Warning: Certain ancient Greek names matches words use of foul language but no foul language was intentionally used. Also if you haven't read them yet read 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Early Adventures' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse' and 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Magical Labyrinth' as well as the one shots 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Stolen Chariot' The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Sword of Hades', 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Bronze Dragon' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Last Olympian' and 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Staff of Hermes' before reading this story as stuff that happened in them will be mentioned. Lastly, any one who wants to do a Demigods and Olympian reads story using 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon' is allowed as long as you inform me about it.

A/N: I'm going to MAKE THIS CLEAR. Just like I mention on my bio page about every other fanfiction I done: I DON'T OWN THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIAN SERIES OR IT'S CHARACTERS as the rights goes to Rick Rioran. Also I suggest you guys start paying attention to the Author notes and my warnings that I left on EVERY chapter of EVERY story. Because I KNOW I warn all of you about the first chapter before it started.

Sorry if this chapter is too much like the book

Jason's POV Part XIV

My draw dropped when I saw the central section of Aeolus' fortress. It was as big and the cathedral, with a soaring dome roof covered in silver. Television equipment floated randomly through the air—cameras, spotlights, set pieces, potted plants. And there was no floor. Seriously! Leo would of fell into the chasm if I haven't caught him and pulled him back up.

"Holy—" Leo gulped. "Hey Mellie. A little warning next time!"

An enormous circular pit plunged into the heart of the mountain. It was probably half a mile deep, honeycombed with caves. Some of the tunnels probably led straight outside. I remembered seeing winds blasted out of them when we were on Pikes Peak. Other caves were sealed with some glistening material like glass or wax. The whole cavern bustled with harpies and aurai. Since they flew, I can see why they don't normally have floors.

"Oh, my," Mellie gasped. "I'm so sorry." She unclipped a walkie-talkie from somewhere inside her robes and spoke into it: "Hello, sets? Is that Nuggets? Hi, Nuggets. Could we get a floor in the main studio, please? Yes, a solid one. Thanks."

A few seconds later, an army of harpies rose from the pit—three dozen or so demon chicken ladies, all carrying squares of various building material. They went to work hammering and gluing—and using large quantities of duct tape, which didn't reassure me. In no time there was a makeshift floor snaking out over the chasm. It was made of plywood, marble blocks, carpet squares, wedges of grass sod—just about anything.

"That can't be safe," I said.

"Oh, it is!" Mellie assured me. "The harpies are very good."

Easy for her to say. She could just drift across without touching the floor, but I decided I had the best chance at surviving, since I could fly, so I stepped out first, and amazingly enough, the floor held. Oddly enough it felt familiar, like I went through something like this before.

Piper grabbed my hand and followed me. "If I fall, you're catching me."

"Uh, sure." I hope I wasn't blushing.

Leo stepped out next. "You're catching me, too, Superman. But I ain't holding your hand."

Mellie led us toward the middle of the chamber, where a loose sphere of flat-panel video screens floated around a kind of control center. A man hovered inside, checking monitors and reading paper airplane messages.

The man paid us no attention as Mellie brought us forward. She pushed a forty-two-inch Sony out of our way and led us into the control area.

Leo whistled. "I got to get a room like this."

The floating screens showed all sorts of television programs. Some I recognized—news broadcasts, mostly—but some programs looked a little strange: gladiators fighting, demigods battling monsters. Maybe they were movies, but they looked more like reality shows.

At the far end of the sphere was a silky blue backdrop like a cinema screen, with cameras and studio lights floating around it.

The man in the center was talking into an earpiece phone. He had a remote control in each hand and was pointing them at various screens, seemingly at random.

He wore a business suit that looked like the sky—blue mostly, but dappled with clouds that changed and darkened and move across the fabric. He looked like he was in his sixties, with a shock of white hair, but he had a ton of stage makeup on, and that smooth plastic-surgery look to his face, so he appeared not really young, not really old, just wrong—like a Ken doll someone had halfway melted in a microwave. His eyes darted back and forth from screen to screen, like he was trying to absorb everything at once. He muttered things into his phone, but his mouth kept twitching. He was either amused, or crazy, or both.

