Chapter 1

I was never a fan of comic books. Growing up poor, I could never afford to buy them anyway, but I had always seen them as gross portrayals of true justice.

Superman could save Lois Lane hundreds of times, and yet there were hundreds of thousands of trafficked women whom he never acknowledged. Batman could throw the Joker into Arkham Asylum every issue, and yet he never swooped in for the teenager cornered in a New York alley by a group of gang members. Spiderman could take down the Green Goblin, and yet there were kids living in cardboard boxes on street corners.

You could call me a pessimist. I'm just being realistic.

My mother was someone I thought of as a true heroine. She worked three jobs to support a boy and her abusive and lazy husband with no acknowledgement at all. No "Woman of Steel" or "Friendly Neighborhood Sally" in sight, and yet she worked herself to death every day, only to come home to a fat, rude drunk who demanded she fire up some meatloaf.

As far as villains go, Gabe didn't seem like much. He was a fat, balding man who wore the same white shirt everyday and refused to work. Instead of taking on the mantle as the "man of the house", he spent his days playing poker and drinking away Mom's paychecks.

The fact that he had previously held down a job as a law enforcement officer did not glorify the justice system to me to say the least.

All it took was an hour of a cold autumn night to completely turn my life upside down.

I stepped into the house after a particularly tiring day of school, doing my best to keep my head down. After years of living with Gabe, you learn that avoiding his gaze is usually the best way to go about things.

"Hey, kid!" I sighed and turned around. Gabe was in the middle of a game of poker, swigging from a bottle.

"Yeah?"

Gabe fixed me with a glare. "In my household, you address me with 'sir', you got that?"

I gritted my teeth. "Yes, sir."

Gabe beckoned me forward and I reluctantly stepped closer. The musty scent of body odor and beer filled my nostrils as I approached and I could feel a gag coming on.

"Give me your money."

"I don't have any."

He slapped me across the face before grabbing my head and pulling me closer.

"Don't lie to me. I saw Sally sneak some bills into your pocket when you left this morning."

"I spent it all on lunch, Gabe. I need to eat too," I said with barely controlled rage.

One of the men across the table glared at Gabe. "Lay off the boy. I'll give you some money if that's what you want."

Gabe didn't bother glancing at him. "Nah, Ed. Kid needs to learn respect. Don't you lie to your father, boy."

He reached into my pocket and whipped out 2 twenties and a five. "See this, Ed! He claims he spent it all! I saw my wife sneak some bills to him thinking I wouldn't notice! Boy seems to believe that because he's in high school he can lie to his father's face."

He pushed me away before stuffing the money into his own pocket. "You tell your mother about this, and I'll beat the tar out of her."

I felt blood rush into my head. "Beat me all you want, but don't you dare threaten my mother, you pig!" I snarled.

Gabe raised an eyebrow before standing up. "Fellas, get out of here. Percy here needs to learn some respect."

His friends began to file out, but Ed merely stood up and faced Gabe. "Don't touch the boy."

Gabe slugged Ed, who fell to the floor. "Don't tell me what to do, Ed! He's my kid, and he needs to learn a few lessons. Now, get out of here!"

Ed glared at him from his spot on the floor. "I'm not leaving."

Gabe's eyes narrowed. "Ed, you and I both know you have some secrets you don't want unearthed. You stay here or report me to the police, I will forget you are my friend, and you don't want that to happen, now do you?"

Ed screwed his eyes shut before standing up. "Sorry, Percy," he muttered before exiting the room.

Gabe slammed the door shut before shoving me across the room. "You've got a lot of nerve, boy."

"Says the former policeman turned abusive drunk. Tell me, do you ever look in the mirror and realize what a hypocrite you are?"

Gabe laughed. "Life isn't kind to the do-gooders. It rewards people like me, who do whatever they can to get what they want. Look at me! I've got a beautiful wife who listens to my every word and brings home the dough and I get to sit here and do whatever I want every single day!"

