Quick recap, Percy gets irritated by being called boss by a horse, saves a weird snake-cow-animal thing and then hides behind a column to eavesdrop on two pretty girls whilst spying on a little boy with his missing crush's baseball cap that somehow turns him invisible.

Okay, that sounded weird, he'll admit. But hey, it was life or death, okay? Some things can be excused if it's the end of the world at stake!

Little dramatic, but whatever.

The two pretty girls, Zoë and Bianca, had been arguing for a while before Bianca fell silent.

"You should tell Thalia the rest of your dream," she said.

"No. It would not help."

"But if your suspicions are correct about the General—"

"I have thy word not to talk about that," Zoë said, sounding anguished. "And we will not speak of the lines about the daughter of Morpheus, we will find out soon enough. Now come. Dawn is breaking."

Nico, who was in front of Percy, scooted away much quicker than Percy could.

Percy watched with panic-stricken eyes as Zoë stopped before she nearly ran into him. Her eyes narrowed, her hand creeping to her bow, but then Bianca interrupted, probably saving Percy's life, "The lights of the Big House are on. Hurry!"

Thankfully, Zoë opted to follow her.

Percy could imagine what Nico was thinking, stopping him from running after his sister and taking off the invisibility cap. "Wait."

Percy could feel himself shimmering into existence as Nico nearly slipped down the stairs, spinning around to face him. "Where did you come from?"

"I've been here the whole time."

He mouthed the word invisible to himself, in awe. "Wow. Cool."

Cue the sequence to a monumentally bad promise to make. If you guessed that he made a very impulsive promise to Nico that he'd protect his sister, you get a free cookie!

...as soon as they stock up on those.

He hopped onto Blackjack who was unrealistically conveniently up for a trip that would definitely char his brain-cells. But donuts exist for a reason, right? Plenty of incentive.

They flew for all about five minutes before landing on Chrysler Building, preparing to leap off before they ran into... an intermission, ah, of sorts. By that, he means that a vine curled around his leg, appropriately giving him a mini heart-attack; as a son of Poseidon, he'd never felt seaweed touch his foot but he imagined this was around a million times worse. Blackjack whinnied and panicked, tuckering anxiously. The realisation that these were grape vines dawned on Percy, who internally whined like a child having a fit.

"Going somewhere?" the one and only Dionysus asked.

He leant against the building with his feet levitating in the air, wearing his questionable choice of outerwear—a leopard skin warm up suit—and his black hair whipping around, making him look more like something a delusional person would see than a god, in Percy's opinion.

Ah, the respect Percy spread onto his breakfast toast.

God alert! Blackjack yelled, rather unnecessarily, in Percy's head. It's the wine dude!

Sighing exasperatedly, Mr. D said, "The next person, or horse, who calls me 'the wine dude' will end up in a bottle of Merlot!"

"Mr. D," Percy said, gathering all of his mental strength and all his united brain cells to keep his voice level, despite feeling the vines creeping further up his leg. "What do you want?"

"Oh, what do I want? You thought, perhaps, that the immortal, all-powerful director of camp would not notice you leaving without permission?"

"Well... maybe."

"I should throw you off this building, minus the flying horse, and see how heroic you sound on the way down."

Percy clenched his fists. He knew he should've kept his mouth closed, but at the moment his impulsive nature took over; besides, Mr. D was apparently about to kill him or slingshot him back to camp and both left a sour taste in Percy's mouth. "Why do you hate me so much? What did I ever do to you?"

The purple flame in his eyes seemed to shine brighter. "You're a hero, boy. I need no other name."

"I have to go on this quest! I've got to help my friends. That's something you wouldn't understand!"

Um, boss, Blackjack said, cantering nervously. Seeing as how we're wrapped in vines nine hundred feet in the air, you might want to talk nice.

Percy's eyes flickered toward the vines cooling tighter around his leg, and then to the white van that was driving further and further away, dangerously close to slipping away from his vision.

"Did I ever tell you about Ariadne?" Mr. D asked. "Beautiful young princess of Crete? She liked helping her friends, too. In fact, she helped a young hero named Theseus, also a son of Poseidon. She gave him a ball of magical yarn that let him find his way out of the Labyrinth. And do you know how Theseus rewarded her?"

The words 'I don't care!' were dancing on the tip of his tongue but he figured that wouldn't exactly make Mr. D finish his speech-better-left-a-soliloquy any faster.

"They got married," Percy said. "Happily ever after. The end."

Mr. D sneered. "Not quite. Theseus said he would marry her. He took her aboard his ship and sailed for Athens. Halfway back, on a little island called Naxos, he... What's the word you mortals use today?... he dumped her. I found her there, you know. Alone. Heartbroken. Crying her eyes out. She had given up everything, left everything she knew behind, to help a dashing young hero who tossed her away like a broken sandal."

"That's wrong," Percy said immediately, as if it were a reflex. "But that was thousands of years ago. What's that got to do with me?"

Mr. D regarded him coldly. "I fell in love with Ariadne, boy. I healed her broken heart. And when she died, I made her my immortal wife on Olympus. She waits for me even now. I shall go back to her when I am done with this infernal century of punishment at your ridiculous camp."

Percy stared at him, one minor detail not falling into place. "You're... you're married? But I thought you got in trouble for chasing a wood nymph—"

"My point is you heroes never change. You accuse us gods of being vain. You should look at yourselves. You take what you want, use whoever you have to, and then you betray everyone around you. So you'll excuse me if I have no love for heroes. They are a selfish, ungrateful lot. Ask Ariadne. Or Medea. For that matter, ask Zoë Nightshade."

"What do you mean, ask Zoë?"

He waved his hand dismissively, ignoring the question. "Go. Follow your silly friends."

The vines uncurled around his legs.

Percy blinked in disbelief. "You're... you're letting me go? Just like that?"

Dionysus held up a finger warningly. "A word of caution, however."

Caution, from Dionysus? Okay, this was definitely serious.

"That girl, the Morpheus-spawn," Mr. D said. "Keep an eye on her, I'd rather not deal with the mess that would come if something were to happen regarding her."

The way he worded it, it was hard to dissect whether he was talking about her doing something terrible or whether he was telling him to protect her; either way, the advice made Percy uneasy.

As if he'd detected that he'd said something a little too nice for the ranks of Dionysus, he added as a much more characteristic statement, "Mark my words, Son of Poseidon, live or die, you will prove no better than the other heroes."

With that, Dionysus snapped his fingers. His image folded up like a paper display with a pop and in front of Percy's very eyes, he disappeared, leaving a faint lingering scent of grapes that was quickly blown away by the wind.

Too close, Blackjack's voice said in his head.

Percy nodded, though a bunch of mangled thoughts spiralled around his head like hearts would surround a Cupid animation. Some about this less than smile warranting advice about Kia, some about Zoë's supposedly tragic past with heroes and it's paralleling to Ariadne's story, but mostly about how Dionysus hadn't even made much of a fuss about sending him back to camp. In Percy's mind, it made it a much more likely possibility that he'd die on this quest.

Damn his hero complex, because as soon as he thought of that, he also thought about how it could mean the others could die, too.

Setting his jaw in determination, he rolled back his shoulders and lightly nudged Blackjack with his knee. Forcing a light-hearted tone, he said, "Come on, Blackjack. I'll buy you some donuts in New Jersey."

Aaaand the quest starts! I'm kind of excited because I have a lots of ideas regarding how Percy and Kia's friendship will progress. If you're confused about anything, please comment or inbox me if that makes you more comfortable. Thank you for reading!