Rick is the owner of pretty much everything in the story.
Nico stood at the corner of the street with the employee, pacing. He dusted off Annabeth's cap and put it in his back pocket.
The employee stopped and looked at Nico. "What were you doing in there?"
Nico looked at him oddly, "What did It look like I was doing? Look, the Manticore kidnapped this girl, Annabeth, and now she's either dead, or a prisoner somewhere. She was only there to save me and my sister. I saw him poking around the Museum of Natural History, so I followed him in there."
"And your sister, she's the daughter of Hades they spoke of?"
"I mean . . . I guess so, I didn't know we were children of Hades, but I guess they did."
The employee stopped pacing and leaned against the building. "Look, my name's Percy. Those skeletons that we saw, those are called Spartus. As the General said, 'they can't be killed.' So, we just need to slow them down."
Nico told him his name and then led Percy towards the Air and Space Museum. "They're in there. How do we warn them about the Spartus without letting them know we're here?" Nico looked towards Percy to see him walking towards the far wall of the museum's entrance. Percy grabbed the handle on the fire alarm and pulled, releasing a high-pitched wail.
"That's how. Where's the quest going?" Percy asked.
Nico shook his head and shrugged. "I didn't get a location. The prophecy said that she would be West. Lady Artemis is supposedly captured and they're on their way to save her and hopefully Annabeth."
Percy's eyes widened. "And how have you been following them?"
Nico turned towards the ground, looking sheepish. "I may have stolen a Pegasus from camp. . ."
"Alright, send it back to camp, you'll ride with me."
"Oka- wait, what?"
"I said you'll ride with me. You're not the only one with a sister on this quest."
LINE BREAK
The questers were fighting a losing battle against the Nemean Lion in the Air and Space Museum. It was hopping from exhibit to exhibit. It jumped from the wing of a plane onto another spacecraft, but its weight was too much. One of the cords snapped. As the display swung down like a pendulum, the lion leaped off onto the model earth's North Pole.
"It's skin is invulnerable, we can't kill it!" Phoebe shouted from above, still perched on the second floor firing down on the lion.
"Keep firing, we'll think of something!" Zoe shouted, scanning the beast, trying to remember if it had any weaknesses.
Thalia stabbed at the lion again, and it roared- inside its maw, a pink tongue and throat. Zoe smiled, "The mouth! Get it to open its mouth, Thalia."
The lion roared again and pressed Thalia. She jabbed at it again, but it swatted her away like a cat toy, sending her flying into the side of a Titan rocket. Her head hit the metal and she slid to the floor.
The lion advanced on her. "Thalia!" Grover shouted, but she was out cold. It was just ten feet away when the fire alarms blared, startling everyone including the lion. With its massive and sensitive ears, it roared in displeasure at the alarm. Zoe and Phoebe took the opportunity to fire into the mouth of the garbage truck, sized cat.
The lion reared, obviously in pain before it dropped onto its back. It took a minute, but the lion started to melt, the way dead monsters do sometimes, until there was nothing left but its glittering fur coat, and even that seemed to be shrinking to the size of a normal lion's pelt.
Grover walked up to it with a sad look in his eyes, before he walked back over to Thalia to check on her. The Huntresses gathered around the pelt, Zoe glaring at it with distaste.
"We should leave," she said. "Our lady needs us, and we've only wasted time here"
"I'm sorry. I-I was only following Artemis's trail," Grover said. "I was pretty sure it led here. Some powerful monster scent. . . she must have stopped here looking for the mystery monster. Which I guess we now know was the Nemean Lion"
Bianca raised an eyebrow and looked at Zoe, "Do we think this was the monster that she was hunting?"
Zoe shook her head, "No, this monster was not a big enough threat for her father to order her to hunt alone."
The questers felt uneasy about that. What monster was she hunting that's worse than the Nemean Lion?
LINE BREAK
Percy and Nico were walking back to Percy's car, Nico asking questions in rapid fire succession, with Percy able to avoid answering with expert tact.
They were a block away when they spotted the Camp's Strawberry van start to drive away. "Shit," Percy said. "C'mon my cars right there."
They got to the car just in time to see eight skeleton warriors racing out of the Air and Space Museum. Their lifeless yellow eyes locked on Percy's before they raced their way. Both Nico and Percy got into his Prius, as they tried to tail the van.
The skeletons could keep up with the cars easily in the city, considering how much traffic there was. They also sprinted extremely fast and didn't need to stop to catch their breath. Percy was so focused on not crashing his car, as well as staying away from the Spartus that he almost lost the van. The only way he kept track of it was that there was a helicopter chasing it, which was probably filled with mortals.
"How are we supposed to slow these things down?" Nico all but shouted
"We just have to make it to the highway. They can run fast, but they can't go fast enough to stay with us there. We just need a little bit of space."
It looked like Lady Tyche was with them that day. The helicopter started firing on the van, forcing it underground for the time being. Percy saw that, as well as the cars around them pulling over after gunshots were fired from above, and sped up. The Spartus followed them onto the highway, leading the undead warriors away from the questers for the time being.
LINE BREAK
"So you said your sister was on the quest, right?" Nico was in the passenger seat scanning over Percy. He got a better look now that they could relax a little bit. Percy had messy raven-black hair, brown eyes so dark they looked black, and he was quite a bit taller than Nico, Percy being 6'3" and Nico only being 5'9" he actually looked like a taller Nico.
"Yes. . ." Percy responded. Nico stared at him and was about to ask if that was all when Percy began to speak again. "It has been too long since I've seen her. We were separated as children, and I didn't get to see her or my other sisters for many years."
Nico nodded, "Wow. That's, that's heavy. Is that why you're coming with me? To protect your sister too?"
Percy just nodded. Nico fidgeted in his seat, prompting Percy to look over. "You have another question."
"Yeah, who's your sister?"
"I'm sure you can figure that out."
Nico thought about it: He and Phoebe didn't really look alike at all. Thalia had blue eyes whereas his were black. Bianca was his sister, so that just left Zoe. ". . . Zoe, she's your sister?"
Percy nodded once more. "How much do you know of our family?"
"Not much. . . She's not big on sharing information. Especially with males." Nico shivered, thinking back to how he asked her too many questions when they first met at Westover Hall. She threatened to castrate him if he didn't keep his distance.
Percy chuckled, "Yeah, that's putting it lightly. Before she joined the hunt, we were close. She was closer to me than any of my other sisters, that is. Have you ever heard of the apples of immortality?" At that Nico nodded. "Well they were the protectors of those apples. The five of them lived in the Garden of the Hesperides, warding off those who would come to steal a golden apple. They would wake Ladon if the person was idiotic enough to continue."
Percy stopped talking to take a breath, so Nico took his chance to ask his questions. "You said the five of them, why didn't you live there too if you were their brother? And why isn't Zoe a Hesperide anymore?"
Percy swallowed and continued. "The Hesperides are only to be females, so instead of living with my father and sisters, I lived with my mother, Pleione. . . I think Zoe was too interested in the outside world. She wanted to leave. So when a hero came to her, promising that he would take her with him if she helped steal an apple, she readily believed him."
Percy pulled off the highway, and drove down a few miles, letting that information settle for the time being. "We'll continue tomorrow, we lost the van quite a while ago, but we can see my grandfather later about where exactly Artemis is being held."