A/N: YEE-HAW! Here I am, my darlings! High school hasn't killed me yet, but we'll see... Anyways, I can't tell you how happy I am that this update is on time...sort of. I meant to get this up a little earlier, but oh well. So, this story is definitely winding down. I'm thinking the next chapter will be the last one, and then I'll try to finish up the other story I'm working on before I do the sequel. Ooo! Also, did you notice the shiny new chapter titles at the beginning? What do you guys think of those?
Followers: dauntlessofthesea, Queenofthestory, Paws Whovian, , Kage512, and Murdekai. 202?! Y'll are amazhang! (No, that is not a typo. For reference, see previous author's notes.)
Favorites: Paws Whovian, sleipnir34, trgtboyz, Nix09, Kitsune2256, and dvilleza. Thou art also amazing, since thou resideth at 149!
HaywireEagle: Ah, well. That's okay. I'm not what you would call a Supergirl fanatic, and I didn't want Kara to have a real excuse to actually dislike Percy and Annabeth, so... Thanks for pointing that out, though! As always, it's very much appreciated.
Turtlepower12: Oh yeah, baby! I LOVE Toothless. Like, it's insane how obsessed I am with a fictional dragon that can't talk. I'm a sad person. My life literally consists of one obsession after another. :)
FavFan: I know, right? Let's hope that never happens... Mwah ha ha ha! :)
nathanblack95: Yes, that is true, my friend.
Sibyis Langdon: Well, then, I hereby give all rights to you and only you. Also, I hear you about that second part. That one was tougher to write than I thought... Oh, well. :)
IloveRobin1822: See note above, and script below. :)
IcyFox17: So glad you had fun in Hawaii! And with the songs, my brain just works like that. I can literally hear almost anything and attach a song to it. For example: the word apple. One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl! Oh! Give me one more chance before you give up on love! It's ridiculous. My head is a radio. My English teacher keeps making references to Greek mythology, and every time I'm like, "Oh, Percy fought that in book two!" "Oh, Percy got the mark of Achilles in book five!" I'm such a mythology nerd. :) And DUDE! I wanna meet Rick SO bad! Even though he does infuriate me and break my heart. BOB SAYS HELLO, PEOPLE! Thank you so much; live long and prosper. :)
Guest (1): Mwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Guest (2): Oh, yeah. I ADORE Ranger's Apprentice. :)
Guest (3): Yeah, the Moana one cracks me up, and wrote it... :)
aRTyisAwesome: Yeah, that would've been funny. :)
Guest (4): Aww! Thank you so much. And here's the update!
willwill2will: Here you are, my feathered friend. Wait, what? :)
Guest (5): Thank you thank you so much! I got a bunch of people who were like, "What was that last one? I didn't get it." And I was all like I'M ALOOOOONE! :)
READ AND REVIEW!
Earth-8. Boy, was this a fun one.
We actually spent very little time on this earth, because we were absolutely certain it was not our own. On our earth, people don't run around singing.
We emerged from the breach on a beautiful grassy hill surrounded by trees and mountains. The birds were chirping, and it was so peaceful that I relaxed. For like, point zero two seconds. Because that was when Julie Andrews came charging up the hill.
Okay, I guess technically in this universe, she wouldn't be Julie Andrews. She'd be whatever character she was playing at the moment. Anyways, she dashed up the hill and then spun around like a top singing, "The hills are alive...with the sound of music…"
The three of us gaped at her for a moment until she stopped her spinning and could actually see us for the first time. The words to the classic tune died in her throat once she spotted us.
"Who...who are you?" she demanded in her insufferably - I mean, incredibly - polite British accent.
Annabeth looked up to the sky like, Why me? "That's our cue to leave."
Barry blinked, coming out of his semi-shell-shocked state. "Yeah. Yeah, let's go." He grabbed Annabeth and I and towed us back into the breach.
"What's next?" I asked almost as soon as we were clear of the breach.
"Sleep," Barry replied.
"What?" Annabeth demanded. "We can't sleep. We need to get home as fast as possible."
