Hades isn't an evil god, or even a jerk god. He's just very stressed and tried. He also wants to play with the bestest dog in the world more.
I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON RICK RIORDAN DOES! I only have rights to Atlanta and, just Atlanta. The stories are still in Percy's POV.
Chapter nineteen: We Find Out the Truth Sort Of
Imagine the largest concert crowd you've ever seen, a football field packed with a million fans.
Now imagine a field a million times that big, packed with people, and imagine the electricity has gone out, and there is no noise, no light, no beach ball bouncing around over the crowd. Something tragic had happened backstage. Whispering masses of people are just milling around in the shadows, waiting for a concert that will never start.
If you can picture that, you have a pretty good idea what the Fields of Asphodel looked like. The black grass had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. Black trees-Grover told me they were poplars-grew in cli=umps here and there.
The cavern ceiling was so high above it might've been a bank of storm clouds, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint gray and looked wickedly pointed. I tried not to imagine they'd fall on us at any moment, but dotted around the fields were several that had fallen and impaled themselves in the black grass. I guess the dead didn't have to worry about little hazards like being speared by stalactite the size of booster rockets.
Annabeth, Grover, Ermis, Atlanta, and I tried to blend into the crowd, keeping an eye out for security ghouls. I couldn't help looking for familiar faces among the spirits of Asphodel, but the dead are hard to look at. Their faces shimmer. They all look slightly angry or confused. They will come up to you and speak, but their voices sound like chatter, like bats twittering. Once they realize you can't understand them, they frown and move away.
The dead aren't scary. They're just sad.
We crept along, following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gated toward a black-tented pavilion with a banner that read:
JUDEMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION
Welcome, Newly Deceased!
Out the back of the tent came too much smaller lines.
To the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment, which glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas. Even from far away, I could see people being chases by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music. I could just struggling to move his boulder to top. And I saw worse tortures, too- things I don't want to describe.
The line coming from the right side of the judgement pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls, a gated community, which seemed to be only happy part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions. Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors. I could hear laughter and smell barbecue cooking.
Elysium.
In the middle of that valley was glittering blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. The Isles of the Blest, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium. Immediately I knew that's where I wanted to go when I died.
"That's what it's all about," Annabeth said, like she was reading my thoughts. "That's the place for heroes."
But I thought of how few people there were in Elysium, how tiny it was compared to the Fields of Asphodel or even the Fields of Punishment. So few people did good in their lives. It was depressing.
We left the judgement pavilion and moved deeper into the Asphodel Fields. It got darker. The colors faded from our clothes. The crowds of chattering spirits begin to thin.
After a few miles of walking, we began to hear familiar screech in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three dark batlike creatures: the Furies. I got the feeling they were waiting for us.
"I suppose it's too late to turn back," Grover said wistfully.
"We'll be okay Red Baron," Ermis said, his tone shaky.
"Maybe we should search some of the other places first," Grover suggested. "Like Elysium, for instance…"
"Come on, goat boy." Annabeth grabbed his arm.
Grover yelped. His sneakers sprouted wings and his legs shot forward, pulling him away from Annabeth. He landed flat on his back in the grass.
"Grover," Annabeth chided. "Stop messing around."
"But I didn't-"
He yelped again. His shoes were flapping like crazy now. They levitated off the ground and started dragging him away from us.
"Maia!" he yelled, but the magic word seemed to have no effect. "Maia already! Nine-one-one! Help!"
Ermis got over being stunned first and made a grab for Grover's hand, but missed and his glasses fell off from the force of going for him. Atlanta got over her shock and made a grab for Grover's hand, and I guess she slowed time again because she was able to grab it. But the shoes were stronger, and pulled Atlanta with Grover, picking up speed, skidding downhill like a bobsled.
Annabeth ran after them. I went to help Ermis before I followed but he told me to go. I didn't argue with him.
Annabeth shouted, "Untie the shoes!"
It was a smart idea, but I guess it's not so easy when your shows are pulling you along feetfirst at full speed. Grover tried to sit up, but he couldn't get close to the laces.
We kept running after them, trying to keep them in sight as they zipped between the legs of spirits who chattered at him in annoyance.
I was sure Grover and Atlanta were going to barrel straight through the gates of Hades's palace, but his shoes veered sharply to the right and dragged him in the opposite direction.
