Beautiful cover images dones by
Ally James Lyons
https://riveluart.tumblr.com/
Bonus Chapter for breakout214 who has been patiently waiting for me to finish another fic before returning to this. No more assured updates but this promise for more!
PJOPJOPJO
'Is that better, or worse than ruining a useless bus?' Magnus grinned at his friend for the new chapter title.
'I'll leave that to the offender's discretion,' Hearth chuckled.
"Anybody taking bets on how he ruins the bus?" Jason grinned. "My money's on driving it into a building."
"Exploding it," Alex offered, "I needed more details the first time, hopefully this one offers better."
"Maybe he just vomits on one of the seats, they don't all have to be tragic demises," Nico offered with suppressed enthusiasm that was quickly dwindling. He was able to pass off less and less as time went on, he was starting to enjoy this.
"If you guys are done," Percy groaned.
"Oh, we're just getting started," Thalia promised, but continued on by grabbing the book from Percy to read this for herself.
...and twenty golden drachmas.
"I thought you said you don't get an allowance!" Magnus protested this abundance of wealth.
"Special Quest disbursement, and it is a loan, if you can pay it back with extra chores it would be nice," Will shrugged.
... might come in handy for non-mortal transactions-whatever that meant.
"Can you pay monsters to piss off?" Alex looked dubious.
"You can exchange the money for something, but not everything," Thalia chuckled.
... An overdose would burn us up, literally.
Alex still looked very pouty she hadn't gotten to try any of that. What did a girl have to do to instigate an emergency around here?
... both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.
Percy was smiling for his friends gifts from their parents, the simple fact they'd shared such tidbits about that with him while they were hiking up the hill. His mom had never been able to give him many physical gifts thanks to Gabe, usually they just celebrated with cake and a trip out that day to the movies or something special. Now he wasn't even sure if he'd ever get that again...and his dad had certainly never given him anything.
... the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.
"Hopefully not an ominous foreshadowing of monsters being on your tail the second you leave," Jason muttered.
...a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.
"Not suspicious looking at all then," Alex nodded.
... drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."
"He says that every time, doesn't he?" Jason stated.
"Yep," Will agreed.
...Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.
"My kind of gift!" Magnus seemed more thrilled than Percy for once, Hearth noticed, as he watched the guy clench his fist and frown at Thalia instead of cheering along.
... The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.
"That's even cooler!" Percy did his very best to sound as enthusiastic as Magnus just had, but somehow the delivery got lost as his voice cracked. Thalia gave him a grim smile and he hoped he was just imagining it.
... I don't use them much these days," His expression turned sad.
"All the yucking it up," Will muttered bitterly.
"He was a very good actor from what I've seen," Nico quietly agreed.
...A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just, kill some monsters for me, okay?"
"No pressure or anything," Jason agreed.
..."Oh, why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"
"Technically she just wants to leave camp and you're her ride out," Alex chuckled at Percy's sort of put out look for his girlfriend's old flame. He couldn't help the pessimistic thought in that moment if Annabeth would have forgotten about him in however long he'd been missing and moved on.
..."I won't be able to use these, will I?"
"Huh?" Magnus looked as if someone had just tried to take his own shoes away in the dead of winter.
... that would not be wise for you."
"That's ridiculous!" Magnus argued with nobody in here. "That's like saying he should never jump a puddle or ascend a building, a little low-level flying surely can't hurt him!"
"Better safe than sorry man," Percy found that his unease for the idea somehow got worse though. He'd thought the idea of the flying shoes had been that, but now he was just starting to feel paranoid.
"How often do you really jump though, it doesn't seem to be a recurring problem," Alex snickered, and it devolved the two for a moment into making faces at each other while Thalia continued.
I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"
"Isn't everything he uses technically a magical item, you know, by being a magical creature," Magnus was grinning at Hearth as he tried to remember all those signs.
He missed a few, but Hearth rolled his eyes and corrected his wrist movement while smiling at his friend.
... the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.
"Launching yourself in the air is the coolest thing I've yet heard of," Magnus grumbled one last time. If Percy didn't want those shoes, he'd volunteer.
... flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.
The others all got a nice long laugh out of that, but Percy's vision doubled horribly for a moment, the low lit room suddenly a dark canyon and Grover being dragged into darkness- Thalia cleared her throat harshly before she continued, snapping him back to the here and now. It wasn't just her targets she didn't miss.
..."If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason-they all got more training."
Jason looked baffled for a moment before he realized Thalia wasn't actually referring to him.
... about to sound like a brat... or Annabeth's invisible cap.
"It's not bratty to hope you get treated as equally as others," Alex disagreed. "You've seen them with magic items from their parents, and the only reason Poseidon has claimed you is because he wants something from you now." She wasn't quite shouting by the end, but she sounded extremely verbose.
