Hello everyone,

Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.

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With best regards,
SharkAttack719

Περσεύς 1

Endangered Satyrs

"I walk a lonely road, the only the one that I have ever known," Thalia sang as we were walking back from the supermarket. "Don't know where it goes, but it's home to me and I walk alone."

"You know, you're not that bad at singing, Thals," Luke commented. "Maybe it's just because you like Green Day so much."

"They're not the only band I like." Thalia rolled her eyes. "Plus, there are a few other bands that I do like."

"Like what, Maroon 5?"

Thalia's face scrunched up, as if she'd just eaten a lemon and sniffed a skunk's butt. "I don't have anything against them, but their music is not my kind of style. I like bands like...My Chemical Romance, or some of Linkin Park's stuff. Not all of it though. Their newer stuff is turning into those kinds of electronic instrument bullshit."

"I think it sounds okay," I shrugged.

"And this is where we can't trust Percy."

"Hey! I'm just putting out my honest opinion."

"And does it matter?"

"America's a free country. I got my own rights," I said in mock-southern accent.

"Dude, that isn't funny," Luke said. Still, he was chuckling. "You could offend someone if they know that stereotype and are from the southern states. You don't want to get stupid mortals on your bad side. Those frickin' FBI." Luke shook his head like the heavily armed United States force was a bad thing.

Annabeth slapped Luke on the arm. "Don't even think about it," she chided. "Stealing isn't something you should be doing very often...maybe in school, but that's it."

"America's a free country. I got my own rights," he imitated exactly like how I did it.

Thalia and I snickered a little. Annabeth just gave him a look of exasperation. Luke laughed and put his arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry, babe. You've got nothing to worry about. I would take the blame for anything to keep you safe anyways."

"You're so cheesy," she said, looking up into his eyes. They stopped walking for a second and pecked each other on the lips. I couldn't help but smile happily for them. I was just that kind of person. I glanced at Thalia to see her reaction to their intimacy...not the sexual kind, but the way they seemed so tightly bonded. It was as if the Fates had taken their two strings and permanently tied them together.

Her reaction was the exact same as mine, she looked happy, but there was that slight disappointment. I knew exactly what she was thinking. We had never come to a closure about deciding our own relationship. We let it pass smoothly. I knew she said she liked me, but for all I knew, she could still harbor feelings for Luke. Then there was me. I wasn't completely sure whether I liked her, I mean, I felt something towards her, like a slight crush, but I couldn't be sure whether I liked her and her only. Maybe I would fall in love with someone else.

But I pushed the thoughts out of my head. This winter break was meant to be full of fun and good health. I rather enjoyed the school year so far. The teachers at MS-41 weren't all that bad. Plus, even though the school was boarding, I was allowed to go back to the apartment every day because I was so close to the school. Chiron helped me with that. Thalia, Luke and Annabeth also went to MS-41 with me.

It was a little unfortunate that Luke and Annabeth were in different grades; however, Thalia and I were in almost every single class together. Even with Annabeth's "geniusness" she couldn't get into our grade. I think the teachers just didn't want to feel like a thirteen year old girl could outsmart them by at least Denver. Don't get it? Denver is the Mile-High city.

Everything was great outside of school as well. During this period of time during November we were allowed to get a mid-term break. How the terms worked at this school were a little weird. There were only two, but there were mid-term reports to see where the student was at at that point.

Anyway, during mid-term break I received a call from Annabeth's father. Somehow he'd managed to find out the phone number of the house and asked for Annabeth to be put on the phone. This happened for three of the five days of mid-term break. Annabeth's dad would call and talk to Annabeth. At the end of the three days, though, Annabeth still refused to go back to Virginia to live with her father and stepmother. Even though his attempt failed, Dr. Chase invited me, and me only, to come to Virginia to learn about a cool new technological invention he was looking into. Apparently, I was mentioned a lot in the Chase household and was portrayed as a fierce warrior. Dr. Chase said he wanted to show me a new way of taking out monsters.

