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Percy didn't like this monster. He had been walking home from a date with Annabeth, when he heard a squelching sound, followed by a yell coming from a nearby alley. Peeking his head in, Percy was shocked to see a monster unlike any he had seen before. It looked like a scorpion, but was the size of a Great Dane. It had various types of claws and arms protruding from its abdomen. Its black, leathery hide dripped with slime. Just behind its grotesque form was a girl.
Percy couldn't make out her face, but her bright red hair caught the little Manhattan light that made its way into the alley. She couldn't have been older than Percy himself.
"Jace!" the girl yelled, "I'm cornered here!"
Percy pulled out Riptide and uncapped his sword in a swift movement. Just as he was running toward the monster, he was knocked aside by a violent force. After a few tumbles on the disturbingly wet pavement, he looked up to see a tall, lean man with a crown of golden hair chop off the monster's head with a long blade. Percy was almost relieved, but when its carcass spewed a black, ink-like substance instead of turning into golden dust as he'd expected, worry bubbled in his throat. He then watched the creature's limp body fold into itself and disappear. He turned to the other teens a few feet from him, who were pulling more weapons from what seemed to be training gear covering their bodies. He could now see that their skin was scattered with runic looking tattoos.
"What the hell was that?" he exclaimed.
The teens stopped and looked at each other. Their eye contact told Percy that they knew something he didn't. He was sure he was about to find out, but as the strangers looked back toward him, their eyes widened, and they rushed past him. As Percy turned, he saw a half dozen more of those strange monsters approaching. As Jace and the redheaded girl fought the pack from the front, Percy took another alley around the back and moved to attack it from behind. He pulled out Riptide and thrust her into one of the scorpion-like monsters, right where the heart ought to be.
To Percy's surprise, this did nothing to the monster. The blade went right through the beast as if it were a mortal… what could this mean? Out of the blue, Percy felt a stab in his side from behind. Looking down, he could see the end of a tail through his abdomen on the left side. He then suffered a series of gashes all over his body before falling to the ground, paralyzed. Percy saw the strangers killing the creatures above him, and only once they were all gone did he allow himself to fall all the way into darkness.
