Prologue: Out of Time
Aaron Fletcher was in deep trouble.
It had been an hour since the first monster had attacked him and his mother in their tiny San Fran apartment.
Forty-five minutes since his mother had explained about the gods.
Thirty minutes since the gorgons were on his tail.
And he was five minutes fro his destination.
"It's useless dearie" one gorgon crooned above him.
Sh was flying right over his head and swooped down to rip a harsh gash in his back.
"Argh!"
Two minutes….one minute….thirty seconds….
He could see the door now.
Two sentries manned it: a tall black haired boy a little older than him and a black girl his own age.
They waved for him and the last thing he thought before succumbing to blood loss and unconsciousness was how beautiful the girl was with her gold eyes and delicate light dark skin and curly hair…
….."You're beautiful" were his first words as he regained consciousness and with horror realized the girl was sitting right next to him.
Her hands were over her mouth and she was blushing.
And then there was a roaring laughter and his vision came back enough to see the boy was there too, his green eyes sparkling as he laughed. They were in some kind of medical tent with a cot and medical tools, like an army surgery.
"Looks like Em finally has a boyfriend"
"Shut up Odie" the girl snapped. "The kid's hurt, he's delirious."
But she was still blushing and all Aaron could do was stutter
"Uh…."
"Sorry, sorry..." the boy chuckled. "Welcome to camp, anyway."
That got his attention. He tried to sit up.
"This...is camp Jupiter? I made it?"
The girl finally made eye contact with him and smiled. Okay, all not completely lost.
"I guess we can skip the 'so you're a demigod' PSA film."
"There's….there's a film?" Aaron asked drunkenly, still woozy from the blood lost.
She giggled. "No." Then she made him lay down by gently pressing on his chest which made his heart beat fast.
"I'm Emily. Emily Zhang."
"Z...Zhang?"
"Yeah. Dad's Chinese. This is my cousin Odie."
"Odysseus" the boy said sharply "My name's Odysseus. Odie is a dog in a comic strip."
Emily swatted him playfully and he wished he had known his cousins growing up.
Just then a short but beautiful woman came in holding what looked like linens and something purple. She smiled broadly showing off brilliant white teeth than contrasted with her dusky black skin.
"I see your new friend is awake. Em, get your father. Odie, get the medic."
Emily gave him a bashful grin and Odie—Odysseus—punched him lightly on the arm before they left the tent.
"I see you met my daugher. And Odie. He's the son of friends of mine, the Jacksons."
"Yes, ma'am" so that was what they had meant, being cousins.
"I'm Hazel Zhang."
"Aaron Fletcher. A pleasure , ma'am."
"And you know? About the gods?" she asked, giving him the purple thing which turned out to be a tshirt with SPQR on the chest.
He exchanged it for his RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE shirt.
"Kind of" he said, wiggling his head through. "My mom told me a bit….our apartment was attacked….do you think she's okay?"
His throat constricted. He had never been so scared, or so scared for his mother, in his fourteen years of living.
"The monsters would be after you, not her" she said gently. "But you can contact her just as soon as we patch you up."
As if on cue a wiry teen boy came in and made him eat a piece of bread. Instantly blood flowed to his cheeks and his injury healed.
"Woah" he gasped.
Mrs. Zhang chuckled. "The first time you have ambrosia is always a shock. What'd it taste like?"
"Like...like the orange chicken at Chang's,a restaurant on my street.
Her eyes became distant "Mine is always gumbo..."
she shook her head and smile at him.
"So you're mother is human...do you know who your father is?"
"besides apparently being a god? Not a clue."
"Well" she said, throwing him the white line which he saw was a toga, like an honest to god toga.
"We'll find out."
She helped him put the toga on ("It may be big….it's an old one of my husband's….")
He pushed himself up and opened the tent flap, determined to find out who he was.
A/N: This idea has been floating around in my since I wrote Aaron into Letter In Ink. I've been wanting to do something with my second gen characters so here this is!
If you have not read Letter in Ink this second gen universe is like this: Frank and Hazel have one daughter, Emily Marie Zhang. Annabeth and Percy have four Children: Odysseus, Sarah, James, and George. Both families live at Camp Jupiter and they work for the camp. Piper and jason have twin sons, Aneas and Vincent and they are counselors at Camp Half-Blood. Leo and Calypso have two sons and a daughter and they run an auto shop in Texas.
And that is all you need to know! I hope you like this small prologue and pleade feel free to comment! Thank you for reading!