Percy Jackson - The Record of The Journey of a Mortal Who Become a God

Percy was very confused as he walked alongside the girl he remembered taking care of him back when he was in his five-day coma. It was no wonder, after all, he had found his badass from this place, a daughter of the God of War who smelled worse than anything he could remember, whose name was Clarisse.

A few minutes ago, he recalled Clarisse trying to drown him in the toilet and him trying to defend himself, and that's when it happened: the toilet pipe burst like a jet towards her, just after the toilet he was about to drown in exploded, the next one next to it hitting the Daughter of the God of War in the face and causing her to fall on her butt on the ground while being drowned in toilet water.

Her friends were not spared either; several toilets burst like jets and doused them with water.

Besides the toilets, the showers also kicked in, and together, all the devices launched the camouflaged girls out of the bathroom, making them spin like pieces of trash being removed by jets of water.

The entire bathroom was flooded. The girl who had taken care of him before, named Annabeth, was also not spared. She was soaked and dripping, but she hadn't been pushed out. She stood in the same spot, looking at him in shock at the time.

Something he ignored, as he realized he was sitting in the only dry spot in the entire public restroom of the camp. There was a circle of dry tile around him, and not a drop of water on his clothes.

Nothing.

After a death threat from his badass, he and Annabeth, who by now had recovered from the shock, left the place with a strange atmosphere between the two of them.

Not that there hadn't been one before; she seemed to dislike him quite a bit…

Now the two ended up on the pier at the canoeing lake after passing by the metal shop where children forge their own swords, the arts and crafts room, where satyrs were sandblasting a giant statue of a goat-man, and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two walls that, when shaken, would drop rocks, spread lava, and collide with each other if someone didn't reach the top quickly enough.

Places that left him very surprised.

But getting back to the point, what should he say to her? Should he apologize?

Just as he was about to speak, he noticed his best friend coming towards them.

Annabeth's eyes lit up upon seeing him. Percy thought it was strange; she had that scary vibe of the lovestruck maidens. The "scary" part was due to the feeling that she would kill anyone who got between the two, sending chills down his spine.

"Good timing," Annabeth said to Ikki as he arrived, before looking at Percy and continuing, "I have training. Dinner is at seven-thirty. You just have to follow Ikki and the cabin crew to the dining hall..."

"Well, I guess even someone as dumb as him can manage that..." Ikki joked.

"Hey!" Percy shouted.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him. With her intense tan and curly blonde hair, she was almost exactly what one would imagine a typical California girl to look like, except for the eyes that ruined that image. They were surprisingly gray, like storm clouds; beautiful but also intimidating.

Percy felt that she was analyzing the best way to take him down in a fight.

"I have my doubts..." she said tersely, leaving the mentioned boy much more upset than he had been before.

"I understand..." Ikki nodded his head amusingly, "He's pretty concerning, but don't worry, I'll take care of the rest..."

Annabeth smiled at his words, looked at him, and nodded, although he could see a hint of pink in her cheeks.

At that moment, Percy wanted to punch his annoying friend in the face. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and spoke somewhat sheepishly to the girl next to him; in these kinds of situations, it wasn't ideal to snap back at your best friend:

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets..."

"It doesn't matter..." Annabeth said gruffly.

"It wasn't my fault..." Percy frowned. Trying to defend himself, even though it was clear it was his fault in some way. Feeling Annabeth's skeptical gaze directed at him, he realized that.

He didn't know how...? But he had somehow controlled the water in the bathroom, the toilets had responded to him in some way.

It felt as if he were one of the pipes.

"Let's put that aside." Annabeth shook her head negatively and spoke to the two boys, "Now that you're awake, you both need to talk to the Oracle..."

She seemed pensive as she said this. She had previously forgotten to mention it to Ikki due to being distracted by his otherworldly look and magnetic presence. Somehow, Percy seemed able to nullify part of that, which made things easier for people.

The desire to forcefully take Ikki for themselves felt more controllable.

"Who?..." Percy asked upon hearing the girl in front of him.

"Not who. What — The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron..." Annabeth said as if she had already decided everything.

"Are you sure? I think Chiron won't let us go see him," Ikki said somewhat curiously.

"Yes, I will convince him," Annabeth said, thinking of some plan to do that.

"Could you tell me what you're talking about? What the hell is the Oracle?…" Percy asked, looking at both of them, confused.

Ikki placed his hand on his chin thoughtfully and began explaining to his friend.

