AN: I feel really bad for saying this, but this is the last chapter I'll be publishing before Christmas. I addition to that, I decided to treat you lovely readers by posting an extra longer chapter than usual. I hope you're not too angry with me for putting this story on hiatus but I'm currently starting my senior year of high-school so my college application is depending on this year and I really have to concentrate on my studies.

Please feel free to follow/favourite this story and make sure you leave me a review on this chapter. I don't care if it's a guest or a user review, positive or negative. All reviews are welcome because they tell me that you've taken the time to actually read my story and have an opinion on it. Also, I have no beta, so an advance apology for any spelling or grammar errors.

Love you all,

angel ;)

Chapter 8

While Percy was busy hugging Annabeth, five guards appeared in the Parthenon.

"Uh-oh..." It seemed that Percy had managed to spot the guards from over Annabeth's shoulder.

"Indeed," Merri quietly quipped. She had this gut feeling that something was wrong from the second she noticed the guards. There was something wrong with them.

"Look, I got this, okay?" Grover tried to assure them. He took a step closer to the guards, opening his jacket like he was showing them a badge. "Hey guys, I'm a part of the Recreational Services," 'The hell?!' "You guys were just caught sleeping on the job. You better be happy I'm not writing you guys up, alright? This is the last time!" The guards just stood in a line unfazed by Grover's words.

"We've been expecting you, Mister Jackson," they spoke in unison. Grover gave up on his 'cover' and returned to Percy's side, who just sighed 'not again'. "Just give us the Lightning Bolt and we'll let you go."

"Well, that's not getting old," Merri said sarcastically. Her fingers were discretely poised on her bracelet, ready to turn it into a sword at a moment's notice.

"Look, I don't have the Lightning Bolt," Percy insisted. The middle guard blew a small amount of fire and Merri immediately realized that her gut was right once again. The only problem was, she wasn't exactly sure what they were up against here.

"Okay," Grover took a step back with his eyes the size of saucers. "This is bad!"

The guards started dissolving into sand/smoke and mingling together until they turned into a huge slimy draconic creature with four heads upon long necks. 'Oh, you've gotta be bloody pulling my leg,' Merri thought upon the sight of the Hydra.

"HYDRA!" Annabeth screamed and pulled the boys to cover behind the columns with Merri hot on their heels. "Guys, you've got to watch out because it spits fire!" Just as she finished that sentence, the Hydra spat fire in their direction making them plaster themselves to the columns and Percy's sleeve caught on fire. He shook his arm so strongly trying to put it out that he lost his grip on the pearl and it rolled on the floor and onto the grate of a ventilation shaft.

Merri saw Percy looking at the pearl and then turned her head to find Annabeth trying to ward one of the Hydra's heads. She stuck her hand into her bag, rummaging through it until her fingers came together around the neck of her water bottle. A determined look on her face, she pulled the bottle out of the bag and while she unscrewed it she yelled to Percy before yelling to Annabeth: "Percy, when I say 'go!' you open Luke's shield and make for the pear. Once you've got it, get the hell out of here. Annabeth, get Grover and get out of here. Wait for Percy and then go to the truck. If everything goes fine, I'll meet you guy there five minutes later!"

"And what are you gonna do while we go with your plan?!" Percy asked her. Merri shrugged, a cocky smirk on her freckled face.

"Somebody's got to be the bait." She interupted them before they even got the chance to say anything. "This is your quest and I'm just the fourth wheel here so, I'm not that important to get the job done and I'm the oldest which makes me always right. So you'll listen to me and go with the plan!" Not even looking to see if they understood what she said, Merri unscrewed the lid of the bottle and poured the water on the floor before turning her bracelet into her sword. Breathing in to steel herself, she offered the younger teens a reassuring nod before yelling: "GO!"

Percy opened the shield, like Merri instructed him to do, and made a mad dash for the pearl while trying to dodge hits and bites from any of the Hydra's heads. Annabeth surged in the opposite direction, to Grover, and disappeared from Merri's sight. Merri could only hope the younger girl got to the satyr and they both managed to get out.

The moment Merri yelled for the younger teens to move, the water she spilt on the floor seemed to become alive forming a thin shield around her legs. She used the water to push the creature away from her brother while stabbing the snout of each head that managed to get around her shield. From the corner of her eye, she saw Percy up in the air, hacking and slashing at the Hydra.

The good news was that he had seemed to have figured out how to fly in Luke's flying sneakers. The bad news was that Percy had managed to cut off one of the heads. Immediately, Merri was reminded of a sentence she read in 'Captain America' once. 'Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.' Funny how it was the comic books and not mythology classes that taught her that.

