Chapter 11: Heroes like the ones of old
POV: Annabeth
We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown for a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.
"Come on, goat boy, Allapsar," I said. "Sightseeing."
"Sightseeing?" both of them asked.
"Yeah, but not the Gateway Arch," Percy supplied. "It would be a really stupid idea to go there while on a quest."
He was smirking at me as if it was my fault that he was attacked up there the last time. I wasn't the one insulting the gods by sending them Medusa's head. Well, technically I did now, but I had no plan of going up there this time, so it wasn't the same…
Anyway, I had made a plan to deal with Echidna and everything she could throw at us, and the place I picked still counted as sightseeing, so I considered this a perfect plan.
"Of course not, we wouldn't want you to blow up a national monument now, do we?" I shot back. "That would be a really stupid idea indeed."
Well, there was still a high chance we would end blowing an attraction up, but the damage wouldn't be as big this time… At least I hoped it wouldn't.
Grover cringed. "Can we please go somewhere without monsters for a change?"
"No problem, G-man," Percy put in. "There's only, like a 250% chance or so, that we met something."
"Ah, Percy? You do know that 100% means that we'll meet something, right? So, shouldn't it be something lower than that?"
"Nah, mine's more likely to be true, it means we'll have to fight either two or three enemies."
I rolled my eyes at their antics and looked down next to me, where a shock of wild black hair was bouncing up and down again.
"Where are we going?" Allapsar asked. "Is it something cool?"
"Just wait," I said. "Let's catch the bus first, it's faster."
Fifteen minutes later, we were looking at Gateway Arch; from the east side of the river that is. We were outside the Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park, straight across the Gateway Arch. The park had two main features, the first being an overlook over the Mississippi River, the other was the Gateway Geyser.
Well technically the park wasn't officially opened as such, that would only happen in three years' time. I never went, because we had been so deep in our fight against Kronos, that when it opened I never got the time. And it would have been the perfect place too, given that the Geyser was something Percy would find interesting. Who knew, maybe we would have the chance to visit in three years again, well, assuming we did not destroy it too much and slow its construction time down, that is.
At least the Gateway Geyser was already in operation for more than ten years, and that was the feature we were interested in. The Geyser was a water fountain scheduled to go off at specific times a day for a duration of fifteen minutes each time. Until recently it only went off two times a day, but the park was already built enough that you could watch the Geyser from afar, so they had already doubled the number it would go off.
"Three 800-horsepower pumps discharge 7,500 gallons of water per minute, at a speed of 250 feet per second. The fountain has an axial thrust of 103,000 pounds-force, with water jetted out at a pressure of 550 pounds per square inch," I rattled down the facts I had memorized to the others. "When there is less than 4mph wind it can reach a maximum height of 630 feet in the sky, matching the height of the Gateway Arch. We still have some time before it goes off for the last time today, so let's get closer."
Grover didn't look happy at my announcement, he looked over at Percy in the hope to gain support against my plan, but for a change, Percy was looking absolutely giddy at the idea of visiting a monument, and since Allapsar was overly excitable, his objection was overruled.
Luckily for us, the construction workers had already gone home for the day, so we were standing all alone in front of a large basin, and with exception of a 100-foot tall flagpole and some construction materials near the river, there was nothing but empty grassland behind us.
It was still a few minutes till the scheduled event when we saw a woman in a security uniform approach. She had a guard dog with her, or at least that's what I think it was supposed to be because the dog was clearly a chihuahua. She also had something that looked like an ugly snake-skin-shawl wrapped around her neck. Echidna and the Chimera, and I was pretty sure I knew what monster was pretending to be her shawl.
Grover sniffed next to us and then stiffened. There was a hissing sound too, making Allapsar tense and hide behind Percy.
"I hate you guys," Grover murmured the same time that Allapsar whispered, "Bad lady!"
"Stay calm," I whispered back. "When the Geyser starts, take Allapsar and hide somewhere and don't leave her side. Percy, let's use the dog against the nine-head."