"The Oracle that got its name from Delphi, the city where it lived. It was a major sacred site of Ancient Greece. In fact, it was the most important religious center of ancient Greece. Between the 8th century BC and the 2nd century BC, the temple was sought after by people who supposedly received forecasts about the future, advice, and accurate guidance."

"In summary, that's it, but speaking about the myth. The city of Delphi was the headquarters of the main Greek temple, dedicated to the god Apollo, and in its undergrounds operated the famous oracle."

"In mythology, the place originally belonged to Gaia and was guarded by her daughter, the serpent Python. The god Apollo, associated with the gift of prophecy, supposedly took control of the place after killing the serpent, which fell into a crevice in the ground, where it later decayed and emitted intoxicating magical vapors."

"The Greeks believed that when a priestess — a woman of irreproachable life chosen from among the peasants — inhaled such gases, her spirit was possessed by Apollo, who made the prophecies through her. The most well-known form of inquiry consisted of asking a question to the priestess, known as the Pythia."

"In a sort of medium trance, she would deliver the answers in verses similar to those used in the Iliad and Odyssey poems by Homer that Chiron had us read for his tests..."

As he explained, Annabeth, who had been looking at him, turned slightly red in her cheeks. In her mind, the image of Ikki wearing glasses with a ruler in hand punishing or rewarding her for getting the wrong or right answers to his questions appeared. A wild imagination that made her rub her thighs with her hands between them and look down at the ground.

When he finished, and she came back to herself, she wanted to dig a hole to hide in out of embarrassment. Her heart was in a frenzy that was hard to calm.

Percy noticed and found the arrogant girl's behavior very strange.

As for Ikki, he scratched his chin thoughtfully. That was what he remembered at least; he wasn't an expert in Greek mythology — he had just read a bit about it.

Percy pulled his eyes away from Annabeth and looked at the lake, trying to understand his friend's words. About someone who could see the future.

He didn't expect that someone would be looking back at him from the depths, so his heart jumped when he noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about six meters below. They wore jeans and shimmering green t-shirts, and their brown hair floated loosely around their shoulders as little fish swam between them. They smiled and waved as if he were a long-lost friend.

Confused, Percy waved back.

"Don't encourage them. The naiads are uncontrollable flirts..." Annabeth said, recovering from her embarrassment and looking at him with warning.

"Naiads..." Percy repeated, astonished. He had a look of "Okay, I'm tired of this crap," he spoke wearily: "That's enough. I want to go home now..."

Annabeth frowned, she was going to speak, but was interrupted.

"Wait a second..." Ikki suddenly interrupted, with a strange look.

The two turned their attention to the unknown demigod.

"So, let me see if I understand. Finding out that mythology is real, talking to the God, and even offending him... that's okay? But meeting beautiful girls makes you want to leave?"

At the end of his words, he looked at his friend strangely.

Percy blushed at the implications of Ikki's words; he quickly tried to explain: "Look, it's just a coincidence. I was at my limit, and learning about the Naiads broke that limit..."

His words didn't sound very credible. Ikki looked in his direction judgmentally.

Percy noticed his friend's suspicious and strange look, feeling a bit guilty.

He blinked in confusion; what the hell...? Did I do something wrong?

"Don't you realize, Percy? You're home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us..." Annabeth said, diverting her gaze from Ikki and focusing her gray eyes on Percy, the slight blush disappearing at that moment.

"You mean mentally disturbed kids?..." Percy said unperturbed.

Ikki let out a sigh and spoke.

"Dude, I already explained. You're a demigod..."

"Right, your dad isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians..." Annabeth nodded in agreement and looked at Percy as if trying to guess who his father was, although a vague idea of who it might be appeared in her mind.

"This is... crazy..." Percy said in denial; he still couldn't believe it.

"Really? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories?..." Annabeth questioned with narrowed eyes.

"They walked around falling in love with humans and had kids with them..." Ikki continued his logic non-offensively; he didn't mean to say the deities slept around and had children more than rabbits, not to mention ruining countless lives.

"Yeah..." Annabeth agreed and continued: "Even after millennia, do you think they've changed their habits?..."

"But that's just..." Percy stopped mid-sentence; he thought for a few seconds and continued, "But if everyone here is demigods..."

"Demigods..." Annabeth corrected him like a teacher: "That's the official term. Or half-bloods..."

"So, who is your dad?..." Percy asked the daughter of Athena.

