Chapter 29: We do a complete Piper McLean, even though I have no idea who that is

Whoo! This day was a real doozy.

"Bye guys!" Alexander yelled as we waved goodbye to our friends. "See you in an hour for some coffee!"

The plane flew away, heading towards Camp Half-Blood. The next time we would see them would be when we were dead or at camp, which wasn't exactly the most pleasing thought.

We then began looking for the exit of the abandoned airplane station, quickly finding it and exiting the station.

After about another 15 minutes of walking, we ran into our first problem. Within the bushes and trees around us, we heard low growling and loud stomping.

"Get ready, guys," Arthur said, unsheathing his sword. "We've got monsters to deal with."

At the sound of that, groups of hellhounds and harpies rushed at us. Kai and Arthur blasted down the hounds while I slashed at the harpies. However, another wave of monsters came, double the amount of the previous group. Amongst them were more hounds, harpies, pit scorpions, empousa, and wild boars. Ares had not been kidding when he said he'd shore up his defences.

"Great," I grumbled. "These guys don't know when to quit."

I slashed through a large group of empousa and pit scorpions, while Arthur and Kai sniped down the harpies and slayed the hounds. The boars were a lot more of a problem though.

They would rush in at us, forcing us to dodge while we were already being attacked by other monsters. It was not the best combo if I'm being honest.

"Ok, new plan," Kai said, slashing the snout of a boar. "Slay the boars!"

Arthur blasted a stream of lightning at the boars, his power no longer drained. Kai and I sliced through the rest of the boars, wary not to get horned to death. After a while of slaying the boars, we were finally able to kill all of them.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."

We kept going forward, thankfully not encountering anymore monsters or challenges.

After a while, Arthur announced, "We've reached Bridgeport."

"Really? Only that far?" Kai asked, peering down at Arthur's map.

Arthur nodded. "We have a while to go before we reach the pocket."

We made our way into a forest area, my paranoia going up to the roof. "Not forests again. We're most definitely going to get attacked by a monster."

"Nice," Kai said. "You probably just jinxed us."

As if it were a blessing in disguise, we were instantly attacked by two, seven-foot tall men, all jumping down from the top of the trees.

They had muscular builds and were wearing horse hide armor. They had shimmering blonde hair and long beards with rings. Along with that, they had snake shaped tattoos on their necks and carried oval shields and spears.

"Ah!" Kai yelled as he rolled away from one of their attacks. "These guys do not skip their workouts!"

"Germani," Arthur said.

One of the Germani swung his spear at me. I ducked as the sharp point of the spear plunged into a tree. "Gods, they're strong!"

Kai shot a stream of flames at one of them. "Seriously! How do we defeat these guys?"

"I don't know," Arthur admitted. "Just try to knock them down so we can escape!"

I shot a fire spell at one of them, who merely blocked it with his spear. They were not only insanely strong, but extremely quick. In a matter of seconds, one of the Germani was able to disarm me and kick me back into a tree.

As the Germani approached me, their spear raised, Kai blasted him with an intense wave of fire. The Germani instantly fell backwards, hitting the back of his head on a tree and dazing him.

Kai stumbled back a bit. The wave of fire had drained his powers, which wasn't too good for us.

I picked up my knives and joined Arthur, who was facing the last one of them. The Germani laughed, as if we were no match for him.

That's when I got an idea. I thrusted my hands up as the Germani swung his spear. He began levitating upwards as he dropped his spear. However, the Germani also didn't skip any of their meals as the weight of him deplenished most of my power.

"Arthur, quick!" I managed, my voice strained. Arthur got the message as he struck a large beam of lightning down at the Germani, throwing him back into the hands of the other Germani.

Arthur helped Kai up. "Quick! They're going to get up soon."

We took off, getting out of the forest and onto a long street leading off into… more street.

"What now?" I asked. "We're not going to walk along the street, are we?"

Arthur held up his hand. "Hold up. I got an idea."

He smoothed his hair and walked to the left, heading towards a middle aged man. Parked next to the man was a Mercedes-Benz, presumably his car.

"Excuse me, sir," Arthur said.

The man turned around, his face in awe. "Arthur LionsWorth? W-What are you doing here?"

"My friends and I got lost in the forest, and now we need a ride," Arthur explained. "Would you drive us?"

The man nodded. "On one condition. My son, Dennis, is a huge fan of LionsWorth Enterprises. Could you send him an autographed shirt?"

"Of course, just give me your address so I can send the shirt over."

The man searched his pockets. "Oh no! I don't have a piece of paper!"

"It's okay, sir. I can just write it down," Arthur said, pulling a piece of paper out of his backpack.

After about ten seconds of watching the guy stutter and mess up his address, I looked at Kai desperately, mouthing Why is he taking so long? Kai mouthed I got it and walked over.

"Dude, way too long!" Kai exclaimed. He snatched Arthur's Rolex watch and handed it to the guy. "Just take it and go!"

The man nodded, leaving us his car as he nodded in satisfaction.

Arthur looked at Kai. "Why would you do that? He would have driven us himself."

"Dude, he would've asked us why we were going there and other weird questions, none of which we have time for. Plus, the guy seemed to like my gift," Kai said.

Arthur shook his head and mumbled, "Not your gift, technically."

We jumped into the car, Arthur taking the wheel. I crawled in the shotgun seat, with Kai sitting in the back. The car was a black Mercedes-Benz that had beige leather seats and dark tinted windows. The car was squeaky clean except for a crushed can of Fanta lying on the ground in the back, bubbles and liquid oozing out of it.

"Ah," Kai said woozily. "All this space!"

I decided not to tell him about the spilt soda under his feet as Arthur drove onto the road. After a minute of silence, I spoke up. "How about we play some music?"