Saying their names so close would tip them off, so instead, I told Percy the main feature of what other monster we were dealing with. I just hoped that Echidna would not interfere herself. Fighting her, the Chimera, and what I thought to be the Hydra would not end well for us.
"What are you doing here," the disguised Echidna asked us. "This area is off-limits for the public."
"We're sorry," I told her, trying my best to sound like a child caught doing something they shouldn't. "We just wanted to see the Geyser up close."
The Chihuahua growled, but Echidna said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave."
I could see the viciousness and intelligence in its eyes. Internally I grimaced. The Chimera was a monster that was not easily tricked.
Echidna started to smile at us.
"I will make an exception this time," she said and right on cue, the Geyser behind us started rumbling. "You should turn around, or you might miss the spectacle."
Of getting killed from behind, you mean. But we would have to play along for now.
Percy gave her a smile and said, "Thank you so much."
He pushed Allapsar with one hand in front of us and took my hand with his other one. It looked inconspicuous enough but would allow Grover to grab the girl, as well as hiding the fact that Percy passed something to me.
"Just wait and see the water shoot upwards," Percy said in a nonchalant voice, but his eyes briefly met Grover's.
The moment the Geyser went off, multiple things happened at once.
"Maia," Grover shouted and grabbed Allapsar, the two of them rising into the sky.
Percy whirled around, water from the basin of the fountain shooting straight at the monsters behind us, but it was met by flames coming out of the mouth of the transforming and slowly growing Chimera.
And the Chimera wasn't the only one undergoing these changes, because the shawl had dropped to the floor and was withering, growing in size and heads – a Hydra just like I had guessed.
Echidna had rolled up her sleeves, revealing the green scales on her arms, her teeth had turned to fangs and her pupils were sideways slits, like a reptile's.
The moment the fire and water met, steam rose, and I pulled my dagger and jumped straight through, biting through the pain. I came out face to face with the Chimera's serpent-headed-tail, the Hydra being on Echidna's other side, both still finishing their transformation and growth.
The snake launched at me, but I used the dagger in my left hand to block, uncapping Riptide in my right, slashing and cutting the tail right off below its head before it even had time to react. The Chimera roared, the fire breath broke off, causing tons of water to slam into our enemies, pushing them back. I had immediately jumped backward after my attack, but I was still hit by the edge of the water and thrown sideways.
For a moment the only sound was the painful howling of the Chimera until Echidna made a hissing noise. "It seems there is no need for introductions," she growled. "I understand now why Lord Zeus finally allowed me to test heroes with my brood again. You seem to be quite strong, for a hero of this time that is. But let's see how you face my children at their full power."
The monsters began to change again. The Chimera no longer was the one from before, the one Percy had fought last time. It looked like the Chimera from the myths, the one Bellerophon had killed; its body the size of a mammoth, a goat's head coming out of its back, its forepaws turning into a lion's, the back half became scaly and reptilian with dragon legs. The only positive thing was, that the snake tail did not recover.
The changes of the Hydra were less striking, its scales turned black and it grew slightly and got a second tail. Much more dangerous would be the hidden abilities it would possess now, its poisonous breath and blood.
Echidna cackled. "Nobody has slain them like this since the heroes of old, and you have but half their strength."
The Chimera charged at me, but Percy was faster, he stepped between us and shot more water from the fountain at it, forcing it to counter it with fire and concentrate on him, but this time went worse for Percy. He must have underestimated the power of the attack, because, the water evaporated faster than he was able to supply more, and he was forced to roll sideways to dodge.
He grimaced, but followed the plan we had made, and screamed at it, "Come here you overgrown flamethrower."
The Hydra came straight at me. I stripped off my backpack, pulling out an extra T-shirt, and threw the rest to the side. I just had enough time to create a makeshift mask around my nose and mouth before the Hydra arrived, forcing me backward. The Hydra had the ability to multiple its heads whenever one was cut off unless you burned the stump, and it would recover any wounds as long as it still had at least one head, so I couldn't do much more than dodge the striking heads and acid shots directed at me.
