A/N : Alright, we all know I'm a terrible guy for leaving this story for so long. If I were you, I wouldn't forgive me either. However, I'll have you know that I've spent several weeks writing the whole plot of the Jackson brothers' journey. Lord, I even tried making a prophecy (which ended in tragedy because I suck at writing poetry).

Still, I'm sorry. I'll try sticking to a schedule, no matter how terrible it might be.

Disclaimer : Percy Jackson and its properties are owned by Rick Riordan. I only own my Original Characters.

~0~

Babe, Pig In The City

~0~

"Sophia, a car shrouded in Mist is heading in our direction. Scan it."

"Yes sir."

Car shrouded in what? Percy looked up, trying to loosen the uneasy knot in his stomach. Several yards in front of them, on the other lane, a sleek blue Camaro came speeding. An expensive car like that Chevy was a rare thing in their neighbourhood, and only one guy had that car. But the last time Percy saw Gabe's Camaro, he didn't remember it to flicker in and out of sight.

"Sir," Sophia informed. "Miss Alexa is in that car."

Percy blinked. "That's Gabe's car."

"Which means Alexa is with Gabe." Percival frowned. The tell-tale signs of him wanting to slam the steeling wheel sideways appeared, so Percy gripped his fancy seat for dear life.

A squeal of tires and Grover slamming into him, and now suddenly they were on the other line of the road, facing the other way. The rain pounded harder on the road, so Percival had turned on the wipers.

"Alexa?" Percival asked. "Come in, Clayton."

A few seconds of silence, and then he frowned even deeper. "Where?"

Percival sighed. "...of course. What of Jackson?"

Percy perked up, hopeful. Grover groaned, rubbing his forehead as he pulled away from the back of the empty passenger's seat.

Percival glanced at him through the rear view mirror. "...I see. We'll follow you there."

Before Percy could even ask his brother's condition, Percival beat him to the punch. "He's fine," the young man said without looking away from the road. "Alexa found him in your apartment while she was searching for your mother. He was wounded, but he's alive."

Percy slumped on his seat, feeling as if a huge weight had just lifted off his back. Ray was fine. Of course his brother was fine. He was Ray.

"Wait." He sat up again. "Wounded?"

"He was ambushed. Didn't I tell you this earlier?"

...Something prickled on the back of his neck. He didn't know if it was intentional or not, but Percival's fairly and sudden condescending tone irritated him. He was just worried about his brother. "Okay, but why is your friend in Gabe's car?"

"Alexa searched for your mother to escort her to a safe place." Percival swerved past the overturned car they passed earlier. "Your step-father and her are heading to one of our safehouses, near John Jay park. We'll drop you there."

He really shouldn't get offended. He definitely shouldn't get angry. Percival and his friends knew better how to deal with this giant pig, and they sure as heck know better on how to help his brother.

But still, to be just treated like he was nothing more than a baggage didn't make him feel any better. Even though he knew he was, technically, baggage, as Sophia mentioned that she was glad this rescue mission was a success. Being rescued by someone else never lifted anyone's pride either.

Percy's fists clenched, but he sighed. "Okay."

Percival glanced at him through the rear view mirror, then turned his eyes back to the road. The guy's shoulders relaxed, and his hands which gripped the steering wheel loosened ever-so-slightly, his tense demeanor lifting a bit.

Percy's rage immediately disappeared, and he felt like kicking himself. Percival and the others probably already had enough problems in their hands, and him being a whiny kid wouldn't help anyone. Heck, it might just get them hurt. It was probably better if he stayed in this safe house with Gabe and mom while the pros take care of this monster.

Sophia smiled, putting a soft hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for understanding, Percy. If you got hurt or worse, I won't be able to live with myself."

Grover let out a breath of relief. "Oh, thank the gods. I thought you were going to say no and insist on coming along with them."

Percy gave him a look. "Give me some more credit, G-man. I'm not that dumb."

Grover merely grinned at him. Mentally promising himself to eat enchilada right in front of Grover without sharing later, he turned to Percival. "Is this a right time to ask some questions?"

Percival raised an eyebrow. "Shoot."

"Alright." He took a deep breath, and turned to Grover, much to his friend's surprise. "What are you?"

Grover blinked. "What?"

With the revelation that all of his other family members in danger, he didn't remember to ask more questions about the hows and whys this new world was. One of which, was his newly revealed half-barnyard best friend. When he glanced down to said barnyard half, Grover followed his eyes. "Oh. Oh yeah, I forgot. I'm a satyr, if you don't know."

