WARNING: The following story is a recording of a digital transcription. The author has no claim for its authenticity, although if it is true (which the narrators assured me at the beginning that it is), it is a rather hard-to-believe story. At some parts, the audio quality was poor; whether it was because the narrator at that point dropped it in a pit full of hissing snakes (judging by the noise in the background) or a Chimera or a bau has been chasing the narrators, or one of the narrators has zapped some certain others so those parts represent the author's best guesses. There has been some cursing and swearing in foreign languages—Egyptian, Latin, Modern Greek, and Ancient Greek—among the slapping, kicking, and hitting. The author has very sparingly included these actions and foul manner to give you, the reader an idea of how much they quarrel with each other. Most background noises except for those in English (other than cursing and swearing and such) have not been transcribed in this story, with the exception of noises such as laughing, snorting, and the general sneezes and coughs, although those were not terribly necessary. Thank you for your consideration. The author hopes that you enjoy the crazy story.
Chapter I
Sadie
Preface
First off, we want to guarantee you that this is a true event. As preposterous as it may seem, all of the proceedings that are mentioned actually happened.
Percy's saying that I really should stop loitering and get on with the story already (he's sounding like me, actually, except that I usually address Carter that way) but I guess that he's right—he's much more convincing than Carter the chicken warrior. So I think I'm going to start when I blew up half of Manhattan.
"~*~*~*~*~"
Oh, the day started normally enough. With Apophis vanquished, everything was at its ordinary state—that is, as ordinary as you can get when you're an Egyptian magician.
"Hey, Felix!" I called.
"Yeah?" he answered, pausing in the middle of a spell.
"No more penguins," I said.
Felix looked incredibly disappointed. "Aw…"
Truth to be told, I did not like penguins anymore—after one of the Adele penguins that Felix summoned pooped on my bed.
That's when my excuse of a brother skidded in. He was drenched in water from head to toe.
"What was it this time?" I asked, annoyed by the dripping 'plip, plop, plip, plop' on the floor. "Did you just happen to take a shower while forgetting to take off your clothes, or did you 'accidentally' fall into the river again?"
Jaz smiled. "You mean the time when the Emperor penguin—" she threw a look over her shoulder to glance at a blushing Felix, "—pushed Carter into the East River?"
"That's the one," I agreed.
"It was an accident!" Carter pouted. I was positive that he did not know how much he looked like a whining kindergartner.
[Ow! Don't kick me, it was true! Some guffaws in the background.]
"Well," he began. "I was pushed into the East River—"
"By a penguin?" I interjected.
"No! By a flying horse."
That sounded so incredibly dumb at the moment that I was doubling over with silent laughter. I heard Jaz's voice from far, far off from oblivion: "Sadie, are you alright? You're turning purple."
I couldn't say anything.
Carter waited until my laughter had sufficiently decreased enough for me to hear him, and then continued.
"So as I was saying, I was pushed into the East River by a flying horse."
"I still find that hard to believe," I loudly whispered to Jaz.
"There was this blond girl on the horse when I climbed out, and she started yelling at me about kidnapping three demigods of the Big Three—whatever that means. And then—"
"What's going on?" Bast asked, trotting into the room. I heard someone say that Sadie was turning purple."
"Yeah," Jaz said sincerely. "'S far as I know, Sadie was never a prune."
"Hey!"
Felix piped up. "Carter was talking about how a flying horse kicked him into the water—"
Bast got pale when she heard the words 'flying horse'.
"—and how a blond girl was on it and she told Carter that he had kidnapped three demigods of the Big Three—"
Bast's hair poofed up. "Did you say…" she slowly asked. "Three demigods of the 'Big Three'?"
"Yes," Felix nonchalantly answered.
"Oh, that's bad," Bast said. "Let's take a look outside."
"~*~*~*~*~"
It was just as Carter had described it—there was a girl saddling a… flying horse up while talking to another girl who was also blond.
"…Linen pajamas," Blond number one was saying. "Who wears linen pajama-ish clothes these days? Not to mention in a kidnapping mission."
The other girl tilted her head. "Like them?"
"Yes, exactly like them," Blondie said without turning around.
