Sorry for the spiders guys. I hate them too. Hera sucks. Amen. Rick Riordan is a troll. More amen.

Percy opened his eyes and light flooded in, momentarily blinding him.

"Ah, look, the hero's finally awake. Seriously kid, you are just a ten-year-old. You should stop trying to commit suicide."

Percy blinked and frowned. Hermes was sitting at his bedside.

"Travis, son, can you please bring me that glass of nectar. Percy here is finally awake."

"I'm not Travis, I'm Connor," said the boy. "Honestly, Hermes, you call yourself our father? Can't you tell I'm Connor?"

"Sorry, Connor, dear."

"Only joking, I am Travis," said the boy as he handed Hermes the glass of nectar.

Hermes sighed.

Percy looked around. The last time he had been in the infirmary, it had only one bed, Percy being it's sole occupant. Now the infirmary looked more like the kind of halls of a hospital that is made to accommodate many patients at once.

Percy still felt weak. It was taking a lot of his strength to just keep his eyes open. His body didn't hurt anymore, but he still felt extremely tired and exhausting. He was feeling weak and dazed, and it was difficult to remember why he was here, and what was going on.

"Uhh?" Percy managed.

"Apollo's gone to treat Hazel in some special room. She's suffering from multiple spider bites. Too much poison, too many injuries." Hermes winced and handed Percy the glass of nectar. "You will have to manage with me for now."

Percy drank it all down in one gulp. Instantly his vision cleared. His weakness went away and all the memories came rushing back to him. The spider army. The injuries. And Annie! Percy's heart started beating faster as fear grasped it. His mind started swirling with tension and questions.

"How's Annie? She was the first one to get a taste of the poison. Is she fine? Did Apollo heal the poison? Is she awake? Is she-"

"She's right here, kid" Hermes pointed at the bed on Percy's left, and sure enough, there she was. How had Percy not noticed it? Oh right, because he was too weak to understand anything.

Annie gave him a small smile. "Hey seaweed brain. How are you doing?" she asked weakly.

"Never better." Percy grinned. Percy's tension faded as he relaxed a bit. "How are you?"

For some reason, Annie glared at Percy. Even in her weakened state, it was scary.

"I am okay. But as soon as I get enough strength for it, I am going to kill you."

Percy winced "What did I do wrong this time?"

"What did you do wrong? You tried to commit suicide! Summoning a hurricane, destroying a hall as big as a football field, that's not a joke! You overextended yourself somuch that you were almost dead!"

Percy suddenly realized how correct Annie was. He hadn't even realized that he had summoned a hurricane out of all his anger. To defend his friends against that spider army, he had almost destroyed himself.

"Look." Annie spoke "I know you did it to protect me (Annie blushed at that) and all the others. But sometimes you need to let the other's do the job, okay? Jason or Leo or somebody else would've handled it easy and right. You don't need to always step up and try to protect others and end up almost killing yourself in the process. You need to learn to hold yourself back when you need to. Do you get it?"

Percy nodded. "I was just so angry that I... I didn't realize how much I was overextending myself."

Hermes coughed. "I'll uh- I'll leave you two to your flirting-I mean talking. The others might need help."

Hermes waved at the other patients and went away. Percy and Annie blushed and looked away from each other. After a while Percy's eyes started feeling heavy again and soon he was back to sleeping. The good thing about this whole reading thing was that no weird dreams haunted him. The other demigods still had nightmares, but it seemed like Percy's nightmares were on vacation.

After about 6 more hours of sleep, the sun rose from the east. A few more hours and soon everyone was on there feet, going for breakfast. Everyone seemed relaxed after the night being spent in the infirmary. Apollo and Will had done an awesome job. But Percy wasn't relaxed. He was still wondering who would let such dangerous spiders into Olympus.

Soon his worry was replaced by excitement as the score board of pranks came down. Everyone gathered around the TV screen excitedly.

Team Apollo and Hermes: 8

Team Travis and Connor:8

Team Percy and Annie:6

Team Poseidon and Athena: 5

Team Leo:5

Team Nico and Will:4

Team Ares and Aphrodite: 3

Team Zeus and Hera: 2

After that everyone gathered around the TV screen the Fates had sent. It had been long enough since they had asked a question. Everyone had questions in their minds, but Percy was the first one to ask.

"How did the spiders get into our hall?" Zeus and Hera suddenly turned very pale.

The TV screen turned on and gasps filled the air.

"Is it done, dear ?" Hera asked.

Zeus groaned internally. "No. I think 16 are enough."

