I wanted to take Annabeth on a date. A peaceful one. No monsters, no gods, just the two of us somewhere in New York.

Being a demigod, I didn't have a chance.

First of all, I picked Annabeth up from school, where we were finishing up our senior year of high school. A harpy or two got in my way, but my dad had fit out my front bumper with Celestial Bronze, so I just drove through them.

By the way, my dad's Poseidon. Ancient Greek god of the sea, though he's not so ancient.

Anyway, I waited outside the school. She came out late.

And by late I mean late. She came out following the crowd of everyone else by at least a minute and a half. She was holding another girl by the arm and her shirt was covered in blood.

I jumped out of the car, running towards her.

"Seaweed Brain!" she called. "She's a demigod. Monster attack, but we'll be fine. Two-headed Hydra, not bad at all."

I shrugged. But she seemed to be fine, so they got in the car.

"Hey," the girl said to me. "What's your name?"

Annabeth glared daggers at her, though I don't know why. The girl was just trying to be friendly…?

"I'm Percy Jackson," I said. "Annabeth explain everything to you yet?"

"Kind of," she said. "And my name's Ellen. Apparently…daughter of Athena?"

"Cool," I said. She seemed to be taking it well, which was good. Kind of like Nico, compared to Bianca. Damnit. Never mind.

"So, we'll need to drop her off at Camp before we go on our date," Annabeth said, emphasizing the word. "That okay?"

"Sure," I said. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen," Ellen answered. "Junior."

I nodded. Hit the gas, and we were gone.

Now, one cool thing about my car is that when my dad saw I was a responsible driver, he wrapped a lot of Mist around the car. So I could go as fast as I wanted…and the mortals would never even see me! Awesome.

Anyway, we made it to Camp in twenty minutes. Annabeth walked Ellen over to our champion of Nike, Jake, who was guarding the Fleece while Peleus was on vacation, and he took her on the tour. Before he left with her, though, he told Annabeth something, which Annabeth seemed surprised about.

When she came back to the car, I was burning with excitement. So I tried the subtle approach to learn what I wanted to know. "Hey," I said. "What'd Jake say?'

"Well, he said that Hermes discovered Baucis and Philemon chose rebirth recently," she said. "Together, their reborn selves have opened a restaurant in New York."

"Okay," I said. "You wanna go?"

"Well-" she said, looking uncertain, "will that mess up your plans for tonight?"

"No way," I said. And it really wouldn't. "All I'd planned for tonight was drive around until you saw somewhere you wanted to go. Their place sounds good as any."

"Okay," she said. "It's a little dive called the Pitcher."

"Great," I said. "Let's go."

We found the place on Google Maps. Now, the thing is, demigods aren't really supposed to use technology. But we assumed since we were moving and in a nice car like this, we wouldn't be as attractive.

Boy, were we wrong.

We found the Pitcher pretty easily; it was small, but nice and clean inside. The only staff were two middle-aged people, man and wife.

"Hello," the lady said as we entered. "Welcome to the Pitcher!"

The place was empty at the moment, so she let us pick our table. We chose a four-person one, so we could both face the glass front of the place.

"Hello," she said, coming over to our table with a pad of paper. "I'm Becca. And my husband over there is Phil…"

The man waved at us.

"Would you like to start with a drink and some appetizers?" Becca/Baucis asked us. Annabeth ordered lemon Perrier. I ordered Coke.

She smiled in a genuinely friendly way and went to the kitchen, quickly bringing us our drinks. We looked at the menu.

They had an impressive selection of cheese, which came with grapes and honey. However, I was kind of tired of the healthiness of the food at Camp, so I opted for a cheeseburger, barbecue sauce, onion rings, bacon, all that good stuff.

Annabeth got a salad. When I raised an eyebrow, she just flicked me upside the head.

As we got our food, which was cooked in record time and tasted great, the door burst open. We jumped to our feet, reaching for our weapons.

In scrambled a middle aged man and a girl about our age, probably his daughter.

"Father, please," she said. "This has gone on for too long. If you would just…" she stopped when she saw us.

Annabeth and I sat down, but we kept a wary eye on the two. They didn't seem to be monsters, but there was something about them that didn't seem quite mortal…

Becca went over to the man, who seemed like he had a serious case of ADHD. He was tapping his feet and fingers nervously, rubbing his stomach at times, and rocking back and forth violently.

