Percy looked down in sorrow when Thalia put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and she spoke, "relax Percy, nothing is going to happen to me."
"How are you so sure?"
Thalia's smiled as she gave him a kiss on the check, "because you promised me you will help me save the world."
Percy blushed red at the contact, "y-yeah I guess I did."
The two then got up and quickly walked towards the party. They were a few blocks away when they heard two very familiar and annoying voices.
"You two!"
Percy and Thalia turned around to see the two blonde chicks from before, only this time they weren't alone. Next to them were two seriously buff looking guys with tight shirts and veins going along their muscles.
Percy and Thalia rolled their eyes as the daughter of Zeus spoke up, "oh it's you two again. What do you want now?"
"They are the ones who kicked us out of the concert!" one of the bimbos complained to her boyfriend, a guy with too much hair gel on his head and a tight pink shirt.
"These kids ran you out? Come one babe stop jokeing," the guy said.
"We aren't!" the other one said, "those two embarssed us!"
"Well you were sitting in our seats," Percy said making them even angrier.
"You little shit!" the first girl said as she turned to her boyfriend, "sweetie could you please teach them a lesson?"
The boy sighed, "honey they are just little kids. It wouldn't be fair."
"But sweetie they have two platinum passes!" the girls shred, and I want those passes!"
"Yeah so do I!" the other blonde yelled at her boyfriend, "get them before they do!"
Percy sighed and turned to Thalia, "let me handle this."
"You sure?" Thalia asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Percy said nodding, "it's been a long time since I got into a straight up fist fight."
Percy walked forward and so did the other buff guys. The looked down at Percy and the pink shirted one sighed, "look little man, I don't want to hurt you. So be a good little kid and give me those passes and I won't hurt you."
Percy raised an eyebrow, "little? I wasn't so little when your girlfriend offered to ride in in the bathroom in exchange for tickets."
"What?!" the man yelled turning to his girlfriend. Thalia snickered as the blonde bimbo tried to calm her boyfriend down.
"Just give me the damn tickets!" the other guy yelled out.
"I don't' want to," Percy replied cleaning his ears of wax.
The man grabbed Percy's collar and pulled him up, "listen brat I am trying to be nice. Okay? So just give me-" Percy lifted his leg straight up hitting the man between the legs.
The roided out muscle builder went stiff for a second. He let go of Percy's shirt and then promptly fell sideways holding his testicles in his hands.
"Jakey!" the girl shouted rushing to her boyfriend's side.
The pink shirted man now lookied piss, "did you just hurt my bro?!"
The man charged forward and threw a punch. Percy caught it with his superior reflexes and with his strength bent the arm sideways locking the man's elbow.
"Say uncle," Percy said putting pressure on the man's elbow.
"Fuck off!" e cursed. Percy then lifted his leg and pressed it down on the man's back applying more pressure.
"Say uncle!"
"Stop! Please!"
"Say uncle fucker!"
"Uncle! Uncle!"
Percy smiled and let go of the man's arm. The pink shirted idiot subbed his shoulder as he tried to get up when suddenly Percy's foot came crashing into his head knocking the man unconscious.
"Johnny!" the other bimbo said as she rushed to her boyfriend. She looked pissed as she turned to Percy pulling out her cell phone, "I'm going to call the cops!"
Thalia laughed, "yeah, you do that." The demigoddess then sent a small bolt of electricity at the mobile phone short circuiting it.
Percy and Thalia left the four adult behind walking towards the after party, "you sure it was a good idea using your powers?" Percy asked.
Thalia nodded, "it won't be a problem. The Mist will hide it. And even if it didn't who would believe her? They would just chalk it up to seeing things while drunk."
Percy nodded and the two quickly arrive at their destination. The place looked like a local pub but was surrounded by people trying to get in. Percy and Thalia had to wait in line for 10 minutes before they managed to get in.
Inside was filled with people all drinking, dancing and having a good time. Most were dressed up like Thalia and Percy, leather jackets and jeans. However most had their hair dyed and a piercing or two.
"What exactly are we supposed to do?" Percy asked.
"There," Thalia said pointing at the band standing on the center of the room. There wasn't any fancy lights or any fancy sound systems. They were just playing, and people were just having a good time.
Thalia and Percy managed to push through and reach the front as they sang along to the songs the band played. The magic and the energy of the concert was easily captured in the small place. Everyone was hear to listen to music and have a good time.
