A STORM IS BREWING | PERCY JACKSON

Chapter Seventeen

Percy blinked dazedly as he adjusted to his surroundings. His head was pounding and the details of whatever led him to this predicament were hazy. In the back of his mind, he registered the fact that he was wearing his suit. He also heard the AI in his suit informing him of a concussion but it sounded like it was coming from underwater. Or, more accurately, like he was the one underwater and the AI was talking to him from the surface. After a few minutes, the throbbing in his skull subsided to a dull ache and Percy fully opened his eyes to analyze where he was.

The site of boxes and crates sparked the memory of his fight with the Vulture. Peter scrambled up, different scenarios of what could possibly be waiting for him on the other side of those doors playing through his mind. One one hand, the man with wings could have hijacked the truck and brought Peter to his hideout. On the other hand, the man seemed to want to avoid confrontation, based on the way he went for the last truck and didn't blow it up.

Percy resigned himself to the possibility that he might have to fight his way out. He decided to go for a surprise attack. If there were people outside waiting for him, he had the advantage because they didn't know he was awake. He walked to the back of the container and then turned around and ran full speed at the metal doors. At the last second, he shot a web at the roof of the container and used his feet to kick the doors off of their hinges.

He landed in a fighting position before realizing that there was no one around him. He seemed to be in a warehouse that was empty of any people. The only thing he could see was multiple storage containers, like the ones you saw on cargo boats.

Deciding to pretend that he didn't just try to attack empty air- Thalia would have a field day if she found out- Peter moved onto the most pressing issue. "Where am I?"

"You're in the most secure facility on the eastern seaboard," the suit told him. "The Damage Control deep storage vault."

Peter felt pure panic wash over him. When his cousins asked later, he would refuse to admit that he had spent the next ten minutes trying to get the door open with his hands.

"The door will most likely remain closed until morning," she informed him helpfully.

Later, he would also refuse to tell his cousins what happened within the twenty-seven minutes before he finally cracked. It wasn't that bad, in fact, Peter would even say that some good had come out of it. He went through the refresher course on his suit's new abilities (the wings looked the coolest) and he even gave the AI a name.

"Hey, suit lady. I kind of feel bad calling you "suit lady," you know?" he had told the AI, somewhat guiltily. His mother had raised him with better manners, after all. "I think I should probably give you a name, like Liz." He had blanched at the thought a moment later. "No, no, no. Gods, that's weird."

Percy had briefly entertained the idea of calling her Pythia. Naming her after the original Oracle of Delphi, who helped guide demigods on their quests seemed oddly fitting. He had dismissed the idea after another moment of thought. He had left his life as a demigod in the past. Or, he was trying to. He was already being forced into another prophecy so there was no need to remind himself of it even more. Something mortal, with no relation to the gods, would be the best option. He had thought for a minute before the perfect name came to mind. "What do you think of the name Karen?"

"You can call me Karen if you would like," she had approved.

Peter, unfortunately, spent the next twelve minutes lamenting to Karen about his crush on Liz. The only silver lining was that in his pathetic ranting about Liz he got a great idea. He had just commented that it was nice to have someone to talk to when a switch in his brain flipped. He really was a Kelp Head, not that he would ever admit it out loud.