"Surprisingly, I've never been mugged before, and I've lived in New York all my life," Percy said with a small smile.
Peter allowed himself a small smile too. "I guess that's a first."
Percy opened his mouth to reply, but something caught his eye. "Hey, did you see that?"
Percy turned around slowly, wary of another attack, presuming that this time it would be a monster.
A great big mass of darkness leaped on him, knocking him to the ground. Percy managed to grab Riptide and slash the monster into dust. Other hellhounds attacked and while he was slicing them into pieces he saw in the corner of his eye that Peter was trying to use his web slinger without success.
"Hellhound!" Percy called to Peter before realizing that Peter wouldn't know what it meant.
Percy turned and sliced the hellhound that was just about to make Peter into a chew toy.
"Thanks!" Peter called out. "My web slinger doesn't work!"
Percy cursed under his breath. He saw that there was too much hell hounds for him too take on by himself. He was at least hoping that Peter's web slinger would be strong enough to hold some of the hellhounds down.
He then remembered that he was driving Iron man's car.
"Hey Peter! Check Stark's car for some gadgets we can use! There's bound to be some modifications right? I'll cover you!"
Peter made a run for the car, with Percy covering his blind side.
"Umm, I don't see anything so far! All I see is a lighter! I'll look some more!"
Does Stark even smoke? Percy thought. He quickly forgot about that as he dodged a hellhound swipe. Percy slashed at another hellhound, while another one swiped him before Percy could kill it.
He groaned. "Hurry up, can you? Besides, can't you make an explosion with the lighter and the gas tank? It works in the movies!"
Peter shouted back, "This isn't a movie! It isn't even technically possible to blow up a car!"
Another hellhound clawed Percy on the shoulder. Percy swung Riptide and the hellhound and three others turned into dust. "Yeah. Well hurry up!"
Peter rummaged around in the front of the car.
As Peter was looking around, Percy knocked into the car as he was dodging a hell hound swipe.
Peter, startled, turned around, his shoulder hitting something. The front of car expanded, and a machine gun was exposed.
"Percy!" Peter yelled back. "We can use that right?"
Percy struggled to reply back as he sliced another hell hound. He was bleeding from his shoulder and had a claw mark on his leg and stomach. "Is there anything else? A machine gun won't work unless the bullets are celestial bronze!"
Peter looked up. "I don't think- oh hey." He paused confused. "Why does Stark have dynamite in his car?"
Percy grinned. "We can use that!"
Percy slashed through two more hell hounds. He braced himself for more to attack him, but the hell hounds had disappeared. "…or not?"
Percy leaned on the side of the car. Peter came out of the car and checked Percy's wounds.
"Hey, that was pretty impressive. I don't think I could do anything like that if I had your weapon."
Percy gave a small smile. "Well it's what I've been trained to do."
He stuck his hand in his pocket and took out a zip lock bag with small squares.
Percy stuck a square in his mouth. Instantly, his wounds began closing.
Peter's eyes widened. "What is that?"
Percy laughed. "Food of the Gods." He quickly stuffed it back in his pocket.
They both made a move to enter the car when a voice stopped them.
"Perseus Jackson," the voice hissed.
Percy whipped out his sword.
"Did your sword come from your pen?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, long story," Percy replied quickly.
At the end of the alleyway, a teenage girl stood tall, average in all ways, except that when you looked at her legs she had one bronze leg and one-
"Donkey?" Peter asked.
"Quiet mortal!" She hissed.
Peter stood paralyzed.
"Hey!" Percy said, waving his hand in front of Peter's face. "Snap out of it."
When Peter didn't respond, Percy shoved Peter.
Peter slowly shook his head, dazed. "Sorry dude," he muttered.
Percy scowled. "Stop that."
The empousa smiled in a way that Percy found really, really creepy.
"Don't you work for Hecate? Why are you here?" Percy demanded.
"I have a new master, one more powerful than Hecate."
Peter gave Percy a confused look. "Yeah, are any of you guys going to, like, debrief me about this stuff or something?"
Percy gave Peter an incredulous look. "Really, now? When we're talking to a ancient Greek monster who wants to KILL us?"
"...later then?"
Percy huffed. "Fine-
"QUIET!" The empousa hissed, quite loudly.
"Wow, I didn't know you could talk that loud," Percy muttered under his breath. "That's new."
The empousa started walking toward them, and every time she stepped they could hear the clanking sound of the empousa's bronze leg on the pavement.
"Oh no you don't," Percy said and swung riptide and the empousa did the impossible. She caught it.
"What?" Percy was totally shocked.
The empousa hisses. "In return for my service, my master has made me more powerful than you can imagine."
"Powerful my ass." Replied Percy. Inside, Percy was worried. It was the first time in a long time that he had gone against a single monster and his mind was blank of ideas.
Suddenly, the empousa turned to dust. Percy was so surprised he almost dropped his sword.
Standing in front of him was a girl he knew. Rachel Elizabeth Dare. "Hey Percy."
A wreaking ball tore down a building, smashing it into pieces. Several construction workers stood at a table, looking over the plans. Other people manned the equipment, making sure everything worked smoothly.
One construction worker, standing in the middle of the debris, called over another worker. "The plans didn't say that tar was put on top of cracks under the building. Were we duped? It'll cost more money to refill them!" The man said angry.
Next to the construction worker, sure enough, was a crack, weaving through the ground. And emerging from the crack was darkness. And it felt dark too. It made construction workers shiver when they went near it, even though they blamed it on colds and bad gut feelings among other things.
.