So, intrigued by the offer, I went. It was actually very interesting. The idea was fairly simple: a celestial bronze bullet. There wasn't enough celestial bronze at camp to mass produce it, but Dr. Chase said it could come in handy to replace a bow. When I asked why, he replied that a bullet travels much faster than a bow and if the shooter is accurate, shots can be fired much quicker than a bow, unless the bowman (or bow-woman) is very experienced. That way, it can be used as a distraction, or if a swordsman is used as a distraction, the gunman can fire the fatal shots.

When it came time to go back to New York, I brought back a sample of a bullet and a couple photocopied blueprints. It was a good thing celestial bronze couldn't be detected by metal detectors. Then, when I got back to New York, the first thing I did was head back to the apartment to study the blueprints.

Unfortunately, they were written in English. I decided that I would get Chiron to read them when I could head back to camp. The next month passed quickly and here we were, on winter break.

I hoped that we could go out and do some fun things, like head to a New York Rangers game or a Knicks game. I preferred basketball over hockey because honestly...I couldn't skate. I liked basketball more than hockey. A fact was a fact. The only problem with that was to get Thalia and Annabeth interested. Once I realized that would never happen, I looked out for things that were going to happen that they might like.

Then one day, Thalia came to the apartment talking about a Green Day concert that was going to happen just after Christmas, on the 29th of December. She sounded excited. Apparently the ticket prices were only like $50 or something. They were actually really cheap. The only problem was that we didn't earn any money. I was pretty sure that we had enough stored cash to be able to pay for the concert tickets. We did community service and helped neighbors for money and earned a reasonably good amount of money for the shittiest jobs ever. That was good enough to pay for our food.

So, I decided looking out for opportunities to get concert tickets for us.

It was mid-December when the radio station announced that they were having a contest to earn Green Day tickets to the concert at the Garden. I entered the contest, not bothering about the fact that I had to be eighteen and up to play, and won. When the radio station people wouldn't give it to me...well, let's just say they won't be talking on the radio for a little while.

"Yes, we get that Luke is cheesy," I said. "Now, can we get home before the cheese and meat goes bad?"

"Thanks, Percy," Luke said. "You love ruining our fun, don't you?"

"No, seriously. It's actually quite a long walk to the supermarket. Don't make us have to go again and mug someone for the money. We've already built enough trust with those policemen. Helping old ladies does reward you, man."

"Whatever you say." Luke sighed. "Hey, Annabeth. Do you have your cell phone? I really need to call someone. It's an emergency."

"Who?"

"The taxi with the guy that we always get on for free," he said. "I love the guy, plus we need a ride home."

"Luke."

"What?"

"We're like five blocks away. We don't need a frickin' taxi to get home. Plus, we can take the elevator up. If you ever get tired, you can just hurry up, lug the food to the kitchen and flop on the couch all you want. We have all of those luxury resources. I'm so glad Chiron taught me how to control the Mist."

"Yeah, that isn't fair," Thalia interjected. "Why do you get to learn that, but all I learn about is how to not be selfish and rude."

"I don't know," I replied. "Maybe it's because I'm the prophecy child and you're just the—"

Crash!

At the intersection, just a few feet away from us, two cars collided. I saw a huge dent in one of the cars. The other one was not damaged too badly. That's when things began to get a little ugly.

Both drivers got out of the car. The one who was driving the heavily damaged car glared at the other guy with such malice and malevolence that he almost seemed to be visibly seething. He began cursing at Guy Number Two with such variety that I was sure I learned at least five or six new curse words in my first language. He strung them together, somehow, and managed to make the other guy angry. Guy Number Two glared fiercely at Guy Number One and began stringing together his own collection of curse words. They fought back and forth verbally for a least half a minute.

Soon, pedestrians began to stop and watch. It was a stupid decision.

Punches soon began to land on the two drivers. An innocent woman tried stepping in to break the fight, but Guy Number One knocked her out with one blow to the side of her head. A bunch of the adult mortals cried out in animosity. A couple men went up to the woman to drag her away from the fight. Then they went up to the fighting drivers and threatened to call the cops on them. Then, to show the true colors of crime in New York City, another car drove by. A window went down and a gun was fired. It hit Guy Number Two in the chest and he collapsed dead within a millisecond.

