Chapter 9: Impact

Percy knew he had a big problem as soon as he woke up. The guardian had done something which had snapped him out of his dream like someone had thrown a bucket of cold water all over him. His system had been charged with adrenaline equal to having three cups of coffee in about five minutes. He'd seen it come flying out of the dark the instant his eyes opened; he'd tried to scream a warning, but it was too late. It struck him in the chest, and the harness that held him in snapped.

The next few seconds had been a blur of confusion. He'd flipped off Festus's back, tumbling through empty air, steadily getting pulled farther and farther away from the now-falling demigods. He fought to get out of the thing's clutches, but then Festus exploded, and he froze, staring in shock, mouth hanging open. That was his terrible mistake. Now that he stopped struggling, it was able to pull him farther away easier. Percy tried to start fighting again, but it was too late.

Twisting, Percy was able to get a better look at what was holding him. He recognized it from a rather nasty trip to Aeolus's palace. A storm spirit.

In that split second, Percy knew that wherever the spirit was taking him, it would be really, really bad. He tapped his fingers together and Ashrow appeared in his hands. He reversed his grip on the sword and stabbed back and upwards. It hit the spirit in the leg and passed straight through.

The spirit tensed, and Percy felt an electric shock run through his body, paralyzing him. His sword fell from his hands, and Percy hung there limp. After a minute, he was able to move again, and he tried again.

This time, he hit.

The storm spirit shrieked and dropped him. Percy could hear the explosion of warm air that meant the storm spirit had died, giving him a moment of satisfaction. Then he realized he was plummeting from a good four hundred feet in the air towards solid ground. Problem.

He was able to spin so that he was facing the ground, going spread-eagle in an attempt to slow his fall. It wasn't working. He guessed he had about three seconds at most before he hit. He could just imagine someone coming up with a bad joke about him: What was the last thing to go through Percy's head? A tree. Impact.

It took a few seconds to realize that he was alive. Blinking, he looked around in confusion. Everything seemed strangely dark. A piece of what looked like kelp floated past his face. It wasn't until he saw a catfish swimming towards him did he figure out he was underwater. He started laughing; laughing so hard he thought he might die of no air. That would be just great. Surviving a huge fall only to die laughing. At the bottom of a pond, no less.

Shaking his head, he stood up. He'd sitting at the bottom for the last minute or so. Looking around, he realized he actually was in a pond. It was probably ten feet wide and roughly circular. The edges were made of hard-packed dirt and stone. A few fish swam around lazily, and the occasional tadpole fluttered past his face. Can you flutter underwater? It sure looked like that's what the tadpoles were doing.

Looking up, he saw that the surface was a good ten, twenty feet up. Deep pond. He thought, kicking off from the bottom. With a few strokes his head popped up above the water. Shaking his head, he climbed out, standing up a little shakily. He realized that he was incredibly lucky; the chances that he'd have landed in a pond that small among a neighborhood that large were miniscule. Absently he checked his wristwatch. It was 3: 23 in the morning.

He began to assess his situation. He didn't know where he was. He had his shield and Ashrow. He had no food, water, or money except for a twenty in his pocket. He didn't know where the rest of the demigods were, but he knew they were way too far away. The storm spirit had dragged him miles away, and for all he knew he could be in a different state right now. He had two choices: one, try and find his friends, who could anywhere by now, if they were even alive. Or two, make his way to the Sea of Monsters and find the island that held the Seafoam Armor. Of the two, option one was much safer, but he might be going on a wild goose chase. Option two was more likely to get him killed and at the same time save his life. After a few moments of consideration, he decided to go find the Armor.

Turning, he set off through the woods.

Line Break

Percy ran. He ran really, really fast. Behind him, he could hear angry hissing and the sound of something massive slithering after him. Risking a glance behind him, he saw the mammoth shape slithering after him. Turning back, he began to run faster.

He'd caught a cab that morning and had taken it all the way to Florida. He'd run into one slight problem on the way there, though. A drakon had caught his scent and had ambushed the cab in the middle of a rather woody, unused road. The car was in really bad shape, but the driver was okay, which was less than could be said for Percy.

