Chapter 7: A Hidden Home
"Are you sure this Waystation bullcrap exists?" Percy questioned Grady while they were hiding from the Atlanteans in an abandoned house.
"Trust me, I've been there several times." the son of Thanatos replied. As they conversed, Kestrel and Katrina covered the door, armed with MP5's.
"I find the idea of a secret refuge for mortals and magical creatures hard to believe." Kestrel said. "How come Poseidon hasn't found it yet?"
"Probably too busy." Grady said. "Okay, coast is clear."
The four crept away as a patrol of Atlanteans walked past their location.
"By the way, who are you again?" Grady asked. Percy sent a concerned look towards Kestrel regarding what he has to say, but he figured they were trustworthy enough. He took the visor of his helmet off.
"I'm Perseus Jackson, ex son of Poseidon." he explained. That made both the son of Thanatos and the daughter of Morpheus stop in their tracks.
"You're...You're dead..." Katrina gasped.
"Long story." Percy told her. "Let's just go."
He put the visor back on and they continued slithering away from the Atlanteans. That is, until they see around four Atlantean soldiers unloading some supplies from the back of a truck in a dark alley. They hid behind some debris.
"That's our ride out." Percy told them. "Let's pick them off, quickly and silently."
Kestrel hefted her katana, handing her MP5 to Grady, Percy popped his Hidden Blades out, and they slowly crept towards the truck, Grady and Katrina followed. Percy quickly assassinated two in one go and Kestrel assassinated one. Before the last one could react, he started twitching violently and sudden movement in the Atlantean's throat prevented him from making even the slightest whisper. Kestrel turned around and noticed Grady's eyes glowing bright red. Percy took advantage and sunk his hidden blade into the last soldier's neck. More blood spilled than usual, some of it spilled all over the ex Mentor's right hand.
"There can't be that much blood in a human neck." Katrina gagged.
"I guess you really can control blood." Percy noted. "Okay, let's hide the bodies and take the supplies, weapons, armor, and ammo. Grady, since you know so damn much about this Waystation, you're driving. And I'll tell my story."
"Since when was kidnapping part of the plan?" a nearby demigod asked Elise, who walked to where Chuck was, flanked by Ssssam and Tyson.
"This isn't kidnapping. We'll ask her a few things and let her go." Elise replied, defending her actions.
"Still...this is just wrong."
She ignored the demigod's words upon seeing Chuck with his hand wrapped on Cherry's left arm. Despite the danger she's in, the young girl didn't seem all that worried. Elise crouched down to be at her eye level.
"Sorry about all this, but we need to find your father." she explained.
"He's gone." Cherry murmured.
"Gone? As in disappeared or...really gone?"
"Just...gone."
Elise sighed, then asked her next question.
"By any chance, is he working for the Atlanteans?"
That question alone made Cherry gasp, full of disbelief.
"No, he can't be. They...they killed Mom!"
Elise narrowed her eyes."Is that what you know? I mean...did you really see your mother die in front of you?"
"N...No...What are you trying to say?"
"Cherry, I know this sounds crazy and unreal, but I have a feeling your dad's being blackmailed."
"What? What does that mean?" Cherry asked, both curious and terrified regarding her father.
"It means your dad's being forced to work with the Atlanteans by threatening to do something bad to him. I never really considered that at first, but it's possible your dad's being forced to do all this and nearly get Chuck killed."
"Daddy...I want to find Daddy!" Cherry cried, her high pitched voice nearly blasting Chuck's eardrums open. Her words alone made Elise consider two options.
One, leave her in Kansas and save her from the dangers of being around with the most wanted woman on the Atlantean hit list, or
Two, take her with her on her quest to bring Poseidon down and put her life at risk.
She considered her options, marking out their advantages and disadvantages.
"So...how are you not dead?" Katrina asked from the co driver's seat of the truck. Grady was driving and they were both wearing Atlantean armor as disguises. Percy and Kestrel hid in the back, covered by cargo boxes.
