Wish we could turn back time

Part 10

Percy POV

I woke up and the first thing I noticed was that Medusa's dead body was still lying on the floor. It didn't burst into dust or anything so I lopped off her head and put it into a shadow incase I needed it for anything later on. I then decided to wake up the others. Annabeth had was fully healed and was laying on a couch while Gary was lying face first in the stone floor. After 10 minutes of shaking the other two idiots awake, I summoned breakfast and we headed off to continue our journey. Since Annabeth was unconscious for most of the fight, she asked how we killed the three Gorgons. Before I could respond, Gary went on a rant about how using his awesome sword skill, he single handedly killed Medusa and her sisters. I didn't tell her otherwise because I didn't want to explain about my child of Hades powers. Gary was too dumb to question these things. Since I knew where we had to go, we walked to a nearby train station. We may or may not have broken into an ATM machine and took some money to buy a train ticket. In my defense, actually I don't have one. So sue me. When we were at the train station getting ready to buy our tickets, I saw a poster with Gary and me on it. The picture was taken from the class yearbook in Yancy academy. Welp, looks like we're the subject of national manhunt again. We spent the next two days on the Amtrak train riding west towards Los Angeles. Annabeth spent most of her time talking to me, trying to find out more about me. I basically just ignored her most of the time so she eventually gave up and started interrogating Gary who gladly talked about himself. The money we may or may not have stolen only got us as far as Denver, Colorado so I guess we're visiting the ST Louis gateway arch again so we're probably going to have to fight Echidna and the Chimera. How did I beat her last time? Oh right, I didn't, I just fell off the arch and into a river. So how was she defeated last time? Bellerophon shoved a lead marshmallow down its throat. I don't think I'm going to find that anywhere. Ehh I'll just improvise, it has always worked out for me. I just hope the others don't accidentally kill themselves. Annabeth was geeking out about being here and kept sprouting out random facts which I mostly just tuned out. I didn't have to know that it is a 630 foot tall monument or that it cost $190 million. Gary pretended to pay attention to her but he looked like he was about to die of boredom.
"Hey how about we go to the top of the arch? I've always wanted to see this place" Annabeth suggested. Sure why not, let's go visit some tourist attractions while on a dangerous quest to find one of the most powerful weapons in existence. That seems like a smart decision. I struggled to keep the persassy inside of me from coming out and succeeded.
"Sure" I said. We got onto an elevator but before the doors could close, a very large woman and her chihuahua joined us. I considered attacking them right now but decided against it. It was a very cramped area so we had no place to dodge. Also I'm pretty sure the Chimera was bigger than the elevator itself. Echidna decides to make small talk with us. I never really understood that, why do the monsters talk and give the heroes time to think of a plan instead of just killing them. I'm just saying if I was the monsters, I would win. Anyways got off topic, stupid ADHD. She asked about why we were alone without an adult and other stuff like that. Why would you ask that question if you already knew we were demigods? Unless she didn't know. If that's the case then her scent of smell is really bad. I mean three demigods, one who is the son of Poseidon and the other who is blessed by almost all of the Titans, should give off a lot of smell I should think. Gah, I gotta stop overthinking this. Fortunately the elevator doors finally opened and got to escape answering anymore of her questions. At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. We walked around for a bit, but it was mostly me avoiding Annabeth and the mother of all monsters. I didn't know who I wanted to avoid more, the walking Wikipedia or the thing that would most likely kill me if it got the chance. After a while, a random park ranger announced that it was closing time so we had to get off the arch. My only thought was I just got here like 5 minutes ago and you already want me to leave? The Frick. The elevator down to the lobby was full, so we waited for the next one. I got riptide out in anticipation for upcoming battle.
"Now it's been good and fun meeting you, but now I think it's time to stop playing games" Echidna said.
"What do you mean" Gary asked and then they shedded their disguises. Echidna turned into a half snake (ok what is it with Greeks and snakes. Why are all monsters snake like. Just Google Greek monsters, half of them are snake-like) half woman combo. The chihuahua turned into the Chimera. The monster had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves, of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback (it's a type of snake, I Google this when I did my research) growing right out of its shaggy behind.
