Disclaimer: I don't own HOO/PJO
Gaia felt anger stir in her as she watched the demigods rush around in preparation for their quest. Like all of her emotions when she slept, it was vague and distant, like she was watching someone else feel it for her. With Valeria there to oversee the group, and with her having banned war between the two camps, her original plan would no longer work.
It had been easy to infect Leo, relatively weak mentally due to the trauma of his mother's death and his time on the streets, with the spirit of one of her dead servants. She had planned to have him fire on the Roman city, thus igniting a war and hopefully causing tension between the Seven, damaging their ability to fulfil their quest.
But Valeria was there and her presence stopped the spirit from attacking. It couldn't even stir from Valdez's subconscious, as the slightest movement would draw her attention. That, in turn, would lead to it being exorcised in short order, and likely she would check the other half-bloods for possession as well, not to mention putting safeguards against such things on them. Then Gaia would be without spies.
Still, she would make do. Even with the two camps united, her army still dwarfed them numbers-wise, and she had control of the Doors of Death, allowing her to revive them immediately if they were defeated.
She felt her other, Roman form, stir slightly in distress at her murderous thoughts, and it made her contemptuous. Terra, her Roman form, was a weakling, and Gaia despised her as fiercely as Athena loathed Minerva. Terra was 'Mother Nature', sweet and loving. Therefore, it was up to Gaia to avenge her child alone. At least it was relatively easy to suppress Terra.
"Wow." Luke's voice was awed as the Seven surveyed Georgia, where they had just arrived, less than two days after the Greeks had arrived at Camp Jupiter.
They had landed near the summit of a forested hill. A complex of white buildings, like a museum or a university, nestled in a grove of pines to the left. Below them spread the city of Atlanta—a cluster of brown and silver downtown skyscrapers two miles away, rising from what looked like an endless flat sprawl of highways, railroad tracks, houses, and green swathes of forest.
"It's gorgeous," Lena agreed.
"Ah, lovely spot." Coach Hedge inhaled the morning air. "Good choice, Valdez."
Leo shrugged. "I just picked a tall hill. That's a presidential library or something over there. At least that's what Festus says."
"I don't know anything about that!" Hedge barked. "But do you realize what happened on this hill? Frank Zhang, with your heritage, you should know!"
Frank flinched at suddenly becoming the centre of Hedge's attention. "I should?"
"A son of Ares stood here!" Hedge cried indignantly.
"I'm Roman…so Mars, actually," Frank corrected him weakly, as the others shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the treacherous god. As far as they knew, he and Athena were imprisoned in Tartarus, but everyone feared they would make a deal with Gaia to be released.
"Whatever!" Hedge snapped. "This was a famous spot in the American Civil War!"
"I'm Canadian, actually."
"Whatever! General Sherman, Union leader. He stood on this hill watching the city of Atlanta burn. Cut a path of destruction all the way from here to the sea. Burning, looting, pillaging—now there was a demigod!"
Frank inched away from the satyr. "Uh, okay."
Thalia and Luke exchanged quick looks. They were both worried that their group landing in a spot that had significant history in the Greco-Roman feud had bed omens. Still, there was no choice.
"Let's try not to burn down the city this time," Lena suggested. "And it's time to split up."
The coach looked disappointed. "All right. Where to?"
Thalia pointed toward downtown. "When in doubt, start in the middle."
Getting there was surprisingly easy. The three of them headed to the Carter Centre—and asked the staff if they could call a taxi or give them directions to the nearest bus stop.
One of the librarians, whose name was Esther, insisted on driving them personally. She was so nice about it, Thalia was sure that she was a monster in disguise; but Hedge pulled her aside and promised that Esther smelled like a normal human.
"With a hint of potpourri," he said. "Cloves. Rose petals. Tasty!"
Thalia decided to stay on her guard though. Just in case.
They piled into Esther's big black Cadillac and drove toward downtown. Esther was so tiny, she could barely see over the steering wheel; but that didn't seem to bother her. She muscled her car through traffic while regaling them with stories about the crazy families of Atlanta—the old plantation owners, the founders of Coca-Cola, the sports stars, and the CNN news people. She sounded so knowledgeable about the town that Thalia decided to try her luck.
