It all started with gold.
Too much gold.
The Sun Garage was covered in it—walls, floors, ceilings, tools, even the furniture. Every time Percy walked in, it was like getting hit in the face with a shiny golden brick.
And frankly? He couldn't stand it.
So, naturally, he decided to do something about it.
[The Master Plan]Percy spent a week carefully planning everything.
He called in a favor from Hermes, who—after laughing hysterically at Percy's idea—agreed to deliver the necessary supplies.
Late one night, Percy stacked the last of the delivered boxes in a corner of the garage, grinning in satisfaction.
It was time to redecorate.
[The Great Garage Makeover]Percy started with his side of the garage. If he was co-owner of the Sun, then that meant co-owner of the garage, too.
First, he painted a brilliant blue-and-gold trident on the wall. His signature touch.
Then, he went all in.
Repainted his workstation in sea blue and green.
Switched out all the golden lights for blue LED strips.
Hung up posters of the ocean and, just to be petty, one of Poseidon giving a thumbs-up.
Finally, after stepping back and admiring his masterpiece, he realized—
He had a lot of extra blue LED lights.
That's when the terrible, mischievous, no-good, horrible, brilliant idea struck him.
[The Prank of the Century]Percy gathered the extra LED strands and set to work.
He strung them inside the Chariot's hood.
He wrapped them around the wheel wells.
He lined the dashboard and undercarriage.
It was perfect.
A subtle prank.
A little surprise for Apollo when he took the Sun Chariot out in the morning.
Except…
There was one small mistake.
When Percy plugged in the LED lights, he accidentally connected them not to the fusion generator…
But to the particle regulator.
Oops.
[Apollo's Midnight Panic]Percy had just crawled into bed, snuggled up in his favorite blanket, when the Solar Comm (a.k.a. godly iPhone) rang.
At midnight.
Groggily, he grabbed it and answered. "'Lo?"
Apollo's voice came blasting through the speaker.
"PERCY JACKSON, WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Percy blinked. "Uh… what?"
"LOOK AT THE SKY."
Still half-asleep, Percy rolled out of bed, stumbled to the window, and…
Oh.
The sky was glowing.
Brilliant, shimmering blue auroras stretched across the entire planet.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh no.
Apollo's panicked yelling continued. "I took the Chariot out for a test drive, and the second I hit full speed, the sun started LEAKING PARTICLE LIGHT IN AURORA FORM! PERCY, THE WHOLE SKY IS BLUE!"
Percy winced. "Oh… uh… that might be my bad."
"MIGHT?!"
"Yeah, so, funny story—"
"NOT FUNNY!"
Percy sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Okay, okay, bring the Chariot back, I'll fix it."
Apollo groaned. "Zeus is gonna kill me. He thinks I did this on purpose! Do you know how much I hate explaining things to him?!"
"Just blame Hermes."
"…Oh. That's actually not a bad idea."
[Damage Control]By the time Apollo got the Chariot back, Percy was already waiting with the toolkit and an apologetic grin.
Apollo glared.
"You," he said, pointing dramatically, "are banned from unsupervised decorating!"
Percy held up his hands. "In my defense, I thought I plugged it into the fusion generator."
"YOU PLUGGED IT INTO THE PARTICLE REGULATOR, PERCY."
"Yeah, yeah, I know that now."
Apollo sighed, rubbing his temples. "You better fix this."
Percy grinned. "Already on it."
(Fixing the Chariot (Again)Thankfully, the solution was simple:
Unplug all the LEDs from the particle regulator.
Rewire them properly so they wouldn't cause another global light show.
Turn off the "Sun Aura Glow" function (which Apollo had forgotten existed).
With a few careful adjustments, Percy got the Chariot back to normal.
The auroras in the sky? They would fade in a few hours.
No permanent damage done.
Well… except for Apollo's ego.
(The Aftermath)The next morning, news reports were all over the place.
"Mysterious Blue Auroras Appear Worldwide—Scientists Baffled!"
"Once-In-A-Lifetime Light Show—What Caused It?"
"NASA Reports No Solar Storm Activity—But Something Clearly Happened."
Apollo narrowed his eyes at Percy. "We're never telling Zeus about this."
Percy nodded solemnly. "Agreed."
Apollo sighed, glancing around the now half-blue garage. "You're still repainting this."
Percy smirked. "You mean, I'm finishing it?"
"NO."
Percy just grinned.
Book 3 is complete I shall now try to post as many chapters of book 2 today as I can so I can get caught up