The Sea Tyrant's Obsession (PJO x ROR) *18+* WTM/WTS

*A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers

"I would never have imagined the girl would cause such chaos and still manage to slip away," Zeus continued.

Hera shot him a pointed look. "You find this amusing, don't you?"

"Not amusing," Zeus said with a smirk, "just... fascinating. I'm liking this niece of mine more and more."

Seeing his brother's annoying expression, Poseidon tried to resist throwing his trident at him again, especially with their mother present.

New title appears:

A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers

Everyone was taken aback by the title.

"So, we're going to see another god this time?" Hades said thoughtfully. "I wonder who it will be."

"A god buys... cheeseburgers?!" Zeus stared incredulously at the title on the screen, raising an eyebrow. "So, my niece is going to meet another god that buys her food, huh?"

Poseidon scowled. "Cheeseburgers? Does it even make sense for gods to be buying such... earthly things?" He crossed his arms. "How low have these gods sunk?"

"Really? Cheeseburgers?" Hera looked clearly unimpressed. "Are we supposed to find this amusing?"

Shiva laughed. "I think it's funny. What better way to show the world the gods can be both powerful and casual?" He smirked, amused by the concept. "A god buying cheeseburgers sounds like something I could totally get behind."

The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was sure that was obvious.

"The poor kids! They must've been so exhausted after that long train ride. I can only imagine how they feel without food or shower for so long," Leto said sympathetically.

"Seriously, how can they function like that? They need to find something to eat or else they won't have enough strength to face any monsters," Artemis added.

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Anthony said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"We can't use phones, right?"

"I'm not talking about phones."

The gods wondered what the boy was referring to.

We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Anthony was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.

"Percilla really seems to enjoy creating similes," Apollo commented, referring to the last sentence.

Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.

Shiva chuckled. "They definitely looked like three teen troublemakers."

"What exactly are we doing?" I asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.

"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Anthony?"

"Don't look at me," he said. "The dining car wiped me out."

I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place.

"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."