chapter fifty-four

─── in hindsight, maybe this wasn't smart

          𝕴 tore across the mall, pulling Annabeth's hat off as I burst into the Air and Space Museum, which probably gave someone a heart attack, but at this point I was beyond caring. The main part of the museum was one huge room with rockets and airplanes hanging from the ceiling.

Three levels of balconies curled around, so you could look at the exhibits from all different heights. The place wasn't crowded, just a few families and a couple of tour groups of kids, probably doing one of those holiday school trips. I wanted to yell at them all to leave, but I figured that would only get me arrested. I had to find the others. Any minute, the skeleton dudes were going to invade the museum, and I didn't think they would settle for an audio tour.

I ran into Brooke—literally. I was barrelling up the ramp to the top-floor balcony and slammed into her, knocking her into an Apollo space capsule.

Grover yelped in surprise.

Before I could regain my balance, Zoe and Bianca had arrows notched, aimed at my chest. Their bows had just appeared out of nowhere.

"Hi," I panted as I tried to regain my breath. Zoe's face appeared above me, her eyebrow cocked.

"I thought you didn't like quests?"

"I don't," I muttered, as she dropped a bottle of water onto my face. "Ow."

"Then why are you here?"

"Hermes, Andi's sarcastic horse and Mr. D," I listed off, rubbing my forehead as I stood up. "Also, Dr. Thorn, the psycho doctor who kidnapped Andi and Annabeth is also here. You never know the people you're going to meet at museums, do you? Small world."

"Are you delirious?" Grover was helping Brooke up, who was rubbing her chest, as Bianca watched me and Zoe.

"Now you mention it, I am running on about three hours sleep,"

"I felt like I've been hit by a train," Brooke moaned in pain, before glaring at me. "How much do you weigh? I'm gonna be bruised for weeks!"

"Puck's here," She sobered up at her brother's name, standing up and sighing. I took another deep breath, before resting a hand on my sword and drumming my fingers against it. "I'm not going to lie to you, he doesn't look good."

"Where is he? Maybe we could talk," Brooke asked.

"Not likely. They sent skeleton warriors after me, I think," I patted her shoulder, before turning back to the others and explaining what had happened in the Natural History Museum.

"The General is here?" Zoe looked stunned. "You always bring trouble, Luke Castellan."

"I try."

"How many skeleton warriors?" Brooke asked.

"Twelve, but that's not all," I shook my head, pushing my hair out of my eyes. I needed a haircut soon. My hair was just getting in the way. "The General, he said he was sending something, a 'playmate,' to distract you over here. A monster."

Brooke and Grover exchanged 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."

"Zoe," Bianca said nervously, "if it is the General—"

"Let us hope it's not," Zoe shook her head, before looking around at the others. "The skeleton warriors are the worst...in short, we must leave now."

"Good idea," I said.

"Welcome to the quest, Luke Castellan," Zoe nodded.

"I told you, it's just Luke," She went to say something else, but there was a growl, so loud that I thought a rocket engine was staring 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 froze, the sight of the claws reminding me of the searing pain that had coursed through my body the last time that I had fought an animal that size. 

I had the bite marks on my chest, and the scar on my face, to show how close I had been to dying that time.

"The Nemean Lion," Brooke whispered. "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 grabbed Backbiter 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 lions 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 Brooke stepped in it's path, drawing runes into the air, and the lion recoiled with a yowl.

The lion growled and clawed the air, but it retreated like the runes were burning it.

For a second, I thought Brooke 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.

I whistled sharply, charging the beast from the side and bringing my sword to it's flank in what should have been a cat ending shot, despite the trembling in my hands. But the blade just clanked against its fur in a burst of sparks.

The lion swiped at me, and I ducked, being reminded of the monster last time. Though, that one had scales and not fur.

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, the wings on my shoes fluttering, 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. Brooke 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!"

The lion snarled from the top of the globe.

I looked around. Options. I needed...The gift shop. I had a vague memory from my trip here as a little kid. Something I'd made my mom buy me, when she was still somewhat sane, and I'd regretted it. If they still sold that stuff...

"Brooke," I said, "keep it occupied."

She nodded grimly, before drawing more runes into the floor around her, creating sparks and protection charms as she went.

I ran for the gift shop.

"Now is not the time for shopping!" Zoe yelled.

I dashed 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 didn't protest. She was too busy cowering behind her cash register.

There! On the far wall—glittery silver packets. Whole racks of them. I scooped up every kind I could find and ran out of the shop with an armful.

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 Brooke, slashing with its claws. It even kept its eyes narrowed to tiny slits.

"Luke," Brooke 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!" I yelled at the lion. I was too far away to strike, so I took a risk: I hurled one of my spare daggers. It bounced off the lion's side, but that was enough to get the monster's attention. It turned toward me and snarled.

There was only one way to get close enough. I charged, and as the lion leaped to intercept me, I chunked a space food pouch into its maw—a chunk of cellophane-wrapped, freeze-dried strawberry parfait.

The lion's eyes got 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.

"Zoe, get ready!" I yelled.

Behind me, I could hear people screaming. Grover was playing another horrible song on his pipes. I scrambled away from the lion. It managed to choke down the space food packet and looked at me with pure hate.

"Snack time!" I yelled. It made the mistake of roaring at me, and I got an ice-cream sandwich in its throat. Fortunately, I had always been a pretty good pitcher, even though baseball wasn't my sport. Before the lion could stop gagging, I shot in two more flavours of ice cream and a freeze-dried spaghetti dinner.

The lion's eyes bugged. It opened its mouth wide and reared up on its back paws, trying to get away from me.

"Now!" I yelled.

Immediately, arrows pierced the lion's maw—two, four, six. The lion thrashed wildly, 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 Brooke's side and helped her up, feeding her ambrosia. She seemed okay, just a little dazed. Zoe and Bianca dropped from the balcony and landed next to me.

Zoe eyed me cautiously. "That was...an interesting strategy."

"Yeah, well it worked, so, that's what does it matter?" The adrenaline left me and I crouched down, taking a few deep breaths. My fingers trembled as Grover brought Backbiter to me, crouching down in front of me.

"You okay, Luke?"

"Course, just needed to catch my breath," That seemed to satisfy Bianca, Grover and Zoe but Brooke shot me a look. She cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing more.

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 yours."

"You killed it," I said.

She shook her head, almost smiling. "I think your ice cream sandwich did that. Fair is fair. 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.

"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."

"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. Grey men in grey camouflage outfits. They were too far away for us to see their eyes, but I could feel their gaze aimed straight at me.

"Ah, it's the MIB," 

"What?" Zoe asked, as I laughed to myself at my own little joke before sobering up. If Andi were here, she would have laughed.

"Go," I said. "They'll be hunting me. I'll distract them."

"No," Zoe said. "We go together."

I stared at her. "But—"

"You are part of the quest and no one gets left behind," Zoe grabbed the back of my jacket, dragging me away from it all.

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

Luke's just done with everything, which is fair, and just generally not having fun. But you know what, neither am I with revising, so it's a big mood.

Anyhow, let me know what you think,

Love Li xx