Mellie floated toward him. "Ah, sir, Mr. Aeolus, these demigods—"

"Hold it!" He held up a hand to silence her, then pointed at one of the screens. "Watch!"

It was one of those storm-chaser programs, where insane thrill-seekers drive after tornados. As I watched, a Jeep plowed straight into a funnel cloud and got tossed into the sky.

Aeolus shrieked with delight. "The Disaster Channel. People do that on purpose!" he turned toward me with a mad grin. "Isn't that amazing? Let's watch it again."

"Um, sir," Mellie said. "This is Jason, son of—"

"Yes, yes, I remember," Aeolus said. "You're back. How did it go?"

I hesitated. "Sorry? I think you've mistaken me—"

"No, no, Jason Grace, aren't you? It was—what—last year? You were on your way to fight a sea monster, I believe."

"I—I don't remember."

Aeolus laughed. "Must not have been a good sea monster! No, I remember every hero who's ever come to me for aid. Odysseus—gods, he docked at my island for a month! At least you only stayed for a few days. Now, watch this video. These ducks get suck straight into—"

"Sir," Mellie interrupted. "Two minutes to air."

"Air!" Aeolus exclaimed. "I love air. How do I look? Makeup!"

Immediately a small tornado of brushes, blotters, and cotton balls descended on Aeolus. They blurred across his face in a cloud of flesh-tone smoke until his coloration was even more gruesome than before. Wind swirled through his hair and left it sticking up like a frosted Christmas tree.

"Mr. Aeolus." I slipped off the golden backpack. "We brought you these rogue storm spirits."

"Did you!" Aeolus looked at the bag like it was a gift from a fan—something he really didn't want. "Well, how nice."

Leo nudged me, and I offered the bag. "Boreas sent us to capture them for you. We hope you'll accept them and stop—you know—ordering demigods to be killed."

Aeolus laughed, and looked incredulously at Mellie. "Demigods be killed—did I order that?"

Mellie checked her computer tablet. "Yes, sir, fifteenth of September. 'Storm spirits released by the death of Typhon, demigods to be held responsible,' etc. … yes, a general order for them all to be killed."

"Oh pish," Aeolus said. "I was just grumpy. Rescind that order, Mellie, and um, who's on guard duty—Teriyaki? Teri, take these storm spirits down to cell block Fourteen, will you?"

A harpy swooped out of nowhere, snatched the golden bag, and spiraled into the abyss.

Aeolus grinned at me. "Now, sorry about that kill-on-sight business. But gods, I really was mad, wasn't I?" His face darkened, and his suit did the same, a lapels of flashing with lightning. "You know… I remember now. Almost seemed like a voice was telling me to give that order. A little cold tingle on the back of my neck."

I tensed as that sounded familiar, and not in a good way. "A… um, voice in your head, sir?"

"Yes. How odd. Mellie, should we kill them?"

"No, sir," she said patiently, "They just brought us the storm spirits, which makes everything all right."

"Of course." Aeolus laughed. "Sorry. Mellie, let's send the demigods something nice. A box of chocolates, perhaps."

"A box of chocolates to every demigod in the world, sir?"

"No, too expensive. Never mind. Wait, it's time! I'm on!"

Aeolus flew off toward the blue screen as newscast music started to play.

I looked at Piper and Leo, who seemed just as confused as me.

"Mellie," I said, "is he… always like that?"

She smiled sheepishly. "Well, you know what they say. If you don't like his mood, wait five minutes. That expression 'whichever way the wind blows'—that was based on him."

"And that thing about the sea monster," I said. "Was I here before?"

Mellie blushed. "I'm sorry, I don't remember. I'm Mr. Aeolus' new assistant. I've been with him longer than most, but still—not that long."

"How long do his assistants usually last?" Piper asked.

"Oh…" Mellie thought for a moment. "I've been doing this for… twelve hours?"

A voice blared from floating speakers: "And now, weather every twelve minutes! Here's your forecaster for Olympian Weather—the OW! Channel—Aeolus."

Lights blazed on Aeolus, who was now standing in front of the blue screen. His smile was unnaturally white, and he looked like he'd had so much caffeine his face was about to explode.

