NPU: Welcome to the Sea of Monsters
Chapter 3
Crazy Taxi Hags
Ok, just so you all know, I have a plan for some of the future weapons that I mentioned in the last story…especially the Sword of Olympus. Here is a hint on how Naruto will use it: Typhon. Oh and this week, I have been to 137 places and only a few MIGHT be hiring…this shit is just sad! And I met a few other job hunters that are having the same trouble with getting a job as me!
Luckily, I have two interviews next week! Penn Station, a sub station, and Family video….in another city. Better be worth it!
XXXX
Naruto and Annabeth waited for Percy and Tyson in an alley down Church Street. She pulled Tyson and Percy off the sidewalk just as a fire truck screamed past, heading for Meriwether Prep.
You caused quite the commotion." Naruto snickered while Percy gave in a flat look.
"Where'd you find him?" Annabeth demanded, pointing at Tyson.
Percy knew he made his peace with the girl last year but glaring at his friend like she was doing was a little harsh. Thankfully, Naruto didn't seem to mind the big guy at all. Of course, he usually got along with everyone.
"He's my friend," Percy told her.
"Is he homeless?"
"What does that have to do with anything? He can hear you, you know. Why don't you ask him?"
She looked surprised. "He can talk?"
"I talk," Tyson admitted. "You are pretty."
"Ah! Gross!" Annabeth stepped away from him.
"Aw don't be like that." laughed Naruto.
"Oh shut up Naruto!" Annabeth roared angrily, as he back off, knowing when to quit while ahead.
Percy couldn't believe she was being so rude. He examined Tyson's hands, which he was sure must've been badly scorched by the flaming dodge balls, but they looked fine—grimy and scarred, with dirty fingernails the size of potato chips—but they always looked like that. "Tyson," He said in disbelief. "Your hands aren't even burned."
"Of course not," Annabeth muttered. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with him around." Tyson seemed fascinated by Annabeth's blond hair. He tried to touch it, but she smacked his hand away.
"Laistry-what?" both Naruto and Percy asked.
"Laistrygonians. The monsters in the gym. They're a race of giant cannibals who live in the far north. Odysseus ran into them once, but I've never seen them as far south as New York before." She explained.
"Laistry—I can't even say that. What would you call them in English?" asked Percy.
"Hell if I know, I wasn't going to even both try and saw what they were. Hell, if I can even say it, how would I spell it?" Naruto joked, which got Percy to laugh while Annbeth rolled eyes and muttered something about traveling with idiots.
She thought about what to call them for a moment. "Canadians," she decided. "Now come on, we have to get out of here."
"Oh that nice…remind me NOT to go to Canada anytime soon…eh." Naruto said with a smirk.
"The police'll be after me." Percy replied, ignoring Naruto for the moment.
"That's the least of our problems," she said. "Have you been having the dreams?"
"The dreams ... about Grover?" Percy asked.
Her face turned pale. "Grover? No, what about Grover?"
"I think I know what dreams he is taking about." Naruto cut in with his serious face. When something bad was happening to his friends, he got serious. "Percy, in the dream, are you seeing Grover being chased in Florida by a gaint…thing."
"Yes!" Percy shouted.
"Terrific." He said sarcastically. "I still can't see why you don't see my astral image in those dreams but I see you."
"I do and that has been bugging me because I have been wanting to talk to you about that." Percy explained.
"Great, now we know it is true." Naruto replied.
"Wait, you knew about this and didn't saw anything?"
"It has only been happening recently!" both boys shouted.
"Whatever, you should have at least said something before we left on the way here!" Annabeth shouted at her fellow blond.
"Well, I wanted to confirm it with Percy so that I was not going crazy." Naruto explained, making Annabeth calm down some.
"Wait. What were you dreaming about?" Percy suddenly asked the blond girl.
Her eyes looked stormy, like her mind was racing a million miles an hour. "Camp," she said at last. "Big trouble at camp."