Percy strained to remember. Ray probably explained to him what satyrs were, long ago, but he couldn't remember. "A half-guy, half... donk-"

"Blaa-haa-haa!" Grover let out his weird laugh again, though now seeing his lower half, now Percy realized it was more like an annoyed bleat. "No, we're not half-donkeys! We never was, and never will! Don't say that to a satyr, it's offensive to us, and some will trample you for that. We're half goat, Percy. Goat, not donkey."

"Okay." He nodded, still confused. "You... know Percival?"

"Well, yeah. All satyrs know about the Fýlakes."

"What?" Since when did asking questions made the guy asking said questions become more confused?

"It's our organization," Sophia explained. "Fýlakes means 'Keepers' in Greek. We go to the city to search for dem- er, for kids in trouble like you, and help them reach camp safely."

Percival shot her a warning stare through the rear view mirror right as she was about to say the dem something. He knew that look because sometimes mom and/or Ray would give him that look before he did something he may or may not regret later.

"What? What's dem?" Percy's eyebrows furrowed.

"They are people like you, like us, who, for some reasons unknown, is fit to be food for monsters like the one running to your apartment," Percival said. Then he glanced at him. "It's they, not them. And it's are, not is. Learn proper grammar, Jackson."

"What?" Was this 'Make Percy Confused As Heck' day or something? "No, I mean, what was that word Sophia was about to say but you gave her this scary face so she didn't?"

"Ah. That. Well." Percival shrugged. "It's a fairly mind blowing fact, and I believe it's better if we explain it to you where it's safer and calmer."

Percy grimaced. That meant he would probably find out about it later at the end of the day. "Okay, yeah, fair enough. Grover, can you please continue explaining satyrs?"

Grover blinked. "Oh, uh, well... satyrs like me search the world for... people in trouble, like you. And then, uh, we try getting them to a safe place on our own. And if we can't, we'll call for help from the Keepers, and while we wait for help, we make sure those people in trouble like you don't get killed by said problems."

"Huh." A bad feeling entered his stomach. "Wait, if they're here, does that means I'm in serious trouble?"

"Not, really, no. It's just Ray's doing. He doesn't want you to get hurt."

Was it just him, or did he just hear the teeniest bit of envy in Grover's voice? "What does Ray has anything to do with this?"

"That pen of yours had a tracker on it." Percival explained this time. "Don't worry, it won't detect your movement twenty-four hour. The tracker only activates in sword form, so we know that you're in trouble and your position, so we can send help for you."

Percy pulled out his pen and stared at it. Ray's gift which now felt more and more important the more he knew about it. Had his brother planned everything for his life or something? He knew this wasn't necessarily a bad thing- it was the complete opposite, in fact- but he really didn't like someone else meddling with his life.

Ugh, he was whining again. Ray did all this to protect him, because his brother probably knew that he wasn't prepared for something like this even in his wildest dreams. Even when they were older, Ray's purple eyes always see everywhere and everything. And they never stopped watching out for him.

"We're here." Percival stopped the car. Gabe's Camaro was in front of them, with Gabe, wearing a yellow raincoat, climbing out of the car and a teenage girl wearing the same black hooded coat like Percival and Sophia on the other side. "Grover, wear some pants. We don't want Ugliano freaking out."

Together, the girl and Gabe pulled out an unconscious person from the backseat. A... woman.

Wait.

"Mom?!" Percy's heartbeat quickened. Was his mother hurt?

"Don't worry." Percival climbed out of the car, giving him a glance as he raised hood. His annoyed grey eyes implied that he really wasn't that happy to keep repeating the words 'don't worry'. "She's asleep. You can thank your brother for that."

Ray's sleeping dust. He didn't remember feeling that thing's effect, but he had seen Ray using it on people when they irritated him and he already had a crappy day. It could put people to sleep in a terrifyingly fast time.

"Percy?" Grover asked him, standing outside with an umbrella and a new pair of pants and shoes, confused. "What are you waiting for?"

Sophia and Grover had already left the ride, leaving him gaping at his mother.

"Oh, right, sorry." He scrambled out of the door.

Gabe caught sight of him. "Percy! Thank God you're okay."

The guy had lost weight, Percy noticed. He wore glasses, ever since last year when Ray found out he couldn't see too far ahead. He couldn't see the top of Gabe's head under that yellow raincoat he wore, but he wondered what was the fate of those three hairs he had.

Mom was leaning against him, sleeping and snoring. Percy could tell his older brother knocked her out around the afternoon, because she wore her gown that she only wore when she was feeling lazy and that meant she had been home for a while.