At least Echidna was just standing there cackling, instead of helping her children. She clearly did not think we could take them.
I glanced at Percy. He had been pushed away from the fountain, dodging the biting lion's mouth and the fire coming out of the goat head. If he was no longer able to meet the fire breath, I would have to drop Riptide, returning it to his pocket to help him defend, and we would have to change our plan. It would make things rather difficult, and a lot more dangerous to deal with the Hydra later, but the Chimera was more dangerous, and we would have to kill it first.
Luckily it didn't come to that. The goat head attacked again, but this time, accompanied by a scream, water came straight from Percy's chest and met the fire halfway, forcing it to a standstill, steam rising between them, hiding what lay on the other side. I knew Percy could not hold this for long, so I put my part of the plan into action. Instead of dodging backward, I attacked the Hydra. I slipped between the striking heads and stabbed my dagger into its side, then ducked under its legs, pulled out my cap, and put it on.
Unlike the Chimera, the Hydra was not overly intelligent. It failed to find me, so it just picked the next best target, advancing on Percy. It would have been easier if this had been the normal variation, but I was unsure how tough the Lernaean Hydra was in comparison, so using my dagger as a foothold I jumped on it, just as it reached Percy's uncovered back.
The Hydra was not overly strong itself, neither were its necks particularly thick, you could easily cut off more than one head at once, as long as you got a good enough angle and weapon that is. The tricky part was to get the heads to stay still long enough to hit more than one, and not get killed by the others in the meantime. You had to be careful not to touch any blood as well unless you wanted to be in serious pain. Luckily for me, neither was a problem when you were standing invisible on its back.
By now, the fire had heated up the air so much, it was hot enough to burn my lungs with every breath I took, and I didn't know how Percy could even stand this, but I guess for somebody who had survived getting lava thrown on him and an eruption of a volcano, this was child's play.
I clenched my teeth through the pain, raising Riptide once, twice, thrice, each time I struck close to the body, slicing off three heads with every slash. It would have been impossible with a normal weapon made from celestial bronze, but Riptide was a lot more powerful, easily cutting through the flesh.
"Now!" I called as I attacked, and Percy, without even glancing back once, rolled to the side, dodging the fire breath, and disappeared into the steam.
We had talked about a lot of possibilities during the train ride, and if I had had the option to choose an opponent, I would have chosen the Hydra as well. Frankly, its weakness made it a terrible partner for the Chimera, considering the Chimera's strongest point was the Hydra's weak point. The Chimera was smart enough to would have stopped attacking if it risked hitting the Hydra, but Percy had forced it to a standstill and blocked its view with the steam, giving it no other possibility but to continue to fight over domination against Percy. Luckily, the Hydra was not near as smart enough to stay clear from its sibling's line of fire.
My attacks had stopped the Hydra directly behind Percy, its heads had already begun to regrow with twice their numbers, but having lost so many at once slowed its recovering speed down, and before it could finish, it was hit head-on by friendly fire – no pun intended – disappearing in the fire of the Chimera.
I barely made it out of the attack zone alive myself, the edge of the fire grazing my legs while I jumped off the Hydra, igniting my pants below the knees, and making me miss my landing. I could hear something snap in my foot, and I hit the ground hard, my cap sliding off my head, pain shooting through my right ankle. Rolling over the ground to put out the fire only made the pain worse, and I knew I wouldn't be able to stand on it for the rest of the fighting anymore.
Without Percy supplying water, the steam lifted. The Geyser was still running in front of me, it had barely been a few minutes since the fighting had started, when suddenly the water jet coming out of it, bend midair, changing its direction straight at the open mouth of the goat head of the Chimera. The fire-breathing head was the most dangerous part of the Chimera, but it was also its weak spot. The water of the Geyser had a speed of 250 feet per second, there was no way the Chimera would be able to react in time, and with satisfaction I watched the water slam straight into its target with full force. When Percy led go of the Geyser and the water drained, the Chimera was gone.
