Listening to – Main soundtrack of Pacific Rim
A: There's no mention of Percy's middle name in the books. A site says that it's 'Allen', though I'm not too sure.
Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series or to Harry Potter.
Words – 2501
"Why me?" Grover asked hurrying to catch up to Percy as the latter jogged along the grounds towards the sparring arena.
Now that Percy had gotten bit of hope and energy in him, he felt ready to take on the quest. Maybe it was because he had seen Harry and it had not been a dream. Or maybe it was piano in the attic. Or maybe it was because they had a few months until the Winter Solstice and he was taking it easy about the consequences. Or maybe it was because planning about this was a way to escape the pain of thinking about his mom.
Whatever it was, Percy was going along with it. He had a quest. Apparently, it was a tribute to go on a quest. No one said anything like, 'Whoa, Zeus thinks you stole his lightning bolt? That's rad!' or 'Awesome, you might be responsible for the next world war!'
No, people looked at him and congratulated him on receiving the highest honour of being a demi-god – Being sent on errands by a god, in this case, both Zeus and Poseidon.
His father. That was another reason why everyone at camp suddenly started treating him different. At first they had avoided him, but then they started talking more, including him in activities, letting him go ahead in the line for sacrificing his portion of food for the gods…
Honestly, it was only a few people who seemed to treat him the same way as before. Luke was cheery. Adam was funny. Clarisse was angry. Annabeth was huffy (no other word for it.) The Stoll brothers were silly. And Grover had always been there. For nearly a year.
"Because I trust you." Percy said simply.
Grover was quiet for a while before asking, "Have you thought about this?"
"Sure. I spend a nearly three days after the oracle visit. It was nice thinking."
"Thinking was nice?"
"Yeah." Percy joked. "I never realize how productive it was to think."
" 'Productive?' Three syllable words? What's with you today?"
"Hey! I've used three syllables before! Like… like 'conservation'!"
"That's four, Percy."
Percy turned away as Grover chuckled. The former smiled. He really did have a gift to make people feel better. Just crack a joke. But sometimes when that didn't work, it was best to act dumb.
"So… who're you looking for?"
Percy stopped at the door and put his hands on his hip, adopting a 'serious' expression on his face.
Percy was a master at pulling up different expressions. He had the 'angelic smile' (from mom), the 'devish grin' (from mom), the 'blank look' (himself), the 'sweet, confused pout' (himself), the 'emotionless mask' (from Harry), and his newly learned one – 'the classic librarian look' (from Annabeth).
He had many others up his sleeve, but right now, he wiped away his smile, scrunched up his eyebrows, wrinkled his nose and let out a thoughtful 'hmm' as he stared around at the people slicing straw dummies.
The look marred with his hair, but gave the definite show of a serious Percy.
A few kids stopped in their work and gave him a glance, wondering what was happening.
Percy could feel their mystification (five syllables!) and his eyes lit up when he saw the person who he needed to talk to.
"Luke!" He called.
"Luke's the third person for the quest?" Grover muttered. Percy didn't look away from the blonde who turned around and smiled.
"Yeah, horn guy. Whad'ya want?"
Some snickered. Percy let out a 'humph!'
"Where's Annie?"
Luke raised an eyebrow, his smile wavering a bit before answering, "She's on the archery grounds."
"Didn't see her there."
"Maybe she'd with Katie Gardner. They sometimes spend some time together."
Percy watched as the son of Hermes turned back to decapitating the straw dummy and its girlfriend. He shook his head and turned to Grover.
"Katie? Katie? I don't know any Katie."
"I do. She's the oldest daughter of Lady Demeter." Grover put in as they walked up to the cabins.
"Which God is that?"
"Goddess. Demeter is the Goddess of Agriculture."
Percy stopped and blinked at Grover. "Agriculture? And the girl's name is Katie Gardner? Is that supposed to be funny?"
Grover shrugged, "Coincidence?"
"There's no such thing as coincidence, G-Man." Percy said, a frown appearing on his face. He was starting to get an idea of the behavior of the immortals but then pushed it away.
Outside a large green brick cabin laced with hundreds of pots around the building and a full front yard of kitchen plants (Harry would've loved it) A brown haired girl, with a wheatish skin sat next to Annabeth, with a few scrolls on their laps as they spoke in low tones. Percy only caught words like, 'fire', 'pant' and 'Stoll.'
He cleared his throat.