"You're disgusting."

Gabe grabbed me by the collar before sending a punch into my face. My head snapped to the side before I was thrown into a wall.

"You've really got the balls today, kid. What made you so brave? Got a girlfriend? Finally got a good grade in school?"

I groaned as my head screamed in pain. Gabe kicked my side. "Get up, boy! Strike me! Show me just how brave you're feeling! Be a hero!"

He grabbed my hair and dragged me into the kitchen. "You will treat me with the respect I deserve!"

"I already am."

Gabe roared in anger before slamming me onto the dinner table. He grabbed a knife from a drawer and started towards me.

Suddenly, the door burst open and Mom rushed through it.

"Gabe! What are you doing?!" She grabbed his arm and tried to wrench the knife free.

"The boy thinks he can talk back to me, and I'm just teaching him a little respect!" He threw Mom off of him before turning back to me and raising the knife.

"Maybe a few scars will teach him to fear me!"

Suddenly, she tackled Gabe, sending the knife skittering across the floor.

"You-You dare?!"

Gabe grabbed her and shoved her off of him. He lunged before wrapping his hands around her throat, squeezing as hard as he could. I rolled off the table and got to my feet. I felt my mind suddenly snap as I watched my mother go limp, her eyes staring glassily into open space.

Gabe let out shuddery breaths before turning back to me. I let out a scream and I felt a tug in my gut. Water streamed out of the bathroom, solidifying into spikes of ice. I threw my arms towards him and the spikes buried themselves into Gabe.

His dead body fell to the floor, an expression of shock still etched onto his face

I took a shaky step back. My breathing quickened, my eyes glued to the gory scene before me.

I half expected the police to burst in, slapping handcuffs onto my wrists, but the room was as quiet as a tomb. Outside, people were heading home from work, getting dinner, hanging out with friends, completely unaware of what had just happened.

I glanced down at my shuddering hands before staring at the spikes sticking out of Gabe.

Did I really do that? What just happened?

I slowly backed away from the kitchen before running out the door. I dashed through the hall and skidded down the steps. My shoe caught on the staircase rail and I felt myself tumble down the stone stairs.

I frantically got to my feet and continued to run, no care whatsoever where I was going.

People stared at me strangely as I ran through the crowded New York streets, tears streaming through my eyes.

It was dark by the time I stopped running, clasping my sides as I tried to breathe. I thought about Gabe's pierced body before I threw up.

With the energy I had left, I dragged myself to a park bench before laying myself down.

I stared into the endless black sky. Not a single star shone through the New York haze

Oh, the irony, I thought bitterly. The only light in my life was snuffed out. I get it!

I felt a laugh slip from my lips and I broke down into hysterics. People walking by avoided the bench and hurried away from what they presumed was a maniac.

My voice grew hoarse as my peals of laughter began to turn into croaks.

I don't know how long I laughed, but I do know that once I stopped, tears began flooding down my face.

So this is how that stupid clown from Batman felt.

I pondered the prospect of going completely insane, slaughtering thousands of people just to show this cruel and indifferent world a taste of what I had been through.

No, I'd never do that. I'm not Gabe.

That's when the thought came to me. The ice had originated from water that had come from the bathroom. Did that mean I could do that voluntarily?

Only one way to find out, I guess.

I picked myself off the bench before heading towards the nearby lake. I sat down next to it and raised my hands.

The water didn't react at all. I tried to imagine the water bending to my will before raising my hands again. The water lifted a little before splashing back down.

So close.

I closed my eyes and thought about Gabe.

That stupid pig. The ignorant, abusive drunk who killed my mother, the kindest, most loving woman to ever walk the planet.

I growled before thrusting my arms up. A large stream of water flew out of the lake before splashing down.

I felt more tears prick my eyes. How could a world reward a hard-working, loving, and kind mother by subjecting her to the abuse of a drunk who throttled her to death?