"Percy, no!" Merri yelled at him in hopes he would stop what he was doing. "Stop!" Two heads fell on the floor with a hard thud and she could feel the floor vibrate slightly from the force of the fall. Percy had cut off two heads before she could get the words out. One of the heads opened its mouth and was about to spit fire and roast Percy when Merri reacted and put a shield of hardened water in front of her brother. She then used the rest to push the creature away from them; she was covered in sweat from all the exertion of using her hydrokinesis, before looking up at the younger boy. Percy landed before her with a huge grin plastered on his face, in the background a seemingly dead Hydra with all of its heads cut off fell on the ground, while Merri stared at Percy with a mix of disbelief and anger, but mostly anger.

"How flippin' awesome is that?! I just killed that thing!" Percy exclaimed to what Merri let out an angry growl. "What?" his face full of confusion at her reaction.

"Killed it?!" she said sarcastically. "You only made it worse!" Percy frowned.

"What're you talking about?"

"Don't you read books or comics? I mean you are only a bit younger than me." Merri rubbed the bridge of her nose in an attempt to relieve the pressure there.

"I'm dyslexic."

"Yeah, sorry. I forgot about that," she said looking at him. She never really had any major problem with her dyslexia; it only made her a slower reader than the rest of her mortal peers rather than making her completely unable to read any language other than Greek. Reason more how she got into Princeton med-school. "Okay, you took history with Chiron, right?" Percy nodded. Behind him, she could see the Hydra beginning to move meaning it was coming back to its senses and now it was double the trouble. "Well then, here's a little crash course in mythology for you. Hydras 101: 'Cut off one head, two more shall take its place'."

Percy turned just in time to see the Hydra grow its heads. Instead of the original four, it now had eight heads to take care of. Merri pulled herself and Percy behind a column to take cover when the Hydra started spitting fire at them again, all the while keeping a barrier of hardened water between herself and the flames. She could feel the water heating up and had to quickly figure a way to get the pearl and Percy out of the Parthenon before all of her water turned to steam. Despite her talent with hydrokinesin and large range of ability concerning it, turning steam back to water was too much for her.

"Are you okay?" Percy asked her upon seeing the grimace on her face and sweat rolling down from her skin, soaking up her clothes. Despite all this, Merri managed to crack a small grin at him and nod.

"I'm fine," she insisted. "I'll try and distract it while you get the pearl. Once you do, you get your ass out of here and take the truck to the next one!"

"But what about you?!" Panic was clearly written all over Percy's voice. Merri stubbornly shook her head.

"Don't worry 'bout me, I'll be alright. You need to get the pearls and get your mum back, okay?" Percy reluctantly nodded. Merri was looking at him with a look of desperation in her sea-green eyes that had somehow turned into an ocean blue hue. She was tired, it was clear, but she still worried more about his safety than her own. "Go!" She gestured in the direction of the pearl with her head.

Merri went in the other direction that Percy did and started throwing darts of hardened water at the monster. She managed to hit it in the eye a few times and it started to come at her biting and swiping its razor sharp claws, each as long as and thick as her leg. Merri danced between the fangs and the claws, hacking and stabbing at the Hydra's many faces until one of the heads looked behind its body, noticing Percy, and swiping its long tail at Merri before going after the other child of Poseidon. The force of the tail propelled Merri a couple of feet into the air and launched her at one of the columns. She hit it with her back, the blow expelling all air she had in her lungs, and she felt something warm trickle its way down her face. Licking her lip she tasted the metal tinge of blood from the cut there and her fingers touched the nasty cut on her forehead, it gushing with blood.

She tried not to be too fazed by that notion. Head cuts always bled heavily so it was nothing to worry about. Merri fought a wave of dizziness and nauseas she slowly pulled herself to her feet. Standing uneasily she saw the Hydra cornering Percy behind Athena's statue. A wave of unfiltered anger coursed through her veins making her stand taller, her footing more secure. Percy made one of the drinking fountains in the corner blow up, unintentionally giving Merri enough water to fight the Hydra and help Percy get away.

She watched Percy create a large wave to make a wall between himself and the Hydra while Merri made the water spread evenly on the floor beneath the unsuspecting beast. He passed her side running to the door while the Hydra kept spitting fire at the wall of water. When Percy's concentration on the wall wavered, Merri picked it up to keep the Hydra occupied. She turned her head to see Grover, Annabeth and Percy trying to open the Parthenon door but it wouldn't budge. The Hydra turned to them so Merri let the wall of water fall before making the water it left falling circle her feet like an iridescent snake, shimmering as it caught the shine of the lamps. Feeling her bracelet form on her wrist (she had dropped her sword when the Hydra threw her into the column), she twitched her wrist with a smirk on her face. Reacting to the movement of her hand, the layer of water on the floor shot up in neck breaking speed, forming spikes that impaled the Hydra on the place while the water that coiled itself around Meri formed chains that tied all the heads to the columns around them, making the Hydra look at the group of teenagers.

