Hello guys! I hope you all enjoy this chapter, it's got some action- and don't worry people Bianca will come into her own, she just has no real grasp of her powers at this stage because she's never trained with them.
The elevator ride was one of the tenses short journeys of Percy's life, and as they burst out of the small enclosed room both of the girls was clinging to one another tightly as they rushed towards the cafe- it was packed with kids all enjoying the best part of the tour-the dam lunch-and Percy's gaze focused on four familiar figures just sitting down at a table with their food.
They ducked and dodged between tables, and Thalia let out a startled noise when she saw them speeding closer.
"Percy, Annabeth what-" she started to stand but Annabeth was speaking before she was even half way up.
"Skeleton soldiers. They're here, they've been chasing us."
"What?" Zoe was on her feet instantly, Bianca following a second later.
"They're right." Bianca was looking towards a window, her face pale, "Look."
Percy turned her head to look and cursed very colourfully. The cafe windows wrapped all the way around the observation floor, which gave a beautiful panoramic view of the skeletal army that had come to kill them.
There were two on the east side of the dam road, blocking the way to Arizona. Three more on the west side, guarding Nevada. All of them were armed with batons and pistols.
"Bianca." Percy's voice was tight, "See this would be a good time for you to have learned how to use your powers-"
"I don't know how!" Bianca's voice was panicked, "Oh gods how many are there?"
"We don't know how many the enemy summoned, or if they summoned more after Nico and Bianca destroyed some." Zoe's voice was tight, and then she was cursing and Percy whirled to look-the three that had been after her and Annabeth before had appeared on the stairs and were moving towards them.
"Oh for-" Percy resisted the urge to curse, gripping Annabeth's hand tightly.
"Elevator!" Grover yelped the word, "We can take the elevator."
Except when they turned to head towards the elevator the doors were dinging open to reveal four more skeleton warriors stepping out.
They were completely surrounded, they didn't have Nico and Bianca might be good with a bow and arrow but she had no control whatsoever over her actual powers.
"I'm sorry." Bianca's voice shook, "I'm sorry I don't-I don't know how to do what Nico did."
"It's not your fault." Percy's throat felt dry, "They won't kill us-"
"No, no they'll just capture us." Thalia muttered.
"No." Grover straightened up, a sudden gleam in his eyes, "I'm not losing my friends-remember back at school, when Amy spread that rumor-"
Percy found a slight smile spreading across her lips, "Oh you genius G-man."
They gave matching grins that made Annabeth roll her eyes and groan despite the seriousness of the situation, "You two-"
"Burrito fight!" Grover yelled the words, and he flung his Guacamole Grande at the nearest skeleton.
It was almost comical honestly, an item of food should not be able to do that much damage, but it knocked one of the stairwell skeleton's heads clean off-and almost instantly chaos broke out as another kid screamed;
"Food fight!" and then the food and drinks were flying everywhere-which very conveniently for the five questers, meant that the skeleton warriors couldn't aim well enough to actually be able to hit them.
They took off towards the stairs, Bianca pulling out her dagger and stabbing one of the skeleton warriors in the chest-making it burst into black flames and turn to ash, while Annabeth kicked the other one aside, bones scattering from the force of the blow-and sure it would reassemble itself fairly quickly but they were buying themselves just a bit of time.
Of course that didn't really help them when they burst outside where the warriors were closing in from either side.
Annabeth half dragged Percy across the street to the winged bronze statues, the others following close behind.
"There's too many of them." Zoe's voice was grim.
"We're cornered." Thalia scowled fiercely, "Bianca-"
"I have no idea how to do what Nico did before I'm sorry-"
"Not your fault." Percy gritted her teeth as she said the words, "You've had no training-and you can't take them all on by yourself."
"Twelve, there's twelve of them," Grover groaned the words, "What do we do-"
"There's always a way out." Annabeth's voice was hushed, "Always a way out for those clever enough to find it-"
"What are you talking about?" Thalia demanded.
"That's what she said." Percy's gaze focused on Annabeth, "Wise Girl-"
"We're running out of time!" Bianca's voice was higher than usual. "I-I can try-"
"Trying to use your powers when you don't know what you're doing could get us killed." Thalia's voice was tight. "Don't even think about it. Annabeth do you have a plan-"
Percy glanced around, thinking fast-and something shiny caught her gaze and she turned her head to look-and she let out a soft gasp, "Annabeth-"
"Oh my gods!" Annabeth gasped out, following her gaze, "Thalia! Pray to your dad!"
"What-but he never listens!"
"He might this time. There's no time to explain but it's our only chance."
"Just this once." Percy added quickly, "Please Thalia. The statues-they're sacred to him right?"
"He won't answer he never does-"
"We saw my mom." Annabeth snapped, "She told us-she said 'even my father may occasionally listen to his children'. It's our only chance Thalia."
Thalia faltered, but then she was closing her eyes and Percy gripped Annabeth's hand tightly, her other hand gripping Riptide as she stared forward at the six skeletons leading the way towards them, Zoe aiming an arrow at them ready, Bianca gripping her knife with a white knuckle hold and Grover lifting his pearl flute to his lips, all of them waiting with desperate bated breath for whatever would happen.
And for a few agonizingly long moments Percy though that nothing was going to happen, Thalia's eyes opened and she could see a flash of hurt and disappointment in them.
Percy felt her heart aching for the other girl-it must hurt to feel abandoned by her father. And Percy knew, she knew how lucky she was with her own father.
