Ok, here's my new story, called The Ten. It's an AU story and there's no gods.

Enjoy Chapter One of The Ten.

Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan.

I: THE FIRST BRACELET

It was a beautiful August day. A perfect day to be at the beach.

As seventeen-year-old Percy Jackson walked through his cabin door at Montauk, he took all of this in; the glistening of the sea, the calm but still noticeable breeze, the heat from the sun. Overall, it was a great day to be turning seventeen.

Percy's mother Sally was a few steps behind him, locking the door behind her. She carried a couple of beach towels and an umbrella in her left arm.

Percy strode off the porch, placing his snapback backwards on his head. Many people who didn't know Percy would peg him as a douchebag or one of those kids who thinks they have "swag," as people call it these days.

In truth, that wasn't the case at all. True, Percy hung out with the popular kids at his high school, and thus he was pegged as a jock, but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the most-liked kids in the eleventh grade. Because of his looks, Percy is always being chased by the girls in his school when he's single, so he was looking forward to all the attention he would get at the first day of school in a couple of weeks.

Sally Jackson sighed and gave a wry smile. Her son was growing up fast and every day he was starting to look more and more like his father. She followed Percy with her sparkling blue eyes as he got closer and closer to the water's edge.

Sally loved this beach. There were many reasons, but as Percy guessed correctly on several occasions, it was the beach where she had met Percy's father.

Percy took a turn and started to walk parallel to the water's edge. He had taken off his shoes and was now walking barefoot in the surf.

It was pretty late. Percy and his mom had just arrived at their cabin at Montauk and they decided to head out to the beach for an hour or so before heading in to clean the cabin up.

Percy knew it wasn't the time for swimming, but he didn't mind the calmness that came with walking along the beach.

Percy knew this beach like the back of his hand, which didn't come as a surprise since he'd been coming here for seventeen years. He took a look back towards his mother, but she wasn't paying attention as she was setting up the umbrella.

He turned his gaze back towards the front and immediately something shiny caught his eye a few yards away. Percy was pretty sure it wasn't there when he looked back, but he couldn't have been sure.

Percy walked quickly up to the shiny object and picked it up. It was a plain bracelet, but it seemed different somehow. A picture of a trident was etched into the silver and the bracelet felt ancient, although it looked perfectly new.

Seeing as no one else was on the beach, Percy slipped the bracelet over his wrist, claiming it as his own. To his surprise, the bracelet fit perfectly. A calm overcame the beach, which freaked Percy out a bit, but just as quickly the wind picked back up, so he forgot about it.

Percy kept walking along the beach, not knowing that in that moment his life had just changed forever.

Percy tossed and turned in his bed. It was a couple days after his birthday and he couldn't sleep. He was back in his own apartment, his new bracelet placed on his bedside table.

Percy sighed and turned over to look at his clock when he noticed a low glow in the room. It was coming from his laptop.

Reluctantly, Percy rose from his warm bed and walked over to his desk, where his laptop was positioned. Percy was pretty sure he had turned the laptop off, but it was a long day so he couldn't have been positive.

He flipped open the laptop, his hand immediately heading towards the power button when he stopped suddenly. A browser was open. Percy scrolled to the top of the browser. It was a webpage on the Empire State Building.

Percy was pretty sure he hadn't been looking at a webpage on the Empire State Building, and his mom was out of the apartment all day, so she hadn't used his laptop.

That wasn't even the weird part. Throughout the article several different words were highlighted.

Roof, Percy read. Bracelet, ten, lightning.

Percy kept reading, but none of the words made sense.

Two weeks later Percy was at school; in English class to be exact. It was the first day of the new year. Those weird occurrences happened five or six more times after he returned from Montauk. Each time he read through the words, trying to make sense of them. Each time he failed.

Now he was sitting in English class. The teacher did not have anything planned for the day as he wanted his students to get to know each other.

Percy was talking with a couple of his friends when some sixth sense told him to look up at the teacher. He was holding a conversation with some nerd about logic problems; a conversation Percy would normally ignore, but for some reason he stayed tuned in.

