It was the beginning of the morning. It hadn't been long since the sun had risen and illuminated the city of New York. To the surprise of the people, the weather was completely calm, there were no signs of clouds in the blue sky above their heads.
The people who were heading to work early or had their own mundane appointments were happy; in recent days, the weather had been bizarre and completely unpredictable, even the weather forecast was useless!
Because of the weather, a few people began to believe in global warming; it was the only plausible explanation to explain the recent bizarre weather. Despite the strange weather, everyone continued with their trivial and boring lives. Most particularly didn't even care if it snowed in the summer; they would find it strange, of course, but in no time they would forget about the event and continue with their monotonous lives, just like they always had.
Today, New York was as busy as ever. Although the sun had risen not long ago, the streets were filled with vehicles, and the sidewalks had many people walking back and forth, some taking advantage of the red light to cross the street safely.
In the backseat of a taxi heading to Manhattan, Percy and Ikki sat, both in silence, lost in their own thoughts.
Annabeth and Grover had returned to Camp Half-Blood.
Before Ikki teleported them to New York, the four of them had a conversation where Ikki and Percy decided to do the final part of the mission alone. They wanted Annabeth and Grover to tell Chiron everything that had happened. They protested, of course, but in the end, they reluctantly agreed.
With this decision, Ikki took the two of them to Camp Half-Blood through [Teleportation], but applied an illusion with his magic to change the way he teleported, making it appear as if he had done it through the lightning, as a son of Zeus could theoretically do... Just like he had done before to take Percy's mother away...
He left the two of them near the entrance of the camp and then returned to Santa Monica beach, where he picked up Percy and teleported the two of them to an empty alley in New York near a taxi stand.
The two of them then took a taxi to the Empire State Building.
Percy looked out the window while thinking that if things went wrong, if the gods didn't believe him, Annabeth and Grover would be safe and well. It had been hard to part with them after everything they had gone through together on this mission. But in the end, it was for the best.
As for Ikki? In an ideal scenario, he should have gone back to the camp as well. He knew that if the gods somehow tried to execute him, knowing his friend, he would fight with the gods to prevent that. Despite being strong, if Ikki faced all twelve of the most important gods, he would surely die, and that was the last thing he wanted. All he could do was hope it didn't come to that...
It might sound selfish, but... Percy felt much safer and relieved with Ikki by his side.
Since he could remember, it had always been like this. The boy by his side was always there for him, whether in bad times or good. He had always protected and helped him, especially when Percy got into trouble with teachers or suffered detention or something like that; Ikki would cause trouble just to make sure Percy wasn't alone in detention.
When he was expelled because of a certain highly detestable teacher, Ikki played a terrible prank on her, making her leave the school and probably even stop being a teacher. As revenge for him and just to be expelled as well. The times he had fought with many boys his age, his friend was always there for him too.
Percy had wondered before, was this what it felt like to have a brother? Ikki was very important to him. The son of Poseidon couldn't imagine living without his best friend.
He hoped everything would go well.
Unaware of Percy's worries, Ikki looked out the window with a somewhat vacant expression.
He was thinking about the decision to leave his other friends at Camp Half-Blood; that was the ideal situation. He would probably end up fighting with the gods because of the huge threat he represented to them.
Unfortunately, he couldn't leave Percy at Camp Half-Blood; his friend was the one who had to deliver the master bolt.
In any case, Percy would be fine; he would make sure of that...
He also had a plan to avoid any trouble with the gods, but if it didn't work out, he was absolutely sure he could protect him.
"I'm starving, how about we grab a pizza before heading back to Camp Half-Blood later?" Ikki asked with sparkling eyes. It had been a few days since he had eaten anything; he was missing food.
"Good idea." Percy nodded with a smile. He was hungry and hadn't slept for at least a full day. Besides, with his mom safe and well, he was in a good mood.
"Alright. This time, you pay." Ikki said calmly, smiling.