"That's what you get when you mess with us!" a deep male voice boomed out of the car window, before the driver sped off.

I looked at my friends panicked. I heard many bystanders crying out in fear, and some were beginning to call the police.

"Should we just leave before the police arrive?" Luke asked.

"I don't know about you guys, but that sounds like a good idea to me," Annabeth agreed.

I shared a look with Thalia. Her eyes said to leave, but she didn't speak. I turned to Luke and Annabeth. "Actually, I was hoping for some fun."

"Fun? You call chasing after criminals fun? We're about to fight a war and you—"

He didn't get to finish. I ran up to the nearest motorbike (there are actually more of these in New York than you'd think) and hotwired it. I didn't put on a helmet and immediately sped off in the direction of the criminals. I continuously got faster and faster until I reached speeds my mother would scream if she saw. I tried not to think about the sad parts about my mother, but more of the humorous and lighter side.

I caught sight of the vehicle and the distant sounds of police cars. The car was one of those sedans where the back window led straight to the back seat without having to go through the trunk. I could see three people inside the vehicle talking and laughing, as if killing someone was normal to them. That lit the fire of my anger. I didn't care what kind of business someone entered. Killing them just because they scam you isn't right. Deal with what happens to you instead of being such a baby.

"Man, I wish I listen to my own advice," I said, referring to the betrayal of Ethan. See, now there was a difference. I hated being betrayed and felt that it was my duty to eliminate anyone who decides to backstab me. They have the slimmest chance of being forgiven.

In any case, I sped up, weaving through cars before I came up on the back side of the speeding car. I could hear police sirens getting louder and louder. I knew my pen would eventually come back to me, so to test how weak the glass was I threw my pen at it. A small crack appeared.

"Come on," I said. "Come on." I was getting closer to the car.

I leaned forward on the motorbike and when I deemed the distance right, I jumped and smashed through the back window. Glass shattered all around me and I swear I probably got a lot of cuts, but the good thing was that the criminals were temporarily stunned. Quickly, I knocked the third guy out, who was sitting in the back seat. Then I grabbed the heads of the other two guys and smashed them together multiple times. Before long, they were both bloody and unconscious. I squeezed up to the front and hit the brakes so that the police cars could catch up and take the murderers away.

It was only a minute before the cops arrived, and the first thing the policemen said was:

"Did you knock all of those unconscious people unconscious, by yourself?"

I grinned.

"You frickin' scared me there, Perce," Thalia said when I was let back to my apartment. I spent a long day at the police station telling the cops about what I'd seen and what had happened. Apparently, the guy who was shot was a former policeman who was blackmailed by gang members and had to be kicked out of the police force. He was involved in a recent drug deal in which he leaked information to the cops, but unfortunately his life was taken when the other gang found out.

The three members I took out were low class members of a Brooklyn gang that was involved in the deal. The first guy, who was crashed into by the former policeman was charged with aggravated assault, saying that if the former policeman hadn't been killed, he would have been charged with assault as well.

The low class members of the Brooklyn gang were proven guilty of first degree murder. One gang member begged for mercy, but no one would have it. They were all young, twenty-five at the most. But I felt no pity for them. Learning that this was all planned with intention made me grow an even bigger distaste for them.

"Next time maybe you could listen to us and not go out there," Thalia continued.

I shrugged and smiled wearily. "Well, I do what I gotta do. I'm not a criminal, Thalia. If I were a mortal, I'd probably join the police force. Besides, you can't blame me for not wanting some fighting action. I was totally getting used to kicking your butt in the sword fighting arena. You know, you have to admit, Clarisse is getting better every single time."

"Sure, I guess," Thalia shrugged. She smiled. "Let's get dinner ready. And then we can rock out to Green Day."

I laughed as we walked out to the balcony where Luke and Annabeth were. "What's up, Luke? Annabeth? Not making out too fiercely, right? Don't want you two to get hurt now do we?"

