A Dark Cloud Over the Future Ch 2

Chapter 2: Calling in a Friend
Annabeth woke from her sleep as a rainbow formed in her room. As she looked at the image, she saw the face of Eurytion appear.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” he asked looking into the rainbow as if trying to see through some kind of foggy window.

“Yes, I’m here,” Annabeth replied shooting up in her bed. “What’s the matter?”

“Well, I have some bad news I’m afraid,” he replied as his face lowered. “I think your friend has been talking with that ghost again. I heard him last night and when I woke up this morning, he was gone.”

“Did Nico go back into the labyrinth?!” Annabeth almost yelled in shock. “Why didn’t he stay at the ranch?”

“I’m not sure; from what I heard the ghost said that Percy was in danger and Nico must have slipped out during the night. Any word?” he asked. His answer came in the motion of Annabeth lowering her head so he couldn’t see her face. “I see..well I have to start feeding the cattle.”

With that the Iris message faded away and Annabeth was once again left alone with her thoughts. She looked out her window to see the first rays of sunlight break over the horizon. She got dressed and started heading for the Big House, where she saw Chiron waiting for her on the front porch.

“Have you made a decision?” he asked her.

“Yes,” Annabeth replied. “This is my quest and I need to finish it.”

She pulled the small metal disk from her pocket and placed her fingers over the top of it. Eight small legs shot from the disk and Annabeth instinctively dropped it on the ground as a small squeak escaped her throat. The spider moved around as if looking before something and ran inside. Chiron and Annabeth followed it inside and watched as it climbed up the wall and pointed to a spot on the map. It was pointing directly at Manhattan.

“It seems you have a place to start,” Chiron said taking his eyes off the map and looked outside to Argus, who was busy patrolling the camp grounds. “Argus,” he called. All the eyes on his body turned to Chiron. “Please take Annabeth to Manhattan; we have a quest to finish.”

Argus nodded and headed for the van used to deliver the strawberries into town. Annabeth however headed around to the back of the Big House and turned on the gardening hose. A small rainbow formed and Annabeth dropped a small gold drachma into it.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering," Annabeth said before saying the name of the only person she thought could help her on her quest. “Thalia.”

The image of Thalia came into view as Annabeth saw Thalia organizing the Hunters around the Erymanthian Boar. Their arrows flew with rope tied around it and before long, the boar was hog tied and was turned to dust as Thalia shot an arrow right between the eyes.

“Thalia,” Annabeth called from the Iris Message. Thalia at first looked to the sky as if some divine figure was calling out to her which wouldn’t be too farfetched. “No Thalia, over here.”

Thalia turned around and saw say Annabeth through the rainbow. “Oh Annabeth, I thought for a second that Artemis was praising us on a job well done. How is everything, getting along with Percy?”

At that comment Annabeth had to look away from Thalia. It never accord to her that no one had contacted the Hunters and they would have no idea about the events of the quest.

“Did you two have a fight or something?” Thalia asked, her voice sounding a bit concerned at this point.

“No,” she said. “Percy is….he’s dead.”

The smile on Thalia’s face dropped in a heartbeat and she tried to find the right words to say, but when that failed she tried to find any words at all.

“Is there anything I can do?” Thalia finally managed to say after a few moments of silence.

“I’m heading into the labyrinth but I’ll need some help,” she replied with some confidence in her voice. Thalia just nodded and told her group that they were heading for Camp Half-Blood. All the Hunters looked up to the sky while Thalia dropped to her knees and prayed. The last thing Annabeth saw before the message cut out was a bright light. All of a sudden the bright light returned, but this time it was directly behind Annabeth. As she turned around, Thalia got up off her knees and gave Annabeth a hug, something the blond didn’t shy away from.

“How did you do that?” Annabeth asked, finally pushing away from her long time friend.

“Moon travel,” she replied. “It is a good thing it is so early or we might have had to ask Apollo for a ride and he hasn’t let me in his chariot since the time he let me drive.”

Annabeth let out a small laugh at her comment. Thalia smiled in response and told her Hunters to wait for her at the cabin as she would be gone for a few days on a quest with Annabeth. They didn’t object as they had all heard the news over the Iris Message. While several of the Hunters didn’t like men, Percy was one of the few who Artemis respected and so they respected him as well.

Thalia and Annabeth headed for the van and saw Argus standing there waiting for them, a bit surprised that Thalia and a group of Hunters had managed to make it into the binderies of camp without him see, but he didn’t say anything as people had said he had eyes everywhere, including his tongue. The ride was relatively quiet as neither Annabeth nor Thalia knew what to say to the other and before long they had arrived at Time Square. Annabeth placed her hand once again over the small metal disk. It sprung to life and looked around as if looking for something. It started heading toward a group of different colored statues outside the Marriott Marquis.

“That’s weird,” Annabeth said watching the mechanical spider jump on the golden statue.

“What?” Thalia asked, not knowing what she was looking for.

“I’m crazy about architecture, but I hadn’t heard about a new statue being put up,” Annabeth said as the two walked up to the golden statue. As they got closer, they noticed they weren’t statues at all; they were people painted gold with only their eyes being visible.

“Hey, goldy!” Thalia called as if trying to get her attention. “We need to talk to you.”

“Maybe if we push her over…” Annabeth suggested after the two waited for her to move for almost ten minutes. It wasn’t until another kid walked over and took a pose that the golden girl unfroze and walked toward Thalia and Annabeth.

“What do you want to talk to me about,” she asked the two.

After getting a good look at the girl, she knew who she was. She was the girl that she bumped into when Percy escaped from the empousi and the one he said he met at the Grand Canyon. This girl was the clear sited mortal, Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive  05:40, July 10, 2011 (UTC)