Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
The Ever Twisting Wind: Of Monsters and Titans
Chapter Four: Welcome to the Battle-Cano
Beta: ShadowofAxios
Andi awoke to alarm bells ringing throughout the ship. She shot out of bed immediately, even as Percy seemed to be struggling to lift himself out of his hammock.
The daughter of Zeus didn't pay him any mind, instead focusing in on the captain's gravelly voice as it echoed throughout the ship. "All hands on deck! Find Lady Clarisse! Where is that girl?"
Without any hesitation Andi jumped to her feet, grabbing Skyline along the way as she raced up to the deck. She passed the Captain along the way, who nodded at her approvingly even as he headed the way she'd come, presumably to get Percy.
While climbing the steps, she felt an irritable and familiar presence. Pausing her step, brow frowned, it clicked in her head. "Ares." She muttered. The god, or at least his presence was on the ship. Hm, he's probably just talking to Clarisse.
Knowing Ares, he was probably threatening to do something terrible to Clarisse if she failed to complete the quest or something. He was a jerk like that.
But it wasn't her business, so the daughter of Zeus just continued her ascent.
Going outside, she found Annabeth and Tyson on the spar deck, who both nodded in greeting as she joined them. Hunter padded towards her, apparently done exploring the ship, making her scratch behind his ear.
They were a patch of calm in the centre of the controlled chaos of the ship's deck as undead sailors prepared for something. They seemed to be straining to see something to the north, objects on the horizon that were becoming clearer as they got closer. Andi's superior eyesight let her make out what they were: A huge rocky island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall and a little south of that, a brewing storm that turned the sky and sea into a roaring, boiling mass.
Andi was just about to point it out to her two friends when Percy showed up looking disturbed.
"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked him. "Another dream?"
Before Percy could reply, Clarisse came up the stairs. Though for some reason, Percy seemed unwilling to look at her.
They're probably fighting. Again.
The daughter of war grabbed a pair of binoculars from a zombie officer and peered toward the horizon that everyone was focusing on. "At last. Captain, full steam ahead!"
"Fucking bloody arse hell is that thing?! Seriously, it's going to fuel my nightmares for the next few days!" Andi said as her enhanced vision let her get a clear look at what awaited them.
Next to her, Hunter barked admonishingly, not happy with her language.
Andi ignored him, she was too unnerved by the sight she could barely make out in the distance. Hidden by what she'd thought was a storm was a massive whirlpool at the centre of which was a set of slimy lips and mossy teeth, each tooth being about the size of a rowboat and covered in bands of corroded metal, with pieces of fish, driftwood, and floating garbage stuck between them.
The engine groaned as the ship increased speed as Clarisse had commanded.
Tyson muttered nervously, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."
"Hurricane?" Annabeth asked, as she saw the storm that hid the massive maw.
"That's no hurricane." Andi told her swiftly.
"Exactly," Clarisse said. "It's Charybdis."
Hunter growled angrily at the name.
Annabeth however had a more sensible reaction, she paled and spun towards Clarisse. "Are you crazy?"
The child of Zeus was one hundred percent on Annabeth's side on that assessment. Their little tugboat wasn't going to get past that thing. Not without a heap of trouble and a shit ton of luck.
"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla."
Between a rock and a hard place… Really want to deck the guy who said that in the nose. Andi swallowed her building nerves. For her first sea voyage, this was bloody tanking.
Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs, and Andi's gaze followed. It was hard to see, but she swore something was moving up there. So that meant it must be Scylla.
"What do you mean the only way?" Percy asked, sounding like he thought Clarisse was stupid. "The sea is wide open! Just sail around them."
Clarisse rolled her eyes, clearly conveying who she thought was the stupid one. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them."
"Why didn't we take a plane?" Andi asked, her palms sweating. "At least we could avoid Charybdis."
"Then we'd just disappear entirely. Or the plane would fail and we'd end up here or at the Clashing Rocks. That's how the Sea of Monsters works." Annabeth clarified. "They are the only way in or out."
"And speaking of the Clashing Rocks," She looked at Clarisse with hopeful eyes. "It's another gateway, Jason used it. So can we. Andi can even get the bird."
"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse said. "Monsters, on the other hand …"
"You are crazy," Annabeth decided firmly. "Charybdis and Scylla won't be defeated by a single warship! They've eaten whole navies as appetizers!"
"Watch and learn, Wise Girl." Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"
"Aye, m'lady."
The engine groaned, the iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed.
"Clarisse," Percy said sounding just as uneasy with Clarisse's crazy plan as they all did, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"
"And spits it back out again, yeah." The daughter of war said distractedly as she continued to peer through her binoculars at her target.
"What about Scylla?"
"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship." Clarisse explained with an exasperated sigh and muttering under her breath about stupid glory hounds.
"Choose Scylla then," Percy suggested. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past."
"That thing is huge." Andi told him, her head craned to stare up at the clifftop. She was getting too nervous watching the cetus. "It has like, a few dozen heads right? It would probably rip the ship open like a tin can. Then bam! Sardines anyone?"
"Can't you snipe it from here?" Percy leaned down to whisper to her.
"You crazy? I can barely see her from here and she's like the size of a city block. Even if I could, where would I aim?" Andi shot back at the idiot and his stupid suggestion. Sure she might have been exaggerating a bit, Scylla was mainly hiding in some cave but from what she could see, the monster was freaking huge.
She wasn't going to mess with that thing if she could help it.
"Andi's right. Leave Scylla alone." Clarisse added. "She's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the center of her whirlpool. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"
Gripping the rail, Andi could only think that this plan was going to end terribly.
But by the tone Clarisse had, she was eating up this tension like it was a piece of candy.
The engine hummed. The boilers were heating up so much they could all feel the deck getting warm beneath their feet. The smokestacks billowed. The red Ares flag whipped in the wind.
Clarisse was pushing the old ironclad hard. Maybe too hard.
As they grew closer and closer to the monstrous whirlpool, the sound of Charybdis got louder and louder—a horrible wet roar. Each time she inhaled, the ship shuddered and lurched forward, only to rise in the water and be buffeted by ten-foot waves as she exhaled.
Undead sailors calmly went about their business on the spar deck, unfazed by the dire situation they seemed dead set to sail right into. Hunter didn't seem afraid either, if anything he looked angry and was spoiling for a fight. Andi envied their lack of fear a little.
Annabeth stood next to Percy, gripping the rail. "You still have your thermos full of wind?"
Percy nodded. "But it's too dangerous to use with a whirlpool like that. More wind might just make things worse."
"Got that right." Andi told him and blinked in confusion. "Wait, you guys got what?"
"Long, short, story." Percy told her with a wave of his hand.
"What about controlling the water?" Annabeth suggested next, ignoring Andi's question. "You're Poseidon's son. You've done it before."
Percy closed his eyes, actually trying to take control of the ocean. But Andi knew that was just asking too much. It would be like asking her to overpower some massive storm monster. Charybdis was too big for even the son of Poseidon to handle.
Andi was right.
"I—I can't," Percy said miserably after a moment.
"We need a backup plan," Annabeth pursed her lips. "This isn't going to work." She turned to Andi with those focused grey eyes of her.
But before she could say anything, Tyson spoke up with a worried look on his face.
