Percy quietly closed his cabin door, stiffly stepping out into the warm summer morning air. Looking around, he saw the stillness of the early morning Camp. The strawberry fields were empty of any children of Demeter. The volleyball court was bereft of any players. Even the benches and tables near the fire pit were devoid of anyone. Most did not wake early enough to be at those places yet. Those who awoke as early as Percy did had already left, bound for the Labyrinth and its tribulations.
Slowly striding through the gravel path, Percy came to a stop outside of the Big House. Without a pause, he opened the door, stepping into the building to see Chiron and Thalia, who had a leather pack and duffel bag sitting on another chair, waiting inside. The two turned to Percy when he entered, putting down their warm mugs of coffee as they smiled.
"Good morning, Percy. I trust you had a restful sleep?" Chiron greeted, pushing himself up from his kneeling position to greet his student.
Percy sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Well, just about as good as it's gonna get."
Thalia stifled a yawn. "Same."
Percy took a seat beside Thalia, accepting a mug of coffee from his centaur mentor and gingerly sipping on the hot liquid. He wasn't the biggest fan of coffee, but he needed the caffeine.
"So, now that you're both here, let me fill you in on some of the crucial mission details," Chiron started, returning to his kneeling position. "As far as we can tell, the Princess Andromeda is docked in Corpus Christi. It seems that they are coming back to the East Coast and possibly preparing for an attack, but are currently stopped to recruit and gather more forces. This is our chance to strike. Our spy tells us that they will only be there until the twenty-sixth, which gives you more than three weeks to get to the ship and destroy it. Ample time in the event of an unfortunate incident."
Percy and Thalia both nodded at the explanation. It was straightforward enough – travel to Texas, find the Princess Andromeda, and destroy it before it left port.
Chiron fished out four tickets from his coat pocket. "Two of these are plane tickets from New York to Houston, and the other two will bus you to Corpus Christi. Once you are there, you will meet with the spy outside of the USS Lexington. They will be wearing a blue flower on their shirt."
"Wait," Percy spoke up, putting down his half-empty cup, "who is the spy? Wouldn't it be a lot easier if you described the person, or told us who it is if it's someone we know?"
Chiron shook his head. "Unfortunately, I am not even sure of the spy's gender. All I know is that they are an agent of Lady Artemis. In fact, I am not even in direct contact with the spy. There is an intermediary. You know her: Bianca di Angelo."
"Bianca? She's here?"
Chiron wistfully smiled. "Again, unfortunately not. She left just an hour ago with Annabeth's group. Both her and her brother have gone into the Labyrinth. There is no way to reach them now. As for the spy, I am told that they have been told to stand down as far as transmitting information goes, and that they are now simply waiting for you before they will assist you in destroying the Princess Andromeda."
He sighed once before taking a long drink of coffee. "At any rate, you two better get going. There is transportation outside to JFK airport, but there isn't much time to waste. If you are both packed, I'll give you a few minutes to check everything over and to make sure that you are both ready." Both of the demigods that sat facing Chiron nodded, and the centaur smiled, rising up and exiting the Big House.
Thalia grabbed the leather pack that was on the seat beside her and put it on the table. Unbuckling the clasps, she neatly pulled out all of items inside, categorizing them by similarity.
"What are you doing?" Percy asked, curiously looking at the girl.
"This was pre-packed by Chiron beforehand," Thalia explained, pulling out a rather large brown sack of cash. "I want to look over exactly what we have." Percy nodded, sitting back in his chair and slightly feeling that his hastily packed duffel bag filled with clothes was inadequate.
The final count was rather generous. Between Percy's hasty preparations, Chiron's carefully planned out pack, and Thalia's own bag, they had fifteen shirts, twelve pairs of pants, a nice light-blue summer dress, a box of small, pre-packaged ambrosia squares, another box filled with small bottles of nectar, two passports – one for each, and last but not least, some thirty-five hundred dollars in cash, not including the various currencies, both Greek and mortal, that Percy and Thalia had on themselves.
"That's a lot of stuff," Percy muttered, looking at the arrayed goods laid out on the table. Thalia nodded her head.
The Big House's door slid open as Chiron entered. "Are you two ready?" He paused when he saw all of the contents of their packs on the table. "Oh dear. I'm certainly not going to be re-packing all of that."
John F. Kennedy International Airport was one of the largest airports in the United States. As Percy and Thalia stepped out of their Camp van, the bustle and hustle of the crowd around them was both constant and loud, and the two grabbed their bags and got into the building as quickly as they could. The honks and screeches of the outside turned into a cacophony of voices indoors, as multitudes of people walked to and fro speaking.
"Right," Thalia said, eyes darting around. "Let's find our airline." The two set off in search of where to check in before Percy finally saw the sign that denoted their goal. As they strode towards it, Thalia suddenly stopped and placed an arm on Percy's chest.
"What?" Percy asked, confused. Thalia, eyes wide, pointed.
Ahead were a pair of police officers, talking to each other near a help kiosk as passengers walked past. Percy blinked. They both only had one eye each.
