Chris Kim

(Author's Notes)

Hey there people of the internet! I'm Christopher, Christopher Kimson, and this is my very first attempt at a fanfic story! Yay for me! Anyways, I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a REALLY long time now, and decided to have a go at it! Recently I've been trying to find a story where the mist suddenly fails in the Percy Jackson series, but all of them are either too short, or too poorly written in order for me to properly enjoy them and none of them addressed the political or social consequences/ramifications such an event would have on the fictional world of Rick Riordan's story. So I've decided to take matters into my hands, and write up my own story of the accounts of Percy Jackson in a world without the Mist!

Also, I've always wondered why mortal weaponry would not hurt monsters in anyway shape or form. I thought that if Percy can drop a bowling ball on a couple of Gorgons and kill them (as stated in the book Son of Neptune), then why can't a standard frag grenade completely shred a monster apart? So, in order to give the mortals a fighting chance, the monsters will have insane regenerative abilities, but anything with a big enough boom to fully vaporize a monster will have that monster stay dead. Regular bullets will still be ineffective however, and celestial bronze weapons will still be much more useful in the sense that where it would take several anti-tank rounds to put down a cyclops, only one good stab from a sword is needed to completely disintegrate it. Anyways, enough ranting for me, so enjoy the story! (reviews and comments are greatly appreciated as well)

Hecate was brooding in her chamber. After the defeat of the Giants she had to work overtime to keep the mortals from noticing anything strange going on. Sighing, she was about to vanish elsewhere to perform more duties when she suddenly felt a cold presence enter her room.

"Who's there! How dare you enter my room without my consent!" as she stood up in indignation, she suddenly gasped when she saw who was at the door. Quickly trying to summon a spell, all she managed to squeak out was half a word before the room was plunged into darkness.

Her screams were never heard.

New York City. The largest of its kind in the world, the center of Western Civilization as we know it. But what the mortals don't realize is a whole other world right in front of their eyes, and they can't see it. Thats right. What I'm about to tell you is crazy, but it's pretty much the truth. Gods and monsters exist. And the center of the Gods power? You guessed it, Manhattan.

You see, the gods follow western civilization, first originating in Greece, then to Rome, and so on and so forth, until they ended up in the good ol United States of America.

My name is Percy Jackson, and if you're reading this, well, I guess we managed to save the world. Again. If not, then sorry for wasting your time, and enjoy life in the underworld.

I'm sure you know all about our stories and the countless power hungry deities we've had to face down in the past. Kronos and Gaia to name a few. The latter war having just ended a few years ago. During the subsequent clean up, I had asked Annabeth "So, what else could the universe throw at us?" (My fiance by the way.) The words just came right out of my mouth without me even realizing it, and from the horrified look on her face, I had just realized the stupidity of what I just said.

You see, you never, EVER, tempt the Fates, period. Past experience of doing so usually ended up with wrecked property on a massive scale, and lots of dead mortals or demigods. But seriously, it's hard to get any higher on the "Most dangerous villains scale" when you literally fought the entire freakin Earth, and I couldn't possibly think of anything else that would be worse than that.

I bet the universe was just laughing its ass off at me at that moment.

After the second Giant War a few years passed, and things were starting to normalize for us. I finally managed to acquire a high school degree, and I plan on moving to Camp Jupiter with Annabeth for the summer once I sort things out before setting off for college. Everything was going wonderfully. The rest of the seven have either stayed in Camp Half-blood, or those who originated from Camp Jupiter have returned back to their home there. As summer approached, I called up Annabeth, and told her I wanted to take one last walk through Manhattan with her, since it would be the last time either of us would get to see it in person for a long while.

"You know, I'm going to miss this place." I said. Annabeth snuggled in closer. We were staring out at at the small lake in Central Park, taking in the scenery on a bench.

"Why? Because of the smell?" joked Annabeth. I lightly punch her in the arm. "Ok, ok!" she laughs. Gods, her laugh. How did I forget something like that? Oh wait, Hera. Next time I see her, she's getting one goddess sized slap upside the head for stealing my memories.

I breathed in, taking in the air of the park. The sky was clear, not a cloud to be seen. Kids played in the lake, and couples like us stuck to each other, watching life pass by.

"You do know we are eventually coming back right?" Annabeth said.

"Yeah, but not for the foreseeable future." I said.

"Nice to know your optimistic."

"Right back atcha wise girl."

We've could've sat there for hours on end, just enjoying each other's presence, but then it happened. People nowadays always ask me if it started with something big, something loud and noisy. Well there was plenty of that waiting for us in the future, but that's not how the beginning of the end had started. It started with silence. Total silence. That was enough to put us on edge.

