The quest was officially announced the night before, which meant all of the other campers had to get up early to see them off. Most just said hello and then went back to bed before they had to get up for chores or archery or something, but some didn't, staying to see them off.

Chiron was having Argus, the camp's watcher, basically, escort them back into New York City. Argus himself had just about a gazillion eyes on his body, including one on the back of his head, which Percy couldn't help but a bit freaked out by, but once Argus smiled and showed his personality, Percy quickly warmed up to him.

The three were about to set off. "Wait!" a voice called them as Luke came dashing up the hill, holding a box in his hand. "Wait…" he stopped in front of them, trying to catch his breath. Once he did, he took Percy aside and handed the box to him. "I wanted you to have these, at least for the quest," he said, offering one of his winning smiles. "To use them, just yell 'maia'."

"They're," Percy was kind of amazed. "These are…your winged shoes," he said in disbelief. "No, I-I couldn't…I mean, these are all you have from your dad, right?"

Luke chuckled. "Well, as a wise man once said to me; screw him."

The two shared a totally manly hug before returning to the others. Luke shook hands with Grover and then shared a hug with Annabeth as well, which seemed to send her into an internal frenzy trying to remain composed. And with that, five minutes later, the three were cruising down the highway into Manhattan.

"…You and Luke seem close," Percy said to Annabeth. He didn't look, but he could tell she was blushing.

"As are you, I see," she said, referring to the gift. "…He's never let anyone use those before."

Percy nodded, not sure how to respond. "…Ten miles, so far…not a single monster…"

"Don't say that," the Athenian snapped, her voice sounding more annoyed than usual. "It's bad luck."

"…Why do you hate me?" Percy wondered. "You've been a smartass since I met you."

"Well, it's not like you're any different," Annabeth countered. Percy didn't back down, however. If there was one thing he could do in an argument, it was persist. "…You're a son of Poseidon, whether he claims you or not. I'm a daughter of Athena. We were never meant to get along."

"But why not?"

"It's just our nature; been so ever since Athens was named. You know the story?" Annabeth questioned, to which Percy shook his head, which only added to Annabeth's annoyance. "When the city was built, Poseidon and Athena each presented a gift to the city to impress the citizens so that they would name it after them. Poseidon gave them a worthless spring, while Athena gave them an olive tree. They obvious chose Athena, and Poseidon has held a rivalry with Athena ever since. It's the same with her children; we're too much like our parents."

"…You believe too much in that stuff," Percy said. "…I'm nothing like my dad…" he muttered, even though it was more to assure himself than his teammates.

Once Argus had dropped them off, the three immediately went on the bus. To where? Anywhere, really. They just needed to keep moving until they could get a game plan, so as to not attract monsters. As one may have guessed, their plan worked swimmingly.

The last three to come onto the bus sent chills down Percy's spine, just by looking at them. Percy hid from their view before they spotted him, though. "I smell them too," Grover claimed.

"Monsters?" Annabeth whispered.

"That's…Mrs. Dodds…" Percy muttered. "Those must be more Kindly Ones," he said, only then recalling that he shoved a sword in her chest. "Wait, but I killed her, right?"

"Monster don't stay dead, Percy," Annabeth stated.

"Personally, I think you're lucky she'd stayed dead this long," Grover claimed as they took off.

"Well, this might be good, but…no, never mind."

"What?" Percy wondered.

"I was going to say that we could find out the entrance to the Underworld form them. You know, like, where it is, but they would never tell us."

"You'd think Chiron would have known, judging how old he is," Percy said sourly.

The three Kindly Ones sat in the front row, with two of them forming an x-shape across the aisle, basically preventing people from leaving. After a while, once they'd entered the Lincoln Tunnel, the three stood up, muttering that they needed to use the restroom, and began walking toward the three demigods.

"Bad things seem to happen to you on buses, don't they?" Riptide mentioned.

"How about any ideas?" he retorted, though Annabeth heard it, tapping her Yankees cap on his knee.

"Here, put it on."

"…Why?"

"It'll turn you invisible," she whispered. "They want you, not us; they've probably been told to ignore demigods that aren't you."

Percy nodded, and put the cap on. He started moving up a few rows, and then ducked into a seat to avoid Mrs. Dodds and her lackeys as they passed, before getting to the front.

"Okay, so I got past them, now what?" Percy thought, seeing that they were almost out of the Lincoln Tunnel. He figured her could maybe trigger the emergency stop to get everyone out, and then fight these things off that way.

"Uh, they're transforming."

Percy looked back and saw that their 'transformation' was already complete, with them turning into the chicken ladies that had haunted Percy in his dreams since that day at the museum. Only this time, their targets were Annabeth and Grover, which instantly filled Percy with an unbridled anger. He was tempted to grabbed Riptide and gut them, but he was too far away; by the time he would have gotten there, his partners would've bene clawed to death, even as they were fighting back.

"Try the wheel."

What an excellent idea. That was Percy's reaction to that plan, which probably made him all sorts of irresponsible, but he went through with it. Still invisible, Percy jerked the wheel from the driver's hands and yanked it to the left, causing everyone to turn right. Percy looked back just long enough to see the Kindly Ones slam into the window, allowing Annabeth to stab one of them with her knife and kill it. Grover threw cans at the others, distracting them.

