7

A crossover fanfiction between Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Homestuck

Chapter 1: Off to Camp Half-Blood

"Well, this is awkward."

Dirk stood in the hall of thrones, men and women looked at him in a confused way. The male in the center of the room spoke first at the sight of the intruder. "What business do you have here?" he asked with a threatening snarl. Dirk shrugged, completely lost as to where 'here' was.

"No idea. Where am I?"

The lady with lots of makeup over flawless skin began to laugh. "You, ha-ha, don't even, ha, know where you are? Hahaha!"

The guy, who looked like a teen, stared nervously at the man in the middle, who was still gazing intensely into the boy.

When the pretty lady finally stopped laughing (she noticed no one else was making any noise) Dirk spoke up. "This might sound crazy, but I'm not from here, this planet, I mean, and I need to get back to my friends, who are currently trapped in this game called Sburb." At the sound of that word, four of the group sort of jumped, glancing at each other with concern.

"Zeus…" the woman, next to the one she was addressing, said. "That game… this boy? Poor child!"

"Calm down, Hera." another man called from the other side of Zeus, although he looked worried as well.

Hera glanced at him, opened her quivering mouth to say something, but couldn't since she was struggling to find any words. To Hera's right, a female started to talk, opening her mouth as well. "Poseidon, this is the game… surely you have not forgotten…"

The rest of the room focused their gaze of the four, looking back and forth between them for any more words.

"Dad? What's wrong with a game?" the teen asked Zeus.

"Yeah, and why're you all scared?" the tough looking guy coughed out a snicker.

"Apollo, Ares, this is no laughing matter. When our session was being played… it wasn't named Sburb, it took so much… are you saying that you're playing it now?"

Dirk nodded. "And I need to get back t-"

"How did you get here?" Hera sputtered.

A woman in battle armor called out to the remaining eight that were left out. "I suppose we will only be troublesome to this, um, conversation." She then faced Zeus and continued. "I will take my leave now and so will the rest of us." With those words, she stepped out, trailed by the seven, and they left the hall, some grumbling as they did so.

The four that stayed studied each other, as if silently conversing. "Demeter, tell Hermes to find Hestia and Hades. Tell him to bring them here immediately." Demeter obliged, walking out the door.

"Child." Hera called, "What… what is your title?"

Dirk faced her, the pointed shades concealing his eyes. "Prince of Heart."

"So, you are the Destroyer of Souls?" Poseidon interrogated. He nodded. Zeus put his hand on his head, sighing with distress. Hera's eyes widened, as if she discovered something important. "Wait, do you remember the prophecy?"

Poseidon inhaled and Zeus let his hand fall to his sides. "We shall discuss this when the other three get here." he murmured. "Hestia probably has the prophecy memorized word for word. Unless you two do." They shook their heads ad looked away, Hera at her toes and Poseidon at the ceiling.

Before too long, Hades, Hestia, and Demeter entered the room, Hermes waved his hand as he stood by the entrance, turning around to leave them be.

"Is it true?" Hades demanded. "This child is from Sburd?"

"Not the Sburd session. He is from a new one named Sburb." Hera corrected.

"Then it is true?" Hestia asked, covering her mouth with both hands in shock. "And what about the prophecy from so long ago?"

"We were hoping you would tell us what it was, we have forgotten the specific words." Zeus said, mounting his throne.

They kept discussing and Dirk sat down. He was starting to freak out, wondering what was happening on the other side at the moment. He clutched his head in his hands and continued to ponder what he could stop if he was with them. Almost instantly, he calmed himself down, not daring to let those feelings overwhelm him. They were fine, nothing bad was occurring, they were god tiers, everything will be fine.

He looked over at the conversing people and sighed, 'when is this going to be over?' he mused.

Dirk caught onto their words right as Hestia began reciting a poem:

"A hero of heart will arrive to bestow

The chance to destroy the cursed soul

Of one who will rise to seek revenge

To the fallen foe whose reign had end.

The victors that won in a previous game

Cannot take part in the glory or fame

Of the hero and the seven that will join him in

The quest to disperse darkness from within."

Hestia stopped, "I… don't think there was any more." Everyone turned to Dirk and finally asked him this question: "What is your name?" They all awaited his answer.

"Dirk Strider."

"Well, Dirk, I believe it is time for you to meet Camp Half-Blood." Hades said with a strained smile.

"Dirk, dear, go out and find Hermes, he'll take you there." Demeter suggested.

Hestia's hand shot up quickly. "I'll take him! I'm going there anyways." She ran towards him and pulled his arm. "Come on, let's go!"

The Prince stood to follow her, letting her lead him to the camp.

On the way out, Dirk got to see the splendors of Mount Olympus. Hestia beamed as she pointed out the buildings designed by one of the demigods he'd meet.