She opened her mouth to say something-anything, but she faltered when a shadow fell over them. She blinked very slowly, lifting her head and turning it.
The shadow was of a wing-the skeletons followed Percy's gaze but they were too slow. There was a flash of bronze and all six of them were swept aside-and the six others faltered across the street before they opened fire.
Thalia yanked Grover behind her, raising her shield as Percy pulled Annabeth behind her and moved to cover Bianca too-since she was wearing the lion fur coat and currently the best protected of any of them.
But there was no need for it-the bronze angels stepped forward in front of them and folded their wings like shields. Bullets pinged off of them like rain off a corrugated roof. Both angels slashed outward, and the skeletons went flying across the road.
"Man, it feels good to stand up!" the first angel said. His voice sounded tinny and rusty, like he hadn't had a drink since he'd been built.
"Will ya look at my toes?" the other said. "Holy Zeus, what were those tourists thinking?"
Percy felt her mouth drop open and she shot Thalia a slight grin, "Looks like your dad does care-" and Thalia looked like she was in shock as she stared at the angels.
"Not the time guys! They're getting up." Annabeth snapped the words and Percy followed her gaze, sure enough some of them were getting to their feet, piecing themselves together, trying to get their weapons.
"We need to get out of here."
"Right!" Thalia nodded, "Get us out of here-" and Percy winced-she could almost hear her moms voice berating her if she'd dared to take that tone-even if it was with bronze statues.
"Uh, please." she added quickly, making Annabeth snicker and Bianca let out a disbelieving laugh.
"Hm." One of the angel's spoke, "Which one of you is Zeus' kid?"
"Me!"
"You should be more like your little friend, can we get a please little miss Zeus' kid?"
Thalia's face turned almost purple at that, "Please."
"Could use a stretch." one of the angels remarked, and then they were being scooped up, Thalia, Zoe and Grover by one of them and Percy, Annabeth and Bianca by the other, and they were flying straight up and over the dam and the river, the world shrinking below them, the skeletons mere specks on the ground.
Percy felt Bianca latching onto her arm and she glanced at the other girl, who looked extremely nervous-which Percy realized was probably natural, Zeus wouldn't like Hades kids anymore than he liked Poseidons, it was just that Nico had never actually had to fly anywhere so she hadn't considered it before now.
Percy capped Riptide and tucked the blade into her pocket awkwardly before she grabbed Bianca's hand, squeezing it tightly. "It's okay-" she peered over to the other angel, where Thalia was clinging to the arm and had her eyes tightly shut. It had to be terrifying for her-somehow the daughter of Zeus was more afraid of heights than Percy was.
Then she glanced to the side to look at Annabeth, who gave her a weak smile, "You okay Seaweed brain?"
"Uh, I think so." Percy gave a one sided shrug, still holding Bianca's hand tightly. It was hard to feel any lingering resentment towards Bianca like this-she didn't look much older than Nico, and there was a resemblance that made Percy's heart ache-she hadn't meant for what happened to happen. She was still so young and Percy felt the urge to protect Bianca just like she would Nico, which was why she shifted so she was wrapping an arm around Bianca's shoulder, letting the terrified daughter of Hades press her face into Percy's shoulder as they sped onward.
"H-how high are we?" her voice was muffled, and Percy looked down-below them a range of snowy mountains zipped by and she stretched out her foot curiously, kicking snow off one of the peaks in a move that made Annabeth snicker.
"Not that high-"
"Well look at you. Getting over your fear of heights now are we?"
"Hey, don't knock it." Percy shot her girlfriend a grin.
"We are in the Sierra's!" Zoe had to yell to be heard, while Thalia was clinging to the arm like her life depending on it Zoe and Grover seemed fairly relaxed as they were carried. "I have hunted here before! At this speed we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."
"Hey, hey, Frisco!" our angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"
"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"
"You guys have visited San Francisco?" Annabeth asked politely.
"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And—"
"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."
"Oh, right." Hank appeared to be blushing, the thought made Percy let out a giggle.
They sped up, clearly eager to party-and that was a very weird thought if Percy was being honest. The world raced by beneath them. The mountains fell away into hills, and then we were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.
Grover played his flute to pass the time. Zoe got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as they flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store—and they passed dozens of them—she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour, it was impressive.
Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way from what Percy could see, and if Percy had to guess she'd say the other girl was praying.
Meanwhile on Hank Bianca slowly relaxed when it became clear that they weren't going to be struck down by Zeus, though she still looked tense and she didn't pull away from Percy, who was mostly kept distracted by Annabeth-she might not understand most of what Annabeth was talking about-she was spouting off facts about different buildings she loved and Percy just loved seeing how her eyes lit up with passion when she talked about architecture.
Of course eventually the conversation trailed off-and when Percy realized that Bianca's breathing had gone even and her eyes were closed Percy focused on Annabeth again and spoke. "D-" she swallowed hard, "Do you think Bessie is okay?"
"They weren't there for him." Annabeth pointed out quietly, "They were there for us Percy. They didn't know he was there... the real problem is what'll happen if he keeps trying to follow us. If we do get captured and he shows up.."
"Gods." Percy groaned, "Maybe Chiron was right-this whole thing has been a disaster-"
"Percy it's not your fault."
"Isn't it? I was ordered to stay home-"
"Chiron was wrong." Annabeth stated firmly, "Don't ask me how I know, I just do. We were supposed to be here-I mean the Oracle pretty much said so right?"
"I guess... but if they get the Ophitaurus it'll be my fault-"
"Then we just have to make sure we don't get caught and they don't get him."