Three weeks later…

The three demigods were standing in the middle of a warehouse, behind the cover of Thalia's slightly enlarged shield. Aegis (or Ugly Bitchface, as she sometimes called it) was a gift from Thalia's dad, Zeus. Normally, it was a golden bracelet that she always wore and could be transformed after pressing a simple button. It was supposed to be an exact replica of the original that was used by Perseus, complete with the face of an ugly woman with serpentine hair. Thalia had told Percy not to look at it, and always made sure to wield it so he couldn't see it, but when has Percy ever listened to adults… He got the biggest scare of his life looking at it. It terrified him to no end that some people actually saw her, the real thing. And it was the last thing they ever saw. How do people even know what Medusa looks like? Everyone that ever saw her had turned into stone…

After trying to search for a place to temporarily stay, the demigods were attacked by a few dracanae near the warehouse. Naturally, they busted all the way in. No place better for on the run demigods than one which you cleaned up recently. Unfortunately, they ran across a problem.

In front of the demigods was a host of serpentine ladies, armed with spears and javelins. They all wore chains, earrings and jewellery of various kinds and tank tops featuring a skull pierced by a pike, with something like 'TESTS!' written in crimson red. Fitting. Tests should always be written like they were something to fear.

The one in the centre, a greenish-skinned woman with a red crown on her head, spoke up, "You dare kill my girls and enter my territory! The territory of Sssethis! You need to learn. Demigodsss make a nice meal for uss dracanae." she hissed at them. She motioned something to her followers. Probably something along the lines of 'Attack!', since they prepared to charge. Or slither, since their legs were snakes.

Percy clutched his trusty knife tightly as Luke and Thalia got into a battle stance. Being inexperienced, he was still unsure how well he would fare. While Percy had killed some monsters before, he left most of the fighting to the older and experienced teens.

Thalia's shield shrunk in size to cover only herself (yes, it could do that) and pointed her spear towards the host as they charged, sending a powerful bolt that turned three ladies to dust.

Luke stood next to Percy, fending off any attack coming at him. The dracanae were all over them, slithering and hissing as they approached the teens. But they weren't particularly fast, taking their time to slither all the way.

Percy did manage to kill one of the monsters that found its way to him. He dodged the dracaena's spear by ducking under it and stabbing it very cleanly with his knife. He'd gotten the hand of the weapon now, and a dracaena wasn't the worst monster he had dealt with.

Thalia was charging the snake ladies head-on, not taking more than one or two strikes to get rid of each of the monsters while lightning crackled through her entire body. She looked really scary as she did so, even Luke couldn't look without visible awe and fear.

The encounter was quick but a little messy. Sulphur filled the room and Percy couldn't help but wretch at the smell. He could see that the older demigods weren't that fazed, but they still grimaced. Something told Percy he would have to get used to it.

With the dracaena gone, the warehouse looked decidedly empty. There weren't any racks, only a few boxes lying at the edges of the hall.

"Well then…" Luke said.

"Let's check this place out. I'm sure we'll find something", Thalia responded as she headed towards the office in the corner.

Luke turned towards him, "Hey Perce, look around on the floor. These ladies were wearing some pretty expensive stuff. We could use that".

"What! That's…", he said, looking around. Percy wasn't sure if it was right to take all these. It felt like stealing.

The blonde let out a sigh. He put an arm around the younger boy. "Look Perce, we're demigods. We've got to do whatever it takes to survive. This all," he said, motioning his hand over the room, "it's for us. They're our spoils of war, you can say. We don't know who they belong to and whoever's going to come here is going to take it for themselves. Maybe even some more monsters. What do you think? Taking it for ourselves is better than stealing from a mortal shop, right?"

Percy nodded. His mom had taught him to be a good boy but Luke was right. It wasn't like they could return all this to their real owners. Luke patted the eleven year-old's back and got back to his scavenging routine. Percy got going as well.

He noticed a few gold chains, a few gold earrings, and even a nice-looking gold bracelet on the floor. These monsters really were into gold. Percy wondered how they got so much of it. Maybe Luke was right. Better with them than monsters. He still felt nauseous, courtesy of the pungent smell that had clogged his

"Hey guys! Look at this!", an excited yell could be heard from the direction of Thalia Grace. Percy picked up everything he had found so far and left for the office-like room.

Inside, there was a small desk, and some open drawers. Luke looked at the contents occupying the desk, and let out a grin. Percy could only gape at it. There were at least twenty shining gold coins as well as double the amount of silver coins. Besides that, Thalia had collected wads of cash. It was like the teens had won the lottery.

