Chapter 6

We ended up at Point Pleasant before noon. The sun was beating down on us and the beach was crowded. We were all starving since we left without breakfast. I nibbled on some more ambrosia before going to The Tiki Bar for lunch.

A young red headed waitress came over to take our order. The girl was amazingly beautiful. Her hair was braided down her back. Weaved into the braid was silver ribbons and gold bands. She had pale grey eyes. She was at least a d cup in the bra department and was wearing a tight tube top with the shortest miniskirt I had ever seen.

Percy's eyes were glued to her. I can't say mine weren't at first, looking at her got my powers going off causing the three of us to get excited. Nico blushed and kept looking from Percy to myself. Percy craned his neck to follow her, completely ignoring Nico.

"Sorry." I regained control of my power, but it took a bit for all of us to go down. Percy kept mumbling trying to get himself down. I swear I heard him say Dodds and Gabe.

The gorgeous woman came back with our food. This time I kept myself in control as she walked away. Percy on the other hand looked at her the whole time practically drooling. Nico saw this and frowned looking down at his dish.

"Hey what's Annabeth doing here?" I asked loudly.

Percy jumped up and looked around, fear etched on his face. I fell on the ground I was l laughing so hard. Nico was laughing too. Percy started to rant about how unfunny that was. I on the other hand could barely stop laughing.

"You… shouldda,.. seen your…face." I said after I stopped laughing but still couldn't breathe normally. Once I regained that ability I said. "I love how your basically invincible and yet you're deathly afraid of her."

"What do we do now?" Nico asked, changing the subject, before stuffing his face.

"What if we find a way to get a monster on the beach? The person who reacts is the demigod." I suggested.

"No that's too reckless. There are too many people. They could get hurt." Percy said.

"I wasn't suggesting letting loose a flock of harpies. I was thinking more along the lines of Chiron, Mrs. O'Leary, or Tyson. Or some sort of sea creature that won't attack."

"Can't do the sea creature, water's to polluted, and it will only be seen on the beach. What if this guy is in town or on the boardwalk? Everyone else is too far."

"What about Blackjack?" Nico asked in between bites of his burger. He was still a bit worn out. Percy smiled and ran to deck stuck two fingers in his mouth a let out an annoyingly loud and high pitch whistle. He sat back down and informed us Blackjack should be here shortly.

After eating we went and sat on the beach waiting for the pegasus to appear. A shadow passed over us. Screams of "Holy Shit look at the size of that seagull!" and similar things filled our ears as Blackjack landed in front of us.

Percy and Blackjack had a creepy one-sided conversation. It must incredibly horrible to have the voices of all horses and sea creatures filling your head. Good thing he doesn't have a lot going on in there normally.

"Okay, you two walk around and try to see people's reactions, me and Blackjack will fly around and look for this guy."

Nico and I both wandered the board walk trying to follow Blackjack shadow. All we heard for about two hours was mumblings about giant pigeons and stunt planes flying too low. Not one mention of a flying horse. We all reconvened at the Tiki Bar and tried to make a new plan. None of us had a good idea. The red-headed bombshell brought us all a drink. Mine and Nico's was a soda in a paper cup. Percy got a big blue ceramic cup designed to look like a tiki head, filled with a matching colored blue icy. Percy had the most annoyingly aggravating smile on his face and quickly gulped down his drink.

"I hope you liked it, I know blue is your favorite color." She smiled and walked away swinging her hips as she went. Minutes later screams erupted on the beach. We rushed to the edge of the boardwalk and looked over to see the weirdest creatures. They stood taller than the people running from them by at least a couple feet. Where a normal person's ribcage would be they had two extra sets of arms.

Instead of flesh they were covered in sand. I leaped over the railing and fell the fifteen feet to the ground. I immediately brandished my blades as Percy landed with a thump next to me riptide all ready in his hands. We rushed forward. Well at least our upper bodies did. Our legs on the other hand stayed firmly place. We fell flat on our faces.

I looked to see hands forming in the sand that covered our legs. Percy came to the conclusion at had shortly after me. We both brought our celestial bronze weapons down as close to our ankles as possible, making the hands disintegrate.

