I can't be the only one whose ideas just vanish whenever they sit down to type something, am I? I actually wrote this WAAY before the prologue, which I wrote only a few days ago, but couldn't finish it properly. So here's chapter one, and more characters introduced.

To the Guest who reviewed: This is a fanfic. I am not trying to be, nor will I ever be, better than Master Rick Riordan at cliffhangers or at writing in general. Also, I have no idea what you even mean by 'u mal oun.'

Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus.

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I

Rayleigh

Rayleigh thought spontaneous invisibility was bad enough. Of course, the hydra had to prove him wrong. His classmates screaming "Elephant!" didn't help his sanity either.

Rayleigh would have been fine with an ordinary school day. He'd go through the gates of Goode High, sit in his corner and occasionally fade out of sight. After all the time that had passed, he was used to it. It was the least strange aspect of his life.

If he thought about it honestly, he was grateful for it. A norm of high school, a time-honored tradition, was 'bully the loner.' Of course, now they treated him like an inhumanly silent creep. But at least they didn't bother him.

"… So do you understand now? You can't just skip school like that and not face consequences," Mr. Blofis continued. Fifteen faces of varying degrees of indifference looked back at him. "Especially you, Mr. Blackwood. You've got a record, you know."

Rayleigh smirked inwardly as he saw a few of his classmates start and look back, like, that guy was here?

"Mr. Blackwood? Do you understand?"

"I get it, Mr. Blofis," Rayleigh replied, bored.

"You also have to quit sneaking out of classes when you're even here."

I've never skipped, I'm just never seen.

"Secondly, there's you, Miss Stone. You've been absent almost as much as Mr. Blackwood there."

"Teach, I'd rather you don't group me with that guy," a voice replied.

Mr. Blofis narrowed his eyes, but refrained from commenting. It wasn't hard to find the source; Rayleigh found the speaker almost instantly.

Robyn Stone was not even looking at the teacher. She was bored and she didn't even bother hiding that fact, twirling a strand of her long red hair with one finger. Rayleigh preferred to think of her as probably the rudest person he'd ever met. He'd seen many people like her before – condescending queen bees who liked to make their positions clear, especially towards those in the lower tiers of a school's hierarchy. Stone didn't swear or raise her voice. She simply always spoke her mind, regardless of whom she was speaking to.

Seemingly noticing Rayleigh looking in her direction, she turned towards him, earth-brown eyes condescendingly staring back at him. He looked away, towards his right instead.

At the other corner of the room, the other solitary person sat. At first glance, it was easy to mistake Ian Sleet for a statue. He never spoke unless necessary, and his tall and imposing stature, along with the square-rimmed glasses, exuded a coldness that made people avoid him. Those who talked to him faltered after a while due to his sky-blue gaze, like the blindingly open sky that hurt your eyes if you looked for too long.

Mr. Blofis droned on, lecturing the students at the front of the large, mostly empty classroom. Rayleigh wondered why they were using such a large room when there were smaller rooms available that better suited the number of students currently present. He also wondered why something else was feeling off.

Looking down the students seated on the right side of the classroom, he realized why. Around then, Mr. Blofis left the classroom after taking a phone call, and everyone began to talk animatedly. A few girls began gossiping in the far right corner – all except one.

Hana Rahim always objected to being called Asian. She claimed that when people said Asian, people always got the image of either Chinese or Japanese people. She insisted that they said Bangladeshi and not Asian. Her light brown skin and Snape-like curtains of hair made her stand out. Like Sleet, her height made people wary of her at first. Her calm and friendly personality, however, had gotten her many friends. The fact that she had to constantly correct people who thought her name was 'Hannah' was a bit of a running joke.

At the moment, she was nowhere near calm. She was strangely jittery and nervous, as if she was expecting something bad to happen.

Rayleigh didn't know why, and he didn't particularly care either. He looked back towards his left, just in time to see Stone's eyes widen in shock as she ducked out of her chair.

He got the answer as to why the next instant as all hell broke loose. The wall exploded inwards and a massive serpentine head roared its way in.

"Elephant!" screamed multiple voices. Unless the dictionary definition had changed, Rayleigh didn't think an elephant was a creature with a large-fanged and snakelike head.

