Doom of Olympus

Chapter II
Roy

Roy ran his hands through his hair in frustration as he sat in the bench in the Grand Canyon National Park Museum's parking lot. Today was not shaping up like he'd hoped he thought to himself before focusing once more on Jason, the boy with short blonde hair in the purple shirt, blue jeans, and only one shoe, still seated next to him on the bench.

“So, to recap: You've no idea where you came from, no idea on your past, including where you got that tattoo, correct?” Roy asked, his head still held in his hands. Jason's forearm was marked with a matching SPQR tattoo like the one on Roy's arm, except his bore an eagle above the writing and twelve black lines underneath. Roy's by contrast bore only one line and was marked with a crescent moon and a bow and arrow over the SPQR.

“I wish I could be more helpful, but I'm sorry-” Jason began when Roy cut in,

“Sorry doesn't cut the bacon.” Roy said as he ran his hands through his hair again. This entire trip was rapidly beginning to look like a waste of time he thought to himself as the short, angry man who'd been wielding the baseball bat sauntered over from the nearby pay phone, taking no notice of Cronk, who was busy drawing complex glyphs on the ground with a piece of sidewalk chalk. Roy sighed as he put the issue out of his mind as he shoved a wad of bills into Jason's hands.

“Go grab yourself a new pair of sandals or whatever, you look ridiculous in only one shoe.” Roy said as he saw the little goat man that had been wielding the club on the skywalk saunter over,
his hooves concealed once more inside his shoes.

“Nice work back there kid, great idea using the truck to distract the storm spirits. So, when's your backup get here to take these three cupcakes back to camp?” Gleeson Hedge asked as he readjusted his baseball cap on his head.

“Beg pardon?” Roy asked as he glanced up at the satyr.

“You guys are the team sent to pick up these demigods and the 'special package', right?” Coach Hedge asked uncertainly.

“Nope, I came here 'cuz of a vision from a talking she-wolf. I've honestly no idea what you're talking about.” Roy said as he unsheathed one of his hunting knives as he began to deftly twirl it around in his hand.

“Hmm, I gotta go make a call.” Coach Hedge said as he tottered off down the parking lot towards a fountain near the ruined entrance to the museum. Cronk sauntered up a few minutes later as he stowed the sidewalk chalk in his pocket.

“I finished the monster warding, but I'm not sure how long it'll hold up. We've never had to shield five of us before.” He said as he sat down and Roy nodded in agreement before getting up from the bench and making his way to the fountain where the two other teenagers had taken a seat while Jason was inside.

One was a Latino kid of about sixteen with an impish face and curly black hair and pointy ears fiddling with a few bolts and pipe cleaners absentmindedly.

The second was the dark-skinned girl with choppy chocolate-brown hair with the little braids on either side of her face with blue eyes.... eyes he could've sworn were green through the binoculars.

“How goes it you two?” Roy asked as he approached, still twirling the knife between his fingers.

“Better now that those things are gone. That was pretty sick the way you busted in just in time to take out the other.... Venti I think Jason called them.” Leo said as Roy tossed the knife to his other hands and continued to twirl it.

“Aw shucks, that was nothing. I'm sure you two would do the same for me. Mind if I ask your names?” Roy asked as he sheathed the knife. The Latino Santa's elf flashed him a grin before replying,

“I'm Leo Valdez, this beauty queen right here is Piper McLean.” he said as he jabbed a finger towards the girl beside him who blushed just a tiny bit as she glanced away, not meeting Roy's eyes.

“Well, nice to meet you, Leo Valdez. And to you Piper McLean I say, tu as de très beaux yeux.” Roy said, the last part in French. Roy had learned several years ago to speak French in order to try and woo a foreign exchange student at school before he'd dropped out.

That, like every other endeavor in his love life had ended in disaster, but at least he'd picked up an important tool in his romantic arsenal back then. Roy watched a look of confusion scamper across both of their features before understanding dawned on Piper's face as she mumbled something under her breath. Roy never got around to hearing what she said as he heard a loud whinny from behind him and turned to see a chariot pulled by a pair of winged horses.

On the back stood a blonde girl with curly hair and gray eyes, along with a ripped dude with a face like a pile of brick and a tattoo of a rainbow in his bicep. Both had on matching orange shirts with the letters CHB emblazoned over a picture of a pegasus.

As soon as the chariot touched down on the ground, the blonde girl hopped off the back of the chariot and advanced on him with a murderous look in her eyes. As she advanced in arm's length of Roy she seized him by the collar of his jacket and thrust him unceremoniously against the nearby wall,

“Percy Jackson. Where is he?” she growled, her grip on his jacket collar tightening uncomfortably before Roy replied,

“Who? I've never heard heard that name before in my life.”