"Even if your dad did give you something, doesn't make it useful," Thalia agreed with a grimace, she'd never taken to using the winds in combat, the few times she had and her feet left the ground her butt quickly met it instead, so she avoided that 'gift.'
... black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.
"The same one as before!" Alex looked as enthusiastic as a pen sword as Magnus just had about flying shoes.
"Unless this is Chiron's odd way of reminding him to write in the next few days," Jason nodded.
"Gee," I said. "Thanks." "Percy, that's a gift from your father.
"Well, that got resolved quickly," Nico tried to say snidely, but he was in fact filing away the fascinating information of how Percy had gotten his sword- before scolding himself about that again!
... the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."
Will saw more than heard Nico mutter something about the universe mocking him and wished he understood what he was going through more, it must feel like having the rug pulled out under you to find out so much later you could have been the child of some great prophecy and yet never even be told about it until after all was said and done.
... Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be?
"He is a teacher, he could potentially have more than one magic pen-sword on hand," Alex amended.
"So long as it's not the red one, I'm not a good enough person to grade my own tests," Percy grinned.
...It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.
"Congratulations," Jason said sincerely, "but I feel the need to caution, that's not a good thing. It's better to be proficient in more than one style of weapon."
"Oh, Percy's all about adapting," Thalia assured.
"Thanks," Percy told them both, though mostly frowning at Thalia as he tried to figure out if that was worthy of the thanks.
"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me.
"I disagree," Magnus said, "sounds like a terrible idea to use a blade you don't know the tragic history of."
"I'll write you a novel all its own when I find out," Percy still just looked relieved to have it as he kept the pen in his grasp.
..."Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said,
'Define emergencies?' Hearth scoffed.
'Cutting to the front of the line,' Magnus said without remorse.
'That was one time and Blitz used a plastic knife!' he defended.
... to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first.
"Does it stop working if so?" Nico rolled his eyes. "Does it go instantly dull? Shrinks back to a pen and refuse to ever come back out?"
"You're giving that sword way to much sentience man," Magnus chuckled.
"I vote not finding out," Percy shrugged.
...Sure enough, the pen was there.
"That is the coolest magic item!" Magnus cheered.
"And it's just the tip of the iceberg," Thalia grinned as she twisted her bracelet around, but decided against giving them all heart attacks with Aegis for now.
...the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."
"A rose by any other name," Alex laughed. "I've heard it called Glamour ."
"Do our magic items not work on, um, mortals too?" Magnus asked, and wow did that sound weird to say.
"I personally haven't tried recently, but I'll let you know," Alex grinned.
'I can't tell if she's joking,' Hearth signed uneasily.
'It's safer to assume not at this point,' Magnus assured, she didn't even have the book anymore to excuse it and he still hadn't looked away from her in a solid minute.
...(Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters;
"Convenient," Percy groused, "my Mom always said technology would kill our brains, I wonder if she knew this too."
"Wouldn't surprise me," Thalia smiled faintly.
... nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?"
"Optimism," Will laughed.
...All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."
"Wise and sage advice that basically boiled down to I have no idea, have fun with that," Magnus sighed.
... you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."
"A spa could use that as their slogan!" Alex scoffed.
"He'll be snoozing the entire trip with that added to his back," Jason sighed.
...Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.
"I do love this world where that is typical," Alex smiled at the idea of being missed for the next place she left. It hadn't happened yet, but Chiron at least didn't seem like a useless place to start.
... I found myself staring ... every billboard and shopping mall.
Magnus had already felt that sense of disconnect from his world down here, it didn't really help they were trapped for an unknown amount of time. He forced his eyes to flicker down, to the bag Alex still had close to her side and wondered how much she'd threaten to kill him if he asked to see what was inside.
Her mismatched eyes caught his, and he lost the ability to speak.
...She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."
Percy beamed as if Annabeth had just decreed she was in love with him. He knew she had a nickname for him!
"Is he okay?" Jason mock whispered, he'd never seen someone so happy to be insulted.
"Just fine," Thalia assured as she rolled her eyes fondly.
... "Look, we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."
"And?" Will chuckled at Annabeth's one track mind on this. He was very grateful Apollo had never made notable enemies with any of the gods, he didn't much like the idea of hating someone on such a silly principle.
Nico however fully understood where Annabeth was coming from, the Demeter cabin had always gone out of their way to avoid him at all costs, and they were just the start.
... Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful.
Nico chocked that was all the reference Annabeth gave Medusa! One of the most notable monsters with a power attack of- he shook himself, but then nearly fell out of his seat as Will muttered, "is she in that game you played?"
"Um, yeah." Was he hallucinating? Nobody else in Camp had ever asked him about that.