The slope got steeper. Grover picked up speed. Annabeth, Ermis, and I had to sprint to keep up. The cavern walls narrowed on either side, and I realized we'd entered some kind of side tunnel. No black grass or trees now, rock underfoot, and the dim light of the stalactites above.
"Grover, Atlanta!" I yelled, my voice echoing. "Hold on to something!"
"What?" they yelled back.
Atlanta and Grover were grabbing at gravel, but there was nothing big enough to slow them down. Atlanta was able to get ahold of the gravel with her prostic arm, but the shoes kept pulling and the arm came off before we could reach them.
The tunnel got darker and colder. The hairs on my arms bristled. It smelled evil down here. It made me think of things I shouldn't even know about-blood spilled on an ancient stone altar, the foul breath of a murderer.
Then I saw what was ahead of us, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
The tunnel widened into a huge dark carven, and in the middle was a chasm the size of a city block.
Grover and Atlanta were sliding straight toward the edge.
"Come on Percy!" Annabeth yelled, tugging art my wrist.
"But that-"
"I know!" she shouted. "The place you described in your dream! But Grover and Atlanta are going to fall if we don't catch them." She was right, of course. Grover's and Atlanta's predicament got me moving again.
They were yelling, clawing at the ground, but the winged shoes kept dragging them toward the pit, and it didn't look like we could possibly get to them in time.
What saved them were Grover's hooves.
The flying sneakers had always been a loose fit on him, and finally Grover hit a big rock and the left shoe came flying off. It sped into the darkness, down into the chasm. The right shoe kept tugging them along, but not as fast. Grover was able to slow himself and Atlanta down by grabbing on to the big rock and using it like an anchor.
Grover and Atlanta were ten feet from the edge of the pit when we caught them and hauled them back up the slop. The other winged shoe tugged itself off, circled around us angrily and kicked our heads in protest before flying off into the chasm to join its twin.
We all collapsed, exhausted, on the obsidian gravel. My limbs felt like lead. Even my backpack seemed beaver, as if somebody had filled it with rocks.
Atlanta and Grover were scratched up pretty bad. Atlanta's hand, elbows and even her chin were bleeding. Grover's hands bleeding. His eyes had gone slit-pupiled, goat style, the way they did whenever he was terrified.
"I don't know how…" he painted. "I didn't…"
"Wait," I said. "Listen."
I heard something-a deep whisper in the darkness.
Another few seconds, and Annabeth said, "Percy, this place-"
"Shhh." I stood.
The sound was getting louder, a muttering, evil voice from far, far below us. Coming from the pit.
Atlanta froze at the sight of the pit and begun to shake and cry. Ermis slid between Atlanta and Grover, Atlanta's prostic arm in hand.
Grover sit up. "Wh-what's that noise?"
Annabeth heard it too, now. I could see it in her eyes. "Tartarus. The entrance to Tartarus."
I uncapped Anaklusmos.
The bronze sword expanded, gleaming in the darkness, and the evil voice seemed to falter, just for a moment, before resuming its chant.
I could almost make out the words now, ancient, ancient words, older even than Greek, As if…
"Magic," I said.
"We have to get out of here," Annabeth said.
Annabeth and I dragged Grover to his hooves and we started back to the tunnel. Ermis helped Atlanta up and pulled her with him, holding onto her arm and hand tightly.
My legs wouldn't move fast enough. My backpack weighed me down. The voice got louder and angrier behind us, and we broke into a run.
Not a moment too soon.
A cold blast of wind pulled at our backs, as if the entire pit were inhaling. For a terrifying moment, I lost ground, my feet slipping in the gravel. If we'd been any closer to the edge, we would've been sucked in.
We kept struggling forward, and finally reached the top of the tunnel, where the cavern widened out into the Fields of Asphodel. The wind died. Something was not happy we'd gotten away.
"What was that?" Grover panted, when wed collapsed in the relative safety of a black poplar grove. "One of Hades's pets?"
Annabeth and I looked at each other. I could tell she was nursing an idea, probably the same one she'd gotten during the taxi ride to L.A., but she was too scared to share it. That was enough to terrify me.
I capped my sword, put the pen back in my pocket. I went over to Atlanta moving hair from her face. Her eyes were flashing gold and tearful. I took her prostic arm from Ermis and attached back on. She took a deep breath , never once letting go of Ermis's hand or looking away from me. She nodded her head. "Let's keep going." I looked at Grover. "You okay man? Can you walk?"
