CHAPTER SIXTEEN
We Take A Zebra To Vegas
I don't own Percy Jackson.
The war god was waiting for them in the diner parking lot.
"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."
"You knew it was a trap," Percy said.
Ares gave her a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."
Percy shoved his shield at him. "You're a jerk."
Will and Grover caught their breath, but Ares didn't turn her into a hamster on the spot, so she figured that was good news.
Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.
"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L-A, with one stop in Vegas."
The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which she could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.
"You're kidding."
Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."
He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to Percy.
Inside were fresh clothes for all of them, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas and a bag of Double Stuff Oreos.
Percy's first thought was to snap that she didn't want his lousy gift, but she managed to stop herself at the last second, though not without gritting her teeth. She knew it was a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but she didn't want to touch anything Ares had. Reluctantly, she slung the bag over her shoulder, only Will's warning look keeping her from punching Ares in the nose.
"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover said. "Thanks a lot."
Percy couldn't bring herself to do the same. Thanking him felt a lot like thanking Nancy Bobofit or Smelly Gabe or sarcastic teachers.
She averted her eyes, glancing instead at the diner, which only had a couple customers now. The waitress who'd served them dinner was watching nervously out the window. She dragged the cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of them.
Great, Percy thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow.
She imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.
"You owe me one more thing," Percy told Ares, trying to keep her voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."
"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."
The ground seemed to spin beneath her. "What do you mean?"
"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."
"Kept. Why?"
"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."
"Nobody's controlling me."
He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."
Percy was about to say something that would've surely gotten her turned into a patch of seaweed when Will touched her arm. Almost immediately, she felt her anger lessen. It didn't take it away, of course, but Will's hand seemed like an encouragement, an anchor—he was there, he was with her, and he had her back.
"Hey, guys," Grover said.
He pointed towards the diner. At the cash register, the last two customers were paying their bill, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.
"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "We need to hurry."
Percy didn't like it, but they had no better option.
They ran across the street and climbed in through the back, closing the doors behind them after casting one last look to make sure they hadn't been spotted or followed.
The first thing that hit her was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.
The trailer was dark inside until she pulled out Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals she'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion and some weird antelope thing she didn't know the name for.
Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each got a polystyrene tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!
Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.
"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"
He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and Percy would've helped him, but just then the truck's engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and they were forced to sit down or fall down.
They huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Will was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but Percy pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, she had a feeling they might've looked a lot better to the lion than those turnips.
"We'll get them out when we hit the next stop," she decided. "That's when they have the highest chance of escaping, anyway."
"That'll be Las Vegas," Will said, slumping against the wall.
"There's nothing we can do about it now."
Will and Grover reluctantly agreed.
Percy found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used Anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. She gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.
Grover calmed the antelope down while Will used his sword to cut the balloon off his horn. He wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but ended up deciding that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. Promising to help them more in the morning, the trio settled in for the night.
Grover curled up on a turnip sack, Will opened the bag of Double Stuf Oreos and nibbled on one half-heartedly, and Percy tried to cheer herself up by telling herself they were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to their destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. They could make it in plenty of time.
On the other hand, she had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with her. At least Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it—he'd put up cameras and advertised her as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, she had a feeling her quest was being watched. She was a source of amusement for the gods, and it was beginning to tick her off.
To make matters worse, Percy got the feeling that Will was annoyed at her. She had played it off as her overexaggerating, but there was no doubting it now—Will had been far more snappish and scowled more at her in the last hour than he had ever.
Percy was rather sure it wasn't for no reason—Will was rather reasonable, unless one counted being unreasonably nice. Still, she didn't know how to bring it up, playing out the scenarios one by one in her head, unsure of how to voice it without sounding rude or selfish, but the longer she waited, the worse it felt.
"Hey," Percy finally said. "Sorry if I made you mad."
Will didn't answer immediately. He just inspected the arrow he had been turning over in his hands for the last minute. Then, he admitted, "I was upset."
Percy just waited as he finished checking his arrow and slid it back into his quiver.
"I told you to not touch the shield." There was a trace of hurt in his voice, and he didn't look at her. "I told you to wait, that it might've been a trap, but you didn't listen. Percy, we nearly died. You didn't listen to me." Some part of her wanted to protest, but she kept silent. "I know you didn't have much of a choice, but you could've at least tried. What if there had been something worse than spiders? Something worse than the water? We nearly lost you at the Mississippi River because we weren't there—and we nearly lost you again. You could've been seriously hurt.
