I sat there bewildered. I thought of what Julia had said earlier.
Wha-what is that Percy?
She had seen the Empousa. Three demi-gods at one prom! No wonder these creatures showed up! But why did Dr. Thorn want Julia? Why didn't he try to destroy her?
"Annabeth, why did he just take her? He could've easily killed her, but he didn't."
"I don't know Percy. It's so weird."
Grover piped in. "Um, guys? Shouldn't we like, go save Julia now? Before he decides to kill her or something?"
"Yes," Annabeth said, "But let me run into the school quick to change. I have sweats in my locker. Trying to save Julia in a prom dress might not be the smartest idea.
Annabeth took off into the school, to change and I took off my tie. It could be a dangerous thing! Someone could choke me with it! I smiled at the thought, especially because my mom threatened me to not take off the tie tonight. Grover and I ran around front to get my car, and I pulled up to the front of the school.
Annabeth came running back out with a grey sweat suit and sneakers on. She climbed into the back of the car and we took off. But I realized as I was pulling out of the parking lot, I had no idea where I was supposed to go. "Annabeth, did you see which direction Dr. Thorn went in?"
"He drove up the highway. That's all I could see with Grover on top of me."
All of a sudden Annabeth's phone buzzed. I looked at her in my mirror as if to say And why do you have your phone on when there was two monsters at the dance?
"I just turned it on when I grabbed my baseball cap Seaweed Brain. Who knew if I was going to need it with you guys? And by the way, you're still not off the hook about the Julia thing!" She picked up the phone before I could say anything. "Hello?"
Silence for a second.
"Yeah. I did. It accidentally stuck on him while he pushed me out of the gym. Did he have a girl with him?"
Who was on the phone? Was Annabeth talking about Dr. Thorn?
"Okay thanks." Annabeth hung up and turned to us. "That was Thalia. She was calling from a payphone. She, Artemis, and the hunters were passing through, and Thalia caught sight of Dr. Thorn so she went after him. She saw he had someone. He escaped her, but he had dropped my bracelet which got stuck on him while he was pushing me out of the gym. Thalia recognized it as the bracelet she gave me for my birthday, so she called me. She said he seemed to be aiming for Central Park. She's going to meet us there."
I made an illegal U-turn and took off the other way, trying to remember the quickest way to the park. We zoomed down the highway past the school. It took about twenty minutes to get to the parking lot of the park. I parked and we all hopped out of the car. I gripped Riptide in my pocket, ready for any action.
We walked into the park, trying to be as stealthy as we could be, looking for Thalia. We walked around for only a few minutes until Grover spotted Thalia crouching up in a tree a few yards away.
We silently made our way over to the tree and she hopped down. "'Bout time you got here! Dr. Thorn is just over that hill. I hid in the tree, because he would've run into me. Who is that girl he has with him anyway?"
Annabeth answered through clenched teeth, "That's Julia. She's from out school. She's a demi-god obviously, but we have no idea what Dr. Thorn wants with her."
We all into what I called stalker mode and made our way up the hill stealthily, trying to stay in the shadows of the moonlight. Grover and I stayed to one side of the hill, and the girls stayed on the other. Well, I think Annabeth was on that side. She had her invisibility hat on so I couldn't be sure.
When we reached the top, what we saw stunned us. A different empousa was standing with Dr. Thorn, and Dr. Thorn had a celestial bronze dagger held up to Julia's neck.
Julia's eyes were huge, and she was really scared. I mean, how can you blame her? Oh, and did I mention Dr. Thorn was staring directly at Grover and me?
"Ah, Percy Jackson and Grover. Why don't you put your weapons away and come down here before my hand slips and this girl gets.... nicked."
Seeing there was no other way to do anything without Julia getting hurt, I put Riptide back in my pocket and Grover and I walked down the hill, but keeping a safe distance from both of the monsters.
I recognized quickly that the empousa standing with him was Tammi. The amateur empousa I fought back years ago. She was giving me a look of hatred.
"Well, I should really just get to the point." Dr. Thorn said, "This is my revenge blah blah blah for defeating me those couple of years ago blah blah blah, I brought this girl here to bring you away from the big amount people. Alot easier. You get the picture."
Just then Tammi jumped forward and attacked Grover; he quickly maneuvered his way around her and was fighting her well. He could hold her for a long time; she hadn't gotten much better; which is a really good thing, because Dr. Thorn threw Julia to the ground, apparently she was tied up, and he attacked me.
He sent the flying darts toward me, but remembering that to avoid them, I ducked out of the way. While I was avoiding the flying poison darts he stepped in with his dagger and tried to get at me. I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it. He stabbed toward my stomach, probably trying to gut me like a fish, but I pushed his dagger away easily with my sword.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Thalia teaming up with Grover, taking Tammi down. But Tammi was fighting hard; she definitely had gotten more training. But that little distraction was all Dr. Thorn needed. He attacked without using the dagger, but still in hand, and pinned me to the ground.
I tried moving, but he had me. I really hoped he couldn't get me with a dart at this angle.
All of a sudden though, he turned to dust, and the dust landed on top of me.
Gross.
I sat up and Tammi was gone, and Annabeth was still hacking at Julia's ropes. She had gotten her hands undone, and now was working on her ankles.
"What happened to Dr. Thorn?" I asked as I looked at him.
Thalia shrugged. "Simple, I stuck an arrow through his back. He wasn't counting on me being here."
I got up and brushed myself off. I went over to Julia and cut her ankles free with Riptide. Now I had to explain everything, and she has to do explaining too. This should be fun.
Not.
~~~~ Hey people!! Sorry it took me a little while to get this up! I was having writer's block! And don't worry, you'll very very soon learn who Julia's god parent is! Review pleaseee!!!!
