To start with I'd like to say that, yes that last chapter was a little weird, but I personally liked it. Now this chapter is totally different, because Percy is out of his little world thingy, and back in the real world. Hope you like it, review please!

Burnin' Up

When I opened my eyes, I was looking up at electric blue eyes full of worry. I also saw that I was still on the train, but no one was screaming. Well, no one had been screaming, but when Thalia saw that I was awake she screamed and threw her arms around me in a hug.

"You idiot!" she said between sobs. "I thought you were dead, your heart stopped."

"Ya, well, it's not the first time I've almost died." I said with a smile.

"How in Hades could you smile now? Your heart stopped for about five minutes! You had me worried sick!"

"Thalia I'm ok, I promise!" and to prove it I stood up, without wobbly knees, or fuzzy vision. "See." I said with a smile.

"I don't care! If you would have died it would have been my fault! I told us to try to use water." Then she started to cry even more.

"Thalia, it's ok, I saw Annabeth!"

"What!" she screamed quite loudly.

She looked really confused, so I explained everything that happened while I was dead, but not dead.

When I finished, she looked really surprised.

"When my dad turned me into a tree, I went there too. But I couldn't get out. I was stuck in there alone for five years. It was horrible."

"Thalia, I'm so sorry."



"It's ok. The only thing that matters is that I'm here now, and that we are going to save Annabeth and Grover." She said that with so much passion, that I really believed that we would save them, so there was no way I could possibly think we would fail.

"Last stop: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." Said the voice on the intercom.

So everyone left on the train, including us, piled off, and started to walk in the streets of Philadelphia.

"Hey Thalia," I said as we were walking, "Did we defeat the dragon?"

"Yes, the water did, so you defeated it." She replied with a smile. "Oh and your next question will probably be: what did the mortals see. Well, I manipulated the mist so it looked like the dragon/snack-cart lady fell, and knocked over some water. Aren't I so smart?"

"Ya…sure."

"Hey! I'll have you know that I'm now offended."

"Ok, enough talk, where do we go next?"

"Well, I think we should kill that hydra first!"

"What hydra?"

"The one that's about to bite your butt."

I quickly spun around to see a very ugly monster, looking at us from over by a tree. It was about the size of a rhino, and at least ten heads. The hydra's skin was thick and leathery, and I knew from experience, very hard to defeat.

Stupidly, I swung my sword down, and slashed off a head. You think that would have been good, right? Well whenever you're dealing with Greek mythology, nothing can possibly be that simple. The hydra then grew two more heads, so it now had eleven instead of ten.

"Thalia, this thing can only die with fire. Get it with electricity, and I think we could kill it." I yelled to her.

"Ok."

She contorted her face in a strange way, and concentrated. Then a burst of electricity came shooting out of the sky, followed by a deep smell of ozone. When the smoke had cleared, I saw that the hydra was dead, and Thalia was standing next to it, looking proud.

"You know Thalia," I began, "you're really good with that burnin' up thing."