Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series, I only took the basic idea and some of it's characters (not yet featured) and played with them a bit.

The synthetic beats protruded to the speakers, hypnotizing the masses of students into dancing in their newest grotesque manner. Glancing around the hall, it was hard to make out who anyone was, with the darkness that filled the room, broken sporadically by the lights of lasers and retro disco balls. It was no help that everyone was wearing a mask.

Most were plain, just a simple one-color mask that covered not much more than the eyes. Faces of red, green, black, white, blue, purple; you name it, there was a face of that color. Then you had the more extravagant, attention-getters. These had feathers, and were bedazzled to sparkle and shine in the lights, and leave the wearer covered in glitter by the end of the night.

Along the edge of the crowd there are two girls, obviously close, laughing and having fun dancing without being plastered to one another. One is in full princess garb; a rich purple dress that has echoes of a Grecian feel is draped on her body, ending just above the knees. Conservative compared to most of the dresses, but not to the extreme by any measure. Her hair is piled up on her head, held in place with a silver tiara, but some curls have fallen out of place, but instead of looking out of place, they frame her face as if they were intended to be that way. Her mask is just as beautiful in that simple effortless way, plain purple satin with silver sequins bordering the edges, making her blue eyes seem to radiate.

Her friend is dressed in a simple red strapless dress, accessorized with a golden pendant of a bow and arrow, golden bands on her forearms, and worn gladiator sandals that climbed up her calves. Her mask was red, with a golden sun that seemed to light up encircling her left eye. Her eyes were darting across the room, searching each face as if reading each one's soul. She was having fun, but seemed distracted and on edge, as if something were about to go horribly wrong.

The DJ made a transition into a slow paced song, and they watched as most of the students paired off, the ones that were left wandering off the dance floor and towards the refreshments. One emerged from the crowd of lovers and stalked toward the two friends with meaning. He was dressed in pinstriped slacks with a tuxedo shirt and a deep red bowtie that was undone. His face held a smug sort of smile on his face that made the girl in red exclaim, "You just can't help yourself can you?" All she got in response was a quick shrug of his shoulders.

"I hope you got some work done, and not just suck face." The girl in purple said with a scowl.

"Calm down, princess. I got everything you wanted done before I met those three." He gestured behind him without looking and sure enough, there were three girls standing across the way, alternately drooling and fighting with one another.

"We're supposed to be keeping a low profile, Dustin! You can play with mortals' feelings later." The red girl said.

"Well then, you two are doing a just as horrible of a job as I am. I mean, come on, a daughter of Aphrodite and a daughter of Apollo, neither of which are shabby in the looks department, you have had several guys making fools of themselves over you." His voice was the deep, husky kind that you couldn't help but be attracted to. His deep brown eyes weren't any help either, but his charm wouldn't work with these two. They'd both known him for far too long.

"Yes, but we aren't getting distracted. We're here to get a job done. In. Out. Forget about it. Not a run for personal gain." With her brilliant blue eyes sending deathly daggers at him, it was amazing that the young man wasn't cowering in fear or dead. Instead he just shrugged and turned to the other girl, who was fingering her pendent and whispering.

"Is it time? Do you sense them? Are they near?"

"Dustin, hush. She's in the middle of praying for our safety. Unless you don't mind losing your pretty face." The boy shut up.

A few more seconds passed, both of them watching their smaller companion finish up her rushed words. When she was done she looked up and at each of her companions and then turned to face the other girl. "Althea, the boy behind you with the green tie. Dustin, the boy getting punch at the refreshment table, wearing blue. I'll handle the one that's hiding." Dustin had turned and run off, waving to his fan club on the way to the table. Althea looked at her friend with concern.

"Are you sure you can handle this, Lizzy?"

The girl fingered her pendent some more, before nodding her head. She assured her friend, "He can't hide forever, and I am the most likely to discover him."

"That may be exactly what he wants…"

"Althea, go. Green boy is getting suspicious of Dustin, he may go to help his little friend, and as much of a pain Dustin is, we should get him back to camp in one piece."

Althea nodded before turning and muttering something along the lines of "stupid boys…"

Lizzy tapped her bow and arrow pendent twice, and suddenly there was no necklace around her neck, but there was a golden bow and quiver strung across her back. She quickly crept into the crowd of bodies all dancing up against one another again with the song having changed again to a more upbeat tune.

At the sound of giggling girls, she shot a glace over and saw that a swarm of them were flocking around a guy dressed in red. Rolling her eyes she continued slipping through towards the front, she had maybe moments before the other two were in place and attacking, she had to find her target, and quick. She glanced behind her, to see if she could get a visual on her friends, but there was no sight of them, if she didn't hurry, this could end badly. The other two were of minimal power, unable to mask themselves very well, but the third… He was powerful.

More giggling, and for a second Lizzy was just going to ignore it, until a flash of red movement caught her eye. She turned, arrow notched at the ready, and lucky for her. The guy in red was now staring at her, and something wasn't right about him. She couldn't really tell. She glanced away, but the red movement was back. Again she turned to look in the boy's direction, but he was gone.