"We passed that government project Ray talked about." Gabe sighed. "Man, that was terrifying as hell. I was worried about you, but I'm glad you're fine."

Government project? Percy glanced at Percival, but he didn't see it. "Thanks. I'm glad you two are fine too."

His step-father smiled at him, ruffling his wet hair. Percy couldn't help but smile back, remembering when he was little, when Gabe was an absolute jerk. It really was a far cry on how he is now, but he wasn't complaining.

Percival stepped forward. "Ugliano."

Sophia, now in the same hooded coat like Percival and that other girl, handed Percy an umbrella. He opened it, and watched as Percival talked to Gabe about something. Gabe looked a bit shaken, but he kept nodding at whatever it was Percival said, careful to not wake mom up as he held an umbrella to keep them dry. The blue-streaked girl, Alexa, jumped around in the puddles, twirling a bronze butterfly knife with her fingers and whistling.

With the heavy rain going on, John Jay park was obviously empty. He could hear the sound of sirens in the distance, coming faintly from the direction of his apartment. Nobody was out, and the only people weird enough to stand in the middle of the rain were just them.

It didn't take long for Percival to return. "Underwood, in any other time, I would've given you the order to return to camp with Percy. But with the current circumstances, leaving the two of you alone with Hades seemingly keen on claiming your lives is unwise. Stay at the safe house, understand? We'll return after we deal with the boar."

Grover winced, but he nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Very good. And Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't do anything stupid." Percival warned. And just like that, the young man strode over to the driver's side of the fancy sedan and entered the car. Alexa skipped over to the passenger's seat, not before shooting him a lopsided grin. Sophia smiled warmly at him, and climbed into the backseat.

Then the car squealed out of the sidewalk and into the rain. Percy stared at the car's retreating form. "What is up with that guy?"

Grover sighed. "Oh, don't take it personally. He's like that to everyone. Let's go."

Together, they came side-by-side to Gabe, who fumbled uselessly with a door. The building was old and rundown, with paint peeling off showing the brick under it in several places. There were cobwebs in corners and on steel pipes, but for some reason Percy couldn't see the spiders on them.

"Goddammit!" Gabe cursed quietly. "Did that guy forgot to give me the key or something?"

Percy stared at the door. The wood was dark, but he could see something glistening around the material, as if somebody just sprinkled shards of metal on the door. Underneath the handle was no keyhole, but something else. The letter Μ, carved into it.

"An M-shaped key?" he furrowed his eyebrows. "Weird."

"Well, whatever it is, we can't get in unless we have it," Gabe said gruffly.

"I've seen that M before." Grover frowned, kneeling down and touching the mark. "Huh... uh, Percy? Try touching the symbol."

"What? Why?"

"Well, I remember one of the Keepers carved his initial on the things he built." Grover scratched the back of his head. "If I'm not wrong, he carved the Greek letter... er... Mu, I think. Just try it."

Percy though about it for a second. Not like the door would explode if he touched it or anything, right? With a shrug, he knelt down and tapped that Mu/M thing.

The mark glowed a dark blue. Click!

Silence.

"...Well," Gabe said, staring at the now opened door. "We can agree that your brother has interesting friends, Percy."

~0~

The coordinates Ray gave them on the GPS beeped and blinked beside the windshield. A metallic voice informed Percival that their destination was just three kilometers away, but the Calydonian boar was an ancient and dangerous monster, and he most definitely wanted to fight it and if possible give it the last blow.

"Gabriel seemed nice," Sophia spoke, a bit quietly.

Alexa and him shared a glance. Several years ago, they went to the Jacksons' apartment once when Ray didn't go to the camp for a few days.

"You have absolutely no idea, newbie." Alexa chuckled beside him. "Man, the first we met him, the guy was an ass. I think the world owes boss for changing Gabe to a nicer dude."

Percival would prefer it if Alexa didn't use such vulgar words, but she summed up Gabriel's first personality perfectly. That bumbling oaf didn't wash even if it could save his life, had an unhealthy obsession with gambling, and an attitude that made him extremely unlikable.

"What do you mean, ma'am?"

He was still wondering why anybody would call someone like Alexa Clayton ma'am.

"Ray called it his 'social experiment'," Alexa started explaining, lowering her backseat so she could lie on her back. "I don't know what exactly happened, but he wanted to change Gabe's personality after some weirdo entered their apartment, years ago."

"Was it a monster?" Sophia asked, worried.

