Percy Ruins a Perfectly Good Bus

**Percy is Offered a Quest** is the fifty-eighth chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on May 15th, 2018.

## Chapter

**Nobody edit below this box**

**Annabeth's POV**
It didn’t take us too long to pack.
I was bringing my magic Yankees cap; my book on famous classical architecture, which Jasmine used her powers to change from English to Ancient Greek for me so that it would be easier for me to read, when I got bored; and, of course, my knife hidden in my sleeve; along with a couple extra change of clothes and stuffed it all into my backpack.
Jasmine was only bringing a pair of extra clothes and a current book she was reading about some teenage girl.
She would summon anything else to her if she needs it. But her dual blades, she was keeping visible on her back, which isn’t odd since her family keeps their weapons visible too.
The camp store loaned us a hundred dollars in mortal money, even though Jasmine had us completely covered with that, and twenty golden drachmas.
These coins were as big as cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.
Chiron told us that the ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, but Olympians never used less than pure gold.
Chiron also said that the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions.
He gave me and Percy each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only for emergencies, if we were seriously injured.
It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.
Percy was wearing his same clothes and bringing a backpack that Grover found for him.
Grover wore his fake feat and pants to pass off as human. He wore a green-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tip of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on.
In his pocket were a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart’s Piano Concert no. 12 and Hillary Duff’s ‘So Yesterday,’ both of which sounded bad on reed pipes.
We waved goodbye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia.
Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair.
Next to him stood Argus, wearing a chauffer’s uniform.
“This is Argus,” Chiron told Percy. “He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things.”
Jasmine laughed a little bit. She won’t let any little joke go.
We heard footsteps behind us.
Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes. They looked kind of familiar.
“Hey!” he panted. “Glad I caught you.”
My heart started to race seeing him, and I knew my face was red. Jasmine tried to stifle a laugh.
“Just wanted to say good luck,” Luke told Percy. “And I thought . . . um, maybe you could use these.”
He handed him the shoes, which looked pretty normal.
“*Maia!*” Luke said.
White bird’s wings sprouted out of the heals, startling Percy so much, he dropped them.
Jasmine laughed.
The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.
“Awesome!” Grover said.
Luke smiled. “Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad, of course. I don’t use them much these days . . .”
His expression turned sad, and I knew why. That’s why those shoes looked familiar.
Percy seemed very grateful for the gift.
“Hey, man,” he said. “Thanks.”
“Listen, Percy . . .” Luke looked uncomfortable. “A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just . . . kill some monsters for me, okay?”
They shook hands.
Jasmine smiled. “Aww.”
Luke patted Grover and Toothless’s heads, then gave goodbye hugs to me and Jasmine.
When he hugged me, I felt like I was going to faint.
Jasmine laughed at it, making me feel even more embarrassed. Though she did smile at me apologetically.
After Luke was gone, Percy told me, “You’re hyperventilating.”
“Am not.”
“Yes, you are,” Jasmine said with a knowing smile.
I glared at her.
“You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn’t you?” Percy asked.
“Oh, I bet she did,” Jasmine agreed.
I glared at her again and turned back toward Percy. “Oh . . . why would I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?”
I stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road.
Jasmine and Toothless followed. Argus too, jingling his car keys.
When we got into the SUV, Jasmine turned Toothless into his baby dragon self and he wrapped himself around her neck like a scarf. Then Jasmine slid in next to me.
“Maybe that’s because he’s the boy from your visions,” she said.
I rolled my eyes.
“What? He is. And he’s right about what you did. You’re more obvious than you think about your crush on Luke. I bet even to him.”
I looked at her. “Do you really think that he knows?”
“Yes.”
I’m not sure what I thought about that, but I did feel even more embarrassed.
————————————————————————————————————
After Grover and Percy joined us in the car, Argus drove us out of the country side and into western Long Island.
I very rarely have ever been in Manhattan since we usually just teleport from home into camp and back.
But now we have to be on high alert.
“So far so good,” Percy told me. “Ten miles and no monsters.”
I gave him an irritated look. “It’s bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain.”
“Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?”
“I don’t hate you.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“I know,” Jasmine agreed.
I glared at her, then turned back to Percy while folding my cap of invisibility.
“Look . . . we’re just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals.”
“Why?”
I sighed. “How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena’s temple, which is *hugely* disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god of Athens. Your dad created some saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her.”
“They must really like olives.”
“Oh, forget it.”
“Now, if she’d invented pizza—*that* I could understand.”
Jasmine laughed. “I actually agree. Though I do like olives on my pizza. The black ones, but the green are good too.”
“I said, forget it!” I exclaimed.
Gods, they’re annoying.