He swallowed. "Yeah, sure. I never liked those shoes, anyway."
He tried to sound brave about it, but he was trembling as badly as the rest of us. Whatever was in the pit was nobody's pet. It was unspeakably old and powerful. Even Echidna hadn't given me that feeling. I was almost relieved to turn my back on that tunnel and head toward the palace of Hades.
Almost.
The Furies circled the parapets, high in the gloom. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open.
Up close, I saw that the engraving on the gates were flickering between two things. One of them was scenes of death. Some were from modern times- an atomic bomb of death. Some were from modern times-an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls. The other one was oddly enough of flowers. Some were blooming, others weren't. There were butterflies, bees, and other insects that you would find in a garden. Below a rose engraving I saw five name in the metal, but I couldn't make out what names-but both of them looked as if they been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. I wondered which of the images were the real one.
Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden I'd ever seen. Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as my fist, clumps of raw diamonds. Standing here and there like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues-petrified children, satyrs and centaurs-all smiling grotesquely.
In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. "The garden of Persephone," Annabeth said. "Keep walking."
I understood why she wanted to move on. The tart smell of those pomegranates was almost overwhelming. I had a sudden desire to eat them, but then I remembered the story of Persephone. One bite of Underworld food, and we would never be able to leave. I pulled Grover away to keep him from picking a big juicy one.
We walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through black marble portico, and into the House of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above. I guess they never had to worry about rain down here.
Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military dear. Some wore Greek armor, some British recoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears, or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered us, but their hollow eye sockets followed us as we walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.
Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at us, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.
"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."
"You'd have to be stupid to bother this man with that junk," Ermis said
My backpack weighed a ton now. I couldn't figure out why. I wanted to open it, check to see if I had somehow picked up a stray bowling ball, but this wasn't the time.
"Well, guys," I said. "I suppose we should… knock?"
A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.
"I guess that means, entrez-vous," Annabeth said.
The room inside looked just like my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was occupied.
He was the third god I'd met, but the first who really stuck me as godlike.
He was at least six feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet back. He wasn't bulked up like Ares but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused gold, and different gems, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.
I immediately felt like he should be giving the orders. He knew more than I did. He should be my master. Atlanta elbowed me in the ribs as if saying snap out of it.
Hades's aura was affecting me, just like Ares's had. The Lord of the Dead resembled pictures I'd seen of Adolph Hitler, or Napoleon, or the terrorist leaders who direct suicide bombers. Hades had the same intense eyes, the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma.
"You are brave to come here, children of Poseidon," he said in a sooth and rough voice. "After what you two have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."
Numbness crept into my joints, tempting me to lie down and just take a little nap at Hades's feet. Curl up here and sleep forever.
I fight the feeling and stepped forward, Atlanta at my side. I knew what I had to say. "Lord, and Uncle, I come with two requests."
Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his thrown, the folds of his black robes seemed to form shadowy faces. Faces of torment that you'd imagine the souls in the Field of Punishment would make. The ADHD part of my brain wondered, off-task wither his clothes were really made that way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades's underwear.
"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."
I swallowed. This was going about as well as I'd feared.
I glanced at the empty, smaller thrown next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. I wished Queen Persephone were here. I recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, created the seasons.
Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded me in the back. But before I could speak, Atlanta did first.
"Lord Hades," Atlanta said. "What my brother means is. This has to stop."
"What are you doing?" Grover whispered. "You're going to make him mad."
"It's okay Grover," Atlanta said. "I know you had nothing to do with the big baby's toy getting taken."
Hades's eyes widen in shock, and mild amusement, from Atlanta calling Zeus a baby. "You believe I had nothing to do with this?"
"I know you didn't. And I know, you know Poseidon had nothing to do with it either. Thievery isn't his style."
"You speak up for your father, even though he only clamed your brother," Hades said. "Why?"
"Poseidon isn't my father. Mom…Sally Jackson adopted me." Hades looked shocked. "I'm not related to them in the way everyone thinks I am."
"That…that does not change my anger for what you and your brother have done."
I glanced at back at our friends. They looked as confused as me.
"Um…Uncle," I said. "You keep saying 'after what you and your brother have done' What exactly have we done?" I asked.
