Note, I'm skipping a lot of flavor text and background info, I figure if you're reading a fan fiction about a book, then chances are you've read the book and know, at least in part, that information.

I own none of the characters, not even the OC I made as she is part of the PJaO books and anyone is free to duplicate her for their own stories. Writing a story using characters from published books, I certainly can't complain if someone likes my idea enough to run it in a different direction, but please, no slash.

Rick Riordan and Patricia Briggs own all characters.

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The gun on the cover image is what I based Terry's on. It's a real weapon that fires real shells, shotgun in the case of the gun in the picture. Terry's has more decoration, including an engraving of the Drakkon she killed on the handle (made of Drakkon Ivory) and Greek lettering spelling out "End of Infinity" along the barrel. It's also a lot more powerful, but then, most of the weapons used by demi-gods are.

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I'm going to be updating and cleaning up the previous chapters over the next week or so while still working on the story. So if an update comes along and there isn't a new chapter, that's what happened. If I accidently delete the story, you'll also know what happened.

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Penguins

Percy

Well, we've survived twenty four hours on this screwed up world that seems so close to our own. Mr. Hauptman, Adam, and his wife Mercy and his daughter Jesse just left, Mercy to her business, Adam and his daughter to pick up his ex-wife, but not until some people from his security firm show up. I wonder if this is going to be as awkward in the house tonight as it is at dad's palace when I visit, probably. In any case, Mercy didn't leave until Auriele showed up with the two child welfare workers; Mss. Dounters, and Ms. Macktiem. Supposedly, they are both part fae, so we can be a bit more free with our information than we were yesterday. Not that that is going to happen, but we can if we want.

I'm antsy, I was cleaning up the kitchen out of boredom, but Adam told me not to. He wanted to get an estimate for the cost so he could bill Beauclaire for it. The house has a workout area with a decent weight set, so Annabeth, Nico and me start working out until the three show up, while Terry was working on something with Rachel, hopefully a smaller caliber gun. I had another talk with her about last night and basically I suggested a smaller, less powerful weapon. I can understand her desire to be able to take down enemies, Hades; her defense of the bridge was awe inspiring when you consider that there was no one older than twelve with her, and it was one of the few points I never had to reinforce. That was mostly due to her guns, and I'm loathe to take that pride, or the potential firepower, away. But something needed to be done before there was a major incident.

When the three ladies show up, we quickly shower, the Hauptman's have several full sized bathrooms, thankfully, they still have water, and we go meet them. About the time that we're getting out of the shower, Mercy is leaving and some workers are showing up to do an assessment on the cost of repairs, so we move a picnic table out into the yard a ways away for some privacy.

We retell our story from the day before, not really adding any details that we haven't already told them. At some point, Hestia and Julius appear, Dr. Cornick had evidently gone off to his clinic, or the hospital, to earn his paycheck.

We decide to barbecue again, after all, we do need to use up the meat in the coolers. When we're preparing the food, Annabeth starts to pull some stuff out of her purse to help with the food. Unfortunately, one of the things she pulls out has something extra attached, specifically, a penguin which she promptly drops.

We're all just sitting there staring at this thing, watching it's threat display, wondering were in Hades it came from. "Ah, Featherhead, why did you pack penguins for the trip? I know we're trying to be more prepared in case of emergencies, but penguins?"

"Funny Percy, funny. I did not pack penguins in my purse. I have no idea how penguins got there, or how they… The dream! Percy, remember the dream? There's a boy in my purse who can control penguins. We need to get him out." At that she reaches in and then pulls out her empty hand. "Why didn't that work?"

Terry takes the purse and looks in. "We should go inside, the magic feels somewhat funny, like something's changed."

The four of us, Annabeth, Nico, Terry and myself as well as Julius, grab our combat gear that we carry with us all the time and get ready to enter, while the three werewolves, Auriele, Ben and Eric as well as the two part fae women just stare at us.

Auriele talks first, I think it's a rank issue; "Just what do you mean, go inside? Are you planning on all entering her purse?"

At her comment, I remember that she wasn't here for that part of our story yesterday. "It's bigger on the inside."

