Ron was shifted to cabin three the very next day, he had the entire cabin to himself, could do whatever he wanted and was absolutely miserable. He was just finding a place to call home with people to call friends when his father threw him into a new mess.
The other campers avoided him, cabin eleven was too nervous to train with him so Luke gave him one-on-one training, Annabeth still taught him ancient Greek but didn't seem too happy about it. Even Clarisse was keeping her distance from him; Ron was pissed and knew he would snap soon. He needed a way to vent out his frustration.
That way, came with a summon from Mr. D. It was a cold morning with a big storm brewing and Grover led Ron into the big house where Chiron and Mr. D were playing pinochle with two invisible opponents.
"Our little celebrity" Mr. D mocked Ron as he entered "I I had my way I would have spontaneously combusted you or turned you into a dolphin, but Chiron thinks that you deserve a chance"
"Also, you aren't allowed to harm the campers" Chiron pointed out "Nonsense! He wouldn't feel a thing" the wine god then got up from his seat and held out a security pass "boy" he looked at Ron "if you have any sense you'll see my way is much better than his" saying this, he disappeared into thin air.
"sooo! What's your plan?" Ron asked Chiron who smiled. Chiron explained the situation to Ron with the master bolt being stolen and his father and uncle threatening to go to war, and then Ron was made to go to the attic.
The place seemed to have a lot of souvenirs from various quests, but there was also a corpse sitting on a stool.
Ron then heard a rasping, slithering, voice in his head "I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask"
"No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom" Ron screamed mentally but then gathered his courage and asked "what is my destiny?"
A mist seemed to come out of the oracle's mouth and Ron swore he saw the illusion of Nancy Bobfit from it. Nancy spoke in the rasping voice of the oracle
You shall go west and face the god who has turned
You shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned
You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend
And you shall fail to save what matters the most in the end
"Thanks for the kind words" Ron muttered as the mist retreated into the oracle again.
XXXXXXX
"So basically, I need to go west to face my uncle in LA and get my other uncle's toy before summer solstice" Ron asked for clarification
"Yes" Chiron agreed "although I would ask you not to call the master bolt a toy" the air behind him shimmered for a moment
"And how does she fit into this?" Ron asked gesturing towards the shimmering space where Annabeth appeared "I've been waiting for a quest all my life seaweed brain. Athena is no fan of Poseidon but you'll need my help if you want to survive"
"Sounds like fun!" Ron said sarcastically.
Chiron instructed them to pack up and Ron took a set of clothes, toiletries and his invisibility coat. He had also gotten a pair of flying shoes from Luke but gave them to Grover instead as he couldn't use them.
"I wish I had more time to train you" Chiron said
"It's fine" Ron said but was wishing that he had some sort of weapon to fight should the need arise.
"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried "I can't let you go without this" he handed Ron a ballpoint pen.
"Gee thanks" Ron said making Chiron sigh
"That is a gift from your father" Chiron told Ron "uncap it"
Ron did and the pen turned into a sword. It was a double edged blade with a leather wrapped grip and a flat hilt. It felt perfectly balanced in Ron's hand "this was the blade Chiron gave me to battle against Mrs. Dodds" Ron realised
"This sword has a long and tragic history we need not go into" Chiron told Ron "its name is Anaklusmos"
"Riptide" Ron translated surprising himself. Chiron then went on to explain him how celestial bronze wouldn't harm mortals, how Ron wouldn't lose the pen.
Finally the trio boarded the camp van and Argus drove them out of the countryside and into western Long Island. "So far so good" Ron said breaking the silence between him, Annabeth, Grover and Argus.
Annabeth scowled making Ron roll his eyes "why do you hate me?" he asked her
"I don't hate you" Annabeth protested making Ron give her a sceptical look
"Look... we're not supposed to get along, our parents our rivals, one time my mom caught Poseidon and his girlfriend at her temple which is highly insulting, another time, the two competed to be the patron god for Athens. You dad created some stupid saltwater spring and my mom created the olive tree. The people saw her gift was better, so they named the city after her"
"Like you everyday uncle-niece relationship" Ron nodded to which Annabeth answered "oh forget it" in the front seat, Argus was smiling and an eye on his neck winked at him and Ron, behaving maturely, winked back.
