Chapter 2: Territorial Rights and Fights

AN: Seating order until I say it changes: Will, Calypso, Ella, Tyson, Blitz, Hearth, Apollo, Carter, Magnus, Alex, Rachel, Reyna, Sam, Zia, Clarisse, Chris, Juniper, Grover, Thalia, Jason, Percy, Nico, Walt, Sadie, Jaz, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Piper, and Leo. BTW I wrote this before Corona, so the mention of sickness was unintentional.

Once everyone got seated and stopped gawking at Nico (though there were still a lot of glances were snuck at him) all eyes turned to Percy once again. He frowned and looked around questioningly. "What?"

"What exactly will we be watching? You guys referenced several things and there's also supposedly a large final battle or big war," Carter asked pointedly.

Annabeth's eyes furrowed, "My guess—"

"—And she's usually right," Percy grinned at his glaring girlfriend.

"My guess is it's everything it hasn't shown. There's at least one big thing I know happened for sure and a little of what Percy told me, but I wasn't there for. I'm as curious about that as you are."

"I told you what happened."

"In like four words. I don't get what it is with boys," Annabeth grumbled. "I don't know who's worse, you or my brothers."

"Percy."

Percy huffed and pouted at the majority of the rooms vote. "I really didn't. You'll see. I didn't do much."

"Sure," scoffed Leo.

"Just watch. There were at least two big things it missed. One was after my third quest and the winter I met Nico. I don't know why it skipped that, but it did. The other was during the summer after we came back from the Labyrinth. I guess it wants to pair these things up or something. And then a lot happened in between the Labyrinth and the final battle. There was one larger side quest plus all the fights I had, not to mention all the personal things."

"Your life is insane," Will stated after a second where everyone just stared.

"You could say that to everyone here."

"But you take it to another level."

Percy didn't answer and everyone looked to the middle of the room ready for everything to start. Instead, they heard Alex clearing her throat. "Actually, we're gonna take bets first. Anyone think Annabeth and Percy are wrong about this?"

Magnus looked at her as if she was crazy, more so than usual that is. "You're not serious."

"I totally am."

"You know you're going to be wrong about that. And I know Annabeth. She's usually right."

"I know her too. I've been watching her life. I still want to take bets."

"Alex," Sam interrupted. "Though I hate to interrupt another important argument between you and Magnus can't you just take bets on something else?"

"Fine," the einjeri sister grumbled as she settled back in between Rachel and Magnus. "I'll come up with something."

"And no rigging it."

"You take away all the fun parts about being Loki's kid."

"I feel like that should be a good thing," Carter whispered to Magnus.

"Depends on which of them you ask."

"This conversation should have stopped a while ago," Reyna sighed. "Can we start? I'm eager to see what your side of the war was actually like."

"See? Reyna's betting, we just go to the war."

"That isn't what I said."

"I'm taking the bet."

Reyna deemed it best to ignore her and looked readily at the scene rising in front of them. Alex sighed, resigned to her bet not happening, and looked forward, ready for some more action and amusement.

A bored Percy sat in a lab. He looked like he had in the last quest they'd watched, though maybe his hair was a little messier and with a little less worry line.

"I was right," Alex said triumphantly.

"Percy and Annabeth were right," corrected Rachel.

"And so was I. I win."

"No one actually made a bet."

"I'll get that money somehow."

His attention was pulled aside by a bunch of screeching and squawking outside. Percy picked up his beaker and looked out the window as he pretended to wash it out. In the alley Clarisse stood in her denim jacket and combat boots, covered in feathers, slicing away at the black birds. She bled over one eye and then one of the bird's feathers launched and hit her in the shoulder. She cursed and sliced at it again, but it flew away.

"It had to start with this?" Clarisse grumbled.

"You met up with Percy outside camp?" Will gaped.

"Not my choice."

"You could have stayed out of it."

"It was happening outside my school."

"I was fine."

"You needed help."

"I'm fairly sure you already had this argument," Annabeth interrupted. "So, can we move on?"

Percy put the beaker down and raised his hand. He called his teacher, Mrs. White, and put on a sick face and asked if he could go to the restroom. He felt like he was going to puke. His teacher blanched and yelled for him to go.

"That is an amazing excuse," Sadie declared. "I'm stealing it."

"Fine with me."

"Teachers try too hard to stop me from saving the world," she shrugged.