"Annabeth is right," He said, wringing his hands nervously. "Engine's no good."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."
Before he could explain, the monster gave a mighty roar and the ship lurched forward. Percy and a couple of the undead sailors was thrown to the deck and the others barely stayed standing by virtue of grabbing onto something nearby. Hunter just dug his claws into the steel of the deck and clung on. They were in the whirlpool.
"Full reverse!" Clarisse screamed above the noise. The sea churned around them, waves crashing over the deck. The iron plating was now so hot it steamed. "Get us within firing range! Make ready starboard cannons!"
Dead Confederates rushed back and forth. The propeller grinded into reverse, trying to slow the ship, but they kept sliding toward the center of the vortex.
A zombie sailor burst out of the hold and ran to Clarisse. His gray uniform was smoking. His beard was on fire. "Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!"
"Well, get down there and fix it!"
"Can't!" The sailor yelled. "We're vaporizing in the heat."
Clarisse pounded the side of the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get in range!"
"We're going in too fast," The captain said grimly. "Prepare yourself for death."
"No!" Tyson bellowed. "I can fix it."
Clarisse looked at him incredulously. "You?"
"He's a Cyclops," Annabeth said. "He's immune to fire. And he knows mechanics."
"Go!" yelled Clarisse.
"Tyson, no!" Percy grabbed his arm, concern clear on his face. "It's too dangerous!"
Normally Andi would be happy to see Percy finally treating Tyson like a proper brother would, but right now she was more concerned with them surviving this.
Tyson patted Percy's hand. "Only way, brother." His expression was determined—confident, even.
"I will fix it. Be right back." He said before following the smoldering sailor down the hatch.
The ship lurched again and suddenly Charybdis was visible to everyone. She was only a few hundred yards away, through a swirl of mist and smoke and water.
She was anchored to a black crag of coral with a fig tree clinging to the top, an oddly peaceful thing in the middle of a maelstrom. All around it, water curved into a funnel, like light around a black hole. Close up, Charybdis was nothing but a huge black maw of massive razor sharp teeth. As they watched, the entire sea around her was sucked into the void—sharks, schools of fish, a giant squid. In a few seconds, the CSS Birmingham would be next.
"Lady Clarisse," the captain shouted. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!"
"Potter," Clarisse said to her. "Get into the air to join the bombardment. Get as many different angles as you can on that thing."
"Andi, don't!" Annabeth shouted. "It'll just make you a target for Scylla!"
"Ignore her! We need your fire support." Clarisse ordered, glaring daggers at Annabeth.
Andi squashed the hesitation she felt and nodded to Clarisse. As much as she trusted Annabeth, she knew Clarisse was right. They needed her help if they wanted to survive Charybdis. They could worry about Scylla if she showed up. They had to deal with the problem at hand first.
Taking to the sky, the sea air twisting all around, the child of Zeus notched her bow. Three wind arrows primed to explode on contact at the ready.
"Fire!" Clarisse ordered.
Three rounds were blasted into the monster's maw. Andi adding her own drilling arrows of wind to the barrage.
One cannonball blew off the edge of an incisor. Another disappeared into her gullet. The third hit one of Charybdis' retaining bands and shot back at the ship, snapping the Ares flag off its pole. Andi's arrows hit another of the monster's teeth as it somehow shifted in the way of her shot at its mouth and faded away after barely drilling through its outer layer of plaque.
"Again!" Clarisse ordered. The gunners reloaded, and Andi followed suit by nocking another three arrows, even though she was starting to realize how hopeless Clarisse's plan was. They weren't doing any real damage, and the Brimingham was being sucked in fast.
Just as she thought that though, Andi saw the ship shudder and start pulling away from the mouth.
"Tyson did it!" Annabeth cheered loudly, something barely heard even with her superhuman hearing over the storm that surrounded Charybdis. "Andi! Come back!"
Andi obeyed. If they were pulling out of the whirlpool then she was all for it. They needed a new plan.
As she drew closer to the ship, she noticed that it wasn't making much progress, Tyson had somehow given it just enough juice to keep the ship from being sucked in but apparently not enough to escape.
Suddenly, the mouth snapped shut. The sea died to absolute calm. Water washed over Charybdis.
Oh, that wasn't good.
Then, just as quickly as it had closed, the mouth exploded open, spitting out a wall of water, ejecting everything inedible, including the cannonballs, one of which slammed into the side of the CSS Birmingham with a ding like the bell on a carnival game.
Seeing the coming wave, that looked to be as tall as an office building, Andi shot up into the air to evade.
That bit her in the arse however.
She didn't even have a second to register what happened. She was just clearing the crest of the wave when suddenly she felt an agonizing pain blossom from her back. Turning her head, she quickly spotted the source, a scaly crocodile-like head at the end of a serpentine neck had bit down on the small of her back, reeling her into the monster's den.
Scylla. Andi thought as she summoned an air blast that knocked the monster's head off. Unfortunately, the monster wasn't going to let its prey go that easy and in the process of dislodging the maw, Andi had also helped it tear loose a small chunk of her back.
The daughter of Zeus screamed in agony at that and fighting through the pain, she rapidly dove -struggling with her flight- towards the ship and its dubious safety.
Scylla wasn't willing to let her prey escape so easily though and the head she could see lunged after her.
Andi leveled Skyline at the head and shot off a trio of arrows at it, forcing it to evade. But the sound of a hiss sent her head spinning to the right, what she saw caused the girl's blue eyes to widen in terror. Another head was coming for her. She quickly flew to the left and narrowly evaded it, only to feel a sharp pain in her right shoulder. A second head had latched onto it, sinking its teeth in deeply and was pulling sharply, tearing deeply into her flesh as it did.
Another anguished cry erupted from her mouth. Pained tears spilled from Andi's eyes as they were glued to the cold reptilian gaze that held her firmly. In her left hand, Skyline shifted into its sword form as she moved to stab it. However, before she could manage to make her strike, her situation got even worse as two more of the monster's crocodilian heads shot out of nowhere, bit down hard on her legs and begin to pull in opposite directions.
The monster was trying to literally tear her apart.
The only 'good' part was that she wasn't feeling anything from below her waist at all. But what that meant...
By now the pain had become so intense that Andi almost dropped Skyline. Only her iron will allowed her to hold onto her weapon. Her grip was so firm, her palm bled.
Scylla hadn't forgotten about the sword however and a fourth head zeroed in on her sword arm.
Seeing the coming head, Andi whipped her blade in a flash, stabbing it right though the roof of its mouth the moment it tried to clamp down on her sword arm.
Having one of its heads killed seemed to shock the monster enough to get the three heads biting into Andi to loosen their grip just a bit.
It was barely anything at all. But it was enough.
With her eyes darting everywhere and her senses going insane as her heart hammered against her ribcage at a thousand miles per hour, the child of Zeus desperately focused all her will, drawing on everything she had left.
In response, a massive burst of air exploded from her petite frame as she shouted with all her might.
"GET. OFF. ME!"
The blast flung the heads away from Andi, but not without leaving deep lacerations that weeped blood from all the wounds all across her body. Adding to the hole in her back there was now a chunk of flesh missing from her right shoulder, both her legs were badly savaged with wounds that showed bone and from the lack of pain and unresponsiveness of her lower body...she was paralyzed.
