Trapped
The moment they stepped out of the castle, they saw a woman with a far from friendly face waiting for them while her eyes locked directly onto the group.
This time she wasn't fully in her Fury form.
She simply looked like an older woman with the air of an evil teacher everyone had at some point in school.
Though she was carrying a flaming thorn whip that many of those teachers probably would've loved to have too.
Percy and the others recognized her immediately as one of the three old women who had attacked them on the bus.
Though apparently, that hadn't exactly been what happened.
And thinking about it more carefully, technically Percy had attacked first when the old woman suddenly approached him.
And because of that, the other two old women possibly attacked him in defense.
So technically, Percy had assaulted a group of old ladies who had gone through the trouble of coming all the way there to pick them up.
"Well… this… uhhhh. I think last time wasn't exactly a very good first impression," Percy said somewhat embarrassed.
The Fury stared at him for several seconds with a look of absolute disgust she didn't even bother trying to hide.
"Lord Hades is far too soft with your kind. Because of that, heroes from different eras think they can come into the Underworld and cause problems. If it were up to me and my sisters, we'd kill every demigod we saw and the world would be far more peaceful for everyone," Alecto said with obvious disgust while looking over the three demigods and the satyr.
"That sounded a little racist… I think," Percy said.
But Alecto simply ignored him completely, so Percy turned around looking toward his friends for support.
But Harry seemed distracted while staring at the jar containing the black flame burning inside.
Grover was looking at the Fury like he had trauma related to her.
And Annabeth kept glancing at her distrustfully out of the corner of her eye.
"So, how exactly are we getting back to the world of the living?" Percy asked after realizing nobody was backing him up. "Are we going to look for Charon again?"
"No. His job is to bring the dead into the Underworld, not take them out. The only way left for you to rise back up as quickly and easily as possible is simply to use wings," Alecto said while pointing toward the ceiling of the enormous Underworld cavern.
"Well, this may sound surprising, but ours still haven't grown in yet," Percy said.
Alecto turned toward him while grabbing her infernal whip with a cruel smile.
"I know. Which means that if you don't want to fall straight to your deaths, you'd better hold on tightly," she said, and from the look in her eyes, Percy could tell she absolutely was not joking.
This time Harry, Percy, and Grover really paid attention to her words and understood that maybe getting out wasn't going to be nearly as easy as getting in.
"As followers of Hades inside the Underworld, can't the Furies emerge through the cracks of the Underworld itself just like hellhounds do?" Annabeth suddenly cut in while looking directly at Alecto.
Alecto turned toward her and gave her an annoyed look, as if someone had just suggested she couldn't have fun however she wanted.
And for the first time, she truly paid attention to Annabeth.
Her eyes widened slightly, almost as if she had only just recognized her.
"Oh really? Like that?" Annabeth asked again.
"What a clever little brat," Alecto said, though with a mocking and disdainful tone, while grabbing the handle of her whip and raising it over her head, staring directly into Annabeth's eyes. Annabeth didn't seem afraid of Alecto at all, holding her gaze without backing down.
Meanwhile Percy and Harry watched Alecto carefully and, even without drawing their weapons, they were still on guard in case she attacked their friend.
But of course Alecto wouldn't attack Annabeth after Hades had ordered her to escort them out of the Underworld.
Alecto lowered her hand and cracked the whip hard, the sound seeming to echo directly through the ears of all four of them.
And the moment the whip cracked through the air, the flames surrounding it remained burned into the air itself right beside Annabeth.
Then they slowly spread open, forming a doorway of red flames floating in the air, and on the other side they could see a familiar place.
Charon's office.
They could even see the ghosts, and Charon himself sitting in his usual place holding a bag of coins, calmly counting through them one by one with a somewhat happy smile.
Though every now and then he would look at the coins and show a slightly confused expression before biting one with his teeth.
And after realizing they were still gold, he hesitated briefly before deciding not to care too much.
Then continued counting them.
"Now get lost already. The only reason I'd ever want demigods standing in front of me is if I were torturing them in some infernal punishment," Alecto said disdainfully while waving her hand as if shooing them away.