"Nah, just some weirdo, that isn't important. Anyway, Gabe, right? He was an ass, so he didn't care. Ray and Sally was away. Percy was pretty much alone in there. I think he was... six or seven, can't remember. The weirdo was a..." Alexa shrugged. "Well, the type of predator that everyone hates."

"Oh." Sophia paled.

"Yep. Boss got to that apartment right before things got really bad. Ray told me he seriously wanted to kill that guy, but having the cops come over and started asking questions about a missing person was a headache, so he broke both of the weirdo's arms with a crowbar and drowned him in the tub for several minutes."

"Oh." Sophia's voice was so small Percival had to strain his ears to listen to that.

Alexa grinned at her. "That's why Ray's awesome. So right anyway, boss didn't let him die, only let him faint in that water. Then, he told me he went down and asked the receptionist to call nine one one, and got back. He was wondering, where was Gabe? Surprise surprise, the asshole saw what was happening, but he was too busy eating nachos in his room."

"Gods, that's terrible..." Sophia looked disturbed. "Percy doesn't remember any of this?"

"I don't think so." This was the first time Percival spoke ever since Alexa started story-telling, so both girls jumped at his voice. "Percy was still too young to understand what was going at the moment, and since Ray stopped things from going terrible, I doubt he even remembers a freak once entered his home and almost had his way with him."

Sophia shuddered.

"Right, what he said." Alexa nodded. "Ray said he wanted to throw Gabe out of the apartment right that moment, but he knew he still needed that asshole-"

"That is enough cursing, Clayton." Percival sighed, after the GPS announced that the destination was just a few blocks away. "We're almost there."

"Whatever." Alexa rolled her eyes, smirking. "So, long story short, boss needed to find a way to make Gabe protect his family. At first, he wanted to threaten that jerk, but nobody would take a kid's threat seriously, so he resorted to something else."

"And that is...?" Sophia looked afraid and curious at the same time.

Alexa grinned the widest grin she ever wore that week as she pulled out a wallet from her coat pocket. Gabriel's wallet. "Bribery," she said simply. "Money talks, after all."

~0~

The pills Doctor Hermann prescribed him lessened the pain on his stomach considerably, but that was his last pill. He would need to order some more if he was to live his life stomach-pain-free for the next month. While the pills Doctor Sanchez prescribed him sat comfortably in his pockets, waiting to be consumed.

Ray took a deep breath, smelling the wet ground as the rain pelted the environment. The hooded coat he wore blocked any excessive heat and cold around him, so he could barely feel the freezing rainy air. He looked down at the construction site he had lured the giant boar in, where the monster wandered around aimlessly, its senses completely altered by his Mist.

The boar was huge, and that was an understatement. Standing at least forty feet tall, with coarse grey hair, gigantic ivory tusks, a black snout, and beady red eyes, glowing with anger. It was pissed, it was powerful, and any frozen weapon he hurled at it bounced off its skin like they were rubber. His revolver barely had any better luck either.

It... wasn't hard to lure it here, all things considered. When the pig saw him standing in the middle of the road, it let out an enraged squeal and charged at him, stomping vehicles and crackling with electricity. The electricity was ten times more dangerous in the rain, where all wet surface was an excellent conductor for electricity, so he needed to be careful around it.

Luckily for everyone around him, he had fired off several bullets to the sky and mortals fled the road like it spread the plague. Cops wasn't a problem for him and his illusions anyway.

And luckily for him, the one standing in the middle of the road was an illusion of himself, so he just chewed on a string of cheese as he watched the pig's lightning tusks mowed it down. When it realized his Mist self wasn't red paste on its hooves, he made another illusion just a few feet away. Then it charged at the illusion too.

The cycle happened several times. Ray followed the boar on a 'borrowed' bike as he lured it to an empty construction site. He didn't know what was being made, and he couldn't care less.

So that was his current position and predicament. He had no idea how to kill it, and for the moment, it had no idea how to kill him. Percival would know exactly what this thing was, but he didn't. To him, it was just another dangerous beast that needed to be put down.

Ray blinked when thunder boomed above his head. Stalker landed on his shoulder. "Squawk."

"...You're back," he said, stating the obvious. "Any threats going this way?"

The crow shook his head, shaking rain water away from his feathers.

"Good." Ray stared at the boar again, thinking. "Good..."

The first thing that crossed his mind was to put a spear or a sword through the pig's mouth, but it was filled to the brim with freaking lightning so anything that went through there would just get incinerated.

Ray sighed, pulling out another pack of string cheese from his pocket. Can something be easy for him, just once?