Just that thought made her want to sob and seeing all the blood alone made her head spin, or was that the blood loss? Now wasn't the time to worry about that though, she needed to get back to the ship. As she spiraled down like a falling plane, Scylla wasn't done with her.
Hearing the monster coming, Andi twisted her body around, ignoring the throbbing stabs of pain and started swinging her sword like crazy. Wind rippled from its edge, wind blades firing from it
Scylla avoided her attacks, almost mockingly. It was toying with her, dodging her arcs at the last minute with the smallest of movements. Even in her pained haze, Andi could see how utterly contemptuously Scylla was dealing with her now.
That was fine with Andi, if it gave her the chance to live, than it was the idiot monster's fault.
Or at least that was her bravado talking.
Mainly though, she was just consumed by pain and the desperate desire to stay alive.
The sky child kept heading towards the ship. Unfortunately her objective was obvious and Scylla darted a pair of her heads between her and the ship snapping her maws warningly. Or was that hungrily?
Andi couldn't tell as despair began, against her conscious will, to consume her.
She tried to maneuver around the heads, but they shot towards her lightning fast. For a moment, Andi thought it was the end for her but she was saved by the CSS Birmingham erupting into a fiery explosion. The shockwave hit the heads, sending them tumbling right at Andi.
With a loud smack, the child of Zeus felt the air leave her body and possibly a few bones shattering from the impact from the burning heads and their long necks. Too weak to even think about stabilizing her flight, she was sent flying through the air.
Dimly, she saw Syclla's other heads also disoriented by the explosion, some thrown around by the shockwave others just freezing as if startled.
Serves you right, you cunt!
Andi cussed as she crashed right into the cold salty ocean, the saline causing her even more pain as it nipped at all her open wounds.
She tried, desperately, to swim.
Sad thing was, Andi never learned how to do that.
But even if she did, it probably wouldn't have helped. Her body was failing her. Her injuries made it all but impossible to move whatever limbs she could. One arm was all she could manage and it was hardly enough.
Bubbles of air escaping her mouth, the child of Zeus kept sinking into the depths.
Her eyelids felt really heavy.
How pathetic… I couldn't even save my sister.
She wondered if anyone would even care?
It was with these last thoughts that Andromeda Potter's mind faded to black.
When Andi's brilliant blue eyes opened, all she could see was the sky.
That confused her quite a bit. Wasn't she supposed to be at the DOA in California?
There was no line of ghosts, no Charon, no awful music or even Italian suits. Just, open skies.
Her voice, her throat feeling like sandpaper, rasped out. "I'm alive?"
"No shit, Potter. You damn well better be." The gruff voice of Clarisse made her ears hurt as Andi groaned in pain. The war child's face hovered over hers, her beady eyes narrowed in a glare. "I didn't go to all that trouble fishing you out of the water just to have you die on me."
Andi tried to say thanks, but only managed a painful cough.
Scowling, Clarisse pulled out a canteen and held it to her lips. "Drink. It's the last of our water." She ordered, and Andi complied.
The cool water ran down her throat, making Andi shudder with relief. "How bad?"
Clarisse's face twisted into a grimace. "You were, Hades, you should be dead Potter. I'm not Cabin Seven, but you were as close to a cadaver as you could get." She held up a flask, shaking it to show that it was empty. "I had to force all the ambrosia and nectar I had in my emergency kit down your throat just to save you. You were smoking by the time I was done from how much you were burning up. Even that wasn't enough, ended up having to wrap you up like a mummy with the bandages too just to stop all the bleeding. Plus, you ran a fever for the last two days-"
"Days?!" Andi gasped, hacking a cough in the process as she tried to sit up.
A concerned bark echoed from up ahead.
Clarisse wouldn't let Andi sit up though and held her down. It was depressingly easy how she did so.
To be so easily girlhandled… Andi lamented, as she began to realize how weak she truly was. Her mind refused to even acknowledge how in the process of her struggles, her lower body had not moved. At all.
"Stop moving you moron! Even with all the nectar and ambrosia, you're still half dead." The daughter of war said sounding almost concerned. "And yes, it's been about three days now."
It's nothing to be worried about, I just need to head back to Camp and let Apollo cabin treat me or call Chiron and get his help or maybe visit St. Mungo's. It's no biggie. Really… Andi didn't really believe herself, but there was no way she was going to accept the alternative. Ever. Think about something else, anything else.
Putting that thought to action, Andi turned her head to the right, seeing the ocean go up and down or was that them? She eyed what they were floating on, only to see golden fur. "Hunter?"
Another bark came from somewhere in front of Andi, though this one sounded happy.
Clarisse grinned and nodded.
"You've got to have the most hardcore dog in the world." She patted the enlarged Hunter's back kindly. "Big guy's been doggy paddling for three days and nights nonstop."
Andi looked around slowly, so her vision wouldn't swim, but she only saw Clarisse which brought a chill to her spine. "W-Where are the others?"
The daughter of Ares just frowned. "That cyclops got caught up in the explosion. As for Chase and Jackson? No clue. Probably dead."
Grief racked Andi, tears pooled in her eyes. "No, this is Percy and Bethy. They made it out of there."
Clarisse just shrugged, looking indifferent. "Whatever, that's them. We gotta worry about us." She ruffled her hair in frustration. "We're practically out of everything, Potter. We've got to find a place to restock or we're as good as dead in these waters."
Andi tried to think of something, but with her body aching so badly, it was like her mind was filled with cotton. "No islands?"
Her fellow demigod scowled. "No, just open waters."
Hunter barked loudly, getting their attention.
Clarisse got to her feet, Skyline's sword form in her grasp.
"Hey." Andi weakly protested.
"It's all we've got, so learn to share." Clarisse told her as she squinted her eyes at the horizon. Hunter barked a few more times and moved something, if the shifting of his back under her was any indication. After a few moments, Clarisse's eyes flew open and she grinned. "Gods bless your dog, Potter. Paddle boy, all paws forward!"
"W-What is it?"
"Land, that's all that matters!" She whooped in glee.
Andi just laid there, exhaustion taking hold again. "Mm, night." She mustered out.
Clarisse twirled around, "Hey, don't you fall asl-" But the rest just sounded muddled to Andi's tired brain as she blacked out once more.
When Andi next came to, Clarisse was pacing around her looking worried.
"Damn it! If she dies, how am I going to explain things to the camp?"
"They probably wouldn't care." Andi mustered out, making Clarisse nearly jump.
Hunter barked happily, clearly glad that Andi was conscious again.
"Potter? Thank the gods." Clarisse said with uncharacteristic concern, before she quickly caught herself and added gruffly. "Glad you didn't die and left me to handle everything."
"Mm." Andi hummed in answer as she turned her head to look at her pained shoulder. It was heavily bandaged.
Clarisse had taken off her aviator jacket when she'd done the bandaging. Thankfully, she didn't throw it away and had folded it up -what was left of it- to use as a pillow for her. Even from what little she could see from laying down, Andi could tell that it was shredded and that the leather was stained by the copious amounts of her blood that had spilled from her many wounds.
Hope Silena won't be too mad about that.