The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, form every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.
Hades bellowed, "Do not act as if you do not know what you two did, godling."
"There is no acting! We don't know what you're talking about!"
Hades made a move to stand up, when something went flying at him. Whatever it was, smacked him squarely in the face and I felt Atlanta hit the back of my head.
I looked at the floor by Hades's feet and say Atlanta's shoe. I looked at her and say her take her other shoe off and tossed it up in the air and catch it several times. She had an unamused look on her face.
"Percy stop talking," Atlanta said calmly. "And Hades, stopping acting like Zeus."
Hades glared at her, holding his nose. "I am nothing like Zeus!"
That's a sore spot.
"You're acting like it. You're blaming us for something we didn't do just like Zeus is."
Atlanta was calm. Which was scary.
"I will not hesitate to throw my other shoe at you. Be calm and talk to us," Atlanta said carefully. "Why would Zeus and Poseidon think you would want a war?"
"He's the Lord of the Dead," I said carefully not to anger Atlanta or Hades. "A war would expand his kingdom, right?"
"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"
"Well…" Ermis said.
"Have you any idea how much my kingdom had swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but Atlanta put a hand on my shoulder stopping me.
"More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgement pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used be calmer, have more time to play with Cerberus and the Underworld wasn't in such a disarray. I control of the precious metals under the earth, but all of it goes towards the Underworld's expenses. All the expenses!"
"Charon wants a pay rises," I blurted, jut remembering the fact. As soon as I said it, I wished I could sew up my mouth.
"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He hardly does his job in the first place. There are problems everywhere, and I have to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godlings. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."
"But you took Zeus's mater bolt," Annabeth accused.
Oh no I thought.
"Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from this throne, growing to the height of a football goalpost. "Percy Jackson's father may fool Zeus, daughter of Athena, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."
"His plan?" I asked.
"You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus. You took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not spent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war. But now you have been forced into the open. You will exposed ads Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"
"But-" Annabeth spoke.
"Shut up, you got him mad in the first place," Ermis said. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness was stolen too?"
"Do not play innocent with me, son of Medusa. You, the satyr, and my niece's daughter have been helping these heroes-coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt-to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"
"No!" I said. "Poseidon didn't-Atlanta and I didn't-"
"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon for fear is missing. So I searched for you and your sister myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."
"You didn't try to stop us? But-"
"Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy and Atlanta Jackson-your skeletons will set an example of my rage."
The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.
At that point, I probably should have been terrified. The strange thing was, I felt offended. Nothing gets me angrier than someone threatening my sister, and being accused of something I didn't do. I've had a lot of experience with both.
"Atlanta is right, you're as bad as Zeus," I sad. "You think Atlanta and I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after us?"
"Of course," Hades said.
"And the other monsters?"
Hades curled his lips. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you two-I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"
"That was easily?" Ermis asked.
"Return my property!"
"But we don't have your helm. We came for the master bolt," Annabeth said.
"Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could threaten me!"
"But we don't have it!" I yelled.
"Open your pack, then."
A horrible feeling stuck me. The weight in my backpack, like a bowling ball. It couldn't be…
I slung it off, my shoulder and unzipped it. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.
"Percy," Grover said. "How-"
"I-I don't know. I don't understand."
"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride make you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining too. And now… my helm. Where is it?"
I was speechless. I had no helm. I had no idea how the master bolt had gotten some kind of trick. Hades was the bad guy wasn't he? But suddenly the world turned sideways. I realized Atlanta and I'd been played with. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades had been set at each other's throats by someone else. The master bolt had been in the backpack, and I'd gotten the backpack from…
"Ares!" Atlanta yelled.
"Lord Hades, wait," I said. "This is a set up. A mistake."
"A mistake?" Hades roared.
The skeletons aimed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's thrown. The one with Mrs. Dodds face grinned at me and Atlanta eagerly and flickered her whip.
"There is no mistake," Hades said. "Your mother was to be a bargaining chip for the bolt, but your sister, manage to stop the Minotaur before I could collect her myself. But she will not be safe until K have my helm back in my possession."
I grew angry. He was threatening our mother for a helm that we didn't have. I take it back, he's worse than Zeus.
"Our mother did nothing to you," Atlanta yelled.
"No," Hades said. "But you and your brother have."