Jasmine always is, and she I can handle, but not another one. Especially not a son of Poseidon.
“Will you stop being such a bitch to him?” Jasmine whispered to me. “You’re terrible at first impressions, but you’re usually nicer now.”
“Well, obviously, this time is different,” I whispered back. “Since this time it’s a son of Poseidon.”
“You know that’s not fair.”
“Too bad.”
Jasmine sighed angrily and leaned back against her seat, staring out the window.
Toothless was sitting on her lap and she pet him a couple times.
Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.
Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side. Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.
Percy was gazing down the street, his mind seaming to be somewhere else right now.
Grover shouldered his backpack and gazed down the same street. “You want to know why she married him, Percy?”
He stared at Grover. “Were you reading my mind or something?”
“Just your emotions.” He shrugged. “Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and stepdad, right?”
Percy nodded.
“Your mom married Gabe for *you*,” Grover told him. “You call him ‘Smelly,’ but you’ve got no idea. The guy has this aura . . . Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven’t been near him for a week.”
“Thanks,” Percy said. “Where’s the nearest shower?”
“You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn’t lived with him every summer, you probably would’ve been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must’ve loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better.”
I could tell it didn’t.
If there was anything I understood, it’s how to deal with a stepparent.
But unlike Percy, I doubt my dad married Savanna to protect me.
The rain kept coming down.
We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play Hacky Sack with one of Grover’s apples.
Jasmine turned Toothless back to normal for a moment so that he could play too. He was good with his tail and wings.
Jasmine and I hit it the same way we would hit a soccer ball, using most parts of our bodies.
The game ended when Percy tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth.
In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.
Grover blushed.
He tried to apologize, but the four of us were too busy cracking up.
Finally the bus came.
Jasmine turned Toothless back to a baby quickly and he climbed back around her neck.
As we stood in line, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air.
“What is it?” Percy asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe it’s nothing.”
It obviously wasn’t nothing.
Jasmine and Toothless started looking around, too, not sure of what either.
We finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus.
We stowed our backpacks.
I kept slapping my hat nervously against my thigh.
I watched the last of the passengers get on and I recognized three old women. Jasmine and Toothless recognized them too.
I clamped my hand onto Percy’s knee. “Percy.”
One of the old ladies wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shape-less orange knit hat that shadowed her face, and she’s carrying a big paisley purse.
Percy recognized her and scrunched down in his seat.
The Fury’s sisters came behind her: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise, they looked exactly the same.
They sat in the front row, right behind the driver.
The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. They obviously don’t want anyone to leave, but do they really think that that’ll stop us?
The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan.
“She didn’t stay dead long,” Percy said. “I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime.”
“I said if you’re *lucky*,” I said. “You’re obviously not.”
Jasmine chuckled.
“All three of them,” Grover whimpered. “Di immortales.”
“It’s okay,” I said, thinking hard. “The Furies. The three worst animals from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We’ll just slip out the windows.”
“They don’t open,” Grover moaned.
“A back exit?”
“No,” Jasmine said. “But we can make one.”
We decided to save that at about the very last moment we had.
We were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.
“They won’t attack us with witnesses around,” Percy said. “Will they?”
“Mortals don’t have good eyes,” I reminded him. “Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist.”
“They’ll see three old ladies killing us, won’t they?”
I thought about it. “Hard to say. But we can’t count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof . . . ?”
We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle.
It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.
The Fury wearing the orange hat got up.
“I need to use the restroom,” she announced to the whole bus in a flat voice.
“So do I,” one of her sisters said.
“So do I,” the other sister said.
They all started coming down the aisle.
“Great,” Jasmine muttered.
I was still trying to come up with an idea, then I remembered my hat in my hands.
“I’ve got it,” I said. “Percy, take my hat.”
“What?” he asked.
“You’re the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away.”
“But you guys—”
“There’s an outside chance they might not notice us,” I said. “You’re a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering.”
“I can’t just leave you.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Grover said. “Go!”
“Yeah,” Jasmine agreed. “We’ll take care of them.”
Percy’s hands trembled.
I could tell that he really didn’t want to do this, but he took my hat and put it on. He became invisible.
“So what’s the plan?” Jasmine asked.
“Stall them long enough for Percy to get away,” I replied.
“Ok. Brace yourself.”
The Furies continued coming down the aisle toward us.
The front one stopped in the center, sniffed, and looked straight at the seat beside her.
Jasmine clutched mine and Grover’s arms. “Percy’s there.”
I held my breath, praying she didn’t catch him.
After a moment, I guess she didn’t see anything. She and her sisters continued down the aisle.