"You haven't looked yet," the other girl said placidly. "Unless you have eyes on the back of your head…"
"Shut up, Reyna," Blondie scowled.
The other girl chuckled. "Greeks," she muttered playfully. "You are so annoying, Annabeth."
"And Romans are so much better, aren't they?"
Reyna smiled. "I never said that."
"Again," Blondie—um, Annabeth—said exasperatedly, "shut up."
Bast frowned. "Since when did Greek and Roman demigods get along?"
"Since the Second Giant War ended," Annabeth grumbled. "If you ask me, it was a mistake. Now, what did you do to them? And who are you?"
Reyna rummaged around her backpack. "I've got the files here somewhere…"
I was horrified. "You have files? On who?"
"On you," Annabeth muttered. "Isn't that wonderful?"
"And you're such a bright ray of sunshine," Reyna said, still flipping through her pack.
Reyna had apparently found the file and withdrew her head from the backpack. She started flipping through the thick yellow folder. "Um… I presume that the girl with the combat boots—huh, I bet you that Thalia would've liked her."
"You're getting off track," Annabeth reminded her. "And, no bet. That's a one-hundred percent yes."
"Whoa, wait a second," I began. Of course, they ignored me. The nerve!
"Is Sadie Kane," Reyna said, poring over the files. "And the guy… what kind of person transforms into an avatar with a chicken's head?"
Carter groaned, his face bright red. Felix patted him comfortingly on the back—very much unlike him.
"Carter Kane, aren't you?" Reyna asked, raising an eyebrow at the penguin that was making a nest out of Carter's hair. Never mind about Felix not being Felix—that is just the sort of thing that Felix would do. Talk about a hopeless case—a combat magician that couldn't even get a lowly penguin that was an eighth of his size off of his head.
Annabeth waved aside Reyna impatiently. "Got it, got it, we don't need a whole biography on Egyptian magicians."
Reyna huffed, clearly annoyed.
Annabeth continued, obviously unaware of Reyna's expression. "And now, to the important issue, where in Styx did you take them?"
"Who are them?" Carter asked. Gosh, for a boy that has traveled the whole wide world with Dad and has learned so much about Egypt, he's pretty dang dumb at times.
Reyna coughed loudly. Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "You seriously don't know? Didn't I tell you, like, real loudly that I said that the children of the Big Three were kidnapped by a lot like you?"
"Um…" was all Carter had to say to that. I know, completely clueless.
Bast stammered, "But, but…"
That was very much unlike her.
"But what?" Annabeth peevishly snapped. "But what?"
"Aren't children, um, of the Big Three supposed, um, to have powers, um, greater that other, um, half-bloods?" Bast finished lamely.
Reyna edged away from Annabeth, who looked like she was about to explode—her face was as red from magma that spews out of an extremely lethal and dangerous volcano.
"Ah, Annabeth?" Reyna nervously said. "I'd, er, suggest that you don't blow up…"
Awkward silence. I groped for my staff in case anything bad happened, which I was sure will happen in one second.
Annabeth just kept as still as a statue.
Bast nudged me. "Is it just me, or is she crying?"
I looked closely. Sure enough, there were tears sparkling unhappily on her cheeks.
[Well, Annabeth, you should have kept your feelings to yourself at that time, then. Stop protesting, Wise Girl.]
"No, it's me too," I assured Bast.
Annabeth turned stiffly around. "You'd better come with us to Olympus."
Bast choked. "What? Zeus will blow us all up."
Reyna frowned at her. "No, he won't."
"Is Zeus nice?" Carter piped up. I groaned. I shouldn't have left Carter to make a stupid comment like that.
Annabeth looked at Reyna. "Well," she hesitantly began, a twinge of doubt entering her voice. "I… I guess it depends…"
"Like how?" Jaz asked skeptically.
Reyna flinched. "Like, when Jupiter isn't angry or cold at us demigods… which happens about once every billion years. I don't think that this is one of the times, but he won't blast you into a million pieces of sand or a billion fiery flames."
I wasn't reassured. This 'Zeus' person had to be nice to somebody. Right? When I saw the looks on Reyna and Annabeth's face, I wasn't sure that I wouldn't be a billion little particles of Sadie sand at the end of this.
