===== Part I: Decision of the Gods =====

"Gûntera has already called for our aid, it would not do well for us to ignore his plea."

"I still don't know why he doesn't just vaporize that Galbatorix fellow."

"You know this as well as I do, the gods cannot just go around vaporizing random people."

"He's hardly any random person. In any case—"

"Just send over a couple heroes! I nominate Percy Jackson!" "Of course you do, Ares."

"What? That little punk made—"

"Enough! I will not have fighting among us! In any case, Percy is a good decision. He can certainly take care of himself, and he may just be able to take care of the problem!"

"No! I will not let you send my son into that deathtrap—"

"ENOUGH! My decision is final!"

"Then at least send a few others with him. It will help him to be surrounded by friends. I nominate Frank Zhang."

"No! I will not let… you…" Ares noticed Poseidon's smug grin. "Point taken. But actually, I agree. And that Leo kid will be good to."

"It is decided then! We shall send those three heroes to Alagaësia."

Until he started glowing, Percy's day was going great.

"Yes! Strike!" He pumped his fist in the air, and glanced at the score. "That puts me in first place!"

"Not for long, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth replied, grabbing a ball.

Carefully lining it up, she launched it at the rows of pins. Nine fell, and the last one stood wobbling. "Ha ha!" Percy taunted.

"Well, well, well, would you look at that?" Jason called out.

Spinning on the spot, Percy took another look at the pins—just in time to see a slight gust of wind push the tenth pin down. "Strike!" called out Leo.

"Hey!" said Percy "I thought we agreed to not use powers!"

"Oops," replied Jason, not sounding at all apologetic.

If you couldn't tell by now, they were bowling. Annabeth was currently in first, followed by Percy, and Jason, with Leo in dead last. Percy sat down on the bench as Jason took his turn. "Hey, if you wanted, I could rig your ball—" Leo offered.

"No, I'd rather win legitly. Unlike you, giving us that suicide scare with the fireball. How's Calypso by the way?" Percy interrupted.

"She's fine. Still adjusting to the modern world. But anyway, your choice on ball." Leo said. "Cause I got mine rigged, and it's time for the bad boy sup—"

Percy accidentally-on-purpose spilled some water on the custom bowling ball that Leo had rigged for remote control. Sparks flew and the faint smell of burnt metal floated up from it. "Hey!" Leo groaned. "I'll have to use a normal ball again!"

Grumbling, he went up to a rack and selected a 6-pounder. "Meh."

He rolled ball down the alley, and it knocked down six pins. Taking another turn, Percy got yet another strike. "Turkey!" He yelled.

Then he noticed the others were staring at him strangely. "Um, Percy? You're glowing."

"I know, right?" He asked smugly.

"Hey Leo, who's bad boy supreme now, huh?"

"No, you're literally glowing."

"What?"

Looking down at himself, he noticed he was starting to glow with a gold aura. "Was it something I ate?" He asked.

Then suddenly, in a flash of light, he was gone. "Percy!" the group yelled.

"Leo! You're glowing too!"

"AAAH! Whatever it is, get it off me!"

He grabbed Jason's arm and they both ended up disappearing. Annabeth found herself all alone. Well, apart from all the nearby mortals who were staring strangely at her. "I gotta go tell Chiron!"

She rushed out the door and headed towards the subway. Little did she know, Chiron already knew of the disappearances, partially because Frank had already disappeared right in front of his eyes.

Eragon and Saphira were in the middle of dinner when they heard some clamor from the edge of camp. "Ho, there!" he called to a passing soldier coming from that direction. "What news?"

"There were several flashes of light! Some people are saying it's magic!"

Eragon got up. "Saphira?"

'Yes, let us go look.'

With that, she took off, heading towards the disturbance. Eragon and his elven guards followed. Upon arrival, the small group drew their swords and looked over the trench to where several soldiers were cautiously making their way to a burnt circle of land. However, the remaining tall grass prevented them from seeing what was in the center of the circles. One of the soldiers made it to the edge of the burnt area then sheathed his sword. "They're unconscious!" He called to the others.

Sheathing their weapons, the rest of the soldiers bent down, and started carrying back four unconscious bodies. From what Eragon could see, they were—

'Teenagers?' Saphira snorted in surprise.

"I suppose we hold them and see what is going on here."

"Sir, these are the items we found on them," a soldier notified the group in the pavilion.

Upon the table lay a variety of objects. "One had a weapon, a sword made of some kind of bronze," He indicated it on the table. "The other items we found on the group were a single gold coin with strange markings, a strange device [AKA a pen] and this leather belt, which, although seeming full, is actually completely empty."