"Sir, would you like to start off with an appetizer or some…"

He cut her off. "Sorry, ma'am, but I'm quite literally starving. Bring me the fastest meal you can cook, right away."

The daughter glared at her father. "And I'll have a water, thanks."

When she looked at me, I felt like she could've been a sister of mine. So like the sea, I could feel my father's aura coming from her. But she wasn't my sister…

Becca came back with the water, and told the man that his meal, a cheese sandwich, would be out shortly.

"Good, good," he muttered, and kept up his nervous movements.

"Is it just me," I whispered to Annabeth, "or is something up with that guy."

She shrugged. "I don't know. But he doesn't seem a threat."

I took a nervous bite of my burger. The guy's head whipped around. His eyes narrowed when he saw me eating.

"In the good days, they would be killed for such impudence," I heard him growl to his daughter.

"Yes, father, but you're not a king any more, remember that," she said. Then she flashed a smile at me.

Annabeth made a face. "Percy, I think you may be right. Something is off."

Then the girl got up and came over to us.

Annabeth put her hand on my knee.

"Hello," the girl said. "Nice to meet you. My name's Mestra."

I glanced at Annabeth, to see if she remembered the name. She frowned and shook her head. "Nice to meet you," she said, shaking the girl's hand. "I'm Annabeth."

The girl's smile only widened. I shook too. "I'm Percy," I said. "Did you want something?"

"No," she said. "But would you like…"

Becca came back with the sandwich. Mestra's father took the sandwich in his fists and gulped it down while Becca was still there. I gaped, I guess, because Annabeth had to close my mouth.

Mestra sighed and went over to her father. "Father, you need to try to control yourself," she said.

"Control myself? Control myself! I just spent two years in unimaginable torment and you're telling me to control myself!"

Something told me this guy hadn't been a P.O.W. I thought about standing up.

Annabeth held me down. "Percy, if this guy turns out to be a monster, we're gonna need to save Becca and Phil. They're just mortals. And this guy looks like he could eat an elephant."

True. Mestra's father had just ordered a huge meal, including but not limited to, two whole chickens, a few loaves' worth of garlic bread, and a burger like mine. I took another cautious bite.

When Becca came back with the food a while later, the guy dug right in. Without missing a beat, he demolished a chicken and a truly impressive amount of fries. In one minute.

For pretty much half an hour, the guy ate his way through his massive order, unfortunately taking frequent trips to the restroom. Finally the tray was full of empty plates and bowls.

Then he waved Becca over. Check? No way.

He ordered more.

At this point, I knew he was a monster. Duh, you may be thinking. But I was on a date, not really paying attention to the guy.

Until Mestra came over again.

Ignoring Annabeth's glare, she leaned against the table edge. "I forgot to introduce my father," she said lazily. "His name…" she laughed. "His name's Erischthon. Funny name, isn't it?"

Annabeth got to her feet. "Percy, I think we need to go."

"What?" I asked. She rolled her eyes.

"Outside," she hissed at me.

"Oh, okay," I said.

We walked outside, having paid the bill already. When we were at the car, Annabeth said, "Erischthon's that guy who cut down the huge tree! Remember him?"

Now, I knew plenty of guys who'd cut down huge trees, from Paul Bunyan to Paul my stepdad, so I wasn't quite at her train of thought yet.

"Um…" I said, trying desperately to come up with a name. "Was that the guy who made the Argo?"

She rolled her eyes again. Annabeth seems to do that a lot nowadays. No idea why.

"Seaweed Brain, that's Argus."

"But Argus is the guy with a hundred eyes!"

"There were two of them. Anyway, Erischthon is this king who cut down the tree, killed a dryad, angered Demeter, and then Demeter sent Famine to go and torture him. Erischthon got hungrier and hungrier, bankrupting his kingdom to buy food, until finally he began to eat himself."

"Okay, that's disgusting."

"Yeah, well, it's one of the Greek classics. Deal with it."

"What about his daughter?"

"Well, if I remember the story right, your dad had fallen in love with her. So when this guy Erischthon needed money, he went and sold her as a slave. But your dad gave her the blessing of shapeshifting, so whenever her master's back was turned, she changed shape, and got away. So Erischthon kept selling her, but since it took too long, he finally ate himself."