She looks at us; "There is no way I'm allowing you to go in there." She tries to use her authority as mate to the pack second, but it doesn't work on us, which quickly becomes evident. I can see her start to get mad, but Ben catches her eye and just shakes his head in some sort of sign. I can see her frown at him, and he quickly looks away, but his message has been sent. "Fine, you'll need some sort of escort though, no way am I going to explain to Adam why I let you kids get killed on your own."

Rachel looks at her; "You'll need to stay out here yourself, unless all three of you go, in which case there will be no werewolves out here guarding the house with workers present. I'm not sure if the men from Hauptman Security will count for that or not. But if I understand pack dynamics, you can't leave Eric and Ben alone together when the higher ranking one is injured, and for the same reason, you can't just leave Eric here alone or alone with us. And Percy, the penguin is getting away."

I grab a piece of meat and run over to the penguin, I can communicate with it. "Stop, you're not leaving just yet."

"Why not?"

I grab it by the beak; "Because I said so." I put as much authority as I can into it. Penguins are creatures of the ocean. They may live on land, but they can't fly, and depend entirely on the water for survival, if it wasn't for caring for their eggs, they'd never leave the water. It works, but the bird feels weird to me, like it's more powerful than it should be. "Hey Rachel, Annabeth, do you think a normal animal would have been improved like we were yesterday?"

Rachel looks at me; "Sure, I was, and not just the other side of me, but the human side as well. In point of fact, the human portion gained more than my other side, which by the way, was less than you guys."

Auriele breaks in; "Yes, your understanding is basically correct. I could go, taking Eric and leaving Ben outside, but then I'd be leaving him here alone with the human workers, you and this young lady," with a glance at Hestia.

I decide to be nice when I correct her; "Hestia is quite capable of defending herself, as well as this house, all on her own."

She looks at Eric and Ben; "Ben, you escort them inside, you speak Greek, Ms. Dare is correct, I need to stay out here." She's NOT happy about that.

Ms. Macktiem walks over; "How about a seventh person? Consider it a prerogative of child welfare, we need to establish the character of the family and home life, and insure the safety of the children, so one of us is going to have to go. I'm better at fighting, call me Lilly."

"You got a weapon there Lilly?" I notice Ben has Λύκος in his hand. In response, she silently pulls out of nowhere, a silvery sword about the size and shape of a machete, but duel edged. "Ok, let's go."

At that, Annabeth jumps towards the purse and disappears inside, I quickly follow. Not really sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't a giant circus tent filled to capacity with warehouse shelving. I appear in midair and start to fall, but something unseen grabs me and lowers me to the ground. I look up, and I can see Auriele looking in from an opening in the top of the tent. It's not as I expected, a giant eye looking down from on high, but rather just like you'd see in the mundane world if a human looked down from an opening in a circus tent.

Kind of hinky when you consider the fact that her head is larger than the opening on the outside, but I've long ago given up trying to figure out the weirdness of magic. Looking around, I can see just how prepared Annabeth was for this trip. We are literally in a warehouse filled with personal effects, and equipment and supplies. It's like being in the warehouse for a demi-gods version of Gander Mountain. There are crates of everything from underwear to armor, food to nectar, one dollar bills to gold bullion (as well as drachma) and there were penguins walking around everywhere.

I was clear that this place had been trashed, just like the house had been by our arrival, but the unseen force, or forces, had tidied up quite a bit. Lilly is checking out a makeshift aquarium filled with sea water and various types of fish while Ben was looking at a crate of money; "Well, at least you kids aren't poor."

Annabeth just sighs; "Except that all of it is counterfeit here in this world. It was printed on another earth, it's not valid here. We don't even know if the same presidents are on the bills. If they are, we can use them if the government turns nasty, but until then, let's not."

Terry is looking in a crate of drachma; "This has changed to True Gold, or Imperial Gold Nico. All these metals have changed, Blessed Silver, Celestial Bronze, forge, I bet even the paper has become some sort of divine stationary, I could build an arsenal with this." There is an arsenal in here I think.

"In other words," I say, "we can't spend it either. Let's just deal with the penguins." At that, I look down at one of the penguins; "Hey there buddy, where'd you come from?"

"Over there lord, we came in through that hole over there. We're looking for food, our friend is outside, he's lost and can't find his way home, so we're trying to help him. Do you have any food?"

"Yes, we do, but first, we need to find your friend." I notice Ben and Lilly looking at me weird; "What, I can talk to sea creatures. Let's go."

