Indigo Eyes

Chapter 3

"I've got it!" Annabeth exclaimed. "Percy, take my hat."

"What?" Percy said.

"Cressida is right. You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away," she reasoned.

"But you guys-"

"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."

"I can't just leave you," he insisted.

"Just take the cap and go, Fish Face!" Cressida urged as quietly as possible.

"Don't worry about us," Grover promised. "Go!"

Cressida took her bag back, slinging it onto her shoulders as Percy reluctantly took the cap and disappeared.

After Percy vanished, Cressida was surprised at the fact that Annabeth was actually working with her as they communicated using the simple signs they were taught in their battle strategy classes. But after watching the demon grandmothers sniff the air right where she could sense Percy, she was quick to stand on her seat as she drew her spear.

"Alecto!" she called, drawing the monster's attention as they transformed, their bodies almost shrivelling and becoming leathery creatures with bat wings and flaming whips.

"Where is it? Where?!" it hissed as Annabeth drew her dagger and rose, dodging the fiery whips.

"He's not here! He's gone!" Annabeth yelled before a whip was lashed at her and Cressida used her spear to knock it out of the way.

Then the bus began to swerve.

The trio were thrown off their feet and into the windows as the bus careened out of the Lincoln tunnel and into the rainstorm, other passengers also being tossed around as the bus ploughed past cars. Cressida lost track of where they were as they were tossed about like ships in a storm before the bus screeched as it spun in a full circle before crashing into a tree.

As the emergency lights turned on and the doors opened, the driver and the humans began disembarking as they yelled at the driver while the Furies regained their balance. They began lashing out with their whips again, Cressida already back on her feet as she faced the three of them, her adrenaline pumping high as she dodged their whips and tried to jab them with her spear.

It was only when she let out a scream as one of the whips - she'd blocked from hitting Grover who was throwing tin cans - lashed her arm and it felt like she was plunging her bare hand into the fires in the forges in the Hephaestus cabin.

"HEY!" Percy called as he removed the cap and became visible again.

"Perseus Jackson," Alecto growled. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."

"I like you better as a maths teacher," Percy retorted as the creature snarled again and Percy brought out a ballpoint pen from his pocket and uncapped it to reveal a shimmering double-edged sword.

Being dazed by the pain in her arm, Cressida could barely make out what was said next as Annabeth told Percy to watch out. And while she and Grover took care of one Fury, and Percy took care of his former maths teacher, that left the last one to come after her.

And rather than grow scared, because really that's the only way one could feel when fighting the Furies, she remembered her brother's words. Show them how powerful a daughter of Dionysus can be.

And she tightened her grip on her spear before she ducked under the whip and threw her spear like a javelin.

The Fury vanished as it was dispelled, and her weapon clattered to the floor as she heard Percy yell words in Latin that meant 'eat my pants.' She didn't understand why he said it but the pain in her arm and what she'd deduced to be his general idiocy prevented her from caring.