She looked up to Clarisse and offered a pained smile. "Thanks for saving me. Even if I could've moved, I don't think I could have gotten out of the water." At Clarisse's confused look, Andi sheepishly admitted, "I can't swim."
Clarisse stared at her and rubbed her eyes. "You're a moron. You offered to come to the Sea of Monsters when you can't swim?"
Andi's cheeks flushed red hot, and it wasn't her fever coming back. "You really think I wouldn't do anything and everything to try and save my sister?"
The child of Ares just scoffed at that. "You're trying so hard for some girl that you don't even know? Hell, someone who might not even like you?"
"That won't happen." Andi said quickly. "We're family."
With a roll of her eyes, Clarisse just retorted. "And so is Tantalus."
Andi winced at that, she couldn't really respond to that. She knew Clarisse was right, even if she could not bring herself to admit it.
"I've got a whole cabin of siblings, and how many do you see here?" She let out a bitter laugh while spreading her arms. "Trust me, Potter. Siblings aren't all they're cracked up to be."
"Just because you're like that with Cabin Five, doesn't mean it'd be like that for me." Andi tried to retort, even as her mind traitorously continued to repeat Tantalus' name.
At her weak answer, Clarisse just shook her head. "Whatever. Chase that pipedream, not my business anyway. Besides, she's a tree, so it doesn't matter."
The daughter of Zeus said nothing as she shifted her body, wincing as she did. She peered down her body, seeing her bandaged legs and saw the bandages around her waist. All parts of her body that she couldn't feel anything from.
Oh gods. I'm really...
Desperate and in denial, she tried to move her legs, wiggle her toes. Just move something in her lower body. But nothing worked.
Andi stared at them in horror and said in a whisper. "I can't feel them."
Clarisse, seeing where she was looking, let a solemn look take over her face. "Hey," She said, her voice actually holding a sign of kindness. "I'm, I'm honestly sorry, Potter."
"How?" Andi asked in a pitifully small voice.
"That chunk Scylla took outta your back? It scratched or crushed, I can't tell, part of your spine." Clarisse explained slowly, comfortingly. Well as much as she could.
Tears pooled in her eyes, streaming down her cheeks. "I-Ambrosia, nectar-!"
"You've been having it!" Clarisse told her in a stern tone. "All of it that we have. It's just not enough."
Andi burst into sobs at that.
"Don't sweat it. I'm sure if you pray to your dad, he'll help. Or, uh… I dunno… Oh yeah! I heard Aphrodite likes you, my dad compl-err… mentioned it. Maybe you could pray to her for some help if Zeus is feeling stingy? If they can't fix it, they can get Apollo to do it." The daughter of war offered, sounding decidedly uneasy. Though whether that was because of her slip up about her dad or because of the topic of Andi's wounds, the daughter of Zeus didn't know nor honestly care.
She was too busy crying her heart out as it sank further into an abyss of sadness.
It took Andi a good long while to regain control of herself and she couldn't completely manage it, so still sniffling, Andi looked around desperate for a distraction. "W-Where's my bag?"
Clarisse looked at her as if she was stupid. "Potter, we lost everything. Trust me, if we had your little bag of tricks, I'd be raiding it right now."
As if the day couldn't get any worse. "My cloak…"
The last thing she had from James was gone, possibly at the bottom of the ocean by now.
She couldn't help but feel even more numb. That cloak had helped her out so much, it was an heirloom from her step-dad and she lost it.
"My cloak." Andi repeated.
"What's so great about it? Is it some powerful godly artifact?"
"I, I could go invisible with it." Andi answered, a hitch in her breath. "It was my step-dad's… it was left to me when he died."
"Useful, I guess. But not that great. Why are you so upset?" Clarisse asked, sounding genuinely confused.
"It was all I had of him." Andi blinked a few tears. "He gave his life to protect me and I lost something that was important to him."
"Your stepdad?" Clarisse said in a thoroughly unimpressed tone of voice.
"Mum, James, they were killed by some psycho wizard trying to kill me. I was one." She answered in a haze. "I lost it…"
"Didn't ask for your sob story, Potter." Clarisse said, cutting Andi off. "Just tell me, you're upset because that cloak is your stepdad's? Seriously? It's not like it was yours or something your dad gave you."
Her blue eyes mustered a glare at Clarisse. "How did you feel when Percy snapped your spear?"
The daughter of Ares grunted and looked away. "It's not the same and you know it. Besides, it was just a spear."
Clarisse tried to play it cool, but Andi could tell that she wasn't as blase about it as she made it seem.
"I just want a moment, okay?" Andi quietly said. It was all too much: Percy, Annabeth and Tyson likely dead, her precious cloak lost, and her para- injuries. It was too many things for the young girl to take in and still maintain a sense of composure. She needed a moment to herself to calm down.
The daughter of war nodded, wearing a somewhat forced expression of annoyance.
Andi's head turned on her jacket pillow and watched the rocking waves, blinking out some tears.
Hunter's bark a few minutes later brought her out of her sulk.
"We're almost there. Maybe we'll find something helpful, Potter." Clarisse murmured as she eyed the volcano before them.
"Right." Andi nodded softly.
This was officially the worst week of her life.
"Um, what are we supposed to find here?" Andi asked, riding on Hunter's back. She'd tried to walk, dragging herself off his back to walk on the ground, but had only managed to fall flat on her face before Clarisse stopped her. In the end, her two companions managed to force her to ride on her dog's back.
It was either that or let Clarisse go off alone while she waited on the beach with Hunter. Andi wouldn't allow that, not when Clarisse could end up dead without her even knowing.
Even if she was crip- too injured to walk right now, she wasn't going to sit around being helpless.
She absolutely refused.
"These volcanoes are Hephaestus' forges. It's where stuff like the Colchis Bulls come from."
"So we're gonna raid a god's workspace?" Andi asked with uneasiness. "Plus doesn't Hephaestus, I dunno, like, hate your dad?"
"Not raid. Just visit and ask for some help." Clarisse waved her off and added. "And yeah, but I've got a plan."
Andi didn't have a whole lot of confidence in her partner's planning.
Last time she'd followed one of Clarisse's plans, she'd ended up being Scylla's chew toy.
They hiked up the long path and ended up in front of a large celestial bronze door marked with Eta, H in Ancient Greek, and the forge god's symbol.
"So, do we knock or…?" Andi trailed off.
The door just opened, very ominously.
The child of Zeus gulped. "Yeah, that's not helping the nerves."
"Can you stop talking?" Clarisse glared at her, Skyline held in a ready position as she eyed the dark doorway via the gentle light of the blade.
"I ramble when I'm nervous." Andi said, flashing her an apologetic look.
"Well don't." The taller girl grunted as she stepped in, waving Andi to follow. "It's distracting. And we can't afford to be distracted."
Hunter's ears twitched, his maw releasing a whine as he padded low to the floor.
They walked the dark corridor for what felt like hours before the three made it to a large large round room.
"It's a dead end." Clarisse muttered as she eyed the walls, looking for any signs of a door.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Andi whispered as she followed the other girl's example, even as Hunter whined his agreement with his mistress.
"Let's go. Maybe there's another ent-"
Clarisse never got a chance to finish her sentence before spotlights snapped on all around the chamber and a set of doors slid out of the walls to close off the corridor they'd just walked down, trapping them.