Panic took over. He jumped out of his seat and ran from the head, pushing past other frenzied kids.

The thing ignored the screaming teenagers and instead looked directly at Rayleigh. Fear gripped him hard and refused to let go. Now would be a pretty good time, he begged himself.

His body, or rather his ability, listened, and the next instant he faded out of sight. The monster looked confused, moving its head left and right, trying to find him.

Rayleigh breathed out a sigh of relief. He saw Stone staring at the spot where he was standing, evidently having seen him fade out. He didn't get time to worry about it, since at that moment the second head appeared.

"What the hell is that?" a voice muttered close by. Startled, Rayleigh looked to his left and found Sleet staring at the massive two-headed beast. And right at that moment, it attacked.

The monster took two more steps into the room, and its two heads shot out in two different directions, one towards Sleet and the other towards Stone. The redhead shrieked and rolled out of the way, the monster's jaws slamming into the floor, as Sleet ducked under the other head, hastily crawling forwards towards the door.

"What is that thing?" Stone yelled at no one. Surprisingly, she got a reply.

A chair flew at one of the heads with immense force and smashed against it, the jagged splinters falling in its eye. The creature roared, violently shaking its head and destroying multiple desks in an instant.

Rayleigh saw a figure run towards it, grabbing two of the fallen pieces of wood. The next second, he saw something impossible.

Hana Rahim jumped an impossibly long distance and impaled the monster's neck with both pieces of wood. The immense force behind the attack nailed the head to the opposite wall, the wood splintering at the edges. She jumped back and ducked as the second head whipped around, and as it passed over her, she drove another piece of wood through its lower jaw.

"It's a hydra," she said. "The two heads should have given it away, don't you think?"

All three of them stared at her. "What do you mean 'It's a hydra'? They don't even exist!" Stone shouted at her.

Hana smirked slightly and replied, "So you're saying we're all under some sort of hallucination and I just used that wall as a bulletin board for nothing?"

"…The others called it an elephant," Sleet said.

"The others can't see clearly like we can. Now stop standing here and–"

The hydra interrupted her, making a noise that hurt Rayleigh's ears.

"What does it want here?" Sleet asked.

Instead of Hana, Stone replied, "That guy. It's after that freak, isn't it? I saw him just disappear. He's definitely not normal!"

That freak has a name, Rayleigh thought to himself. Hana didn't look too phased. "Invisibility? Huh, that's a new one. You're right, but it's after the rest of us too."

The wooden spears that held the hydra in place were beginning to fall apart.

"I haven't got time to explain," Hana continued quickly. "That thing is gonna get free soon, and I can't kill it by myself, especially without my spear."

"Your what?" Stone spluttered. "And why the heck does it want us? I don't know about you, but I'm completely normal."

"You can see it, which means you're not," Hana retorted. "For the first time in your irritating life, try to listen, why don't you? If either of you have something you can do to help, then now would be the perfect time."

At this point, the wood was finally ripped to shreds as the hydra tore its head away from it.

"Anytime now," Hana said, looking a bit worried.

The hydra charged, and it was Ian who stepped forward. The temperature in the room dropped sharply. Rayleigh let out a breath, which turned into white mist. Luckily, no one saw the invisible smoker.

Ice crept along the walls and the floor. Upon reaching the hydra, it sped up rapidly, almost instantly freezing the monster.

Sleet let out a heavy breath. Beads of sweat had frozen on his forehead. "…Never tried anything that big before," he said, panting.

"You've tried that before," Hana asked curiously.

"Instant ice cubes was the best I'd done. This isn't likely to hold long."

"Someone better tell me what's going on and why I'm involved in this," Stone demanded.

Hana sighed. "Short version: Greek gods exist, and we're demigods."

All three of them stared at her. Stone shook her head. "No. No, no, no. I'm no demigod. I don't know about you two, but I am definitely no–"

"When that thing attacked, you jumped out of the way," Sleet countered. "As if you saw it coming before it happened."

Stone had no reply to that, and bit her lip in frustration. Rayleigh could see her fervently trying to think of some way to deny it.