"Don't play dumb with me boy, now where is the lightning bolt?" Echidna hissed. That's another thing I need to question. Why do monsters think that this idiot would be able to steal an all powerful weapon? I mean, he has shown zero display of skills this entire journey so far so why does every monster we fight think he has it. It's so dumb. I mean can't Zeus just ask Apollo, the freaking god of knowledge, who took his master bolt? Ah whatever, kill things now, question life later.
"Like I said with my crazy demon teacher, I have no idea what your talking about" Gary said. Then many things happened at once. The Chimera shot fire straight at us, Annabeth went invisible, I shoved Gary out of the blast zone and Echidna stood back to let her child/pet do the work while she sat there and watched. Another stupid thing to do. Just attack us if you want to kill is already, jeez, these monsters don't know how to monster correctly. Ok, you gotta focus on the overgrown rabid puppy first before you go on a debate with yourself. I took the blast of fire to the face without even flinching and then k uncapped Riptide to attack. I slashed with my sword, a good swing which should have taken off its lower jaw but the monster somehow managed to catch it in its mouth. The lion head jerked sideways, sending me flying into a metal pillar. Gary tried to attack the monster by himself like the idiot he is and immediately got bitten by the snake tail and got launched off the side down into the river below. He should be fine... I think... maybe... ok I give it like a 50/50 chance. I summoned bow and started rapid firing arrows at the beast. Turns out, the lion's mane kinda acted like a shield, preventing me from hitting most of its body. Eventually I gave up using the bow and charged in using Katastrofí. I slashed with my sword, avoiding the teeth, claws, snake, basically anything that would hurt me. At one point, the thing just charged forward and headbutted me. I fell onto my back and rolled out of the way as the Chimera brought down its goat hoof to avoid being crushed and quickly got to my feet. Cracks formed in the floor where I had just been and I blasted the monster with white hot flames. Just then, something tackled the monster from the right, the Yankees cap fell of Annabeth's head and she appeared riding the Chimera just before she plunged her dagger into the monster's neck. The lion head roared in pain and started to run around trying to throw her off. The daughter of Athena hung on for dear life as she rode one of the most dangerous monsters like a horse. The whole arch shook as the Chimera ran into the supporting pillars and random walls, breathing fire at random intervals. The monster eventually managed to throw her off its back and into a wall. She sat down on the floor with the wall supporting her back not having the energy to move and that was when I decided to step in. The Chimera slowly stalked up towards her and stopped about 8 feet away. It opened it's mouth which started to glow as the monster prepared to breathe fire. I jumped in front of Annabeth, put my hand in the beast's mouth and then summoned my shield. The circular piece of celestial bronze spiralled out in the creatures mouth, causing the fire to be contained within the creature itself. Smoke came out of the monster's ears and it stumbled back in pain, not being able to talk due to the giant chunk of metal lodged in its mouth. As the Chimera tried and failed to close its mouth, I held out my arm and a 7 foot long spear made of stygian iron shot out from the ground into my outstretched arm. I quickly rushed forward and buried the weapon into the monster turning it into a shish kebab. The point of the spear went out the other side of the creature covered in blood. And that was the end for the overgrown dog. I turned around to face Echidna but she had already disappeared. Coward. I looked around at the destruction we caused. Some parts of the place were on fire, most of the support pillars were destroyed, the windows were broken and the floor was covered in scratch marks and blood. Annabeth managed to eat a bit of ambrosia so her wounds were starting to heal.
"How did you do that, summoning that spear?" Annabeth asked curiously. Ah shite.
"Umm, I don't know, luck? Anyways where is my idiotic brother?" I say quickly trying to change the subject. Her eyes widened.
"He fell off the side. Oh crap oh crap oh crap-" she said panicking. Oh now she's worried.
"Don't worry about it. He's the son of Poseidon remember. There's a river down there, he'll be fine. Maybe" I said that last part mostly to myself. We then went down the elevator, which was surprisingly still working, and walked up to the river to wait for the idiot to resurface.

(I would have written more but I still wanna keep my every other day streak sooooo)