"Awesome! These dracanae are stashing some serious sh… wealth down here", Luke corrected himself without looking anywhere. Percy scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn't supposed to be babied to the point where the word 'shit' couldn't be used around him. He was halfway through his twelfth year now, and living on the run in the streets. But Thalia shifted his attention back to the wealth they suddenly possessed.

"This should be worth a lot. We won't need to go out finding monsters for a long time now."

Luke nodded. "Let's get this all packed up."

Percy didn't really understand, but he didn't need to question their words now as Luke and Thalia filled up their bags with all of the important stuff.

"This is the best place to rest for a while, so let's make the most of it".

Percy couldn't sleep that night. He got up and tried to practise his knife skills. Stab. Stab. Slash. Slash. Uppercut. Uppercut. He heard footsteps from behind.

"Can't sleep?" a distinctly male voice asked. Percy nodded and let out a 'yeah' for good measure. The lighting was very poor in the warehouse, and they had no incentive to light it up.

"Good. Mind if I join?"

Percy shrugged. "Would be nice." And they got down to it.

After around half an hour of training, Percy was lying on his back panting. He was actually panting for most of the session, but he had finally given up. He clutched his sore shoulder. Luke had pushed him very far this time around.

The older kid sat down beside him, barely sweating. He was grinning like a fool, as if tiring down a kid was a great accomplishment. But Percy could tell from the glint in his dimly lit eyes that he was thinking about their spoils from earlier.

"You see, Perce? The gods, our parents, abandoned us. But we're still going good," his grin morphed halfway into a sneer. Percy shuddered at the expression, which made him look like an evil genius, given how dark it really was. "Now we're rich, and that too without having to beg for anything. Just the three of us against the whole fucking world of gods that's trying to ruin us. We've shown everyone what we're worth."

Percy wasn't sure how to respond to that. He thought of the gift his dad had given him. He still didn't know what it was, but he had thought of him. Thalia also had a gift from her dad. Although Luke was right. They hadn't done much, being all-powerful gods and all. A few gifts wasn't a big deal. Percy's dad didn't even claim him yet.

"What do you want to do with this money, Luke?"

"I don't know, little guy. But think about it? We're secure for the next few years at least. You don't know how hard-pressed Thalia and I were before this." He smirked, "You're a good luck charm, kid" he said, giving his head a pat and ruffling his unkempt raven hair.

"You're exhausted now. So rest up." Luke said with a tone of finality as he too lay down. Percy agreed with the sentiment. The day's events flashed before his eyes as he shut them for the night, his mind welcoming images of snake ladies and bull-headed men.

"What do you mean?!", Percy was woken up by Thalia barking angrily. He rubbed his eyes, still feeling a little drowsy and completely unaware of what was being said.

"I don't know! But that fucker said that none of these coins were real gold or silver. He refused to pay according to the correct rates."

Uh-oh. Percy didn't know exactly what they were talking about, but he got the gist of it. They weren't nearly as rich as they were daydreaming about. Ouch.

"We'll try another place. This can't be. The gold and silver are real, I can tell!" Luke continued. He looked pissed.

"Yeah, we'll do that," Thalia replied "but what about the chains and rings? They were real, right?"

Luke sighed. And brought out some dollar bills. Percy wasn't going to lie. He hadn't seen that much cash in the same place. Ever. And his mom was pretty okay in that department. "Yeah, he accepted them. We got some serious cash now, but we can't just give up on those coins. Why would those monstors even hoard these if they aren't of any use?"

Thalia thought about it. "Maybe that's why the snakes had a stash this big? They couldn't be traded?" she said, sounding very unsure of herself. Percy wouldn't know. All he knew was that gold and silver were very valuable and could be traded for a lot of money. He always imagined what it would be like to come across treasure in an abandoned ship. Percy had a sinking feeling that this was the most likely outcome.

"Don't know. We'll see to it" the older boy grunted and stormed off somewhere. Percy looked at Thalia and walked over towards her. He was disappointed as well, but Thalia and Luke looked completely defeated.

She gave Percy a tired smile which looked very forced. The boy wrapped his arms around her in a soothing embrace. Soon, he felt strong arms crushing him into a tight hug. Oof. Thalia was too strong for him, but he stayed that way. It was the least he could do to comfort the older girl.

Two Months Later…

Three months with the two older demigods taught Percy a lot. Luke and Thalia were good teachers, and were practically like family now. Thalia was like the elder sister he never had, while Luke was his mentor. Sure, Thalia was better at fighting compared to Luke, but she didn't have the temperament to actually teach Percy. Half the time, the girl just stormed off in frustration. Percy didn't mind, since she was quite sweet to him mostly. She just got mad when she had to teach something that Percy couldn't grasp immediately.