Of course, he didn't accept it so easily either. If someone suddenly came up to him and told him Greek myths were real and he was a demigod, he would've called them crazy and walked away. That is, if he hadn't seen one person pin a mythical beast to a wall with wood fragments and another freeze it with the help of nothing.

Also, it wasn't easy to dismiss what he could do without explanation, so for now, he accepted it.

"We'll have time to chat later," Hana said. "But for now, we really need to leave."

"What happened here?"

All of them turned to the door and saw Mr. Blofis standing there. Sounds of panicked shouting and distant sirens emanated from the hallway and the broken wall respectively.

Mr. Blofis took in the scene, slowly moving his eyes from the four of them to the thawing hydra. Something told Rayleigh that it didn't look like an elephant to him.

To their surprise, he sighed in resignation. "Demigods?" he asked.

"Uh, yes, but how–" Hana began.

"Less talk, more walk. Come on."

The three of them followed him out. Rayleigh hesitated for a while, then decided, Ah, what the heck. He went after them, still invisible.

"Mr. Blofis, you're – you're mortal, aren't you?" Hana asked, confused. "How can you see that thing? Also, how do you know about–?"

"I've been able to see them just vaguely since Manhattan," Mr. Blofis said, which confused them further. "And I suppose I know about demigods because my son Percy is one."

"That doesn't answer crap," Stone grumbled.

Hana stared at him. "You're not Poseidon," she stated simply.

"Oh, you know Percy?"

"My dad speaks highly of him."

Mr. Blofis laughed. "Imagine that. I'm his step dad, actually. Ancient Greek sea gods wouldn't be teaching History here, would they?"

"Ancient marine life, maybe?" Ian muttered. Rayleigh held back a snicker.

The musings were cut short when something crashed behind them and the wall to their left melted. The freshly thawed hydra was right behind them, drooling acid that bubbled around its feet.

"Sleet?" Stone said pointedly. He shook his head. "Can't manage even an ice cube."

"Oh, that's too bad," a nasal, high-pitched voice said. "Guess I can kill you easily now."

They turned back to their front. "What – Amy?" Stone said.

The blonde with too much lipstick grinned very uncannily. "Two years, and you never even suspected anything. I guess I'm just that good, huh?"

"You – why?"

"'Why?'" she repeated, looking genuinely confused. "Robyn, dear, it's why we exist – to kill demigods. The predator and the prey. Especially you three. Oh, you have no idea how hard I had to fight for the honor of killing you myself."

The hydra roared impatiently, acid spraying from both heads.

"Oh, shut up!" Amy snapped at it. "You can have the mortal and the other one if you can find him. Pity the biggest catch got away."

Slowly, Rayleigh realized that she was talking about him. Then he realized she didn't know where he was either. He could get away, and forget all this ever happened.

He couldn't, though. Even if he tried, there was no way he could go back to an ordinary life after what he'd learned today. If there was one thing he hated, it was unanswered questions. But more than that, he needed to know. He needed to know why he was what he was, why he was different.

"Mr. Blofis?" Hana said suddenly. "Sorry about the new uniforms."

"What?"

"Well, that's enough chatter," Amy said. She looked past them, at the hydra. "Disable them."

The hydra reared its head back, ready to lunge. Hana opened her right hand.

A silver-bladed spear blasted through the far wall. Amy yelped and jumped aside, narrowly avoiding it. Hana spun and grabbed it, and in the same motion threw it at one of the hydra's heads. It lodged itself between the hydra's right jaws.

The spear flew back out from the flailing hydra. She grabbed it again and turned, stopping the point right before Amy. "Your move," she said.

Amy snarled and her image began to flicker. Her skin turned papery white. Her hands turned into claws. One leg shimmered and became bronze while the other now resembled a donkey's leg. Fangs appeared between overly red lips. Blonde hair flickered into a cascade of fire.

"Who – no, what are you?" Robyn demanded.

"An empousa, dear," Amy replied. "Now, die."

In front of them, Amy had grabbed onto the spear right below the blade, her strong grip making Hana struggle. Behind them, the hydra had gotten dangerously close, intent on trampling them. Rayleigh knew they were in a lose-lose situation. They needed a distraction. One of the two needed to be distracted, buying Hana more time.

Solution: break the vampire's nose.

