It had been almost ten minutes and Warren was tired of waiting.
Just as she decided she was going barge into the building, axe blazing, the front door burst open. Percy ripped off the invisibility cap, his eyes wild and face pale.
He grabbed Warren by the hand and shouted, "Run!"
"What happened?!"
"Luke", "Skeletons", and "Bad" were all the words she could understand as they barreled across the Mall. A few more yards and they charged into the admissions area of the Air and Space museum.
The main part of the museum was one huge room with rockets and airplanes hanging from the ceiling. Three levels of balconies curled around, so people could look at the exhibits from all different heights. It wasn't crowded, just a few families and a couple of tour groups of kids, probably doing one of those holiday school trips.
"We've got to find Grover and Thalia," Percy said. "We need to warn them."
They barreled up the ramp to the top-floor balcony. "They could be any-oof!" Warren ran into someone, slamming them into an Apollo space capsule. She staggered. "I'm sorry— wait...Thalia?"
Grover yelped in surprise. Before Warren could regain her balance, Zoe and Bianca had arrows notched; one trained on Percy, the other on her. Their bows had just appeared out of nowhere.
When Zoe realized who they were, she didn't seem anxious to lower her bow. "You! How dare you show thy face here?"
"Percy!" Grover said. "Thank goodness."
Zoe glared at him, and he blushed. "I mean, um, gosh. You and Warren aren't supposed to be here!"
"Luke," Percy said, trying to catch his breath. "He's here."
The anger in Thalia's eyes immediately melted. She put her hand on her silver bracelet. "Where?"
Percy told them all about the Natural History Museum, Dr. Thorn, Luke, and the General.
"The General is here?" Zoe looked stunned. "That is impossible! You lie."
"Why would I lie? Look, there's no time. Skeleton warriors—"
"What?" Thalia demanded. "How many?"
"Twelve," he said. "And that's not all. That guy, the General, he said he was sending something, a 'playmate,' to distract you over here. A monster."
Thalia and Grover exchanged looks.
"We were following Artemis's trail," Grover said. "I was pretty sure it led here. Some powerful monster scent... She must've stopped here looking for the mystery monster. But we haven't found anything yet."
"Zoe," Bianca said nervously, "if it is the General—"
"It cannot be!" Zoe snapped. "Percy must have seen an Iris message or some other illusion."
"Illusions don't crack marble floors," he told her.
Zoe took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Warren didn't know why she was taking it so personally, or how she knew this General guy, but she figured now wasn't the time to ask.
"If Percy is telling the truth about the skeleton warriors," Zoe said, "we have no time to argue. They are the worst, the most horrible. We must leave now."
"Good idea," Percy said.
"I was not including thee, boy," Zoe said. "You are not part of this quest."
"Hey," Warren snapped. "He's trying to save your lives!"
"You guys shouldn't have come," Thalia said grimly. "But you're here now. Come on. Let's get back to the van."
"That is not thy decision!" Zoe snapped.
Thalia scowled at her. "You're not the boss here, Zoe. I don't care how old you are! You're still a conceited little brat!"
"You never had any wisdom when it came to boys," Zoe growled. "You never could leave them behind!"
Warren could feel the anger crackling in the air. Thalia looked like she was about to hit Zoe.
Then everyone froze.
Warren heard a growl so loud she thought one of the rocket engines was starting up. Below them, a few adults screamed. A little kid's voice screeched with delight: "Kitty!"
Something enormous bounded up the ramp. It was the size of a pick-up truck, with silver claws and glittering golden fur.
"The Nemean Lion," Thalia said. "Don't move."
The lion roared so loud it parted Percy's hair. Its fangs gleamed like stainless steel.
"Separate on my mark," Zoe said. "Try to keep it distracted."
"Until when?" Grover asked.
"Until I think of a way to kill it. Go!"
Warren flipped Ravager and rolled to the left. Arrows whistled past her, and Grover played a sharp tweeting cadence on his reed pipes.
She turned and saw Zoe and Bianca climbing the Apollo capsule. They were firing arrows, one after another, all shattering harmlessly against the lions metallic fur. The lion swiped the capsule and tipped it on its side, spilling the Hunters off the back.
Grover played a frantic, horrible tune, and the lion turned toward him, but Thalia stepped into its path, holding up Aegis. The lion recoiled and let out a deafening roar.
"Back!" Thalia commanded.
