A/N: Okay, this is really late. Whoops. Anyways, I got some reviews from Rocker on that I'm gonna respond to.
Eh, possible that in another time-line, Rick Riordan made it Cannon that Annabeth died in the throne room. Infinite possibilities.
Yup.
Wait, is this before or after Spidey's recruited by SHIELD? I don't think Electro appeared until later on in the series.
This is before. In the first episode with Electro, Spidey mentions he had a run in with him before, so I elaborated on that experience.
Eh, as the plot develops, the chapters will get longer. Almost never fails.
Yup.
Merry Christmas! Hope that you continue this soon, been nearly a month since you updated last.
Thank you! I was going to update on Christmas, but I have a cold, and I slept through most of the day. But merry belated Christmas! And Happy Hanukkah, too!
Disclaimer: I still do not own anything. Drat.
Percy's POV
"Perseus. You can't outrun me for long!" I glanced around and saw Peter. Great, he had to follow me. He was looking around the alley for something.
"Peter! What are you doing?"
"One sec." I turned back to face the empousa but turned around again when I heard the sound of metal clanking. Somehow, Peter had pulled down the ladder of the fire escape.
"Come on!" He was already half way up. I scrambled after him and pulled the ladder up behind me. We raced up to the top.
"That won't hold her for long," I said.
"What the heck is she?"
"Erm…. I don't know?" I lied. Peter raised an eyebrow.
"Why is she after you?"
"I don't know, trouble likes me!" Well, half of that was true. "We should split up. It's me she wants."
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." A burst of hot air made me spin around. About three feet behind me was the empousa. "Peter," I said calmly. "You should run." I watched him nod and disappeared down the fire escape. Once he was out of sight, I flipped up my hood. I uncapped Riptide. As soon as she heard it, the empousa attacked. I slashed at her arm and she jumped back.
"That's no way to treat a lady," she whined.
"Then it's a good thing you aren't a lady," I said back. I took another swipe at her, throwing her into defense mode. She dodged my blows, erupted into flames, and teleported behind me. I was barely able to duck her claws that were swiping at my neck. I spun around and sliced her shoulder open with Riptide. She literally sizzled with anger and swiped at my sword hand. She barely grazed me, but the heat was enough to make me drop my sword. She took another swipe at my face and I fell over backwards. She was about to deliver the final blow, but there was a thwip and something landed on her face. She took a few steps back and tugged at what I could tell was webbing. While she was blinded I rolled over to where Riptide lay and stood up, sword in hand. Just then, the empousa burst into flames and the webs came off. She reformed and looked around.
"Looking for me?" said a voice behind me. Startled, I spun around to see Spider-Man.
"You inferior pest!" she yelled. She ran at him, not noticing me, just a few feet away. As she ran past me I swung my sword, and her head rolled off, dissolving into dust, along with her body.
"You killed her?" Spider-Man asked.
"Sorta. She'll be back. But hopefully not for another millennium."
"So she's not dead?"
"Not technically," I said.
"Wait, how is that even possible?"
"I have no idea how it works." Spider-Man looked skeptical. Don't ask how I know what he looked like under the mask, I could just tell.
"Where'd that kid go? Percy? Peter said he was up here."
"Oh, he's gone. I told him to go. Run. I think he went down the fire escape."
"He's safe?" I nodded. "Okay."
"Thanks for the assist," I said. "But, I really need to be going." Gods, everyone was probably worried about where the Hades I went.
"Me too," Spider-Man said. "Bye!" He went swinging away. I pulled off my helmet and my clothes went back to normal. I climbed down the fire escape and ran out onto the sidewalk. I started running in the direction that MJ and Harry went. I found them a few alleys down, hiding behind a dumpster. Harry had snapped out of the empousa's spell.
"Percy! Where's Peter?" MJ asked.
"I don't know, we split up. We should go find him."
"What about the crazy waitress lady?" Harry asked.
"Riptide took care of her. Now, we should find Peter." I offered my hand to help them up but MJ noticed the cut on my hand.
"What happened to your hand?"
"I scraped it climbing down the fire escape," I said thinking quickly. "I kinda forgot it was there."
"Okay." She took my hand and pulled herself up. I helped Harry up, and we exited the alley. On the street we started calling out for Peter. Finally, we spotted him coming out of an alley.
"Peter!" Harry called. Peter saw us and jogged over.
"There you are," MJ said. "What happened?"
"Oh, we split up."
Someone's phone rang. We looked at each other.
"Not me!" I said.
"It's mine!" MJ said. "I'll catch up with you guys later." With that, she disappeared into the crowd. Harry glanced at his watch.
"I should be going, too. My dad made plans for this afternoon. See you soon, Percy." I waved as he jogged off.
"You have somewhere to be too?" I asked Peter. He shook his head.
