Hey Stranger

Chapter 8

His breath hitched as he laid eyes on the familiar skyline that he had loved so much. The accent was something he had missed dearly, he went as far as putting a bit more force in bumping people or pushing past them to get to the Empire State Building. His voice of shouting, 'Watch it' to tourists mixed in with the actual locals.

"What do we do now?" They were standing in front of the entrance, in their tattered clothes. Annabeth and Grover hadn't had a shower in so long, and Percy was starting to smell it. In a way, it was showing him how long they had been out on their quest.

"Now we go in." Annabeth said and pulled the two of them inside of the building. She was glad to have touched the ground after flying on the pegasus for more than a few hours, but she was more at ease because of the pegasus that Triton gave them, it wasn't Poseidon's, who her mothers hated. Percy had blushed when they touched the ground and she was still holding onto him.

"600th floor please." Annabeth said to the guard, the guard looked bored and the way his face lit up says that her asking for the 600th floor is one of the most amusing things to ask for.

"We don't have that, the highest point only goes up to the 102th floor." The guard said with a coy smile. He looked around, "Where are your parents? Or are you here with your school?"

Annabeth raised her eyebrow at the guard, "No, I'm here with Camp Half-Blood and Zeus' missing weapon." The guard raised his eyebrow and put a hand over his pocket. "Our camp director said that it makes mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"Fine." The guard bit and grabbed a pass out of the elevator. "Stick it in the special access and get out now before that thing explodes." The man said and practically pushed the three of them into the elevator.

Percy had been thrown around the whole day and quite frankly, he was getting tired of it. The guard redirected a group of people to another elevator while he nervously threw looks back at the three. "Smooth." Percy said with a small smile to Annabeth.

"People can't deny power." She replied back with a hum, a smile played at her lips and Percy was just glad to not see her stress. He wondered what she would look like when they're gray and old. He can imagine it won't be long with how much pressure she puts herself under.

As someone who considers himself her friend, he wants to share that pressure, that burden.

Grover couldn't stop picking at his horns, they were small and barely peeking above his curls. Percy just grabbed for his bag that was around Annabeth's shoulder and grabbed out his stress ball before handing it to him. The satyr looked slightly confused and smiled, "thank you, Percy."

"Of course Grover." Percy nodded at him and pursed his lips as the elevator music began playing. Then it stopped and the demigod son of Poseidon finally felt at ease again, instead, when the doors opened, his heart exploded at the view right in front of him.

They walked over paths that could have come straight out of ancient Greek, albeit a bit more modern. Percy could see some similarities to Camp Jupiter, but his ears perked up to the sound of giggles.

A hand grabbed at his arm and Annabeth raised her eyebrows at him, "Are you really getting distracted by the sound of naiads giggling?" She questioned, "We have a bolt to return."

Percy blinked and frowned at Annabeth, "No I wasn't." He argued, "I just heard them." Annabeth let go of his arm and rolled her eyes.

The main palace reminded him of Hades' palace, which was even worse because now Percy was feeling bad for the Lord of the Underworld. He had missed his home so much that he had to build his own.

In a way Percy had done the same with his friends, he had made his military school experience into somewhat of a family. They entered the palace and he was glad to not have done this all on his own.