"Did you pack everything?" Percy asks.
"Yes, I did," Clarisse sighs, she slung her bag over her shoulder. "I packed ambrosia, a med pack, extra clothes, and my spear."
"Speaking of weapons, Chiron gave me this," Percy shows Clarisse a blue ballpoint pen.
"A pen?"
Percy uncapped the pen, showing a three-foot-long golden sword. Clarisse noticed how balanced the blade is in Percy's hands.
"It's called Riptide," Percy stated. "Chiron told me if I lose it, the pen can reappear back into my pocket."
"Lucky," Clarisse said. "If my spear broke, I'd have to use a dagger on this quest."
"You're not good with a dagger?"
"No, I am. I just like using a bigger weapon."
Percy laughed, "Grover should join up with us in a minute. Luke also gave me these shoes, but Chiron said that if I fly in the sky, Zeus will kill me."
"Ares children are fine with flying through the skies. I'll take the shoes," Clarisse grabs the shoes from Percy's hands. She sat on the ground and started to put them on.
After a small minute, Grover came over to Percy and Clarisse.
"I'm ready to go on the quest," Grover said nervously. "I hope…"
Clarisse nudged Percy in his side, "Look."
Clarisse points to Annabeth, she was leaning against the wall of a cabin, she glared at the Trio, most specifically, Percy.
"We can just ignore her," Percy said. "I already decided on my quest companions. She doesn't need to hold a grudge just because I didn't pick her."
"Annabeth is different now," Grover added. "She changed ever since Capture the Flag. I hope she feels better and learns to let go of the past."
Clarisse snorted, "That'll be a first." She strapped Maimer onto her backpack, "Is everyone ready?"
"Yes!" Percy and Grover said.
"Then let's go find Zeus' Master Bolt."
The trio left Camp, and Argus drove them far as West Long Island. From there, they took a bus to New Jersey. Percy and Clarisse sat next to each other on the bus, while Grover sat across from them.
"Ok, nothing is going bad so far," Percy muttered.
"Don't jinx us," Clarisse warned. "Whenever someone says that on a quest, something bad always happens."
"Speak of the devil," Grover muttered. "I smell monsters."
"Where?" Clarisse's hand reaches for her spear.
"I think it's those two old ladies," Grover points to three old ladies, who just sat down to take their seats on the bus.
"Wait, I think I recognize one of them," Percy muttered. "That's Mrs. Dodds!"
"Who?" Clarisse asks.
"She's the first monster I ever encountered. She was also my Pre-Algebra teacher."
"It's always the teachers who are the monsters," Clarisse muttered. "What do we do?"
"We can't hide or sneak around them, so I say we fight," Percy stated.
Clarisse instantly got excited, "Now you're speaking my language!"
"The mortals will notice," Grover warned.
"The mist should cover us, plus, I'm not worried about causing a scene. Demigods are always known to cause trouble," Clarisse drew out Maimer. "Get ready Fishface. Your training is about to be put into action."
The three old ladies got up out of their seats, the old lady in the front transformed her purse into a flaming whip. Clarisse charged the old lady on the right, while Percy took Mrs. Dodds. Grover stood back and dodged attacks from the third old lady. Percy and Clarisse tag-teamed the two furies, Clarisse thrust her spear into the chest of one of the furies and Percy finished her off with a clean swipe across her neck, cutting off her head. As she slowly turned into dust, Clarisse shouts "Maia!" and uses Hermes' shoes to fly into the air and give the second Fury a flying knee in the face. While Percy snuck up from behind and stabbed her in the back.
"You can't escape us for long!" Mrs. Dodds shouts. "You will return what you have stolen!"
"How can we return what was stolen if you stole it?" Percy asks.
"I didn't steal anything Sea Spawn, I'll be back, and don't think you can fight your way out of the armies of darkness next time," Mrs. Dodds sprouted her wings and flew up and through the ceiling of the bus.
