Hey, guys! I know, I died for like five months. I have no excuses, but I totally forgot about this site. I was sick the rest of March, and then I was cramming for school for basically the rest of the school year. And then I forgot. But, I'M BACK FROM THE DEAD! I came across my story and read it. I felt like AJ was a Gary Stu, my writing was not good, and my plot was very, very weak. So, I think it's time for a rewrite. TOTAL rewrite. And I'm sorry; I'm dropping the submitted characters. I feel like I made them messy and confusing. They sort of held my story back, and I felt like I need to make my own characters so that I could maintain them and keep them going. So, here you go. For you new readers, this takes place in the year 2027. First chapter of my rewritten story: Eyes like a Hurricane.

Eyes like a Hurricane

Summary: AJ is just another orphan...or is he? His life turns upside down when the gods suck him in as he learns more and more about the parents he never had. And, a power strong enough to destroy western civilization.

Disclaimer: Even though it was on my Christmas list, Santa failed. I sadly do not own the Percy Jackson series, nor do I make profit on anything here. It's just for fun.

Chapter One

Flash! A man yells into the darkness, "Annabeth!"

Flash! The sound of a woman's voice shrieks, "Percy!"

Flash! The cry of a baby erupts.

Flash! Evil sounding laughter booms.

Flash! The deadly sound of slicing flesh cuts through the blackness.

Flash!

My eyes shot open and I was drenched in ice cold sweat. The long scar on my neck started to throb uncontrollably, and I sat up in my itchy cot panting. I'd had this nightmare dozens and dozens of times before, but this time it was worse. The bloodcurdling screams seemed to echo in my head and the flashed of light burned into my corneas. You're just nervous, a voice in my head reassured me, you always are during the break. Timidly, I ran my hand through my choppy, scraggly hair. I blinked twice and silently snatched my backpack from under the cot, careful not to wake the other kids from their sleep.

Slowly, I placed my legs over the side of the metal frame and put on my socks, Reeboks, and leather jacket. I inched to the window and gently lifted up the pane, letting the New York breeze drift into the room. In the distance were the sounds of police sirens, screeching tires, honking, and muffled laughter. Typical New York.

I swung one leg over the edge and looked back into the long room. Cots lined the walls like an army base. Weak kids with brittle bones and strained muscles slept peacefully under lice infested bed sheets and air that reeked of the dead raccoon rotting in the air ducts. The walls were painted an ugly shade of eggshell white, and I use the term 'painted' very loosely. It looked like a first grader threw the paint can against the wood. The carpet was a crusty brown, although it was originally white. Glancing at my prison, I smirked and held my hand against my forehead in mock salute, a goodbye to the place I despised.

Jumping onto the rain gutter that trailed down the side of the building, I slid to the pavement below. Immediately, I tucked into a dark alley, jumped behind a dumpster, and checked my surroundings. All clear. I cautiously came out from behind the dumpster and sprinted down the alley.

Confused? Let me explain. As far as I know, my name is AJ. Last name? No clue. See, I'm an orphan. I was found in a road as a baby, bloody, bruised, and alone. Besides a tattered cloth diaper, I was found wearing a necklace. A circlet of sterling silver hanging from a leather string. Engraved in the silver were the two letters 'AJ' and on the back what I assumed was my birthday, 'September 21, 2014'. After I was found in the road, I was taken to the hospital, where a deep cut was stitched up, and now I have a long, grey scar that stretches across my throat. When they couldn't find my parents, I was thrown into an orphanage, the bane of my existence.

The thing is, I'm an orphan, but I didn't think I was an 'orphan'. For the first decade of my life, I believed them. But, on my tenth birthday, I received my first gift, a black leather jacket. On the left sleeve was a circle of blue-green dyed leather with strange symbols sewn in grey thread. The leather was flexible, yet strangely hard like metal. Finding the jacket on my bed, I opened it up curiously, and out came a note. It read 'Happy birthday, my boy'. My parents, I just knew it. I mean, who else could it be from? The street sweeper? The cashier at Seven Eleven? Plus, nobody knew my birthday but me. A guy can dream, right?

So, the place I just left, you guessed it, the orphanage. My seventeenth one, to be exact. Now, the orphanage wasn't that bad. It wasn't like 'Annie' or whatnot. That was a bad orphanage. And the singing? I'd just die. Orphanages just aren't for me. I can't stay somewhere like that. I just personally hate them. So, every few months I'm at one, I escape to the streets. I live with the hobos for a while, then the cops start thinking 'why the hell is there a kid by that trash can fire?' and they get on my case. I'm reluctantly sent to another home, and I try again. It's a pretty normal routine.

Back to my story, I was taking a breath behind a trash can when I heard a voice.

"AJ!" I stopped at my name and looked back, my eyes connecting with two deep brown ones. There stood Ashby Newton, a thirteen year old boy from the orphanage. His thick mass of curly, carrot colored hair was blowing in the wind and his wispy goatee seemed longer. Instead of the usual striped brown tee shirt, he sported a bright orange one. And were his legs should be…no…that wasn't possible. Where his legs should have been were two shaggy reddish-brownish furred donkey legs.

` "Ashby? Why are you a donkey?" I shouted.

"It doesn't matter right now! We have to run!" He pointed down the alley, where a large dark figure was lumbering towards us. I admit it, I screamed. There was no living on Earth that could be that big, well, maybe an elephant, but I highly doubted that an elephant was chasing us across New York.

As it got closer, Ashby kept pulling on my arm, but I was totally frozen. Suddenly, I was looking at a monster, face to face, or should I say, faces. One word, rather name, ran through my mind.

Cerberus.

BUMBUMBUM! K' that's all for now. See ya! Tell me if it sucked, I want to know. If there are any grammar mistakes, tell me and I'll gladly fix them. Bye! PLEASE review! If I get at least five, I'll include something special in the next chapter!

Also, I was checking the hits on my original story. And guess what? 1287 FREAKING HITS! HOLY TITS! And from all these countries: USA, Canada, UK, Brazil, Australia, India, Norway, Taiwan, Philippines, Ireland, Vietnam, Israel, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Sweden, and Guam! Thank you guys! That is amazing! And eighty reviews! Wow! I love you guys! And I say we raise the bar on this one. How about, over one-hundred reviews? Okay, I'm going too fast. At least twenty for the first five or ten would make me so happy!

And, I was also thinking about making an Eyes like a Hurricane website? What do you think? And longer chapters, I swear. I just wanted to make this one a little shorter.

Another thing, there's a poll on my profile about whether this should be a series. If you want you can answer it. Anyway…THANK YOU GUYS! I FREAKING LOVE YOU!

-SmileyKylie17, now back from the dead.