"And we'll get you there," Caitlin promised, "but you guys have been going for hours straight with hardly any rest. You need a break."
Annabeth and I glanced at each other trying to gauge the other's mood. Come on, I pleaded with my eyes. I haven't been home in like, a week.
She nodded, conceding my point. I know. But if we force Barry, and ourselves, to run on zero sleep our efficiency will be severely degraded. The odds that we'll be able to safely reach home then are not in our favor. So let's go sleep for a little bit.
I frowned, knowing she was making good points. I don't wanna, I tried to convey.
Annabeth rolled her eyes and started speaking out loud again. "Stop acting like a little kid, Seaweed Brain. Otherwise, we might have to mention that duck incident…"
"Okay, okay!" I protested quickly. "They don't need to hear about that. Not even from you, Barry," I said harshly as I whirled to face him. He just widened his eyes innocently.
"Me? I would never."
"Come on," Cisco waved us over. "I'll show you where the extra cots are."
Annabeth and I woke up a few hours later, feeling refreshed, but anxious as ever to get home. We were about to go charging (well, not really) down those creepy concrete hallways like kids on Christmas morning, but Caitlin came by to check on us and told us to sit tight. She said something about Barry eating and how the pizza place was taking forever and blah blah blah blah. I kind of got tunnel vision after I heard pizza. Just because Barry has that fancy-schmancy speedster metabolism thingy going on doesn't mean he's the only one that gets hungry.
Anyways, after a while of sitting relatively still, we got bored. The pizza still hadn't come, and we had like, nothing to do. So we ended up sparring.
It was actually a surprisingly long time before anyone noticed. I mean, I thought that what with all the stuff we were knocking over and that one time Annabeth threw her dagger at me and it ended up embedded in some kind of metal dummy would've attracted some attention, but apparently not. What were they even doing up there?
Well, the pizza finally came and was devoured in about...fifteen minutes, give or take a few. I guess everyone was hungry. But then, finally, it was time to go back to the breach room.
"Alright," Cisco sighed. "Earth-12."
When we exited the breach, we were in New York, which was encouraging. How did I know, you're asking? Well, I'd recognize this skyline anywhere. Which is to say only in New York, because that's the only place New York is. Okay, that didn't make tons of sense, but it did.
"What do you think?" Barry asked tiredly.
"Well…" I started. Then something black flashed at the edge of my vision. Half a second later, Annabeth's dagger was barreling right at the thing's snout, just in time to meet the hellhound that had been about to rip us to pieces. "You know, I think this is the one."
Annabeth smiled as she brushed golden dust out of her hair and sheathed her dagger. "I'd say that's a reasonable guess. Do you think you could run us to camp, Barry?"
"Well, I don't really know where it is," he shrugged.
"Dude, all that tech in your suit and you don't have basic GPS?" I asked. "I can't even use GPS on this earth, and I still know that's messed up."
"There's never been any reason to add one," Barry defended. "I hardly ever leave Central City."
"So you know every single road in a city that houses hundred of thousands of people," I deadpanned.
Barry paused for a second. "Yes?"
Annabeth yawned. "Are you two done?"
"No," I said at the same time Barry said, "Yes."
"Good," Annabeth nodded, ignoring my response. "Now, let's go."
Barry picked us up and started running (in the right direction, which was impressive) and I could hear Annabeth doing her best to yell directions to Barry over the roaring wind. Barry must've slowed down quite a bit so that he could hear her. After a few seconds, I just barely processed that we were nearing Camp Half-Blood before Annabeth and I were tumbling through the air way too fast. It felt like Barry had thrown us or something. We rolled over and over, thankfully not hurting ourselves, but we did get some serious vertigo.
Once we could, we stood up and turned back to the border, taking no notice of all the campers staring at us. Barry stood just outside the edge of camp, rubbing his head.
"Not cool, man!" I shouted. "What was that for?"
"Not my fault!" he protested. "What the hell is this?" He banged his fist against the border, which stopped him where he stood.
Annabeth grimaced. "Sorry. That's our fault."
I rolled my eyes. "I, Percy Jackson give Barry Allen permission to enter and blah blah blah."
