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IT didn't take them long to pack. They decided to leave the minotaur horns in their cabins, which left them only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in backpacks grover had found for them.

The camp store loaned them one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as girl scout cookies and had images of various greek gods stamped on one side and the empire state building on the other.

The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, chiron told them, but olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions—whatever that meant. He gave annabeth, midas, pandora and percy each a canteen of nectar and a ziplock bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if they were seriously hurt.

It was god food, chiron reminded them. It would cure them of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn them up, literally.

Annabeth was bringing her magic yankees cap, which she had told percy and pandora had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in ancient greek, to read when she got bored.

And a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. Percy and pandora were the knives would get them busted the first time they went through a metal detector.

Midas brought along three comic books and his sword that was given to him by hades that can be turned into a bracelet. It was a black sword with flower carving on the blade and the grip.

Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you can see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he knew two songs: Mozart's piano concerto no. 12 and hilary duff's 'So yesterday,' both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

They waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the big house, where soleil had taken a picture of each scenery they stopped at.

Then hiked up half-blood hill to the tall pine tree that used to be thalia, daughter of zeus. Chiron was waiting for them in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude percy and pandora had seen when they were recovering in the sick room. According to grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised.

Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so they could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.

"This is argus," Chiron told percy and pandora. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."

They heard footsteps behind them. Pandora turned to see luke and leah running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes, leah wearing a backpack. "Hey!" He panted. "Sorry i'm late." Leah smiled.

Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when luke was around. "Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told them. "And i thought..um, maybe you could use these."

He handed percy the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal. Luke said, "Maia!"

White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling percy so much, he dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

"Awesome!" Grover said. "Wicked." Pandora breathed out in amazement at the sight of the shoes, "Cool, right? they're practically mine." Leah picked up the shoes and handed them to pandora.

"Really?" The daughter of zeus glanced at her, "No." Luke interrupted, his sister nudged him with a glare before she turned back to pandora with a smile.

Luke smiled at his sister. "Those served me well when i was on my quest. Gift from dad. Of course, i don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.

Percy didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that luke had come to say good-bye. He'd been afraid the he might resent him and pandora for getting so much attention the last for days. But here he were giving them a magic gift...it made him blush almost as much as annabeth.

"Hey, man," Percy said. "Thanks."

"Listen, percy..pandora.." The girl looked at him with furrowed brows, he looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just...kill some monsters for me, okay? And keep my sister safe."

Pandora smiled brightly and they shook hands. Luke patted grover's head between his horns, giving his sister a hug and gentle pat on her shoulder.

Luke then gave his good-bye to annabeth, who looked like she might pass out. After luke was gone, percy and pandora turned to annabeth who was red as a tomato.

"You're hyperventilating." The daughter of zeus commented, "Am not." she countered, "You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?" Leah grinned at the two bickering.

"Oh...why do i want to go anywhere with you, pandora?" She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.

"Because we're friends—Are we friends yet? Annabeth?!" The girl watched as the daughter of athena continued down the hill.

"Come on, leah." Midas nodded toward leah who followed behind him, pulling out a snack out of her backpack.

Percy looked down at the flying shoes that were in pandora's hand and had a sudden bad feeling. He looked at chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will i?"

He shook his head. "Luke meant well, percy. But taking to the air..that would not be wise for you. Pandora, however—" She shook her head, "Not my style." Percy then had an idea.

"Hey, grover. You want a magic item?" Percy asked, The satyr's eyes lit up. "Me?"

Pretty soon they'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch. "Maia!" He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.

"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"

"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van. Percy and pandora looked at each other but before they could follow, chiron caught their arms. "I should have trained you better, percy, pandora." He said. "If only i had more time. Hercules, jason—they all got more training."

"That's okay. I just wish.." Percy stopped himself because he was about to sound like a brat. He was wishing that his dad and pandora's dad had given them a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as luke's flying shoes, or annabeth's invisible cap and midas's sword.

"What am i thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you go away without this." He pulled a pen and a ring from his coat pockets and handed it to them. The pen was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents. The ring was silver, with a lightning bolt carving that glowed blue.

"Gee," Percy said. "Thanks." Pandora eyes lit up,l and she smiled brightly. "Dude! I finally got a ring!" The girl spoke excitedly, placing it on her finger then showing percy.

"Percy, that's gifts from your father. I've kept them for years, not knowing you were the ones i was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You're the ones."

"Percy's dad gave this to me?" Chiron nodded. The girl looked down at the ring, Poseidon had given her something and she wasn't even his daughter.

