Chapter Twenty-One:
Some Valuable Information.
— Lurched like a          stray to the
arms that were open. No shortage
of sordid, no       protest from me !

Exhaustion rattled bones.

The feeling of complete tiredness that settled over one's body was an incredibly aching one. Annabeth Chase was well past the term "exhausted" at that point. She'd been traveling over states and fighting monsters for a while on her own for as long as she could until she was joined by her best friend in order to find the Son of the Sea God. She'd sent a panicked Iris-Message to her best friend when she was in Virginia. As much as her pride and ego hated to admit it, she needed help. She held off as many monsters as she could on her own, but she had been getting extremely tired. That was when the blonde had shown up, slaying any monster that even looked at Annabeth the wrong way. She noticed the way Colette had changed since the previous summer, but she didn't voice any questions or concerns. She wasn't necessarily mad about them, more so worried with the way Colette was coping internally. Annabeth had taken the betrayal from their brother harshly, but it seemed to have affected the blonde more than she'd wanted to let on.

Annabeth had settled on the corner of Church Street, waiting for her best friend to come to stop next to her. The two sat in comfortable silence (well, for Annabeth, it wasn't all that comfortable. She had so many questions she wanted to ask, but didn't know how to without evoking a heated response from her best friend who seemed more prone to rage than ever), until Percy and the Cyclops appeared in her sight.

Once they did, she grabbed Percy's arm and Colette grasped at Tyson's sleeve (Annabeth was still silently wondering how her best friend managed to make a Cyclops stumble), the girls having pulled the boys off the sidewalk just as a firetruck screamed past, heading toward the school Percy had just been in. 

               "Where did you find him?" Annabeth demanded, pointing at the Cyclops.

The look in Percy's eyes gave his emotions away. He'd seemed so relieved back in the gymnasium, but the way she was glaring at his "friend" and the exhaustion that settled around his eyes was enough to make the relief dissolve into clear irritation. We just reunited after a year and we're already bickering, Annabeth thought bitterly to herself, just great.

               "He's my friend." Percy deadpanned.

               "Is he homeless?"

               "What's that gotta do wit' anythin'? He can hear you, ya' know? Why don't you ask him?" Percy snarked at her.

               Annabeth couldn't mask her surprise. "He can talk?"

               "I talk." The Cyclops admitted. "You are pretty," he looked at both the girls. "You both are very pretty — scary, but pretty."

               "Gross!" Annabeth stepped away from him abruptly. Her face was pulled into the most repulsed grimace she could manage.

Colette only quirked her uninjured eyebrow, nodding curtly in thanks to the compliment. It made Annabeth all the more curious.

               Percy's face contorted into a dumbfounded expression at Annabeth's reaction. He even scoffed, turning away from her and facing his Cyclops friend. He looked down at the bigger boy's hands. "Tyson," he said in disbelief, "ya' hands ain't even burned."

               "Of course not." Annabeth finally pried her eyes away from Colette's unfaltering stoicism and looked back at the Cyclops. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians even had the guts to attack you with him around."

Tyson seemed fascinated by the beads in Annabeth's hair. He reached out to touch a bead, but she smacked his hand away. Her obvious hatred for him made him frown, he moved away from her, using his thumb and his pointer finger to fiddle with the ends of Colette's braids. He smiled, giddy, when she didn't even flinch back. She seemed to sigh, but otherwise remained unmoving and unbothered.

               "Annabeth," Percy shook his head, "what is you talkin' about? Lasitry—what?"

               "Laistrygonians. The monsters in the gym. They're a race of giant cannibals who live in the far north. Odysseus ran into them once," Annabeth spewed out the textbook information she'd managed to keep, "but I've never seen them as far south as New York."

               "Laistry—I can't even say that. What would you call 'em in English?"

               She was sure she looked thoughtful for a moment, she felt her eyebrows furrow. "Canadians." She decided, nodding firmly. "Now come on, we have to get out of here."

               "The feds'll be after me."

               "That's the least of my—our problems." Colette finally spoke up. Her voice came out a bored drawl. Her slowly fading accent made Tyson glance up at her from where he was playing with the ends of her blonde hair, his mouth dropping in awe.

               Annabeth nodded. "Have you been having the dreams?"

               "The dreams ... about Grover?"

