Chapter 4 Museum Mishaps
Jake-3rd Person
"What in Ha-OOF", yelled Jake as he fell out of the portal and got smacked across the aerospace exhibit by the Nemean lion's powerful tail, crashing into a food stand.
Groaning, Jake activated riptide and sat up, only to collapse to the floor and pass out.
Thalia 3rd Person
'Am I seeing double?', Thalia questioned herself as two newly outfitted Jakes fell out of a golden portal on the ceiling. One got smacked across the room and the other, wow! The larger Jake had fallen out of the portal and grabbed ahold of the lion's tail. He ran up it and sunk a blindingly white dagger into the lion's fur.
The mystery man climbed his way up the thrashing lion with his dagger, like a climber with an ice pick, and slowly made his way up to the lion's neck.
"That idiot Zoe!", Thalia angrily thought as both Phoebe and she continued pelting the lion, one catching the man on his calf.
Ignoring the barbed arrow lodges into his calf, Perseus was trying to get to the invincible Lion's mouth. He was thrown around wildly as the lion tried rolling and slamming into walls to get this unwanted intruder of its back.
Finally grabbing ahold of the Lion's mane, Perseus twisted around the Lion's face and drew his dagger back and threw it straight down the maw of the beast.
Perseus could no longer hold on and was thrown off the bucking beast, flying into the wall so hard, he dented it.
The Nemean lion reared around and faced the hunters and Thalia, advancing with shaky legs and promptly collapsed steam and foam beginning to form at its mouth.
Zoe-3rd Person
'That smell coming from the steam rising, I can recognize it! But I don't remember from where.', Thought Zoe as she and Phoebe strafed around the giant Lion's corpse, bows drawn.
A groan can from the entrance of the exhibit and Zoe instinctively turned around and let her arrow free.
Her arrow found her mark.
A sickening crunch followed.
It was the mystery man, draped in the same mortal clothing as Jake had been in.
"You stole my kill", calmly said Zoe as she and Phoebe nocked their arrows, facing the bruised soldier with two arrows coming out his body. One from his calf and one from his shoulder.
Gasping heavily, Perseus kicked his pitch-black sword towards the two teenagers and moaned," Its Perseus, remember 86'?"
Lowering her bow a bit Zoe retorted,"19 or 18?"
"17, 1786, The castle"
"Oh, what are you doing here?", Asked Zoe, calming down and lowering her tone, startling Phoebe.
"Rescue mission, Daughter of Athena, how about you?", Responded Perseus as he widened his arms, her dark hair nestled into his neck as she came in for a hug.
"Trying to rescue milady"
"Mount Tam?"
"The one and only"
"I'm afraid I have to travel with you", Responded Perseus, snapping the arrow lodged in his calf in half, then pulling it out."
"Sorry about the arrows, you startled me. But I'm sure you can handle it.", replied Zoe, reminiscing about growing up with him during the golden era.
"You know me too well, but enough talk, we should get on the way"
"Alright everybody double-time to the van, Let's go!", yelled Phoebe as Jake began to stir from his nasty injury."
Once in the van, Percy had taken the middle seat along with Jake, leaving Phoebe in the back seat with all the supplies camp had provided them with, leaving Thalia and Zoe in the front with the latter driving.
"Wait, where is Bianca?"
"Oh #%!", groaned Zoe as she slammed the brakes.
Circling back to the museum, Jake and Percy volunteered to go look for her while the three girls stayed in the car.
"20 minutes, in and out. If we're not here in 20, continue to Tam without us."
"Alright, Stay safe!", Yelled Zoe, parking into a vacant spot.
'She seems really happy around him. Hmmm.", Thought Thalia, watching the normally grumpy Zoe smiling at the two boys.
Inside the museum:
"So, Percy, tell me more about yourself."
"Not now, we can talk in the car, focus on getting Bianca"
"Oh, sorry", Jake replied sheepishly, uncapping riptide and helped Percy looks for the aerospace exhibit.
"Grab a shovel!", Percy's voice rung out through the halls"
"What?", replied Jake, entering the exhibit, to find Percy poised with his sword facing down, ready to stab.
"I found her. She's dead, there's nothing we can do. We can give her the proper sendoff but that's it."
Percy stabbed down with his sword, right into the mouth of the seemingly dead beast and it dissolved. The sweet-smelling dust filled the room as Percy's sword sucked the essence and dust of the monster.
Underneath the thick leather coat was a corpse, the corpse of a girl who had been crushed by this massive beast.
With a calmness, Percy sheathed his sword and raised his arms. Cracks began to form on the marble ground and the ground split open, revealing a grave size pocket of soil.
"Help me set her in"
"No, I really don't want to do that"
"Back in my day, it was an honor to bury a great warrior, It should be for you too"
"I guess?", Jake responded, grabbing Bianca's feet as Percy grabbed her broken and mangled torso, lowering into her grave.
With the shovels Jake had fetched, they grabbed the shovels and covered her grave.
Percy summoned a bottle of the most expensive wine he could think of, Amontillado, and poured the liquid all over the fresh grave.
"Offerings for the dead, Hades if you can hear me, I will burn a shroud for your daughter at camp Half-Blood once this quest is over."
"Let's go back." Jake solemnly said as both walked out and into the van with damp eyes.
No one asked what happened when they came back and saw the long faces.
The boys buckled in and prepared for a long drive to California, not hearing the rattling of bones following them.