The bus driver stopped the bus and shouted at Percy and Clarisse for what they did. Whatever the mortals saw through the interpretation of the mist, they didn't like it. Percy and Clarisse did attack two "old ladies".
"We should go," Grover muttered.
"Agreed," Clarisse said.
They gathered their stuff and left the bus as quickly as they could. They walked along the side of the road, bags strapped over their shoulders while hydrating themselves with water.
"You did good back there," Clarisse complimented. "All of that training we did finally paid off. Thanks for having my back."
"Your welcome, I think that was my third monster attack," Percy stated. "I think it went well."
"We still have our supplies, so that's good. But we're still miles away from our destination, so I guess we're walking," Grover sighs.
The Trio walks along the road in the darkness, after an hour they smelt the sweet smell of fresh food. They arrived at Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, where they were unsettling realistic stone statues of people everywhere. Despite having enough food from their packs, the Trio decided that they needed to take a break and sat down to chow down at Aunty Em's freshly cooked food. It was amazing.
Until they discovered that Aunty Em was actually Medusa.
Clarisse distracted the Gorgon, while Percy using the reflection of a nearby mirror, managed to slice off her head.
"Careful, she can still turn you to stone if you look at her eyes," Clarisse warned.
Percy grabbed some cloth and carefully wrapped her head.
"It's a good thing the Princess wasn't here, or else she would've had your head," Clarisse remarked. Percy looked at her confused. "Didn't you know? Athena is the reason why Medusa is like that. Your father was also a part of it too. If Annabeth was here, she would've blamed you for Medusa attacking."
"Annabeth is really pushing the Sins of the Father thing on me isn't she?"
"Yup."
They searched Medusa's building for anything useful, but they only found Hermes' mailing slips. Percy placed Medusa's head in a box and shipped it off to Olympus.
"That's very brave of you, we could've used her head you know," Clarisse stated.
"It's better this way," Percy said.
They then camped out near the woods, Clarisse wanted to take the first watch, so Grover easily fell asleep instantly the moment he placed his head down. They decided not to light a fire so as not to attract monsters, Percy sat next to Clarisse on a log.
"This quest is going well so far," Clarisse said.
"Are you making fun of me?" Percy asked.
"No, I'm being serious. We fought two sets of monsters and won! This is amazing, I can't wait to tell my siblings about this."
Percy sighed.
"What's wrong Fishface?"
"We're not any closer to finding the Master bolt, I just feel like this is all for nothing."
"We are trying to stop World War Three, so I think this quest isn't all for nothing."
Percy turns to Clarisse, "Can I tell you something?"
Clarisse shrugged, "Sure."
"I don't really care about the quest, or saving the world. I only came on this quest to bring my mom back from the underworld."
Clarisse stared at Percy for a while.
"I'm sorry if-"
"No, it's ok. Not everyone goes on quests for the glory. I'm on this quest because I want to impress my father."
"Ares?"
"Yup. I'm only one of the few Daughter of Ares to go on a quest, my father mostly favors his Sons. So, I understand having true intentions on a quest."
They sat in silence for a while.
"I'm going to sleep, wake us up when something bad happens," Percy said, he laid down his head and closed his eyes.
"Goodnite Fishface."
The next day, they woke up and Grover talked to a lost poodle for directions. The poodle was lost and when they turned in the poodle, they received $200 dollars in order to buy new tickets to continue their journey. They arrived in St, Louis, where they spotted the Gateway Arch.
"Why don't we just take a break?" Clarisse suggested. "It's been a while since I've been in the mortal world."
Percy looked at her, "Really?"
"Yup. Let's take a look around."
They arrived on top of the arch, and Grover started to smell another monster. Turns out, they were followed by the Echidna and the Chimera and they were attacked. As they were attacked, Percy got poisoned. He did the only thing that he could.
Percy jumped off the arch, and Clarisse looked on in shock as her friend fell down and crashed into the water.
"Percy…" She whispered in fear. "Please be ok."