*Sigh* It's getting to be that time...when the story is almost done.
toe walker: Thanks, I read the last one twice, and it was really good. And then I read a little bit of the first one when I was little.
PercyJacksonsLittleSister: Thanks!
ATTENTION: Read the Author's Note at the bottom! I'm having a short, mini-contest.
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
Day two, a little past mid-night.
"Oh my gods…" Was all Percy could say, "Where are we even supposed to go?"
"To Tartarus." Eros mumbled through his earpiece, "There's something waiting for you there."
"You mean we have to go down the Pit of Tartarus?" Percy nearly squealed.
"No, no! I mean there's something there that's waiting for the four of you." He corrected himself, "Look, I just wanted to say that you did pretty well, this is the last time I'll be talking to you…good luck."
"Eros, wait-"Percy sighed in frustration, and tore his earpiece and contacts out, and crushed them under his feet.
"What were you thinking?" Clarisse screamed in Percy's face.
Percy simply replied, "We don't need them anymore."
"What do you mean, 'We don't need them anymore'? That was like, your one and only lifeline! You're such an idi-"She pressed her index and middle finger onto her earpiece, and paced around, "What? Oh…yes, sir." Clarisse hesitated a little, and then pulled out her own contacts and earpiece. The other two, Will and Annabeth followed shortly after.
After carefully examining the rock walls along the ledge, they found a narrow pathway, only wide enough if you shimmied along on your heels.
"We could go along the wall on that." Percy pointed over. The other three looked at him.
"Are you serious?" Will asked.
Percy leaned back a little, "Yeah."
"Okay," Annabeth started, "We all have to go slow across this, and watch where you're walking." Percy climbed up first, and then pulled Annabeth up. Will did the same thing with Clarisse. Percy took the lead, and alerted them when there was a stray rock in the way or a weak spot.
"Don't look down, you guys." Percy said.
"Oh, you don't need to tell me." Clarisse assured him. But Percy couldn't help himself; he glanced down, and saw a swirling cloud of blackness, he looked back up almost immediately.
"How far-do you think-we'll have to walk like this?" Annabeth asked all of them.
"Who knows." Will muttered. Percy looked up ahead, and saw there was a gap in the ledge, about a five foot jump until the next one.
"There's a jump up ahead." Percy called over his shoulder. He spread his arms out for balance, grabbed for some rocks sticking out of the wall, and shimmied across to the other side. His back was sticky from the unnerving climb, and his head was pounding from the anxiety. Annabeth climbed across as well, using the same rocks that Percy had. Will followed, and Annabeth and Percy scooted along to give him some space.
Clarisse was up next, as soon as she grabbed for the first rock, she began to tremble…she hadn't even lifted her feet off the ledge yet.
"C'mon Clarisse, you can do it." Percy encouraged her. She lifted her shaky leg up onto a rock, but it failed her. She had been trembling so bad that her foot slipped right off the damp rock. Clarisse gripped onto the rock and was trying to get her feet back on the rock, one of her hands slipped next.
Will grabbed for her hand, "Come on, Clarisse! Take my hand!" Her hand that had slipped and was hanging by her legs, and she desperately grabbed for his hand. Her other hand was slipping slowly, but it was too late. Before he could get to her, she fell for the black abyss below them.
"CLARISSE!" They all screamed. She continued to fall, her hand still extended out towards them. Before she could fall into the darkness, she disappeared out of thin air.
"She's-been eliminated." Will stuttered.
"We need to get off this ledge, before the same thing happens to us." Annabeth choked up. Percy put a calming hand on her shoulder. From where they were at, they could see that the ledge declined down to regular ground. They finally made it after what seemed like forever, and set their packs down.
"Alright," Percy said, "We should leave our packs here, and I have a feeling we're going to be in for a fight or two. Bring your weapons, some water, and maybe some nectar of ambrosia." Percy stuffed the gum in his pocket, along with a pack of Emergency Water, and Riptide. They walked solemnly past the wandering souls of the Underworld. When they went past it to the E-ZDeath line, and they almost made it past. But a skeleton guard did a double-take at the sight of them. It chattered its teeth together, and rasped something intangible.
"We should run…now!" Percy screamed. He bowled past two guards, knocking out most of their bones in the process. More guards took their place, blocking their way with spears, muskets, and swords. Within seconds, they were completely surrounded by guards.
"Annabeth, Percy…they've got me!" Percy knew whose scream that was. He turned just in time to see Will get jump by about five or so guards, his mouth clamped shut by a bony hand, and him disappearing, like Clarisse had.
"No!" Percy screamed. Annabeth and Percy went back to back, fending themselves off from the skeletons. Well, the only thing they really had to do was knock the skull off the head; then they would simply collapse into a pile of bones. The only real threat were the ones with the guns, Percy lunged for a skeleton wearing a German World War Two helmet that was aiming his MP40 at him. He grabbed the muzzle of the gun, and it was yanked upwards. The gun sprayed a nearly a whole round into the ceiling until Percy kicked the guard in the ribs. With the gun still in hand, he whirled around and shot the remaining soldiers in the head with the gun; it packed quite a punch.