She was wondering how he had managed to escape his hoard of love-struck fans, when a slight red movement, brighter than before was in her peripheral vision. She turned to look, and not quite fast enough this time. There was a silver flash, and she felt pain sear her thigh, right above her knee. She didn't dare look at it, because she found the source, the guy in red was almost out of sight now, but readying for another throw of his dagger-like weapon.

Lizzy released her first arrow and watched it fly as another arrow replaced it on her string. She should have guessed it was the red one, he was bound to attract as many, if not more, females than Dustin (not that she would ever tell Dustin that, it would burst his bubble). He managed to dodge her first arrow, and barely missed the second. She knew she should be focusing more, she only had so many arrows, but this guy was tricky, if she tried to look too closely at him he would become a red blur, but as soon as she looked elsewhere, he was crystal clear. It was like trying to kill a ghost, and she hoped her friends weren't having as hard of a time with their monsters.

She heard a slight sound of clashing swords and guessed that Dustin was in battle now. It made her feel a little better, knowing he was fighting meant he wasn't dead or captured, now if she could just see the flash of Althea's arrows making a connection.

Returning her attention to her own fight, she realized that she was down to her last three arrows. This wasn't good. She ignored the pain that was spreading through her left leg and started working her way closer to her target, there was less of a chance of missing, if he had less time to predict the arrow's flight.

Unfortunately, he seemed to understand her plan and started backing up once he had an extremely close call with an arrow. With two arrows left, and her nearest backup also in the middle of a fight of their own, she felt the odds of winning slipping away. She had to nail him with one of these arrows, or he would get away, and she could not allow that. She released her second arrow, and started praying.

It missed.

Dustin found the guy as soon as he neared the table close enough to see that there were a lot of girls there, and that they were all around the dude that Lizzy had told him to go for. His eyes narrowed. He hated it when some other guy was winning the attention of beautiful women; especially when the other guy wasn't even part human.

He sauntered up slowly, at the far end of the table from his target. He couldn't start attacking right away, it would just alert the other two, and if Lizzy hadn't found the last, that could be really bad. Crazy as she was, if anything happened to her Dustin would never forgive himself.

Before he could go reminiscing down memory lane, he looked up from the punch he was pouring to size up the guy. He was very ordinary in appearance, other than the odd blue glow that seemed to emanate from him, and the fact that he got blurrier the longer that Dustin tried to look at him. Deciding to just keep cruising up the refreshment table as casually as possible, Dustin took a fake sip of his punch. By now, he was half-way to the guy, and had the feeling that he was getting the feeling of being surveyed, so he looked down at the cookie selection for a few moments before "passing" on the cookies and daring a look at the target again. He was stunned to find him gone, the giggling girls still there.

Not wanting to let it show that he was surprised, he kept working his way down the table and glanced behind him to make sure he wasn't in danger there. After making it to the end of the table and going to lean against the wall a few feet away, he started to take in his surroundings. There was a gorgeous girl trying to get his attention across the room. Normally, he'd probably send her a charming smile and a flirty wink, but he was in hunting mode, and couldn't let something as little as a mortal girl shake him. He glanced over towards the direction that Althea had been sent to see that she was effectively managing to keep her eye on her prey as well as monitor his progress. They shared eye contact for a second and he knew that they were both hoping for a signal from Lizzy that she had found the third, or that they should attack.

Suddenly, there was a blue shadow at the corner of Dustin's vision, and he turned to find his target standing barely 5 yards away, glaring at him, with a silver sword drawn. With no time to look back at Althea to communicate that, whether or not Lizzy had found her own target, it was go time.

He drew his sword and lunged.

Althea was worried about Lizzy as soon as she turned her back. Lizzy was a powerful half-blood, but her powers were not in fighting, they lied elsewhere.

She dared a glace at Dustin to find that he was pouring some punch, playing the casual card, but one look at her target and Althea could just tell that he was suspicious of Dustin. Althea tried the walk-by method, she hated using it, but dealing with a guy, it was one of her only chances to distract him. She summoned as much of her mother's power as she could muster, and walked in the boy's line of sight, trying to make it seem as if she were even slightly interested in him.

To her surprise, it worked, not well, but just enough. She had his attention, and kept it momentarily. He seemed to forget what he was doing just a few seconds prior and when he looked away from her, he didn't seem to go back to tracking Dustin.

She glanced back over to see how he was progressing and met his eye for a moment. She could read from him exactly what she felt, that they needed a sign. She looked back over at the boy in green and found him edging closer to her, but discreetly. He knew that she was tracking him, and was going to try and beat her to the punch. She wouldn't have much more time to stall him now that he was aware of why she was watching him.

He was closing in and was pulling out a weapon of some sort out when the clash of swords rang from across the way. Althea knew that Dustin was fighting now, but her target was dumb enough to look. She called upon her bow and arrow, and by the time he had turned back to face her, she had a silver arrow pointed straight at him.

