When Two Worlds Collide {Percy Jackson + the 39 clues}

Chapter Six - 'You won't have time'

Camp Half Blood

“Hey, have you seen Blackjack?” Malcolm asked, during archery. He was one of Annabeth’s half-brothers from Cabin 6.

“No, why?” Annabeth said, loading an arrow onto her bow. It wasn’t a lie. She hadn’t seen Blackjack.

“I was looking for Percy, but he doesn’t seem to be anywhere.” Malcolm replied. “He’s not with you. I thought maybe he was with Blackjack, but Blackjack isn’t here either. I was supposed to help Percy clean out the stables.”

Annabeth shot her arrow towards the target. “You know how Blackjack is. Always running off. Er…flying off.” She hoped she sounded convincing enough. “Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen Percy either. Not until this morning.”

“Maybe he’s with Blackjack.” He suggested. He fired at the target. Malcolm’s arrow whizzed through the air, missing the target completely and nearly slicing one of the tree nymphs’ head. It stuck itself onto another tree with a twang.

“My tree!” the tree nymph huffed in surprise and rage, and placed both hands around the arrow, trying to pull the arrow out.

“Opps.” Malcolm ran to the angry nymph to help her and apologise.

Thankfully, Chiron dismissed them before Malcolm could come back. Annabeth packed her equipment as quickly as she could and ran away before Malcolm – or anyone else – asked her about Percy. She wondered what was going on in Attleboro that moment. Had the attack happened? Had Percy been able to fend off the monster? She knew she shouldn’t get too worried. Percy was excellent with his sword, and much cleverer than any monster.

But she still had a bad feeling.

Annabeth checked her pocket. Her hands closed around a few drachma coins. She was sure something had gone wrong. She looked at around for a water feature: what she needed right now was a rainbow.

◊◊◊

Attleboro

The first bullet had hit Percy. The second one: Dan.

He groaned. The bullet had pierced his forearm and was throbbing lightly. His legs felt numb as he struggled to get up. Vesper-guy was nowhere to be seen. In fact, he couldn’t see anyone. Did everyone abandon him? His head ached and his vision was blurred. Someone was shaking Dan’s shoulder. A sharp, high pitched ringing noise in his ear caused him to groan again. His head felt like it was going to rocket right off his shoulders because of the intensity of the ringing sound. He heard bits of the conversations here and there, in between the ringing, like a bad phone reception. His ears hurt.

He wondered how Percy was coping with this.

Suddenly, the noise stopped completely. He could hear birds, cars and other people. A dog barked in distance. He blinked his eyes trying to figure out what was going on.

“Dan!” Amy’s voice cried somewhere close to him. She shook his shoulder again. He tried to swat her hand away.

“Amy, stop it. You’re bothering him.” Sinead said. Just as suddenly as the ringing sound had disappeared, his vision cleared. After seeing nothing but blurry shapes, the brightness of the day hurt his eyes. He squeezed them shut.

“Don’t move!” Percy ordered. Percy must be in less pain than Dan to be able to talk.

Slowly, Dan opened his eyes, allowing them to adjust to the light. He could now see that Percy was…completely fine. He held the dart gun in his hands, aiming it at the Vesper’s forehead. Somehow, Percy had managed to get the gun. Somehow, Percy had survived.

Dan figured that maybe Percy wasn’t a Vesper after all. Just a psychopathic kid who’d somehow stumbled into this mess.

 “Are you okay?” Amy asked Dan, desperately. He was lying on the ground with Amy and Sinead knelt beside him. He lifted his right arm to see that it was swollen. It was numb, but when he touched his forearm, a piercing sensation filled the right side of his body, as if a million ants were crawling up him and biting wherever they pleased. He yelled in agony.

“We need to get him to a hospital.” Amy said with dread, looking pale.

“No.” Dan’s voice was small and strained. “I’m fine.” Besides, they couldn’t just call an ambulance and say that he was hit by a poisonous dart gun. They would surely get in trouble with the law. And who knows how much power the Vespers had? If Dan and Amy reported him, they would surely seek revenge.

 “We can make up a story.” Amy pleaded. After all, that’s what they’d always done. Lied and avoided the truth.

“You won’t have time.” The Vesper said, smiling. One of his curly locks fell over his eyes. “He has at least fifteen minutes before the poison in the bullet sinks in completely.” His whirlpool eyes glinted with excitement.

“What?!” A girl’s voice exclaimed from close by, startling Dan.

“Annabeth?” Percy questioned, unbelievingly. He held his focus towards the monster, not daring to turn, in case he would run. How could Annabeth be here? Attleboro was fairly far from Long Island. She would’ve had to leave three hours before to get here.

 “Who are you?” Sinead said curiously.

“What’s going on?” Annabeth demanded. She sounded like a teacher who’d caught naughty children red-handed.

He couldn’t help it. He turned around to look at her. His heart sank. She wasn’t really here. Hovering behind Amy was an Iris message from Annabeth. The Mist most likely twisted it to make it look like she was actually here.

Her image was blurred. Either Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, wasn’t having a good day or there was very bad IM-reception here. It looked like Annabeth hadn’t noticed Percy. Instead, she was looking at Dan, terrified.

“Annabeth?” Percy said. Annabeth’s focus snapped to Percy and she widened her eyes.

“Percy? You’re alright!” She exclaimed, like she couldn’t believe it. “What happened?”

“A lot of things.” Percy sighed wearily. “Would you mind if I told you later? Kind of in the middle of something here.” Then he added, hastily, “Not that I’m not glad to see you. I’m very glad to see you.”

“I thought…” She blinked and looked at Dan again. “I thought that maybe something had happened. That guy said something about poison and this guy lying in the ground…” Her eyes flickered to Dan’s figure.

“You thought he was me?” The surprise in Percy’s voice was clear. “He looks nothing like me!”

“Hey!” Dan objected, though his voice was weak. “There is nothing wrong with people who look like me!”

“Oh.” She said, ignoring Dan. “The image really out of focus. I panicked before thinking.”

Just as she said that, the iris message became normal again: crisp and clear. Maybe Iris had heard her and fixed the problem. Apparently, Annabeth’s side also provided clear image. She blinked and looked at the Vesper. Then she gasped.

“Percy –“ She started to say. But before Percy could figure out what she was so shocked about, the iris message shattered like glass. The pieces of glass-like IM transformed into something that looked like smoke as soon as they hit the ground and floated towards the sky.

He caught a glimpse of the Vesper from the corner of his eye. Immediately, he ducked. Before the Vesper could kick him again, he swung his sword at his head. Naturally, the Vesper got out of the way. How was the monster able to survive this long?

Having the Curse of Achilles was a great advantage for Percy. It meant that no matter how hard the monsters tried, he always won in the end. It was nearly impossible to win a fight with his iron skin. But this one had managed. And without a weapon too. That, he admitted, was a little embarrassing.

 Well, he thought. If I can’t fight him with my sword, time for him to take a shower. 

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[Picture of Ned, Ted, and Sinead from that scene way back in the Maze of Bones.]