"Not until 4."
"Cool, you wanna hang out?"
"Sure, where should we go?"
"I don't know. Any ideas?"
"We could go to the arcade, but I don't think I have any money. You?"
"No, sorry." All I had was a drachma which I used to call Grover.
"Hmm, what about sports? Do you play any?"
"I can swim," I told him. Best to leave out sword fighting and climbing up lava spouting walls.
"Cool, you thinking of joining the swim team?"
"I never really thought about it," I said.
"Well, who knows?"
"Yeah. We still haven't gone anywhere," I pointed out.
"Have you seen the school yet?" Peter asked.
"No, why?"
"How about I give you a tour?" I hesitated. Visiting a school during summer break. Not exactly my type of fun, but I was starting to get bored, standing there.
"Sure. Where to?"
"There's a shortcut through the city, we'll take that." He started walking, so I followed.
"So, Peter, what about you? You play any sports?"
"Nah, I never really had the build."
"Interesting. I–"
"It is the duty of you New Yorkers to report the actions of the vigilante known as Spider-Man! I'm J. Jonah Jameson!" We looked up to see a giant electronic billboard with Jameson's face on it. There were workers around it celebrating.
"That 'wall crawling menace' works his behind off trying to keep us safe!" Peter yelled at the screen.
"Well, you clearly feel strongly about this," I said sarcastically.
"Sorry, but I just don't think Spider-Man deserves to be called a menace. He's saved so many people."
"Yeah, I hear you." It felt like a relatable situation.
"That's good. We're almost there."
A few yards ahead, I could see the school. It was a large brownish building with a tall iron fence around the front. I stared.
"Welcome to Midtown High, your prison for the next two years," Peter said. I smiled.
"Is it really that bad?" I asked.
"Nah, Flash Thompson is a big jerk though."
"School bully?" I guessed.
"Yeah, he's been shoving me in lockers since preschool."
"I hate bullies. There's a girl at my camp who tried to flush my head down a toilet." I remembered the experience fondly until the thought of Annabeth came back to me. I frowned.
"Tried?" Peter asked.
"The toilet exploded."
"Wow." Peter looked impressed.
"Yeah…" I trailed off.
After a moment of awkward silence, Peter spoke up. "So, we can hang around for a little while, if you want, or we could go hang out at one of our houses, or something."
"You can come over to my place, my mom's baking cookies," I suggested.
"Cookies?" Peter perked up. "Heck yeah!"
"Cool! I'll lead the way!" I said, momentarily forgetting my grief.
We walked back through the city, mostly in silence, until Peter spoke up.
"What was that vampire waitress lady?"
"Umm… A vampire waitress lady?" I shrugged. Peter looked doubtful, but let it drop.
The rest of the walk was spent in silence, but I could tell that Peter was still thinking about the empousa.
When we arrived at my house, I opened the door and called, "Mom! I'm home!"
"Percy! Your cousin is here," my mom's voice came from the living room.
"My cousin?" I asked. "Nico?"
"Yes. Get in here!"
"Cousin?" Peter asked. I shrugged and led him in. Sure enough, Nico was sitting in my living room, with a frown.
"This is my friend, Peter. Peter, this is my mom, and the sulky kid over there, is Nico. My cousin."
My mom smiled.
"Percy, can I talk to you? Privately?" Nico asked.
"Sure. Peter can you hold on a sec?"
"Okay." Peter nodded.
I lead Nico into the kitchen.
"So, what do you need?"
"It's the Mist, it's fading," Nico said.
"Fading?" I asked.
"Yeah, one day it was there, the next it wasn't. And Hecate is gone too."
"That actually explains earlier today. I was attacked by both a hellhound and empousa, in front of mortals, and they could see both of them."
"What did you tell them?" Nico asked
"Nothing. They didn't need to know."
"Good. According to my father, Zeus ordered all gods and demigods to go on a low profile. He shut down the camp's strawberry service, and locked down Olympus out of paranoia."
"That serious?" I asked.
"Yeah, I thought it was a little extreme, but you know, he's the king of the gods." Nico shrugged.
"Okay, is that all from Big-Headed-and-Paranoid?" I asked, ignoring the distant thunder.
"I think. Who's the kid in the living room?" Nico asked. I glanced at Peter through the doorway. He was chatting with my mom.
"Peter, apparently, he goes to my new school."
"Oh. Wait, new school?" Nico asked.
"Yeah, I guess Paul isn't around to keep me from getting expelled, so my mom moved me." Nico blinked.
"Okay…" He turned to leave.
"Hey," I said, grabbing his arm. "Come hang out for a little bit." I gave him the you-don't-get-a-choice look.
"Fine." He reluctantly walked back into the living room.
"So, Peter," my mom was asking. "How has your summer been?"