Rayleigh reappeared beside Hana and Amy, and taking advantage of the latter's surprise, he punched her hard. Amy stumbled back, hands covering her nose. Wasting no time, Hana dashed to meet the hydra as the others hugged the walls. She sidestepped a spray of acid, kicked off from the wall and sliced its eye out.

"Blackwood?" Ian asked.

"She was getting annoying," Rayleigh replied, keeping his eyes on the she-devil in front of him.

Amy moved her hands away from her face and snarled. "So," she said, "you were still here."

"Tell me something I don't know. No, seriously."

"Then how about this?" Amy said, grinning maliciously. "If you go where the others are going, you will be killed anyway."

Rayleigh paused. "What are you talking about?"

"Camp Half-Blood. That's where that girl will be taking you. It's where all Greek demigods go. But," she continued, her unsettling grin widening, "none of you will find a home there. I'll be surprised if that god doesn't decide that you are too dangerous to be left alive."

"Don't listen to her," Mr. Blofis said. "These things can make you believe what they want you to."

"Teach, that's rude," Amy pouted. "Calling me a 'thing.' And for your information, I was never any good at manipulating the Mist, or at charmspeak. If not for that massive wipeout more than a decade ago, someone a lot stronger than me would be here killing you. But that doesn't matter. And I swear on the Styx that I'm telling the truth."

Rayleigh saw Mr. Blofis pale. "You know what that means don't you?" Amy continued. "He was never meant to be born. None of these four were, but him especially. You. Are. All. Mistakes."

The words stabbed through Rayleigh. Old scars threatened to open as he clenched his fists in anger.

"Hey."

Amy glanced past Rayleigh at Robyn. "You don't get to call me a mistake, flame-brain."

Irritation showed on the empousa's pale face. "Robyn, I've put up with you for two long years, constantly going to my sisters to maintain my disguise. After I'm done with him, it will be such a pleasure to finally break your neck–"

Rayleigh's left fist interrupted her, but this time she was ready. The sharp fangs dug into his fingers as once again she was knocked back. Rayleigh bit back a cry of pain, trying to stem the flow of blood, the loss of which was making him dizzy.

The empousa caught him off-guard. A claw shot for his stomach. Rayleigh stumbled back, but too slow. The claw left three long, stinging gashes across his stomach. Piercing pain disoriented him. His knees buckled and he fell, trying to support himself with his right hand, left hand tucked under his right shoulder. Blood pooled around him, spilling out from his middle.

The empousa licked the blood off her fangs. She raised her right claw, poised to strike. "Oh, and by the way, if you meet him, tell your dad I said hi."

The claw descended and Rayleigh was killed – was what would have happened.

A Swiss army knife flew with improbable accuracy and embedded itself dead center in Amy's forehead. The empousa's eyes widened as she staggered.

"Nice shot," Ian said.

"I'm never touching that again," Robyn muttered. "That was a lucky shot, though."

Rayleigh watched as the vampire crumbled into yellow dust. Behind them, the hydra let out a dying wail. He turned his head, and through his hazy vision, saw a long shaft wedged between its left jaws. The limp head flailed around as the hydra went into a frenzy, before convulsing and then finally crumbling.

"You could've just cut its heads off," Robyn called at Hana.

"I'm sorry, but do you even know what a hydra is?" she replied. The loss of blood then made Rayleigh lose consciousness.

When he came to a while later, he heard multiple voices.

"How did you do that?" he heard Mr. Blofis say.

"It's something my dad can do. Guess I got it from him." That was Hana.

"You still haven't told me everything yet." No guesses there.

"Do us all a favor, and shut up, Stone. There're others who can explain everything and that's where we're going."

Rayleigh groaned and tried to get up. "Hey, whoa, stay down," Hana said. She was sitting at his left, a hand pushing him down. "Your injuries might be gone but you still need to rest."

My injuries? Rayleigh clenched and unclenched his left hand. It felt fine. He brought his other hand to his stomach, expecting a sharp sting. It didn't happen. "How–" he began.

"Just something I can do," she answered, smiling slightly. "You won't believe how many times it's come in handy."

He tried to get up again, but couldn't even budge her hand. "I said, you need rest."

"I'm fine," he grumbled. "I can stand."