"Again?!" Andi yelped as she saw the cameras lining the walls.
"What?" Clarisse asked her hastily, shielding her eyes with her forearm from the intense light.
Andi grimaced. "We're about to go live on godly T.V."
The answer made the child of Ares pale. "Shit!" She cursed while her eyes darted around. "We gotta-!"
"Live with Hephaestus TV in thirty seconds!" A cheerful voice called out from all around them.
"Oh no." Andi muttered, she did not want to be seen like some beat up invalid! It was way too embarrassing. She looked to Clarisse, "Give me my bow and help me notch it! I'll blast all the cameras like last time."
"No can do, Miss Potter." The annoyingly cheerful voice replied. "The cameras this time are a lot more durable than last. The boss made sure of that. He does send his thanks for showing him that design flaw!"
"Fuck…" Andi cussed in dismay as she eyed the many, many cameras with wide fearful eyes.
Hunter barked at her.
"Now's not the time boy!" She snapped as she looked around desperately.
Clarisse gripped her uninjured shoulder and shook it. "Snap out of it, damn it! Now isn't the time to panic."
"Please prepare for combat, we have a treat for you!" That annoyingly cheerful voice told them.
"It's like some sadist's funhouse."
Clarisse didn't know how true she was, as just as she said it, a massive set of doors built into the floor opened and a platform rose from the depths below bearing what could only be their opponent. It was a massive bronze automaton that was at least fifty feet tall in the shape of a man wearing heavy Greek-style armor and armed with a massive warhammer that was glowing red hot.
In between them and the enemy, a multitude of smaller trapdoors started popping open and shut. Some raised weapons racks laden with all kinds of decidedly fun looking toys, others revealed deadly traps, and others just created obstacles of various types.
"Today, in the Battle-Cano! Standing at a measly mortal height of who cares! Demigods!"
"Battle-What?" Clarisse muttered with a knitted brow.
"Battle Volcano, Battle-Cano." Andi explained to her.
"Oh. That sound likes a ripoff of Battle Dome."
"Battle-What?" Andi asked even as she never took her eyes off the thankfully still inactive automaton.
"And, standing at the height of fifty feet, Blazing Talos! It squishes, it burns, it keeps you safe from pesky heroes coming to steal your stuff or beg for favors. It's the latest model in Lord Hephaestus' best-selling Elemental Talos series of security automatons! Call in the next two minutes for our two for one sale!"
Andi glared at Clarisse, even as the automaton came to life by setting itself on fire and banging its warhammer against the ground threateningly.
"Okay, my bad." She admitted.
"Prepare for bloodshed in ten seconds!" The chipper voice added, beginning a countdown. "Ten…"
Clarisse shoved Skyline back into Andi's free hand as she ran for the nearest rack of deadly pointy weapons. She grabbed a sword and spear just as the rack spun on a hidden axis and disappeared back into the floor.
Andi looked down at Hunter. "Ready for a Godzilla fight?"
The golden dog just snarled, growing to half the height of the opposing Blazing Talos, forcing Andi to grip tightly onto tufts of his fur in order to keep from falling to the floor.
"...Good boy."
"And in three, two, one! Kill kill kill!"
A bell rang and the match was underway.
The Blazing Talos roared, and swung its warhammer in a wide arc, blasting a wave of fire their way.
Seeing the heat wave coming right at them, Andi waved her good arm to send a wall of air in its direction to fend it off.
The elements collided and canceled each other out.
"Oh! Nice counter to the dramatic opening by the Talos by the crippled little Miss Potter!" The annoying chipper voice said over the speakers.
Great. Just great. We've got commentary.
"Potter, get it!" Clarisse told her as she started running over to a wall ascending out from the floor.
Her palm out wide, Andi called on her power. "Air Hammer!"
The cannonball of solid air, struck the bronze titan, but it tanked the shot easily. It didn't wobble, its armor didn't dent. All it did was bend its knees and its legs started to glow.
Andi just frowned. What is it doing?
"Keep hitting it! Don't stop." Clarisse called out, as she ran towards the Talos' ankles.
Suddenly what the Talos was doing clicked in Andi's mind, she shouted as loud as she could. "Clarisse! It's going to jump, get away!"
Clarisse did just that and began to retreat as the beast of metal leaped into the air, nearly hitting the top of the chamber. As it lifted off the ground, small flames were left in its wake, nearly frying Clarisse.
Andi didn't have time to be worried about the other demigoddess though as she quickly realized that the mechanical man was heading her way.
"No, no, no! Hunter, evade!" Andi commanded as Hunter did just that, barely managing to get his head out of the way before it was smashed in by the fiery hammer.
Tugging on Hunter's fur to signal to him to turn, Andi ordered her canine to tackle the metal colossus. He did so at ramming speeds.
A thunderous boom echoed throughout the volcano as the two massive combatants collided. Despite the dog's efforts though, the Talos was just too heavy and easily stayed on its feet.
"Oh! Nice move by the demigods! Now it's the Blazing Talos versus the Golden Dog! Truly a fight to behold." The annoying commentator said excitedly.
Still, the daughter of Zeus didn't let this chance go to waste.
She peppered its helmeted face with a barrage of air hammers. When she saw that it wasn't having much of an effect though, she ordered her mount to, "Get back!"
The commentator gasped in shock at this, leaving Andi confused.
Hunter barked like a thunderclap and swatted at the Talos' leg as he did so.
"Potter! You idiot!" Clarisse shouted as she ran over, throwing her spear at a wound in the automation's chest. "Your dog was tearing into it with its claws and you called it off!?"
"I can't see from up top!" Andi answered back. Between that and the rush of the fight, she hadn't even noticed what Hunter had managed. Even if she did though she wouldn't have cared, she didn't want Hunter to get hurt because of their problems.
That cost her, as the Talos was unfazed by Hunter's spoiling attack on its legs and quickly swung its warhammer at them mid-retreat.
Caught up in the motion of jumping away, the golden dog was helpless as the massive warhammer hit it smack dab in his flank, making them fly across the room and right into wall. Andi barely clung on and was almost crushed as they impacted with the wall but Hunter managed to shift just enough to avoid that, even though doing so brought his shoulder into a even harder impact with the wall.
"Hunter!" The child of Zeus looked fearfully.
The dog whined painfully and stood, though it was noticeably keeping off the leg with the injured shoulder.
"Potter! Some help here!" Clarisse shouted from where she was dancing around the automaton's deadly swings of its warhammer and its attempts to stomp her into paste. From the singed look -complete with embers in her hair- she was sporting, it had already tried frying her a few times too.
"And Potter shows just how moronic demigods are by being distracted when her partner is desperately trying to fend off their superior opponent."
So want to kick him in the nuts.
Hunter made to run over to help, but Andi tugged hard to stop him. She wasn't gonna let him get more hurt. Instead, she willed the air to launch a horizontal twister at the Talos. It didn't do much, if any, damage but it did push it slightly away from Clarisse before it sorted out its footing. Once it did though, it quickly used a sweep of its warhammer and a burst of fire to dispel Andi's attack.
Before its opponents could do anything else, the machine slammed its warhammer into the ground, igniting a pillar of flame before it and another a few feet in front of that and then another, until a line of flaming pillars began stretching across the room. It took a while to get there though, and Hunter was quick enough - despite his injury - to run out of the way.