He dropped the off at the greyhound station on the Upper East Side, made sure they had their tickets and bags and left.
Ron thought about his parents who had rushed off to Miami. He hadn't been able to contact them and was worried sick about them. "They'll be fine" Grover assured Ron who looked at him like he had grown another head.
"Did you read my mind?"Ron asked angrily if his friend could read minds, it might prove troublesome for Ron to keep secrets. "I read your emotions. Satyrs can do that" Ron nodded trying to keep his emotions under control.
The truth was, he hadn't accepted the mission to clear his father's name, who had simply impregnated his mother and left. He was doing it so that when he met his father, he could punch him in the face, even if Ron died, he would want to punch his father in the face.
The rain was pouring and they were getting restless waiting for the bus, Annabeth started a game of hacky sack but Ron had something else in mind. Ron held out his hand and collected water from the rain in his cupped hand.
"What are you doing?"Annabeth asked suspiciously making Ron grin crazily. Ron focused on the water, willing it to rise from his hand and felt a familiar tug in his gut as the water began to float in the air.
"Ron" Annabeth hissed looking around to see if mortals were there. "The mist is a powerful thing Annabeth" Ron repeated Chiron's words as he shaped the water into a ball, Ron then tried something else, he tried to increase the volume of the water by turning the water vapour in the air into liquid form, he grinned as the water ball, slowly began to grow in size.
"Ron!" Annabeth scowled to which Ron let the water flow back into the rain as vapour. "I'm just trying to learn more about my powers" Ron said peacefully as Annabeth simply scowled.
The greyhound soon arrived but as they stood in line to board, Grover began sniffing around. "What? Ron asked nervously.
"Don't know" Grover answered tensely "it's probably nothing" Ron honestly doubted their luck was good enough for it to be nothing.
They finally boarded the bus and found seats at the back. And only then did Annabeth spot Grover's nothing. "Ron" she hissed gesturing towards the front where three women were sitting who made his heart stop.
Seated in the front was Mrs. Dodds, older, uglier and meaner but definitely her followed by two other in green and purple knit hats to go with Mrs. Dodds orange one.
They sat right behind the driver with the other two furies crossing their legs over the walkway in a casual manner, but the meaning was clear: nobody leaves
"I thought you said they wouldn't reform for a long time" Ron whispered to Annabeth as they pulled out of the station.
"I also said 'if you're luck' you obviously aren't" Annabeth told Ron who cursed his luck
"All three furies" Grover moaned "Di immortales"
"It's okay" Annabeth said thinking hard "the three furies, the worst monsters from the underworld... we'll just slip out of the windows.
"They don't open" Ron pointed out
"A back exit then" there wasn't one and they were running out of time,, heading towards Lincoln tunnel.
"Suddenly Mrs. Dodds got up and announced "I need to use the restroom"
"So do I" said the second sister
"So do I" the third sister repeated.
"I've got it" Annabeth whispered "Ron, use you jacket to go invisible and Grover, take my hat" to which Ron and Grover asked "What?"
"You're the one they want, Ron and Grover you need to help him. Turn invisible and go down the aisle, let them pass you and then you can get to the front and get away"
"We can't leave you" Grover said
"There's an outside chance they might not notice me" Annabeth said "Ron's smell is overpowering and the kindly one will recognize Grover from Yancy. Just go!"
The two boys became invisible and crept down the aisle up to ten rows before ducking into empty seats just as the furies passed them. Ron felt Grover brush past him and move towards the front of the bus.
Suddenly there was a screaming from the back. Ron turned around to see that the three old ladies had transformed into hideous monsters with bat wings, claws for hands and feet and fiery whips.
"Where is it? Where?" Mrs. Dodds screeched as she and her sisters surrounded Annabeth as the other people screamed and cowered.