"But what about his kids?" I pressed.
Annabeth cringed now. "Uh, like, not exactly… but sometimes… for instance—"
I didn't want to hear about this.
"Save it, please? For later?" I pleaded. "I think that we all get the point."
Annabeth looked relieved to be able to worm out of the situation. "All right, get on."
I blinked. There were about five of us. Only four flying klepto horses. "How will we all fit?"
Annabeth cursed loudly. "I told Jason to bring the chariot! He was supposed to be here, like, ten minutes ago."
Reyna rolled her eyes. "Leave it to Sparky to mess everything up," she said. One time, he forgot to come to dinner. Lupa almost shredded him to bits for missing evening sacrifices."
At about the same time she said that, Annabeth yelped as a guy that was lugging a wooden box on wheels behind him crashed into her. I presumed that he was 'Jason'.
"Hey, Reyna," he greeted Reyna. He then looked around, confused. "Where's Annabeth?"
"You're sitting on her!" Reyna and I scowled at him.
There was a sound like a duck getting trampled underneath the guy.
"I'm what?" he asked. What, did he have hearing problems?
Reyna stomped right to his face. "You. Are. Sitting. On. Annabeth. Chase." She enunciated each word slowly and clearly.
"I'm what?"
Reyna pushed Jason (and hard) off of Annabeth. She reappeared, looking like she had her face smashed into concrete. "I'm—I'm…"
"No, you're not," Reyna said.
"Y—y—" Annabeth started to say. Then, she collapsed.
"Oh, great job," Reyna said.
"Um, hellllloo?" I said. "We're still here!"
Reyna wordlessly lugged the chariot towards the four flying horses, attached it, and put Annabeth on it. She gestured with her hand for me and the others to get on. "We don't have all day."
"Are the pegasi strong enough?" Carter uncertainly asked. What the heck are 'pegasi'?
Reyna looked at him as if he were crazy. She shoved the person who sat on Annabeth onto the chariot and got on herself. She lashed the horses, and they took off. I had to grab onto the railings to stop myself from falling off. I felt like I was going to throw up. I was sure that my face had turned as green as green could get.
[Stop laughing, chicken man, as I recall, you weren't much better.]
"Please tell me we're not going into Manhattan," Jaz whispered. "Do not tell me that."
Jason arched an eyebrow at Jaz. "What's so wrong about Manhattan?"
Jaz frowned. "Apparently, there are some 'problems' in Manhattan. I don't know what." She looked at Bast.
"Exactly where we are going to," Bast said nervously. "Olympus."
"~*~*~*~*~"
That was rather unexpected. "We're what?"
Bast replied, "Amos told you about how Manhattan had its own problems, right?"
I thought about it. When I first came to Brooklyn House, Amos told me that Manhattan had its own problems. And then, Carter had told me that he had seen flying horses. I had laughed in his face when he told me that, but I thought it over again.
"Yeah," I said after a long time.
"The Greek gods," Bast said. "That's the problem."
"Oh."
The pegasi neighed.
"We're almost there," Annabeth said, having apparently woken up.
Reyna steadied the pegasi to a halt at the entrance to the… what do you New Yorkers call it? Oh, yes, the 'Empire State Building'. I should've known.
"That's Olympus?" Carter asked. "The Empire State Building is Olympus? Is this some kind of joke?"
"No," Reyna said. She walked right in, followed by Jason. Annabeth gestured for us magicians to get in. "Well? What are you waiting for?"
I hesitantly stepped in.
Reyna was arguing with the lobby person who was at the counter. Annabeth put a hand on her shoulder and flicked the doorman a card. He read it, and nodded. "Elevator on the right. Here's the key card."
"How did she do that?" I asked Reyna. She grinned. "Ah, Annabeth did a favor with Percy by saving Olympus a couple years ago. In return, she got appointed as the official Architect of Olympus. So technically, except when the gods went silent, she has unlimited access to Olympus."
Annabeth ushered us into the elevator and inserted the key card in a slot. A new button appeared, a red one that read: "600".
"There are only 102 floors—" Carter began.