"Thought so, she any good?" He'd seen that look again, the rise and fall of his excitement and then trying to suppress it again and was thrilled he'd guessed right.
"Very," he agreed with enthusiasm. Will was still watching him, like he was waiting for something else, but he couldn't think what and was very grateful Thalia hadn't stopped reading so he had to pay attention.
... "Now, if she'd invented pizza-that I could understand." "I said, forget it!"
"It's a miracle you two survived each other," Thalia laughed.
"I'm more disappointed she didn't tell us who the inventor of pizza actually is," Alex huffed.
... I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.
Thalia gave him a curious look why he was still trying to hide that from them, but he thought the answer was obvious, no need for such a minor distraction as to his real motives going to the underworld, which that poster would inevitably lead into questions about.
... the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.
"So it's not his bus," Jason looked a tad disappointed.
"I'm grateful, I don't want to know how many chores I'd have to do to pay for another one," Percy said distantly, his mind not at all on what he'd left behind anymore in that direction.
...Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.
Even Will couldn't come up with a way to bring that into a good light. Even if Gabe did miss her cooking and the free income, those weren't things to be remembered for nor what Percy needed to hear right now. He looked like a lost boy who needed a hug from his mother.
...I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or something?"
"I'm sure it couldn't have been that hard to work out even without following your thoughts," Magnus assured, that distant, forlorn look in his eyes only an orphan could hold.
"Just your emotions." He shrugged. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that.*
"He what?" Magnus was quite proud of himself he only sounded casually surprised rather than flipping out, again.
"They're great counselors to the new kids, and ones that just came back from a quest," Will explained with a fond smile. "Helps them all understand whatever they're feeling is normal if the satyr gets the words right."
"I like that," Jason smiled, though he still wished he understood why Grover gave him the creeps. For no good reason and he felt more awful the less the feeling didn't fade, maybe he could do with a satyr to untangle how confusing all this was.
Magnus silently asked his elf friend if he could do anything like that, and he signed back with very downcast eyes, 'I wish.' It seemed a minor miracle he hadn't started to feel sick yet from the lack of sun making its way down here, but he was sure the feeling of his uselessness with magic resting in him had nothing to do with that.
...I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.
"Part goat, eats tin cans and playing cards, can read your emotions better than any crystal ball reader," Alex ticked off on her fingers. "I'm running out of things this guy can't do."
"Preform magic with his reed pipes," Nico added, causing those who had heard such a travesty to laugh.
"Your mom married Gabe for you," Grover told me.
"No one needs a father figure that badly," Percy grimaced at what on earth Grover could be on about.
...She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy, if that makes you feel any better."
It didn't, but Percy at least appreciated now he understood why. Guilt warred with practicality, he'd always known he'd been a burden to his mother and maybe if he'd ever run away she'd have finally left him, and yet, according to everyone else, he likely would have died instead of just putting up with some smelly jerk. His mom had tried her best, he couldn't imagine asking anything more from her.
... a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.
None of them were at all surprised where Percy's mind had landed, his trail of thoughts had not been leading many other paths.
...You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, the Oracle whispered in my mind.
'Calls you a friend,' Hearth interpreted with dwindling hope. Not necessarily someone Percy called a friend, it could be a false illusion from the start. Yet the problem stood, nobody they'd yet heard of had a good reason to pretend to befriend Percy either.
You will fail to save what matters most in the end.
Thalia regretted telling him that now, it had been the only words of comfort she had for him at the time but now she watched as Percy began to look queasy with distress and it felt as if there were no right or wrong answers except the one in front of her.
Shut up, I told it.
"Does telling the voices in your head to shut up actually work?" Jason asked a little desperately, he felt like he should be deaf by now as often as he kept asking himself the same questions.
"It helps, but so does keep moving on," Percy sighed with the exact same look of exhaustion, Thalia noticed.
... She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever.
"Now there's an unsung skill," Thalia chuckled. "We should put her in a tournament and get prize money."
... In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared-core, stem, and all.
Alex applauded that skill while Magnus's grey eyes went out of focus trying to picture such a thing, causing the others to laugh all the harder for this.
... but Annabeth and I were too busy cracking up. Finally the bus came.
"Uh-oh," Will said in a sing-song voice.
"Final calls, please place your final predictions now," Jason chuckled.
"Maybe I drive all the passengers nuts and they flee in terror," Percy played along with a mock threatening tone
"That has nothing to do with ruining the actual bus Percy, keep up," Thalia scoffed.
...sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy-enchiladas.
Jason would swear he had been mentioned doing that, right before those three old unexplained sock ladies had been seen. Grover had never said outright he knew the Minotaur was after them, but he had known something was long before Percy and his mom. Could satyrs smell monsters? How useful were these guys, and why was it making him feel worse the more he learned about them?