"He's not here" Annabeth yelled "he's gone" and suddenly the bus jerked as Ron and the three furies hit the windows. "Brilliant idea Grover" Ron thought observing his best friend wrestle the steering wheel from the driver as they hit the side of the tunnel.
The bus jerked round as they exited the Lincoln tunnel. Ron went towards the front as they were about to careen into the Hudson River and pulled the emergency brake. The bus careened and hit the trees as the emergency lights went off, and suddenly the bus was empty except for the three furies and the three of them.
The door was open but Ron knew he couldn't leave Annabeth behind Ron unbuttoned his jacket and called out "hey!"
The three furies turned around as Mrs. Dodds walked towards him down the aisle with her two sisters hopping on the seats like huge nasty lizards.
"Ron! Look out" Mrs Dodds lashed her whip towards Ron's hand as Ron lowered his hand to let the whip wrap around the blade. The two other furies suddenly lunged at him but were pushed away by two walking sticks, courtesy of Grover who was now visible.
Annabeth grappled Mrs. Dodds from behind and Grover tried to fend off another fury. Ron attacked the third one with his sword, sending her flailing back as the second one came towards him. Ron swung the sword as the fury exploded into dust.
The third fury screeched and lunged at him but Ron was ready as drove the sword into her as they fury exploded like a piƱata.
Mrs. Dodds tried to het Annabeth of her back, she tried to get up but Grover used his crutches to pin her bat wings down.
"Zeus will destroy you!" Mrs. Dodds promised "Hades will have your souls"
"Braccas meas vescimini!" Ron yelled quite certain it meant 'eat my pants'
Suddenly thunder shook the bus, every instinct in Ron's body told him to get away "run!" Annabeth shouted as they jumped out of the bus. Outside the other passengers were wandering around in a daze or arguing with the bus driver.
"Our bags!" Grover realized but it was too late
BOOM!
Lightning hit the bus. The windows exploded, the passengers ran for cover, a huge crater appeared on the roof but Mrs. Dodds yells made it clear she had survived. "she's calling for reinforcements" Annabeth called out
"Well let's not wait for them" Ron said as the three ran forward, into the darkness.
XXXXXXX
The three of them trudged across the mushy ground as Annabeth urged them to put more distance between them and the bus and Grover kept muttering about tin cans and kindly ones.
"Practically everything we had was back there" Ron reminded Annabeth who scowled at him
"Well maybe if you hadn't decided to jump in the fight-" Annabeth began but Ron cut her off "we still wouldn't have our stuff and you would've probably died"
"You didn't need to protect me Ron" Annabeth retorted "I would've been fine"
"Sliced like bread" Grover put in "but fine"
"Shut up goat boy" Annabeth retorted
After a few more minutes of sloshing through the muddy ground, Annabeth fell in line with Ron "look I..." her voice faltered "thanks for coming back to save me"
"Don't sweat it" Ron answered "we're a team, right"
"It's just that if you died... aside from it sucking for you, it would mean the quest was over. This is my only chance to see the real world"
"You've been in camp since you were seven?" Ron asked Annabeth recalling it from one of their first conversations.
"Only on field trips" Annabeth grumbled "my father..." "The history professor?" Ron interrupted
"Yes him" Annabeth was rushing her words now "it didn't work out with him. The camp is my home now. I mean you train and train and train, and it's all cool but the real world is where the monsters are, that's where you learn whether you're good or not"
"You're amazing with that knife" Ron told Annabeth who smiled
"You think so?"
"Anyone able to piggyback ride a fury has to be good" Ron pointed out, he wasn't sure due to the darkness of the night but he was pretty sure she was smiling.
"Hey Anne" Ron said
"Don't call me that" Annabeth scowled
"I just wanted to say that if you wanted to see the real world, you just should've gotten out of the camp instead of waiting for the likes of me" Ron said gently
"It's not that simple" Annabeth protested
"You're a hero" Ron retorted "you should be able to make the decision to go out to the real world to help people if you want to. Adults will always try to protect you, it's you who needs to get up and take the risks to win"
They walked in silence, till they began to see neon signs up ahead and take in the wafting smell of grease and junk food. Ron who hadn't eaten junk food since arriving at the camp was ecstatic for a chance to have unhealthy food.