"No problem." Percy pulled out the Lotus Hotel card they had won at the Lotus Hotel and Casino and displayed it with a mischievous grin.
Ikki just shook his head in amusement.
Looking at the green color of his card, Percy became thoughtful and said, "Although the green color is cool, I wish it were blue."
"You and your fascination with the color blue, let me borrow it for a second." Ikki said with an ironic smile, extending his hand.
"What are you going to do?" Percy asked, curious, as he handed the card to his best friend.
Ikki gave him a mysterious smile and didn't answer, but as soon as he took the card in his hand, he used a touch of magic on it.
A golden magical glow covered the card. It was a spectacular sight. Percy watched it with his bright sea-green eyes.
It was amazing.
"Here. This is my early birthday gift for you..." Ikki said, handing the card to the son of Poseidon with a small smile on his lips.
Percy took the card and looked at it. He couldn't help but smile excitedly as he said, "This is amazing! How did you do this?"
His card was the purest blue, similar to the sea he loved so much, with the perfect, realistic design of a shark and a badass trident next to it.
Hearing his friend's question, Ikki smiled playfully and said, "Magic."
"Magic? Okay... Aren't you ridiculously overpowered?" Percy couldn't help but say, his lips twitching at his friend's response.
He wasn't shocked, just a little surprised. The reason for this was that the son of Poseidon had grown tired of being amazed at everything Ikki did.
This mission made him realize that his best friend was simply an abnormal existence, a miracle maker. Honestly, if his friend said he was an alien from a planet full of strong and stolen beings, he would believe it instantly.
"Actually, I don't think of myself as a strong person." Ikki answered honestly, resting his hand on his chin thoughtfully.
"Oh, really?" Percy looked at his friend strangely and said sarcastically, "In which part do you think you're weak? Maybe the part where you killed Hades' Furies twice, or maybe the part where you killed Medusa or the part where you defeated two gods?"
"Okay, I get it, I'm overpowered. Happy now that I admitted it?" Ikki said, rolling his eyes, while smiling sarcastically.
Percy nodded in satisfaction and put his Lotus Hotel card away, saying, "Yeah, overpowered would be the right word though..."
Ikki thought of something and smiled briefly before saying, "If you want, when we get back to camp, I can teach you how to fight unarmed and how to use a sword."
Percy's eyes lit up; he didn't even need to think and accepted without hesitation! During this mission, he realized how important strength was, and who better than the most powerful demigod alive to teach him? But he thought of a fun idea to accept.
Taking the role of a student full of respect and admiration for his teacher, he said, "I'm counting on you, professor."
Ikki realized his joke and played along, analyzing his nonexistent beard before speaking in a wise tone, "Don't worry, my dear student. I will teach you everything I can. The rest will depend on your effort!"
This was a funny scene because the Greek King of Heroes was practically a child perfectly pretending to be a wise old man, and the son of Poseidon was terrible at acting.
The two of them exchanged looks before laughing.
"Dude, you're really terrible at lying or acting." Ikki said amused.
"What? Nobody ever told me that. Wow... You hurt my feelings, Superman." Percy said, trying to look shocked. But he failed miserably, and at the end of his words, he pretended to look sad and put his hand on his heart.
"You don't need to be so dramatic." Ikki said, rolling his eyes, with a playful smile on his lips.
"Dramatic? Like... when you go shopping with your mom?" Percy suggested mischievously.
Ikki shuddered and said, "I'm not dramatic. I have a certain trauma..."
"What trauma?" Percy asked, blinking in surprise. His friend had never talked about this.
"There was this time in my childhood when my mom tried to dress me as a girl. She insisted on it a lot. In the end, I made her give up. But to this day, she still tries, and I'm kind of cautious about it." Ikki said, looking a bit pale.
This happened when he was three years old. Honestly, his mother was still a bit obsessed with it; she had tried to dress him as a girl several times over the years and was very stubborn about giving up. She even pretended to cry sadly once, to use his guilt as a way to get what she wanted.
