The Alexander Chronicles

Book I: Greece

Part III: Demigod Cannonball Run

Chapter V: Jason and Doc Chase

Hank and Chuck dropped us off near the Embarcadero Building. I had never been to Frisco before and I suppose that it was beautiful, but I was still depressed over Bianca's sacrifice. The others quickly decided that the next step was to find Nereus, the old man of the sea, and Zoë quickly disguised Percy so he could find Nereus without looking too suspicious. We followed him at a distance, but we quickly lost sight of him. Then we saw him in the bay, holding on to the dorsal fin of an orca. "What in the world is he doing?"

"He is wrestling Nereus. Didst thou not know that he can shape-shift?"

"Oh." I had forgotten that, but it didn't matter, as Percy soon dragged him out of the water. Percy attempted to ask more than one question, but when Nereus told him the rules, he asked where the monster was. I looked away then, I wanted to make sure we weren't being watched, and I caught a scent that I recognized. But I couldn't believe what I smelled, the smell of a thunderstorm, the mark of a child of Jupiter. I looked around, and my eyes finally caught who had the scent, and boy was I shocked! It was the boy from my dreams, my twin, but as often as I called him that, I could have never believed just how similar we actually were! I could have almost sworn I was looking in a mirror. He had the same blond hair and blue eyes that I had, the same Roman nose, and he was no more than three inches taller than me! As different as Thalia and I were, he and I were similar. But you could easily see a key difference between us. If you looked closely at his arm, he had a tattoo-an eagle with four letters under it, SPQR. Senatus Populesque Romanus: The Senate and People of Rome, the standard of Rome, nearly two thousand years ago. Now, normally I'd never want a tattoo, but seeing that one immediately made me jealous of him. Some people would call me crazy later for doing this-I limped up and started talking to him. Besides, I recognized him from my dreams: he was the boy that called me his little brother. Out of curiosity, I looked into the sky, and sure enough, there was the blood red moon, cradled by dark storm clouds

"Salve. Interesting tattoo you have there," I said as a greeting.

"Thanks. I take it you're with them?"

"Who?"

"The guys who just captured Nereus."

"Oh, yeah. The guy who actually did it is my cousin, Percy Jackson. I'm Alexander Summers."

"Jason Grace. I assume you're all demigods, well besides the faun."

"No, actually. Zoë is a nymph, and a Hunter of Diana."

"Huh, I'm surprised you know the Latin forms. I'd heard that you Graecii use they're original names."

"Don't call me a Graecus, Jason," I growled at him. I'm not sure why, but being called that made me mad. After I calmed down, I started talking to him again. "And why wouldn't I use the Latin names? I'm Roman myself."

"What? But that's not possible, otherwise you would be with me at Camp Jupiter, not with the Graecii."

"Father has a plan for me, and it requires that I stay with them, apparently," I responded. "But the fact that I'm Roman has been confirmed by not only Father, but also Lady Venus and Lord Mars. Not to mention everyone else in our world."

"A plan, you say? Does it have anything to do with the fact that the palace of the Titans is rising on Tamalpais?" I couldn't give him an answer, as I had no idea what the plan was, so I simply shrugged. Jason seemed to understand, so he asked another question. "So, who is your father?"

I stared at him in shock. "Edepol! I thought it would be obvious, Jason. I'm your brother, a son of Jupiter. Why else would we look so similar?"

Jason grinned at me. "I figured we were brothers, but I wanted to know if you knew who our father was. Oh, and I think you should return to your friends. Nereus has left, and it looks like they're having a serious discussion. Salve, brother, I look forward to seeing you again."

Jason was right, and had great timing for when he mentioned it, because I caught sight and scent of Thorn, and he was coming here. I limped back to the group as fast as I could, just in time to hear Zoë say, "Now, after three thousand years, the Ophiotaurus is reborn."

"Guys, we've got trouble!" I called out.

"Well of course we've got trouble, Lightning Rod! Luke wouldn't hesitate. The power to overthrow Olympus. That's . . . that's huge."

"Oui, it is, my dear. And it is a power you shall unleash."

"That's the trouble I was talking about, Pinecone Face." Thorn had shown up with some mortal mercenaries, the worst possible enemy-none of us had any real weapons to use against them, well, except for my Bow.

"Zis is just pairrr-fect. Long ago, the gods banished me to Persia. I was forced to scrounge for food on the edges of the world, hiding in forests, devouring insignificant mortal farmers for my meals. I never got to fight any great heroes. I was not feared and admired in the old stories! But now that will change. The Titans shall honor me, and I shall feast on the flesh of half-bloods! Now, Thalia, zis is your moment. Zis is why Lord Kronos brought you back to life. You will sacrifice the Ophiotaurus. You will bring it's entrails to zee sacred fire on the mountain. You will gain unlimited power. And for your sixteenth birthday, you will overthrow Olympus!

