Side by Side: PJO: AU

Getaway Vehicle Ch.18

Annabeth's POV

"Let's go Percy. This is urgent we can change our future together Percy. If we get to Olympus, you can pull the same stupid stunt you did last time and alert your dad. Gods I never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I'll also follow you," 

"Really Annabeth? I seriously don't think this is gonna work. I mean, how are we going to GET to Olympus, what if Chiron notices, and what if they don't care?" Percy thought aloud.

"Percy. It'll be alright. I have a plan follow my lead when it comes to speaking." I smile reassuringly.

"Well.." he shrugs, "Alright."

I grab his hand and shut off the lights before heading out into the dead of night. The patrol harpies were flying about as usual and no lights were on.

I headed towards the biggest landmark in camp, Thaila's pine tree. Undoubtedly it would lead us the the exit of camp. A sound pierced the silence and I whipped around in shock.

Percy paled like a ghost, it appeared that he stepped on a tree branch. 

"Percy you absolute seaweed brain!" I hissed quietly.

"The element of stealth really isn't my element you know?" he joked.

"PERCY! This isn't the time to-" My words were cut short when I heard a snarling from a nearby cabin. 

We turned to find a pair of glowing eyes in the otherwise dark background. After my eyes adjusted further to the darkness, I could make out a body that somewhat resembled a cross between a stegosaurus and a lion. 

"PERCY!!!" I tugged at his sleeve urgently. "Prepare to run."

"No, we can't outrun this thing. We need to fight it!" He uncapped Riptide and the gleaming blade appeared in his hands.

"No this THING will gobble us up and spit us back out before eating-" 

A low growl came from the creature before it sprang up and pounced. From instinct I ducked and pulled out a blade of my own. My knife gave reassurance, it's weight familiar in my hand.

I ducked under the creature and it lunged above me. Overhead I could hear the patrol harpies start heading our way.

I thrust the knife upwards into the beasts underbelly. It roars and staggers forward. Percy has rolled to the right, Riptide cast a gleaming light, a perfect beacon for the harpies to spot us.

We need to finish this quickly.

I slice an arc across the monsters face and it dissolves into black mist. 

Weird. That's strange.

But there's no time to sit around and make conspiracies. I wouldn't have been surprised if the attack alerted other creatures nearby nor would it have woken up some campers.

"Seaweed brain, let's go!" I usher for him to follow me and he does so.

I trampled through the rest of camp until we reached he border. Patrol harpies were screeching behind us, I could hear the flap of their wings as they closed in. 

Not only that, other things were stirring. Three more of the same beats were on our tail, and as we approached the border. At least five more were waiting. It was a wild series of dodging, stabbing, striking, and sweating. Think of it like spamming the attack button, but each time you get more and more tired.

Eventually I got hit. A harpie clawed my arm as one of those creatures raked across my leg. I stumbled and fell down.

"Annabeth!" Percy called out.

"I'm okay!" I hissed and rapidly tried to stop the bleeding. Using my knife I tore a bit of my sleeve and bandaged my arm. Hopefully, my jeans took most of the damage? Highly unlikely.

"I'm really sorry about this Miss. Harpie," Percy grazed the edge of the harpies wing causing it to spiral out of the sky. Afterwards he struck the creature and it dissolved like the others had.

Percy knelt down and inspected the wounds. 

"Jeez, ouch be more careful it hurts you know?" I grit my teeth when he touched an open area.

"I'm sorry. Oh we should have thought this through.. ambrosia.. nectar?"

"I'm fresh out."

"Maybe I can be of some assistance," A familiar voice greeted.

I looked up in surprise. "Nico? Why are you here?"

"I could ask the same to you two," he chuckled.

"It's a long story man. I hear you've got some ambrosia on hand?" Percy asks.

"Yup," Nico replies before handing Percy  crumpled bag of ambrosia squares. Percy then hands the bag to me and I take a few pieces. "Keep the rest for the road," Nico said.

Mm. Buttery popcorn.

"Thanks Nico. Means a lot." I grinned.

"Anytime. Would anyone like to tell me the truth now?" Nico knelt down and inspected a few of the fallen harpies. They were injured but it wasn't life threatening, thank god.

"I.. Annabeth and I have had relationship problems," Percy laughed.

"PERCY!"I hissed, "What he means is.. Poseidon and Athena really don't like the prospect of us.. getting together," 

Gods that sounds even more lame.

"Dating," Percy corrected.

"Power couple, lets go!" Nico joked. "I support." He gave two thumbs up and started to help a harpie up. "You two should get going. Don't want the others to find out."

"Yeah. Thanks again man." Percy replied.

"My pleasure,"

I took Percy's hand after he put away Riptide. We stepped outside of camp and into the real world. I was time to find a getaway vehicle.

"Who wants to be the getaway driver?" I smile when I finally spotted an automobile with a spare set of keys in it. Those are very uncommon.

"Huh?" Percy jolted out of his walking trance and looked at the car. "Oh.... OoOH." He laughed and rubbed his hands together.

"Let's get on the road," He grinned. Percy ran up to the car smashed the driver seat's window and used the gap to reach in and unlock the door. After unlocking all the doors he took my arm and led my to the passengers side, "After you my lady."

"Thank you dear sir," I joked and settled myself into the seat. 

Percy climbs in after me. 

"Wait.. do you actually KNOW how to drive?" I ask cautiously.

"Well, we're about to find out aren't we?"Percy picks up the set of keys, inserts it into the ignition, turns, and the car hums to life.

"Oh no.."

Author's Note:

For anyone who's wondering. The monster's Alatar made kinda look like Oni from Japanese mythology. But you can take your own creative liberty and imagine for yourself what they look like. I would put a picture but they're hella nasty and I don't wanna give anybody nightmares. Google search it on your own time.

Turns out writing produces to be longer than I thought. So Side by Side is ending soon, but not too soon...