Then came the screaming.

Startled, we had vaulted to our feet, scanning the surroundings for the source of the disturbance. Hours of intense combat has honed both of us to be efficient warriors on the field, and taking in every detail, no matter how trivial, is the difference between life or a very painful death. Suddenly, the screaming intensified, and a crowd of people rushed past us, desperate to get away from something. Annabeth and I both shared a look, and rushed towards the commotion. In the pit of my stomach though, I already knew what was going on. There!

A cyclops was rampaging through the mortals, bashing them all over the place like a bowling ball through a row of pins. Reaching into my pocket, I was about to pull out riptide when I noticed something that froze me cold. The mortals, they seemed to actually know what was attacking them! My thought was solidified when the screams became coherent enough to understand them.

"What the hell IS THAT?!"

"Some kind of monster! Call the police!"

"Screw that, where the hell is the military!?"

I would have stood there in shock, wondering as to how in Hades did they see past the mist, if weren't for Annabeth punching me hard in the arm.

"OW! What was that for?!"

"No time to gawk! We have to save those mortals!"

"But they, how can they-"

"We'll deal with that later! Now MOVE!" she yelled as she charged forward.

I took off after her, and in moments we reached the cyclops. He was a big one, but the closer we got, the more we realized something was off about the cyclops. Its eyes were jumping wildly, searching for a way out. And it didn't seem to be going out of its way to be killing people, only batting those away who got too close. And it seemed young too. Young and confused. Must have been wondering how in the world the mortals could see him, after all these years of being ignored. But it was a danger, and we had to end it before more people got hurt or killed by the errant monster.

"HEY! OVER HERE!"

Now granted, getting the attention of an angry, confused cyclops would be a bad idea in the general sense, but you have no idea how many times that tactic has actually worked. As the thing lumbered towards me, I lifted my hands and blasted the cyclops with a concentrated stream of water from the lake. Blinded and soaking wet, it stumbled forward, only to end up with a dagger straight through its heart, courtesy of Annabeth.

"You're dead." She says. Turning to me she asked " You ok?"

"Not a scratch!" I replied.

"Ok, what now?"

That question was answered with a loud roar echoing down the park.

"Follow that roar!" I yelled.

We double timed it out of the park and into the streets of Manhattan, where the sight of hundreds of mortals running in panic mobbed us. It looked like a scene ripped straight out of some apocalyptic movie. In the distance, a hellhound was terrorizing a family trapped inside a van. We could see that it was just moments away from breaking into the vehicle and turning everyone in there into a red paste. Not enough time to reach it. So I shifted my grip, muttered a quick prayer to whatever god was in charge of badass knife throws, and threw riptide in a straight arc, right into the hellhounds skull, where it sank in with a nice *SHUNNNK*. It whimpered once, before it dissolved, leaving behind a tooth and one traumatized family. Running up to the van, Annabeth pried open the doors while I cut away the seatbelts.

"Everybody out, NOW! Find someplace to hide, and lock the doors!"

The family, too shocked to even notice I was wielding a sword, ran off into a nearby building, yelling their thanks along the way. Just in time too, when a mob of wild centaurs showed up. We were about to charge headlong into battle, when I was suddenly shoved aside. I looked to see who had done so, right into the helmeted face of NYPD officers. Geared for battle too, it looks like. Behind them, a squad of National Guardsmen.

"Civilians! Get behind us! NOW! We've got this!" yelling as he moved to place me behind their line.

But I knew it would take more than bullets to harm monsters.

"You can't kill them with bullets!" I said in a panic.

"We know! We fought these things earlier, anything smaller than a .50 BMG won't cut it! But that's why we brought these!" said a soldier as he hefted a SMAW onto his shoulder.

"Their advancing! Incoming arrows!"

Annabeth dragged me behind a car just as the arrows began thudding into the ground around us. Seriously, I lost count of the number of times she had to drag me out of danger. Two guardsmen took one to their body, but the kevlar stopped them from penetrating their vests.

"Hah! Losers can't even kill us!"

"Focus on the battle private! All soldiers, OPEN FIRE!"

I wondered as to how they were supposed to kill them, when they knew that their guns wouldn't do anything, when I realised that they weren't trying to kill the monsters, but herd them into one large group. Sure, monsters can't be killed by small, conventional firearms, but 5.56 NATO rounds will still hurt like hell, even with the regenerative abilities. As they guardsmen laid down more fire, the centaurs began to huddle together behind a few cars to avoid the flying rounds. The sergeant motioned to the guy wielding the rocket launcher.

"Hit em!"

