Disclaimer- I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, it belongs to Rick Riordan etc.

The Night's Champion

The day that changed my life forever started like anyone else's would, well if you were a gay orphan in New York City with no friends named Aaron, that is. I woke up, ate breakfast, got ready for school, and took the long way to school, partly because I wanted to avoid the assholes from the orphanage that bully me and partly because I wanted to check on the monster situation in the city. That's right I said monsters. They are these huge black dogs that have enormous fangs and really thick and scaly skin and they prowl about the city attacking anyone who gets in their way. I make it a priority of mine to try and keep them away from other people, so I try to scare them. The first time I tried I ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks with several cracked ribs and a broken arm. Luckily I have learned that if you attack them from behind when they don't notice you then they go ape-shit and run far away. Unfortunately they manage to come back the next day to keep their territory. I have tried to warn the police countless times but they only see little stray dogs instead of demon hounds, as I like to call them.

Well anyway back to this morning, I was trying to use firecrackers I found after the fourth of July to scare the crap out of them. The only hard part of this plan was that I needed to surprise them and catch them unaware. In order to do this I would have to cover my scent with something else because I am now certain that they know my scent and always get me when I try to attack them. This is going to sound crazy but since they're dogs I figure that if I rub alcohol all over my clothes then it will mask my scent and freak them out a bit. I found some booze in the alley outside a bar last week, so now I'm set to kick some monster ass.

When I got to the alley where the monsters were there was an old man wearing a long black cloak and holding a long black sword and he was destroying the monsters. He would stab one in the back then vanish and reappear behind another one and hack through it. Each time his sword touched one it would dissolve into nothingness. As I was taking in the lone figure destroying my enemies, he noticed me and shouted, "Hey, kid what are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here you Goth psycho, killing those demon dogs?"

Oddly enough I wasn't freaked out in the least. I was so glad that someone finally got rid of those dogs, so I thanked him for it. The man said, "Wait you can see them?"

"Yeah, can't everyone?"

"No, almost no one should be able to see them."

He then swore silently to himself and said, "Well I guess now you'll want an explanation of what those things were and how you can see them but no one else can?"

"Nope, I'm guessing that they were just demons or monsters or something, and frankly I don't care how I can see them as long as they keep things interesting around here."

I may be living in New York City, but there really isn't a lot to do if you are too young to drink or drive or both, and/or have no friends because everyone thinks you're a gay weirdo. So this was my creative outlet and one source of fun.

"Well I guess this calls for the talk either way, " said the weird old dude.

"The sex talk? Because I have already had sex ed. in school."

"No about the monsters you idiot."

"Oh, right"

"Basically they are Greek mythical creatures that can't be seen by most mortals."

"Mortals? Like do you mean that you're something else, like not human?"

"I am a mortal blessed by a god, therefore I can see monsters and I can fight them too."

"Wait, because you are blessed or whatever, you can fight those bastards?"

"Yes, and I can do much more."

"Well then get me blessed or whatever, I want to destroy them for hurting the people around here, it's unforgivable."

"It isn't so simple, you can't just get blessed, you have to meet with a god and swear loyalty and obedience to them."

As we were bickering back and forth, a bigger dog than I have ever seen came up behind the old guy and clawed him down. He got very badly wounded and just collapsed. The huge-ass dog started going towards me and had this crazy look in his eyes like he wanted to torture me for hurting his other wolf-bros or whatever. I raced over to the old guy's side and grabbed his sword by the handle and then everything went black. Literally I was suddenly in a room so dark that I could tell if I had my eyes open or not. A voice cried out, "You wish for power, did you not"

"Yes, I'll do anything to defeat those monsters"

"Very well, it's your funeral," the voice said with humor in its voice.

And then I was back in the alley holding the sword. Except it became so much more badass somehow. It had a long straight black blade and no guard. I didn't think this was weird because I instinctively knew that I wouldn't be in a long enough fight to use one and the blade was so sharp it wouldn't be used for one on one combat. The demon dog was still there though, which kind of sucks. For him. It darted towards me claws no longer velvet (when cats retract claws, this means it had them out. I know probably no one knew that before so you're welcome for that new knowledge) and reached out and… struck nothing but air. I was in a completely different spot from where I had been before. Luckily it was still near the deadly beast who probably killed the one thing I had seen destroy these monsters so all was well. Instinctively I swung at the dog and my sword cut right through him like he was paper. He was far from done though, and once I cut through him he realized I was a threat so he backed down and placed his nose on the ground. Then he and the other dogs that weren't killed by the crazy old man left.

I went over to him and saw that his wounds were looking pretty bad and that he probably wouldn't last at a hospital given by his wounds. He knew that too so he just smiled and looked at me and said, "Well, I guess its up to you now, she's waiting for you in her realm just go into the shadows."

"Alright? I'll do that," I said awkwardly. I didn't know what to do so I just got up and walked over to a shadow, took a breath and walked in.