"Hello, Olympus! Aeolus, master of the winds here, with the weather every twelve! We'll have a low-pressure system moving over Florida today, so expect milder temperatures since Demeter wishes to spare the citrus farmers!" He gestured at the blue screen, but when I checked the monitors, I saw that a digital image was being projected behind Aeolus, so it looked like he was standing in front of a U.S. map with animated smiley suns and frowny storm clouds. "Along the eastern seaboard—oh, hold on." He tapped his earpiece. "Sorry, folks, Poseidon is angry with Miami today, so it looks like Florida freeze is back on! Sorry, Demeter. Over in the Midwest, I'm not sure what St. Louis did to offend Zeus, but you can expect winter storms! Boreas himself is being called down to punish the area with ice. Bad news, Missouri! No, wait. Hephaestus feels sorry for central Missouri, so you all will have much more moderate temperatures and sunny skies."

Aeolus kept going like that—forecasting each area of the country and changing his predictions two or three times as he got messages over his earpiece—the gods apparently putting in orders for various winds and weather.

"This can't be right," I whispered. "Weather isn't this random."

Mellie smirked. "And how often are the mortal weathermen right? They talked about fronts and air pressure and moisture, but the weather surprises them all the time. At least Aeolus tells us why it's so unpredictable. Very hard job, trying to appease all the gods at once. It's enough to drive anyone…"

She trailed off, but I knew what she meant. Mad. Aeolus was completely mad.

"And that's the weather," Aeolus concluded. "See you in twelve minutes, because I'm sure it'll change!"

The lights shut off, the video monitors went back to random coverage, and just for a moment, Aeolus' face sagged with weariness. Then he seemed to remember he had guests, and he put a smile back on.

"So, you brought me some rogue storm spirits," Aeolus said. "I suppose… thanks! And did you want something else? I assume so. Demigods always do."

Mellie said, "Um, sir, this is Zeus' son.

"Yes, yes. I know that. I said I remembered him from before."

"But, sir, they're here from Olympus."

Aeolus' looked stunned. Then he laughed so abruptly, I almost jumped into the chasm. "You mean you're here on behalf of your father this time? Finally! I knew they would send someone to renegotiate my contract!"

"Um, what?" I asked.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Aeolus sighed with relief. "It's been what, three thousand years since Zeus made me master of the winds. Not that I'm ungrateful, of course! But really, my contract is so vague. Obviously I'm immortal, but 'master of the winds.' What does that mean? Am I a nature spirit? A demigod? A god? I want to be god of winds, because the benefits are so much better. Can we start with that?"

I looked at my friends mystified.

"Dude," Leo said, "you think we're here to promote you?"

"Maybe we can use this to our advantage," Piper responded

"You are here to promote me, then?" Aeolus grinned as if not hearing what Piper said. His business suit turned completely blue—not a cloud in the fabric. "Marvelous! I mean, I think I've shown quite a bit of initiative with the weather channel, eh? And of course I'm in the press all the time. So many books have been written about me: Into Thin Air, Up in the Air, Gone with the Wind—"

"Er, I don't think those are about you," I said before I noticed Mellie shaking her head.

Nonsense," Aeolus said. "Mellie, they're biographies of me, aren't they?"

"Absolutely, sir," she squeaked.

"There, you see? I don't read. Who has the time? But obviously the mortals love me. So, we'll change my official title of go of the winds. Then, about salary and staff—"

He started mentioning other stuff he wanted to improve.

I remember what Piper said about using this to our advantage, but I looked at his ear piece and wonder if my dad was listening. If so, I better choose my words wisely so that we can negotiate for the location of Piper's dad, where Hera was held captive, and get the Olympians to agree to renewing Aeolus' contract."

"Sir, before we negotiate your contract we need info for you," I said.

Aeolus expression hardened. "This better not be like last time. Or with Aeneas—the first of your kind."

"My kind?" I asked. "You mean, demigods?"

"Oh, please!" Aeolus said. "I mean your line of demigods. You know, Aeneas, son of Venus—the only surviving hero of Troy. When the Greeks burned down his city, he escaped to Italy, where he founded the kingdom that would eventually become Rome, blah, blah, blah. That's what I meant. But during that whole adventure, a was thrown into a conflict about destroying or saving Aeneas ship between Juno and Neptune."