"Following that cataclysmic explosion years ago, Lord Chaos found me in a half dead state." Percy explained. "My right arm was completely vaporized and most of my organs had ruptured. Fixed me up...somehow. After that, he gave me this armor. Apparently, this was another one of Leo's projects, ten years after I died. He never really finished it, considering that he's trying to live a life with Calypso. Even with this armor, I'm not exactly invincible."
"I saw the ring in your finger." Kestrel said to him. "Are you married?"
"Obviously. Why else would I have kids? I was going to go back to Terrasen to find my wife, but when I heard of what happened to my children here on Earth, I couldn't ignore it." he replied.
"Children?" Grady asked.
"Two of them, yes. My son and oldest child, Brannon. Kestrel told me he was captured by my...ex-father, and I heard my daughter and youngest child, Elise, is somewhere in America, being hunted by the Atlanteans."
"How does she know all this?" Katrina asked, gestruing to Kestrel.
"She used to work for the Atlanteans, until they tried to lock her up against her will." Percy replied. He had a hand on his gun in case he had to defend the young clone, whose curiosity over everything reminded him of Elise (Chaos told him how his children grew up).
"You must trust her that much." Grady snorted.
"I trust her. Even made her swear on the Styx before we went on our crappy ass rescue mission." Percy told him firmly. "How long before we're there?"
"Can't really tell, since it's night time." the son of Thanatos replied, until he saw a scratched up pine tree. "Oh wait, we're nearly there."
Percy sighed in relief as he observed Kestrel, who sat in front of him, eating Atlantean rations.
'She must know how it feels to not be treated like a genuine human.' he thought. He didn't notice Kestrel saw him looking at her.
"Something wrong?" she asked, swallowing her food.
"Oh, um...I'm just worried..." Percy replied sheepishly. "Worried about my children."
Kestrel frowned. "I'm sure they're fine, right? I mean..."
"I don't even know if my son is still alive or they...they..."
The thought of seeing his son's dead body was so tough for the ex Mentor that tears formed in his eyes fairly quickly, which he wiped away. The young clone looked down instead, not wanting to make Percy any more depressed with her face...somehow. She never wondered whether he was depressed from being reminded of his children...or at least, something else.
"We're here." Katrina's voice rang before the truck came to a stop.
Percy looked up and pushed the cargo boxes out of the way as he and Kestrel exited the truck. They appeared to have stopped near a strange forest.
"Okay, now where are we?" Percy asked.
"Woolmer Range." Kestrel answered. "We're quite a distance from Winchester."
"Isn't this place supposed to be a hunting yard? There's hell of a lot of trees. Nymphs?"
"The trees are all burnt and scratched. Maybe they're injured?"
"They're probably asleep." they heard Grady's voice as he and Katrina got off the truck after they turned it off.
The four of them proceeded to walk quietly through the woods, guns raised, well except for Percy, because his gun glows in the dark like a beacon and they already have a flashlight with Katrina.
"Grady, are you sure we're going the right way?" she whispered.
"Wait, wait...there."
He pointed at a distant cave right in the middle of the woods. Percy facepalmed. It was just a hollowed out rock that could fit no more than five people.
"That's just a cave." Kestrel noted, clearly not impressed.
"Just...follow."
The two sighed as they followed Grady and Katrina to the cave. The young clone wondered what use was there for such as a minuscule hole in a rock. She already believed the son of Thanatos was bluffing about the Waystation thing. Regardless, they followed anyway and entered the cave.
"Okay, now what?" Percy groaned. "I feel like a damn idiot for doing this."
"Ssh. Waystation, open up. Hide us." Grady whispered...at the ground.
Kestrel noticed some kind of yellowish mist slowly cover the entrance of the cave. They heard hissing sounds, and Percy noticed the floor was moving down like an elevator. It stopped inside an open cave with a bunch of lanterns hanging on the dark stone walls and a tunnel leading somewhere. The four of them step off and the elevator floor rises back to its original disguise as a cave floor.
