14. I BECOME A KNOWN FUGITIVE Amethyst read then placed the book at her lap and looked at Percy
"You become what?" she asked him
"Just read"
I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, et cetera.
The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!
"Nice thought" Leo smirked remembering the many times he had almost died and those were his exact thoughts as well.
The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.
And then: Flaaa-boooom!
Most of the demigods in the room winced
A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.
"You are so pessimistic. You're the opposite of Amy" Jessy said
"That's true" Trina agreed "Amy always looks at the brighter side of things, don't you amy?"
The said girl smiled and nodded
But my impact with the water hadn't hurt.
"Of course it won't! You're a son of Poseidon!" Calypso exclaimed
I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around me.
Grover frowned the mortals didn't just pollute the wild, but the bodies of water as well. Grover hated it so much. Sometimes he wished he could get rid of all the pollution with just a snap of his fingers, but sadly he couldn't do it.
At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.
"Really good" Hazel muttered under her breath
Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.
"What happens when you take a bath?" Leo asked and Percy glared at him
"It only works with bodies of water, and if I don't want to get wet" he said
I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.
No way, I thought.
I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.
"HEY PERCY! Do you think I could set a fire underwater if you were holding me?"
"I don't really know Leo" Percy said
"Let's try it!"
"Sure. But not right now" Percy shrugged now that Leo had mentioned it he was actually curious if it would actually work
"Boys" Thalia muttered
I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.
"I really think it would work!" Leo exclaimed
"Yes Leo. Now shut up" Piper scolded him but he continued talking
"Just promise me you won't let go of me so I won't drown" he told Percy
"Then don't annoy me so I won't" Percy grumbled rolling his eyes
He really would never let Leo drown, he just said that to get Leo to drop the subject for now.
But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.
"and why you thought of that last is really a big question" Annabeth mused
"I was too focused on not being flattened to death!" Percy exclaimed defending himself from all the looks that he was getting from everybody
Amethyst was about to read again but got interrupted by Will
"Wait a second! I just remembered something" Will exclaimed then looked at Trina and Amethyst
"How were you two born?"
"What do you mean?" Trina asked
"Annabeth was born from Athena's mind, so how were you two?" Will trailed off which caused Trina to face palm
"I thought you were the doctor" Trina muttered
"I haven't encountered a daughter of Athena giving birth yet!" Will said
"I'm curious too. How were you two born?" Thalia asked and almost everyone nodded in approval, they were curious as well too. Even Percy wanted to find out the answer to Will's question
"So?" Will asked
"We were born the normal way. In the hospital"
"But Athena's children are conceived through her mind. How were you two?" Rachel asked trailing off
Trina turned a little pale "How are babies usually made and born? That's how we were made and born. The normal way!" she grumbled
"How are babies born?" Amethyst asked
"Well when…" Will was about to explain when he saw that both Percy and Annabeth were glaring at him
"You know what kiddo, just read" Will said then hid behind Nico
"But I'm curious!"
"Maybe later. You should read first" Piper charmspeaked Amethyst and she went back to reading the book immediately
I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead. The fact that I wasn't seemed like . . . well, a miracle.
"Not a miracle. Just your bloodline" Reyna told him
I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?
"Grandma?" Amethyst asked but Percy shook his head. The woman wasn't his mother.
"Um . . . thanks. " Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you . . . Father. "
No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the waters surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.
Why had Poseidon saved me?
"Because you're his son? Duh" Amethyst said like it should be obvious to Percy
The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance. Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.
"You're a hero. My hero" Trina told him and Amethyst nodded
Percy smiled at them and opened up his arms for a hug
"Nah too cheesy" Trina said but hugged him anyway
Fump-fump-fump. A riverboats paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.
There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.
I heard that woman's voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you. This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.
"and yet another sea reference" Annabeth said
"And just to add it up his in a river while his making the sea reference" Rachel added
"Where are you?" I called aloud.
Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.
A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"
"Nope" Percy answered
No, child, only a messenger, though your mothers fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.
