Hola People! We've all read them. A fic about a new demigod is NOT an original idea, but I really hope this one is one of the good ones. So please enjoy the first chapter of Deus ex Machina.

PS. If anyone can find the well hidden Evanescence reference, I'll be extremely impressed.

Disclaimer: I wish...

Chapter One. Enter the Knowledge.

Um…Hi. Yeah…my name is Maggie Fairchild, short for Margret. Um, Chiron says I should write down everything that happened to me, kind of like a diary. So I guess I will. I think Percy did the same thing, except his is all fancy. Ok. Here I go. It all started at the end of the school year my freshman year.

I walked up the front steps of my high school, my backpack slung over my shoulder, crammed full of the books I'd taken home to study the night before. I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. It made for a nasty combination, especially since I don't like to read anyway. But I was determined this year. This year, I had had a plan all carefully laid out. I WOULD pass my exams. I'm pretty sure that I aced my math and biology finals. History hadn't gone so well, but if I could get through my English one today, then I'd be home free, because all I had after that was PE. Let's just say, I was pumped.

"Maggie!"

I turned, brushing my plain shoulder length brown hair out of my eyes and smiled. "Hey, Grover."

The curly haired boy returned my grin. "Hi. Ready for English?"

I groaned. "Ready as I'll ever be." I remember, when I first met Grover, you know, before I knew about it all, I thought he was weird. He followed me around everywhere and was always watching me. Finally, I think I just accepted the fact that the poor kid wanted some friends. Or so I thought.

Grover limped next to me as we made our way to the English classroom. I sat in my desk and he in his, a few yards away from me. He waved and buried himself in his final. I got the feeling that Grover wanted to tell me something big. I had caught him on the phone talking excitedly with a girl a few days ago and had teased him mercilessly about it. The strange thing was, Grover seemed to find it the height of hilarity that he was being teased about this girl. He kept muttering, "Me and Annabeth. Oh man, Percy would…" and then he'd explode into laughter again. Go figure.

I focused on my English final. Question one. A motpaher deos ont ues het orwds… I squeezed my eyes shut and looked again. A metaphor does not use the words...

Oh man, I was SO ready for this final! It took me the full two hours, a few minutes of staring aimlessly around the room, and a total of six drink breaks, but I got through it feeling rather good about myself. The bell rang and I gathered my things. Grover trotted up to me.

"Hey, Maggie, you've got PE next right? And then you're done?" He glanced around furtively.

"Yep." I patted my desk. "So long, English! See you next year. Good riddance." We left the room. Grover walked me down to the gym.

"I'll hang around and wait for you, ok? I, um, have got to tell you something. And there are a few friends of mine I'd like you to meet."

I grinned. I knew it. "Ok." I drained the last of my diet coke. Grover's eyes zeroed in on the can in my hand.

"Can I have your can?" he asked hopefully. I shrugged. Grover's got this thing, with recycling.

"Sure." I handed it to him and went into the locker room to change.

"Hey, Maggie!" A girl named Nia grinned at me. She was tall and willowy, with short dark hair and sky blue eyes. She was center on our school girl's basketball team. "Heard we're playing Capture the Flag. I sure hope you're on my team!"

I grinned. Something you should know about me. I love love love video games. Especially the ones where you have to command troops into battle or like Harvest Moon, where you had to manage finances and stuff. I really rock at those. Someone once told me I had a "great mind for tactical maneuvers". (coughcoughChironcough) I don't care what you call it. No matter what, I always had a plan. Needless to say, my talents were highly prized in the all powerful world of PE Capture the Flag. The bad part? I absolutely despise Capture the Flag.

We changed into our uniforms, which were black and yellow, (our school's mascot was the Bumblebees. Go figure.) and headed out onto the soccer field. The coach blew his whistle and motioned for us all to gather round. I noticed Grover sitting up in the stands, munching on something. He sat out of gym because he had muscular dystrophy in his legs. Poor guy. He gave me a cheery wave and took another huge bite out of something. I returned my attention to the coach, who was giving us the end-of-the-year speech about fun and fellowship and not killing each other over a colored piece of fabric.

The teams were decided and the flags hidden. I was voted team captain of my team, the Destroyers, (so cleverly named by a sophomore boy) and instantly began laying out our battle plan, so to speak. Looking back, it kind of makes me laugh at what I thought of as a "battle plan" then compared to now.

