A/N: I don't own the rights to any of the Percy Jackson series or it's characters. That right goes to Rick Riordan. I also don't own the rights to Animorph including it's title.

I am, however, the person who posted 'The Tales of...' series.

This is not a crossover of the Percy Jackson series with the book/tv series Animorph, despite what you might think from the title. I just thought it be a proper name for the ability to turn into animals since that's why the tv/book series 'Animorph' was called that in the first place.

If you haven't read this yet, read:

Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Stolen Chariot
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sword of Hades
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Bronze Dragon

I Choose to Go With Nico's Plan

Mrs. O'Leary saw me before I saw her, which was a pretty good trick considering she's the size of a garbage truck. I walked into the arena, and a wall of darkness slammed into me.

"WOOF!"

The next thing I knew I was flat on the ground with a huge paw on my chest and an oversized Brillo pad tongue licking my face.

"Ow!" I said. "Hey, girl. Good to see you too, Ow!"

Ir took a few minutes for Mrs. O'Leary to calm down and get off me. By then I was pretty much drenched in dog drool. She wanted to play fetch, so I picked up a bronze shield and tossed it across the arena.

By the way, Mrs. O'Leary is the world's only friendly hellhound. I kind of inherited her when her previous owner died. She lived at camp, but Beckendorf take care of her whenever I was gone. He had smelted Mrs. O'Leary's favorite bronze chewing bone. He'd forged her collar with the little smiley face and crossbones name tag. Next to me, Beckendorf had been her best friend.

I realized I might have to ask someone else to watch over her when Beckendorf goes off to college, That is if my friends survive the Titan War. The thought that my friends might not survive the war made me upset as I threw the shield a few more times because Mrs. O'Leary insisted.

Soon she started barking-a sound slightly louder than an artillery gun-like she needed to go for a walk. The other campers didn't think it was funny when she went to the bathroom in the arena. It had caused more than one unfortunate slip-and-slide accident. So I opened the gates of the arena, and she bounded straight toward the woods.

I jogged after her, not too concern that she was getting ahead. Nothing in the woods could threaten Mrs. O'Leary. Even dragons and giant scorpions ran away when she came close.

When I finally tracked her down, she wasn't using the facilities. She was in a familiar clearing where the Council of Cloven Elders had once put Grover on trial. The place didn't look so good. The grass had turned yellow. The three topiary thrones had lost all their leaves. But that not what surprise me. In the middle of the glade stood the weirdest trio I'd ever seen: Juniper the tree nymph, Nico di Angelo, and a very old, very fat satyr.

Nico was the only one who didn't seemed freaked out by Mrs. O'Leary's appearance. He looked pretty much like I'd seen him im my dream-an aviator's jacket, black jeans, and a T-shirt with dancing skeletons on it, like one of those Day of the Dead pictures. His Stygian iron sword hung at his side. He was only twelve, but he looked much older and sadder.

He nodded when he saw me, then went back to scratching Mrs. O'Leary's ears. She sniffed his legs like he was the most interesting thing since ribeye steaks. Being son of Hades, he'd probably been traveling in all sorts of hellhound friendly places.

The old satyr didn't look nearly so happy. "Will someone-what is this underworld creature doing in my forrest!" He waved his arms and trotted on his hooves as if the grass were hot. "You there, Percy Jackson! Is this your beast?"

"Sorry, Leneus," I said. "That's your name, right?"

The satyr rolled his eyes. His fur was dust bunny, and a spiderweb grew between his horns. His belly would've made him an invincible bumper car. "Well, of course I'm Leneus. Don't tell me you've forgotten a member of the Council so quickly. Now, call off your beast.

"WOOF!" Mrs. O'Leary said happily.

The old satyr gulped. "Make it go away! Juniper, I will not help you under these circumstances!"

Juniper turned toward me. She was pretty in a dryad-y way, with her purple gossamer dress and her elfish face, but her eyes were green tinted with chlorophyll from crying.

"Percy," she sniffled. "I was just asking about Grover. I know something's happened. He wouldn't stay gone this long if he wasn't in trouble. I was hoping that Leneus-"

"I told you!" the satyr protested. "You are better off without that traitor."

