Enjoy this chapter- in which Percy and Piper finally hit the jackpot in figuring out where they need to go.
Replies:
Undeath9087: In their defence they want a first aid kit and it was the only store open lol.
Guest: Honestly, Percy is going to be shorter than canon in this 'cause that's just adorable- and picture it, this tiny little white haired girl stood between Annabeth and Piper. People would underestimate her so much. I mean she's not ridiculously short but she is gonna be shorter.
Guest: The fact that Hades knew first is gonna come up- but in Percy's defence she believes Poseidon knows she's alive and that he's keeping his distance to avoid drawing attention to her. And also- Percy might just been a teensy bit resentful about the fact that he wasn't there when she was little and Gabe was there.
TheBlazingButterfly777: Eh, at least he's dead. And Piper gets her first kill of the quest.
Guest2.0: Don't worry, we'll get all of that in the future :).
Guest: I get why you'd say that but uh- how would Luke know to look in LA? No the last time he saw Percy was in New York.
Jubby1905: The fact that there are numerous jokes along those lines in future chapters- Piper literally sits there like 'We're gonna live off you forever' and Annabeth's just like 'Speak for yourself I'm going to be an architect' to which Piper is like 'Oh, so I live off you both.'
Guest: I just think the pantheons try to stay apart honestly. But really, inter pantheon support would stop a lot of issues.
Guest: I know that in coma's there can be muscle deterioration and other things and in a child that should be growing I'd imagine it would cause issues- and also given the cause of the coma it would be extra worrying.

Percy blinked slowly, one, twice, and then her half brother burst into a golden dust and he was gone.

"Well." she spoke up after a long moment. "That was pretty impressive. Have I ever told you how badass you are Pipes?"

"You could definitely say it more often." Piper managed, her voice unsteady for a moment before she took a deep breath, clearly steadying herself, "That was terrifying." and then she was moving towards Percy, knife in hand, "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine-"

"But your shoulder-"

"Eh." Percy gave a smile, which may have been slightly strained but hey, she was doing her best to hide the fact that it did indeed hurt a hell of a lot. "I've had worse. Did I ever tell you about-"

"No- no-" Piper held up a hand, shaking her head. And Percy could see that her hand was still trembling slightly. "I don't need to hear any stories about your crazy adventures. Seriously Percy, you're my best friend, stories about the times you nearly died are not my idea of fun."

"Awe." Percy mock pouted. "But I enjoy telling them so much." and as she said that Piper was slicing through the rope binding her left wrist- and Percy hissed in pain as she slowly moved it- pain flaring up along her shoulder as she did. That really was not a great feeling.

"Ahah!" Piper pointed her knife at Percy, who would deny jumping if anyone asked, "I knew you were in pain-"

"It's not like there's much we can do about it." Percy half grumbled the word as Piper freed her other hand, and then moved on to her ankles. "There's no point in dwelling on it."

"You are far too calm about the fact that you're hurt." Piper shook her head, "I don't know if I'll ever really get used to that. Don't know if I want to."

"Eh, you will." Percy pushed herself up so that she was sitting, twisting her wrists gratefully- because it did feel so very good to be free again. "Thank you. Seriously Piper you did amazing. You saved my butt."

"You could have gotten out of it."

"Maybe, but it'd have probably been messier-"

"And you're the one who distracted him."

"Can you stop being all logical I am trying to praise you here." Percy huffed the words, unable to stop her lips from twitching proudly as she gave Piper a proud smile, "Just think Pipes, think how many people he's probably killed? We did a damn good thing today. Probably saved a bunch of lives."

"I- true." Piper nodded, clearly trying to hide that proud little twitch of her lips as she held out her hand. "And now we have to go save a bunch more by making sure that the gods don't go to war."

"Very true." Percy snorted, "If we can find the damn entrance-" she paused suddenly, "I wonder- I mean, Crusty was a Greek monster- so maybe there's something here we can use to help us."

"Smart." Piper nodded, grabbing Percy's right hand, "Where would we start looking thought?"

"Well-" Percy hummed thoughtfully. "I'd say-" her gaze flicked around the room, "Anything helpful is probably wherever he'd have spent the most time-"

"The sales desk then."

And it didn't take the two girls long to find the sales desk.

Percy leaned over it, peering at the bulletin board. There was an advertisement for Hermes Delivery Service, and another for the All-New Compendium of L.A. Area Monsters—"The only Monstrous Yellow Pages you'll ever need!" Under that, a bright orange flier for DOA Recording Studios, offering commissions for heroes' souls. "We are always looking for new talent!" DOA's address was right underneath with a map.

Percy felt a smile spreading across her lips and she resisted the urge to whoop loudly and victoriously as she leaned over further, snatching the flier, not caring that it tore slightly as she pulled it free. "Well Piper, would you look at this. Who's a genius?"

"You are." Piper grinned, "Let's look then."

And together they laid the map out on the desk, and Percy scanned it. It was even written in Greek, a fact which pleased the daughter of Poseidon greatly as she jabbed her finger at spot on the map. "Right then Pipes. This is where we are and this-" She jabbed at the marked area of the map, "Is where we want to go."

"You have got to be kidding me." Piper let out a laugh, shaking her head as she peered closer, "Seriously."

"Seems so." Percy gave a wry smile, tapping the map with her finger, "Valencia Boulevard. Barely a block away."

"All this time searching and it's literally-" Piper groaned, "I- I'm done. I am so done Percy."

