Annabeth led us to the Hermes cabin. We walked into Luke's room.
The first thing I saw in it was 3 giant plasma screen Televisions on the wall. One was turned on with Call of Duty on the screen. Luke was focusing on it intently and gripping his game controller like it was his life line.
"Luke?" Annabeth asked.
"Hmm," He answered. He turned around in his seat and saw us. "Hey, guys. Figured you'd stop by sooner or later. Everybody does. Get away from all that… Renaissance Fair stuff out there, you know? But, uh… Welcome to the modern world." He said getting up.
"Cool new stuff." Grover said gazing across the room. I had a feeling spent a lot of time in Luke's room.
"What are you guys up to?" Luke asked.
"We're going to get my mom back." Percy told him. Luke had a look on his face like 'you're gonna be dead meat' so Annabeth stepped in.
"Your dad is the messenger of Gods," she explained, "One of the only ones who's gotten in and out of the underworld. Do you have any idea how?"
"Mmm…" he said in thought "My dad's a jerk. I've never met him."
"You too?" I asked.
"Guess we all got daddy issues. Well for you, mommy issues too," He replied. I looked down. I didn't really want to be reminded who my mother really is. I guess it didn't really make me feel bad that my dad was Poseidon because I never knew my dad but I thought my mom was one person but apparently she's not. Luke saw my reaction, "Sorry. But it's not just your parents. All gods are the same… Selfish. They only care about themselves. But I once broke into my dad's house. Got some cool stuff." Luke walked over to a cabinet and opened it. He pulled out an old shoe box and blew on it in an attempt to clean some of the dust off it. "For you," he said as he handed the box to Percy. Percy took it and opened it up. Before I could look inside a pair of high top sneakers flew out of it, and I mean flew. The shoes had wings sprouted out the sides.
"Oh! Flying shoes." Percy said in amazement. I don't know why though, because after everything that had happened it was sort of expected.
"Mm-hmm," Luke said nodding his head. "They're my dad's. He has hundreds of these little guys," he said reaching out to catch one in midair. "Won't even miss them. Look underneath the other one," Luke dropped the shoe in the box and put the lid on it after Percy pulled out a really old looking paper. "You see people have gone to the underworld before without having to be dead. Hercules did it. Orpheus did it. My dad does it all the time. Getting in is the easy part. Getting out… Now that's tricky. This is a map of Persephone's pearls."
"Persephone?" Percy asked, "You mean Hade's wife?"
"Yea, he forced her to marry him. Keeps her prisoner." Annabeth explained. 'Thank you Miss child of the wisdom Goddess.' I thought.
"Needless to say, she hates it there. It's hot. He's a weirdo," Luke said, "So, she has, um… secret visitors. She keeps pearls hidden for them all over the world, and these pearls, they provide a quick escape from the underworld. You could use them to get out. Summer if you use one you can take someone with you because of the goddess thing."
"So how do the pearls work?" Grover asked.
"Easy," Luke said, "You take a Pearl, step on it, crush it, visualize where you want to be taken. Right now there are three pearls in the United States. This map will guide you there. Right here is your first location." Luke pointing on the map. Suddenly letters appeared forming a word. My dyslexia got the best of me and I couldn't read what it said. I didn't want to say anything though because Annabeth was there and I refused to look stupid. Thankfully, Grover read it out loud.
"Auntie Em's Garden Emporium." He said.
"Once you find the first pearl, the map will show you the next one and the next one and then you're off to Hades. Which um… Reminds me, you guys might need some extra protection, so uh… My favorite shield, for you Summer," I put a leather glove that was attached to a strip of metal. It was long, but not long enough to shield my body. "You might want to take a step back." Luke warned the others. Suddenly the shield spread out and turned into a huge metal circle.
"Woh!" I said surprised, "Thanks, Luke."
"Ah, don't mention it. But, uh, you're going to have to promise me one thing. If you see my dad on the highway to hell… Kick his ass for me."
I smiled, "No problem."
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