As it turned out, the smell wasn't coming from a fast food restaurant but from some sort of weird roadside curio shop that sold lawn flamingo's wooden Indians and other stuff like that Ron took in the neon sign with his dyslexic eyes and asked "what does it say?"
"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium" Grover translated for his two dyslexic partners.
Flanking the entrance were the cement statues of two garden gnomes, smiling and waving as if about to get their pictures taken.
Ron crossed the street following the smell of hamburgers.
"The lights are on" Annabeth said "maybe its open"
"Snack bar" Ron murmured wistfully
"Snack bar" Annabeth agreed
"You guys are crazy" Grover told them but they ignored his wise words.
The front yard was filled with statues of all sorts, animals, children, even a satyr playing the pipes which gave Grover the creeps.
"Looks like my uncle Ferdinand" he bleated. They stopped at the door of the warehouse where Grover pleaded "don't knock"
Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall Middle Eastern woman-at least, Ron assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all he could make out.
She spoke with a Mediterranean accent "children, it is late to be out all alone, where are your parents?"
"We're orphans" Annabeth told her and Ron added by creating a tale of them being lost circus artists, separated from their troop.
The warehouse was filled with all kinds of statues, people with different outfits and different expression, but Ron didn't notice anything in his quest for food. He didn't notice Grover's nervous whimpers, the way the eyes of the statue followed them or even the fact that aunty Em had locked the door behind them.
Ron's mouth watered when he set his eyes on the fast food counter, with a grill, soda fountain and even a pretzel heater "Sit down children" aunty Em gestured towards the steel picnic tables situated in the warehouse.
"Um, we don't have any money" Grover said reluctantly informed aunty Em, Ron gave him the evil eye and was about to pull out the debit card his mum had give for emergencies (he was pretty sure this qualified as one) when aunty Em said "No no children, no money. This is special case yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans"
"Thank you ma'am" Annabeth said making aunty Em stiffen for a moment before relaxing "quite alright Annabeth" aunty Em said "you have such beautiful gray eyes, child" aunty Em then disappeared behind the counter to get food for them.
An before Ron knew it, their hostess had placed plastic trays in front of them, heaped with double cheeseburgers, XXL servings of French fries and jumbo soda cups.
Ron practically inhaled his first two burgers, Annabeth was slurping her soda and Grover was eating the fries while eyeing the wax paper as if he might go for that but looking too nervous to eat.
"What's that hissing noise?" Grover asked aunty Em
"Perhaps you hear the deep fryer oil" aunty Em told Grover "you have keen ears child"
"I take vitamins for my ears" Grover told her as he continued with the fries.
Aunty Em herself ate nothing, choosing to observe the three kids as they ate their fill, so Ron decided to make small talk to their host.
"So you make statues?" Ron tried to sound interested
"Oh yes" aunty Em replied "anything for the garden, custom orders, statuary is very popular you know?" Ron looked around and noticed the statue of a girl with an Easter basket. The statue was with incredible detail, they looked amazing, except its face which looked terrified.
"Ah" aunty Em said sadly "you'll notice some of my creations do not turn out well. The face is the hardest to get"
Ron delved deeper into the conversation as aunty Em told them how she had two sisters who had passed away and some tragic story about an evil woman separating her and her boyfriend. Ron was sleepy by this time due to his full stomach and Annabeth had to shake him to get his attention.