A smooth rumble of engine made him look aside. No mortal would be dumb enough to come to this place, and monsters wouldn't normally use a vehicle, so that meant Percival and the others had arrived. But what arrived almost made him drop his snack.

A black sedan stopped by the sidewalk, its shiny metallic paint made even more shiny in the rain, bouncing off the light from the shrouded sun. Its grills, its iconic symbol, the headlights, he immediately knew what the beautiful car was. The sight alone was enough to make a grown man cry.

Percival, Alexa, and Sophia emerged from the beauty. Schneider glanced at his borrowed bike, then raised an eyebrow at him from beneath his hood. "Jackson, did you... nevermind."

It required great willpower to tear his eyes away from the car. "Alexa, where did you get a Rolls-Royce?"

The girl smiled, putting a bolt in her crossbow. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"So that's the Calydonian boar," Percival mused, purposefully ignoring them. The German demigod stood next to him as he observed the monster sniffing a concrete pipe. "Fascinating. Very fascinating."

"That's the Calydonian boar?" Ray momentarily forgot about the Rolls-Royce for a second. "What is it doing in New York? Hell, what is it doing in America?"

"Either to kill you, or your brother, or your mother." Percival shrugged. "Or just lost. Take your pick."

He glowered at the pig, tearing off another string of cheese from the... well, cheesy string. "Good luck with that, you disgusting creature."

Alexa grinned at him. He remembered that she liked it when he started to insult someone or something heatedly. The newest half-blood he recruited, the girl Sophia James, stood next to Percival, with her most trusted and unexpected weapon in her hands, a double-bladed Celestial Bronze spear.

Ray wasn't the only one surprised when he found out what her preferred weapon was. Even Percival seemed at loss for a few seconds. If she was a daughter of Ares, he could understand, but she was a daughter of Demeter and children of Demeter wasn't the particularly aggressive and fighting type.

She was an anomaly. And anomalies are perfect inclusion for the Keepers. Besides, they needed a healer anyways, and there were no odd Apollo children so Sophia had to make due.

Ray frowned when that train of thought entered his mind. Now was not the time for that. "Well then. Percival, how do make it regret it was ever born?"

"No weapon can pierce its skin." Percival frowned, unsheathing Einblick. Ray really needed a weapon to name himself, that'd be cool. "The hero Atlanta managed to harm it with a special arrow, with which Meleager was able to kill it, but obviously that arrow is unobtainable."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Alexa raised her hand excitedly like a kid in a candy store. Right at that moment, a thunder crashed. "Can we use explosions?!"

"I doubt fire can harm it. But I suppose there is no harm in trying."

As fast as her Hermes-born reflexes could allow, Alexa dashed to the back of the Rolls-Royce (Ray realized it was one of the newer Phantoms), and pulled out a Celestial bronze replica of a Milkor MLG. You know, the grenade launcher.

One of Marcus' toys. Which meant it was filled with... Greek fire ammunition.

Ray grimaced. Alexa blinked and gave him a questioning look, before realization dawned on her face. She winced. "Oh crap, sorry. I forgot."

He shrugged it off, making Stalker flutter in irritation. "It doesn't matter. I'll just put myself in an illusion."

"What's wrong?" Sophia asked, worried.

"What are you waiting for?" Ray frowned at Alexa. "Go."

"Oh... oh, right, of course!" Alexa hastily ran over to the corner of the construction site.

"Percival, make sure she doesn't kill herself."

"Ja." Percival jogged after her, not before shooting him a concerned glance.

"Sir..." Sophia approached him.

Despite himself, Ray smiled at her. One of the reasons he recruited her was simply because of her demeanor. She could calm people and animals (and plants). She was, simply put, genuinely friendly. For the Keepers to succeed, he would need people like her.

Percival and Marcus were too serious. People were afraid of them so much some wouldn't even look at them in the eyes. Alexa was a troublemaker since birth, and her current personality made it obvious. Alas, people usually don't associate themselves with troublemakers. Ray himself was a demigod equivalent of a con man. Most would be fooled by him, but the few smart ones would know something was up.

He needed the genuine, kind, parent-like type. Sophia fit the bill.

"Your concerns are well appreciated, Sophia." For real. "But I have dealt with it long before you were claimed as a child of Demeter. Now I'll need a wingman. Can you do that?"

The girl wanted to protest, he could tell. But she relented. "...okay, sir."