Valeria had offered them one last clue, after all. Along with one of her father's pearls that let people breathe under water, which Thalia found more than a little bit nerve-wrecking.
"Uh, so, Esther," she said, "I've got a question for you. Salt water in Atlanta. What's the first thing that comes to mind?"
The old lady chuckled. "Oh, sugar. That's easy. Whale sharks!"
The two half-bloods exchanged wary looks.
"Whale sharks?" Frank repeated nervously. "You have those in Atlanta?"
"At the aquarium, sugar," Esther said. "It's very famous! Right downtown. Is that where you wanted to go?"
Thalia considered the question. She didn't know what an Ancient Greek sea god would be doing at a Georgia aquarium, but she didn't have any better ideas. And immortals were strange. Maybe he enjoyed the colours, or hanging out with his subjects or whatever. Either way, it was a place to start.
"Yes," she confirmed. "That's where we're going."
Esther dropped them at the main entrance, where a line was already forming. She insisted on giving them her cell phone number for emergencies, money for a taxi ride back to the Carter Centre, and a jar of homemade peach preserves, which for some reason she kept in a box in her trunk. Frank stuck the jar in his backpack and thanked Esther, who had already switched from calling him sugar to son.
As she drove away, Frank said, "Are all people in Atlanta that nice?"
Hedge grunted. "Hope not. I can't fight them if they're nice. Let's go beat up some whale sharks. They sound dangerous!"
They ended up standing beside a line, of all things. It was strange, and Thalia fidgeted, resisting the urge to just force her way through. She also avoided thinking about Jason, because she just didn't know what to think.
For so long, she had thought that he was dead. He was frozen in her mind as a two-year-old eating a stapler. And yet, he was a strong, accomplished demigod, only a few days away from turning fifteen. It made her heart ache. She wanted to reach out to him, but she feared rejection. What if he hated her for not being with him, as she had promised to always be?
That was when a woman in a blue-and-green Georgia Aquarium shirt came up to them, smiling brightly.
"Ah, VIP visitors!" She had perky dimpled cheeks, thick-framed glasses, braces, and frizzy black hair pulled to the sides in pigtails, so that even though she was probably in her late twenties, she looked like a schoolgirl nerd—sort of cute, but sort of odd. Along with her Georgia Aquarium polo shirt, she wore dark slacks and black sneakers, and she bounced on the balls of her feet like she simply couldn't contain her energy. Thalia thought that her name tag read KATE, but you could never be sure, with dyslexia.
"You have your payment, I see," she said. "Excellent!"
"What?" Thalia asked, completely confused and immediately suspicious.
Kate scooped the three denarii out of Frank's hand. "Yes, that's fine. Right this way!"
She spun and trotted off toward the main entrance.
Thalia looked at Coach Hedge and Frank. "A trap?" she predicted grimly.
"Probably," Frank replied glumly. "Isn't everything?"
"Even tasty food," Thalia agreed. "Monsters are behind all these popular businesses. Explains so much. Gods, I hope Green Day aren't monsters."
"She's not mortal," Hedge said, sniffing the air. "Probably some sort of goat-eating, demigod-destroying fiend from Tartarus."
"I'll put money on that," Thalia nodded.
"Awesome." Hedge grinned his patented bloodthirsty smile. "Let's go."
Kate got them past the ticket queue and into the aquarium with no problem.
"Right this way." Kate grinned at the three of them, making Thalia shift warily. "It's a wonderful exhibit. You won't be disappointed. So rare we get VIPs."
"Uh, you mean demigods?" Frank asked.
Kate winked at him impishly and put a finger to her mouth. "So over here is the cold-water experience, with your penguins and beluga whales and whatnot. And over there…well, those are some fish, obviously."
For an aquarium worker, she didn't seem to know much or care much about the smaller fish. They passed one huge tank full of tropical species, and when Frank pointed to a particular fish and asked what it was, Kate said, "Oh, those are the yellow ones."
They passed the gift shop. Frank slowed down to check out a clearance table with clothes and toys.
"Take what you want," Kate told him.
Frank blinked. "Really?"
"Of course! You're a VIP!"
Frank hesitated. Then he stuffed some T-shirts in his backpack.
