THEY SLAUGHTER TEDDY BEARS WHY ARE WE TRYIING TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THEM: a fanfic

Felix sat in the wooden chair, his feet barely touching the carpet.

"What about this?" Sadie asked, flipping to the next page. "A Satyr."

"Yes, I've seen one. You were there for that as well." Felix said through clenched teeth. He'd known the other magicians ignored him, but until today he hadn't realized just how much. Skimming through encyclopedias of Greek Mythology really dampened his spirits, and made him that much more frustrated.

Carter and Cleo sat across the table, paging through books of their own.

Carter had been adamant that, if they were going to reach out to the Greeks, they be well versed in their history. Felix had another thought: Carter, for maybe the first time in his life, was procrastinating.

"We are doing research, we are preparing. This could be momentous, and I don't want to be caught unaware." He would say, if accused.

But he totally was. Reading was the absolute most perfect form of procrastination he knew.

"Well Olympians, I know you now." Carter stood from the table, stretching out, freeing the kinks in his shoulders. He knew their gods, their monsters, and their heroes. He knew their stories and the variations. He'd studied for so long, February had come without him noticing.

For all that newfound knowledge, he still didn't know how to contact Percy Jackson. Sadie had mentioned he'd gone AWOL after winter vacation. At first, she hadn't been worried. She'd said that he did that all the time; him missing some school was no big thing. This absence, though, was turning out to be his longest one so far.

He picked up his finished book, shaking off both the relief and frustration of his current predicament.

"We should get going. Julian's making dinner tonight." Carter said, and Felix looked up from his book. Finally, Felix thought. His brain was fried.

They gathered stacks of books in their arms, and trundled back over to the shelves.

"Hey, Annabeth," Carter greeted a girl who was standing in front of the gap Felix needed to fill. He shifted the heavy books in his arms, his muscles beginning to ache.

Annabeth nodded hello, but before anything else could be said, Sadie blurted, "Hey, you're Annabeth. Percy's girlfriend."

Annabeth's head shot up, and she fixed Sadie with a sharp glance. "You've seen Percy?"

"What? No, he hasn't been at school." Sadie shrugged. "I was actually wondering if you knew where he was."

Annabeth sighed, and slumped against the shelf. "No. Nobody knows where he is."

-0-

Felix looked around anxiously. He didn't take the subway often, so he didn't know how often the cars were stopped midtrip, but from the worried frown on Cleo's face he knew they were thinking the same thing. Was it a monster? Had it smelled them yet?

Well, if it had, there wasn't much to do about it now. They were in the middle of a narrow, dark tunnel. They'd fight if they had to, but neither of them was good in combat. Felix guessed Cleo's plan was to wait it out.

He preoccupied himself by watching his fellow travelers, who were growing restless. There was a business man, hurriedly thumping his briefcase on his thigh. There was a woman, holding tightly to her young daughter's hand. There was a teenage boy, eyeing a teddy bear with an odd sort of... hunger?

Felix's eyes grew wide and horrified as the boy unsheathed a knife. No one around him seemed to take notice, but Felix knew that didn't mean nothing was there. It just meant some sort of magic was shielding the crime.

The boy sighed as the knife hovered over the chest of the bear, and the look on his face was one of conflict. The boy bit his lip, and murmured, "This is the only one with me..."

He sighed once more, and decisively brought the knife down.

"Mommy!" The little girl cried, her mother bending down to comfort her, oblivious to what was happening just a few feet away. Felix watched in mute shock.

Just as the thought dawned on him that, perhaps, they should be less worried about the possible monster in the tunnel and more concerned about the one sharing a compact car with them, the train's engine revved.

A voice clicked on over the intercom and said, "The necessary repairs have been made, and thank you for waiting."

The boy huffed and rolled his eyes, withdrawing the knife, which hadn't made its way through to the stuffing. "Another day, then."

Felix shivered at the promise.

-0-

Felix sat at a nearby table and observed the growing chaos.

Felix had felt a shiver run down his spine, when he'd seen the psychopath several days later. "That's him," he'd said to Carter, who was sitting across from him. "That's the Greek who tried to kill a stuffed animal."

Because, that's what he had to be, wasn't it? These days, as incredible as it was, the number of Greek monsters he saw almost outnumbered the Egyptian ones.

After the incident on the train, Felix had taken a few concerns to Carter. Namely, that perhaps contacting the Greeks wasn't such a good idea. From the encounters they all had, the conclusion to be made seemed that the Greeks were all crazy and best avoided. Seriously, who stabbed stuffed animals just because they were bored?

Carter had remained calm and unmoved.

The fool.

The group had arrived only a few minutes earlier, jumpy and cautious, and found themselves a decent sized table. Carter, as soon as Felix had pointed them out, had begun thinking about introducing themselves. Felix had seen the thought on the older boy's face, and began arguing.

Luckily, their window of opportunity had closed fast. The dwarves had shown up.

"Darn it!" One of the Greeks shouted as he waved his hot dog threateningly. "What even are you?"

One of the creatures took a flying leap, and munched off the end of the hot dog.

Felix snickered to himself. This was going to be good.

Carter sighed. There would be no introductions today. He supposed he could try and be friendly, try and help, but those creatures... Carter would not be involving himself voluntarily.

They watched on until the owners of the restaurant chased the rowdy kids out.

-0-

Not for the first time, Felix wondered why it was he who was always witnessing these things. He watched his penguins toddle around his room, and lowered himself from the mattress to join them.

"Hey, Max." He scratched the nearest one's head. "Do you have any idea why the Greeks seem to love me so much?"

The penguin just leaned into the scratch.

"Of course not." Felix sighed.

A minute passed.

"Maybe I'm Greek?" He asked the air, very quietly. "Maybe...maybe I'm not even supposed to be here. Carter and Sadie made a mistake. Do you think I could be a demigod?"

The penguin made a disparaging sound, and Felix shook his head.

"Of course not. I've met Egyptian gods, and none of them made a big deal of me. If I was Greek, they'd have said something, or tried harder to kill me." Felix sighed a sigh of relief. "I suppose the only thing left to do is convince the others to leave it alone. Those Greeks are bad news. They're psychotic, the lot of them."

Felix felt bad as soon as he said it.

He'd met Percy. Percy had been his swimming instructor, back when he'd been forced into lessons. The older boy had been really nice, and pretty funny. An all around likable guy.

But Felix couldn't ignore what he'd seen, could he? The Greeks had some serious animal cruelty problems. They killed penguin puppies and then messed with the memories of the those who called them out on it. They tortured stuffed animals when they were bored. And that hell hound... Felix couldn't help but wonder if the Stoll brothers had been telling the truth. What if that poor dog had just been trying to escape?

Felix put an arm around Max, hugging him closer. "I won't let them hurt you. I promise. I'll do whatever it takes."

Whew, that got a little dark towards the end. I can just picture him huddling in the midst of his flock, while the room slowly grows colder, vowing revenge against Thalia or something. Huh. Maybe he'll get closure someday. I could write that... I should write that... yeah...

Anyway... hello again! Long time no see (my fault, I know). I'd just like to thank you for sticking with me. I got so many notes telling me to keep writing the story, get on with the next chapter, ect. They were very heartwarming and guilt inducing, and without them this chapter would never have gotten finished. So thank you!