9. I Am Offered A Quest
AN: VNaz123 caught the fact that in my rush to get this story up last night I forgot this one.
I spent one last night in cabin eleven before Chiron moved me to cabin three the next morning. Luke and I spent the majority of that night on the rooftop finally having our talk about how and why I was reincarnated. Luke expressed a deep wish that he had been born in the Elemental Nations since it would have been so cool having the ability to walk on water or travel as fast as a car. He also thought having a crack at one of the tailed beasts would have been fun but I laughed and said that he was better off not having to fight one of those.
Being in cabin three was both nice and lonely. I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, a set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.
But the cabin was empty with no one else to share it with and the members of cabin eleven began avoiding me. Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I knew that they were all talking about it behind my back. The attack, as nonexistent as it had been since I took the creature's head off before it could do anything, had scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to get a chance to kill me. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.
That was one thing that confused me. After my talk with Luke, I went straight to sage mode and saw that the barrier was still as strong as that morning when I saw it. I even formed a type of mental link to temporarily talk with Thalia through use of images to ask her if anything had breached the barrier. A shake of the head was my answer. When she told me that nothing had crossed the barrier since I had came besides some birds, I left her tree which I had initiated physical contact to help with the link with more questions than answers. It didn't help that the clones I had sent out had searched the camp from top to bottom and didn't find any trace of an intruder.
The other campers also steered clear of me as much as possible. It was so bad that cabin eleven became too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to Clarisse and the hellhound in the woods, so I instead would spar with Luke one-on-one just before dinner. He did his absolute best to push me harder and harder, and wasn't afraid to take any advantage he could to bruise me up in the process. Not that I was complaining considering we both found it a good way to keep our skills sharp. And Luke guaranteed that I'd need every drop of experience that I had now that it was confirmed who my father was since all of the monsters would now be after me.
Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but I could tell that her mind wasn't on the lesson. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes. I blamed the revelation of who my father was since before we were at least cordial with each other. After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself "Quest…Poseidon?…Dirty rotten…Got to make a plan…"
Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear that she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. I wished she would just yell at me or something. I had spent almost the entire childhood of my first life being ignored and I didn't like the feeling a second time.
I knew somebody at camp really resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article made me furious.
BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT
Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing after just over one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof seemingly sliced cleanly off the body of the car and thrown ten feet away and a massive hole in the hood of the car that caused it to land in a ditch.
Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montuak, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and even more blood was found near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.
Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who is very violent and has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools. He also claims that his son took his car without permission on the weekend that the Jacksons left for their vacation.
Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.
The phone number was circled in black marker. I was tempted to send a clone to the apartment to show Gabe just how violent I could be but reigned in the impulse knowing that it would only make things worse. However, once I had mom back I was going to convince her to leave that miserable excuse for a carbon based life form and then make his life an absolute hell with the worst Genjutsu I could now use. Kurenai's hell viewing technique that she had showed me the hand signs for should do just nicely.
The night after I read the article, I had my worst dream yet. I was running along the beach in a storm. This time there was a city behind me that was definitely not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.
About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.
I had to stop them. Even in my dream state I could tell who the men were and knew that a very bad thing was going to happen if they didn't stop right that instant. I ran towards them but the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.
Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy. The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.
I yelled Stop it! Stop fighting! You'll destroy everything!
The ground suddenly shook and laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice began speaking.
Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come Down!
The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. I took a massive chakra leap back and up into the air to avoid falling in it but a black stream of something shot out of the hole and grabbed my airborne form and then sent me hurtling down into the darkness.
I suddenly woke up in a cold sweat still remembering the sensation of falling. My heart was trying to beat its way out of my rib cage and my breath came out in short uneven breaths. I hadn't felt anything like the feeling of pure evil that voice held since I had to deal with Kurama before we became friends, and this had been at least ten times worse than dealing with an angry tailed beast.
I got out of bed and quickly got dressed. I thought maybe a walk would help calm me down. I noticed that although my body told me it was morning, it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing, a big one. I hadn't dreamed that. As I walked out of my cabin, I saw Grover coming up with a worried look on his face.
When he saw me, he said "Percy, I'm glad you're up. Mr. D wants to see you."
My eyes narrowed as I asked him why.
"He wants to kill…I mean, I'd better let him tell you."
My eyes narrowed even further as I said "Grover, is this one of those sins of the father things again?"
Grover swallowed and said "Please just come with me."
I followed after him ready to rip into Dionysus's tiger striped hide if I was right about my assumptions. For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured most people thought it was a crime for me just to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for the simple fact that I dared to exist, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict. Well good luck to him, because I wasn't going down without a fight. And even then it wouldn't be until I completed whatever mission the guy upstairs needed me to do. Kami had believed that I was the right person for the job and I was sure as hell not going to disappoint the person who was in charge of my previous realm.
Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.
"No, it never rains here unless we want it to." Grover said.
I pointed at the storm and said "Are you sure about that Grover, because that ain't no Little April Shower that I see coming at us."
Grover glanced uneasily at the sky as he said "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."
I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley. I bet the barrier had some kind of weather control function as part of its job to protect the camp. Hard to protect a place if a tornado suddenly appears and starts chucking around houses or an earthquake struck and tore down all of the buildings. And lets not get started on hurricanes. But still, this storm that was coming at us looked like it would be the biggest weather disturbance yet for this year. And with freak tornadoes and hurricanes coming and going like New York and the rest of the world was a vacation spot for weather events, that was saying something.
At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around the strawberry fields making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.
Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheel chair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.
"Well, well." Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity. Come closer, and don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because you were reincarnated and old Barnacle-Beard is now your father."
A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.
"Blah, blah, blah." Dionysus said.
Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.
"If I had my way," Dionysus said "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."
Chiron opened his mouth to say something but I beat him to it as I said "I'd like to see you try it. You'd be dead before you could even think of starting the process. In case you forgot, there is someone who actually wants me here in this realm who is higher up on the ladder than you gods. How do you think he or she would feel if someone below them killed me before I could do what they wanted? Besides, I have done nothing wrong. Unless you are so pigheaded as to believe I have committed some heinous crime just for being born to Poseidon. But if that's the case, why don't I go kill those two sons of yours? After all, they deserve it for being born with a god as a father don't they?"
Grover went whiter than a sheet as Dionysus glared at me. Our Killing Intents suddenly erupted full force and slammed against each other as we both began trying to assert our authority over the other. As this was going on even more lightning flashed across the sky.
Our staring match of doom ended when he suddenly said "I'm off to the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose."
Dionysus picked up a card while maintaining his false Killing Intent and twisted it turning it into a security pass. Then he snapped his fingers and the air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.
Chiron sighed before he told me and Grover to sit down. As we did, he laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.
"Tell me Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"
I shrugged as I said "As an opponent, that particular hellhound wasn't much of a challenge since I took it by surprise. But in a fight against another I'm sure it could be a tough opponent. But what concerns me more is how it actually got into those woods in the first place."
Chiron nodded and said "Yes, we are still trying to figure out who summoned it. But I'm afraid you'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."
I frowned as I had a sneaking suspicion of what he was talking about but I still said "Done with what sir?"
"Your quest of course. Will you accept it?"
I stared at Chiron for a minute before I said "Even without you telling me what said quest is, I know that I have to. There was a reason I was brought here twelve years ago. That was the time frame I was given to prepare myself for whatever mission I'm supposed to do." Thunder rumbled across the valley as I talked. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together. Looking out at the scene, I said "This quest, it's has something to do with the fight that Poseidon and Zeus are having doesn't it? They're fighting over something valuable that was stolen and now I probably have to find whatever it was that was stolen."
I felt Chiron stare at me as he said "How did you know that?"
I turned my head to give him a deadpan look as I said "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. Finally, I've sometimes been able to have dreams that show me things that are extremely important to a mission I was about to go on. The night I came here with Grover I had a dream about a horse and eagle fighting each other on a beach during a storm. And then tonight I had a dream about two guys in togas fighting with each other while one was shouting to give something back. It's pretty obvious in my opinion."
"I knew it." Grover said.
"Hush satyr." Chiron ordered.
"But it's his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be! Percy just said that he sometimes would have dreams that were relevant to missions he was about to take. The same thing is happening now."
"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard before he continued "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."
I blinked and said "You're kidding right? Why doesn't Zeus just grab one of the lightning bolts that's over our heads to replace it?"
"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. Or even about an actual lightning bolt that travels through the air. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."
I blinked again and said "Oh. That might be a little harder to replace."
Chiron nodded as he began getting worked up now and said "Zeus' master bolt is the symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."
I paled at the last sentence since if a weapon like that got in the wrong hands and was actually used it could potentially wipe out a small country and any others around it. Swallowing, I said "Do we have any idea who stole it?"
Chiron sighed and said "Zeus believes it was done by you."
"Say what! But I didn't even know that Mount Olympus was real before you told me about the Heart of the West a week ago! How could I have stolen it if I have never been there?"
Chiron sighed again and said "During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, Taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly-that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."
"But I wasn't even there during the Winter Solstice. How could I have taken it?"