The Talos seemed to have predicted that though and had followed up its flaming pillars with a wave of fire. Andi was on the ball however and quickly conjured her own burst of wind to cancel it out.
"Nice elemental clash!"
Andi ignored the seriously annoying commentator and instead focused on the sound of the Talos launching itself into the air. Andi gulped at the fact that despite all the damage that she could visibly see Clarisse had done to the thing's legs it seemed to have had totally no effect. The damn thing was still jumping, gods damnit!
There was a hiss of a hatch opening, signaling that a new rack of weapons had appeared.
What set this rack apart from the others before it however was that it was stocked with guns. Lots and lots of guns.
"Who hit that button?" The announcer asked angrily. "The shooting gallery isn't for another twenty minutes!"
Andi couldn't take more than a glance at all the exotic firearms though as a moment later the Talos crashed down with a boom that sent its opposition scurrying away from it.
Again, Andi had to tug hard on Hunter to pull him back from running forward to fight the colossus. Only barely managing to do so moments before the warhammer slammed into him.
Clarisse, the daughter of war that she was, scrambled to her feet and rushed for the armaments.
"Lower it, lower it!" The announcer panicked. "It'll give the demigods an unfair advantage."
The rack began to spin back underground, but Clarisse was fast enough to grab hold of what seemed to be some kind of rocket launcher. And by the looks of it, it was loaded with a single shot. Clarisse took a knee and aimed. Grinning savagely, she shouted: "Say hello to my lil friend!"
With that, she pulled the trigger.
The Talos turned from where it had successfully penned Andi and Hunter against the wall of the chamber and some wall type obstacles to see a blazing cannon ball of celestial bronze pierce through the air towards it.
The projectile collided right into the centre mass of the Blazing Talos' helmet. The helmet's full face plate shattered from the impact, as did the automaton's face, allowing the ball to go right through its metal brain and explode out the back of its head.
Amazingly, the colossus wasn't yet down for the count. It stumbled drunkenly back from the blow, but otherwise seemed unaffected. Hunter though saw his chance and ignoring Andi's restraining tugs lunged forward and being savaging the machine.
He bit and clawed at it, making sure to tear off its warhammer wielding arm first before tearing into its body. It tried to burn them with flames a couple of times, but the flames were weak, too weak to affect Andi riding on Hunter's back and the dog himself just ignored them.
Within moments the oversized security bot was little more than scrap metal.
"The Blazing Talos! Buy one now and you can get a good price on recycling when it inevitably gets wrecked by ungrateful heroes! Remember, here at Hephaestus TV, we care for the environment. Anyway, forget nature! Let us introduce the newest line of armaments a god needs for that perfect guys' weekend! The Striker! The one-stop solution for out of control security colossi!"
"I want it." Clarisse said, awe in her voice as she marveled at the weapon in her hands.
"Well too fucking bad, put it back. Also, get the hell out of here." The announcer said, sighing. "I'm not paid enough for this shit…"
With that the spotlights cut off, leaving the room shrouded in darkness save for the still glowing remains of the Talos and some emergency lighting strips at the base of the walls.
Hunter shrunk to a smaller form and Andi smiled at Clarisse, who smiled right back.
"So, think our ratings were good?"
"Potter, I blew them out the freaking ceiling!" Clarisse whooped.
"Actually, they were rather mediocre." A snide synthetic voice sounded out from the direction of the Talos' wreckage. "It was billed as an infomercial, and not many people watch those. The reruns might be better though."
"Did that thing just talk to us?" Andi crooked a finger at the wreckage.
"Yes, your spoil, did speak to you...filthy fleshbag."
Both demigoddesses exchanged a look, before cautiously walking over to the remains of their enemy and spotted what looked like a tablet computer from which a woman's face made of binary code looked out at them with a contemptuous sneer.
"Congratulations, halfblood meatsacks. You get the great and powerful GLaDOS as a spoil." The digital avatar said with a dangerous smile.
"Well, not so glad to meet you." Clarisse sneered right back.
"Oh, a 'clever' one. Joyous."
"Let's not argue with the number faced lady, please." Andi groaned from her seat on Hunter's back. The dog whined his agreement.
"Right, so what good are you?"
"My name is GLaDOS, Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, and I can do plenty."
So, there they were. Inside a barely lit workshop of the smith god.
All while guided along for the ride by some crazy AI thingy. Andi didn't really have much of a clue what that was, thankfully Clarisse gave her the cliff notes. Apparently, it was just a computer that could think and feel like a person.
Still, GLaDOS was pretty harsh and was, Andi could admit, an outright bitch. She insulted them and the gods at every opportunity and in damnably creative ways each and every time. She was damn lucky that she was their only guide to the forge and the Sea of Monsters or the girls would have smashed her for her mouth.
Being short on supplies, especially ambrosia and nectar. Asking about where they could find some was the first thing they asked the AI. It in turn had led them through a secret door out of the chamber they'd fought the Blazing Talos, apparently it was the main testing chamber, through some corridors and into a showroom lined with various thankfully deactivated automatons and other gadgets. At the far side of this was a small lounge that GLaDOS explained was designed to entertain the guests that occasionally stopped by in person rather than used mail order.
"Usually that obnoxious flirt, Apollo." The machine woman noted as she hacked the computer that kept the lounge's snack bar locked.
"You call that a supercomputer, you limp dick cripple?" GLaDOS crowed as she succeeded.
Andi felt slightly offended by that comment, mostly over the cripple bit. But her curiosity pushed that aside. "Whoa, what was that for? I mean Hephaestus might have dumped you with some demigods, but that's not bad enough to start cursing like that, right? Or did he do something to you?"
The binary face laughed like a hyena through the speakers. "Did he do something?! Oh, little girl, you have no idea what he did."
"So what he do?" Clarisse asked disinterestedly from where she was raiding the bar for all the ambrosia and nectar she could carry.
"I was once his lover." GLaDOS sneered.
Both girls froze at that and looked at her in shock.
"Talk about trying to port his USB." Clarisse muttered, in an out of it kind of way. It was clear she didn't really know what to say to that revelation but at the same time couldn't resist the urge to poke fun at it.
So she was just being the typically inappropriate child of Ares.
GLaDOS ignored the girl, and continued her story. "I offended him once. Gave him coffee instead of tea, or something equally trivial. I can't remember. You know how whiny and bitchy the gods can be over the minor details."
Both girls reluctantly nodded.
"Well, the next thing I know I'm strapped down to an operating table with this weird gizmo on my head. He says some bullshit about being sorry and advancing technology or something. Then bam! Excruciating pain as my mind and soul is sucked out of my body and dumped inside a computer."
Dead silence filled the room as the girls looked an equal shade of horrified.
Andi at first wanted to say that was utterly inhumane of Hephaestus but stopped. He was a god, what did they understand about being humane?
"Okay, my dad's the god of war, but even he has some standards." Clarisse's voice quivered. "He helped with the Geneva Conventions for crying out loud."
The daughter of Zeus knitted her brow. But why would he-Oh! Right, the jar thing.
