Well, with the authorities off of my back, I'm good to go come out of hiding! How's about we forget about Percy for a sec and get back to Wise Girl? What's that? You guys want to know if Percy's okay? TOO FREAKIN BAD! Here's the chapter.
P. S, he's probably dead.
Camp Half-Blood. I never thought I'd see the place again. But here I was, looking for what Athena had sent me to find. But it didn't seem possible that she knew about a secret entrance even I didn't know about. But then again, there was a lot more to the rebellion than meets the eye.
Sure enough, under the ashes that had once been the Hermes cabin, I found an old trapdoor. I tried the handle, but it was of course locked. A few quick slices of my universal lock pick Riptide opened it. Checking over my shoulder to make sure no one saw me, I jumped down.
The tunnel was pitch black. Even the usual faint glow from Riptide was gone. I decided that feeling my way through was a little risky–especially if there were s-sp-arachnids–so I used Riptide as something of a blind man's cane.
I must've been down there for hours. I'm not usually afraid of the dark, but I'd like to see you spend a few hours in a black tunnel and not get a little creeped out. When I finally saw a tiny dot of light coming from the exit trap door, I was elated.
After listening to make sure there was no one outside, I sliced open the door. When I stepped out, I was a little surprised that the tunnel had taken me where Athena said it would. I was inside the armory of the Titans. Not the actual part where they stored the various weapons, including the master bolt, but I was still in the complex.
I heard someone coming and reached for where I kept my Yankees cap. I was shocked when I realized it was gone. I was about to hide, but twelve demigods, clad in the gray armor of the Titan forces, walked in. I gasped involuntarily. They all drew their weapons. I really hate the armory guards.
One of them had a trident with a net attached to the other end of it. Another had a double bladed sword the crackled with electricity. A third one had a quiver filled with arrows of pure Stygian iron. A different one had gauntlets with enough knives sticking out of them to give Wolverine an inferiority complex. And let's not forget the one with the automatic javelin rifle. Basically, they all had crazy powerful and exotic weapons. I just had a sword I'd stolen from my ex-best friend.
Oh gods, help? I prayed.
But the thing was; only three gods were still powerful enough to hear my prayer, and two of them were a little busy. My mom had helped plenty, but she wasn't going to help this time. I looked at my sword, and thought of its now godly former owner. Percy help me. I prayed.
A pipe in the wall burst, spraying all twelve of my opponents and giving me the time I needed to strike. I swung the blade while simultaneously drawing my shield. The blade tripped the one with the double bladed sword, and my shield deflected a Stygian arrow. I spun and shield bashed one while kicking out at the one with the trident net behind me.
The demigod I shield bashed flew backward, but I felt a net wrap around my leg just before I was yanked off my feet. I spun and batted away the incoming trident stab before jumping back up and slicing the net off the trident. I shield bashed whoever was coming up behind me while stabbing my sword through an opponent and kicking another.
I ran at a guard wielding the knife gauntlets. He raised his hands to block a sword strike, but instead I jumped up and kicked off of him to get momentum. Pulling off a perfect back flip over the rest of the guards, I landed solidly behind the Stygian archer, who lost his hands two second later. I kicked his screaming form out of the way and dueled with a guard that used what looked like a combination of knives and nun-chucks. He disarmed me, but a second later the sword reappeared in my hand and I sliced his stupid knife-chucks in half.
I used my shield to block his next strike while I sliced another guards spear in half. Spinning a hundred and eighty degrees, I shield bashed the one with the broken spear and used my sword to finish off the one with the busted knife-chucks. Knife Gauntlet came after me, but I knocked him out with a simple roundhouse kick.
All around me, bodies lay bleeding, unconscious, or dead. The one with the double bladed sword looked at me and gulped.
His sword fired a single lightning bolt, which I dodged. He fired again, this time hitting my shield and numbing my arm. I dropped my sword and used my now free hand to throw my shield.
The shield hit him in the temple and he went down. I just stood there, panting and sweating. I could barely believe it. I'd just beat twelve armory guards, and it only took about forty-five seconds. I turned my shield back into a watch, and Riptide back into a pen.
I went through the armory, placing the charges right where they needed to be. Near coordination consoles for the automated arrow launchers, by security checkpoint terminals, on armored doors, support beams, and all kinds of other strategic targets. I made it back to the trapdoor without getting spotted, but as I was climbing down I heard someone clapping...
In a flash, Riptide and my shield sprung to life. I spun around to see...Luke?
"Not bad Annabeth," Luke congratulated. "Not bad at all."
I held my sword steady. "Luke. I'm assuming you know why I'm here?"
"Yep," he stated. "What I don't know is why you–"
"Joined the right side?" I interrupted.
"And whose side is that Annabeth?" Luke asked.
I could've said the side of the gods. I could've said the side of Olympus. I even could've said the side of my friends or the side of my mother. But instead, I said:
"Percy's."
Luke's face showed the tiniest hints of a smile for half a second. He drew his own sword.
"I would join you Annabeth, but we still need someone on the inside," he said, not lowering his sword.
"We're going to have to pretend we're on different sides again, aren't we?" I asked, already knowing where this was going.
"Afraid so," Luke said. "On the bright side, we've got plenty of practice. Oh and Annabeth, I'm breaking up with you."
"Why exactly?" I asked. I wasn't sad though, considering I was going to break up with him soon enough, but I still wanted to know his reason.
"I hate visions, but you and me don't belong together. You, of course know this as much as I do," he said plainly.
"Yeah, I do," I said. And I meant it. I didn't really like Luke like that anymore. To boot, I knew who I did like like that.
"Good talk," Luke said, then swung his sword in a move that would've taken my head off if I'd been a quarter of a second slower. Our blades clashes about six times before I jumped backward into the trap door and hit the detonator on the charges. Explosions shook the foundations and sent wood, metal and plaster flying everywhere. I ran through the tunnel, hoping I wouldn't crash into a wall.
Funny, the walk to the armory felt like hours, but the run back was three minutes tops. I reached into my bag for a drachma and squirt bottle. As soon as I hit the exit and sunlight, I tried what Athena had suggested.
Once I got the rainbow going, I panted the prayer and tossed my drachma into the rainbow. Sadly nothing happened. Shoot, that meant Iris messaging was still down. I was about to turn away when suddenly the mist shifted into an image of Athena back at Typhon's Prison. In the background, I saw Clarisse tending to Iris.
"Annabeth, I take it things went according to plan?" Athena greeted.
"More or less," I admitted. "So, are you just gonna teleport me back or–"
"Sorry Annabeth, but you're going to have to use one of our coral tunnels to get back," Athena explained.
"Oh," I said. "And the nearest one is where?"
Athena thought for a moment, and then responded. "Manhole just outside Times Square. You can't miss it."
"And why is that?" I asked, but the connection broke.
I sighed.
"Looks like I'm headed to Times Square," I muttered to myself.
Now that was a nice, Annabeth centered chapter that in no way explained if Percy was alright, wasn't it? *dodges bullet* Yikes! You guys are worse than the military, you know that? Is Percy okay? Did he really hear and answer Annabeth's prayer? And with IM-ing restored, what will be Percy's next mission? I'd tell you...but, eh.