Hope you guys enjoy this chapter- not much action I'm afraid- but soon you'll be getting some real good ones- including one which I hope you'll all love because I do- it's something I think will make a bunch of you guys happy. Anyways read and review.
Percy had never liked heights- she could grit her teeth and deal with them when she had to, but she'd never liked them and she never would.
So of course diving out of a window five hundred feet above the ground was not fun- at least when she and Annabeth had leapt from the arch that had been straight into water- this was something else entirely and Percy flapped the bronze wings, yelping as she panicked and plummeted toward the valley and the red rocks below. She was pretty sure she was going to become a grease spot in the Garden of the Gods, as Annabeth yelled from somewhere above her, "Spread your arms! Keep them extended!"
And of course, when Annabeth gave orders Percy listened- she trusted her girlfriends judgement- so she didn't even think as she spread her arms the wings stiffened, catching the wind, and her descent slowed. She soared downward, but at a controlled angle, like a kite in a dive.
She let out a somewhat hysterical laugh and flapped her arms once, and she arced into the sky, the wind whistling in her ears.
She felt a surge of exhilaration at the feeling of it.
It was like the wings were part of her body, she could soar and swoop and dive anywhere she wanted- she felt free as she flapped again, doing a flip in the air, laughter
bubbling past her lips as she did.
She could understand now- why Icarus had reacted as he did, it felt amazing- and she hadn't been locked up in a tower for years as he had been.
She twisted midair, turning her head to see the others spiralling above her, glinting in the sunlight as behind them smoke billowed from the windows of Daedalus' workshop
"Land!" Annabeth yelled. "These wings won't last forever."
"How long?" Rachel called back.
"I don't want to find out!" Annabeth's voice was tight.
They swooped down toward the Garden of the Gods.
Percy did a complete circle around one of the rock spires and freaked out a couple of climbers, laughing brilliantly as she did, Leo gliding close behind her and letting out a whoop as he did, soaring past her and shooting her a brilliant grin. Then the five of them soared across the valley, over a road, and landed on the terrace of the visitor centre.
It was late afternoon and the place looked pretty empty, but they ripped off the wings off as quickly as they could.
Looking at them, Percy could see Annabeth was right. The self-adhesive seals that bound the wings to their backs were already melting, and they were shedding bronze feathers.
Leo's expression when he saw that was incredibly mournful, "I could fix them-"
"Leo we don't have the time right now and you don't have any way to carry them." Annabeth's voice was sympathetic. "We have to get rid of them."
"I want to take them back to camp-"
"We don't have space in our bags." Rachel sounded almost as sad, "Can't you make some yourself?"
"I-" Leo perked up slightly, "You think?"
"Leo if anyone could figure it out it's you." Percy's voice was reassuring, "But we have to get rid of them."
"Where?" Nico looked around, "We can't dump them for the mortals to find."
"Over there." Rachel pointed towards the trash bins outside of the cafeteria and they made quick work of stuffing the five wings into the them.
"What now?" Leo's voice was worried, "What do we do next? We can't get back up to Daedalus' workshop. How are we supposed to go back to the Labyrinth now?"
Annabeth gazed at the summit of Pikes Peak in the distance. "Maybe we can't. If Daedalus died…he said his life force was tied into the Labyrinth. The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop the invasion."
Percy flinched at that, "But what about- what about Grover and Tyson and Kayla?"
"Daedalus isn't dead."
They all turned to look at Nico when he said that, "What?" Percy blinked, "He isn't?"
"No. I get this feeling when people die, a buzzing in my ears. And I know Kayla's alive- which probably means Grover and Tyson are okay for now-"
"What happened?" Percy's brows furrowed, "Nico-"
"It was Minos. We were attacked by a bunch of monsters, I realised Minos was leading them to me so I decided to split off on my own to give them a chance of getting away, I brought down the tunnel between us."
"Nico-"
"I was going to get them killed, they wouldn't have left me behind otherwise." Nico's voice was pained and he shook his head, "I did what I had to-ouch!" that was because Percy and Leo were both on either side of the son of Hades hitting him- Percy clipping the back of his head and Leo punching his arm.
"Seriously?" Leo yelped, "That's like, worse than me running after Percy into my dads forges-"
"Why?" Nico frowned, "what happened?"
"Uh-" Percy hesitated, face flushing, "We blew up Mount St Helens."
Nico stared at her for a long moment before his gaze turned to Leo, and then it swung to Rachel and Annabeth.
"Are they just messing with me?"
"Nope." Annabeth sighed loudly, "They literally made the volcano erupt."
"I dreamed about it." Rachel added, "It was traumatic."
"Okay." Nico shook his head slowly, "I think I'm gonna process that later but I will have questions-"
"Leo got a girlfriend-"
"Okay now I know you're screwing with me." Nico laughed as Leo pouted.
"Why is that so hard to believe?"
"It's okay Leo, I believe you." Percy laughed, ruffling Leo's hair before letting out a breath, "As much as I'd love the chance for us to chat and catch up we need to get moving. Alabaster has the string, we need to get back to camp and warn everyone and if we can we need to find Ty and Grover. And no offence Nico but you don't look strong enough for multiple trips back and forth with shadow travelling."
"You're not wrong." Nico did look better than he had but he still looked paler than normal- and slightly unsteady on his feet. It was worrying to say the least.
"We have to get into town," Annabeth decided. "Our chances will be better of finding an entrance to the Labyrinth."
"Okay, so we need a car or something if we want to move quick." Leo pointed out, "How-"
"I'll handle it." Rachel offered, looking slightly uncomfortable.
