Act II - Heart Of The Ocean
Part I - So prepare for the coup of the century. Be prepared for the murkiest scam.
Grover was terrified of something behind him but Andy couldn't see what it was. She could hear it though, growling, coming for him.
"Have to get away! Have to warn them," Grover kept repeating. He dove behind a rack of wedding dresses.
The smell hit Andy like a wrecking ball—a sickening combination of wet sheep wool and rotten meat.
Grover trembled.
Then lightning flashed, the entire front of the store exploded and a monstrous voice bellowed, "MINE!"
It had only been three months since Andy had returned from camp, but it felt like a lifetime. She sat for breakfast with her mother, but didn't eat with as much enthusiasm as usual. She felt a strange urge to uncap Riptide; she missed all parts of that magical world, she missed her friends, she missed even Clarisse, and especially—
"What's wrong?" Her mother saw something in her face.
"I think Grover is in trouble," Andy admitted and then told Sally about her dream.
"I wouldn't be too worried, dear," Sally decided. "Grover is a big satyr. If there was a problem, I'm sure we would've heard from... camp," her shoulders tensed when she said it.
"What is it?"
"Nothing," Sally said, a little too fast. "Let's go out tonight. For dinner. You can take Tyson, I like him."
"Why are you changing the subject? What happened, mom?"
Sally twisted her hands. "I got a message last night, Andy, from Chiron."
"What did he say?"
"They're having some... technical issues."
"What does that even mean?"
"Oh, Andy, I am very sorry, alright, but you're gonna have to wait. It is time for school. Tyson will be waiting. Go."
Andy didn't want to leave like that, without an explanation, but it was clear her mom wouldn't tell her anything if she didn't cooperate.
As she stepped outside, she glanced at the brownstone building across the street. Just for a second, Andy saw a dark shape, a human silhouette against the brick wall, a shadow that belonged to no one.
Then it rippled and vanished.
Meriwether College Prep was definitely the weirdest school Andy had gone to. The classes weren't taken seriously, the teachers wore concert T-shirts to work, and the kids were all kinds of wrong.
P.E. came and the school bully, Matt Sloan, was ready to spread the hate. He started going around giving people wedgies, which was working fine for him, until he made the mistake of trying it on Andy's friend, Tyson.
Tyson was a homeless kid. If that wasn't enough to keep people away from him, there was also his appearance. He was six foot three and built like the Hulk, but he cried a lot and was scared of just about everything. His face was kind of misshapen and brutal looking and Andy could never look at him for more than five seconds. It sort of gave her a headache every time she tried. Once the other students discovered Tyson was a big softie despite his scary looks, they started to pick on him.
So, as expected, when Sloan touched him, Tyson freaked out and swatted him away a little too hard. Sloan fell on his back. "You freak!" he yelled. "Why don't you go back to your cardboard box?"
Tyson started sobbing, of course.
"Oi," Andy shouted. "Watch it, Sloan!"
Sloan sneered at her. "Why do you even bother, Jackson? You're not so bad. You could sit with us if you weren't always sticking up for that freak."
"He's not a freak!" Andy said, her facing turning red.
A bunch of big guys entered the gym and the teacher announced they would be playing with them—they were visitors that would be studying there soon or something. Andy didn't care, but Tyson mentioned they smelled funny. Everything seemed alright, until the so called visitors started to change, growing in size. Soon they were eight foot tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth and hairy arms.
The kids started screaming, including Matt Sloan, and ran out of there. The giants started throwing fireballs. Andy threw herself on her stomach. Tyson shouted something like, "Andy needs help," and jumped in front of her just as the monsters threw the fireballs. Somehow, he caught the fireballs with his bare hands as Andy watched in shock, and sent them back toward the monsters, making three of them disintegrate.
Then the bigger one came for revenge and shoved a fireball right at Tyson's chest. "No," Andy yelled, but it was too late. Tyson collapsed. The giant came towards Andy with a grin. She reached for Riptide, but no need. Suddenly the giant's body went rigid. His expression changed. He looked down and saw the knife in his chest then burst into a cloud of dust.
