CHAPTER 2:
We Get Magic Boomerangs Thrown at Us
"What the heck?" The bus driver cursed in Arabic.
"Coincidence, right?" I asked Annabeth as the bus screeched to a halt.
She looked a little nervous, which didn't exactly make me feel better, so I turned to the others. "Everybody still in one piece?"
"Present and accounted for," said Grover.
"So... now what?" Hazel asked.
"I guess we wait." Jason frowned.
"At the moment," I said, trying to light the mood, "we're just a bunch of random tourists on a bus."
Nobody liked that idea. I noticed Leo fiddling with a few spare parts like he did when he was nervous, and without realizing it, I'd been fingering Riptide, itching to take the cap off. I didn't know why I was so nervous; after all, these kind of storms blew up all the time in the desert, right? Annabeth gripped my hand, and just knowing she was with me made me feel a little better.
"Quiet! Quiet!" the bus driver yelled several times in Arabic. It didn't occur to me until much later that I understood the Arabic, and that wasn't even until someone else brought it up. "We're going to be stuck here for a while so... just don't, uh, open the window, or anything, okay?" The passengers muttered their assent and went back to their conversations. The whole 'understanding Arabic' thing might've occurred to me right then if it wasn't for the fact that my window was unexpectedly opened.
The wind roared outside, and I was so stunned that I just sat there stupidly, staring at the window that had just opened itself.
"Percy!" Annabeth hissed. I tried to protest but just then, the bus driver lumbered down the aisle.
"Young man," he said, "I said one- one! thing and you ignored it. Completely."
I should've said sorry and closed the window. Instead, I got mad. "I didn't open the window!" I said.
"Well then who did?"
I started to reply but hesitated, realizing I had no such explanation. That could be an issue, I thought.
"Thought so," the bus driver said smugly. "Now close the window!"
I reached my hand up to do just that when a hand shot out from the dust and grabbed my wrist.
"Di immortales!" Annabeth shrieked. I had to agree with her.
Suddenly, without any warning, me, Annabeth, Leo, Grover, Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank were all standing outside the bus in a miniature eye of the storm. A woman in her early thirties stood in front of us, her feet braced, teeth clenched, and hair whipping about her shoulders.
"Man we have bad luck on busses," Grover whimpered.
I almost would've laughed if I hadn't noticed that the lady was holding a boomerang that was starting to glow. A blast shot from it knocking Annabeth off her feet. That was it for me, so I grabbed Riptide and uncapped it, changing it from a pen to three feet of wicked sharp celestial bronze. Jason pulled his sword from a sheath on his back; Piper's knife gleamed despite the swirling sands. Leo got a big sledge hammer from his belt, and Frank stood at the ready with his bow, an arrow nocked on the string. Hazel's cavalry sword, somewhere in her luggage, was no use but she pulled a celestial bronze dagger Annabeth had given her. For about a minute, we looked seriously impressive, but then twelve more boomerang wielding men and women stepped from the swirling sands.
They all started saying stuff and glowing symbols appeared all over the place. The ADHD part of me noticed, absently, that the people were all wearing linen pajamas, which I thought was odd. I only had a second to think about it though, because a kid, no more than nine years old, shouted something and chucked his boomerang at me. Unfortunately, the kid had good aim, because the thing smacked my right in the cheek and then turned into a fruit bat which proceeded in attempting to bite my nose off. The thing was worse than a Stymphalian bird! Apparently the rest of my crew wasn't faring too well either, because in the space of five minutes, six of the eight were either tied up with some self- tying rope or unconscious on the ground. I was worried about Annabeth, but I was still running around with a fruit bat attacking my face, waving riptide like a lunatic. Riptide, however, refused to kill the bat, so I was stuck with swatting and running in circles.
I saw the golden blast right before it hit me and for a moment wondered what kind of monsters fought with boomerangs before I blacked out.
I blinked once. Twice. Thrice. Is thrice even a word? I don't know. It didn't matter though because the lights were nonexistent. Ugh, I thought. My head hurt really badly, and when I tried to sit up- well there were two problems with that. One would be the ropes that currently entwined my whole body. The other would be the nauseous feeling that permeated my stomach when I tried to move. Okay, I thought, so I'm not going anywhere.
"Percy?" Annabeth whispered.
"Yeah, it's me," I said wincing.
"Oh, sorry about that," Annabeth said. I was about to reply when she said, "Don't talk, just listen. I know your head hurts; mine did too. It'll pass in a few minutes"
"Where are we?" I asked.
"I can't see in the dark, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said wryly.
"Yeah, well-" an arc of pain shot through my forehead, "Gods, that hurts."
"So stop talking. Best as I can tell we've been here around twelve hours. There's a window over there, but the moon went down about an hour ago, and I guess it's cloudy tonight because there's no starlight."
"Is anybody else...?" I trailed off.
"I don't know," Annabeth sounded doubtful. "I heard someone moaning about food half an hour before you woke up, so I assume Grover's here somewhere. I don't know about anyone else."
I almost chuckled thinking about Grover and food, but my head still hurt and I didn't feel too much like laughing. "So, now what?"
"You just expect me to have a plan?" Annabeth complained. I waited. "Yeah," she sighed, "I do. I've been working on the ropes or the last hour or so and I'm almost through one."
A shuffling noise came from the corner. Annabeth shushed me, and even though I didn't need the reminder, I stayed quiet.
"Wher- oww!" a familiar feminine voice came from the corner.
"Piper!" I exclaimed.
"Percy? What-"
"Shh," Annabeth cautioned. "The pain will subside in a few minutes. Percy and I were just discussing what happens next."
"What happened now?" Piper asked. "We were in the bus, and then the sandstorm, and then a bunch of dudes in pajamas attacked us. Oh man, I must've hit my head harder than I thought."
"Nope," Percy confirmed. "I remember the pajamas, the boomerangs, and the sandstorm. What I don't remember was being brought here."
"Alright," said Annabeth, "I have no idea what happened . Somebody, start talking."
There wasn't much to tell. I started at the guys in linen pajamas and Piper chimed in whenever she felt it necessary. The both of them gave a half hearted laugh when I told them about the fruit bat, but when we finished the story, Annabeth's face was grim.
"I think.." She started.
"What?" I asked when she trailed off. I knew that voice. It was the 'I-have-an-idea-but-I'm-not-sure-and-if-I-am-right-I-don't-like-it' voice. "Look, I want to hear whatever it is your thinking," I said matter-of-factly.
"Well... I'm not sure, but I heard a rumor once-"
Just then a door busted open and light flooded in. I squinted against the light and tried to look at the man who had just walked in. Unfortunately, light in a dark room wasn't a great combo, and I was as effectively blind as when it was dark. I mumbled a curse in Greek and then the man spoke.
"Children," he said, not like he held any malice with us, but like he was about to do something unpleasant. "I'm going to have to ask you to come with me."
