Prophesied Powder, PJO

1.7

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Chapter 7
My Mother's Boyfriend Gives
Us a Side Quest

Volume 1: The Lightning Thief

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Every emergency vehicle in St. Louis had found its way to the Arch before Pat found his friends. Police helicopters were circling overhead, and the noise made Pat want to die. He always hated crowds.

Pallas found him before Pat found the three of them. He had been adjusting his glasses and uncomfortably trying to tap his way through a crowd when Pallas grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and spewed angry French -- or maybe very heavily accented raging English -- as he demanded to 1) know what happened and 2) know if Pat and Percy were okay.

"Pat!" Annabeth hugged him, and then Grover and Pallas were both on him as well. Pat thought back to Percy telling him to run. It was stupid of Percy to think he'd leave him, but it was endearing to remember Percy wanted him to live. Maybe Percy didn't understand how much they cared about him, just like Pat.

They had to lay low, but they weren't able to leave the scene of the crime until they found Percy. Hundreds of newscasters were there, reporting a variety of information: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

"...an adolescent boy," another reporter was saying.

"Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities..."

Pallas had a protective arm on Annabeth and Pat, and he muttered under his breath, "Police everywhere. I will kill Percy."

Pat started laughing weakly, and Pallas scoffed indignantly. He'd had his faith that Pallas would eventually warm up to Percy, and he was proved right. If Pallas wasn't intending on being friendly, he at least had found neutral ground. He was joking and caring. He'd get torn up if Percy jumped off any more Arches.

They'd almost lost hope when Grover bleated, "Perrr-cy!" He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

Grover tackled him in a hug. Pat outstretched his hand and waited for Percy to take it and show him where he was. It was met with hesitation -- he probably should have explained -- but Percy tugged his arm and pulled him into a hug. He was a fierce hugger, or maybe that was only after battles with deadly fire-breathing monsters.

"You got away from Echidna," He sounded relieved.

"You jumped off of the tallest Arch in America," Pat replied.

Percy smiled, "I got away from Echidna."

When they broke up the hug, Annabeth did her best to feign anger. It was so obviously fake that Pat smiled. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes!" She exclaimed, "What happened?"

"I sort of fell." He said.

"Percy!" She cried incredulously, "Six hundred and thirty feet?"

Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling someone on a stretcher. Judging by her voice, she was a woman; she was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"