They remembered the field trip to the metropolitan museum of art, when they'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown them a pen and a ring that turned into swords. Could this be..?

Percy took off the cap and pandora took off the ring, and the pen grew longer, pandora pushed the glowing lightning bolt carving and the ring grew longer like percy's pen, it felt heavier in their hands. In half a second, Percy and Pandora held shimmering bronze swords with double-edged blades, leather-wrapped grips, and flat hilts with riveted with gold studs. Pandora's sword glowed a bright blue color while percy's glowed bright golden color.

"Dude, look they're glowing!" She looked at their swords in amazement, she looked at the lightning bolt symbol at the bottom of the sword.

It was the first weapons that actually felt balanced in their hands. "The swords has long and tragic histories that we need not go into." Chiron told them. "Its name is Anaklusmos and Keraunos."

"Riptide."—"Storm." They translated, surprised the ancient greek came so easily. "Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but these swords wouldn't harm them in any case."

They looked at the wickedly sharp blades. "What do you mean it wouldn't hurt mortals? How could it not?"

"The swords are celestial bronze. Forged by the cyclopes, tempered in the heart of mount etna, cooled in the river lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blades will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blades to kill. And i should warn you: as demigods, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."

"Good to know. We can still be killed." Pandora made a face and nodded.

"Now recap the pen and push the lightning bolt on the hilt of your sword." Percy touched the pen cap to the sword tip and pandora pushed the carving.

Pandora nodded with furrowed brows and instantly riptide and sky-father shrank to a ballpoint pen and a silver ring again. Percy tucked it in his pocket, a little nervous, because they were famous for losing pens at school.

The girl the ring on her finger and twisted it, "You can't." Chiron said. "Can't what?" Percy questioned.

"Lose the pen, or the ring." He said and looked at pandora then back at percy. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it." Percy was wary, but he threw the pen as far as he could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.

"It may take a few moments," Chiron told him. "Now check your pocket." Sure enough, the pen was there.

"Okay, that's extremely cool," Percy admitted making pandora nod. "But what if a mortal sees us pulling out the swords?" Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, percy."

"Mist?" Pandora questioned. "Yes. Read The Iliad. It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate mist, which obscures the vision of humans.  You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things in their version of reality."

Percy put riptide back in his pocket. For the first time, the quest felt real. They were actually leaving Half-Blood hill. They were heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if they used one; it would be worse than sending up a flare.) They had no weapons stronger than swords to fight off monsters and reach the land of the dead.

"Chiron..." Percy said. "When you say the gods are immortal...i mean, there was a time before them, right?" He asked.

"Four ages before them, actually. The time of the titans was the fourth age, sometimes called the golden age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of the western civilization and the rule of zeus, is the fifth age."

Pandora furrowed her brow, still twisting the ring on her finger. "So what was it like...before the gods?"

Chiron pursed his lips. "Even i am not old enough to remember that, child, but i know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the titans, called his reign the golden age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The titan king cared nothing for your kind except appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the reign of lord zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and western civilization was born."

"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as western civilization is alive, they're alive. So...even if we failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?"

Chiron gave them a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the age of the west will last, percy, pandora. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive."

"May the fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny." Percy and pandora glanced at each other.

"Our destiny..." They chorus. "...Assuming know what that is."

"Relax." Chiron told them. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."

"Relax," Percy said. "We're very relaxed. Are you relaxed?" He turned to pandora who gave him a look — which he took as a no.

When they got to the bottom of the hill, percy looked backed under the pine tree that used to be thalia, daughter of zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.

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Argus drove them out of the country side and into western long island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth, leah, grover and midas sitting next to them as if they were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy.

Percy and Pandora found themselves staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping.

"So far so good," Percy told annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

Midas looked up from his comic book. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain." Pandora let out a snort at the name that made percy elbow her stomach.

"Remind me again — why do you hate us so much?"

"We don't hate you." Annabeth said.

"Could've fooled us."

"I don't hate you, percy. I simply — tolerate you." Midas shrugged, "You didn't even — is this hate percy day?" He muttered to himself, throwing his head back.

Annabeth folded her cap of invisibility. "Look..we're not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."

"Why?" Percy questioned, the girl sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in athena's temple, which hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."

"They must really like olives." Percy nodded in agreement, "Oh, forget it." Pandora shrugged as she toyed with her ring. "Now, if she'd invented pizza — that i could understand. We love pizza, don't we?"

She looked to percy who again nodded with a smile as he thought about pizza. "I said, forget it!" In the front seat, argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at pandora.