We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now.
The Furies kept heading our way. They can see us.
They were a few feet away now, wailing, their bodies shriveling into leathery brown hags bodies with hands and feet like gargoyle claws.
Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.
The Furies surrounded us and lashed their whips.
“Where is it?” they hissed. “Where?”
*It?*
The other people on the bus were screaming.
I guess they saw something.
Toothless tried spitting his fire at the Furies, but it didn’t really hurt them, just annoyed them.
“He’s not here!” I yelled. “He’s gone!”
The Furies raised their whips.
I drew my knife. Jasmine drew her dual blades. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.
Then something happened.
We all were suddenly thrown to the right as the bus swerved left. The Furies and Toothless smashed against the windows.
“Hey!” the driver of the bus yelled, obviously not sure what happened. “Hey——whoa!”
The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.
We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins. I would know because I bowl sometimes.
Jasmine was crushing me and trying to pull herself off like we were on an amusement park ride.
We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads.
There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.
Then we suddenly stopped about a hundred feet before it, the back end of the bus lifting us for a moment, and Jasmine, Grover, and I had to clutch the seats to keep from flying forward.
“Oh, finally,” Jasmine said.
She and I had a pretty good idea who stopped this bus before it plunged into the river.
The emergency lights came on. The door flew open.
The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him.
The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at me and Jasmine, while we waved our weapons and I yelled at them to back off in Ancient Greek.
Grover threw tin cans and Toothless spit his fire, poked their eyes, or bit them wherever he could.
“Hey!” I heard Percy yell from the front of the bus.
He was no longer invisible.
I would think that he would’ve joined the passengers off the bus and get away like he was supposed to, but obviously he changed his mind.
The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at him.
The Fury with the orange hat stalked up the aisle. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.
Her two sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward Percy.
“Perseus Jackson,” the Fury with the orange hat said in a rough accent. “You have offended the gods. You shall die.”
“I liked you better as a math teacher,” he told her.
She growled.
Jasmine, Grover, and I moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.
Percy took a ballpoint pen out of his pocket and uncapped it. It elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.
Ok. I didn’t expect that.
The Furies hesitated.
“Submit now,” the one with the orange hat hissed. “And you will not suffer eternal torment.”
“Nice try,” Percy told her.
Then I noticed the Fury readying her whip.
“Percy, look out!” I cried.
The Fury lashed her whip around Percy’s sword hand while the Furies on either side of her lunged at him.
He managed not to drop his sword. He struck the Fury on his left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. He turned and sliced the Fury on his right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust.
I got the other Fury in a wrestler’s hold and yanked her back ward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.
“Ow!” he yelled. “Ow! Hot! Hot!”
Jasmine took it from him since it didn’t hurt her, which he was very grateful for.
The Fury that Percy hilt-slammed came at him again, talons ready, but he swung his sword and she broke open like a piñata.
The last Fury was trying to get me off her back.
She kicked, clawed, hissed, and bit, but I held on while Toothless attacked her face and Jasmine and Grover got her legs tied up in her own whip.
We finally shoved her backward into the aisle. The Fury tried to get up, but she didn’t have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.
“Zeus will destroy you!” she promised. “Hades will have your soul!”
“*Braccas meas vacimini!*” Percy yelled.
I think that was Latin, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.
Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.
“Get out!” I yelled at Percy. “Now!”
He didn’t argue.
We all rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver or running around in circles yelling, “We’re going to die!” which Jasmine couldn’t help but laugh at.
A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped Percy’s photograph before he could recap his sword.
“Our bags!” Grover realized. “We left our—”
*BOOOOOM!*
The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover.
Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof.
“Damn,” Jasmine said. “Names really do have power.”
I rolled my eyes.
She’s always doubted about names having power, but now she believes it.
I wonder if the Fury was still alive, and the angry wail from inside a moment later answered for me. She is.
“Run!” I said. “She’s calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!”
We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.

**Happy anniversary! Today is the second anniversary of this story being officially published and I just had to update today. I'm not as far as I would have like to be at this point, but that's just the unexpected trials of life getting in the way, I suppose.**
**I am still very unhappy about Jason's death, and am working on how I'm going to change his involvement in this story once I get to that point. I posted a message in my profile in honor of him. Please check it out.**
**Please review** here**.**

**Nobody edit above this box**
## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Annabeth Chase
* Jasmine Saturday
* Percy Jackson

### Minor Characters

* Grover Underwood
* Chiron
* Luke Castellan