Juniper stamped her foot. "He is not a traitor! He's the bravest satyr ever, and I want to know where he is!"

"WOOF!" Leneus knees started knocking. "I... I won't answer questions with this hellhound sniffing my tail!"

"Nico, will you-" I turned to Nico.

"I"ll walk the dog," NIco said trying not to crack up.

He whistled, and Mrs. O'leary bounded after him to the far end of the grove.

Leneus huffed indignantly and brushed the twigs off his shirt. "Now, as I was trying to explain, young lady, your boyfriend has not sent any reports since we voted him into exile.

"You tried to vote him into exile," I corrected. "You were outvoted by Chiron, Dionysus and Bisnca."

"Bah! Chiron and Dionysus were honorary Council members, and that girl shouldn't even had a vote because of who her father is."

"OH really, because Chiron's father is Kronos, and he's honorary member," I said. "And maybe I should tell Mr. D what you said about his vote."

Leneus paled. "I only meant... Now see here, Jackson. This is none of your business."

"Grover's my friend," I said. "He wasn't lying to you about Pan's death. I saw it myself, and he named me friend of the wild on his death bed." Then I pointed at the withered thrones. "And by the looks of it, you're the only coward who fail to accept the truth."

Leneus' lips quivered. "Maron and Silenus... I'm sure they'll be back," he said, but I could hear the panic in his voice. "They're just taking some time off to think. It's been a very unsettling year."

"It's going to get a lot more unsettling if Kronos has his way. Or did you forget it was also thanks to satyrs Rhea was able to hide Zeus until he was ready," I said."We need Grover. You're supposed to be a leader. So LEAD. Get out there and find Grover and help him assemble the nature spirits against Kronos!"

I shoved Leneus but not very hard. But since he was kind of top heavy, he fell on his furry rump. He scrambled to his hooves and ran away with his belly jiggling. "You're no friend of the wild Percy Jackson, and Grover will never be accepted. He will die an outcast if he's not already dead yet!

When he disappeared into the bushes, Juniper wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry, Percy, I didn't mean to get you involved. Leneus is still a lord of the Wild. You don't want to make an enemy of him."

"Yeah, well I was labeled friend of the wild by the actual god of the wild Pan death bed, so I would love to see him try something," I said.

Nico walked back to us. "Good job, Percy. Judging from the trail of goat pellets, I'd say you shook him up pretty well."

I was afraid I knew why Nico was here, but I tried for a smile. "Welcome back."

"Nico, you are the son of Hades and all. Are you sure you you haven't heard anything about Grover?"

Nico shifted his weight. "Juniper, like I tried to tell you... even if Grover died, he would reincarnate into something else in nature. I can't sense things like that, only mortal souls."

"I'm sure Nico is trying his best asking spirits," I assured Juniper. "After all, Grover tried his best to protect him and Bianca both back at Westover Hall. Right Nico?"

"Yeah, of course," Nico said.

Juniper nodded glumly. "I hate not being able to leave the forest. HE could be anywhere, and I'm stuck here waiting. Oh, if that silly goat has gotten himself hurt-"

Mrs. O'Leary bounded back over and took an interest in Juniper's dress.

Juniper yelped. "Oh, no you don't! I know about dogs and trees. I'm gone!"

She went poof into green mist. Mrs. O'Leary looked disappointed, but she lumbered off to find another target, leaving Nico and me alone.

Nico tapped his sword on the ground. A tiny mound of animal bones erupoted from the dirt. They knit themselves together into a skeletal field mouse and scampered off.

"I had a vision of you on Mount Tam," I said. "I figured you used the same power Bianca did to show me what was going on."

"Yeah," Nico said. "I didn't mean to be spying on the Titans, but I was in the neighborhood."

"I'm not complaining. Since Kronos apparently has a spy of his own somewhere in this camp, I figured it helped we have our owb spy," I admitted. "But too be safe, I only told Annabeth and was planning to tell Chiron you were spying for us to keep Kronos from finding out,"

"You haven't tools them-" Nico said.