"So why's he back here now?"

"I'm guessing he's a monster, back from Tartarus."

"But not Mestra, right?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I just don't know, Percy. We could ask her…"

We went back inside. Erischthon was still going through plate after plate of food. Becca was watching him with slight interest and disgust.

Mestra was drinking a glass of water.

Annabeth and I went over to the table. Mestra smiled. "Hello again," she said. "Percy, Annabeth. My father is still very hungry from his time in Tartarus…"

So we were right. And Erischthon was a monster. But it seemed like he wasn't a terrible one. Just…a ridiculously hungry guy.

"So…" I said. "How long have you guys been reformed?"

"We just emerged from the pit tonight," Mestra said, flashing another smile. "I feel no hunger, needing only water to sustain me. My father, on the other hand, needs food…So good that restaurants nowadays let you eat for free."

Wait, what?

"You do know that you will have to pay when you're done, right?" I said, slowly.

Her eyes widened ridiculously. "Father."

"What?" he grunted, not looking up from his pot of stew.

"We will have to pay for this, the demigods say."

"How did you know we were demigods?" Annabeth asked, at the same time that Erischthon said, "No."

"What do you mean, no?" I asked him, and Mestra answered Annabeth, "My father smelled the buttered bread. We are monsters, you know."

"I'm not going to pay," Erischthon said. "I'm a king!"

"Not here, father, you're not," Mestra said gently. "There are no kings nowadays."

"Well, these are Greeks. They can pay for it."

"Nope," I said. "Got nothin' on me."

"What does that mean?" Erischthon said angrily. "All half-bloods carry drachma, do they not?"

"Yeah," I said. "But this place wouldn't accept them anyway."

He shrugged. "Well, then I simply shall not pay."

"Um, yes, you shall," I said. "You'll get the money some way. I'm not letting you tear these people's business down."

His eyes narrowed, glaring at me. "Demigod, you shall pay for your insolence."

In a flash, Riptide was at his throat. "Listen, monster," I said. "You are a monster. That gives me every right to turn you into a pile of dust right now, so you better play nice."

He gulped. I touched the pen cap to the tip of my sword, and it shrank back down to a ballpoint.

He looked at Mestra. "Sorry, daughter. You're gonna have to be sold."

She sighed. "I knew it would come to this."

Erischthon motioned to us. "Go, go. Sell the girl. The money shall pay for my dinner."

"What?" I looked at Annabeth in disbelief. "No way! We can't do that! Slavery is illegal, remember?"

"Ridiculous!" Erischthon stormed. "Then sell her as an animal, why don't you? Then she can return to me as a human, and it will be all the easier."

Annabeth shrugged. "It's an okay plan."

I guess that was good enough for me. Mestra smiled for the last time, and morphed into a…bird? Some sort of bird. Annabeth held out her hand, and bird Mestra hopped on.

"So, where would we sell her?" I asked Annabeth.

"Pet shop?" she answered. "We'll say that we don't have time for the pet any more, and we need some money."

Sounded okay. Just weird that we would sell a person in animal form.

We dropped her off at a pet store. A guy in the back looked the bird over, and gave us twenty bucks for her. Erischthon had chewed his way through about two hundred ten, so we were a tenth of the way there. As we walked back to the restaurant, a bird flew over our heads. Then Mestra dropped lightly to the ground.

"Hello, Annabeth. Son of the Sea God. That mortal needs to learn to keep a better hand on his birds. It was too easy to fly away."

Annabeth shrugged. "Let's try somewhere else."

We took Mestra in the form of a golden shepherd. I knew that a good dog of this kind could go for hundreds of dollars, so maybe we would be able to pay off Becca right now.

The pet store guy gave us exactly one hundred bucks. Lame. Anyway, Mestra changed into a bird again, and flew back to us.

We tried the same thing at the next place. The guy looked the dog over, and his eyes kind of widened when he heard we were trying to sell. "A hundred fifty," he said quick, so we took it.

We were done. Yay. But it seemed weirdly easy. Looking back, I realize that it sounds normal, but to us demigods, used to hard, complicated quests, being done so soon seemed strange.

Anyway, we took Mestra back to the Pitcher. But…when we got closer…we saw that something was wrong. The place was empty. The glass windows in the front of the store were shattered.