"All right." I sketched in the dirt with a stick. "Nia, I need you and your basketball girls to go up around the front. Jack, you take Mary and Jordan the other way. I'll go with you there. Uh…Everyone else, you guys are going to stay here and spread out, guarding our flag. Everyone except…" I studied my team. I had Nia and her basketball girls, a couple of sophomore boys and a few sophomore girls who looked like they'd rather be doing anything but playing Capture the Flag. I zeroed in on them.

"Kayla, Claire and Jessie?" They glanced up at me. "You three are some of the fastest. I need you to be a distraction."

Claire flipped her hair. "If we get caught, can we just sit in jail the whole time?" She asked, clearly bored.

I nodded. "Sure. And if you find out anything we don't know, all you gotta do is signal to someone and we'll bust you out. Everyone know what to do?"

They nodded.

"All right. Let's get to it." I clapped my hands and my team spread out. I glanced up at the other team and scoffed. It was easy to see where their flag was. They had their strongest and fastest surrounding a small oak tree. Suddenly, the hair on the back of my neck stood up straight. I shivered and peered into the surrounding woods. I gasped and stumbled backwards, toppling into Nia.

"Maggie? What's wrong?" She pulled me to my feet.

"E-e-eyes! I-in the w-woods!" I pointed, my voice trembling. Nia peered into the woods.

"Mags, there's nothing there."

I looked harder, then shook my head, embarrassed. Of course there wasn't anything there. "Yeah…you're right."

The game progressed. Claire, Kayla, and Jessie played their parts perfectly and, although they were sent to jail, Nia and her group managed to get to the flag. Jack, Mary, Jordan and I made our way around the back, while Nia and her friends were the second distraction. She and the opposite team circled each other, with the other team lunging occasionally. Nia danced away effortlessly.

"Go." I breathed. Jack and Mary crept swiftly and silently to the tree. No one was paying attention to them, everyone's attention being focused mainly on Nia. Jack and Mary scrabbled for a few moments before Jack triumphantly held up the black fabric.

Nia grinned and bolted back towards our side. Jordan and I were right behind her. Mary turned and was running backwards behind Jack, ready to block any attacks from the opposing team, who had realized that we'd gotten the flag and were all chasing us. Finally, Jack dove across the dividing line and waved the flag in the air victoriously. The coach blew his whistle and Jordan pulled Jack up.

Finally! The stupid game was over! I glanced up with a relieved grin at the bleachers where Grover had been and saw him staring over my head into the woods, a horrified look on his face. He jumped up and began stumbling down the bleachers much too fast for a kid with muscular dystrophy, waving his arms over his head like a mad person. I frowned and turned around.

The breath whooshed from my throat. Nia was wrong. I had seen something in the forest. And it wasn't pretty. I think I screamed. I'm not really sure. The point is, everyone around me turned and looked.

"Ahhh!" Nia screamed. "They have GUNS!"

I stared at her. Guns? Was she insane? There were three of them. And they were NOT normal. The women stepped out of the woods into the brilliant sunlight. Each was dressed in what looked like ancient Greek robes—one in red, one in green and one in blue. They were incredibly pale, as thought they'd never seen an ounce of sunlight in their lives. Their hair was long, down to their ankles and tangled. Plus, each held a glowing sword in her hand, not a gun. Oh, and did I mention…THEY HAD FREAKING WINGS?

The lady in red pointed and let out a harsh cawing sound. The other two took to the skies.

"Run!" shouted the coach. He began herding kids back inside the school. I don't know what happened to me. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. I was so scared; I just stood rooted to the spot and stared at my approaching doom. Suddenly, a rock came flying out of nowhere and smacked the lead lady in the head.

She shrieked and spun on the thrower. Grover stood, a plainly terrified look on his face, clutching two more rocks.

"Grover!" I cried. Seeing him must have snapped me out of it. "What are you doing? We have to get out of here!" I ran to him. Grover threw another rock.

"Away!" He cried. "Go away! Back! Stupid Harpy!"

"Grover!" I pulled on his arm. Grover, not expecting it, fell over. There was a loud snap and I was left staring at the place where Grover's hightops used to be. His shoes were filled with Styrofoam, and instead of feet, his legs ended in two shiny hooves. I had trouble swallowing.

I sat back on my haunches. "Ok. Ok, that's it. I have officially lost my mind." I think I sat there and mumbled about how this was all a dream or some nonsense like that.

