A/N It's finally here! The quest is beginning. Enjoy
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Percy shouldered his backpack and stepped out of his cabin. Because of his trip up to Thalia's Pine, and subsequent conversation with the resident soul, the Hunter boy had gotten no sleep at all. Strangely though, he didn't feel tired. In fact, he felt refreshed, like that conversation had eased some of his burden.

Shrugging and shaking his head, Percy walked over to the Big House. Along the way, Annabeth fell in step with him.

"You ready?" He asked the daughter of Athena.

She looked at Percy with piercing gray eyes, "I've been waiting for a quest ever since I came to camp. Let's go save Pegasus."

With that, she picks up the pace and Percy has to hurry to catch up.

The two of them arrive at the Big House and see that Luke is already there. He and Chiron were standing together and talking in hushed voices. Luke looks up and notices the two approaching. The first thing Percy picks up on is Luke's eyes. Instead of their usual bright blue, they looked dead and dull.

"Good morning Percy, Annabeth." Chiron greets them, "Are you ready to go?"

Percy rolls his shoulders, "I guess so. Annabeth?"

She nods, but is obviously distracted by Luke.

"Very well. We have supplied Luke with some money and drachmas for the trip. Argus will drive you to the bus station, but from then on, you'll be on your own."

The three demigods nod.

"Then off you go."

Together, the three demigods walk up Half-Blood Hill. Luke and Annabeth continue with Argus, but Percy stops at Thalia's Pine. The boy Hunter touches a hand softly to the tree and looks up. For a second, he thinks he sees the image of a girl sitting in the branches.

"Percy!" Annabeth calls out, "Let's go."

The image of Thalia fades away. I'll protect them. He thinks to the tree. Don't worry.

With that he runs to catch up with the others.

The three demigods pile into the back of a van, and Argus gets into the driver's seat, starts the van, and begins driving.

After a moment's silence, Percy spoke up, "You don't look so good Luke, what's up?"

"Didn't sleep at all." Came the reply.

"You either." Percy muttered, "Why not?"

"Kronos sent me another dream."

"What was it about?" Annabeth slid closer to Luke.

"Pretty much the same as the last one." Luke answers, "'Swear your allegiance,' and 'Kill the Hunter boy.' Same old, same old."

"Who's the Hunter boy?" Annabeth asks.

"Well, we think it's me." Percy says, "But that's only after the prophesy was said."

"You said you didn't sleep either?" Luke cuts Annabeth's questions off before she could dig any deeper, "Why not."

"I uh, had a talk with a tree."

"What?" Annabeth and Luke both looked at Percy in confusion.

"Never mind." Percy says.

He wasn't sure why he didn't tell the two. He knew that Thalia, their best friend, was still alive, in a strange way. He'd actually had a conversation with the daughter of Zeus. Maybe it was because they'd found peace with Thalia, and he didn't want to reopen old wounds. No. Percy didn't want to admit it, but the reason was a little more selfish. He had something that on one else did: a connection. For some reason, he was the only one who could talk to Thalia, and he wanted to keep that a secret.

"So, what's the plan?" Percy asks the two.

"I'm guessing you want more details than 'we go to Pikes Peak, rescued Pegasus, and kick Kronos in the the rear.'" Luke cracks a smile.

"Fine, since we can't rely on our grand leader, I'm going to turn to the most intelligent person in this van." Percy smirks, then calls out, "Don't worry Argus, you're still awesome."

Argus puts a thumb up and keeps driving.

"Well, the ideal plan would be to take a train straight to Pikes Peak, but the chances are pretty slim that we'll get there without a hitch."

"We'll try anyway." Luke says, "Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky."

Percy rolls his eyes, "Great, thanks for jynxing us Luke."

"I thought you didn't believe in all that mystic stuff."

"I don't."

The van pulls to a stop and the three demigods get out. Argus beeps twice and pull away from the bus station. The demigods get tickets to Grand Central Station. Because the bus wouldn't get there for another hour, the three demigods had to sit and wait.

ADHD made it difficult to sit and wait. Eventually, Luke fell asleep, and Annabeth pulled out an architecture book. Percy began to pace around the bus stop and surrounding area.

This wasn't meaningless pacing though. If one were to watch Percy, he or she would notice that he always followed the same path, and that path follow a perimeter that encompassed the bus stop. Percy was alert in case any monster tried to catch them off guard.

Luckily, in the time it took for the bus to arrive, not a single monster came within eyesight. Annabeth nudged Luke awake and the three of them got on the bus.

The bus ride to Grand Central Station went smoothly, and the demigods disembarked. Annabeth seemed overly excited, and was rambling about facades, arches, and other architecture stuff.

"Watch for pickpockets." Percy warns the other two, "I count at least three within eyesight."

Luke scoffs, "Please, those three couldn't pickpocket a baby."

Percy rolls his eyes and goes over to purchase the tickets. When he finishes paying, they only have around one hundred dollars left to use.

"I got us tickets to Denver, but that's the closest I could get." Percy says, "We'll have to take a bus or taxi from there to Colorado Springs."

"That's fine." Luke says, "When does the train leave?"

"Fifteen minutes." Percy replies, "So we've got to get a move on it."

