Chapter Text
“I'll be fine mom, we're just going to central park” Percy said to his mother Sally. It was going to be his first time babysitting his little sister out of the house on his own. “He'll be fine sally.'' Paul reassured. “And we'll be meeting him there as well” “I suppose you're right.'' She kneeled in front of Estelle, who was in the doorway with percy. “Be good for your brother okay? Annabeth will be meeting up with us too so you’ll get to see her'' Estelle squealed. “Oooooo, I love Sissy Annie!” she said. Estelle had gotten very fond of Annabeth. She had been spending a lot of time with Percy and his sister. Annabeth was basically a part of the family. Estelle was dressed for an afternoon of play, she wore a yellow dress with sunflowers on it. Her hair was pulled back out of her face with a bright yellow bow. She had yellow running shoes and was ecstatic about going to the park with her brother. Maybe she could introduce him to other 5-year olds! Percy was wearing his usual blue jeans. It was a hot day so he just wore a plain blue t-shirt. It was kind of tight fitting and he knew Annabeth loved it.
They arrived in the park around 1:00. Everything was nice. It was a warm summer day outside. He had taken the weekend off to visit his family in New york. Percy was excited to have Estelle to himself for a bit. Sally, Paul and Annabeth were going to arrive at 3:00 so Percy had Estelle to himself for a while. They started by walking over to the family park. “Percy, where do you go every summer?” Estelle asks. “I go to a very special summer camp, Annabeth goes there too” he responded. They didn't know if Estelle could see through the mist or even if she knew what her brother was; they were all playing it safe until they knew. “Do you and Annie like it there?” she asked, looking up at him. “We do! All of our friends go there.” "Like Hazel?” she asked. She had only met Hazel once and it was very brief. All Estelle knew of her was that she was pretty and was friends with Percy. “Yes, just like Hazel. Remember what she showed you and me?” Percy asked. The last time they had seen Hazel before she returned to camp Jupiter she had shown them something. She said it was an old hand-clap game that she learned back in the 1930’s. It was called ‘Miss Mary Mack’ . Percy had no idea what it was about but Estelle had loved it. Percy even asked Hazel to show him how to do it along with Estelle. “Miss Mack!” she shouted. “You bet! Remember how?” Percy asked her, knowing the answer. “‘course I do” Estelle said with defiance. “Watch” They played many rounds of Miss Mary Mack before Estelle spotted another 5-year old on the playground. “Bye percy! I'm going to play with that boy” she pointed at the little boy on the playground and ran off.
Estelle eventually got bored and ran back to percy. “I'm bored, can we go on a walk?” she pleaded. “Sure sis, lemme just pack up my things” Estelle waited impatiently. Once he was done she practically dragged him along the path. They had only walked for a short distance when BOOM. Behind them on the path a young kid comes running around the corner. He didn't look more than thirteen. He had dark brown hair but the tips of it were dyed neon green. He wore jean shorts and a tattered white t-shirt with seared hems. His dark brown skin was caked in soot, mud and blood; And it looked like his heels were on fire. The kid started running along the path, in percy’s direction. Right behind the kid a huge monster turned the corner. It was very familiar to Percy. It's huge lion head and body with massive fangs, not until it turned the corner completely did he recognize it. It had a snake as a tail and a goat’s head in the middle of it's body. It stood at 20 feet tall. He had seen this monster before; at the St-Louis Arch all those years ago on his first quest. “Not you again!” he shouted at the monster. “I'm trying to have a nice time with my sister then your ass shows up and ruins it! No, this ain't gonna fly.” he announces. Estelle looked up at him, scared. “Why does it have three heads?” she says, wide eyed. ‘Could Estelle see through the mist? Cant wonder that now, there's a monster to fight.’
Percy picks up a huge ball of water from the nearest lake and throws it at the Chimera. He turns to Estelle. “Go okay? Wait for me there. I'll be okay.” he says to her, gesturing to the playground. She runs over, not questioning her brother. Percy sees the Chimera’s eyes track her. “Oh no you don't” he says to it sassily, launching another ball of water in his face. It seemed to stun the monster for a couple seconds. He looked at the kid who was still running towards him. “YO! Kid, what's your name?” Percy shouts at him, drawing his sword. “COLE!” the kid yells back. “That thing has been chasing me for like a week now!” He saw Percy's sword and seemed to know they were on the same side. “Your feet are on fire bro” Percy states, looking down. Cole stops, looking down. He lets out a scream of shock. “Oh my god how did that happen?” Percy summons another, smaller ball of water and throws it at the kids feet. It put out the foot fire which seemed to calm him down. “That thing is a Chimera, we need to kill it” Cole nodded. “I've seen it before but the problem is I got away by jumping off the St-Louis Arch” Cole didn't even doubt the story. “You got a weapon?” Percy asks. “Nope, it kinda burned everything I owned.” he said gesturing towards the Chimera. “That's fine, you have the fire thingy?” he asked. “Yeah but I don't know how to control it” “oh well, Just try kay?” Percy shrugs as he leaps into action.
