Percy Wears Even More Questionable Clothing Than He Already Was
"Tell me when it's over," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding onto us so we couldn't fall, but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.
"Everything's fine," Percy promised.
"Are...are we very high?" I looked down. Below us, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. I stretched out my foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks.
"Nah," I said. "Not that high."
"We are in the Sierras!" Zoe yelled. She and Grover were hanging from the arms of the other statue. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."
"Hey, hey, Frisco!" Our angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"
"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"
"You guys have visited San Francisco?" Percy asked.
"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And -"
"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids man."
"Oh, right." If bronze statues could blush, I swear Hank did. "Back to flying."
We sped up, so I could tell the angels were excited. The mountains fell away into hills, and then we were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways. Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoe got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards as we flew by. Every time she saw a Target department store - and we passed dozens of them - she would peg the store's sign with a few bullseyes at a hundred miles an hour. Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying. Was she afraid of heights? "You did good back there," Percy told her. "Zeus listened." It was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes closed.
"Maybe," she said. "How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."
Percy told us about a weird mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who seemed to be able to see right through the Mist.
"Some mortals are like that," she said. "Nobody knows why."
"I was like that," I said.
"You were?" asked Percy.
"Yeah."
"Well, the girl was annoying," Percy continued. "But I'm glad I didn't vaporise her. That would've been bad."
Thalia nodded. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal." She said that as if she'd given it a lot of thought.
"Ruby?"
"Yes?"
"What was it like to be a regular mortal?"
I tensed. Would I be able to get away with a lie? Probably not. I looked to where Percy was. He seemed to be fast asleep. How had he fallen asleep so quickly? I'd tell the truth instead then. "I wouldn't know."
"What do you mean?" Thalia asked.
"Have you ever heard of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division, otherwise known as S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"A little. I think my Mom had a visit from some of their agents when I was younger."
"Your Mom's Beryl Grace, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"No reason. Anyway, my mom worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., not sure if she still does. Occasionally, if there was need for a child on a mission, I was often their go to. I was an unofficial agent. I was set to become an official agent by the time I turned eighteen without the need to go through the Academy."
"So, what happened?"
"I was killed in a school shooting."
"How? You're right here. Alive."
"It's complicated. But there are other pantheons out there. Not just the Greeks."
"Like what?"
"The Norse. I went to Valhalla. In an attempt to create bridges between the two pantheons, I was asked to join the Hunt and I have not regretted it these last three years."
"Wow."
"Obviously, you cannot tell anyone else about this unless I say otherwise."
"Of course." Thalia nodded. She looked as though she was hiding something but I decided to not say anything about it.
"Where do you guys want to land?" Hank asked.
Percy looked down and said, "Whoa."
"There," Zoe suggested. "By the Embarcadero Building."
"Good thinking," Chuck said. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons." We all looked at him.
"Kidding," he said. "Sheesh, can't statues have a sense of humour?" As it turned out there wasn't much need to blend in. It was early morning and not many people were around. We freaked out a homeless guy on the ferry dock when we landed. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars. Wrong pantheon. (I knew he meant the planet, but I couldn't help myself from thinking that.) We said our goodbyes to the angels who flew off to party with their statue friends. That's when I realised I had no idea what we were going to do next. We'd made it to the West Coast. Artemis was here somewhere. But I had no idea how to find her, and tomorrow was the winter solstice. Nor did I have any clue what monster Artemis had been hunting. It was supposed to find us on the quest. It was supposed to 'show the trail'.