Percy Jackson

No matter how much Percy fought the guard, he just wouldn't budge. The guard kept telling him he was following Zeus's orders and that he couldn't let anyone go to Olympus. Now Percy knew something was up. The last time the gods locked off Olympus, they were having a identity crisis and Gaea was rising.

But what could possibly be happening now?

"You can't be serious!" Percy said, "Chiron told me I need to get Mr. D!"

"Dionysus is busy right now." The guard said with growing irritation, "Kid, I don't care what you say but I am not letting you go up to Olympus. Zeus was very clear in his orders."

"Gods, you're impossible!" Percy yelled out of irritation, "You know what? I'm out of here!"

Percy wasn't really a patient person. He was still surprised that he was able to talk to the guard for as long as he did. He must've been arguing with the guard for at least ten minutes. The guard continued to refuse to let him up. Eventually, Percy had enough and just left. Chiron would surely understand.

When Percy walked out of the Empire State Building, he made his way to the nearest payphone and called the number for Camp Half-Blood. It was risky but he wasn't sure if he could use a Iris-message, she might have been locked down too. He pressed each number into the phone, he'd memorized the number for camp not long after retrieving the Golden Fleece and only used it for emergencies.

"Hello, this is Chiron of the Delphi Strawberry Delivery Service speaking." Chiron said.

"Sir, it's me, Percy." Percy said while looking at the Empire State Building.

"Ah, Percy! Have you found Mr. D?"

"No, I'm afraid not." He said, "I don't know if you know but Zeus kind of locked down Olympus. I can't go up, no one can apparently."

There was a brief moment of silence before Chiron said, "This is quite odd. I was not made aware of this. I'll look into this matter when I can. Report back to camp when you can."

"Alright." Percy said before hanging up the phone.

Percy made his way back to where Blackjack let him off. He was about to whistle for Blackjack but his eyes landed on the snow cone stand from earlier.

Maybe being a few minutes late wouldn't be so bad.

"Hey, can I have a cone?" Percy asked.

The guy running the cone was reading a newspaper. Percy's dyslexia was acting up but he could tell what the main topic was from the picture. There was a picture of fighter jets flying over some city with explosions in the background. Perhaps there another mortal war going on.

"It's five bucks." He said from behind the paper.

Percy dug into his pocket and fished out a five dollar bill, placing it onto the stand.

"Take your pick." The salesman said.

Percy eyed the snow cones but was confused when he found they were all white. Weren't snow cones supposed to have color? He wondered if these snow cones were just cups of crushed up ice.

"Hey, aren't these things supposed to have colors?" Percy asked.

The salesman lowered his newspaper, "Kid, haven't you heard the news? The whole country's facing a food dye shortage. Something about the machines needed to make them breaking down all at once."

Percy grabbed a snow cone and bit into it. Luckily, there was flavor. If all he tasted was water, he was going to fight this guy. He hated being ripped off. He turned and whistled for Blackjack and waited.

While he waited, a bicyclist rode past him. Percy watched the woman riding the bike pass a fire hydrant. Then, everything went haywire. The bike's nails and bolts flew off, sending the woman screaming off the bike and onto the sidewalk. At the same time, the fire hydrant exploded, dousing a nearby businessman's suit and a guy walking his Doberman.

The sound of the woman screaming, the businessman complaining, and the dog barking drew more attention. People started crowding around the scene while others took out their phones and recorded the scene. Percy stared on with awe, he'd never seen something like that just happen before. He hadn't made the hydrant explode so he knew it wasn't his fault. He also knew that bikes didn't just spontaneously break apart and fire hydrants don't usually explode.

"Yo, boss!" Blackjack called as he landed next to Percy, "What happened here?"

"I have no idea." Percy said while climbing on his mount, "Come on, let's get back to camp."