"In the mortal Empire State Building," Annabeth tiredly said. "We are going to Olympus's floor. What did you expect; we would climb all the way up to the clouds?"
We spent the rest of the elevator ride in silence, which I must say took forever. And the music was terrible as well—did these Olympian gods really like "So Yesterday" music? I was liking the Greek and Roman gods less and less.
The elevator gave a pleasant ding and the doors opened. I almost had a heart attack. We were floating about a million miles into the air—the only walkway we had was a polished marble path.
"You are not seriously expecting me to cross the chasm on a marble walkway that is suspended a billion miles in midair."
Jason caught the look on my face, and Reyna intervened. "You know who you look like at this moment?" she chuckled. "And don't worry, it's safe."
Carter studied me. "What do you look like…? A frog that has undergone plastic surgery," he decided.
I gave him a shove. "Shut up!"
"No, no," Reyna said. "You look like Thalia when she is on a very high cliff."
I was confused. "Why? And who is Thalia?"
Jason got a really stony look on his face. Annabeth swiveled and glowered at me. I got a feeling that I had just made matters personal.
"Never mind, very courteous people," I muttered. "Don't mind me; I'm just an innocent bystander."
Annabeth turned back towards the front and didn't say anything for a while. Jason walked with a heavier gate, his shoulders drooped.
Reyna fell in pace with me. "Oh, don't mind them," she said lightly. "Annabeth is still sore from losing Percy for a second time, and Jason… well, he was separated from Thalia when he was two."
A nagging suspicion tugged at the corner of my mind. "Separated," I mused. "Brother and sister?"
"Yep," Reyna sighed. "Precisely. So you can guess why Jason is acting a bit… downcast. Yeah, that's the word."
"And Annabeth?" I asked.
Reyna frowned at that. "She never told me. She gave Jason a very vague hint when Juno, also known as Hera, transferred him to Camp Half-Blood, and the very least I could figure out is that Thalia has something to do with a pine tree that is at the borders of Camp Half-Blood, and Annabeth had something to do with it. In fact, I don't think she's told anyone what had happened since Percy first went to the Greek camp."
I made a mental note to interrogate Annabeth as soon as we were alone. "So the Greek camp is…?"
"Camp Half-Blood," Reyna replied. "There's another one all out west in Frisco—"
"Frisco?" I queried.
"San Francisco," Reyna said. "It's basically another sanctuary for demigods—I'll tell you what demigods are later—but it's a Roman version. It's way more strict then the Greek camp, but it all depends on whether your parent is a Greek version of a god—like Zeus—or a Roman version—like Jupiter. You understand?"
"I understood about fifty percent of it," I said, a little disappointed that I hadn't understood more.
"That's good. That's good," Reyna sighed. "Most people don't understand ten percent."
"Are you saying that just to make me feel better?" I demanded.
"No," Reyna said. "Why would I?"
Annabeth paused under a set of gleaming bronze and gold doors.
"Made of Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold," she explained noticing our—by "our", I mean Carter, Jaz, Felix, and I—dumbstruck expressions. "It took ages to mine that much bronze and gold—not to mention forging it."
This time, I understood about a millionth of a percent. "Huh?"
"It's not important," Annabeth said. "What is important is that you be respectful to the gods all times. They tend to get aggravated very easily, if you know what I mean. And there is also those two major Egyptian gods—what are their names—Horus and Isis."
She pushed open the doors and I almost got another heart attack.
Twelve humongous adults were sitting on these equally colossal thrones. The gods who had inhabited our heads for a time, a.k.a. Horus and Isis were also grown in size and sitting on simple marble guest thrones. Carter managed to stammer out: "W-wha-what?"
I wasn't particularly sure if that scored him any points with the assembled gods, and their next action proved that my thinking was correct.
[Oh, save it, Carter, your turn will come soon enough! Stop pouting!]
Every set of eyes turned to Carter. He quailed under the looks that twelve of the fourteen super beings sent to him.
Bast nervously twittered. "Long time no see, Zeus. I thought that after the Treaty of—"
The man in the pinstriped suit stood up. "Yes," he said brusquely. "I know, Bast. But considering that my daughter is on the edge of disappearing off the face of the earth while not in human state for the second time in a decade—"
He threw a nasty look at an oily looking chap that was slouching on an obsidian throne, who played all innocent.
