It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped me and Percy at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts. Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close.

I whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. I'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though I knew they shuttled our fresh produce into the city.

The first van was driven by Argus, our many-eyed security chief. The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes. We used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too.

The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive. I was glad so many had come: Pollux, Silena Beauregard, most of the Aphrodite cabin, the Stoll brothers, and the Hermes cabin, Michael, Will, Austin, Kayla and the rest of my cabin, Jake Mason, Katie Gardner, and Annabeth, along with their siblings. Chiron came out of the van last. His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift. I did another quick scan. 

My heart was slamming into my chest, my cheeks were warm, and glowing gold in anger, hurt and embarrassment. The Ares cabin wasn't here. Clarisse was a stubborn idiot. And Raph apparently chose his cabin's pride over the fate of the world. With her heart falling into despair, and a hurt so bad she actually stumbled backwards into Percy, they were done. If his pride held him back from helping...then they were done. End of story. 

"You okay?" Percy signed, he had spun me around to face him. His sea green eyes looked at me carefully. 

"I...I thought I meant more to him then a dam chariot and his pride." I signed back. I sniffed hard and used the back of my hands to dry the tears that had slid down my cheeks. I didn't have time to cry. I had a world to save. Again. 

"I'm sorry sis." 

"It's fine. I'm fine. " I signed. "We have a world to save."

"Or destroy." he gave me a twisted smile. 

I took a shuddering breath and then turned back to the campers who came. Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods I'd ever seen gathered in one place outside camp. Everyone looked nervous, and I understood why. We were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew we were here. Will came up, holding some of my armor, breast plate and helmet anyways. He handed them over and I slipped it on, holding the helmet under my arm. 

As Percy and I looked at their faces- all these campers I'd known for my one year and Percy knew for so many summers- a nagging voice whispered in my mind: One of them is a spy. I should know when I'm being lied to, and I couldn't figure it out. It bugged me. But I couldn't dwell on that. They were my friends. (Well most of them, many of them still avoided me since I could full fire super nova) I needed them.

Then I remembered Kronos's evil smile. You can't count on friends. They will always let you down. That hurt. Apparently even the guy she thought would always have her back, she couldn't count on him.

Annabeth came up to Percy. She was dressed in black camouflage with her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder; ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first.

She frowned. "What is it?" She signed as she looked back and forth between us.

"What's what?" Percy asked with a frown.

"You're looking at me funny." 

I realized Percy was looking at her with a slight dazed look, a soft smile on his face. He blinked a few times, his face morphing back into his dark wolf stare. "It's, uh, nothing." He turned to the rest of the group, signing for my sake. "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

My old history teacher shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my children. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader." I signed with a frown.

He smiled, he clopped closer and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader." He placed his other hand on Percy's shoulder for a second. He looked back and forth between Percy and I. He then let go and signed for me and spoke for Percy and everyone else.  "I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy and Nora. You are the leaders." 

I wanted to protest, but everybody was looking at us expectantly, even Annabeth. (Well she was looking  at Percy. Most of the campers were looking at Percy as leader. I was still the weirdo outcast, most campers were still leery I would roast them if they looked in my direction, despite everything I had done for them.) I turned my head and looked at Percy, raising my eyebrows, a small smirk on my face. 

"Floors yours, Oh wise leader." I signed. 

He gave my head a shove. I straightened up and looked him dead in the eye. "Percy. I'll follow you anywhere. I wont let you do it alone." 

"Thanks Nora." he signed, he looked a little relieved, like I helped take some of the weight of leading. I wouldn't let him make the hard decisions together. I was the newest demi god, but I seemed to take on just as much as Percy. 

Percy took a deep breath. "Okay, like we told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

I asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them looked happy about.

Chiron shook my hand and then Percy's "You'll do well. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses." 

It sounded eerily close to what Achilles had told us. Then I remembered Chiron had taught Achilles. That didn't exactly reassure me, but I nodded and tried to give him a confident smile.

"Let's go," Percy told the campers.