Percy had a lot of things he wanted to say to this evil woman, but Harry felt there was no point, because trying to make this woman listen to reason felt like trying to be nice to Snape.
Counterproductive and exhausting.
So Harry dragged his friends along together with Grover, since Annabeth still hadn't taken her eyes off Alecto, and they passed through the flaming doorway.
Until it closed behind them, leaving them at the entrance of the Underworld.
Leaving behind only the faint smell of ash and burned sulfur.
"That was good… how did you know she was tricking us?" Percy asked while looking toward Annabeth, though he noticed she seemed somewhat distracted. "Are you okay?" Percy asked only now realizing Annabeth's strange confrontational behavior toward the Fury.
Annabeth didn't answer immediately.
She only frowned.
In the end she simply nodded.
Percy gave Annabeth another look, but didn't say much more while the four of them walked out through the glass doors.
Charon seemed distracted enough not to pay attention to them.
Or maybe he had noticed them, but simply didn't care enough to speak with them again as long as they were still alive.
…
The moment they stepped outside, they could feel the clean air…
Well… if it could even be called clean while the polluted air of the living world filled their lungs.
"There's nothing like stepping into the world of the dead to appreciate the world of the living," Harry couldn't help saying with a forced smile.
"You can appreciate life later. We're out of time now. We need to find a fast way for Percy to reach the Empire State Building and stop Zeus and Poseidon from starting their war," Grover said nervously after checking the time, noticing they only had about half an hour left to reach their destination.
"Even if we found the best Floo Network route, just traveling from one fireplace to another would still take way too long. Maybe… it's impossible to get there before they start fighting," Harry said. "Even so, we might still stop them before things get even worse," he added without losing hope.
"Yeah. Let's just hope they don't destroy a city or two before we get there," Percy added.
"Indeed. I think it would be quite a shame if that happened after you all went through so much trouble escaping and setting off on a dangerous mission into a world you barely understand. In a country you know even less about. Without your mother's or aunt's permission. Right?"
"Exactly. Besides, Adrien, Sirius, and the other knights should still be pretty close by, even if Grandpa Vincent managed to distract them like he promised," Percy said as if he genuinely had a plan.
But Harry suddenly went completely still while slowly turning his gaze behind Percy, toward where that very familiar voice had come from; a voice that didn't belong to anyone in their group.
And slowly, he completely froze.
"Though they must be very worried, considering how hard they worked to find you and put you somewhere safe," the voice said again.
This time both Grover and Annabeth were completely silent.
"It's fine. We managed to avoid them until now. It'll be easy," Percy added.
"Percy…" Harry said softly.
"So you're trying to run away from them again, even when they're this worried about you."
This time Percy didn't answer. Instead, he stared directly at Harry, realizing the voice hadn't come from Harry at all, since the voice was female.
Definitely not Grover either, obviously.
And even less likely Annabeth, since the voice clearly sounded older.
The moment he understood that, he couldn't help going very still, as if somehow that would make him invisible.
Of course, the world didn't work like that.
And Percy knew that very well.
Meanwhile Harry was staring completely silently at Adrien, Dorian, Sirius, Luther, and finally the one who had been speaking.
Gema, the angriest out of the entire group, since as their teacher she spent the most time with the boys, their mother, and Mor.
He could imagine how worried those two must've been after these troublesome kids decided to run away.
"Run?" Percy said.
But he didn't even manage to take one step before…
Adrien's hand grabbed Grover.
Sirius didn't even need to cast a spell for a magical wire to appear out of nowhere and bind Harry, who didn't even react in time to pull out his wand.
Luther approached Annabeth more kindly and gestured for her to wait to the side with a gentle smile.
And Dorian emerged behind Percy, who tried turning around to escape.
But the back of his neck was caught by Dorian's hand, preventing him from even taking a single step.
And just like that, the group that had gone through an exciting and dangerous adventure involving monsters, gods, legendary kings, and a journey into the deepest part of the Underworld…
Was captured with absurd ease.
All so they could be properly scolded.