"What are they?" Percy breathed out quietly.
"Arimaspi. Their tribe must've gone over to Kronos' side." They both begun to back away, but even as they did, one of the Arimaspi turned and saw them, his eye widening before he pointed and yelled at them. The other blew on his whistle loudly, scattering the yelling crowds as they took off after the two demigods.
"Crap," Percy muttered, running as fast as he could down the halls of the airport, Thalia by his side and two one-eyed monsters close behind. As he sprinted down, he saw a tour group enter a bus outside, and with a sudden jolt of inspiration, he ran to a wall and pulled a fire alarm.
The effect was immediate. Pure, unadulterated chaos.
The two police/Arimaspi were lost in the ensuing chaos. Hordes of people stampeded out, and grabbing Thalia's hand, Percy let them both be swept out of the airport by the flow of people. Quickly recovering, he pulled on Thalia's hand again and the two went into the tour bus. The enthusiastic tour guide didn't even bother to check their identification, telling them to sit down quickly as she continued with her presentation. Percy and Thalia slid their bags into an overhead compartment before taking a seat in an empty two-seat row.
"And with that," the tour guide flourished, "I am done! I hope you all enjoy the trip. Next stop, Myrtle Beach!" The bus door closed, and Percy felt some of his concerns ease away as the bus pulled away from the airport. Sighing, he closed his eyes and the world faded away.
When Percy woke up, Thalia was looking out of the window of their row, watching the passing green trees fade into a blur as they drove on the highway.
"Where are we?" Percy groggily asked, wiping the last remnants of sleep away.
"Somewhere in Pennsylvania," Thalia replied, turning to Percy.
Percy sat up in his chair, before turning and looking around. They were easily the youngest people on the bus. Some of the other couples were around their mid or late twenties, but most were well into their forties and fifties. As some sort of tour trip, most of the people on the bus were enjoying the beginning of their summer with a stay on the beach.
"What do we do now?" Percy asked despondently, his voice still quiet enough to carry no further than Thalia.
Thalia shrugged. "I'm not sure. We can't fly to Houston anymore, so it's up in the air what we do from here."
"Maybe we should just hitchhike our way there?"
Thalia incredulously looked at Percy. "Seriously? We've got enough money on us to get us there, but we should still decide on what method of transportation we should go for."
Percy nodded, agreeing with her. "We still have some time. We can decide after we get off this bus. For now, we should just brainstorm some ideas and keep our strength up."
"Thank you for riding with us! We'll see you all in a week!" the cheery tour guide said, before the bus door closed and the bus itself pulled away. Percy and Thalia, along with everyone else who had been in the bus, stood on the beach, but as they stood there, everyone else split and moved to a different part of the beach, intent on enjoying the cool water and fresh air in the hot summer sun.
"Let's go find the nearest bus station," Thalia spoke up, looking around. Percy, on the other hand, was distracted by the heavenly blue water that sparkled in the distance past the sand of the beach.
"Wait. Why don't we spend a little time here? I mean, we're already here," Percy countered, almost instinctively moving toward the sea. "We do have a lot of time."
"Percy, we should get back onto the road. We shouldn't stay here that long." Even as Thalia said this, her eyes stared at the refreshing water longingly. The sand looked soft, and the water looked cool.
"We can spare some time, right?" Percy asked, almost pleading.
There was a silence as Thalia gazed out to the ocean.
"Alright, sure. We can spend a few hours here."
Percy smiled. They both hurried to the public bathroom.
Out of his duffel bag, Percy pulled out a pair of nondescript black swim trunks, quickly putting them on and stuffing the rest of his clothes into his bag. After exchanging his running shoes for a pair of sandals, he exited the bathroom and waited near the building.
With the sound of an opening door, he spun around. And stopped.
Thalia had swapped into a modest two-piece blue swimsuit, and without a doubt, Percy could say she was more beautiful than Aphrodite in that moment. It was as if an angel had descended to Earth. Radiant and beautiful.
And she knew it. Thalia smirked. "You ready, Kelp Head?" She slung her pack behind her and ran to the water, Percy closely following behind. With both hands reaching down and scooping, she threw a handful of water at Percy, wetting his head. The son of Poseidon almost rolled his eyes at the irony of a daughter of Zeus trying to challenge him to a water fight, but responded in kind with a gentle wave that drenched her entirely.
Their water fight continued. Their light laughter and carefree sounds continued.
For a few hours, they could pretend that summer was all they cared about. That the world wasn't in danger. That they were just two people in love that wanted to learn more about each other.
For a few, short hours, it was just that simple.
A/N: … I know, it's a short chapter. It does serve its purpose in the greater story.
There's a couple of reasons for that. First of all, I've just been busy this past week, and I haven't had much time to write. Beyond that, though, I'm feeling burnt out by the update schedule on this faster than I thought I would. I think that instead of starting the two-week update schedule on the 8th, I'll move that up to the 1st. That means that after New Years, the next chapter will be on the 15th.
Next update: January 1st, 2018