10. I help a Bus go BOOM

The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. Chiron gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies.

Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She also took a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve.

Grover wore a green cap( to hide the horns), fake feet and pants to pass as human. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair with the Surfer dude beside him.

"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."

I heard footsteps behind us.

Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of shoes.

"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."

Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.

Ah this takes me back…

"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me as he handed me the shoes. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."

Luke said, "Maia!"

White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

"Awesome!" Grover said.

Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..."

"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."

"Listen, Percy ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"

"For sure" I said with a grin.

We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.

After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."

"Am not."

"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?" I asked, snickering.

"Oh ... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"

She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited.

"I'm not gonna get to use these am I?" I asked Chiron.

He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."

I nodded. "Hey Grover, catch"

He grabbed them and wore them in a rush.

"Maia!" he shouted.

He got off the ground, and then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass.

"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"

"Aaaaah!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill, heading toward the van.

Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason—they all got more training."

Horse man I became a shinobi at the age of 12, I think I can deal with a fancy lightbulb.

"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. A very familiar pen.

"Isn't this the sword you gave me in the museum?

"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. "Its name is Anaklusmos."

'Riptide,'" I translated.

"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."

"How the hell is a sword not gonna harm them?"

"Celestial Bronze just passes through them, they are simply not important enough to cut them. However, Demi-gods can be hurt by both mortal and godly weapons"

"Well, that's just annoying"

"Now recap the pen."

I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, thinking about getting a chain or something for it to avoid losing it.

"You can't," Chiron said.

"Can't what?"

"Lose the pen," he said. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."

I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill.

"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."

Sure enough, the pen was there.

"Okay, now that's convenient," I admitted.

I put Riptide back in my pocket.

Argus dropped us at the Bud Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?

I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.

Finally, the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled enchiladas.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."

It obviously wasn't 'nothing', but even with my Shinobi senses, I didn't pick anything up.

I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.

As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto my knee. "Percy."

An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered. That wasn't what alarmed me though, When I focused, I could see an aura of power radiating off of her, resembling maroon coloured fire.

It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.

Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise, they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds.

The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan.

"For them to regenerate so quickly, you have got to be the unluckiest- what happened to your eyes?" Annabeth questioned as she looked at my face.

"My eyes?" I questioned, rubbing them.

"They're light blue, and there's a black circle, and a couple of black dots" Grover said, examining them.

That sounds like-

"You got a mirror or something?"

"Yeah, but lets deal with them first" Annabeth hissed.

"Let's just kill em" I suggested.

"NO. We're in a bus seaweed brain, we can't just kill someone in front of all these people"

"Wouldn't the mist make them see something else?"

"We can't be sure of what they'd see, so we're going to have to be subtle"

We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle.

Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, she announced: "I need to use the rest-room."

"So do I," said the second sister.

"So do I," said the third sister.

They all started coming down the aisle.

"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."

"Eh?"

"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."

"What about you guys?"

"There's probably won't notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell should be overpowering."

" I'm not leaving you two on the basis of a 'should' "

"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"

I took the Yankees cap and put it on while muttering something about annoying goats.

I managed to get up ten rows, then jumped into an empty seat just as they walked past.

Mrs. Dodds stopped and looked at me.

Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.

We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard wailing from the back row.

The old ladies were not old ladies anymore, their bodies shrivelled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.

The Furies surrounded Grover and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"

The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.

"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"

The Furies raised their whips.

Annabeth drew her knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.

At that point I figured the bus had a better chance of dealing with the furies than a can and so, applied the technique Jiraiya sensei gave me when I need to get someone to do something for me.

I tickled the driver near the ribs.

Immediately, he flinched, laughing a bit, and left the wheel open for me.

Well then, time for some improvised driving!

I smashed the horn, and then started driving in a zig-zag pattern, slamming all the passengers against the windows.

Finally, we exited the tunnel, and I allowed him to regain control of the vehicle.

I pressed the emergency stop button, and the bus swerved, almost flipping over as the driver managed to manoeuvre it and stopped it beside the road.

The door flew open. The driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him.

The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling them to back off. Grover threw tin cans.

I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave my friends. I took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"

The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea.

"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."

"Didn't I kill you already?"

She growled.

Annabeth and Grover moved up behind the Furies, looking for an opening.

I took the pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.

The Furies hesitated.

Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.

"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."

"I'm 12, not stupid" I told her.

Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.

Ouch, hot whip plus metal sword equals to HOLY SHIT THAT'S HOT.

I dropped the sword and crouched low before jumping and bouncing from the wall of the bus before jumping to the roof and kneeing one of them in the face.

The next second, I managed to grab her whip and hit it straight around the neck of another one and yanked.

I got low again, avoiding 's whip while Annabeth stabbed the other one in the heart.

I shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.

"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"

"Braccas meas vescimini!" I yelled.

I wasn't sure where the Latin came from, but it meant "Eat my pants!"

Thunder shook the bus, the hair rose on the back of my neck in a familiar way.

"Get out!" Annabeth yelled at me. "Now!"

We rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!"

"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our—"

BOOOOOM!

The windows of the bus exploded as the everyone ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not dead yet.

"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"

We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us.