Chapter 177 - Thalia torches New England.

One more time, the Hunters broke camp as quickly as they'd set it up. Artemis stared into the east like she was expecting something. Bianca sat off to one side, talking with Nico. Drako could tell from his gloomy face that she was explaining her decision to join the Hunt.

Drako had to agree with Percy in one thing, her decision was selfish. She was abandoning her little brother, who doesn't have anyone to rely on. But Drako also understood that she is a little girl, and she doesn't realize the real consequences of her actions.

Finally, the sky began to lighten. Artemis muttered, "About time. He's so lazy during the winter."

Drako, who was at her side, asked. "You're, um, waiting for sunrise?"

"For my brother. Yes."

Drako didn't want to be rude. He knew the legends about Apollo -or sometimes Helios- driving a big sun chariot across the sky. But he also knew that the sun was really a star about a zillion mile away. He knew that some myths were real, but still… with so many sun gods, he didn't see how Apollo could drive the sun.

"It's not exactly as you think," Artemis said like she was reading his mind.

"Oh, okay. So, it's not like he'll be pulling up in a—"

There was a sudden burst of light on the horizon—a blast of warmth.

"Don't look," Artemis advised. "Not until he parks."

Parks?

Drako saw that Artemis was averting her eyes, but he didn't need to. The skill [Branch Destruction] is the best armour against temperature, and there wasn't any fire stronger than the flame of Surtr.

To Drako's surprise, what he saw was a Red Maserati Spyder. It was so awesome it glowed. Then he realized it was glowing because the metal was hot. The snow had melted around the Maserati in a perfect circle, which explained why Drako was now standing on green grass and his shoes were wet.

The driver got out, smiling. He looked about seventeen or eighteen. This guy had sandy hair and outdoorsy good looks. This guy was as tall as Drako, and his smile was bright and playful. The Maserati driver wore jeans and loafers and a sleeveless T-shirt.

He was Apollo, the next chief god of Greek Mythology.

"Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."

"He's the sun god," Drako said.

"That's not what I meant." Thalia turned a bit to look at Drako. "But you don't lose to him."

Drako shrugged. He was not competing with anyone.

"Little sister!" Apollo called. If his teeth were any whiter, he could've blinded all of them without the sun car. "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!"

Artemis sighed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister."

"Hey, I was born first."

"We're twins! How many millennia do we have to argue—"

"So, what's up?" He interrupted. "Got the girls with you, I see. You all need some archery tips?"

He looked at Drako, and his eyes opened wide for a moment.

"Woah, so you're that kid. Hey, you have potential, you know? Do you want some tips, too?"

Drako raised his eyebrow, surprised at Apollo's attitude.

The god came to Drako's ear and whispered, "Watch what you're doing to my sister, it wouldn't be the first time I killed one of her suitors."

Drako raised the other eyebrow, now he was even more surprised. Mind you, he was not afraid. Drako doubted that the god could actually kill him.

"I'd like to see you try."

Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favour. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."

"Sure, sis! Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."

"These demigods will also need a ride," Artemis said, pointing to Percy's group. "Some of Chiron's campers."

"No problem!" Apollo checked on them. Then, he turned to Thalia. "Let's see… Thalia, right? I've heard all about you."

Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."

"Zeus' girl, yes? Makes you my half-sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? Glad you are back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—"

"Brother," Artemis said. "You should get going."

"Oh, right." Then he looked at Percy Jackson, and his eyes narrowed. "Percy Jackson?"

"Yeah, I mean… yes, sir."

Apollo studied him, but he didn't say anything.

"Well!" he said last. "We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way—west. And if you miss it, you miss it."

Drako looked at the Maserati, which would seat two people max. There were about twenty of us.

"Cool car," Nico said.

"Thanks, kid," Apollo said.

"But how will we all fit?"

"Oh." Apollo seemed to notice the problem for the first time. "Well, yeah. I hate to change out of sports-car mode, but I suppose…"

He took out his car keys and beeped the security alarm button.

Chirp, chirp.

For a moment, the car glowed brightly again. When the glare died, the Maserati had been replaced by a big bus.

"Right," He said. "Everybody in."

Zoë ordered the Hunters to start loading. She picked up her camping pack, and Apollo said, "Here, sweetheart. Let me get that."

Zoë recoiled. Her eyes flashed murderously.

"Brother," Artemis chided. "You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."

Apollo spread his hands. "Sorry. I forgot. Hey, sis, where are you off to, anyway?"

"Hunting," Artemis said. "It's none of your business."

"I'll find out. I see all. Know all."

Artemis snorted. "Just drop them off, Apollo. And no messing around!!"

"No, no! I never mess around.��

Artemis rolled her eyes, then looked at the Hunters. "I will see you by the winter solstice. Zoe, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do well. Do as I would do."

Zoë straightened. "Yes, my lady."

Artemis knelt and touched the ground as if looking for tracks. When she rose, she looked troubled. "So much danger. The beast must be found."

She sprinted toward the woods and melted into the snow and shadows.

Apollo turned and grinned, jangling the car keys on his finger. "So," he said. "Who wants to drive?"

.............................................…..

The Hunters piled into the van. They all crammed into the back so they'd be as far away as possible from Apollo and the rest of the highly infectious males, they didn't let Drako sat there. Bianca went with them, leaving her little brother to hang in the front with the boys, which seemed cold to Drako, but Nico didn't seem to mind.

The only exception for the girls was Thalia, who went with and sat with Drako.

"This is so cool!" Nico said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat. "Is this really the sun? I thought Helios and Selene were the sun and moon gods. How come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and Artemis?"

"Downsizing," Apollo said. "The Romans started it. They couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they laid off Helios and Selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions. My sis got the moon, I got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least I got this cool car."

