Chiron woke us up at seven o'clock on the spot in the morning, telling us to get our stuff and get ready to go to Olympus for our meeting. Luke helped me carry my bags to the vans, where Argus was waiting. We went down and quickly grabbed breakfast (egg burritos), and then returned to the van. Somehow, Percy, Nico, and Annabeth had beat us back to the van.
"Ready to go?" Percy asked.
"Yup, let's go," I said, hopping into the van. I never noticed how creepy Argus's eyes were, until all hundred of them were staring at us from the back of his head and neck. I held back a shudder and bit into my burrito. Luke slid in next to me, and Nico, Annabeth, and Percy sat in front of us.
It took approximately twenty minutes to get to the Empire State Building. "How do you get up there? I don't think that there are six hundred floors…"
"There's a guy at the security desk and you have to get a key from him to go up in a special elevator."
That gave me an idea. "Can we joke around for a few with the security desk person?"
"Uh… sure?"
I smirked to myself and ran inside to bug the desk guy. This would have to replace bugging those Buckingham Palace guard guys who don't react to anything you do. I walked right up to him and said, "Hello sir, I would like to go to the six-hundredth floor."
He gave me a weird look. "Very funny kid, but there isn't a six-hundredth floor."
I frowned, and burst into fake tears. I took acting lessons as a kid, and one of the first lessons I learned was how to fake cry. He looked quite alarmed, and my fake tears turned into laughing tears.
"You security guards make me laugh. But seriously, we have an audience with Zeus."
"Name?" he asked.
"Natalie Guthrie, Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Nico DiAngelo, and uh, Luke Castellan." He gave me a look on Luke's name, and passed me a security key for the elevator.
"Make sure no mortals are in the elevator with you when you go up, put the key in the key slot, and a button will pop out. Press it. Good luck, miss." He winked at me and turned back to his computer to do his work.
"Thanks." I turned back around and headed over to the elevator where everyone was waiting for me. I pressed the button that opened up the elevator and stepped in, and after everyone else had gotten themselves and their bags in, I closed the door and put the key in the slot, revealing a small button which I pushed. The elevator started moving upwards normally, but it kept going for at least five minutes. When I thought all hope of not listening to tacky music was lost, the elevator dinged and the doors opened.
Olympus was beautiful. It was like we were walking on clouds, and we literally were. It was scary, but extremely cool at the same time. Although, I could have appreciated it if I wasn't afraid of heights. Instead, I clung to Nico like my life depended on it. In my world, it probably did. He patted me on the back and egged me forward.
After several excruciating minutes of walking six hundred feet above ground level, we finally got to the main Olympus building… or whatever it's called. The building was huge. And I don't mean just huge, I mean huge beyond your imagination huge. And even scarier, there were thirteen gods prancing around twenty feet tall, and fighting loudly with each other. My head spun in fright, and I was now scared that I'd get crushed by a god. That would be a horrible way to die, right after getting trampled by a hoard of hippocampi.
We stood there patiently for about ten seconds before Athena noticed us and calmed everyone down, and then invited us in to talk about what we came here to talk about.
I explained about my dream (The one with Gaea and Uranus) and then about the quest I was given by Rachel/the Oracle, and that we knew that Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus had lost their possessions.
The gods exchanged a look, and Zeus said, "That is correct. But very recently, another thing has gone missing. Hestia is missing."
"I knew it!" Nico exclaimed. I stared at him. "She's been gone from camp for days, if no one noticed. I tried to Iris message her, but it said the signal was disconnected."
"Well if it's Gaea and Uranus behind all of this, I'd think that Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, and Demeter all need to take precautions. Since Hestia went missing, I'd think that eventually you'll all disappear, going in order of age. Hestia was the oldest, so who was next?"
"I was," Demeter said. "The order was: Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, Hades, and then little Zeus."
Zeus winced at the comment of "Little Zeus".
"Then we are all in danger. We will need you young demigods to bring back our possessions quickly, so if this turns into battle, we will be prepared," Poseidon said.
"Psh, the likelihood is that it will turn into battle, you're up against your own parents here for heaven's sake! And sorry to say, but the Titans are going to have to take sides in this. For all we know, they might end up taking your side; I don't think they want the world crushed by their parents either," Percy said, acting like his cocky old self.
I saw Hermes staring happily at his son, and I couldn't help but smile. I hope Luke could see it too.
All of a sudden, grinding noises came from the roof of the enormous room, and the ceiling dropped small pieces of marble on us. "And it looks like Uranus isn't too happy either," I said, covering my head with my hands.
Zeus ended the meeting, but we stayed an extra minute talking while Hermes and Apollo worked on changing Luke's appearance. He came back out with bright curly red hair that shimmered golden, light porcelain skin (with no scar), and his eyes had been changed to a sparkling shade of emerald green. In my opinion, he resembled a god. Luke hugged his dad goodbye, and we set out on our quest to save the world.