Grover had called Annabeth and me in saying that this new half blood was strange. That was three days ago, apparently the kid knew Grover was onto him and had ran off.

We were walking along an alley in New Orleans, yeah that's right. I was that far from home, which was New York. But that's nothing compared to my trip to the Underworld which was in Los Angeles, California a few weeks ago.

Grover stopped dead, he sniffed the air hungrily as he slowly walked down the alley. Me and Annabeth followed close behind, you could always trust a Satyr's nose. Unless you're underground. Long story.

He approached a cardboard box carefully, he leaned over and was about to pick up the box when a grimy thing jumped at him from underneath. Grover bleated like a goat and the thing, I realized, was a young girl.

She spit threateningly as if she were some kind of cat and charged at Grover again, her wrench raised high she struck him across his stomach and my friend toppled over.

"Now hold on," I said calmly, "we're here to help."

The girl didn't seem satisfied, she was in ripped up dark clothes that looked as if she had taking them from a dumpster, her hair was a rat's nest of black waves, her sharp silver eyes calculating.

She looked as if she was about to give up, I could see her shoulders slump.

"What's your name?" I asked and got closer but Annabeth said:

"Percy!-"

The girl caught me across the jaw with her wrench, glowering at me as I stumbled back, my mouth went slack for a moment.

"Ow!" I muttered, rubbing my jaw.

She screamed so loud the birds on the apartment roofs flew off and she charged at me, she was about to bring down the wrench again but I uncapped Riptide and the blade stopped her blow.

"Monster! I kill monster! Like he killed Mama!" She howled and swerved Riptide and punched me in the gut.

Annabeth grabbed her from behind before she could do much else and the girl tried to break free, she bit into Annabeth's arm and Annabeth let go.

"Look at me!" Annabeth said as she spun the girl so she was facing her, "we are human," Annabeth said calming down.

"That's what monster said too." The girl growled, her grip hardening on the wrench, "he killed her, he was going to kill me too."

"Look, this kills monsters," Annabeth said pulling out her knife and put it to her skin, "if I were a monster I would be turned to dust."

The girl watched as we all passed the knife around and we all passed inspection.

"He has donkey legs." The girl pointed at Grover and he winced.

"Goat actually," he said.

The girl's expression didn't soften from her hard quizzical look, as if she was deciding the best way to kill us, "so you are not human," she turned to Annabeth, "you lied to me."

"Well.." Annabeth looked sheepish, "he's a sort of nature spirit really, not a monster. Remember? The knife didn't hurt him."

The girl looked relieved and she slumped forward on the ground and started to cry, "I am sorry. Monster killed Mama, I try to save her but Monster crushed her." She spoke slow, like she'd spend most of her life on the street and didn't go to school.

Annabeth hugged her and said, "I ran away when I was seven. I know what you're going through."

Suddenly something cried pitifully and the girl sprang up like she has just been shot by lightning.

"Brother," The girl said, laying by the dumpster in a blanket was a young boy, he couldn't be older than three. He waddled up to her, his arms outstretched.

"Sissy," the boy cried.

Annabeth gasped, her hand on her mouth as she watched the siblings hug.

"That's why you were so defensive." Grover acknowledged.

The girl nodded, "my name is Holly, this is my brother Eugene."

"Does he have the smell?" I asked Grover.

He nodded but he looked confused, "It feels like they have different fathers."

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Well, one feels stronger and different than the other.. I can't explain it." He said finally.

What kind of person was their mother to catch two different gods' attention?

"You need to come with us," Annabeth said, looking at Holly.

Holly backed up instantly, "If you take us to bad people, we will be split apart.. I will not let anyone take brother."

She was back to fierce, standing in front of her brother, I could see his brown eyes through the gap in her legs, I had a feeling I had seen those eyes before. She picked up the wrench she had dropped and held it out like a sword.

"We're not going to take you away from each other, we're going to take you to a home. Where you can learn to fight-" Grover started.