“Fine, next question. Have you seen a boy with one shoe aroun-” Annabeth asked as she moved towards Roy before stopping short as she felt the point of Roy's hunting knife against her ribs.

“Why don't you just back up nice and slow and we can try to be civil.” Roy replied, he was in no mood to be interrogated like a criminal after the fight on the skywalk. Annabeth took a step back before she caught sight of Jason exiting the gift shop inside with a pair of sandals in hand, and still just one shoe on as he made his way to a nearby bench. The blonde girl soon lost all interest in Roy as she sprinted over to Jason...

Later...

Jason

The wind howled in Jason's ears as the eight of them raced towards the camp the blonde girl, Annabeth, had said would keep them safe from monsters while they tried to figure out what Jason's connection was to this Percy Jackson fellow Annabeth had gone on about. But apparently the blonde girl thought they were demigods or whatever. But Jason couldn't deny there was something up with their group, especially after the fight with those three Venti on the skywalk.

Apparently Annabeth had received a vision from Juno, except she'd called her Hera, where the goddess had told Annabeth to come to the Grand Canyon to find a boy with one shoe. He didn't see ho he was gonna be any help, he couldn't even remember his own last name, much less his last two months at the Wilderness School with Piper and Leo.

A million questions buzzed around his head before being distracted by the enormous grin plastered on the guy with the bow's face, Roy, he had called himself. The guy was grinning like a fool from his place squeezed into between Piper and Annabeth as the eight of them crowded onto the flying chariot as it struggled to carry them through the sky towards their destination. It as a tight fit and Jason was smashed between the Apache Walking Mountain and Coach Hedge, who's horns were pushing into his side.

Next Butch, Leo, and Annabeth were crowded at the front-most part of the chariot as Leo said,

“So, your mom's the rainbow goddess, huh?” Butch scowled,

“Yeah, why? Got a problem with that?” he growled in reply. Leo put his hands up in mock surrender as he replied,

“No way man. Ponies and rainbows very... um, macho.” Leo replied as Butch's scowl deepened further before another voice piped up,

“Wait a minute! You said Iris was your mom. Are you talking about the old woman who runs the ROFL collective up in Mendecino?” Roy piped up from the opposite side of the chariot. Butch looked caught off-guard by the question as they hit a patch of turbulence and Coach Hedge's horns dug into his side, making him wince before Butch quickly reined in the pegasi and steered them towards gentler air.

“I dunno anything about that collective you're talking about, but mom's mentioned Mendecino a few of the times I've gotten to talk to her.” Butch replied.

“Well, if it's the same Iris. But that's probably a safe bet. But dude, your mom is awesome! I wish whatever spirit, god, or whatever was my parent ran a healthy living collective! Your mom
is crazy wise, mine doesn't even seem to know I exist.” Roy said before the walking mountain dude added,

“Yeah, me and Roy are both ROFL-copters.” he added in a deep, velvety voice that reverberated through the chariot.

“Yeah we try to make it out at least once a month or so.” Roy finished before Annabeth spoke up,

“So wait, none of you have been claimed yet?”

“Um I don't think I've been claimed, I've never known my mother.” Piper spoke up sheepishly, still trying not to draw attention to herself.

“Well, even if you never met her, you'd know if you'd been claimed, the mark of your parent would appear in the air above you. Any of you ever see anything like that?” Annabeth replied.

“No way man, I think I'd remember that.” Leo rattled off as he drummed out a frantic rhythm on the chariot's railing.

“Um no, I don't think so.” said Piper.

“Nope, nothing comes to mind.” Roy rattled off as his friend with the long name shook his head.

“What about you Jason?” Piper asked across the chariot to him, and Jason shook his head in dismay,

“Nah, like I said, I don't remember anything. I'm sorry.” Jason said as he looked down over the edge of the chariot , which was flying over the edge of the Midwest United Stated towards New England. The ground flew by underneath in a checkerboard of farms and small towns.

“So, you've got total amnesia? That seems a tad strange, besides you've obviously got training in fighting monsters from how Coach Hedge described of your performance on the skywalk.

"But for whatever reason you're obviously very important if two parties received visions of you and directions to meet you here.” Annabeth said as they crossed into New York State before their chariot gave a shudder as something rammed into them from behind, almost throwing the demigods and satyr's off the chariot to the ground below,

“What was that?” Piper asked as she steadied herself against the railing

“The storm spirits are back. Butch hurry, we have to get back to camp before they destroy the chariot.” Annabeth barked to the driver as lightning flashed before Butch snapped the reins as Jason's vision blurred and he got tunnel vision.

