Thirty-Two: Percy battles a war god

                                    

                                          
PERCY
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They exploded on the surface, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"
Percy grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy. He caught Annabeth and dragged her over too. A curious shark was circling them, a great white about eleven feet long.
Percy sneered. "Beat it."
The shark turned and raced away.
The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from the trio as fast as he could.
Somehow, Percy knew what time it was: early morning, June 21, the day of the summer solstice.
In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighborhoods all over the city. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades's fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after Percy right now. He could only hope that Sen was doing all right down there.
But at the moment, the Underworld wasn't his biggest problem. He had to get to shore. He had to get Zeus's thunderbolt back to Olympus. Most of all, he had to have a serious conversation with the god who'd tricked him.
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A Coast Guard boat picked the trio up, but they were too busy to keep the kids for long, or to wonder how three kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress calls.
They dropped everyone off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around their shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.
Their clothes were sopping wet, even Percy's. When the Coast Guard boat had appeared, Percy had silently prayed they wouldn't pick him out of the water and find him perfectly dry, which might've raised some eyebrows. So he'd willed himself to get soaked. Sure enough, the usual waterproof magic had abandoned him. He was also barefoot, because he'd given his shoes to Grover. Better the Coast Guard wonder why one of them was barefoot than wonder why one of them had hooves.
After reaching dry land, they stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise. Percy felt as if he'd just come back from the dead- which he had. His backpack was heavy with Zeus's master bolt. His heart was even heavier from seeing his mother. Add the extra weight that Sen was down there, practically all alone, and Percy was shocked he was even functioning.
"I don't believe it." Annabeth said. "We went all that way-"
"It was a trick." Percy said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."
"Hey." She warned.
"You get it, don't you?"
She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."
"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody-"
"Percy..." Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry..."