II-Percy
The freezing air was slicing at his face as Percy zoomed down the hill at a million miles per hour.
Behind him, he heard one of the gorgons screaming at him in Ancient Greek and Stheno beginning to groan.
But he didn't care about that at the moment. He just wanted to get to that tunnel and get his journey over with.
The ride wasn't very smooth. Percy kept hitting chunks of ice and bouncing around, which wasn't exactly the best thing for his butt that was beginning to go numb. Sometimes he would glide across a sheet of ice. Sometimes he would nearly tumble over a plant that was frozen solid.
The metal platter surprisingly held his weight, but as he slid down the hill, the highway getting closer and closer, Percy doubted that it would last any longer. It was creaking faintly.
The highway seemed about a yard away when the platter gave up. It split in half and Percy began to tumble down the remaining of the hill, doing constant somersaults and even flips.
"Ow!" He cried. "Ouch! Ouch! OW!"
Percy skidded to a stop on his stomach on the side of the road, his head hurting from his painful ride.
He sat up shakily and tried to regain his vision, which was making everything in sight swirl.
"Ouch…" he murmured. "Stupid hill."
Right in front of him, a Tyson Meat truck zoomed by, a picture of a plate of chicken nuggets on it.
Percy's stomach growled. He hadn't eaten since the night before when he'd slept behind a Dumpster outside a Mexican restaurant. Hopefully, wherever his destination was, they had food; and a lot of it.
As a Honda passed by in a blur of light grey, he managed to stand without falling down again.
Percy looked at the tunnel. It was about fifteen feet tall, made out of cement, and inside had a line of lights across the walls. Cars zoomed into two entryways with a Voooommmm, and about two minutes later he would hear another faint Voooommmm.
(Seriously, that's what Caldecott Tunnel looks like. I looked it up; for reference, ya know?)
"Get him!" Euryale screeched from the top of the hill.
Percy looked back and saw Euryale and Stheno beginning to cautiously make their way down to him.
He began to run towards the tunnel quickly.
At the entrance, Percy suddenly saw an old lady with warts and pimples and a bad case of acne. She wore a tie dye dress, brown leather jacket that hippies wore, and a headband that had a wooden, small peace sign in the middle. Her long, lifeless grey hair was frayed and dry-looking, and her faded blue eyes looked into Percy's.
She seemed to be waiting for him, which kind of freaked him out. Was this lady a monster in disguise? Was she just an old lady? His senses made him unsure.
Percy continued anyway.
"Hello, Perseus Jackson." The old lady told him with a toothless smile. "I am June."
Percy swallowed hard and said, bouncing on his heels, "Er- hi. Now, I really have to go, because there are these gorgons after me and they want to kill me."
June told him, "I would like to offer you a choice: You can leave me and live in the ocean and die of old age, or you can carry me through the tunnel, across the river and to your destination."
Percy started to get excited. This lady knew where his destination was?
But can't she just walk there herself? Percy thought.
"Can't you just walk there?" he asked.
"My feet are very swollen and I cannot walk." June pointed down to her swollen, warty, red feet.
"Oh. Ew." Percy muttered, and then said, "All right, get on my back."
"I will warn you, if you carry me, you will lose your curse of Achilles." June told him as she jumped onto his back.
June weighed around fifty pounds, so it wasn't that bad. But apparently Percy hadn't gotten a good grip. She kept sliding down his back, so every minute he had to readjust or Percy would see an old hippie in the middle of the road.
As Euryale and Stheno made their way towards Percy at a slow speed, Percy began to walk into the tunnel.
It was the worst walk ever. The tunnel was horribly long, so it took five minutes to get out.
Percy's back hurt, and his legs felt like jelly. He wanted to tell June to get off or he would pass out from exhaustion, but he didn't want to deal with the gorgons.
"The river is right there." June managed to point to a twenty foot wide river two yards away.
Percy groaned. He didn't want to walk twenty feet and two yards. He wanted to let June go, and lie down and take a good nap. But he couldn't, or he'd wake up getting ripped to pieces.
