Penny Ranger and the Lightning Thief

Chapter XXXX: I Interrup My Father's Rehearsal

The Mist is an incredible thing, you know? No matter how many times I witness its effects, it never ceases to amaze me. Well, that combined with mortals' ability to twist and weave the most elaborate and bizarre stories just so everything makes sense in their version of reality. A prime example of this was the aftermath of Percy's battle with Ares.

You see, apparently, teenage delinquent Percy Jackson wasn't a criminal after all. The one responsible for blowing up the Greyhound bus and the St Louis Arch was in fact his captor, Ares.

Percy Jackson was innocent after all, and had instead been trying to escape from Ares the whole time, as he dragged the poor boy on a hellish trip across the country. It all culminated in a final battle on Santa Monica Beach after Percy managed to steal a gun, and it was during that battle that a stray shot from Ares had hit a gas main which caused the explosion near the police vehicles. Still, Percy had managed to beat him and save his three scared friends, though Ares escaped in the wake of the explosion. Honestly, you could make a movie out of this.

The reporters told us the story. All we had to do was play the part of the victimized children and look teary eyed at the camera's. Percy pulled off a phenomenal performance.

"All I want is to see my loving stepfather again." he said while holding back tears.
"Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew... somehow... we would be okay. And I know he'll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los Angeles with a free major appliance from his store. Here's the phone number."

The reporters were so moved, that they began passing around a hat and by some miracle managed to gather enough money for four plane tickets back to New York.

Now, I had never been on a plane before, but given that my dad was Apollo, son of Zeus who also drove a sun chariot through the sky, I wasn't particularly fazed by it. The same could not be said for Percy. The poor boy looked the most afraid I had ever seen him, with his skin a pale white from fright and his hands gripping the armrests so tight it looked like either his arms or the armrests would snap, whichever came first.

When we arrived, there was an army of reporters waiting for us, probably looking to bombard us with questions. The sheer size of the crowd almost made me just want to stay hidden on the plane. Fortunately, Annabeth managed to lead them away with her invisibility cap, eventually meeting us back at the baggage claim.

From there, Percy and I split paths with Annabeth and Grover. Someone needed to go back to Camp and report back to Chiron. And besides, they weren't the ones that had been accused of theft. This was something Percy and I had to do by ourselves. Besides, if somehow Zeus still didn't believe us, we didn't want them to get caught in the crossfire. So we hopped in a taxi and set out for Manhattan.

Thirty minutes later, we were finally in the entry hall of the Empire State Building. Not exactly sure what to do, we walked up to a guard sitting behind a receptionist counter.

"Six hundredth floor." Percy requested.

The guard was reading a book, and it must've been good because it took him a bit to actually lift his gaze and look at us.

"That floor doesn't exist, kid." he said.

"We request an audience with Zeus." I added.

He gave me a confused smile.

"What?"

"You heard me."

For a few terrifying seconds, I was afraid that he was just a regular mortal and was about to call the nearest madhouse to come pick us up. But then he spoke again.