They stood in the center of their circle of destruction, breathing in and out heavily.
"Shall we continue on?" Annabeth sheathed her knife.
The two finally made it, The Pit of Tartarus, which now had an earthen bridge that led out to a flat earthen platform.
"This is it." Percy said quietly.
"Yeah. And Percy, about what I said about winning," Annabeth said, a smile spreading across her face.
He grinned devilishly, "Yeah?"
"I still might win." She scowled evilly. They walked out onto the platform. Within seconds, a catastrophe sized shake shook the ground under their feet, and they both onto their stomachs. In the corner of his eye, he saw something shoot up into the air, but it had flew up so high it had gone into a blind spot in Percy's vision. He looked up, and the shadow came back into view. Its feet planted on the platform with such force that cracks showed up by its feet.
"Oh, my-"Percy was cut off by a piercing bellow of a roar. He finally had the courage to stand up and get a better look at the giant. He regretted that he did. It was like the Animal Kingdom had thrown up all over it. Well first off its height was pretty terrifying; it had to be at least ten feet tall. It had the legs of a wolf; the fur reached up to about the waistline, and the chest was a ripped one that looked like it belonged to a body builder. Sticking out of his back were a set of milky white wings. Both of its hands were metal gloves, whirring and clicking, and the rest of the arms looked like they had fish scales running up them. But most of all, the face was the most fearful part. It was a giant skull, and instead of human teeth, it had shark teeth instead. One of the eyes looked like an owl's, while the other was a human's. But both of them had a golden hue to them. It glared at Percy with its blinding eyes and smashed his massive metal fist into the already weak platform. Percy and Annabeth were knocked back by the shock, and slid back a good couple of feet or so. Percy uncapped Riptide, and charged forward with Annabeth at his side. They slashed at its left leg, and only left a small gash behind. It grunted in pain, and swatted at them. Percy rolled in one direction and Annabeth ducked just in time.
He got back on his feet and Annabeth stood back on hers. Percy ducked under another swing of its fist and grabbed onto it. He scrambled onto the monster's neck, but with a lot of protest from it.
"And what did that accomplish?" Annabeth screamed up to him.
"To be honest…I have no idea!" He hollered back. It took a moment for the thing to realize that Percy was on his back. It whirled around a few times, and then reached for its neck. Percy parried the hand away, by slashing at the vulnerable scaly, upper part of its arm. The monster charged forward to shake him off, which left Percy hanging there on his neck by his pant leg.
"Oh gods!" He screamed above the bellowing monster-machine thing. Percy leaned up and tried to pry his pant leg out, and fell to the ground with a heavy thud. He tried to gasp in a breath of air, since it had been knocked right out of him. He rolled onto his stomach and breathed in calmly and slowly, but still tried to recover as quickly as possible. He snapped out of it when he heard Annabeth scream his name. Percy jumped to his feet and saw the monster had snatched her up and had closed its hand around her neck. The similarity of it was scary; it reminded him of when the Minotaur attacked his mom too much. Annabeth wasn't his mom, but…he loved her. With all his might, he ran the blade in its leg. It wailed in pain, and in desperation, threw Annabeth over the edge. She had been eliminated.
"That's it!" He snarled.
In a blink of an eye Percy grabbed the blade out, and blood was trickling off the edges of it. In a final attempt, he threw the blade at the monster's heart. It's strange, golden eyes grew wide. It shuddered and wavered in the air, and Percy put enough space between the two, so he didn't get crushed by the thing. Finally it fell, right on its face. Percy looked at himself, dirty, cut, and bruised. He looked out across the bridge. He could see someone crossing it. As he got closer, Percy realized it could only be one person: Hades. Hades walked toward him, a black cloud of negativity circling around him, but stopped in his tracks when he saw the dead monster. With a wave of his hand, it blew away in the form of golden dust.
"I see you killed my new favorite pet." Hades spat.
"Pet? That thing is barely a-"Percy was interrupted.
"You know what I mean, demigod!" He spat, and straightened his robes.
"I never got to thank you for my get-well gift; is that what you're here for?" Percy teased.
"No! I was sent to give you this." Hades rolled something towards him, and said nothing more. Instead, he marched off, muttering that he wasn't a messenger, and similar things. Percy looked over; by his side was a pearl, like the one he had used to escape the Underworld with when he was twelve. He stood back up, and planted his foot on the pearl, and the environment of the Underworld bubbled away.
I know, as much as I didn't want to, I had to eliminate Annabeth. Because if I made both of them winners, than that would be too HG. So, one more chapter, and then this story is done. I'll post the next chapter tomorrow.
READ: I know, it's the only way to get attention. I have a little challenge for you guys. The monster that Percy and Annabeth fought has one characteristic of something from eight of the twelve gods(there is only ONE god who had two mentioned). If you can match each characteristic with the right god first correctly, I'll do something special for the winner. If there is a tie, you both get a virtual prize. If no one gets all of them right, I'll take the person with the most right. I'll post the winner'(s) user(s) in the top of the next chapter, so make sure you pay attention.
Happy Hunting!
~iGwyn12