Just like this, both the Chimera and Hydra were dead, the only thing left of them, their spoils of war, a single black hydra head and the head of the snake tail of the Chimera.
Percy staggered, catching himself on one knee, breathing harshly. The fight had taken its toll on him. He wasn't yet in full control of his powers again, and he had summoned both water from himself, as well as controlled the enormous power of the Geyser. The fact that he was still half-standing – if only barely – was already impressive enough. Not knowing if the danger was over, I let go of Riptide, pulling out my emergency ration of ambrosia from my pocket, and immediately felt better.
Echidna was staring at us disbelieving. It had only taken seconds for us to turn the situation around and finish the fight and her children.
"Most impressive," she ground out, giving us the evil eyes.
Percy laughed out loud. "That's all you have to say after we won? What was it you said earlier? We only have half the strength of the heroes of old?" he asked. "We did pretty well for that, I would say."
I wasn't sure if I should be happy or annoyed at Percy for taunting Echidna. Percy seemed to have picked up on what she had said earlier too, and now he was trying to get her to give us more information. She had said we were strong for heroes of our time, sounding as if the heroes of old had been on a different level of power. But she hadn't just told us we were not as powerful as the heroes of old, but explicitly said half as strong. Half sounded the same as splitting into two after the Trojan War, and the heroes of old she was talking about had all been born before that war.
"You would do good to not feel too smug, Perseus Jackson," she snarled. "You solely won thanks to the power you inherited from your parents. It seems I have underestimated some of the gods. I figured this time would end up the same as the first time they attempted two thousand years ago, not that some would succeed in their endeavor. But never mind that now, I shall teach you about Hubris, little heroes, and let it be your last lesson."
Echidna started stalking towards Percy. I wanted to help, the ambrosia was already doing its work, but I couldn't walk yet. And even if I could, I wasn't sure where my dagger landed, so I had no weapon.
Percy stayed calm, shakingly coming to stand on unsteady feet again. "Zeus only allowed you to use your children," he said. "It is against divine law for you to interfere now."
Unlike me, who had spent a lot of time teaching her backstory to Percy, Echidna looked surprised that Percy knew about it, causing her to hesitate for a moment, but then kept going.
"I am sure Lord Zeus would forgive my actions if I bring him the head of a true son of the Sea God."
At the back of my mind, I had taken note of what Echidna had said about the gods, and now about Percy being a true son of the Sea God, whatever that was supposed to be. It was something I could figure out after we had survived this situation.
Percy was barely able to hold himself on his legs, he wouldn't be able to fight anymore today. Neither could I with my ankle. The only thing I could hope for was Grover ignoring my advice and come to our rescue, or for Percy to be able to gather enough energy for a final attack. If he could surprise her by suddenly wielding Riptide, he might be able to finish her in one hit. This trick had worked before often enough.
But none of it happened, because even though he shouldn't be able to, Percy nimbly dodged Echidna's first strike, cutting off her hand in exchange. After everything that happened, Percy fought like he always did, as if he hadn't been half-dead from exhaustion just now. He fought as he had in the Battle of Manhattan, like his sixteen-year-old self, but that was not possible, he was in his twelve-year-old body which was not athletic enough to be able to move like this.
I watched the fight completely baffled, Echidna screaming and Percy dancing around her, right until with a final strike, she disappeared in golden dust. The moment she fell, he almost tilted over himself and was forced to sit down. Whatever energy he seemed to have gotten just now, was gone again.
Now that Echidna was no longer screaming, I could hear the fluttering of wings, coming down next to me. Grover only gave me a quick look, making sure I did not have any dangerous wounds, before he hurried over to Percy, leaving Allapsar to take care of me.
"Are you ok, Annabeth?" she asked, looking something between worried and awed at me.
I gave her a weak smile. "It's ok, can you bring me my bag?"