As he made his way to the river, the small of his back exploded in pain. He clenched his jaw to avoid crying out, but it hurt like crazy. It felt worse than anything he'd ever endured, which weren't many things considering he couldn't remember anything from his past.
The pain continued, and soon enough Percy was almost crawling. He felt like his skin in his back was getting sucked up by a very powerful vacuum cleaner.
When he set his hand in the water, power surged through his body. His back didn't hurt anymore; actually, nothing hurt. He felt strong and powerful.
The river seemed to turn solid as Percy stood and set his foot on it carefully. It held his and June's weight.
Percy began to make is way across the river.
The walk went perfectly fine; no pain, no June sliding down his back, no gorgons.
When Percy stepped onto the grass, he asked June, "Where are you going? Where am I supposed to go?"
June actually got off Percy's back without hurting herself. "You have reached your destination, Perseus Jackson."
Something about her voice had changed. It was younger, but with a stern edge to it.
"You're not really an old lady, are you?" Percy asked in surprise.
"No, I am not." June answered. "I am Juno, queen of the gods."
"You mean Hera." Percy corrected her.
"That is my Greek counterpart, Perseus." Juno retorted, then told him, "This is where your journey begins. You must stay; learn the Roman's ways, and soon enough, you will regain your memory."
"How long will it take to get my memory back?" Percy questioned.
"Be patient, young hero." Juno said. "Now, you must meet your campers. Good bye, Perseus."
Juno faded in thin air, leaving Percy alone.
After a moment of silence, Percy turned and caught his breath. Standing before him, was what looked like a wall from a piece of the Coliseum in Rome. On the top, were a few words in Latin.
And standing in front of it, were teenagers holding weapons.
One of them was a slim, average heighted girl with sandy blonde hair that was in a ponytail and twinkling hazel eyes. She wore a purple V-neck tee shirt, shorts and black, old sneakers. She looked intelligent, well-toned, and beautiful.
The other was a Japanese teenage boy with a military cut and stern looking deep brown eyes. His body structure was like a Roman soldier's, and he was very muscular. He wore a purple tee shirt like the girl's, jeans, and running shoes.
They both seemed to be arguing, ignoring Percy.
"I am not an airhead!" the girl shouted.
"Yeah, you are!" the guy told her. "There are 3 rivers and after each river lies a grave. So there are 3 rivers and 3 graves. A man wants to leave the same amount of flowers at each grave, and be left with none at the end. What happens though is that each time he passes through one of the rivers the number of flowers he has doubles. So he has to start off with what number of flowers, taking into consideration that they double, so that he is left with no flowers whatsoever at the end?"
The girl immediately went into math-zone. She explained, "F is the starting number of the flowers, G is the number left at every grave. ((f*2-g)*2-g)*2-g=0! (4f-2g-g)*2-g=0! 8f-4g-2g-g=0…"
(I looked up high school math, and pasted it. So, sorry if it doesn't make sense to you guys.)
Percy zoned out as the girl went on about the problem. He thought it was ridiculous that these two were doing math when they would've skewered Percy with their swords by now.
The guy glanced over at the river, then saw Percy. He charged.
The girl saw him and told the guy, "Stop! Maybe he's a demigod!"
The guy stopped, looked over at the girl and said, "Hazel, maybe he's a monster."
"I doubt that, Frank. He would've attacked us in the middle of our argument."
Frank turned back to Percy curiously. "You are a demigod, right?"
"Yeah," Percy answered nervously.
Frank turned to Hazel. "Go get Lupa."
"She's just going to wave me off." Hazel pointed out. "We should just get him into a house. Lupa will notice him soon enough."
"Good point." Frank admitted.
He turned back to Percy and said, "Do you know who your parent is yet?"
"I-I don't. All I know is that I'm a son of some sea god." Percy replied.
"Neptune." Hazel said. "Your dad's Neptune." Then she smirked. "You have some tough siblings; be careful, they're short-tempered."
Percy asked, "Poseidon? My dad's Poseidon?"
"That's his Greek name." Hazel corrected him. "His name is Neptune, you got it? No Greek stuff."
