14. I BECOME FAMOUS

I had only one thought.

Aaaaggghhhhh!

Echidna turned into dust halfway down the fall, screaming something about me dying and that she would find me in the underworld ( Which, not gonna lie, is very likely)

The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

Alright, Hestia gave me time abilities, so I gotta somehow gotta learn how to stop falling.

I'm gonna die aren't I?

"TIME, STOP" I yelled at the top of my lungs, thrusting my hands forward.

Incredibly, I saw a piece of falling glass near me stop.

"THAT DOESN'T HELP MEEEEEEEE" I wailed, as that piece was now behind me.

'Okay, now to do the same thing, but to myself.' I thought, closing my eyes to concentrate

Even if I can't, There's a river down there, and If dad actually heard the prayer I made up there then hopefully I should be fine.

I opened my eyes, looking at the ever-nearing river.

I would really rather not test that theory.

I activated my Sharingan, looking down and counted down till I reached a point low enough so that (If I even managed to) if I was able to stop my fall even for a second, the fall after that wouldn't kill me.

3..2..NOW!

"Time, STOP" I roared, but rather than push out, I made an X using my arms across my chest.

I shut my eyes, expecting to hit the river.

Instead, I felt an odd cold sensation all over my body, and cracked open an eye.

What I saw made my jaw dropped.

I was frozen mid-air.

"I can't believe that-WOAAAAH" I yelled as I un-froze and started falling again, this time pretty slowly compared to earlier.

Flaaa-boooom!

I was zonking slowly, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of Gabe lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around me.

I suddenly realise: I was dry, clothes and all

I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.

No way, I thought.

I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.

I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag.

But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.

"Um ... thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you ... Dad."

No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the colour of butterscotch.

Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.

There, not five feet in front of me, was Riptide, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.

I heard a woman's voice: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.

"Where are you?" I called out.

Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the colour of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.

"Who are ya?"

Only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.

"Eh?"

It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.

"I'm so confused right now."

I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts...

Her voice faded.

"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"

She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away.

Well, that's inconvenient.

Your father believes in you, she had said.

She'd also called me brave ... unless she was talking to the catfish.

I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The mortal police must be here by now, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.

I capped my sword and stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket.

Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.

I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.

A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."

"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

"But he's dry!"

"That's nice, dear."

A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.

I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.

"... an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities ..."

I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.

A voice bleated, "Perrr-cy!"

I turned, grabbing the person by the neck and throwing them down to the ground.

"It's me! Grrroooverr!"

"Ah. Don't be sneaking up on me like that man" I muttered, helping him up.

"We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!" he said, massaging his neck.

Annabeth stood behind him "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"I killed a weird underworld dog thing and then fell from there" I said, gesturing to the top of the arch.

"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"

Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"

"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."

"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole with the monster." Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"

I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"

I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.

"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

"First I told Grover. "We've get out of town!"

We made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.