"You mean you dreamt something while he fell asleep in the taxi before the shit hit the fan?" Naruto cut in."
"Yes." Annabeth said quietly. "I didn't want to say anything to worry you." She saw Naruto close his eyes to calm himself. She didn't blame him. He was attached to that place after all…especially Thalia's Tree.
"My mom was saying the same thing! But what kind of trouble?"
"I don't know exactly. Something's wrong. We have to get there right away. Monsters have been chasing us all the way from Virginia, trying to stop us. Have you had a lot of attacks?"
Percy shook his head. "None all year ... until today."
"None? But how ..." Her eyes drifted to Tyson. "Oh."
"What do you mean, 'oh'?" Percy asked, a bit annoyed at her answer.
Tyson raised his hand like he was still in class. "Canadians in the gym called Percy something ... Son of the Sea God?" At this, the three demi-gods exchanged looks.
Percy looked to Naruto and the blond blinked before saying, "Don't look at me! He is your friend to explain all this to."
"Big guy," Percy said, "you ever hear those old stories about the Greek gods? Like Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Athena—"
"Yes," Tyson said.
"Well ... those gods are still alive. They kind of follow Western Civilization around, living in the strongest countries, so like now they're in the U.S. And sometimes they have kids with mortals. Kids called half-bloods."
"Yes," Tyson said, like he was still waiting for his friend to get to the point.
"Uh, well, Annabeth, Naruto, and I are half-bloods," Percy said. "We're like ... heroes-in-training. And whenever monsters pick up our scent, they attack us. That's what those giants were in the gym. Monsters."
"Yes."
"So ... you believe me?" Percy said, a little put off that his tall friend was takking this all calmly and understood everything.
Tyson nodded. "But you are ... Son of the Sea God?"
"Yeah," Percy admitted. "My dad is Poseidon."
Tyson frowned. Now he looked confused. "But then ..."
A siren wailed. A police car raced past the alley.
"We don't have time for this," Annabeth said. "We'll talk in the taxi."
"A taxi all the way to camp?" Percy said. "You know how much money—"
"Trust me."
Percy hesitated. "What about Tyson?" He imagined escorting his giant friend into Camp Half-Blood. If he freaked out on a regular playground with regular bullies, how would he act at a training camp for demigods? On the other hand, the cops would be looking for us. "We can't just leave him," Percy decided. "He'll be in trouble, too."
"Then he can come with us, no biggie." Naruto replied, while Annabeth did not look happy, but agreed none the less. Percy idly wondered why Annabeth was not happy about seeing Tyson, but he would worry about it later, right now they had to get out of here.
XXX
"Here." Annabeth stopped us on the corner of Thomas and Trimble. She fished around in her backpack. "I hope I have one left."
"Have what?" Naruto asked.
While the two blonds were conversing, Percy took the time to look at them….mostly at Annabeth. She looked even worse than he had realized at first. Her chin was cut. Twigs and grass were tangled in her ponytail, as if she'd slept several nights in the open. The slashes on the hems of her jeans looked suspiciously like claw marks. Naruto didn't have any cut thanks to his healing factor, which did not surprise Percy at all. However, the male blond's clothes were all rough and ragged like he had been in one too many fights.
"What are you looking for?" Percy repeated Naruto's question. All around them, sirens wailed. Percy figured it wouldn't be long before more cops cruised by, looking for juvenile delinquent gym-bombers. No doubt Matt Sloan had given them a statement by now. He'd probably twisted the story around so that Tyson and Percy were the bloodthirsty cannibals.
"Found one. Thank the gods." Annabeth pulled out a gold coin that they recognized as a drachma, the currency of Mount Olympus. It had Zeus's likeness stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.
"Annabeth," Percy said, "New York taxi drivers won't take that."
"Stêthi," she shouted in Ancient Greek. "Ô hárma diabolês!"
