They Become Fugitives

Percy was having a weird day. All about it felt upsetting somehow. He had gone to a museum and he was attacked by a powerful monster again! Maybe he should never set foot in another museum again. Later, that was the aggravating conversation and this stupid plan. Oh, Percy was furious. He would have sacrificed himself for his friends (including the boy who does not think of him as a friend), he didn't want anyone to get hurt for him and it drove him insane.

Grover had flown them to the shore of the Mississippi River where according to Albert he would be more powerful than ever because his father was Poseidon. If this had been a week ago he would have scoffed at the thought, but after Capture the Flag the water healed him and he got claimed. Poseidon who had never shown up for him came and he called. Percy was very very confused, but one thing was clear. The boy was right about how this went.

Percy had taunted the Chimera like he would piss off an annoying dog. He felt stronger and faster when he was close to the water. Whenever the Chimera tried to burn him into cinders, the water raised like a wall and protected him, with so much advantage... Percy decided to end the fight as quickly as possible. However, just before he finally dealt the final blow to the monster, it used its last remaining force before disintegration to throw him out in the middle of the river. Against the force of the Mississippi River, Percy realized he was done for. 

Can you imagine a son of Poseidon dying by drowning? 

He would love to tell you that he had some deep revelation on my way down to the bottom, that he came to terms with his own mortality and laughed in the face of death, et cetera. He didn't though.

 The truth? His only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!

 A whiteout of bubbles as he slowly sank through the murky waters, sure that he was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever. Would his friends even manage to get his body back? No, they will have to fight in a war between his dad and his crazy neurotic uncle! Suddenly, a catfish the size of his stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around the boy.

 At that point, he realized a few things: first, he had not died yet. Second, he was still alive, which was good. Third realization: he wasn't wet...well, he was, but he wasn't. It was very weird! I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water and it was just like when he was having swimming lessons as a kid. However, he felt more comfortable than ever, even his clothes were felt as if they were perfectly dry, like it was the same as above water.

 He looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.

 No way, he thought.

As he flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi. The boy almost gasped in shock, but that would probably kill him. Why was his life so weird?!

Suddenly he opened his mouth as his lungs burned in pain for holding the air for a long time, but instead of drowning... he was breathing. He was underwater, and he was breathing normally! Was he an amphibian? Suddenly remembered one of his biology classes, about frogs. It was awesome, but a bit freaky!

 He quickly moved in the waters, no weight holding him down, it was like flying, but instead of the sky, he was in a polluted river with dirty mud at the bottom. His legs felt shaky. His hands trembled. He should've been dead. The fact that I wasn't seemed like . . . well, a miracle.

He imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?

 "Um . . . thanks..." Underwater, his voice sounded even weirder, "Thank you . . . Father."

There was no response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish from before gliding by, and the flash of sunlight on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.

 Why did Poseidon save him? The more he thought about it, the more ashamed he felt. If all felt like he got lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, he would have never stood a real chance if he had fought that thing anywhere else. If he wasn't healing just as he got hurt and got the water boost, he would have been a 100% loss. Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast along with his friends!

Percy couldn't protect them again, he thought bitterly. He was no hero, no hero, nothing. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders, he thought darkly. The guilt he felt at the thoughts hit him like thunder, his friends were fighting for him, against the fat lady. They were fighting and he was thinking about giving up! 

Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around. There, not five feet in front of him, was his sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.

 He heard that woman's voice in his head again: Percy, take the sword! Your father believes in you!

This time, I knew the voice wasn't just a hallucination in his head. He wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar or the song of a whale. High pitched and pleasing.

"Where are you?" He called aloud.

Then, through the gloom, he saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like his!

A lump formed his my throat as he tentatively said, "Mom, is that you?"

The ghostly woman replied: 'No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. You must go to the beach in Santa Monica.'

"What? Why?!"

The woman replied: 'It is your father's will, child. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence and I can't stand it! It hurts!'

"But . . ." Percy was sure this woman was his mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—!"

There was just so much he wanted to say... to ask, but the words jammed up in his throat and he found himself speechless. A rare thing for him. He always had something to say.

 'I am sorry, but I cannot stay brave one', the woman said. She reached out, and he felt the current brush his face like a caress. 'You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts. . . .!'

Her voice faded before she could finish, he almost believed she was never there at all.

"Gifts?" Percy echoed in confusion. "What gifts? Wait!"

The ghostly woman made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, he had lost her again. Percy was so sad he felt like drowning myself. The only problem: he was immune to drowning and he had to get back to his friends.

Your father believes in you, she had said. She'd also called him the brave one... unless she was talking to that goddam big catfish and he got it all wrong.

He waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera was gone. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had caused a commotion on the shores of the River. If they found him or the others, they'd have some questions. 

 Percy shook his head and firmly capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in his pocket. "Thank you, Father," he said again to the dark water. "Thank you for helping again... I will bring my mom back."

Percy kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface as he found his resolve. The boy came ashore next to a floating McDonald's, drenched like a rat in the streets of New York City whenever it rained. A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounded by the Gateway Arch. A Police car circled overhead with the siren turned on. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve, but he felt deeply anxious. Why was there so many people there? He thought about his friends who stayed behind and a lump formed in his throat.