"—some… revisements have been made, with, of course, the consent of Horus and Isis. And, of course, because of the dangers posed to the sons of my brothers."
The two gods that had not sent icy looks towards Carter's way—Horus and Isis—didn't look happy at the prospect.
"I told you, Father, that I could've gone looking for them," Jason grouched. "But why wouldn't you listen? Thalia's my sister. I can't let her escape from my grasp again!"
That officially proved it.
Zeus's eyes flashed. "And lose you in the process?" he questioned.
Horus stood up. "Zeus, I cannot stress enough that the House of Life has already turned to our side—they re-opened the path of the Egyptian gods, and are on extremely good terms with us. It is unlikely that they have 'kidnapped' your children."
"And where is the Snake of Chaos?" one of the women questioned. Annabeth and Reyna both groaned, "Mother!"
"Banished to deep in the Duat," Isis answered. "I keep on telling you that some Greek or Roman foe captured your children."
"Then how come I sensed some Egyptian magic lingering where I last saw Percy?" a guy in a Tommy Bermuda shirt and khaki pants challenged. "Why did Artemis find the remnants of a ceramic shabti near where her lieutenant was last seen? Why did Hades find a demon in his realm? What do you have to prove that the House of Life turned against you and kidnapped our children? And most importantly, why did they do it?"
The goddess in a silvery outfit scowled. "It was made of red stone," she added. "And the next thing I learn, Thalia is gone." She glared at the oily dude. He shrugged. "I have nothing to do with it, Artemis, I swear on the River Styx!"
Thunder boomed.
Jaz hesitantly raised her hand. "But… but, what if this person that kidnapped your kids was a Greek or Roman, but they used Egyptian relics to make you believe that it was the House of Life?"
Horus spread his arms and clapped his hands. "There you go, Zeus."
Zeus's beard smoldered in rage. "And where did the Greek or Roman kidnapper get the relics and demons?" he quietly asked. "We are not compatible with hosting your gods, Horus. You know that. And we can certainly not make an Egyptian monster appear out of thin air, nor make a shabti like you Egyptian magicians are capable of doing."
Nobody had an answer to that. I looked at Carter, and he shrugged.
The strangest thing happened next.
I've visited the Duat before, but this was nothing like it. For one, I was not a chicken with the head of me, and the next, I didn't sense the swirling currents that made the Duat up. Instead, everything went black. My knees buckled, and I sank through the confines of the night.
"~*~*~*~*~"
It's rather funny how easily you can forget a trip to Mummy Mountain, even if it's this spirit trip.
Although I was gratified that I wasn't a glowing chicken, it felt strange to be a complete human ba, something that I've only achieved once before. And now that I knew that a whole different race of gods existed, I wasn't even sure whether I should call myself a ba at this point.
At any rate, I was being tugged into the supposed 'mountain'. Obviously, that wasn't a good sign if some supernatural force was pulling me into a strange mountain that included the word 'Mummy' in it. I was sure that it didn't actually mean that there were any mummies in it, but one can never be too careful.
[See, I'm not as reckless as you think!]
I floated past corridors of rock inscribed with a weird language that looked suspiciously like a cross between English and Worm. Some of the letters were all curly, and it didn't help my growing feeling of discomfort—especially since the words were deeply etched red.
As I ventured deeper within the maze of rock, the more nervous I became. I silently passed several hundreds of the regular Egyptian demons and nasty monsters, but there were plenty that I haven't seen before—a huge giant with one, single, unblinking red eye there, another with a woman's head and two scaly snake trunks here. It was horrifying.
I shivered as I swept passed a black dog that made a skyscraper look small—how the mountain even managed to contain it, I don't know. And then, the most frightening thing that I saw in there was this lady with shimmering yellow snake eyes, holding two long, glowing green, bronze, knives, one of which was crooked. And if that wasn't enough, she had snake hair. Literally. But her lower half was disturbing. Instead of a regular human's—whoa, that sounded plain wrong. But you get the point.