When his vision cleared, they were in a completely different area. The were high above a valley surrounded by hills on three sides while the fourth opened up onto an expanse of gray water and, what looked like New York city in the background. Jason didn't even have time to ask where they were before Leo shouted,

“Left wheel's on fire!”

Jason turned to see Leo was right, the left wheel had burst into flames that lapped at the side of the chariot as Annabeth cut in,

“Butch aim for the lake. Put us down in the lake!” Annabeth exclaimed as Butch struggled to control the falling chariot.

“I can't! We're not gonna make it!” he said as the chariot began to plummet towards the forest that ringed the camp. The chariot fell so fast Jason couldn't make out the rest of what Annabeth and Butch were saying before they hit the treeline with a CRASH!!!

The chariot hit the tree and went into a tumbling roll, Jason couldn't see a thing past all the sticks and leaves swatting him in the face. The barrage of shrubbery continued before he felt a hand seize him by the waistband of his jeans before he was pulled from the chariot as his right side slammed into a nearby tree and his vision went black again...

Jason had the vague sensation of someone calling his name, maybe Piper, but it sounded like they were miles away and his mind was in a fog. He struggled to focus when he heard another voice shriek,

“DEAR GANESHA YOU'RE HEAVY JASON, YOU NEED TO LOSE SOME WEIGHT!” Roy shrieked from above him, Jason struggled back to consciousness and looked up to see Roy had a hold on his waistband as he hung upside-down from a branch with Piper hanging from his other arm. Jason didn't think Roy could hold on much longer, his face was bright red and his arms were stretched taut and his face was beginning to darken as the blood rushed to his head.

“Alrighty, ladies first.” Roy grunted as he began to swing Piper on his other arm, each swing carrying her a little farther before he yanked up sharply before letting go as he reached down and slipped an arm around her thighs to get a better grip. Jason couldn't see her face, but he was almost sure Piper was blushing furiously.

“Alrighty Piper, you're gonna have to climb me now.” Roy forced out as Piper began to stammer,

“W-what?”

“Please hurry.” Roy grunted, his voice strained under the combined effort of holding up the two demigods. Piper nodded quickly as she grabbed a hold of Roy's thigh and began to climb, clambering onto the branch above a few seconds later.

As soon as she was safely on the branch, Roy grabbed hold of Jason under his arm before grabbing him in a lifeguard rescue hold before he inhaled sharply before he curled at the abdomen before he threw Jason onto the branch and uncurled, letting himself hang there in the air for a bit before he flipped up once more and pulled himself atop the branch.

“Thanks for the save.” Jason said as Roy bent down and put his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. Roy's breath came in wheezing gasps as he forced out,

“Don't... Mention it......Ever.” Roy said as he continued to wheeze like a concertina before Piper pushed past him as she rushed towards Jason. Jason watched as she bumped into him, causing one of his shoes to slip off the branch as he tilted to the side,

“Oh Shiva, no!” Roy said, his voice panicked as he flailed his arms around, searching for a handhold in futility as he lost his balance and began to plummet towards the creek below and hit the water with a splash.

“Oh god, I'm so sorry!” Piper called down as Roy pulled himself from the creek and shucked off his bow and quiver onto the ground as he pulled off his wet jacket and tee shirt. Jason looked down to see the chariot had crashed about fifty feet away. Butch had pulled himself free of the mess and was cutting the pegasi loose while Annabeth, Leo, and.... Cronk, he think Roy had called the huge youth, shimmied down from a nearby tree as a horde of kids in matching orange shirts stormed across the field.

Jason looked down to the creek below, it was about a fifteen foot drop straight down into the, he guessed was freezing cold, creek. He didn't see a quick route down to the ground, but a little once inside him told him if he jumped, he'd be fine.

Jason took a deep breath and steeled himself for the impact as he stepped off the branch and fell towards the floor, more than a little surprised when he hit the ground no harder than he would getting out of bed.

“Um, Jason, a little help?” Piper called down as she stood up unsteadily, her hand wrapped around the trunk of the tree for support.

“Oh right, sorry Piper.” Jason said as he went to begin climbing the tree when he realized he was already slowly floating up towards Piper. It took Jason a few seconds to understand what was happening before realizing he was controlling the winds. After a little bit of experimentation he figured out how to control his flight path before he flew up to grab Piper.

“Are you sure, this is safe?” Piper asked uncertainly as she prepared for her piggyback ride to
the ground.

