THE NEXT MORNING, Chiron moved Percy to cabin three.
He was all alone and he looked absolutely miserable. It seemed just as people were starting to accept him they all avoided him like the plague.
Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but Atalanta knew they were all talking about it behind her and Percy's back. The attack had scared everybody.
It sent two messages: one, that Percy was the son of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill him. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.
The other campers steered clear of Percy as much as possible, and had even taking to avoiding Atalanta on multiple occasions.
Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with him so they only consisted of Atalanta, Luke and Percy.
Atalanta and Luke pushed Percy harder than ever, and they weren't afraid to bruise him up in the process.
"You're going to need all the training you can get," she promised, as they were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."
Annabeth still taught Percy Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. She was distancing herself from Atalanta too and it was definitely not helping their already strained relationship.
This behavior towards Percy and the stunt that she pulled during capture the flag, it was safe to say Annabeth Chase was not in the daughter of Hecates good books right now .
Ignoring all of the Hellhound drama, Atalanta tried to help Percy as much as she could. He was in for a rough ride since he was claimed as a son of the big three, and the golden eyed daughter of Hecate was going to do her best to help him.
Something especially annoying to Atalanta was that, after lessons, Annabeth would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Poseidon? ... Dirty rotten ... Got to make a plan ..."
Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill Percy for breaking her magic spear.
Apparently some camper left a newspaper in Percy's cabin and Atalanta could feel her anger building up more and more.
BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT
BY EILEEN SMYTHE
Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.
Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circum-stances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.
Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.
Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with informa-tion to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.
The phone number was circled in black marker. Atalanta was absolutely fuming and this wasn't even about her. She didn't understand how Chiron was just allowing this bullying to happen and act like nothing was wrong.
If they weren't going to be reliable adults then she was going to handle it herself. A cruel smirk appeared on her face. They were in for it now.
******
ATALANTA HAD A terrible nightmare that night.
She was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind her. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.
About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair.
Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green.
They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.
She had to stop them. She didn't know why. But the harder she ran, the more the wind blew her back, until she was running in place, her heels digging uselessly in the sand.
Over the roar of the storm, she could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, 'Give it back! Give it back!' Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.
The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying her with salt.
"Stop it! Stop fighting!" She heard someone yell and tuned to see Percy right beside her.
Before she could say anything to him the ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned her blood to ice.
"Come down, little heroes", the voice crooned. "Come down!"
The sand split beneath the two, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. Their feet slipped, and darkness swallowed them.
Atalanta woke up, sure she was falling. She was covered in a layer of sweat and was still in cabin 11.
She could tell it was morning but it was still dark outside. She quickly reached under her pillow and wrote down her dream in her journal.
She picked up the habit after reading it in a book and thought it was a great idea, especially since demigod dreams tend to be important.
******
AS ATALANTA AND SILENA were sitting together, limbs tangled in each other, wide smiles on their faces, and eyes bright, Annabeth approached them.
The golden eyed girl sighed. Silena noticed the shift in mood and directed her gaze toward the approaching blonde.
The daughter of Aphrodite narrowed her eyes at the girl and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Do you need something Annabeth?" Atalanta said irately, still upset at the blonde for the way she had been acting.
Annabeth winced and looked away, clearing her throat, "Chiron wants you in the Big House." She said awkwardly.
"Ok" Atlanta waved her off, turning back to face the daughter of Aphrodite. They exchanged a few hushed whispers and bright smiles before the daughter of Hecate turned back to the blonde who didn't seem to take the hint to leave.
"Do you want to go together?" Atalanta asked impatiently slowly getting up and extending her hand to help Silena up.
"Um yeah he wants me there too" she told the brunette.
"Ok just give me a second." Atalanta told the daughter of Athena before quickly giving the daughter of Aphrodite a slightly longer hug than was to be expected and said her goodbyes.
Taking her time just to make the grey eyed girl angrier, she headed toward the big house, trying not to look at the sky that had turned a shade of dark gray and didn't seem to part around the camp anymore.
Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in their direction.
As they walked the two were nervously glancing at the sky. It never rained inside the camp.
But this storm ... this one was huge.
The two girls were tense from the storm and from the awkwardness of the situation.
"I'm sorry." Annabeth blurted out suddenly.
"What?" Atalanta asked turning to look at the blonde.
"I'm sorry. I've been a terrible person lately. I was so excited about this quest and I was scared. Everything is going so fast and I didn't mean to come off so mean." She said her head hanging down.