Anyway, so all of a sudden, Grover cried, "Maggie!" I looked up to see the blue robes lady floating over me. I shrieked and began to do this funky kind of crab walk backwards. The lady raised her sword. I dimly heard Grover's voice buzzing in my ears. No, of course I didn't die. If I'd died there, why the heck would you be reading this?

No, what happened was, as I was sitting there, holding what I was sure was going to be my last breath, all of a sudden, the lady let out a shriek and exploded. Literally. Standing behind her, when the smoke cleared was…nobody. At this point, I was so confused, I was beginning to get a little miffed. I turned back to look at Grover and saw he was being helped to his feet by a boy with pitch black hair. He was clutching a brilliant bronze sword, and by the way he was holding it, it looked like he could deal out some serious damage with that thing. The boy laughed.

"We can't leave you alone for two seconds, can we Grover?"

Grover grinned. "Oh man, Percy, you have no idea how glad I am to see you." He looked around. "I assume Annabeth is here too?"

The boy, Percy, nodded. "Yeah. She's…" He glanced around. "…somewhere. Let's talk later, shall we?" He pointed at the ladies, who appeared to be regrouping after the loss of one of them.

"I got the one in the green!" I jumped violently as a voice sounded beside my ear. Percy nodded, acknowledging the voice like he listened to disembodied voices all the time. Now, I'd like to tell you that I joined right in the fight, that I picked up a stick and beat those monsters to death and saved everyone. I'd like to…but I can't. Truthfully, I sat and cowered in fear as I watched Percy fight the lady in the red. It only took a few moments for her to explode. Then, as thought it was synchronized, the lady dressed in green exploded too. Grover cheered.

"Way to go, guys!"

Percy grinned. "Ah, Harpies." He buffed his fingers on his shirt with a joking air of superiority. "All in a days work."

A girl's laugh sounded from next to him and she shimmered into view. She was a little shorter than Percy, with long pale blond hair and stormy grey eyes. She grinned at Percy. "Please, Seaweed Brain. I killed two of them."

Percy shrugged. "So? I killed the leader."

"What the HELL are you people smoking?" I cried. I was so lost and confused. I'd apparently just been attacked by Harpies, one of my best friends had hooves, and these random two people had appeared out of no where. Needless to say, I was a little peeved.

"Oh my gods!" Grover ran to me. "Maggie, are you ok?"

I pushed him away and got to my feet. "I'm fine. What the hell is going on?"

Percy and the girl exchanged a guilty glance. Grover sighed.

"Um, Maggie, these are the friends I wanted to introduce you to. This is Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Guys, this is Maggie Fairchild."

Percy capped his sword. Literally. He put a pen cap on it and it turned into a pen. I stared dumbly. At this point, nothing I saw could surprise me. "Nice to meet you." He said, sticking the pen sword thingy into his pockets.

The girl, Annabeth, waved at me. "Hi." She glanced over my shoulder. "Uh, Grover?" She pointed. A group of teachers and students were peering out the door. They were pointing and whispering. Police sirens sounded in the distance.

"Uh-oh." Percy spun Annabeth and me around. "Come on, girls. Time to go." Annabeth shook him off and the four of us took off around the woods and down the street. I noticed Grover was running a lot easier now that his fake feet were off.

"Annabeth? How far are we from camp?"

Camp?

Annabeth bit her lip. "Not far. Do you have any money?"

Percy sighed and dug in his pocket.

"Cool. I'll hail a cab."

I felt like I was going to throw up. I was confused and I wanted to go home. Now. The most annoying part was that they were all acting so freaking normal. It was like they did this all the time. Which apparently, as I found out later, they did, but that isn't the point.

Percy sighed. "I can't even walk into a school without blowing it up." He kicked at a tuft of grass, the triumph of winning the battle gone from his gaze.

Grover patted him on the shoulder. "It's ok, Percy. Technically, you didn't blow this one up."

Percy shrugged. I noticed that his eyes were this really bright shade of sea green. It was kind of disconcerting.

"Hey, Grover? Um, not to be a bother or anything… but why do you have, um, hooves?" I asked, trying to ease myself into this as delicately as possible. Grover and Percy exchanged a look.

"Let's save that discussion for the cab ride." Grover said. "Percy, you got any cans?"

Percy grinned. "Annabeth and I saved one just for you." He handed Grover a Pepsi can. Grover took it, beamed, and took a huge bite out of it.

Oh…my…god.

So? What'd you guys think? I really hope Maggie isn't a Mary Sue, because I tried really hard to make sure she wasn't. Please review. :)

Love

Allie