The bus spun out of control soon after. Thankfully, they'd gotten out of the tunnel, and then ran into a tree. The emergency lights came on, and the door swung open. Everyone rushed for the doors, with the driver being first. Once everyone was out, Percy removed the cap and drew Riptide. "Hey!" he called. The two remaining monsters lurched toward him and shrieked. "You want me, right?"

"Tell us where it is!" Mrs. Dodds screeched as she leapt onto one of the seats, and cracked a whip into existence.

"What? The square root of 42?" Percy goaded her toward him, allowing Annabeth and Grover to catch their breaths.

"Watch out!" Grover cried as the Kindly One shot the whip toward Percy. He raised her sword hand to keep it from hitting his face, but then it wrapped around, feeling like his wrist was one fire. Mrs. Dodds' friend charged Percy, but he was able to hold it at bay for a moment with a kick, before slashing its neck like butter, making it explode into dust.

Meanwhile Annabeth leapt onto top of Mrs. Dodds, getting her into a choke hold, and wrestled her off of my wrist, even getting her to drop her whip. Annabeth raised her knife to stab it. "Wait!" Percy yelled. "Just hold her down!"

Annabeth gave him a look of disbelief, but didn't argue, even as she lost the upper hand from her hesitation. Mrs. Dodds threw Annabeth off of her back, and spread her wings. As she did, Percy took a knife out from a sheath in his jacket, and stabbed it into one of her wings, and forced it into the floor beneath them.

"You'd better hope you didn't hit something important."

Annabeth seemed to get the right idea, stabbing her own to pin down the Kindly One's other wing, while Grover tied up her legs with her own whip. The three stepped back, watching the monster writhe. "Great, we got it. Now what?" Annabeth questioned, gesturing out to see police that had arrived at the site of the bus crash, questioning the driver.

"Just…go outside and keep them from coming inside," Percy said.

"What about you?" Grover wondered.

"Just…trust me," he insisted. Reluctantly, the two climbed over the Kindly One and left the bus, just as an officer was coming to check inside. Apparently, no one saw what was happening or heard Mrs. Dodds' cries. Percy took another looked at this creature, who had attacked him with no prior warning, that had cut up and tried to kill his friends to get to him. He held up Riptide. "You remember this sword?" it screeched at him. "It took a leg and a wing, remember?"

"You must give it to us!" it cried, before Percy slashed its legs off, making it let out a blood-curdling cry.

"No, you're gonna give something to me," he said, his voice low and dangerous, like with the slightest provocation, he would snap. "Tell me where I can enter the Underworld."

"Give it to-" a wing was gone.

Percy grinned a toothy grin, to try and scare the monster. It apparently worked, a little too well, he would later find out. "Tell me! And then I'll end it," he said. "Until then, I just can't cut off your head or stab your heart!"

"You're cruel! Death to you, traitor of the gods! Traitor of Hades!"

"Ooh, ooh, I got it. Does he look like a bitch?"

Percy made a sour face. "You're not Sam Jackson, Riptide."

"What?" the Kindly One looked confused.

"Say what again! I dare you, I double dare you! Say what one more goddam time!"

Percy decided to ignore it. "Tell me where the Underworld is!" Percy yelled once again, slicing off a wing.

"In Hollywood!" the Kindly One finally cried. "In a recording studio!"

"Which one?!" Percy chopped off another wing.

"DOA!" it cried. Satisfied, Percy stabbed into the monster's chest, and it finally exploded. Percy had to take several deep breaths. Throughout the entire encounter…he can't say it was pleasant, but it had filled him with exhilaration.

"I wonder if this is how Vlad the Impaler felt…"

"Isn't he the guy they got the Werewolf from?" Percy wondered.

"Dracula," Riptide corrected. "He was named Vlad, who was known as Vlad Dracula, and was the son of-"

"Oh wait, I stopped caring," Percy said as he tapped riptide against his foot, making it retract into a pen again. He made sure to grab Annabeth's and his own knife from where they were impaled into the ground, and then exited the bus. It seemed that while he was, uh…persuading the Kindly One to talk, Annabeth had gotten the police off their backs. She was looking at him weird, averting her eyes when he looked at her. "What?" he wondered.

"Nothing," she said hastily, as they waited to get back on and at least get their bags, only to hear a loud boom behind them. When they looked, the bus had exploded. Both sets of eyes were on Percy.

"What?" he repeated. "I didn't do that," he claimed.

"All of our bags were on there!" Annabeth snapped, only to see people starting to look at them weird. Realizing that she'd yelled, Annabeth drew back, and the three collectively decided to get the hell out of there.

Author's Note:

Any of you guys seen Pulp Fiction? If not, you won't understand the reference that Riptide made.

Anyway, I actually have a question. I said there'd be some mild language in this story, but I want you gys to let me know if you'd be alright if I used the F-bomb. Not excessively, of course, but, let's face it, that's how teenagers talk.

I don't know, let me know in a review!