The lion growled and clawed the air, but it retreated as if the shield were a blazing fire. For a second, it seemed like the situation was under control. But then Warren saw the lion crouching, its leg muscles tensing. It was about to pounce.
"Here kitty!" Warren yelled. She knew her blade was useless against its impenetrable hide, but all she needed to do was distract it.
The big cat charged and she swung her axe, cleaving harmlessly down its flank. A low growl ripped out of the lion's mouth and it raked her with its claws. Warren ducked out of the way, but not without losing a chunk of her army jacket.
She backed against the railing. It sprang at her, one thousand pounds of monster, and she had no choice but to turn and jump. Warren landed on the wing of an old-fashioned silver airplane, which pitched and almost dropped her to the floor, three stories below.
"What are you doing!" Percy yelled, running over with Riptide raised.
"Getting my pilot's license!" Warren called back, somehow managing to find sarcasm even on the brink of death. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm running for my life!"
"But you never run from a fight!"
"If I can't get through it's fur, I can't kill it!"
An arrow whizzed past her head. The lion jumped onto the aircraft, and the cords holding the plane began to groan. The lion swiped at Warren, and she dropped onto the next exhibit, a weird-looking spacecraft with blades like a helicopter.
"Well, then find a spot that isn't fur!" Percy said.
"What do you mean?! The whole thing is—" Warren looked up and saw the lion roar. Inside its maw was a pink tongue and throat. Bingo.
"Oh my gods, Percy, that's it! I could kiss you."
The beast slashed at Warren again, narrowly missing her head. She ducked back just in time, but ended up getting an inch or two of her hair sheared off by its razor sharp claws.
"Maybe later!" he called back. "You seem kinda busy."
Warren tried to strike again, but it was no good. Ravager was the wrong shape to fit inside the lion's mouth, and even if it did, the monster moved too quickly.
"Zoe!" Warren yelled. "Target the mouth!"
The creature lunged. An arrow zipped past it, missing completely, and Warren dropped from the spaceship onto the top of a floor exhibit, a huge model of the earth. She slid down Russia and dropped off the equator, next to Percy. The Nemean Lion growled and steadied itself on the spacecraft, but its weight was too much. One of the cords snapped.
As the display swung down like a pendulum, the lion leaped off onto the model earth's North Pole.
"Grover!" Percy yelled. "Clear the area!"
Groups of kids were running around screaming. Grover tried to corral them away from the monster just as the other cord on the spaceship snapped and the exhibit crashed to the floor. Thalia dropped off the second-floor railing and landed across from Warren and Percy, on the other side of the globe.
The lion regarded the three of them, trying to decide which one to kill first. Zoe and Bianca were up above, bows ready, but they kept having to move around to get a good angle.
"No clear shot!" Zoe yelled. "Get it to open its mouth more!"
The lion snarled from the top of the globe. Percy looked around. Options. He needed... The gift shop. He had a vague memory from his trip here as a little kid. Something he'd made Sally buy him, and then regretted. If they still sold that stuff...
"Keep it occupied," he told Thalia and Warren.
They nodded grimly. With a shout, Thalia pointed her spear and a spidery arc of blue electricity shot out, zapping the lion's tail.
The lion's answering roar was enough to make the floor shake. It turned and pounced. The girls rolled out of the way, Thalia holding up Aegis to keep the monster at bay. Percy ran for the gift shop.
"This is no time for souvenirs, boy!" Zoe yelled. But he was already out of sight.
"Do you have any knives?" Warren asked Thalia, still behind Aegis.
"Yeah, in my pack," she cocked her head back, indicating the drawstring bag she was wearing. Warren fished around inside until she felt the cold, sharp metal brush her fingers. The knives weren't especially big, but they would work.
"Okay, zap it."
Thalia unleashed another arch of lightning, and the lion bellowed in anger. As it's jaw opened, Warren pulled back her arm, hand loaded with blades, and then let them fly.
One glinted off the beast's canine tooth, but the other two buried themselves deep in the roof of its mouth. The lion screamed and shook its head, trying to dislodge the projectiles. Zoe and Bianca showered arrows on the monster, but it was no good. The lion seemed to know better than to open its mouth too much after Warren's attack.
It snapped at her and Thalia, slashing with its claws. Thalia jabbed with her spear, but they were forced back as the lion pressed forward. Then Percy came running out of the gift shop, arms full to the brim with silver packets of moon food.
