After an unnecessarily long wait, I finally found motivation and time to re-write thus puppy. I almost considered re-naming Maggie, but it suits her. I have to be honest when I say this story was a cheap way to do a self-insert. Now that I'm older (I started this in 2009!) I realize that although it would be great to live in worlds like this, I can't. I can make characters to do it for me and I can control them. That doesn't mean the character has to be me, because I honestly don't know what I'd do in this situation.

How I'm doing this is I will delete all the current chapters and upload them one at a time again. It the most convenient way to do it.

And now without further ado, I give you the new redux of Target (originally titled The Sun's Song).

Disclaimer: PJatO: TLO is copyright to Rick Riordan. I just love the books.

Chapter One

Ready

All I really needed was a checkup, a physical if you will. If I was going to participate in the archery club for school next year, I needed to have my vitals checked—it was a requirement anyway. Ollie coming along wasn't planned. Mom forgot about the appointment earlier that day and okayed my best friend coming over. The only reason she remembered was because she had to mark something on the calendar and saw what was written down for the day. Ollie didn't mind coming along; he's fascinated with medicine and healing. He's always asking to see if I have any cuts and if he can try out homemade remedies on them. I always say no. I find it weird that he's so mesmerized with the medical profession. I would not want to look at people's sweaty bodies all day.

But I digress.

The waiting was the worst part. We got there right on time, 3:45 on Friday in mid-July, about a week and a month before school started in the fall, and I wasn't called on for a good twenty minutes. Sitting and waiting is the worst. I can stand and wait. Heck, I've knelt and waited easier than this. ADHD, no matter how slight the case, always makes waiting unbearable, especially if you are an angsty, pubescent, freshman-bound girl of fourteen. Eighth grade was extra hard for me. I've been at the same school since fifth grade when we moved from Rochester, New York to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and this year was the worst because of the new girl.

I have never loathed someone as much in my life as Lydia Fischer. She noticed I had a hard time keeping still and paying attention because of my ADHD and took forever to read because of a medium-severe case of dyslexia, so she are her little cronies—who originally just left me out—decided it would be cool to pick on the special needs kid. I was pegged as Schizophrenic Mommy-Dependant Peggy-Sue. The mommy part because I could never get any work done without her help—bless her soul for her patience!—and the schizophrenic because I had this bad habit of telling people the crazy things I saw outside our school. A unicorn? Just a horse. Dragon? Nope, it's a hawk. I was the crazy one. It was awful.

The only joy I found was in my best friend Ollie, another special needs kid who has trouble walking. We met last year at the YMCA. Despite his clumsy feet, Ollie is really good at racquetball. He swings the racket back and forth like a hero would swing a sword. I saw his playing by himself and decided to let myself in the room and joined him before he could say anything. (I tend to do things before thinking, and that often gets me into sticky situations that end with detentions.) We hit it off and the rest is history. He took a long leave of absence in November, only telling me that he went to visit relatives in North Carolina when he came back. He looked crestfallen, but I didn't press him about it; Ollie shuts down when he gets upset about something and won't talk to anyone about it.

Again, I digress.

When the nurse finally called me to the back room, I was about to explode. I needed to move. She did the basics…when was your last visit? When was your last period? Allergic to any meds? The usual.

"Dr. Hoffstedder will be with you soon," she said with a pleasant smile as she closed the door.

So the waiting began again.

Ten minutes passed—thank goodness it was shorter this time—and the door opened again to reveal my doctor…

…and his twin?

Was it take your sibling to work day? I didn't ask, or want to know. The two stood side by side as if they were literally attached by the hip.

"Good afternoon, Maggie!" The Dr. Hoffstedder on the left said. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good," I said honestly, "I just need a physical for school next year and I'll be out of your hair."

Both men chuckled at my comment and he took his stethoscope off his neck. "Deep breath, please."

I breathed in as commanded. "Hey, Doc," I said when he finished, "I didn't know you had a twin."

The two looked at each other and smiled. "Didn't you know?" They said at the same time. "It's take a family member to work day!"

"Don't you have a wife and daughter?"

The doctor(s?) backed up until their backs touched the door. "Well, aren't you observant." They snarled together, a look of contempt on their faces.

It was when the lock clicked that I knew something was wrong.

"It seems that you have an old disease," the doctor on the left said.

"I have to give you a shot so you can heal," the one on the right finished.

"Um… what kind of disease is this?" I asked, the fear creeping into my voice before I could stop it.

That's when the hissing started. A python crept up from behind the left doctor's back, sweeping back and forth between the two until it stood five feet above their heads.

"Demigod disease! Die mortal!" The two doctors morphed together to form a massive, eight foot tall bull with a snake for a tail.

I screamed bloody murder.

The bull charged.

"HELP!" I called. For being big, the creature had fast reflexes, probably from the snake part of him that was trying to bite my face off. I had no idea what to do. Yes, I've seen the magical creatures, but none of them ever attacked me. They usually looked at me, sneered, and kept going. And now I was about to die and no one would be able to say how.

All hell decided to break loose then as three things happened at once.

One: The bull charged again and I flipped over him

Two: As I flipped the door exploded

Three: The fire sprinklers went off and the bull snorted in anger

Ollie stepped out of the smoke, a strange musical instrument in his hand.

