Kakutoku Shita Omoide (Memories Acquired)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Percy's P.O.V.

The bridge to Olympus was dissolving. Annabeth, Thalia, Grover, and I stepped out of the elevator of the Empire State Building that transported us to the six hundredth floor onto the white marble walkway, and it immediately cracked at our feet.

"Jump!" Grover said, which was easy for him since he's part mountain goat.

He sprang to the next slab of stone while the others' slabs tilted sickeningly.

"Gods, I hate heights!" Thalia yelled as she and I leaped. But Annabeth was in no shape for jumping. She stumbled and yelled, "Percy!"

I caught her hand as the pavement fell, crumbling into dust. For a second I thought Annabeth was going to pull us both over. Her feet dangled in the open air. Her hand started to slip until I was holding her only by her fingers. Then Grover and Thalia grabbed my legs, and I found the extra strength to hoist her up. She was not going to fall.

I pulled her up and we lay trembling on the pavement, not even realizing we had our arms around each other until Annabeth suddenly tensed.

"Um, thanks," she muttered.

I tried to say 'Don't mention it', but it came out as, "Uh duh".

"Keep moving!" Grover tugged my shoulder. We untangled themselves and sprinted across the sky ridge as more stones disintegrated and fell into oblivion. We made it to the edge of the mountain just as the final section collapsed.

Annabeth looked back at the elevator, which was now completely out of reach – a polished set of metal doors hanging in space, attached to nothing, six hundred stories above Manhattan.

"Were marooned," she said. "On our own."

"Blah-ha-ha!" Grover said. "The connection between Olympus and America is dissolving. If it fails-"

"The gods won't move on to another country this time," Thalia said. "This will be the end of Olympus. The final end."

We ran through the streets. Mansions were burning. Statues had been hacked down. Trees in the parks were blasted to splinters. It looked like someone had attacked the city with a giant weed whacker.

"Kronos' scythe." I said, voice low.

We followed the winding path toward the palace of the gods. I didn't remember the road being so long. Maybe Kronos was making time go slower, or maybe it was just dread slowing me down. The whole mountaintop was in ruins – so many beautiful buildings and gardens gone.

A few minor gods and nature spirits had tried to stop Kronos. What remained of them was strewn about the road: shattered armor, ripped clothing, swords and spears broken in half.

Somewhere ahead of us, Kronos' voice roared: "Brick by brick! That was my promise. Tear it down BRICK BY BRICK!"

A white marble temple with a gold dome suddenly exploded. The dome shot up like a lid of a teapot and shattered into a billion pieces, raining rubble over the city.

"That was a shrine to Artemis," Thalia grumbled. "He'll pay for that."

We were running under the marble archway with the large statue of Zeus and Hera when the entire mountain groaned, rocking sideways like a boat in a storm.

"Look out!" Grover yelled. The archway crumbled. I looked up in time to see a twenty-ton scowling Hera topple over on us. Annabeth and I would've been flattened, but Thalia shoved us from behind and we landed just out of danger.