[Y/N's POV]
I had to sprint to make it inside after Thorn as guards closed the doors quickly after he entered. Inside of the room, my stomach did a front flip.
It was a huge room with a second floor balcony. A bunch of mortals surrounded the room, standing guard, plus a pair of Scythian dracaenae.
That wasn't the worst thing about it. Between the two snake women was Luke. If I wasn't invisible, he'd have been staring right at me. He looked awful, like he'd been the one holding up all that rock this whole time. He was pale, and his hair had started to turn gray, like he was closer to thirty now than the twenty something he was.
He still had that angered glimmer in his eye, but it wasn't as strong. The scar on his face was bright red, like another dragon had scratched him in the same exact spot recently.
Next to him, sitting down, were two men. They were both covered in shadows, but I could still see two pairs of calloused hands sticking out from the darkness. One of them spoke, the man from my dream with an icy voice. "Well?" he asked. When he spoke, it felt like the entire earth shook under me.
Dr. Thorn took off his shades. His two-colored eyes, brown and blue, glittered with excitement. He made a stiff bow, then spoke in his weird French accent: "They are here, General."
"We know that, you wretch," boomed the other man. It was the guy from my dream that Artemis was scared of. The lieutenant. "But where are they?"
"In the rocket museum."
"The Air and Space Museum," Luke corrected irritably. Dr. Thorn glared at Luke. "As you say, sir." I got the feeling Thorn would just as soon impale Luke with one of his spikes as call him sir.
"How many?" Luke asked.
Thorn pretended not to hear. "How many?" the General demanded.
"Four, General," Thorn said. "The satyr, Grover Underwood. And the girl with the spiky black hair and the, how do you say, punk clothes and the horrible shield."
"Thalia," Luke said. "And two other girls. Hunters. One wears a silver circlet."
"That one I know," the General growled. "The goddess' son is not among them?" the Lieutenant's voice boomed. "No sir." Thorn said, shaking in his boots. "Unsurprising. The hunters would never let him come willingly."
Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably. "Let me take them," Luke said to the pair. "We have more than enough-"
"Patience," the General said. "They'll have their hands full already. I've sent a little playmate to keep them occupied."
"But-"
"We cannot risk you, my boy."
"Yes, boy," Dr. Thorn said with a cruel smile. "You are much too fragile to risk. Let me finish them off."
"No." The General rose from his chair, and I caught my first glimpse of him. He was tall and muscular, like he'd been working out nonstop for years. He had light brown skin, and hair a few shades darker. He wore a suit that looked way too expensive. His face looked like he'd been in wars before. It made sense that he was called the general.
"You have already failed me, Thorn," he said. "But, General-"
"No excuses!" Thorn flinched. I'd thought Thorn was scary when I first saw him in his black uniform at the military academy. But now, standing before the General, Thorn looked like a silly wannabe soldier. The General was the real deal. He didn't need a uniform. He was a born commander.
"I should throw you into the pits of Tartarus for your incompetence," the General said. "I send you to capture a child of the three elder gods, and you bring me a scrawny daughter of Athena."
"But you promised me revenge.'" Thorn protested. "A command of my own!"
"I am Lord Kronos's senior commander," the General said. "And I will choose lieutenants who get me results! I do not need another." he gestured to the other man in the shadows. He stood, and I caught a look at the lieutenant. He looked strikingly familiar. A pair of dark rimmed sunglasses were resting on the edge of his nose. It offset his otherwise professional appearance.
He had longer, clean cut hair, and had a thick beard. He had a grizzled expression. This was the General's second in command. He looked like he could snap me in two with a breath. Needless to say, he radiated power.
"It was thanks to Luke, and Luke alone that our plan was salvaged, Thorn." his voice echoed. "Get out of our sight, until the General finds something pointless for you to do."
Thorn's face turned purple with rage. I thought he was going to start frothing at the mouth or shooting spines, but he just bowed awkwardly and left the room. "Now, my boy." The General turned to Luke. "The first thing we must do is isolate the half-blood Thalia. The monster we seek will then come to her."
"The Hunters will be difficult to dispose of," Luke said. "Zoe Nightshade-"
"Do not speak her name!" The General shouted. Luke swallowed. "S-sorry, General. I just-"
The General silenced him with a wave of his hand. "Let me show you, my boy, how we will bring the Hunters down." He pointed to a guard on the ground level. "Do you have the teeth?"
The guy stumbled forward with a ceramic pot. "Yes, General!"
"Plant them," he said.
