Percy Jackson, the Son of Olympus: The Lightning Thief

| Chapter VI || "Fooled You!" |

*December 21 XXXX*

***

When the gods finally did show up, Apollo looked around and sighed, noticing the absence of his twin. "Great－now Arty is missing." The other Olympians and the demigods looked around as well, noticing the Moon goddess's absence after her twin mentioned it.

Percy then thought it was a good time to start the prank. He looked over at Artemis, and she looked back at him. He smirked and motioned his head to the rest of the room as if asking what she thought. She nodded back and Percy put the megaphone in front of his mouth.

He waved his hand and a black vortex appeared in the middle of the throne room. All attention turned towards the swirling blackness.

Then Percy spoke, "I see you have figured out who my heir is. I would congratulate you, but it took far too long, he has been by your side for so long yet you fail to notice anything that happens among your family," he said.

The megaphone contorted his voice and made it sound ancient. It sounded like sand falling, the grains rubbing against each other loudly as they moved.

Zeus, not using his brain to figure out who was talking, lifted his master bolt and pointed it at the vortex. "Who are you? Tell me now so I won't have to destroy you!" he demanded. It may have been not the best reaction, but Zeus was paranoid. First, Poseidon's son－and his favourite nephew－disappeared, and then his own daughter vanished into thin air.

Percy replied in a calm tone, almost amused. "Oh, that won't do. Instead, I'll share a piece of advice. The mind is your most powerful weapon. Hiding behind bronze or gold is simply another way of saying that you are not intelligent enough to get yourself out of a situation. Only the weak-minded result to fighting. Wisdom comes with age; you must learn from experience. Usually, I would encourage others to work with their mind more, but it seems that it is far too late to teach you," he said.

Percy turned away from the megaphone, covering it with his hand as he chuckled lowly at Zeus' face. Artemis was also having trouble containing her laughter. Zeus' face was bright golden with rage. If he were in a cartoon, he would have steam shooting out of his ears. The gold tint made him look ridiculous because it made his look like an angry metal statue.

Percy snapped his fingers quietly and a beam of black energy shot at Zeus' hand. It struck his master bolt, but it didn't seem to do anything. Zeus didn't even look, so that meant that the invisibility charm that Percy had placed on the beam had worked.

Zeus then aimed his bolt at the vortex again. He was beyond angry. "You have made a fatal mistake mocking me. Prepare to be destroyed!" he bellowed.

"Ah. Ah. Ah. Don't be so hasty Zeus," Percy replied.

Zeus fired anyway. Unfortunately for him, it didn't work. Instead of a bolt of lightning coming out of the end, Zeus' weapon just exploded with a large force of electricity. When the explosion faded, the metal was fried and burst open at the end. Zeus－along with the others in the room－stared at it in shock.

"Now Zeus, you should learn to choose your enemies. That is merely a fake that I switched for your real master bolt. Take better care of your possessions next time. Here is the true master bolt," Percy said, making the real master bolt appear, floating next to the vortex. He had switched it with an exact replica, using the beam of light.

"Now that you no longer have dangerous objects in your hand, I shall introduce myself. I am Chaos; Lord and Creator of the Universe," Percy said.

The gods and demigods immediately bowed to the vortex, while Chiron simply kneeled since it was pretty hard to bow with horse body.