After cleaving Procrustes' head off from where it was sticking out of the waterbed, Percy yelled out the release phrase for the other beds Annabeth and Grover were tied down on. Annabeth rubbed her wrists and glared at Percy's back as he jumped over the counter and started sifting through the stores records, and Grover turned to give the Safari deluxe bed a betrayed look.
Based on the voices in his dreams Percy didn't think that Hades was behind the theft, but they had decided that they had no other leads and only a couple more days to find the bolt, so they'd need to at least ask Hades if he knew who did it. And the only way they would be able to do that would be going to the Underworld.
"Ugh, I nearly got stretched to death, can we take a five minute break?"
"Sorry man." "Awww." "But on the bright side you're ready for the Underworld and it's just a block from here."
Getting into the Underworld was surprisingly easy. Charon, while initially skeptical of their 'big bath tub mass drowning' story, was happy to accept the Lotus Cash card in exchange for ferrying the three of them across. They didn't even hit much of a snag when they met Cerberus.
It was when they set off the security and the flying shoes started dragging Grover away that everything went metaphorically and literally to Hell.
Luckily, Hades appeared to drag the three of them away from the edge and inform them of what all was happening among the gods.
The Lord of the Dead wasn't too happy but gave them the information they needed and gave them another magic item to retrieve. Namely his Helm of Darkness which had also been stolen.
Turned out that the backpack Ares gave them was the Master Bolt's sheath and it had returned when they had entered the Underworld.
Hades said he would hold onto Percy's mom until the situation up on Olympus (His youngest Brother throwing a hissy fit) resolved itself.
The trio left Hades realm using the Pearls his grandmother had given him. As they drifted up to the ceiling the Kindly Ones hissed at them and even from the distance, they could hear Cerberus whining.
The large bubbles popped only after they reached the surface of the water in the same area Percy had received the Pearls.
The wind was picking up and the waves were growing choppy. Clearly someone up on Olympus was throwing a tantrum.
They were quickly picked up by a rescue boat and Percy hastily took off his shoes and passed them off to Grover while the boat team were busy doing other things to avoid any odd conversations about why one of them had hooves.
When they were dropped off on the beach Ares was waiting for them. The Helm of Darkness resting between the handles of the war god's motorcycle.
Percy figured that fighting the god of war at twelve and barefoot for a helmet would probably be his worst and last decision. He was okay with a blade, but he wasn't Luke who was the best swordsman camp had seen in centuries and Ares had millennia of experience and the unfair advantage of being an immortal god of warfare.
The only thing Percy had going for him was that the battle ground was a beach, but he wasn't too sure that the homefield advantage would be able to save him. To further add to his nerves the Furies were circling above them. Waiting.
When the battle was over Percy couldn't remember for the life of him how he had managed it. It was like the experience had all been swept back out to sea along with all the seaweed that had weighed the god down long enough for him to get a good hit in.
He also could have sworn he heard one of the little crabs on the beach bragging to the world that it had pinched the god of war.
It was over though. That was important. Ares had seemed like he would kill him for winning the match, but a shadow had passed over them and the war god had departed after leaving him a curse.
They gave the Helm to the Furies to return to their lord before being surrounded by mortals.
Percy wasn't happy about taking a plane back to New York, but there was no other way they'd be able to make it back in the single day they had remaining. After they reached their destination and successfully avoided the press, Percy sent Grover and Annabeth back to camp to diffuse the tension among the campers and tell Chiron what had happened. He had to bring the Master Bolt up to Olympus.
The guard by the elevator in the Empire State Building was annoying. Percy had to resort to threatening him before the guy gave up the key to Olympus so he could complete his quest.
As he walked to the Throne room everyone he passed on Olympus was staring at him. They kept a careful distance from him. A heavy air surrounded the home of the gods. They all wanted to know whether there would be war between the brothers. The possibility of war sat heavily on the bright and colorful streets of Mount Olympus and Percy mentally cursed Ares for being a jerk.