Sophia stood next to him, holding her spear next to her uncomfortably and her bag filled with herbs on her back, glancing at him every few seconds. Trying not to sigh, Ray pulled out a plastic reclosable bag and poured one pill on his hand. He would need it.

~0~

"How are things going out there?" Gabe muttered, taking a peek through the folds on the apartment. He held a steaming styrofoam cup of coffee in his free hand, its steam billowing from the cold.

As soon as they entered the safehouse and discarded their wet rain equipment, Gabe carefully laid mom down on the longest and comfiest-looking couch in the middle of the room, before using the coffee machine. Percival's safehouse was weird. Most of the stuff in there were pretty normal- a coffee machine, a fridge filled with coke, milk, and several cheese-based snacks, and a dead television with its cables cut off.

But weirdly enough, some stuff, like the doors and windows, only responded to Percy and Percy only. The same dark blue M that appeared on the front door also appeared on those things too, which could mean one of those Keepers guys made them.

The Keepers, a weird group that Ray seemed to know well. Percy slumped down on one of the couches, and now since he wasn't being chased by something straight out of nightmares, the gravity of the situation hit him. He got... numb. He pulled out his pen, the action that made him realize his hands were shaking, and stared at the thing.

There are things out there, that not just wanted to hurt him, but to kill him. People he thought he could trust, like Mrs. Grelod and Mr. Brunner (though he got to admit that if Grelod wasn't a monster he wouldn't probably trust her anyway), had secrets. Mind blowing, weird as heck secrets that didn't make any sense.

Even... even Ray. His older brother that he thought he could trust more than anyone else. Ray had connections to this group, the Keepers. Ray was the one who gave him this magic pen that could turn into a sword. Ray who taught him various geeky Ancient Greek stuff because he knew this would happen.

...Because Ray wanted him to survive. Because Ray wanted him to be able to defend himself. Because Ray wanted him to be safe.

Percy clenched the pen in his shaking hand and put his forehead against it. Now his entire body was shaking. Since when did his entire life had become so complicated? It almost felt like yesterday he was still learning algebra at school, being a normal ignorant twelve-year-old. Oh wait, it was freaking yesterday.

He needed... he needed answers. From a somebody he could trust.

He glanced up, seeing mom's peaceful face. Mom... she knew about all of this too, didn't she? He remembered when she said about weird things several times. Like about a camp where Percy might 'not come back'. Or when sometimes Ray waved his wand like he was a Jedi and suddenly the salesman that opened their door turned around and marched away, with mom claiming she never saw anything even though it happened right in front of them.

No. Right now, he couldn't really trust her. Besides, she was asleep. And knowing Gabe, as kind as he was, Percy doubted the guy knew a thing.

And Grover... Percy glanced at his supposed best friend. Grover sat on one of the couches, mournfully munching on string cheese he had raided from the fridge. Grover looked conflicted and nervous ever since Percival and the Keepers left, eating random stuff from the fridge. He also caught the guy sneaking glances at the couch, then at Gabe, before looking even more miserable.

Grover may hid the truth about himself, or about Mrs. Grelod, or about many more things about the world around them, but Grover was his best friend. And he didn't like seeing his best friend being all sad.

"Grover?" he asked. Grover looked up. "Are you okay, man?"

"Okay?" Grover chuckled sadly. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"You look... well, sad."

"It's complicated, Percy. I'll tell you later, alright? I'm still thinking about it."

Grover glanced at Gabe when he spoke those sentences. Maybe he wanted to talk when they were alone? And then Percy remembered about Grover being a satyr.

...Yeah, definitely when they were alone.

Sighing, he stood up. Both Gabe and Grover turned to look at him.

"I'm gonna check around, see if there's anything cool," he explained. He needed some time alone to clear his head.

Gabe cracked a small grin. "You sound like a character that's about to die in a horror movie, kid. Be careful, alright?"

Oh, if only Gabe knew how much of a horror movie they were in. "Yeah. Grover, let's go."

Grover blinked. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Let's go."

Grover looked like he'd rather sit on the comfy couch, but still followed him anyway. They walked around to the back of the kitchen, seeing around. Gabe had turned back to look at the window, the frown returning to his face.

There was a door beside the fridge, so Percy touched the handle. Almost immediately, an M glowed beneath it, and the door opened on its own. He glanced back, seeing Grover staring at the floor munching on a cheesy stick, lost in thought.

Shaking his head, Percy walked in the next room and stopped dead. Grover bumped to his back.