Chiron sighed and said "Patience and listen Percy. Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influences over the makers of his brother's lightning bolt. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."
"Then Zeus is crazy. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I have never been to Mount Olympus."
Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.
"Er, Percy…" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."
"I don't care if he's the Lord of the Kami Damned Solar System, I did not take his bolt!" I said as I began leaking small amounts of Killing Intent.
"Perhaps paranoid is a better word to use." Chiron said trying to cool me down. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam…"
"The golden net. Poseidon and a few other gods trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler." I said.
Chiron nodded and said "Correct. And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along, the proverbial last straw that broke the camel's back."
I frowned as Chiron continued. "Most thinking observers would say that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war between those two would look like, Percy?"
"Bad." I said as I thought about all of the destruction such a war would cause.
Chiron nodded as he said "Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions if not billions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."
"Bad." I repeated.
"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus' wrath."
It started to rain inside the valley. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky. I glanced at the storm and knew that Zeus was causing it to rain here because I was here. He was punishing the whole camp because of me. It made me remember the destruction of the Leaf village leaving nothing but a crater when Negato was looking for me. It made me furious.
Looking at Chiron, I said "So I need to find the bolt and return it to Zeus. If I don't the world will pretty much end, but this time there will be no ark to save humanity. Am I correct?"
"What better peace offering, than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus' property?" Chiron asked.
"Gee, I don't know, maybe grabbing the guy who actually did it and pulling him behind me bound and gagged, trying to beg for mercy when I return it?" I asked sarcastically before I sighed and said "Do we actually have any idea of where the bolt is?"
"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago…well, with you here, some of the lines make sense to me now. I have a very good idea where it might be. And if I'm right, it coincides nicely with your want to retrieve your mother. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."
I could tell that Chiron had said that bit about my mother just to get me to agree, not that he had to. I was going to take it anyway. But if it was most likely in the same place as her then that meant that I would be able to go save her a lot sooner than I had thought. Grover meanwhile looked a little pale as he finally realized where we were talking about. I ignored that though as I stood up and said "So I just need to go up to the attic and have a word with a mummy. Yeah, nothing strange about that."
I turned and headed into the house. Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor. I pulled the cord and the door swung down, and a wooden ladder quickly clattered into place. The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else that I had come to really hate, the smell of snakes. I sighed at the smell and climbed.
The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once bright shields pitted with rust; old leather streamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things-severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969. 'Must have been one hell of a rock concert.' I thought when I saw it.
By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the mummy I had seen when I first came here. Not the wrapped up kind. This thing looked like someone had killed a woman and left her in an oven to slowly dry out. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.
Looking at her up close sent chills up my back and made my shinobi honed flight or fight sense to kick in. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I resisted the urge to rush down the ladder and four flights of stairs as I heard that sound and instead stood my ground as I heard a voice slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python, Approach, seeker, and ask.
I took a deep breath to calm myself as I realized that the mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. I was getting a weird vibe from it but it wasn't the same kind as I got from that Fury that had posed as our math teacher. It felt more like the Three Fates that had been knitting the yarn at the highway fruit stand. Whatever this thing was, it was ancient, powerful, and definitely not human. But it was also definitely not interested in killing me. That wasn't its job after all.
Taking another deep breath, I said "What is the mission I must complete?"
The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with pickled monster jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer, and my eyebrow unconsciously rose even as my fists clenched at seeing the players. It was Gabe who was playing, but instead of his usual poker buddies, Mizuki, Tobi in the mask I had first seen him wearing, and Orochimaru were holding cards.
Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.
Mizuki looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.
Orochimaru threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.
Finally, Tobi looked at me and said: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.
I frowned as the figures began to dissolve. The implications of the Oracle's words were not very good. Grover would never betray me. That I was sure, even without the knowledge that a satyr never abandoned their charge. Which meant that someone else would reveal themselves as a double crossing backstabber. There was only one person in this camp who would really call me a friend after everyone found out who my father was and then treated me like I had the plague, but I really hoped that wasn't the case. If Luke was the betrayer than I'd have one hell of a spar on my hands when he did do the deed. That kid was good with a blade, no question about that. I frowned more as I considered the last sentence of the prophecy, And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end. No question about what that meant. But if the Oracle thought I wouldn't tear apart the Underworld just to get mom out of there then it obviously didn't know about my previous life.
As I thought about the prophecy, the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy. I saw the tail of the mist snake disappear into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall as her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. I was left alone in a silent attic with nothing but the mementos to keep me company.
'I thought I left all of the FUBAR missions in the Elemental Nations.' I thought with a sigh before I turned around, making my way down the trapdoor closing it before I walked down the stairs. When I reached the porch and sank into a seat at the pinochle table with my head bent down in thought Chiron said "Well?"