... a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse.
"Are the old ladies back with more socks?" Jason asked in concern.
"I've got a bad feeling you're on the right track," Nico agreed.
... my heart skipped a beat. It was Mrs. Dodds.
"Worse then, definitely worth ruining any kind of bus," Magnus groaned.
'At least there's only one of her?' Hearth tried to offer. Percy had beaten her without any idea what he was doing after all.
... Triplet demon grandmothers.
"That's, a sentence," Will said just a bit faintly. He took it back, hearing the grand epic tales around the campfire was much better than this torture of constantly wondering how Percy was alive!
... it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.
Thalia exhaled slowly before pulling air back in to keep going. It might not have been Hades, but he was really going out of his way to make it seem like he wanted Percy dead right now!
... "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering.
Percy was finally glad Grover nor Annabeth were here to call him out on that epic fail.
..."I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."
"I knew she was the smart one," Alex nodded.
... The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem.
"If only she'd said no problem a third time," Percy decided to defuse the situation by mocking Jason. "Then it would have been important, right?"
"Right, exactly," his laugh came across with far less quivering than his had at the time. "So this is a completely unimportant event."
"You keep those happy thoughts man," Will sighed.
..."You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."
"I never thought I'd encourage you taking the Gabe approach, but here we are," Thalia groaned.
...Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.
"That is one seriously powerful hat," Magnus ogled, he knew at least one thing he'd prioritize asking her when he found her, and that was the story of how she'd gotten this thing!
'Wonder how much it would cost a Red Sox fan to admit that,' Hearth at least tried for a smile, though he knew his friend had no care for sports.
... lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"
'It?' Jason latched onto the odd word at once. Why would she call Percy an it, when they'd called him by his full name before. He opened his mouth to ask what trick Thalia was trying to pull with that, before he saw Magnus and Hearthstone exchange a rapid hand fire conversation and Alex's eyes narrow as well. He hadn't been the only one to notice such an oddity, but sweat was visibly perspiring on Percy's face. He'd left his friends in danger and wasn't to care right now for such a minor detail to him of what exactly these furies were after, because it apparently wasn't him. He'd ditched them for nothing.
... I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.
"Oh Percy, didn't you know," Will chuckled nervously as he kept firmly in his mind the last time he'd seen them both, very much alive as he tried for some levity. "We held that vote already and-"
"Not the time," Nico hissed at him with a sharper elbow to his side this time. Will folded and let it go.
...Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left.
"That's, one way to ruin a bus," Magnus said, still looking a little faint he might never get to see his cousin again after that!
... slammed the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.
'Alex might even still get her explosion,' Hearth was looking paler than usual and vowed to never get in one of these Midgard contraptions again.
...Another great idea:
"You're not allowed to call things great ideas!" Thalia protested. She didn't know whether to kill Annabether or thank her for never giving such details about this mess!
"Another idea," Percy corrected in exasperation, as if he had any control of his thoughts during this mess.
... The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out,
Alex scoffed at this disgrace, what she wouldn't give for a chance to step in and do something about this rather than hearing of such a catastrophe.
... an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia.
"If she is from Flordia, then we are in trouble," Jason muttered.
..."I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.
"That is a very hard accomplishment," Will shivered.
"I believe it," Nico sighed.
..."Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."
"Eternal torment," Jason noticed, "until I hear a good offer about no torment, no deal!"
...Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward
Magnus's mouth was hanging open now and Hearth poked him in concern if he was still breathing. Apparently, you could wrestle a monster!
...I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.
"I'd rather have candy than whatever her spoils are," Thalia sneered.
"Yeah, that knitted hat would clash with your outfit," Alex nodded.
... she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.
"Teamwork!" Percy raised his hands in victory, but his smile was short-lived.
...I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant "Eat my pants!"
"A worthy insult, so long as they're brown," Will said, he knew his would be if they had to keep hearing about this much longer!
..."Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our-" BOOOOOM!
"I don't think your bags survived that," Nico told Percy conversationally.
"To bad you couldn't walk away in slow motion," Magnus imagined.
... the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.
"Okay, so technically, lightning finished ruining the bus," Percy defended. "So, no one wins."
"What a dirty trick, Zeus using the same thing twice," Alex scowled.
"Did you want to go again?" Thalia offered Jason.
"I'll," Nico stopped and cleared his throat but said again with confidence, "I'll go."
"Okay," Thalia smiled and tossed it to him instead and he caught it feeling far more enthusiastic than he probably should. Crap, he hoped Percy wouldn't notice.
PJOPJOPJOPJO
*What is with this random bit of satyr trivia that is never used again? It's like a pre-empathy link or something, which I have some stuff to say about in the next book, but I honestly wish this moment had just been left as Grover understanding his friend in that moment.