She nodded, hurrying over and brought it back to me, before following all my directions, and handing me the canteen of nectar, all the while she chattered about how awesome we had been in her opinion. I tried to pay attention to her, but something was nagging at the edge of my mind, I had forgotten something, and it was something important. I let my eyes wander over our surroundings. The Geyser had stopped by now, I saw Grover helping Percy over to us, and Echidna was gone. The only thing left of the Chimera was the lifeless tail and the Hydr- The Hydra! If it was the one Hercules fought, then that meant…
I realized a moment too late, that what I had thought of as a spoil of war, had actually been the indestructible, still living last head of the Hydra. The head, that no matter what could not die. As long as you were aware of it, it wasn't that difficult to deal with it, but it was still venomous, and if it was able to surprise you…
The ten-foot-long black snake launched itself at the back of Allapsar, but something slammed into it before it was able to bite her. A second serpent was winding around the black one, its teeth biting onto the black one's head. The black one was thrashing around wildly but was unable to shake the other one off. I didn't know what kind of snake it was, it wasn't something I had ever seen, it was sea-green, around five-foot-long, and had a flat oar-like tail – something commonly seen in sea snakes. Even if I didn't know what kind it was, I still knew where it came from.
"FIS!" Allapsar's voice was stricken with fear for her friend, but I saw that it was unneeded to help. The black snake's movements were getting slower, its trashing stopped, turning into tremor instead before its movement finally ceded completely.
Fis uncoiled from the other snake, climbing rapidly up Allapsar's leg, and disappeared under her T-shirt again. Her small head peered from Allapsar's neckline, getting stroked by the girl's hand. Allapsar was crying and whispering to the snake. I tried not to listen in on their conversation, and instead gently patted her head.
The supposedly indestructible head of the Hydra laid unmoving, two broken teeth still impaled in its skin.
"Everyone alright?" Percy asked worriedly having just arrived with Grover.
I nodded, looking up at him, and said, "Allapsar's friend Fis seems to have taken care of the last problem, but how about you, what happened?"
Percy shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, I suddenly felt stronger and it was almost as if I could see what I had to do to win this fight," he said looking thoughtful. "Echidna wasn't allowed to attack us, so somebody intervened in our favor, I think?"
I went through the gods and goddesses in my mind that would match what Percy had experienced and came easily to a conclusion.
"Nike," I decided. "Goddess of Victory."
Percy looked uneasy. "Then we better thank her properly," he said. "That's one goddess, not even I am stupid enough to want to make an enemy of."
You should really try not to make any enemies of any of the gods on purpose, I thought, well except of Hera maybe, or Ares, or ... Yeah, you know, there were quite a few gods who I didn't care if they liked us or not. But there was no point in telling that to Percy again. He wouldn't listen anyway, and the next god we were going to meet was Ares, so it would need a lot of divine interference for them not to end up as enemies again.
"How about the spoils?" Percy asked. "Can we sacrifice them in some way?"
I thought about it. Since she helped us in exchange for Echidna's interference there was no need to sacrifice her something. Of course, putting us in her favor would be in our best interest.
"Bring the other over," I instructed. "If you stab them with your blade it should work, I think."
It did work in fact. After Percy stabbed the two snakeheads and said, "We thank you for your favor, Nike, Goddess of Victory, and offer you our Spoils as a gift." They melted into golden light, before rising to the sky. It looked like our offering had been accepted.
After that, Percy went to "take a swim" in the Mississippi, saying it would help him recover some energy after that exhausting fight, but I knew he hoped to meet the nereid again.
By the time he returned I had recovered mostly, I couldn't walk yet on my own, but as long as somebody was supporting me, it would be no problem.
The entire way to the Amtrak station Percy was deep in thought. From what I could tell, he had met the Nereid again, but the talk seemed to have gone slightly different. I figured he would tell me soon enough, but for now, it would be more important to recover. The train trundled west and darkness fell, slowly bringing us closer to our next stop in Denver, and our next challenge.