Naruto's eye twitched at that. "Chariot of Damnation, yeah that is not ominous at all! He said as she threw her coin into the street, but instead of clattering on the asphalt, the drachma sank right through and disappeared.
"Oh don't be paranoid Naruto. You of all people should not be bothered by this stuff."
"I don't see why we don't just take a normal cab back to camp." Naruto huffed.
"You what the monsters to destroy that one too?" Annabeth growled.
"Oh right, forgot about that." Naruto absentmindedly as where the coin had fallen,the asphalt darkened. It melted into a rectangular pool about the size of a parking space—bubbling red liquid like blood. Then a car erupted from the ooze.
It was a taxi, all right, but unlike every other taxi in New York, it wasn't yellow. It was smoky gray. I mean it looked like it was woven out of smoke, like you could walk right through it. There were words printed on the door—some-thing like GYAR SSIRES—but with their dyslexia made it hard for them to decipher what it said.
The passenger window rolled down, and an old woman stuck her head out. She had a mop of grizzled hair cover-ing her eyes, and she spoke in a weird mumbling way, like she'd just had a shot of Novocain. "Passage? Passage?"
"Four to Camp Half-Blood." Annabeth said. She opened the cab's back door and waved at them to get in, like this was all completely normal.
"Ach!" the old woman screeched. "We don't take his kind!" She pointed a bony finger at Tyson.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Oh brother. Here I'll give you 4 more drachma on arrival."
"Done!" the woman screamed. Reluctantly, Percy got in, followed by Tyson, Naruto, and then Annabeth as the last one to get in.
The interior was also smoky gray, but it felt solid enough. The seat was cracked and lumpy— no different than most taxis. There was no Plexiglas screen separating us from the old lady driving ... Wait a minute. There wasn't just one old lady. There were three, all crammed in the front seat, each with stringy hair covering her eyes, bony hands, and a charcoal-colored sackcloth dress.
The one driving said, "Long Island! Out-of-metro fare bonus! Ha!"
"Oh this should be fun." Naruto said sarcastically in his squished position between Annabeth and Tyson. Hey it was not all bad; he was sitting next to a pretty girl.
The old hag floored the accelerator, and my head slammed against the backrest. A prerecorded voice came on over the speaker: Hi, this is Ganymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!
The cab sped around the corner of West Broadway, and the gray lady sitting in the middle screeched, "Look out! Go left!"
"Well, if you'd give me the eye, Tempest, I could see that!" the driver complained.
Naruto eye twitched at that. "Eye, geez, this just like that Disney movie!" He didn't get to say anymore because the driver swerved to avoid an oncoming delivery truck, ran over the curb with a jaw-rattling thump, and flew into the next block.
"Wasp!" the third lady said to the driver. "Give me the girl's coin! I want to bite it."
"You bit it last time, Anger!" said the driver, whose name must've been Wasp. "It's my turn!"
"Is not!" yelled the one called Anger.
The middle one, Tempest, screamed, "Red light!"
"Brake!" yelled Anger.
Instead, Wasp floored the accelerator and rode up on the curb, screeching around another corner, and knocking over a newspaper box. She left Percy's stomach somewhere back on Broome Street.
However, Naruto was about to lose his if things didn't improve. "Agh, I think I am going to be sick. This ride is nuts!"
"Don't get it on me!" Annabeth screeched.
"Excuse me," Percy said to the old hags. "But ... can you see?"
"No!" screamed Wasp from behind the wheel.
"No!" screamed Tempest from the middle.
"Of course!" screamed Anger by the shotgun window.
Turning to Annabeth, who usually had all the answers, seeing Naruto was trying to hold his lunch in at the moment. "They're blind?"
"Not completely," Annabeth said. "They have an eye."
"One eye?"
"Yeah."
"Each?"
"No. One eye total."
"Not feel so good!" Tyson moaned out.
