Chapter One
Percy
Percy woke up face down on the tile floor. His back ached, there was a large hole in the bottom of his remaining sandal, and his head was throbbing.
The first thing he noticed after sitting up and stretching was that his outfit must have looked pretty ridiculous. He was wearing a kiddie lifejacket over an orange t-shirt(it occurred to him that he not now or anytime in the future would need a lifejacket, though he wasn't sure how he knew this). He also had a pair of tacky Hawaiian swim trunks with swaying palm trees.
The second thing he noticed was that he couldn't seem to remember anything about himself. Sure, he knew his name was Percy, what two plus two was, and that the sky was blue, but nothing beyond the common knowledge of any kid his age-how old was he anyway?. This whole situation was beginning to freak him out. What was happening? He couldn't be sure.
He looked around for any clues. He seemed to be in an empty party store. All the streamers and costumes were lined up neatly on the walls, the floor was freshly cleaned, everything in order. Something about the innocent looking setup told him to panic.
Percy jumped to his feet and looked around more closely. Down every one of the aisles was a large mound of dirt and rubble. They looked like small molehills. Someone had taken the care to stick little farmer's labels in each one, indicating what was planted. He cautiously walked over to the closest one an picked up the label.
Sparti
Plant close to enemies for best effect
Product of Olympus
The ground around him began to shake, the mounds slowly expanding until they were just shorter than Percy was. He knew instinctively that he didn't want to find out what was inside all that soil. He booked it towards the exit of the store.
It was still very early in the morning. The sun was still down. There were very few people out wandering the small, downtown area. Great, thought Percy sarcastically to himself, I won't bother anyone with my desperate cries for help.
He looked up at the store sign. Sacrificial Pie Pillagers, was what it seemed to say at first glance. Percy made a better effort to read the sign. San Francisco Party Packagers. That made more sense. He would have to investigate the reading problem later.
San Francisco, Percy thought. A gut feeling told him the some bad things had gone down here. The whole place made him uneasy, jumpy. Of course, maybe it was the magic dirt back in Party Packagers.
A loud hiss made Percy leap around. There were five extremely scary men standing at the curb. They looked like bikers, sans bike. They were decked out in leather jackets, muscle shirts, and had tattooed arms and faces;along with pointy monster teeth. The first one to speak was the one in the middle. He stood menacingly still and only moved his mouth. The words that came out caught Percy completely off guard, and he took a moment to react.
"Pewseus Jaksin," he said in a shrill lisp. "We have come to destwoy yoo, pweprawre to be vankwished!"
"Sandwished?" said the one one the end, "I thought we wewe gonna kill him" he insinuated.
"Ya!" pressed another. The five creatures were soon in a heated argument over who said what , and nothing Percy did would get them to quit breaking street signs and walls. He threw a rock into the horde.
This of course only caused more confusion and the monsters started to fight over who threw the rock.
Ugh, thought Percy, If this is what my life is like, maybe it's good I can't remember it.
He slipped away from the monsters and down the street. He scanned for places he could possibly hide. A swanky all-night diner perhaps? No, that was far too obvious. Who hasn't been attacked by a monster in a diner? Percy's train of thought was interrupted by the goofy monsters tumbling after him.
"Geddim'!"said one
"He's geddin' away!"yelled another
Percy ran down the street frantically looking for a place to hide, but he couldn't find anywhere. The creatures were rapidly gaining ground, and he didn't know if he could run much longer.
Suddenly, he saw an opening. It wasn't the perfect place to hide, but it was better than death. The place was a school. They seemed to be having a pancake breakfast, Percy could smell the waffles and syrup. He began to think that all the pancakes needed to be blue, another random comment from his brain. He ducked inside.
It was a very big school. Nice, too. There were marble ledges and statues, memorials, it seemed to be a very beautiful private school. A girl around his age stood at the end of the hall putting up posters.
He ran over to her.
"Excuse me, do you have a phone that I could use? It's an emergency!"
"Um, no?... Desole," she said with a heavy Quebecois accent.
"I really need help! Peux tu telephoner neuf un un?" Percy panted, not really knowing at all what he was saying.
The girl then did the oddest thing Percy had ever seen, she sniffed him. This caused Percy to stop huffing and puffing and just gawk.
«Oh, je comprends, vous êtes un demi-dieu! Je suis un faune de la armada prestigieux, à votre service. Dans des circonstances normales, je serais bien sûr vous amène à notre commandant. Les temps sont durs, cependant, et je vois que vous êtes attaqués par des hommes dragon. C'est terrible chance-si vous l'odeur très ... putride. Je vais devoir vous faire du mal, afin de vous aider, je le crains. Vous avez le parfum d'un ami j'ai rencontré dans les Rocheuses. Je vais vous ramener, le héros. Ils ont probablement vous voir comme faible et vous battre, mais vous ne pouvez pas discuter parce que vous n'avez même pas me comprendre! Les gens des États-Unis sont SO CULTURE! Vous n'avez probablement pas encore connaître le Canada est au nord d'ici! Je plaisante, et la randonnée, le laisse aller, » She said in one short breath.
The french was a bit too complex for Percy, but in a moment it didn't matter. She reached into one of her large pockets, and pulled out a battle worn fry-pan. Percy only had time to be wide eyed before she hit him in the head with a satisfying WHOP!
"Pretty colours"was all he had to say.