Chapter One - I didn't mean to stumble into battle!
Listen, as a Half-Blood I obviously didn't know the consequences that came with just being born.
Powers are cool and all but they can get out of hand sometimes, like that one time I accidentally summoned a demonic teddy bear out of nowhere in third grade.
It was not planned.
But enough of me complaining, let's get to my story.
Hey, I'm Morf Lane. Yes I know, a ridiculous name. I thank my Dad for that
Anyways, I'm Morf and I have brown curly hair, bronze skin, brown eyes, and my body is pretty skinny but I'm like 180 lbs.
I'm also like five feet and eight inches, know right such a lady killer!
And I always knew I wasn't normal, not since the day I was dropped off at a foster home.
Back to my high school days, kinda rushing this but it's my story so you can just go suck a Dionysus grape for all I care.
It was my 9th grade trip to Central Park when my already weird life took a turn. Just before the event I was sitting on a bench in my jeans and Metallica T-shirt.
"Nice shoes dork," A kid snickered when he walked by. "Lemme guess, Walmart?"
I looked down at my black and white Shaqs that my foster parents had gotten me and scrunched my face up at Paul. Paul was a kid a grade above me, his ginger hair and freckled face really matched his snotty personality. No offense to any scottish or gingers out there, I just hated that guy really bad.
"I may have some Wall-E world shoes but at least I can afford REAL earrings!" I looked at him with a devious grin.
His face flared up bright pink, "Your FOSTER parents can afford them, you and your freaky record can't even afford real parents."
Ouch! That hurts, just kidding, I'm used to it now but it still ruins the mood.
I flashed my small silver hoops at him and grinned, "Makes it kinda sad your real parents can't afford these then."
That really made him upset because he scowled at me and ran off, calling for Ms. Hoff, the only teacher that takes his side at Jolly's Gifted Institute.
What's that? Jolly's is an institute that takes both Fosters and Rich kids, anybody with abnormally High Iq or just great skills can make it in.
Makes me wonder how Paul got in, but then again I made it just based on my so-called weird paintings.
I always painted these weird dreams I had, they were always with someone else leading the way through the dream. Almost like I wasn't the one dreaming.
Anyways, that got me into the school because of how vivid and 'creative' they were.
Sitting there and daydreaming about a life with siblings really caught me off guard, that's when I realized everything was quiet. I didn't hear Paul complaining, no birds, no traffic, just complete silence.
I got up off the bench and made my way through the park and towards the front entrance. That's where I found everybody on the ground, my heart began racing.
What happened?
Are they okay?
Were they murdered?
Just to make it clear, nobody was hurt in this part of the event. So no, sadly not even Paul got killed. In fact he was face planted like a cartoon in the grass with his crack out.
"Ms. Hoff?" I approached her sprawled figure, she was set in the middle of all the other children.
To make sure she really wasn't dead, like a heart attack or something I got on my knees and leaned in towards her face to hear her breathing.
"AGK!" Her body made a weird noise and I jumped back.
I sat on my butt and stared at her with a frightened face, almost looking like one of those kids who didn't want to take a picture with the Easter Bunny.
That's when I realized she had just made a weird noise and continued snoring.
"God I hate her." I scowled and stood, wiping the dirt off my behind and knees.
Deciding to search the park for help, I roamed around it and called out to people. It took me about 10 minutes to realize that my voice didn't have an echo.
Which meant I was screaming like an idiot for no reason.
I stopped and tried my phone.
No service.
Then I looked up and noticed a man waving at me, he was wearing a long coat and was too far for me to determine any features.
"HEY!" I cupped my hands and called to him.
He stopped waving and walked behind a tree, disappearing.
I frowned and walked the direction he had been waving at me from, stopping when I saw two figures running through the park.
One had Goat Legs? And the other was running with a sword? No, a pen, I don't know why I thought I saw a sword.
They ran abnormally fast and I tried to follow but eventually I lost them.
After that, I tried to catch my breath and recollect my thoughts.
I looked at the crowded yet dead streets and walked through them. Looking for anybody that wasn't mimicking Sleeping Beauty, it was hours on top of hours before something happened.
"God I hate this pla-" I started screaming, then I was cut off by an explosion.
That kind of scared me, well a little more than kinda. I almost ruined my pants because of the sound. Why was there sound? I listened hard and it was quiet again, almost as if something caused it to do that.
I ran towards the smoke, it was near the Empire State Building.
The smoke got thicker as I drew closer, once I got onto the street I saw a bunch of kids in orange t-shirts and armor retreating inside.
One was screaming in agony, "IT BURNS!"
I started to approach them and stopped when I heard a gut wrenching scream to my left. Quickly snapping my head in that direction I found a girl on the floor, holding the body of another girl with brown hair.
"Hey!" A voice called out to me.
I looked to my right, eyes tearing up out of confusion.
"What are you doing out here?" A blonde kid with a bow on his back approached me.
"I- I don't know what's going on." I forced out, still shocked about the ruined street and limp bodies. I had a feeling these people weren't asleep, many of them had blood leaking out of gashes.
The kid grimaced and put his hand on my back, "Come on, let's get you inside."