They both blushed a light pink. "No," Luke waved it off. "We're not making out at all. We're not that kind of couple."

Thalia gave him a pointed look. "When Percy was gone, you two were kissing like it was the last day of your life."

They blushed even brighter. I raised an eyebrow at them but directed my question at Thalia. "Really? They were kissing like it was the last day of their lives? Like actually really...passionately...and—"

"Oh yeah," Thalia nodded.

I snorted at that. I could picture it my head because Luke and Annabeth did kiss quite a bit. "Well," stammered a blushing Luke, "at least we've kissed somebody. You know what the mortal teenagers say: you haven't lived till you've kissed someone."

I pursed my lips in thought. "I thought it was, You haven't lived until you fu—"

"No!" exclaimed Luke. "I modified it! We're too young for that."

"True," I admitted. "But actually...I have kissed someone. It was kind of an accident." I sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck.

"Okay, come on, you guys," said Annabeth. "You two like each other. It's totally obvious. Ugh, I'm turning into Silena more and more everyday...not that it's necessarily a bad thing."

"Not necessarily," Thalia replied. "Just because we have feelings doesn't mean we're the only match for the other."

"Sometimes you have a crush on someone to...move on from another who is taken or has left you, you know," I said, pointedly looking at Thalia. "Just because you feel something for another doesn't mean it's for the right reasons."

Thalia nodded admitting to her fault. I was sure she knew that pretty well, but so that she was sure, I reminded her. Like I said, I wasn't trying to run away from her. In my own way, I liked her too, but she might not have liked me if Luke didn't start dating Annabeth.

"Wise words," Annabeth nodded. Then she glanced at Luke and looked down. "Wise words," she repeated.

Luke pursed his lips in thought. "Yeah. That is totally true."

"Anyway, Luke, you wanna play Smite?" I asked.

He was shaken out of his thoughts and grinned. "Oh, yeah. I call being Hades. Maybe in real life he's kind of an asshole, but in Smite...he's a beast."

"Whatever, Luke," I replied. "You know who I'm going to be."

"I want to talk with Thalia for a minute," said Annabeth. "Is it okay that we can't be bothered until I'm done talking? It's kind of a female thing."

"Yeah, sure," Luke said. "Just...never mind."

Annabeth smiled tenderly. "Thanks, Luke. Come on, Thals. I really need to talk to you about something." The she hauled Thalia into the living room, through the dining room and down the hallway to our bedrooms.

I looked at Luke. "Get your computer. I wanna get started as soon as possible."

We quickly got set up for the game and began as quickly as we could.

Smite was an interesting game. The only reason we played it was because of the Greek gods in there. We just wanted to see how the mortals portrayed the gods as. To be honest, the game was pretty balanced; anyone could beat anyone in the game.

As we were playing, Luke asked, "Hey, Percy. Did you really mean what you said earlier? You know, about liking someone to get over another who has moved on or been taken? Was that true?"

"Yeah," I replied. The topic was a little touchy, but I was comfortable enough to talk about it with close friends. "I mean, sure Thalia's really pretty and her personality is soft and gentle once you really get to know her; but I can't be sure that I like her for the right reasons. Am I getting over a past crush? And yes, I admit I did like someone before Thalia. Then there's Thalia herself. She admits she has a crush on me, or is maybe in love with me, but is it just because she's trying to get over you? I told her that she could find someone who had similar qualities to you. I'm not sure why she picked me, but in either case, I would have noticed that maybe her new crush was someone who would replace Luke in her eyes. It's complicated for me. At least you and Annabeth are okay, right?"

"I—" Luke cut himself off. "Yeah...we're okay."

I looked up from my screen. "You don't sound so sure about it."

"It's all right, Percy. We're fine together. What's not to like about Annabeth, right?" He grinned. It never reached his eyes.

"Yeah, sure."