"Really?" asked Angela, grabbing the belt and inspecting it closely. Upon opening a pouch, she raised an eyebrow. "Oh, this again!"

"You've seen this before?" Arya asked.

"Yes, a while back." Angela grinned, then reached into the pouch and pulled out a pair of tongs, then a small hammer, and a nail. "The pouch is empty! Except when you want it to be!" As you can imagine, everyone was quite amazed.

"Well, I suppose there is nothing left but to interrogate them as soon as they're awake!"

"Tell me what you find later. It is late, and I shall retire for now," Nasuada said.

Percy woke up to a splitting headache. "Ow… what happened?"

"You tell me," said a voice to his left.

Percy sat up, swinging his feet down to the floor. "Where am I?" he asked.

"You are in no position to ask questions." Eragon was sitting on a stool opposite him said.

"I don't know what happened, just one minute we were bowling and then— wait, where are my friends?"

"Do not worry, they are safe… for now. Now, just answer this question: do you work for the empire, or not?"

"No, I'm Greek, not- hey, wait a sec, why would you want to know? And who are you anyway?"

"I am the one who may ultimately decide your fate."

"Pfft. Yeah. You have no idea how much I've heard that before."

Suddenly, the tent flap opened and Saphira's growling head shoved its way in. 'Just answer his questions!'

"Dragon!" Percy yelled.

With that, he whipped out a glowing bronze sword out of seemingly nowhere and pointed it at Saphira, not even noticing that it was she who had spoken. At the same time, Eragon drew Brisingr, and pointed it and Percy. "Where did you get that from?" Eragon gaped. "You didn't have any weapons!"

"Tools of the trade," replied Percy. "Magic and monsters."

Saphira, on the other hand, was miffed that Percy did not cower in terror. Eragon regained his composure.

"Put away the sword or I'll have to hurt you in painful ways."

"Oh yeah? Just try. I've fought the god of war, most mortals aren't much challenge for me."

"Brisingr," deadpanned Eragon.

His blue blade lit up with a pennant of fire.

"I'll just put away my sword now," muttered Percy. He touched something that Eragon could not see to the tip of his sword, and it shrunk down to that strange device they had seen in the tent. "What? How?"

Both Eragon and Saphira were stumped to how he could have done that. "Like I said. Magic," Percy grinned. Saphira pulled her head out of the tent. "Now, first off, my name's Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, and I don't work for any empire. My friend does, the Roman one—"

"Your friend works for Galbatorix?"

"Galba-who-now?"

"Galbatorix? Leader of the empire?"

"Oh, then you mean a different empire! No, Jason works for the Roman one. Well, he used to. Then, he kinda converted to the Greek side, and then—"

"Wait, wait, what? Roman? Greek? What is this?"

"Where am I? Answer that, I'll answer your questions."

"You're at the Varden camp."

"The who-now?"

"The Varden. You know, the big rebel group."

Percy shook his head. "The group that's trying to down the evil king?"

"Great, now there's an evil king."

"You really have no idea about anything here, do you?"

"Nope."

"In once sentence, you're in Alagaësia, where we, the Varden, are trying to take down an evil king who has reigned for one hundred years after taking out an order of dragon riders whose job is to keep the peace."

"I've had my share of evil people trying to beat the stuffing out of me. Is there any way we can help?"

"Well, you could join the army. Every last swordsman helps."

Oh, I'm no ordinary swordsman, Percy thought.

"Also, by the way, we're gonna have to search your mind and make sure that you haven't been lying to me this whole time."

"Search my mind? Even the embarrassing stuff?"

"We just need to make sure that you aren't working for Galbatorix."

"How long have I been here?"

"Um, a couple hours?"

"And you think I would have been able to meet with him in that time?"

"Magic."

"… True enough. Will it hurt?"

Eragon frowned. More proof they weren't from around here. Unless Percy was lying. "Nope. Unless, of course, you work for Galbatorix. In which case you will feel approximately five seconds of excruciating pain. Alright, let's go search your mind."

"He's ready," Eragon told the group outside.

Trina stepped into the tent with Eragon. "Just a warning," said Percy, "You're gonna find some strange stuff in my head."

Trianna pressed her fingers to his temple and closed her eyes. After several minutes, she jumped back in shock. "What ARE you?" she cried out, as Eragon started to draw his sword in surprise.

"Told you," Percy said, sounding somewhat smug.

Suddenly, trumpets sounded. A second later, a dragon roared. And that dragon was not Saphira.

========End of Part I========