               Her face paled at Percy's question, not having thought about that. "Grover? No, what about Grover?" She knew she sounded as concerned as she did when she bid him farewell before he left for his quest.

               Percy told the girls his dream. "Why? What were you dreamin' 'bout?"

               Her mind started racing a million miles per hour, as it did whenever she was trying to find an answer. "Camp." She finally told him, having received an approving nod from her best friend. "There's big trouble at camp."

               "My mamá was sayin' the same fuckin' thing! But what kinda trouble?"

               That was when Annabeth glanced at Colette again, hopeful for some kind of answers, but all she got was a blank stare. The blonde really didn't want to say anything about the things that happened to her at camp and it made Annabeth nervous. "I don't know exactly, someone won't tell me," she snipped, but huffed sharply when it didn't earn a reaction, "but something's wrong. We have to get there right away. Monsters have been chasing me all the way from Virginia, trying to stop me. It's why Let's with me; I called her for help, then we came to you. Have you had a lot of attacks?"

               Percy shook his head at the question. "None all year ... till today."

               "None? But how ..." her eyes drifted to Tyson, who had moved on from playing with Colette's hair, more focused on the detailing of her earrings — he held them so gingerly, it made Annabeth's eyebrows furrow into her most confused expression. "... oh."

               "Whatchu' mean, 'oh'?"

               Tyson finally pulled away from Colette's jewelry and hair, going back to standing by Percy. He raised his hand like he was still in class. "Canadians in the gym called Percy something ... Son of the Sea God?"

Annabeth and Percy shared a glance, but when they looked back at Colette to see if she agreed, she didn't even look at them. She was too busy staring into the Cyclops' eye. It made them share another look of concern. Usually, it was Colette sharing a look with one of them — it was never them sharing a look with each other.

"Big guy," Percy began tentatively, "you ever heard of 'em old ass stories 'bout the Greek gods? Like Poseidon, Athena, Apollo—"

"Yes." Tyson said.

"A'ight, well, those gods is still alive. They kinda follow Western Civilization around, livin' in the strongest countries, so now they in the U.S. And sometimes they have kids wit' mortals. Kids called Half-Bloods."

"Yes." Tyson repeated, looking like he was waiting for the point.

"Uh, well, Colette, Annabeth, and I are Half-Bloods," Percy dropped — what he clearly thought was — the bomb, "we're like ... heroes-in-trainin'. And wheneva' monsters pick up our scent, they attack us. That's what 'em giants in the gym was: Monsters."

Tyson nodded along, as if he'd known all that. "Yes." He said again. He tilted his head when Percy stared at him blankly.

"So you believe me?"

The Cyclops nodded again. "But you are ... Son of the Sea God."

"Yeah." Percy admitted with a frown at the lack of reaction. Annabeth supposed it was because of his own previous reaction to his heritage. "My dad's Poseidon."

Tyson frowned, too. He suddenly looked confused at that. "But then ..."

A siren wailed. A police car raced past the alley.

              "We don't have time for this." Colette snapped, eyes watchful of the passing cars on the street. "We'll talk in the taxi."

              "A taxi all the way to camp?" Percy's eyebrows raised in shock at the idea of it. "You know how much money—"

              "Trust us." Annabeth interjected before her best friend could get angrier.

              Percy seemed to hesitate. "What 'bout Tyson?" When neither girl responded to him, he set his face into a face of firm determination. "We can't just leave him," he decided, "he'll be in a shit ton of trouble, too."

              "Yeah." Annabeth agreed, but she cringed at the sight of him again. "We definitely need to take him with us. Now come on."

He opened his mouth to retort, but Colette had already started walking down the alley, making Annabeth rush after her. Percy and Tyson followed the girls like little ducklings. The comparison nearly made Annabeth burst out laughing, but the smell of smoke billowing behind them made her sober up.

They'd made it to the corner of Thomas and Trimble with Colette leading them briskly. Annabeth was right on her tail, fighting every urge she had to make conversation, considering they hadn't talked much at all to catch up — even after being together as they fought their way through states up until New York. It frustrated her. She wasn't able to read her best friend the way she used to. The eyes are the windows to the soul, she remembered reading, but it was hard to understand the soul when the eyes were blank, fogging up the windows entirely.

