I'M BAAAAAACK! I do apologize for the long wait, I have been busy at school as of late. But now, I have returned to bestow upon you a shining new chapter! Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the olympians, Fullmetal Alchemist, or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It isn't my fault that Amestris isn't as technologically advanced as America is (well, if you count alchemy, we're wayyyy above them). I've honestly never dreamed that humans could take to the skies and travel across oceans in a matter of hours. Of course, my crew was staring at me like a bunch of slack-jawed idiots, wondering how the Hel a kid like me could have grown up without knowing about airplanes.

After kindly explaining to them the fact that the cars here are even more modern than the ones back home, they took the liberty of explaining the mechanics of an airplane. A question for the humans on this side of the gate: how were you able to come up with a heavy machine that can fly without alchemy? It seems that the people here, though alchemy-less, are still full of surprises.
One problem still remained: how could we get ourselves back to New York with the bolt on time?
"Why can't we use this flying contraption?" I asked. "It sounds as if it will get us there in a matter of hours."
"Yes, but it would be...against good judgement for Percy to fly." Annabeth explained.
"Why?"
Annabeth glanced at Percy. "My father is the lord of the seas," Percy said, as if it would answer the question to life itself (that's 42, by the way). I stared blankly back at him. Percy rolled his eyes. "So basically, my father and Zeus have a huge sibling rivalry, and if a son of Poseidon is ever caught in the air, they might get blasted to smithereens."
"What about a child of Zeus in the water?" I asked.
Percy looked down. "I don't even want to think about that." I nodded in agreement. We weighed our options and figured that Zeus would sense that we had his magical weapon and let us bring it to him (we hoped he would, at least). However, before we even left the beach, we hit a roadblock.
Swarming the beach were dozens of reporters. They had seen the battle and wanted the scoop.
"Oh, no." Percy said and sighed.
"What? Scared of a little fame?" I raised my eyebrows teasingly.
"No, it's just my step-dad, Smelly Gabe, went on the news after Mom and I disappeared, claiming I was a fugitive and a delinquent punk who kidnapped his mother." He swept his hands out at the oncoming horde of reporters. "Now I have to deal with them." I smiled as a plan formed in my head. Quick thinking, as always.
"Play along." I told the others, and took off towards the group.
"OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!" I shouted. "FINALLY, SOMEONE'S COME TO RESCUE US!" That stopped the group. I turned back to my friends, winked, then turned back to the reporters. "Did you see that big, burly man all in black there?" Some of the reporters nodded. "He kidnapped us, right off the street! From all over the country!" Reporters started scribbling. "I think there was a woman with us, but I stopped hearing her scream around the third day, so..." I heard some gasps as I trailed off. I smiled inside: my plan was working. "I heard the truck stop, and when he opened the door, we were here. He said our parents didn't give him the ransom money in time and threw us on to the beach. Suddenly, he pulled out a gun, and would have killed us if my friend hadn't taken the man's sword and defended us. PERCY! COME HERE!" I shouted the last bit back to my crew. Percy hesitantly ran over. I returned to the news hounds. "He's a hero, I say. I owe him my life!"
As Percy approached, the reporters started bustling again. "Mr. Jackson!" one of them shouted, "were you really kidnapped?"
Percy shuddered for effect. "Yes. My mother and I walked to the store to buy some food, and out of nowhere this guy pulled a gun and forced my mom and I into his van. We stopped three more times, each to pick up Annabeth, Grover, and A.J. here. He separated my mother and I, and she wasn't on the beach when he took us off," I swear to god he had a tear in his eye at this point, "I just hope she's ok..."
"What about your step-dad," another reporter piped up, "what do you say to him?"
Percy looked up, the same gleam in his eye as I get when I've thought of the perfect prank. "All I want, besides to see my mother safe, is to go back to New York and see my step-dad. Every so often, I would hear him on the radio from the back of the truck, and I knew he was doing everything in his power to rescue me. I'm sure he would want to reward the entire city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance. Get your pens ready, here's the number." Percy winked at me as the reporters were writing it down.
Annabeth and Grover had trotted (no pun intended) over to us during Percy's speech.
"What a load of shit." Annabeth whispered to me. "You really know how to weave a web (oh the irony, coming from her).
"It's a gift. Anything to get us past the reporters." I smirked. Annabeth rolled her eyes.
The city manager had showed up by now, with four first-class tickets to one New York City.
"This is great, A.J.," Percy said, "your first plane ride, and you get to go first-class."
"Let's just hope it's not my last." I mumbled.
I could hear the airport before we arrived. The sound of the jet engine jarring me out of my sleep.
"Wait 'till you see them up close." Annabeth said and nudged me. Oh god, how I hate her. We had to sprint to get to the plane, especially after my rut with a security officer at a stop called "security". We boarded the plane, and I still had no idea how a 50 ton hunk of metal could get of the ground. Percy pulled me into the seat next to him because I was causing a road block behind me. We didn't let go of the armrest until we landed in New York. It could have been worse, I guess. Annabeth sat next to Grover, and he threw up six times.
"I have to take Grover back to camp." Annabeth said as we hailed a taxi. Percy nodded, and let them take the first cab.
"Camp?" I asked, getting into the next cab with Percy.
"Empire State Building, make it quick." Percy told the driver, who just nodded. He then turned to me. "Camp Half-Blood. You may be surprised, but all the gods/goddesses have children, and they all stay at the camp during the summer, both to train, and for their safety. Monsters are everywhere and aren't picky about the demigods they eat." Percy said after noticing my confused look.
"I don't have a place to stay, could I possibly stay there with you guys?" I asked. Percy leaned back.
"I don't know, man. There's a magical boundary that keeps out mortals." My eye twitched at that word. Percy looked at me. "We'll see. I'll talk to Mr. D. Maybe he'll make an exception.
"Mr. D?"
"Camp director. Dionysis. He's serving some sort of punishment." Percy glanced out the window. "Well, welcome to New York." I furrowed my brow in confusion, wondering how this run down dump could be the amazing New York City. "You're looking at Brooklyn, man." Percy explained, "Over there is Manhattan." I followed Percy's gaze across a river and saw the city. Brooklyn was a disappointment, but Manhattan sure wasn't. I honestly think there was drool on the window from my gaping at it. The buildings were sleek and modern. And huge! There was nothing like this in Amestris. I had even had the pleasure (or displeasure, depends on who you ask) of basking in the glory of what is Fort Briggs, not too far from my home town. Briggs would have been dwarfed by these buildings. We hit some traffic coming across the 'Brooklyn Bridge' as Percy called it. However, just as we were crossing into Manhattan, I glanced over at an abandoned factory at the edge of the river, and I swear I saw a glowing mansion on top of it. It disappeared from view soon, but not from my mind.