In the middle of the room, was a big circle of dirt. The shiny golden plaques made me figure that this used to be an exhibit. But I watched with flaring nerves as the guard took sharp white teeth from the pot and planted them into the soil. He smoothed over the dirt and turned back to the commanding officers. "Ready, General!" he said, wiping his hands.
"Excellent! Water them, and we will let them scent their prey."
The guard picked up a tiny little watering can, and poured out some dark red liquid that smelled putrid. I knew enough about this world to know that what was in that can was not meant for drinking.
The soil began to bubble. "Soon," the General said, "I will show you, Luke, soldiers that will make your army from that little boat look insignificant."
Luke clenched his fists. "I've spent a year training my forces! When the Princess Andromeda arrives at the mountain, they'll be the best-"
"Luke." the Lieutenant said. "We do not deny that your troops will be a fine guard for our Lord Kronos. You of course will have a very important role to fill."
Luke went pale as a ghost. "-but under my leadership, the forces of Lord Kronos will increase a hundredfold. We will be unstoppable. Behold, our ultimate killing machines." the Lieutenant continued, walking down a level. From here, I could already tell this gif was bad news. He radiated fear.
The soil burst upward. I stood frozen still, barely even breathing under fear of being caught.
In each spot where a tooth had been planted, a creature was struggling out of the dirt. The first of them said: "Mew?" It was a kitten. A little orange tabby with stripes like a tiger. Then another appeared, until there were a dozen, rolling around and playing in the dirt.
Everyone stared at them in disbelief. The General roared, "What is this? Cute cuddly kittens? Where did you find those teeth?" The guard who'd brought the teeth cowered in fear. "From the exhibit, sir! Just like you said. The saber-toothed tiger-"
"No, you idiot!" The Lieutenant cried, bounding over the railing to the mortal. "I said the tyrannosaurus!" In one fluid motion, the Lieutenant put his hands on the mortal guard's head, and broke his neck. I gasped. There was no point in even worrying if I would be caught at this point.
The Lieutenant's nostrils flared as he turned to another guard. "You!" he shouted, pointing a scarred finger. "Gather up those... those infernal fuzzy little beasts and take them outside. And never let me see them again."
The terrified guard dropped his weapon, gathered up the kittens and scampered out of the room.
"You." The General pointed to another guard, frustrated. "Get me the right teeth. NOW!" The new guard ran off to carry out his orders.
"Imbeciles." muttered the General. The Lieutenant put his hand in his head. "Tell me about it." he complained. "This is why I don't use mortals," Luke said. "They are unreliable."
"They are weak-minded, easily bought, and violent," the General said. "I love them." A minute later, the guard hustled into the room with his hands full of large pointy teeth. "Excellent," the General said. He climbed onto the balcony railing and jumped down, twenty feet.
Where he landed, the marble floor cracked under his leather shoes. He stood, wincing, and rubbed his shoulders. "Curse my stiff neck."
"Another hot pad, sir?" a guard asked. "More Tylenol?"
"No! It will pass." The General brushed off his silk suit, then snatched up the teeth. "I shall do this myself."
He held up one of the teeth and smiled. "They call these 'dinosaur' teeth. Ha! Those foolish mortals don't even know when they have dragon teeth in their possession. And not just any dragon teeth. These come from the ancient Sybaris herself! They shall do nicely."
He planted them in the dirt, twelve in all. Then he scooped up the watering can. He sprinkled the soil with red liquid, tossed the can away, and held his arms out wide. "Rise!" The dirt trembled. A single, skeletal hand shot out of the ground, grasping at the air.
The General looked across the grounds at the Lieutenant. "Quickly, do you have the scent?" The large man glared up at one of the dracaenae who looked terrified but still said, "Yesssss, lord." She took out a sash of silvery fabric, like the kind the Hunters wore.
"Excellent," the General said. "Once my warriors catch its scent, they will pursue its owner relentlessly. Nothing can stop them, no weapons known to half-blood or Hunter. They will tear the Hunters and their allies to shreds. Toss it here!"
More skeletons erupted from the ground. A dozen now. They looked just like you had skinned someone alive and pulled their bones all out in one piece. Granted, they started growing flesh as I thought that.
They turned into gray fleshed men, with sharp yellow eyes, and luckily they were wearing modern clothes before their dignity was shown to the world. They were covered in gray muscle shirts, camo pants, and black combat boots. If you just glanced at them, they'd look like regular military grunts.
