Percy the Overlander

Chapter 1

Percy's bloodshot eyes stared at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall of his apartment, 2:28 AM it read, but it wasn't the time he was thinking about. It was the ticking! tick, tick, tick, tick, tick... No human being could possibly think strait with THAT stuck in their head!

He forced himself to think about the past....not bad things like the multiple near-death experiences with his "adventures" as the Half-Blood son of Poisidon, or the fact that, not two months ago, he and his friends battled the earth goddess, Gaea, and her horde of Giant offspring. OR the fact that, almost two years before that, he had come face-to-face with the evil time-titan, Kronos.

No, he wanted to think about good things like Annabeth, his girlfriend, Tyson, his cyclop half-brother, and pancakes.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.....

It appeared that that didn't work either.

On nights like these, there is always one last resort. Percy opened the kitchen window. He took a moment to glance down at the lone flower in the window seal pot, he had noticed that, over the past few weeks, it had lost some of it's magical blue-ish glow. Weather that had to do something with the place and/or person he got it from, nobody knew for sure. But, Percy wasn't focused on that now, he climbed out onto the fire escape, sat down on the cold stairs, and listened.

Cold, crisp October wind brew through the air, Percy pulled his navy-blue jacket (no pun intended)tighter around him. The sounds of the "City That Never Sleeps" blasted in the background, he tried to force these out of his mind. As he sat down, he could feel the cold steel of the fire escape through his blue jeans. He was finally away from the ticking, but that also meant he had no way of telling time. So, he crossed his arms and stared mindlessly into the dark alleyway, waiting for it to happen for about five minutes. 

Or ten? Maybe thirty? 

He started to worry. Maybe, he moved out and Percy didn't notice it, or he was an old man and died, or a teenager and went off to college, or just simply-

And then it happened. The notes started low and slow then rocketed up the scale to a high, but still mellow, tune. The wind started to change, like it was dancing to the music. Percy leaned back on the stairs, already the music was beginning to sooth him to sleep.

Then Percy was jolted wide awake again. He sat up strait, the wind stopped dancing, and the music stopped playing.

A foul note!? Percy shouted in his head, There's not supposed to be a foul note, there's NEVER a foul note!

He stood up and looked over the railing, a yellow glow from the basement light could be clearly seen. The music didn't start again. Percy started to think. What if, something terrible happened? He started walking down the fire escape stairway, when he had reached the ladder, which had been pulled up, he swung his leg over the side and grabbed the bottom rung. He hanged there for a few seconds wondering if this was really the best idea, then, finally, dropping safely to the ground.

The basement window was open, Percy kneeled down and peered into the basement laundry. He had to stop him self from gasping, for the first time, he saw the face of his favorite musician.

The man had salt-and-pepper hair, he was kind of short and pale, but still a bit muscular his face was lined with wrinkles. He sat in a fold-up chair alone in the middle of the laundry with a saxophone in his lap. Percy gazed at the man, a tear streaked down his cheek, Percy was confused by this, he didn't think the foul note was that bad.