Midas smiled slightly and flipped the page. This was going to be a long quest, he thought as percy and his sister continued to talk about pizza with grover joining in on the conversation while Annabeth crossed her arms and leah listened to music, looking out the window.

Traffic slowed them down in queens. By the time they got to manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.

Argus dropped them off at the greyhound station on the upper east side, not far from their mom and gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was two soggy flyers with their pictures on it: have you seen this boy/girl?

Percy ripped them down before annabeth, midas, leah and grover could notice. Argus unloaded their bags, made sure they got their bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch them as he pulled out the parking lot.

Percy and pandora thought about how close they were to their old apartment. On a normal day, their mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.

Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction percy and pandora were looking.

"You want to know why she married him, percy? dory?" They stared at him. "Were you reading our minds or something?"

"Just your emotions." He shrugged. "Guess i forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about you mom and your stepdad, right?"

They nodded, wondering what else grover might've forgotten to tell them. "Your mom married gabe for you," Grover told them. "You call him 'smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura..yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell the traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."

Pandora stared at grover with a head tilt. "Thanks," Percy said. "Where's the nearest shower?"

"You should be grateful, percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as i took a whiff inside his camaro, i knew: gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy — if that makes you any better."

Pandora hid a frown, not liking the word was. It didn't make them better, but they forced themselves not to show it. They'll see her again and their mama, percy thought. They aren't gone.

He wondered if grover could still read him and pandora's emotions, mixed up as they were. They were glad grover, leah, annabeth and midas were with them, but felt guilty that they hadn't been straight with them.

They hadn't told them the real reason they'd said yes to this quest. The truth was, they didn't care about retrieving zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping percy's father out of trouble.

The more percy thought about it, he resented poseidon for never visiting him, never helping their mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claim him because he needed a job done.

All he and pandora cared about was their moms. Hades had taken her unfairly and their mama, and hades was going to give them back.

You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, The oracle whispered in their ears. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.

Shut up, Percy told it.

The rain kept coming down. They got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some hacky sack with one of grover's apple while midas chose to watch.

Annabeth was unbelievable. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. Percy and pandora weren't too bad themselves.

The game ended when pandora tossed the apple toward grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, their hacky sack disappeared — core, stem, and all.

Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but the others were too busy cracking up.

Finally the bus came. As they stood in line to board, grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy — enchiladas.

"What is it?" Pandora questioned, her brow furrowed as she looked at the satyr. "I don't know," He said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."

But she and percy could tell it wasn't nothing. They started looking over their shoulders, too. They were relieved when they finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus next to a girl who had headphones on and her head against the window, with her eyes closed.

After they stowed their backpacks. They all sat next to each other with midas looking at the girl beside him, rolling his eyes.

Annabeth kept slapping her yankees cap nervously against her thigh. As the last passengers got on, The girl clamped her hand onto pandora's knee. "Sparky."

Pandora glanced down at the hand on her knee then at annabeth then finally looked on at the front of the bus. An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and percy and pandora's heart skipped a beat.

It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face.

Percy and Pandora shared a look before they scrunched down in their seats in sync.

Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds — same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.

They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.

The bus pulled out of the station, and they headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," Percy said, trying to keep his voice from quivering.

"I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime." Pandora turned to annabeth, "I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."

"all three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"

"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard.

"The furies. The three worst monsters from the underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."

"They don't open," Grover moaned. "A back exit?" She suggested.

There isn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, they were in ninth avenue, heading for lincoln tunnel.

"They won't attack us with witnesses around," Percy said. "Will they?" He looked at pandora who shrugged.

"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded him. "Their brains can only process what they see through the mist."

"They'll see three old ladies strangling us, won't they?" Pandora asked, The two thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof...?"

They hit the lincoln tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.

Mrs. dodds got up. "I need to use the rest-room." She said, in flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus.

"So do i," The second sister said. "So do i," The third one said, Pandora furrowed her brow, "Weird how they all have to use the bathroom, right?" She looked to percy and the others.

They all started coming down the aisle. "I've got it," Annabeth spoke, "Percy, take my hat." The boy looked at her. "What?"

"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."

"But you guys —"

"There's an outside chance they might not notice us, You're a son of the big three. Your smell might be overpowering." Pandora scoffed slightly. "Are you saying my smell isn't overpowering?"

"That's rude." She frowned, crossing her arms, annabeth glanced at her and sighed, shaking her head, "I can't just leave you." Percy said.

"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!" His hands trembled. He felt like a coward, but he took the yankees cap and put it on.