Percy nodded. "Oh- okay."
Frank told him, "C'mon. Let's get you to the Neptune House."
The camp looked like a military school. Obstacles were lined up at the edge of the woods, and new Roman style buildings were in the center.
Kids from ages five to eighteen walked around in purple shirts like Frank and Hazel, holding swords.
Percy noticed that all the boys had military cuts and looked like Roman soldiers. The girls at least looked slim and muscular and had ponytails, or braids, or buns.
Then he noticed the tattoos. On most of the demigods' right wrists, were bar lines, and with "SPQR" over them, and different symbols that Percy guessed represented their godly parent.
Percy looked at Hazel's wrist. She had ten bar lines, and a sun.
Next he looked at Frank's. His had seven bar lines and a spear.
Percy wondered if he'd have to get one. He hoped not.
Hazel fell back to his side and whispered, "You need to get this straight: No one is going to help you with anything. You're on your own here. You need to prove yourself, or you are going to die. Don't try to make friends, because everyone here has been in a bad mood."
"Why?" Percy whispered back.
"We're missing a camper: Jason Grace. He's kinda big around here, so it hit the camp real hard. And do not get on Reyna's nerves. It hit her the most."
"Who's Reyna?" Percy asked.
"She's riiigghht…. there."
Hazel pointed to a Middle-Eastern girl with her long black hair in a ponytail. Her eyes were fierce and startling, like she didn't want to get crossed. She had the slim body that all the girls had, and had an average size of muscle. She held a tall spear.
"Is she, like, his girlfriend of something?" Percy asked.
Hazel almost snorted. "No, but I think she wants to be. They're really close friends; been best friends since they first came here."
(You have permission to cheer. I mean- come on! Now Jason gets to start a relationship with good 'ole Pipes! Rightcious, am I right?)
"How long has Jason been gone?" Percy questioned again.
"Since December," Hazel explained. "He was here when everyone went to breakfast, but when he went to get his spear, he never came back."
Percy then asked, "Why are you helping me?"
Hazel smiled at Percy warmly. "'Cause me and Frank are the only friends you got. Plus, most people don't set down the ground rules with newbies. They have to find out the hard way; if you don't follow the rules, the consequences are horrible. Trust me."
Percy studied Hazel for a moment. He had the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach that he wasn't supposed to be here, like it was banned.
Finally, Percy said, "I can trust you."
Hazel grinned and then turned her eyes back to the front.
Standing before them, was a new, white insula that had sea green flags outside with tridents. Inside, Percy heard people shouting.
"You think Dawn and Gina are fighting again?" Hazel asked Frank with a sly smile.
"Probably; they've been fighting forever." Frank replied.
Then, Hazel shouted, "OI! GINA! DAWN! YOU GOT A NEW BROTHER!"
The shouting stopped, and Percy heard footsteps.
Then, two eighteen year old girls exploded from the house. They both had dark brown hair, but one had blue eyes and the other had brown. They had natural scowls, and they looked pretty short-tempered.
The brown eyed girl looked at Percy. "Who's this guy?" She had a weird accent, like a New York one or a Chicago one.
"Your brother-" Hazel paused then asked Percy, "Um, what's your name?"
"Percy." He answered shyly.
"This is Percy. Now, you better make sure he doesn't get into any fights, or I'll make sure I rip your head off." Hazel warned, raising a fist.
The blue eyed girl told Percy, "Hey, I'm Dawn. You met my stupid sister, Gina, already."
Gina scowled. "She's got it all wrong. She's the stupid one."
"Nah, nah." Dawn said. "She's more stupid for thinkin' that."
Before a fight could break out, Frank cried, "WOULD YOU TWO STOP THAT?"
The girls stopped, crossing their arms like four year olds.
"Thank you," Frank said.
Hazel turned to Percy. "Now, just follow your house throughout training, alright? Now, I gotta go; archery. C'mon, Frankie."
Frank and Hazel gave Percy a wave good-bye and ran off.
Percy nervously turned around to face Gina and Dawn. They were grinning.
"So," Gina said. "You're new, huh?"