I don't own Percy Jackson pr the characters except for Cade.
I say hello to my not so little friend.
We all walked out of the Greek Idol set, and trotted down the street. Cade had that owl in winter song stuck in his head, and every time he hummed it Annabeth laughed. That made me happy… But just in the fact that I didn't like seeing her mad! Or was it? It took a minute or two, or 24… but we finally found the record company that was the opening to Hades. A shrill shiver raced down my spine… this place was freaky! We were all in a good mood, and we were forgetting our quest for a minute…So instead of sticking to business and entering the underworld, we decided to slip over to the store next door. It was called the Surf Star Inc. We stepped inside, ad found ourselves face to face with mounds of fishing and surfing needs. I naturally knew how to surf… so I went over to the surfing section, while Cade was searching through the hats. He was always wearing his hat backwards no just in case it started working again. Grover was Gasping at the blowfish lamps, and trying to pour water on them, while Annabeth simply just scurried around, peeking at the clothes. I was forgetting rule number five… Never forget your quest! Monsters will wait for you! I was just about to go get the others, but I couldn't help but notice a beautiful white shark tooth necklace with an engraved P on it… just waiting for me. It was only three bucks… so what the Hades? (The shark tooth idea was Brinrose's idea… I agree that he would look good in it!)
We walked out of the store a few seconds later. Or was it a few seconds? When we went in, it was noon… now it was dusk… I ignored that as we made our way to the record station. Cade was shaking. I was still wondering what time it was exactly, when suddenly, right as we were going to step in, a hand grabbed us. But it wasn't a hand! It was an overgrown bird talon hand! I turned around to face a stitched up harpy… with scars all over its body. It was the harpy that Blackjack and I killed! And it was fired up! It gave the most powerful fireball I have ever seen, and as we leaped out of the way, it swung its sharpened claws right at us. Suddenly, it scooped up Annabeth, and began flying away. I hurled riptide at the monster, a new strength brewed in side of me. Just as I had planned, the sword lodged itself into the beast's back. It squawked, dropped Annabeth, and erupted into flame. It took me a second to realize I should catch Annabeth; I dove like a baseball player, and (Though I crushed my arm) caught Annabeth. I stood up, still holding her. That was a mistake… Cade started chanting the wedding song, while Grover just tossed garbage like it was rice, and cracked up. I looked down; realizing was holding Annabeth like some new husband would carry his new wife. Only I had bloody scars, and Annabeth was out conscious. Then again that's your normal demigod wedding… I used Grover water bottle to splash water on Annabeth's face… She woke up and I dropped her into the grass.
"OW! Thanks Seaweed brain…" She smiled as she looked up at me.
I couldn't help but smile back.
We walked into the record station, and I slowly crept my hand down to Riptide… there was a lot of goons here that were possible monsters. I was snapped back to my sense as I felt around for Riptide. It wasn't there! I double… triple… quadruple checked everywhere on my body… but it was nowhere to be found. It WAS lunged into the harpy… but my sword reappears magically into my pocket… That's when I felt more stupid than I had ever felt in my life. (And let me tell you, there are a lot of choices…) I didn't have pockets! All of my pants were switched to plaid gym pants before I left! Either the harpies were on Kronos's side… or there was a traitor in camp. I explained everything in rage to the others as we sat down. I still wondered how the sword disappeared when the bird died though… Annabeth solved that part.
"Well, Kronos is getting much stronger, which means he has the power to summon up monsters before they die. So basically whenever a monster dies, it just teleports back to him before it goes to rehab." She explained. We all knew what this meant. And I was in the worst mood you could ever imagine. Kronos had the Celestial bronze sword.
We trudged up to the front desk… where a familiar man was checking some papers, and he looked up. We had been here before… and if we convinced this dude to let us pass, we pretty much got a free ride into the underworld. But Cerberus blocked the main entrance. Annabeth was good friends with Cerberus, and she managed to pack an XXXL dog chewy.
"We don't except drachms!" Yelled the front desk man named Charon .He was obviously remembering the last time we came.
"I don't want to give YOU my drachmas!" I sneered." I want you to let us in!"
"No can do comprendo. I can only let special people in by the order of the lord or the lord's son."
Nico popped into my head.
"Annabeth… can I see your cell phone?" I asked as sweetly as I could.
"Yeah… but it's only for emergencies…"
"THIS is what I all an emergency!"
She shakily handed me the phone. I jogged my memory for the number, and finally remembered it. RING RING!!
A black haired pale boy almost as tall as I was answered in a growing voice.
"Hello?"
"Yeah… is Nico there?" I was on instant message, and I could see him from here.
The kid just smiled and said, "You're looking at him."
"Oh my gods! You're growing so big!"
"Thanks mom… but I want to know what you're calling for."
"Tell this chump we need to get in!" I pointed the screen at Charon.
"Uh… um… Yes lord?"
"Let em' in Charon…"
"Yes master!" He gave a salute, and shakily opened the door.
"I've been here for 97 years!" Shouted someone behind us… but we didn't have time to listen to his complaints. The door shut, and we followed a stone stair case down to a misty dark green river, and stepped onto a boat. It was so cold… And I couldn't tell who was shakier… Grover or Cade.
