Heroes of Olympus Series. Annabeth Chase X Male Reader Story

Becoming an Aquarium Exhibit

Percy's POV

Percy climbed from the deck and said, "Wow." They had landed near the summit of a forested hill. A complex of white buildings, like a museum or a university, nestled in a grove of pines to the left.

Below them spread the city of Atlanta—a cluster of brown and silver downtown skyscrapers two miles away, rising from what looked like an endless flat sprawl of highways, railroad tracks, houses, and green swathes of forest.

"Ah, lovely spot." Coach Hedge inhaled the morning air. "Good choice, Valdez." Leo shrugged. "I just picked a tall hill. That's a presidential library or something over there. At least that's what Festus says."

"I don't know about that!" Hedge barked. "But do you realize what happened on this hill? Frank Zhang, you should know!" Frank flinched. "I should?" "A son of Ares stood here!" Hedge cried indignantly.

"I'm Roman...so Mars, actually." "Whatever! Famous spot in the American Civil War!" "I'm Canadian, actually." "Whatever! General Sherman, Union leader. He stood on this hill watching the city of Atlanta burn." 

"Cut a path of destruction all the way from here to the sea. Burning, looting, pillaging—now there was a demigod!" Frank inched away from the satyr. "Uh, okay." "Yeah, what a role model." (Y/N) said, rolling his eyes. 

Percy didn't care much about history, but he wondered whether landing here was a bad omen. He'd heard that most human civil wars started as fights between Greek and Roman demigods. Now they were standing on the site of one such battle. 

The entire city below them had been leveled on orders of a child of Ares. Percy could imagine some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood giving such a command. Clarisse La Rue, for instance, wouldn't hesitate. But he couldn't imagine Frank being so harsh.

"Anyway," Percy said, "let's try not to burn down the city this time." The coach looked disappointed. "All right. But where to?" Percy pointed toward downtown. "When in doubt, start in the middle."

They began walking down the hill, ready to start their search, but one of them was given pause, "Come on cupcake I want to see high knees!" Hedge shouted at (Y/N) as he paused on the side of the hill. A worried expression plastered on his face. 

"Look guys, I know finding saltwater is really important for whatever reason, but do you mind if we make a quick detour. This place is giving me a weird feeling and I want to get to the bottom of it." (Y/N) said.

He looked at Percy for approval, "What's wrong?" Percy asked, "Remember during the lightning bolt quest, when we were walking around LA. It's like that." (Y/N) elaborated, "Like I looked at the city and got chills, like the winds blowing past me."

Percy thought back. "That was where we found DOA Records. You don't think they have a branch here or something." "That place has a branch everywhere. But yeah, that's what I'm worried about."

Percy trusted (Y/N), after knowing him for so long, he understood his friend well enough to know (Y/N) wouldn't have brought it up if it wasn't important. "Okay, if you say so, you and Hedge can go scope the place out."

"No, I think I need Frank with me on this one." (Y/N) insisted, not that Percy blamed him, "If you don't mind." He turned to Frank hopefully, "I have no idea what any of that meant, but I'll go."

Percy nodded, "Ok, me and Hedge will go looking for clues around salt water, you guys go do...whatever it is you want to do, we'll meet back here in fifteen. Or if we see any explosions." (Y/N) nodded. "Sounds like a plan gills."

(Y/N)'s POV

"A plan to get me pulverized..." Percy said under his breath as he and hedge crossed the road together and the satyr looked ready to charge into oncoming traffic for a chance to fight some road raging mortals. "Lead the way." Frank smiled.