And that just made Percy giggle, tossing an arm around her best friends shoulder- her uninjured arm of course. "Well look at it this way Pipes-" her lips twitched, "At least we don't have to walk too much further-"

"We have been walking and looking for hours Percy!"

"I know." Percy tried to stifle her giggles, really she did but it wasn't easy. Piper was cute when she was all frustrated, it was the way her nose scrunched up and her lip curled slightly.

"It's just-ugh it's so annoying!"

"I know." Percy laughed softly, "But we know where to go now." she lifted the map, "So, let's go and find DOA records."

"This should be interesting I guess." and together the two girls made their way out of the store- and at least Piper had stopped worrying so much about Percy's injuries, the excitement of finding out where they needed to go had distracted her well enough.

And the walk to DOA records was a fairly relaxed one- it was getting darker the longer time drew on but no one else tried to jump them- maybe it was the fact that Percy was all bloody that put people off, or it could have been the gleam in Piper's eyes as she eyed everyone who so much as glanced in their direction for longer than three seconds.

If there was one thing that was certain it was that Piper would be fully ready and willing to kill anyone who so much as dared to try and look in their direction in the wrong way.

In any case, they didn't have any issues, and soon enough they found themselves on Valencia Boulevard, and Percy looked up at the gold letters etched into black marble- though it took her a minute or two to actually be able to read it, even though she knew what it had to say,

"DOA recording studio." she read, giving Piper a sidelong glance. "Well, tall, dark imposing, it's pretty much what I expected."

"What does it say on the doors?" Piper squinted slightly. "No- no S-is that- no solicitors. No loitering and... no living." she blinked. "Does it actually-"

"Yep." Percy shoved her hands into her pockets, her lips twitching. "Most mortals would just gloss right over that and not notice. Besides it's probably got some Greek magic that makes mortals just walk straight past it without really noticing."

"Good point." Piper conceded, "I know that they don't tend to notice monsters so much."

"Exactly my dear Pipes." Percy shifted closer, peering through the glass doors into the lobby.

It was dark outside, but inside was a brightly lit lobby that was full of people. Behind the security desk sat a tough-looking guard with sunglasses and an earpiece.

"Are you ready?" Percy glanced at Piper- who looked nervous- which honestly was pretty fair and understandable in Percy's opinion.

And the other girl straightened up slightly, a determined look flashing across her face as she brushed her hair out of her eyes.

"This is the last part of my first real adventure." Piper declared, "I'm about as ready as I'll ever be I think." she took Percy's hand, and together the two girls pushed the glass doors open and stepped inside of the lobby.

Muzak played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel gray. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and every seat was taken. There were people sitting on couches, people standing up, people staring out the windows or waiting for the elevator. Nobody moved, or talked, or did much of anything.

Percy felt Piper's little shiver and she squeezed her hand gently, pressing her lips together and taking a deep breath as she cast a critical eye around the room.

All of the people were spirits, she could tell that right away.

She'd seen Ruby Kane often enough over the years to be familiar with the way that they looked.

If you looked directly at them they seemed to go slightly transparent, which was always kind of an odd sight.

Percy turned her gaze to the security guards desk- which was a raised podium, undoubtedly built that way so that they would have to look up at him.

As for the guard himself, he was tall and elegant, with chocolate-colored skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag, not that Percy needed to look at the name tag to know just who he was.

"Charon." Percy said the name slowly, shooting Piper a sidelong glance- and Piper gave a small nod, after all who else could it be?

"So do we just go up to him or what?" Piper half whispered the words, "I don't actually know how we do this."

"Well-" Percy hooked her arm through her best friends, giving hr a crooked smile. "I say we wing it."

"I-" Piper paused before laughing, "Of course you do." she lightly bumped her shoulder against Percy's. "You know what, this should be fun."

"Of course." and with that the two girls moved towards the desk, and when they reached it Percy slid her arm out from Piper's and reached up, rapping her fist on the desk. "Hello there. You must be Charon right."

And the man leaned forward over the desk.

Percy couldn't see anything in those glasses of his except her own reflection, but his smile was sweet and cold. It reminded Percy of a snakes smile right before it eats you. And Percy really did wish that she didn't have first hand experience with that, though to be fair she'd quite literally dove down his throat so she wasn't sure if what she'd been through actually counted.

"Well aren't you precious little things." and Percy blinked in surprise.

The accent was familiar but slightly off.

It was a British accent- which always reminded her of Sadie. Her sisters accent had mostly faded over the years, though she still used British slang, but when she was stressed she would often slip back into the old accent.

"Uh, yes?" Percy's words were almost a question. "I think we are anyway-"

"Percy-" Piper tried to stifle her laughter, "Come on-"

"Oh come on, I personally think I am incredibly precious." Percy told Piper seriously before her gaze swung back to Charon, who was watching them- and she could see the hint of a raised eyebrow over the top of his shades.

"Well then." the man tilted his head, "What exactly do you delightful brats want?"

"To go to the Underworld."

Charon's mouth twitched. "Well, that's refreshing."

"I'm sure it is." Percy declared brightly, "So I assume you're the one we need to talk to about, y'know, getting across?"

"Hm, I'm used to much more complaining. So, how did you kids die then?"

And this was the part where it could go wrong so very easily. After all Charon wasn't supposed to let living people cross the Styx.

But Percy was pretty sure that lying about being dead wouldn't work out that well in the end either.

"We didn't." Percy said bluntly, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back slightly, "But you're going to take us across the Styx anyway."