Brick by Boring Brick

By: Emily Ebriection

Chapter One

"Honestly, Thals, I swear these people are nuts. Seriously, who the hell lives this far back in the woods?"

"Apparently, Sparklepires."

"Thali-uuuhhhh ," Percy whined, "Stop callin' 'em that!"

"Oh, I wouldn't talk, Kelp Head," Thalia replied snarkily, "You called them that the other day!" The girl in question smirked triumphantly, as Percy simply pouted. "Did not!" (I just moved the phrase down here)

"Did too!"

"Now, now, children," the other member of their trio mocked, "Don't make me turn the car around." Percy gave Nico his Mega Death Glare, not affecting the Goth boy whatsoever. Nico spoke up again in the same tone, "Now, children, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

He first directed his gaze at Percy, who said, "Uh…I'm a hypocrite?"

"Ohh, big word." Thalia jested before Nico turned his gaze on her, raising an eyebrow. Thalia responded with an icy cold glare.

"Don't patronize me."

The children of the Big Three continued their trek through the wet, slightly slimy forest silently for a few minutes, until ADHD got the best of Percy. "Really, though, what kind of little fairy sparkles?" Nico sighed, rolling his eyes. "C'mon, Percy, you of all people should know that just 'cause something doesn't seem deadly definitely doesn't mean it isn't. Actually, that kinda heightens the chance of it being deadly."

Percy groaned. "Yeah, I know, I know. Ya think I don't get this lecture from Annabeth on a daily basis?"

The trio continued on in silence. If any outsider were to look upon them, not knowing them or their goal, the three demigods would've seemed quite odd. There was a seventeen-year-old boy, slightly taller than the others, that seemed to stick out, not because of physical features (they were all dark-haired, with athletic bodies and overall decent looks), but because he was the only one not clad in dark, "creepy" (as described by him) clothing. He favored ripped, faded blue jeans and a bright orange t-shirt bearing the words "Camp Half-Blood" over the darker choices of his cousins. Both his female cousin and his male cousin were clad in tight black jeans and combat boots, but while the girl was wearing her favorite "Death to Barbie" t-shirt, her male counterpart was wearing a Creature Feature shirt with the words "Cemeteries are just parks with dead people rotting underneath".

Hilariously enough, Thalia and Nico had nearly the exact same haircut, this being something pretty much everyone in camp teased them about. Thalia, however, stiffened her fringe with a hair straightener and blue hairspray, while Nico just brushed his, too lazy to really do anything. After all, the Aphrodite girls just kidnapped him to do his hair for him almost every day either way. Might as well let them do the work and save everyone time. Percy often asked him why he didn't just cut it, to which Nico just replied that he "likes it this way".

After a while of walking, bickering and bitching (mostly from Percy), the three heroes heard a river. Percy grinned, beginning to jog ahead toward the rushing water. Nico and Thalia easily quickened their pace to match his until they came to the bank of the river. Thalia gave Percy a cautious look.

"Do you think…?"

"After the Lethe? This is nothing."

The two heroes clad in black nodded, as Percy stepped forward and began concentrating on lulling the river slower and slower. Eventually, the river stopped moving altogether as he made a small, dry path that the two demigods quickly rushed through, the man responsible for the path rushing right after. Once they reached the other side, Percy allowed the water to continue on, gushing slightly faster now to make up for the slight buildup.

Nico and Thalia glanced at Percy, their features tainted with worry. Percy simply rolled his eyes.

"Guys, I'm fine. That wasn't too hard. I may need to sleep soon, but I'm not about to pass out."

Of course, Percy didn't pass out after they took one step closer to the house. Nico, however, did.

-Ω-

"Carlisle…" Alice called out in a worried tone.

All of the Cullens knew that this meant to assemble in the living room (which Emmett liked to call the Dead room), as Alice had had a bad vision. In a literal jiffy (1/100th of a second, a fact that Jacob shared with everyone he met because it made him feel smart), the large Cullen clan had assembled in the living room. Nessie, much to Edward's chagrin, was sitting in Jacob's lap. Jasper was seated next to Alice, holding her hand and rubbing her knuckles soothingly as she stared off worriedly into the distance.

"What is it, Alice?" Carlisle asked, his eyebrows scrunched concernedly, his eyes searching his adopted daughter's for any clue as to what was causing her such anguish.