"…in ancient times," the teacher was saying. "It was common practice to hide sentences by using every other word as a red herring. They would mix it up every time, but as a commonality it came to be that every third word in a sentence, when read together, would give the code."

"So you would read every third word?" The nerd asked.

"Exactly."

Suddenly, it all clicked for Percy. He tuned back into his friends' conversation, convinced that he now knew what to do.

Percy's time came three days later. He was sleeping one night when he awoke suddenly. Sure enough, a glow was coming from his laptop.

Percy quickly opened the laptop up and he was met with the webpage of the Empire State Building, the same one as previously. There were several highlighted words throughout the page. Percy took a look at the first highlighted word on the window: Meet.

The next two highlighted words didn't make sense but, just as his teacher had said, the third word clicked into place. Me.

Percy's mind went into overdrive as he quickly got out a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote down every third word highlighted on the screen.

Once Percy reached the last highlighted word, he looked down at the sheet of paper and found a sentence written before him. It was a short sentence, but it made sense. Percy smiled to himself, proud that he had finally solved the puzzle. He took a quick look at his clock before heading back over to his bed. Percy would have to wait another day, but he was satisfied, knowing that one more day wouldn't hurt.

Ding. The elevator doors opened and Percy cautiously walked out into the cool air. The wind was surprisingly calm for how high Percy was. As he looked up, he could see the night sky being illuminated by the millions of stars that were brightly shining.

Percy took out his cell phone to look at the time and caught it turning from 11:59 to 12:00. It was midnight.

He put his cell phone away and looked around. He reached the roof's edge and was about to look down when he thought better of it. He was 102 floors up after all.

Percy was about to take his cell phone out to take a picture of the skyline when a voice spoke behind him.

"You finally came."

Percy whirled around, tense for a fight, when he noticed that the man was in a wheelchair. Percy's muscles relaxed and he took a step towards the man.

"Meet me on the roof at midnight," Percy remembered. "You sent that message?"

"I did," the old man replied. He had thinning brown hair and a scruffy beard. "We have business to talk about."

Now, normally Percy would be wary of meeting someone alone, on the top of the Empire State Building, and at midnight, but he figured he would be able to get away easily if he had to, so he dropped his guard for the time being.

"What kind of business would that entail?" He asked.

"You found that bracelet, correct?" The old man said, motioning towards Percy's left wrist.

"Yeah," Percy replied, subconsciously placing his right hand on his wrist, making sure the bracelet was still there.

"And the wind calmed when you put it on?"

"Yeah, it did." Percy shuddered at the thought. It was eerie how calm the weather had gotten at that moment.

"Then it's true."

"What's true?" Percy asked quickly, suddenly frightened.

"You are one of the ten," the old man said calmly. "And you're here to save the world once more."

That last sentence hit Percy like a wall of bricks.

"Sa-save the world?"

The old man nodded. "Once more," he said. "Make yourself comfortable. This is a long story."

"It was said that thousands of years ago one man sought to destroy Greece. He almost succeeded, had it not been for ten teenagers. These ten teens were able to bond together and defeat the power-hungry man. Residents throughout Greece would later recall that the ten teens seemed to have an aura about them, as if the gods were lending them their power."

Percy remembered studying about Ancient Greece in school. It was one of the few subjects that he actually enjoyed. The gods were all-powerful in that era. They were the reason life was the way it was.

"In order to distinguish friend from foe, when the ten teens reached the capital of Athens they had a silversmith make them each a bracelet. Each bracelet was inscribed with a certain symbol, which represented the wearer."

Percy looked down at his wrist, the trident etched in silver easily seen among the starlight.

"Within a few days, people started to recognize the teens' strength and courage and they became known as The Ten. No one knew their names. They were ten kids from ten different towns and ten different backgrounds wearing ten different bracelets. After their success in the final battle, they were forever recognized as the greatest warriors in Greece's history. They have yet to be forgotten."

Percy looked down at his bracelet before looking back up at the old man.

"And you think they've come back," Percy said slowly, "to save the world again?"

"Precisely. It was prophesized in ancient times that he who found the first bracelet would be the only person capable of bringing together the other nine in order to save Greece from destruction once more."