The other two nod and follow Percy. Along the way, one with the people Percy pointed out tries to pickpocket Luke. The son of Hermes let's him, then just turns around and steals the item back. The three demigods make it to the train platform just in time to make the train.

The three demigods get on the train, and the doors are just about to close behind them when a voice cries out, "Wait!"

Percy and Luke turn around and a body comes flying through the door and slams into Luke, running him to the ground. Percy's bow appears across his back and he's about to draw it when he sees who tackled Luke. It was a girl dressed in one of those cheerleader costumes that left little to the imagination.

Percy's bow disappeared when he realized that there was no immediate threat, but he remained on guard. When a random person goes charging onto a train, they were either a monster or really absent minded. After thinking for a second, Percy realizes that both options were equally possible with this girl.

"OMG! I'm soooooo sorry." The girl bursts out, not moving to get off of Luke, "I was, like, texting my friend and totally lost track of time! So I looked up at that big clock in the main room and literally sprinted out of my shoes!"

Percy had already tuned out what the girl was actually say, like most of the train, but he was still subconsciously paying attention of any telltale signs of the girl being a monster. He glanced over at Annabeth, and was surprised to see her looking down at the cheerleader in downright hatred.

"What's up?" Percy asks her.

"I don't like her." Annabeth spits out.

"Is she a monster?" Percy asks.

"I don't know." Annabeth replies, her voice icy.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine."

Percy shuts up. He'd been around enough girls to know 'I'm fine' meant that they most certainly were not.

The cheerleader had finally gotten up off of Luke, who stood up and dusted himself off.

"Oh, I totally forgot! My name's Kelli! What's yours?"

Percy had a sudden urge to tell this girl who he was, but managed to suppress himself.

"I'm Luke. Luke Castellan. These are my friends: Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase."

This girl began to set off warning bells in Percy's head. Annabeth had obviously caught on earlier, but why hadn't Luke picked up on it? In, she had quite the opposite effect on him. He sat down next to her and began talking to Kelli.

"Annabeth, check one car in each direction." Percy whispers to the girl sitting next to him.

"You're picking up that weird feeling as well." She replies, "That's charmspeak. Some monsters and a rare few children of Aphrodite have that ability." Annabeth shudders, "It's like hypnosis or something."

"Check the cars, I'll make sure loverboy over there doesn't tell that girl-who-is-definitely-a-monster anything of value."

Annabeth nods and runs towards the front of the train. Percy stands up and sits in the seat across from Luke and Kelli. Kelli glances at Percy, and snuggles in closer to Luke.

"Get lost." She says, "You're not my type."

"Thank the Gods for that." Percy says, feigning relief, "I was worried there for a second. This think I make it a rule not to date empousai."

Kelli's smile becomes plastic, "It seems I picked out the wrong boy as my victim."

Percy's bow appears and he draws and nocks an arrow. Kelli's hand turns into a clawed talon.

"So, I guess that means that you're the 'Hunter Boy' Lord Kronos is so desperate to see destroyed." Kelli hisses, "If you fire even a single arrow at me, you're friend dies."

Percy doesn't release the tension on the bow, but he doesn't shoot either. The Hunter boy had no doubt that Kelli was fast enough to carry out her threat. The mood was so tense, you could have cut it with a knife.

Percy wasn't sure what the mortals saw, but they saw something. The other people on the train began looking between Percy and Kelli, as if unsure as to what to do.

At that moment, the train pulls into a station. A melodic voice carries over the loudspeaker, "All right, this is the last stop for all mortals. Now could you please get off my train."

"So, you got one of your sisters into the engineer's cabin." Percy says.

"Alli always was one of the best of my trainees." Kelli flashes a brilliant white smile.

Percy needed to snap Luke out of the effects of the charmspeak. He could hear the sounds of Annabeth fighting another empousai in the compartment over. Then, Percy sees his opening.

I'm sorry Luke. Percy thinks, and releases the arrow. It cuts through the air and grazes off of Luke, leaving a considerable cut across his cheek. The pain does seem to do the trick though, and Luke's vision clears.

"What? Why am I..." Then events catch up to Luke, "Styx!"

He clambers out of the seat, but Kelli doesn't notice, as Percy now had the cheerleading empousai's undivided attention.

"You're head will be mine!" With that, Kelli launches herself at Percy.

Quick as lightning, Percy drops his bow, and from his pocket, draws and uncaps Riptide. The boy Hunter swings the blade as fast as he can. The sword connects with Kelli and she erupts into a pile of monster dust.

Luke stares at the pile of dust, then says, "We'll, she was kind of hot."

At that moment, Annabeth bursts in, "Percy, Luke. Come here, quickly."

Percy caps Riptide and follows after Annabeth.

"She started the train and busted the controls." Annabeth says, aggravated, "I can't stop the train."

Luke looks put the window, "We're moving too fast to jump out. It looks like we'll have to wait until the train runs out of juice."

"Who knows where we'll end up then." Percy mutters.

With that, the three demigods sit down to wait until the train dies out.

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A/N I told the quest was finally getting underway. And now that it is, (12:20 am, man you people are dam animals when it comes to updating) I am hoping to rest now. This is by far my longest chapter yet, so what do you think?
Stay awesome,
Leonidas_son_of_Nike