"Because they think you'd be causing trouble when you leave," Jaz smirked. "Not that you usually aren't."

"Only for the enemies of the House of Life and Ma'at."

"I'm kind of surprised your school hasn't been attacked and that nothing has been noticed with the amount of mythical activity swarming the place. Drew, Lacy, and at least five Egyptian magicians?" Piper asked counting off on her finger.

"A lot more than five," Carter corrected. "All the school-age kids but me."

"And a lot more of them are going to run to the bathroom to throw up now apparently," muttered Piper. "It can't work for everyone."

"It's school. There's always some type of virus," Annabeth reasoned. "It works better than one would think."

"Can we stop with the hypothetical sicknesses and move on?" asked Frank looking just a little sick to the stomach himself.

Percy ran out the doors and pulled off the safety goggles, gloves, and lab apron on him as he went. Then out came Riptide as he exited from the gym into the alley. Clarisse had just hit a bird away like a baseball and it squawked as it hit the brick wall and fell into a trash can.

"Nice hit," whistled Magnus.

"If there wasn't a wall in the way it would've been a home run," Percy agreed.

"You play?"

"I watch. Play sometimes," Percy shrugged. "But there never is time."

"I watch too."

"Right," Percy's eyes widened as he looked at Annabeth. Then he grimaced. "The cousin in Red Sox territory."

"And I'm guessing you're all for the Yankees?"

"Yankees, Mets, any team from NYC works for me."

"That rhymed," pointed out Jason with a snort.

"Whatever," Percy puffed and crossed his arms with a pout.

Percy yelled Clarisse's name. She looked at him incredulously and said his name questioningly before starting to ask what he was doing there. She was cut short by more arrow feathers hitting the wall behind them.

"How were you not hit by any of those?" Will frowned.

"Not really sure," Percy shrugged.

"They weren't aiming to seriously injure."

"But stabbing your shoulder is much better?" Chris asked his girlfriend.

"It was survivable. I could keep fighting."

"Like you'd ever stop," Grover muttered.

Percy said it was his school. Clarisse replied that was just her luck but stopped complaining as she kept fighting. Percy uncapped Riptide and slashed at the birds while deflecting their feathers. In another minute all the birds were just feathers on the ground thanks to Percy and Clarisse's violent swipes and hits.

"That was fast," commented Calypso.

"They are two of Camp's best warriors," Grover responded. "Of course, it happened quickly."

Both of them gasped for breath. Percy checked the scratches on his arm and pulled a feather arrow out of one. He didn't seem to think anything was too harmful but still, they saw him pull out some ambrosia and share it with Clarisse. The girl growled she didn't need his help but still took the food.

"I thought you already learned that lesson?" asked Reyna with the raise of a brow. "Or did the Sea of Monsters teach you nothing?"

"It was a matter of honor."

Reyna sent her one quick look but didn't reply knowing how serious such a thing was to any war god's child.

Once their cuts and bruises disappeared Clarisse sheathed her sword and brushed herself off. She looked at Percy and said see you.

"Good luck with that happening," Grover muttered.

"I was there," Clarisse snapped. "So, shut it."

"Percy just doesn't let people go if he thinks they might need help."

"It's one of his more annoyingly endearing features," Thalia agreed with the satyr.

"How's it annoying?"

"Because some of us would like to work alone at times."

"Sorry. Just trying to help."

The entire room sighed at Percy's answer and chorused, "We know!"

Percy yelled to hold on. She couldn't just leave. Clarisse said of course she could. Percy demanded to know what was going on. Why was she away from camp and why were the birds after her? She moved to push him away, but he sidestepped, and she'd stumbled a bit.

"He's really not going to let it go," Piper said in a sing-song voice.

Clarisse grumbled. "I know. The idiot has to get himself involved in all of my business."

"Meaning she's happy that he was there to help," Chris translated. Clarisse pushed him in response making him laugh.

"Piper's right. Percy's too fast and you need help," pointed out Sam. "You're not getting away from him."

Clarisse huffed again. "I know. I lived it."

Percy said she just almost got killed at his school, making it his business.

"I'm not sure that's how it works," Walt frowned.

"It makes some sense," Sadie argued.

"Doesn't matter," Jaz interrupted both of them. "Obviously, Percy's involved now so we can argue as much as we like but it won't make a difference."

Clarisse argued it didn't. Percy just looked her in the eyes and said to let him help. Clarisse took a breath and said her brothers were playing a prank on her.

