The only sound was a violent whooshing noise that burned my ears. Along with the not so pleasant tones of our screams. Considering our situations, I thought that was pretty accurate for us to do. I held onto Percy for dear life, taking my face out of his shirt after a few seconds. Given the position of the arch, and the distance away from the water it greatly surprised me just how much distance we cleared. And that was without me controlling the air currents.
So taking a deep breath, I guided us the rest of the way to the water. Due to not being able to fully focus, it didn't really stop our velocity but it did change the trajectory so we actually landed hard in the Mississippi River. Percy didn't seem injured by the impact, and luckily for me the wind was slightly knocked out of me, and my lungs burned as I held my breath. All his physical wounds began healing the second they touched water, giving him power.
We sunk to the bottom, surrounded by garbage. And suddenly a bubble formed around my head and I could breath normally. Percy seemed to be able to breath on his own, and given who his father is, it made sense. I also noticed that while I was soaked to the bone, he wasn't wet at all. My best friend was waterproof. A cat fish swam by, disturbed by our sudden appear from the sky.
"Are you alright?" Percy asked swimming over, his eyes looking me over for any injuries. He rubbed his hand along my cheek, and I suddenly felt stronger. I was puzzled that I could hear him, clear as day. That was before he joined me in my bubble, which expanded around his head.
"We just jumped out of a national monument, while escaping the mother of monsters and her terrifying son. How do you think I'm feeling?" I replied catching my breath, trying to process everything.
"Yep, you're fine," he chuckled taking my hand. The second he touched it, I became dry as well. Here we were standing at the bottom of the river, completely dry with an air bubble over our heads. He too was shocked as he reached forward, plucking a lighter out of a current and clicked it. Both of us were shocked as a flame flickered from it. Right there, as if we weren't underwater.
"That's wicked!" I exclaimed as he tried it on a few more things, all becoming dry with just a touch. "Also how are we not dead? You'd think Hades would want us down in his realm," I asked looking into his sea green eyes.
"Before I jumped I prayed to my father, I guess he answered," he states quickly thanking the god for the aid.
"Why would he save me? I'm the child of his brother, who is stopping at nothing from trying to kill you," I pondered raising my brow out of confusion. It was then I noticed Riptide sticking out of the mud, a few feet away from us. I turned Percy's head towards it.
Lord Poseidon has no ill thought of you little thunder child. From the beginning you've made it clear whose side you're one. Go on Percy, take the sword. Your father does believe in you. A woman spoke causing me to look around frantically.
Suddenly she appeared in the murky water. Her long brown hair billowed around her, and green eyes looked back at us.
"Mom?" Percy questions with hope. But even I knew that it wasn't Sally. This lady was probably a sea nymph, sent to guide Percy.
She went on to say that she was only a messenger sent by Poseidon to aid us. The god of the sea wanted us to head to Santa Monica before our voyage into the underworld. After claiming she couldn't stay much longer, she touched our faces before saying not to trust the gifts. Whatever that meant. And said Poseidon believed in us. Then her image melted away.
The two of us stood there in shock before Percy picked up Riptide, turning it back into a sword. I realised that my sword was somehow back on my bracelet. Anyway with that we began swimming towards the surface.
~~~~
When we came ashore it was next to this floating McDonald's. Every emergency vehicle in the city was surrounding the arch. Which was about a block away, and we managed to gain some attention as a little girl tried telling her mother that two kids came out of the water. Completely dry, too might I add.
Percy grabbed my hand, keeping close as we began walking down the beach. News reporters were live on air, talking about the incident. A sigh of relief came out of my mouth at the mention of survivors. Who knows what they really saw up there, but hopefully they didnt remember what we looked like. I hoped our friends were alright.
However hearing that they knew things were caused by a young boy and a young girl caused us to slowly back away. Knowing that if we're caught, that's the end of the quest right there. We shared a wide eyed look before walking the long way around the police perimeter. Doing our best to keep our heads down, to avoid possibly being recognised.
"Perr-cy! Mimm-i!" The familiar bleat of Grover hits my ears just when I was about to give up hope of finding him and Annie. However before we had time to react, we were practically tackled in a massive goat hug. "We thought you both went to Hades the hard way,"
"Wouldn't that technically be the easy way?" I asked as he pulled away, only to then get tackled by Annabeth. "We're alright Wise girl, honesty. Percy prayed to his dad, who provided aid," I held my breath from how tight she was holding me. Thankfully she let go not long after that.
"We can't leave you alone for five minutes. What in the name of the gods happened?" She asks becoming angry and smacking us upside the head.
"Well we definitely didn't destroy a national monument and fall to our near deaths to escape the mother of monsters and her son the Chimera," Percy retorts in a highly sarcastic tone.
"Yeah no definitely didn't do that," I added with the same tone. She was about to say something when a gurney came out of the building with the mother of little boy. She was telling everyone about what she remembered from the incident.
We tried to explain to them what went down but were interrupted by news channels talking to the cameras. Turns out they think that Percy was behind the attack along with me. Which they somehow found out my name and that I am Percy's best friend. So now the two of us are wanted.
"Can finally check off becoming a fugitive from the bucket list," I state as we quickly walked away. Somehow managing to get back to the Amtrak train before it left for Denver.
So this is it. We're closer to confronting Hades in his realm and now two of us are wanted for destroying the monument and all four of us are wanted for the bus incident. This is one hell of a quest....
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In A Flash of Lightning (Percy Jackson)
Fanfiction(On Hold) Naomie Miller was what society would deem as a troublemaker. Which the majority of times was due to no fault of her own, as she was different from most kids her age. Not that she knew it of course, however because of her obliviousness on t...