"This is all my dad's fault," I said aloud. Getting these thoughts out of the confines of my mind felt undeniably refreshing.

"Fuck you, Dad. If you just stayed around and decided to take responsibility for your family, Mom would still be alive. I know for a fact she kept all the pictures of you; she still loved you!"

The water in the lake began to boil. "Of all men, why did she have a kid with you? Why couldn't she just get a break?"

I stamped my foot and the water began to steam. "If you stayed around, she never would've had to remarry! Why couldn't you just be a man and take care of your wife?!" I punched the tree next to me and the water flew at the tree, cutting it clean in half like a knife through warm butter.

I took a deep breath and the water began to cool down.

"That was some display."

I whipped around and saw a blonde boy about my age standing over me.

"My dad never cared about me either. He left my mother, who went insane shortly after."

My eyes narrowed. "You don't know anything about me."

He raised his hands. "I'm sure I don't know everything, but there is one thing I'm certain about. You're a demigod."

I wanted to laugh in his face. A demigod? My mom had dated some bearded dude who wore Hawaiian shirts. There was no way in hell he was a god.

"You may not believe me, but your water powers should be a sign that I'm telling the truth. Your dad is a water god."

I looked back at the lake. A water god?

"I'm a son of Hermes. Your dad is probably a minor god of water judging from Poseidon's oath to not have children."

"What are you talking about?"

"Kid, there's no easy way of saying this, but the Greek gods are real. In fact, Mount Olympus is on the 100th floor of the Empire State Building. A big hobby of theirs is to have sex with mortals and allowing them to deal with the consequences,"

"What consequences?"

"Demigods have a strong scent that we get from our godly parents, which attract every nearby monster. Great parting gift, am I right?"

"I've never met a monster before, unless you count my stepdad."

The boy had a thoughtful expression on his face. "Am I correct in guessing he was extremely smelly?"

I did a double take. "How did you know?"

"Demigods' scents are very strong, but they can be covered with an extremely unpleasant smell of a mortal. Your mom was either very smart or very lucky in marrying him."

I felt like I had been hit by a train. My mom married the abusive asshole on purpose to protect me from monsters?

I wanted to sob but decided that breaking down in front of a stranger wasn't exactly a great reaction.

"Listen, there's a safe place for people like us called Camp Half-Blood. I've been working as a counselor there recently. The borders prevent monsters from-"

A growl from behind me raised the hairs on my neck.

"Don't turn around," the blonde hissed.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the water grabbing whatever the hell was behind me.

The sound of rushing water filled my ears as the beast behind me yelped. I turned around and watched as a hand of water gripped the yelping black hound before splashing back down, presumably taking it down into the watery depths.

The boy merely stared at me. The look on his face was comedic to say the least.

"You're going to attract flies with your mouth open like that," I remarked dryly.

He shut it before extending his hand. "I'm Luke."

I took it in a firm grasp. "Percy."

Suddenly, Luke grabbed my shoulders. "You've got to come with me. I've been helping my friend Grover save some demigods, and there's no way we're going to leave you out here alone."

I shrugged him off. "Woah, I barely know you. I'm not going to go anywhere with you just yet."

Luke fixed me with a pleading look. "I can't just leave you out here to fend for yourself."

For some reason, that rubbed me the wrong way. I had been left to fend for myself for all my life, but now that I had amazing powers, people wanted to protect me?

I shoved him back. "I don't need your pity, nor do I want your help."

Luke sighed before drawing his sword. "We're going to have to do this the hard way."

He took a swipe at my legs and I jumped back. I tried to summon the water again, but nothing happened.

"Listen, I don't want to hurt you, but you need to come to Camp! We can't have you falling into the wrong hands!"

I jumped away from the blade. "So, I'm just a weapon too dangerous to be lying around in the city? I'm not even a person to you?"

Luke didn't respond. He slashed at me again, and I leapt into the lake.