The Throne room was even larger than Hades' palace had been, and Percy could see the similarities between the two buildings. He thought about how unfair it was that Hades could only visit Olympus once a year.
The thrones of Olympus formed a U shape with Zeus and Hera's at the opposite end from the door and a large fire pit in the middle of the room where Percy could have sworn he saw a small figure dressed in brown tending the flames before he blinked, and she was gone. The thrones were similar to the cabins at camp and all except for two of them were empty. The room held only Zeus and Poseidon. They were easy to tell apart. Zeus was dressed like an important Businessman and his expression could only be described as thunderous, while his older brother looked far more carefree and dressed like he was on vacation in the tropics though the massive trident didn't really fit with the rest of the image. They were also a great deal larger than Percy as they were proportional to the giant thrones.
Percy walked up to the thrones and kneeled when he was just past the fire. Zeus looked like he was going to say something about it, but Poseidon glared at him before he could. Percy handed the backpack with the Master Bolt in it over to Zeus and did his best to explain what all had happened on the quest and Ares' involvement.
When he told them, what had happened at the entrance to the pit in the Underworld and then on the beach after his fight with Ares the two gods had a quick conversation in Ancient Greek from which he only heard the word father and couldn't make out anything else.
When the talking finished there was just a heavy silence for a few moments as the two brothers had a silent conversation between each other after which Zeus apologized to Poseidon for accusing him through grit teeth.
Zeus was quick to leave after that to "Cleanse" the bolt of his "mortal stench" and disappeared in a very theatrical display of lightning and thunder.
"Don't mind my brother. He should have been the god of theatre instead of the sky."
Percy had to cover his grin when he heard thunder off in the distance in response.
"I'm sorry you had to be involved in all this." Poseidon told him in a reassuring voice as he shrunk down to a more appropriate size to speak with Percy.
"Don't worry, Grandma said you owed me a favor." Poseidon grinned and asked him to walk with him as they discussed the favor away from the throne room. Percy could understand why as all through his retelling it had been like there were a thousand stares boring into him. The throne room was undoubtably a point of interest given recent events.
Percy had been thinking about what he wanted as his favor on the plane ride back to try and avoid thinking about how they were in a plane. Hades had already promised to return his mom when it was safe for her in the mortal world again, so his obvious choice went out the window. He thought he'd found a pretty good replacement.
"… Well… I was thinking since your cabin at camp is empty and everything," Poseidon nodded, "Could me and the other claimed demigods whose parents don't have cabins stay in Cabin 3?"
His Grandfather looked amused.
"That's not what I was expecting but consider it done!" The god reached into one of his pockets and passed Percy a letter. It was written permission in Ancient Greek for the children of gods without cabins to stay in Cabin 3 and personally signed by the god in question. "I'm sure I can think of something more to give you a warm welcome to my Cabin!"
"And it won't be a problem?"
"Of course not! I don't have any demigod children and I won't for the foreseeable future. It's the least I can do."
His mom had been released from the Underworld and so Percy made a stop by their apartment before he went back to camp.
Sally Jackson was doing perfectly fine.
When the reporters had swarmed her and the apartment looking for a story Alecto, Percy's former Math teacher from Hell, was sent out to act as the Jackson's Lawyer and had quickly gotten rid of the reporters.
Apparently even reporters weren't recklessly suicidal enough to face down a Fury for more than a few minutes.
Wonder if they forgot to take the other stuff out of the backpack before handing it over to Zeus. Like what if they had been tossing their laundry, or trash, or just random stuff they stole at the request of the Hermes cabin into the bag. No wait. Even better! None of them wanted to eat the Oreos Ares left them in the bag and so the thing of Oreos was just sitting in there with the Master Bolt the whole time! Just imagine the look on Zeus' face when he looks in the sheath of his master bolt and sees a container of mortal cookies!