The band eventually stopped playing and instead began to talk and interact with the fans. Immediately everyone tried to get a chance to talk to them, but Percy wasn't interested.
Thalia had gone off on her own to try and get one of the band member to autograph her bracelet. Yes, you heard that right. The daughter of Zeus wants to get a mortal to sign the shield of Aegis. Just let that sink in for a second.....okay? Okay.
Percy went to the side of the room towards the bar. Of course he didn't order anything alcoholic, he was planning to run back to camp and he didn't want to risk not being in a proper state of mind.
He got a glass of coke and sat down in a comfy chair next to a group of punkish looking people all sitting around smoking cigarettes.
"So did you guys hear about the hostage thing yesterday?" asked a tall thin woman with bright green hair.
"You mean the one in the Bronx that the police tried to stop?" another one said picking Percy's interest, 'are they talking about me?'
The girl, whose name Percy knew to be Cassie, shook her head, "no. That's just a cover up story man. I know somebody whose uncle's daughter was held up in the KFC. And she swears that the police didn't actually save her."
"Really Cassie?" one of the other girls asked rolling her eyes and taking a drag out of her smoke, "what do you think happened this time? Aliens? Monsters?"
"No, a superhero," Cassie said with a big smile.
Percy almost spat out his drink in super, 'superhero?! I'm a fucking superhero?!'
"Okay who gave Cassie weed?" a man complained.
"I'm serious guys!" Cassie insisted, "the guy who saved them was a superhero! He had yellow helmet, a black leather jacket and a pair jeans on. From what everyone is saying he just appeared out of nowhere, took down the bad guys in the blink of an eye and then beat up five armed thugs!"
Percy was surprised so much detail of his fight got around so fast. Maybe next time he shouldn't have made such a scene.
"Did anyone other than your uncle's daughter seen the dude?"
"Yeah, the 8 other hostages there plus the cops!"
"Cassie if the cops knew why wouldn't they tell people? Like wouldn't they want the public to know someone else did this?"
"Why would they? It would make them look incompetent!" Cassie shouted back, "this guy, this.... Phantom, is probably the first ever superhero in the world guys. And he showed up here!"
Her friends laughed or rolled their eyes at the girl, but Percy was serious. 'Okay, I am definitely not doing the whole superhero things again. Too much attention. Plus, Phantom? Really? Such a lame ass superhero name.'
Percy then drank the rest of his coke and set out to find Thalia. He walked all over the place, but he couldn't find her anywhere. 'Shit, don't tell me I lost her,' Percy told himself as he tried to find the band members, maybe they saw.
Percy quickly found them in the back. They were surprisingly laid back for a bunch of world famous musicians. Percy have expected them to be knee deep in drugs and strippers but all four members just sat down with a cigar in their hands and a beer in front of them.
Perc tired to approach them, but a security guy stepped in front of him, "you can't go in there kid."
"I just want to ask them something I promise I won't be long," Percy replied.
"No kid," the man said as he tried to push back, only Percy didn't budge an inch. The gaurd looked stunned as he tried to put more and more pressure on Percy, but the demigod didn't move an inch, "what are you?"
Percy shrugged, "a Green Day fan."
"Hey Nick what are you doing?" Mike Dirnt, the bass player of the band asked.
"I'm just getting rid of this kid sir."
"What does he want?"
"Ah, he said he want's to ask you all something."
Mike turned to his band members and they all shrugged. He turned to Nick, "let him through."
The body gaurd nodded and turned to Percy, "it's your lucky day kid."
"Gee, thanks," Percy replied as he walked passed the man and towards the band member, "ah, hello."
"Sup?" Billie Joe, the singer of the band asked. He had eyeliner under his eyes and gel was used to spike his head.
"Ah, I was just wondering wether you guys saw a girl, about my height, blue highlights, probably asked you to sign her bracelet?"
"And if we did?" Mike asked.
"Ah, could you tell me?"
"Depends," Billie Joe took a drag from his cigarette, "what do we get in return?"
Percy raised an eyebrow, "what do you want?"
The band members looked at each other and shrugged. Billie Joe looked at him, "tell me a story."
Percy looked surprised, "a story? You want a story?"