"Wait, this is a prank?" Frank asked looking at Clarisse. "Aren't arrow birds a bit too crazy for a prank?"

"I don't know. The Stolls poisoned that hunter's shirt," Hearth signed.

"And things get a lot crazier than that with pranks in Valhalla," Magnus pointed out.

"But you guys can't actually die there," Carter argued. "So, I don't think that counts. Brooklyn House has had some pretty crazy prank wars too, but I don't think there were ever monsters."

"This was a bit different than a normal prank," Percy interrupted.

Everyone looked at him, but he didn't give any more information. And most were too scared to even look at the glaring Clarisse.

Percy asked which, naming a few like Sherman or Mark?

"Wait," Piper frowned. "It's not…"

"Don't," Annabeth said. "It'll say in a minute."

"But either way it's not Sherman and Mark," Leo agreed.

She said no sounding afraid. It was her immortal brothers. Phobos and Deimos.

"So, gods," reasoned Magnus. "Again."

"And because they're immortal and powerful gods this isn't a normal prank," Alex agreed.

"Pretty much," Percy shrugged.

"How often does stuff like this happen in your life?"

Percy looked at Frank in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I know you've been in two wars and stuff but how often do you end up running into gods and monsters?"

"It depends," Percy said thoughtfully. "When I first learned I was a half-blood it was only every few months. I killed several that year. Then after our quest in the Sea of Monsters like a dozen more. It got really bad after that winter. I killed at least twenty every month or so after the Battle of the Labyrinth. Now is different. Good weeks are none, but bad ones are two at least."

"That's not so unheard of for a child of the big three, especially one as powerful as you," Apollo frowned.

"Yeah, but what about gods? "Frank asked again.

"Maybe three or four a year outside a quest from Camp or Olympus. I mean I'm friendly with some of them."

"He spends one weekend a month in Atlantis," Annabeth pointed out.

"Daddy likes having Percy there," Tyson nodded.

"And that," Thalia shook her head, "That's not so normal."

Percy and Clarisse sat on a bench. Percy asked if he had everything right, Clarisse took her dad's car for a joyride and it disappeared.

"A joyride?" Zia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No. Not a joyride. Something Dad asked me to do. An important job," Clarisse grumbled.

"What type of important job is driving a car?" Piper asked her.

"An important one," Clarisse repeated forcefully.

Clarisse yelled it wasn't a car! It was a war chariot and her dad told her to take it. It was a test. She needed to bring it back by sunset.

"Why is the deadline always sunset?" Leo complained. "It gets annoying."

"It is an auspicious time. Like sunrise, noon, midnight, and…"

Sadie interrupted Zia with a groan. "There's no time to list them all."

Jaz elbowed her gently with a small shake of her head. Sadie paid her no mind.

Percy said her brother's carjacked her then. Clarisse corrected chariot-jacked. They were his regular charioteers and they didn't want anyone else to drive. They stole the chariot and chased her off with the birds. Percy asked if they were pets of her dad's. Clarisse nodded and said they guarded his temple. And if she didn't find the chariot. Her clenched fists shook as she bit her lips and squeezed her eyes. Percy looked at her sympathetically and interrupted saying he'd help her.

"I thought that was pretty much already guaranteed?" Chris asked.

"I don't know," Percy shrugged.

"It's not like I was going to be able to get rid of him," Clarisse grunted.

"Which was a good thing," Percy smirked.

"Yeah, right."

"Why don't we watch and see?" Will intervened.

Clarisse asked why would he? She wasn't his friend.

"Aren't you?" Frank asked confused. "Especially after what he did for you in the Sea of Monsters."

"We're not friends," Clarisse scowled.

"Let's call it Frenemies," Chris tried.

"Something like that," Percy agreed.

"And if even if they weren't some type of friends, it's not like you wouldn't help her anyway. You've helped even your enemies before."

Percy wrinkled his nose at Piper's statement. "I guess."

"They're friends," she concluded with a whisper to Leo who snickered.

Percy looked like he was at a loss for words. Then someone spoke in a teasing baby voice. The guy was in jeans, a black shirt, a leather jacket, and wore a bandana over his head. A knife stuck out from his belt and his eyes crackled with flames. He made a pouting face saying, look. She'd been crying.

"I'm guessing that's one of your brothers," Samasked.

"Wouldn't call them that," Clarisse mumbled.

