𝒗. 𝐈𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

𝒗𝒊.

Percy loved New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny. 

Of course, the Mist helped. People probably couldn't see Mrs. O'Leary, or maybe they thought she was a large, loud, very friendly truck. 

He took the risk of using his mom's cell phone to call Annabeth for the second time. He'd called her once from the tunnel but only reached her voice mail. He'd gotten surprisingly good reception, seeing as they were at the mythological center of the world and all, but he didn't want to see what his mom's roaming charges were going to be. 

This time, Annabeth picked up. 

"Hey," Percy said. "You get my message?" 

"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! We've been worried sick!" 

"I'll fill you in later," he said, though how he was going to do that he had no idea. "Where are you?" 

"We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens—Midtown Tunnel. But, Percy, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—" 

"Trust me," he said. "I'll see you there." 

He hung up. His hands were trembling. He wasn't sure if it was a leftover reaction from his dip in the Styx, or anticipation of what he was about to do. If this didn't work, being invulnerable wasn't going to save him from getting blasted to bits.

Noelle noticed his shakiness and grabbed his hand. She didn't say anything, but she didn't need to. Her touch alone was enough to calm majority of Percy's nerves.

Their eyes met and she smiled, but her eyes held that same sad look they seemed to have ever since she and Percy reunited at camp. Percy squeezed her hand tight and pulled it to his mouth, trying to reassure her with a small kiss to her knuckles. 

It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped them at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts. Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close. 

Percy whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. He'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though he knew they shuttled their fresh produce into the city. 

The first van was driven by Argus, the camp's many-eyed security chief. The other two were driven by harpies, who were basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes. They used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too. 

The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive. Percy was glad so many had come: Pollux, Silena Beauregard, the Stoll brothers, Michael Yew, Jake Mason, Katie Gardner, and Annabeth, along with most of their siblings. Chiron came out of the van last. His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift. The Ares cabin wasn't here, but Percy tried not to get too angry about that. Clarisse was a stubborn idiot. End of story. 

Noelle did a head count. "Forty campers in all," she whispered in Percy's ear.

Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods they'd ever seen gathered in one place outside camp. Everyone looked nervous, and they understood why. They were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew they were there.