Annabeth ran her hand along the railing of the pier and frowned; her scowl made it obvious that she didn't like touching this subject, but she did so anyway. She spoke in the best way she could: "My dad is a professor at West Point... I haven't seen him since I was really little. He teaches American history..."

"He's human..." Percy stated.

"What? You think it has to be a male god meeting an attractive human woman, and not the other way around? You know that's sexism?..." Annabeth said with narrowed eyes.

"So, who is your mom?..." Percy asked, wanting to close this discussion on sexism. He felt he would get a headache if he continued down this path.

"Cabin 6..." Annabeth replied with a sigh.

"What does that mean?..." Percy questioned; had she forgotten he was a newbie at camp?

"Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War..." Ikki said calmly.

Percy paused at the answer before asking, "And my dad?..."

"I already told you, it's undetermined. No one knows."

"Except for my mom. She knew..."

Percy said confidently.

"Maybe not, Percy. The gods don't always reveal their identities..."

"My dad would have revealed it. He loved her..." Percy said completely sure of that.

Annabeth gave him a cautious glance. She didn't want to shatter his illusions. So, she decided to drop the subject.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes that happens..." Annabeth said, careful with her words.

"You mean sometimes it doesn't happen?.." Percy said, remembering the sad faces of several campers he had seen. Especially those from Hermes' Cabin.

Annabeth ran her palm along the railing and spoke somewhat distracted.

"The gods are busy. They have a bunch of kids, and they don't always... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us..."

"Yeah, in all their grandeur and responsibility, their kids are the least important..." Ikki said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

His words made Annabeth nod in agreement. It was an intellectual offense. If you're going to offend the gods, let it be like that; at most, since it's a terrible idea to create animosity with any of them.

The story was there to teach that.

Percy, not quite understanding his friend's sarcasm, asked, changing the subject: "So, are we stuck here...? Is that it? For the rest of our lives?..."

"It depends..." Annabeth seemed somewhat thoughtful as she began to explain:

"Some campers only stay in the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you probably aren't really powerful. Monsters might ignore you, and then you might manage with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world for the rest of the year. But, for some of us, going out is too dangerous. We have to stay year-round. In the mortal world, we attract monsters."

"They sense our presence. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble, around ten or eleven years old, but after that, many demigods come here or get killed. Some manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you their names, you would recognize them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very few, very few are like that..."

Her words left Ikki thoughtful. So, it meant that it was normal for the monsters to ignore the demigods until a certain age; if he could somewhat guess, it would be when their powers manifest around ten or twelve years old?

So, a demigod can only access their powers at that age? There must be some exception, obviously! But this explains why he previously tried to access his powers and couldn't; he wasn't "mature" enough for that...

Yes, there was a time in his life when he tried to feel his demigod powers, but something was stopping him from doing so...

Or rather, it wasn't the time for his powers to awaken...

As his thoughts raced through various possibilities, Percy looked at Annabeth and asked, worried.

"So, monsters can't enter here?..."

"No." Annabeth shook her head negatively and said, "Unless they are intentionally kept in the woods or summoned by someone inside..."

"Why would anyone want to summon a monster?..." Percy asked, finding the idea of someone invoking a monster stupid.

"For practice fights. And also, to play pranks..." Annabeth replied as if it were obvious.

"Play pranks?..." Percy repeated.

"Anyway, the point is that the borders are closed to keep mortals and monsters out. Outside, mortals look at the valley and see nothing unusual, just strawberry fields..." Annabeth explained, ignoring the original question made by the boy with average looks; that's how a daughter of Aphrodite would put it.

Percy looked at her sideways and asked, "Are you a year-round camper?..."

Annabeth nodded. From inside the collar of her t-shirt, she pulled out a leather necklace with five beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except hers also had a large gold ring threaded through, like a college ring.

"I've been here since I was seven years old." Her tone sounded somewhat nostalgic and somewhat dark: "Every August, on the last day of the summer session, we get a bead for surviving another year. Like a kind of achievement."

"I've been here longer than most counselors, and they're all in college..."

"Why did you come so young?..." Percy seemed not to have noticed her tone and didn't realize it was a delicate subject for the girl before his eyes. That was one of her gifts...

Annabeth twirled the ring on the necklace and said tersely, "It's none of your business..."

"Percy, you have to learn to read people's atmosphere. Have a little common sense about empathy, you know?"

Ikki tapped his friend's shoulder as he said this. Percy looked at him, not understanding the meaning of his words but seeming to be reprimanded... What had he said wrong?