"That's the thing. There isn't anything. Our futures are usually blurry these days because of Nessie and the wolves, but they don't usually disappear like they just did."

There were a couple slight gasps around the room.

"Our futures just… Disappeared? Just like that?"

"Well, I can sort of see things a little farther off, but this entire summer just… Gone. Poof. Nonexistent."

Suddenly, a loud cry came from the woods, causing all 10 heads to snap in the direction it came from.

"NICO!"

"Uh, Carlisle…?" Rosalie trailed off, knowing her father understood her unspoken question.

"I'm not expecting any company, nor do I know a Nico…" Carlisle answered, looking a tad unsure of himself.

Bella unexpectedly gasped. Every eye in the room turned to her.

"No way… It couldn't be…" The girl looked worried for a bit, before her eyes brightened and the corners of her mouth tugged up into a grin. "If that's who I think it is, I know exactly why our summer just disappeared!" She exclaimed, her mouth stretching into a full-blown smile. She rushed out the door, her bewildered family rushing after. What could've made their calm, rational Bella so excited?

V-V-Ω-V—V

Whatever the Cullens were expecting, it certainly wasn't this. When the unusual family arrived on the scene, they found a Gothic boy curled up on the ground, taking slow, ragged breaths. Crouched next to him was a girl wearing nearly the same thing as him, checking his pulse and trying to figure out if he was unconscious or just sleeping, while a boy in tattered blue jeans and a bright orange t-shirt looked on worriedly. Bella's broad smile widened even farther when she saw them. She turned to the boy in the orange shirt, who seemed slightly creeped out by her.

"Are you Percy Jackson!"

About a million things seemed to happen at once. The boy whipped a glowing bronze sword seemingly out of nowhere, causing Edward to push Bella back and crouch into a defensive position, growling loudly. The girl in black abandoned the boy on the ground (allowing Carlisle to drop down and examine him) to pull out a silver bow and a quiver full of matching silver arrows, notching one straight for Edwards' head. The rest of the Cullens got into fighting positions and assembled in front of Nessie, who simply cocked her head, confused.

"Uh, Percy?" the girl asked, directing the question to the boy with the sword (who was apparently named Percy). "Why are we poised to fight the Sparklepires?" The aforementioned Sparklepires seemed slightly offended, though Jacob began laughing his ass off.

The boy shrugged, though still retaining his stance. "I dunno. My inner demigodliness was just all like "OMFG MONSTERS", so I guess I just kinda reacted on instinct."

The girl facepalmed, returning her bow and quiver to the nowhere it came from. "Excuse him. He can be a bit of a dumbass."

Percy glared, snapping back with a, "Yeah, and don't mind her. She can be a bit of a hothead."

The girl's hair began to spark with electricity, causing the scent of ozone to permeate the air while everyone in attendance backed away from her. By this time, all weapons and fighting stances had been put to rest, and the boy on the ground began stirring, mumbling out, "Yeah, and don't mind me lying on the ground here. I can be a bit of a sexy mofo." This brought snorts from both the Cullens and the mysterious strangers.

"Nice try, Death Boy. Too bad it was a load of bullshit." The girl stuck a hand out for him to grab, yanking him to his feet. He wobbled for a second before steadying himself, having to grab onto the girl's forearm to keep his balance. She then spoke up with another snarky comment. "What were you trying to do, kill us? I nearly had a freaking heart attack!"

He let out a weak chuckle. "Thalia, I can honestly say that, if I wanted to kill you, I could think of hundreds of more satisfying ways, each more fun than the last. Like, I could just take this knife," he pulled out a shiny knife from the sleeve of his jacket, ", and I could run Percy through with it. Then I could tie you up and carve a pretty lightning bolt, nice and deep, right on your stomach. And if you lived long enough due to your blood cells being unnaturally quick to clot, I could just tighten your bonds until your hands and feet were cut off. You might die by then. But if not, I could always just shove my fist down your throat until you choked to death. Percy might still be alive, because this is a pretty small knife, so I could just chop off his head at that point and be done with it."

Several of the Cullens looked nauseous at this gory description. Jacob had covered Nessie's ears after 'run Percy through', and Percy (Who was not planning on getting run through anytime soon) looked positively disturbed by the end of his cousin's death scene. Thalia just gave him an odd look.

"Nico?"

"Hmm?"

"Sometimes, you worry me."

"I'd worry for you if you didn't."