"So disrespectful." Pandora muttered, watching as the old ladies made their way toward them.

Percy was about to press the emergency stop button when he heard hideous wailing from the back row.

The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same — i guess those couldn't get uglier — but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.

The furies surrounded grover, the girl next to him, annabeth, midas, leah and pandora, lashing their whips, hissing.

"Where is it? Where?" The daughter of zeus stared at the fury in front of her with wide eyes, leaning back onto annabeth.

The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something all right.

"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"

"Yeah, and well, i seem like bait so —" Pandora shrugged but paused as the furies raised their whips.

Annabeth and midas drew their weapons. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it. Pandora took off her ring and pressed the carving, watching as it changed into her sword, leah pulled out a bronze dagger.

The girl who was besides grover, appeared next to the driver who was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.

Still invisible, and not noticing the girl besides him, percy grabbed the wheel from the bus driver and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and percy heard what he hoped was the sound of three furies smashing against the windows.

"Jesus!" Percy saw the girl in the middle of the aisle, on the floor. He'd have to apologize later, he thought as he wrestled with the bus driver for the wheel.

The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind of them.

They careened out of the lincoln tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.

Somehow the driver found an exit. They shot off the highway, through half dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those new jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from new york.

There were woods to their left, the hudson river to the right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.

The girl got up from the floor and quickly hit the emergency break, The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open.

The girl was the first one out, with her backpack on. The bus driver right behind her, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him.

Percy stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass. The furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at the annabeth and midas, the former yelling in ancient greek, telling them to back off as pandora pushed them behind of her. Grover threw tin cans.

The furies backing up slightly at the sight of pandora's sword. Percy looked at the open doorway. He was free to go, but he couldn't leave his friends and his sister. He took off the invisible cap. "Hey!"

The furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at percy, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea to him. Mrs. dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver percy and pandora's F— math test. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.

Her two ugly sisters hopped on the top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward percy like huge nasty lizards.

"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than georgia. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."

"I liked you better as a math teacher," Percy told her. The fury growled. The other demigods and the satyr moved  up behind the furies cautiously, looking for an opening.

Percy took the ballpoint pen out of his pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.

The furies hesitated. Mrs. Dodds had felt riptide and sky-father blades before. She obviously didn't like seeing them again. "Submit now," She hissed. "And you will not suffer enteral torment."

"Nice try," Percy told her. "Percy, Look out!" Annabeth cried out.

Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around percy's sword while the furies on the either side lunged at him which made pandora rush foward.

Percy's hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but he managed to not drop riptide. He stuck the fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat.

His sister sliced the fury on the right. As soon as her blade connected with her neck, she exploded into dust.

Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while grover tipped the whip out of her hands. "Ow!" He yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"

The fury percy had hilt-slammed came at him again, talons ready, but he swung riptide and she broke open like a piñata.

Mrs. Dodds were trying to get annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but annabeth held on while grover got Mrs. Dodds legs tied up in her own whip with the help of midas and leah. Finally they shoved her backward into the aisle.

Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down. "Zeus will destroy you!" She promised. "Hades will have your soul!"

"Braccas meas vescimini!" Percy yelled. He wasn't sure where the latin came from. He think it meant 'Eat my pants!'

Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of his neck. "Get out!" Midas yelled at him. "Now!" Percy didn't need any encouragement.

They rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, 'We're going to die!'

A hawaiian shirted tourist with a camera snapped percy and pandora's photograph before they could change their swords into their ballpoint pen and ring.

"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our —"

Boom!

The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told percy and pandora that Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.

"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!" The blond grabbed pandora who was staring at the bus in shock.

They plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind of them, and nothing but darkness and the girl from the same bus that was on fire, trudging ahead of them.

"Oh, look, a new friend!" Pandora said, catching up with the girl with percy, grover and leah behind of her. "I don't like how you blew up my bus." The girl rolled her eyes.

"You hit the brakes!" Percy exclaimed. "Yeah, 'cause someone couldn't drive and brought the furies on the bus." She retorted.

"Where were you going anyway?" The boy rolled his eyes. "Away." She answered, annabeth and midas catching up with them and listening to their conversation. "Away? Why? Who's your parent?"

"Does it matter, kid?" She looked at percy, "Well, we're going to Los Angeles." The girl sighed. "Great. I don't care." She started to walk faster, but the other two caught up quickly.

"Welcome to the team! you're coming with us." She gave them both a look. But deep down, the siblings remembered one thing; You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend. And boy were they making more friends.

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