"Era –" Annabeth stopped and watched Percy with her flashing eyes.
"I come in peace, Earthling." He said adopting a deep hollow voice.
"I knew you weren't human." Annabeth replied in a lofty voice.
"Yeah, apparently, I'm half god. Imagine that, Annie."
Grover snorted and Katie Gardner gave him a strange look. Annabeth glared at him.
"What do you want, Horn Guy?"
Percy sighed at that and said, "Well, for starters, could everyone please stop calling me that?"
"Why? Do you not like someone calling you by a name you don't approve of?"
Percy pushed his lips up to one side, understanding what she meant.
"Deal. Will you help me now, Annabeth?"
"In that case, yes I will, Percy."
She got up and gave Katie her scroll.
Grover watched as the two started talking about the quest. Their voices raised momentarily before lowering down. Percy started making hand gestures while Annabeth folded her arms and looked down at him with a little more interest than what she had pretended.
"I can see why Silena had started betting on them." Katie said out of the blue, startling Grover. He gave her a look.
"What?" Katie asked defensively.
Grover shrugged, "Nothing. Wh – what else has Silena said about them?"
Katie watched the pair of them who was engaged in a slightly heated conversation about planning.
"Inter-looped triangles." Katie said and picked up her papers before heading inside her cabin.
"She said we have to start from Camp. What was wrong with my plan? The thief would clearly have started from the Empire State building, right?" Percy muttered as the Grover and himself fell behind Annabeth on the way to Argus' camp van.
Once the three of them had started trying to map a way with the prophecy, something Percy could not forget, Annabeth had immediately concluded to not go anywhere near the Empire State Building.
"Look." Annabeth said with a sigh. "The thief was able to sneak out of Olympus with the most powerful weapon of the gods. Don't you think the person would have covered any and all tracks around the building? He or she would've been at least a little bit paranoid. If we need any clues, we have to look somewhere where we're sure that the thief would've been and where he would've given less attention."
Percy gave Grover a 'Seriously?' look, but Grover seemed to agree with her.
"Yeah. The person would have been a little sloppy with the weapon. He must have had a lot of trouble hiding the power."
Annabeth sat up at that and stared at Grover.
"Grover, you're a genius!"
"Uhh.."
"Oh!" Percy joined in. "I get it!"
"I'm losing you two."
"We need someone who's well-versed in our world, someone powerful enough to mask the weapon's power!"
"Uhuh." Grover frowned and Percy shook his shoulder. "That means, I can prove that it's not me! I mean, I have no idea how to mask power."
He trailed off. There was a light memory washing over him.
Harry was masking his scent.
The shield around House no. 4 of Privet Drive and Harry's mysterious plant power.
'Wait a sec! That's stupid. Harry isn't even in New York! He has nothing to do with this!' Flo yelled out.
Percy nearly jumped.
"What?" Annabeth asked staring at the son of Poseidon whose eyes had gone out of focus.
"Nothing. Nothing, I was just… thinking."
Grover raised an eyebrow, "You're thinking a lot nowadays, Perce."
Argus dropped the trio off near a Walmart store, a good distance away from Long Island Sound. Percy could no longer smell the ocean and his bravery dwindled a little. He was really out here. Out in the outside world. With the knowledge of Gods.
He almost expected a monster to pounce on them the moment the van left, but nothing relatively weird happened.
Annabeth fidgeted with her Yankees cap. "Come on."
Percy grimaced at the angry welts that Grover and Annabeth sported.
After Argus had left them by Walmart, they had walked ahead to find a bus depot to head off towards central Manhattan. The bus wasn't very crowded and so the three had noticed something strange when three old ladies hobbled into the vehicle after them.
For a frightening moment, Percy thought that it was the same group who had been knitting the giant sock. But these women were different, there were fiercer and less experienced in a 'heavenly' fashion.
They had turned out to be the three Kindly Ones, sent by Hades, the Lord of the Underworld.
Though Annabeth's plan was for Percy turn invisible with her cap and get off the bus, thus leading the furies away, it had been ruined when he had turned around to see the winged creatures take out burning whips.
Somehow, it had lead to the bus blowing up with the monsters trapped inside, but some of the mortals had shrieked and started pointing at Percy. Nobody else was hurt, but they had to get out of there fast.
"Can't you take more ambrosia? The cuts would heal completely, right?" Percy asked, passing Grover a small flask of water.