When we looked inside, we saw that the place was empty. Becca and Phil were gone, Erischthon's table wasn't cleared, the old king himself was gone, and the stoves and ovens and stuff were still on.

We checked for a reason why they had left; a hydra, maybe, or a few dracaenae, but nothing. Thye had just…left.

Annabeth whirled on Mestra. "You!" she yelled. "Percy, they tricked us. Mestra distracted us so Erischthon could destroy this place."

Now, that would've made sense, but who wants to blow up a restaurant? With two nice old people? It wasn't even all that important.

I tried explaining this to Annabeth. But she shook her head. "There must be a reason; maybe the monsters want this place for some purpose. Zeus' blessing on the couple still stands. Maybe they could use the power."

That made no sense to me. The monsters would be laying low, right? Losing two wars might make you a bit wary. Why would they attack a place of power?

Anyway, I noticed on the ground faint muddy footprints. "Let's follow those," I suggested to Annabeth. She shrugged. "Can't go wrong with footprints."

We followed them for a few blocks. Luckily, their owner had decided to walk through the mud and wet every time he passed some, so that made it easier for us.

We came to a warehouse in the packing district. The door was open…

We went in. "I seem to remember a few times when we entered an open door and it didn't go well for us," Annabeth whispered to me.

"Yeah," I said. "But maybe this'll get us to Erischthon or Becca and Phil quicker."

It was kind of dark, but when I uncapped Riptide, the faint bronze glow lit the area enough for us to see.

There were plenty of crates and packing stuff, making a nice little maze to hide behind corners and trap people in. Why couldn't monsters ever hide in an open field or something?

Anyway, we heard a scuffle. We followed the sound, quietly, until we came around a corner to see…

Becca and Phil, tied up and gagged. They were in a corner of crates, struggling against their ropes.

"Go back to the door and lookout for Erischthon," I said to Annabeth. She nodded.

"My father would never—" Mestra started to say, but Annabeth knocked her on the head with her knife hilt, effectively knocking her out.

She dragged Mestra to the door. "Clear," she said to me. I nodded and went to Becca and Phil. Now I was behind a wall of boxes, so Annabeth couldn't see me.

Becca and Phil stared at me, terrified. Becca started making noises through her gag, and struggled more and more. "It's okay," I said. "I'm a friend. I'm just going to cut through these ropes and get you out."

I started to cut through Phil's ropes. He jumped away from me.

"Stop moving!" I said. "I'm trying to get you out of here…"

Then his gag came off. "Not you!" he screeched. "The thi—"

A huge hand clamped over his mouth from above. I spun around, lunging blindly. Riptide hit something. I looked up to see that I had stabbed a Cyclops in the leg.

He yelled in pain and backed away. Two more came at me from the sides. I jumped as high as I could and stabbed my sword into one's chest. He dissolved into dust.

Then Annabeth came around the corner, knife waving. But the Cyclops picked up a crate like it was a building block and hurled it at her.

She dodged back, but the crate hit the ground right at her feet and sent her flying through the air. She hit the ground like a rag doll and rolled.

The Cyclops picked up another crate and hefted it. "Son of the sea god," he grinned at me. "Dinner! Seafood…hehe."

He flung the box/. I rolled to the side. It slammed into the wall of boxes next to me and set off an alarm. Boxes toppled everywhere, red lights flashed, sirens wailed. But if the mortal police came here, the Cyclopes would destroy them.

Another Cyclops dropped from a catwalk above. "Perseus Jackson!" he roared. "Remember me?"

"Pretty much all Cyclopes look alike," I replied, rolling to avoid a punch. "So…who are you again?"

He roared. "I am Bolt! I battled against you in the first Great War! I have returned from Tartarus to destroy you!"

Okay…

I dodged a box he threw at me. When it hit the wall, nothing but stuffed animals spilled out. Wow. Real heavy and deadly.

Then I ran forward. He grinned evilly, showing all his teeth. With both fists, he slammed down at me with all his Cyclops strength, instantly flattening me into a perfectly flat puddle of son of Poseidon.

Well, that's what would've happened if his fists had connected. What really happened was:

He punched a hole through the solid cement, making a two-foot hole that mortal police would investigate for months to come. But I was gone, having slid under his legs and jumped onto his back.

