Chapter 7 - Solo Mission

Percy cracked his eyes open one at a time. The first thing he noticed was that he was back in Apollo's abode, wearing his rumpled, dirty clothes from yesterday. Yesterday... Percy suddenly remembered everything that embarrassingly happened the day before, and why he was such a mess. He groaned loudly before covering his head with his pillow. He didn't mean to be such a coward, all his bottled up emotions just rushed out and he couldn't stop. Percy silently vowed to never do it again.

He heard the door creak open and someone walk in. "Pssst, Perce, you awake?"

Percy reluctantly took his head from under his pillow and looked at Apollo.

"Hey, how are you this fine morning?" At this, he threw open the curtains, letting the bright, awful sun in (no offense to Apollo).

"Fine..." he mumbled, hoping the sun god wouldn't mention anything about yesterday; he didn't mean to mess up so badly, didn't mean to get so emotional. Thankfully, Apollo didn't mention anything. Instead, he began excitedly talking about a mission.

Percy had been grumbling about a solo mission for a very, very long time, but he didn't actually expect to get one any time soon. He was beginning to think that he wasn't ready, but there was only way to find out, and that was by trying.

"Hermes needs your help," Apollo continued on, waving his hands around and just overall being excessively exuberant.

"A god needs my help? Can't he just snap his fingers or something?" He guessed that was how it worked, somewhat, they were gods, after all. Then again, logically, there must've been a set of rules governing what they could or could not do, or else they'd all just go around wreaking havoc.

"It doesn't work like that," he shook his head. "Us gods have to abide by—"

"—rules. Yeah, so what's my mission?" Percy stopped lazing around and began to rummage around his closet for clean clothes (which was pretty damn hard, considering he lived with a god who could simply summon clean laundry).

"His kid, Luke, and his friends need some rescuing, and ASAP, so we—or rather, you—need to get a move on. He's in Newark at Lincoln Park, you can get there in half an hour if you take a taxi." He replied, before taking out a sleek sporty black watch out of his pocket and holding it up. "And this... is yours."

The clock wasn't ticking when Percy looked closely, so he knew it was something else. "What is it? My own sword? Maybe a shield? Or what about glasses with a monster database?"

"No, no, and... I'm going to ask Hephaestus about that..." the sun god said.

The son of Poseidon excitedly took the watch and put it on before instinctively pressing one of four buttons. Immediately, the watch transformed into a black board that fit into his hand nicely. Percy stared at it confusedly. "A skateboard? I can't even ride one of those, though."

"A hoverboard." Apollo corrected. "State of the art technology right there, made by Hephaestus and the best part of it is that the mortals will just see it as that; a hoverboard. It'll help you get to places faster, and the red button is a call for help that will tap directly into Hermes' caduceus phone; the other two buttons will be for you to figure out."

He pressed a button on the bottom of the hoverboard before putting the watch back on his wrist. Percy was a little surprised and confused that he got a hoverboard instead of a shield or something, but in a way, he was also glad because he'd rather have a means of travel than a means of killing. "Thanks, make sure to thank Hephaestus for me."

Apollo looked thoughtful. "So, was that a good briefing? Surely not as good as Bourne Legacy but not so bad for the first time, eh?"

Percy shook his head before giving him a smile. "Yeah, just one thing. Should I wear some black ninja clothes or something?"

The answer was no. He could not wear black ninja clothes because it would just make him look plain ridiculous. Or at least, that was what Apollo said. Of course, this was coming from the guy who decided one day that he would put a gigantic snow machine in his palace. It would have been a good idea had his palace not have been at a consistent 27 degrees Celsius. To say succinctly, the place flooded and Percy was almost found out.

Anyway, so there Percy was, gliding on his black hoverboard as fast as he could towards Lincoln Park. Oddly enough, even though Percy had never ever ridden any skateboard, he could ride this one just fine.

As he entered Lincoln Park, he could already hear a struggle going on towards the middle of the park. He saw three people battling viciously and losing against a horde of hellhounds and a dracaena. There were two girls and one boy, presumably Luke.

Quickly, Percy took his celestial bronze sword, Patrick, off his back and engaged in battle. The kids only glanced at him before continuing to fight. A hellhound and dracaena attacked him at the same time and he ducked and stabbed the hellhound. Luke swiped at the dracaena, but it used its snake trunks to whack him against a tree trunk.

"Luke!" one of the girls—the younger one—cried out before coming to his defence with her dagger.

This left the older girl vulnerable to the rest of the hellhounds—six, from what Percy could see—so the son of Poseidon decided to help. They stood back to back as the hellhounds surrounded them in a circle. Percy was not very used to fighting with other people, but he and the girl were doing quite well together. They constantly kept the hellhounds on guard by attacking spontaneously, relying on each other to guard their backs.

At one point, two hellhounds attacked at once, and so the older girl instinctively lifted Percy up by the arms on her back and spun him around so his legs kicked the hounds aside. They quickly stabbed them when they were on the ground.