We follow the penguins out the hole, Annabeth is not happy about that. When we get outside, we see a vast panorama before us. Our tent, stretches up to the sky until it seems to merge with the grayness and shadow. There are no stars or any other light source, yet there is plenty of light to see by, even if all the color seems muted by darkness, yet still perfectly lit. The ground looks sort of like a dark, greyish sort of sand.

Nico looks around; "This is how shadow travel is supposed to look."

Just about a quarter of a mile away, we can see about fifty giant metal columns rising into the sky, and like our tent, they merge with the shadow above. The penguins march off in that direction, so we follow them.

As we approach, we can see a door on the side of one of the columns. The penguins are heading right for it, and I notice lots of tracks (mostly penguin) outside leading to the door. When we get there, we can see that there is some sort of lock, with something written in Greek next to it. Terry quickly steps up, and in a few seconds, she has the door open.

We go inside to what looks like a bedroom, filled with various nick nacks and equipment. Terry notices a picture and shouts; "Holy Hephaestus, this is one of our bedrooms at cabin nine! We need to check the others, there might be someone inside one of them!"

Before she can run out to check the other cabins, Annabeth grabs her arm; "Terry, look! The tracks lead up to that bookshelf and disappear, that means a door. Let's follow the tracks to the kid we KNOW is inside this one."

Ben walks up to the bookcase and looks for something to open it, but before he can do anything, it slides open on its own. Jumping back away, Ben prepares for an attack, but the penguins just waddle thru, telling me that their friend is thru the door. We walk into another bedroom, and another, passing thru Terry's room, causing her some embarrassment, both for the state of the room, a severe mess, as well as several poster sized pictures of Nico mixed in with posters of her favorite bands and Olympian idols. She's also not too pleased to realize that all the bedrooms in her cabin had two secret doors leading to the adjoining bedrooms. Not that she can complain too much, most the other cabins have barracks style set ups, even the Aphrodite cabin goes with that, just really nice beds. Most don't even segregate the boys from the girls.

After about the tenth room, we hear voices on the other side of a door, now we prep for battle. As the door opens and the penguins start to enter. Hey, how are the penguins opening the doors? I lean down to ask one when I hear a young child scream. I look up just in time to see what look like Egyptian hieroglyphs appear in midair for a second, and then I'm body slammed into the far wall hard enough to dent the wall.

Annabeth rushes over to me, holding up a shield to block further magic's (I'm actually unhurt) and Terry takes a place at the door frame preparing to fire her gun. Before anything else can happen, we hear someone else shouting for us to hold, and for the boy, around five or six, named Felix, to stop. We look inside, there's a second boy, about twelve or thirteen, wearing a Camp Half-blood t-shirt (not that he couldn't have grabbed one out of a dresser), holding a bow (with a nocked arrow) and bearing the symbol of Apollo. "Percy?"

I walk to the door and look in; "You look familiar, I'm sorry, but I don't know all the names of everyone in your cabin."

He looks only a little crestfallen, like he knew I wouldn't, but was hoping I would; "Michal Evenstead, Mike, and this is Felix, he's not one of us, though he has power of his own, as you've seen. I'm not really sure what happened, are you here to rescue us? I think it was yesterday, we were helping Jake go outside, will noticed he forgot something in Jakes room, so I went back inside to get it. Next thing I know, I'm feeling sick, floating around like I'm weightless, then, what seems like an eternity later, I fall to the floor. When I get up, I'm looking at myself, but not in a mirror, then all my powers erupt and Jakes room is nearly destroyed, but the explosion popped the doors to the other rooms, I explore the rooms until I find the way outside, but it's not outside-outside, but some weird alien outside. I use my power to create better light, it doesn't help much, but it attracted the attention of this kid and his army of penguins, we've been searching for food ever since then. And I can't seem to make any of the doors back to the cabin itself work." Mike is blabbering with relief, I don't blame him.

Annabeth looks over at me; "We need to get these kids back to the house, and then come up with some way to check out the rest of this place for other people. These two can't be the only ones who were trapped here when we traveled."

"I know, but I can't think of anything we can do to help. Maybe Mr. Hauptman will know something or someone who can. Maybe Hestia? In any case, let's go back to our new home. Get your stuff people, we're leaving."