Percy reached out automatically as Annabeth frowned, grabbing the red haired girls hand "How will you do that?" her voice was confused- and of course, Annabeth didn't
know about Rachel's family- Nico didn't either actually, he knew that Rachel didn't get along with them and she wasn't happy but Rachel hadn't really talked much about her parents until after Percy had gone to the party with her.
"Trust me." Percy's voice was soft, "Rache can get us a ride."
Annabeth hesitated, eyes flicking to where Percy was holding Rachel's hand a strange look crossing her face before she nodded, "Fine, fine I'll trust you guys. I'm going to buy a prism in the gift shop, try to make a rainbow, and send an Iris-message to camp."
"I'll go with you," Nico said, though he was looking at them curiously. "I'm hungry."
"And so will I!" Leo said quickly, showing an unusual amount of tact.
"I'll stick with Rachel." Percy said smoothly, "We'll meet you guys in the parking lot." and Rachel shot Percy a weak grateful look, clearly glad for the moral support- though Annabeth's brows furrowed.
A moment later Annabeth, Leo and Nico were headed off to the gift shop and Percy and Rachel headed towards the parking lot- she looked around briefly before they spotted a big black car parked at the edge of the lot- a chauffeured Lexus, and the driver was out front, reading a newspaper wearing a dark suit and a tie.
Rachel forged her way forward, almost dragging Percy with her, clinging to her hand tightly- and Percy understood why. Rachel hated using her dads name and money to get what she wanted- but, well, they kind of needed to so there wasn't much of a choice.
The man looked up when he heard them coming, eyes narrowing.
"What do you want?" and they probably did look pretty scruffy- after so much time in the Labyrinth and running and fighting for their lives.
"You to give us a ride." Rachel said smoothly, "We need a lift into town-"
"I'm not a charity kids-, and I have a client waiting." and the way he said kids screamed a lack of respect for them, and Percy's eyes narrowed.
"Maybe I should introduce myself." Rachel spoke sharply, "I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare, my father is Edward Dare-" the man's eyes widened and he straightened up slightly, eyes widening, "You can give him a call, I'll give you his personal number if you'd like but you're going to take me and my friends where we want to go."
"I-" the man pulled out his phone quickly, fumbling with it, "Let me just- I'll call the number- just to check I can't just- my boss will be mad if I don't- I mean I have a client."
"Go on then." Rachel reeled off her dads phone number, and the man typed it in, clicking the call button and holding it to his ear.
"Hello, is this Mr Edward Dare- I'm calling to confirm- a I have a young woman claiming to be your daughter asking me to take her and her friends into town- I work for a
chauffeur- yes- yes sir of course- of course sir. I- yes sir." he hung up, looking rather pale and he gave a quick nod.
"I'll take you wherever you want to go ma'am. Where are your friends?"
"They'll be here shortly Mr... What's your name?"
"Robert ma'am.
"Well then Robert," Rachel tried to sound imperious, "We will just go and get them." she wheeled around, walking away from the man and grimacing, even as Percy slid an
arm around her friends shoulder.
"You okay Rache?"
"I hate having to use my dads name."
"I know-"
"I hate what it does I feel dirty using his money and influence-"
"Rachel. You have no power over your dads job-"
"I hate this." Rachel leaned into Percy's side, letting out a breath. "Have I ever told you that you're a great friend-"
"I mean, yeah, but it never hurts to repeat it."
"You're a great friend."
Percy let out a bright laugh, shaking her head at that. "You're a pretty good friend too Rache." as they walked away from the man they saw Annabeth, Nico and Leo heading down from the gift shop towards them and they met halfway.
Annabeth's eyes flicked between Percy and Rachel before she spoke. "I talked to Chiron. They're doing their best to prepare for battle, but he wants us back. They'll need every hero they can get. He's sent your mom home with the younger campers and he sent Silena and Katie to protect them from monsters."
"At least we can stop worrying about that." Nico's voice was tight, "So, did we get a ride?"
"The driver's ready when we are?"
"Driver?" Annabeth frowned, "What-"
"Ooh, you got us a chauffeur?" Leo grinned "Nice work Rachel- very cool."
"Shut up Flameo." Rachel rolled her eyes, but they turned around and started to head towards the car- and the chauffeur was now talking to another guy in khakis and a polo shirt, probably his client who'd rented the car. The client was complaining, but Percy could hear the driver saying, "I'm sorry, sir. Emergency. I've ordered another car for you."
"Come on," Rachel said. She led them to the car and got in without even looking at the flustered guy who'd rented it, Percy following her lead, along with Leo, though Annabeth and Nico exchanged confused glances.
A minute later they were cruising down the road. The seats were leather. There was plenty of legroom. The backseat had flat-panel TVs built into the headrests and a mini-fridge stocked with bottled water, sodas, and snacks.
"Where to, Miss Dare?" the driver asked.
"I'm not sure yet, Robert," she said. "We just need to drive through town and, uh, look around."
"Whatever you say, miss."
And Annabeth and Nico were almost gaping at the casual ease with which Rachel gave a total stranger orders.
Leo however, didn't care and he leaned forward, opening the minifridge, "Now this is what I call style Rachel, you're gonna have to provide transport more often-"
"Leo, I like you and all, you're my best friends brother but I swear I will break into your workshop and move everything an inch to the left-"
"Okay okay!" Leo yelped, "Please don't do that!"
"This is so weird." Nico blurted out suddenly, "How can Rachel just get this guy to drop everything?"
"Let's talk about something else."
"Or how about we all focus on finding the entrance okay?" Percy spoke up, cutting across any potential arguments, "Let's all just keep our eyes peeled."