Everyone turned to glare at Zeus and Hera. Hera was scowling and Zeus shifted on his feet uncomfortably.

"No! We need atleast 20!"

"I am still telling you, I think this might be against the rules. You will get us disqualified."

" Might be?" Athena asked. "And do you have no idea that just letting a few spiders inside the room would be enough for the spiders to be able to summon a whole army of spiders?"

"CUPCAKE!!! GIMME FIFTY PUSHUPS! YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOR THIS !!!" Coach Hedge yelled. Zeus cowered, and Hera scowled even deeper.

"Just a little bit of fun is not against rules, deary. Now keep working."

"A LITTLE BIT OF FUN?!" This time Percy yelled at Hera. Hera gulped. Percy was now shaking with fury as Annabeth tried to calm him, though Annabeth was sending her own killer glare at Hera.

Zeus scuttled a bit deeper into the darkness. "Thats 17. I think these many are enough."

"No! 18 if you must! No less than that!"

"This one's a nice cute little thingy, only as big as my fist, smaller than the others. Can we keep this one?"

"Eeewwwww!"

"That's disgusting. We don't need those hairy, scuttly, ugly, arachnidy creatures as pets. Now hurry up, will you ? I want to get out of this smelly place before the monster returns. I don't have time for dealing with such lower beings."

"What monster?" Athena asked suspiciously. She was starting to get an idea of where Zeus and Hera were.

"What about this statue? We can't let it just stay here, now that we know about it."

"No. This statue is for later. The time is not ripe yet. Go catch that one, it's as big as a football."

"We'd better not discuss this matter right now." Apollo commented. The demigods frowned.

"Ugh. I hate to do all these dirty works of yours."

"Did you say something, deary?"

"No, no, nothing. Done! Now can we go?"

"Yes. And make sure the box containing those creatures flies in properly, and opens only when it is under the bed of the girl, and the girl is asleep."

"YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!" Percy yelled.

"Yes. We announce this team disqualified." Travis spoke and Connor nodded.

"Disqualification is not enough. The council will decide a punishment for the two." Athena said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

Hera rubbed her hands and muttered under her breath "this is going to be fun."

Everyone glared at Hera. She scowled again. This was not turning out the way she had imagined.

"Ya, right. You are not the one who has to deal with the trouble that comes after."

A few gods sent Zeus sympathized look. Emphasis on a few

"Did you just say something?"

"No. Let's just get out of here."

"Tia Callida gonna pay!" Leo wiggled his eyebrows at Hera.

Burning Papers Underwater is Fun

"Soooo... What should be the punishment?" Poseidon asked as everyone walked into the throne room.

Everyone sat on there thrones as a few things happened.

Firstly, the audio device on Connor's head, which had been silent for a long time before, blurted "MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! EJECT!"

At the same moment, Hera sat on her throne, and a net came flailing at her. A few moments later, the Queen of Gods was hanging upside down, dangling just above her throne, her hands tied to her back, screaming and wailing and yelling some things I won't mention, and basically throwing a tantrum.

Leo grinned. His prank was a success, after all.

Also a few moments later, Zeus the King of Gods, turned into an 8 year old girl, as a result of the mixture of Percy and Annie's prank, and Poseidon and Athena's prank.

"DOTH MOTHER KNOW YOU WEAR-ETH HER DRAPES?" the device on Connors head blarred again. (This is another famous movie dialogue. Find the movie name!)

Poseidon grinned, then frowned "The turning into a girl was not a part of our prank, was it ?" He asked Athena.

Athena shook her head.

"It was part of our prank" Annie said. "And I guess the turning into an 8 year old was your prank?"

Poseidon and Athena nodded, then high-fived uncharacteristically.

"Aaaahhhhh!" Zeus-girl screamed. "What has happened to meeee?" She asked in an extremely shrill voice.

"Well, I guess those two have received their punishments already. Now if you all may allow me, I am going to read." Hestia said.

Everyone pouted. These punishments didn't seem enough for the two. But they didn't argue. Zeus-girl squealed and yelled "Yay! Go Hestia!"

As Hestia took the book, a few; correction: most of the gods took out their smartphones and started clicking photos and shooting videos of the screaming and yelling Hera and the Zeus-girl who was now playing with a doll. She killed the doll, took out its eyes, then poked it with her masterbolt, which had now morphed into a toy knife.

Hestia cleared her throat.

" Chapter 14 - I BECOME A

KNOWN FUGITIVE"

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!

A few demigods snorted. Hera screamed a little more in agreement. Zeus-girl grinned. Thalia paled.

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!

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.

