Chapter Text
The talk of a new hotshot in the Natural Disaster detection world was already rare. The new discoveries would always give incremental gains and were not always reliable, but this kid came and showed up everyone that had been working in the field, hence, the forums took notice.
The news that he was transferring to the New York branch of Dare Early Detection Centre (DEDC) from California, had caught their ears as soon as the news had been made public.
Riya, who had a bright idea, decided to approach the group and said “Guys, who wants to bet on how the new guy will be like? 20 bucks per bet.”
“Riya, is it even ethical to be doing this behind his back? The last time you did this, it did not go over well.” Said Raj, the cousin that loved to oppose anything she wanted to do just to annoy her.
“I bet he’s an academic. Behaves like a refined gentleman that would not want to want to engage in any of your shenanigans” claimed Claire, Raj’s partner and also the first person to be hired into the New York branch very shortly after it’s creation. “That’s mine and Raj’s bet, now go and leave me alone.”
“Don’t encourage her, she’s going to annoy me about this, not you, she actually likes you.”
“This is the most efficient way to shut her up, I would just go along with it if I were you”
The couple continued to bicker as Mark, just to annoy Claire, opened up “He’s probably a very chill skater guy that has a lot of money behind him. Considering the fact that DEDC is a private establishment, they could’ve made up the story of his achievements to raise shareholder prices and get a more lucrative deal from the government.”
“I agree with you Mark, but I feel like he could be a genuinely smart person with a lot of money.” Said Riya, marking down her friend’s opinions.
“Gwen, what about you, what do you think?” Riya asked. Gwen was one of their more interesting friends. She was weirdly addicted to Roman mythology and seemed to be Pagan, but there were no signs of her Paganism in her house from what anyone could tell. Gwen immediately, with a knowing smile, said “He’s the son of a Greek god, considering the fact that he’s called ‘Perseus Jackson’…”
“Gwen, let me stop you right there, the adults are having a discussion about important stuff. We can...” He stopped as she lobbed a stress ball at Raj, who seemed to have suddenly become interested in the discussion. They continued to bicker as the day went on.
It had been a week since they had started their little bet and Perseus Jackson was supposed to join the office today. Both Mark and Riya approached the other three with a smug grin on their face as it was already 9:45 am and there was no sign of him.
As they were discussing the reasons for his tardiness, they heard the roar of an unfamiliar engine, that seemed to come out of nowhere. The noise shook the whole building, and as soon as it stopped, the atmosphere changed. The air in the room became more damp as an unfamiliar energy clung to it, and as he got closer to the room the water in their bottles vibrated more. The moment he flung the door, it suddenly became dry again and the buzzing had stopped, but the energy in the room shifted to an almost godly feeling. Since everyone was awestruck by his presence and no one bothered to approach him, he started to speak up in a voice that enchanted everyone in the room with awe and fear of the man before them.
“Hello everyone, I am Perseus Jackson. Sorry for being late on the first day, I got stuck in New York traffic. Could any of you lead me to Ms. Dare’s office. She had requested me to show my face before I interacted with you”. It took a couple of moments for Riya to recover as Claire volunteered to show him Ms Dare’s office, as she usually does.
“I think the adults need to pay the child.” Said Gwen, smiling smugly as they all retorted. “That’s not true, me and Riya are pretty close to it, plus everyone knows the gods aren’t real. There is no proof they exist.” And it was surprisingly Riya that shushed them, mainly because she couldn’t understand what had happened, but also because she heard them approach.
“As I mentioned, I am Claire, these two chuckleheads are Riya and Raj. Sitting next to Riya is Claire and the last one here is Mark. We’re a pretty small group here, but we can’t wait to learn more about you.”
“Hey guys, as I mentioned, I’m Perseus Jackson, but please call me Percy. I am pure Homegrown New York and went to Uni in California.” Everyone seemed transfixed by what he had to say. He spoke with such authority that if he told you to fight someone, you would just follow his words, no questions asked.
They spoke a bit more about each other’s lives and decided to let him get settled in.
In the following weeks, after the bizarre introduction to the man that is Perseus Jackson, he seemed to fit right into their tiny group of misfits, and as they learned more about him, the more chill he seemed. Percy turned out to be quite the troublemaker at school. He mentioned a lot about his time going to multiple different schools after getting expelled for the most random reasons. He seemed to be pretty close friends with Ms. Dare and they both were the reason Dare Industries even started this subsidiary. He seemed to be extremely good at reading people, but was oblivious to when anyone was hitting on him, which was constant and everyone was, mostly subconsciously, hitting on him.
They also learned a lot about his family. His mother, step-father, half-sister and wife. They learned about all of them through pictures he carried on him, since he didn’t carry a smartphone anywhere and used a flip phone, which he said was purely for emergencies, although he used to spend a lot of time outside speaking to multiple people before coming in, monitoring the equipment and data for a few minutes and making a prediction that would come true, even if there were no signs at all from the equipment that the conditions would develop into a storm. The most annoying part was, everything he said or did, furthered Gwen’s lead in the betting pool. It also turned-out Gwen and Percy had gone to the same Uni, though they had taken different classes initially and Percy graduated two years after Gwen, but he was still a bit of a legend around there, which is the main reason she had come up with the theories she did.
The whole ordeal with Percy was a really strange one and no one knew what to make of him, but everyone was excited to work with the enigmatic, charismatic character that was Perseus Jackson.