Both of us did our best to run but every time our feet touched ground we were grabbed. "What the fuck are these things?" I yelled uselessly slashing my blades into the sand.

"Fuck this." Percy yelled. Seconds later a huge wave slammed into all of us. I swirled around in the water tumbling head over heels until a hand grabbed me. At first I fought it but suddenly I found air in my lungs. "Hold on" We rocketed out of the water and landed on the deck of the tiki bar.

"Don't fucking think about moving." I heard a female voice growl. The red-head had Nico by the hair, a large steak knife pressed to his throat. He had a large gash on his forehead that was bleeding profusely.

I gripped my blades tighter, praying to gods that I would get the chance to sink them into her. Percy obviously had the same idea, standing with sword raised, hate and anger in his eyes.

"This one is worthless to me. She only wants you Percy. I can't wait to show Her I got you."

"Who the hell is she? And you haven't got me yet."

"It's only a matter of time until that poison I put in your stupid blue drink to start working. Don't worry it won't kill you, me and you will have plenty of time to play before you die." As she was talking I saw Percy's eyelids flutter and his arms started to lower.

"Percy." I muttered but he didn't respond. "PERCY!" He shook his head and seemed to regain his composure but he began to fade again. Suddenly he was on his knees, sword a couple inches from the floor. She shoved Nico into my arms and ran to Percy kicking Riptide of the boardwalk.

She grabbed him and then suddenly he sprang toward her and they began grappling and she was throwing wild punches and slashing at him uselessly with her knife tearing his clothes apart. The six armed creatures started to climb over the railings. I started slashing at them as fast as I could, but it was like a Hydra I killed one, two more sprang forward.

Suddenly Nico was next to me slashing with Stygian sword. Percy finally had the bitch under control but me and Nico had been pushed back and were almost surrounded when we heard the red head scream. One of the sand-creatures hand her hanging by her hair. In another hand a large rock with a jagged point appeared. Percy tried to run to her but was blocked by more arms. The screams stopped suddenly after a sickly wet tearing sound.

A look of shock passed over his face before he started slashing his way through the sand-creatures. Water was flying over his head like a small hurricane. Nico slumped against me he looked even more pale than usual. His face was covered in blood and sand. More of the creatures kept flooding the deck. Percy kept slashing them down but the just kept reforming. I tried to fight but I couldn't leave Nico undefended. Anytime one got close it got a face full of celestial bronze.

Percy collapsed next to me exhausted, I could barely keep up the constant slashing and parrying attacks. One thing I never thought anyone would ever think passed through my brain as flaming whips took to destroying the sandy giants. Thank the gods the Furies are here. Their leathery bat wings were a welcome sight. I got the familiar feeling of shadow traveling what felt thousands of miles. I was tumbling through the darkness; I really needed to find a new way to do this.

The three of us fell in a heap on a cold stone floor. The bloody body of the red head was lying next to us, her chest rising and falling slightly. I heard guns cocking and swords and spears clanking together. I looked up to see at least thirty skeletal soldiers, weapons all pointed at us. I didn't see the point in trying to fight instead I crawled to Nico's side checking his wounds.

"My son will be alright shortly." I heard a voice droll from behind me. "So will the other one, unfortunately. Not that it appears you care much about him." I turned to face the Lord of the Dead. He turned his attention to the nearly dead girl. "Good she's not dead yet, much more fun that way." He snapped his fingers and blue flames erupted around the girl until she turned to dust, then the dust formed some creepy little statue that floated to his hand.

"Thank you for saving us, Lord Hades." I tried to bow but the pain caused me to fall.

"You demigods are so… mortal." He snapped his fingers and I could feel my body getting stronger. I could hear Nico and Percy stirring. I turned back to Nico and helped him stand up.

"Nico are you okay?" All the blood that tainted his skin was gone now. I brushed the hair out of his face. He blushed at the contact and then made eye contact with his father. We all told him the story of what happened and his face grew even more scary and serious, which I did not know was possible.

"You three are not to speak of this to anyone or you will spend eternity in the Fields of Punishment, right next to Tantalus." He started to glow and we averted out eyes. Next thing we knew we stood in the middle of the camp.