It was late that evening that the teenagers came; 20 hours into Percy's coma.

The room had been mostly quiet, the school children had become more subdued and everyone present had fallen silent: the children had exhausted their theories and unnanswered questions for now and there'd be no new information on Percy until he woke up. If he woke up.

The sound of the clock hand rhythmically twitching from one second to the next echoed uncomfortably around the room, unnaturally loud in the mournful silence.

Then the teenagers burst in. 15 of them! Invading the blackened atmosphere with their urgency. Running in, they all looked different. The first two wore mismatched clothes; the girl, native american, her uneven ebony hair had a blood red feather in it which swayed as she ran, she wore a bright orange t-shirt and jeans. Not ripped like was the fashion, but well-crafted, hard-wearing ones which would withstand any amount of physical activity. The boy next to her wore the same with the addition of a purple jacket with the letters SPQR scrawled across it in the way a normal teenager would wear an NYC jacket and with his military cut blond hair and striking blue eyes and their tired, worn expressions, these teenagers were definitely not normal.

Following them came another couple, these ones both in purple t-shirts, the boy was heavily built but had a kind face and manner, the girl had shining golden eyes, like glinting metal.

After them, a Hispanic boy with curly hair and singed clothes, a tank-like girl carrying a poll, a boy with quick fingers staying  close to her. Next a couple, one with curly blond hair like sunshine, his boyfriend radiating an aura of anger and grief which mirrored his choice in tough, black clothes. Then two identical boys with the unmistakable air of trouble-makers, but subdued and sad and a girl, who tightly held one of the identical boys, who had tanned skin and smelt of a garden.

Then finally, a girl wearing punk clothes and a silver circlet in her night-sky hair barged in, pushing the others aside and behind her......a strong, grey-eyed girl with princess curls and tear-streaked cheeks, her eyes were just like Percy's, haunted but resilient, however hers...hers were now drowned in tears, another sadness added to her already traumatic life.

They came in in just a few seconds, when they did their hardened eyes scanned the room, every person, every exit, every camera and every possible threat noticed and catalogued. They stopped when they saw Paul with Sally's head rested on his shoulder as she slept. The tired teacher carefully held a finger to his lips, not wanting to wake his exhausted wife.

The blond ran straight to them and hugged them as if the contact was the only thing keeping  her tethered to reality and they cried together, sharing their worry and fear.

"Hi, Annabeth." Mumbled the English teacher.

"Oh Paul." The strong young soldier sobbed into his other shoulder, not able to articulate her emotions.

The others gathered around, knowing not to press yet, they'd get the information they needed.

Tears rolled silently down their faces as they sat down. They sat, but they did not sit still, every teenager kept moving somehow; the Hispanic boy tapped his fingers along the chairs handle, a precise pattern over and over, the tank girl fiddling with what looked like knives, the black-clothed boy flicking cards in his hands. None stayed completely still and they all constantly scanned the room, alert for and danger and subtly glancing up at every sound that broke the silence. Everyone of them watching sadly as the crying blond ran to Percy's room.

"Um.....hi?" One of the schoolkids wasn't as afraid as the others. The demigods may have even respected him for the courage, but then he made a mistake; "Who are you?"

The punk girl with the circlet shot up immediately, "Who are we!? WE are his friends! WE are they ones he bloody well fought next to! And WE are the ones who are ACTUALLY entitled to be here and have know him since he was 12! And I'M his cousin! Who the Styxe are YOU!?" The formerly brave schoolboy paled.

"Um...we're...we're his friends from school." The others nodded.

This time it was the tank girl who spoke. "Friends?! From his good for nothing school?!" The Native American boy girls whispered.
"Sorry, Paul." He waved it off. The tank girl, Clarisse they later learned, carried on.

"Well OUR friend told us that the good for nothing mort-morons from his school were absolute shits to him! So you can go the HADES away and let us worry about the little punk!" Her boyfriend steeped forward, gently taking her hand.

"Clarisse, take a breath."
"I'M NOT TAKING A BREATH, CHRIS! THESE IDIOTS HURT PERCY! Someone who's saved my life-my family's lives-more times then their privileged little asses have eaten hot food!"
"You know know as well as I do that none of these people are capable of even coming close to hurting Percy. So calm down." He really tried.

"I'm not calming down! I want to pulverise these pieces or Minotaur dung!" None of them were doing well with the situation, emotions were running high.

The punk girl who first shouted stepped forward again, calling to Clarisse.

"Oi, bitch!"
"What do you want Thalia?" She glared at the girl. Then the dark clothed boy stepped forward, untangling himself from the sunny haired boyfriend by his side.