"Ron! We need to get going now; the ringmaster is waiting for us" Annabeth told him
"Such beautiful eyes" aunty Em told Annabeth again "it's been a while since I've seen such gray eyes"
She reached forward to touch Annabeth who abruptly stood up "we need to leave" Annabeth told her "yes" Grover agreed chewing on the wax paper and dragging Ron to his feet "we need to leave"
"Of course children" aunty Em agreed "but could you pose for a picture? For one of my statues" Ron noticed Annabeth pale and got the distinct feeling that there was something he didn't know
They were in the front garden with the statues when aunty Em again said "please just one photo" aunty Em said, Ron looked at Annabeth who seemed wary and then at Grover who was examining the satyr statue "that sure does look like uncle Ferdinand" Grover remarked.
"Just one photo" aunty Em pleaded
"Where's your camera?" Annabeth asked but aunty Em ignored her
"Now a big large smile please" she still didn't have a camera in her hands
"Ron something is wrong" Annabeth whispered
"Now a large nice smile" aunty Em said
"That is Uncle Ferdinand" Grover gasped
Aunty Em was about to remove her veil when Annabeth shouted "NO!" she put on her invisibility cap and vanished, her invisible hands pushing Ron and Grover away.
Ron stared at aunty Em's sandaled feet as he heard Grover and Annabeth scramble in opposite directions. Ron's eyes rose to aunty Em's hands which had become talons.
"Run!" Grover bleated and then yelled "Maia" kick-starting the flying sneakers, but Ron was having trouble moving due to the trance the old lady had put him in.
"Such a pretty face" she told Ron soothingly "stay with me Ron Jackson all you have to do is look up" Ron glanced to the side and saw a gazing ball showing the reflection of a woman with snaked for hair
Aunty Em
Aunty M
"Shit" Ron swore silently "how could I have been so stupid" Ron racked his brains to remember who and how medusa had been defeated, but couldn't come up with anything.
"The gray eyed one did this to me" medusa purred "Athena; she cursed me to this form, that I why I need to destroy Annabeth. But you can live with me; you don't have to become a pawn of the Olympians"
"Ron" Grover yelled "duck" Ron then saw Grover flying towards them with his eyes closed, wielding a metal baseball bat
Ron ducked to one side as he heard Grover slam the bat into medusa, and cheered silently "Ron" Annabeth appeared by his side "you have to cut her head off"
"How am I supposed to do that without looking at her?" Ron asked her to which Annabeth handed him a gazing ball
"Use this" Annabeth instructed "don't gaze at her directly", they then heard Grover hit one of the statues. Ron took a deep breath and stepped out of his hiding place, holding the gazing ball in front of him, Ron approached medusa.
Ron slowly walked towards the monster woman, who let him approach her. Ron knew she could kill him easily with him having to hold the orb in front of him but she didn't, do anything...yet.
"You wouldn't harm an old woman Ron" she crooned and Ron felt the effects of her words, his arms felt weak,
"Don't listen to her" Grover groaned from the floor
"Too late" medusa crackled and lunged at him, Ron slashed the sword instinctively and it connected, there was a hiss like the wind rushing from a cavern- the sound of a monster disintegrating.
"Don't look down" Annabeth instructed Ron, she went inside the store and found a few plastic groceries bags and wrapped Medusa's head in them.
"What now?" Grover asked and Ron had an idea "I'll be back" Ron said and disappeared into the store. He returned with twenty dollars, a few drachmas and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express. Ron also got the address of the entrance to the underworld. A place called DOA studios.
Ron returned to the picnic table and tied one of the packing slips to the head. "what are you doing?" Grover asked but Ron ignored him as he filled out the form.
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th floor
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes
RON JACKSON
"They're not going to like that" Grover pointed out "they're going to think you're impertinent"
Ron put some drachma's in the pouch and the package disappeared with a pop after giving the sound of a cash register
Ron smirked "I am impertinent" he then looked at Annabeth and said "we need a new plan"
Ron Jackson: Rupert Grint
Grover Underwood: Adam Sevani
Chiron: Colin Farrell
Annabeth Chase: Annasophia Robb
Argus: Ryan Gosling
Dionysus: Johnny Depp
Hestia: Emma Stone
Luke Castellan: Jake Abel
Clarisse La Rue: Lindsey Shaw
Furies: Maria Olsen
Medusa: Uma Thurman
