Legend Of The Blue Bird-Percy Jackson Batman Crossover-The Olympian Heroes book5

25. Percy

The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car.
Up until then, I was having a great afternoon. Technically I wasn't supposed to be driving because I wouldn't turn sixteen for another week, but as Robin I'd driven the many bat-themed vehicles Bruce had and when Dick took my friend Rachel and me to this private stretch of beach on the South Shore, I begged him to let me take the old Mustang for a spin.
Now, I know you're thinking, Wow, that was really irresponsible of him, blah, blah, blah, but...well yeah it was pretty irresponsible. But Dick had seen me go toe to toe with plenty of villains, super and otherwise and I guess he assumed I would keep his car safe. That was my plan at least.
Anyway, Rachel and I were driving along. It was a hot August day. Rachel's red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a white blouse over her swimsuit. I'd never seen her in anything but ratty T- shirts and paint-splattered jeans before, even when she came to a Wayne industries charity gala, my friend had insisted on wearing her usual tee and jeans, she looked like a million golden drachmas then and she did now.
"So." Rachel smiled at me. "About that invitation."
   "Oh . . . right." I tried to sound excited. I mean, she'd asked me to her family's vacation house on St. Thomas for three days, I was excited. Well I would be if I could figure out a way to go. Three days that left Bruce alone on patrol. Three days that Kronos could be advancing on Olympus. I did seriously needed a vacation. This summer had been the hardest of my life. The idea of taking a break even for a few days was really tempting.
Still, something big was supposed to go down any day now. I was "on call" for a mission. Half-blood mission though I supposed I could get a call from a hero friend any minute too. Even worse, next week was my birthday. There was this prophecy that said when I turned sixteen, bad things would happen.
"Percy," she said, "I know the timing is bad. But it's always bad for you, right?" She had a point.
"I really want to go," I promised. "It's just-"
"The war."
I nodded. I didn't like talking about it, but Rachel knew. Unlike most mortals, she could see through the Mist—the magic veil that distorts human vision. She'd seen monsters. She'd met some of the other demigods who were fighting the Titans and their allies. She'd even been there last summer when the chopped-up Lord Kronos rose out of his coffin in a terrible new form, and she'd earned my permanent respect by nailing him in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush.
She put her hand on my arm. "Just think about it, okay? We don't leave for a couple of days. My dad . . ." Her voice faltered.
"Is he giving you a hard time?" I asked.
Rachel shook her head in disgust. "He's trying to be nice to me, which is almost worse. He wants me to go to Clarion Ladies Academy in the fall."
"The school where your mom went?"
"It's a stupid finishing school for society girls, all the way in New Hampshire. Can you see me in finishing school?"
I admitted the idea sounded pretty dumb. Rachel was into urban art projects and feeding the homeless and going to protest rallies to "Save the Endangered Yellow-bellied Sapsucker" and stuff like that. I'd never even seen her wear a dress. It was hard to imagine her learning to be a socialite.
She sighed. "He thinks if he does a bunch of nice stuff for me, I'll feel guilty and give in."
"Which is why he agreed to let me come with you guys on vacation?"
   "Yes . . . but Percy, you'd be doing me a huge favor. It would be so much better if you were with us. Besides, there's something I want to talk—" She stopped abruptly.
"Something you want to talk about?" I asked. "You mean . . . so serious we'd have to go to St. Thomas to talk about it?"
She pursed her lips. "Look, just forget it for now. Let's pretend we're a couple of normal people. We're out for a drive, and we're watching the ocean, and it's nice to be together."
I could tell something was bothering her, but she put on a brave smile. The sunlight made her hair look like fire.
We'd spent a lot of time together this summer. I hadn't exactly planned it that way, but the more serious things got at camp, the more I found myself needing to call up Rachel and get away, just for some
breathing room. I needed to remind myself that the mortal world was still out there, away from all the monsters using me as their personal punching bag. And it was nice to talk to someone who understood the ins and outs of rich parental figures, even if she couldn't know about my nighttime activities.
"Okay," I said. "Just a normal afternoon and two normal people."
She nodded. "And so . . . hypothetically, if these two people liked each other, what would it take to get the stupid guy to kiss the girl, huh?"
  I can't pretend I hadn't thought about Rachel. She was so much easier to be around than . . . well, than some other girls I knew. I didn't have to work hard, or watch what I said, or rack my brain trying to figure out what she was thinking. Rachel didn't hide much. She let you know how she felt. In my world, where half my time and my families time was spent literally under a mask, it was nice to have someone real around.
"Oh... I um-"
I'm not sure what I would have done next, coming up here initially kissing was the furthest thing from my mind, but now I was so distracted, I didn't notice the huge black form swooping down from the sky until four hooves landed on the hood of the mustang with a WUMP-WUMP- CRUNCH!
Blackjack the pegasus was an old friend of mine, so I tried not to get too annoyed by the craters he'd just put in the hood
"Dick is going to kill me!" I groaned
Hey, boss, a voice said in my head. Nice car!
"Blackjack," I sighed. "What are you—"
Then I saw who was riding on his back, and I knew my day was about to get a lot more complicated. " 'Sup, Percy."
Charles Beckendorf, senior counselor for the Hephaestus cabin, would make most monsters cry for their mommies. He was huge, with ripped muscles from working on the forges every summer, two years older than me, and one of the camp's best armorsmiths. He made some seriously ingenious mechanical stuff. A month before, he'd rigged a Greek firebomb in the bathroom of a tour bus that was carrying a bunch of monsters across country. The explosion took out a whole legion of Kronos's evil meanies as soon as the first harpy went flush.
Beckendorf was dressed for combat. He wore a bronze breastplate and war helm with black camo pants and a sword strapped to his side. His explosives bag was slung over his shoulder.
"Time?" I asked. He nodded grimly.
A clump formed in my throat. I'd known this was coming. We'd been planning for it for weeks, but I'd half hoped it would never happen.
Rachel looked up at Beckendorf. "Hi."
"Oh, hey. I'm Beckendorf. You must be Rachel. Percy's told me . . . uh, I mean he mentioned you."
Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Really? Good." She glanced at Blackjack, who was clopping his hooves against the hood of the mustang. "So I guess you guys have to go save the world now."
"Pretty much," Beckendorf agreed.
I looked at Rachel helplessly. "Would you tell dick-"
"I'll tell him I'm sure he's used to it."
I shoved my hands into my pocket, finding the familiar pen there "you have no idea. And the-"
"I'll tell him about the hood."
I nodded my thanks "I uh guess the keys are in the ignition."
"Good luck." Rachel kissed me before I could even react. "Now, get going, half-blood. Go kill some monsters for me."
My last view of her was sitting in the shotgun seat of the mustang, her arms crossed, watching as Blackjack circled higher and higher, carrying Beckendorf and me into the sky. I wondered what Rachel wanted to talk to me about, and whether I'd live long enough to find out.
"So," Beckendorf said, "I'm guessing you don't want me to mention that little scene to Annabeth."
"Oh, gods," I muttered praying Barbara didn't somehow have a camera on me as well "Don't even think about it."
Beckendorf chuckled, and together we soared out over the Atlantic.