Percy sometimes really hated his fatal flaw, he had turned and ran as soon as he saw that the others had gotten away safely, drawing the attention of the helicopter and reinforcements for Kronos's side who had arrived in the chaos, but even as he drew the attention of some of them, the rest went after his friends so the only thing he had accomplished was splitting a quarter maybe of the monster force to chase after him and he was alone, the homeless mortals had vanished when the helicopter had started to fire on the quest members, Percy really hoped that they had all away safely but he did have bigger issues to worry about, machine gun fire sunk into the sand around him as he constantly dodged, his ADHD kicking in.

Behind him the howls of hell hounds echoed in the air, there were also half a dozen dracaenae after him and four cyclopes, maybe twenty enemies all together.

Normally this wouldn't have troubled him but the helicopter was making it near impossible and he doubted he had the energy to shadow travel away far enough, he could maybe do it a couple of blocks but he probably would not be in any position to fight.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts, that he didn't notice the one bullet until it was too late.

With a cry of pain, he fell to the soft sand, his hands instantly going to his side, they came back stained red with blood.

He looked up in a daze, his pursuers had slowed down, sensing that their prey was down.

Percy was not sure if he should feel more offended that they seemed to think that he was just going to roll over and die, or that he was being treated like an animal, but he was not going to give them the satisfaction of that.

With a groan, he got up unsteadily, drew his sword with his right hand and turned to face the incoming creatures, his left hand on his wound.

"Give up death spawn," spat a cyclops.

Percy took a deep breath and he glanced around looking desperately for an escape route, he knew he wouldn't be able to hold his own against this many enemies whilst wounded, to his right the San Francisco Bay turned gold as the sun began to set, Percy's heart hammered, he had to get to the gardens within the next half an hour maybe, before he was unable to access them till tomorrow evening.

The monsters approached, confident in having dinner tonight, and began to circle him, forcing him to limp towards the ocean.

A Cyclopes grew impatient at the slow approach and lunged at him, Percy's sword was a blur and the big guy was dust, but the move had forced him to put a foot in the lapping waves, Percy had never actually been to the ocean since his mother had died, his hatred of his birth father combined with him spending most of his life in the underworld didn't exactly give him any reason to visit it, but as soon as he touched the water, a rush of energy filled him, enough he knew, not to take on the small army that had chased him but to shadow travel away to safety, the only problem was that due to where the sun was setting (behind him), there was only one shadow he could get to, his own, and Percy had no idea if you could shadow travel via your own shadow.

The rest of the mob suddenly charged and Percy had no choice, focusing with all his remaining energy on his shadow to try and get to Mt Othrys as fast as possible.

His world suddenly went dark as he slipped into the shadow, vanishing hopefully to his destination.

"Stop," gasped Luke, clutching his side.

The two girls in front of him stopped and spun to face the heaving son of Hermes.

The trio had fled into the city following the confrontation with Arvin and hadn't stopped running.

"Not in the middle of the city!' shouted Zoe, before she suddenly turned and ran into a side street.

"What is it Luke?" asked Phoebe as they came to a halt.

"Need a breather," he said collapsing onto the sidewalk, "you know, this is normally the point in the story where we get attacked in the creepy alley that the protagonist runs into," he continued.

The girls stared at him in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" asked Zoe.

Luke sighed, "never mind."

He continued to see where they had ended up crashing, it was nowhere spectacular, there were old apartments that really needed to get a makeover lining the street, the pavement was cracked in places and the weeds had taken over, a couple of rusted signs were hanging over their heads, letters either too faded or too many were missing for them to read properly, it was a real gangs territory if Luke had to have a guess and he had had a run in with a few when he was alone and with Thalia, but they had been careful when looking after Annabeth.

Luke spoke up again after unpacking a canteen he had managed to save and even refill while in Hoover Dam, after taking a few gulps of water before handing the canteen to Zoe, "and does anyone know where we are running to exactly?"

Zoë nodded, " we need to get to the top of Mt Othrys," she said, "it was where Atlas was held, and probably where Lady Artemis is captured."

Luke glanced up at the looming mountain and sighed, "Isn't that where the garden of the Hesperides are?"

Zoe, who had been staring at the mountain with a determined expression on her face, looked at Luke with a surprised facial expression which she quickly covered and answered in a cold tone, "Yes, it is," before she handed the canteen to Phoebe who drank a little before packing it away.

"Where did you get a canteen from Luke?" asked Zoe suddenly, they had after all lost most of their stuff.

Luke shrugged," I found it in the river, fortunately it was closed properly, otherwise you would be drinking dirty river water."

Zoe nodded, accepting the explanation.

Luke looked at the sun which was going lower by the second and pursed his lips.

Phoebe then stood up and got her gear, she was watching the lengthening shadows and she decided that they had had a long enough break, "Come on, break is done, we need to have scaled that mountain by sunrise."

Luke took one look at the mountain and he forced himself to stand, "And Percy?"

"We have to hope he has the sense to get to the mountain,but we can't wait on the faint chance that he miraculously finds us in the middle of San Francisco, if he even made it out of there alive," Zoe said grimly already starting to walk at a brisk pace.

Luke wanted to protest but deep down he knew that Zoe was correct, 'sometimes, you can't beat centuries of experience,' he thought grimly, 'not to mention we have no idea where all the monsters that are chasing us are, better to move.'

