Second chapter in a day, not bad. It seems I'm doing this a lot, I'll do longer single chapters more (I hope!).

Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 3

Alex, to put it simply, was confused.

Percy, if that was really his name, was crazy.

Maybe the guy who had been chasing him earlier was a guard from the mental asylum where he was held.

In any case, Percy was hold his hands out in front of him, showing Alex absolutely nothing. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Alex could see some strawberry fields a few hundred feet away. This was exactly why he didn't give people his real name the first time he met them. They sometimes turned out to be lunatics.

Alex held his hands out in front of him in a calming gesture. "Listen, Percy. There's nothing there."

Percy was standing a few steps ahead of Alex. Far enough that, if needed, Alex could outrun Percy down the hill.A look of comprehension dawned on the lunatic's face. "Come a few steps forward, John."

Alex obeyed, hoping Percy didn't pull out a knife. "Percy, there's nothing the- Wow."

Percy nodded. "Yeah."

What Alex could see of Camp was amazing. Alex picked out some, maybe greek style, pavillions, a sort of arena and thirty or so cabins, like you'd find in any other American camp, except each one looked different. One was a horrible dark red, another shone as bright as the sun. He followed Percy down the hill to a large house near some volleyball courts. The ex-spy noticed some blonde kids around his age playing there. He almost sighed, it'd been a while since he'd done that.

Not that he hadn't tried socialising at his school, he had just stayed quiet though. He found making friends pointless. He'd had friends, well two. One had been killed in Egypt, the other cruely ripped away, left back in England. He missed Tom, sure they chatted on the phone, but they couldn't play pranks or anything like thay used to. They just talked, which got kind of boring when you ran out things talk about. And Jack, well...

A wave of sadness hit Alex. Red hair...explosion...grief...Julius Grief...shooting himself...

Alex shook his head. No, better to focus on the here and now like- he tried to grab Percy. Unfortunatly, the green-eyed boy reacted with surprising speed, darting out of Alex's reach. From his wide eyes it was clear he hadn't been expecting it. "Listen Percy, I want the truth, now."

Four people, who had been sitting at a table on the porch of the house, stood up and rushed towards them. Percy glanced at them. Alex profited from Percy's distraction by pulling a small blade, which he kept for occaisions just like this, out of his pocket and pinning it to Percy's throat.

Alex spoke to the other people, "Take another step and Percy here gets his throat cut."

It was only then that Alex noticed that not all of the people in front of him were fully human. One man had a human torso placed upon a horse's body, whilst another had furry goat legs, with hooves as feet. The other two people with them were a distincly disheveld pudgy dark-haired man and a rather pretty girl Alex's age with hazel hair and forest green eyes.

By then, the people who had been hapily playing now fixed cold stares at Alex. One of them shouted, "Hey, let Percy go, what'd he do to you?" They were only stopped by the knife at Percy's neck.

They were shushed by a wave of the half-horse's, Alex remembered people called them centaurs, hand. Instead of speaking to Alex, he spoke to Percy, "Who's this, Percy?"

Percy swallowed, obviously having a knife at your throat wasn't great. "I'm pretty sure he's a half-blood, Chiron. His name's John Beckett. He's English an-"

"His name's not John Beckett" said the pudgy man. He tutted. "Typical cocky half-bloods, think they can lie to anyone. I am a god, after all."

"Perrcy" the, Alex remembered calling them satyrs in class, bleated. "Are you okay?"

Alex felt Percy shrug. "I'm fine. What I want to know is, what's your real name, John?"

"That can wait. What's a half-blood? Tell me!" Alex felt like he was back in that fish tank over a year ago with the portuguese Man o' War. Each golden haired child, who now held bows, was a tentacle. The memories got too much.

Chiron, as Percy had called him, spoke to Alex, "Child, a half-blood is someone who is half-god. The son or daughter of a Ancient Greek god. The young man you're holding is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. He's a hero, please let him go."

The circle around Alex grew smaller, the memories hitting him harder. Lack of air...tentacles everywhere...rubbing the cream on the metal rods of the aquarium...

"What about the guy next to you, he doesn't exactly look like godly materiel. Didn't he just say he was a god?" Alex accused.

A blonde haired girl ran to Chiron's side. "Percy!" She looked at Alex. "Let him go!"

"Annabeth!" Percy said. "It's alright, he's just spooked." Alex was impressed by Percy's calm state, he doubted he'd be as calm in Percy's situation.

Meanwhile, the pudgy man muttered to himself, "'Not godly materiel', eh? I'll show him 'not godly materiel'!" He raised a hand, and a thick vine stem shot out of the ground underneath Alex, propelling him in the air.

Percy escaped Alex's grasp as the ex-spy flew almost sixty feet in the air. The cream eating through the metal...

As Alex started his descent, a part of his brain remembered learning that an fall from over sixty feet was deadly. He never thought he die like this, shot into the air by a giant grape vine. Vaguely, he registered the green-eyed girl from earlier raise her hands, think plant stems shooting out of the ground, rising twenty feet in the air towards Alex.

They barely slowed his descent. Alex bumped into an exceptionally thick one, which slowed him down even more, before he started free-falling towards the ground. Alex noticed Percy running towards where he was going to land. Just as Alex was about to land, Percy threw himself between the blonde and the ground. Alex bounced off Percy, flying backwards and hitting his head on a stone poking out of the ground. Percy lay next to him, seemingly not to have taken to much damage. Alex felt blood soak his hair red and gave a weak smile, "Alex Rider."

All he saw after was darkness.

The glass shattering and being hit by gallons of water...

That's probably the longest chapter I've ever written! Around 1300 words, not bad, eh?

I'll try to update soon.

Until next time,

-Gatekeeper