She had dragon legs. And where the human torso met the scaly dragon legs was a bubbly surface. It made me want to throw up my breakfast, but I didn't have time to. A huge bear that was wearing Alcatraz sunglasses lashed out of the monster's waist, almost biting my nose off. Then, I remembered that I was only here in spirit, but still… ouch.
I was eager to move out of sight, and hurried past the mutated monster. Luckily, it didn't seem to notice me, but it tromped down the hallway, shaking the foundations of the dripping limestone rock.
After a few more hours of walking in impossible twisty directions, I reached a dead end that was so heavily inscribed with a haze of the strange language that you could barely make out what it used to say. Oh, and I didn't have to mention that all of the words were blood-red, did I?
So I was shocked when the wall shook and trembled. I heard a muffled sound like a despondent sigh behind it.
I pressed my misty ear against the wall of limestone.
"No luck," the same voice murmured. "It's as solid as ever."
"I still don't get how Kronos came back," another voice protested. "How in Hades did he rise from dust?" "It's supposed to be impossible. Any thoughts on that, Nico?"
"Nope," somebody else said. "Not a clue."
"But you're supposed to be an expert on death," the first voice teasingly said.
"I don't know how you can sound so lighthearted when you were bruising your knuckles on the solid wall just five seconds ago," the second voice said, "but along with that, we are imprisoned by the supposed-to-be-deceased Titan Lord of Time."
Who? My spirit self shivered nervously. Kronos, the Titan Lord of Time—I vaguely remembered something about what we learned in school, but after two years at teaching and training at Brooklyn House, I forgot all the obscure little tidbits of school. On a totally different criteria, I wondered how Liz and Emma were doing; the last time I saw them was when we were being chased by Bobby and Neckbutt. Um, correct that, Babi and Nekhbet.
The three anonymous people were talking again.
"Thalia, why couldn't you just bust us out of here? Or Percy?" the Nico person asked.
Okay, maybe not so anonymous. Thalia? Why did that word ring a bell in my head? Oh, maybe because Jason, Reyna, Annabeth, and Zeus were mentioning her a while ago.
But who was this Percy guy? I recalled Reyna saying something about Annabeth losing her boyfriend, so was that 'Percy' him? I could only wait and see.
But just as Thalia started to respond, I felt the currents of the Duat pulling on me. Maybe I really was a ba, but I couldn't feel it.
When I woke up, there were a bunch of people arguing over me. Carter was the first to notice that I was conscious.
"Sadie!" he cried. "Why the heck did you burn half of Manhattan down?"
"I-I d-did what? What did you say?"
Reyna propped me up. "Oh, Carter, don't be so hard on her, she just woke up from a three-day coma."
"Three days?" I asked, confused. The trip only seemed like a couple of minutes. How could I have been out for three days?
Reyna opened the curtains. Apparently, we were in a hotel—a rather nice one, at any rate. I looked outside and yelped.
I was staring at Central Park, but from the exact middle of it and beyond that point, I saw smoldering ruins. What? Was that me? Did I actually do that? The very thought was unimaginable.
Annabeth sighed. "In your coma, you started murmuring spells of some sort. Isis tried to stop you, but to no avail: in one colossal boom… well, we can fix it in a few months."
"Few months?" Reyna frowned.
"No," I said. "A few seconds."
"You're going to burn yourself up," Jaz warned, sensing what I was about to do.
I said, "Well, I'm responsible for this mess. It's only fair that I fix it."
I opened the window, letting a cool breeze waft in. I gathered all of my remaining magical reserves for the spell.
"Hi-nehm!" I commanded.
A golden hieroglyph flickered to life, floating on top of the palm of my hand. I gently blew it towards the direction of Central Park.
As soon as the hieroglyph reached its destination, it hovered for a few moments and disappeared with a pop. For a few scary seconds, nothing happened. Then, a golden light rippled further than the eye could see. In an instant, ashes flew together, seamlessly binding themselves into worn-down buildings, gradually rebuilding itself into the other half of Manhattan.
Instantly, after the job was done, my vision went fuzzy, and I blacked out—this time, dissolving into a nightmare that had a single, strange scythe fading in and out of reddish air, the confines of a weakening prison.