"Besides my siblings and Annabeth, you and Grover are really my only real friends that I care about a lot. I'm starting to trust you two, and I don't trust very easily, but you can't just keep doing things like that. We're your friends, Percy, and we're on this quest for a reason. We didn't come because we think there's some sort of reward for us at the end—we came because we care about you, and we want to help you, even if we have to risk our own lives. It just hurt, okay? Seeing that you didn't trust us in the same way."
Percy found herself at a loss for words.
Will was right, of course. She shouldn't have been so reckless. Of course it had been a trap—why else would Ares have made them do a job he could've done in five seconds?—but she hadn't been thinking. If it had just been her in the boat, that was one thing, but she had endangered Will's life too. If he hadn't thought of that plan when he had, they would've been dead.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "You're right. I should've listened to you. I was stupid and reckless."
Yet hadn't that been the whole point? Percy thought miserably. Hadn't that been the trick of Ares? He knew her better than she would've liked—he knew that she would've walked into any trap, braved any danger, done anything if it simply meant she could get her mother back. He had played his card perfectly, and it unsettled her that someone could manipulate her so well—someone who didn't like her.
Will managed to crack a smile. "You're stupid and reckless far too much, though. I don't know if I should have high hopes."
Despite his attempt at bringing a note of levity back to the situation, the atmosphere was still so tense they could cut it with a knife. They settled into a round uncomfortable silence as he began checking his arrows again. She distantly wondered what he would do if he found an imperfect one.
Percy looked down at Riptide, turning it over in her hands. She wanted to say something, she wanted to clear the air, she wanted to make things right and have Will trust her again, so badly, but she knew she couldn't expect it so soon. His hurt was still fresh, and he needed time to forgive her on his own terms.
She wished she had never been on this stupid quest in the first place. Why did she have to go to the Underworld anyway? Sure, it was to prevent a war, but why did she have to prevent a war she had no part in? She hadn't even known gods existed until about two weeks ago, and now she was expected to fix their messes? All she wanted was her mother.
And even if she had cared about whether the gods fought each other or not, she didn't even know how to get to the Underworld. Sure, they had to go to Los Angeles, but if memory served, Los Angeles was huge. How were they supposed to scour a that big of a city? She was supposed to lead, but she wasn't a leader. She was just blindly stumbling along and hoping that the Fates would take pity on her.
She couldn't keep doing that anymore, not if she wanted to make sure Will and Grover made it out of this quest alive. She had to actually lead. She couldn't keep being so careless.
Yet of course she was careless—she was twelve! Grover was mentally twelve, and Will, despite his intelligence, was also twelve—how were they, three twelve year olds, supposed to stop the biggest war in the world? Going to Los Angeles had seemed easy enough, but it hadn't been easy—their plan had been derailed not even an hour in, and every time they came up with a new one, the gods seemed to throw another wrench at them.
Even without the interference of the gods, the entire mortal population was trying to hunt her, and consequently Will and Grover, down. Their luck had been so awful that Percy couldn't decide whether she wanted to scream or laugh maniacally.
She was a failure. That was the essence of it, wasn't it?
She had failed to save her mother against the Minotaur. She had failed Grover when she had decided to ditch him. She had failed her father, the person she had so desperately wanted to punch when she was younger, the one who was desperately relying on her.
And she had failed Will.
She curled up on the cold, metal floor, exhausted, but she didn't think she could sleep.
Somehow, she closed her eyes.
Her nightmare started with the usual one: being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, Come on, Percy. You're not stupid are you? Pick up your pencil.
Then it strayed.
When she glanced over, she was surprised to see another girl in the same predicament. She was about Percy's age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy blue eyes, and freckles across her nose. Somehow, Percy knew who she was. She was Thalia, daughter of Zeus.
She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at Percy in frustration and snapped, Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here.
She's right, Percy thought. I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.
The straitjacket melted off her and she fell through the classroom floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm.
Percy Jackson, it said. Yes, the exchange went well, I see.
Percy was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around her. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing her. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.
And he suspects nothing? it asked.
Another voice, one she almost recognized, answered at her shoulder. Nothing, my lord. He is as ignorant as the rest.
She looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible.
Deception upon deception, the thing in the pit mused aloud. Excellent.
Truly, my lord, said the voice next to her, you are well-named the Crooked One. But was it really necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly—
You? the monster said in scorn. You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened.
But, my lord—
Peace, little servant. Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him. Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hands… but wait. She is here.
What? The invisible servant suddenly sounded tense. You summoned her, my lord?