Annabeth scavenged frantically through her worn tote bag. "I hope I have one left." She murmured to herself. In the light of the sun, she knew her injuries were more noticeable. She felt the sting on her cheek from the slight breeze. Her shorts even had a few slashes on the hems from when she'd just barely jumped out of the way of a monster's lethal claws.

"Whatchu' lookin' for?" Percy asked.

It must've been the sirens wailing that made him anxious. Annabeth was sure he was thinking he'd get caught before they managed to make it to camp, but she knew she and her best friend would make sure he stayed a "free man."

"Found one. Thank the gods." Annabeth pulled out a drachma from the depths of her tote. It had Zeus' likeness stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.

"Annabeth," Percy shook his head, clearly mystified and confused still by her plan, "New York taxi driver's ain't gon' take that."

She ignored him, placing it in Colette's awaiting, ringed hand. "Stêthi," the blonde shouted sharply, "Ô hárma diabolês!" Stop, Chariot of Damnation. The language of the Olympians and Demigods' naturally native tongue: Ancient Greek.

Colette threw the drachma into the street, but instead of clattering on the asphalt, the coin sank right through and disappeared. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, just where a coin had fallen, the asphalt darkened. It melted into a rectangular pool about the size of a parking space — bubbling red liquid like blood. Then a car erupted from the ooze. It was a taxi, but unlike every other taxi in New York. For starters, it wasn't yellow. It was smoky gray. It looked like it had been woven out of smoke, like someone could walk right through it. There were words printed on the door — something like GYAR SSIRES — while the dyslexia made it hard to read, it was obvious to Annabeth and Colette what it was supposed to say: GRAY SISTERS.

The passenger window rolled down, and an old woman stuck her head out. She had a mop of grizzled hair covering her eye sockets, and she spoke in a weird mumbling way, like she'd just been coming down from a drug induced high. "Passage? Passage?"

"Four to Camp Half-Blood." Annabeth instructed. She opened the cab's back door and waved for Percy to get in.

              "Ach!" The old woman screeched. "We don't take his kind!" She pointed a bony finger at the Cyclops, and it made Annabeth groan in frustration. Why did Percy have to befriend a Cyclops of all monsters?

              "Extra pay." Colette gritted out. "Four more drachma on arrival."

              "Done!" The woman screamed.

While he seemed very reluctant, Percy got into the taxi first. Tyson squeezed in the middle. Annabeth got in next, letting Colette get in last to sit on her lap. That time, Annabeth knew better than to try any affection, she kept her hands to herself on her own thighs. Colette didn't seem like she wanted it at that moment.

The interior was the same smoky gray as the exterior, but it felt more solid. The seat was cracked and lumpy — no different than most taxis. There was no Plexiglass screen separating them from the old lady driving. However, instead of just one woman, there were three crammed into the front seat, each with stringy hair covering their eye sockets, bony hands, and charcoal-colored sackcloth dresses.

"Long Island! Out-of-metro fare bonus! Ha!" The one driving exclaimed. She floored the accelerator and Percy's head slammed against the backrest. He groaned loudly.

A prerecorded voice came over the speaker: Hi, this is Ganymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!

Where the seatbelts would be was a large black chain. Annabeth saw Percy look down at it from the corner of her eye, his face scrunching so incredulously at the sight of it.

              The cab sped around the corner of West Broadway. "Look out! Go left!" The gray lady sitting in the middle screeched out.

              "Well, if you'd give me the eye, Tempest, I could do that!" The driver complained.

              The driver suddenly swerved to avoid an oncoming delivery truck, ran over the curb with a jaw-rattling thump, and flew into the next block. "Wasp!" The third lady said to the driver. "Give me the girl's coin! I want to bite it."

              "You bit it last time, Anger!" Wasp scoffed out the words. "It's my turn!"

              "Is not!" Anger yelled.

              "Red light!" Tempest screamed.

              "Brake!" Anger added.

Instead, Wasp floored the accelerator and rode up on the curb, screeching around another corner, and knocking over a newspaper box. The drive was nauseating, that was for sure.

              "'Scuse me," Percy finally spoke up, "but can you see, fo' real?"

              "No!" Wasp screamed, followed by Tempest who echoed her answer.

              "Of course!" Anger screamed joyfully, sitting in shotgun.

              Percy turned to Annabeth slowly. His head turned to her in a comical manner. "They blind?" His eyes widened only to emphasize the last word he had used.