She released and it soared through the air right to him, at this close of range she'd have him down and out and be able to help out Dustin and then Lizzy. Then something disturbing happened, right before the arrow would have made contact with a silver burst of light, the guy turned to green mist and avoided the fatal blow. With a new arrow in place Althea turned to search for where he had reappeared, and a burst of green flared in her vision and suddenly she was looking at two of her opponent. One was definitely clearer than the other, so she let her arrow go for that one. It sailed right through the guy and didn't seem to do much more than make another copy appear. She tried finding the one that had been blurrier, but it almost seemed like the more copies there were of him the more mist-like he became. She decided not to shoot again until she was certain that she was aiming for the correct one.

She found one that looked pretty fuzzy and took aim. He dodged it just in time and she cursed, notching another arrow. She at least had a feeling that this had to be the right one, he had dodged; she took aim and shot again, and watched as he missed yet again. She was going to kill this boy if it was the last thing she ever did! No one escaped her arrows. No one.

A long scream echoed around the hall, unmistakably Lizzy. Althea had no idea what happened, but there was a burst of some sort of light further up in the crowds of people and it had distracted her target. She let her arrow fly and watched it connect with the familiar silvery moonlight appearing. The copies disintegrated into dust and Althea had her next arrow notched and was turning to see that Dustin had not been as fortunate.

Instead of distracting his target, whatever Lizzy had done had distracted Dustin, and his enemy had managed to cut him across the chest. Blood was seeping from the wound, and staining the white tuxedo shirt over it, but Dustin looked more infuriated than anything. He tried lunging and attacking, hoping to do similar damage, but the more he fought the paler her became.

"Saving his sorry butt…" Althea muttered before yelling "Clear!" and launching the arrow straight at the monster. Dustin ducked just in time and they both watched as the boy disintegrated in the glow of moonlight.

Althea went to go check on Dustin, who was still lying on the floor and was looking even paler. She got some ambrosia from her bag and gave it to him to eat.

"Lizzy?" he asked her, and Althea looked in the direction that the golden light had come from.

I'm not sure," she said. "Eat that, and then work on sitting up. I'll be back soon."

Lizzy felt so lost and numb. Everything was so fuzzy, what happened? She couldn't remember. Where was she, and why was she there? She didn't know that either. Something about Althea… Althea and Dustin. They were on a mission to do something, but that part was fuzzy too.

"Lizzy?" It sounded like Althea, but like she was several miles away and just the echoes of her voice were reaching Lizzy's ears.

"Lizzy!" Now she sounded distressed. Was she in trouble? What was going on? Lizzy felt like she was moving through syrup. She tried forming the words to ask what was going on, but her mouth felt slow and strange.

"It's okay honey…" Althea sounded on the verge of tears, was she referring to Lizzy? Something happened… What could've happened to make her worry like this? Althea was the strongest girl Lizzy knew, if she was almost sobbing then something must be really bad. "It's okay, I'll get some nectar in you, and you'll be better." She gasped for air and sniffed, while all Lizzy could do is wonder what had happened.

There was something trickling down her throat, it was loosening her mouth and she was starting to hear beats… of a heart? No, it was music. They had been undercover at a school dance, there were monsters, Lizzy had only one arrow left…

She gasped and her eyes shot open. She was blinking rapidly, her senses flooded all at once, as if she were brought back from the edge of death. She blinked a few more times and the world around her was in focus. Althea had her hands over her mouth, and her eyes were red and full of tears. Suddenly she leapt forward squeezing Lizzy in a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, my gods! Thank you! You're fine… I was so worried, Dustin was worried, thank the gods you're okay!" Lizzy was still a little confused, but she looked around. Where was Dustin? She tried to form the words, but her mouth was still a little murky and she couldn't make much more than a few weird squeaks.

"Oh, here. Drink some more, it'll help," Althea thrust a bottle full of the golden liquid into her hand. She started to sip and Althea started to dab her eyes and ask her questions.

"Do you remember what happened? Well, do you remember who you are, or what we were doing here?" Lizzy was nodding her head slightly and was about to speak when she saw Dustin emerge from in between some dancing mortals looking around desperately, and when his eyes found them he had such a relieved smile on his face that Lizzy was really concerned at how she couldn't remember what could've caused both of her strong friends to look so broken.

As Dustin came closer, Lizzy caught sight of all the blood. His shirt was ripped across the front, and was almost completely the rusty-red color of blood. She gasped and tried to ask if he was okay, or if it was even his blood when he too gave her a hug of his own. "Thank the gods…" He whispered into her hair. "How'd you find her? Was she okay?"

"No, she was barely breathing. I gave her some nectar and just started praying. She seems to be fine though, she said that she remembers what happened, but she hasn't gotten to tell me yet." Althea's eyes were still red, but she had regained a bit of her composure. Lizzy noticed that Dustin was rather pale, so the blood must be his, and he must've been shaken up pretty well because he didn't even take advantage of pointing Althea's red eyes to her to get under her skin. They both looked at her expectantly.

And her sight went green, only to clear moments later, but with different surroundings. Monsters flying through the air, and below the school they were currently in. She closed her eyes and opened them again.

"Not now, we need to leave."

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Reviews are greatly appreciated, however not required. Please know that I may or may not be continuing to post this story on here, I just wanted to get an opinion outside my normal resources.