"I feel ya big guy." Naruto groaned, but he did hear the conversation between Percy and Annabeth. "So, we got three old ladies and just one has an eye….oh joy." He then looked up to see the three arguing like no tomorrow. "Oh yeah, it helps that they are all insane too."
The three gray ladies were too busy squabbling to pay them any attention. Percy looked over at Annabeth, who was hanging on for dear life, and he gave her a why-did-you-do-this-to-me look.
"Hey," she said, "Gray Sisters Taxi is the fastest way to camp."
"Ugh, reminded me never to take this hell ride again." Naruto complained, to which Percy agreed to.
"Then why didn't you take it from Virginia?"
"That's outside their service area," she said, like that should be obvious. "They only serve Greater New York and surrounding communities."
"I so glad for that." Naruto stated. "I would rather fly to be honest."
"We've had famous people in this cab!" Anger exclaimed. "Jason! You remember him?"
"Don't remind me!" Wasp wailed. "And we didn't have a cab back then, you old bat. That was three thousand years ago!"
"Give me the tooth!" Anger tried to grab at Wasp's mouth, but Wasp swatted her hand away.
"Only if Tempest gives me the eye!"
"No!" Tempest screeched. "You had it yesterday!"
"But I'm driving, you old hag!"
"Excuses! Turn! That was your turn!"
Wasp swerved hard onto Delancey Street, squishing Percy between Tyson and the door. She punched the gas and we shot up the Williamsburg Bridge at seventy miles an hour.
The three sisters were fighting for real now, slapping each other as Anger tried to grab at
Wasp's face and Wasp tried to grab at Tempest's. With their hair flying and their mouths open, screaming at each other, Percy and Naruto realized that none of the sisters had any teeth except for Wasp, who had one mossy yellow incisor. Instead of eyes, they just had closed, sunken eyelids, except for Anger, who had one bloodshot green eye that stared at everything hungrily, as if it couldn't get enough of anything it saw.
Finally Anger, who had the advantage of sight, managed to yank the tooth out of her sister Wasp's mouth. This made Wasp so mad she swerved toward the edge of the Williamsburg Bridge, yelling, "'Ivit back! 'Ivit back!"
Tyson groaned and clutched his stomach.
"Uh, if anybody's interested," Percy said, "we're going to die!"
"Ugh, if the car crash doesn't kill me, the puke will!" Naruto groaned.
"Don't worry," Annabeth told them, sounding pretty worried. "The Gray Sisters know what they're doing. They're really very wise."
"Yes, wise!" Anger grinned in the rearview mirror, showing off her newly acquired tooth.
"We know things!"
"Every street in Manhattan!" Wasp bragged, still hitting her sister. "The capital of Nepal!"
"The location you seek!" Tempest added.
Immediately her sisters pummeled her from either side, screaming, "Be quiet! Be quiet! He didn't even ask yet!"
"Are you sure about the wise thing?" Naruto asked Annabeth quietly. "They seem bat shit crazy if you ask me."
"Just trust me!" She replied as the car swerved again and this time the two blond butt heads, screaming out in pain.
"What?" Percy said, asking what the Gray Sister meant. "What location? I'm not seeking any—"
"Nothing!" Tempest said. "You're right, boy. It's nothing!"
"Tell me."
"No!" they all screamed.
"The last time we told, it was horrible!" Tempest said.
"Eye tossed in a lake!" Anger agreed.
"Years to find it again!" Wasp moaned. "And speaking of that—give it back!"
"No!" yelled Anger.
"Eye!" Wasp yelled. "Gimme!"
She whacked her sister Anger on the back. There was a sickening pop and something flew out of Anger's face. Anger fumbled for it, trying to catch it, but she only managed to bat it with the back of her hand. The slimy green orb sailed over her shoulder, into the backseat, and straight into Percy's lap.
Said boy jumped so high at this in fright, that his head hit the ceiling as the eye fell on the floor.
"I can't see!" all three sisters yelled.
