Disclaimer: I do not own any other the Percy Jackson books, or that one line of dialogue used in this fanfiction.

Celestial Bronze Bullets

Frederick Chase was not a happy man. He should be, but he wasn't. Most people would be happy living with a wife and three amazing children. Unfortunately, one of his children seemed to live under the impression that he hated her. He didn't hate her, he never could. She was a reminder that in a world where so much had been discovered, there were still things well beyond mere mortal knowledge. He loved that. As a scholar, the unknown excited him. As a father, it frightened him. The knowledge that beyond the realm of humans, there exists a threat that no mortal could handle. A threat that could ravage his house and family, tear him to bits, and never be brought to justice, or even stopped, on account of it being supernatural.

Celestial bronze. A material that no mere mortal could touch. Something that could shred through monsters and other supernatural threats. Frederick Chase lifted Annabeth's celestial bronze javelin. Lightly spinning it, he noted several things. While he could spin the wooden shaft, the celestial bronze tip failed to make a single mark on him when he tried to touch it. However, the celestial bronze could easily interact with the surrounding environment. It could break vases, poke through doors, and cut up the carpet. He would have trouble explaining these broken items to his wife, but he was glad with the overall observations he made.

Frederick Chase loved his family. He loved his wife. He loved his two sons. More importantly, he loved his daughter. During her formative years, he hadn't exactly been there for her, but it was hard being a single dad. He had to juggle work and his child. It wasn't an excuse for him to be so abrasive towards her, but he was unprepared to be a father. He had just started teaching, and had absolutely no idea how to raise a child. That was combining two extremely difficult tasks and mixing it into one giant fireball of failure. Annabeth running away from home when she was seven frightened him. It revealed so much that he realized how much of a failure as a father he was. His daughter hated him enough to run away. It was a miracle that she ended up alright. After she ran away, he prayed. He prayed to the Greek gods, the Roman ones, the Abrahamic one, and any other that he knew. He prayed that his daughter be safe and she was.

Helplessness is a horrible feeling. It's how Frederick Chase felt when his daughter ran away. It's how he felt when his family was almost attacked by something absurdly large and almost definitely supernatural. And it's how he feels now that she's leaving again. It's her choice, but it breaks his heart every time she leaves. Every time his little daughter leaves for camp, his heart clenches because he knows something happens there. He knows that those cuts and bruises didn't come out of nowhere. He knows she endures life-threatening situations every year. These past two years have been a godsend. Ever since she came home, his heart relaxed. He knew where his daughter was. He knew she was safe. But every summer, she walks out that door, and his heart starts pounding. This year is even worse. She leaves in a rush. It's roughly two or three weeks before the winter solstice and she says she's leaving. All she says is that it's important camp business, and she runs off. She runs off, and Frederick Chase feels as though the weight of the sky has been put on his shoulders. She doesn't realize how every time she runs off, he feels as though he'll never see her again.

This time it's different. Frederick Chase had no intention of leaving his family defenseless. Annabeth explained some of the basics to him. Celestial bronze hurts monsters, but leaves mortals alone, so it's alright to have a sword or two around the house. Matt and Bobby can't cut themselves on the swords, but Frederick Chase still feel awkward having swords around the house, so he normally locks them up when Annabeth goes to camp. This year is different; she explains that San Francisco is basically a city crawling with monsters. He doesn't feel comfortable having his family there now. He doesn't feel comfortable, but he can't suddenly buy a new house somewhere safer. He's stuck here until he earns enough money for a new house. He's stuck here looking at machine guns that shoot bullets that don't even harm monsters. He's stuck here with only one option; learn how to fight with a sword.

Sword-fighting class is inefficient. That's the only word Frederick Chase can think of to describe it. It appears useful, but somehow, he doubts that what he's learning in class will do much against monsters. He can't help but feel dejected. He goes back to the closet of celestial bronze weaponry to find something that he might actually be able to use. He digs through swords, javelins, daggers, throwing knives, knives, and arrows. He stops at the arrows. He mind begins to make certain logistic jumps. He starts off thinking what a bow and arrow can do, jumps to the next logical step, which is what a handgun loaded with celestial bronze bullets can do, then takes it to the logical conclusion, what a celestial bronze slinging machine gun can do. He laughs at what he assumes to be easy. He has the mold for the bullets that have to be made and an actual working machine gun. How hard could it be?