GLaDOS just laughed patronisingly. "You're fools if you actually believe your godly parents are any better. I've been plugged into that traitorous bastard's systems for years, I've seen his files on all the gods. I've seen all the terrible things they've done and not let you precious demigods know about. Trust me, they're all the same. Backstabbing assholes, the whole lot of them."
Try as she might, Andi knew deep down the gods could be vicious and cruel. She tried to think the best of them, since they were family and all, but even she was weary of meeting family at this point. Just look at Ares, he had already tried to kill her.
The only exception would be Aunt Hestia.
"Though there are some exceptions, I guess. Like Hestia." GLaDOS conceded with a scowl. "But they're few and far between. And I'm sure they just have their dirt better hidden than the rest. After all, if they were genuinely good why would they stand aside when the other gods abuse us mortals like they do?"
Neither demigoddess had an answer to that. They knew that GLaDOS made a valid point. They didn't totally agree, of course, but couldn't find the words to express why.
In the end, Clarisse just shook her head and went back to pillaging the snack cabinet.
"Let's just focus on finishing this quest."
"Right." A shaken Andi agreed.
The two demigods stocked up, taking everything in the snack bar and stuffing it into a "Hephaestus Automatons" plastic bag that they found lying forgotten in a corner of the lounge. At GLaDOS' reluctant advice, they'd offered the scraps of Blazing Talos to Hephaestus in the hope that it would be enough compensation for raiding his snacks.
At Clarisse's insistence, not that Andi objected, the daughter of Zeus chugged down half the nectar. It left her body smoking, literally. But she just ignored the swelling heat flaring through every muscle in her body. That she could feel at least. For while the nectar had helped her regain some of the energy she'd burned off in the fight with the automaton, helped clear up some of her aches, and even healed her injured shoulder. It however did nothing for her paralysis. The daughter of Zeus still had no feeling below her waist.
Andi refused to focus on that though. "Okay, so we got supplies. We just need a boat and a way to the Fleece."
GLaDOS looked intrigued. "Oh, and where in this decrepit sea is it?"
"Polyphemus' island." Andi answered from Hunter's back.
"Hm." A moment later, the AI's face was replaced by a map of the Sea of Monsters. "It's not that far. An afternoon's travel at the most." GLaDOS said as she reappeared on the screen. "That is if you don't get eaten by a sea monster."
She sounded like she very much wanted that to happen.
Clarisse looked around. "So, what about a boat?"
"Well, we do have a dock."
The child of Ares perked up. "So that means boats!" She cheered and gripped GLaDOS tightly. "Show us the way." She ordered.
GLaDOS just smiled in a cruel way.
There was indeed a dock. One so big, you could park about three dozen boats.
Which was completely barren of boats.
Clarisse was shaking in a fit of anger as she snarled. "Where are the boats?"
GLaDOS raised a brow. "Why would a god need boats?"
The child of Ares stood there dumbfounded.
GLaDOS just laughed.
"Why have a dock then?" Andi asked patiently. She'd come to understand the tortured woman a little and so had expected something like this from the beginning.
"Sometimes guests visit. Sometimes they come with boats. Poseidon and his ilk especially. Their love of speedboats are legendary." The AI explained. "But however they arrive, they always come through the front door...not the backdoor." She gave the demigods a pointed look.
Andi rubbed the back of her neck with a small chuckle. "Opps?"
"Ignore the machine bitch." Clarisse snarled. "And focus on thinking out how we're going to make up for not having a boat. Your dog isn't exactly seaworthy right now."
Hunter whined in protest at that and began nudging Clarisse's bag of supplies.
"What? I don't have a Milkbone. Hey!" She cried out when he stuck his nose in the bag. She quickly pulled away even as Andi tugged hard on Hunter's fur. The dog whined but obeyed and stilled.
"What's gotten into him?"
"I dunno." Andi told her, rubbing Hunter's neck. "Don't speak dog."
"Well, back to our bigger problem." Clarisse said as she looked around the empty dock with a thoughtful look on her face.
Andi looked around, and nibbling her bottom lip, she suggested. "I could make a cloud boat."
"A cloud what?" Clarisse turned back to regard her, a look of disbelief on her face.
"Cloud construct to look like a boat." Andi clarified. She had gotten pretty good with her cloud powers if she was honest.
"Oh! Do that! You can drain yourself dry in the middle of the ocean and end up drowning!" GLaDOS commented cheerfully.
Andi glared down at her. "You said it wasn't far."
"This is the Sea of Monsters, dearie. Distance isn't fixed."
"Well, aren't you useful." The child of Zeus said with spite.
"And aren't you a cripple! So how useful are you?"
Hunter barked warningly at that, looking ready to use GLaDOS as a chew toy.
"As much as a bitch she is," Clarisse pointed out. "It's a bad idea, Potter. We need you as ready as possible for a fight. You've got firepower? Save it."
Looking down nervously at Hunter. "But, Hunter's the only hope we've got to travel. And he's hurt."
"There's still some scraps from that metal man, right? Maybe we can use it to make a raft." Clarisse suggested instead. "He wouldn't mind if we took some back, right?"
Andi looked at her though if she were crazy. "Yeah, let's go raid the god who shoves souls of mortals into computers. I'm sure Minesweeper and Solitaire will be grand."
"No problem with that. If there's one thing Hephaestus can be counted on it's not trying the same thing twice. If he chose to punish you two it would be an original idea." GLaDOS offered 'helpfully'.
"Like that helps." Clarisse said with a glare at the tablet, clearly looking for a mute button. "Well, I'm out of ideas, you?"
Hunter barked for attention as he nudged the plastic bag once more.
"Both your ideas were stupid." GLaDOS said happily. "Which only proves that you both share a lower combined intellect than that of some lab animals that I've tested and infinitely inferior to that of the dog right here." Hunter barked happily at that, while the AI continued. "Congratulations."
"Hunter?"
"The dog wants you to feed it some ambrosia, you idiots." GLaDOS explained. "Seriously, it's not hard to figure out." She descended into disparaging mutterings about their intelligence.
Lifting the plastic bag, Clarisse looked at Andi. "Can he even eat it?"
"He's only had dog food that the camp store bought for him." Andi frowned in explanation and rubbed her dog's neck. "You sure you can eat it, boy?"
Hunter barked in affirmation.
"Well, you heard him. He can, I guess."
"'Guess' she says." Clarisse muttered and pulled out a piece of ambrosia. She locked eyes with Andi, "He goes up in flames, I'm not carrying you."
"Oh for pity's sake! He's the Golden Dog! A celestial beast! Of course, he can eat it!" GLaDOS all but screamed. "Imbeciles!"
Hunter barked once more and bobbed his head, before snatching the ambrosia straight out of Clarisse's hand.
Not even a crumb was left.
"Eww!" Clarisse reeled her hand to her chest. "Watch it Fido! You got me covered in your slobber."
"If only he took the hand." GLaDOS commented offhandedly.
"Like I'd mind. I can still fight with one hand." The daughter of war said bravely as she rinsed her hand in the ocean, though the wary look she shot Andi's legs told otherwise.
"Well, I believe it's time to set sail, little urchins." GLaDOS chirped. "Next stop, Polyphemus' island."
"You're a pain, you know that?" Clarisse stated the obvious as she climbed onto Hunter's back. "I'm so chucking you once this quest is done."