At last, there was only one hellhound left and when it pounced at the girl, Percy hurriedly threw his sword right through the head, imbedding itself into the ground.

"Thanks," she said breathlessly.

Before Percy could reply, he saw that the little girl was kneeling by Luke, unaware that the dracaena was still alive on the ground, not yet turned into powder. Seeing as Percy had no other weapons other than the sword that was still on the ground, he took his hoverboard that was formed from his watch and tossed it at the dracaena's head. It alerted the girl and she thoroughly stabbed the snake-tailed woman. All that was left was golden powder scattered on the grass and sidewalk.

"Luke!" the older girl gasped before kneeling beside him.

"Silena, he's going to be fine. Just a few cuts and bruises, as well as a mild concussion, but we should probably get him to an Apollo kid as soon as possible." the younger girl gently laid a hand on her shoulder.

Percy tried not to intrude and went to go pick up his hoverboard and put it on his wrist.

The two girls went up to him. "Hey, thanks for helping us back there, we really needed it." One of them handed him his sword while the other one stared at it thoughtfully.

"It doesn't have a name on it." She pointed out.

"Yeah, it doesn't, so I named it Patrick." He said. "My name's Percy, by the way."

The two of them broke out into genuine smiles before laughing. It made Percy smile too, even though he didn't know what was so funny.

"You dummy," the younger one with blond hair said; he wasn't sure if she was joking or not. "You're supposed to name it something Greek. Patrick, haha."

"Oh," the son of Poseidon couldn't help but blush and mumble, "Didn't know there were rules about naming swords."

"It's okay, anyway." The older one shrugged nicely, which made Percy feel a bit better. "I'm Silena, daughter of Aphrodite—" she had dark brown/black hair and breathtaking eyes that seemed to constantly change colours, courtesy of her mother, and she seemed awfully nice with her welcoming smile. She was... beautiful, even though her hair was messy from the fight. Speaking of which, she fought exceptionally well for a daughter of love.

"—and I'm Annabeth, daughter of Athena, goddess of Wisdom and Battle Strategy." Annabeth, the younger one, stood a little straighter and gave a smile that would have made her look very pretty, if not for the smugness that it contained. The daughter of Wisdom had the classic blond hair in a pony tail and threatening grey eyes, but thankfully it didn't look as dangerous as Athena because she looked about the same age as him, 11. Annabeth jabbed a thumb behind her. "That's Luke, son of Hermes."

"Who's your godly parent?" Silena looked at him curiously.

"It's not that important," Percy shrugged. "You should probably get him some medical attention, he doesn't look too good." he pointed to Luke, who was beginning to stir and moan.

Silena readily accepted the excuse and went to go help Luke up, but Annabeth, on the other hand, gazed at him like she was intently coming up with all the reasons for his avoidance. It was quite unnerving to 11 year old Percy, and so he muttered, "Gotta go, see ya." before quietly heading away.

"Hey, Percy, do you have anything to get us quickly to Camp?" Silena asked.

He guessed that 'camp' was near the Empire State Building, which was where he was heading, but there was no way they could know that. Instead, he rooted through his pockets for change, and tossed the coins to her. "Try the taxi...Silena." he added her name because he had never met many, if any, demigods, much less a daughter of Aphrodite. He was trying to enjoy his meeting with other people like him as much as he could before he would have to head back to Apollo's palace for another boring day with the god.

"Thanks," she grinned with her perfect teeth and turned her attention back on Luke.

Unfortunately, before he was able to leave the clearing of Lincoln Park, Annabeth interrupted him.

"Wait! I haven't seen you at camp before." She narrowed her eyes and began walking to him.

Of course, only a daughter of Athena would ask so many questions; would never let anything go.

"You will..." was the only thing the son of Poseidon could say to her, before he activated his hoverboard and ran off.

Footsteps sounded behind him but he knew that Annabeth would never be able to catch him on foot. It was a weird way to leave whom he considered his new friends, but it was also the only way. He knew the daughter of Athena would keep asking questions if he stayed.

Percy hoped Luke would be okay, because Luke—even though he had never talked to him yet—was his friend now. His third friend of the day.

Perseus Jackson smiled in anticipation for the day he would finally be able to attend the so-called enigmatic Camp Half-Blood. That is, if Mr. Sunshine and dad would ever let him.

As he arrived in Manhattan, he quickly entered the Empire State building, and put up his hoodie. It was a good thing that Apollo gave him a hoverboard because he wouldn't want to run into Silena and Annabeth again so soon.

Business men in formal suits and ties stared at Percy as he walked up to the secretary's desk, even so more than usual since Apollo was not there escorting him. "Hey Tom," he wearily leaned on the desk and addressed the man, who was boredly pressing keys on his game boy. "500th floor, please."

"Kid," the man drawled without even looking up. "There ain't no 500th floor, go away."

Percy sighed and mentally groaned. It's a wonder why the gods even hired this damn muppet, probably only because he seemed too ignorant to hold such a powerful secret. "Nice acting, but seriously, I need to go up."