I thought of the pearls in my pocket. Maybe they could get us out of this.
"Ah, the pearls," Hades said, and my blood froze. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."
My hand moved against my will and brought out four of the pearls.
"Only three," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."
I looked at Annabeth, Grover, Ermis, and Atlanta.
"We were ticked," I said. "Set up."
"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. And the voice in the pit-"
"We don't know yet," Atlanta said. "But we intend to ask."
"Decide, godlings!" Hades yelled.
"Percy." Grover put his hand on my shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt."
"I know that," I said.
"Leave me here," he said. "Use the fourth pearl on Annabeth and Ermis."
"No!" Ermis said.
"Um guys," I tried.
"I'm a satyr," Grover said "We don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."
"Um, guys," Atlanta tried.
"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You and Ermis go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher's license and start your quest for Pan. Get them out of here I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting."
"I'll stay," Ermis said. "I'm just a gorgon after all."
"No way," Grover said. "I'm staying behind."
"Think again, goat boy," Annabeth said.
I felt like my heart was being ripped in two. They had been with Atlanta and me through so much. I remembered Grover dive-bombing Medusa in the statue garden. Ermis saving us from Crusty, and Annabeth saving us from Cerberus; we'd survive Hephaestus's Waterland ride, the St. Louis Arch, the Lotus Casino. I had spent thousands of miles worried that Atlanta and I would be betrayed by a friend, but these friends would never do that. They had done nothing but save us, over and over, and now they wanted to sacrifice their lives for us.
Atlanta whistled loudly making Ermis, Grover, and Annabeth stopped arguing.
"You guys do remember I was given five pearls right?" I asked, taking the last pearl from my pocket. Ermis's, Grover's, and Annabeth's faces got flushed.
I handed them each a pearl, before giving Atlanta one. I turned and faced my uncle. He was wronged in this too, and he couldn't rely on his own family to help him. It wasn't fair to him. Atlanta and I had to get the bolt back to Olympus and tell Zeus the truth. We had to stop the war.
"I'm sorry," I told him. "We'll be back. Promise."
The angry look on Hades's face faded. He said, "Godlings?"
"We'll find your helm, Percy's Uncle," Atlanta told him. "We'll return it. And I'll throw my other shoe at Zeus for you."
Hades smirked, before remembering he was angry at us. "Do not try and change the subject-'
"And be sure to take a break Uncle, Cerberus is a good boy," I said.
"He's the best good boy in the world!" Hades said.
"And he loves red rubber balls!" Atlanta said.
"Percy and Atlanta Jackson, don't you dare-"
I shouted. "Now, guys!"
We smashed the pearls at our feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened.
Hades yelled. "Get them!"
The army of skeletons rushed forward, swords out, gun clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into flames.
Just as the skeletons opened fire, the pearls fragments at our feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. I was encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground.
Annabeth, Grover, Ermis, and Atlanta were right behind me. Spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles as we floated up. Hades yelled with such a rage, the entire fortress shook and I knew it was not going to be a peaceful night in L.A.
"Loo up!" Grover yelled. "We're going to crash!"
Sure enough, we were racing right toward the stalactites, which I figured would pop our bubbles and skewer us.
"How do we control these things?" Annabeth shouted.
"I don't think we do!" Ermis shouted.
We screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and…Darkness.
Were we dead?
No, I could still feel the racing sensation. We were going up, right through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. That was the power of the pearls, I realized-What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.
For a few moments, I couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of my sphere, then my pearl broke through on the ocean floor. The four other milky sphere, Annabeth, Grover, Ermis, and Atlanta kept pace with me as we soared upward through the water. And-ker-blam!
We exploded on the surface, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"
I grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy. I caught Annabeth and dragged her over too. Ermis had caught Atlanta and they swam over to us. A curious shark was circling us, a great white about eleven feet long.
I said, "Sorry, buddy you have to go."
The shark turned and swam away.
The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from us as fast as he could.
Somehow, I knew what time it was: early morning, June 21, the day of the summer solstice.
In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plums of smoke rising from neighborhoods all over the city. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades's fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after me and Atlanta right now.
But at the moment, the Underworld wasn't my biggest problem.
We had to get to shore. We had to get Zeus's thunderbolt back to Olympus. Most of all, we had to have series conversation with the god who tricked us.