We spent the next ten minutes playing Smite before Annabeth and Thalia came back down the hallway in pajamas. Annabeth just had a cotton set with books and "intellectual" stuff all over it. It kind of reminded me of a walking library. Never mind, Annabeth was a walking library. She sprouted boring facts a lot which annoyed me since some stuff I already knew and some stuff was extraneous. Thalia, meanwhile, wore a Green Day t-shirt and shorts. Don't consider me a pervert, but I wondered if she wore boys' boxers or girls' underwear (like, lingerie).

"You talk about what you needed to talk about, Ms. Dictionary?" I asked.

She stuck her tongue out at me. "You're just jealous that you're too dumb to know anything useful."

I glared at the daughter of Athena. "You know I hate being called dumb."

She snorted. "Whatever, Seaweed Brain."

I sighed. "Must you call me Seaweed Brain? I'm actually decent. My grades have never dropped below a D+."

Annabeth blinked. "My grades have never dropped below an A-."

"Well...that's because you inherited your mom's ingenuity."

"So you admit Athena is extremely wise and intelligent?"

"Uh, Annabeth. I'm not dumb."

"Okay, whatever you say." She put her hands up in a motion of surrender. "Anyways, you guys. Do you want to do anything? Is there really anything we can do?"

"Well," said Luke, "I could have gotten Chiron's car and driven it because I have a driver's license, perks of being sixteen, but you guys already changed so that plan is cut. Well, is there any news from camp? Any Iris-messages lately?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Hm, how about dreams? Want to discuss dreams?"

Suddenly, I got this pounding headache. Groaning, I clutched my forehead. Something inside my head pounded, as if a hammer was trying to hammer a nail into my brain. For what reason, I don't know. All I knew at the time was that my head hurt. I didn't even notice my friends trying to help me. After what felt like hours of agonizing pain, a burst of emotions broke through and forced me backwards. There were emotions of fear and panic. I wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but my eyes closed and I could see another vision.

When the hazy vision cleared up, the silhouette of a person appeared before details kicked in and I saw a satyr. It was Grover.

"Grover?" I asked. I wasn't sure if my other friends could hear me or not, but I sure as hell knew my best goat friend did.

"Percyyy!" he bleated. "Thank the gods! I've been trying to contact you for hours. I need your help at the school I'm at. Please come quick. I can't talk to you for much longer. I'm in Maine, at a school called Westover Hall. I've found demigods here and they're in severe danger. Help!"

"Wait, did you say demigods, as in plural?"

But Grover didn't answer my question. "Hurry!" he called before the vision dissolved and I was thrown back into the regular world.

"He's all right, Luke!" Annabeth called. "He was just having some sort of vision." She turned to look at me. "You were having a vision, right? You had trails of smoke coming off of your skin, but it quickly dissolved. What happened?"

I clutched my head again. "Trails of smoke? It was only an empathy link."

"Empathy link?" asked Thalia.

Then Luke burst into the room. "Dude, oh my gods, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was just an empathy link."

"An empathy link?" he asked confused.

Annabeth shook her head while grinning. "Classic Luke and Thalia. An empathy link is telepathic contact from a satyr to another person from a great distance apart, usually used through dreams. And if I'm correct, the satyr is Grover."

I nodded.

"Great," she smiled. "Now, what did he want?"

I breathed in as much air as I could. It was almost as if the conversation with Grover had taken up a lot of oxygen in my lungs making it hard for me to recoup. "He said...they were in trouble. He's in Maine...Westover Hall. Demigods, plural. We need to get there soon, he said. Tomorrow. We leave first thing tomorrow."

I breathed in heavily again.

Thalia, Luke and Annabeth stared at me, taking in all of the information. Thalia was the first to recover. "Okay, then. It seems as though we're going to need a lot of rest. Maine is like eight hours from here."

"Yeah," said Annabeth, who was the next to recover. "Thalia's right. We need a lot of sleep to recoup our energy. I'm going to go to bed. Good night, Thals." She hugged the daughter of Zeus. "Good night, Perce. Good night, Luke." She pecked a reluctant kiss on his cheek.

"Goodnight, Annie," Luke replied. "Well, see you guys tomorrow." He trudged off to his bedroom slowly.