Behind the door was a semi-large room on an entirely different intensity than before. Various medieval-looking and modern weapons were set up all over the place, their bronze metal glinting from the lamp's light hanging on the middle of the room. There were weapons like spears, shields, bows and arrows. The modern weapons were guns and rifles and launchers. It felt like he was in a museum, but these things were definitely here to be used and not just to be displayed.

"So..." he walked in first, observing the swords first. A part of the wall was lined with bronze swords, not quite similar to his own pen-sword, but still looked as deadly. "Wanna talk about what's bothering you?"

Grover sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to escape this conversation. He leaned against the doorway, closing it, and finished up his cheese stick.

"Well, you know I'm a satyr, right?" Grover started after he finished licking his fingers. "We satyrs, like I said before, go out to the mo- er, outside world to search for people like you. We take you to a safe place, to make sure monsters don't kill you. So technically, I'm supposed to protect you."

Percy looked at him. He didn't know how to feel about that. Over the years, he was the one who protected Grover from bullies. "You're worried about me?"

"Oh, not you, specifically-"

"Thanks."

Grover rolled his eyes. "Not like that. I mean, I know you're gonna be safe, we're in this safehouse after all. I'm worried about... ugh, now that I'm thinking of saying it out loud, I feel like a selfish jerk."

"G-man, you're many things, but you're not a selfish jerk," Percy assured him. "C'mon, say what's bothering you."

Grover shot him a grateful look, then a took a deep breath. "...As a protector, our duty is to protect people like you. If we succeed on bringing you to camp, we'll be certified Seekers. Essentially adults. That's every satyr's biggest dream. But if we got help from outside, like, say..."

"The Keepers?"

Grover sighed. "Yeah. I mean, if we succeed we succeed, there's no two ways about it. As long as you, and everyone around us, is safe, I'll get to be a full-fledged Seeker. But... being helped doesn't... well, it doesn't really boost our self-esteem, you know? It feels... it feels fake, you know?"

"Gro-"

"I know it's incredibly selfish but to be able to protect people like you on our own feels great you know?" Grover started speaking very fast, looking extremely nervous. "Like you actually deserve to be called a Seeker but being helped by someone else makes you feel like a fake Seeker and I don't want that. I mean this is your life on the line and not mine so I can't say anything but it's just what I-"

"Grover!" During his best friend's rant, Percy walked back to the him and put his hands on Grover's shoulder. Grover winced, like he was expecting to be hit. "G-man, it's not selfish at all. I know how you feel. Seriously, do you forgot who my brother is? Ray will only stop helping me if I force him to stop."

Grover's lips turned upwards slightly, but the frown never left his face. "But this is a life or death matter. And worse, it isn't even my life on the line, it's yours."

Yeah, if only he could forget that teeny tiny little fact.

Grover sighed. "If you die just because I want to be a Seeker... I won't be able to forgive myself, Percy. "

"Grover, don't worry. I won't die, and you'll still get your Seeker's license." He assured Grover, despite his own worries about what other things that wanted him dead. "We'll find a way. And even if we don't, there's always a second chance, right?"

Grover whimpered.

He patted Grover's back awkwardly, not quite knowing if he just said something wrong. "Let's get back to Gabe and my mom, alright? We'll figure out something there."

"Alright..."

~0~

"Come at me!" Ray snarled.

That previous plan with the grenades and explosions went sideways fast. Ray was a fan of doing experiments, and one of the things he found out was the Mist did extremely well in cold temperature, and could disappear if exposed by heat.

So, when the grenades exploded around the boar, the heat dispelled the Mist covering its senses. And to make things worse, the first thing the pig saw was him. Also, for future reference, the explosion didn't harm the monster. At all.

So, the pig charged at him, covered in blazing green fire and supremely pissed. The sight of fire made him freeze on the spot.

His PTSD wasn't too terrible, if compared to others who had the same symptom. Since the incident happened while he was young, his brain, apparently, blocked the memory. He couldn't remember what it was, and he preferred it that way. So he wasn't shivering and crying for 24 hours. At most, this so-called PTSD was a minor inconvenience.

He was rooted on the spot. The only reason he wasn't Ray-kebab on the pig's tusks was Sophia's quick thinking. She prayed to several seeds, threw it, and grew a forest right in the middle of the construction site. She then pulled him to the bike, then drove off, Percival and the rest following.

While being chased, Percival and him devised a plan to kill the pig. Since the explosion barely did anything, they decided to kill Caly boar from the inside. Forcefully shutting down its organs from the inside, to be precise.

By drowning it.