"Dude," Thalia hissed, "what the heck are you doing?"
"She said I could," Frank whispered. "Besides, I need more clothes. I didn't pack for a long trip!" He added a snow globe to his stash, which didn't seem like clothing to Thalia. Then Frank picked up a braided cylinder about the size of a candy bar.
He squinted at it. "What is—?"
"Chinese handcuffs," Thalia explained.
Frank, who was Chinese Canadian, looked offended. "How is this Chinese?"
"I don't know," she shrugged. "That's just what it's called. It's like a gag gift."
"Come along, everyone!" Kate called from across the hall.
"I'll show you later," Thalia promised.
Frank stuffed the handcuffs in his backpack, and they kept walking.
They passed through an acrylic tunnel. Fish swam over their heads, and Thalia felt irrational panic building in his throat. 'Keep it together, Thalia' she instructed herself. 'Don't think about the fact that you can barely swim and Poseidon doesn't like you. That doesn't matter right now. The real threat is Kate.
Hedge had already detected that she wasn't human. Any minute she might turn into some horrible creature and attack them. Unfortunately, Thalia didn't see much choice but to play along with her VIP tour until they could find the sea god Phorcys, even if they were walking deeper into a trap. Something about the name bothered her, though.
They emerged in a viewing room awash with blue light. On the other side of a glass wall was the biggest aquarium tank Thalia had ever seen (not that she had seen a lot of aquariums). Cruising in circles were dozens of huge fish, including two spotted sharks, each twice Thalia's size. They were fat and slow, with open mouths and no teeth.
"Whale sharks," Coach Hedge growled. "Now we shall battle to the death!"
Kate giggled at his declaration. "Silly satyr. Whale sharks are peaceful. They only eat plankton."
Thalia scowled, slipping a hand inside her pocket to touch her mace canister. How Kate did know the coach was a satyr? Hedge was wearing pants and specially fitted shoes over his hooves, like satyrs usually did to blend in with mortals. His baseball cap covered his horns. The more Kate giggled and acted friendly, the more Thalia disliked her; but Coach Hedge didn't seem fazed.
"Peaceful sharks?" the coach repeated in disgust. "What's the point of that?"
Frank read the plaque next to the tank. "The only whale sharks in captivity in the world," he mused. "That's kind of amazing."
"Yes, and these are small," Kate said, nodding. "You should see some of my other babies out in the wild."
"Your babies?" Frank asked.
Judging from the wicked glint in Kate's eyes, Thalia was pretty sure that she didn't want to meet Kate's babies. She decided it was time to get to the point. She sure as Hades didn't want to go any farther into this aquarium than necessary. More to the point, she didn't want to get further from the exit than necessary.
"So, Kate," she said, "we're looking for a god, named Phorcys. Would you happen to know where he is?"
Kate snorted. "Know him? He's my brother. That's where we're going, sillies. The real exhibits are right through here."
She gestured at the far wall. The solid black surface rippled, and another tunnel appeared, leading through a luminous purple tank. Kate strolled inside, the other two quickly following.
The last thing Thalia wanted to do was go after them, but if Phorcys was really on the other side, and if he had information that would help their quest. Not to mention Frank and Hedge. Thalia took a deep breath and followed her friends into the tunnel.
As soon as they entered, Coach Hedge whistled. "Now that's interesting."
Gliding above them were multicoloured jellyfish the size of trash cans, each with hundreds of tentacles that looked like silky barbed wire. One jellyfish had a paralyzed ten-foot-long swordfish tangled in its' grasp. The jellyfish slowly wrapped its' tendrils tighter and tighter around its' prey.
Kate beamed at Coach Hedge. "You see? Forget the whale sharks! And there's much more."
She led them into an even larger chamber, lined with more aquariums. On one wall, a glowing red sign proclaimed: DEATH IN THE DEEP SEAS! Sponsored by Monster Donut.
Thalia had to read the sign twice because of her dyslexia, and then twice more to let the message sink in. "Monster Donut?"
"Oh, yes," Kate said. "One of our corporate sponsors."
Thalia swallowed. She had had several bad experiences with Monster Donuts, but her last one in particular hadn't ended well. It had involved acid-spitting serpent heads, much screaming, and a cannon.
