With our supplies gone and only our wit and our will, the four of us hiked through the woods in Nw Jersey along the riverbank. New York was behind us, but the Hudson River could still be smelly from where we were. Grover was freaking out with wide eyes. "Three Kindly Ones." He whimpered. "All three at once." Annabeth kept us going, making sure we weren't slowing down.

"Come on!" She pressed, "The farther we get away, the better."

"All of our money was back there." Percy complained. "Our food, and clothes, everything."

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would have been fine."

"Sliced like sandwich bread, but fine." Grover added.

"Shut up, goat boy."

"TIn cans...a perfectly good bag of tin cans."

"Jackson, you were brave back there." I stated as we walked. I didn't turn to the young boy, but I could feel his gaze on me. "You could have escaped and left us but…" I glanced at the son of the Sea God, "You came back for us. That's the sign of a true hero."

"We're a team, right?" Percy asked woridly.

"It's just that if you died, aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over." Annabeth but in. "This may be my only chance to see the real world."

"The real world sucks, Annabeth." I muttered. "Don't get your hopes up."

"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?"

"No...only short field trips. My dad-"

"The history professor."

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."

"How about you, Mako." Percy asked, looking up at me. "You said you've been thre since you were eight?" I nodded.

"Ethan was four." I added. "Monsters were getting close to our house, I grabbed him and ran. A Grover found us, we picked up a couple others along the way and we came to Camp. I go back home every school year 'cause our dad needs to be put in line once in a while. Other than that, I'm always at Camp."

"You're pretty good with that knife." Percy said to Annabeth, "And Mako, you're an expert with that...that…"

"Halberd."

"Yeah, that."

"You think so?" Annabeth wondered.

"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."

"You know, maybe I should tell you...Something funny back on the bus…" We were interrupted thy a shrill triple toot.

"Hey! My reed pipes still work." Grover cheered. "If I could remember a 'find path's song, we could get out of these woods!" Instead of us finding us away out of the woods, Percy whacked his head into a tree. We treaked though the forest for another couple miles before a neon sign cut through the trees. The smell of deep-fried and greasy food started to waft through the air. We soon came across an abandoned two-lane road that split the forest. On the side oppitie us, we could see a closed down gas station, a billboard of a long-closed down movie, and the neon light business. It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like McDonald's, it was more so a curio shop that would sell useless garbage to gullible tourists. The neon sign was is in cursive English. Which was perfect. Not only is my Italian-Latin-hardwired brain not able to process english properly, it was in cursive! It makes it so much worse.

"What does it say?" Percy wondered.

"I don't know." Annabeth replied.

"Don't look at me, the thing looks like scribble." I added.

"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium." Grover read out. I could see two cement garden gnomes out the front, they were perfectly carved. Percy then crossed the road, towards the smell. I shrugged, following him with Annabeth trailing behind. Grover nervously trotted after us.

"Hey…" He started to warn.

"The lights are on inside." Annabeth said, "Maybe it's open."

"Snack bar." Percy sighed wistfully.

"Snack bar."

"Are you three crazy?" Grover asked. "This place is weird." The front lawn of the Gnome Emporium was littered with many different statues, woodland creatures, normal gnomes and some larger pieces like groups of tourists that seemed to look like they just had their picture taken. "Bla-ha-ha!" Grover bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!" We stopped at the warehouse door, and my hair stood on end. Something wasn't right. "Don't knock." Grover pleaded. "I smell Monsters.

"You're nose is clogged up from the Furies." Annabeth said. "All I smell is burgers."

"I'll go 'round and case the site for Monsters." I said, patting Grover on the shoulder. "You kids go get something to eat."

"You're not that much older than us." Percy stated.

"You're twelve, Grover's practically a teenager in an adult Satyr body, I'm sixteen, I'm the most mature out of all of us. Go." I practically shoved the goat-man towards the food. I pressed the button on my ring and my Halberd formed in my grip. I started to go around the building. There were more statues, some of families, others were woodland creatures, the range was exquisite. However, I noticed that the clothing style seemed to regress. Late 2000's started to bleed into the 90's, then the 80's, and so on and so forth. I became deeply suspicious when the statues became less and less posed, more as if they were jump scares, and the clothing seemed to be set around the late 1800's. My eyes widened when it finally hit me. I turned tail and ran back towards the warehouse. I heard the unmistakable hissing of snakes, and turned my gaze downward.

"Too late!" I heard someone cackle, then there was a hiss and a thunk. I ran towards the noise and saw Annabeth holding a black cloth that was dripping green ooze.

"You just…" I breathed, pointing the pike of my Halberd between the three. "You three just took on Medusa...yourself...and lived."

"Wasnt that hard." Percy bragged. I heard a groan and Grover dropped down from a bear statue. He had a massive knot on his head, his rasta-hat was hanging off one of his horns and he lost his fake feet. Flying Shoes were circling as well. "The Red Baron. Good job, man."

"That really was not fun, though." Grover admitted. "Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun." Grover grabbed his shoes as Percy re-capped his sword. I sighed, pressing a button on the shaft of my weapon and it returned to it's ring form. We scrounged up a couple of grocery bags and packed Medusa's severed head into them. We plopped down on a bench and the three caught their breath.

"So we have Athena to thank for this monster?" Percy asked. Annabeth glared at him.

"Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."

"Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."

"'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'" Annabeth mocked.

"Forget it. You're impossible."

"You're insufferable."

"You're-"

"Hey!" I barked. "I didn't fight the damn Gorgon, but you two are already tiring me out with your bickering. What are we gonna do with that." I pointed at Medusa's head, where a snake was hanging out of a hole. "Because I am certainly not lugging that thing around with us." Percy then stood.

"I'll be back."

"Percy!" Annabeth called after him as he left us. "What are you-" He then came back after a while holding a box, a couple mortal bills, some Gold Drachmas and a couple packing slips. My eyebrows pinched together as I watched the boy. He packed Medusa's head and filled the delivery slip. I looked over his shoulder to see what he was writing.

The Gods

Mount Olympus

600th Floor,

Empire State Building

New York, NY

With best wishes,

PERCY JACKSON

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent." Percy put some of the Drachmas into the pouch. When it closed, there was a cash register closing sound and the package floated off the table for a second, hovered, and then disappeared with an audible 'pop'.

"I am impertinent." Percy said.

"Let's go." I said, standing up. "We gotta get out of here, come up with a new plan before Zeus decides to smite the Gnomes."