heavens and descend! Touch the mountains and they shall smoke! Send forth lightning, and thou shalt scatter them! Shoot out thy arrows! And thou shalt trouble them! Put forth thy hand from on high! Take me out! And deliver me from many waters! From the hand of strange children!"

Each of the six redcaps had fallen, writhing in absolute agony, suffering from terrible seizures. Their insides were boiling and bubbling up. Their deformed bodies became even more disfigured as blisters popped up and bloody patches of skin became cleaved off. Sores oozed pus. Eyes became swollen with blood and tears. Every breath became agony. One redcap tried to tear at their beard, pulling out bloody clumps with meat at the end. Another pounded on their own skull with clenched fists, leaving massive indents. Anything was more bearable than this. They hoped to dull the pain by replacing it with another. But there was no dulling this, no pain that could rival this. Their bodies were starting to smoke and flickering embers could be seen starting to ignite and spread.

"Lord! Bow down thy heavens and descend! Touch the mountains and they shall smoke! Send forth lightning, and thou shalt scatter them! Shoot out thy arrows! And thou shalt trouble them! Put forth thy hand from on high! Take me out! And deliver me from many waters! From the hand of strange children!"

One by one, the redcaps each stumbled to their feet and ran away as fast as they could. They screamed as they flee, acting as if they had just seen the pits of Tartarus. Any longer and they would have incinerated in place, leaving only a pile of ashes in their boots. It was better to flee than face that fiery fate. Soon all but one of them had fled.

"LORD! BOW DOWN THY HEAVENS AND DESCEND! TOUCH THE MOUNTAINS! AND THEY SHALL SMOKE! SEND FORTH LIGHTNING! AND THOU SHALT SCATTER THEM! SHOOT OUT THY ARROWS! AND THOU SHALT TROUBLE THEM! PUT FORTH THY HAND FROM ON HIGH! TAKE ME OUT! AND DELIVER ME FROM MANY WATERS! FROM THE HAND OF STRANGE CHILDREN!"

The last redcap, Dietrich, could take it no longer. He too fled behind his brothers. As he fled, his foul voice shouted curses and vulgarities that were mostly drowned out by Colby's shouting. That same shouting rung loud in the alleyway echoing against the walls; the last few syllables faintly reverberated a few seconds after Colby stopped.

The twenty-one year old looked at the feat before him with mild enjoyment, and nothing else. "Damn redcaps, always gotta shout my ass off. Leaves me with such a dry throat." He turned around and saw that all five of the teenagers had their mouths hanging open. That caused a small smirk to form on his stubble-ridden face. "Yeah," he said with that smirking starting to grow, "that's all it takes to scare away some redcaps. They are all about bloodshed and battle but shouting a little scripture gets them fleeing like rabbits. And the best part, it doesn't have to be Christian scripture. Any kind of holy text will do; anything from Jewish and Islamic to Hindu and Buddhist. But then again, I doubt that would have helped you that much. The Greek gods never saw fit to give people a holy book. The closest you've got are the epic poems of Homer and the Theogony of Hesiod. Why would you get anymore? After all, human beings were annoying ants made by the titans who the gods only kept around because they liked fear-filled offerings, yes?"

There was something about that question, and this man's tone, that made the demigods writhe in instinctual anger. It was rare to ever hear a being disrespecting the gods like that unless they were a monster or titan. Hearing a demigod, or even a mortal say it was unheard of. But since he was insulting either their parents or their beloved masters, it was absolutely infuriating. Percy was especially mad, with this man's bitter anti-god attitude reminding him of Luke, the one being whom he hated more than anyone other than Ares and Kronos. Only the demigods' exhaustion and gratitude for this man saving them saved him from their wrath.

"Listen," Colby said, "I can tell that you've got a long story to tell. If its got demigods in Austin, I'm gonna need a few more drinks. It'll help me handle how badly the infallible Olympians have screwed up this time. Please follow me inside. The bar's still opened."

"B-but-but," Percy said, still reeling in the shock of it all, "We're teens!"

"So I've noticed," Colby said matter-of-factly, before smirking, "Don't worry, you don't have to drink anything. I'll drink enough for everyone present!" He chuckled a bit at that. "Now, come on." He took a few steps forward then he stopped. Not even turning around, Colby added, "Oh, and you can stop hiding, satyr. Trust me, no one in there will be unnerved by some goat horns and hooves. There are patrons inside that are way odder!"

With that, the twenty-one year old walked forward. The five teenagers remained there they were. They all knew they should have felt happy or grateful to for being saved. However, there was something about this stranger that just made them feel unsettled. Regardless, they had no other options, and this Colby didn't seem to mean them any harm. Despite how scared he was Grover confirmed that this guy wasn't a monster.

The four demigods and the satyr tentatively followed behind Colby. They all hoped they hadn't simply traded one kind of redheaded horror for another.

Okay, so, that was the first chapter of "The Demigod and the Damned"! I hope you liked it!

Now, I know this chapter didn't tell you too much about the world of "Dreams and Shadows" and "The Queen of the Dark Things" but in some ways that was the point. This chapter was meant to introduce some parts of the world and get your interest up for the reveals about it to come later. Part of the reason was to see if there would be any interest in this story idea. Despite me really liking this idea, I already have a lot of stories that I'm currently working on. Even so, I felt the need to test the waters of a new fandom. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter and if you'd like to see more of this story, okay?

Building off of that idea, since I've never written for any of the Percy Jackson characters before, please let me know how I did writing them, okay? Percy and Apollo have me especially concerned.

I'm also curious to see what everyone thought of that flashback scene to a time before ancient Greece. That will have HUGE importance for later in the story! I wonder if anyone can guess what event that is depicting and why that might be important. I look forward to seeing your guesses! :)

Anyway, with nothing else to say, I look forward to seeing your thoughts on this!

Until next time, please read, review, favor, follow, and spread the word!