Annabeth was getting... frustrated to say the least.

But she was closer to her goal.

Her main goal was helping Percy get the master bolt back to Olympus, of course. But the side quest was figuring out the Weird Kids.

Yeah, the nickname needed some work.

Come on, she had created Seaweed Brain and then suddenly this was the best she could come up with? Seriously?

But anyway, she had found out two new things today: one, they could teleport using Ender Pearls and chorus fruit, and two, they spoke a different language that Annabeth couldn't understand but immediately wanted to.

Of course she wanted to. She was a daughter of Athena.

Maybe she could ask Zedaph about it when they got back, because the taxi ride had been surprisingly ineffective.

She could always corner someone in a dark alley.

Maybe that was going too far.

If she did corner someone in a dark alley, it would be Percy. He, Grian, and Ren had some sort of understanding now that Annabeth couldn't figure out, and it made her mad.

Everything about the Weird Kids made her mad.

They pooled their spare change that they had left over from Medusa's emporium and took a bus to L.A.

"I feel like I've seen you on TV," the driver said to Percy as they boarded. "You a child actor or something?"

Percy stopped. "Uh... I'm a... stunt double... for a lot of child actors."

The driver nodded. "Oh! That explains it. Cool."

Percy made his way to the rest of them with a relieved expression.

"That was close," Grover muttered.

They made sure not to sit anywhere near the back this time. But it went surprisingly smoothly. No demon grandmothers came to attack them. But still, they got off at the first stop they could. They didn't want to take their chances.

It was completely dark by the time they were off the bus. Tomorrow was their last day.

The bus driver had never heard of DOA Recording Studios, where they had figured the entrance to the Underworld was, judging by an address slip they had found at Medusa's place. That was unfortunate. L.A. was too big to search in one night.

And to make matters worse, It was a city. Therefore cops existed. They had to duck into alleys to avoid the cop cars twice.

"We probably won't be sleeping tonight," Gem observed.

"Is that a bad thing?" Grian asked.

"You never know if phantoms exist here," Ren said grimly.

"We slept last night," Gem reminded him.

Annabeth didn't know what they meant. But the priority was finding the entrance to the Underworld.

Percy froze in front of an appliance store window and stared at a television. On the screen was a fat guy in the middle of an interview. He was in the middle of a poker game, and there was a pretty blonde lady sitting next to him, patting his hand.

"Percy, we need to keep going," Ren said uncomfortably.

He didn't move.

"Honest, Ms. Walters, if it wasn't for Sugar here, my grief counselor, I'd be a wreck. My... my stepson too everything from me... my wife... my Camaro... I-I have trouble talking about it."

The interviewer turned to the camera. "There you have it, America. A man torn apart. An adolescent boy with huge issues. Here is the last known photo of this troubled young fugitive, taken a week ago in Denver."

"Oh my goodness," Gem gasped.

The picture showed them talking to Ares, with Zed, Tango, and Bdubs there as well. It wasn't a very good quality picture.

"Who are the other children in this photo?" The lady said dramatically, which annoyed Annabeth. "Who is the man with them? Is Percy Jackson a delinquent, a terrorist, or the brainwashed victim of some frightening new cult?"

HIS NAME IS PERCY JACKSON. HIS NAME IS PERCY JACKSON. HIS NAME-

If you don't get it... well then I guess you don't watch rendog

Percy looked like he wanted to punch the screen. Grover pulled him away before he could.

"Is that your stepdad?" Gem asked quietly.

Percy nodded sharply.

"He looks like a jerk," Ren observed.

"He is," Percy said, and seemed to get some satisfaction from it.

Suspicious people started to come out into the streets. Annabeth had been on the run before, and she was fine with it. Percy had told her that he grew up in New York. But Annabeth was surprised to see that the only one who looked scared was Grover.

The shady figures left the group alone at first, until a voice said, "Hey, you."

Percy stopped again. Like an idiot.

MOVE. MOVE, PERCY.

And then they were surrounded.

There were seven kids versus six of us- but thankfully five out of the six didn't look frightened in the slightest.

Percy uncapped Riptide. Another idiotic move, but Annabeth could be mad at him for it later.

Most of the kids backed off a little. The leader didn't. He was either very brave or very stupid. He carried a switchblade in a way that showed he knew how to use it.

Annabeth couldn't establish how much of an idiot Percy was.

He swung his sword.

It passed right through the leader. He looked down at where he should have been cut in half and said, "What the-"

"RUN!" Percy shouted before shock could turn into anger.

They pushed two kids out of the way and ran.

We had no idea where we were going.

We turned a sharp corner and Grian yelled, "THERE! HURRY!"

Easy for him to say. He had Daedalus-quality mechanical wings and a strong desire to use them whenever possible.

He was pointing to a building with the doors wide open. Annabeth squinted to read what it said.

She was spared the pain, however, when Grover panted, "Crusty's Waterbed Palace."

Ren slowed and shoved a pair of wings at Gem, who was falling behind. She put them on as if for the thousandth time and took off after Grian.

Annabeth heard exclamations of surprise from the kids behind them.

They found Grian and Gem hiding behind a bedframe in the mattress store ( :) ) and joined them. The gang ran right past the store and out of sight.

A shadow fell over them from behind.

Annabeth slowly turned around to see a man who might have been seven feet tall, and looked rather reptilian and completely hairless. Annabeth would have thought he was a monster, except she was so sick of monsters that she just wanted to believe he was an extremely weird mortal.

Gem and Grover went pale.

Ren reached for the axe at his belt (an axe? What sane person used an axe?)

Grian seemed not to notice the man/monster/thing. He was too busy mending a tear in his wing.

Percy seemed to have lost Anaklusmos until he reached his hand into his pocket.

How come he got to have pockets big enough to fit a pen and Annabeth didn't? Ah, yes. The curse of women's clothing.

Her mind snapped back to the situation.

But instead of attacking like everyone inevitably expected, the man said in a friendly tone, "Hello! What brings you to my little shop, making such a ruckus?"

"Just..." Percy said. "Browsing."

"You mean escaping those kids outside," the man grumbled. "They're lurking about every night. It gets annoying, drives people into my store to hide." He grinned. "I'm Crusty."