"Give me the eye!" Wasp wailed.
"Give her the eye!" Annabeth screamed.
"I don't have it!" Percy said.
"There, by your foot," Annabeth said. "Don't step on it! Get it!"
"I'm not picking that up!"
The taxi slammed against the guardrail and skidded along with a horrible grinding noise. The whole car shuddered, billowing gray smoke as if it were about to dissolve from the strain.
"Going to be sick!" Tyson warned.
"Annabeth," I yelled, "let Tyson use your backpack!"
"Are you crazy? Get the eye!"
Wasp yanked the wheel, and the taxi swerved away from the rail. We hurtled down the bridge toward Brooklyn, going faster than any human taxi. The Gray Sisters screeched and pummeled each other and cried out for their eye.
Seeing as Percy was too grossed out to pick up the damn eye, Naruto decided to. "Oh screw it, not like this is not fun!" He said as he reached over Tyson to get the eye ball off the ground.
"Nice boy!" Anger cried, as if she somehow knew he had her missing peeper. "Give it back!"
"Not until you explain," Naruto told her. "What were you talking about, the location he seeks? I am curious myself."
"No time!" Tempest cried. "Accelerating!"
The group looked out the window. Sure enough, trees and cars and whole neighborhoods were now zipping by in a gray blur. They were already out of Brooklyn, heading through the middle of Long Island.
"NARUTO," Annabeth warned, "they can't find our destination without the eye. We'll just keep accelerating until we break into a million pieces."
"I am willing to risk it, besides, they brought it up and this is pay back for this hell ride." He told Annabeth who paled, she hated Naruto's pranks. "Alright just tell us so we will be happy…or it I'll have Percy throw it out the window!"
"What? Why ME?"
"I don't know, convenience." Naruto replied.
"Make Annabeth do it!"
"Don't give that thing to me!" Annabeth freaked.
"Wait!" the Gray Sisters screamed. "30, 31, 75, 12!" They belted it out like a quarterback calling a play.
"What do you mean?" Percy asked while Naruto put on a thoughtful expression, his stomach pain forgotten. "That makes no sense!"
"30, 31, 75, 12!" Anger wailed. "That's all we can tell you. Now give us the eye! Almost to camp!"
They were off the highway now, zipping through the countryside of northern Long Island. He could see Half-Blood Hill ahead of us, with its giant pine tree at the crest—Thalia's tree, which contained the life force or a fallen hero.
"Naruto!" Annabeth screamed forcefully, "Give them the eye now!"
"Meh…alright." Naruto replied, seeing as he wasn't going to get a better answer then that. He tossed the eye at the old hags, which landed in Wasp's lap.
The old lady snatched it up, pushed it into her eye socket like somebody putting in a contact lens, and blinked. "Whoa!"
She slammed on the brakes. The taxi spun four or five times in a cloud of smoke and squealed to a halt in the middle of the farm road at the base of Half-Blood Hill.
Tyson let loose a huge belch. "Better now."
"Glad you feel better big guy." Naruto said with dizzy eye before he waved his hand in front of his face. "DUDE! What did you eat before coming here, rotten onions?"
"All right," Percy told the Gray Sisters, ignoring Naruto's complaint. "Now tell me what those numbers mean."
"No time!" Annabeth opened her door. "We have to get out now."
Percy looked at Annabeth with a confused looked on his face before he look outside and gasped. Naruto, who saw this growled and got out after Annabeth and saw the mayhem.
At the crest of the hill was a group of campers. And they were under attack. "I am gone for a little bit and this happens!" Naruto growled out as he made his ANBU armor appear. "Time to kick some ass!"
XXX
Ok that that chapter. In the next chapter, I might have one of those weapons I talked about in the last story and it is going to be Clarisse's weapon….
REVIEW! Oh and sorry to those who are sad about Clarisse not ending up with Naruto. They are more like bets friends with some romantic moments…but that is about it in this story.