"Percy," Warren called, "whatever you're going to do—"
The lion roared and swatted her and Thalia like cat toys, sending them flying into the side of a Titan rocket. The impact knocked the wind from Warren's lungs, and Thalia's head hit the metal with a crack.
"Hey!" Percy yelled at beast.
He was too far away to strike, so he took a note out of Warren's book: Percy hurled Riptide like a throwing knife. It bounced off the lion's side, but that was enough to get the monster's attention. It turned toward him and snarled. There was only one way to get close enough.
Percy charged, and as the lion leaped to intercept him, he chucked a space food pouch into its maw— a hunk of cellophane-wrapped, freeze dried strawberry parfait.
The lion's eyes got wide and it gagged like a cat with a hairball. Percy couldn't blame it. He remembered feeling the same way when he'd tried to eat space food as a kid.
"Zoe, get ready!" Percy yelled.
Warren let out a wheeze as her shocked diaphragm tried to restart itself. Thalia was still slumped on the floor. Behind Percy, people were screaming. Grover was playing another horrible song on his pipes.
Percy scrambled away from the lion. It managed to choke down the space food packet and looked at him with pure hatred.
"Snack time!" Percy yelled.
It made the mistake of roaring at him, and Percy got an ice-cream sandwich in its throat. Warren was actually impressed by his throw. Before the lion could stop gagging, he shot in two more flavors of ice cream and a freeze dried spaghetti dinner.
The lion's eyes bugged. It opened its mouth wide and reared up on its back paws, trying to get away.
"Now!" Percy yelled. Immediately, arrows pierced the lion's maw— two, four, six. The lion thrashed wildly, turned, and fell backward. And then it was still.
Alarms wailed throughout the museum. People were flocking to the exits. Security guards were running around in a panic with no idea what was going on.
Grover knelt at Thalia's side. "Is she okay?"
"I think so," Warren said. "She's just dazed."
They helped her to her feet. Thalia didn't shake them off, but she grumbled, "No need to baby me, I'm good."
Zoe and Bianca dropped from the balcony and landed next to Percy. Zoe eyed him cautiously. "That was...an interesting strategy."
"Hey, it worked." She didn't argue.
The lion seemed to be melting, the way dead monsters sometimes did, until there was nothing left but its glittering fur coat, and even that seemed to be shrinking to the size of a normal lion's pelt.
"Take it," Zoe told Percy. He stared at her.
"What, the lion's fur? Isn't that, like, an animal rights violation or something?"
"It's a spoil of war," Warren told him.
"You killed it, Zoe," he said. "You take it."
She shook her head, almost smiling. "I think thy ice-cream sandwich did that. Fair is fair, Percy Jackson. Take the fur."
He lifted it up; it was surprisingly light. The fur was smooth and soft. It didn't feel at all like something that could stop a blade. As they watched, the pelt shifted and changed into a coat— a full-length golden-brown duster.
"Not exactly my style," Percy murmured.
Warren rolled her eyes. "Considering your old coat is at the bottom of the Camp Half-Blood dumpster, I think you should take it."
"But that's what I have you for!" he laughed. "Speaking of, still want to kiss me?"
She pushed him hard. "In your dreams, Jackson."
"We have to get out of here, guys," Grover said. "The security guards won't stay confused for long."
Warren noticed for the first time how strange it was that the guards hadn't rushed forward to arrest them. They were scrambling in all directions except theirs, like they were madly searching for something. A few were running into the walls or each other.
"You did that?" she asked Grover.
He nodded, looking a little embarrassed. "A minor confusion song. I played some Barry Manilow. It works every time. But it'll only last a few seconds."
"The security guards are not our biggest worry," Zoe said. "Look."
Through the glass walls of the museum, they could see a group of men walking across the lawn. Gray men in gray camouflage outfits. They were too far away for Percy to see their eyes, but he could feel their gaze aimed straight at him.
"Go," Percy said. "They'll be hunting me. I'll distract them."
"No," Zoe and Warren said at the same time.
"We go together," Zoe said.
Percy stared at her. "But, you said—"
"You are part of this quest now," Zoe said grudgingly. "You and Warren. I do not like it, but there is no changing fate. You are the fifth and sixth quest members. And we are not leaving anyone behind."
They were crossing the Potomac when they spotted the helicopter. It was a sleek, black military model just like the one at Westover Hall. And it was coming straight toward them.
"They know the van," Percy said. "We have to ditch it." Zoe swerved into the fast lane. The helicopter was gaining.