In nearly ten spooky minutes I'd say… we landed in front of a Dark stone wall, that you couldn't see the top of. Over to the right, a huge sleeping fur ball slept. We thought it would be easy to slip by, but as soon as we came within sniffing distance, He lifted all three mighty rottweiler heads. Instead of yelping and biting though… It wagged its tail, and did the whole playful puppy thing.
"Ahhhhhh…" chorused Cade and Annabeth together. Grover just bleated. Annabeth tugged out her chew toy, and launched as far as Cerberus's chain would let him. We all climbed into the wall, except Annabeth.
"Annabeth! Come on!" I snapped.
"I want to catch up Cero cerbs," she said as she launched the mega toy again.
I rolled my eyes.
"Fine!" And the rest of us ran away.
Nico was smart enough to meet up with us… or else we would have never found him.
"What's up guys?" He said happily as he greeted us.
I couldn't help but be a little happy.
"Nothing much… you?"
"Living dead, skeleton armies… average stuff…" For the first time in hours, I laughed.
"Let's get Annabeth… we have a lot to talk about."
………………………………………………………………………………….
We took at least an hour to explain our quest, tell him how things were and introduce him to Cade. Then the dreaded part came up…
"So that harpy was automatically teleported back to Kronos… With my sword!" I yelled. We were just sitting right in the middle of everything.
"Well your sword just comes back to your pocket right?"
"No… someone or something switched my pants to pants to pants without pockets!"
Nico looked actually worried.
"Do you think someone at camp did it? Or maybe the harpies?"
"I still don't know… but you listen…" I grew serious, and pointed to the sword in his sash.
"You take care of that sword with your life! I mean it!" Nico nodded… and looked into the abyss. Finally he talked.
"Percy… I am not the only type of half blood that controls a Stygian iron sword."
My eyes grew as big as a piece of bread.
"It's impossible to be true… but the daughters or sons of Artemis control a Stygian Iron sword as well." I relaxed. There was no way Artemis could have a kid. SNAP! Back to reality.
"OH NO!" I screamed more than said.
"AMY!! SHE"S BEEN TAKING NOTES OF EVERYTHING IN CAMP!! IT"S NOT MEMORY PROBLES AT ALL!! SHE'S A MINION OF KRONOS!! SHE SWITCHED THE PANTS… THAT'S HOW KRONOS KNEW ABOUT EVERYTHING!!"
We were all scared to death… realizing that we had to beet Kronos to that carnage silver sword or else we were doomed. Annabeth broke the silence.
"Percy! How could you tell her about the prophecy! Why!?" She looked close to tears. But I noticed that they weren't tears of fear… but of anger.
"Well when you were mad at me I hung out with her… and we ended up telling each other everything and…" Annabeth flinched and screamed,
"PERCY YOU BETRAYED US ALL!!"
I was getting close o tears to. Annabeth got up and ran away. I couldn't help but run after her.
She was fast, but not fast enough. I barely caught up to her, she tried pushing me away… but I hugged her. I knew somehow that would calm her.
"I'm sorry… I wasn't thinking… That was so stupid!" I whispered. She took that as an apology, and together we walked back.
…………………………………………………..
Nico had a giant room in the palace of Hades. Luckily there was a back entrance, and we didn't have to talk to Hades. We entered his room. It was black stone and had pictures of Goth bands all over. There were red drawings and a small desk and a computer. Basically your average underworld room. He let Annabeth lie on the bed, while the rest of us slept on the floor. Somehow it was a lot comfier than a train. And in no time we were asleep.
In the morning we got up, and even if Nico only ate once every two days or so… we were starving. We had something that looked like dead rat… but it tasted alright. We began to discuss battle plans.
"O.K. first we have to decide how we get to Area 51. There are no trains or, roads that are public anywhere around there. So the best option would be animal." Began Cade, his eyes flickering to us in turn.
"I could call Blackjack and his friends…" I suggested.
"No, that would be to hot to fly there… unless you planned on eating dead horse for dinner one night." Said Annabeth. She kept staring at me the whole time which was awkward, and I had a feeling that she was mad at me for more than just letting everything about the prophecy.
"You could ask Tyson if we can borrow some hippocampi…" Pondered Grover.
"If there was an ocean nearby…" I stated negatively.
"We should think outside of the box…" Said Cade.
"We can Google wild Greek animals on my computer?" Said Nico. We already settled that Nico couldn't go… or else we would deny the prophecy. It said only four people could go. Nico was still helping though.
It took a lot of boredom… and some very random saved files on Nico's computer… but after like an hour or so… we found out that there was only one option we could do. There was a cheap sale on flesh eating horses over at a cattle farm. There was five left, and we planned on buying 4 of them.
"It is settled." I said as Nico logged off. "We have to buy 4 deadly horses that we need to ride to New Mexico without being eaten." I said in fake enthusiasm.
"This is going to get interesting." Said Grover scaredly.
Cade and Annabeth nodded, and Nico led us out of the underworld. I never knew that there was a secret back entrance to the under world… but hat's the way Nico took to get us out. It worked… we stepped outside into a ratty garbage room. We came out of a sliding door next, and went into broad daylight. It felt weird being in the heat again. I was going to say thanks to NICO, but he was gone already.
"Great…" I mused sarcastically. "Next stop… death horse ranch."
IT WASN'T AS LONG AS I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. I HOPE THIS CHAPTER CLEARED SOME THINGS UP THOUGH… PLEASE COMMENT!