"No, I still kept your plan a secret," I said.

"Good. As long as you kept that a secret," Nico asid. "I wasn't planning to spy on the Titans. I was just in the neighborhood following a lead on... you kno2, my family."

I nodded. I knew his past was a painful subject. Until two years ago, he and his sister Bianca had been frozen in time at a place called the Lotus Hotel and Casino. They'd been there for like seventy years. Eventually a mysterious lawyer rescued them and checked them into Westover-a military boarding school, but neither had memories of their life before the casino. He didn't know anything about his mother. He didn't know who the lawyer was, or why they'd been frozen in time or allowed to go free. Bianca had joined the hunters of Artemis and made peace with her mysterious past, but Nico was still obsessed in finding answers.

"Whatever reason, you got us information that could help us," I said. "So, did you have any luck finding answers?"

"No," he murmured. "But I may have a new lead soon. But that's not important right now. Have you decided?"

A feeling of dread started to built in my chest. Ever since Nico first propose his plan for beating Kronos last summer, I'd had nightmares about it. He would show up occasionally and press me for answers, but I kept putting him off.

But then Annabeth's words about me can't keep running play through my head. I was trying to make peace that I was going to die, bur I don't want to die unable to protect my friends. Athena told me once that could cause me to sacrifice Olympus. Nico told me he can give me the same power Luke had that allowed Kronos to possess him.

"What about the prophecy?" I told him the full Great prophecy, which seem to not surprise Nico (I wondered if he heard of it from a ghost). "We can't avoid the prophecy."

"No, but you can fight it. Nico had a strange, hungry look in his eyes. "If what I found out is true, there's still a weak point the curse blade can kill you. Besides that, you will be invincible. We have to do this now before you turn sixteen. Otherwise when Kronos pulls the final attack, he might as well succeed."

I didn't like it, but Nico was right. Typhoon was only part of whatever attack plan Kronos had planned and something told me he won't wait until after Typhon arrive to go forward with the rest. Not with the Olympians too busy fighting Typhon. I t was time to face Nico's plan headon.

"All right," I decided. "What do we do first?"

His cold creepy smile made me sorry I'd agreed. "First we'll need to check on one more thing from Luke past that could confirm what we need to know. We need to track down his mother. She lives in Connecticut."

I stared at him. I'd never thought much about Luke's mortal parent. I'd met his dad, Hermes, but not his mom."

"Okay..." I said. "So how do we get to Connecticut? I can call Blackjack-"

"No." Nico scowled. "Pegasi don't like me, and the feeling is mutual."

"Well I can turn into a pegasus, but I won't have the speed boost power they have," I admitted.

"No need too," Nico whistled and Mrs. O'Leary came loping out of the woods."

"Your friend here can help." Nico patted her head. "You haven't tried shadow travel on her yet, have you?"

"Actually, Beckendorf and I practiced it in case we needed her to get off the Princess Andromeda," I said. "Bianca told me about it last time I saw her."

Nico nodded as he was there for most of it as Persephone called Nico, Bianca, Thalia and me to retrieve the sword of Hades from Iapetus and Ethan Nakamura.

Nico whispered in Mrs. O'Leary's ear. She tilted her head, suddenly alert.

"Hop on board." Nico told me.

I climbed onto Mrs. O'Leary's back. Considering her large size, I doubt I was a problem riding on her anymore than during Beckendorf and mine trial runs. I held onto her collar.

"If you haven't guess by now, this will make her very tired, and thus you can't do it often. It actually works best at night. But all shadows are part of the same substance. Just tell her go to Westport, the home of May Castellan. I'll meet you there."

I guess Nico can shadow travel like Bianca now. I leaned down to Mrs. O'Lewary's ear. "Okay, girl. Take me to Westport Connecticut, to May Castellan's place."

Mrs. O'Leary sniffed the air. She looked into the gloom of the forest. Then she bounded forward, straight into an oak tree.

Just before we hit, we passed into the shadows as cold as the dark side of the moon.