Barry tentatively stepped through the border. "What was that again?"
"That's the border to keep mortals and monsters out," Annabeth explained as he came to join us. "We should've warned you about that."
We turned back around and found a bunch of pointy stuff in our faces. Yep. This was the right earth.
The campers had grabbed whatever weapon was available to them at the time that we came rolling into camp, which meant there was quite the assortment. Leo was one of the people towards the front, a fireball in his hands. He caught my eye and waved, which meant I only just barely resisted ducking and yelling at everyone else to do the same. I swear, he needs to be more careful with that fire-user thing he's got going on. Clarisse was also near the front, with Lamer the Second leveled at my chest. Something told me she wouldn't really mind running me through.
The campers continued to hold us (well, not really Annabeth and I, more like just Barry because they didn't know who he was) as Chiron came over, his bow in hand. It wasn't loaded yet, but I knew it could be in tenths of a second.
"Percy, Annabeth," he said sounding relieved. "It's wonderful to see you back safely, but - pardon me for saying so - who the Hades is this?"
"It's okay, guys," I told the campers in general. "This is Barry." The aforementioned person gave me an annoyed look for outing his secret identity and I added, "We don't like secret identities, Barry. Anyways, he's a good guy. He's a superhero on his earth know as the Flash, and he helped us get back home after Speedball Tucker kidnapped us."
Barry frowned. "Speedball Tucker?"
"Yeah, like the song. And they call me Speedball, Speedball Tucker. Terror of the highways, and all those other truckers will tell you that the boy is mad to be drivin' a rig like that," I explained. "See, it fits 'cause Melty Mouth was super fast. Have you never hear that song?"
"Anyways," Annabeth interrupted harshly, "you can put the weapons down." I swear I saw her give Chiron a look like, You see what I've had to deal with? The campers reluctantly lowered their weapons. Leo put away his fireball.
"So…" Chiron shifted uneasily on his four hooves. "Capture the Flag, anyone?"
Barry raised an eyebrow, like, Why does this guy want us to play a kid's game, kid? Kinda sad how I could read that so well.
"It's a tradition," Annabeth waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "Every time a new group of people comes to camp, we play Capture the Flag."
"Which," I continued, "would be a terrible idea in this case." I glanced over at Barry, who looked out of place in his red suit. He didn't seem to like having swords and knives and arrows pointed at his face. Go figure. "This guy could take on the entire camp and win in less than thirty seconds, unless Khione's kids decide to actually participate for once." Seeing Barry's confused look, I explained, "She's the goddess of snow and ice. Super nasty temperament. Cold, if you don't mind the pun. Her kids have ice powers though. They'd probably be like that Captain Cold guy, or whatever."
Leo's eyes glinted as he took a tiny step forward. "So, what you're saying is if we tried to play Capture the Flag, it would actually be more like Capture the Flash?" He looked around at the assembled demigods, who all groaned and rolled their eyes. "What?"
Barry shook his head. I was sure he was remembering Cisco and his puns. "Thanks for the offer," he said, "but I'd better get going. My friends will get worried. Besides, I've still got Zoom to take care of."
"Who?" one of the campers interrupted. "Is that, like, some stuffed animal or chinchilla or something?"
Barry frowned and looked at me like, Chinchilla? I've been dealing with this guy for a year and your people think he's a chinchilla?!
"Not important," I dismissed.
Annabeth gave Barry a hug goodbye before he walked over to me hand outstretched for a shake. I looked at it for a second and then smiled. "Nah, you're getting a hug. Come here."
Once we had said goodbye, Barry nervously said, "I hope Cisco can send his breach here." Just then, the familiar swirling breach popped up behind him. The campers all reached for their weapons again.
Leo summoned another fireball and yelled, "It's the swirly blue glowing thingy! Attack it!" He then proceeded to chuck his fireball right into the breach. For a moment, Barry watched it with wide eyes as the fireball disappeared.
"Well?" Annabeth demanded. "Do you want your friends to be fried?"
"Run, Barry. Run," I encouraged. Then he disappeared for the last time.