"So they knew it was going to happen again?" Percy asked.

"Yes," the old man said simply. "However, after the first battle was finished, no one ever heard from The Ten again. The bracelets were scattered across Greece, never to be seen again."

Percy was silent for a long time. The story seemed like something out of a folk tale.

"Every couple hundred years something would pop up around Greece. Little tidbits about each of the ten would pop up, but it wouldn't connect and come to fruition."

"So everyone was left wondering."

"Exactly," the old man said. "One of my ancestors was a guy by the name of Chiron, a guy whom I'm named after."

"Chiron? Like the Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and whatnot? You're named after him?"

The old man chuckled as if enjoying a joke. "Yes. I am named after the Chiron, the trainer of Hercules."

Percy now looked at the old man from a different view. It was a connection that Percy could finally recognize. Percy was suddenly held in awe.

"Very well," Chiron said. "Onto business."

"Business?" Percy asked, surprised.

"Yes, business. When did you find that bracelet?"

That caught Percy by surprise. "Uh, my birthday, August 18th."

"I see," Chiron said. "Then you have one year from then in order to gather the other nine, find their bracelets, and save the world."

"Whoa, whoa, back up. What do you mean I have to gather everyone else? Why can't you do it?"

"You are one of The Ten. You are the one who found the first bracelet. Therefore, you must be the one to gather the troops."

Percy gulped. "And I only have one year?"

Chiron nodded. "Well, a little less than a year now, but yes."

That didn't make Percy feel any better.

"However, I can provide you some help."

"Like what?" Percy asked.

"If you're travelling all over the world, you're going to need money to pay for the travel." Percy understood now. He wasn't rich. There was no way he could possibly pay for all of this travel. "You should find something in the mail to help you with that soon."

Percy gulped once more. "Anything else?"

"Of course," Chiron said calmly. "You can't just travel the world without a destination in mind."

"Wait," Percy cut in. "You know where the other nine are?"

"I didn't say that," Chiron replied with a shake of his head. "Like I said, nothing is known about The Ten. They haven't been heard from since those ancient times. But I do know one thing."

"What's that?"

"You must seek out the princess of lightning."

A/N:

So, what did you guys think? I pretty much got right into the story. Actually this had been chapters one and two up until yesterday, but then I decided on combining them. You can thank me for that.

You can probably already guess who the princess is. It's pretty obvious actually.

The other eight aren't as easy to guess. Well, at least according to their occupation that I said in the summary.

I will start this challenge right now: The first person to correctly match each person with their occupation stated in the summary will get the story dedicated to them. That's right, the story. Not just a single chapter, but the entire story. You guys already know two, or at least I think you know two, but the other eight are not as easy to guess. Good luck.

Now for some news. Chapter Two of The Ten will be out sometime next week. I'm unsure of when right now, but it will be out next week.

I have made some major changes to my website. Head over to my profile and check it out. The link is there.

Speaking of my profile, I added something this past week that you guys might like. It's called PSON's Guide to a Great Story and I outline the seven key things I think are needed in order to have a successful story. While you're on my profile you might as well check it out.

Since this is a new story, you might not be familiar with what I do here. Every chapter I ask a Question of the Chapter to my readers. This can be anything from things about your life to a trivia question relating to Percy and the crew. If you read my other stories you can catch a glimpse of what I'm talking about.

Here is the Question of the Chapter for Chapter One: If you could sit on one throne on Olympus without harm (including the minor gods) whose throne would you sit on and why?

Let's see. I'd have to say Athena's. And yes, I did just take five minutes to think about that. I'd have to say Athena over the rest of them because I've always wondered how she thought about certain things. It would be interesting to think about something from her point of view. It would be like being Annabeth for a day. Also, I'm intrigued about what her domain would be. For instance, when Percy sat on his dad's throne, he felt the power of the sea behind him. I wonder what you would feel if you sat on Athena's throne.

Ok, there's my answer. Now you guys tell me. Whose throne and why.

Make sure to review!

Thanks!

-Percy, Son of Neptune