"Demigods? Like part-god?"

"Yes. They are our offspring, well, not mine since I'm a maiden goddess."

"Wait, you mean to say that all of you, that I accidentally walked in on, are gods and goddesses?"

"Mmhm. Ever heard of Greek mythology?"

"Not really, must've been lost when the batterwitch took over."

"Batter who?"

"Never mind."

As they walked on, nonstop, Hestia filled him in on the mythological stories that may help him in the near future:

"So, Atlas is stuck holding up the sky forever?"

"Yes."

"Kronos ate his children? That's sick. I thought the batterwitch was bad."

"Yeah, it was really uncomfortable in his stomach."

"You've played a version of Sburb?"

"…Yes."

Hestia paused when they came across a metal door, the type for an elevator. She pressed a button and waited for it to slide open. "After you." Dirk gestured when it did. She just smiled and walked in, telling the manager of the elevator to take them to the ground floor. "Yes, ma'am." he said.

The transporter zoomed down, Dirk held tightly onto the bars while the goddess and the man seemed completely unaffected. Once the elevator reached floor 102, it slowed down to match the speed of a normal one. Dirk struggled to get on his feet, using the bar for the support it offers. "a little warning next time?" he complained, holding himself steady.

The girl grinned and held his hand as the door opened once more. "To Long Island we go." and sped up, breaking into a run, the boy stumbled after her, closely following her as she led on.

They traveled through the building, exiting its front entrance, and headed down the direction of Long Island. Strider was surprised to see so many people bustling about, the biggest group he'd ever seen consisted of his allies in the game. Traffic was not as bad as one would have thought, although, it was still present. The sun shone noon, or sometime afternoon, it didn't really matter. Streets poured with people as they were on their lunch break or on family vacation.

The Prince of Heart noted everything he saw, any and all worry he ever had faded away.

Wanting for a break in the silence, Hestia asked out loud: "Is there any question you have for me?"

Dirk shook his head any gazed at the looing buildings in awe. "Actually, Hestia?" he called after they turned a corner to continue for a few more blocks. "What was your title in Sburd?"

She kept walking, almost as if she was ignoring him, her lips pursed as she did so. "Sorry I asked." Dirk apologized.

Twelve minutes had passed until she answered his inquiry at last. "I was the Maid of Blood. I was the one that kept the team together. Now, I am the one that unites all families through the hearth." She caught a glimpse from Dirk and added, "I'd prefer not to talk of Sburd at the moment, I'm sorry. Please understand."

He nodded. They resumed their silence.

The absence of noise was filled in when they reached the doorsteps of an apartment building. Hestia buzzed the bell of one of the homes and together, they waited for a reply.

"Jackson residence. Paul Blofis speaking."

The Maid of Blood spoke into the speakers, "I would like to see Percy Jackson. Tell him Hestia is waiting for him."

"Is… is this someone from his other side of the family?"

"Yes, it is."

"I'm getting him now. Come in." and the doors unlocked themselves.

"Thank you."

The inside of the Jacksons' apartment was blue. Not everything, but damn was there lots of blue. "Coming!" a voice shouted from the next room. A person in his late-teens popped his head out as he looked through the door.

"Hello goddess. What brings you here?" he smiled kindly at the sight of one of the only gods/goddesses that didn't require everything from him (besides his dad, but that was because they were related).

"Percy." she nodded her head to greet him. "I came to ask for a ride to camp."

"Sur-"

"-and you will need to come with us."

Percy's face darkened, "Oh… and when I thought all my troubles were finally over." He moved his focus from Hestia and looked at the guy next to her. "Hey, I'm Percy Jackson. Who are you?"

"Dirk Strider."

Percy looked back into his room with a sad and longing face. When he redirected his attention to the goddess of the hearth, he said, "Okay."

He took in a deep breath, "Mom!" he yelled.

"Yes dear?" she replied.

"I'm needed at Camp Half-Blood!"

Silence.

A woman came in from another door, her mouth shaped into a frown. "Fine." she said curtly. "Just don't die, alright?"

Percy chuckled, "Sure thing mom."

Dirk wished he had someone like that that he could relate to, to have a guardian by his side that was there for him. He looked at the ground as the demigod spoke again.

"My stepdad is driving though. He's going to want his car back after we arrive at camp."

Paul appeared and put his hand on Percy's shoulder. "Get ready, we'll leave in ten minutes." and he disappeared once again, in the direction Percy's mother went. "Sally, what are you doing?" they heard.

In the following seconds, Percy's mom, Sally, returned with a plate of blue cookies. "You guys really like this color." Dirk noted, holding one between his fingers.

Sally smirked, "I've been getting Percy to eat an all blue diet for a looooooooooong time."

"And yes, it is an awesome color." Percy butted in.

