This takes place after The Last Olympian, and a couple decades after the end of Little Shop of Horrors. In other words BEWARE OF SPOILERS! I am also using a combination of the play and movie endings for the Little Shop AND I'm using original characters who have little to no connection with the main cast of Percy Jackson.

Disclaimer:

I own the ocs… but that is all. Rights go to their respective owners.

Enjoy.

~ - ~

On the twenty-third day of the month of September

in an early year of a decade not too long before our own,

the human race suddenly encountered a deadly

threat to its very existence.

And this terrifying enemy surfaced,

as such enemies often do,

in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places.

~ - ~

"Are you insane?" she squeaked.

I have to admit, it's a pretty good question, one that I wasn't exactly sure I knew the answer to.

CRASH! The barricade we had set up on the door was going to fail any second now and I had responsibility of this new demigod. A hissing voice was heard above the noise. "Open up in there, half-bloods! You can't hide from me!" I glanced out the window at the dumpster a few stories below, but it hadn't come to that yet.

"You're just going to have to trust me on this one." I said, pulling out my cell phone.

"Trust you? I can't even remember your name," she flinched as the dracaena beat the door again. "I think you're in my English class, but I've never even seen you anywhere else. What are you doing here? What is that thing that wants to eat us? What the… why do you have a sword?"

"And a shield," I said, twisting a clip on my emo bracelet, as I called it, and letting it expand into the large leather shield I had learned to fight with. My cell phone had already turned into the bronze bladed Nightmare. "Now listen, in a few minutes that thing is going to smash through that door. As long as you stay in the background you should be fine." I grinned, "I was one of the best fighters during the Second Titan's War, defeating this dracaena should be a snap." I neglected to tell her that I was slightly out of practice since the follow up of the war had been building new cabins instead of training.

The door and the stuff we had piled up in front of it sort of exploded into the room. The girl shrieked, drowning out a battle cry that the dracaena hissed as she slithered into the room. "Now, half-bloods, prepare for the worst pain you have ever-"

"RUNNY MILKSHAKE!"

Ok, maybe it wasn't my best battle cry, but it got the job done. The dracaena was more than a little bit confused as I flew at her face, yelling about ice cream. She was able to block my first two swings, but the third one cut into her arm. She hissed and lunged, I dodged and took the rest of the hit on my giant shield.

Darting up underneath my defense, I aimed for her stomach again, one of the few places not covered with scales. Suddenly, my left arm was twisted behind me, she had grabbed onto my shield and gotten out of my range. I could still stab her if I wanted to, but I wouldn't be able to aim.

I had to get free of this before she broke my arm and I could think of only one way to do it.

"Don't try it." One of the voices in my head scolded. I dropped my sword.

"You'll still break your arm," another yelled. The dracaena hesitated, wondering why I had disarmed myself.

"You have to take care of the girl," a third one persuaded. I grabbed the edge of my shield with my right hand.

"That kid sure is crazy, am I right?"

"Mmm-hm."

Success, my feet flipped over my head as my shield arm untwisted. With the rest of my momentum I punched Dragon Lady in the face, tugged my shield out of her hands and… fell over backwards onto the floor. Smooth.

"Nice one, kid, way to mess that one up."

"He did get a good hit in, at least give him that much."

"Yea, one hit and now he's disarmed and on his butt, listening to us argue."

Angry voice was right. I glanced around and spotted my sword on the ground a few feet away.

Someone shrieked. I spun around and saw the dracaena grab the girl I was supposed to be protecting. My mind raced and there seemed like only one thing I could do. I stood up and ran straight at the two of them. The dracaena hissed and backed up. The three of us crashed through the window.

We're gonna die, I thought, we're gonna die, we're gonna die. The fall took a lot longer than I had expected and the dracaena kept flailing around underneath of us. We landed with a crash a few seconds later on a giant pile of garbage. The dracaena hissed and exploded into dust and we sank down into the filth.

"Holy…" the girl sqeaked, "you are crazy."

I grinned, "What was your first clue?" I stood up and held out my hand, "The name's Stephen Matthews. And you?"

"Catie, Catie Thomas," she said, taking my hand.

I helped her up, "Well, Catie, there's a lot to explain but we need to get somewhere safe before more monsters show up. Let's go."

~ - ~

"So, Greek gods still exist?"

"Yep."

"And so do the monsters?"

"Mmm-hm."

"And one of my parents was a god?"

"Apparently."

"And because of that the monsters think I'm a tasty munchy that needs to be eaten?"

"Sadly, yes."

Catie groaned and leaned back against the seat of the bus, "Could this day get any worse?"

I glanced around at the other passengers. We were on our way to the camp, but it was taking a while with New York traffic. I didn't think I was doing a very good job at the comforting part of being a seeker. I patted her on the shoulder, "Cheer up, you were lucky enough to miss all the drama of the last few years. You're coming to a newly reformed Camp Half-blood."

"Really," she looked at me with interest, "how was it before?"

I bit my lip, it wasn't a topic I enjoyed talking about, but I didn't want to seem rude. "Before the Second Titan's War, which ended just last year-"

"You said something about that in the room."