Because the monster was still disoriented, Percy was able to get in close and stab it in it's front foot with riptide. It bellowed and locked eyes with Percy. “Take that motherfucker!” Percy yells, slashing up it's leg. The goat head in the middle breathed fire at Percy who rolled out of the way. Cole then decided to test his firepower and shot flames at the beast. He was pretty far away so the aim was off, at the same time the monster moved. Half the column of flames that he shot hit the Chimera. The other half hit Percy. “Oh fuck!” Percy yells, stumbling back. At the gate of the park Estelle looks mad. “Percy, stop swearing!” she yells at him, still clearly scared but mad at her brother for his language. “Sorry sis!” he chokes back, his arm had burns all over it. “Oh my god I'm so sorry!” Cole yells at him. “It's fine! It was my left anyway” Percy responds, a smirk on his face.
Percy summons another huge ball of water and throws it at the Chimera, knocking it off it's feet. He then grabs another ball and douses himself in water. His arm starts to feel a bit better but it's short lived. While getting up the monster decided to breathe even more fire at Percy, who was making sure Estelle hadn't moved and wasn't looking at it. Cole runs over and intercepts the column, shielding Percy. “Thanks man” he says to Cole “I don't know why it doesn't hurt” he says looking back at Percy. “You'll find out, my friend Leo does that too, I think you two will be good friends.” he notes. Then the Snake tail decides to shoot poison at the two. They both dodge it. Percy runs over to the snake tail, intending to cut it off. The goat head hasn't recharged it's fire breath yet but a smaller puff of fire comes hurtling towards him and Cole wasn't there to intercept it, he was shooting a better aimed fireball at the lion head. It hit the lion in the face and it roared, hair singeing off it's face. At the same time the goat fire blasted percy in the chest. His shirt caught on fire. “OH SHI- darn!” he yells, still conscious of his little sister watching. He summons a ball of water and douses himself again. This time he actually got soaked. He plunged his sword into the beast’s leg, making it howl and snap at Cole. he then shoves a ball of fire down it's throat liek a basketball.
The snake tail started to wrap itself around Percy, his sword was still embedded in the monster's leg, he was lifted up by the huge poison-spitting snake. Percy managed to get his left hand free. He clutched the head of the snake as he was still being lifted up into the air. He held the snake's head pointed to the sky with his weakened arm. He summoned another ball of water and blasted it into the main body of the monster. It was thrown off balance and the goat's head turned itself to Percy and was about to shoot a final blast. Cole then yells from the side; “Yo! Weirdo, ya like rock?” he hurled a huge ball of concrete straight at the goat’s head. It hit with a sickening crunch. As it's last act before going unconscious it blasts all of it's remaining fire at cole. He may have been immune but the force knocked him down. Estelle, still watching, starts to run over to him. She was a very caring kid and hated when others were hurt. “Estelle no!” Percy yells at her. He said it so loud both her and the monster stopped and looked at him. All the mortals around also glanced over. What they saw he had no idea. From a while behind him down the path he hears another yell. “PERCY” he turned to see who it was. He saw Annabeth, Sally and Paul walking along. Annabeth started sprinting towards them. Drawing her drackon-bone sword which was hanging at her waist. Sally could see through the mist but not as well as a demigod. It took her a couple more seconds to realise what was happening. She turned to Paul and told him. “Get Estelle!” he yells at them. The surprise of them being there had made Percy’s grip loosen on the poison-snake tail. It twisted and faced Percy. Annabeth races up to it and stabs it in another leg. It howls and the snake turns to her. She quickly dodges the poison and runs under the monster. Slicing along it’s stomach. She leaps up and lobs off the snake's head. The snake went limp and Percy fell 20 feet to the ground. The montret toppled. Sally and Paul scoop up Estelle from in front of the dazed lion head and run to the side where Cole was sprawled on the ground. His hands were on fire so that was a good sign. Annabeth looks down at percy. His shirt had been almost completely burned off. The tips of his hair were singed. His torso was covered in burns and blisters, his left arm the worst. “You really couldn't handle being alone with Estelle for two hours, Could you?” she says, reaching down and pulling him to his feet. “Okay, that was not from me. We have a new friend here and, heads up, he doesn't know anything.” he says, gesturing to the small boy on the ground, his feet still on fire. Annasbeth nodded and asked “Shall we finish the job?” Looking at the dazed lion head. “Would you like to do the honours, wise girl?” he says, stooping to a bow. “Of course, Seaweed-brain” She walks over and gives it a deadly stab to the heart, it dissolves into dust and they walk over to join the others.
They all go to sit on the shore of the closest lake. Percy carries Cole over, he’s still near-unconscious. He douses his feet in water so they wouldn't burn the grass. They all sit in a circle, percy sitting cross-legged in the river, healing his burns. “Percy what happened?” Sally asks, looking at his shirt, which has more holes than fabric. He recounts the story to them, filling them in on Cole and his mysterious appearance. Annabeth gets some ambrosia out of her bag and feeds it to the two boys. Cole regains consciousness and looks around. “Who are you, why are you sitting in the pond?” he asks Percy. “Well, I’m Percy, son of Poseidon; The Greek gods are real. And you're a child of Hephaestus I'm guessing.” “Percy! You can't just say that, who are you though?” she asked, turning to Cole. “I'm Cole, I ran away at eleven, now I'm 13. I don't know who Hephaestus is though'' he replies. “Well that'll be explained when we get to camp.” Annabeth says. “Oh right!” Percy says, turning to his mom and Paul. “I think Estelle can see through the mist,” he says. Then Estelle asks; “Mommy, what was the big monster?” “ I think you may be right,” Sally responds, looking at Estelle.