But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. 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 and Artemis wrinkled their noses. Poseidon gave a deep sad sigh. Hera yelled somethings that would have made Arion blush.

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.

"Surprise, surprise!" Leo said sarcastically.

"FREE ME YOU D-LIST DEMIGOD. I WLL THROW YOU TO TARTARUS!" Hera yelled.

"Frank?" Leo turned to Frank.

"Yeah?"

Leo leaned forward and grabbed Frank's shoe. Frank, being surprised, tried to get away, but Leo's hold was strong. Leo removed the shoe and took off the sock, pinching his nose with the other hand. "Thanks for the sock." Leo said.

"No problem," he shrugged with a confused look.

Leo whistled to himself as he walked to Hera, then grabbed her face and stuffed the sock into her mouth. Hera's eyes widened.

Leo brought out a roll of duct-tape from his belt and did a few finishing touches.

"MMMPPHHHH!!!! HHHMMMMMMMPPPPPHHHHH!!!!"

Leo made a show of clapping the dust off his hands and clothes. Then walked back to his place and sat. Everyone stared at him.

He shrugged "She was getting on my nerves."

"I like this kid!" Ares exclaimed. Hephaestus smirked in agreement.

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. I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.

No way, I thought.

"Yes way!" Thalia grinned.

I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.

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.

"Cool!" All the demigods exclaimed at the same time. Leo turned to Percy "So if I want to burn underwater, I can take you with me and-" Piper smacked him on the head. "You're not trying that." Leo pouted. "Party pooper."

Weird.

"Not at all weird. You are yet to see weirder things." Nico said.

But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally. 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. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?

"Um ... thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you ... Father."

"So the water even boosted his growth process or something?" Annie asked. If that was true, she would dip Percy in the water and hold him their till he started getting a bit matured. He wasn't very mature in his present state.

Annabeth considered it for a moment. "I think no. It just made him stronger."

No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of

sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.

Why had Poseidon saved me? 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.

"Ah, the self-blame part." Thalia shook her head. "You just need to believe in yourself." Annabeth ruffled Percy's hair. Again, Annie giggled as Percy tried to flatten it.

Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's 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.

"A sea spirit." Jason mused. "MMMMMPPPPPPPHHHHHH!!!" Hera mumbled.

"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?"

No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.

"What?"

It is your father's 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.

"Can't you do anything about it?" Artemis asked. "I can get the rivers cleaned, but the mortals will have them polluted again." Poseidon shook his head.

"But ..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who-how did you-"

"You are being so hopeful about her being your mother." Piper muttered.

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...

Her voice faded.

"Wait! What gifts?" Leo asked. "HHHMMMMMPPPPHHHH" Hera tried to speak.

"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.

I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.

Your father believes in you, she had said.

She'd also called me brave ...unless she was talking to the catfish.

"Jeez Percy" Frank laughed. "You really know how to make people laugh." Percy grinned.

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.

I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.

"You're welcome." Poseidon's eyes twinkled.

Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.

I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.

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 Year's Eve.

A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."

"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

"But he's dry!"

"That's nice, dear."

A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's 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 eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

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.

"Don't go towards the police line!" Athena scolded. "You will get caught!" Athena seemed a bit miffled by the fact that the Arch had been blowtorched because of Percy.

"... 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 we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities ..."

I backed away, trying to keep my head down.

"Good. Find your friends and get out of there." Poseidon muttered.

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!"

I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug-

"Or goat hug" Nico said.

or goat hug.

Nico grinned sheepishly.

He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me.

"It's so difficult to stay mad at him" Annabeth muttered. Annie nodded with a scowl. Aphrodite cooed. Percy flushed.

"We can't leave you alone for five minutes!

"Oh no, you leave him alone for five minutes on his own, and he would almost end up destroying himself and everything within a mile's radius." Thalia said.

What happened?"

"I sort of fell."

"You, sir have an amazingly simple way of describing things!" Leo bowed to Percy. Everyone else shook their heads in exasperation. Percy grinned sheepishly.

"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"

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. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"

"She saw it as a fire-breathing dog." Thalia mused.

"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!"

"Oh, no. Mortal trouble is worse than monster trouble." Chris muttered. Several demigods nodded in agreement.

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?"

I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady'smessage.

"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

"I wouldn't want to ignore it." Percy grinned at Poseidon. "MMMMMMPPPPPHHHHHHH!!!" Hera protested.

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 athome, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

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!"

"Good idea." Annie muttered.

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.

"End of chapter. Who wants to read ?" Hestia said. "MMMMMPPPPPPHHHHHH!" Hera tried.