“Yeah, at least I think so.” Jason said uncertainly, after all he'd just discovered this ability about a minute ago, he wasn't exactly an expert on this. Piper's hand hesitated for a few seconds before she finally grabbed a hold of his shoulders, trying not to blush as she noticed how strong the felt as Jason grabbed her legs and they descended towards the forest floor.

Piper tightened her grip on his back as they neared the ground before they finally set down on the dry grass. Piper dismounted his back, not meeting his eyes as she tired to hide her blush. Jason shifted uncomfortably, not certain to say about having discovered the ability to fly to his forgotten girlfriend.

“Um, Piper-” Jason began when suddenly he was cut off by,

“GODDAMIT! A little warning next time!” Roy cried as Jason whirled to face the voice, at first he saw nothing before the air shimmered to reveal Roy half-naked as he finished pulling up a fresh, dry pair of jeans over his waist as he buttoned them. Now that he didn't have a coat and shirt on Jason noticed his upper body was covered in scars. Some of them were long and thin like slash marks. A few were obviously bite marks including one on the left side of his abdomen with a bite radius the size of a catcher's mitt. There was one that looked like a sn enormous scrape underneath his right arm.

“Who the hell just FLIES down to the guy who just crawled out of the creek?!?! Maybe you could gimme like 3 seconds to get some clean clothes on?” Roy finished ranting as he grabbed a shirt from a small, clear plastic bag on the ground next to him, pulling the shirt out and over his head. When Jason saw the logo his eyes, widened as he pointed to Roy's new shirt

“Roy, look!”

“Hmm?” Roy asked as he followed Jason's gaze down to the his purple shirt, emblazoned with the letters in SPQR surrounded by golden ivy on the front as Roy's eyes widened in alarm as he stretched the shirt out to get a better look at it, but sure enough it was identical to Jason's own.

“...Roy where'd you get that shirt?” Piper asked shakily. Roy tried to remember where he got the shirt but, like a few times in the past day a migraine bloomed behind his eyes as he reached for the information.

“I... I can't remember.... I've been saying that far too often recently.” Roy said as he grabbed his quiver from a few feet away, Jason saw for the first time that the quiver was flat and wide and the back of it was covered in pockets, making it look almost like a small camping backpack from the back. He fished out a mesh bag and started stuffing his wet clothes in it before fishing out and donning a pair of black hiking boots and slinging the quiver and bow over his back once more as he held the mesh bag in one hand to help dry the clothes.

“Alrighty now that that's out of the way let's go meet up with the others.” Jason said as Piper and Roy nodded in agreement before they set off towards the horde of campers, arriving at the crowd just as Butch finished cutting the last pegasi free before he sloshed ashore. As they approached Annabeth sprinted over to them from the other side of the lake with startling speed.

“There you guys are, is everyone alright?” she asked, barely out of breath from her run.

“Everybody's fine, worst injury is a case of ruined hair. Though apparently I can fly and Roy can turn invisible-” Jason was cut off as Roy slammed his heel into the top of Jason's foot,

“Dude! Not your secret to tell!” Roy hissed in his ear as he removed his foot from Jason's. Annabeth didn't seem to hear them, having turned and run off to converse with an attractive Asian girl with her dark hair in ringlets and perfect makeup, along with another blonde dude who looked like he belonged in a surfing magazine.

Jason shifted his weight off of his injured foot before they headed to join the crowd, seeing that Leo and Roy's friend had already arrived and were talking with Annabeth. They arrived a few minutes later, pushing through the crowd just in time to see a holographic flaming hammer burst into existence over Leo's head as a collective gasp went up.

Leo however, having not seen the image simply sat there looking bewildered at the astonished faces around him until finally,

“What are you all looking out, is my hair on fire or something?” he asked. Annabeth pointed a finger in reply before he looked up and caught sight of the hammer.

“Leo, you been claimed.” She said, her tone one of awe, despite her years of seeing demigods get claimed.

“By Vulcan it looks like.” Jason said before Roy chimed in,

“God of blacksmiths and volcanoes.” he finished as Annabeth shot them a look that was equal parts suspicion and curiosity.

“Yes... that's right. But we call him Hephaestus, Vulcan is what the Romans called him.” Annabeth explained before turning to the good-looking surfer dude.

“Will, I want you to take Leo, Roy, and Ratonhnhaké:ton on a tour of the camp, We'll have to take Jason to see Chiron,-”

“I'll do it!”the pretty girl with perfect makeup interjected before stepping up to him ans slipping her arm through his and made their way towards a large house up on the hill.

“Alright Drew, you can do that. Piper, why don't you come with me?” Annabeth as Piper nodded in agreement and they all turned and followed their respective guides...