"Nice try, but seriously, no." He mocked. The sparkling glint in his eyes told Percy that he knew who he was, and was just giving him a hard time on purpose. It was practically impossible to not remember the son of Poseidon, he went here so often.

Someone walked up behind him and put a strained hand on Percy's shoulder, making him tense up and finger the sword on his back. The person was in a business suit and seemed to work at the Empire State building, he seemed like a regular mortal. "Tom," the man gruffly said. "Do you need any help?" the hand on his shoulder tightened. Tom looked at him smugly with his eyebrows raised, and Percy looked at him in disdain. He knew what that look meant; it was a greedy look, meaning he would need Apollo to convince Zeus to give the security guard a raise, or something along the lines of that.

Tom smirked. "Nah, it's fine. Here you go, kid." He tossed Percy the pair of green keys sitting on his desk.

The man took his hands off Percy's shoulder, allowing him to stomp into the elevator. That was so unfair! He silently fumed as he jabbed the keys into the slot and pressed the shining 500th floor button. Tom was picking on him simply because he was just a kid, and it wasn't fair because he never did anything wrong to him.

Right as he took the keys out of the slot and the doors were about to close, a lady slipped in at the last minute, which astonished Percy greatly. Of course, that wasn't supposed to happen at all, and he didn't even think it was possible without getting squished in-between the doors. Everyone had always lectured him on being alone before going up to the 500th floor, in case a mortal were to find out Olympus accidentally. But it was too late; he had already pressed the button, and there was no stopping the elevator as it began its ascent upwards.

The lady had shoulder length curly black hair, along with professional business clothes on. She pressed on the top floor button before reverting back into her usual stance of standing straight and keeping her eyes on the door.

What she didn't know but Percy did was that if the 500th floor button is pressed, the elevator automatically disregards all other buttons and gives all mythological people top priority, is what Apollo mentioned to him. It would reach the 500th floor before going back down, which would expose Olympus to the mortal beside him.

Percy silently cursed himself and looked anywhere but at her. What was he going to do? The elevator slowly rose floor by floor, leaving Percy with even less time to think of a plan. There was no way to get out of this. The elevator went past the top floor, and began to gain velocity; Percy didn't dare look at the lady.

Just as he was about to give up hope, his eyes roamed upon the emergency lockdown button. Well, this was certainly an emergency.

...Would he press it? He would get in so much trouble. Zeus might find out, Apollo would kill him... But then again, think of all the trouble he would get in if he let a mortal see Olympus.

Ahhhh damn it, he was screwed any which way he chose.

One side glance at the mortal before he leaped towards the control panel, lifted the security lock, and slammed the lockdown button. Just in time too, as the elevator was beginning to slow down at its destination.

He breathed out a sigh of relief, but he wasn't in the clear just yet. The elevator closed to an abrupt halt.

The lady turned towards him, but before he could sprout any 'I'm sorry's' or 'Woopsies!'s', he froze. The elevator started again and slowly ascended, but he didn't question it. "Hello, Perseus."

Stormy grey eyes scrutinized him, the same ones Annabeth had, and he gulped.

The elevator door opened to show Apollo leaning against a nearby pillar, casually licking a red popsicle. "Hey Athena, so how'd he do?" he asked.

"L-lady Athena," he stuttered, before clumsily bowing, shock still in his system. He glanced back and forth between a very casual Apollo and a calm Athena, and wondered why anyone else wasn't confused or panicked except him. Since when did Athena know about him?

"A barely passable C-, Apollo, what have you been doing for the past year?" the goddess of Wisdom said, as she professionally walked out the elevator shaft and headed towards a very elegant and feminine palace, presumably Aphrodite's since Athena would never have one like it. Apollo absentmindedly handed Percy a pair of Ray Bans sunglasses to put on before they both trailed behind Athena.

"Having fun, like normal people, Athena." Apollo responded playfully, but Athena did not harbour much humour at the comment.

"Where are we going? What's going on? And what did she mean by a C-?" Percy bombarded Apollo with questions.

"You didn't think the mission was going to be that easy, did you?" Athena called behind her, and he could hear a little taunting behind her words. "A few measly hellhounds and a dracenea..."

"It was an evaluation, a favour for me because you helped their daughters." Apollo tried to explain as much as he could, but it was making Percy even more confused.

"Their?" he questioned. Who was they?

They had arrived at the palace, and the door opened to reveal a beautiful woman, who always seemed to change from one lovely physical trait to the next, always and continually. Her eyes were exactly like Silena's, or rather, Silena's were exactly like hers.

"Lady Aphrodite," Percy set aside his stumbling and stuttering and bowed smoothly, not making the same mistake he did with Lady Athena.

"Percy, they're going to help you."

Thanks so much for reading, and please review!

Who should I pair Percy with?

And a special thanks to LazeBlaZe7 for the really nice private messge :)

February 9, 2014.