"Not that she needs it," I mumbled, rubbing my hand on my jaw.

"And you'll have a family."

The girl looked at us as if she would pick any other group of people as her family, but her little brother ran between her and ran up to me hugging my knees.

"Fine." She said and dropped her wrench, "where do we go?"

We stayed in a motel that night as the sun was beginning to set. We let Holly and Eugene take the first showers because they were the ones covered in the most grime.

When Holly came out her hair was wet but looked clean and no longer a rat's nest. Her face was now clean and I could see she had pale cheeks, a dust of freckles on her nose. Her brother had more of a light brown color in his hair and he also had freckles though his face looked a lot chubbier.

" I um... I'm hungry." She said sheepishly and her brother agreed, nodding enthusiastically.

"They've got some food downstairs, we'll all go." Grover said getting up from the queen bed we were going to share while Annabeth, Holly, and Eugene shared the other.

Holly raised an eyebrow at him as if to say, is that really necessary?

But she grabbed Eugene's hand and walked through the motel door, we followed after.

We walked down stairs and there was a small buffet, there wasn't very many people except an old man sitting in the corner reading his newspaper.

Holly's fingers were tapping against the steel bench that we slid our plastic trays on. I didn't judge, most half blood's had ADHD. The old man coughed and she jumped ready to fight.

"Hey," I said, "it's alright, you're safe now."

"Sorry," she sighed, "living in that box with no one has made me scared of everything."

"That was you scared?" I said, raising an eyebrow, " I'd hate to see you angry."

Holly smiled, "You're funny."

"Glad I could help."

After coaxing a rather unhappy Eugene that he needed to have some vegetables with dinner we all sat down.

The old man looked at us curiously from over his paper, his hard yellow eyes sent a shiver down my spine, he coughed again.

I saw Annabeth's eyes wander over to the man as I turned back around, she didn't look all that at ease.

Grover tensed beside me.

Monster, he mouthed.

Holly's hand made a move for her glass of orange juice, I didn't know how she planned on protecting herself with that but after what I'd experienced what she could do with a wrench I decided not to ask questions.

I felt in my pocket for Riptide, I saw Annabeth's hand close around her knife and I watched as Grover unzipped his bag and started pulling out tin cans.

All was silent and then the old man said in a croaky voice, "I may be old children but I know demigods when I smell them."

The man sprouted wings from his back, unlike a Fury's they weren't bat like, he smiled and it showed fanged teeth as long as my arm in his mouth. I decided that if angels were real and evil, that's what this guy looked like.

I uncapped Riptide and Annabeth put on her magical Yankees cap that turned her invisible, and disappeared. Grover tried to block the kid's from the monster but Holly apparently didn't like to cower. She slammed her orange juice glass against the table and it shattered, the edges rigid and sharp and she ran up to him.

"You killed Mama!" She screamed. The window's shattered just like the glass, the earth below me began to shake, the fountains of water burst open as she wailed.

"She was nice to you! You killed her!" Before I could tell Holly to stop she lodged the glass in the monster's throat. It barely wounded it as the cup wasn't celestial bronze, still the monster hissed and threw Holly across the room.

Holly hit her head against the counter and the shaking below my feet stopped, Annabeth, still invisible cut into its wings so it couldn't get away. I slashed at the monster with Riptide and the angel thing burst into dust. Once Grover was sure the danger had passed he took Eugene and ran over to Holly.

Blood trickled from her head but other than that she seemed alright, "did you kill it?" she asked me.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that monster's come back after a while, hopefully that monster didn't come back during her lifetime, "yeah, yeah he's gone."

"We can't stay here," Grover said finally getting up, "who knows how many monsters will come while we're all sleeping."

"How are we going to get to camp then?" I asked.

"We hike, until we can find a car headed to New York and hide away in it." Annabeth said, cleaning the blood off of Holly's forehead.

A: Hello! Another beginning to a new fic, I hope you are enjoying it so far and if you are, please leave reviews!

-Maddie