F: okay, I'm back with chapter two.
A: yeah, she is.
F: you didn't have to say that.
A: I wanted to help.
F: If you want to help say my disclaimer.
A: okay! Yes! This is F's story but she doesn't own the kane chronicles or PJO/HoO
F: thanks. Now I can start.
Atalanta's POV~
Before I had gone to bed the night before, I had called my mom and explained what had happened. It hadn't been a good conversation. After telling her about the monster and where I was, she had given a long sigh.
"I suppose I always knew this would happen. He always said I couldn't protect you forever." Her voice was terribly sad, and maybe a bit scared?
"Who said you couldn't protect me, mom?" I asked, wondering if I really wanted to know.
"Your father." She said. "He always said you would have to be a hero one day. He warned me this would happen but I didn't want to listen. I don't know how he knew, but he was right." I was awake long into the night, wondering how my dad could've known about the Egyptians. Was he one of them?
The next morning, Sadie decided she wanted to start teaching me magic herself.
"It's an easy spell. Just focus on the plate and make it break." Sadie said impatiently. She was slumped in the chair next to where I was standing, propping up her head with one hand. I glared at the plate on the table a few feet in front of me and repeated the spell.
"Ha-di!" I said, pointing at the plate. It didn't even move. "Ha-di, ha-di, ha-di, ha-di!" I waved my arms around. "This isn't working."
"Maybe your saying it wrong." Sadie suggested lazily. I said it again. "No, thats right. Maybe you're not concentrating hard enough." I turned to glare at her. "Hey, I don't know."
"Maybe I'm not really a magician? Maybe I'm just a normal person that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?" I asked, trying to keep the hopefulness out of my voice.
"I don't think so, Atalanta." Sadie shook her head. "That monster last night would not leave you alone."
"Speaking of that monster last night…." Carter came in the room with Walt, who were both carrying scrolls from the library. "I don't know what to think about it. I'm not even sure it was Egyptian."
"What do you mean, of course it was Egyptian! What else could it be, brother dear?" Sadie snapped.
"We're not sure." Walt said. "But that kind of monster, a dragon with a dozen heads, isn't mentioned in any of these old texts. It's like it wasn't actually Egyptian. But then we have no idea what it could've been." (AN: I don't know if that's actually true, that there are no hydras in Egyptian mythology, so just pretend that its true)
"I have an idea." I blurted out before I could stop myself. I realized that the puzzle pieces had been putting themselves together in my brain since last night. That monster, and something about an old book of stories mom read me when I was little.
Everyone was staring at me.
"What was it, then?" Sadie asked.
"Um, it's just that that monster was a lot like something from Greek mythology." I said. "I used to read those stories when I was a kid. There was a dragon with a dozen heads, called a hydra. It got killed by Heracles as one of his twelve labors."
"That could just be coincidence." Walt tried to say, but another piece of the puzzle was clicking into place.
"But remember last night you made one of the heads disappear, and two more grew in its place. That happened to Heracles in the myth. Cut off one head, two grow back. He had to burn the neck so the heads couldn't grow, and he could kill the monster."
"That fits." Carter frowned. "But I don't see how something from Greek myth could be true."
"Maybe the greek stories were real, too." I suggested. I went a little pink when they all stared at me. "I mean, if the Egyptian myths are real, why not the Greek ones? I don't see a reason why that couldn't happen."
"She's right." Another man was walking into the room. He looked like Carter, with the same shade skin and hair. He wore a blue suit and had red beads braided into his long hair. "In fact, more right then you know."
"Amos, the Greek myths can't be real!" Walt said. "That's impossible! I'm an Egyptian god. There can't also be Greek gods." Suddenly I realized that his voice was a little different, and Sadie was looking at him strangely. Then he muttered, "Shut up, Anubis."
"Anubis?" I asked. "You're the host of Anubis?"
"Yeah."
"That's not the point." Carter interrupted. "How can Greek myths be real? That makes no sense!"
"No, it really doesn't." Sadie said. "Uncle Amos, explain please!"
"The Greek myths have always been real." Amos sighed. "And the Egyptian myths, as well. As you know." Sadie rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath. "They have stayed far away from each other, though. Long ago the Greek and Egyptian gods formed a treaty, stating that only in times of great peril would they contact each other. If a Greek monster was attacking in Egyptian territory, it may mean that that great peril has finally come."
"But we faced Apophis without Greeks!" Sadie protested. "So what could be worse then that?" Amos just shrugged.
"I don't know. But I do know that it's coming, and we will need the help of the greeks to face it."
"So how do we contact them?" Carter asked. "Do they know about this threat as well?"
"I don't believe so." Amos said. "But they will come to us. I think one of them is already here." Amos turned to me, with a strange expression on his face. "Isn't that right, Atalanta?"
I just stared at him.
"I guess?"