No. The full force of the monster's attention was now pouring over Percy, freezing her in place. Blast her father's blood—she is too changeable, too unpredictable. The girl brought herself hither.
Impossible! the servant cried.
For a weakling such as you, perhaps, the voice snarled. Then its cold power turned back on her. So… you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige.
Percy wanted to say, No thanks, but her voice wouldn't work.
The scene changed.
She was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. Standing at the foot of the dais was her mother, frozen in shimmering golden light, her arms outstretched.
Percy tried to step towards her, but her legs wouldn't move. She reached for her, only to realize that her hands were withering to bones. Grinning skeletons in Greek armour crowded around her, draping her with silk robes, wreathing her head with laurels that smoked with Chimera poison, burning into her scalp.
The evil voice began to laugh. Hail, the conquering hero!
Percy shot up with a gasp.
Will was crouching over her, eyebrows knitted in concern. "You okay?"
She shivered, but said, "Yeah."
Will just frowned, but he didn't press it when she sat up.
Grover was still snoring on top of the turnip sack. Judging from the cracks of light from in the door, it was morning. Even despite a somewhat-okay night's rest, she still felt like she could go for a round two. After learning she was a demigod, her nightmares had turned so awful she rarely ever felt functional after waking.
"Did you get some sleep?" Percy asked, accepting an Oreo.
"Yeah. But I always get up at dawn."
She fiddled with Riptide, unsure of what to say. After Will's rant yesterday, their hasty make-up didn't seem to make things right. Will was half-heartedly nibbling on a cookie, eyes watching the lion sleep.
And then—
"Sorry for freaking out at the waterpark."
Percy blinked, but said, "That's okay."
"It's just…" He shuddered. "Water."
"What's wrong with it?"
He gave her a half-smile. "Bad experience. I almost drowned when I tried to learn swimming. I ended up vowing to never touch water again, but obviously, that vow didn't hold. Glad I didn't swear on the River Styx. Anyway, I owe you."
"We're a team, remember? Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."
She wasn't sure, but she thought Will might've cracked a smile. It dropped as soon as it appeared.
"Look, Percy," he began hesitantly. "It was unfair of me to say you didn't trust us as much as we trust you. I know you do, or else you wouldn't have asked us to come along. You didn't have much of a choice. Even if we had figured out what the trap was, there wasn't much we could do. I was just hurt, and it was unfair of me to lash out at you."
"But you were right. I still should've listened to you."
Will managed a smile. "I can live with it if you promise to talk things out with me in the future. Deal?"
"Deal."
He held out his hand, and she shook it, her spirits far better than it had been in the last twelve hours. At least she was off to getting back on the right foot with Will.
"Oh, good."
Grover had chosen that moment to wake up. He sat up, stretching, and offered both her and Will's surprised look a tired grin.
"Did you know that your emotions absolutely ruined my sleep? Glad you patched up again. Never doubted you, though. What time is it?"
Will checked his watch, and Percy realized with a start that it was actually functioning. "Just a bit past noon. At this pace, I'd estimate we'd reach Vegas tonight at the latest."
Then the three of them lapsed back into silence. Will was inspecting his knife, rubbing at any microstains with his shirt, while Percy decided to attempt to bring to life her waterbender dreams. Controlling water was still rather difficult for her, and at least in the trailer, she had some privacy. As she unscrewed her cap, though, she wondered if the other demigods could use their own powers like she did.
When Annabeth touched a dictionary, was she healed? When Will was out in the sun, was he strengthened? Was Clarisse about to command weapons without ever having to touch them?
Wait.
Percy almost dropped the pouch of water.
"Will?"
He glanced over at her. "Hm?"
"Can you control light like how I control water?"
He looked startled, as if nobody had asked him that before. "No." And then he hesitated. "Well, I mean… I don't know. But I don't think so. If any child of Apollo's ever had photokinesis before, it's extremely rare. I've never heard of any demigod possessing even some sort of power over it. "
"But didn't people say that about water? I'm doing that… sort of."
He gave her a look. "Yours just seems more realistic."
Grover snorted. "Percy controlling thousands of gallons of water is more realistic than you controlling light? If anything, the opposite is true. The idea of Percy being able to do that and her being Percy is terrifying."
"Hey!"
"Kidding," Grover said. "But really. Don't you always say, 'if you don't try, you'll never know?'"
"Even if I did have the power," Will said reluctantly, "I wouldn't know how to use it. Nobody's inherited the power, if it exists, for centuries, at least."