              Annabeth looked up at Colette hopefully to see if the blonde would answer, but she found the sun's kin looking out the window in utter silence. "Not completely," she finally answered, "they have an eye."

              "One eye?"

              "Yeah."

              "Each?"

              "No. One eye total."

              Tyson groaned suddenly, gripping the seat. "Not feeling so good."

              "Oh, man." Percy winced at his friend's complaint. "Hang in there, big guy. Anybody got a garbage bag or somethin'?" 

The three gray sisters were too busy squabbling to pay him any attention. Despite hanging on for dear life, Annabeth had to press her lips together when Percy looked at her with such a clear why-did-you-do-this-to-me look.

              "Hey!" She managed to protest, her voice wobbly from the laughter she was fighting. "Gray Sisters Taxi is the fastest way to camp."

              "Then why ain't you take it from Virginia?" Percy sassed her.

              "That's outside of their service area." She winced when she realized she'd said it too knowingly — too mocking, especially when he gave her a deadpan stare and when Colette ended up landing a light tap to her thigh, reprimanding her silently. At least she reacted, Annabeth thought sadly. "They only serve Greater New York and surrounding communities."

              "We've had famous people in this cab!" Anger exclaimed, making Colette visibly perk up in Annabeth's lap. "Jason! You remember him?" She asked her sisters.

              "Don't remind me!" Wasp wailed. "And we didn't have a cab back then, you old bat. That was three thousand years ago!"

              "Give me the tooth!" Anger tries to grab at Wasp's mouth, but Wasp swatted her hand away with a new level of viciousness.

              "Only if Tempest gives me the eye!"

              "No!" Tempest protested very childishly. "You had it yesterday!"

              "But I'm driving, you old hag!"

              "Excuses! Turn! That was your turn!"

Wasp swerved hard onto Delancey Street, squishing Percy between the door and Tyson as Annabeth did her best to keep against the door on her side so she wouldn't have to touch the Cyclops next to her. Wasp punched the gas and they shot up Williamsburg Bridge at, approximately, seventy miles an hour.

The three sisters were fighting for real then, slapping each other as Anger tried to grab Wasp's face and Wasp tried to grab at Tempest's. With their hair flying and their mouths open, screaming at each other, Annabeth found herself taking a closer look at the way the sisters looked. None of the sisters had any teeth except Wasp, who had one, mossy yellow incisor. Instead of eyes, they just had closed, sunken eyelids, except for Anger, who had one bloodshot green eye that stared at everything hungrily, as if it couldn't get enough of anything it saw.

              Finally, Anger, who had the advantage of sight, managed to yank the tooth out of her sister's mouth. That made Wasp so mad, she swerved toward the edge of Williamsburg Bridge. "'Ivit back! 'Ivit back!" She yelled.

Tyson groaned, clutching his stomach.

              "Yo, so if anybody's in'erested," Percy smiled sarcastically, "we finna die!"

              "Don't worry." Annabeth spoke up, more serious that time around because she was actually worried. "The Gray Sisters know what they're doing. They're very wise."

She knew it sounded better coming from her, a daughter of wisdom, but it definitely couldn't have been all that reassuring. She only considered that last bit because they were skimming along the edge of a bridge a hundred and thirty feet above the East River.

              "Yes, wise!" Anger grinned in the rearview mirror, showing off her newly acquired tooth. "We know things!"

              "Every street in Manhattan!" Wasp bragged, still hitting her sister quite violently. "The capital of Nepal!"

              "The location you seek." Tempest added, her input was unneeded and ominous.

At that, Colette peeked her head around the backrest she'd been having to stare at. Annabeth noticed that when the blonde's stare pierced the sisters, Wasp and Anger began to attack their sister from either side of her.

              "Be quiet! Be quiet! He didn't even ask yet!" The sisters by the windows yelled.

Percy was startled. "Huh?" He mumbled. "What location? I'm not seekin'—"

"Nothing!" Tempest said. "You're right, boy. It's nothing!"

"Tell me."

"No!" All three sisters screamed.

"The last time we told, it was horrible!" Tempest clarified (very slightly).

"Eye tossed in a lake!" Anger agreed.

"Years to find again!" Wasp moaned. "And speaking of that — give it back!"

"No!" Anger yelled.

"Eye!" Wasp yelled. "Gimme!"

