And now, the actual quest starts! Whoop whoop!
Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan. Therefor, I do not own.
- Chapter Six: Percy Takes the Wheel -
After our little briefing at the Big House, I practically skipped back to my cabin, who was just now waking up. Malcolm frowned at me as I walked into the door.
"Annabeth, why are you—"
"I've got a quest!" I practically shouted. Malcolm smiled a little.
"About time," he said.
"Tell me about it," I said, and went over to my trunk to start packing. I took out of a small backpack and shoved a few things in—some spare changes of clothing, an architecture book in case I got bored, a hair brush, and some squares of ambrosia. I strapped my bronze knife to my arm, and stuffed my Yankee's cap into my pocket.
I met Grover and Percy in the middle of the commons area between the cabins, and we all waved goodbye to the other campers. We hiked up Half-Blood Hill, where Chiron and Argus were waiting for us with one of the Delphi Strawberry vans. Argus wore a chauffeur's uniform, which I thought looked a little ridiculous, but hey, who can go wrong with a guy who's covered in eyes.
"This is Argus," Chiron told Percy. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."
I heard the crunch of wet grass, and we turned around to see Luke running up to us, holding a pair of basketball sneakers in his hands. I involuntarily felt myself blush. Control yourself!
"Hey!" he said, out of breath. "Glad I caught you."
So am I, I thought to myself. Even out of breath, he looked cute.
Then, he looked at Percy, completely ruining any wonderful thoughts I had in my head. "Just wanted to say good luck," he said to Percy. "And I thought... um, maybe you could use these."
He handed Percy the sneakers, and he looked at them skeptically.
"Maia!" Luke said. Small, white bird's wings sprouted from the bottoms of them. Percy dropped the shoes in surprise, and they fluttered around the ground until the wings retracted and they were normal again. I had to admit, I was a little miffed.
"Awesome!" Grover said.
Luke smiled, making him look completely handsome. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." He frowned a little.
Percy blushed a little.
"Hey, man," he said. "Thanks."
"Listen, Percy..." Luke scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just... kill some monsters for me, okay?"
Percy nodded, and they shook hands. He patted Grover on the head, and then gave me a hug. I thought I was going to pass out right there in the grass.
After he was gone, Percy cocked an eyebrow in my direction. "You're hyperventilating."
I tried to control my breathing. "Am not."
"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"
I scowled. "Oh... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"
I walked down the hill to the van, Argus following behind with they keys. I opened the door, and sat in the backseat. I watched out of the window as Percy gave the basketball shoes to Grover, and he flew down the hill. He flopped into the van next to me, grinning like an idiot.
"These things are cool," he said.
I raised an eyebrow. "Why did he give them to you?"
"You know, air travel, son of Poseidon..." Grover said. I didn't need to be reminded.
Percy came down the hill, shoving a ballpoint pen into his pocket, though I didn't see how a pen would be very useful.
Argus drove us into the city in silence, and I found myself staring at everything out of the windows. I hadn't been outside of Camp Half-Blood in forever...
"So far so good," Percy murmured to me. "Ten miles and not a single monster."
I glared at him. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain." Gods, where was this nickname coming from?
"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?" he said.
I sent him a skeptical look. "I don't hate you."
"Could've fooled me."
I fingered my invisibility cap. "Look... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."
"Why?"
I sighed inwardly. Seaweed brain... "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."
"They must really like olives, then."
I wanted to smack him. "Oh, forget it."
"Now, if she's invented pizza—that I could understand."
"I said, forget it!" Ugh, idiot! In the front seat, Argus smiled and winked at Percy. What the heck was that about?
By the time we got to Manhattan, the sun was starting to dip below the skyline, and it was drizzling. Argus left us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side.
As soon as we got off, I noticed a soaking wet flyer taped to a mailbox with Percy's picture and printed in bold: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?
Percy ripped it down when he thought Grover and I weren't looking.
Argus helped us unload our bags,made sure we got our tickets, and then finally drove away, watching us with an eye on the back of his hand. Percy stared down the street, his expression sad and longing. Grover looked down in the same direction.
"You want to know why she married him, Percy?" Grover said out of the blue. I raised an eyebrow. Percy stared at him.
"Were you reading my mind or something?"
"Just your emotions." He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. I could tell it was to Percy, though. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?" I remembered seeing something about Percy have a stepdad in the newspaper article—and also the fact that he had told the newspaper his stepchild had anger issues. I guessed he probably didn't have the best stepdad in the world.
Percy nodded listlessly, looking at his shoes.
"Your mom married Gabe for you," Grover continued. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura... Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."
"Thanks," Percy muttered dejectedly. "Where's the nearest shower?"
"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."
I could tell by the blank look in Percy's eyes that it most definitely didn't make him feel any better. What guy could smell so bad that he masks a Big Three kid's scent?
There was silence for a little while, while the rain kept coming down lightly around the buss stop. We all got bored, and decided to play Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples.
I was really good, and I found myself trying to impress Percy, bouncing the apple off of my knee, my elbow, my shoulder... anything I could hit. Eventually, Percy sent the apple too close to Grover's mouth, and in one bite, the entire apple was gone. Not even the core or the stem was left.
Grover tried to apologize, but Percy and I were laughing too hard. I had to grip his shoulder to keep from falling over.
The bus finally came. As we were waiting in line to get on the bus, Grover started sniffing around tensely, as if he sensed monsters.
"What is it?" Percy asked him.
"I don't know," he said hesitantly. "Maybe it's nothing."
It most definitely wasn't nothing. I started looked around, and over my shoulder, and noticed that Percy was doing the same. It made me glad when we finally got on the bus and sat together in the back. I kept slapping my Yankee's cap against my knee, trying to control my anxiety.