She almost succeeded. Fortunately, there were many ways to make her give up, and after several years, he managed to figure out how to handle it easily. Still, he remained cautious. After all, his mother was completely unpredictable, and one could never imagine what she might do.
Upon hearing his friend's words, Percy shuddered. It was no wonder his friend was so cautious about this; he looked at Ikki, really with his unnaturally beautiful black hair, so long it reached the end of his back, combined with his extremely handsome face. If he dressed as a woman, wouldn't he be perfect...?
Eh...? His heart raced a bit. He shook his head negatively, removing the image from his mind. Speaking of mothers, Percy missed his.
"I'm lucky my mom never tried something like that." Percy nodded, mentally thanking the fact that his mother never tried to dress him as a girl. He looked at his friend with sympathy and said, "You've been through some tough times..."
"Don't even get me started..." Ikki sighed.
"Now I miss my mom..." Percy said, smiling.
"Later, after we eat something, I'll take you there, before we head back to Camp Half-Blood..." Ikki said with a calm smile, he kind of missed his own mom too.
"That's a great idea." Percy nodded, with the same crooked smile characteristic of him on his lips. He said with a little envy, "I wish I could teleport anywhere I want; it would just be even cooler if I could do it through water."
"Well, maybe. If you manage to master your demigod powers, maybe you can teleport through steam? Or through water molecules in the atmosphere?"
Ikki said thoughtfully. Theoretically, it was possible if Percy reached the level of turning his body into steam or water molecules to travel through the atmosphere.
"That would be amazing." Percy said with a huge smile on his face.
The two continued chatting casually as if they weren't heading to meet the Gods to prevent a war from happening. Truly, the carefree nature of both of them was something they had in common.
The taxi continued quickly toward Manhattan. After a quick thirty-minute trip, Ikki and Percy entered the Empire State Building. The two of them walked to the desk guard.
As soon as they arrived in front of him, Percy said, "Six hundredth floor..."
The guard was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the cover. Percy wasn't too fond of books, especially fantasy books, but he thought that maybe the book was good since the guard took some time to raise his eyes.
"That floor doesn't exist, kid." The guard said lazily.
"We both need an audience with Zeus." Ikki said calmly.
The guard gave a vague smile and said, "What...?"
"Don't play deaf. You heard me." Ikki answered calmly.
The two boys looked at the guard, who shifted from his lazy demeanor to a more professional one. Percy was almost concluding that the guard in front of them was just an ordinary mortal, and it was better for him and his friend to run before he called the straitjacket patrol.
Fortunately, his imagination couldn't have been more wrong. The guard said professionally, "No appointment, no audience, boys. Mr. Zeus doesn't see anyone without prior notice..."
"Oh, I think he'll make an exception." Percy said, taking his backpack off and opening the zipper.
The guard looked at the metal cylinder inside without understanding what it was for a few seconds.
Then his face turned pale.
"This is..."
"Yes, it is." Percy answered, observing the shocked look of the guard, saying, "I'm sure Zeus would be more than willing to make an exception."
"Yes. To be sure, would you like to hold it?" Ikki asked, looking at the guard calmly.
"No! No!" The guard hastily stood up from his chair, fumbled around the desk looking for a keycard, and handed it to Ikki. Then he said, "Insert it into the security slot. Make sure no one else is in the elevator with you two."
Ikki and Percy did what the guard said. As soon as the elevator doors closed, the King of Greek Heroes inserted the card into the slot. The card disappeared, and a new button appeared on the panel, a red button that said 600.
The two looked at each other; they had finally reached the final stage of the mission.
It was just a matter of pressing the button, and they would go to Olympus, where the Gods' Annual Meeting was probably happening or hadn't started yet, since the sun had risen less than two hours ago.
Ikki pressed the button, and they both waited. Music was playing. "Raindrops keep falling on my head..."
Finally, plim. The doors opened.