In the short time he had been with the group, Percy had learnt to use a knife given to him by Luke, trained up on endurance as they moved between places, and learnt some survival skills - staying out of trouble (very difficult, but he managed somehow), finding supplies, and locating nice places to rest.

He was lying on his small sleeping bag, in another abandoned building, twirling the pen his father supposedly gave him. The colours were beautiful, with blue fading into green, it gave the feeling of the sea layered with golden streaks. But the design was strange. There was a cap, but there was also a thrust. He wondered why that was. Was it some cool weapon like Thalia's Aegis? Something in Percy's gut told him that he shouldn't use it, but he couldn't understand why he shouldn't.

Maybe he just didn't want to use his father's gift? His father, whoever he was, had proven to be of no help when Percy's life was in danger. Neither had he helped out so far during his time on the streets. Why should he accept a gift that he couldn't even bother to give himself?

Percy knew that his thoughts were moving along his friend's line of thinking. Whatever stopped him had probably got nothing to with his (lack of) daddy issues and it unsettled him greatly. He still wondered what would happen if he went back to his mother. He missed her, and was really looking forward to meeting her again. The last he saw her, she was knocked unconscious on the street.

The little boy would give anything to see the motherly smile on her face again, and introduce her to his nice friends. But staying with his mom might endanger her. Monsters didn't even take a week to catch up to the three demigods. And he had to be prepared for them in case.

Thalia and Luke were out on a supply run i.e. buying stuff from the local market. For the past few days, Thalia and Luke had been collecting more cash than they used to. And the shopping runs were far in between. So Percy figured they were hoarding. Ever since that big setback, they were a little, more than a little upset. The coins weren't being accepted anywhere, and even worse was that coins seemed to turn up a lot. Luke in particular was so vengeful towards any monster they came across that even Thalia felt sorry for them and Thalia was rarely sorry for anything.

"Hey Perce!" He could hear Luke's voice from out of the room. They had finally come back.

Percy got up, wondering what they were going to say.

Luke came back with a huge grin on his face. He was carrying a few cans of Coke, and Thalia came up behind him holding some pizza. They both set them down on the ground, which was a given in their situation. Thalia walked up to Percy.

"Happy birthday, little guy!" she said and pulled him into a hug. Luke gave him a pat on the back as he too congratulated him, "Happy twelfth, Percy."

Percy blushed. "You guys remembered?"

Luke said "Of course we did, Perce. It's your first birthday with us, we wouldn't miss it for the world".

Percy blushed a deeper shade of red "I forgot that today was my birthday" he mumbled.

The older kids chuckled. "Happens when you're running away from monsters. There's many things out there to think about. Don't worry about it. We got you covered", Thalia reassured him. "Anyways, what are we waiting for! Let's dig in."

Both guys agreed and they got to eating. Percy was grinning like crazy. He wished his mom was here, but at least he had two of his best friends with him. It was almost a perfect birthday, something he would never forget.

A few weeks later…

Percy and Thalia stood outside of a house. He didn't know why they were here, but Luke insisted he needed to go in alone. Thalia didn't protest, so Percy didn't either. Even while standing outside at a considerable distance, a lot of yelling and wailing could be heard.

Luke came out in a few minutes, looking angrier than he ever had which was a feat in itself. Neither Thalia nor Percy asked him about what happened inside, and Luke didn't seem prepared to share. Whatever it was, they needed to get out before attracting attention. And they did so without speaking a single word. Complete silence except for the sound of their dirty boots hitting the road.

Now, I know that I said this wouldn't be updated regularly but here we are. Stormy Weather is still my lowest priority right now but this chapter was the one I had ready beforehand. I'd love to see your thoughts on this one, be sure to point out mistakes. This probably feels a bit RPG-esque but this is no Gamer fic.

For those of you waiting for my next update of Maiden's Dilemma or Land of Amazon, I'm sorry but I've been a bit busy. I had studies, and then we had the World Cup which distracted me to write anything.

And what a distraction it was. I loved most of the matches. Saudi Arabia beat Argentina, Ghana and Cameroon gave some spectacles even in defeat, Uruguay missing out against Ghana even in victory, Japan moved to R16 and honestly played better football until the penalties, Korea made its way to R16 as well, Croatia beat Brazil in a crazy match, so much drama. And on top of that Morocco's dream run to semis which was my favourite part of the Cup. The final had probably the best, most intense last 50-60 minutes of a match I'd seen yet.

Anyway, let me know what you think so far. This is what I would consider my personal flagship project where I'll do a lot of crazy stuff to the PJO world. Hope you guys enjoy.