Annabeth looked at Ikki and nodded her head in gratitude, her face flushing red and her eyes sparkling as she was enchanted as always by his perfect appearance.

Percy did not notice the girl's state; he was still confused by everything, and in an attempt to resolve this, he asked her again: "So... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted?"

"That would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't grant permission until the end of the summer session, unless..."

Annabeth frowned as she replied. Not even an apology? Damn, how insensitive.

"Unless?…"

Ikki simply put his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt and drifted off into his mind on a journey of important subjects. He let Annabeth answer his friend's questions; that was a task only a child of Athena would have the patience to accept.

"Unless you are granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time..." Annabeth's voice trailed off. As she recalled the last quest, it was clear from her tone that it had not gone very well.

This time, Percy miraculously noticed the girl's tone of voice and changed the subject.

"Before, when I was sick in the cabin... when you were feeding me that stuff..." He seemed unsure how to finish his words.

"Ambrosia..." Ikki said, looking at the lake full of Greek myths, clearly amused.

"Yeah..." Percy said, giving a brief glance at his friend before continuing, "You asked me something about the summer solstice..."

Annabeth's shoulders tensed. She looked at the son of Poseidon with questioning eyes and inquired.

"So, do you know anything?…"

"Well... no. At my old school, Ikki and I happened to overhear Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we don't have much time due to a deadline."

Percy explained before asking.

"What does that mean?…"

Annabeth clenched her fists and said in frustration.

"I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong on Olympus, something very important. The last time I was there, everything seemed so normal..."

"You've been to Olympus?…" Ikki asked, a bit curious. Sometimes he talked to the girl in front of him, but she had never mentioned this interesting fact.

"A few of us, year-round campers... Luke, Clarisse, I, and a few others... took a trip during the winter solstice. It's when the gods hold their big annual assembly..." Annabeth replied, looking at him and nodding.

"But... how did you get there?…"

Percy asked, completely confused about how on Earth anyone would end up on a mythological mountain.

"By the Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State, six hundredth floor..." Annabeth said as if it were obvious.

Ikki rubbed his face and thought that even Annabeth had no common sense. Had she forgotten that Percy was a rookie without basic knowledge?

Does she think everyone knows where the home of the Gods is?

"Oh, right. Everyone can see a city floating above the tallest building in New York..." He shook his head negatively with sarcastic thoughts before removing his hand from his face and looking at the lake, which was more interesting than the whole conversation.

In the lake, Naiads were looking at him as if they wanted to eat him; some became shy at meeting his gaze. Others, bolder ones, blew kisses in his direction.

Some of the more perverted ones had blood dripping from their noses. Something he thought only happened in anime, but studies show that if someone's arousal reaches its peak and blood rushes quickly to the head, this can happen, although it is a one-in-a-million event.

He had read this on the internet in his past life...

Annabeth looked at Percy and then at Ikki, whose eyes gleamed like two agates surrounded by bright blue electricity. She felt her heart racing again.

The gratitude for Percy's presence, which nullified part of Ikki's magnetic charm, was immense. She sighed in her heart about how someone could be so beautiful and perfect, and looked at the mysterious demigod who had the power to nullify the most drastic effects of the perfect male specimen's appearance to ask.

"You guys are from New York, right?…"

"Oh, for sure..." Percy said. As far as he knew, there were only one hundred and two floors in the Empire State, but he decided not to mention that to the girl in front of him.

"Right after the visit..." Annabeth continued to press on this topic, "The weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. Once or twice since then, I heard satyrs talking. The most I can deduce is that something important has been stolen. And if it's not returned by the summer solstice, there will be trouble."

"When you came, I was waiting. I mean... Athena can get along with almost anyone, except Ares. And of course, she has a rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something..."

By the end of her words, she frowned and murmured softly, "I need to get a quest... I'm not too young. If they would just tell me what the problem is..."

Her entire explanation seemed to have been ignored by the boys, who were lost in their own thoughts about different issues.

Ikki was having fun watching the Naiads trying to flirt with him through gestures, and some even tried to come his way but were stopped by others who wanted to protect what was "theirs," which created a legendary fight among the women.

As for Percy, he was very hungry. It had been days since he had eaten, after all, and his thoughts were on when dinner would be ready.

The three remained silent.

The "growl" coming from Percy's stomach was what broke the seconds of silence that had lingered. They looked at the boy, who appeared embarrassed.

"Let's go back!" Ikki said, rolling his eyes as he began to walk toward the cabin alongside Percy.

Annabeth watched the two, lost in her own thoughts.