The dracaenae let the scarf flutter down to the General's hand. If that scarf's scent even reached the skeleton warriors, they'd never stop until Zoe and the others were very dead. As usual, my body acted before my brain could think. So I went flying through the air, snatching the scarf gracefully and tumbling to the ground, stowing it in my jacket pocket, hoping no one saw anything.
"What's this?" bellowed the General. I scrambled to my feet and turned to run. "An intruder," the General growled. "One cloaked in darkness. Seal the doors!"
"It's one of them! It has to be Y/N!" Luke yelled. "Percy's too clumsy." I took off toward the exit, getting my shoulder caught on something. I had clipped one of the smaller dinosaur horns. Suddenly, it felt a lot breezier. I gave that no thought and sprinted as fast as I could through the door, just as it shut.
I burst out of there, and hurried over toward the Smithsonian, tore off the invisibility hat, and didn't stop running the entire way across the mall.
I crashed into the Air and Space museum. It was just one huge room full of rockets and airplanes hanging from the ceiling. There were three levels of balconies up around the middle so you could look at it from all angles. The good thing is that the place wasn't crowded. Three levels of balconies curled around, so you could look at the exhibits from all different heights. There were only a few families and a couple of tour groups of kids, probably doing one of those holiday school trips.
I wanted to scream for all of them to get the heck out of here, but that might get me tossed into the loony bin. Legally, I don't exist, since all of my documents were forged by magic people, so that would be an entirely different issue once they got ahold of me.
I ran around breathlessly, looking desperately for Thalia, Grover, and unfortunately the Hunters. The General and his lieutenant knew we were here now, so any minute, surely we would be discovered.
I ran into Zoe, in the literal sense, I basically clothes-lined her with my frantically waving arms. "Oh gods." she muttered, rubbing her head. Grover and Thalia jumped backward in surprise, as did Percy, before he realized I was the one there. They were talking before I got there. Before I could explain our presences, Bianca and Zoe (who got back onto her feet at an alarming rate) had arrows ready to fire straight into my face.
Bianca looked a lot more pleased to see me than Zoe did. Unsurprisingly. "You!" she spat, with venom in her voice, drawing her dagger (which she already stabbed me with) and readying it at her side. "How dare you show your face here!"
"Y/N!" Thalia exclaimed, hesitating on what to do. Grover didn't second guess himself. He lunged, yelling our names and wrapping the both of us in an excited hug. "Thank the gods!" he muttered.
He flushed when Zoe glared through his soul, and switched up. "I- uh. You two aren't supposed to be here!"
"Luke!" I huffed, trying to catch my breath. "He's here! With Thorn!" I balanced, bent over, trying not to fall. The anger worked its way onto Thalia's face as she gripped her silver bracelet, the one that housed her shield. "Where?"
I explained everything to them, with Percy not understanding most of anything, but nodding like he did. I told them about Luke, The General, his Lieutenant, the museum, the skeletons, and all of that fun stuff.
"The General is here?" Zoe looked stunned. "That is impossible! You lie."
"What have I got to lie about?!" I pushed back, standing back to my full height, a few inches taller than Zoe. "Some skeleton warriors are about to burst in here-"
Thalia interrupted me. "What? How many?"
"A dozen. I think." Percy looked at me wide eyed. "Skeleton warriors?!?" he shouted. I put a hand over his mouth. "Do you want us to get arrested for screaming like a maniac?" I whisper yelled through clenched teeth.
I turned to Zoe again. "They mentioned something else. He said they'd be sending you a 'playmate.' Some monster to distract you."
Thalia and Grover shared worried 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." Percy tried to comfort the now near bleating Grover.
"Zoe," Bianca said nervously, "if it is the General-"
"It cannot be!" Zoe snapped. "Y/N must have seen an Iris-message or some other illusion."
"I saw the Lieutenant snap some guy's neck. Illusions don't do that. They're here. I know you're worried about it. So am I! That's terrifying!"
[Percy's POV]
Zoe took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. I didn't know why she was taking it so personally, or how she knew this General guy, but I figured now wasn't the time to ask. "If Y/N is telling the truth about the skeleton warriors," she said, "we have no time to argue. They are the worst, the most horrible... We must leave now."
"Good idea," I said.
"I was not including thee, boys," Zoe said. "You are not part of this quest."
"Oh for the love of-" Y/N smacked a hand on his face, the exhaustion of the last week visibly wearing on him. "We're trying to save your lives!"
