Percy of the Huntsmen

Coming Home

"We better get going home," Percy said. "The monsters will soon discover Luke's body and come looking for us."

"Fools," Atlas called from his kneeling position under the sky. "You assume that I didn't have a plan. You were meant to be sidetracked at the Smithsonian and finished at the Hoover Dam. But, since you insisted on ignoring my distractions, I turned them loose on the mortals. You have won nothing. As we speak, mortals are being slaughtered at the hands of my skeleton warriors, and in an hour or so the Nemean Lion will lay waste the the Smithsonian. You may have won here, but at the end of the day, you heroes have failed miserably. Hundreds will die!"

Before he was completely finished ranting, the demigods and Hunters had started running out to the VW.

"We need to be at the Hoover Dam pronto," Annabeth said.

"That's almost ten hours away from here, we'll never make it in time." Thalia told her.

"There is a way," Percy thought out loud. "I can shadow travel this van to just outside the Hoover Dam. I'll send some of you to the Smithsonian to scout for the Nemean Lion, you'll meet some of my mortal dad's old friends, they'll help. Look forthe group of men wearing all black and carrying weapons, you won't be able to miss them."

Of course, Percy's "dad's friends" were some Huntsmen. Percy would need to give Adam a call durning the shadow journey to tell him this, but he was sure that Adam would follow through. After all, the Huntsmen headquarters weren't very far away from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

"Sounds like a plan," Thalia said.

"Phoebe and I will go to the Smithsonian," Bianca volunteered. Phoebe nodded her assent.

The VW was parked in the shade of the mountain, so once everyone climbed in Percy shadow travelled them to either the Hoover Dam or the Smithsonian. Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth found themselves suddenly falling to the ground in the Hoover Dam's parking lot.

"Dammit," Percy swore. "I accidently sent Chase's car to Washington."

"That doesn't really matter now, we need to find these skeleton warriors."
Thalia said.

"They follow a scent. Once given to them, they'll never stop following it until it's dead. Once we find them, we'll need to protect their victim."

Once inside the dam, it wasn't too hard to find the skeletons. They stood out from the crowd pretty well, with bones glowing like they were radioactive under pale gray, translucent flesh.

Percy could hear someone out of breath and panting in the next room over. That might be the target that they're looking for.

"I'll check a possible lead on the target. You two track the skeletons, I'll meet up with you later."

Thalia nodded. "Okay, that works."

Percy ran down the hallway. The panting noises were getting closer.

A voice out of nowhere said to Percy, "Are you another one of the monsters sent to kill me?"

Percy immediately whipped around, sword drawn, to see a redhead mortal girl standing in the doorway of a closest.

"No, no, I'm not here to kill you." The girl looked at him suspiciously. "Really, I'm not. I'm here to save you from the skeletons."

"So you can see them too? Everyone else is ignoring them."

So, the girl could see through the Mist.
"Yeah, I guess I'm special. What do you see me as?"

"You're a boy, but you have wolf fangs and yellow eyes. Also, you have odd tattoos on your arm above the scars and wings folded on your back that I feel like I'm not supposed to see."