"Maybe the military will shoot it down," Grover said hopefully.
Warren shook her head. "The military probably thinks it's one of theirs."
"How can the General use mortals, anyway?" Percy asked.
"Mercenaries," Zoe said bitterly. "It is distasteful, but many mortals will fight for any cause as long as they are paid."
"But don't these mortals see who they're working for? Don't they notice all the monsters around them?"
"I do not know how much they see through the Mist, but I doubt it would matter to them if they knew the truth. Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters."
Warren knew that was true, her father had overseen countless wars, the righteous sides as well as the evil. Some people fought for freedom, to overcome persecution, or to restore justice. But then there was genocide and atomic bombs, despicable acts for the sake of power or something just as selfish. No, not every monster came from Tartarus. Some were plain flesh and bone.
The helicopter kept coming, having the advantage of zooming overtop the D.C. traffic. Thalia closed her eyes and prayed hard. "Hey, Dad. A lightning bolt would be nice about now. Please?"
But the sky stayed gray and snowy. No sign of a helpful thunderstorm.
"There!" Bianca said. "That parking lot!"
"We'll be trapped," Zoe said.
"Trust me," Bianca insisted. Zoe shot across two lanes of traffic and into a mall parking lot on the south bank of the river. They left the van and followed Bianca down some steps.
"Subway entrance," Bianca said. "Let's go south. Alexandria."
"Anything," Thalia agreed.
Everyone bought tickets and got through the turnstiles, looking over their shoulders for any signs of pursuit. A few minutes later they were safely aboard a southbound train, riding away from D.C. As their train came above ground, Warren could see the helicopter circling the parking lot, but it didn't come after them.
Grover let out a sigh. "Nice job, Bianca, thinking of the subway."
Bianca looked pleased. "Yeah, well. I saw that station when Nico and I came through last summer. I remember being really surprised to see it, because it wasn't here when we used to live in D.C."
Grover frowned. "New? But that station looked really old."
"I guess," Bianca said. "But trust me, when we lived here as little kids, there was no subway."
Thalia sat forward. "Wait a minute. No subway at all?"
Bianca nodded.
Now, Warren was a west coast girl, she knew nothing about D.C., but she didn't see how their whole subway system could be less than twelve years old. And it seemed like everyone else was thinking the same thing, because they all looked pretty confused.
"Bianca," Zoe said. "How long ago..." Her voice faltered. The sound of the helicopter was getting louder again.
"We need to change trains," Percy said. "Next station."
Over the next half hour, all anyone thought about was getting away safely. They changed trains twice. Warren had no idea where they were going, but after a while they lost the helicopter. Unfortunately, when they finally got off the train they found themselves at the end of the line, in an industrial area with nothing but warehouses and railway tracks. And snow. Lots of snow.
It seemed much colder here, although it was hard for Warren to tell. She was glad Percy was wearing the lion's fur coat, at least she wouldn't have to worry about him freezing.
They wandered through the railway yard, thinking there might be another passenger train somewhere, but there were just rows and rows of freight cars, most of which were covered in snow, like they hadn't moved in years.
A homeless guy was standing at a trash-can fire. The Hunters and demigods must've looked pretty pathetic, because he gave them a toothless grin and said, "Y'all need to get warmed up? Come on over!"
They all huddled around his fire, Thalia's teeth were chattering. She said, "Well this is g-g-ggreat."
"My hooves are frozen," Grover complained.
"Feet," Percy corrected, for the sake of the homeless guy.
"Maybe we should contact camp," Bianca said. "Chiron—"
"No," Zoe said. "They cannot help us anymore. We must finish this quest ourselves."
Warren gazed miserably around the rail yard. Somewhere, far to the west, Annabeth was in danger. Artemis was in chains. A doomsday monster was on the loose. And she was stuck on the outskirts of D.C. with no way forward.
"You know," the homeless man said, "you're never completely without friends." His face was grimy and his beard tangled, but his expression seemed kindly. "You kids need a train going west?"
"Yeah," Warren said. "You know of any?"
He pointed one greasy hand. Suddenly she noticed a freight train, gleaming and free of snow. It was one of those automobile-carrier trains, with steel mesh curtains and a triple-deck of cars inside. The side of the freight train said SUN WEST LINE.
"That's...convenient," Warren said. "Thanks, uh..."
She turned to the homeless guy, but he was gone. The trash can was cold and empty, as if he'd taken the flames with him.
..........................................................
someone get Percy this shirt