Anthony appeared—holding his Yankee cap—his face grimy and scratched. He took the knife and glanced at Andy, a wild look in his stormy-gray eyes. Just seeing him again after so long, Andy imagined herself hearing bells ringing. In reality, it was the sirens approaching: the gym was in flames.
"Anthony," she said. "What...?"
"No time to explain," he said pulling her up. "Let's go. And bring it," he added, pointing at Tyson who was trying to sit down. Andy took Tyson by the hand and followed Anthony outside. They hid in an dark alley. "Where did you find this thing?"
"He's my friend."
"How did you find it?"
"He has ears! Why don't you ask him?"
That surprised Anthony. "It can talk?"
"I talk," Tyson admitted. "Your hair's like corn." And he reached out his hand toward Anthony's head.
"Don't touch me," Anthony said, slapping Tyson's hand away.
"Anthony!" Andy exclaimed. She gave him a shove and went examine Tyson's hands. He was clear. There were no marks whatsoever. "Tyson... Your hands aren't even burned."
"Of course not," muttered Anthony, sounding offended. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with this around," and he waved at Tyson as if he was a piece of gum in the floor.
"Laistry-what?"
"They're a race of giant cannibals. Odysseus ran into them once. Now come on. We have to get out of here."
"I'm gonna be expelled, you know. Again."
"That's the least of your problems. Have you been having the dreams?"
"About Grover? Yeah," said Andy, who, at this point, didn't think Anthony was there because he was having dreams about her.
"Grover?" Anthony's face turned pale. "No, what about Grover?"
Andy told him as quick as she could. Then her hopes betrayed her. "What have you been dreaming about?"
The storm in his eyes stirred. "Camp. Big trouble at camp. I don't know what exactly, but something is definitely wrong. We need to go. Monsters have been chasing me all the way from Virginia. You must have been attacked a lot, too, no?"
"Not really," she said, disappointed with his answer.
"But..." then he glanced at Tyson. "The thing must have kept them away." Andy was about to snap at him, but he spoke first. "We don't have time for this. We'll talk in the taxi."
"What about Tyson? We can't just leave him. He'll be in trouble."
Anthony had a displeased look on his face. "Yeah. We can take it with us, then." He pulled a drachma from his pocket and said in Greek, "Stop, Chariot of Damnation." The coin disappeared from his hand and a gray car materialized before them. It was a taxi alright, a taxi drove by the Fates. "Three to Camp Half-Blood," Anthony said.
"Ach!" one of the Fates exclaimed. "We don't take his kind," she pointed a bony finger at Tyson.
"What is this?" Andy asked, indignantly. "Asshole Day?"
"Extra pay," Anthony promised and the Fates allowed them in. Andy had to sit in the middle because Anthony refused to be touched by Tyson.
Men!
The cap started moving like a Viking boat.
"We're gonna die," Andy commented.
"Don't worry," said Anthony, who sounded pretty worried. "The Gray Sisters know what they're doing."
"Yes, we are very wise," said one of them.
"We know things," another agreed.
"The location you seek," the third one said and was hit in the head by the others.
Andy frowned. "What? What location? I'm not currently seeking any—"
"Nothing," the third sister hushed her.
"Tell me," Andy demanded with narrowed eyes.
"We can't. The last time we told, it was horrible," said the first.
"But maybe we can give you a clue," said the second.
"30, 31, 75, 12," finished the third.
Andy wanted more information than that, but right then they arrived at Camp Half-Blood. When Andy looked up at Half-Blood Hill she saw, at the crest of the hill, a group of campers being attacked by two bronze bulls the size of elephants.
Andy and Anthony rushed to join their friends. Anthony went to distract one of the bulls while Andy tried to help Clarisse fight the other. But the bull crashed into Clarisse's shield and she went flying backward. Anthony tried to organized the heroes shouting commands. Andy lunged at the bull before her but it blew flames at her. She rolled aside, all the oxygen sucked out of her lungs, and her foot caught on something and it twisted her ankle. She screamed when she fell.
The bull charged straight to her. She heard Anthony call her name, but she couldn't get up.
