Chapter 1 - Naked Bat Lady

Sitting in his bedroom, Percy Jackson, a twelve year old boy with disheveled jet black hair and sea green eyes stared at his ceiling. It had been one month since his mother died in a car crash and he had been taken under full custody of his step-dad, Gabe Ugliano. It was a harsh reality for Percy to accept but he had no choice as his mother's last wish was for him to live his life.

"But what's life without you mom." Percy said with a stoic expression, all of the tears in his body and soul used and burned.

"Brain Boy! Leave the house for a while! I got a, heh, close friend over." Gabe said, slurring as he pounded on Percy's bedroom door.

Frowning in irritation, Percy got up and opened the door to Gabe walking alongside a woman who looked like a street worker and smelling greatly of alcohol. This angered Percy greatly as this man hadn't even given his mother a week of mourning before going off with random women left and right. All thanks to the money Percy's mother left behind for him, money that he knew he wouldn't be able to touch or see after he reached the age of fourteen.

Forcing himself to calm down, Percy put on his shoes and a blue hoodie before he left the apartment, heading over to the rec center in New York. It was his only place of peace as he quickly showered and got into the pool, the one thing that somehow managed to calm his mind. Almost magically so as he stayed within the water without much trouble in a single breath.

Once the air within his lungs became useless, Percy resurfaced taking deep breaths as memories of his mother appeared in his mind.

"She always did say I had a talent in the water." Percy muttered as he shook his head, about to go back into the water until he was surprised someone who was sitting with their legs in the pool right next to him. "Ahhh!"

"Did I frighten you?" The girl asked with a gentle smile.

Looking at the girl who seemed to be just a little younger than himself, Percy was became paralyzed by an unknown emotion. The girl had fair skin, wearing a brown dress with her skirt dress rolled up over her knees and a scarf over her head that covered most of her brown hair. Her eyes were the most attractive feature as they were red like flames, flickering magically so as Percy was drawn deeper into her gaze.

"I uh. A little." Percy answered after feeling embarrassed staring for so long.

The girl chuckled and for some odd reason, Percy felt at ease, as if he was in his mother's embrace again before the accident. Feeling water dripping from his chin, Percy was confused before he realized he was crying.

"Huh. I thought I ran out of these a few days ago." Percy joked but felt his head pulled into the lap of the girl who combed his hair.

"It's ok to cry. All living beings are born to live and feel emotions, the good and the bad. Just let it all out." The girl said, acting like a switch that released emotions Percy didn't even know he had.

The cried silently in the arms of the girl for an unknown amount of time before his emotions settled and he turned a shade red, pulling away from the girl's lap reluctantly.

"Sorry about crying all over your clothes." Percy said as he rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know what came over me but, thank you for saying that."

The girl smiled before she kissed Percy's forehead, looking into his eyes as she said. "I'm glad you are feeling better."

She then stood up and started walking away, making Percy's gut wrench as he yelled. "My name's Percy! Percy Jackson! What's your name!"

The girl paused and turned around as she smiled, introducing herself. "You can call me Tia."

"Will I see you again?" Percy asked.

Tia hummed as stated. "Perhaps. Do you wish to see me again?"

"I do." Percy answered instantly without pause.

This shocked Tia a little as she chuckled and answered. "Then we'll definitely meet again one day."

With a single blink, Percy found himself alone as if Tia had never existed but within his heart, he felt it wasn't an illusion. It just felt too real and the emotions he experienced moments ago were still fresh in his mind. If it wasn't real then Percy felt he should get it checked out. It wouldn't be a shocker considering he had ADHD and dyslexia all his life. What's one more to the list of problems he had in life.

"At least I finally managed to meet someone nice this year." Percy said as he decided to go back to the apartment, sleeping for the last day of school before spring break.

Luckily that day was a field trip to a museum of some kind.

***** *****

Going to school with the rumors that your mother had died was painful, especially so when Percy could hear everyone whispering about him. He supposed the only good thing from this terrible situation was that the bullies in school left him alone and the ones who didn't were bombarded by the morally high students.

Getting on the bus, Percy saw an older boy named Grover walk over and sit beside him with his crutches in his lap. He had brown hair and eyes, a beard already growing on him like puberty hit him ages ago, and was eating a peanut butter sandwich. What was even stranger was how Grover was repeatedly looking at Percy in the corner of his eye every now and then. As if Percy hadn't already spotted his strange actions.

Remembering the first time they met, Percy couldn't help but wonder if he was trying to be friends before he shook his head. The boy had started the conversation by talking about his dead mom and after that, Percy had gotten into a fight with him. Thinking back on it, Percy could now see how bad it looked as he had punched a crippled kid. Even more so now that Percy understood the boy was just trying to console him. Yet the kid kept on following Percy and made simple conversations whenever he could.

"Not that we could possibly be friends after that." Percy muttered, staring at the academy which was soon left in the dust as the bus drove off.

After about thirty minutes, the other students, teachers, and Percy arrived at the museum where he his mind started doing it's thing with words. Specifically greek words as they started automatically translating like autocorrect on any internet search engine.