I turned to Thalia. "Well, good night, Lightning Freak."

"See ya, Kelp for Brains," Thalia said grinning.

"That isn't funny," I said with gritted teeth. "I've told so many people so many times that I'm not dumb, but just slow. For goodness sake!"

"Jeez, someone has anger issues."

I growled and stepped closer to Thalia. She challenged me. "Bring it, Waterboy."

"For the sake of the well-being of the house, I'm not going to fight you in here," I said. "But stop making fun of me. Sometimes there's a line that you can't cross, and you've crossed it."

"Well, I'm sorry," she said in a sarcastic voice. "Let me make it up to you by baking you a cupcake, putting a heart on top of it and giving me to you all night for whatever. I'll be just like those sluts from school. You want me to?"

I glared at her. "Whatever, Grace."

Her eyes flashed dangerously. "Don't call me Grace."

"Well, I'm sorry," I mimicked. She glared at me furiously. It was an intense stare down.

"Maybe you should find a good time to shut your mouth," she snarled.

"Maybe you should find a good time to shut your own mouth. You're the one who started this entire freaking argument. If anyone is to blame, it's you."

"Oh yeah, always blame the girl. Maybe if you weren't so sexist then we'd be further along in our relationship."

"What if I don't want to date you," I retorted. "Maybe I do like Annabeth more than you. I should just go and take her from Luke and send him back crawling to you. Then maybe you'll become a better person than you are now."

Electricity cracked from her fingertips. "I dare you to say it one more time."

"I. Don't. Like. You." I looked her dead in the eye. It kinda hurt to say that, but I was angry and relentless.

Thalia tried to keep her angry expression on, but the exact same look in her eyes came back from the previous end to summer. She was hurt again, no doubt. This time, I was too angry to realize that I was hurting her some more. "I don't like you, and I doubt I ever will. Maybe science is right, like charges repel. We're like charges. We repel."

"Mathematics has been around much longer than modern science," Thalia countered, seemingly unknowingly trying to keep me liking her. "A positive times and positive is a positive. A positive times and negative is a negative. A negative times a negative is a positive. Like integers come out positively."

"You know what?" I said bitterly. "You can take your stupid mathematics and kiss its ass. I don't give a crap. I can show you that you mean nothing more than a friend to me." I grabbed her roughly and kissed her.

I pulled away a little light-headed. "See? Nothing."

She was still glaring at me. I could see all of her frustration mounting up, and all of her hurt blowing out of her eyes like lava out of a volcano. "Well...I didn't feel anything either. That makes the two of us."

Frustrated, I stormed down the hall, went into my room and slammed the door as loud as I could. I nearly broke it off of its hinges, but I didn't care. I lay down on my bed and stared up to the ceiling. The hurtful words of the argument came crashing down on me like boulders and the feeling I got in my stomach was something I never thought I'd think myself of.

I didn't do anything to help myself, but I knew very well what I had just exemplified. I was as careless and heartless as the rest of the men. I was straying off course from what I strived to be. My stupid pride and arrogance cost me. No one could ever say they didn't have a pride of some sort. Why couldn't I get used to people calling me stupid? My grades were crap anyways.

I groaned again and shut my eyes, trying to forget about the hurtful words I said to Thalia. I did like her. Math was right. I couldn't deny it. At least, now that I could think clearly enough again I couldn't deny it. I messed everything up again. This time I had a feeling a lot more work needed to be done to fix this mess. Thalia would never forgive me for this offense.

"Great, thanks Grover," I accused randomly. "As soon as you contact us..."

I flipped over and put my face in my pillow. "Oh who am I kidding? It was my fault."

There was one thing too. The kiss, the one that should've symbolized I didn't feeling anything towards Thalia. Well, that was a lie. I did feel something, a feeling of hope and warmth, as if Hestia was guiding us.

And that was the part that scared me.

Hey everyone,

Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks to those who've put this on their favorites, followed and reviewed.

Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.

I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.

With best regards,
SharkAttack719