“I held out the painting of the cat and the snake.“It’s a cat and a snake,” Thoth said.Thank you, god of wisdom. You placed it for us to find, didn’t you? You’re trying to give us some sort of clue.”“Who, me?”Just kill him, Horus said.Shut up, I said.At least kill the guitar.”

“How do I defeat Apophis?”“I’m so glad you asked!” Thoth beamed at me with his multicolored eyes. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you.”I glanced at Walt. “Do you want to kill him, or should I?”

“If you’re listening to this, congratulations! You survived Doomsday.I’d like to apologize straightaway for any inconvenience the end of the world may have caused you. The earthquakes, rebellions, riots,tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, and of course the giant snake who swallowed the sun—I’m afraid most of that was our fault. Carter and I decided we should at least explain how it happened.”

“I sat up and the blankets fell away.I looked down and found I was wearing pokemon pajamas."Sadie,"I said,"I'm going to kill you."She batted her eyes innocently."But the street merchant gave us a very good deal on those.Walt said they would fit you."Walt raised his hand."Don't blame me,man.I tried to stick up for you."Bes snorted,then did a pretty good imitation of Walt's voice:"At least get the extra-large ones with Pikachu.”

“Hephaestus glowered up at us. “I didn’t make you, did I?”Uh,” Annabeth said, “no, sir.”Good,” the god grumbled. “Shoddy workmanship.”

“Who are you and why are you my cat?”

“You weren't able to talk sense into him?"Well, we kind of tried to kill each other in a duel to the death."I see. You tried the diplomatic approach.”