"Wait… Explain to me again how the Greek Gods are real?" I asked for about the millionth time that knight. "The Greek Gods are just real, like you and I.

"They shift with western civilization." It had been a few hours since we had decided to camp there.

Yup, right there in the alley. I wanted to stay in a hotel , or something like that. When asked about it Nico said,

"We can't stay anywhere else because A nobody would let two strange boys and a Ken in off of the street, and B not many people are going to believe us when telling them about how the Greek Gods are real and all that."

"What about Kratos, that ghoulish hag that had replaced Echidna mentioned him." I asked. I felt bad for overwhelming him with too many questions, I really did, but when something as crazy as that happens you have to ask questions.

"I honestly don't know, you will have to find that out on your own."

He replied crushing every hope that I had of making a little sense of things. I buried my head in my hands.

"I know it's a lot to take in, it makes you feel overwhelmed." He said trying to comfort me. At this point Ken was starting to move in his sleep. That was a good sign. I remembered all of the good times me and Ken had, had. That lit a smile up on my face.

"Here." Nico said waking me up from my dreamlike trance. He had kicked a dagger across the alley, it skidded to a stop right at my feet. I picked it up and played with it for a while, slashing at the air as it were the Echidna.

"Take that you disgusting old grandma!" I said.

"What?" Nico asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing." I said.

"It's getting kind of late, you go to bed I will keep watch." Said Nico. He didn't have to tell me twice, I quickly passed out. The next morning Ken was wide awake. So awake in fact that the first words I heard when I woke up were

"Jack, thank god you are ok!"

That also woke up Nico. "What's wrong!" He immediately yelled.

"Nothing's wrong." I answered just as my stomach rumbled as if Gaia herself were in there.

"I'm hungry too." Said Ken.

"You're always hungry." I said. He then let out a "BAAA!"

"I'll go get some food, just wait here." Said Nico. About 30 minutes later he came back with a huge bag of breakfast, and some coffee for Sam. He gulped it down even before Nico could give us our food. Nico handed me a huge breakfast sandwich, that I was sure I could eat almost as fast as Ken, who was already asking me for a bite. Nico then tossed Ken an aluminum can. Which he ate gladfully ate!

"Did you really eat that whole thing!" "Yeah...Duh Satyrs eat trash all the time, we're part goat you know." Said Ken as if I were dumb. That last part startled me the most. I hadn't realized it, but Ken was covered in fur. I looked over to see his wheelchair flipped over, collecting dust. Just the other day we were walking home normally, I couldn't believe that all of that had happened in just one day.

"Where did you find this?" I said as I looked down at the food.

"There is a cafe just down the road." Nico said. "Let me show you." Ken and I sat down our delicious food and followed him. Before we left I grabbed the knife Nico had given me, just in case. Finally after we got there he showed us a dumpster filled with fresh breakfast. "They throw out a lot of food here a little early." He explained. Just then a shimmering rainbow appeared on the ground.

"Nico." Said a boy with dark brown hair, and dark green eyes. It was like we were facetiming through a a half horse, half man stepped into view. Surprisingly seeing that didn't even phase me, after all that I had seen in the last few days seeing a horse man was like seeing a squirrel at a petting zoo. " Chiron needs to speak with you in private." Said the boy looking at us.

"You guys go sightseeing or something, I'll catch up to you two in a second. Said Nico. Basically that was a nice way of saying "Beat it, I have someone more important I need to talk to.". We then walked around aimlessly for quite some time looking around for even the slightest bit of excitement. So far the most exciting thing we had seen was guy gnawing on a corn dog on Broad Street. Finally we grabbed a map and found the directions to places like the Hershey factory (Which had way too long of a line), and The Statue of Liberty. Even though I had lived here for a full year I didn't know there were so many things to see. I guess, I had been caught up with school so much that I didn't really look around to see all the beauty that was right there. An hour or two of "sightseeing" had passed until we started to feel about ready to go back to our alleyway and rest.