"I, Anthony Chase, give you permission to enter camp," Andy heard him say, but didn't understand what it meant until she saw Tyson barreling toward her. He dove between Andy and the bull just as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm. The blast swirled around him but Tyson was not hurt. He balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face. He hit the bull so hard and so much that soon all that was left was a massive ball of bronze.
The other bull was taken care of by Clarisse—she impaled it through the back leg with a celestial bronze spear.
Andy was staring at Tyson. "You didn't die."
Anthony came forward and knelt beside her. He was shaking his head like he thought he'd done something wrong. "I had no choice," he muttered to himself. "I had to let him cross the boundary line."
"Let him? But—"
"Andy," he said, annoyed. "You obviously haven't bothered to look at it. I mean, really look at it. Ignore the Mist and try to see it."
Andy tried. It wasn't easy. Her head hurt. But then she saw his eye. One large, calf-brown eye, right in the middle of his forehead. "Tyson!" she exclaimed. "You're a... Cyclops?"
"A baby," Anthony said. "One of the homeless orphans. They're in almost all the big cities. They're... mistakes, Andy. Children of nature spirits and gods. Well, one god in particular. No one wants it. Clearly, it likes you though."
"But the fire—"
"Cyclopes," Anthony explained. "They work the forges of the gods. They are immune to fire."
Clarisse chose that moment to approach. "Damn, Jackson, look what you did," she said as if the attack had been Andy's fault. "Get off that skinny ass of yours and help us take the wounded to the Big House. Tantalus needs to be informed about this."
"Tantalus?"
"The activities director," she said, impatiently. How had Andy missed any of them?
"Chiron is the activities director."
Clarisse made a sour face. "Things have changed while you were gone."
"What do you mean?" Anthony asked. "What happened?"
"That happened," Clarisse snapped, pointing at Thalia's pine tree. Its needles were yellow and there was a huge pile of dead ones littered at the base. In the center of the trunk was a puncture mark oozing green sap. "The magical borders are failing because Thalia's tree is dying," she explained. "Someone poisoned it."
Chiron was at the Big House and when Tyson saw him, he froze and shouted, "Pony!" Chiron didn't like that at all.
Anthony rushed to hug his mentor. "What is happening?" His voice was shaky. "You're not leaving, are you?" Anthony wasn't looking so good. In a matter of seconds, his tree of a best friend was about to die and his second father was leaving him to deal with it. Andy felt so bad for him that she even forgot her hurt ankle.
"I've been fired," Chiron admitted. "Someone had to take the blame, I suppose. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."
"It was not your fault!" Anthony argued. "If someone—"
"Nevertheless," Chiron sighed, "some in Olympus do not trust me now, under the circumstances."
"What circumstances?" Andy asked.
Chiron's face darkened. "The poison used on Thalia's tree is something from the Underworld. Some venom even I have never seen. It must have come from a monster quite deep in the pits of Tartarus."
"Well, then, this is obviously Luke's fault." She tried not to blush when she said his name.
"Perhaps," Chiron said, "I'm being held responsible, I fear, because I did not prevent it and cannot cure it. The tree has only a few weeks left, unless..."
"Unless what?" Anthony asked, promptly.
"Nothing," Chiron said. "A foolish thought. The camp itself is dying. Only one source of magic would be strong enough to reverse the poison, and it was lost centuries ago."
"What is it? We'll go find it," Andy offered.
"I did not want you two to be here. But now you are, so you will stay. No one is leaving but me," he placed his hand over Anthony's shoulder. "Stay with her, Tony. Keep her safe. Remember the prophecy."
"I will."
"Swear you will keep her alive," Chiron insisted. "Swear it upon the River Styx."
"Hey, now," Andy said, uncomfortable. "Don't make him do that."
They weren't listening to her.
"I swear it upon the River Styx," said Anthony, as serious as the storm in his eyes. Thunder rumbled outside.
"Very well," Chiron seemed satisfied. "Perhaps my name will be clear and I'll return. Until then, I'll stay exiled."
And he left right when the campers were being called to the pavilion.