"Um—"

"And don't get me started with Amelia Earhart! I'm still getting calls from Olympus about knocking her out of the sky!"

"Just hear us out. We need information that you would know about," Piper said. "and I'm sure we can make a compromise with the Olympians about your new contract while we talk."

Aeolus tapped his ear piece as if he were listening in to others talking. He frowned a bit as if realizing we weren't send to renegotiate his contract and glared at Mellie. Every once in a while he would have a shock expression and mumble something about they hardly agree on anything. Then he nodded. "Yeah… uh-huh—okay. The Olympians agreed to renegotiate my contract after I hear you guys out."

"That's great," I responded.

"Too be honest, I don't think it would be necessary to destroy you anyways," Aeolus said. "This hairbrained scheme of Juno's to bring you all together is likely to end in bloodshed."

"Wait, you knew about that?" Leo asked.

"Of course! I know everything. For example, I know of the situation with Piper McLean's father. Serious trouble." He held out his hand, and a scrap of paper fluttered into his rasp. It was a photo of Piper with a guy who must've been her dad. His face did look familiar. I'm pretty sure I seen him in some movies.

Piper took the photo. Her hands were shaking. "This—this is from his wallet."

"Yes," Aeolus said. All things lost in the wind eventually come to me. The photo blew away when the Earthborn capture him."

"The what?" Piper asked.

Aeolus waved aside the question and narrowed his eyes at Leo. "Now, you, son of Hephaestus… yes, I see your future." Another paper fell into the god's hand—an old tattered drawing done in crayons.

Leo looked at it as if might be coated in poison. He staggered backward.

"Leo?" I said. "What is it?"

"Something I—I drew when I was a kid." He folded it quickly and put it in his coat. "It's… yeah, it's nothing."

Aeolus laughed. "Really? Just the key to your success. Now, where were we? Ah, yes, you wanted information in return the Olympians agreed to renegotiate my contract. But I must ask you, are you sure you want to know? Sometimes information can be dangerous."

He smiled at me like I was issuing a challenge. Behind him, Mellie shook her head in a warning way.

"Yeah," I said, "We need to find the lair of Enceladus where Hera is being held."

"Well I can't help you were Hera is. There's a veil of magic over Hera's location—very strong, impossible to locate, even for me," Aeolus said.

"She's at a place called the Wolf House," I said.

"Hold on!" Aeolus put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. "I'm getting something! Yes, she's at a place called the Wolf House! Sadly, I don't know where that is."

"Enceladus does," Piper persisted.

"Yeah but do you really want his location? He doesn't even watch my shows," Aeolus said.

"Just tell us his location, and if you could get us there, too," I amended. "That would be great."

"Yeah and once we find where Hera is from him and free her, I'm certain your promotion will be finalized," Leo agreed.

Mellie clapped her hands in excitement. "Oh, he could do that! He often sends helpful winds—"

"Mellie, quiet," Aeolus snapped. "You're lucky that the gods agreed with the terms, otherwise you would have been fired for letting these people in under false pretenses

Her face paled. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

Aeolus tilted his head and I guess he was listening to the Olympians.

"Well… Zeus approves," Aeolus muttered. "He says… he says it would be better if you could avoid saving Hera until after the weekend, because he has a big party planned—Ow! That's Aphrodite yelling at him, reminding him that the solstice starts at down. She says I should help you, especially on the part—oh wait scratch that, she doesn't want me to say the last part. And Hephaestus… yes. Hmm. Very rare they agreed on anything. Hold on…"

I smiled at my friends. Finally, we were having some good luck. Our godly parents were standing up for us.

Back toward the entrance, I heard a loud belch. Coach Hedge waddled in from the lobby, grass all over his face. Mellie saw him coming across the makeshift floor and caught her breath. "Who is that?"

I stifled a cough. "That? That's just Coach Hedge. Uh, Gleeson Hedge. He's our…" I wasn't sure what to call him: teacher, friend, protector, problem?

"Our guide."