"Yes!" Kai chimed. "There better be some Imagine Dragons covers on there. I haven't heard It's Time in so long."

I nodded in agreement. "That really is a good song."

I turned on the radio and opened up the guy's playlist. I heard some of the worst music ever; Italian opera.

"Oh gods!" Kai exclaimed, covering his ears. "It's almost as bad as Chiron's opera music!"

"Those two would be really good friends if they ever met," I said, quickly changing the song. All Will Be Well by the Gabe Dixon band came on, otherwise known as my favorite song ever.

"Yes!" Kai cheered. The two of us began singing along, Arthur joining in to my surprise. A business guy like him, singing a song? No way.

For a while, the three of us sang along to many of the songs on the playlist as we drove along the road. I changed my opinion on this guy. He definitely had a good taste in music.

We entered Route 65 and passed through the big city of Louisville.

"We've officially entered the state of Indiana," Arthur announced. "We're about five minutes away from the town of Sellersburg."

We parked outside the town and walked in, leaving our dear Mercedes behind and the radio.

"Let's go," Arthur said. We entered the small town, following Arthur as he led us towards the Iris pocket.

"So what exactly does the Iris pocket do?" I asked.

Arthur turned to the right. "Well, each Iris pocket has a sister pocket. When you go through the pocket, it'll send you to its sister pocket. If the map is correct, this pocket should send us to Washington."

"Nice," Kai said. "And we have to hope that's where the mask is, right?"

Arthur nodded and then spotted something. "There it is."

In front of us, a large rainbow rift was in the air, as if someone had grabbed a pair of scissors and cut an opening in the air. Luckily, it was wide enough for us to jump through.

"Whoa!" Kai exclaimed, jumping up. "That's the Iris pocket?"

I looked at it in surprise. "The mortals can't see that?"

Arthur shook his head. "Usually, no. But with the way the Mist has been malfunctioning lately, I'm not really sure."

"Let's go quickly then!" I said, heading towards the portal.

"Not so fast, hero!" A voice yelled. Behind us, a beautiful woman was standing, wearing a sleeveless, golden dress along with having cone shaped hair, which was circled with jewels such as diamonds. She was also wearing a pendant made out of rubies that had a maze design.

Something about the woman seemed familiar but for some reason, I couldn't figure out who she was. That's when I realized that she was the other sorceress from my dream.

"And who are you?" I asked, bringing out my knives. As confident as I sounded, my body still quivered in fear. The sorceress radiated a powerful aura of hate, the same hate that made me cower in fear once before.

"Pasiphae," the sorceress growled. "And I've been told to kill you three."

Kai pulled out Scorcher. "Join the club, missy. Now get out of our way!"

Pasiphae howled with laughter. "You believe you can scare me, demigods?"

She lifted up her hands, wisps of black energy being conjured. She threw them at the ground, dark walls surrounding us. In front of us was now a large black dragon in the place of Pasiphae, its mouth wide open.

"Ah!" Kai yelled, jumping back. "What is that thing?"

"Is that a.. Dragon?" Arthur asked, stuttering.

My hands trembled in fear. Sure, I had seen Peleus at camp, but this kind of dragon? My father told me about these large, powerful dragons in mythology, but I never thought they were real.

The dragon was jet black and had dark purple scales the color of acid. It had beady black eyes that looked like they could stare right through your soul and teeth as sharp as a razor blade. It had large, feathery black wings, a purple and black colored-tail, and four black legs. It was surrounded by a purple aura, the feeling of power radiating around the room.

It breathed violet flames onto the ground, lighting the room up in a purple light. Kai shot a stream of fire at the dragon, but the attack seemed to phase through it.

"W..what?" he stuttered, clearly shocked. "Please don't tell me it's fireproof."

Arthur shot a blast of lightning at it. The attack phased through the dragon once again.

"And lightning-proof," Arthur added.

I summoned a large Mist cloud over the dragon's face, but it dissipated on contact. The dragon was seemingly invincible.

"How do we beat this thing?" Kai asked, another of his fire blasts phasing through the dragon. "It's invincible!"

Arthur pulled out his sword. "Let's try and attack it with our weapons."

The three of us dodged another of the dragon's attacks and split up, attacking the dragon on each of its sides. However, our attacks only phased through the dragon.

The dragon got angry and flew up, sending a wave of wind that knocked us backwards.

"So we can't hit it, but it can hit us?" I asked.

Arthur narrowed his eyes. "Hold up. As strong as dragons are, our weapons should have bounced off its scales, not phased through them."

"So what?" Kai asked. "Is it like a ghost dragon or something?"

"Arthur's right," I said. "That can't be a real dragon."

"Stop your games, Pasiphae!" Arthur shouted. "We know the dragon isn't real!"

The black walls and the dragon faded as Pasiphae stood in front of us once again, anger burning in her eyes.

"Bravo," Pasiphae said sarcastically. "You solved this puzzle a lot better than you did at the tower. But now, I'm not playing around."

It had been her that had set up that maze. I now had a personal vendetta against Pasiphae for making me deal with those ant things.

Her hands lit up with dark magic. "Die!"

"Try me, witch!" Kai yelled as he dashed at the goddess. He dodged past her Mist clouds and got in a large strike across her chest, golden ichor trailing down her dress.

I joined in, throwing rocks at her and slashing her with my knives. Arthur zapped her with a big stream of lightning, throwing her body onto the porch of one of the houses.

Kai raised up his sword, ready to slay the goddess. "And here I was, thinking that you would be a challenge."

Pasiphae snarled. "Until next time, heroes!" Her body faded in a large cloud of Mist, forcing us to turn away. When the Mist faded, the goddess was gone, bits of ichor the only thing left in her place.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked. "Let's go through the pocket!"