Percy Jackson - The Record of The Journey of a Mortal Who Become a God

By the time, it was morning, but the sky was dark, and thunder rumbled through the hills.

A storm was brewing.

Above the Long Island Sound, the sky looked like a boiling pot of ink.

A misty curtain of rain was approaching the half-blood camp.

At Zeus's cabin, Ikki was still lying on his sleeping bag, unlike his usual mornings.

It had been a while since the day had begun for all the campers. But he decided to stay a bit more relaxed today since he had reached a crucial milestone towards the peak of everything yesterday. It would be nice to take a vacation now, as he was still human.

Humming a tune that wouldn't leave his head, he got up from the sleeping bag and stretched, controlling the weather in a corner of the room to form a cloud that rained warm water to simulate a shower, washed up, and dressed in white sweatpants, a white shirt with a blue jacket over it, and a white cap.

After getting dressed, he calmly stepped out of the cabin and walked through the place he had spent the last few days and had come to call a second home.

His eyes briefly scanned the sky, where a storm was forming.

He knew very well what the cause was; besides the Theft of the Master Bolt, he and his best friend were children of the Big Three.

As he walked through the camp, he noticed a peculiar atmosphere.

Even though he attracted much attention wherever he went — the campers were like moths drawn to a flame — it was still noticeable that everyone seemed... worried.

In volleyball, the kids from the Apollo cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs.

The Dionysus twins were walking through the strawberry fields, making the plants grow.

Everyone was minding their usual business, but they seemed tense. They kept their eyes on the storm and consequently on Ikki as he passed by.

On the way, he met Grover and Percy. The two were coming towards him; the satyr looked worried, and the son of Poseidon seemed nervous.

"Grover, Seaweed Brain. Where are you guys headed?"

Ikki greeted casually and asked, knowing the answer.

Percy grimaced at the nickname, and Grover looked worried.

"Mr. D called you and Percy for a chat. I was just coming to get you..." Grover said, trying not to expose his nervousness and failing miserably.

"Yeah, yeah. Looks like we're on trial." Percy said, a bit unsettled by the atmosphere.

He felt like a criminal going to his trial. As if the last few days hadn't been enough, where he had to face other campers treating him like a plague and avoiding getting close, and a harsh training where everyone kept saying he needed it, as if it were something urgent, preparing a soldier for war.

Ikki rolled his eyes at his friend's drama and said.

"Let's go then..."

Grover thought it would indeed be better for his friend to accompany them and stay by his side. Somehow, it felt safer...?

Even Percy had the same thought, but he didn't nod silently like the satyr; he joked.

"Look, is Superman off duty now? Shouldn't you be out saving people?..."

"Yeah, sure. And you shouldn't be checking yourself in the mirror in your underwater palace, Aquaboy..."

"Aquaboy? Seriously?!"

Percy looked at him strangely, as it was the first time his best friend had used that nickname.

"Yeah, you're Poseidon's kid. That nickname suits you." Ikki said nonchalantly.

"Let's move on; otherwise, Mr. D will be mad at us for being late..." Grover said, interrupting any insults those two were about to throw at each other.

Percy and Ikki just shrugged and followed the satyr. As the three walked, the son of Poseidon couldn't help but ask the satyr.

"Are we gonna need an umbrella?"

Referring to the storm heading towards the camp.

"No..." said the satyr. "It never rains here unless we want it to..."

Percy pointed to the storm and spoke, confused. "So, what the hell is that then?.."

"The Ego King throwing a tantrum over having his toy stolen..." Ikki thought sarcastically.

Grover looked worriedly at the sky and said.

"It will pass around us. Bad weather always does that..."

Though he wasn't sure this time, the storm looked threatening.

Percy eventually believed it when he remembered that since his arrival, the few rain clouds he noticed had skirted around the valley's edges.

The trio walked up to the front porch of the Big House.

Dionysus was sitting at a pinochle table with his Diet Coke, wearing the Hawaiian shirt with tiger stripes, just like the first time Percy met him; Chiron was on the other side of the table in his fake wheelchair, playing against invisible opponents; two hands of cards floated in the air.

"Well, well…" said Mr. D, looking at the two, more precisely at Ikki, his eyes shining for a moment before returning to normal, and looking at Percy, leaving, "I see our little celebrities have arrived..."

Percy tensed.

While he was submerged in discomfort, Ikki stood by his side calmly, with no emotional fluctuation on his handsome face.

As the two had just entered the porch, Mr. D said.

"Come closer…"

He looked deeply at Percy and Ikki before continuing: "Don't expect me to bow before you, mortals, just because Old Bearded Crustacean and Old Dramatic are your parents."

A flash of lightning crackled across the clouds. A thunderclap shook the house's windows.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said, not caring one bit about the threat.

Chiron pretended to be interested in his pinochle cards. Grover shrank against the railing, his hooves tapping back and forth.

Ikki just sighed in his heart at how childish divine beings could be.

"If things were my way…" Dionysus lamented with all his heart, "I would make your molecules burst into flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be free of a ton of problems. But Chiron seems to think that this would go against my mission in this damn camp: keeping you kids safe from evil…"

When he said those words, he had no idea how close to death he was. The moment he tried anything with Percy or Ikki, the God wouldn't even know how he died.

His would-be assassin looked at him with a cold glint in his eyes. Ikki already disliked this useless fat guy, but now he had moved onto his list of someone he wouldn't mind killing and stepping on their corpse.

Percy looked pale at the words of the God of Wine.

"Spontaneous combustion is a form of evil, Mr. D…" Chiron interjected, warning.

