XV

Piper

As Percy opened his mouth, a giant, purple vortex appeared right above the fighting demons. It started to suck up everything that was around it. "Holy-" she yelled as her friends started to get sucked in. She barely managed to pin them all on the ground. After what seemed like forever, a boy dropped out of it. He landed on the ground, curling up

He looked like he was about fifteen to sixteen. He had curly hair, and wore what you'd pretty much expect an American teenager to wear on a regular sunny day: a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and Nike sports shoes. As soon as he saw the demons, his eyes flared in recognition. "BSB!" he yelled. "What are you doing?"

The axe-headed guy looked at the boy. "Master, this is none of your business!" he hummed. "These people need to be punished for all that they have done to us!" he tried to cut Percy up, who had just been dropped on the floor, but the blade passed right through him.

The boy's eyes flamed up. "Blood-Stained Blade!" he yelled. "You will go IMMEDIATELY! Leave them alone!"

"You can't!" BSB said. "I have to-"

"I, as your ruler, demand you to leave!" the boy said.

"This other ruler- she has much better things for us." BSB replied. "So we are not going to leave!"

The boy sighed. "Fine. You leave me no choice. Khefa!" he yelled.

The glowing outline of a giant fist materialized in the middle of the room. "What the-" Piper couldn't help but talk. "How the-"

The boy thrusted his arm forward, and the fist smashed into the demon. With a loud scream, he flew into a wall and disintegrated. As soon as the other demons saw their leader, they ran off in various directions, some going straight through the walls, others smashing into each other and some more jumping straight through the ceiling like they were wisps of smoke.

"Demons." The boy muttered. "Ever since they distanced themselves, the demons have been turning wispier and wispier."

"Who? What-" Percy spluttered. He coughed a bit, and sat up. He turned around to the boy. "Hey." He said. "So you did come."

"Come on, Percy. You honestly think I would have ignored the glowing picture?" he said. "I put it there for you, you know."

He gestured at Piper and the others. "I suppose these would be the 'friends' that you were talking about last time?"

"Not really…" Percy started. "It's actually a little bit complicated…"

"It's okay." The boy said. Piper could see the discomfort in both their eyes. She had a couple of questions. First, how did Percy know the boy? Why had the boy come to help them? And how was he able to go through a portal like that?

Piper felt like this was getting a bit uncomfortable. "Um, hi." She said. "So, um… what's your name?"

The boy looked at her, then turned towards Percy, almost questioningly. He looked slightly worried, almost scared, even.

Percy stared at both of them for a while, and gave a warning look to Piper. "Piper, this is Carter. Carter, Piper." He looked slightly uncomfortable at saying that.

They shook hands. "Hi." Piper said. "And… and who…"

Her voice trailed off as she realized Percy was staring at her, almost trying to analyze what was going to happen. She was a little scared, but she tentatively continued, "Well, it would be nice if you could get us out of this cave. Can you summon a giant drill, or something?"

"Well… not really." He said. "But I can get us out of here."

"What… oh." Piper didn't really realize what he was about to do until he chanted a few lines of gibberish, then spread his arms. A giant vortex appeared in front of him. Taking a deep breath, Piper gathered the others, with Percy's help, and took a deep breath.

If Percy trusts him, then I should… right? She just could not shake off the unease spreading across her shoulders. She took a deep breath, and pushed everyone into the path of the vortex. One by one, they got sucked in, and once the last one (Frank, if you really wanted to know) went through, Piper took a big gulp and jumped in, along with Carter and Percy.

Going through a portal felt like nothing.

Piper was half expecting there to be some kind of whooshing or lights like they do in them movies. But it was rather unglamorous, actually. They walked in and came out the other side, almost like a door.

What she was not expecting was to spring out right from the side of the Acropolis. She nearly fell down on the ground before Percy caught her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah." She replied.

Carter was looking at the portal. "Not bad." He was musing. "Just a little more practice." He looked around, and apparently realized something. "There aren't any monuments…" he muttered. "I probably should get back to the house and tell them."

"What?" Piper asked. "What were you muttering about?"

Carter shut his mouth.

The others were beginning to come to, since their fall onto the ground had left a couple of bruises, and it had probably hurt a lot.

"Ow…" Annabeth muttered, rubbing her head. Then she noticed Carter, and she immediately reached for her sword. She put the tip at his throat.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "And what are you doing here?" she was still worn out from their fight against the demons, so Piper could look up to her. Her hands were shaking with strain, and she was very weak.

"Relax, Annabeth." Percy walked over. "Carter is a friend. He got us out of the cavern."

Annabeth put down her sword and sized Carter up- or that was what it seemed.

The others were already sitting up, groaning.

After Percy had explained everything that had happened in the giant chamber, Piper looked up at the sky. Something about it had changed, aside from the brightness, that she couldn't put a finger on.

"-And so he made the portal, and pushed all of us through. And we popped out right there." He pointed to the wall.

"So," Carter said. "I think I should go now."

He genuinely sounded like he wanted to leave, but Percy put an arm on his shoulder.

"Um, I don't think you can. You see, we're on a quest right now, and we heard from somebody that we would find a powerful weapon here."

"And?"

"Well, I think that… well… you're the 'weapon' he was talking about."