The brunette glanced at the blonde and shook her head. "It's fine I guess." She sighed, "but you can't just start being a bitch for no reason next time."
Annabeth scoffed at that but couldn't help the smile that was growing on her faces "Alright but that doesn't mean I have to be nice to seaweed brain"
"Look, I know your parents have a rivalry but please try to be nice. He's new here and he's just lost his mother, he really doesn't need any extra stress." Atalanta told her firmly.
"I'm not adding any stress." The grey eyed girl defended.
"Look I can't control you but you and everyone else in this camp are making him feel unwelcome. You don't have to talk to him but stop being mean for no reason. You were welcomed here when you arrived all in asking is you extend that courtesy to him"
"Alright." The blonde sighed.
Annabeth then got a mischievous smile before quickly interlocking their hands and swinging them back and forth.
"What are you doing?" Atalanta asked, swiftly pulling her hand away.
"I was just trying to be nice. Yknow extend an olive branch?" The girl tried to explain.
"Well I am an oak tree." Atalanta responded. "I would rather not crossbreed. Thanks though"
Annabeth didn't say anything else after that but kept sneaking looks towards the dark haired girl.
Atlanta ignored it but the blonde kept staring.
"What?" She huffed, rolling her eyes.
"Are you and Silena like...... a thing?" Annabeth asked turning her head back to look toward the big house.
"Um... no? Why?" Atlanta asked, taken aback.
"Well you two sure act like it. And the looks you two send each other are not looks you give friends" Annabeth replied still looking forward.
Atalanta thought about it and questioned herself. Did she like Silena?
She didn't know and she felt that she didn't need to know right now. She was twelve for Merlin's sake, why did it matter if they liked each other? It's not like they were old enough for anything serious even if they did.
Huffing she turned to look at the blonde, "no me and Silena are not a thing. I'm twelve" she deadpanned.
"Alright alright I was just curious" Annabeth exclaimed throwing her hand up in surrender.
They entered the big house and were met with Chiron and Mr.D playing pinochle.
"Ah you two are here." Chiron announced.
"Obviously" Atalanta responded rolling her eyes at the completely useless statement.
Annabeth sent her a look which she completely ignored.
Atlanta took a seat next to Mr.D and watched the game.
"Grover should be here with Percy anytime now" Chiron stated still staring at the game.
As they heard footsteps, Annabeth put on her invisibility cap and hid behind a pillar.
Eventually Grover and Percy walked up to the front porch of the Big House.
Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke.
Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheel-chair.
Atalanta was sitting there too watching the game go on in interest.
They were playing against invisible opponents--two sets of cards hovering in the air.
"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."
Percy waited.
"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle- Beard is your father."
A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house. "Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.
Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth, and Atalanta was glaring at Mr.D but not before giving Percy a soft smile that had his cheeks heating up.
"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."
"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm Mr.D," Atalanta put in.
"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."
"Mr. D-" Chiron warned.
"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table.
"I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."
Atalanta rolled her eyes at the god's dramatics, but he wasn't the god of theatre for no reason.
Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass.
He snapped his fingers.
The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.
Chiron smiled at Percy, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."
The two boys sat down but Grover still looked anxious as he was nervously tapping his fingers against his thigh.
Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.
"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"
Percy shuddered in remembrance and Grocer shrank back in his chair slightly.
"It scared me," Percy said. "If Atalanta hadn't killed it, I'd be dead."
"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done." Chiron stated grimly.
"Done ... with what?" Percy asked tilting his head slightly in confusion.
"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?" Chiron said looking at Percy expectantly.
Percy glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers, then to Atalanta who gave him a reassuring smile that had him relaxing his shoulders slightly.
"Um, sir," percy said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."
Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."
Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as anyone could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.
"Poseidon and Zeus," Percy said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they?"
Chiron and Grover exchanged looks. Atlanta was playing with some mini frogs that she conjured.
Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"
Percy blushed and didn't meet anyones eyes.
"The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And ... I've also been having these dreams."
"I knew it," Grover said.
"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.
"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"
"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."
Percy laughed nervously. "A what?" He asked not getting it.
"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."
"Oh."
"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other light-ning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."
"And it's missing?" Percy asked curiously.
"Stolen,"
"By who?"
"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you."
Percy's mouth fell open and Atalanta shook her head at the ridiculous thought that Percy would've stolen the bolt.