"I imagine the ocean," Percy said. She wasn't sure if it would help, given how different light and water were, but at least she could try. "Well, a large body of water works, but the ocean is better. Then I imagine controlling it, doing what I want it to do. Back at the waterpark…" She closed her eyes, pretending like she was back in that little boat. "I thought about water. Lots and lots of water. Like I was trying to pull the ocean to my side."
Will didn't answer immediately. He just stared at his hands, as if contemplating what she said, and then, very tentatively, held out his hand, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Percy and Grover leaned forward in anticipation.
For a moment, nothing happened. And then she saw it—a weak flicker, snuffed out so fast she was left wondering if she ever actually saw it.
Will's reaction only confirmed its existence, though.
"I did it!" he half-screeched, leaping up and looking like he was inches from dancing in the truck. "Holy Zeus, I did it!"
He held out his hand excitedly, but this time, nothing flared out. The excitement died. His shoulders slumped.
"Maybe not."
"I saw it the first time," Percy said, looking at Grover, who was quick to agree. "I guess you just need practice."
"But why me?" Will wondered out loud.
"Because you're worthy of it?" Percy said dryly.
Will nudged her shoulder. "Shut up."
But there was no malice behind it, and she was content with that.
"I'm serious, though," she said after a few seconds. "Your father's the god of foresight, right? Maybe he knew you'd one day be worthy enough for it." She stared at her hands. "You're definitely worthy enough for it if I am, apparently."
Will snorted. "Says the first daughter of Poseidon in centuries, if not millennia."
Percy frowned. "Wait, I thought Poseidon stopped having kids after World War Two."
"Poseidon doesn't have female demigod kids," Grover said. "I mean, it's really rare. They've almost always been male."
"Great," Percy muttered unhappily. "Love feeling even more left out."
"Don't worry about the other campers," Will reassured. "They'll get over it. They're always a bit cold to new campers."
"Except for you," Grover grumbled.
"Grover!"
"What? It's true." Grover turned to Percy, ignoring Will's pink. "When Will first got there, he looked like a lost golden retriever. I think Annabeth grew attached rather fast and nobody could be mean to him."
Percy was laughing now at Will's expense, though he managed a sheepish grin. It might not have been his intention, but Grover's words put her own unease out of mind. Will just sarcastically rolled his eyes, rubbing his necklace.
"That Greek trireme bead," Percy said. "Is that from your first year?"
He looked. He hadn't realized what he was doing.
"Yeah," he said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer—"
"Is the diamond's your mom's?"
"Yeah," Will said, nodding."My mom said that she got it from Apollo as a gift when they were dating, or something."
It was silent for a while.
"If the gods fight," Percy began, "if we can't prevent this war… will things line up like the Trojan War? Would Apollo be against Poseidon?"
"I don't know," Will said. "But I know I'll fight next to you."
"Why?"
"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"
Percy couldn't think of an answer, but thankfully, she didn't need to. The truck chose to come to a grinding stop at that moment, and the three instinctively and simultaneously tensed.
"Hide!" Will hissed.
He had it easy. He just put on Annabeth's magic cap and disappeared. Grover and Percy had to dive behind feed sacks and hope they looked like turnips.
The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.
"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.
"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.
The lion roared in indignation.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.
Next to Percy, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.
The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"
The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at Percy.
There was no sound, but as clear as day, she heard it say: Free me, lady. Please.
She was too stunned to react.
There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.
The trucker inside with them yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"
A voice outside—it must've been Eddie's—shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"
"What are you banging for?"
Knock, knock, knock.
Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"
Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.
A second later, Will appeared next to her. He must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. He said, "This transport business can't be legal."
"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"
That's right, the zebra's voice said in Percy's mind.
"We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Will both looked at her, waiting for her lead.
Instead, Percy was frozen. Why were they looking at her? She was still reeling from the zebra talking to her. Why the zebra and not the lion, though? Then she remembered what Chiron had said so long ago: Poseidon, father of horses. Was a zebra close enough to a horse for her to understand?
It seemed like every time she thought her life couldn't get any weirder, the gods, or the Fates, or something, decided to prove her wrong.
The zebra said, Open my cage, lady. Please. I'll be fine after that.
Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but she knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. She grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.
The zebra burst out. It turned to her and bowed. Thank you, lady.
Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.
Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. They rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. They'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.
Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"
"Now would be a good time to leave," Will said.
"The other animals first," Grover said.
Percy cut the locks with her sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.
"Good luck," she told the animals, although she wasn't sure if they could understand. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets.
Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.
"Will the animals be okay?" Percy asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all—"
"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely. They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."
"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?"
"It only works on wild animals."
"Hate to interrupt," Will interrupted, "but we should go."
They stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred degrees, easy, and they must've looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay them much attention.
Well, Grover and Percy looked like deep-fried vagrants. As soon as the sunlight hit Will, he visibly brightened, and that soft, ethereal glow returned to his skin. Percy hardly had time to wonder if the Mist would cover that or if Will currently looked like a human glow-stick to everyone before he had grabbed her hand and dragged her behind him.
They ran past the Monte Carlo and MGM, the pyramids and a pirate ship. When they passed the Statue of Liberty, Percy felt a strange pang in her heart—it was a small replica, but the sight still made her homesick.
Given they had just ruined their ride to Los Angeles, she wasn't sure what to do, but her lungs were on the verge of collapsing in on themselves and Will didn't look like he was going to stop anytime soon.
They must've taken a wrong turn at some point, because they were suddenly at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air conditioning that smelled like flowers—lotus blossom, maybe. Percy'd never smelled one, so she wasn't sure.
"Something's wrong," Will murmured, frowning. "This place sounds familiar."
"Hey kids," the doorman said. "You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"
Percy fought the comfortable lull of the hotel, but it was a losing battle. The guy's voice was so sympathetic that she found herself almost believing that he knew all about their quest and only wanted to help. Even Will looked tempted, and though he made no move to go in, Grover had eagerly nodded and dragged the two of them in with no resistance.
"Whoa," he said.
The whole lobby was a giant game room. And it wasn't cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. There was an indoor water slide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.
"Hey!" a bellhop said. At least she guessed he was a bellhop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."
"We don't have any money," Will said.
"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room four-oh-oh-one. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."
He handed them each a green plastic credit card.
Clearly he thought they were some millionaire's kid, but Percy took the card anyway. "How much is on here?"
His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"
He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."
Will looked pained as they took the elevator, as if fighting with himself.
"Something's wrong," he muttered, but only reluctantly.
"It's just for one night," Grover said. "Then we'll be back on our quest tomorrow."
Their suite had three bedrooms, a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips, a hotline to room service, fluffy towels, waterbeds, feather pillows, and a giant television with satellite and high-speed Internet. They had their own hot tub and, sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun. Percy didn't see how that could be legal, but she thought it was pretty cool. The view over the Strip and the desert was amazing, though she doubted they'd ever have time to look at the view with a room like this.
"Fine," Will said, but it didn't sound as reluctant as before. "One night."
The first time Percy did was take a shower. Not only did it feel awesome after a week of grimy travel, but the water strengthened her, and when she stepped out, she felt as though she had just been given a massage.
The clothes in the closet were all her size, which she found a bit strange, but she quickly dismissed the thought. How could she be trying to find flaws in such a perfect place? There was something that nagged her, though. She had had a dream… she was supposed to tell her friends… but it could wait.
When she came out of her bedroom, she found Will and Grover had also changed clothes, Grover eating the bag of chips like a single one and Will absentmindedly strumming his ukulele.
"I love this place," Grover said dreamily.
Without him even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes and lifted him a foot off the ground, then back down again.
"So what now?" Will asked. "Sleep?"
Grover and Percy looked at each other and grinned. They both held up their green plastic LotusCash cards.
"Play time," she said.
Percy couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun. She came from a relatively poor family. Their idea of a splurge was eating out at Burger King and renting a video. A five-star Vegas hotel? Forget it.
She bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the waterslide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter. She saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing—where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. Will was playing some guitar hero thing, some sort of archery game, and what looked like holographic Operation.
Percy had just been thinking about going back up to her room and changing into a swimsuit—she had chanced a peek at their enormous pool—when she accidentally crashed into someone.
"Sorry!"
It was a girl around Percy's age, maybe a year younger, with a floppy green hat. A young boy—her brother, judging by their similar appearance—who had been hovering behind her had come running to the other girl's aid.
"Bianca!"
"It's okay," Percy said, half-laughing. "Sorry too. I should've been watching where I was going. I'm Percy."
Bianca hesitated. "I'm Bianca. This is my brother, Nico."
"Well, I have to go, but nice to meet you!"
By the time she had made it up back to their room, she had already forgotten about Bianca and Nico.
It must've been hours before she realized something was wrong.
She had just gotten out of the pool, hair still in a towel—the pool had its own shower, which she still couldn't get over—though her t-shirt and shorts still dripping wet, but she hadn't bothered going upstairs. She had been distracted by the VR sharshooters game.