Which was how Ray found himself standing next to The Pond in Central Park, after ordering all fishes inside to hide at the edges of the lake (because really it was a lake). Then, he willed the water in the middle of the lake to change into salt water, to reduce the conductivity of the lake and the chance of electrocuting every living thing in the lake.

This was a precaution in case Caly boar started breathing lightning when it realized it was drowning.

Now to execute it.

The boar looked pissed. Its coarse grey hair was crackling with electricity and blazing with green fire. Its red eyes glowed, and every breath it exhaled pushed the grass away. Thankfully, the mortals had run away from this part of Central Park earlier, after several rounds of his revolver into the sky.

After Caly saw him, it became even more pissed. It charged at him, howling in rage.

It came closer and closer, like a bullet enwreathed in lightning and fire. Its tusk, as huge as a freaking canoe and sharp as a canoe-sized spear, lowered and aimed exactly at his face.

Shame.

"Sophia!" Ray shouted. Immediately, the vine wrapped around his right leg tightened, pulling him roughly aside. He could only caught a glimpse of confusion in the boar's eyes as it watched him dodge with impossible speed.

It fell into the water, face first. The water exploded around it. Ray instantly went to work, shooting his arms forward. The salt water surrounded the pig, swirling so the electricity wouldn't spread too far while at the same time pushing the pig down, deeper into the lake.

He could feel Caly fighting, at first angry, then confused, then afraid when it realized the lake was fighting back. He kept putting pressure against the pig, forcing water inside its nose and mouth, drowning it. The boar was panicking.

This process wasn't made easy by the hundreds of screaming fishes in his mind, scared for their lives. Absentmindedly, he realized that Sophia had stood next to him, then followed by Percival. Alexa squatted at the edge of the lake. Stalker landed on his shoulder.

The boar fought back to gulp that sweet air, but the lake simply wouldn't allow it. The kicks became weaker. Its movement slower. Water filled inside its stomach and lungs easily.

Oh, the pig was so pathetic when it entered his home turf. He almost pitied it.

Almost.

Then the fight was gone. The boar slacked, became still. Then he couldn't feel the presence in the lake at all, as if it had dissolved. He only realized he had killed the boar when Alexa cheered.

"We did it!" she shouted to the sky. "Fuck yeah!"

"Language," Percival reprimanded her.

Ray let go of the lake. The only thing he felt after that was a mere uncomfortable feeling in his stomach, which disappeared soon enough. He felt the fishes emerged slowly from their hiding spot, carefully. They could feel the residue of electricity in the water, but not so much so it could kill them.

He smirked, panting a bit. He had just killed an ancient monster. The Calydonian boar. By drowning it. It felt extremely good.

"Let it pass once, Schneider," he said, now grinning, standing straight. The adrenaline coursing through his veins slowed down. "I agree wholeheartedly with her. Hell yeah we did it."

Sophia chuckled beside him as Alexa excitedly recited all the curse words she had acquired over the years, though Percival just rolled his eyes and frowned.

"Do not be so excited just yet, Jackson," Percival said, now facing him. "Your brother might still be in danger."

Those sentences eliminated his smile in a flash. How on Earth could he forgot about Percy?!

Panic and fear quickly set in. Thoughts and images entered his mind, reminding what could happen if he didn't do anything quick. His hands started to sweat.

Percival noticed this. "Calm down, Ray. Percy and the others are safe, I put them our safehouse near John Jay park."

"But what if the safehouse isn't safe enough?!" he started breathing quickly. Sophia immediately rifled through her bag quickly, muttering to herself. "What if the defenses were compromised?! What if the scent disruptor was turned off?! What if-"

"Jackson!" Percival slapped him in the face. "Calm yourself. You are thinking irrationally. You and I know that safehouse is the safest safehouse we have at the moment, and we always double check the defenses every time we scan the city for demigods. You need to calm down."

"Okay, okay." He closed his eyes, trying his best to calm his breathing. "I'm calm, I'm calm."

"Are you really calm?"

"Yes." Ray opened his eyes, ignoring the painful sting of his right cheek. "I am."

"Good. Let's go through this calmly. We'll go back to the safehouse, get Percy and Grover, separate from Sally and Gabriel, then go to ca-"

"REEEEEEET!"

The squeal echoed through the park. When Ray looked up, he saw a bright pink, giant pig with equally bright pink wings, flying through the air. It flew to the east, completely ignoring them.

Ray started breathing quickly again.

~0~

A/N : Sorry if anything seemed wrong. I haven't wrote anything properly for weeks (that plot thing was just scribbles with arrows and shit on my book) so I'm afraid I've lost my touch. Please review.