In one aquarium, a dozen hippocampi—horses with the tails of fish—drifted aimlessly. Thalia had seen several hippocampi in the wild. She had even ridden a few; but she had never seen any in an aquarium. They just floated around, occasionally bonking against the glass. It was like their minds were addled.
"This isn't right," Thalia muttered.
She turned and saw something even worse. At the bottom of a smaller tank, two Nereids sat cross-legged, facing each other, playing a game of Go Fish. They looked incredibly bored. Their long green hair floated listlessly around their faces. Their eyes were half closed.
Thalia was so furious, she could hardly breathe. The whole scene was disgusting. She glared at Kate. "How can you keep them here like this?"
"I know." Kate sighed. "They aren't very interesting. We tried to teach them some tricks, but with no luck, I'm afraid. I think you'll like this tank over here much better."
Thalia started to protest, but Kate had already moved on.
"Holy mother of goats!" cried Coach Hedge. "Look at these beauties!" He was gawking at two sea serpents—thirty-foot-long monsters with glowing blue scales and jaws that could have bitten a whale shark in half. In another tank, peeking out from its' cement cave, was a squid the size of an eighteen-wheeler, with a beak like a giant bolt cutter.
A third tank held a dozen humanoid creatures with sleek seal bodies, doglike faces, and human hands. They sat on the sand at the bottom of the tank, building things out of Legos, though the creatures seemed just as dazed as the Nereids.
"Are those—?" Thalia was so disbelieving that she struggled to form the question.
"Telkhines?" Kate said. "Yes! The only ones in captivity."
"But they fought for Kronos in the last war!" Thalia protested. "They're dangerous!" She had the scars to prove it, too.
Kate rolled her eyes. "Well, we couldn't call it 'Death in the Deep Seas' if these exhibits weren't dangerous. Don't worry. We keep them well sedated."
"Sedated?" Frank asked. "Is that legal?" Thalia gave him an incredulous look, unable to believe that he thought monsters would care about the laws of mortals. He flushed.
Kate appeared not to have heard, or else she was ignoring him. She kept walking, pointing out other exhibits. Thalia looked back at the telkhines. One was obviously a youngster. He was trying to make a sword out of Legos, but he seemed too groggy to put the pieces together. Thalia had never liked sea demons, but now she felt sorry for these ones.
"And these sea monsters," Kate narrated up ahead, "can grow five hundred feet long in the deep ocean. They have over a thousand teeth. And these? Their favourite food is demigod—"
"Demigod?" Frank yelped.
"But they will eat whales or small boats, too."
Thalia's instincts were screaming like alarm bells. She didn't like how much Kate knew about them. She definitely didn't like the way she casually tossed out information about drugging captive creatures or which of her babies liked to devour demigods.
"Who are you?" she demanded. "Does Kate stand for something?"
"Kate?" She looked momentarily confused. Then she glanced at her name tag. "Oh…" She laughed. "No, it's—"
"Hello!" said a new voice, booming through the aquarium.
A small man scuttled out of the darkness. He walked sideways on bowed legs like a crab, his back hunched, his arms raised on either side like he was holding invisible plates.
He wore a wet suit that was several horrible shades of green. Glittery silver words printed down the side read: PORKY'S FOLLIES. A headset microphone was clamped over his greasy wiry hair. His eyes were milky blue, one higher than the other, and though he smiled, he didn't look friendly—more like his face was being peeled back in a wind tunnel.
"Visitors!" the man said, the word thundering through the microphone. He had a DJ's voice, deep and resonant, which did not at all match his appearance. "Welcome to Phorcys' Follies!" He swept his arms in one direction, as if directing their attention to an explosion. Nothing happened.
"Curse it," the man grumbled. "Telkhines, that's your cue! I wave my hands, and you leap energetically in your tank, do a synchronized double spin, and land in pyramid formation. We practiced this!"
The sea demons paid him no attention.
Coach Hedge leaned toward the crab man and sniffed his glittery wet suit. "Nice outfit." He didn't sound like he was kidding. Of course, this was coming from the satyr who wore gym uniforms for fun. Willingly.
"Thank you!" The man beamed. "I am Phorcys."