"He's so goatly," Mellie murmured.

Piper poofed out her cheeks pretending to vomit.

"What's up, guys?" Hedge trotted over. "Wow, nice place. Oh! Sod squares."

"Coach, you just ate and we're using the sod as a floor," I responded. "This is Mellie—"

"An aura." Hedge smiled winningly. "Beautiful as a summer breeze."

Mellie blushed.

"And Aeolus here was just about to help us," I said.

"Yes," the wind lord muttered. "It seems so. You'll find Enceladus on Mount Diablo."

"Devil Mountain," Leo asked. "That doesn't sound good."

"I remember that place!" Piper said. "I went there once with my dad. It's just east of San Francisco Bay."

"The Bay Area again?" the coach shook his head. "Not good. Not good at all."

"Now…" Aeolus began to smile. "As to getting you there—"

Suddenly his face went slack. He bent over and tapped his earpiece as if it were malfunctioning. When he straightened again, his eyes were wild. Despite the makeup, he looked like an old man—an old, very frightened man. "She hasn't spoken to me for centuries. I can't—yes, yes I understand."

He swallowed, regarding me as if I had suddenly turned into a giant cockroach. "I'm sorry, son of Jupiter. New orders. You all have to die."

Mellie squeaked. "But—but, sir! Zeus said to help them. Aphrodite, Hephaestus—"

"Mellie!" Aeolus snapped. "Your job is already on the line. Besides, there are some orders that transcend even the wishes of the gods, especially when it comes to the forces of nature."

"Whose orders?" I said. "Zeus will fire you if you don't help us!"

"I doubt it." Aeolus flicked his wrist, and far below us, a cell door opened in the pit. I could hear storm spirits screaming out of it, spiraling up toward us, howling for blood.

"Even Zeus understands the order of things," Aeolus said. "And if she is waking—by all the gods—she cannot be denied. Good-bye, heroes. I'm terribly sorry, but I'll have to make this quick. I'm back on the air in four minutes."

I summoned my sword and Coach Hedge pulled out his club. However, Mellie the aura yelled, "No!"

She dived at our feet just as the storm spirits hit with hurricane force, blasting the floor to pieces, shredding the carpet samples and marble and the linoleum into what should've been lethal projectiles, had Mellie's robes had not spread out like a shield and absorbed the burn of the impact. However, it did cause us to fall into the pit as Aeolus screamed from above, "Mellie, you are so fired!"

"Quick," Mellie yelled. "Son of Zeus, do you have any power over the air?"

"A little!"

"Then help me, or you're all dead!" Mellie grabbed my hand and an electric charge went through my arm. I understood what she needed. We had to control our fall and head for one of the open tunnels. The storm spirits were following us down, closing rapidly, bringing with them a cloud of deadly shrapnel.

I grabbed Piper's hand. "Group hug!"

Hedge, Leo, and Piper tried to huddle together as they hanged onto Mellie and me as we fell.

'This is NOT GOOD!" Leo yelled.

"Bring it on, gas bags!" Hedge yelled up at the storm spirits. "I'll pulverize you!"

"He's magnificent," Mellie sighed.

"Concentrate?" I prompted.

"Right!"

We channel the winds so our fall became more of a tumble into the nearest open chute. Still, we slammed into the tunnel at painful speed and went rolling over each other down a steep vent that was not design for people. There was no way we could stop.

Mellie's robes billowed under her. The rest of us clung to her desperately, and we began to slow down, but the storm spirits were screaming into the tunnel behind us.

"Can't—hold—long," Mellie warned. "Stay together! When the winds hit—"

"You're doing great, Mellie," Hedge said. "My own mama was an aura, you know. She couldn't have done better herself.

"Iris-message me?" Mellie pleaded.

Hedge winked.

"Could you guys plan your date later?" Piper screamed and for a good reason.

Behind us the tunnels was turning dark. I could feel my ears pop as the pressure built.

"Can't hold them," Mellie warned. "But I'll try to shield you."

"Thanks, Mellie," I said. "I hope you get a new job."

She smiled and dissolved, wrapping us in a gentle breeze. Then the real winds hit, shooting us into the sky so fast I blacked out.