Frank blanched. "Wait, would they be my brothers too?"

"And mine as well," Piper told him. "But it's not like we need to think of all our godly relations as actual family."

Clarisse yelled Phobos's name and called him a jerk, asking where the chariot was. He smirked saying not to ask him, she lost it. She started to draw her sword with an insult on her lips but Phobos disappeared and the sword hit a telephone pole.

"Why don't the gods do that every time they fight a demigod?" Magnus asked.

"Honestly, no clue."

"Because if they challenge us to a fight, we're bound there till someone wins. But Clarisse didn't exactly challenge Phobos," Apollo explained.

Phobos appeared laughing on the bench next to Percy. Within seconds he stopped because Percy had uncapped Riptide and put it to his throat. Percy said he'd better return the chariot before he got mad.

"Styx!" Chris shouted. "You know sometimes it's easy to forget how scary you can be."

"What?"

"You moved fast," Carter agreed. "It's terrifying."

"I love it. Speed is a strength," Alex grinned. "And so is being scary."

"I'd rather not scare the people here though," Percy muttered.

"They're not scared of you," Nico whispered back. "Not like that. I'd know."

Percy frowned.

Phobos sneered and asked Clarisse who her boyfriend was? She had to have help fighting battles now.

"Boyfriend?" Everyone spluttered. There was a silent moment of shock before most of the room, excluding Percy and Clarisse burst into laughter.

"Holy Hera," Grover bleated. "Could you even imagine that?"

"I don't want to."

"That's gotta be one of the funniest things I've ever heard," Leo snickered.

Clarisse argued he wasn't her boyfriend or friend. It was Percy Jackson. Phobos's expression changed into surprise and a tinge of fear. He asked the Son of Poseidon? Who made Ares angry? It was too good. Clarisse was hanging out with a sworn enemy.

"Your father's enemies don't have to be yours," Reyna said.

"They're not."

"Eh."

"And Phobos and Deimos aren't people I agree with. They're big –"

Chris cut her off by putting a hand over her mouth which Clarisse yanked away with a glare.

Clarisse yelled she wasn't hanging out with him. Phobos's eyes glowed red and Clarisse screamed as she waved her hands through the air. She yelled please no as she swatted the air around her.

"He makes you see things?" Hazel asked. "Like with mist?"

"Not exactly."

"It's more like getting in a person's head," Apollo explained.

Percy demanded to know what he was doing to her. Clarisse backed up swinging her sword. Percy yelled to stop it and pushed his sword closer to Phobos's throat, but the god disappeared and appeared next to the telephone pole.

"Why didn't he just do that earlier?"

"Who knows?"

Phobos told Percy not to get too excited. He was just showing Clarisse her fears. The glow faded from his eyes and Clarisse collapsed glaring at Phobos, calling a creep and vowing to get him.

"He shows you your fears?"

"Phobos. The root of Phobia," Ella nodded.

"Both of them. Fear and Terror," Annabeth agreed in reply to Magnus's question.

Phobos turned toward Percy and asked what he feared? He'd find out. He always did.

Everyone looked curiously at that. Percy didn't turn his eyes away from the scene in front of them. His face showed nothing, as if he'd been turned into stone by Medusa.

Percy demanded he give the chariot back. He'd taken on Ares once. Phobos didn't scare him. Phobos laughed and said there wasn't anything to fear but fear itself. That's what people said. Let him tell Percy a secret. If he wanted to find the chariot he could come and get it. It was across the water. Where all the little wild animals live, the type of place Percy belonged. With a snap of his fingers, Phobos disappeared in a cloud of yellow. Percy helped Clarisse up and asked if she was ready for help now. She met his eyes I and there was a look of understanding.

"What kind of clue is that?" Blitz asked.

"An annoying one," Apollo agreed.

"And he doesn't have Annabeth there," Carter agreed.

"Hey!"

"Percy can figure things out just fine without me, though most the time I'm a little faster."

"Here you wouldn't be," Percy grinned. "When it comes to New York almost no one knows as much as I do."

"It's scary how much he loves the city," agreed Thalia.

"Because it's the best place ever."

"Thalia, don't," Grover begged.

"It's a stinking hot mess, that's what it is."

"Don't you dare insult my city."

"What are you? Some kind of Superhero? My city?"

"Don't."

"Just stop it," Nico groaned. "Can we move on and figure out where they're supposed to be going?"