Ω

When Percy returned to camp, he went straight to Chiron. The gods acting weird was a normal occurrence but Zeus locking down Olympus was not. Percy needed a plan and Chiron was the next best person he knew when it came to planning aside from Annabeth. He hated the prospect that he'd have to fight a war without Annabeth's intelligence.

Percy passed the amphitheater, where Hektor was giving a speech. He had a talent for public speaking, Percy learned that weeks after he came to camp. Hektor's voice had something that just made him sound trustworthy and as if he knew what he was talking about. Even when he was talking about a controversial topic, he was still able to rouse supporters on his side. It was handy skill to have.

The Big House was quiet, like always. Usually, one could count on Mr. D and Chiron playing a game on pinochle. This time, there wasn't anyone on the front porch aside from a lonely set of chairs and the normal wooden table.

Percy made his way up the steps and into the Big House. Sure enough, Mr. D was still not inside. The couch he typically sat on while drinking diet Coke was empty. The TV was off, a rare sight when Mr. D was in the house.

"Where is that guy?" Percy asked himself.

He made his way up the stairs and down the hall to Chiron's office. He could hear the sound of shuffling inside, meaning Chiron was definitely inside. Either that, or someone was asking to get punished for snooping.

Percy knocked on the door and waited.

"Come in!" Chiron's voice called.

Percy opened the door and walked in. Chiron's office was messier than Percy usually saw it. Often times, he was standing in front of Chiron, getting punished for fighting or pranks. He looked around. Multiple file cabinets were left open. Reports were scattered across the table in front of Chiron, who was stroking his chin.

"Sir?" Percy asked.

Chiron looked up, "Ah, Percy. I've been looking over all my recent reports, I have yet to find anything to explain the lockdown. Did you learn anything from the guard?"

"No, nothing at all." Percy said, he'd argued with the guard for ten minutes straight but the guard never would tell him what was up.

Chiron arched his eyebrow as a confused look spread across his face, "This is odd. Normally, Olympus would tell me if there was something wrong. I'll Iris-message lord Zeus to see if I can find out what is happening, meanwhile you—"

"Chiron!" Piper burst into the office, causing both Percy and Chiron to jump with fright.

"Gods, Piper, you could've knocked!" Percy said.

"Sorry but this is a emergency!" Piper said while breathing heavily, it was as if she had ran all the way to the Big House, "Someone stole every magic potion we had!"

"Calm down, child." Chiron soothed, "Calm yourself and tell me what happened exactly."

Piper took a deep breath and said, "I was coming back to my cabin because one of my sisters left her lipstick behind while we were at arts and crafts. When I walked in, I found the door to the room where we store all our spells open and everything gone."

"Everything?" Chiron asked.

"Everything!" Piper said, growing increasingly hysterical, "There were some seriously dangerous potions in there!"

"Like what?" Percy asked.

Piper turned to him, "Mind control potions, poisons, even amnesia potions made with water from the river Lethe."

Chiron sighed and put his head in his hands, "This is the last thing we needed."

"I can try to help find them." Percy said. Chiron looked up with a hopeful gleam in his eyes.

"That would be great." Piper said, "I don't know who could've done this. The Hermes kids would never steal everything. They know how dangerous some of those potions are."

"Show me this room you're talking about." Percy said.

"Alright, follow me."

Percy and Piper left Chiron's office and the Big House and made their way towards the Aphrodite cabin. Campers and satyrs watched as they sprinted towards the cabin. Percy would've never thought that he'd be voluntarily running to the Aphrodite cabin but this was the exception. If someone was running around with a whole arsenal of potions, they could cause some pretty bad damage.

The inside of the Aphrodite cabin was different from what Percy remembered. He hadn't been in there for so long but he remembered enough to know the cabin was different from when Silena was in charge. To be honest, he didn't even know there was a spell room inside.

There were lavish bunks on one corner of the cabin, some of the bedsheets a royal purple while the other bunks were wrapped in pink. Each one had their own personal chest which if Percy had to guess housed all their weapons, make up, and personal items. The other corner of the cabin had a whole section dedicated to creating new outfits or doing make up. The other two corners were occupied by separate rooms.

