Penny Ranger and the Lightning Thief

Chapter XXX: Annabeth Achieves Royalty Status

Admittedly, Annabeth's plan to get us to LA in under one day sounded ridiculous, if not outright insane. But then again, none of us had any better ideas and for some reason Annabeth's plans always seemed to work out one way or another. So we all followed her lead and squeezed ourselves into the back of a taxi.

"Los Angeles, please." she told the driver.

The driver in turn looked at her suspiciously, probably wondering why the destination was so far away.

"That's three hundred miles. For that, you've gotta pay up front." he replied.

"Do you accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked.

"Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first." he explained with a shrug.

Annabeth proceeded to hand him one of the LotusCash cards. The driver glanced at it skeptically, probably not recognizing the casino.

"Swipe it." Annabeth insisted.

He did as she said. What happened next was a very good example of why you don't mix mortal technology with the mythical. The machine started creaking and beeping, several lights flashing, before an infinity symbol appeared next to the dollar sign. The driver was so shocked that his cigar fell out of his mouth.

"Where to in Los Angeles... uh, your Highness?" the stunned driver asked.

Annabeth sat up straighter, looking quite pleased with her new title.

"The Santa Monica Pier." she said, her voice sounding a bit more classy than usual.
"Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."

She probably shouldn't have added that last part, because the driver proceeded to break every single speed limit imaginable as he sped off towards LA.

While we travelled west, Percy took the opportunity to tell us about another dream he'd had. He was in a dark cave like before, the same mysterious being in the pit. But this time it hadn't been talking to Percy, and instead with some sort of servant. They had been discussing the looming war, and how it hadn't been part of the plan but still worked out. Then Percy had been discovered and was transported to a different dream. This time he was in a throne room. There was a throne made of human bones, and his mother standing at the foot of it. He couldn't remember anything more, the memories having been blurred out by the Lotus Casino. He did remember that there was a title the servant had called the monster in the pit.

"The Silent One? The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades." Annabeth suggested.

"Maybe..." Percy said, still sounding a bit uncertain.

"The throne room does sound a lot like Hades's. From what I've read, that's how it is usually described." I pointed out.

Percy shook his head, dismissing my statement.

"Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit... I don't know. It just didn't feel like the voice of a god."

That was worrying. Not only because it was eerily similar to the conclusion I had drawn from my dreams, but also because our whole quest depended on Hades having the bolt. If he didn't, not only would we have no idea where to look, but we also wouldn't have enough time to do so. And judging by Annabeth's suddenly horror filled gaze, that might be the least of our problems.

"What?" Percy asked, having also picked up on Annabeth's expression.

"Oh... nothing."

It was definitely not nothing.

"I was just - No, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt and something went wrong..."

"Like what?"

"I-I don't know."

Now I could tell she was definitely hiding something. Even if she truly didn't know the answer, Annabeth would never outright say "I don't know".

"But if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."

As far fetched as that theory might seem, it somehow fit in pretty well with what we had so far. There was one gap though.

"But if Percy already had the bolt, why would he be going to the Underworld?" I asked.

"To threaten Hades. To bribe or blackmail him into getting his mom back." Grover said.

I was impressed with his thought process.

"You have really evil thoughts for a goat."

"Why, thank you."

"But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items." Percy pointed out.
"If the master bolt is one, what's the other?"

Grover shrugged, Annabeth bit her lip and I frowned. This was starting to look like the plot of a murder mystery. There was so many things that didn't make sense and information that we simply didn't have. The closer we got to the Underworld, the more obvious it got that we hadn't been handed the entire puzzle.

"You have an idea of what might be in that pit, don't you? I mean, if it isn't Hades?" Percy asked, looking over at Annabeth.

The thought seemed to terrify her, and that alone was enough to terrify me.

"Percy... let's not talk about it. Because if it isn't Hades... No. It has to be Hades."

There were a few moments of silence as we all processed what she had said. In summary, we had better pray to any gods we could remember that the answer to this riddle was Hades, because the alternative was a million times worse. And if that was the case, I'm not too sure I even wanted to know what the alternative was.

"The answer is in the Underworld. You saw the spirits of the dead, Percy. There's only one place that could be. We're doing the right thing." Annabeth said with determination.

The answer was not very satisfactory, but none of us was really in the mood to argue. So we sat in silence during the rest of the ride.

*

The sun was setting by the time we got to Santa Monica. The view was beautiful, the last rays of sunlight painting the sky with bright orange and being reflected off of the water. If it wasn't for our deadline, I would have loved to just sit and enjoy the sunset for a while. Alas, that was not something we could do.

We walked down to the beach with Percy leading the way.

"What now?" Annabeth asked him.

He didn't answer, silently gazing out at the beach. He began walking towards the water.

"Percy. What are you doing?" the daughter of Athena asked.

He stayed silent and continued walking, the water reaching his ankles, then his hips, his shoulders. Finally the water was at his neck. Annabeth turned to Grover and I, looking like she was starting to freak out.

"Annabeth, he's the son of Poseidon. He'll be fine." I reminded her.

Apparently it didn't do much to reassure her.

"You know how polluted the water is? There's all kind of toxic waste that's been dumped there!" she called after Percy in an almost desperate attempt to stop him.

He ignored her and stepped further into the sea, the waves closing over his head.