"Yes, well, before then there were a lot of kids who didn't get claimed by their god parent," I hesitated, "some were major gods who had temples but were too busy, and some were minor gods who couldn't have claimed their kids if they wanted to. We were stuck in Cabin 11 with the Hermes kids, because he's the god of travelers and such." I shrugged, "This one Percy Jackson kid basically saved the world and demanded that the gods change so there would be no more undetermined kids. Now we've got a lot of cabins at camp and we can sign up to go out in the world and find new demigods. That's why I'm here. The satyrs usually do it, but they're a bit short-staffed."

She breathed a sigh of relief, "So I'll be claimed when we get to Camp Half-blood?"

"Unless something is seriously wrong with our demigod detector, than yes." I answered.

She looked me over for a few minutes, "I give up," she sighed, "is it rude to ask another demigod who their god parent is?"

I grinned, "Son of Morpheus, god of dreams."

"I see," Catie nodded. Her eyes drifted to the front of the bus. I followed her gaze. The seats were dirty and a few had been carved with graffiti. We were two of the few passengers on the bus. There was the bus driver, and an old man with crazy hair sitting in the seat behind him. But none of that had caught Catie's eye. Three high school age girls dressed in old hand me downs and sports jackets shared a seat near the front. They hadn't been on the bus when we got on and we hadn't picked up any passengers since then, but there they were. "Are there any other side affects that come from being a demigod?"

"Of course there are, stupid!" the angry voice inside my head yelled at me.

"You be quiet," I thought back at it. "Yea, there can be a few," I explained to Catie, "it usually depends on the parent, but if you start having a weird feeling that you have to do something, or really odd dreams you shouldn't ignore them. It's fate or something else like that and they usually mean something."

The bus screeched to a stop and the door opened for more passengers. Catie's eyes widened and I looked up to see the three girls stand up and walk towards the door. There was a sinking feeling in my gut that told me I shouldn't let them out of my sight.

"Stephen," Catie whispered, "we have to go."

"Yeah," I mumbled, "I think you're right." We stood up and shuffled towards the door as fast as was possible in the narrow aisle between the bus seats.

They stepped down the stairs and onto the street and I rushed faster, almost afraid of letting them get away. A few seconds later, Catie and I stood on the sidewalk. The girls were nowhere to be seen and I didn't feel like finding them had ever been very important. Catie, on the other hand, was glancing around through the crowds of people, still searching for them.

I looked around, too. We were in a pretty bad part of town, it was dirty and many of the people looked depressed. I wanted to get back on the bus but Catie grabbed my hand and said, "This way." I blushed, I'm sure I did, but she didn't notice, she was too busy dragging me through the dirty alleyways of this place. I wasn't such a big fan of physical contact, and the comforting pat on the shoulder was as far as I wanted to go.

"Um, Catie, do you mind? Catie?" She dragged me around another corner and stopped short. Her fingers relaxed and I was able to break away. If she noticed, she didn't show it, she was too busy staring at something on the ground.

"Oh… my… wow…" she whispered, "Stephen it's… it's…" I focused on what she was looking at, expecting something absolutely amazing and mind-boggling.

"A plant?" I asked, more than a little disappointed, "It's just a plant."

"Just a plant?" she said, kneeling down to touch the little weed, "Stephen this isn't just a plant."

"Well, what is it?" I asked, leaning foreward. I saw immediately that she was right, I had never seen another plant like it, and definitely not in New York city.

"Well, I don't know," Catie brushed a strand of wavy brown hair out of her eyes, "it looks like some sort of flytrap. I might be able to identify it in one of my books."

I looked at her. "You know a lot about plants?" she nodded. "I wonder if you're a daughter of Demeter." I looked back at the plant.

"It sure is bizarre." The kinder voice in my head admitted.

"Bizarre?" Angry voice snorted, "That thing should join the freak show."

"You should probably get out of the alleys," the worried one squeaked, "they are very dangerous."

"Hey, Ronette, you hear something?" I jumped at the sound of a voice outside my head.

"It's over here, Crystal," one of the teenagers we had been following stuck her head around the corner and grinned. "Hey Crystal, Chiffon, looks like those twerps on the bus found our little Twoey." She stepped forward and the other two weren't far behind.

"Who are you?" Catie stuttered.

"Girl, that ain't none of your business, eh, Crystal?" Chiffon smirked.

"Sure ain't," Crystal answered. "Little half-pint of a half-blood thinks sh so high an' mighty."

"So girl," Ronette said, "you think you can handle this here plant? Sure hope you can girl."

Catie looked slightly offended, "Of course I can handle this plant, I'm sure I've cared for worse."

"Well good," Ronette said, she snapped her fingers and suddenly the plant was in a coffee can full of dirt. "'Cause it's yours, girl."

Catie picked up the coffee can and stood up. We both eyed it, suspiciously. I could have sworn the thing was smiling at me. It was creepy, and speaking of creepy…

I looked up and noticed that the three girls had disappeared. I nudged Catie. She looked up and gasped. "Where'd they go?"

I shrugged, "That happens a lot, you get used to it." I looked around, "Well, let's get you and that," I looked at the thing, "that strange and interesting plant to camp half-blood before we run into anything else weird."

~ - ~

End of chapter one. Feedback is always appreciated, reviews, praise, criticism, even flames to an extent. Thank you.