Frederick Chase cursed himself for his hubris. How hard could it be? Apparently very hard. It is near impossible to find something to actually melt down the celestial bronze. He doesn't know the boiling point, so he doesn't know how hot he has to make it to liquefy it. Then, he realizes another snag, he can't mass produce these bullets. Even if he manages to find a furnace to heat up the celestial bronze, he's stuck making one or two at a time. It takes him a while to find a pottery class.

Pottery is difficult. He spends forever molding bowls, cups, and vases. He spends even more time making bullet casts. He hopes no one notices that every time he stays after class to clean up, he brings a duffel bag. He hopes no one asks why he turns on the kiln after hours. He spends hours upon hours using the bowls, cups, and vases he made in class to hold celestial bronze. He spends even more time carefully pouring that bronze into bullet casts. By the time night before the solstice, he has enough bullets to rip through an army.

Frederick Chase wanted his airplanes. He needed them. He was almost done with his model of the Third Battle of Ypres, and he needed were three planes. Needless to say, he ordered three planes from three different companies to see which was faster and more reliable. He was quite surprised when he saw three young children at his door when he heard the doorbell go off. He simply assumed all three planes arrived at the same time. When he heard the boy mention Annabeth, he was worried. Annabeth didn't bother making friends at school. There really was no point. She was smarter than most of them, and by being around them, she put the mortals at risk. This meant that these three kids were a part of her camp life. The fact that Annabeth wasn't with them made the hairs on his arm stand. The dejected look on their faces when he mentions her made his heart sink. The dejected look on their faces told him they needed an adult, so he hid his fear.

Frederick Chase hates feeling useless, so he offers the best he has, a biplane to bring the kids to Mt. Tam. Unfortunately, they decline and ask for a car instead. He's glad his wife found the keys because he had no idea where they were, and the kids needed to get to Mt. Tam fast. The moment the kids drove off, he rushed the closet full of celestial bronze bullets. When his wife walked away, he was worried. He needed help, but didn't want to ask. Annabeth wasn't her daughter, so she didn't have to get involved. He was disappointed because he thought those two year brought his wife and daughter together. Seeing his wife leave the room and not help him load bullets onto the ammunition belts hurts him.

He loaded hundreds of bullets onto the ammunition belt. Each bullet was manually inserted. After five minutes, Bobby and Matt were helping out too. Apparently, melting the celestial bronze in clay objects probably made it touchable when bits of clay melted off into the mixture. Gripping the bronze is hard, but doable. After an hour or two of loading bullets, he was ready. He walked to the plane, only to see his wife with a wrench. He took one look at the plane, one look at his wife, and one look at the machine gun attached to the plane. In all his haste, he had forgotten that he needed to affix the machine gun to the plane. His wife, knowing he forgot, did it for him. No, his wife did it for her step-daughter. She gave him a smile and helped him onto the plane. After he attached the ammunition belt to the machine gun, he started up the plane.

Blind terror gripped his heart. He felt as though someone was literally squeezing his heart. His daughter was surrounded by monsters. Her friends had their weapons ready, but he could see that they had no chance. Replacing that terror was anger. These monsters dared to attack his daughter! He started up the machine gun and shouted,

"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!"

The next few minutes were a blur for Frederick Chase. He had just shot down hundreds of monsters using homemade bullets. He just saved his daughter and he already had to say goodbye. As Annabeth flew off into the distance on a Pegasus, all he really could think of was how much he was going to miss her until she came home again.

Endnotes: Well there you have it. Currently the longest piece I have written for fanfiction. This one came about when I was thinking about how cool the end of the third book was. I was reminiscing, and suddenly realized that celestial bronze is pretty weird stuff. Mortals can't be touched by it, yet it can clearly interact with other things in the world. Arrows hit bull's eyes, which in theory can't happen unless the bronze is interacting with the wood. That got me thinking. How did Mr. Chase make all those bullets? It started out as a humor story, but then became more serious when I realized how horrifying it must be to realize monsters exists. Piper's dad from The Lost Hero is a pretty good example. He ends up forgetting, sorry for spoilers, but it's clear that Annabeth's dad knows they exist. This means that he has to live with knowing monsters roam the world, and that is terrifying if you watch Supernatural. So this piece was the love-child of The Titan's Curse, The Lost Hero, and Supernatural. Please review and thank you for reading! BTW, sorry for the lack of dialogue, but I'm still learning XD.