"Back blast clear! Firing!" he yelled. Two clicks and a spent SMAW later, the centaurs cover was blown away, along with a few of them vaporized into dust. Many still survived however, regenerating, their essence reforming to fix lost limbs, or blown out intestines.

"Their reforming!" said an officer.

"Oh hell no! Get the grenade launchers out! Lay it into them!"

Covering our ears as we watched the battle, I was pretty awed by how easily mortal weaponry could put down a group of monsters. Well, maybe not that easily, one still needed a ridiculous amount of explosives to do so, but it's hard to come back to life after being shredded by thousands of scorching pieces of metal. But there lay the problem. Availability. The officers had no such explosives on them, and the National Guard had to make do with a supply drop they had gotten earlier.

"That was the last of the nades! What the hell do we do now sir?!" The leader fiddled with his radio before responding.

"We evacuate the civilians! Get them them past the G.W bridge, and into the F.O.B!" Then he turns toward me and Annabeth. "Now, who the hell are you two, and what do know about all this?" I looked at Annabeth, and she gave me the "Let me do the talking" look."

"Sir this might sound crazy, but considering whats going on right now, your going to have to believe us." She took a breathe in. "We are a people granted with certain, ah, abilities, so to speak."

"What kind?"

"Let me finish and you'll know!" she retorted. "But anyways, the main thing is that we can see monsters, see them as they are. For you, they looked like animals, or humans, but not for us. And for that reason, the monsters target us constantly. We've been fighting them our entire lives, and the only reason why they have left you mortals alone-"

"Why did you just call me a mortal?" asked the sergeant.

Oh shit, I thought. Annabeth gulped. "Well you see, that's what call humans who don't have the vision. Just a thing we made up to label regular people." I began to worry. We could have just straight up told him that we were demi-gods, but that would lead to more questions, and more time wasted, time that we didn't have. Both Annabeth and I realized that Camp Half-blood could be in serious danger right now, and that we had to get there as fast as possible. Also, I needed to get my mom out of danger along with Paul (my step dad), and I didn't feel like letting out our secret just yet to the mortals, with their reaction something I didn't want to risk our lives on. The sergeant sighed.

"I see. Well, regardless, our orders are to evacuate all civilians, so you're coming with us." Motioning to his men, he began to lay out orders. "Lieutenant, take your squad and escort these two to the bridge, the rest of us will coordinate with whoevers left to assist in the evacuation! Alright men, we're oscar mike!"

"It's fine, there's no need for that." I said. "We've got our own mode of transportation." The soldiers looked at us funny as I let out the loudest New York taxi cab whistle in my life. Seconds later, Blackjack showed up, landing on the hood of a car. Immediately rifles were lifted and cries of panic rang out.

"You summoned a monster! Somebody frag it!"

"Stand down!" I screamed out. "He's friendly!" I turned to Blackjack. "Hey there man, sorry about the guns, these guys are a bit jumpy today. Anyways, we need a fast evac to the camp, and I need to rescue my mom. Think you can get us there?" Blackjack whinnied an indignified response. "Okay, okay! I get it you can." Chuckling, I lifted myself onto him, and reached out for Annabeth. "You coming?"

"Who said you were leaving me behind?" said Annabeth with a smirk. "Not like you would last ten minutes without me anyways."

"Alright then!" I said, pulling her up onto Blackjack. I then turned to the soldiers, who were slack jawed in amazement at what they were seeing. "Remember! You can't kill the monsters without a really large explosive! Avoid fighting them if you can! Oh, and watch out for cyclops! They can throw humvees around like baseballs!" I yelled out, as Blackjack lifted into the air, leaving behind a group of stunned mortals behind.

As we climbed higher into the sky, I began to notice the extent of the carnage that was being inflicted upon Manhattan. The beginnings of several fires can be seen everywhere, air sirens were going off, and the occasional explosion scarred parts of the city. Across the river, a large contingent of police vehicles were trying to force their way into the city, while military jets screamed past. Blackjack had to make some evasive turns to avoid the swarm of news helicopters, the passengers all gaping in amazement as we zoomed past, while filming us the whole way. Great. Now I'm on National TV. Again.

I felt enraged, and pain at seeing my home being burnt and mauled to destruction, for the second freaking time, and I knew that for as long as I lived, that image of New York City burning would be ingrained in my mind forever. But then it all fell away, when I realized why we're covered in a large shadow when there were no clouds to be seen. I looked up.

Mount Olympus was visible in all it's glory, the golden roofs and marble buildings all shining in the sunlight, and it was where the largest concentration of military aircraft was converging on. Annabeth summed up my entire thought in that moment with one sentence.

"Oh for #%s sake."