"You know it's zee right choice. Your friend Luke recognized it. You shall be reunited with him. You shall rule zis world together under zee auspices of zee Titans. Your father abandoned you, Thalia, abandoned you to a brother who hates you. Zey care nothing for you. And now you shall gain power over zem. Crush zee Olympians underfoot, as they deserve. Call the beast! It will come to you. Use your spear."

Luckily, before Thalia could even think about it, Grover gave her a distraction by playing his pipes, causing some of the planks on the dock to sprout branches, causing some of the mercenaries to lose their footing. Zoë quickly added to the confusion by shooting some gas arrows into their midst. I pulled out Ventus, activated the bow form, and shot one of the mortals. To my great surprise, it actually hit the merc and he started rolling around, as if the arrow was burning him! That's when I noticed the feathers, they were red, the color of my centaur's blood arrows. No wonder he acted like he was on fire!

"How didst thou do that, Alex? What are thy arrows made of?"

"Celestial steel. But I don't get it, the sword form just went through mortals. So why did that arrow actually hit?"

"Let me have one of thy arrows." I handed her one of my arrows, making sure to give her a 'safe' arrow. She then notched it and shot the same merc in the back, and it still hit, but that one put him out of his misery. "Another one." I did as she asked, and this time, she shot at an innocent bystander. That time, it just passed through him. "Hmm. I think that it will only work on mortals when they are involved in our world." Before I could comment on it, I caught the scent of grapes and wine, and the remaining mercs went crazy. Then Thorn was wrapped in an enormous mass of grapevines.

"What happened? How did that happen?"

"Dionysus, believe it or not. Thanks by the way." I wondered what Percy meant, until I noticed an Iris-message behind him.

"Please, don't mention it. Now, I hope you've learned your lesson, girl. It isn't easy to resist power, is it?" Percy tried to get some more help, but D didn't help much, and in the discussion, D actually called him 'Percy Jackson.' Zoë said that she knew where we needed to go, the garden of her sisters, the Hesperides. Of course, that still left the Ophiotaurus to deal with, but Grover volunteered to take it to Olympus. So, with the Blessing of the Wild, and Neptune's protection (guaranteed by the sacrifice of the lion skin,) Grover and the Ophiotaurus left for Camp Half-Blood and Olympus. We were finally at the number of people prescribed by the Oracle, Grover had been the one that was supposed to stay behind after all. But we still needed a car to get to Mount Tamalpais/Othrys by sunset.

"Wait. There is someone in San Francisco that can help us. I've got the address here somewhere."

Percy and I looked at each other in confusion. Thalia knew someone in Frisco? "Who?" we asked in unison.

"Professor Chase. Annabeth's dad."

From what Annabeth had told us about her dad, I was expecting someone like Lionel Luthor or maybe Saturn himself. What we found instead was the epitome of the absent-minded, but brilliant professor. What little hair showed said that he had the same blond hair as Annabeth, with brown eyes, and was wearing World War I era aviator clothes, complete with cap and goggles. "Hello. Are you delivering my airplanes?"

We were completely confused. "Um, no, sir."

"Drat. I need three more Sopwith Camels."

"Right." This guy was either off his rocker, or . . . I honestly don't know what else he could be. "We're friends of Annabeth."

"Annabeth? Is she alright? Has something happened?" Our looks must have given us away. "You'd better come in." The home was clearly lived in, and it was terribly messy, if it were one of the cabins, it would have easily been deemed the messiest, even Hermes' cabin was cleaner than this. Anyway, Dr. Chase didn't learn our names until Mrs. Chase came into the room with us. When they heard Percy introduce himself, Mrs. Chase said, "Oh, so you're Percy! Annabeth's told us so much about you!"

We were led to Dr. Chase's study, and when Zoë mentioned something about a model he had, the Doc was distracted, until Thalia broke in saying "Annabeth is in danger. We really need to borrow your car."

"I'll drive you. Hmm, it would be faster to fly in my Camel, but it only seats two."

"Sir, just a car would be great. And it might be better if we went without you. It's too dangerous."

"Now wait a minute, young lady. Annabeth is my daughter. Dangerous or not, I . . . I can't just-" Mrs. Chase came in with her promised snacks, and asked what we were arguing about. "Annabeth is in danger. On Mount Tam. I would drive them . . . but apparently it's too dangerous for mortals."

"Look, doc. There's a lot of monsters and at least one Titan on the mountain. I would really hate to be the one to tell Annabeth that you died trying to rescue her." Fortunately, the Doc listened to me, and Zoë was given the keys to the Chase's car. We were now only minutes away from Diana and Annabeth.