Harry Kills An Idiot
Annabeth stared at the boy as his eyes and hair reverted back to their normal coloring. “Don’t think I will take back any of what I said earlier just because you helped us,” She crossed her arms. Harry nodded, having expected the response.
They arrived back at the diner to see Ares leaning on his obnoxious motorbike. What a jerk. “Who’s this? He wasn’t here before,” The god had a bored look but Harry could sense his curiosity beneath the facade.
Harry scowled. “No one important.”
The god of war laughed heartily. “Don’t think I didn’t see your performance on Olympus. You have skills. If you ask me, you seem pretty important,” The man looked at Harry expectantly.
“Good thing we didn’t ask you, then.”
Ares’ eyes glowed with red flames but Harry ignored it, he wasn’t impressed. This guy couldn’t be more immature if he tried, Lady Aphrodite could do so much better.
Percy cleared his throat. “We have your stupid shield,” He tossed the shield at the god which Ares easily caught.
PERCY POV
"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."
The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTER-NATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.
I said, "You're kidding."
Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job." He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to me.
Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.
I said, "I don't want your lousy-"
"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving me his best red-alert warning look.
"Thanks a lot." I gritted my teeth. It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I didn't want anything that Ares had touched. Reluctantly, I slung the backpack over my shoulder.
I knew my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose. He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers-every jerk who'd called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I'd gotten expelled.
I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.
Great, I thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow. I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.
"You owe me one more thing," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."
"Are you sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."
The ground seemed to spin beneath me. "What do you mean?"
"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."
"Kept. Why?"
"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."
"Nobody's controlling me."
He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."
I balled up my fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."
Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind in my hair. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back." He turned to Harry with an odd look on his face. “You. I don’t know who you are but I know you are important. We’ll meet again, I’m sure.” He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancey Street.
Annabeth said, "That was not smart, Percy."
"I don't care."
"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god."
"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but ..." He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identi-cal black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.
"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry." I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver. We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us.
The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter. The trailer was dark inside until I uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene.
Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for. Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!
Harry was so angry his skin was starting to glow an ominous silver color. “Those motherfuckers!” He snarled. Percy could see disgust in his eyes as he looked on at the scene.
Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur. "This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo trans-port?" He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and I would've helped him, but just then the truck's engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.
—
Harry was pissed. He wanted to bash those stupid truckers. How could they do this? Bastards. He prayed that Hades had a special punishment lined up for them when they died.
Annabeth and Percy seemed to still be angry at Harry for his comments on Luke so they huddled into a corner together and spoke in hushed voices. Harry couldn’t care less. He had friends, he wasn’t trying to make more, he was trying to get everyone home safe. Grover had hid behind a sack of turnips so that left Harry sitting up against the antelope cage.
He thought over the prophecy.
Son of water, Child of Athena, Satyr, and Silver-eyed one shall go west, and face the god who has turned.
You shall find that which was stolen and see that it is safely returned.
You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.
You shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.
Silver-eyed one finds what they need most.
Chaos erupts, the King declares him a foe.
The maiden protects her own.
Those who left shall return home.
The silver-eyed one was obviously him, but what did he need most? He knew what he wanted most but was positive they were two very different things. What could he possibly need that would make Zeus declare him a foe?
The maiden protects her own was what had him confused. There were only so many maiden goddesses who could stand up to Zeus and win.
The truck had finally stopped after a night of fitful sleep. Not his own of course, he would never sleep while in such a vulnerable position. He had watched over the others and hummed lullabies for the animals to calm them down.
The doors opened and the trucker started mocking the animals. Harry tried to calm himself but he snapped when the man threw water in the lion's face.
He stood up and drew one of his silver hunting knives, because it was silver it COULD harm mortals. Harry charged forward and wrapped his hand around the man's arm, flipping him onto the floor and twisting his arms behind his back. “You are a sick son of a bitch and I hope Hades has no mercy,” Harry whispered menacingly before stabbing the man through his neck.
“Harry!” Annabeth yelled.