"Wait before we find Nico, I have to use the little goats room." Ken said.

"Fine." I replied. We found a restroom near a rest area on Canal Street. As I was waiting I felt a hand grab my shoulder, on instinct I grabbed the knife Nico had given me.

"Relax!" Said a hurried, scared Nico.

"Where have you been, you told us to sightsee about 2 hours ago, and we haven't seen you since?" I asked.

"I've been a little sidetracked."

"With what?" I asked. I then heard a loud manly voice yell

"There he is, get him!"

"Who are they I ask.

"Just some fellow children of Hades." Nico says through gritted teeth. We try and run, but they appear in front of us, kind of like how Nico did when he killed the hag. There are 3 of them, and they look mean. These guys made the war god Ares in all of his might look like a children's cartoon character. Me and Nico diverge and I slash my dagger at one of the goons, but of course he dodges and knocks me in the stomach with the flat of his spear. Let me tell you that knocked more wind out of me Anemoi having a sneezing fit. As I clutched my stomach on the ground (unable to move of course) the goon stomped on me like I was an ant. He then put me in some sort of headlock and put a knife up to my throat. I knew I was finished, but for some reason they didn't kill me off right then. I realized they were waiting for Nico.I silently cheered on Nico as he swung his sword at one of his oversized brothers. Eventually he was overpowered and put in an arm lock.

"Let's get out of here, Kratos is waiting!" Said one of them.

"Not yet, I want our little brother to absorb how he hopelessly lost!" Said another. Then a gift from the heavens came out of the bathroom, (I never thought I would be saying that.) Ken came out and watched as we were held in place.

"D-Do something!" I managed to squeak out from the choke hold. Then he screamed

"Cover your ears!" and he whipped out reed pipes.

"This is not the time for music." I thought. But I covered my ears anyways. I didn't hear much, but I did hear a muffled sound that sounded like a dying whale. I was immediately dropped from the hold, and in unison Nico, Ken, and I took off running seeing that the goons were subdued from the terrible music.

"You did it!" Nico screamed. "That song should have took some mastering, good job!" Nico congratulated him again.

"It wasn't supposed to do that." Said Ken with an "oops" expression on his face. Nico and I shrugged as we continued running. Then they appeared in the shadows behind us.

"Dang you Hades," "Why did your genes have to be so good!" I thought.

"Get back here!" One of them yelled.

"I thought that finished them off!" Said Nico. "Oh my gods!," Nico said. "Why is it always Hades!" He shouted.

"Over there!" I shouted pointing at a fishing boat.

"It's way too far away we'll never reach it in time!" Said a panicked Ken.

"I know a shortcut!" I replied confidently. We then took the shortcut cutting across New York City traffic, and running through a pizza shop, finally reaching the docks where the ship was held. We were about 5 feet away before,

"Where are you going, we've got your pet!" Shouted one of them. I looked back to see Ken with 2 knives to his back.

"Go on without me!" Ken said. I then made a split second decision, I ran at the meatheads knowing I would lose, but maybe I would give my friends a chance at getting away. But suddenly a bolt of lightning struck at the feet of them causing them to drop their knives.

"Come on!" Nico shouted! Me and Ken quickly jumped on the boat, and before they could recover I pushed our boat forward with a wind boost. There was still a lot i didn't know about these strange abilities. We could hear them cursing at us until we were about 200 meters away. "Yes!" We cheered.

"Wait…" Said Nico stopping our celebration in its tracks. "Where is this ship headed?" He asked.

"Camp Half-Blood, Long Island." Said a male voice. Then the same boy we saw in the rainbow message walked out of the captains booth.

"Percy!" Nico said, sounding as if about 10 pounds of stress had just left his body.

"I heard you guys needed some help," He said with a relaxed voice "so Chiron pulled some strings and here I am." "Now, next stop Camp Half Blood." Percy said. I didn't know where, or what that so called camp was, but one thing I knew was that I was in good hands now. Good Half Bloodly Hand