19 - The Last Olympian Pt. 3

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-o-o-o-o-o-

Percy's POV

"So you're the Son of Hades?" Annabeth asked.

I nodded my head.

"And you strongly dislike Poseidon?"

"Yep."

Annabeth shook her head in confusion. I chuckled at her. "So many things I don't know about you, seaweed brain," she said. I shrugged.

"Also, what did Hestia mean by Curse of Achilles?" She asked cautiously. I sighed and pulled her away from the others.

"It means that I bear the Curse of Achilles. Which means I'm invulnerable except for one weak spot," I told her. She rolled her eyes.

"I know what it means. It's just, why?"

I looked right into her grey eyes and answered, "If I didn't do it then Kronos would have already won." Annabeth sighed and nodded her head in understanding.

After a moment of silence, she said, "You know, even if you're practically invulnerable, you still need sleep too."

We laughed and chuckled before leaving to join with the others.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"So what's the plan?" I looked up at Malcolm. I raised my eyebrow at him. He shrugs his shoulders.

"You're the leader here," he stated simply.

Argus rummaged around in the back of his van. He brought out a bronze shield and passed it to Annabeth. It looked pretty much standard issue—the same kind of round shield we always used in capture the flag. But when Annabeth set it on the ground, the reflection on the polished metal changed from sky and buildings to the Statue of Liberty—which wasn't anywhere close to us.

"Whoa," I said. "A video shield."

"One of Daedalus's ideas," Annabeth said. "I had Beckendorf make this before—" She glanced at Silena. "Um, anyway, the shield bends sunlight or moonlight from anywhere in the world to create a reflection. You can literally see any target under the sun or moon, as long as natural light is touching it. Look."

Annabeth passed her hand in front of the shield, and another scene popped up: FDR Drive, looking across the river at Lighthouse Park.

"This will let us see what's going on across the city," she said. "Thank you, Argus. Hopefully we'll see you back at camp . . . someday."

Argus grunted. He gave me a look that clearly meant Good luck; you'll need it, then climbed into his van. He and the two harpy drivers swerved away, weaving around clusters of idle cars that littered the road.

I turned to my friends. They looked stunned and scared, and I couldn't blame them. The shield had shown us at least three hundred enemies on the way. There were forty of us. And we were alone.

"All right," I said. "We're going to hold Manhattan."

Silena tugged at her armor. "Um, Percy, Manhattan is huge."

"We are going to hold it," I said. "We have to."

"He's right," Annabeth said. "The gods of the wind should keep Kronos's forces away from Olympus by air, so he'll try a ground assault. We have to cut off the entrances to the island."

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