They nodded, "yeah....why what did you think we wanted? Money? Neah kid, tell us a story"
Percy shrugged and sat down. He wondered for a second what story to tell them, when he got an idea. "This story starts in a school, it was a boarding school for the specially gifted. Everyone here was special in someway, some were thieves, some were fighters and some.....some didn't belong. And in that school there was a boy, and very special boy, and his name was Peter Johnson. And he was the son of Poseidon."
Percy then began to tell them his story, of how he found out he was a demigod, how he went to camp and how he saved his mom's life. He never gave details, over anything important, like his Gaming powers. But he did tell them the highlights.
By the end of the story all the band members were on the edge of their seats. They were excited, their beer untouched, their cigars un dragged. Percy had them between their fingers.
"-and so the boy lived in camp. He had saved his family and the Gods forgave him for bringing back the dead. And all was well."
Billie Joe was the first to speak, "woah."
"That was the best story ever," said Mike, "you should totally be a storyteller man."
Percy smiled, "thanks."
"Wait," Jason, the lead guitarist said, "what happened to Luke?"
Percy shrugged, "I don't know," Percy hadn't told the whole story, he never mentioned Luke joined forces with the bad guys. That just seemed...disrespectful.
"You can't just leave us hangin like that!" Jason shouted, "what happened next?!"
"I don't know," Percy simply replied.
"Come one man! You're killing us!"
"Hey, you said one story. And I told you the story."
The band member sighed as Mike spoke up,"yeah, your right. A deal's a deal. I think that girl you mentioned went to the bar. I think she got roped into a drinking game with some college kids."
"What?!" Percy shouted.
"Relax man, I'm sure she's fine."
Percy started to panic, "oh I am in so much to shit. Her dad is going to kill me if he found out I let this happened!"
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that? No, just my cousin."
"Then it'll be fine. What's the worst that can happen?"
And image of Percy getting zapped by a large thunder cloud came into mind. Percy gulped and stood up fast, "okay, I really have to go. It was nice talking to you guys!"
"Wait," Billie Joe called out causing Percy to stop, "here take this. Think of it as a thank you from us for an awesome story."
The singer took off a chain he was wearing and threw it to Percy. It was a skull with red eyes with crossbone behind it. Percy smiled and tucked it into his pocket, "thanks."
The band waved him away and the demigod quickly ran towards the bar. He searched for minutes and then suddenly, "drink up losers!" Percy recognized Thalia's voice.
He ran to the source, there was a large group of people before him, but Percy managed to squeeze through. He found Thalia standing in front of a beer pong table with half of her cups gone. Her opponent on the other hand, a blonde dude with a beanie, had no cups. He fished his last cup of beer and promptly fell backwards.
"Fuck yeah!" Thalia yelled out, "the lightning queen rules!"
Percy stepped forward out of the crowd, "Thalia what the hell are you doing?"
The daughter of Zeus turned to Percy and smiled, "Peercy! What's up dude?!" Percy could see the redness in her face and the slur in her voice.
Percy sighed, "you're drunk."
"No man! I'm good!" Thalia said taking a beer cup and chugging it down in one swing before burping, "see?"
"Okay, that's it, I'm taking you home," Percy walked up to Thalia but just then a couple of college guys stepped in front of Percy blocking his way.
"Nah ha little dude," a tall guy with with a tight shirt said, "little miss is staying with us."
Percy raised an eyebrow, "you guys do know she's underage right?"
The guys looked surprised and turned to Thalia, "how old are you?"
Thalia burped again as she put her head on the table, "I don't know. How old did I say I was?"
"Ah, 21?"
"Then I'm 21!"
The guys shrugged before turning to Percy, "good enough for me."
Percy sighed, "look she's obviously lying. Let me just take her home-"
"-Oh yeah? What are you her boyfriend?" the biggest one asked sneering at him, "do you even know her?"
"She literally said my name."
"Yeah? So? Percy is a very common name."
Percy sighed, "I really don't have time for this."
"Yeah then fuck-"
BAMN!
Percy smashed the man's head into the plastic table breaking it in half. Beer and cups flee everywhere as Thalia shot up straight with her eyes widened in surprise. Percy then turned to the others, "move or I'll do the same to you."
The immediately walked away and Percy grabbed Thalia and helped the girl outside. He took her into an alleyway and by that time she was already asleep. Percy carefully put her inside his inventory and took off for camp.
