𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄, p. jackson

𝐈𝐗. meeting the god of war

Percy waved his hand. "Hi."

Annabeth and Grover immediately approached him, while Scarlett stood back.

Percy looked at Scarlett apologetically. "Look, I'm sorry about shoving you down the stairwell, even saying that sounds weird but I just knew you wouldn't agree, and we didn't have a lot of time-"

He got cut off when Grover tackled him into a bear hug-or goat hug.

"We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!" He cried.

Right as Grover pulled away, Annabeth, surprising, threw her arms around him, pulling him to a quick hug.

"You're such a Seaweed Brain." Annabeth muttered with relief.

Percy hugged back, a stunned expression written all over his face. Then he made eye contact with Scarlett, like he was expecting a hug from her too.

As if.

As Annabeth let go, Scarlett finally walked over, and spoke up, "You're not dead."

A part of her wanted to yell at him, for that idiotic stunt he pulled, but the words didn't form. She just felt a weird, immense relief that he didn't die. (That didn't mean she wanted to hug him, though.)

"Surprise," Percy grinned, he held his arms up, as if he was anticipating a hug. After a few seconds, realizing Scarlett wasn't gonna hug him, he awkwardly put them by his sides. Scarlett could've sworn she saw a frown cross his face.

"What happened?" Grover inquired.

"Short version: we need to go to Santa Monica," Percy informed them simply.

Everyone looked at him stunned.

"What-like now?"

Percy's face brightened up. "My father's gonna meet me there. He's gonna help us." He told them with a huge, happy smile on his face.

Scarlett and Annabeth exchanged skeptical looks.

"Okay, one problem with this plan: the police think we crashed a track train, then did," Grover gestured to the smoke coming from the top of the Arch. "That."

"...the cops are after us?" Percy frowned. "Isn't that gonna make it hard for us to get on a train? Or a bus? Or really anything you need tickets for?" They all nodded.

"Well this is gonna be a long trip."

THE QUEST-MATES HAD BEEN WALKING along the road for what felt like hours. It looked as if they were heading into the middle of nowhere. How in the Hades were they supposed to get to Santa Monica like this?

"Hey guys," Percy suddenly spoke up. "I think this quest might be harder than we thought," Scarlett gave him an incredulously look. "I've been thinking. I didn't steal the master bolt. You guys didn't steal the master bolt. We're pretty sure Hades stole the master bolt, but he couldn't have stolen it himself. I mean-we don't even know who actually stole the thing. Or why? Or how deep this goes."