"It's been calm. Except for the whole thing where the entire city fell asleep and woke up to famous statues strangling each other and the city was kinda destroyed. And there was apparently a tank."
Nico and I shared a look.
"Peter, do you mind if my cousin hangs out with us for a little bit?" I asked.
"Not at all!" Peter smiled at Nico, who didn't smile back. I nudged him.
"Hi," he said reluctantly.
A ding came from the kitchen. My mom jumped up and headed into the kitchen.
"Who wants cookies?" She came back in with a tray of blue cookies.
"Um, why are they blue?" Peter asked.
"My mom had an argument with her ex-husband, about the existence of blue food. It's sorta like an inside joke," I explained as I reached for a cookie.
"Oh…" Peter also reached for a cookie.
"Nico?" My mom offered Nico one.
"Sure," he said after a pause. He reached out and took a cookie.
"Thank you!" Peter said, before taking a bite of the cookie.
"Mmm! Fank oo!" I said through a full mouth.
"Thanks," Nico mumbled.
"No problem!" My mom put the tray down on the coffee table. "Well, I'm going to be in my room, Percy, if you need anything. You boys have fun."
I gave her a thumbs up and grabbed another cookie.
"So, what should we do?" I asked.
Nico shrugged.
"Are you two cousins on your mom's or dad's side?" Peter asked after a minute of silence.
"Dad's," I replied. Nico nodded in agreement.
"That's cool," Peter said.
We all sat in awkward silence for what seemed like hours but, in reality, was only two minutes.
"So, got any video games?" Peter asked.
I shook my head. Demigods + Technology = Bad. Of course, I couldn't tell him that, so I just said, "My mom's never been a fan."
"Then what should we do?" Peter asked.
Nico shrugged. I glanced around.
"We have Monopoly," I suggested.
"Sure," Peter said. He turned to Nico.
"What about you?"
Nico shrugged. "I don't really care."
"Sounds good." I stood up to get the box. I moved the cookies to the side and put the box down on the coffee table. I sat down on the couch and opened the box, tossing the cover aside. I laid out the board.
"Okay, who wants which little token thingy?" Peter asked, holding up the thimble and the boot.
"I'll take the dog," I said.
Nico hesitated, then grabbed the car.
We both looked at Peter. He reached out and grabbed the top hat.
"Who's gonna be banker?" Peter asked.
I shook my head immediately. "I suck at math."
Nico shook his head as well.
"Okay then." Peter took the money and began to distribute it. When he was finished, he placed his token on the board.
Nico and I followed suit.
Peter grabbed the dice and rolled.
"Three and four. Seven," Peter stated as he passed the dice to Nico.
Nico rolled. "Two and six, eight."
I picked up the dice and rolled. "Six and five. I'm going first," I declared.
I took my piece and moved it 11 places, landing on St. Charles Place. I bought it and passed the dice to my left.
Nico rolled a nine. He did not buy anything and passed the dice to Peter.
Peter rolled a three. He moved his token to Baltic Avenue and bought the property.
I took the dice out of the center of the board and rolled an eight. I bought New York Avenue and passed the dice on.
Nico rolled a four. Once again, he didn't buy the property. He seemed ridiculously bored.
Peter took the dice and rolled a six. He bought the property and passed the dice to me.
It continued like that for a while, me and Peter buying everything we landed on and Nico not buying anything. Soon, Nico was bankrupt.
"I should get back to my dad," he said, standing.
"Okay, it was nice meeting you," Peter said.
Nico didn't return the compliment and simply nodded. He headed out the door and left us in silence.
After a moment, Peter spoke.
"So, what's with the whole 'doom and gloom' thing?" Peter asked.
"It's… complicated," I told him.
Peter raised an eyebrow expectantly.
"Fine. Short version, I went on a… field trip with his older sister after promising to keep her safe. There was an… accident that she got caught in. She died," I said. "But, if you mention it to Nico, he'll probably kill you in a more painful way than you could ever imagine."
Peter put his hand up in surrender. "Thanks for the warning."
I nodded.
"Shall we continue the game?" I asked.
"Sure." Peter's phone let out a short ding and he checked it. "Or not. My aunt wants me to come home. Something about a lost tennis racquet." He stood.
"Okay."
"This was fun. It was nice to meet your cousin, gloomy as he is," Peter said. "Thanks for having me!" Peter started heading to the door.
"Yeah, no problem! See you at school I guess!" I called. I waved and watched him leave.
The door closed behind him and I waited a second before getting up to pack up our Monopoly game.
A/N: Uh, yup. That was a difficult chapter to write. Mostly because I had no idea what to have the boys do. The second half was mostly just a filler. Anyways, happy holidays!
Expected Update: 4 weeks
~fezzesarecool1011