"I'm impressed." Percy spoke, breaking the silence. The four of them walked through the tunnel. Lightbulbs dangled on the stone ceiling.
"So this is the Waystation?" Katrina asked.
"Yep, the entrance to it at least." Grady replied. They eventually reached the end of the tunnel, and Percy and Kestrel were in shock.
Both of them were wondering how in the actual f*** all this could fit. The Waystation was WAY bigger than Bunker 9, and certainly far more luxurious. Percy saw numerous things, from weapon racks, to a futuristic infirmary, to a workshop Leo would die (again) for, and much more neat things. Chrome metal walls lined the entire place like a village sized nuclear bunker. There was another hallway on the other side that probably led to more neat places.
"I be damned." Kestrel muttered.
"Everyone's probably asleep, so let's keep quiet." Grady told the others, but the sounds of clicking of metal and hissing of air were heard as Percy stepped out of his armor, wearing black pants, black boots, and a sleeveless blue shirt.
"What?" Percy whispered. "It's probably safe for me to take off my armor, right?"
"Who's there?!" a gruff woman's voice echoed throughout the hallways. The ex son of Poseidon noticed the voice was so familiar to him.
'Clarisse?' he thought.
"I said who's there?!"
'Yep, definitely Clarisse.'
Percy definitely guessed right when from the hallway came a tall, fair skinned muscular woman with short brown hair and pitbull-like eyes. Clarisse looked like a female drill sergeant, with her plain white tank top, her desert camo pants, and brown combat boots. She held what looked like an upgraded version of Maimer, which started off as a collapsible metal stick. There's even a two pronged fork at the butt of the spear, crackling electricity.
"Mrs. Rodriguez." Grady greeted her.
'Mrs.?' Percy thought. 'I guess she and Chris finally tied the knot.'
"Grady? What are y- PRISSY?" Clarisse exclaimed.
"Hey, Clarisse." Percy waved at her.
"Oh My Gods, how are you alive?"
"It's a long story."
Kestrel and Katrina stepped back as the mighty daughter of Ares suddenly pulled the Savior of Olympus in a bone breaking hug.
"H...Hey, Clarisse...I've got mechanical body parts inside me that're gonna break..." he choked.
"Seriously?" Clarisse asked as they separated.
"Yeah..."
"Clarisse? Who's there?" another familiar voice was heard.
"Hey, Chris, look who's here." Clarisse called out. Another person walked out of the halls: a black haired Caucasian man with brown eyes. He was wearing Greek battle armor and he was holding onto...the hand of a 12 year old boy?
"Percy?" Chris gawked.
"Hey, Chris. Who's this little guy?" Percy asked, motioning towards the boy, who hid behind Chris in fright.
"That's Alexander Rodriguez, our son." Clarisse explained.
"Wait 'til you meet my kids." Percy bragged, but Kestrel quickly nudged him with an elbow.
"Umm...hello? What happened to saving your children?" she whispered.
That alone turned him serious again and he spoke, "We could use some information on the Atlanteans if you guys have some.".
Clarisse frowned. "We don't have that much, Prissy, but that's fine. First, there's someone special you should meet. Come on."
She started pushing Percy down the hallway, Grady, Kestrel, Katrina, Chris, and Alexander following close by. The son of Thanatos explained pretty much every door they walked past.
"These are the living quarters, these are the kitchens, and that's the griffin nest."
"What kind of magical refuge has a griffin nest?" Kestrel asked.
"The Waystations were created by Britomartis, goddess of nets." Grady explained. "Her sacred animal is the griffin, so it would make sense that we raise griffins here."
"Here we are." Clarisse pointed at a lone door. "Open the door."
Taking her word for it, Percy opened the door, and his eyes met another one's.
"P...Percy?"
"M...Mom?"