"I've never seen anything like it," Will commented after he finished examining Thalia and Percy's hands. "It's like your hands are stuck together but there's no visible adhesive that I can see."
They had been stuck together for almost forty-five minutes and Thalia had become impatient. "Can you fix it? Because I'm willing to chop a hand off."
"You'd be willing it to live without your hand?" Percy asked rhetorically, eyebrows raised.
"It wouldn't be my hand that I'm chopping off," Thalia muttered darkly, glaring at their intertwined hands.
Percy audibly gulped and turned to Will. "You can fix it, right?"
"I wouldn't know where to start," Will admitted. "My dad would know. You could probably head to Olympus and ask him. After everything, I doubt he would refuse to help."
"Yeah, because we can just walk into Olympus and demand that Apollo help us," Nico said sarcastically. Will raised an eyebrow at him and he started to blush. "Sorry," he muttered, ducking his head down.
"I would at least try," Will suggested. "Unless you want to be stuck like that?"
"We're going," Thalia and Percy said in unison.
***
The trio walked into the Empire State building. The sun had set over an hour ago so there was no one in the lobby beside a janitor in the corner and the receptionist sitting behind the desk with his feet propped up, reading a newspaper.
They approached the desk drawing the man's attention. He took his feet off of the desk and and raised an eyebrow at them. They made for an odd group. Nico was walking in front of Thalia and Percy who awkwardly had their arms crossed due to their interlocked hands. Thalia was glaring at Percy every few seconds while he made funny faces at her.
"Six hundredth floor, please," Nico asked, holding out his hand expectantly.
The man raised his other eyebrow before picking up his newspaper. He didn't look at them when he said, "Ain't no such thing kid, get lost."
Thalia shouldered past Nico, pulling Percy with along with her. "Do you know who I am?" she asked, annoyed. She didn't give the man time to respond as she leaned in closer, glaring at him. "My name is Thalia, Daughter of Zeus and ex-lieutenant of Artemis. These two are my cousins Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon and Nico di Angelo, Son of Hades. So you better give me the keys or I will kick your-"
"I think he gets it, Thals," Percy cut in, taking pity on the trembling guard.
The man fumbled for the keys as he pulled them out of his pocket. He thrust his hand out and Thalia snatched the keys from them with her free hand before walking towards the elevator, head held high.
They rode the elevator up to Olympus in comfortable silence, disregarding the horrible songs playing. After five minutes the elevator dinged and the trio stepped out, admiring the grandeur of the place for a moment. Thalia started leading the way towards the area of personal temples and altars in a private section of the gardens. As they walked, nymphs, satyrs, and various minor gods watched them pass, whispered conversations following them.
Apollo's temple looked like every object and surface had been touched by Midas. The walls were solid gold and glowed softly. There was an ornate, three-tiered fountain in front of the temple, with a lyre statue at the top. There were four braziers placed in the corners of the temple with a larger brazier in the direct center of the temple. Thalia marched into the middle of the temple and shut her eyes.
Nico and Percy watched her for a minute, unsure of what she was doing. They didn't have to wait for long; Thalia opened her eyes and a satisfied smirk settled across her face. A moment later there was a bright flash from outside and the three teens instinctively looked away. Once the light faded, they looked outside to see Apollo's sun chariot, transformed into a convertible, in front of the temple.
Apollo had an annoyed expression on his face that grew as the teens approached him. "What was so important that you had to call..." He trailed off as he saw the awkward position Thalia and Percy were in.
"We need your help," Thalia muttered begrudgingly.
Apollo raised an eyebrow at them. He turned to Percy. "If you glued yourself to her as a prank then that's your own fault. You don't need my help to fix that." He muttered in a lower voice, "Even if it was a funny prank."
"It wasn't a prank. I just grabbed her hand and then I couldn't let go," Percy explained.
Apollo sighed and walked over to the trio. He put one hand on Nico's shoulder and the other on Percy's. "Close your eyes," he warned before he started to glow. When the light faded, the three teens were standing in a spacious room that resembled a study. There was a workbench that was surrounded by cabinets filled with different ingredients. The wall was lined with bookshelves and in the corner was a small area that was set up like an infirmary.
"My private medical room," Apollo explained as he led them to the corner of the room. Nico stood back and leaned against the closest wall as Percy and Thalia continued to follow Apollo.
The god turned around, waiting for them to stop before taking their interlocked hands and examining them. Percy and Thalia stood there awkwardly as Apollo poked their hands. At one point, Apollo took out a magnifying lens and used it to examine their hands. The god had an expression of growing confusion on his face.
"I... don't know what this is," Apollo said haltingly. "It almost looks like..." he trailed off and shook his head.
"Like what?"
Apollo waved off the question. He walked away for a moment before coming back with three needles. "I need to take a sample of blood from each of you."