I felt myself sink towards the bottom as I watched Luke cross his arms and stand at the edge, presumably to wait me out.

After a 2 minutes, I couldn't hold my breath any longer and began to swim back towards the surface.

Wait, if I really am the son of a water god, does that mean…

I took a small breath and grinned. I could breathe underwater.

As a kid in New York, I had never really gone to swimming pools, but being in a body of water felt amazing. I could feel pure power running through my veins, and it was exhilarating.

I burst out of the water before willing a watery hand to wrap around Luke. His sword fell to the ground as I raised him up into the air.

"For the last time, I'm not going anywhere with you, so here's the deal: I'll put you down and you are going to get the hell out of here."

Luke didn't bother struggling. "No, here's the actual deal. If you let me go alive, I will inform the Camp of your existence and you will eventually be hunted down, so you're going to have to kill me."

I stared at him. It would only take a few minutes to hold him at the bottom of the lake and drown him, or a few seconds to spear him with ice, but killing people wasn't who I was.

With a sigh, I dissolved the hand gripping Luke and fell back to the ground. He picked up his sword and sheathed it.

"See, I knew you weren't going to kill me," I felt shivers go down my spine. "You don't look the type."

"Thanks," I muttered. We settled into silence as Luke caught his breath. It seemed like being squeezed by water wasn't the most pleasant experience.

"Look, you can choose to stay here in the city, waiting for monster attacks to come multiple times a day, or you could come with me and be in a safe place where you can master your powers."

I thought about that. The water powers were cool and all, but other than its response to my emotions, I really didn't know how to use them.

"Alright, I'll go with you, but if this is a trap, I promise the last thing I'll do is take you down with me."

Luke chuckled. "Fair enough. Let me hail a taxi."

Line Break

After a few hours of driving, the taxi stopped in a deep forest.

"Are you sure you want to stop here, kid?"

Luke nodded and handed him some cash. "Don't worry about us, this is where we want to be."

The taxi blazed off and I glanced suspiciously at Luke. "Why are we in the middle of the forest?"

"The Camp is shielded from mortal eyes. It just takes you a few seconds to see it.

He began trudging towards the deep forest and I began following him. Knowing I had water powers at my disposal was a small consolation, but I was still pretty nervous. Luke seemed to know exactly what he was doing and I still couldn't summon water at will.

A few minutes passed before Luke stopped. "Do you see it?"

He was standing in front of a hill and I looked at him. "What are you talking about?"

Suddenly, the air around the hill began shimmering until a gated stone entrance appeared. "Oh."

Luke grinned. "I wasn't joking about anything I said. Come on, let's go. There are some people, ah, half people I want you to meet."

That didn't sound reassuring, but I followed him in regardless.

The place looked like a summer camp on steroids. Lava flowed down a steep climbing wall, the clang of swords rang out of an open-air pavilion, and a fat man was playing poker with a horse.

"Uh, who are they?"

"The chubby one is Dionysus, the god of wine and our camp director. The centaur is Chiron, our trainer."

My mother had told me about Greek myths long ago, but I never knew that the knowledge would come in handy.

The two looked up from their game and the centaur smiled. "Hello, Luke. Who is this?"

"This is Percy. I found him in Central Park."

"Any idea who his godly parent is?"

"He was practicing water control when I found him, so I'm assuming he's the son of a water god."

Dionysus yawned before snapping his fingers, procuring a Diet Coke from thin air. "Given Barnacle Beard's oath, kids probably the son of a minor god. Put Parker in the Hermes cabin, with all the other no-names.

This guy was really rubbing me the wrong way. Luke looked like he wanted to start yelling before I snapped my fingers.

Diet Coke exploded out of the can and Dionysus leaped back with a yelp.

Chiron attempted to stifle his laughter. Luke had no such willpower as he rolled on the ground in fits of laughter.

The wine god glared at me as his eyes burst into purple flames. "You dare, insolent boy?"