"But how does it work?" Nico asked. "I thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!"

Apollo chuckled and ruffled Nico's hair. "That rumour probably got started because Artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. Seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. You want to talk astronomy? Bah, what fun is that? You want to talk about how humans think about the sun? Ah, now that's more interesting. They've got a lot riding on the sun… er, so to speak. It keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. This chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun, kid. It's as old as Western Civilization. Every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. The chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. Make sense?"

Nico shook his head. "No."

"Well then, just think of it as a really powerful, really dangerous solar car."

Drako plunged into his thoughts. This chariot was very powerful, probably one of the most powerful weapons of the god Apollo. If Drako were to compare it to Golden Drive at full power... he felt his Noble Phantasm was inferior.

"Can I drive?" Nico asked.

"No. Too young."

"Oo! Oo!" Grover raised his hand.

"Mm, no," Apollo said. "Too furry."

He looked past Drako and focused on Thalia.

"Daughter of Zeus!" he said. "Lord of the sky. Perfect."

"Oh, no." Thalia shook her head. "No, thanks."

"C'mon," Apollo said. "How old are you?"

Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."

It was sad, but true. She'd been turned into a tree when she was twelve, but that had been seven years ago. So she should be nineteen, if you went by years. But she still felt like she was twelve, and if you looked at her, she seemed somewhere in between. The best Chiron could figure, she had kept aging while in tree form, but much more slowly.

Apollo tapped his finger to his lips. "You're fifteen, almost sixteen."

"How do you know that?"

"Hey, I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You'll turn sixteen in about a week. But, since you are now a Hunter, it doesn't really matter. Which means you're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!"

Thalia shifted her feet nervously. "Uh—"

"I know what you're going to say," Apollo said. "You don't deserve an honour like driving the sun chariot."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a brief trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus' daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."

Apollo laughed good-naturedly. The rest of them didn't join him.

Thalia tried to protest, but Apollo was absolutely not going to take "no" for an answer. He hit a button on the dashboard, and a sign popped up along the top of the windshield. Drako had to read it backwards. He was pretty sure it said "WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER."

"Take it away!" Apollo told Thalia. "You're gonna be a natural!"

....................................…

Drako had to admit he was a little worried. Thalia had no knowledge of how to drive a car, much less this solar-powered chariot. This wasn't the time to cause a not-so-natural disaster in the United States.

"Speed equals heat," Apollo advised. "So start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up."

Thalia gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles turned white. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"What's wrong?" Drako asked her.

"Nothing," she said shakily. "N-nothing is wrong."

It was obvious that something was wrong.

She pulled back on the wheel. It tilted, and the bus lurched upward so fast that Percy fell back and crashed against something soft.

"Ow" Grover said.

"Sorry."

"Slower!" Apollo said.

"Sorry!" Thalia said. "I've got it under control!"

No, you don't.

Drako looked out of the window, he saw a smoking ring of trees from the clearing where we'd taken off.

"Thalia," he said, "lighten up on the accelerator."

"I've got it, Drako," she said, gritting her teeth. But she kept it floored.

"Loosen up," he told her.

"I'm loose!" Thalia said. She was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood.

"We need to veer south for Long Island," Apollo said. "Hang a left."

Thalia jerked the wheel and again threw Percy into Grover, who yelped.

"The other left," Apollo suggested.

…

She had mistaken right with left right now?

Drako made the mistake of looking out of the window again. They were at aeroplane height now—so high the sky was starting to look black.

"Ah…" Apollo said, and Drako got the feeling that he was forcing himself to sound calm. "A little lower, sweetheart. Cape Cod is freezing over."

Thalia tilted the wheel. Her face was chalk-white; her forehead beaded with sweat.

Something was definitely wrong.

The bus pitched down, and somebody screamed. Now, they were heading straight toward the Atlantic Ocean at a thousand miles an hour, the New England coastline off to their right. And it was getting hot in the bus.

Apollo had been thrown somewhere in the back of the bus, but he started climbing up the rows of seats.

"Thake the wheel!" Grover begged him.

Drako frowned. If Apollo did not do something, there was a chance someone would die today.

"No worries," Apollo said. He looked plenty worried. "She just has to learn to—WHOA!"

Drako saw what he was seeing. Down below them was a little snow-covered New England town.

At least, it used to be snow-covered. As he watched, the snow melted off the trees and the roofs and the lawns. The white steeple on a church turned brown and started to melt.

Little plumes of smoke, like birthday candles, were popping up all over the town. Trees and rooftops were catching fire.

"Pull up!" Drako yelled.

There was a wild light in Thalia's eyes. She yanked back on the wheel. As they zoomed up, Drako could see through the back window that the fires in the town were being snuffed out by the sudden blast of cold.

"There!" Apollo pointed. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, dear. 'Dead' is only an expression."

Thalia was thundering toward the coastline of northern Long Island. There was Camp Half-Blood: the valley, the woods, the beach. Drako could see the dining pavilion (it looked like that) and cabins and the amphitheatre.

"I'm under control," Thalia muttered. "I'm under control."

They were only a few hundred yards away now.

"Brake," Apollo said.

"I can do this."

"BRAKE!"

Thalia slammed her foot on the brake, and the sun bus pitched forward at a forty-five-degree angle, slamming into the Camp Half-Blood canoe lake with a huge FLOOOOSH!

Steam billowed up, sending several frightened naiads scrambling out of the water with half-woven wicker baskets.

(Naiads are daughters of the river gods, they are a type of Nymphs)

The bus bobbed to the surface, along with a couple of capsized, half-melted canoes.

"Well," said Apollo with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"