After about ten minutes of stop, start, stop, start traffic, we arrived at the largest of the buildings.

"Empire State Building." The cabbie said in an amusing accent.

"Our stop." Percy said, and gave the driver a few bills.

The lobby of the building was relatively empty, good for our cause. An elderly security guard sat at the desk, and Percy approached.

"We need to go to the 600th floor." Percy said. I had absolutely no idea that there were only about 102 floors in the Empire State Building, so I thought Percy was being serious.

"There is no 600th floor, kid. Shove off." the man replied gruffly.

"I need to talk to Zeus." Percy told him.

"Zeus doesn't talk to people without an appointment." the man replied.

"Here's my appointment." Percy said, opening up his backpack. Zeus's master bolt sparked and crackled with electricity. The man was stunned.

"Ok then. Take this security key, and put it in the slot. Make sure nobody is in the elevator with you. Oh, and the mortal has to stay here." The man said. I'd had enough of the "this mortal" thing, as you probably know, so I grabbed the man by the throat and shoved him up against the wall.

"Excuse me, I must have misheard you. What did you just call me?" I asked with a steely tone to my voice.

"I'm *gack* sorry, sir. *wheeze* You can go *ack* with him. *cough*" The man replied. I released him, and he slid to the floor.

Percy and I started walking towards the elevator, and we did as the man said.

After the doors shut, Percy said, "Dude, you were totally kickass there."

"I know. I could not handle people referring to me as 'mortal' anymore. Please restrain me if I try to do that to one of the gods." I replied.

On the way up, we were listening to an incredibly odd tune. As it wore on, i swear the man was singing hit some notes that weren't meant to be hit by a man. "Hey dude, what the heck is this music?" I asked Percy.

Percy grimaced. "It's called disco. It was huge in the 70's. But as the decade wore on, people got tired of it. So eventually, people started partying when disco died. Now, most people still hate it. But apparently not those who work in the Empire State Building." He replied.

"How long ago was the '70's'." I asked.

"A while."

I nodded. I thought that "disco" was okay, but obviously, Percy did not. He seemed relieved when the elevator stopped and we got out.

When we got out of the elevator, I almost passed out. We were standing on a 6 foot wide walkway that was suspended over Manhattan Island. I quickly lost that sense of vertigo, as of the fact that I grew up in the mountains, and I was used to such dizzying heights. Percy seemed to hold his own as we walked on the walkway to the peak of Olympus.

To say the least, it was beyond words. There was an uncountable number of statues and temples built to honor various gods and goddesses. Random floral arrangements and topiaries lined the sidewalk further ahead. It was dark outside, hopefully reflecting the end of the day in New York and not our impending doom.