"I suppose that's one positive thing that's come from dyslexia." Percy said as he followed the class inside the building.

Once inside, the Class's Latin teacher Mr. Brunner started lecturing the class about Greek gods and Titans, calling upon Percy as he asked. "Percy. Can you please explain why the greek gods and the titans had a great war?"

Sighing at the question as he didn't study anything in his depression, he suddenly noticed the words on the tablet behind Mr. Brunner change as Percy spoke. "They had a war because Kronos the Titan of Time ate his kids in fear of being overthrown."

"Correct." Mr. Brunner said before continuing with the lecture.

The day passed by quickly as it was finally noon and the students were given time to eat and enjoy the weather outside of the museum. Percy sat by the massive fountain architect as he ate his lunch provided by the academy. It wasn't much, just a peanut butter sandwich with milk and cookies but it was more than his usual lunch.

"Oops." A voice said as milk was poured onto Percy's head. "Looks like the milks gone bad."

Looking at the person responsible with anger, Percy found Nancy Bobofit laughing with her friends with an empty carton in her hands. Percy wanted to do something in anger but remembered one of his promises to his mom was to finish his sixth grade without trouble. So he held back his words and actions, simply ignoring the bully of Yancy Academy.

"Not responding? Didn't your mother teach you better than that." Nancy said which snapped Percy's restraint as he got up and was about to act but found something strange.

The water in the fountain reached out and grabbed Nancy by her leg as she was pulled into the water, drenching her completely. Nancy screamed but Percy was simply standing in confusion before Mrs. Dodds, the Math teacher walked over with a smile on her face. A very bad sign as she was a very angry and terrible math teacher.

"Percy pushed me into the fountain!" Nancy yelled.

This broke Percy's confusion but before he could defend himself, Mrs. Dodds scowled. "Come with me boy!"

"Great...." Percy said as he followed his algebra teacher, wondering why Grover was biting into his nails to the bone.

Once inside the museum which was closing, Percy tried to explain again but found that Mrs. Dodds had vanished from his sight.

"Mrs. Dodds?" Percy said, trying to locate the math teacher.

"You've done a bad thing demigod." Mrs. Dodds voice said from up high.

Looking at the source, Percy found her to be standing on a high podium which shouldn't have been possible as just a few seconds had passed since she was in front of him. Percy was just about to ask what she was doing up there until she started ripping her clothes apart, as well as her skin. Large batwings appeared from her back as she charged at Percy with elongated nail claws.

"Ahh!!!" Percy yelled as he jumped aside, evading her attack. "What the hell are you?! What's the deal you naked bat lady... Thing..."

"You should have been studying more in Latin class boy!" Mrs. Dodds, no, the monster said with a chuckle. "Give me the lightning bolt and I'll give you a painless death. After toying with you a little of course."

"I think I'll pass, besides, I don't even know what you're talking about." Percy said as he failed to avoid her arm which shot forward, clasping onto his neck without mercy.

"This will be fun." The monster said with a evil grin.

"Percy!" A familiar voice yelled as Percy turned and saw Mr. Brunner uncap and throw a black pen at him.

Even more confusion set in as the pen slowly transformed into a two edged golden bronze sword and instinctively Percy stretched his hand out and grasped the hilt. With one simple downward motion, Percy slashed at the monster's arm.

"Ahhh!!!" The monster screamed before exploding into golden dust, vanishing as if she hadn't ever existed.

Dropping the sword in his hands, Percy ran away from the scene and outside where the teachers and students were boarding the bus. Looking around, he couldn't help but turn to the teachers and explain the situation with Mrs. Dodds but what he heard wasn't what he had expected.

"Who?" One of the teachers said.

They didn't know of any Mrs. Dodds and when Percy asked about the Algebra teacher who taught at Yancy Academy, he was pointed towards another teacher who he had never seen before. All he could do to not look insane was get inside of the bus and sit down. Grover seeing Percy sighed in relief which made Percy suspicious so he decided to interrogate him.

"Alright. Talk." Percy started.

"I-I don't know what your talking about Percy." Grover said but Percy could tell he was a terrible liar.

"I know you know about Mrs. Dodds being a monster. Why else would you be so nervous when she took me away from the class. Now answer me! What the hell is she? Also, what the hell's a demigod?" Percy said silently but intimidatingly.

"I don't know what you're talking about Percy. We've never had any Mrs. Dodds as an algebra teacher." Grover tried to explain, but he failed as he left a clue to the truth.

"Who said she was an algebra teacher?" Percy stated, knowing Grover had checkmated himself.

".....We can't talk here. Can you wait until after school?" Grover pleaded which made Percy angry but he accepted it for now.

"After school." Percy said as he leaned against the bus window, thinking about what had just happened before he felt something strange in his pocket.

Pulling out the object, Percy found a ballpoint pen with the words Anaklusmos. No, the words were in greek as they slowly translated into the words Riptide. Percy was tempted to uncap the pen like he had seen Mr. Brunner do before but felt it probably wasn't a good idea.

"Just what's going on." Percy couldn't help but wonder as impossible answers appeared in his mind.