As the last few passengers got on, I gasped quietly, and then reached over and grasped Percy's knee. "Percy."
An old lady had just stumbled up onto the bus, wearing a big, orange floppy knit hat and a rumpled velvet dress. She wore lace gloves, and also carried a large, flower-printed purse. When she looked up, down the aisle, she had completely black eyes, like orbs of darkness. It was a Fury.
Percy scooted down in his seat next to me.
We all watched as two more ladies climbed up behind her, both in the same floppy hats (different colors, of course) and velvet dresses. They all had those evil, black eyes. They sat in the front behind the driver, their knees crossed in the aisle, as if to say: Nobody leaves.
The bus pulled out of the station. "She didn't stay dead long," Percy said, his voice quivering a little. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."
"I said if you're lucky," I reminded him. "You're obviously not."
"All three of them," Grover whimpered from my other side. "Di immortales!"
"It's okay," I said, trying to control my own fear and come up with a plan. "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 said quietly.
"A back exit?" I asked. There wasn't one. Percy just kept staring at them.
"They won't attack us with witnesses around," he tried, "Will they?"
"Mortals don't have good eyes," I reminded him, hating to burst that bubble. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."
"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"
I thought about it. Good point... "Hard to say. But we can't count on the mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof...?"
We went into the Lincoln Tunnel, making my skin tingle from the darkness and quiet without the rain drumming on the ceiling.
Alecto stood up in the aisle, and announced to the entire bus, "I need to use the rest-room."
"So do I," said the one with the purple hat.
"So do I," said the Fury with the green hat.
They got up and all starting making their way down the isle, heading for us. A plan formulated in my head.
"I've got it," I 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."
"But you guys—"
"There's an outside chance the might not notice us," I reminded him. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."
"I can't just leave you," he said. I was a little bit touched that he actually cared about us enough to not want to leave us, but now wasn't the time for heartwarming moments.
"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"
His hands shook a little, but he took the cap from me. He left his seat, and they kept coming towards us.
They suddenly stopped, and Alecto looked into an empty seat—no doubt where he was standing—but then moved on.
They finally got to us, and started screeching like a banshee.
They turned into their true forms—they looked like bats with the haggard faces of old ladies, and their purses turned into whips. They started lashing their whips at Grover and I, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"
It? Either they'd just majorly insulted Percy, or they weren't looking for him.
"He's not here!" I yelled, going with the former. "He's gone!"
They raised their whips, and I drew my knife. Grover grabbed a tin can out of his backpack, though I didn't know how much good that would do.
Suddenly, the entire bus hooked left, and everyone was thrown into the right of the bus.
"Hey!" The driver yelled. "Hey—whoa!"
He wrestled an invisible person for the wheel. Percy. Oh, gods...
We barreled out form under the Lincoln Tunnel, and sped down an exit. We careened down a rural road somewhere in New Jersey, the Hudson river to our right. The brakes squealed, and we did a three-sixty into the tree line. The driver and the rest of the passengers started pouring out of the bus, leaving Grover and I and a few blood thirsty Furies. I waved my knife at them, while shouting in ancient Greek. Grover was still throwing tin cans.
"Hey!" I looked up, only to see Percy standing there, waving my Yankee's cap. I sighed.
The Furies all started to make their way to the front of the bus where he was, cracking their whips. Why did he do that? He didn't even have a weapon!
"Perseus Jackson," Alecto said icily. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."
"I liked you better as a math teacher," Percy said.
She growled at him, and Grover and I moved forward to attack them so they wouldn't rearrange his face.
He took out the ballpoint pen. What was he going to do? Stab her in the eye?
The flicked off the cap, and the pen expanded into a three-foot long celestial bronze sword, the blade shaped like a leaf. Well, that could work.
Alecto hesitated.
"Submit now," she snarled, "And you will not suffer eternal torment."
"Nice try," he said.
"Percy, look out!" I yelped as she raised her whip. She lashed out as his sword hand, and amazingly, he didn't even drop his sword. The others lunged at him.
He hilt-slammed one in the chest, sending her back into the seat, and sliced the other Fury to his right. She exploded into dust. I jumped onto Alecto's back and put her into a wrestler's hold, while Grover grabbed her whip.
"Ow!" he said "Ow! Hot! Hot!"
The other Fury went at Percy again, but he busted her open like she was a pinata. Alecto was still trying to throw me, but I held on tightly while Grover tied up her legs with her whip. I shoved her back into the aisle. She tried to get up, but kept falling.
"Zeus will destroy you!" she shouted at Percy. "Hades will have your soul!"
"Braccas meas vescimini!" Percy yelled at her. Eat my pants? Seriously?
Thunder shook the entire bus.
"Get out!" I yelled. "Now!" We all ran out of the bus, and a guy in a Hawaiian t-shirt snapped Percy's picture while he still had his sword out. Great.
"Our bags!" Grover remembered. "We left our—"
BOOOM!
The bus exploded, and everyone ran for cover as lightning shredded the top of the bus, setting it on fire and creating an enormous smoking crater in the top of it.
Tourists ran around screaming as wreckage flew from the bus, the driver trying to calm everyone down, but failing. An angry wail came from inside, and I automatically knew that Alecto wasn't dead yet. She was calling for help.
"Run!" I told the others. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"
The boys didn't need any more encouragement. We all sprinted into the tree line, and ran as far away from the wreckage as we could. I tried to ignore the fact that we didn't have any money, any clothes, food, or a ride.
And we weren't even out of New Jersey.
Oh, the humanity!
From now on, chapters will be coming out at random times. Basically, whenever I feel like writing one and finishing it. Nag me enough, and I'll get around to it faster.