I do not own PJO or A:TLA

Chapter 33

"Hey, Avatar." Percy threw himself down on the ground where the young Avatar was playing with Momo. "I know you guys need to go to the Earth Kingdom and start, like, rebuilding your entire world and all, but I have a small problem."

Aang looked up, a half smile on his face. He actually hadn't stopped smiling since yesterday when Sokka had walked in on Katara and Aang kissing on the balcony. "Yeah, of course. What do you need?"

"Ehh, it's kind of hard to explain... wanna just come with me down to the water?"

"Sure." Aang airbended himself up. "Can Katara come too?"

Percy laughed and shook his head. Ah, to be young and in love. "Yeah, go get your girlfriend."

The three of them walked out of the palace and down to a small, hidden beach. The cove was kind of secluded and treated as a private lake for the Royal family, so it was empty too. The sun was right overhead and beat down on them rather harshly, in the normal midday fashion. It smelled like sun and salt water.

"So, Percy, what did you want to show us?" Katara asked, shading her eyes against the glare off the water.

"This." Percy put his fingers in his mouth and did a perfect New York taxi cab whistle. For a second or two, nothing happened. Then, off in the distance, a hippocampus broke the glassy surface of the water and started speeding towards them.

Katara and Aang both gasped in delight at the sight of him. He really was beautiful, all his rainbow coloured scales glinting in the daylight, water droplets making him look like he was dressed in jewels.

"What is that?" Katara breathed, awe in her voice.

"This," Percy started walking over the water and threw an arm around the animal's neck. "Is my friend..." He grimaced slightly. "Sparkles."

"What is he?" Aang asked, airbending himself up in the air and landing close to the face of the beast.

"A hippocampus. He's from my world."

"Hello, Sparkles!" Aang greeted him, bowing politely.

Sparkles neighed in response.

"He says 'hey'." Percy translated. "I speak horse. Anyways,-"

"You speak horse?"

"Yes. It's a child of Poseidon thing, since he like, invented the horse or whatever." There truly was no modest way to say that. No wonder all the gods had such big heads.

"That's amazing!" Aang gushed with jealousy in his eyes. "What's he saying now?"

Percy glanced at Sparkles and raised his eyebrows. "He, uh, likes your tattoos."

"Thanks!" Aang grinned and touched his head. "I knew the animals liked them."

"Why did you need Aang for this?" Katara asked, water bending herself closer too.

"Well, when he got here, he said he came with someone that was trying to kill him."

"Kill him? Would they want to kill him?"

Percy shrugged. "But I want your help. We need to find this guy before he does any damage to this world. I'm concerned that when we fix the spirit wall, whoever is over here, will just stay here unless they're with me."

Aang scratched his head. "Yeah, I don't really know how that works..."

"So do you think you could postpone your meeting with the Earth King and help me out a bit? And then you can send me home and fix the wall."

"Of course we'll help." Katara answered for Aang. "Whoever is trying to kill such a beautiful, innocent animal needs to be brought to justice."

"So..." Percy rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't suppose your Avatar powers could help me find the guy?"

Aang laughed. "There might be something I could do." He reached out and placed the flat of his palm of the hippocampus' forehead. The beast bowed respectfully and closed his eyes. "Once, we crashed landed in this Spirit Forest, and the swamp people there taught me that all things are connected. And then the Gruru at the Air Temple showed me again. How everything in life... is... connected..."

Aang's eyes closed softly, his voice faltering, and his tattoos glowed brilliantly for a moment. Percy kind of wish his powers had glow up tattoos. All he usually got was pain and explosions.

"He's not far from here, he's in the Fire Nation, actually. We can go to him right now!" Aang airbended off his water pedestal and landed on the shore, smiling and happy again. "Let's go!"

-...l8r...-

Back in the Fire Nation, Percy, Aang and Katara ran through the streets. Signs of last night's celebration littered the streets. Food, streamers, smashed store fronts, overturned carts, brightly coloured masks, confetti... But the people did not match the leftover party. Mostly, they looked haggard and weary. Glancing up nervously and licking their lips as Aang sped down the streets on his air scooter as Katara and Percy tore after him.

Finally, the arrived at a small backstreet where everyone seemed to be dumping their garbage and waste. Percy could almost see the cartoon smell floating above the piles of trash.

"Ew, are you sure he's here?" Katara asked, covering her nose and stepping daintily over a puddle of who-knows-what.

"Yeah, are you sure we didn't pass him back by that bakery?" Percy pointed behind them with his thumb.

Aang used bending to move a particularly large pile of gunk to reveal a young man, equally covered in dirt and slime, crouched in the corner. As soon as he came in sight the man jumped up with an axe and swung it at Aang, who bent low to the ground to avoid the blade. "Whoa, we just wanna talk!"

"Listen, pal." Katara drew water out of her hip ouch and stood threateningly in front of the exit. "Put down the axe, and we'll get this all figured out like normal people."

The man was breathing heavily, his eyes darting everywhere like a trapped animal. He looked from Aang, to Katara, to Percy and back to Katara before heaving his axe with all his might straight at her chest.

"Katara!" Aang yelled, throwing a blast of wind to knock the axe off-course and then quickly turning to earth bend the man into place.

Katara tried to duck but she wasn't fast enough and the axe hit her arm.

At least, it would have.

The blade passed right through her body and sank into the ground behind her.

"What-"

Percy stepped forward, finally satisfied they had the right guy and now, pretty mad. Who did this guy think he was, killing the hippocampus' and throwing axes at his friends? Aang had airbended himself to Katara's side where she was staring at her arm in amazement, so Percy quietly drew Riptide and uncapped it. The blade shimmered in the light and the man snarled as he realized he should have thrown the axe at Percy, not the girl.

"My name is Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon. Savior of Olympus and friend of the Avatar. Who the hell do you think you are?"

The ground trembled underneath him a little and Percy felt the world 'smirk' in his chest if he ever felt it before. The smell of saltwater blew in, banishing the smells of the slimey dump.

The guy took all this in and paled considerably, staring up at Percy, panic settling in his face.

"You... you know the gods?"

"Know them? I saved their asses more times than I can count." Percy leveled his sword at the guys neck and pressed it in. The sharp blade immediately summoning a thin line of blood across his skin. "You, a half-blood. A hero. Yet you hunt innocent animals and throw axes at girls just trying to help you?" Percy shook his head disappointingly and pressed Riptide harder.

"Please... let me explain!" The guy choked out, but Percy felt no sympathy.

He ignored the man, holding Riptide steady as he stared the guy down. He knew why he was mad at the guy, but he shouldn't be this mad. He was seeing red on the edges of his vision and he wanted to drop his sword and smash this guys face in with his fists... To feel the warm blood drip down his knuckles and know that he did that to someone...

"Percy..." Aang gripped Percy's arm and the ringing he hadn't realized was in his ears started going down. "You okay?"

Realizing how tight his shoulders were, Percy lowered his sword and relaxed them, taking a deep breath. "Yeah... yeah. I'm okay." He looked around, half expecting to see a crowd around them but there were only a few sleepy, still drunk, old guys across the street. "Maybe we should go somewhere else."

"Yeah, somewhere safe. With food." The guy agreed.

"Shut up!" Percy snarled. "You're Ares' kid, aren't you?" He knew it was true as soon as he said it.

"Yeah." The guy stuck out his chin and set his jaw proudly. "What of it?"

Percy snorted unkindly and recapped Riptide. "I hate Ares."

HERE YA GO. LEAVE ME REVIEWS.

Also, as you know, I just finished reading all the Avatar Comics and... Suki and Zuko are lowkey happening? ? Am I the only one that sees this?!