"You guys shouldn't have come." Thalia said grimly, eyeing us worriedly. "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!" Thalia looked like she was about to hit Zoe. "Would you stop?!" I exclaimed, putting myself between the two, only thickening the tension.
Then everyone froze, I heard a growl so loud I thought one of the rocket engines was starting up. Below us, 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 golden glittering fur. I'd seen this monster once before. Two years ago, I'd glimpsed it briefly from a train. Now, up close and personal, it looked even bigger.
"The Nemean Lion," Thalia said. "Don't move." The lion roared so loud it parted my 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!"
I uncapped Riptide and rolled to the left. Arrows whistled past me, and Grover played a sharp tweet-tweet cadence on his reed pipes. I turned and saw Zoe and Bianca climbing the Apollo capsule.
They were firing arrows, one after another, all shattering harmlessly against the lion's 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, and the lion recoiled. "ROOOAAARRR!"
"Hi-yah!" Thalia said. "Back!" From behind her, like they'd apparently practiced many times, Y/N jumped off of Thalia's shield, and up over the Lion. He had his bronze sword raised high up in the air, and as he came back down, he stabbed the sword down hard. Even with the added boost, the sharp edge clanged harmlessly off the Lion's pelt.
Y/N landed hard on the ground and was swiftly moved when the lion swatted him off to the side of a staircase, busting through a guardrail and through the glass front of the gift shop.
The lion growled and clawed the air, but it retreated as if the shield were a blazing fire. For a second, I thought Thalia had it under control. Then I saw the lion crouching, its leg muscles tensing. I'd seen enough cat fights in the alleys around my apartment in New York. I knew the lion was going to pounce.
"Hey!" I yelled. I don't know what I was thinking, but I charged the beast. I just wanted to get it away from my friends. I slashed with Riptide, a good strike to the flank that should've cut the monster into Meow Mix, but the blade just clanged against its fur in a burst of sparks.
The lion raked me with its claws, ripping off a chunk of my coat. I backed against the railing. It sprang at me, one thousand pounds of monster, and I had no choice but to turn and jump.
I landed on the wing of an old-fashioned silver airplane, which pitched and almost spilled me to the floor, three stories below. An arrow whizzed past my head. The lion jumped onto the aircraft, and the cords holding the plane began to groan.
The lion swiped at me, and I dropped onto the next exhibit, a weird-looking spacecraft with blades like a helicopter. I looked up and saw the lion roar-inside its maw, a pink tongue and throat.
Its mouth, I thought. Its fur was completely invulnerable, but if I could strike it in the mouth... The only problem was, the monster moved too quickly. Between its claws and fangs, I couldn't get close without getting sliced to pieces.
"Zoe!" I shouted. "Target the mouth!"
The monster lunged. An arrow zipped past it, missing completely, and I dropped from the spaceship onto the top of a floor exhibit, a huge model of the earth. I slid down Russia and dropped off the equator.
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!" I 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 me, on the other side of the globe. The lion regarded us both, trying to decide which of us to kill first.
Zoe and Bianca were above us, 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!"
I looked around. Options. I needed... The gift shop. Past the massive hole Y/N had created, I had a vague memory from my trip here as a little kid. Something I'd made my mom buy me, and I'd regretted it. If they still sold that stuff...
"Thalia," I said, "keep it occupied." She nodded grimly. "Hi-yah!" She pointed her spear and a spidery arc of blue electricity shot out, zapping the lion in the tail.
"ROOOOOOOAR!" The lion turned and pounced. Thalia rolled out of its way, holding up Aegis to keep the monster at bay, and I ran for the gift shop. "This is no time for souvenirs, boy!" Zoe yelled. I ran into the shop, knocking over rows of T-shirts, jumping over tables full of glow in-the-dark planets and space ooze. The sales lady cowered behind the cash register.
I ran past a dazed Y/N, pulling him to his feet and toward the glowing silver packets. I shoveled handfuls into his arms and then my own, not bothering to explain the plan. But by now, people knew to just roll with whatever I came up with.
Zoe and Bianca were still showering arrows on the monster, but it was no good. The lion seemed to know better than to open its mouth too much. It snapped at Thalia, slashing with its claws. It even kept its eyes narrowed to tiny slits.
Thalia jabbed at the monster and backed up. The lion pressed her. "Y/N, Percy!" she called, "whatever you're going to do-"
The lion roared and swatted her like a cat toy, sending her flying into the side of a Titan rocket. Her head hit the metal and she slid to the floor. "Hey, Lion!" Y/N yelled. In the instant that the beast looked over at him, Y/N had thrown his sword, the blade spinning like a disc right at it.