"What?"
It is your fathers will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.
"Because humans have polluted it!" Grover cried out and then grumbled to himself about how humans just throw their garbage everywhere without even thinking of its effect to the Wild or the bodies of Water or those that live in it.
"But . . . " I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—"
There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.
I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts. . . .
"What gifts? Aren't gifts supposed to be good?" Frank asked
"It depends on whose giving them" Percy answered him then frowned remembering how those gifts had tricked him
Her voice faded.
"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"
She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.
Everyone looked at Percy sadly, those who had already lost their mortal mothers knew exactly how Percy felt like. Even Thalia who didn't get along with her mom felt so much pain, it was hard to lose a parent.
I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.
Your father believes in you, she had said.
Percy smiled, when he was that age he couldn't really believe how his father could believe in him. Especially since he hasn't really met him yet, but right now he knew that his father did believe in him. Percy was glad he knew that know, he also knew that his father was proud of him. Even though, Percy doesn't get to spend time with his Father, knowing that he believes and is proud of Percy is enough.
She'd also called me brave . . . unless she was talking to the catfish.
"You know what? I think maybe she was talking to the catfish" Leo teased
I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.
"Lots and lots of questions" Piper muttered
I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.
Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.
I came ashore next to a floating McDonalds.
"I miss McDonalds!" Jessy cried out "I want a happy meal"
"Aren't you too old for a happy meal?" Frank asked and Jessy and Trina gasped
"No one's to old for a happy meal!" Jessy and Trina exclaimed, while Josh rolled his eyes at the two
"Uncle Nico always gets us a happy meal" Jessy said
"I do?" Nico asked and the two girls nodded and smiled at him
A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Years Eve.
"So I'm guessing there were a lot of them" Rachel said
"You bet"
A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river. "
"Oh no" Hazel muttered under her breath
"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.
"Mortals" Grover grumbled
"HEY!" Rachel cried
"But he's dry!"
"That's nice, dear. "
A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, were told, but its still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eye witness reports of someone falling from the Arch. "
"and that's Percy" Frank said
"Maybe they'll see you as a victim this time" Jason said
"Nope. Not with my luck" Percy said
Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.
I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.
". . . an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what were hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities . . . "
"See? Even though I was the victim, it's my fault yet again" Percy grumbled to himself but everyone heard and laughed
"It will always be your fault dad" Amethyst told him
I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.
I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrr-cy!"
"Can you actually bleat it right now?" Rachel said "I want to hear it!"
"No"
"Come on!"
"No!"
I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug—or goat hug.
"Definitely a goat hug" Leo said "Or a satyr hug. Hmmm I wonder if I could get away with calling Coach Hedge that"
"One you won't, Two you could never hug him" Piper said bursting Leo's bubble
He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"
"Actually it's supposed to be the easy way" Nico said and everyone looked at him
"What? It is! It's harder to go there through Charon!"
Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"
"Of course I was relieved Seaweed Brain! I thought you were dead!"
Percy smiled and gave her a kiss
"I sort of fell. "
"Yeah. Sort of" Calypso snorted
"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"
"Of course she would know that" Jason said
Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck.
"At least they're safe" Jessy sighed
She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"
"So that's what they saw!" Nick exclaimed
"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in. "
"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared. " Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"
"Percy was right. The monster did leave them alone" Hazel said
"I can be right sometimes you know" Percy told her frowning
I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.
"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"
"Yep"
I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.
"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad. "
"Or from any other god" Reyna told him
Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson. "
"Wow dad. First the newspaper, now television! Your famous!" Trina said sarcastically
"One of my many talents" Percy told her smiling
We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.
"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"
"Duh"
Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.
"That's good. At least the police didn't see and catch you" Piper said
15. A GOD BUYS US CHEESEBURGERS
"Oh wait! That's the next chapter. I'm done! Who's reading next?" Amethyst said and waved the book in the air
HELLO GUYS! HOW ARE YOU ALL DOING? HOPE EVERYONE IS DOING FINE :)
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