Back at the Grand Canyon...

Haley

Haley turned the shoe over in her hands, it was Jason's, she could feel his life aura still faintly emanating from the shoe. Normally she would say he couldn't be far but there was evidence of demigod activity all over the place, and she couldn't get a good reading on his life aura
anywhere near her.

She was gonna need some help. She glanced over back to the museum entrance she'd just come out of before finding what she was looking for, a water fountain, still functional despite the SUV-shaped path of destruction cut through the middle of the museum. Haley cracked her neck as she turned to face the fountain making sure her black, finger-less gloves were snug before extending one towards the fountain, probably 5 yards away and no one else in sight.
Haley wasn't like a normal child of Pluto, she wasn't great at raising the dead or excavating tunnels and finding gems. No, her powers were a little different, many of her fellow legionnaire's said they were closer to a daughter of Neptune's powers. She, had the power of Stygiokinesis, control of the waters of the Underworld, and with a little work, she could turn normal water into the water of one of the rivers. As she focused and clawed her hand as she focused her will on the unfortunate water pipe as the water inside changed into liquid fire and bursting out the front of the pipe and arcing into a flaming rainbow about a yard in length.


“So. Fucking. Metal.” she said with a grin as she dug in her jacket pocket before pulling out the only trophy Roy had left at Camp Jupiter after the Siege of Mount Othrys had ended. It was a golden apple from the garden guarded by the hundred-headed dragon Ladon. Roy had almost single-handedly defeated the thing while Jason had fought Krios. His combination of active camouflage and photokinetics had allowed him to decapitate the heads up to four at a time.

Unfortunately the apple no longer granted immortality after being soiled by the dragon's foul blood. But still, it was a worthy prize.

“O' Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me the helm of the Queen Anne's Revenge.” Haley said, using the private line Roy had told her about, as she tossed the golden apple into the flaming rainbow as it turned to ash at the flames' touch. The mist shimmered to reveal the upper deck of an old style English frigate, the upper railing lined with what appeared to be Imperial Gold armor plating. She could see the top of an old fashioned sailing ship shaped like and asterisk in a circle, of polished, red Cherry wood. Behind it stood a beautiful young woman, with Spanish features and tanned, flawless skin, and mysterious purple eyes. Her hair was long and lustrous and done in a braid down to her waist.

That was Edith Teach, a Legacy of Ares and daughter of Phorcys, aka Pirate Queen of the Sea of Monsters. A free-roaming demigod that made her living on the sea, hunting down rare monsters in the Bermuda Triangle. She was built like a dancer; long, graceful, and toned, most would think she could be a model...until they took notice of how she dressed.

She was dressed like a half-assed cosplay from Pirates of the Caribbean She had a dramatic-looking leather long coat that flared out at the bottom, like every character in the series had had at one point. On her head she wore an all-black Tricorne hat, and she even sported an eyepatch over her right eye. But underneath that, she wore an exact match to another MCR tee that Haley had actually packed for this quest. She wore normal, if worn, blue jeans under a pair of black leather boots.

She was in the middle of shouting at a young man of about sixteen with handsome Chinese features and cropped brown hair. He had a guilty grin on his face and was dressed in some old-style Chinese armor with a red cape, he also appeared to have a long, furry monkey tail....

The young woman was shouting at him in Chinese, before finally finishing her sentence with a shove that sent him stumbling out of the picture. She turned, finally having fully noticing Haley's presence on her dashboard.

“Ah, Haley. What can I do for you?” she asked with a warm smile. Haley ignored the recent events and decided to get straight to business.

“I need to find a friend of mine. You close enough to swing by and work that tracking magic?” she asked. Edith raised her eyebrow at the question, of course she could do that.

“You need to ask?” Edith replied as she put a hand thoughtfully to her chin. “But, if you can be in New Orleans by tomorrow I can squeeze you in.”

“Sounds good, see you there.” Haley said as she let the vision fade. Edith smiled to herself as she reached down to the broadsword at her side, its pommel decorated with a glowing sapphire.

“ALL RIGHT GUYS, HOLD ON TO YOUR UNDERWEAR!” she shouted over to the deck to a milling mob of undead members of Blackbeards original crew on her ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge and aquatic demigods, ranging from normal teens with gills to a guy named Bill with a purple eel as a head.

“We sail for New Orleans!” She howled as she drew her sword and pointed towards the home of Mardi Gras as the sail unfurled seemingly of their own accord and the frigate took off at full speed as her crew roared in approval, any one could find a good time in New Orleans...

Notes