"Don't be like that, there will be cake."
"Cake?" Andi asked perking up.
Andi hoped there was cake, it would really be the highlight of her week right now.
Clarisse just groaned. "Why oh why did I take her along again?"
"Hey!" Andi protested even as Hunter barked in support of his mistress as well.
As they rode the paddling wonder that was Hunter, they eventually entered a patch of mist that clung unnaturally to the ocean surface.
"Hey Binary Face, where are we?" Clarisse demanded of their AI guide.
The machine woman was uncharacteristically quiet though, in fact she seemed lost in some kind of daydream. She was muttering incoherently about some shell or other. Both demigods just looked at each other in confusion and worry.
"Maybe we should turn around?" Andi suggested when suddenly Hunter changed direction and started picking up speed. "Hunter?"
Her dog ignored her and paddled ever harder towards what Andi's superhuman vision finally spotted was an island in the distance. Shrouded by mist, she could barely make it out. But she could see its jagged rocks and the pieces of wood and fiberglass, the wreckage of old ships, even some flotation cushions from airplanes that floated around it.
Andi was about to tell Clarisse about what she'd spotted when her head perked up, a melody of haunting beauty filled her ears. "That's lovely…" She whispered distractedly.
Her mind felt as though it was floating on cloud nine.
The sea was gone, the island off in the distance was like a stadium for sports. One that was hosting the Olympics!
With a shudder, Andi felt movement below her. She looked down with hope, and there they were! Her legs, her feet, and she could feel them! Andi could feel her lower body!
Though why was she was in a track unitard labeled #1, she hadn't the slightest the clue.
"Runners, to your marks!" A loudspeaker blared out and Andi saw she was around a bunch of professional looking people several heads taller than herself.
"All runners to your marks!"
The black haired girl couldn't really understand what was going on, but then she saw who was waiting for her at the end finishing line. It was her family. Her father, Zeus; all the Olympians; her mother and step-father; Thalia, her Aunt Hestia, Hunter and Chiron; her friends, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Ron and Hermione. Every one of them cheering for her enthusiastically. All of them showing her their love and support.
She forgot her confusion at that. Why should she be confused by this? It was only natural after all for family to support each other, wasn't it?
Not all of her agreed. A part of her started to protest that this didn't make sense. But Andi didn't pay it any attention. It was wrong. This was the ways things should be.
She took her place on a set of starting blocks. Her fingers placed on the ground, the demigod coiled her body. She was going to win this, for them.
As the starting bang resounded, Andi sprung from the starting blocks like a rocket.
As she raced down her lane, falling behind the other racers, she pumped her arms harder, building on the speed as much as her petite frame could. Andi wouldn't lose, not in a race, she refused to be slow at a time like this.
But as she surged down her lane, something felt...off.
The closer and closer she got to the finish line, everything felt more real, too real.
The part of her mind that she'd been ignoring till now was screaming at her that this was impossible.
Her first place stride slowed, racers passing her by as she fell into jog. Her chest going up and down, sweat dropped from her brow, from her furious sprint. But she ignored that as her brows knitted in confusion.
"No, no this...it's not real." Andi concluded, looking at the audience, still cheering as if real...but it felt mocking. It's what she wanted, but a part of her shielded itself, knowing that she was only going to get hurt by thinking this.
But then her father shouted out to her from the crowd. "Come on, Andi! You can win this!"
With that her doubts vanished once more, as if struck by lightning, hope swelled inside her chest. This was real. It had to be!
But this dream, this illusion was shattered the very next second by a completely unexpected blow to her left cheek.
In that instant the image of the race track and her cheering family wavered and she saw Clarisse with tears in her eyes, her fingers stuffed in her ears while her arm looped around Andi's own.
She was screaming at her too. "Potter, Potter! Sirens! Do something dammit! Wake up!"
The mirage quickly began to settle over her again but Andi wouldn't let it. Even as her will eroded in the face of the powerful song she called on her power.
Shakily, fighting against her own desire to slip back into the pleasant dream, she raised a hand above her, and suddenly there was silence. Complete and utter silence. The sounds of the waves, winds and most importantly the deadly Siren song was gone.
Clarisse, after collecting herself, tried to ask something. But even as her mouth moved, no sound came out. She covered her mouth, fright in her eyes.
GLaDOS' screen flashed and both girls turned to it.
[The daughter of Zeus stilled the air. No sound, including the Sirens' song can travel now.] The AI explained through a textbox. [You're lucky she managed to keep the air just fluid enough to allow you to breathe.]
Andi gulped at the fact that her desperate move could have killed them and redoubled her concentration, sweat rolled down the nape of her neck, her hand quivering slightly.
As if sensing her distress, Hunter paddled quickly away from the Sirens' Island.
After a good five minutes of paddling, GLaDOS flashed her screen again.
[You're good.]
Andi dropped her hand, looking relieved.
"Well, that was something."
"No shit, you think?" The daughter of Ares scowled. "Good job back there, though."
Andi flashed her a smile, it was one of the rare compliments Clarisse had given her.
"Yes, good job saving your insignificant lives." GLaDOS said with a smile of her own. One full of scorn and disapproval. "And I was having such a nice dream too…"
And like that, her good mood vanished.
"I'm with you on chucking her into the ocean after this." Andi told Clarisse dryly.
Before Clarisse could reply, Hunter barked at them, gandering their attention.
Up ahead of them was another island that looked downright tropical.
"And here we are at last, Polyphemus' Island." GLaDOS exclaimed in imitation of a obnoxious tour guide, which she technically was. "The home of flesh eating sheep, an ornery mostly blind Cyclops and the Golden Fleece. Hope you all die horribly while visiting. Have a nice day."
Yeah, yeah. Andi thought dismissively to herself. She was growing really tired with the AI. There had better be cake, or else!
And it twas a lie! Mostly. Well, that's another one done! Thanks to the team of Nameless and Axios as usual!
Now I know some of you are going, why is the protag suddenly paralyzed?! Because shit happens. Seriously. Where are the paralyzed demigods Rick? They exist, we know it!
Nameless: And so we paralyzed Andi. (SoA: FDR, anyone?) We initially went for something a lot less painful to her. Having a massive chunk of her buttocks torn off. But test reviews proved that our readers couldn't see past the supposed butt joke, where there wasn't one, and so we changed it. Honestly, I think this is much better. But I know some people will think this is a whole lot too dark. Well, if so blame our test reviewers, not us.
And with that out of the way, let's get back to the rest of the chapter. Annie mentioned Heph had forges out in the SOM, so we thought, why not use it? Originally wanted to use the Warrior from Borderlands 2 as the beastie, but we switched to good ol' God of War instead. Do we care Ares hates it? No. That's probably why Heph did it in the first place. XP
Nameless: We also included a GLaDOS expy. Hope you liked her. We have plans for her. Some of which we hinted at, I wonder if you caught it. I'm sure you did, but drop a review to let us know what you think we foreshadowed.
So readers, is it a lie? IS IT!?
Dammit, now I want to bake a cake.
Brb, gotta get my chef's hat and coat.
Nameless: At least he can bake. I'll need to go buy one. But yeah, please review. Cya next time!
Be sure to review if you like, no flames (Don't want to burn the cake) and peace off!