Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews, that was awesome. Thanks also to the people who followed or favorited. There was not a whole lot of Percabeth in this chapter, but I added as much as possible. This chapter is a lot longer.
Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan and I do not own PJO
Hestia read the note from Aphrodite.
Ah, young love. So many arguments and so much violence.
"Yeah, you guys do fight all the time," Nico said. "Almost as bad as Percy and Thalia!"
"Shut up Death Breath," the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Zeus said in unison. Nico held his hands up in surrender, and Zeus and Poseidon glared at each other, remembering old arguments. The ever peaceful Hestia took that as a clue to read again.
"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."
"This is on our way west to find the Lightning Bolt," Percy explained quickly.
She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, Seaweed Brain."
"Remind me again-why do you hate me so much?"
"I don't hate you."
"Could've fooled me."
"No, you loooove him," Aphrodite said dreamily. The mentioned couple blushed.
She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look … we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."
Cue glares from Athena and Poseidon.
"Why?"
She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."
" I personally like the salt spring," Percy said, but when Athena turned her gaze on him, he backtracked. "But olives are delicious!" Annabeth kissed and told him to shut is big mouth.
"They must really like olives."
"Oh, forget it."
"Now, if she'd invented pizza-that I could understand."
Everyone laughed. "Dude," Jason snorted," No wonder every major god has wanted to kill you at some point."
"Don't forget some of the minor gods too!" Thalia pointed out.
"I said, forget it!"
In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.
Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.
Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment.
Hestia looked up. "There is another note from Aphrodite,"
There is boring, sad depressing talks that happen in between this, but no Percabeth! So I skipped those parts.
Aphrodite squealed. "I am honestly so impressed with my self," Nobody was sure whether to laugh or groan.
Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy-enchiladas.
"Enchiladas are the best," Grover sighed. "Does anyone have some?" The gods looked at him in confusion, but the demigods smiled.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."
But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.
I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our backpacks. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.
As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. "Percy."
Aphrodite let loose a ear-piecing shriek. "Eek! They touched!" Hera just looked at her in confusion.
"She just touched his knee!" Aphrodite waved her hand absentmindedly in response, her brain working hard .
An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.
It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.
"Another Fury?" Poseidon said pointedly at Hades. Hades just shrugged.
I scrunched down in my seat.
Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds-same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.
"Ew, such bad fashion taste," Piper said in disgust. The demigods looked at her in surprise, and she smile sheepishly.
They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.
The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."
"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."
"Your luck is awful punk," Ares said. Everyone thought he had been sleeping, but maybe he had sensed violence and woken up.
"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"
"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."
"They don't open," Grover moaned.
"A back exit?" she suggested.
There wasn't one.
Leo and Hephaestus looked at each other. "We should totally design a demigod bus," Leo said.
"My forges, after this book is done," Hephaestus replied.
Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.
"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"
"Oh yes they will," Hades said darkly. Anabeth snuggled closer to Percy.
"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."
"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"
She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof … ?"
We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.
Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."
"So do I," said the second sister.
"So do I," said the third sister.
"They need lying lessons," Hermes declared. "Obvious much?"
They all started coming down the aisle.
"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."
"What?"
"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."
"And he is not going to like that," Thalia said. "His freaking fatal flaw is loyalty."
But you guys-"
"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."
"YEah percy, yours is awful." Grover admitted.
"Thanks G-man," Percy said sarcastically.
"I can't just leave you."
"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"
My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the Yankees cap and put it on.
When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.
I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.
Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding.
Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.
I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.
"And Percy is probably going to make a rash decision?" Frank asked. The other demigods just nodded.
The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same-I guess those couldn't get any uglier- but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.
The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"
"Did they say it?" Athena asked, her interest spiked. As Hestia answered, Percy pulled Annabeth in and kissed her.
The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.
"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"
The Furies raised their whips.
Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.
What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.
"Actually, I think that goes to Leo," Percy joked.
"Team Leo for the win!" Leo shouted, flexing his non-existent muscles.
The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.
Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.
"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey-whoa!"
"That was so stupid! You could have killed Annabeth and Grover, not to mention the mortals!" Athena was angry now.
"They all lived, ok?" Percy defended. Annabeth stood next to him, prepared to fight.
We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.
We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.
Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.
"Yes! Hit the river!" Ares screamed.
Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.
The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.
"Can you imagine how scary it was for those mortals?" Apollo shivered.
The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.
I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"
"Together forever," Percy whispered in Annabeth's ear. "I'll never leave you Wise Girl."
The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test.
"You got F's on tests! How disgraceful." Athena shook her head.
Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.
Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.
"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."
"Look at how well that turned out," Percy said cheekily. Annabeth lightly smacked him.
"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.
She growled.
Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.
"I was trying to distract her without you dying," Annabeth admitted. "Honestly, I did like you."
I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.
The Furies hesitated.
Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.
"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."
"Nice try," I told her.
"Percy, look out!" Annabeth cried.
"She's protecting you! How sweet," Aphrodite exclaimed.
"It just ends there," Hestia said, confused.
Everyone stared at the love goddess.
"What? I never said I was a good writer!"
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