"Nonsense…" Dionysus assured, completely sure: "You two wouldn't feel a thing. However, I agreed to restrain myself. But... I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin and sending you to your dad, Joe Jackson, and you, Nikki Malcon, into an owl or some stupid bird…"

At the end of his words, he looked at Percy again, who looked as if he had seen a ghost, increasingly frightened by the possibilities the God had mentioned in front of him, and when the God looked at the other boy, he noticed his lack of reaction and frowned.

"Mr. D…" warned Chiron again.

"Well, fine…" Dionysus relented, letting out a sigh and saying, "There's one more option. But it's an outrageous folly."

He got up, and the cards of the invisible players fell on the table.

"Now, I am going to Olympus. Since I've been summoned to an emergency meeting. If you're here when I return, it won't be good for either of you. Understood?"

This warning left Percy even more scared.

And Ikki even more upset. All of this clown's words in front of him implied that he held his friend's and his lives in his hands. He was indeed a very arrogant and unpleasant guy! He was sure he could kill this useless God with a slap, but he held back from doing so.

Dionysus straightened his shirt and spoke once more, catching the boys' attention.

"And Perseus Jackson, if you're really smart, you'll see that this is a much more sensible choice than the one Chiron imagines…"

Then he picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. Like a credit card or a security pass.

He snapped his fingers.

The air seemed to bend and curve around him. The hefty guy transformed into a hologram, then into wind, and then disappeared, leaving only the scent of freshly pressed grapes behind.

Chiron smiled at Percy and Ikki, but he looked tired and tense.

"Sit down, Percy and Ikki, please. Grover too…" He gestured for the three to take a seat.

Ikki sat calmly, followed by Percy and Grover.

Chiron placed his cards on the table and looked at the two boys.

"Tell me, you two…" he suddenly asked: "What did you think of the hellhound?"

Just hearing the name made Percy shudder, while Ikki seemed pensive.

He didn't think much of the hellhound, as it was the weakest monster he had faced.

"That scared me..." Percy said honestly as he remembered that night of the capture the flag game. "If Ikki hadn't pushed me out of the way and saved me, I wasn't sure I'd be alive."

He looked at his friend with gratitude, as he hadn't had time to thank him properly.

"I just did my job as your friend." Ikki rolled his eyes and spoke to his former Latin teacher, "To be honest, he wasn't much. Compared to the bull-man, the benevolent ones, and that elephant-sized puppy I faced."

Chiron smiled at Ikki's bold words. Following his logic, it was indeed true.

Grover laughed nervously, as he had terrible memories of that day and the guilt for not having done his job properly as a satyr.

"Well, many campers couldn't have done what you did, my boy. But, if you agree to accompany Percy, you both will face worse... much worse, before it's over..." Chiron gave a sad smile to the two boys at the end of his words.

Particularly, he looked at Ikki with a deep glimmer in his pupils.

"Over... what?" Percy asked hesitantly.

"Your mission, of course. Will you accept it?" Chiron asked, bringing his focus back to the boy.

Percy, confused by the immortal centaur's words, glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.

"Um, sir..." Percy said, confused, "You haven't said what it is yet..."

Chiron grimaced deeply and muttered, "Well, that's the hard part, the details..."

A thunderclap erupted across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach.

As far as they could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.

"Poseidon and Zeus," Percy said suddenly. He felt that this mission had to do with that. "They're fighting over something valuable... something that was stolen, aren't they?"

Chiron and Grover exchanged glances.

Chiron leaned forward in his wheelchair and asked curiously, but already predicting the answer in his mind, "How do you know that?"

"The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky have been fighting. Then I spoke to Annabeth, and she had heard something about a theft. And... I've also been having some dreams..." Percy said, confused and a bit hesitant.

"As for that..." Ikki propped his chin on his hand, recalling a dream he had when he accidentally fell asleep a few days ago.

As he read the book that told the story of this world, he knew that this event was called a demigod dream, which gave him prophetic visions about his future. Only that didn't matter much to him at the time.

He decided to explain the most important parts.

"I also had a dream. I was walking on a beach, an unfamiliar city was behind me, and in front of me were two men who seemed to be fighting over something. They both wore flowing Greek tunics, one adorned in blue, the other in green. Every time they fought, lightning struck, the sky darkened, and winds blew..."

He didn't mention the part about the dark voice coming from the ground and it opening up to swallow him, before he woke up with a nymph in front of his face almost kissing him.

After that, it was just him running away from those nymphs.

"Yes, my dream is exactly the same..." Percy said, looking at Ikki in surprise.

The satyr and centaur didn't seem very shocked by this revelation. It was as if they both knew something the boys didn't.

"I knew it..." Grover said with shining eyes.

"Quiet, satyr..." Chiron ordered.

"But this is their mission!!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It has to be!..."

"Only the Oracle can determine that," Chiron stroked his beard and said. "However, you both are correct. Zeus and Poseidon, your fathers, are having their worst fight in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."

Percy laughed nervously. "A what?"

"Don't joke about this..." Chiron warned resigned. "I'm not talking about a jagged piece covered in aluminum foil like you see in school plays. I'm talking about a celestial bronze cylinder of high-grade, sixty centimeters long, capped on both ends with divine-level explosives..."

"Oh..." Percy said stupidly.

"The master bolt of Zeus..." Chiron said, now becoming excited. "The symbol of his power, by which all other bolts are shaped. The first weapon forged by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, which cleaved the summit of Mount Etna and hurled Cronos from his throne; the master bolt, which accumulates enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers..."

"And it disappeared?..." Percy asked, swallowing a gulp of saliva.

"It was stolen..." Chiron said.

"Who stole it?..."

"Who stole it..." Chiron corrected. He pointed at Poseidon's son and spoke calmly. "It was you!..."

Percy blinked, his mouth opened, and he looked completely shocked.