For gods' sake, he wasn't even there when the bolt was stolen and he just found out he was a demigod recently. Anyone who thinks he actually stole it is nuts.
"At least"-Chiron held up a hand-"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' Air dis-asters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly-that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father con-vinced a human hero to take it."
"But I didn't-" Percy started only to get interrupted by Chiron.
"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly hav-ing the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne.
The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."
"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!" Percy exclaimed, throwing his hands up.
Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. Atalanta nodded her head in agreement with Percy but didn't say anything.
The clouds didn't seem to be parting around the camp as they usually did and she didn't want to make it any worse than it already was.
They were rolling straight over the valley, sealing them in like a coffin lid.
"Er, Percy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."
"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam...."
He looked at percy as if he actually expected him to remember question thirty-eight.
Atalanta had to stifle a laugh at the incredulous look Percy gave Chiron.
"Something about a golden net?" Percy guessed furrowing his eyebrows in thought.
"Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods ... they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?" Percy asked looking to Chiron for answers.
"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threaten-ing war. And now, you've come along-the proverbial last straw."
"But I'm just a kid!" Percy said raising his voice in confusion and anger
"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you.... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"
"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon-my dad-he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?" Percy asked looking at Chiron and quickly at Atalanta.
Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date.
I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"
"Bad?" Percy guessed with a perplexed look on his face.
"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."
"Bad," He repeated, nodding his head.
"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath." Chiron told him cynically.
It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.
Atalanta stole a nervous glance at the sky before looking back at Percy. He looked furious and she decided, at that moment, that she didn't want to be on the other end of his fury.
"So I have to find the stupid bolt," Percy glared at the table. "And return it to Zeus."
"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"
"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?" Percy asked still glaring slightly.
"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."
"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?" Percy asked desperately.
"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge." Chiron answered grimly.
Percy swallowed, his previous anger replaced by his nervousness. "Good reason."
"You agree then?"Chiron asked a slight smile on his lips.
Percy looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly. He then looked at Atalanta.
She nodded at him with an encouraging smile but Percy could see something else in her eyes.
"All right," He turned back to face Chiron. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."
"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."
Atalanta watched as he made his way upstairs, to the attic. She was lost in thought remembering her first time consulting the oracle. It had not been a pleasant experience.
It had only been a year ago but it had been so unpleasant that just the thought of it sent shivers down her spine.
The leathery skin and the milky white, dead eyes that seemed to follow your every move. The dust and grime covering the walls and the oracle itself.
The green mist that came out of its mouth and most of all, Atalanta remembers the voice.
The reptilian voice that slithered through her brain and scratched it with its forked tongue enough to fulfill her curiosity and then some. Just to the point where the scratching sensation became uncomfortable but not enough to where it truly hurt.
Snapped out of her thoughts by Grover's hand being gently placed on her shoulder, Atalanta turned to look at him, her eyes filled with worry after taking in his appearance.
"You okay?" He asked his voice shaky.
Atalanta could see the uneasiness in his eyes and the slight tremor of his hands as he tried to play it off cool.
"I'm fine Grover, if anything I should be asking you that." The daughter of Hecate said somewhat jokingly.
"I-I think I'll be fine. I'm just nervous for Percy. I don't want him to get hurt because of all of this" Grover said his shoulders sagging.
"He already has. It may not have been physical but he lost his mother and before you start it was not your fault" Atlanta told him as she saw him opening his mouth to interrupt. "You just have to be there for him as his friend and help guide him through this. Plus you have me with you if that helps"
"Yeah. Yeah, it helps a lot." Grover said before he rested his head against her shoulder while she softly hummed a song under her breath.
******
"WELL", CHIRON ASKED Percy as he walked toward the group of anxious people.
Percy slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."
Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"
"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed.
"This is important." Atalanta said gently, trying to ease into it.
"She . .. she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned." Percy said but the look on his face said something was aid that made him upset.
"I knew it," Grover exclaimed slightly rising out of his seat as if he was going to jump over the table and hug the life out of the son of the sea.
Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"
Percy looked like he was debating on whether or not he should say anything else and that made Atalanta nervous.
'What could've been so bad that he didn't want to say?' She thought to herself.
"No," Percy said. "That's about it."
It was an obvious lie. Atalanta knew it and she was sure that Chiron did too, but he let it go.
"Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass." Chiron said gently.