Percy looked like he was about to protest before Thalia elbowed him in the gut. He hesitantly held out his arm and allowed Apollo to extract a sample of his blood. Thalia followed suit and Apollo turned to look at Nico expectantly. Nico scowled but held out his arm, grumbling under his breath as Apollo drew a small amount of blood. Once he was done, Apollo took the samples to his workbench. Surprisingly, the god pulled out a microscope from underneath the table. He took ten minutes to set up slides with a sample of each teen's blood. He then examined each one under the microscope individually. His eyes lit up after five minutes of looking at the blood samples.
Nico noticed his expression and stood up from where he had taken a seat on the floor. "Did you find anything?"
"Yes," Apollo told him distractedly, "and also no. I'm going to need someone else's opinion on this. You just go, over there." He gestured vaguely to the other side of the room where the books were set up. The dismissal was clear and Percy had to pull Thalia along before she tried to protest.
Thalia huffed and sat down in a chair near the bookshelves which caused Percy to lose his balance and he fell to the floor. There was a bright light near Apollo signaling that another god had arrived but when Percy looked over the workspace had been blocked from sight by walls that had appeared from nowhere.
"What do you think it is?" Percy asked.
"You guys are probably going to be stuck together forever," Nico teased.
Thalia glared at him. "It's probably nothing."
There was an uneasy silence as Thalia continued to silently fume at their situation. Percy thought about trying to make small talk but decided against it. For all of his teasing, he didn't want to be trapped with Thalia forever. He loved his cousin but he knew that they both needed their space.
There was a flash in the corner of his eye and Percy turned to see the walls had been taken down. Standing next to Apollo was... Annabeth. His heart gave a lurch before he realized that the woman standing there was Athena, not Annabeth. He walked over to the workbench and pointedly did not look at Athena besides greeting her.
"Percy, did you get bitten during the battle?" Apollo asked randomly.
Percy furrowed his brows and thought of the spiders. He nodded. "Yeah, Arachne's children had joined the battle. The smaller ones were crawling all over me."
Athena nodded gravely like that explained everything. "It seems that one of those spider bites mutated your DNA."
"They what?" Percy exclaimed. He prayed to every god out there that he wasn't some sort of weird spider hybrid now.
"One of the spiders must have had a venom that altered your genetic makeup," Athena repeated calmly.
Percy took a deep breath, trying not to freak out. He glanced at his cousins and saw that they were both looking at the goddess in shock. Thalia recovered first and sent him a reassuring look.
"That doesn't explain why our hands are stuck together," Thalia said.
Athena gestured to their hands and the two walked closer so she could examine them. Apollo handed her the same magnifying lens he used and she took it, putting it about an inch from their hands. After a moment she handed the lens back with a smug smile on her face. "It seems like Percy has developed the same miniature hairs that are present on all spider called setules that allow them to adhere to flat surfaces."
"What? Does that mean I'm going to stick to everything for the rest of my life?" Percy started to panic.
"No," Athena stated firmly, reassuring Percy. "It will take practice but I think as long as you are relaxed, you will have minimal problems."
"Relaxed?"
"Yes, relaxed. You need to calm down. Take a deep breath and think of something that makes you feel calm. Your hand should release itself," Athena explained.
Percy closed his eyes and tried to think of something that made him feel relaxed. His mind immediately went to a sunset picnic on the beach with Annabeth but that just caused him to tense up. He took a deep breath and thought about making cookies with his mom, the two of them covered in flour. A small smile spread across his face and he could feel his shoulders relax. He took his hand off Thalia's and she snatched hers back, extremely relieved.
"How do I stop this from happening again?" Percy asked, opening his eyes.
"Practice," Apollo spoke up, "there's no exact technique for this, obviously, so you'll have to figure it out as you go. However, there could be additional side effects that we'll need to figure out so you aren't caught off guard again." Percy paled at the thought of having more abilities. Apollo saw his expression and was quick to try and comfort him. "We can start testing your abilities tomorrow. I know that my dad was planning on calling you all here anyways. Just come here again afterward and we can figure it out."
Percy nodded and thanked the two gods. He left with his cousins shortly after. By the time they got back to camp, it was past midnight. They had to be quiet in order to not alert the harpies of their presence so no words were exchanged between the three teens as they headed to their respective cabins.
Percy made it to Cabin Three and he collapsed into bed, but his mind refused to let him sleep. He kept picturing Annabeth on the cot in the infirmary, bleeding to death in his arms. Eventually, his eyes shut and he passed out from exhaustion from the day's events.
Edit 6/25/19 - I'm rewriting the first six chapters of the story to fix some plot holes and make the story better. The gist of the story is the same so you don't HAVE to reread it but I would because there are more details and is better than what was written before.
Let me know what you thought of the chapter. Remember to comment and vote!
<3 S