Two doors led to the rooms but like Piper said, one of them was open. Percy knew every cabin had their own restroom now after Annabeth recommended a redesign of all cabins that way no one cabin could hog the camp restroom. The door that was open didn't lead to the bathroom though. Percy couldn't see much but he knew that bathrooms didn't normally have pots and heaters in them along with empty vials that looked like they came straight from a high school science lab.

"See, that door wasn't open when we left." Piper said while pointing at the door.

Percy walked over and went inside. The room didn't have any windows, so no one could've climbed in that way. A white fluorescent light hung above his head, revealing a bookcase that probably housed the recipes for spells and potions. The pots for mixing potions were currently empty as were the vials for holding them.

Then Percy spotted the large storage rack for the potions. It was completely empty. Not a single potion was left behind. Whoever broke into the Aphrodite cabin stole every single potion in sight.

Piper walked into the room and said, "I don't know who would do this."

"Me neither." Percy replied. It seemed the type of potion didn't matter to the thief because they stole everything. He knew the Aphrodite campers were pretty crazy about love and appearance potions. Not that many cabins really cared about those type of potions.

"Fuck." Piper cursed softly, "We're never going to find those potions."

"I'll ask around." Percy said, "You go and tell Will what's happening. We'll need some counter spells and antidotes if those potions get used."

"Got it." Piper said. She turned and left, mumbling about potions.

Percy knew that there were a few people who would gain from stealing potions. The Apollo cabin could make their own potions, so they were off the list. The Hecate cabin had even more potent potions, so they were a definite no. The Demeter, Athena, and Hephaestus cabins really had no reason to steal potions, they rarely ever stole in the first place. Percy just couldn't see Jason or Nico stealing potions, Jason was too disciplined while Nico tended to keep to himself. That left the Ares cabin, Dionysus cabin, and Hermes cabin.

So naturally he went to Clarisse first.

Clarisse was in the arena by herself, practicing with her electric spear against the various training dummies. Percy watched her for a bit, admiring how she managed to incorporate precision and brutality in a single thrust. It was easy to rag on the Ares cabin but one could not call them incompetent at their jobs, even Percy couldn't deny how skilled they were at fighting.

Clarisse was about to spear another dummy when she spotted Percy watching her, "Percy? How long have you been there?"

"About a minute." He said.

"Well, what do you want? Or were you just going to stare like a creep?" She asked sarcastically.

"Well, I was wondering if you knew anything about the missing potions in Piper's cabin." Percy said while stepping towards her, "They lost every single potion in their cabin, I just want to know if you've seen anything weird."

Clarisse scratched her head, "No, I don't think I've seen anything. None of the runts in my cabin would steal anything like that, we don't need potions to fight our fights for us."

Percy figured her reasoning was solid. The Ares cabin had a thing where they didn't trust anything except brute force. They didn't really seem the type to use mind control to win, most of the time they opted for punching or stabbing the problem.

"Go check with those freaks in cabin eleven." Clarisse said, "I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to go ahead and steal everything."

"Isn't your boyfriend in cabin eleven?" Percy asked.

"Okay, all those freaks and Chris." She corrected herself.

"Ah, never change, Clarisse." Percy chuckled while making his way out of the arena. He may have sniped at her from time to time but he really found himself considering Clarisse a friend. After the whole thing with her father's chariot, she really opened up to him. Word around camp was she flipped a table when she heard he and Annabeth fell into Tartarus.

Percy was in the middle of walking towards the Hermes cabin when Piper caught him. She looked slightly relieved while troubled at the same time.

"Percy, we found the potions." She said.

"Where were they?" He asked.

"In some crate near the forest."

Percy felt relieved, there was no crisis. Camp was safe. At least, until he heard what she said next.

"We're still missing some mind control potions though."