A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river!"

"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

"But he's he is-!"

 "That's nice, dear. Not now, baby, momma has to pay attention."

A news lady was talking for the camera: "The authorities said a kid was hurt, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The suspect is still missing and there are no leads. We're trying to get to the injured kid, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone trying to hurt two young kids, an unidentified woman."

Injured? Not dead then. Percy felt a huge surge of relief. His were alive, but one of them got hurt. He hoped Annabeth and Albert were okay. They had to be otherwise he might hate himself forever for putting them in danger.

Percy tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.

". . . an adolescent boy, no older than fourteen," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy and girl being attacked on the entrance, somehow setting off the security system failed and no CCTV footage was caught. Hard to believe that the security team had failed like this, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities . . ."

Percy backed away, trying to keep my head down. He had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.

He'd almost lost hope of getting to his friends when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrr-cy!"

Percy turned and got tackled by Grover's strong bear hug—or goat hug actually. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way! I am so glad you're fine, but-! No, come with me!"

Annabeth stood behind him with a dark look on her face, she kept looking at her hands with an angry and guilty expression, but even she seemed relieved to see him. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened? Grover came back alone and he said you fell on the river?"

Percy dismissed her quickly, "Long story, I sort of fell. Where is Albert? Why isn't he here too? Did he get hurt?"

Annabeth averted her gaze and hummed in confirmation, Percy felt like there was a heavy stone at the bottom of his stomach. The girl then said, "He is unconscious now. It's my fault... I took too long. She almost killed him. I was shocked, I thought I was ready, but I froze when it mattered the most."

"What do you mean?!" Percy felt his voice go weak and break, "How bad was it?"

"Not that bad, no need for all this drama," A familiar voice suddenly said in a tired and grumpy mood. Percy and the others turned in the direction of the voice only to see Albert standing next to the ambulance, there was terrible a purple bruise on his neck, he looked at them as if they were exaggerating and stated, "Let's get out of here, and..." He turned to Annabeth who was looking down, his tone turned softer than Percy had ever heard before, "Hey, Blondie... thank you for saving my life back then, it wasn't your fault, you sent that ugly skank back to Tartarus and she will be there for a while."

"Language!" Grover warned almost robotically.

Albert blinked in surprise, before laughing in relief, "Oh, I am glad to see you again, Grooves." He then finally turned to Percy. Albert's pale pink eyes which always made him look something other than human were locked on him, his hair was a mess, he smiled smugly at him, "I told you, Fishboy. I could handle it. Now, we better finish this quest so I can have the opportunity to brag about it when we get back to Camp."

Fishboy?!

Behind us, a cop shouted, "The boy is gone!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "He was there a minute ago, how can you lose a child?!"

 "I don't know, sir. He was unconscious and I only left for five minutes!" the paramedic said. "Just calm down, he couldn't have gone too far."

Before Percy could even process what he was feeling, Albert turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after in urgency. They disappeared into the crowd as the boy effortlessly spoke the people into doing his bidding and getting the way of the cops. 

Percy kept thinking about Albert as they silently moved away from the crowds, he had planned this entire thing with Annabeth. He did not talk about his part in it with him or Grover, just with Annabeth saying they didn't need to know. He was infuriating and frustrating. The most frustrating person he ever met. Yet, he couldn't hate him. He recalled the first time they saw each other, under a storm, he stood between him and the Minotaur, glowing eyes and cold words.

Beautiful and Terrible, Percy thought then. He didn't look at all terrible now. Percy had no idea what he was supposed to do about him.

"What's going on, Percy?" Annabeth demanded in worry. "Did something else happen?"

 Percy shook his head and decided to push away his thoughts. He told them the whole story of his fight with the Chimera and the underwater lady's message.

"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

Before the others could say anything more, they passed another reporter doing a news break, and Percy almost froze in his tracks when the guy said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy may have been spotted in the Gateway Ark area. A boy who fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. The boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

They immediately ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley. Percy and the others were all quiet and serious until they heard a laugh. Albert let out a helpless laugh looking at them as if this situation was oddly endearing for him.

"Oh, sorry, sorry..." He said letting out a fake cough, "I just never thought I would become a fugitive at fourteen, and travel around a foreign country in the company of a crime suspect! Isn't it funny? I feel like I am in a Keanu Reeves movie."

"Hey!" Percy exclaimed in fake protest. "I am innocent just so you know!"

Annabeth snorted at them, but she had a small smile on her face too.

"First things first, guys!" Grover said in an admonishing motherly tone. "We've got to get out of town."

Somehow, they made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted by anyone. Soon enough they got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us. Albert and Annabeth were both sleeping in their seats, and Grover was looking at them in admiration. Percy felt a mixture of admiration and shame. He underestimated his companions before, he thought Annabeth was smart, but couldn't handle it on her own and Albert, was a son of Aphrodite, the kids in the camp said they were just pretty faces, they didn't even participate in Capture the Flag like the others.

Percy knew better now, the Aphrodite kids weren't weak. Albert was far from weak. the only reason they don't participate is that it would be too easy for them to win just by sweet-talking the other team into surrendering. Percy was glad he was wrong too.