Percy reappeared with a splash, quite literally, swimming upwards, he discovered he had been close to what he had originally wanted to be, unfortunately where he wanted to be was on top of a mountain and not the widest one at that either, he had appeared maybe a mile (1 and a half kilometers) or so out at sea which for a panicked last ditch shadow travel was quite accurate, at least the water would rejuvenate him.

'Great,' he thought as he broke the surface, 'At least I didn't end up in the middle of a monster camp.'

A bunch of shouting drew his attention to his left, turning to have a look, he spotted a cruise ship, a normal white cruise liner which he wouldn't have normally paid a second glance to except for the fact that even from this distance he spotted a few monsters walking around the deck.

"Kronos's army," he muttered, narrowing his eyes, if he could potentially sink it, he had no idea if he could as he had not practiced much with his water powers that he inherited from his birth father.

"Yes," came a male's voice to his left (Percy had swung around to get a better view of the ship).

Percy glanced left in surprise at hearing a voice in the middle of the ocean, then he took a second look.

Floating on a bubble of some kind, a man who appeared in his mid thirties was looking at the ship with narrowed eyes as well, he was also a near spitting image of Percy but with lighter eyes.

"What do you want Poseidon?" Percy growled.

Poseidon raised an eyebrow at his tone, "I want to help,: he stated, a bit carefully.

Percy's temper snapped at those words, " Oh now you want to help huh, why now, why not when my mother died or maybe when I was forced onto the streets, or when Bia," his voice getting louder with each passing word until he choked up at the mention of his sister, blinking away tears, he turned to face the god directly, still glaring, "why now?"

Poseidon sighed, " the truth is, I admit I have not been a good father whatsoever, and I realize after following the quest, that you really don't need me, but I want to redeem myself and I might as well start now, and I have no idea what Amphridite was more mad at, the fact that I had had an illegitimate child or the fact that I left that illegitimate child to starve alone on the streets."

Percy sighed, "so that is all I am to you, a mistake, and the only reason why you are here is to avoid your wife's anger."

Poseidon winced, he had not meant for it to sound like that, "Percy," he began.

Percy glared at him, "that is Perseus to you," he snapped.

Poseidon raised his hands in surrender, 'OK Perseus, just one more thing, please take these and remember whatever comes from the sea, returns to the sea," he gave him four white pearls.

Percy took him hesitantly, 'what are these."

Silence.

Percy looked up to find himself alone and that the ship was starting to take an interest in whatever was going on where he was.

Percy pocketed the pearls and began to swim for shore.

He popped up at the base of the mountain by a road which lead to a hiking path which was fortunate , he had time until sunrise by which he had to be up at the top.

"Percy?" a feminine voice broke through the silence that had engulfed him.

Turning to the right he saw the rest of his quest members jogging in, the girls seemed perfectly fine, while Luke was a bit out of breath.

Percy grinned at them, "Hey guys," he greeted them.

Zoe took a few steps forward and drilled Percy in the shoulder.

Percy looked at her, "what was that for?" he asked a small smile breaking out at the corner of his mouth, he knew exactly what it was for.

"You know what that was for Perseus," Zoe snapped.

"Good to see you are alive," Phoebe said approaching them with Luke behind her.

Percy nodded his greeting to the two of them.

"Alright," said Luke glaring at the top of the mountain," who wants to climb a mountain?"

It was scary how fortunate they actually where by their standards, Percy by some luck had managed to stumble onto a road, which the others oh so happened to take, which also lead to a hiking trail which they could easily use.

Percy looked at them, "is this trail not being used?"

Luke shook his head, "no, the area is technically closed, I wonder why," he finished the last bit of sarcastically.

Percy grinned and the group began their descend up the mountain.

"Does anyone know any details about what we might have to do up there/" asked Luke after a while.

"I will deal with the Hesperides," said Zoe, "but you have to do whatever I say got it?"

"Crystal clear," said Percy, "once we are past there quickly asses the situation, it will probably be a trap so be prepared for anything, and there is a cruise ship of mountains down below, so they have reinforcements, which we don't."

Phoebe nodded grimly, " We have to get in there rescue Lady Artemis and get out of there as quickly as we can."

Zoe nodded.

"One more thing, " Percy said stopping, everyone else stopped with him looking at him curiously, Percy reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the pearls, 'does anyone know what we do with this?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Where did you get it" asked Zoe as they started to walk again.

Percy explained his meeting with Poseidon.

Zoe sighed, "look, I don't think Poseidon will intentionally hurt you, he was always one of the better males, I can't defend your childhood but that does not sound like him, I am confident that these pearls, whatever they are will aid and not harm us."

Phoebe was a bit surprised, " I thought you will know, Zo, with you having been around for far longer than I have, and I have been with the hunt for a few centuries now, and with your mom being a water spirit."

"No one knows everything Phoebe," said Zoe as she came to a halt suddenly..

"What is it?" asked Luke.

"We are at the garden aren't we" Percy said.

Zoe nodded, "but we are here a bit early, we can only enter at sunset, so we can wait a bit now."

"I don't like just chilling out here," said Percy, "where anyone and everyone can see us"

"They probably already know we are here," said Luke.

Percy nodded but that did not do much to ease him.

They now had no choice but to wait it out.

Another chapter done, I did unfortunately go through a writer's block (I think that is what its called at least) as well as a general break from Fan fiction in general so that is my lame excuse for a long delay in chapters for this one.

Anaklusmos 101