"Wait, you mean Atalanta is greek?" Walt asked, looking just as confused as I felt. "How is she here then?"
"Actually, that makes sense." Carter said. "Why she couldn't see Brooklyn house until I lowered some of our defenses last night. Why she couldn't use a simple spell. She might just not be a magician at all."
"So she's really Greek? Wow." Sadie looked impressed.
I was getting more confused by the minute, and wondering if they were ever going to stop talking about me like I wasn't there. I was Greek? I had only just found out about the Egyptians! This made no sense, and I wanted answers.
"Shut up! Just shut up for a minute!" I burst out, and they all stopped talking, looking surprised. I wheeled on Amos. "If I'm not a magician, then what am I? What am I, then?" He just looked at me sadly.
"I think you might be a demigod." He sighed. "But we can't know which god until the Greeks manage to find us. I believe they are searching for you right now, and you will lead them here, to Brooklyn house. When they arrive, they won't yet know of the Egyptians. That's why the gods sent the hydra, so that you would come with us and lead them here."
"What's a demigod?" I demanded.
"Half mortal, half god." Carter said, in a strangled voice. "It means you're only half human. I remember reading some Greek myths once. Heracles was a demigod. So was Perseus, Achilles- all the great Greek heroes were half god. Amos is saying you are, too."
"Half human…?" I repeated softly. "I'm only half… human? So that's why mom won't tell me about dad. He must have been a god. My dad's a god. Ok, thats really weird."
"Pretty much." Sadie agreed.
"There's no time for this." Amos said impatiently. "The Greeks could get here any minute, and we have to be ready when they do."
Downstairs, the doorbell rang.
Percy's POV~
"I don't understand what the big deal is." Percy complained as Annabeth pulled him through the streets of New Rome. "Why are they getting so many demigods just to find one new demigod? I wanted to go surfing today!"
"Because Chiron thinks that this demigod might be a daughter of one of the big three." Annabeth explained patiently. "She killed a hydra, we think single-handedly, and now she's missing. Nobody knows what happened to her."
"Annabeth, Percy, you're here." Frank waved to them from where he stood, waiting beside a chariot and two pegasi. "I'm going to fly and Hazel's already on her way with Arion. The chariots for you two. Chiron wants us to search Manhattan, and Hazel is going to help Reyna check Staten island."
"Just Manhattan?"
Frank missed the sarcasm in Percy's voice. "Yeah. He's sending Leo, Piper, and Jason to Brooklyn. Nico and Will are taking Queens, and the Stolls and Clarisse are searching the Bronx. The mortal police are searching too, but they don't know she's a demigod, so they won't have much luck."
Percy and Annabeth climbed on the chariot, and Frank changed into a large golden eagle and started up into the sky. The pegasi pulling their chariot went fast, pulling the two demigods across the country in only half an hour.
They landed in Manhattan, and spent the entire rest of the day searching with Frank. They showed people a picture of the missing demigod. She had curly black hair, vivid green eyes, and a freckled face. In the picture she wore a blue hoodie and jeans. Nobody they asked had seen her. Frank turned into a bloodhound, but he had little luck.
That night, they returned to Camp Half Blood to meet up with the other demigods who had been searching.
"Nothing at all." Will Solace shook his head at the camp fire. He and Nico sat side-by-side. It was common knowledge that they liked each other, though neither seemed able to figure out that the other liked them back. "We don't think the missing demigod is in Queens. We looked everywhere."
"Not a thing in the Bronx." Clarisse growled. "What's the name of this kid again? Amelia?"
"Atalanta." Annabeth corrected. "Atalanta Green. And we couldn't find her either."
"Well, she's not in Staten island. We checked everywhere twice." Hazel sighed. "So she must be in Brooklyn, if shes not anywhere else. We should all search there tomorrow."
"Yeah, we didn't look everywhere." Leo said. "We haven't checked down by the warehouses yet."
"I don't think all of us will have to go." Piper said. "If you guys-"
"We have plans tomorrow." Connor and Travis Stoll said immediately. "Well, Travis has plans. With Katie." Connor elbowed his brother as they walked away.
"Shut up." Travis mumbled, but he didn't look unhappy.
"I have to teach my wrestling class tomorrow." Clarisse said. "Hope you find the kid."
"Frank, Hazel, and I, are needed back at Camp Jupiter. We left Dakota in charge. We have to get back before bad things happen."
"So it's just the five of us checking Brooklyn tomorrow." Annabeth said, taking charge. "Piper, Leo, Jason, Percy, and I will go and look for her."
"I hope she's alright." Hazel said sadly. "And I think she's probably a daughter of one of the big three. She's totally untrained but she killed that hydra."
"Yeah, that took guts." Leo agreed. He was roasting a marshmallow over the campfire. "Don't worry, Hazel. We'll find her."