The guy next to her seemed just a year older, but his clothes were weird. He looked like some Elvis impersonator's son, in bell-bottom jeans and a red t-shirt with black piping, as well as gelled and permed hair.
They played a game of sharpshooters together and he said, "Groovy, man. Been here two weeks, and the games keep getting better and better."
Groovy?
Later, while they were talking, Percy said something was "sick", and he looked startled, as if he'd never heard the word used that way before.
He said his name was Darrin, but as soon as she started asking him questions he got bored and started to go back to the computer screen.
Percy said, "Hey, Darrin?"
"What?"
"What year is it?"
He frowned at her. "In the game?"
"No. In real life."
He had to think about it. "Nineteen-ninety-seven."
"No," she said, getting a little scared. "Really."
"Hey, man. Bad vibes. I got a game happening."
After that he totally ignored her.
She started talking to people, and she found it wasn't easy. They were glued to the TV screen, or the video game, or their food, or whatever. She found a guy who told her it was nineteen-eighty-five. Another guy said nineteen-ninety-three. They all claimed they hadn't been in here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most. They didn't really know and they didn't care.
Then it occurred to her: how long had she been here? It seemed like only a couple of hours, but was it?
Percy tried to remember why they were here. They were going to Los Angeles. They were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. Her mother… for a scary second, she had trouble remembering her name. Sally. Sally Jackson. Percy had to find her. She had to stop Hades from causing World War Three.
She vowed to never again let her instincts rule over Will's.
She managed to find him playing the hardest level of operation. His hands flew at lightning speed as he worked on about a hundred different surgeries at once, his ukulele—thankfully—still strapped on his back.
"Will, we have to get out of here."
No response.
She shook him. "Will?"
He looked up, annoyed. "What?"
"We need to leave."
"Leave? What are you talking about? I've just passed this level—"
"This place is a trap."
He didn't respond until she shook him again. "What?"
"Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!"
"Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes."
"Will, there are people here from nineteen-seventy-seven. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever."
"So?" he asked. "Can you imagine a better place?"
Percy, finally seeing that there was no way she could convince him, grabbed the closest tool—one of those little knives surgeons used—and stabbed it into the holographic guy's chest. Will and the patient screamed as holographic blood sprayed everywhere.
"Percy!" he yelled. Nobody bothered looking over, at least. They were too busy. "It look me an hour to get there—"
She forced him to look into her eyes as she said, "Tsunamis. Large, scary waves that can kill you."
That jarred him. His vision cleared. "Oh my gods," he said. "How long have we—"
"I don't know, but we've got to find Grover."
They found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter.
"Grover!" they both shouted.
He said, "Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!"
"Grover!"
He turned the plastic gun on Percy and started clicking, as if she were just another image from the screen.
She looked at Will, he nodded, and together, they took Grover by the arms and dragged him away. His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!"
The Lotus bellhop hurried up to them. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"
"We're leaving," Will told him.
"Such a shame," he said, and she got the feeling that he really meant it, that they'd be breaking his heart if they went. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."
He held out the cards, and Percy wanted one. But she knew that if she took one, she'd never leave. She'd stay here, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon she'd forget her mom, and her quest, and maybe even her own name. She'd be playing virtual rifleman with groovy Disco Darrin forever.
Grover reached for the card, but Will yanked back his arm and said, "No, thanks."
Their walk to the door seemed like a never-ending battle. The smell of the food and the sound of the games seemed more and more inviting. Without her permission, her mind drifted to their room upstairs. Maybe they could stay the night, sleep in a real bed for once…
Then they burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day they'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert.
Ares's backpack was slung over Percy's shoulder, which was odd, because she was sure she had left it in room four-oh-oh-one, but she had other problems to worry about.
She ran to the nearest newspaper stand and read the year first. Thank the gods, it was the same year it had been when they went in. Then she noticed the date: June twentieth.
They had been in the Lotus Casino for five days.
They had only one day left until the summer solstice.
One day to complete their quest.
There's about a thousand things wrong with this chapter—long wait, too much taken from the original book, and not much AU—but let's not get into that because why dwell on dark thoughts?
I'm not entirely sure how to make the next chapter more unique, so it might be a while until the next update, but it'll be up! Hopefully sooner than later. But we'll see.
Also, AHHH! We've officially passed 100k words in this story!
As always, thank you readers, and shout out to reviewers!
London201516: Haha thank you so much!