I looked up across the table at him and said "She said that I would retrieve what was stolen."
Grover seemed to brighten up immediately at what I guessed he thought was confirmation that everything would be fine on this quest as he said "That's great!"
"What did the Oracle say Exactly? This is important." Chiron pressed.
I was tempted to give the prophecy from Harry Potter but I just sighed again and said "You shall go west, and face the god who has turned. You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend. And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end. Bah! Like I'd believe that! If Shion couldn't properly see my future then what does that dried up corpse know about me not saving mom? I'm going to go to wherever that stupid bomb is and kick whoever's sorry ass thought it would be a good idea to steal it before I go marching to the Underworld if I'm not already there and I'm going to get mom out of there even if I have to start World War III down there."
Grover had lost some of his enthusiasm when I reminded him that the most likely destination was the Underworld. Chiron however was looking at me cautiously as if he was trying to figure out if I was in denial or not. The way I talked it was obvious to him that Shion could see the future and I had managed to change said future but he was confident in the Oracle. I was obviously going to have to prove him wrong on this one.
Shaking my head from images of destruction in some dark and lonely place, I sighed again and said "Sorry. You said that you had an idea where the bolt was?"
Chiron also shook his head to clear his thoughts and said "To me it is obvious that the bolt is somewhere in the Underworld. After all, Hades stands to gain a lot of power if Zeus and Poseidon were to have a war with each other. It is logical to assume that he would steal it. And with the part of the god of the west, The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."
Grover paled as it sank in that we wouldn't just be going to the Underworld, I was likely going to be having a 'talk' with the person whose job it was to make sure people died when it was their time. I frowned and said "Grover, are you with me on this? I can understand if you want to wait for another quest, and I'm sure I could do this on my own since I've done S rank missions solo before, but I'd rather have you by my side. You're one person who I know would never betray me and I'd feel a lot more secure in my chances of success if I had someone I could trust watching my back."
Grover stared at me like he really wanted to take the out I was giving him before he took a deep breath, then stood, and said "You saved my life, Percy. If…if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."
I smiled at him and said "Glad to hear it." Turning to Chiron, I said "I'm not so sure that Hades is the one who stole the bolt. In my dream, there was something that felt a lot more powerful than the two men fighting goading them on. However, since there was also a rather large pit in the ground that opened up under me in that dream, we'll follow that route. So where is the Underworld exactly? It's obviously somewhere on the west coast since it and Mount Olympus are opposites, but I can think of three cities off the top of my head where it could be: Hollywood, Los Vegas, and Los Angeles. Those three make the most since to me."
Chiron blinked at my first sentence but nodded at my deductions and said "The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles. You'll have to travel fast to get there from here and get the bolt back and return it to Zeus on the summer solstice in ten days."
I frowned as I considered my options. Taking a train and bus were both not appeasing options. Zeus had already shot a lightning bolt through Gabe's Camaro, what was stopping him from doing the same to a train or bus filled with innocent passengers? No, if me and my two teammates were going to get to the west coast without endangering any innocents, then it would have to be in a way that was lightning proof. Thankfully, I already had such a method available since I had twelve years to prepare for whatever my mission turned out to be. Although I'm sure the others would raise hell about it.
I chuckled to myself as I said "Getting across the country and back in time will not be a problem. We'll be standing on the west coast within four days. And that's only if we sightsee on the way there. We're going to have to make a quick side trip before we can start heading west though." Looking over Chiron's shoulder, I said "What about you Annabeth? Are you going to be joining us?"
The air shimmered behind Chiron surprising Grover as Annabeth became visible as she stuffed her Yankees cap into her back pocket.
"I've been waiting to go on a quest for years, of course I want to come. I'm surprised though that you're actually allowing me to come along considering that part of the prophecy about a friend betraying you."
My eyes narrowed as I said "Make no mistake Annabeth, I only will trust you to come since you obviously do not call me a friend. A friend sticks by you no matter what happens. You allowed the rivalry that our parents have to influence your thoughts about me. The closest to a friend you are to me would be a possible fellow comrade in arms. But because of that, I know that I can trust you enough to allow you to come with me on this quest. And like I said, I'd rather not do this by myself. But make no mistake, before this quest is over, we are going to be having a serious talk about your actions."
Annabeth frowned at me but before we could get into a staring match Chiron said "Excellent, you can head out this afternoon." Lightning flashed over the sky as rain continued to pour down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather. Chiron looked across the camp and said "There is no time to waste. I think you should all get packing."