I stabbed Riptide through his chest from behind. He bucked once, then I was left thirty feet in the air holding a fistful of sand.

It was a painful landing.

I stayed conscious and everything, but my legs hurt. Pretty bad. So much so that I wondered how it could hurt that bad, when I had landed on my arms.

Before my arms went numb, I swallowed a few bars of ambrosia from the plastic bag I always keep in my pocket.

The pain stopped. I picked up Riptide, and went after Annabeth.

She was lying on the floor near the door. A Cyclops was running toward her from outside. I jumped up and swung Riptide at the monster.

But he jumped back and yelped. "Brother!" he shouted.

Oh.

I landed smoothly. Well, I tripped. And fell flat. But other than that, it was smooth. He picked me up and dusted me off. "Are you all right, brother?" he asked.

"Yeah, big guy," I said. "I'm fine. But Annabeth's hurt."

He nodded. "I will take her to your car."

"Okay…" I said. "You know where it is?"

"Yes," he said. "I saw it in front of broken restaurant."

He picked her up and hurried off. I followed. A Cyclops charged out of the warehouse door, launching crates. One flew straight at Tyson, but he swatted it with his free arm and it disintegrated. Another one landed right behind me. I picked up the pace.

We got to the car semi-safely. The Cyclops had the great misfortune to trip over a bicycle stand and then trip into a street light. The little pointy part on the top went through his chest, not killing him, but it would take a long time for him to regenerate.

Tyson didn't fit into the car. But he assured me he could run to camp easily. So I took off.

In the direction of the warehouse.

In the car, Annabeth came to. I explained to her what was going on, and she decided it was a good plan.

Mestra was still slumped at the door. The boxes were in a complete mess, and two Cyclopes were searching through them for us.

Becca and Phil were tied up again, in the far back of the warehouse. They weren't moving, so I assumed they were unconscious.

I jumped out of the car. Annabeth got into the driver's seat. The two Cyclopes charged at me, but I yelled, "Stop!"

They stopped.

"Take me to your leader!" I said, feeling decidedly alien-like.

They disarmed me, and marched me into a back room. There, in a reclining chair, demolishing plastic boxes of cookies, was Erischthon.

"Sir, here's the human," one of the Cyclopes grunted.

Erischthon nodded. He popped off a last cookie, and waved his hand. "You are dismissed," he said to them.

They kinda-sorta saluted, and walked out.

Erischthon glared at me. "Boy, you've caused plenty of trouble. The mortal police will be here any minute. What do you want?"

"Why have you captured Becca and Phil?" I asked, knowing the answer but needing a starting point in this conversation.

"Becca? Phil? What names are those? No, demigod. These are the famous Baucis and Philemon. They have the famous enchanted pitcher of legend. With that, I could never be hungry again!"

"Well," I said, having worked this out with Annabeth already, "they had the pitcher. Emphasis on had. See, they died. And they went for rebirth from Elysium some forty years ago. So now they made a restaurant. And they have no clue about this pitcher. But—" I said, holding up a hand to stop his argument, "I have a food item with me that will keep you from being hungry for a long time."

His face went greedy. "What is this?"

I brought out the baggie of ambrosia. "This.

He stared at the bar I gave him, suspicious. "Is this poison you give me, half-blood?"

"No," I said. "Look." I ate a chunk.

"Hmm," he said. Then he opened his mouth, raised the godly food to his lips, and…

Popped it in.

He chewed, chewed, swallowed. He smiled. "This is delicious, demigod. I thank you."

"Oh, don't thank me just yet," I said.

He frowned. "What?"

Then in a pillar of flame, he burst into dust.

"At least, I don't think monster are hungry in Tartarus," I said.

I ran to Becca and Phil. I dragged them to the car, being a fit young demigod.

Fine. Annabeth had to help me. And we took two trips.

"What about Mestra?" I said, looking at her still-unconscious body by the door. Annabeth stared at her.

"Leave her," she decided. "Perhaps she is a good monster."

We got in the car, dropped Becca and Phil off at the Pitcher with a good amount of Mist, and drove to Camp.

"Well," I said. "Typical demigod date."

"It was great, Seaweed Brain," she said, smiling. She kissed me.

She was right. It was.