I rolled my eyes. "I do. What are you going to do, blast me out of existence?"

"Worse! I will drive you insane before turning you into a cockroach which I will spend eternity running over with a cement mixer!"

Chiron held Dionysus back. "Now, now, Lord Dionysus. The boy is new here and clearly doesn't know about the authority of a god's power," he nodded at Luke. "Give Percy a tour, will you?"

"Yes sir," Luke said, wiping tears from his eyes. "Let's go, Perce."

As Luke was explaining the climbing wall, the forges, and the sword arena, I couldn't help but think about what Dionysus had said. Was I a no-name? Who was my father? Would it be worth dying to stab Dionysus in the balls with ice shards?

"And this is where you'll be staying!"

I looked up at the large wooden building Luke had stopped at. He opened the door and stepped inside. Despite its massive size, the floor was filled with sleeping bags and personal items. Many of them were vacant, but there were still a good 20 people inside.

Luke looked at my expression and grinned. "Hermes is the god of travelers and pathways, and we take all unclaimed kids in our cabin as well as the children of Hermes."

"Which gods get cabins?"

"All 12 Olympians get their own cabin."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "What about the minor gods?"

Luke rubbed his neck sheepishly. "We're kind of going off of a millennium old system, which doesn't honor the minor gods or goddesses."

My eyes narrowed. "No recognition at all?"

He raised his hands. "Hey, I'm not in charge of the system, I'm just a cog in it."

I nodded slowly. "Alright. Thanks, Luke. I'm going to head down to the canoe lake to practice my powers."

He nodded. "It's great to have you here, Percy. You're a part of a big family, just remember we're all here for you no matter what."

I gave him a small smile before heading towards the lake. The thought of all those sleeping bags on the floor irked me. All those kids in there, some who had no idea who their parents were, others whose parents were deemed unimportant.

The nerve of these gods, so much for divine purity. They're no better than children, running around and knocking up pretty girls and leaving them all the responsibilities.

I shook my head and saw that I was at the bottom of the lake. A few aquatic-looking girls floated by, watching me in wonder.

I gave them a smile before sitting cross-legged in the middle of the lake.

Whatever god you are, you'll never be my father. The best mortal woman to walk this earth died to 3 men last night; Gabe, me, and you. I couldn't save her in time, but you didn't even bother making an appearance.

I felt the water around me begin to churn. The fish who had been circling around me with curiosity swam away frantically and the water spirits disappeared in bursts of bubbles.

Only one has been put to justice, and I'll make sure the two of us will answer for our crimes.

"Ah, justice."

I started as a new voice entered my head.

Are you the asshole who gave birth to me?

"No, Percy. I am Kronos, your grandfather."

I raised an eyebrow. Liar. To be my grandfather, my dad would have to be Poseidon, and I was told he swore an oath to not have any more kids.

Dark laughter filled my head. "Ah, how naive you are. Poseidon may have swore an oath, but he broke it a few centuries later. The gods are mere children, even with the thousands of years of living. Your father saw Sally Jackson and broke his oath without thinking twice."

My hands clenched. Is there anything about my father that isn't absolute trash? I snarled.

"Unfortunately, there isn't. The gods are unfit for rule, and it's time for the true rulers to take over once more. You can help me usher in this new golden era; no more sickness, no more death, no more pain. The minor gods have already sided with me, and you've seen their children. They are thrown away into the corners of that forsaken Camp, unloved and unappreciated."

Hold up, I'm not helping you with anything. I don't know anything about you.

"I am the lord of time, the father of the Olympians, the king of the Titans. Help me, and I can bring back your mother, allow you to wreak vengeance on your father. All you have to do is join me."

How can I trust you?

"I swear on the Styx you will be a leader of my army and that my promises are genuine."

Thunder boomed overhead. What is the Styx?

"Find out yourself."

The voice faded from my head and I opened a fist I didn't know I was making. In my hand was a silver bracelet accented with a scythe charm.