The cops were surprisingly easy to deal with. They were victims of a terrorist and human trafficking ring, one that brave, young, and willful Percy Jackson had managed to liberate them from. The three kids were all the latest victims of the head of the ring, a nameless man in biker attire, whereas Alexa had been his captive for years, her captor kept alive and trained her to be his successor until she was sent off to recapture the preteens when they had escaped him somewhere between Denver and California. Only, rather than work to bring them back to her captor, Alexa had been attempting to find a safe place from him for the four of them and the vicious pitbull Alexa had been given as a gift several years back. This disobedience forced their tormentor to drug Alexa with a powerful if short acting muscle relaxer and attempt to bring them back in himself. Percy fought the terrorist after a brief escape into the ocean, and the arrival of the LAPD and the gas explosion he had caused scared him off for good.
At least that was the story the police came up with and plastered all over the news. Percy, as any of them would, milked it for all it was worth, using it to get them four plane tickets back to New York, as well as to throw his step dad under the bus by offering everyone who called a large kitchen appliance from his store. The next hour or so found the group in four seats ready for take off. Alexa was sitting at the window with Percy on her right, and Annabeth and Grover in the two seats across the center aisle. This time it was Alexa's turn to comfort Percy as the plane took off, helping the boy through his claustrophobia and his fear of flying, though there was only so much she could do to keep him calm as they traveled. They were all more than happy when they landed in New York, hours later.
Once they had landed Annabeth slipped her cap of invisibility on her head and drew the crowd of reporters off to the other side of the airport. With them occupied, she returned to the group and slapped the cap on Alexa.
"You're the easiest to spot." She explained.
They retrieved Luna and slipped out of the airport. Outside there was a brief argument about who would return to camp and who'd go with Percy to deliver the bolt. In the end Alexa managed to convince the group that the bolt required as much protection as physically possible, and she had the most experience in a fight.
"Not that that means much after today." She added with a chuckle. The group split, she, Luna and Percy on their way to the Empire State Building, Annabeth and Grover headed back to Camp Halfblood.
The doorman recognized Alexa immediately as she walked in, perking up slightly as she approached his stand, his book thumping onto the counter.
"Miss Barber! H-here to see Mrs. White I assume?" He asked with a slight quiver in his voice.
"Not this time." Alexa laughed, nodding at Percy. "I'm just the honor guard."
The doorman looked at Percy who hefted his backpack off one shoulder and unzipped it to reveal just the top of the Master Bolt. The doorman's eyes bugged out a bit more and he quickly grabbed a keycard.
"You know how it works by now. Wait until no one else is in." He said, slipping the card to Alexa. The pair made their way into a free elevator and began the ride upwards.
"Who's Mrs. White?" Percy asked after they hit floor 50 or so.
"That's what they call Hera, down in the mortal area. She's who I'm doing the labors for." Alexa explains. Percy nodded his head and just continued to stare at the numbers flicking by.
"It's going to be okay, you know." Alexa said, trying her damnedest to be encouraging. "Just be humble, be honest, and stick as close to the facts as possible and you'll be fine."
"Aren't you going to be there with me?" Percy asked.
"I don't think I can be. This was your quest, I was just a hitchhiker you picked up along the way. But I'll be right outside, no matter what." Alexa gave his shoulder a pat just as the doors parted. Percy stopped and stared, and Alexa grinned. "I know, right?"
The pair traveled over the winding floating bridge, onto the mountainside of Olympus. Of course, many of the magical and semi-divine residents of the mountain had their own business to attend to, but more than once a curious eye was cast in the pair's direction. More than once she heard someone whisper "New Heracles." Or "Barber!"
Alexa tried to keep a neutral face as she led Percy up to the palace of Olympus. She knocked and the doors slowly creaked open.
"You'll do great!" She whispered to Percy. He nodded and stiffly walked into the throne room. Alexa got a brief glimpse of the middle throne and the fisherman's chair, both filled for the first time, before the doors shut again. Alexa sighed and sat at the foot of Hera's statue, her back against its base and Luna's head in her lap. She scratched her pitbull behind the ears.
