What I promised for today! To my many reviewers, I've taken up your idea of the doctor and Percy and Annabeth meeting again! Of course, it may be toward the end of the story, and I have yet to decide where they'll meet, although the DOA Studios seems like a good idea. I've seen that many of you expressed concerns about seeing the previous chapter somewhere before. It's hard for me to keep track of what fanfictions I have read or which ones I have not. In fact, I often find myself reading the same fanfictions over again by accident. I sometimes do take other stories as inspirations, but I try to make them unique in my own way. Anyhow, here's the chapter, during the Battle of Manhattan.

John Burke

The car door crunched and groaned one last time before I rolled onto the pavement. "What the Hell," I muttered. Heaving, I lifted my self up to my feet. What I saw, well technically I couldn't see anything, the Manhattan skyline and streets were clouded up in rolling waves of dust and fog, blew my breath away, I was more than certain my mouth had dropped to the pavement. Although it was more like I collected a pile of dust on the floor of my mouth. I started a serious fit of coughs. Note to self: Never breath in dust or clog, I thought.

There'd always been strange things in my life, dogs with fins, people with snake tails, even horses with wings, but nothing..., nothing could compare to this.

Through the fog, I could see several young adolescents surrounding... The Empire State Building? Bronze blades flashed in the darkness. Blue giants (what the heck?), gigantic dogs, and a dragon-like thing. That was in addition to everything I'd seen before, snake women, other things.

Out of habit, I quickly took my phone out and flicked it open. It was August 18th. Huh? I was just taking a nap... I checked my phone a few hours ago... How did I not wake up from the disaster happening right outside my car? I wondered, looking at the wreckage of Manhattan.

I was just starting to hyperventilate when I heard a 'boom' go off. A woman holding a shotgun stood on the sidewalk next to a dented car. Gold dust showered around a kid dressed in black with a shadow-black sword, who stood a few feet away from the woman.

"Percy, we'll be fine! Go!" The woman said to another boy, maybe sixteen with messy black hair, sea-green eyes, and golden dust clinging to his clothes. He was standing within a few yards of the perimeter of the Empire State Building. There were a bunch of people, teenagers with swords, daggers, or bow and arrows standing near him. They all had at least one serious injury, a long scratch down their arm, a broken limb in a cast, or a stab wound somewhere on their body, covered by gauze and bandages. Strangely enough, the black-haired guy didn't have any injuries, much less a scratch. He only looked worn out and tired.

Looking back at the woman, I felt as if she was seeing what I was seeing. All my life, other people saw the big dogs I saw as cute little poodles or loud, rowdy trucks, girls with mismatching legs who looked like vampires, others saw as famous celebrities, and the weapons those certain teenagers carried, the "normal" people saw them as rulers, guns, or just random stuff.

I walked up to the lady. Looking up close, I saw that she had brown hair and twinkling blue eyes, although her expression right now was grim and serious.

"Um, excuse me, but can you tell me what's going on? All the monsters..., and those teenagers with weapons..." I shivered and glanced at the Empire State Building involuntarily. God, I'll probably never look at that building the same way ever again, I thought.

I looked back to the woman. Her face was now full of surprise. She held out her hand. "Sally Jackson. You can see through the Mist. I'll have to talk to you after the war, care to help out?" She asked as she turned around. It was then that I realized that there was another person standing behind her. A buff guy with salt and pepper colored hair.

There wasn't anything better to do, so I just shrugged. She handed me a dagger from a fallen teenager. I winced, not wanting to know who killed him.

"This is celestial bronze, it kills the monsters. They're invading the city, trying to Storm the Empire State Building. A good jab to the chest should turn them to dust and to Tartarus," I was about to ask why the monsters were invading, and what the heck was so important about the Empire State Building when the lady, Sally, ran off. Great, just great. But then again, my life had been stranger, I charged into the thick of giants..., with one eye..., with what sounded like loud grumbling bellies.

Yeah, call me stupid, I was probably going to be eaten. But I had a plan..., sort of. "Hey! Macho Uglies! I can take you to have good snack!" I said, beginning to back away. The giants, (cyclopes, I corrected myself) pounded their clubs and grunted. One of them dropped a twelve or thirteen year old boy on his head. I winced.

"Oh, well, follow me!" I said, then led them toward a building that hadn't been destroyed, yet. "Yummy food around the back!" I yelled, feinting excitement. Once all the cyclopes started lumbering toward the back of the building, I ran behind them. Luckily, they didn't go too fast. The one in front, probably the leader, didn't realize what was happening until I had already vaporized more than half of the cyclopes and "sending them to Tartarus", whatever that had meant.

I retreated. I wasn't that stupid. Which led me to thinking why the Hell I accepted a job in less than a minute to kill these so called 'monsters'? What if they were the bad guys?

Luckily, the world just ended right then so I didn't have time to ponder over my decisions. Well, actually, the world didn't end, it was more the fact that all the monsters exploded into dust (the dust tastes nasty, like sulfur mixed with skunk stink, trust me, I know), got swallowed by a crack in the ground, or turned into flowers and grain. Laying around me was a gigantic pile of cereal. I decided right there and then to never eat cereal again. A heavy pile of cereal landed on my head. Ouch.

It was mostly over by then, although Manhattan New York lay in wreckage. The next day, Sally practically dragged me into a cafe. How she found out where I lived, I didn't even want to know.

"Tell me what you know," she said, the moment we sat down. Her blue eyes looked intently into mine. I told her. And in turn, she told me about the mythological world, (here the thunder rumbled), ahem, the real world. I wasn't TOO surprised. But I stayed in the cafe after Sally left. Still processing.

"Need help?" A lady wearing casual attire, jeans and a white blouse slid into the seat across from me. She had dark brown hair and striking gray eyes. With a jolt, I realized she had a huge, bronze shield on her back.

"The mythological world is real!" I blurted out, feeling the need to tell someone. The few people in the cafe looked out me quizzically, but dismissed me as having a mental breakdown. The woman cocked her head to one side, and smiled.

"Indeed it is," She replied, calm and composed. I forced myself to look into her eyes. "You were quite clever yesterday. It was a plan worthy of me. You went to Harvard, didn't you?" I was shocked. I indeed, did go to Harvard, but it was a fact I had always preferred to keep to myself.

"My name is John Burke," I said, holding out my hand for her to shake, "and you are...?" The woman held out her hand, and her gray eyes gleamed.

"I don't usually give my name so early, but this is obviously an exception. Pleased to meet you. My name is Athena."

Remember, advice, suggestions, and plot ideas are ALWAYS welcome! ^~^

SeaSpree