He ignored her calls and wandlessly unlocked the lion cage and threw the man inside. It was with glee that he watched the lion tear the man to pieces.
The others were frozen in horror at what the boy had just done.
The rest of the cages opened at Harry’s command and the animals quickly fled to the streets of Las Vegas.
Harry turned back around to face his friends, his shirt had a splatter of blood on it and the floor was even worse. “Don’t act as if he didn’t deserve it,” He said while wiping the blood off his dagger.
Percy frowned but still followed when the boy jumped down from the truck. Annabeth shared a look with Grover before following too.
“He deserved it,” Grover whispered to the empty van, he then jumped down and ran to catch up with the others.
He must have taken a wrong turn, Harry thought as he stared up at the Lotus Hotel and Casino. It was a dead end street which was already strange because most casinos would be on the main roads to gather more customers. The second thing that Harry counted as strange was the buzzing in the back of his mind, his instincts were telling him to back away. He opened his mouth to tell the others but they had a;ready walked inside, as if in a trance.
Harry frowned but ran in after them.
The entire place was alight with joy and chaos. The crowds were huge and the casino area seemed to go on for miles.
He spotted the other three grabbing what looked like keycards. “Hey, where did you get the money to afford this?” He asked in shock at the green cards in their hands.
“They were free,” Percy shrugged. Okay, there was absolutely no way this wasn’t a trap.
He grabbed Percy’s shoulder but was shrugged off when Percy entered the nearby elevator with Grover and Annabeth in tow. He sighed before following.
They were clearly in some sort of trance and it would take more than a bit of convincing to get them to leave.
Their suite was filled with the essentials and more. There were three bedrooms, a bathroom, and two closets stocked with clothes in their exact sizes. The others didn’t seem to see a problem with this.
"So what now?" Annabeth asked. "Sleep?"
Grover and Percy looked at each other and grinned. They both held up their green plastic LotusCash cards.
"Play time," Percy said
“Or, we could leave and find a normal place to stay that isn’t a very obvious trap?” Harry suggested but it was futile. The trio had already raced out of the room and taken the elevator. “Gods give me strength,” Harry mumbled, trailing after them.
When Harry reached the game room he groaned. It would take forever to round them all up and drag them out of there. He moved forward but tumbled to the ground when a small excitable boy bumped into him.
“Nico!” A girl about his age chided the boy, she had a long black braid and was wearing an odd ensemble, she looked straight out of the 30’s. “Sorry about him, he’s got nowhere to be but is always in a rush,” the girl looked exhausted and Harry couldn’t help but feel bad. Must be tough dealing with such an energetic boy.
“Sorry,” The boy said quickly before racing off. The girl threw her hands up and chased after him.
How odd.
When Harry finally tracked down Annabeth she was in the middle of an architecture game. Great. There was no chance of this being easy.
Harry approached carefully. “Annabeth. This place is a trap, we need to leave. We have a quest to complete, remember?” He said sternly. The girl frowned and then her eyes widened.
“The quest!”
They ran off to find Grover who was currently playing a hunting game where animals hunted the humans. What on Earth…
Annabeth took the lead with this one and tapped Grover on the shoulder. “We have a quest. Let’s go,” she wasn’t nearly as kind as he was to her but it seemed to get the message across.
It was then that Percy appeared with a scared look on his face. “This place is a-”
“Trap,” They all said at once. Percy nodded and all four of them sprinted to the exit.
The doorman tried to coax them back in with the promise of added benefits but they all knew the truth now.
Once they were outside Annabeth gasped. “Look!” Her hand was pointed towards a sign in the distance which told the date.
They had been inside the hotel for five days and now they only had one day left.
Harry cursed and kicked the nearby trash can continuously, letting out his anger. “I told you! I told you it was a trap but you- you idiots!” He yelled, waving his arms around. Annabeth could see silver starting to show so she quickly stepped up and slapped him across the face.
“Now isn’t the time for arguing. Now is the time to get the hell out of here,” She ordered. Harry glared at her but acquiesced and they all ran to call a cab.