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower on the cover. He glanced up when we all filed in with our weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up." I had to narrow my eyes and watch his mouth to understand. 

"No," I signed. "Six-hundredth floor."

He looked over the top of his book. 

"What?" 

"You heard me." I signed. 

"Uhh...Nora?" I looked around to see Will had tapped my shoulder and signed my name.

"Yes?" I signed. 

"He can't hear you. You can't speak." 

"What?" I signed and blinked blankly. "What do you mean I can't speak? This is brand new information. Why didn't anyone tell me this! Now you're gonna tell me I can't hear! Great!"

A few campers around me who understood sign sniggered. I threw my hands into the air in mock frustration. Will rolled his eyes in affectionate exasperation with my snark.  

The guy sitting in the lobby chair was eyeing us up. He had closed his book. He checked us out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. I couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice our weapons, so I guess he wasn't fooled by the Mist. Percy spoke this time. He blinked and looked at us, and then in fluent ASL, he spoke with his hands and mouth.

"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid." He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe. "Move along."

I stepped up to the desk and signed slowly and very deliberately,  "Forty plus demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"

He thought about that. Then he hit a buzzer and the security gate swung open. "Make it quick."

"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," Percy added. 

"Um, no," he agreed. "Elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."

Percy tossed him a golden drachma and we marched through.

We decided it would take two or three trips to get everybody up in the elevator. I went with the first group. 

"I hate this song." Percy grumbled, and signed for me. 

"Which one?" I asked. I missed music. 

"It was that old disco song "Stayin' Alive."" Will signed.

A terrifying image flashed through my mind of my dad, Apollo, in bell-bottom pants and a slinky silk shirt. I bit my fist to keep the giggles contained. Will and Percy looked at me, Annabeth rolled her eyes and huffed. I signed quickly and told them my mental image. Both boys looked horror struck and then Will and I giggled  the rest of the way up.

I was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open, Annabeth kept giving me the evil side eye. In front of us, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.

I'd never seen Olympus before, it took my breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked majestic and beautiful, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, but something seemed wrong. 

Annabeth studied me now that we were out of the elevator. She turned her grey calculating eyes to Percy. She didn't sign, but I could read her lips. "You look . . . different," she decided. "Where exactly did you go with Nora?"

The elevator doors opened again, and the last group of half-bloods joined us.

"Tell you later," Percy said. "Come on." 

She narrowed her eyes at me, I could see her jaw clench. I gave her an innocent smile and caught up with Percy. She turned with a huff and followed.

We made our way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be in it. They looked sad and depressed. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted us from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.

We passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth made a face at the queen of the gods.

"The holiest of cows." I signed and flipped the statue off. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Annabeth snicker and when she caught my eye and signed.

"Also hate her."

"Has she been cursing you or something?" Percy asked.

Last year Annabeth and I had gotten on Hera's bad side, but Annabeth hadn't really talked about it since. And Raph had hauled me away before I could do any real damage, but I'm sure Annabeth and I weren't on her good side.

"Just little stuff so far," she said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"

"Right." Percy agreed.

"Fighting." I rolled my eyes and signed.

"So she sends cows after me."

I snorted in laughter. Percy tried hard not to smile.  "Cows? In San Francisco?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah." She nodded and signed for my sake, even though she kept casting me a look I couldn't understand. "Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place- in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."

Pollux was tapping my shoulder and , pointing toward the horizon, "look!" His mouth cried as he signed. "What is that?"

We all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. We watched them for several minutes and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

"Like infrared scopes," Michael signed. "We're being targeted." His squinted eyes narrowed even more in suspicion.

"Let's get to the palace," Percy said.

I nodded and indicated he should lead the way. But he grabbed my arm and dragged me beside him.

"You're with me?" He signed, I could see the unease in his sea green eyes.

"Always."

"You trust me?"

"With my life." I answered without hesitation. "You trust me?"

"One hundred percent."

"Then together."

"Together." He agreed.

We turned and marched into the thrown room.