"Grover!" she yelled at the satyr. He shot her a confused look before she yelled again. "Medusa's head! Use the head!"

Grover ran to Merri's side just as the Hydra was getting ready to spit fire at them. It all depended on Grover now; Percy and Annabeth were too busy trying to get the door to open and all of Merri's strength and concentration was directed to maintaining the water chains and spikes in place. He pulled the head from his backpack, turning it to the Hydra and pulled its sunglasses up. The snakes on the head seemed to come to life in that moment as the Hydra gazed into the eyes of the dead Gorgon. It stopped its movements and stood still. Percy and Annabeth turned just in time to see the Hydra turn to stone and approached Merri and Grover.

Sighing in relief, Merri let the hardened water she was holding up slosh limply to the ground and gave off a tired smile. Grover grinned and kissed the Medusa's head in excitement before realizing what he did and wiping his mouth in disgust. Merri snickered at the sight before another wave of dizziness hit her and she fell to her knees in exhaustion, her trembling arms the only thing holding her from falling to the cold marble floor.

"Merri!" Percy immediately ran to her side and helped her tired form sit on the floor, letting her lean on him to keep her upright. "Are you okay?" Merri was breathing heavily and a wave of nausea hit her again.

"I'm really tired," she wheezed letting her head roll back. Her eyelids suddenly felt like they weighed a ton and she couldn't keep them open. "And really sick." She sighed. "I think I may've bonked my head a bit too hard when it threw me into that column," she admitted.

"She might have a concussion," Annabeth said kneeling by the siblings' side and checking Merri's head for any head trauma which proved a bit tricky since she had a nasty cut above her eyebrow and cheek, both of which were still bleeding rather heavily, a busted lip and a thin bleeding cut just below her hairline behind her ear. "We can't let her fall asleep or else she might not wake up at all. You shouldn't move her too much; we don't know what other injuries she might have."

"I'm pretty certain it's just my head that's a bit damaged," Merri sighed, her tired eyes back to their normal sea-green as opposed to the ocean-blue they were earlier and looking at the two teens. Grover just nervously stood in the background and nibbled at his thumb. "And could you, please, stop talking like I'm not here. It's kind of offensive, you know?" Annabeth frowned at her.

"We're trying to find a way to help you out here!" the grey-eyed girl practically growled at her. Merri frowned back at her even thought it caused a sharp sting of pain to shoot through her face when the crinkling of her skin pulled at the cuts that littered it.

"Well it's a good thing I'm supposed to be going to med-school this fall," Merri's voice turned to ice. "All I need is some water and I'll be fine." She took her tired eyes off the daughter of Athena and turned them to Percy who silently nodded at her request and summoned a large amount of water to them. He let it coat Merri's skin and they all watched as the pale skin seemed to absorb the water like a sponge, blood returning to the cuts that closed themselves back up leaving no mark, bruises on her arms and neck fading away. She already looked healthier and more energized as she let out a sigh of relief lifting herself from Percy's arms, kneeling on the floor with her hands flat on the marble as she summoned more water to herself and let her skin soak it up.

"There, see? All better now," Merri said when she got back to her feet. She located her water bottle and filled t up with some water from the busted drinking fountain. Her backpack was located under the rubble left from when she was thrown into the column. She took it, dusting some debris off of it, put her bottle inside and slung it over her shoulder turning to face the other teens. "We need to get out of here before someone comes in and finds all this mess."

...

They were seated around a table in some random diner, later that night, stuffing themselves with some junk food. Merri received some strange looks form the three when she had ordered a large bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries, a large coke and black coffee no sugar to go. She even gave their waitress her Supernatural thermos bottle to fill it with coffee promising a larger tip if the woman did so. When the waitress returned with their food and drinks, Merri's freshly filled thermos on the plate as well, Merri pulled out her wallet and gave the woman a twenty for her effort before paying for the other's food as well.

"So you're going to med-school in September?" Percy asked Merri, interrupting the silence that had fallen over their table. Merri nodded before chewing on her large bite of her cheeseburger and swallowing.

"Yeah. I always liked helping people and I've been good with all the biology and chemistry so I thought 'why not?' I sent the application and got back a letter telling me I got in Harvard med-school with full scholarship. Jack and mum were really happy and proud of me and they got me my own apartment up in Boston. My grandparents even got me my own car, which I love very much."

"What car did they get you?" Grover asked her.

"A 67' black Chevy Impala," Merri answered while girnning. "Do my grandparents love me or what?!" she bragged in mock innocence.