Annabeth closed the lid of the box which had the food and nectar of the gods and shook her head, "Its use is limited in a short space of time. If we consume too much nectar or ambrosia, we'll burn up."
Percy watched the burn on her arms reduce to a small pucker.
"When you say 'burn up', does it mean, like, a fever?"
"No, I mean 'burn up', like, go up in flames."
"Oh."
You can't have something good without the bad." She said wisely. Percy nodded. He understood that.
Grover gave Percy his flask and took out his reed pipes. "May be I should play a tracking tune. I haven't got a hang on the nut map –"
" 'Nut map'?" Percy asked in an 'Are-you-serious?' tone.
Grover shot him a look and started to blow on his pipes. A horrible flat and high note of sounds emerged and Percy winced.
A bush beside them shivered and shot out a few thorns, embedding themselves into Percy's bag.
"No wait. That's not right." He muttered. Percy rolled his eyes, but Annabeth looked a little worried. She got up and dusted some wet mud off her jeans, trying to look ahead into the descending darkness of the forest.
"I think I can smell something cooking." She said.
Percy raised his head as a particularly tasty whiff of junk food wafted through the air. He tried not to groan. He was never allowed to have junk food except for the occasional reward of French fries and coke. Mom wouldn't have let him have burgers or pizzas.
'Healthy foods keep us alive.' His mother would chant. Harry never had any scruples and had always eaten his greens without hesitation. Percy always knew that regular kids never usually had such a strict diet.
"Percy, come on." Grover called and he looked up to see Annabeth walking ahead and Grover following her towards the smell.
"Point to note for the future." Percy said, as the package containing a head of snakes disappeared into thin air, hopefully into Olympus. They collapsed next to the stone counter of 'Aunty Em's Emporium'.
"Sweet old ladies are the deadliest. I mean, seriously! She tried to kill us!"
"Actually, she wanted to turn us into statues and break mine. At least she would've kept yours." Annabeth pointed out. Percy turned towards and gave a sarcastic smile, "Yeah, that was the good part. You didn't have to be so close to her!"
Annabeth glared at him. Then she said in a pseudo deep voice, obviously trying to imitate Percy's, " 'She's just a sweet old lady, guys! What's the harm?' "
Grover let out a small bleating like laugh which he muffled quickly.
Percy's shoulders slumped. "You're right. Like I said, sweet old ladies are disasters. Like the ones who cut up that silly yarn, the furies on the bus and now –"
"Wait!" Annabeth said suddenly, staring at him as though he had said something life-changing. "What yarn?"
Percy shrugged, "I saw three old women from my apartment terrace who were knitting something. It was seriously huge. Like XL-times million size. They were seriously old too. Then they cut the yarn and it was really creepy."
Annabeth and Grover shared horrified looks.
"What?" Percy asked staring at them.
"P-Percy." Grover stammered. "Did they look at you? At all?"
Percy nodded.
"Oh gods. Oh dear gods!"
"Wait, what?"
"You… you Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth yelled.
"Excuse me?" Percy said, feeling affronted. "What did you –"
"How can you see something like that and not tell us?!"
Percy watched them in alarm, "What's wrong? They didn't attack me at least. They weren't as bad as the furies or Medusa –"
"Percy, they're worse, much much worse! They're the Fates."
He stared at them not really understanding. It seemed to be a big deal, but he couldn't see the damage they could.
"The Fates." Annabeth hissed. She lowered her voice and said, "Percy, the Fates are few of the most powerful beings in our world. They see everything, know everything. They ordain the truest and greatest prophecies for the Delphi spirit to listen and give us."
Percy felt the air around him change with her words and gulped. "They sound like the three monkeys of wisdom."
Grover groaned and started ripping up a left over wax paper with his teeth.
Annabeth looked like she wanted to strangle Percy. He took a step back. That look reminded him a lot of Harry whenever the latter was irritated. Of course, Harry would never hurt Percy, but there was no guarantee that Annabeth wouldn't either.
"Clarisse was right. You need to learn how to close your mouth! Get a filter! Percy, you can't go around talking about powers like this. You can't just send severed petrifying heads! You need to learn how to respect or else the gods, monsters and the Fates would kill you!"
"I'm new." He mumbled.
"Then learn! You're a demigod! You need to grow up! Learn our ways before you get incinerated!"
A little harsh, but she called him Seaweed Brain. So, stay tuned for the next chap.
No question for this chapter, but check out my new poll.
Cabba.