Wasp whacked her sister on the back. There was a sickening pop that echoed in the car and something flew out of Anger's face. Anger fumbled for it, trying to catch it, but she only managed to bat it with the back of her hand. The slimy green eye sailed over her shoulder, into the backseat, and straight into Percy's lap.

He jumped so hard, his head hit the ceiling and the eyeball rolled away.

"I can't see!" All three sisters yelled.

"Give me the eye!" Wasp wailed.

"Give her the eye!" Annabeth couldn't hold back her scream then.

"I don't have it!" Percy argued.

"By your foot!" Annabeth pointed at it. "Don't step on it! Get it!"

"I ain't pickin' that up!"

The taxi slammed against the guardrail and skidded along with a horrible grinding noise. The whole car shuddered, billowing gray smoke as if it were about to dissolve from the strain.

"Going to be sick!" Tyson warned.

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled that time. "Let Tyson use ya' backpack!"

"Are you crazy? Get the eye!"

Wasp yanked the wheel, and the taxi swerved away from the wheel. They hurtled down the bridge toward Brooklyn, going a lot faster than any regular, mortal taxi could ever. The Gray Sisters screeched and pummeled each other and cried out for the eye.

Percy managed to steal his nerves. He ripped off a piece of his shirt (that was already falling apart from the burn marks all over it), and used the small bit of cloth to pick up the eye.

              "Nice boy!" Anger cried, as if she somehow knew he had her eye. "Give it back!"

              "Not till you explain." Percy bargained with the sisters (stupidly). "What was you talkin' 'bout, the location I seek?"

              "No time!" Tempest cried out. "Accelerating!"

Looking out the window, anyone could tell that was true. Sure enough, trees and cars and whole neighborhoods were zipping by in a gray blur. They were already out of Brooklyn, heading toward the middle of Long Island.

              "Percy," Annabeth warned, her voice low and irritated, "they can't find our destination without the eye. We'll just keep accelerating until we break into a million pieces."

              "First they gotta tell me," Percy argued before a slow, cunning smile worked its way onto his face, "or I'll open the window 'n throw the eye into oncomin' traffic."

Colette let out a sharp huff of pure amusement through her nose, but, unfortunately, expression remained unchanged.

              "No!" The Gray Sisters wailed in unison. "Too dangerous!"

              "I'm rollin' down the window."

              "Wait!" The Gray Sisters screamed in fear. "30, 31, 75, 12!"

              "Fuck do you mean?" Percy exclaimed. "That makes no sense!"

              "30, 31, 75, 12!" Anger screeched fearfully. "That's all we can tell you. Now give us the eye! Almost to camp!"

They were off the highway then, ripping through the countryside of northern Long Island. Half-Blood Hill was ahead of them with its giant pine at the crest — Thalia's tree.

              "Perseus." Colette finally snapped. Annabeth didn't know what made her lose her temper, but she knew that the second the pine tree came into view, the blonde trembled — with anger or sadness, she didn't know. "Give them the eye now, or so help me gods ..."

Despite his arm trembling at her tone, he decided not to argue with their angry blonde. He tossed the eye into Wasp's lap.

              Wasp snatched it up, pushed it into her eye socket like somebody putting in a contact lens. "Whoa!" She blinked rapidly.

She slammed the brakes. The taxi must've spun four or five times in a cloud of smoke and squealed to a halt in the middle of the farm road at the base of Half-Blood Hill.

              Tyson let out a loud belch. "Better now."

              "A'ight." Percy looked between the Gray Sisters, eyes glaring harshly at them. "Now tell me what them numbers mean."

              "No time!" Annabeth opened her door. Colette was out first and she sprinted the second she was let out, heading up to the hill. "We have to go now!" Annabeth wanted to follow her best friend, but knew she couldn't leave Percy alone, so she waited for him.

She watched as his eyes followed Colette until she reached the hill. At the crest of the hill was a group of campers, joined by the daughter of the sun, and they were under attack.

ICARUS INQUIRES:

^^^^^^^^^^me releasing a new chap, guys

Was very close to not posting today bc it's been a rough day (it's the 5 year anniversary of my best friend's passing) and I've js felt like shit. But I figured it's better not to postpone.

Hope you guys enjoyed Annie's pov, next chap is Lettie's, so a lil internal insight on her soon.

Don't forget to vote and comment, though I much prefer comments because they're more motivating. Thanks for the love guys<3