Athos opened his eyes to find himself in a somewhat familiar environment. Tall trees surrounded him in all directions, making it look similar to the forest where he fought his first monster, the Blemmayae. He gave out a chuckle as the image of the overly polite monster popped up in his head. That encounter was what truly woke him up to the fact that he was in a different world.

He took in his surroundings and quickly scaled up the tallest tree near him to get a better idea of where he was, and much to his surprise and delight, he found out that wasn't in a forest, but a park. It was quite early in the morning and he could see people jogging, some wearing sweatbands, and a few old people sitting on benches, grumbling about something. It seemed to be a normal morning, with normal people doing normal things, which he hadn't seen for over 12 years. Faint bits of nostalgia welled up in his heart, but he pushed it away. This was a new life with new goals, and he wouldn't stop until he achieved them.

He first went through his mental to-do list.

Find out what year this was.

Get a watch.

Get a Map.

Find Nereus.

He direly needed a map for he would practically be stumbling about in the dark in the mortal world. As far as he knew, there were currently no smartphones or anything remotely like Google Maps. He couldn't use them anyway, lest he wanted to get swarmed by bloodthirsty monsters. He jumped down the tree and walked onto the footpath, a tall white tower coming into view. He even spotted a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus in the middle of the park. Perhaps the statue was an automaton created and placed by Daedalus, like the ones Percy and his friends used in the Battle of Manhattan. He looked around him and realised had no idea where he really was, so he made a beeline to one of the many small shops that were present outside the park. Although he had been to San Fransico before in his past life, it was for a fight and he didn't go sightseeing, for he didn't have any interest in that.

He cursed his past self and walked into an odd shop that seemed to sell a little bit of everything. It had a musty smell and a wizened old man, who looked as though he could die any second, sat at the counter, a long white beard covering most of his face. Ignoring Gandalf, he looked around the store finding toys, stationery, 8-balls, cigarettes, newspapers, notebooks and a long list of things which he didn't recognize.

"Anythin' catch yer eye?", a heavily accented voice spoke out from behind him.

"You have today's newspaper?", Athos replied, turning around and finding the old man staring at him.

"We sure do, laddie. Anythin' else?"

"A map of the city and a watch. How much for all of them put together?"

"Cheapest I can do is 30 dollars."

"Good enough."

Athos quickly slapped 30 dollars on the counter and left the store with a map, a newspaper and a black watch strapped to his wrist. He had quite a bit of mortal money to spare. His dad had given him 5 grand or 5000 dollars. It wasn't enough to survive alone for years, but it would do for now.

The first thing he did after taking a step out of the store was open the newspaper to find out where he was in the timeline. He could've indeed used his phone to find out the date, but he didn't want to take any risks and although he did have the phone on the island, the date was blurred when he checked it. Probably his father's way of getting back at him for pestering him way too much about what year it was.

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His eyes flicked to the top of the newspaper and he swore out loud, earning some displeased looks from the people on the streets.

2/2/2002. That was the date that was written in the newspaper. He knew things were going a little too smooth and had a feeling that something would go wrong. This was it. Percy, the protagonist was currently only 9 years old, oblivious to the fact that he was a demigod and the first book hadn't even started. Athos would have to go through the Titan War, the second Gigantomachy and the whole fiasco with Triumvate Holdings and the God-Emperors. Oh, what a headache!

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming himself.

'One step at a time, Athos. One step at a time. Finding Nereus is a priority', he told himself, his eyes stone-cold. He had a hard journey in front of him, not that he expected any less. Becoming a God would not be a cakewalk whatsoever.

He threw the newspaper into a nearby bin and looked at his map, searching for his location, using the tower and the park as references. A few minutes later, he had a better idea of where he was. The park was located on a hill and was named 'Pioneer park'. It was quite close to the docks and was one of the best places he could have been teleported to. It was probably merely a half-hour walk away.

'Did father know I was searching for Nereus?', he thought. He had never told his father that he was searching for the sea deity, and thus, could be a coincidence, but in a world of Gods and monsters, coincidences were scarce.

Mentally thanking his dad once again, he put his map in his backpack and prepared for a long walk, but just as he was about to set off, he noticed something odd. The people on both sides of the streets looked a bit...off. Their eyes were unfocused, yet they continued walking by as though it were normal.

'This isn't right...The mist is definitely at work here', he thought, tensing up. The mist was what hid the magical and mystical from the mortals. It could make a celestial bronze sword look like a baseball bat. It wasn't foolproof though, as some mortals were born 'clearsighted' and could see through the mist, able to see the world's true nature.

He looked around for the source of the magical disturbance, his finger rubbing his ring, ready to burst out into action. He looked to his right and spotted a tall man in a black suit walking on the footpath on the opposite side of the street. His eyes were of different colours, one brown and another blue. He was sneering at the passing mortals as though they were beneath him. He was followed by two kids, one boy and one girl, who didn't look a day older than 10 and were both shivering in fear. A long, spiked scorpion tail extended out from his back, the black shell gleaming in the sunlight.

'Shit!', Athos thought, his eyes flashing with recognition. The man was most definitely a monster and the kids were probably demigods. He didn't know why a monster was kidnapping demigods instead of just eating them. Was Kronos already recruiting demigods to his cause?

The man looked awfully similar to Dr Thorn with his heterochromia and insectoid tail. He was a manticore, a monster with a human face, a lion's body and a scorpion's tail. They were incredibly strong and Athos didn't know whether he could take one on solo. Even Percy couldn't take one down when he was 14 years old, and was captured instead.

He quickly ducked back into the shop behind him, his heart pounding, hoping the monster wouldn't catch his scent. He felt bad for the demigods but he definitely wouldn't risk his life to save them. Perhaps if it was a cyclops, he would've considered it, but he didn't know how he would fare against a manticore. He valued his life too much to experiment with it.

"Eh? Yer back? No refunds, laddie!", the old man behind the counter said, surprised to find Athos back in his shop.

"I'm not here for refunds, I-

*Ting*

Athos' sentence was cut off by his phone buzzing in his backpack. He frowned and took it out, feeling confused, because he could've sworn that he had his notifications off. He turned his Nokia on and opened the message he received.

The top of the message had a picture of a hammer and a forge.

[ Help them. You won't regret it. ]

Athos' pupils trembled. It was the symbol of Hephaestus, the God of blacksmiths and Fire.