Atalanta knew that this was a way to calm Percy's nerves and to make him feel better, but she thought that that's probably what he needed right now anyway.
"Okay," Percy said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"
"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"
"Somebody else who wants to take over?" Percy guessed, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."
Percy thought about it for a minute before speaking. "Hades."
Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."
A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"
"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his iden-tity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."
"Yes, but-but Hades hates all heroes," Grover pro-tested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon... ."
"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Pun-ishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp.
Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."
"Okay hold up." Atlanta butted in "why are we assuming it's Hades? It doesn't make any sense for him to want the bolt."
"This is a feud that has been going on for centuries. You wouldn't understand Atalanta." Chiron told her as if he were speaking to a little kid.
"What wouldn't I understand!" Atlanta exclaimed standing up, "just because you are too close minded to see that this is something bigger that your grudge against the Lord of the Dead, doesn't mean that that it isn't. Lord Hades isn't the bad guy here it's something bigger. You and I both know it." She huffed before sitting back down and slumping on her chair.
"Well because we have no other leads other than lord Hades," he glanced at Atlanta who scowled back at him, "we are assuming it is him." Chiron said turning back to Percy.
"Great," Percy muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill me."
"But a quest to ..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."
"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to under-stand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."
Atalanta was full on glaring at Chiron now and Grover shrunk back slightly in his seat.
Anybody who had been at camp long enough knew that getting on the other end of Atalanta fury was not a good idea and although he was over 2000 years old, in that moment, Grover feared slightly for Chiron.
Atalanta took a moment to calm down, with the soothing words of Grover of course, and glanced back at Percy.
Instead of fear that she had anticipated, she saw confidence. It was slightly reassuring and she remembered that his mother was on the line so she now understood his motivation a little bit more.
Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.
Atalanta knew that Grover was going to get his searchers license and that this quest would help him, but she knew how much satyrs hated underground and couldn't help but swell with pride at how brave Grover was being going on a quest like this.
"Look, if we know it's Hades," Percy told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."
"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said, here Atalanta glared at him and it sent shivers down Percy's spine. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades, and I imagine Poseidon does, they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation.
That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"
"You're saying I'm being used." Percy said with a scowl.
"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situa-tion. He needs you." Chiron responded.
Atlanta could see the emotions rolling around inside Percy, like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope.
She could see the inner turmoil in his eyes and couldn't help but feel bad.
Percy looked at Chiron and Atalanta. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"
"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too." Chiron answered although it didn't really answer the question.
Atlanta rolled her eyes. Chiron was acting like Albus too many names Dumbledore, right now and it was really getting on her nerves.
"And you?" Percy asked, turning to Atlanta, which snapped her out of her thought.
"Well I thought you might be especially after the bathroom incident and how you got stronger fighting after you poured water on your head. It wasn't hard to put pieces together especially since you look like your father." Atlanta told him.
Percy nodded in response before looking back at Chiron.
"So let me get this straight," He said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."
"Check," Chiron said.
"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."
"Check."
"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days." Percy deadpanned.
"That's about right." Chiron nodded his head.
Percy looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.
"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.
"You don't have to go," Percy told him. "I can't ask that of you.
"Oh ..." He shifted his hooves. "No ... it's just that satyrs and underground places ... well..."
He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt.
"You saved my life, Percy. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."
Percy sighed in relief and then turned to face Atalanta.
"You don't have to come either. I know it's a lot to-" he was cut off.
"She agreed to this and she's one of the most experienced demigods at camp. She's also been to the Underworld before. You'll need her" Chiron told Percy.
Percy looked at Atalanta and she nodded in agreement with Chiron.
"So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west." Percy asked Chiron.
"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America." Chiron responded.
"Where?" Percy asked
Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."
"Oh," Percy said, slightly embarrassed, "Naturally. So we just get on a plane-"
"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"
Percy shook his head as a faint blush appeared on his cheeks.
"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."
Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.
"Okay," Percy said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland."
"That's right," Chiron said. "Usually only two companions may accompany you, but I think that this is so important that we'll have to break the rules. Grover is one. Atlanta is the other and the other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."
"Gee," Percy said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?"
The air shimmered behind Chiron.
Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.
"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."
"If you do say so yourself," Percy said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"
Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?" She snapped at him glaring as Atalanta tried to stifle her laugh.
It didn't work if the glare the blonde sent her was anything to go by.
"A trio, and a know it all," Percy said. "That'll work."
"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."
Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.
"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."