"…Well, if you say so," she complied, lifting her hand. He got up and scanned his surroundings. "Where are we?"

They were in the woods. Up ahead some distance away was a hill with a tree on top. Something golden glinted among the branches. If he squinted, a gigantic shimmering golden shape obstructed his vision.

Whatever it was, apparently Stone could see it clearly. Her jaw dropped. "What in the world?"

Hana looked in that direction. "Oh. I guess that's the statue."

"What statue?" Ian asked. Apparently he couldn't see it.

"You'll see when we get close."

Hana turned to Mr. Blofis. "You should be going back. This isn't your world." She winced. "Sorry, there wasn't a nicer way to say that."

Mr. Blofis smirked. "No need to tell me that anyways. If you see Percy, tell him he owes me a visit. Sally baked blue cake out of habit again."

"Wait, what?" Robyn asked.

"Never mind."

"Hang on," Rayleigh said. "All that stuff Amy said … what did she mean by 'you know what that means'?"

The smile faded from Mr. Blofis's face. "She – it – swore on the River Styx. Which means whatever she said, she really believed to be true."

That happy observation dampened the general mood. "Hey, just because she believed it doesn't mean it's actually true," Hana sighed, though she looked worried too. To her surprise, Rayleigh laughed. "It doesn't matter, really."

It was a hollow laugh, though nobody else noticed it.

"By the way, how did we get here in the first place?" he asked.

"Oh, we took my old Prius," Mr. Blofis said, pointing to a very old car with, strangely, hoof-prints on the roof. "Two decades old, and it's still reliable," he said fondly. "Good luck with whatever happens here," he said, before getting in the car and navigating away through the trees.

"Okay," Hana said to break the ensuing silence, "let's get going."

They had gotten as far as the base of the hill when a fireball exploded in front of them. Robyn flinched and stumbled back. Ian remained impassive, externally at least. Rayleigh took a few hurried steps back and Hana brandished her spear.

"Did I ask you to fire? I clearly remember not asking you to fire!"

All four of them looked up. A girl around fourteen years old stood near the top. She had caramel colored hair and looked vaguely Latino. She was wearing an orange shirt with some words on it and a sort of leather and metal tool belt and seemed to be arguing with a cannon.

"Do they look like monsters to you? Do they look like they have the odd tail, horn or tentacle? That aside, I did not ask you to shoot!"

If cannons could look ashamed, this one did.

The girl sighed, and then turned towards the four of them. She jogged down the hill, stopping at the spot that had been charred by the cannon.

"Right. Hi, my name's Espie! Is there a Titan among you?"

"Uh…" Hana said.

"Titan?" asked Ian.

The girl, Espie, paused. "Are you all new? Like, did you just find out what you are?"

"You mean how we're supposedly demigods?" Rayleigh said.

"Uh-huh."

"About that," interjected Robyn. "I think I deserve a few answers now."

Espie looked at the others' irritation and, in Ian's case, indifference, and said, "You'll understand everything once we're inside. Right now I need to know why Mr. D was freaking out about a Titan and a Minotaur. "So!" she finished, clapping her hands together, "any of you hiding an ox's head?"

Rayleigh had no idea what to make of that. Espie's almond-shaped eyes roved over them. "No? Okay then!" she said cheerfully. "Let's go–"

"Wait," said Hana. "What Minotaur?"

Someone else gave her an answer. Unfortunately, it was also an introduction.

A loud mooing sound emanated from the left, and a bull-headed man in a loincloth barreled out of the trees.

"Another one?" Robyn cried in exasperation.

"A hydra, an empousa, and now the Minotaur," Hana muttered. "Someone really wants us dead."

"Now fire!" Espie shouted.

The cannon up the hill swiveled towards the Minotaur. A bronze cannonball appeared in a window on its side. And then it exploded through the muzzle.

For a second, the Minotaur stared in confusion at the large hole in its torso. Then it crumbled into monster dust.

"A hydra and an empousa?" Espie demanded. She eyed the spear in Hana's hands, as if noticing it for the first time. "How are you still alive? And where's your protector?"

"There, uh, wasn't one," said Hana. Espie frowned at that. "Guess you really better come in then."

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