"Follow me. I'll explain everything on the way." He ran in and grabbed my hand, dragging out of the door and into the lobby where people ran around and screamed.

"Ollie? Maggie? What happened?" My mom got up and tried to come over.

"Code CHB, Ms. Lune!" Ollie called to her as we reached the door.

He eyes widened. "What? Now?"

"I'll IM you the details!" he dragged me through the door as another explosion surged and shook the doctor's office. The bull-snake creature was on our tails.

Ollie had everything collected. A drip of sweat ran down the side of his face, something that only happens when he is either working really hard during a racquetball game or he's trying really hard not get frustrated. Not only was Ollie tight-lipped when he got upset, but he's bitter, holds his feelings inside, and holds grudges like the time it takes for a star to die—forever.

He brought me around the side of the building away from traffic and out of sight. A great oak tree grew in a very conspicuous spot: right smack-dab in the middle of the alley. It broke through the cement and started to creep up at the apartment next to the doctor's office.

"Why don't they just cut the tree down?" I asked.

"They can't." He replied, approaching the tall oak apprehensively.

"Why?"

"You can't remove something you can't see."

"How can you not notice something like that?"

"If it's magical you can't."

I stopped in my tracks. Since when did Ollie say things like that? We never really had a serious conversation about magic. I never told him I could see things like one eyed men and giants because I didn't want him to make fun of me like the other kids. I once asked him if he thought magic existed. His eyes widened for a moment and he replied with a simple, "It's probable," before changing the subject.

Now he brings up magic. Well, it did make sense since we were being attacked by a bull-snake thing that I forgot to mention spewed venom. Another ominous boom echoed from inside the doctor's office. Chills went down my spine. I opened my mouth to ask Ollie what being by a tree was going to do when he played a shrill sound from the instrument he was holding. The tune was fast and airy; it sounded something like woodland forest meets dubstep. Before my very eyes, with each pipe of the tubes Ollie was blowing in, the tree cracked in the center, twisting and expanding to expose a hole big enough for a human to fit through.

Ollie's face was drenched in sweat when he finished. "Go through. We don't have time."

"But what—"

Three things happened at once again.

One: The wall of the doctor's office we were by exploded and that nasty bull-snake monster stepped through the dust

Two: The force knocked Ollie off his feet; he literally lost his feet in the blast and donned a pair of hooves instead of shoes

Three: Ollie gave me a good shove before he fell and I plunged through the tree portal

A hill with a few sparse trees including a very large pine tree at the top greeted my entrance. I lay where I fell for a good minute, unsure of where I was or what to do before I got up and decided to walk uphill. I looked back at the portal, expecting to see the alley, but saw through to the other side—

—and Ollie suddenly appearing.

"Run up the hill!" he said urgently and brought the pipe-things to his mouth again. He played the same tune that opened the portal, except this time it started to close. He wasn't fast enough though, and suddenly an arm broke through the fissure in the tree. Now Ollie was in panic mode. He lost all concentration.

"Flipping run, Maggie! Di immortals!" He tried to play the tune faster, but another arm bust through the tree, ripping off chunks of wood. Ollie sighed exasperatedly and all I did was stare at him. Bull-snake guys? Tree portals? Some weird language I've never heard?

"Ollie, what's going on…?"

"Come here, demigod!" the bull ripped enough of the tree that he could fit his torso through the hole. "I'll kill you so you won't have to deal with the mess that's over the hill!"

I decided right then and there that I'd rather deal with a mess than die. Running seemed like the best option, so that's what I did. Ollie was right behind me and we reached the top of the hill before the monster fully got out of the tree.

"Now what?" I was even more confused than the time an old bag lady asked me if I could tell me her future like my dad could. I never even met my dad. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"We wait." Ollie brought the pipes to his lips again and blew one sharp, high note. The bull was about to close in when an arrow from behind us shot him in the head. The bull-snake, confused, broke it off his head and looked at it.

"Who dares challenge the great ophiotaurus?" the snake-bull roared.

"A group of punk-ass kids ready to kick your butt," a boy with shaggy red-brown hair and mischievous green eyes said. "Archers, NOW!"

A group of five kids shot arrows straight at the bull-snake before he had time to deflect them. They all hit around his heart and where they touched his pelt blew up into mustard yellow dust. The dust affect snaked up to his head and down to his feet until just a pile of powder and the slight smell of sulfur replaced him.

"Nice job, guys," the green-eyed boy said. He turned to Ollie and me. "What's the case?"

"Code NDMA," Ollie said bitterly, glaring at the boy who just kept smiling at him.

"Thank you, Ollinator. You can go back to garden duty now," the boy said with a sly smile.

I swear you could cut the tension with a plastic knife and serve it with dinner.

"Could someone please explain what the heck just happened and what has happened to me my whole life?" I asked, feeling as desperate as ever to get answers.

The boy chuckled and walked over to me, lazily draping his arm across my shoulders. He steered me closer to edge of the hill and dramatically swept his other arm in front of him. "I can in five simple words: welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

That still didn't answer my question.

Well there you have it! I have to say I am very pleased with what I've done. No more random plot holes, and defiantly some foreshadowing. For those who have been watching this and patiently been waiting for the next chapter, I thank you so much. For those newbies, welcome aboard! Review?

Over and out,

Mahersal