"That's a powerful car you've got there, sis," Percy grinned at her. Merri raised her glass of coke like she was about to make a toast.

"Cheers to that, little brother," she said with her mouth full before swallowing her food and taking a large gulp of her coke. All the while, Annabeth looked at the older girl with disgust written on her face.

"I don't get how you can classify as a girl," she said. "You act like a guy most of the time."

"The key word being 'most'," Merri clarified. "I act like a tom-boy because that's what I am. I never cared for makeup, or prissy clothes, I absolutely dread pink and don't see what others see in those stupid skinny celebrities. Why would I starve myself to death trying to look like them if I can peacefully enjoy my usual calorie bombs and still look the same?" Merri shrugged and took another astronomical bite out of her burger. Annabeth seemed like she was about to add something more, when she was interrupted by the sound of the news on the TV behind Percy's head.

"We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for this special report," said the TV. "Scientists are baffled by what now appears to be a single storm cloud that is expanding over much of Europe and Asia, moving toward the United States. Savage winds, rain and mammoth waves are being reported along the coastline of several continents. So far, no casualties but countries everywhere are preparing for the worst."

"The gods are angry," Annabeth said when they turned back to their meals. 'You don't say,' Merri thought with a sarcastic eye roll. She quickened her eating to finish her burger sooner. "We need to get the last pearl. Where's the next location?"

"Let us see..." Percy pulled out the map from his bag while Merri busied herself with wiping the remaining ketchup and burger grease from the corners of her mouth with a paper napkin.

"Well, guys," Grover started while the three huddled over the map. "We've got ourselves a good one. We're going to Vegas!" Grover's excitement was contagious and Merri found herself grinning at the satyr.

After they were finished eating and Merri took a sip from the thermos deeming the coffee drinkable, the teens huddled inside the big old truck with Merri at the wheel again.

"I'm sick of driving in silence," she said while digging through her bag. "I think it's best if we played some music. Don't you agree?" The others shrugged. A triumphant grin spread over Merri's face once sh found what she was looking for and pulled out a small casete with the words: 'Road trip Mix' written in a black marker. "Time for you kiddies to learn some quality music." Her eyebrows bounced as she put the casete into the radio and the sound of Metallica filled the booth of the car. The boys looked at her with smiles and Annabeth frowned at her as Merri grinning pulled out on the road and started for Vegas.

"Metallica, seriously? You really need to update your casete." Merri frowned back at her, her eyes not moving from the road. The boys stayed silent in the back seat in fear that one of the girls might lash out at them if they tried to butt in. They didn't know which was scarier; an angry Annabeth or and angry Merria.

"And why is that?" Merri asked.

"Well, for one, it's a casete," Annabeth said gesturing towards the radio. "And second, Metallica?"

"Ah, ah, ah," Merri wagged her finger at Annabeth. "See, driver picks the music ," she said pointing at herself and then pointing at Annabeth: "Shotgun shuts her cake hole!"

"So, you just assume you're always right?" Annabeth asker angrily to what Merri smirked.

"I don't assume, I am always right." With that Annabeth crossed her arms and sat beck in her seat pouting away for the next two hours before she finally fell asleep. Merri was even courtatious enough to turn the music volume down so the girl could get some shut eye, and not bother Merri too.

...

"So how was it growing up with a step-dad for you?" Percy asked suddenly. About an hour earlier, he and Annabeth switched seats, so Percy was sitting shotgun and Annabeth and Grover were both leaning on the back windows sleeping. "My step-dad was a real douche."

"I gathered that much in that motel," she said with a smirk.

"Was your step-dad ever like that?" Merri shook her head.

"Nah. Jack's a cool bloke. Not exactly a father figure for me but he's really nice and understanding. Doesn't make me call him 'dad', never has. He's more like a buddy than anything else."

"And what about your mom?"

"My mum... We're uh, really close I'd say. I mean, the woman raised me on her own for four years before she got married. Not that we ever had that apple pie life you all think I have. We've had our differences and I can't even recall all the times I ran away from home 'cause I got pissed at them. Most of the time I'm home, I feel awful, like I just want to get away from them but I still love them and go back to them."

"I don't get it. You say you love them but they also make you miserable." Merri sighed, looking at him from the corner of her eye.

"Are you under the impression that family's supposed to make you feel good, make you an apple pie, maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable! That's why they're family!" She offered her brother a reassuring smile before returning her gaze back to the road ahead. "Now have we done feeling our feelings? Because I'd like to get out of this room before we both start growing lady parts." Percy laughed at her comment.

"You are a girl, Mer!"

"Don't mean I wanna become one of those pink wearing sissies!"