"So, what's your story? And why are you wearing sunglasses, we're inside."

"I'm not from around here and-"

"-we have a quest for him and the seven, you'll need to confront the oracle for more information." Hestia finished.

Percy groaned, "You have got to be kidding, wait, never mind, I know the gods, they don't kid like this."

"Actually, the quest's prophecy is older than some gods, making it hard to remember, but it didn't mention anything about the end of the world, I think, and so it should be a simple quest. One that shouldn't last more than a few weeks. And secondly, um, why do you wear those weird eyepieces?" the goddess asked.

"Because they're cool." Dirk stated plainly.

"They look like the type you'd find in a Japanese anime. How cute." Sally commented.

Hestia picked up a cookie, sniffing it as though it was the strangest thing she had ever encountered. "How did you find the time to make these?"

"Oh, they were originally for Paul and Percy as snacks, they were to eat them tonight after dinner. But don't worry. I have enough batter to make another batch or so." She beamed. "Speaking of Paul, HONEY!? Aren't you supposed to heave by now? Lunch is almost over and with luck, you can get back by supper!"

"You… wouldn't happen to be using Betty Crocker cookie mix, would you?" Dirk talked out of nowhere.

"No, no. I made everything from scratch." Sally seemed proud.

"Okay, good."

"Are you allergic to it?"

"Hm? Oh, no it's not that. I don't really want to talk about it."

Paul bounced in and held up his keys. "Ok, everyone's good? Let's go!"

Dirk didn't really want to leave but he also wanted to see the camp everyone kept mentioning. He climbed into the car and sat in the back seat next to Hestia while Paul drove and Percy was in the passenger seat.

"Where are you from?" Percy pursued, disliking the silence that loomed over them.

"Another Earth, but in correspondence to here? Texas."

"You don't sound like a Texan, how was it there… wait, hold up a second, another Earth? What do you mean by that?"

Dirk shrugged, "An alternate universe is what I mean, a different reality."

"Cool."

"Not cool, it was lonely. Sure, I had friends and robots I could talk to, but… it was just… lonely."

Percy turned around and faced him, "Lonely? Since you didn't add family to that small list of acquaintances, I can only assume-"

"I had none. My ancestor died centuries ago."

"Ancestor? What about your immediate fam-?"

"Like I said, I had none. I'm also sort of from the future where the way people had to reproduce was through ecto-slime, the Batterwitch collected them from all the humans to make more, and people were killed if they had sex. We're all created after our predecessor dies, for me, it was centuries since mine was alive, and they did that to cover up family ties. They didn't want us to find out who we were related to. After some time, the stupid Batterwitch melted the ice caps, all of them, causing the world to flood and the human population died out. The only ones left were Roxy and me. We had to struggle for survival, Roxy had pumpkins and neighbors to take care of, neighbors weren't human, and I had to fight drones all the time. And all this happened and that was before the game started."

"Game?" Percy caught up. "Damn, your past is so messed up… sorry about that."

"Eh, you'd get used to it. I think I'm one of the lucky ones to not lose so much, since I started out with a little less."

"One of the lucky ones? There were people from other worlds that played with you?"

"Yeah."

"Who else played the game?"

"Jane Crocker and Jake English, from the same world, but they were four centuries in the past… or Roxy and I were four centuries in the future."

"Could you two, perhaps, not talk about this now? It is very disheartening." Hestia pleaded.

The two boys nodded synchronically and remained quiet, Percy faced the front once more.

The rest of the ride was still, the past of the mysterious kid became a taboo in front of the goddess, who didn't seem to want to know of the doomed Earth. Hours passed until they reached the entrance of the camp. Dirk didn't see what was so special about it.

"Bye Percy, see you next time." Paul waved a goodbye and drove off, back to the city.

"That was very weird. I have never had a ride when I wasn't attacked by some monsters. We have a demigod, a goddess, and a... um. What are you exactly?"

"I guess I could be considered a god, I did reach god tier and all… I don't really know."

Percy squinted his eyes and leaned back, "You're a god? What else do I need to know?"

The maid of blood tapped her foot impatiently. "Shall we?"

"Right, right." and he led them off the road.

A gate stood tall with a tree that accompanied it. The tree had a yellow animal rug and a dragon guarded it, it was currently sleeping. "What's that for?" he asked, referring to the rug.

"The Golden Fleece? It's magical and it keeps out monsters and normal humans." Jackson said as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

He and Hestia crossed the gate, Dirk stood outside of it uncertainly. It was as though some invisible force was trying to keep him out, that or it wanted to bounce on him like an excited puppy. "Is something wrong?" Hestia stopped moving. "Can you see us?"

Slowly, Strider found the strength to move on, not like there was anything that really held him back. One foot, then the next. He made it. He is now at Camp Half-Blood.