"You're worried about him?" She asked. Luna whirred. "Yeah, me too." Alexa agreed.
The minutes dragged on, but Alexa never heard anything that sounded like someone being vaporized or turned into a foamy puddle of sea water…which only served to make her more nervous, wondering what they were doing behind that door. Was Zeus knocking him around the room? Was Percy being tied to a fiery wheel? Were eagles, or perhaps seagulls coming to pluck out the softest bits of the boy she was beginning to think of as a friend?
In the end it was none of these. The doors creaked open and two figures emerged, Percy, and a tanned man in cargo shorts and a Tommy Bahama shirt. Alexa jumped up at once. Poseidon looked at her and gave her a small smile.
"Thank you for helping my son." He said, giving Percy's shoulder a squeeze. Before she could say anything in reply he turned his attention back to Percy. "Remember, Percy, the choice is in your hands, however you decide to proceed." With that Poseidon's body shimmered and he dissolved into a sea breeze, disappearing on the wind. Percy hurried down the steps, Alexa and Luna hot on his heels. He only paused in his steps when the crowd lining the streets of Olympus turned and began to clap and cheer. Percy seemed a little stunned, but Alexa chuckled.
"You did a great thing, Percy. People take notice. " She whispered. "But don't we have somewhere to be?"
He nodded and quickened his step again and didn't slow down until they got to the elevator. They parted with Luna in front of the building and a quick taxi ride later the two of them found themselves in a very…familiar neighborhood.
"You…live here?" Alexa asked, her mouth a little dry.
"Yeah. With my mom and step-dad, why?" Percy asked. Alexa didn't answer right away, she just stared down the street. Two buildings down…she could just see the fire escape…she shivered and forced her eyes away.
"Nothing…come on, let's go." She gently prodded him in the back and the pair hurried inside. Thankfully the inside of the building didn't set off anymore phantoms from her past, they hurried up the stairs unaccosted. Percy knocked on the door and before he could even lift his hand from the cheap wood, the door swung open and a woman with black curly hair swept Percy into her arms.
"Oh Percy! I was so worried!" Said Mrs. Jackson. She began to pull away when she finally noticed Alexa's towering frame. Alexa grinned slightly.
"Don't mind me, ma'am, I'm just the chaperone." She managed to say before Mrs. Jackson gave her another, much smaller hug.
"Thank you for keeping him safe!" She said as she pulled away.
"He kept me safe just as often, Mrs. Jackson, I just wanted to make sure he got home as thanks for the advice a few years back." Alexa explained.
"Advice?" Percy's mom looked a bit puzzled.
"Image me a lot smaller, eating a blue s'more sundae, about to do something stupid, and leaving a two hundred dollar tip." As Alexa described it, the eyes of the woman in front of her grew wider with recognition. She seemed about to say something else when a call came from inside the apartment.
"Sally! Who's at the door!" The voice was a man's but Alexa recognized the tone. It was the entitled 'This is my home I just let you live here' sort of tone that always set her teeth on edge. Sally motioned with her head and the three made their way in. Alexa was hit by the wave of stink the moment she crossed the threshold; the place reeked of garlic, anchovies, body odor, old gym shorts and sweat socks. There were magazines and pizza boxes all over the floor, beer cans littered every spare surface, and there was a group of four around a poker table. The biggest one's eyes laser focused on Percy. The man had a big pot belly, hair that was well beyond thinning, and every number of food stains on his shirt.
"You got a lot of nerve to come back here after wrecking-" He started to say.
"Percy didn't do anything, sweetie. It was all a big misunderstanding and he was cleared of all charges! Isn't that great?" Sally cut him off cheerfully. The man's glare hardened a bit. After a moment of silence he growled.
"I don't care what story he told the cops. I don't feel safe with him in my house!" He jabbed his pudgy finger at Percy.
"Gabe…" Sally began disparagingly.