The next day, Piper, Jason, Leo, Percy, and Annabeth have found Brooklyn house and have figured out that Atalanta Green must be inside.
"Should we knock?" Jason asked.
"Maybe we should just ring the doorbell." Percy suggested.
"Who owns this place?" Annabeth said, not listening to them. "Who took Atalanta Green here? Why did she come here after she killed the hydra?"
"I dunno. C'mon, lets just do it." Leo reached forward and rang the doorbell.
Atalanta's POV~
We scrambled down the stairs as the doorbell got rung again. "I didn't know we even have a doorbell!" Sadie cried as we skidded around a corner, running for the front hall. A boy I didn't know was almost to the door, about to open it.
"Julian, don't open the door!" Carter shouted. The boy turned, surprised.
"Whats wrong? And since when do we have a doorbell? I didn't know we had a doorbell." The boy, Julian, asked.
"I didn't know either!" Sadie said, but Zia and a small boy carrying a penguin under each arm were already running in the room.
"I didn't know we had a doorbell!" Zia panted.
"Everyone, forget the doorbell!" Walt said. "The Greeks are here!"
"Wait, Greeks?" Julian asked, puzzled.
Carter explained about the Greeks in one sentence and speaking very very fast. "TheGreeksarerealandtheyareherethegreekgodsarerealtoowethinkAtalantaisagreekdemigodshe'shalfgod."
"Would they like to meet my penguins?" The short boy carrying penguins asked.
"No!"
"Well you can't just leave them on the doorstep." I snapped, striding towards the door.
"Wait!" Amos yelled, but I had already pulled it open.
Standing on the doorstep was five teenagers, all older then me. There was a scrawny latino boy, a girl with choppy dark hair in tiny braids, a girl with blond hair, a boy with sea-green eyes and dark hair, and a blond boy with bright blue eyes. "Hi." I said. "Are you the Greeks?"
"Are you Atalanta Green?" The girl with blond hair said.
"Who's asking?"
The blond girl and I stared at each other for a minute. "Annabeth Chase." She shook my hand.
"Atalanta Green, as you've probably guessed. C'mon in."
"Are you guys seriously Greek?" Sadie asked sceptically. "And is Atalanta really a demigod?"
"You say demigod like you guys aren't." The blond boy frowned.
"We're not. We only found out that the Greek myths were real today. We're Egyptian magicians." Carter said.
"Wait, Egyptian?"
It took a while to explain about the Egyptians being real. Then they had to tell us more about the Greeks, and also the Romans who were apparently real as well. It took two hours to get everyone understanding everything, so it was lunchtime when we were done.
"But if I'm a demigod," I asked while we ate lunch on the terrace, next to the pool. "Then who's my godly parent?"
"We won't know until you get claimed." Annabeth said. "That's when your godly parent will send us a sign to let us know that you're their child."
"And when will that happen?" I asked. Suddenly a rosy glow appeared, lighting up everyone's faces. I couldn't see the source, but…. oh. I looked up. Hanging over my head was a 3-D holographic image of a blazing fiery hammer. I searched my brain to try and remember the name of the god with the hammer as their symbol. Something that had to do with cowboys, but that couldn't be right.
"That's the symbol of Hephaestus." Annabeth said.
"Cool, you're my sister!" Leo cheered, and gave me a high-five. I couldn't help but grin. I had always wondered who my dad was, and honestly, a god of fire wasn't as crazy as some of the theories I had dreamed up about who he might be. A superhero, a fiction writer, a famous painter…. over the years theorizing who my dad was had become my automatic pass time when I was bored.
Now I finally knew.
After lunch, we got to the most important thing. The looming threat that had finally pulled the Egyptians and the Greeks together. We all brainstormed ideas, but we didn't have anything definite. It was finally agreed that we would all keep our eyes and ears open, and contact the other group right away if we found something.
As for me, I went back home to my mom's apartment. The other demigods thought that it would be best if I started spending my summers at Camp Half Blood, but that I could stay at home for the rest of the year.
When I got home, I found mom waiting anxiously. She had been so worried she had taken the day off all three of her jobs. I felt guilty for worrying her like that, but I was glad that she was there.
My mom is the nicest lady in existence. She's pretty, too, with silky curly dark hair all the way down her back in a braid, big green eyes, and a warm heart-shaped face. But there's always worry lines between her eyebrows and bags under her eyes. Her name's Alexandra Green, but everyone calls her Allie. She's like the mom for not just me, but the entire block. If someone has a problem, they bring it to Allie. I wish they wouldn't. She has enough on her plate without trying to help other people as well. Then I feel guilty for feeling that way.
"My little Ata." Mom moaned several times through the day.
"I'm fine, mom." I would say, but she would just sigh.
"Your father always said you would be a hero one day…. I just never believed him."
A few days later, at school, Sadie told me that they had found something. Something about the approaching threat. It was beginning.