"You say you wanna pulverise something," He started.

 "We want to blow off some steam." Thalia finished his sentence.

"I'd say we're a perfect match." Clarisse gave a predatory smile.

"You're on." Then, without warning, the three pounced on each other. They swiped and stabbed with fists, spears and knives (the mortals had no idea how they got them into the hospital), they punched and kicked and dodged and slid, and none of the other teens even batted an eye.

The mortals stared, now they were scared. But at least they were distracted, no one wanted to think about the dying boy in the hospital bed.

"Sorry about this." The boy who spoke earlier jumped as the metal-eyed girl spoke, "My name's Hazel. I promise that's normal, it's fine really." The boy swallowed.

"I'm Jasper....what they said....how do you guys know Percy? I'm sorry if I offended you guys before." The newly introduced Hazel smiled sadly.

"It's fine, they were spoiling for a fight ever since we heard...no one likes it when Percy gets hurt. And we go to his summer camp. I've known Percy for a little over a year now, the same goes for Frank," She pointed to her boyfriend, "Piper," The native american girl, "Jason," the blond militaristic boy, "and Leo," The Hispanic, curly haired boy. "Travis and Connor Stoll, Katie, Clarisse and Chris, Nico and Will, Thalia and, finally, Annabeth have all known him longer. He's our best friend." Jasper and his friends nodded as they were introduced (Samantha had been forced to go home just over a hour ago by her parents).

"Erm......" Jasper was nervous under the sad gaze of the demigods. "What did she mean when she said Percy saved her life?" He glanced at the trio, who were still fighting it out in the waiting room. They were moving so fast that their strikes and movements were impossible for the mortals to follow, but the demigods still didn't react. "And how can they fight like that?"
"Er. How much do you know?" Now Hazel looked slightly unsure of herself.

"When....." Jasper swallowed, "When the man was doing...that....he asked Percy questions. Percy mentioned that he'd been in wars that he'd been....tortured...before." Hazel sighed, another tear rolling down her cheek. Her boyfriend approached quietly from behind, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. She lifted a hand to his wrist and tilted her head to rest on his.

"We.....our families are...troubled. And it means we're expected to fight. Our summer camp that I mentioned before, is one of two safe places for us, everywhere else is dangerous. Anyway, it's also a training camp, where, if we're lucky enough to get there, we learn how to look after ourselves, how to fight...how to survive. And it's where we find a family." The mortals were fascinated and horrified, she was describing an army camp.

"So you fight...like in actual wars?" The demigods laughed sadly.

"Yeah, in actual wars. And Percy's our leader." Now the mortals, who's been trying to at least be subtle about their staring before, forgot all pretences. "He's led the camps through two major wars and countless battles, we've fought, lost and lived under his command and none of us would have it any other way."
"Dam straight." Agreed Clarisse, who'd stopped fighting, it having ended as a draw, the others did the same.

"He...We....." Hazel sighed again, more tears falling. Thalia stepped forward to take over.

"He's my idiot cousin, we've seen him hurt before, Hades we've seen him on the edge of death and seen him fighting for his life practically every day! It's the same for all of us. But this is different! Some Tartarus damned MONSTER has hurt my cousin. It had nothing to do with his past it was just a sadist and Percy's Gods damned flaw and now my best friend is lying in a hospital bed and we don't know if he'll wake up. Not even the medics do!"

They lapsed into silence again, everyone processing what was happening. The demigods cried for their friend and leader-their brother-whilst the mortals attempted to sort through what they'd learnt.

They couldn't believe it, Percy was 18, the same age as them, and he had lead armies through wars and almost died before. The person who they thought was normal, maybe even less, had led these terrifying people who saw a lethal knife fight as a normal way of letting off steam and who were used to seeing death and fighting for their lives.

It was horrifying.

The teachers with the Goode students had stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt and trying to find out all they could. They got the feeling that the strange teens would clam up entirely if they were asked a question by one of the adults. Apart from Sally an Paul of course.

It was hard for everyone there. They were all connected to the young hero in some way and they all felt his loss, whether it was temporary or not, and they were all scared out of their minds. But they all had one thing in common.

They were going to do whatever they could to help the comatose hero.

A/n:
OK yeah, this was kinda a filler, but it was necessary! If you have anything specific you want to happen let me know.  I always love input and I'm in need of new ideas. I hope you enjoyed my story, I tried to make this chapter longer to make up for the wait. It's been too long since I updated. If you have any criticism or praise I'd love to hear your opinions.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. :D <3

-Samantha2611