Disclaimer:

I DO NOT own this series. That goes to the wonderful Rick Riordan and Hyperion Books. I am just borrowing the story and characters. I will say that the story lines will be written down because it makes it much easier to follow along and know the current placement, especially if it has been a while since reading the book. Also, this is not beta'd so there will most likely be a few mistakes, feel free to let me know. Enjoy!

Oh, this is also only my second story ever so please be gentle. I've been really enjoying getting to share how I would imagine characters would react to their tales and I hope to continue to do so.

Book

'thoughts'

"speech"

Hello, I'm back! Life has gotten so hectic, between college classes and emergency vet visits and the like. I've been so stressed that I lost the urge to write for a while, but this was a shorter chapter and I was able to find some inspiration. Enjoy!

I Become a Known Fugitive

Aphrodite had to snicker after reading that title.

"A bad boy are you, Percy?" she goddess smirks causing said boy to flush along with Annabeth. Of course that reaction leads to the others snickering, well except for Tyson who was confused, but enjoying the light hearted feel of the room.

It took several moments for Percy to beat down his blush and clear his throat motioning for the Love goddess to begin reading.

Deciding to let it go for now she does.

I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my

own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.

The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!

"Is it weird that I can hear it in Perce's voice in my head?" Will laughs.

"Eh, we hear Prissy scream often enough, so…" Clarisse snarks.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Percy yells.

"Dude during battles when you tear through enemies, you're never quiet. Even in training, you're just a very vocal person." Grover comments, "It's when you go silent that we worry."

"Um, well. Huh." There really wasn't much for Percy to refute about that explanation, it was all true.

The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs.

Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

And then: Flaaa-boooom!

A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.

But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around me.

"Ugh, disgusting." Aphrodite had to pause with a gag at the imagery.

"Yeah? Well try being in it." Percy grumbled.

"Try feeling it." His father quick to follow.

At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.

"I swear you have the coolest powers, man." Connor groaned.

"So not fair." Travis moaned.

"At least you to aren't a constant beacon for monsters." Nico interjected, "At least not like we are."

"Ooh good point."

Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.

I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.

No way, I thought.

"There's no way that worked."

"Shhh." Percy whispered grinning.

I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.

"Holy crap."

"That's awesome!" The Stolls cheer, awed at the idea.

"Let's settle this now, you cannot use that for pranks!" Annabeth states.

"Aw come on!" the brothers cry out.

Percy gives them a hidden wink, making sure his girlfriend doesn't see.

I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.

But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.

"Wow, you realized that last?" Thalia asked.

"Well, it's normal to hold your breath, right? But I didn't since I divebombed in, so my powers were automatic, and I unconsciously kept breathing while underwater."

"Wish I could breathe underwater."

"Who doesn't?"

I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead.

The fact that I wasn't seemed like ... well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?

"Glad to know my lessons stick." Sally grinned.

"But of course." Percy postures earning laughter from the campers.

"Um ... thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid.

"Thank you ... Father."

No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.

Why had Poseidon saved me? The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance.

Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.

'And there's the self-flagellating.' Percy grimaces in thought.

The campers fought down their incredulity. It was difficult hearing these dark thoughts of the son of Poseidon, he was normally the go to guy if you needed some cheer.

Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.

There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.

I heard that woman's voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you. This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.

"Where are you?" I called aloud.

Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.

A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"

"Oh, that sucks."

"I swear you must have naiad blood in you or something." Hermes muttered.

Poseidon had to smirk at his nephew, he could easily tell where the Messenger God's thoughts were leading. Sally was a beautiful woman, there was no doubt about that.

No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.

"What?"

It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.

"Oh, that's just awful. She must be struggling so badly." Rachel shuddered.

"She definitely was uncomfortable."

"But ..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—"

There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.

I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts...

Her voice faded.

"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"

"Oh gods, we're such idiots. She literally told us what the problem was." Annabeth moaned.

"To be fair, we were confused pretty much all the time since so many were interfering with the quest." Grover tried to placate her.

"Not to mention everything was so new to me, there was only so much I could remember at first." Percy added.

"Ugh, fine."

"It worked out in the end."

She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.

I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.

"Honey…" Sally wrapped her son up in a tight hug.

Poseidon was quick to follow her.

"It was just a very low time. I was thrust into this world and then everything was put on me to fix or it was my fault… It was just a lot." Their son struggled to explain.

The sad part was all completely true. Their entire future was dependent on a child of the big three, yes, there was clearly one child for each of the brothers. But apparently this son of Poseidon had the burden.

The parents just tightened their hug, Tyson and Annabeth following their example.

Percy couldn't help but smile at the love.

Your father believes in you, she had said.

She'd also called me brave ... unless she was talking to the catfish.

Will lets out a hard snort. "Man, I love your humor!" the archer laughed.

I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.

I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.

Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.

"Ten drachma the place is trashed." Apollo bet Hermes.

"That's a suckers bet, Sunny."

I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.

"Ha! Called it!" The Sun God cheered.

"No one was denying that it could be true, brother." Artemis sighed.

A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."

"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

"But he's dry!"

"That's nice, dear."

"You have to love a parent's lack of focus." Hermes grinned.

"Or she's just used to the girl telling stories." Athena deadpanned.

"Hmm, maybe."

A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.

'Such strong loyalty.' The Wisdom Goddess thought. She couldn't be mad about it though, the boy was worrying for her daughter after all.

I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.

"... an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities ..."

I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police

perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.

I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated,

"Perrr-cy!"

I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug—or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

"That would be the easy way, Satyr." The Underworld Lord smirked.

"Well yeah, but he wouldn't be able to leave." Grover muttered.

Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me.

"We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"I sort of fell."

"King of Understatement, thou art Perseus Jackson." Apollo chuckled.

"You don't even know the half of it." Annabeth mumbled.

"He gets it from his father." Hestia shares, smiling widely.

Poseidon just huffs out a laugh. He couldn't deny it, if anything these stories were just going to show how much Percy was like him unlike his other sons.

"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"

Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"

"Oh, that poor woman. Their probably gonna end up medicating her or something." Rachel said.

"Unfortunate complication of clear sight. I have to say I would've been similar if I hadn't been prepared or even suspicious about it when I met Poseidon." Sally commented.

"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."

"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"

I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"

I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.

"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

"How'd they figure out it was you so quickly?" Chris questioned.

"I have no idea, but it's just my luck really."

We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"

Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.

"Well, that was boring." Aphrodite huffed, closing the book. She tossed it onto the table.

"Might as well give it a go." Nico shrugged and snagged the book.

He opened to the next chapter and read the title, shaking his head.

It really was something that could only happen to Percy.

AN: Thanks for reading! Again, sorry for such a long wait, but life... Anyways this story is going to be updated at least once a month. I know I may lose some reader, but if they choose to stop reading that's on them. I love y'all that have stuck with me this far!

As always feel free to review or PM if you prefer. See y'all next time!