As we walked through the city, I saw a group of 9 women tuning instruments and singing. One of them shyly waved at me, and not knowing what to do, waved back. Her posse giggled when I did, and I couldn't help but blush.

But of all the amazing buildings, one stood out from all the others. It was so massive, it would probably dwarf the Empire State Building. We stood there for a moment, gaping at its sheer mass. Percy entered, and I realized it was the building where the Olympian council met. We ran into it to find 12 chairs, with 11 people. Both of which were arranged in a horseshoe shape. The two gods furthest away from us were a man and a woman. The woman had a golden crown upon her head, and next to her was a man with a tousled black beard, long black hair, and a pinstripe suit. On his left was a man in an orange shirt with flowers on it. He looked odd. Odd in the fact that he had no recognizable expression on his face. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. There was one person missing, and I immediately assumed that it was Ares.

We were being stared at, and I fidgeted under their gaze. But then, to break the silence, Percy looked at the man in the flowered shirt, and he said, "Father."

"Wait, that guy is your dad?" I whispered to Percy. Before he could answer, Percy's dad interjected.

"Hello Percy. I am proud of you for making it this far." He said. Then the dude in the pinstripe suit stood up.

"Shouldn't you address the master of the house first, boy?" he said. I immediately disliked this guy. He seemed to overconfident and was an overall hater. I could tell that he regarded Percy as a criminal.

With Percy and his father carrying out a conversation, I decided to find out who these people were by myself; I tapped into the Pulse. What I saw stunned me. Instead of a dude in a pinstripe suit, I saw a big buff man, who was at least 20 feet tall. He was holding a thunderbolt and a staff with an eagle on it. This got me no closer to figuring out who he was. I turned to Percy's dad. He was the same size as the dude in the pinstripe suit, but he had sea-blue eyes, and he was holding a three-pronged spear (its called a trident, as Percy later told me). I felt my face flush and my body start to heat up. I was so stunned that I tapped out of the pulse.

That was when I realized that everybody was staring at me.

I looked around, and I was like, "What? What's everybody looking at me for? Is it because I'm a mortal? Is that it? Because if it is-"

"Dude, for a minute there, you were literally smoking. Like, on fire smoking." Percy cut me off.

"That's ridiculous. Things don't spontaneously combust; there's no igniter. And anyway, human flesh takes a long time to catch fire, and trust me, I know. After having a few classes with the Colonel, these things happen sometimes. So seriously, what are you talking about?" I wrapped up, seeing as the others weren't interested in an alchemy lesson. Then I turned to the gods. "Well, you people are supposed to be divine entities, so you must have an answer. What the fuck is he talking about?" Percy's dad came over to me.

"What did you just do there?" he asked.

"What do you mean, 'what did I just do'? I was just standing here." I replied.

"No, you did something with your vision. What was it?" he pressed.

"I tapped into the Dragon's Pulse. It lets me see the flow of the earth. It's really cool. Why do you ask? What just happened?" I asked.

"You caught a glimpse of us in our true immortal forms. It was barely anything, for you weren't looking very deeply into the 'flow of the earth' as you call it. But you saw part of our true immortal form, which has never been done before by any demigod, let alone mortal. No offense intended." He said.

"None taken. I'm glad somebody actually has a small shred of decency in this world." I replied. But then, the man in the pinstripe suit spoke up again.

"This is all very well and good, Poseidon, but I would like to hear an explanation for why this boy trespassed in my realm, and I would also like to hear what becomes of my bolt." He said.

"Very well." Poseidon said (who I had just realized was Percy's dad). He then turned to Percy. "Address lord Zeus, boy." He gestured towards the man in the Pinstripe suit. And so, Percy told his everything that happened. The whole Ares debacle, meeting me, Medusa, and everything else that happened to us. The gods listened and whispered among themselves as Percy talked. From their conversations, I heard words like, "Unlike Ares... Deal with him later..." and such. When Percy finished, Zeus scratched his beard. Then he spoke.

"Humph. I should have blasted you out of the sky when you dared to fly. Oh well, though. I shall be taking my bolt back now." he said, reaching out. Percy removed the bolt from the backpack, and chucked it across the room at Zeus. I was really hoping that it would explode in his face and kill him, but instead, Zeus caught it and the whole room crackled with electricity. Before departing, he turned to Percy. "If you ever dare to fly in my domain again, you will taste this bolt. And you, mortal. If I catch you flying with him, you're dead as well." And then, there was a bright flash, and Zeus disappeared along with everybody else, except for Percy's dad. Percy walked up to him, and I said,

"If you need me, I'll be waiting outside." And so, I turned and left the council of the Olympians.

WELL, HOW WAS IT? Was it good? Bad? Decent? Funny? Boring? Please REVIEW and let us know!

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