He knew he was probably running towards his death, but he was also running from it. As it was, the woods were most likely not leading him towards a city. But turning around meant lunch, and not for him, so he kept running. He tore past a branch and started an uphill climb. Vaguely, he could hear water nearby, but didn't really care. The hissing grew louder, and he instinctively dove behind a tree. The drakon's head smashed into the ground where he'd been standing a microsecond later. Snapping its eyes shut, it reared, hissing in pain. Percy took his chance and ran for it.

He reached the top of the hill and found another problem. He'd found the water. It was thirty feet below him in a river. Turning around, he saw the drakon bunching its coils, readying itself to strike. That made his decision easy.

He threw himself off the tip of the hill, dropping to the river below. How many times am I going to fall into things? He asked himself irritably. He hit the river and was swept away in the currents. Thank the gods it was relatively deep. He hovered just under the surface, watching the hill rapidly recede behind him. Grinning, he spun around to see exactly where he was going. The sight in front of him wiped the grin straight off of his face.

Rocks jutted out from the water, some sharp, others flat. The water spun in white caps rushing around the rocks and smashing into them. It continued like that until the river was lost in sight around a bend. And Percy was headed straight for it.

Cursing, he willed the waters around him to lift him up until he stood on the surface of the water. He knew he couldn't calm the waters enough to not die, so instead he decided to ride them. After a moment's thought, he made the water wrap around his feet, making shoes that would enable him to run on the surface of the river. Taking a deep breath, he began to run.

It was clear that running was not the best idea pretty quickly. He was so focused on not getting knocked off his feet that he ended up mostly standing still and letting the current carry him. That went well until he hit the rocks.

He sidestepped around the first one and slid around the second. One particularly large boulder that was in his way had a stream of water running around it, and he followed it downwards. Another rock forced him to jump, and the water helped him do so. He ended up near a relatively calm section at the edge. Ducking under a low-hanging branch, he began to run, skimming across the surface of the water. After a few hundred feet, he took a turn and ended up in the center of the river.

But now he knew how to really go over the river. He began to navigate around rocks easily at a much faster speed. He soared down the rapids grinning in exhilaration. Ducking and dodging around rocks, he slowly increased his speed until he was making his own wake behind him. A spearhead of water streamed out behind him as he continued his run. One rock shot out of the water higher than the others, edges sharp. Tensing, Percy hit it and kept running. He took two steps up and launched himself off of the tip. Hitting the water, he twisted so he skidded sideways across the surface, drops spraying out in front of him.

He continued his breakneck speed, finding it incredibly fast and very easy. Surprisingly, he wasn't tiring. He kept going for nearly an hour until the river opened up, and he was shooting across the ocean. He knew immediately that he had reached the Sea of Monsters. He didn't stop; rather, he went across it, eyes intent on the distant island that he couldn't see yet but knew it was there.

Time to get the armor. He thought grimly.

He never noticed the lone figure standing on the beach, watching him fade away.

A.N: Hey guys, I'm back! It's me. Again. The writer. DragonGTN. Me.

Anywho, I know this chapter is shorter than what I usually post, but, it fit…so…yeah. Those water skiing shoes cool, am I right? Huh? I'm right.

As you can tell, I will not be posting any more chapters this week, maybe Sunday if I'm lucky. You know, with the holidays and all. I know I already said this, but just too clear things up: this story is NOT Percabeth. Well, it was originally, but that's not important. Kind of. New pairing!

I have a few questions, just to see where you guys think I'm going with this. First question: What do you think that guardian is? Second: Who do you think that mysterious stranger was watching Percy? Review your answers. I mean, post review with your answers in them. You know what I mean.

Thank you all for reading and reviewing this, I'm really happy in all you guys for actually paying attention to my stuff. Without you guys, I'd probably have quit in the first week because no one went, "oh hey, this looks cool, let's check it out oh wow I like this I'm gonna' keep reading." Thank you!

READ ON!