Once again, the blade clattered harmlessly to the ground. This time, the lion snarled. Y/N and I shared a look, a nod, and I gave him the cliff notes of my stupid plan. We ran in close, drawing Riptide and Blackout together, and charged toward the Lion.
In the split second the monster had opened its mouth to eat us, the handfuls of terrible space food left our hands and hit the lion right in the mouth, giving it a taste of something awful, I chunked a space food pouch into its maw. A chunk of cellophane-wrapped, freeze-dried strawberry parfait.
The lion paused for a moment, and its eyes went wide and it gagged like a cat with a hairball. I couldn't blame it. I remembered feeling the same way when I'd tried to eat space food as a kid. The stuff was just plain nasty. "Get ready, Zoe!" I yelled.
It's mouth still wasn't wide enough. So Y/N did something even I wasn't dumb enough to do. He got closer, and stuck his blade right down in the center of the lion's tongue. The lion started trembling the second that the sword of darkness hit him.
In a moment, Y/N had let go of his sword, ended up on the lion's back, and had a hand on the lion's jaw. He strained, and pulled with all his might and the lion's maw opened widely. Behind me, I could hear people screaming. Grover was playing another horrible song on his pipes. "Snack time!" I yelled. While its mouth was open, I got an ice-cream sandwich in its throat.
Fortunately, I had always been a pretty good pitcher, even though baseball wasn't my game. Before the lion could stop gagging, I shot in two more flavors of ice cream and a freeze-dried spaghetti dinner. With Y/N fighting harder than the lion, (I could see normal veins popping off of his forehead as he grit his teeth and pulled), keeping its mouth open, the lion was forced to choke all of this down, and it reared, trying to get free.
"Now!" I yelled. Immediately, arrows pierced the lion's maw-two, four, six. Y/N let go and flew off wildly to the side as the lion thrashed crazily, 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 and helped her up. She seemed okay, just a little dazed. I went over and checked on Y/N, who simply mumbled, "Why couldn't I have just been a catholic..."
He tilted his head back and started catching his breath. He told me that Blackout took a lot of energy out of him, so I sat and rested with him.
Zoe and Bianca dropped from the balcony and landed next to us. Zoe eyed me cautiously. "That was... an interesting strategy."
"It still worked." Y/N grunted in agreement, his eyes closed as the shadowy ring regained shape on his finger. Zoe didn't argue.
The lion seemed to be melting, the way dead monsters do sometimes, 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 me. I stared at her. "What, the lion's fur? Isn't that, like, an animal rights violation or something?"
"It is a spoil of war," she told me. "It is rightly thine."
"You killed it," I said.
She shook her head, almost smiling. "I think thy ice-cream sandwich did that. Fair is fair, Percy Jackson. Take the fur." I 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 I watched, the pelt shifted and changed into a coat-a full-length golden-brown duster.
"Not exactly my style," I murmured. As Y/N sat up, I spoke to him. "You want it?" he shook his head, rubbing his eyes, pulling himself to his feet and standing, taking a deep breath and finding his sword. "Definitely not my style." he jested.
"We have to get out of here," Grover said. "The security guards won't stay confused for long." I noticed for the first time how strange it was that the guards hadn't rushed forward to arrest us. They were scrambling in all directions except ours, like they were madly searching for something. A few were running into the walls or each other.
"You did that?" I 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."
"You learned a new song?" Y/N asked, sounding genuinely shocked. "I can learn new things!" Grover replied, sounding insulted. "I never said you couldn't, G. I'm just surprised. I thought your ceiling was Hillary Duff." he joked, bumping the satyr in the shoulder.
"The security guards are not our biggest worry," Zoe said. "Look."
Through the glass walls of the museum, I could see a group of men walking across the lawn. Gray men in gray camouflage outfits. They were too far away for us to see their eyes. But Y/N's eyes went wide. "They're hunting me." he muttered, drawing his blade again.
"Go without me." he managed to say. "I'll just get you all killed." he turned and showed us the ripped shoulder of his jacket.
"No." Zoe said, almost sounding surprised by herself. "We go together." she reasoned. Y/N gave her a crooked look. So did I. "But, you said-"
"You two are part of this quest now," Zoe said grudgingly. "I do not like it, but there is no
changing fate. You, Percy are the fifth quest member. Clearly, Y/N is the one seeking. And we are not leaving anyone behind."
"Fair enough." my friend reasoned.