Nina's Destiny

Ares and Flying,Yay!

When we stepped on the pearls, mist spiraled up from them, encasing each of us in our own personal bubble. We began to float up. It was so cool! I looked up, uh oh. We were heading straight for the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. I flinched and shut my eyes, but we just kept floating up. I opened them to see we were floating up through the ground.

We kept going up until we were near the surface of the ocean. We came up and Annabeth and Grover were gasping for breath. They were soaked. I looked at myself and my brother and realized that we were still dry. When a coast guard boat came to pick us up, we willed ourselves to become wet. Percy had learned how to use his Mage magic well throughout the quest. We got towels over our shoulders and water bottles that said I'm a junior coast guard. Liar! Shut up, Brain.

We now knew the Master Bolt was in the backpack Ares had given us. When I saw him next...The coast guard dropped us off at the Santa Monica Pier. Thank the gods they had a lot of distress calls, otherwise they would start asking questions none of us would know how to answer. That would be bad. Percy was now barefoot, having given his shoes to Grover so no one would wonder about the hooves.

Annabeth started grumbling about how she should have realized the trick. I rolled my eyes. Nobody's perfect, Bird Brain. She then started apologizing about our mother. I waved her off, not wanting to talk about it and I could tell Percy was ignoring her. I glanced at him and the last line of the prophecy came to my mind. And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end. Our mother mattered most to Percy on this quest. I went over and hugged him. He hugged me back.

"The god who has turned wasn't Hades," Annabeth said aloud. No duh, Sherlock. "It was Ares." Never would have guessed that one. "How of we get all the way back to Manhattan to get Zeus the bolt?" The rest of us shrugged. I couldn't transport all four of us that far. I would kill myself with the magical exhaustion. Percy hadn't learned how to mist travel yet and would seriously hurt himself. I didn't know what to do and it was frustrating me.

We began walking down the beach. Everyone was talking about how Ares was about to start a three-way war. When we were almost to the road, what do we see? Ares in all his idiotic glory. I growled and pulled out my bow. Singing my quiver over my back for easy access. Percy pulled out Riptide. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Jackson twins, and company," he added as an afterthought. "You were supposed to die in Tartarus. You know girly," he continued, looking at me, "Apollo doesn't really like you. There was a prophecy made back in ancient times about the first born daughter of Poseidon. She was supposed to fall in love with Apollo and they would get married. That's the real reason he hung with you." I felt tears start to prickle at the corners of my eyes. I didn't want to believe him, but, suddenly, what the oracle said made sense. Your destiny lies with the sun. It all made sense. Why else would two 14 year olds walk up to a little girl in the middle of Central Park.

I growled at him and aimed the arrow in my bow at his face, just as a tear fell down my face. He howled with laughter. I trie to stop the tear, but I couldn't. I had never been loved by anyone except my brother, and now I'm realizing that my closest friend didn't give a rat's but about me. Percy and Ares started arguing about how this plan wasn't Ares' idea. No duh, it was Kronos' idea. Ares had had enough. He summoned a boar and sent it at my brother. I shot the creature and Percy cut one of its tusks off. It lost its balance and veered into the sea.

"Are you going to fight me now!" my brother shouted at Ares. "Or are you going to hide behind another pet pig?"

Ares face turned the color of a grape. I was kind of impressed by it. "Watch it, kid. I could turn you into-"

"A cockroach. Or a tapeworm. Yeah, I'm sure. That would save you from getting your godly hide whipped." I groaned at Percy's stupidity.

"Oh, man, you are really asking to get smashed into a grease spot."

"If I lose, you get to turn me into whatever you want. Take the bolt. If I win, the helm and bolt are mine and you have to go away.

Ares swung the baseball bat off his shoulder. "How do you want to get smashed: classic or modern?"

Percy showed him Anaklusmos. Ares' baseball bat shifted into a two-handed sword. I glanced at my brother worriedly. What had he gotten himself into this time? They started battling. Percy would never win on the sand. Get to the water! I thought to him. He nodded at me and started backing up. Ares seemed to notice this, so he knocked my brother into a sand dune.

I turned around when I heard sirens. It was the police. Just perfect, now all we need are a couple monsters. I heard a shriek above me. I have to stop thinking about this stuff. All three Furies were circling the pair that was fighting. The police had now surrounded the area. I looked over at my brother to see him holding the tides back. Nice one, baby bro. Ares was wading out to meet him. One cop told them to drop the guns. So that's what the mortals are seeing. Stop it, me. Ares waved his hand and the cop cars all blew up. Oh, thank the gods, well not Ares, no one got hurt.

I turned back to the fight in time to see Ares start to glow. Grover yelled at us to shut our eyes and we all did. When I opened them again, Ares was gone and the Helm of Darkness was in front of me. I handed it to Alecto, the Furie that apparently pretended to be my brother's Pre-algebra teacher, asking her to bring it back to my uncle. She agreed and the three monsters disappeared. We agreed to get back to New York on time we needed to fly.

I thanked the Mist a whole lot for the rest of the day. The news said the explosion was caused when a crazy kidnapper fired a gun and it hit a gas pipe. They interviewed us all and it wasn't hard for me to pretend to be a scared little victim. They decided that my brother and I were not fugitives and that Ares had kidnapped us. The only thing they couldn't figure out was how I got kidnapped too because when my brother was "taken", I was still in England. I let my tears fall about what Ares had told me about the prophecy now. Besides, it helped the news lady believe me better.

"I was waiting outside the airport for my stepfather," I started, sniffling. My brother was standing behind me with his arms around me. Annabeth and Grover were huddled close to us. "The m-man drove up to me and I couldn't see him because I was of the p-passenger side of the c-car. I saw my br-brother in the passengers seat. It wasn't my st-stepfathers car, but I hadn't seen my family s-since early September s-so I didn't see a problem. Th-they could have just for-forgotten to write t-to me about it. I climbed int-to the back seat after p-putting m-my things in the trunk and locked the door. The man started driving. I looked up and saw the man wasn't m-my stepfather and th-that P-percy was unconconscious. I didn't know w-what t-to do and I couldn't j-jump out because we-we were already on the highway by now." Here I turned around and buried my face in Percy's shirt.

"All we want," Percy continued for me, "is to see our loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling my sister and me delinquent punks, I knew...somehow...we would be okay. And I know he'll want to reward each and every person in this beautiful city of Los ANgeles with a free major appliance from his store." I coughed here to stop my laughter at my brother's words. "Here's the phone number." The police and news reporters were so moved by our story, they passed around a hat for four tickets on the next plane to New York. Yay, I get to ride in a plane.

The plane ride was awesome. The whole time, Percy was praying to every air god he could think of. Even ones that weren't Greek. I laughed a little when he started praying to an Egyptian air goddess. I stared out the window the whole time. We were so high up, I couldn't even see the houses. I gave everyone gum that I had summoned from my charm for the ascent and descent so their ears wouldn't pop. They were very appreciative. It was the best thing ever, being up in the air.

When we landed, Annabeth and Grover got in a taxi to Long Island and Percy and I got in a taxi to Manhattan. No matter how much I hated Annabeth, it was sad to see the two go after all we had been through. Percy didn't want them to get hurt if Zeus didn't listen to us.

When we got to the empire state building, I asked for Mt. Olympus. The guy behind the desk called me crazy. I was ready to slap him when Percy told him that he had the Master Bolt. The guy was fast to give us the key card and rush us into the elevator. We went up to the 600th floor. When the doors opened, I decided something. Hogwarts was a pile of rubble compared to Olympus. That's saying something. When we made it to the throne room, there were two gods sitting there, glaring at each other.