I followed him, mainly because I didn't know what to do.
We hurried inside the doors, a blood curdling scream was let out behind me and I glanced back to see the girl who had been holding the other now in what looked like a box with wheels.
"What's she doing?" I looked at the boy and he stopped to look, the color draining from his face.
He pointed at the floor, "Stay there. And hurried back out the door, grasping his bow.
I stayed there, staring at the revolving door. Flashes of light coming through it and shining off the walls.
"A mortal?" A girl's voice said behind me and I turned.
A girl no older than 11 stared back at me with a weird expression, most likely because I had a puzzled look on my own.
A boy with long black hair and squinted eyes came up behind her, they looked to be siblings.
"Who are you?" He asked me.
"Uh," I glanced around the room, it was filled with kids in bandages. Most of them were now staring at me or getting tended to. "I'm Mo-"
"Morf?" A familiar voice called out to me from behind the two and they turned to reveal the person.
"Andrew?" I exclaimed.
"Gods, what are you doing here? You're a mortal!" He stood up, a bandage covering his right pale arm.
His dyed blue hair moved about as he approached me, his green eyes were circled by eye bags, and his face had cuts on it.
"Mortal? What are you talking about?" I asked, my heart racing.
"Wait, you know this kid?" The first boy frowned at me.
"Yeah, from school- How are you not asleep?" Andrew pushed through the middle of the siblings and put his left good arm on me.
He smiled at me, inspecting me like a dog would do to her pup. Sighing as he found nothing wrong with me, then smacking my shoulder.
"Answer me!" He crossed his arm.
"I- I don't know! I don't know what's going on!" I began to tear up. "I just remember getting to the park on my trip and finding everyone asleep. I saw a weird man in a coat, goat legs, a sword pen, and kids in armor!"
Andrew and the other two looked at each other and mouthed a word, "Morpheus."
"Why don't you go tend to the others Zach," Andrew nodded and Zach listened hesitantly. "You too Angie."
She bowed once and followed her older brother away. Andrew turned back to me and smiled weakly.
"Tell me about these…Goat legs and Coat men." He guided me towards a wall where we sat against it.
"It's so unreal!" I exclaimed. "A weird man waved at me from across the park then disappeared behind a tree like a magician!" My hands were shaking, I didn't know whether it was from shock or trauma.
"Did you get a good look at him?" He asked and I shook my head. "Okay, and Goat Legs?"
"Some kid with small horns and goat legs," My eyes darted around the room. "It was like a movie I swear!"
He nodded along as I explained my entire trip, it was almost like this was normal for him. Andrew was a really good listener though, felt right to decompress and vent to him.
And no, I'm not homosexual. Sorry to all you LGBTQ out there, I'm also male if it wasn't obvious.
"What's going on Andrew?" I looked at him. "You're so calm, why?"
He scratched his head and coughed a bit, "This is all…a lot to explain so I'll explain the important parts."
Andrew looked at me dead serious with his tired eyes.
"There are Gods in this world and not just Jesus but Greek Gods," He started. "I'm the son of one, Demeter, and we're fighting against the Big Three's Father…Kronos."
"What? I've met your Dad before though." I cocked my head diagonally.
"That's the thing, my Mother is Demeter and My Dad isn't a God…so that makes me and many other kids the product of different Gods, otherwise known as Half-Bloods." He nodded. "And by the looks of it, you might be one too."
I frowned, "No way, I know what happened to my parents…they died in Iraq."
"Wrong," Andrew sighed. "Only one of them probably did and the other is a part of either our side of Gods…or theirs."
"Theirs?" I asked.
"Kronos and his army," He grimaced. "But listen we'll talk about this another time…for now just stay in the back while this all goes down."
So I did, he stuck me in a closet somewhere in the back of the Empire State Building and I waited out the entire battle.
And almost the entire day.
Why's that?
Because he almost forgot to get me when they were celebrating on Olympus.
When he opened the door I was sweaty, half-asleep, and my hair was messy.
So basically what everyone else looked like but without cuts.
"Forgot to grab you," He smiled awkwardly. "Sorry…but hey the party's not over yet so c'mon!"
He offered a hand and I took it, punching him in the arm as I stood.
Which was somehow healed now?
I don't know man, all I know was that I was still a bit in shock.
Following him to an elevator past people who looked like they just woke up, which they had, I frowned when he pulled out a card.
"What's that for?" I asked.
"The 600th floor," He grinned. "Hang on, this one is the fastest elevator."
"600th floor? You're real fun- AHH!" I started screaming after he slid the card in and clicked a button, the elevator shot up and my stomach felt as though it dropped.
I screamed the entire way up which was only about… 2 seconds.
"Nice set of lungs," Andrew laughed. "Might be a part of Apollo Cabin like Zach and Angie."
I shot him the dirtiest look and grasped my stomach to check if it was still there. The elevator door opened to reveal the most beautiful Ancient Greek Landscape I'd ever seen.
"Welcome to Mount Olympus," He stepped out and I did the same but with my jaw dropped. "We still have bugs up here so might wanna keep that closed."