"He was gone before! He can stay gone! He's more trouble than he'd ever be any good for!" Gabe ended his statement with a laugh that two of his Neanderthal buddies joined in on. Percy's hand went down into his pocket, but Alexa put a hand on his shoulder.
"Why don't you go grab your things…" She said gently before making her way through the piles of garbage. She sent a silent prayer to Tyche and Hermes as she pulled a case of beers over to act as a stool.
"Deal me in." She said, tossing out a 50 dollar bill. Gabe raised an eyebrow, but the dealer, the guy who hadn't been laughing, dealt her two cards and a handful of chips. She waited until Percy and Sally had left the room before she began to speak.
"I feel sorry for you Gabe." She said as she checked her cards, an ace and a jack of spades.
"You're such a loser you have to feel big by taking these guys for a ride in poker and picking on children." She tossed in a few chips as she spoke.
"What the fuck did you call me?" Gabe growled.
"I called you a loser." Alexa repeated. "Am I wrong? You're sitting here in your own filth, you obviously haven't left in days, you can't do a damn thing without Sally if those fast food containers are anything to go by. You can't cook, you can't clean up after yourself, part of me wonders if you can wipe your own ass without someone showing you how."
Gabe's face turned a splotched sort of red as his hand clenched into a fist. Alexa just stared him down calmly. After just a moment he broke the stare and tossed in a handful of chips, which the whole group matched. Three cards were pulled from the deck and turned face up, a five of hearts, a king of spades, and a ten of spades.
"You think this is going to change anything? That little punk had been a pain on my ass since the day I met him! He wrecked my Camaro! He's lucky I don't press charges!" Gabe barked.
"He wasn't driving and your Camaro was probably shit anyway judging by how you take care of things." Alexa responded calmly, pushing a large amount of her chips into the pot.
"And what would you know about it!" Gabe barked as he and his buddies all pushed in a large quantity of chips.
"Besides sitting in a dumpster right now and the fact that I've been in more car engines than you've been in bags of cheese puffs? Not much." Alexa responded as the turn was pulled, revealing a five of spades.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Gabe growled.
"Call me Alexa, and I'm the one telling you that you're a pathetic, useless waste of human garbage. You don't deserve half the things you have, but you still seem to think you're entitled to more. The only reason I'm sitting here in the filth you've made for yourself is because I have that tiny glimmer of hope that you'll do some self reflection and see what a piece of shit you are and change. All in." She ended her statement by pushing all her chips forward, her eyes never leaving the purple faced man. Like clockwork, all of the poker party pushed in their own chips.
"Listen to me you little wannabe therapist. I am not going to change for anyone! I've got everything I could ever want; a wife who'll do anything I say, a job that pretty much runs itself, satellite TV, and a couch to sit on! The only two things I want in this world is to get rid of that brat in there, and to get a new Camaro, and one of those is happening today! Why should I change when I got all that!" The river was turned, revealing the queen of spades.
"You know, a friend of mine once said that a real man helped his fellow man, and protected and cared for those who were under his roof." Even now, just mentioning Marcus made her heart speed up a little, but she refused to acknowledge it. "You are certainly not a man, so what does that make you?"
"A winner! That's what!" Gabe barked, flipping over his hold cards.
"Full house, fives and kings!" He started reaching for the pot as his friends tossed their cards in disgust.
"Royal flush." Alexa said, flipping over her own cards. The look on Gabe's face was priceless, and she had the satisfaction of knowing it happened a few seconds after Percy and Sally returned, Percy with a backpack, Sally with a bag under her arm.
Alexa scooped up her winnings and got to her feet. "Alrighty, come on Percy, the ride back'll be on these guys!" Now that the game was over, Alexa was far more chipper. Gabe, however, glowered as his own friends began getting up to leave.
"Sally, meatloaf and a beer. Now." He demanded.
Sally's eyes flashed as she hefted the thick plastic bags in one hand.
"Sure thing, sweetie." She said, her voice as sickly sweet as poison. "I'm going to make you my special meatloaf surprise!"
Percy couldn't help but grin at his mom as he and Alexa made their exit.